Monday, October 1, 2012

Lions Vs. Vikings

Good Day Classmates!
Well in reality it wasnt a good day for the Detroit Lions as they played a pitiful game against the Minnesota Vikings, losing 20-13. After last weeks special teams collapse against the Tennessee Titans, you would figure that the Lions would go back to practice working very hard on their "special teams". Well, Minnesote showed everyone that the Lions special teams were very "special". The Lions won the coin toss and deferred to receive the ball in the second half and gave the ball to the Vikings first. As the kickoff reached retrurner, Percy Harvin, you could already see the alley open up for a long gain. And would'nt you know, Harvin shoots through the gap and explodes for a 105 yard kickoff return for a touchdown. The crowd begins to boo as they see how juch "work" the Lions must have put into their special teams over the week. This was only the beginning of their demise though. The offense just looked slow and very out of rythm. Stafford was throwing decent but the receiving core could not catach anything. I think if a cold managed to find its way to them they would probably drop that too. Impressive to say the least, not! The only sound aspect of the game for the Lions was the game paly of the defensive front 7. Though they let Adrian Peterson run wild, they tightened up in the redzone and only allowed 6 points to be scored by the Vikings offense. At the beginning of the second half, the Lions received the ball and had a quick 3 and out. They punted the ball and would'nt yyou know, the Vikings returned it over 60 yards to the house. This was the 4th touchdown allowed by the Lions special teams in the last 2 games. They have given up 9 touchdowns to their oppents defense and special teams so far this year. Needless to say, its the highest in the NFL so far. Detroit better straighten out their fundementals or its going to be one hell of a long year!

Monday, September 24, 2012

Good day classmates!
It was an exciting weekend of football though it ended in heartbreak as the Detroit Lions lost for the second week in a row to the Tennessee Titans. The game started off extremly slow with the Lions looking pitful on both sides of the ball. They had no answer for Jake Locker, the Titans quarterback. He had a career day throwing for 350+ yards and 2 touchdowns. Although the Lions had no answer for Locker, the Lions held Tennessee's star running back, Chris Johnson, to only 24 yards on 14 carries. This was an impressive hold after being trampled by St. Louis's and San Francisco's running backs in weeks 1 and 2. The Lions had a very slow start on offense in the first half, but exploded in the second half scoring 32 points, 14 of which came within the last 18 seconds of the game. While the Lions were driving with only minutes left and down by a touchdown, tight end Brandon Pettigrew was stripped of the ball and the Tennessee defense returned it for a touchdown. This had seemingly been the demise of the Lions for this game as quarterback Matthew Stafford was injured trying to chase down the defender returning the touchdown. Back up quarterback, Shaun Hill, who was a previous starting quarterback in the NFL, entered the game poised and ready to lead the Lions on there last attempt to with. Down by 14 with only a minute and 30 seconds left, Hill drove the filed and threw a strike to Calvin Johnson for a touchdown with only 18 seconds remaing. Doown by only one touchdown now the Lions had to recover an onside kick in order to have any shot at winning this game. Jason Hanson sent the kick away and it took a high bounce. Lions Ball! Safety Amari Speive recovers the onside kick and gives the Lions one last hope. With only 4 seconds left Hill takes the snap. After scrambling around for a few seconds he hails the ball 50 yards down the field to the endzone where a Tennessee defender bats the ball down. But Wait! Wide receiver Titus Young dives under the ball, catching it and scores the game tieing touchdown! The Lions had came back and sent the game to overtime. The Lions came up short though, failing to convert a 4th and short play giving the Titans the victory for the game. It was a valiant effort by our Lions, but hopefully we can come out next week with a win over the talented Minnesota Vikings.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Detroit Lions Vs. San Francisco 49'ers

