Author: SA Sportswriter

Bob Wojnowski: This Lions team can contend, unlike some others we’ve seen


Bob Wojnowski

Allen Park

Go ahead and say it, even if it’s premature, even if it sounds kind of funny and almost never gets said around here.

The Lions are a playoff team. Yep, they are. Or should be. Or will be.

They look like it, they snarl like it, and most important, they go on the road and play like it. The Lions are 6-2 at the bye after spending Sunday in Denver treating their opponent as if picking wings off flies. The Lions have a brutishness about them that makes some people uncomfortable, but is mostly necessary in the NFL.

Hey, if drama addicts want to slap labels of “evil” and “dirty” on the Lions, so be it. Those are much better than previous labels of “irrelevant” and “horrific.”

But it’s apparent they aren’t just some nasty bunch that knock quarterbacks and “quarterbacks” (hello, Tim Tebow) on their derrieres. Ndamukong Suh plans a trip to New York this week to make that point with commissioner Roger Goodell. Suh plays on the edge and occasionally crosses it, but I think his intentions are more about impunity than impurity.

The Lions want their defense to be intimidating, and it can be. What they did to Tebow in that 45-10 pasting wasn’t mean. It was predictable. And linebacker Stephen Tulloch swears no disrespect was intended by his post-sack pose, when he went down on a knee to mimic the “Tebowing” craze.

The Lions push the envelope when it comes to abrasiveness, and they do have to be careful. No sense doing too much “Suh-bowing” or “Elbowing.” But they shouldn’t care what anyone calls them as long as they’re not committing dumb penalties, and as long as they push the pocket as well as the envelope.

The Lions sacked Tebow seven times and are third in the league with 24, behind only the Giants and Ravens.

“I think you get an edge by doing things that are within your personality,” coach Jim Schwartz said Monday. “For us, that’s rushing the quarterback, sacking the quarterback, making big plays. Those are the things we want people to respect about us. Those are the things we want people to fear about us.”

Those are the things that turn middlin’ teams into playoff teams. I’m sure you’re aware the Lions haven’t made the playoffs since the 1999 season, when Bobby Ross was the coach and Gus Frerotte (!) was the quarterback.

Challenges ahead

The schedule toughens considerably now, starting with a visit to Chicago after the bye. There are two meetings with Green Bay and trips to New Orleans and Oakland. But the Lions have won six straight on the road after dropping a tidy 26 in a row.

A mere split of the final eight games makes them 10-6 and a potential wild card. If you’re into all the probability gobbledygook, a 6-2 team has a 79.2 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to Stats, LLC (since 1990). Here’s an even better number: A team that wins its first four road games has a 91.4 percent chance.

And you thought you’d be bored in January. I’m risking looking foolish here, but that’s OK. The Lions actually are loaded with talent, and that’s not a loaded statement. Nor am I loaded right now. On the Fox broadcast Sunday, former NFL safety John Lynch suggested the Lions have as much talent as any team in the league.

Not sure about that, but they do have as much defensive-line talent as anybody. For all the acclaim about Suh, Corey Williams and Kyle Vanden Bosch, don’t overlook Cliff Avril and Lawrence Jackson. Schwartz and GM Martin Mayhew said they’d rebuild by unleashing mayhem upon opposing quarterbacks, and that’s one way — maybe the best way — to win in the NFL.

Times have changed

Having a franchise quarterback is another way, and Matthew Stafford has overcome injuries and bouts with accuracy doubts to put up impressive numbers — 19 touchdown passes and four interceptions.

A growing dynamic is the way the defense complements the offense.

Against the Broncos, Avril had a 24-yard fumble return for a touchdown, and underrated cornerback Chris Houston added a 100-yard interception return. You could say both bear asterisks because they came against Tebow, but that’s mean.

You know what playoff teams do? They win on the road. They sack the quarterback. They create turnovers, and the Lions are third in the league with 11 interceptions. Their run defense is still a concern (ranked 30th), but interestingly, they lead the league in forcing three-and-outs, a statistic Schwartz clearly likes.

“The ability to get the ball back quickly for our offense is important,” he said. “We have an explosive offense, but we have big-play capability on defense too.”

No one would be goofy enough to guarantee a playoff berth. Not even me. Of course, the Lions were 6-2 in 2007 after blasting the Broncos, 44-7, and proceeded to finish 1-7, which laid the groundwork for 0-16. Other than still playing in Ford Field and wearing the same color scheme, these Lions bear no resemblance to those Lions.

