Lions Finally Break Skid

NFL News - September 27th, 2009 - Written by John

Jim Zorn is currently listed as the favorite to be the first head coach axed this year, with a payout of +300. Those odds probably got better after Sunday. A week after only scoring nine points against the St. Louis Rams, Washington placed their name in the record book as the first team to lose to the Lions in nearly three years.

For the first time since Dec. 23, 2007, the Detroit Lions won an NFL game. In what will certainly lead to a media circus in Washington, the Lions snapped their 19-game losing streak with a 19-14 victory over the Redskins.

Matthew Stafford finally showed the promise the Lions organization was hoping for with they locked him up with the first overall pick in last year's draft. He led the way with 241 yards on 21 completions and couldn't shake the smiles after the game. He gave the Lions an early lead, marching 99 yards down the field before finding Bryant Johnson on a 21-yard missile and then leading his team on the game-winning scoring drive late in the fourth quarter.

"I'm 100 times more nervous when I'm watching from the bench than when I'm playing, so I figured I'd just let the crowd noise tell me what happened," Stafford said in a post-game interview. "When it got really quiet, I couldn't take it, so I looked up, and saw them running, and then the tackle, and then I saw the clock was at zero."

Maurice Morris' 2-yard plunge capped the drive to make it 19-7 with just over five minutes left. But the Redskins responded on the very next drive, scoring immediately on a 4-yard pass to Rock Cartwright. They had a chance to win on the final drive of the game, inheriting the ball with 1:05 remaining. But there just wasn't enough time and despite wriggling through the defense with a hook-and-ladder play on fourth down, couldn't find pay dirt.

"We've still got a long way to go, but we've got a quarterback, and that's a big piece of the puzzle," said Lions vice chairman Bill Ford told ESPN.

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