Doug Karsch: The Season Was Almost Done
Carolina was up 24-7 midway through the second quarter ... and the Lions seemed to be close to done. If there are great things ahead for this team, it wouldn't surprise me if Sunday's game is referenced as a critical turning point in this season. If you have playoff aspirations and with the teams on the schedule the rest of the way -- you cannot lose to Carolina -- a (2-7) team on your home field.
So here the Lions were, down 17 points, with a quarterback who's thrown six interceptions in his previous 42 attempts, a fan base that is about as suspicious of a team's behavior as you can be and the Lions put the paddles to their season and shocked it back to life. I've been around long enough to know that fans are very apprehensive about the Lions. They love them ... but don't trust them. Why should they? The Lions have ALWAYS let them down. But if this team proves nothing else, Sunday proved they are a little tougher then some previous Lions teams that would have folded up in the second quarter, folded in the game, folded on the season.
And the best part -- it was led by the franchise quarterback. Stafford was on fire after the slow start, completing 25-28 passes for 300 yards and five touchdowns. Only a shoddy offensive pass-interference call stopped a Lions drive in the second half. Other than that, they were perfect.
"(Stafford) was a lot like a shooting guard. Once he hit a couple of shots we were like, keep going," said Lions Wide Receiver Nate Burleson. "You could see it in his eyes. He was in the huddle winking at guys basically telling the receiver's, the tight ends, the running backs, I'm going to throw you the ball. At the line of scrimmage he'd look at the defense and figure out where he was going to go you could tell he got in a real good rhythm. And that's what we need him to do. We need him to be in that type of zone. The key is to get him in that type of zone early".
Word to that! No way will undefeated Green Bay allow the Lions get away with a similar horrible start on Thursday.
