Jets @ Lions: The Liveblog

1:00pm:  Remember I told you last week how the Lions stood at attention for the National Anthem much better than the Redskins did and how Detroit went on to win the game?  We have a problem today.  The Jets stand at attention as well as do the Lions, and maybe even better as they hold their hands over their hearts.  The Lions were fidgety during the anthem today, perhaps a good sign.  Perhaps it means they can’t wait to get started.

There’s a mistake in the first paragraph of the first page of the Officials NY Jets Game Notes.  They call Detroit return man Stefan Logan “Steffan” Logan.  What a sloppy organization they must be.  Let’s see if it translates into the way their team plays.

Reminder:  Detroit is perfect, 2-0, since Ndamukong Suh guaranteed after the Lions lost their home opener that Detroit would not lose another game at Ford Field, ever.

That reminder reminds me: if we were in Norway, would we be playing at Fjord Field?  (Fjord: it sounds like Ford.  See what I did there?)

1:12pm: The Lions couldn’t wait to get started as it turns out.  They’ve driven from their own 20 to the Jets, well, to the Jets end zone in 11 plays.  I mean, the Lions have driven from their own 20 to the Jets end zone in 11 plays!  (Fixed.)  The scoring play is a 10-yard Matthew Stafford-to-Brandon Pettigrew pass with 9:16 left in the quarter.  Two Jets penalties helped Detroit out, but Stafford was 4 for 7 for 75 yards on the drive, and that helped, too.

1:45pm:  The first quarter is over.  Stafford has cooled, but Mark Sanchez hasn’t gotten hot yet so that Detroit score on the game’s opening drive is standing up so after one its DETROIT 7, NEW YORK JETS 0.

1:50pm: Somebody just said a bad word—a very bad word—and it got picked up by the referees microphone as he was announcing the latest penalty against Detroit and the whole stadium heard it.  Hell, the entire Detroit and New York metropolitan areas heard it.  The game is on TV, after all.  I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that profanity is being used down there.

2:10pm: A 31-yard Nick Folk field goal gets the Jets on the board 4:46 before the half.  It was the first sustained drive by NY today as they moved from their own 12 to the Detroit  8 before losing yardage on a 3rd down fumble by Sanchez.  That forced them to go for the field goal and that’s why the Lions lead 7-3 instead of being tied 7-7.

Note:  Since the opening drive when he was 4/7 for 75 yards, Stafford is 3/8 for 36 yards.

2:25pm:  This is exactly the kind of thing that kills the Detroit Lions week in and week out: with 1:00 left in the half they let Braylon Edwards get in behind the secondary and he catches a 74-yard TD pass from Sanchez and NY takes a 10-7 lead.  Just. Like. That.  The Lions had done a good job holding the Jets offense in check in the first half.  Until that very moment, that is.  Halftime: NEW YORK JETS 10, DETROIT 7.

2:50m  That Louis Delmas, Detroit safety, is one sneaky son-of-a-whatever.  He just stone cold stole the ball from Braylon Edwards after Edwards caught a pass from Sanchez on NY’s first possession of the second half, and the Lions have the football in Jets territory at the 47.  Edwards wants a do-over.  As he pouts, Detroit drives all the way to the Jets 4.  That’s as far as they get.  Well, actually, they got to the 2 on a first-down run, but then they lost 2 on the next play and then they threw an incomplete pass so Jason Hanson kicked a field goal except the Jets Trevor Pryce roughed him (he went straight for Hanson’s knee—a really, really dirty play) to give Detroit an automatic first down at the 1 by penalty.  Stafford makes like Bobby Layne (look it up, young people, or as you say, “Google it”) and bootlegs it around the right side right into the end zone.  And get this: Ndamukong Suh has to come in to kick the extra point because Hanson was actually roughed up on the Roughing the Kicker penalty against Pryce to the extent that he couldn’t come in to kick the extra point.  Suh, almost as an aside, hits the right upright with his try—no good.  His form was strictly Lou Groza.  The result, not so much.  Nick Harris, the punter, has to kick off for Detroit now.  The Lions drove 47 yards in 8 plays for the TD (Points Off Turnover for Detroit, remember) and now lead 13-7.  Hanson remains in the area of the Lions bench and is up and walking around.  

3:08pm: Mark Sanchez just pump-faked as pretty as you will ever see and it worked—his receiver was Wide Open in the end zone.  The good news for Detroit was that Sanchez badly underthrew the pass and Alphonso Smith made a leaping interception.  However, Smith forgets he’s in the end zone at the time and so, inexplicably, he tries to effect a return and is dropped at the Detroit 1.  But still, the Lions have the ball and have stopped a Jets drive. 

