THE MEDIA
- John Niyo of the Detroit News, who is quickly becoming one of our favorite writers, shared this gem: "Daunte Culpepper certainly didn't light up the scoreboard Saturday. But on a night when mistakes were commonplace for the Lions, the veteran quarterback didn't throw any footballs to the wrong team for the second straight game."
- The Freep's Nicholas Cotsonika blogged his thoughts on the loss, and unlike many in the media (see below), attempted to subdue any overreaction. It is, after all, just the preseason. Yet Costonika couldn't help himself, unraveling the evidently pent-up frustration towards Detroit Lions football: "It doesn’t matter if most of the coaching staff is new. It doesn’t matter that more than half of the players had nothing to do with last season. If you watched Saturday night’s exhibition, you saw the same stuff you saw last year – and the seven years before that. (I don’t know if I can type “31-97” anymore, either.)"
- It didn't take long for Drew Sharp to jump back into his typical, narcissistic role, titling his column "Lions in midseason form." While Sharp continues to laugh at his own mundane humor (we picture him leaning back into a leather recliner, taking a puff from his cigar, and cackling like a superhero villain as he finishes each column), he did offer somewhat of a reasonable stance: "This is exactly why the Lions are certifiably nuts should quarterbacking savior du jour Matthew Stafford start when the March to 0-32 begins in earnest in New Orleans on Sept. 13. It's counterproductive exposing a rookie quarterback to a team apparently still hell-bent on creating as insurmountable an early obstacle as possible. Nothing's gained subjecting Stafford to scoreboard deficits requiring him to do more than what's logically possible for a rookie quarterback."
- mlive.com's Tom Kowalski made note of Matthew Stafford's 5-of-13 performance (see: QB rating of 14.6), but certainly didn't harp on it. Writes Kowalski: "The Lions have had the worst-ranked defense in the NFL for the past two seasons, and they had their issues in the first half. Six Browns receivers had a catch of 20 yards or more, and both Cleveland running backs had at least one run of 11 yards or more."
- The Grand Rapids Press believes that Stafford hurt his chances of obtaining full-time starter chances. Said the Press' Brian VanOchten, "In a game where Stafford had the perfect opportunity to end the debate, he did nothing but let Culpepper re-enter the picture and perhaps move to the forefront.
- The Associated Press had the objective report, including interviews from Derek Anderson, Eric Mangini and Matthew Stafford. The pregame fight between Lion teammates Dewayne White and Carson Butler also didn't go unnoticed. "I've never seen that before," Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. "Obviously, that's something that shouldn't happen and it's something that will be addressed. Actually, it already has been addressed.'' - Detroit News post-game story
A View From the Other Side: Browns-Lions Locker Room NotesA nice little compilation of notes from our friends at the Orange and Brown Report
THE FANS (from The Den Message Board)
- The Den user onlyTSS, a floater from our Georgia web site, tried to make everyone feel better about Matthew Stafford's performance by referencing an event that happened during Stafford's freshman year as a Bulldog: "At one point in his freshmen year we were 6-4 and we had an embarrassing loss to kentucky. The very next week we had to play At Auburn who was ranked #4 in the country at the time. All the sudden something clicked with stafford in that game and he was a different QB. We beat Auburn 37-15 and we finished the season with wins over two more ranked teams. It will click one game with stafford and you will see a great QB. It clicked in college in his 9th game as a starter. What NFL game it will click with stafford, I dont know but i do know it will click one game and yall will get a big smile going because he is a rare QB. Dont give up on stafford."
- KryptonianQuarterback attended the away contest, making several observations, but seemed to strike gold with this one: "3. Our WR's still can't catch the ball or get open without a guy like Calvin as a deep threat. It was painfully obvious the defense was content to sit on all shorts routes, never fearing anything going deep. It wasn't until Dane Looker got in there that they seemed to develope SOME sort of rythym." Share YOUR opinion in The Den Message Board, a community of Lions fans
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