Lions get off to fast start with rare victory over Colts

Matthew Stafford wanted Matt Prater to have a chance for redemption.

“I have seen him make so many big ones in the past”, Stafford said.

“We felt like it was more important at that time to get back, get gathered, get a call in and get settled because we still needed the touchdown”, Pagano said. We had multiple opportunities to make plays in their backfield and we couldn’t close it out and it cost us. “Any other team, that would have been a blowout”. “That’s a tough way to lose”.

Stafford finished 31 of 39 for 340 yards and three touchdowns.

Luck was 31 of 47 passing for 385 yards and four touchdowns for the Colts.

The Colts lost in Week 1, but Andrew Luck didn’t throw an interception and took only two sacks, so they have to feel good about that. Veteran Frank Gore is now in his 12th season and second with Indianapolis, and he ran for 59 yards on 14 carries against Detroit. After moving the ball down the field, the Colts set up Vinatieri 40-yard field goal, making the game a one possession game once again. He directed touchdown drives of of 75, 85, 94 and 75 yards after a slow start.

The Colts scored once more before the half, on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Luck to wideout Donte Moncrief, as the Lions led 21-10 at halftime. Only this time, the Lions won.

With so many injuries on the defensive side of the ball, the Colts defense was already outmatched coming into the game against a risky Lions offense, but Indy didn’t help themselves by missing a number of tackles and giving the Lions plenty of second chances. The Colts moved the ball but Joe Reitz gave up a sack, which was followed by a pitch play to Robert Turbin on 3rd and 15 which forced the offense to punt, but when you have the best punter in the National Football League in Pat McAfee, it is not always a bad thing as the punt was a touchback.

Jim Caldwell’s decision to conserve his time-outs late in Sunday’s dramatic win over the Indianapolis Colts came down to mathematics.

“‘I know this team knows how to finish, but we have to figure out a way how to start”, coach Chuck Pagano said. Our quarterback was exceptional, so this one is disappointing as heck.

Key players for the Lions in the win were running backs Theo Riddick, Ameer Abdullah and Dwayne Washington, who each scored at least one touchdown. Stafford completed passes to eight players. If the pass is incomplete to Doyle, the Colts are looking at 4th and four from the six with:37 seconds remaining.

If you would like to receive an email each time a new Detroit Lions article is published, fill out our email notification form. After a prior penalty, Luck hit 2015 1st Round Pick Phillip Dorsett for a 51-yard gain and all of the sudden, the Colts were starting to look like the team most of us had expected all along. “If it’s a field goal that they have to get to win or a touchdown that they have to get to win, a touchdown you have to get to win you have to work a little bit because you don’t want to help them”. “That’s just the standard I have for him and I think that’s the standard that he has for himself”.

After the play, the Colts attempted a wild last gasp kick return, replete with illegal forward passes, that ended in a safety because of a penalty in the end zone.

The Lions moved the ball easily against a beat-up Colts defense in the first half, scoring touchdowns on drives of 80, 82 and 75 yards.

“The tackling sucked”, veteran safety Mike Adams said after the game. Those of us who attended training camp sessions saw this over the summer, a more vocal and strident Stafford.

Green left the game with a sprained knee in the first half but fortunately was able to jog to the locker room without the help of the trainers.

INJURY REPORT: Detroit’s Theo Riddick left for a while to undergo the concussion protocol, but returned late in the game after being cleared. The meeting was the first between the teams since December 12, 2012 when the Colts won, 35-33. Indianapolis converted a two-point attempt to further cut the lead to 21-18.