Saturday Night Football Afterword: Lions vs Falcons

Calvin Johnson got a chunk of his 225 yards on this
3rd quarter reception. Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports.

Being a Lions fan is not something I envy. Then again, I’m sure being a Redskins fan hasn’t been something any of them would envy until this season.

Tonight, Detroit was treated to the Lions’ seventh consecutive loss. The fourth quarter offered a reason for plenty of cheering, but with the Lions in the cellar of the NFC – along with the Eagles – there wasn’t much more excitement to be had.

The source of the stadium’s energy boost in the final quarter was Calvin Johnson, who set three records in the losing effort. He broke Jerry Rice’s single-season receiving yards record with one game left to play this season, and he set records for consecutive 100-yard receiving games and 10-reception games, with eight and four, respectively.

Matt Ryan had a solid game, completing 78% of his passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns, tying a career high for scoring throws in a game. Two particular passes toward the start of the fourth quarter were most telling of what level his game is at right now, which I would say is very high. He will ultimately be judged by his playoff productions, which has not been very good in his three career playoff games, all loses. But he continues to be a solid regular season player.

Two of Ryan’s touchdown passes went to Roddy White, who had eight catches for 153 yards.

With the win, Atlanta has locked up the top seed in the NFC and will not have to play a road playoff game in 2012.

The Lions, meanwhile, have fallen oh so far since an impressive 2011 campaign that ended with a playoff loss to New Orleans. Detroit will have a lot to do in the draft and during free agency to move back up in a much-improved NFC North. However, the number one concern for Jim Schwartz this offseason needs to be fixing the team’s off-the-field issues, even if it means cutting problematic players, even Ndamukong Suh.