“We can make all the excuses in the world, but we’ve got to get ’em on the ground, we’ve got to tackle, and we should have closed that game out”, said strong safety Mike Adams.
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Luckily, Stafford was not finished as he drove the Lions into field goal territory and Prater redeemed himself by connecting on a 43-yard field goal to all but seal the deal for Detroit.
Ameer Abdullah and Theo Riddick combined for 108 yards rushing and 110 yards receiving Sunday, with each topping 100 total yards from scrimmage.
“He (Luck) played out of his mind today”, Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford said after going 31 of 39 for 340 yards with three touchdowns.
Riddick has been the pass-catching back for Detroit, but Abdullah’s performance indicates the two backs could share that role this season.
With so many injuries on the defensive side of the ball, the Colts defense was already outmatched coming into the game against a unsafe Lions offense, but Indy didn’t help themselves by missing a number of tackles and giving the Lions plenty of second chances. The Colts played an injury-report game with their quarterback during the week but his arm look fully healthy, with four completions of at least 30 yards including a 51-yard bomb to Phillip Dorsett. On Sunday, the reaction was the same at halftime of Lions-Colts.
The defenses however, both struggled heavily. Theo Riddick and Ameer Abdullah each averaged over 5.0 yards per carry and both were unsafe out of the backfield in the receiving game as well.
The Lions moved the ball easily against a beat-up Colts defense in the first half, scoring touchdowns on drives of 80, 82 and 75 yards. After moving the ball down the field, the Colts set up Vinatieri 40-yard field goal, making the game a one possession game once again. Only this time, the Lions won. In the process of the painful-to-stomach loss, the Colts wasted a brilliant afternoon by Luck in his first game back at quarterback since being sidelined with injury last November. The second half was a different story.
At New Orleans, Oakland gambled with a 2-point conversion that Derek Carr converted with a pass to Michael Crabtree for the winning points with 47 seconds left. Stafford completed 4 of 5 passes for 48 yards on that drive. Hilton. And then on the next play, officials called for a review of a catch by Donte Moncrief, again saving a little bit of time.
The Detroit Lions almost blew it against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, but held on after losing a 21-3 lead to win 39-35 in their season opener, driving the length of the field in the final 37 seconds to kick the game-winning field goal.
The Lions however, wouldn’t quit. That’s right SEVEN plays.
Riddick caught a check-down for 19 yards in the middle of the field, then Stafford found Eric Ebron for 9 yards and Marvin Jones for 22 to move the Lions into field-goal range.
The Lions had three timeouts, however, which came in handy as they marched down the field but repeatedly failed to get out of bounds and stop the clock.
So what would Caldwell had done if the Colts had not used a timeout?
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How will each team respond? The Colts would have one more chance on a kickoff return, but their attempt at a miracle lateral play yielding only an illegal forward pass in the endzone, which scored a safety for the Lions and made the final score 39-35. 2nd and 10 from the 12 means the Colts could have run seven more plays in the final 1:15.
