Game 6: Lions 13, Giants 10

Gus Johnson is everywhere! He did this game Thursday night for Detroit before doing last night's game for Philadelphia. He and Desmond Howard talk pregame about what a relief it is that Detroit got rid of Mike Martz and his eeeeevil passing game. Yeah, I know I'd rather rely on Tatum Bell to carry my offense than employ the most successful offensive scheme of the last thirty years. Idiots.

And it's not like new offensive coordinator Jim Colletto is Woody Hayes or anything; when he coached at Purdue, they ran one of the wackiest offenses in the country.

Aveion Cason returns the opening kickoff from four yards deep out to the 22. Nothing for Bell on his first rush. Wow, there's actually Calvin Johnson for a quick six yards. On third down, Kitna rolls and scrambles right, away from three Giants and hits Johnson up the sideline for close to 40 yards. Bell stuffed again, by Barry Cofield. Kitna rolls left and lobs to Johnson yet again for 9. Bell barely converts the first down. Three runs up the middle for the little speed back. After Bell is stuffed again by Cofield, the Lions score from 20 on what's been the deadliest play so far this preseason - the shallow drag route, this one run by Roy Williams. Michael Johnson slides off him with a poor tackle, and Williams turns up the sideline and scores to put Detroit up 7-0. Good run defense and pass rush by the Giants, but it didn't pay off.

Ahmad Bradshaw returns the kick across the 25. Eli Manning starts things out by overthrowing Brandon Jacobs on a little circle route. Jacobs busts through a big hole on the right side and breaks a poor Brian Kelly tackle to get loose for a 27-yard gain. Looking for Amani Toomer on 2nd down, Manning nearly gets picked off by DE Jared DeVries dropping back in coverage. Is Eli drunk or something? Quick slant intended for Jacobs is batted away by new Lion acquisition Dewayne White, and Eli is off to an awful start.

Detroit's show from their 11. Bell gets stuffed up the middle yet again. Um, sweep, anyone? On 3rd-and-2, though, Kitna finds Johnson for the fourth time, for 33 on a corner route. Giants would be doing great if they could cover anybody. Next play, guess what happens to Bell. He gets stuffed up the middle by Danny Clark. Bell manages his first decent gain the next play, 4 yards through a right-side pile. With the Giants blitzing on 3rd-and-7, Kitna throws the quick-slant blitz read too far behind Williams for him to come up with it. Punt is into the end zone. Pinning ANY opponent deep with a punt is apparently a lost art this preseason.

Jacobs is already out in favor of Derrick Ward, who runs twice for six yards before Shaun Cody hands the Giants a first down by jumping offside. Chris Snee returns the favor with a false start. Eli hits a well-covered Domenik Hixon for 11. MADISON HEDGECOCK picks up the first down with a short plunge. Ward drops a pass on first down but makes up for it with an 8-yard catch on 3rd-and-7 as the first quarter expires.

Giants start the 2nd quarter at the Lions 47 with Anthony Wright at QB. Kevin Boss gets CLOCKED by Leigh Bodden after a catch but hangs on for 12 yards. But Bradshaw is stuffed twice for no gain, and Wright's third-down pass to Boss comes up a yard short. Lawrence Tynes GAGS on a 44-yard FG to keep it a 7-0 game. Indoors, that's a kick you'd better make every time, if you like keeping your job.

Kitna's done for the game; enter Dan Orlovsky. Kevin Smith drives a tackler backward on 3rd-and-2 for a 3-yard gain. Rookie Gosder Cherilus is called for holding on first down, and false-starts two snaps later. Colletto calls draw plays to Smith on all three long-yardage downs, totaling 7 yards. Hixon returns the punt to the 25.

Giants drive gets off to a promising start as Wright hits Sinorice Moss deep for 45, beating Dovonte Edwards. Wright hits Hixon at the 15 for another first down. 2nd and 10, with Wright continuing to pick on Edwards, Hixon does a terrible job trying to get both feet in on a high fade route, and he brutally pushed off anyway. (Gene Steratore's crew keeping flags deep in pockets here.) Ahmad Bradshaw drops a first down pass over the middle to force Tynes back out onto the field. He drills a 33-yarder to make it a 7-3 game. Under 5:00 left in the half.

