Lions Win for Second Week in a Row

By Matt Kearney / @mattkearney34

DETROIT, Mich. — For the second week in a row, the Lions put up 18 points. As was the case last week in Green Bay, it was good enough for Detroit to notch their third win of the season 18-13 over the Oakland Raiders at Ford Field Sunday. It marks the first time in modern NFL history that a team has scored 18 points in back to back games. Detroit (3-7) did just enough offensively, and a stout defensive performance kept Oakland (4-6) at bay all day.

The first half was marred by mediocre offensive football from both teams. The Lions did a great job of possessing the football early, holding the ball for over 18 minutes in the first half. Detroit marched into the red zone on its first two possessions of the game, but both times settled for field goals.

“Miscues, typically, when you miss a couple (red zone) opportunities like that, they come back to haunt you,” Jim Caldwell said.

With the Raiders struggling to move the ball at all in the first half, the Lions were able to build on their 6-0 advantage late in the second quarter. A good punt by the Raiders pinned the Lions at their own 10 yard line with 2:40 to go. Matt Stafford led the offense on a methodical drive into field goal range. He hit Calvin Johnson twice on the drive, one a 20-yard completion and the other a 44-yard pass down the left sideline. After an intentional grounding penalty with under 20 seconds remaining, the Lions again called on Matt Prater who drilled a 51 yarder with :02 remaining to put Detroit up 9-0 headed into the locker room.

In the third quarter, the Raiders offense came to life. Oakland got the ball first and marched 80 yards for the game’s first touchdown, a 1-yard plunge by Latavius Murray. After a defensive stop set them up in great field position, Oakland kicker Sebastian Janikowski kicked a 48-yard field goal. All of a sudden, a Raiders offense that had just 91 yards at the half had the lead 10-9. Janikowski then drilled a 56-yard kick with 15 seconds remaining in the quarter to put the Raiders up 13-9 at the end of three quarters.

The fourth quarter was all Lions. In last week’s win in Green Bay, the Lions made a series of mistakes in the final quarter which allowed Green Bay to hang around. This week, Detroit was rock solid in the game’s final quarter to seal the victory.

It started with a nine-play, 80-yard drive for the go-ahead touchdown. Stafford found Theo Riddick and Calvin Johnson two times each to get Detroit within striking distance, and then called his own number. He scrambled for 18 yards and a first down to the Oakland 5 and ran it in from there for the TD on the next play.

“(They had) four and a half guys in the box, really, pretty good numbers to run the ball,” Stafford said. “(The) O-line did a good job of moving the guys up front and created a little lane for me.”

Stafford finished the game 22-of-35 for 282 yards and also ran for 31 yards in the game.

The Lions’ lone TD would prove to be enough, as the defense dug in and shut the Raiders down late. Oakland was pinned inside its own 10 with eight minutes left. The Lions appeared to have a safety on the first play of the drive, but officials correctly ruled that a holding penalty on Oakland’s Clive Walford occurred at the 1 yard line. Two plays later, a subsequent holding call did occur in the end zone and thus a safety was awarded to make it 18-13. The series was a microcosm of the defensive effort over the last two games.

“Coming off the bye week, we wanted to make sure we (were) on point with everything and the last two games its showing,” Lions defensive end Jason Jones said.

Following the safety, the Lions ran out the final seven and a half minutes thanks to a great effort from the Lions running corps. Theo Riddick, Joique Bell and Ameer Abdullah combined to carry the ball eight times on the drive, forcing the Raiders to exhaust their timeouts and allowing Stafford to kneel on the ball in the final seconds.

Stafford specifically praised the play of Riddick, who not only was a weapon in the backfield, but as a receiver as well. Riddick ran for 22 yards and added 5 catches for 72 yards, accounting for 94 all purpose yards on the game.

Detroit now carries a two game win streak into the annual Thanksgiving Day game against the Eagles (4-6). The quest for three in a row will be made tougher by the fact that playing on Thanksgiving gives Detroit a short week to prepare. The game at Ford Field will kick off at 12:30 p.m. on Fox.

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