Lions mum on Stafford’s status

By: Michael Niziolek

In Play! Magazine

Matthew Stafford (knee injury) missed practice for the third time in four days on Thursday. Head Coach Jim Schwartz said the quarterback was improving on Wednesday, but he didn’t have much to say about the situation on Thursday.

“I’m just going to let our injury report handle where we are with the quarterback,” was all Schwartz said.

He talked generally on how the coaching staff handles balancing a player’s injury and the need to win every week, but kept away from talking about Stafford specifically. Schwartz said in order for a player to play with an injury that player needs to be able to effective…

“I think the thing that you need to balance with any player, and I assume you’re talking about the quarterback, but any player, when you talk about an injury, you balance their ability to play, their ability to be effective on the field, their potential to make an injury worse, you balance all of those things,” Schwartz explained. “If a player is out there and he can get through but he can’t be effective in his role then it doesn’t make any sense to play him. It pertains to every single position.”

Last week the Lions waited until Sunday to reveal who would start against Pittsburgh and with only one day to go until they travel to Green Bay to take on the Packers they likely follow a similar strategy. Although with Daunte Culpepper taking most of the snaps this week at practice and a bye week next week it seems unlikely Stafford would get the call.

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Steeler Nation gets it done in Detroit

By: Michael Niziolek

In Play! Magazine

The Detroit Lions sold out Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Ford Field, but it was evident from all the terrible towels that many of those tickets were purchased by Steeler fans.

With three minutes and 30-yards to go the Lions looked like they had a golden opportunity to get a touchdown and send the game into overtime – a situation that should have the home crowd’s fans on their feet.

It wasn’t.

Thousands of Pittsburgh fans rallied and made Ford Field anything but enemy territory for the visiting Steelers helping them hold on to their lead and win 28-20.

“They traveled awesome today,” Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin said. “It's spectacular to stand on the visiting sideline and see the fan support we had in this building today."

Hines Ward said the crowd definitely made a difference for the team, but wasn’t surprised at how many fans made the trip.

"We're Steeler nation,” Ward explained. “Wherever we travel, we travel well. Playing in the Super Bowl here brought back a lot of memories. We had just as many fans as we did back then, so that's what we love about playing for this organization.”

Daunte Culpepper started in place of the injured Matthew Stafford at quarterback and had problems with the Steelers defensive pressure. Culpepper was sacked seven times, four of those coming during the Lions critical final possession.

After the game Jim Schwartz talked about the offense not picking up the blitz in the final series…

“We didn't recognize it and ended up taking those sacks,” he explained. “In that situation where you got it right there, we've got to be able to throw that ball away, protect that, whatever we've got to do to avoid a sack right there. We can't give up a sack like that because that took us out of the chance that we had at the end of the game."

Losing Calvin Johnson in the first quarter to a leg injury hampered the Lions offense as well. It was the second consecutive game that the big play receiver was taken out with a leg problem, against Chicago Johnson injured his hamstring and left the game in the third quarter.

Derrick Williams and Dennis Northcutt stepped in and made some nice plays, but the 6’5’’ playmaker could have made a difference for Culpepper as he dealt with the heavy pressure from the Steelers defense.

The Lions will travel to Green Bay next week as they look to get a win before the bye week.

Detroit Lions Coach PO'ed After Lose To Bears

Anybody that watched the Lions game yesterday was probably as dumb founded as the next guy/gal.

How could the Lions start out at such a good clip and just lose it after the first half?

It looked as though it would be a good match up as the Lions matched the Bears point for point, that is until half time when something happens?

Is Schwartz's half time pep rally derailing the team? Is the team out of gas?

Head Coach Jim Schwartz says he's as PO'ed as that next guy."A couple of you astutely observed that I seemed a little ticked off after the game and I’m here to say that after 24 hours I’m probably more ticked off now than I was right after the game."

Did the Lions have fighting chance to win the game or at least stay in it? Schwartz says, “We never gave ourselves a chance to win that game. There were way too many errors in all phases of the game, but particularly in special teams. You can’t win a game when you continually put the defense backed up the way that we did and we allowed scores on special teams.”

One is left to wonder if it's a good idea to come down on such a fragile team outside of the locker room?

As for Lions QB Matthew Stafford, Schwartz says, “Matthew is day-to-day with a knee and we’ll see what he does on Wednesday”

And as far as this weeks upcoming game. Schwartz says it’s possible but he's not giving away any secrets. “I’m not going to comment on (injuries). You know my philosophy on injures as far as commenting on specifics and things like that. He has a knee, he’s day-to-day and we’ll know more on Wednesday."

Photo courtesy Detroit Lions

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Lions lose more than game to Bears...

The Detroit Lions dropped Sunday's game against the Chicago Bears 48-24, but injuries were the bigger story coming out of Chicago for Jim Schwartz's squad. Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson both left the game in the fourth quarter because of injuries.

Stafford's injury appears the more serious of the two.

ESPN's Chris Mortensen is reporting that the Lions quarterback suffered a dislocation of his right knee. The knee popped right back into place, but he will undergo further tests when the team returns home to Detroit to see if he suffered any damage to the cartilage around his knee cap.

Sources on the team told Mortensen that Stafford could be back on the field next week, possibly with a brace, depending on how the test results turn out.

Johnson left the game in the fourth as well because of tightness in his legs, but the problem doesn't appear to be serious.

Source: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4531166