Home losses to the 49ers and Falcons were eye-openers, and evidence a punishing ground game is something the Lions lack, and have trouble stopping. That could be an issue against tougher teams. But the Lions have proven they can win almost anywhere (Tampa, Dallas) and almost any way.

Officially, they’ve accomplished nothing so far, other than building an identity that a lot of people are noticing. It’s what playoff-worthy teams do, in case we’d forgotten.

bob.wojnowski@detnews.com

twitter.com/bobwojnowski

Perception of ‘evil’ Lions doesn’t match reality


Chris McCosky/ The Detroit News

Allen Park — For a 5-2 football team, there sure are a lot of critics trying to pick the Lions apart.

Even the league’s own website got into the fray. They have billed the Lions game Sunday against the Broncos as Good vs. Evil — the good being Tim Tebow and the bad being Ndamukong Suh.

“I don’t know if that’s appropriate,” coach Jim Schwartz said.

It’s not appropriate, or accurate. But don’t think it won’t be used as a motivator this week. Defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham posted the headline and artwork from the NFL.com piece in the defensive meeting room.

“Yeah, I guess evil’s coming to town,” middle linebacker Stephen Tulloch said. “The media likes to portray us as a dirty team, but that’s not the way we play. We’re just physical, we play hard and we hold everybody accountable.”

The critics aren’t letting the facts get in their way. Case in point — the accusations made by two Falcons players last week. No matter how much evidence is compiled — video and audio — that Suh and Cliff Avril were several yards away from fallen Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan and didn’t kick him or taunt him, the perception they did won’t go away.

Lions myths are mounting by the week. It might be a good time to debunk a few of them.

Myth : Suh is going through a sophomore slump and he isn’t having the kind of impact he had last season.

Sports Illustrated poured gas on this one, naming Suh to their midseason all-underachieving team. It doesn’t pay to get too upset with these types of lists. Their intent is to stir debate.

But there is a growing perception that Suh is somehow not impacting games like he did last season.

“He is playing some kind of football and if anybody wants to deny that, they don’t know what they’re talking about, and probably never will,” Cunningham said. “He’s playing outstanding football.”

Critics point to his three sacks and 22 tackles as evidence that his impact is less. Certainly they are off his 10-sack, 66-tackle pace last season. But for one, those numbers don’t begin to measure his impact; and two, to expect him to duplicate or surpass 10 sacks is unrealistic.

“You can’t measure everything on a statistic like a sack, because I can take each stat that you have and turn it upside down for you,” Cunningham said. “He’s been very productive, very explosive. He’s played more physical this year than he did last year.”

Here’s a mini-myth: The Lions sack numbers are down. Really? They have 17 as a team, four behind the league leaders.

Schwartz just shook his head at the SI jab at Suh.

“He’s an impact player,” he said. “Everybody has a plan for him. Everybody tries to take him out. We are very satisfied with his production. He plays hard and he affects the game. We will worry about what our expectations and evaluations are, not those from people outside this building.”

Myth : The Lions can’t stop the run.

This one is a little trickier to defend. The Lions do rank 29th against the run, allowing 129.4 per game.

They have also allowed three consecutive 100-plus games — Atlanta’s Michael Turner (122), San Francisco’s Frank Gore (141) and Chicago’s Matt Forte (116).

“According to a lot of people, we can’t stop the run,” Tulloch said. “That is false. We’ve had some lapses lately but we are back in tune to what we need to do.”

What would be a more accurate criticism is the Lions have given up too many big plays in the run game.

Turner broke a 50-yarder. Gore accumulated 102 of his 141 yards in two carries.

There have been some major breakdowns in the back end — either at outside linebacker or safety.

But to say their run defense is bad seems harsh.

“That’s everybody else’s opinion,” Suh said. “I personally don’t think you can line up and run the ball on us all day. That’s one of the things we pride ourselves on. We’ve let out some big runs, which makes it look a lot worse than it really is.

“But perception is reality some times.”

Here’s a reality: Nine times the Lions have stoned a third-and-1 or a fourth-and-1 play. Suh stopped a third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 back-to-back against the Bears.

They stopped a fourth-and-1 at the goal line in Dallas, a fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter in Minnesota, a third-and-1 in the fourth quarter against the Chiefs, and a huge fourth-and-1 from their 11 in the fourth quarter at Tampa.

