Pride of Detroit
The Detroit Lions are looking to rebound after an underwhelming preseason opener last week. In the Hall of Fame Game, the Lions looked flat, turnover-prone, and just could not get into a rhythm on either side of the ball. The end result—a 34-7 loss at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers—was just as bad as the score suggests.
But preseason results don’t tell you much about the actual talent of a team. In that game, the Lions rested all of their starters (and more). While the same could be said about the Chargers, the Lions are certainly working out some kinks among their depth players.
That will continue again on Friday night, as the Lions face off against the Atlanta Falcons on Friday night. Detroit is expected, again, to rest most of their starters, but we could get our first looks at their top-two drafted rookies: Tyleik Williams and Tate Ratledge. Lions coach Dan Campbell said he wanted to see both of those players get some preseason action, but could not fully commit to putting him in action this week. UPDATE: Ratledge and Williams are expected to play.
If you’re too preoccupied to watch the Friday night bout between the Lions and Falcons (televised locally on FOX 2 Detroit at 7 p.m. ET), just hang around right here. As the game continues, we’ll be providing drive-by-drive analysis, score updates, and embedded highlights of the action right in this post. Just stick around here, hit the refresh button periodically, and enjoy the updates. After the game ends, we’ll have a full recap of the action right here, and a bunch more post-game coverage coming later in the night.
The Lions defense got off to a very good start. Al-Quadin Muhammad provided a pressure and a sack on the opening drive, while Zach Cunningham had a couple of tackles, including a big run stuff on third-and-4. The Falcons opted to go for it on fourth-and-3, but a deep Easton Stick was overthrown for the turnover on downs.
Unfortunately, the offense continued its struggles under Hendon Hooker. After a short pass on first down, and a second-down throwaway due to immediate pressure, Hooker was loose with the football on a third-down scramble and fumbled it away to Atlanta.
But, again, Detroit’s defense held up well. A holding penalty pushed the Falcons back early, eventually setting Atlanta up for a long field goal. The 57-yard kick was good, giving Atlanta an early 3-0 Falcons lead.
The Lions offense was able to pick up a first down thanks to a third-and-10 scramble from Hooker for 23 yards.
But that would be it for the offense. The Lions failed to pick up a third-and-4 after a nice touch pass from Hooker was dropped by Jackson Meeks.
The next defensive series was all about Lions linebacker Grant Stuard. Coming from the opposite end of the field, he picked up an impressive tackle for loss on first down, and then he held tight in...
