Megatron Is Superhuman In Lions Win Over Cowboys
With just over a minute left in the game, it looked like the Cowboys were poised to get the win against the Lions at Ford Field in Detroit. Dallas was successful on a late game field goal attempt which gave them a six-point lead with 1:24 remaining in the fourth quarter. But the lead wouldn’t hold.
Leaving that much time on the clock turned out to be a terrible miscalculation from the Cowboys coaching staff, who should’ve realized that was more than enough time for Matt Stafford and Calvin Johnson. After all, to that point Megatron was closing in on 300 yards receiving on the day.
On Detroit’s last drive Stafford connected with Johnson twice, for a total of 39 yards, en route to a game-winning touchdown that left just 12 seconds. Stafford fooled everyone—including his own teammates—by calling for a spike, before lunging over the one-yard line for the score.
It was an appropriate end to a very weird game. Although the Lions committed four turnovers in the game—four more than the Cowboys—they were able to compensate with excessive amounts of offense. Not usually a strategy that works, but it worked today.
Stafford was 33-of-48 for 488 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions. And on the receiving end of most of that yardage was, of course, Megatron. Johnson pulled in 14 catches for 329 yards and a touchdown. His long on the day was 87 yards and he averaged 23.5 yards per reception.
Johnson was just seven yards short of the single game yards receiving record set by Flipper Anderson in an overtime game back in 1989.
The Lions success on offense didn’t sit well with one particular member of the Cowboys. Wide receiver Dez Bryant spent most of the second half pitching a fit on the sideline in between Dallas drives. Even after taking the lead on a Tony Romo touchdown pass to Dez Bryant, he was still inexplicably livid.
The situation on the Dallas sideline eroded rapidly as their chance to win the game faded. Bryant kept on raging and eventually turned his ire on tight end Jason Witten, who was less than pleased having to deal with the ridiculous type of display the controversial wideout has come to be known for.
The win couldn’t have been bigger for the Lions, who improved to 5-3. That puts them right there in contention with the NFC North rival Packers, who should improve to 5-2 this week, assuming they can wax the Vikings on Sunday night. A pretty safe assumption, given the current state of affairs in Minnesota.
The loss was equally big for the Cowboys, who could’ve taken a commanding two-game lead in the NFC East had they held on to win. Instead they drop to 4-4, putting them just one game up on the Eagles and two on the Redskins and Giants. It’s amazing that after starting the season 0-6, the G-Men are right back in the thick of things.
Suddenly Dez Bryant’s rage seems more understandable.