They can stop the run.

Myth : Matthew Stafford struggles to throw accurately on underneath routes.

This one came out of the blue and from a surprising critic — former quarterback Kurt Warner. He told NFL Network the reason the Lions’ offense struggled the last two weeks was Stafford’s inability to connect on those short passes in front of the linebackers.

A quick review of the numbers shows that Stafford has completed 73.5 percent of his throws behind the line of scrimmage (36 for 49 for 204 yards) and 67.4 percent of his throws from 1 to 10 yards (91-for-135, 805 yards).

Combine those and he’s hitting 69 percent of his underneath routes with five of his 16 touchdowns and two of his four interceptions.

It’s not Tom Brady-like by any measure, but it’s hardly a red flag. If Warner or anybody else wants to nit-pick at the sixth-best quarterback in the NFL, he could have pointed out his struggles with passes in the 21- to 30-yard range.

He’s hit only 4 of 16 there.

Stafford has struggled the last two weeks, no question. But to single out his accuracy on underneath routes seems random — just like a lot of the attempts to deconstruct the Lions’ 5-2 start.

chris.mccosky@detnews.com

(313) 222-1489

John Niyo: Lions’ Ndamukong Suh goes on defense to protect reputation


John Niyo

Detroit Ndamukong Suh had a lot to say Monday.

But nothing said it better than this.

“If I’m not gonna protect myself,” the Lions all-Pro defensive tackle mused, “then nobody else is going to.”

That, as much as any statement — alleged or otherwise, heard or unspoken — might explain what he’s thinking these days, both on and off the field.

Because he’s being asked to wage a war on both fronts, no matter how understandably reluctant he is to admit it. When he’s not fighting opponents double teams in the trenches — and the cheap shots that inevitably come with them — he finds himself fighting, or at least being asked to fight, a perception that he’s a dirty player, fueled by postgame comments from the Falcons after a 23-16 loss at Ford Field.

Suh and teammate Cliff Avril were accused by Falcons players of taunting and trash-talking on the field when Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan went down what initially looked to be a serious leg injury in the game. (Ryan did return to the game the next series.)

Receiver Roddy White told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution he “lost a whole lot of respect for” both players for “the (expletive) they were doing when Matt got hurt.”

The newspaper quoted White as saying Avril “was kicking (Ryan’s) feet saying, ‘Get him off the field.'”

Falcons center Todd McClure said Suh was saying, “‘Get the cart’ and several other things that I can’t repeat.”

Avril disputed those comments via Twitter on Sunday night, while Suh, who normally doesn’t address the media until Wednesday each week, angrily addressed them Monday.

“They’re gonna say what they want to say,” Suh said, adding “it’s he-said, she-said” as he quickly dismissed the suggestion — one that apparently was lost in translation by the initial report — that Avril actually kicked Ryan while he was down.

The video clearly shows he didn’t. (Avril and Suh are barely in the picture before and after Ryan goes down in a heap.)

And besides, as Suh points out, “I know for a fact, if Cliff — or anybody, for that matter — kicked an opposing quarterback, I’m sure there would’ve been a riot.”

“If that would’ve happened to Matt Stafford and he was on the ground and somebody kicked him,” Suh said, “I guarantee you all hell would’ve broke loose.”

Instead, we’re left with this, whatever the heck it is.

He said, he said

The Lions lost. The Falcons won. Atlanta players accused Detroit of ugly behavior, prompting the Lions to fire back with similar accusations. And we in the media become a ping-pong ball of sorts.

He said, she said? It’s more like, “Did you hear what they said about what you said?” (While conveniently ignoring the fact the hidden soundtrack of an NFL game would make Howard Stern cringe.)

“There was no comments — at all,” Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch said. “I was there when he went down. … We waved for the trainers to come get Matt. We never once made a threat like that to him at all.

“It’s absurd that they would even mention that.”

White, though, wasn’t backing down Monday as he clarified his remarks in an interview with the NFL Network.

“We didn’t say (Avril) kicked Matt,” White said. “We said one of the guys — I don’t know if it was 92 (Avril) or 93 (Kyle Vanden Bosch), one of the defensive ends — came over and he was making kicking gestures, like, ‘Get him out of here.’ And I know Suh said what he said. He was like, ‘Go get the cart for him. Get him out of here.’ He knows he said that.”