Good kickoff by Tynes and a good tackle by Ruben Droughns keep Devale Ellis inside the 20 on the return. Orlovsky spreads the ball around with dinks and dunks, and a couple of Kevin Smith runs put the Lions at midfield at the 2:00 warning. Giants aren't really putting any pass pressure on, and seem to be sitting deep in soft zone coverage. A couple of more completions have the Lions facing 3rd and 1 at the Giant 32, where Smith gets collared by LB Brian Kehl for no gain and a FG attempt for Jason Hanson. He nails it from 50 to put Detroit up 10-3 with 0:55 left in the half.

Nice return by Bradshaw is called back for a hold, and the Giants start from their 17 instead of their 42. Giants dink their way out to midfield with 0:09 left. Droughns fumbles a stupid swing pass - go DOWNFIELD! - with 0:03 left, giving the ball back to Detroit. Lions kneel on it to end the half.
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Not much to recap for the Giants offensively. I don't know that anyone has stepped forward in their crowded WR field behind Plaxico Burress; if anybody, it's Moss for the long catch and big-play potential. Wright has played solidly for a backup QB. MLB Paris Lenon's name was called a lot for the Detroit defense, but even though they've allowed only 3 points, nobody over there has really stood out to me. On offense, meanwhile, it's hilarious how the announcers were moaning about the Lions not being able to run the ball under Martz, when I doubt they had 20 total rushing yards in the first half tonight, repeatedly getting stuffed. The Giant starters dominated the line of scrimmage when the Lions had the ball, though Kitna was still able to hit Calvin Johnson a few times to set up their opening score. They're going to need Calvin to play big if they're going to do anything this year, which they well may not do if their offensive line looks as bad as it has tonight in the running game.

Ward's kick return is out to the 35, tackle by one-time Ram Brandon Middleton. The Giants broadcast crew has taken over, but we haven't been properly introduced. Six years after he was the #1 overall pick in the draft, David Carr is now mopping up preseason games as the Giants' third-stringer. Where the NFL's concerned, he's definitely a case of a nice guy finishing last. Droughns flops on third-and-short, and again on 4th-and-short, to turn the ball over to Detroit near midfield. Jordan Dizon flashed into the backfield to stuff Droughns' 4th-down run.

Middleton hauls in a long pass from Orlovsky after it's tipped by rookie Terrell Thomas for about a 30-yard gain near the Giants 15. Passing continues to be the only way Detroit can move; even (sarcasm) Aveion Cason (/sarcasm) can't get much going on the ground. It's so bad for the Detroit o-line, they have apparently left the starters in and can't get the ground game going against NY's 2nd and 3rd-stringers. Giants' color man must not read TMQ; he wants to blitz the Lions on 3rd-and-16. Detroit runs the we-surrender handoff, brings the backup kicker in for a 37-yard FG, and he BLOWS it to maintain a 10-3 ballgame. Viva preseason!

The Giants do nothing with the missed FG opportunity. Carr finds no one open on 3rd down and gets cranked by Greg Blue trying to scramble upfield. Feagles blasts a deep punt that Cason loses yardage on returning, tackled by Terrell Thomas.

Drew Stanton in as Lions QB, starting from his own 18. Kenny Phillips shuts down an end-around to Taye Biddle for a seven-yard loss. I see a lot of promise in the future of the Giant secondary. On 3rd and 14, Cason draws for what I imagine is Detroit's longest gain of the night, 9 yards. I'm sure Stanton appreciates the opportunity to show his stuff in the clutch there.

Giants in business from their 40. Why is Carr down to mopping up in preseason games? Maybe because of plays like he makes here on third down, running well beyond the line of scrimmage before trying to fire a pass to Michael Jennings. It's complete, but it's a penalty, and the Giants punt. You'd think a 6-year veteran with Carr's amount of starting experience would have a big mental edge over most of the players on the field right now, wouldn't you?