Good Day Classmates!
Sorry about the delay for this weeks blog. Last nights game between the San Francisco 49'ers and the Detroit Lions was a definite thriller but ended in heartbreak, for myself and other Lions fans, as they fell to the 49'ers twenty seven to nineteen. Detroit came out to a pretty slow start on offense, struggling to gain any yards against a very tough and disciplined San Francisco defense. Matthew Stafford definitely had his work cut out for him, only throwing for a measly tow hundred and thirty yards and the team only rushed for eighty two yards throughout the game. Our only scoring during the first half of the game came from the foot of Jason Hanson, our all time leading scorer for the team, knocking in two field goals giving six points heading into the locker room. San Francisco however got off to a quick start with their quarter back, Alex Smith, connecting with tight end, Vernon Davis, for a touchdown in their opening drive. That was then followed up with a Frank Gore rushing touchdown midway through the second quarter giving us a halftime score of fourteen to six. Things didn't get to much better for the Lions in the second half and the 49'ers defense still had our offense on lock down. San Francisco added to quick field goals to their score making it twenty to nine after the Lions responded back with a quick field goal as well. But Alex Smith sealed the Lions fate with a touchdown strike yet again to Vernon Davis when the lions had to stop them with any chance of winning the game. The Lions though did try to make the game interesting by scoring a quick touchdown and trying for an onside kick to score and tie the game up with a two point conversion. They failed on their onside kick attempt, thus ending t any attempt to comeback and send the game into overtime.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Hello Everyone,
I hope everyone had a chance to root for our home state Lions today as they beat the St. Louis Rams 27-23 today. It was a very up and down game as the Lions came out hot marching the ball right down the field, knifing through the Rams defense like butter. A critical mistake by Matthew Stafford in the red zone brought their first drive to a halt though when Stafford threw an interception inside the five yard line. The Lions defense however played a very sound game only allowing two hundred and fifty one total yards and fourteen total first downs throughout the game. Stafford struggled in the first half throwing three interceptions that led to thirteen of the Rams twenty three points today. As they second half of the game progressed though, Stafford shined and connected with Kevin Smith for a touchdown that gave the lions the lead with only seconds remaining on the game clock. Today's game was a real nail biter that kept me on the edge of my seat, but in the end, the Lions Prevailed! Next I will list some of the statistic from the game. Matthew Stafford threw forty eight passes completing thirty two of them for three hundred and fifty five yards. He also, as stated before, threw one touchdown. Kevin Smith was the leading rusher in the game today running for sixty two yards on thirteen attempts with one touchdown. The Lions all pro wide receiver, Calvin Johnson, led the team in receiving yards with one hundred and eleven on six catches. Unfortunately he was unable to find the end zone, but I am sure that will make him hungry for a big day next week in the Lions bout with the San Francisco 49'ers. This will be a very heated rematch from last year when the 49'ers ended the Lions five game winning streak. Hopefully we can come through next week with a victory!
- Matthew Bleicher
Hello everyone,
I will be doing my blogs about the 2012 Detroit Lions football team. Ever since I was a little kid I've loved football and I took a certain interest into the Lions. As most of you may know, the past 13 years for the team have been very disappointing. We have gone through many head coaches and a ridiculous amount of quarterbacks in an attempt to transform the losing atmosphere that surrounds the organization into that of a winning one. This started to begin when the Lions drafted Calvin Johnson, wide receiver, who is now the face of out franchise. His dominance on the field and inspiring actions off it brought a new sense of leadership to the team. Soon after drafting Calvin Johnson, the Lions began to piece together an extremely talented team with players such as Matthew Stafford, Ndamukong Suh, Louis Delmas, and many others to try and revitalize what was a proud franchise. For the first time in 12 years the Lions made the NFL postseason after  an impressive 10-6 regular season. Though they have made huge strides in their pursuit of a Superbowl Championship, many improvements are to be made for the Lions team to achieve this goal. As the year goes on, I will blog about the positives and negatives of each game. Hopefully we can look forward to a very successful season full of exciting, hard hitting plays and most importantly a lot of wins! I look forward to reading any comments I may receive on my blogs.
- Mathew Bleicher