3:23pm:  The 3rd quarter is over: DETROIT 13, NEW YORK JETS 10.

3:40pm:  You just HATE to say this, but it looks like the Lions are going to win.  They just went 90 yards in 9 plays and Nate Burleson caught a 2-yard TD pass from Stafford.  Also, Hanson kicked the extra point so it looks like he’s okay and the Lions lead 20-10.  There’s 11:43 left in the game.  That’s why you hate to say, “it looks like the Lions are going to win,” because 11:43 is a lifetime in “Lions Years.”

3:59pm:  We have an exchange of punts here which works in Detroit’s favor as the score remains unchanged—20-10, Detroit—and now we are down to 4:30 to play in the game.  Drew Stanton replaced Stafford at quarterback for third-and-long the last time the Lions had the ball, but Stafford appears unhurt.  It may have been a case of Detroit hoping Stanton could run for a first down with the ball way back inside their own 10.  Indeed, Stanton did run, but he did not pick up the first down.  In the “Department of I Did Not Realize That,” if the Lions win today it will be the first back-to-back wins for this team in 3 years.  It may not be a big deal when the football team from your local area wins on consecutive weekends, but around here I’m pretty sure we throw a big parade replete with balloons when it happens.  I just can’t remember.

4:05pm: There is 2:46 left in the game and the Jets have gotten to within 3, trailing now 20-17.  They drove 56 yards in only 1:40 with Sanchez scoring on a 1-yard keeper.  Let the nail-biting begin and begin in earnest.  The Jets have only 1 timeout left (they burned a couple on defense when they had 12 or 13 guys on the field, twice) so there is that, at least.  Stanton remains in the game.  What’s up with that?  Stafford, who has thrown for 2 TD’s today and run for a 3rd, is wandering about on the sideline wearing a baseball cap while Drew Stanton runs the offense.  NY uses their final timeout and the clock runs down to 2:00.  3rd and 6 for the Lions, when we return…

4:12pm:  Up here in the Press Box I hear a writer, a very well-respected writer, say: “Stupid call, that was a stupid call,” after Stanton attempts a pass on the third down play and it is incomplete and THE CLOCK STOPS.  FOR REAL, DETROIT PERMITS THE CLOCK, THE THING THEY ARE TRYING RUN OUT, TO STOP BY TRYING A PASS INSTEAD OF A RUN.  THIS IS UNREAL.  Detroit punts and the Jets start from their own 22 with 1:40 to go.  There should be under a minute left—Detroit could have burned 0:40 more just by running on that third-down play.  The Jets get to around the Detroit 40 with 0:40 left, and a late-hit penalty on Detroit’s Julian Peterson gives NY 15 more to the 28.  It’s a stupid play by Peterson who should know better.  There is simply no other way to say it.  We are going to overtime, for sure.  Unless the Jets actually score a touchdown here, that is.  They won’t.  Sanchez spikes it with 0:04 left.  Here comes the field-goal unit.  It’s Folk from 36 to tie…and its good and it’s tied 20-20 at the end of regulation.  The scoring drive took 1:40.  The Jets previous drive, the one where Sanchez scored the touchdown?  That took 1:40, too.  Something is at play here at Ford Field right now and it isn’t good.  Why did Detroit attempt a pass on that 3rd down play?  Why did Peterson give NY 15 free yards with a senseless out-of-bounds hit?  And what’s the deal with Stanton in for Stafford?  Who knows, here comes overtime in Detroit.  And don’t forget that extra point try by Suh after Hanson got hurt that hit the upright.  It turns out that that is the difference in this game!

4:25pm:  NY wins the toss and Sanchez to Santonio Holmes down the middle on NY’s second play of OT goes big, really big—52 yards big—and the Jets are in field goal range and then some at the Detroit 16.  (Could you see this coming right up Woodward? You could, couldn’t you?)  It’s the 2nd-longest play of the day for NY (remember the 74-yard TD pass to Braylon Edwards with a minute left in the first half?) and what a time for it.  They send in Folk to try the field goal on 3rd down.  It’s a 30-yarder for the game.  It’s good.  The ballgame is over.  What a crusher.  The Final: NEW YORK JETS 23, DETROIT 20.  The playing field, as matters turn out today, is not the only place where profanity is being used at Ford Field.  Far from it.