Detroit now from their 24. Guess what they do on 3rd-and-10. Did you say, "six-yard crossing pattern"? Good guess. Another punt.

Giants at their 34, 1:27 left in the 3rd. Danny Ware has come in at tailback. Carr strings a couple of passes together and gets them across midfield. They're at Detroit's 45 when the 3rd quarter ends.

On 3rd-and-short from the Lion 40, Carr spears Brandon London with a quick slant, and he bangs through the Lion secondary all the way down to the 11. A Ware TD run is erased by a penalty on one-time Ram Jerome Collins. Giants end up with 3rd-and-13 from the 14, but Carr hangs in the pocket and hits Craphonso Thorpe at the goal line for a TD to tie the game with 12:09 left. Thorpe beat Edwards for the TD. Yep, Edwards is still in there. And Coughlin was obliged to go for two there, in my opinion. If this game's tied after 60 minutes, may he roast in hell for eternity. Preseason overtime games rival karaoke, the "wave" and The View among mankind's most evil creations.

Imagine this - on third and one from their 35, the Lion running game comes up short yet again. My ass has moved around more in my chair while watching this game than the Lions' running game has moved playing it. Moss returns the Detroit punt to his 27.

Now the Lions are in trouble! - former Ram Kay-Jay Harris now at RB for the G-Men. He comes up inches short on a 3rd-and-1 lunge - I tend to agree with the Giants announcers that the spot wasn't very good - to force the one-millionth punt of the second half.

Lions start at their 24. They get across midfield on a combination of Stanton dinks, dunks and scrambles. Artose Pinner gets lucky that Steratore overrules a fumble call after replay that probably should have stood. Alex Morrow had headbutted the ball loose before any part of Pinner that counts hit the ground. I don't believe his hand counted there. Cherilus is back in the game with 3:00 left and false-starts again, his third penalty. They're still able to get down to the NY 24, though, close enough for an Eddie Johnson FG to break the tie with 2:50 left. Detroit 13, Giants 10.

Ware's return is out to the Giant 32. Steven Howell puts a late hit on Carr to give the Giants one of their biggest offensive plays of the night. 14 more on a dumpoff to K-J gets them to the Detroit 40. Carr fires a pass into the ground in the flat with a blitzer coming at him. It looks like a blown blitz read to me, but to Steratore, that's intentional grounding, moving the Giants back to the 50. Andre Fluellen, who I sincerely hope has a sister named Sue Ellen, makes chop liver out of Jonathan Palmer with a spin move and sacks Carr for a big loss at the 2:00 warning. Giants are now looking at 3rd and 27, no time outs. Carr hits London to get 12 yards back, but they then lose five on a false start. 4th and 20. Carr has to run for his life and throws it high, wild and out of bounds to essentially end this one.
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Neither of these teams ran worth a damn tonight, though I'm a lot more worried about that from the Lions' point of view than I am the Giants'. The way they're (not) running, they're going to need a lot more out of Calvin Johnson like what they got tonight and not like last year. I know the Giant d-line is damn good, but the Lions couldn't even budge their backups; they have a LOT of work to do in Motown. It's possible their defense could carry the day for them. Though only Lenon and Dizon stood out to me tonight, they did essentially shut down the Giant offense and deserve notice for it. It's almost unfair the Super Bowl champs appear to have drafted as well as they did. Kenny Phillips, Terrell Thomas and Brian Kehl all looked like future defensive prodigies. With no one really standing out in their WR competition, don't ignore London, who has desirable size at 6'4". The champs are clearly a team we won't have a great feel for until their starters are on the field more, though the early returns on defense are definitely promising.
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The Preseason Challenge is on break now as I devote all available resources to tonight's Rams game in Tennessee. Once that RamView's out of the way, I'm probably looking at the Jets-Browns game sometime Sunday morning.