Lions Lose to Packers in Week-4

After three weeks of showing no offense except at the end of each half, and almost beating, but still losing to lesser teams, the Lions face the Green Bay Packers. I did not hear even one fan say they thought the Lions could beat the Packers. I thought they would be crushed. In the end, it was not the Packers who beat the Lions, but it was the Detroit Lions who beat the Detroit Lions.

In the first half Jahvid Best fell down on a pass route. The pass from Shaun Hill looked like it would have been on the mark, but with Best on the ground, it floated dreadfully into the hands of a Packer. At another point, Jahvid Best fumbled a hand-off. Not the normal fumble you would expect. It looked to be a clean hand-off, but as a defender blitzed past him, it looked like he might have struck Best's arm. The ball shot away from Jahvid Best like it was thrown and fell into the trenches and in the scramble, it was Green Bay who came up with it. On yet another pass play, Best fell down and the ball sailed harmlessly away. Jahvid Best was a part of two turnovers. One lead to a Green Bay Touchdown and the other stopped the Lions from getting at least a field goal. In short.... Jahvid Best had a terrible first half.

But it wasn't just Jahvid Best who hurt the Lions this Sunday. It was the whole team. The Lions had an astounding 13 penalties for 103 yards compared to the Packers 3 penalties for only 31 yards.

Speaking of penalties however, it seems as though the refs are not finished screwing over the Lions in 2010. In the 4th quarter, the Lions needed a first down when Shaun Hill threw a pass to Calvin Johnson. Before the pass was thrown, Johnson had a defender shoving against him. After the pass was thrown, that same defender was still all over him. As Johnson tried to pull in the pass, that defender was still draped all over Johnson. Yet no flag was thrown. Johnson cried for the flag, but the refs turned a blind eye to an obvious pass interference that would have given them a first down and put them in field goal range. A field goal would have given the Lions the lead.

At another point, Shaun Hill scrambled to his left and threw an incompletion in the end-zone. Yet it was obvious to any on lookers that if Hill would have tucked the ball and ran with it, he could have scored the touchdown himself. Yet that is understandable at least. It all happens fast down there in the red zone and by the time he was open to run with it, he had already committed his mind to pass the ball.

So after a game of massive amounts of penalties, players falling down and fumbling, and the refs once again making a mistake that hurt the Lions, the Detroit Lions lost to the great Green Bay Packers 28 to 26.

It was early in the second half when Shaun Hill had a pass intercepted by Charles Woodson, who ran it back for a touchdown. Those 7 points were the only points the Lions defense allowed Green Bay to score in the second half.

It seems the Lions have found a pattern and are holding to it this year. They get screwed over by refs. They fall behind early. They make a great comeback and they somehow find a way to fall short of winning.

In 4 losses thus far in 2010, the Lions have won one game and had it taken away because of the refs, lost two others that they could easily have won and were flat out beaten in only one game. Yet all in all, as much as another loss hurts, none of us thought they would have even competed with the Packers. That the Detroit Lions actually were in the thick of it right to the end, and played so well in the second half, that is far more than we expected to get from them.