Suh was asked about what he said or didn’t say Monday, and he responded, “I’m not even near their quarterback, so how am I going to trash-talk somebody that has a medical staff that’s all around him?”

But he didn’t stop there, as Suh pointed out it wasn’t the Lions who made contact with Ryan on the play. It was his own lineman, Will Svitek, who stepped on Ryan’s ankle while trying to block the Lions defensive end Lawrence Jackson.

“If you look at it, to me, it’s karma,” Suh said, noting the Falcons own well-cultivated reputation for dirty play on the offensive line. “For all the bad stuff they’ve done in the past, their offensive lineman hurt their own quarterback. So I’ll leave it at that.”

White responded, “We’re not gonna go back and forth about ‘he-said, she-said,'” before doing just that, adding, “And then he’s gonna say it’s karma for what we’ve done in the past? And then their quarterback (Matthew Stafford) gets hurt on the last play of the game.”

Reputation is sticking

Back to you, Mr. Suh, who was asked if he was hurt personally by the accusations.

“Do I need Rodney White’s respect?” Suh said, before answering himself. “No. I’ll leave it at that.”

At that point, he walked away, flanked by a Lions spokesman.

Now, I have no idea whether Suh purposely mispronounced White’s name or not as a parting gesture — I don’t think he did — or whether Suh knows where the Pistons former first-round pick is now. (Last I heard, he was hooping it up in South Korea.)

But as Suh himself rather bluntly reminded us Monday, we really don’t know him at all.

“Nobody’s gonna be able to really understand who I am, except for very few,” Suh said.

He went on to explain that’s because some people “won’t take the time” to, as he put it, “see the type of person I am.” Then, in the next breath, he admitted that’s because “they can’t get close enough to me. I won’t let people get close to me.”

So Suh me, but I don’t know how we’re going to solve that riddle if that’s the way he’s going to play this game.

Still, what I do know about Suh is that he’s smart, he’s focused, he’s determined and he’s potentially as dominant a player as we’ve ever seen at his position. And while it’d be foolish to think this talk will change his game — “Have you seen me stop playing? Not at all. It’s not gonna affect me,” he said — it’d be a shame if that talent got overshadowed by talk of dirty play, much as it has been with Pittsburgh’s James Harrison.

Talk is cheap. But reputations are invaluable.

john.niyo@detnews.com

twitter.com/JohnNiyo

Lions visit Harrison in hospital; team signs backup


Chris McCosky/ The Detroit News

Allen Park— Lions coach Jim Schwartz visited with Jerome Harrison Friday morning, hours before the running back was scheduled to undergo surgery to remove a tumor from his brain.

“He was in very good spirits,” Schwartz said.

Cornerback Eric Wright, who played with Harrison in Cleveland before the two rejoined in Detroit, saw him at the hospital Thursday night and said the same thing.

“This dude got me rolling right now,” Wright wrote on his Twitter page. “Smh he gone be juusst fine.”

The Lions officially put Harrison on the non-football injured list Friday and signed former Eagles running back Eldra Buckley, who had worked out for the Lions on Thursday.

“Hopefully I can do something to help this team,” said Buckley, who is 26. “I am going to try to do everything they ask. I will try to be any kind of back they need.”

After spending two seasons on the Chargers’ practice squad, Buckley carried the ball 36 times for 111 yards in two seasons in Philadelphia.

“He’s a hard runner and he was productive on special teams in Philly,” Schwartz said. “He’s strong and quick; a young player who has some NFL experience.”

Maurice Morris will start. He and Keiland Williams will shoulder most of the load Sunday, but Schwartz said

Buckley would be active.

“We won’t run out of ballcarriers,” he said.

Jim Schwartz, Jim Harbaugh avoid punishment for postgame fracas


Chris McCosky/ The Detroit News

Allen Park— Lions coach Jim Schwartz didn’t exactly offer any apologies for the postgame dustup between him and 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh.

“It is unfortunate that the events after the game overshadowed the fact that it was probably one of the best football games of the day yesterday between two teams that are 5-1 in the NFC; two young and improving teams,” Schwartz said. “The game is played by players on the field. We don’t want things like that to occur but there are competitive people in this league. We need to do a better job of leaving it to the players on the field.”

Asked directly if he wanted to offer a public apology, Schwartz said only, “It’s a regrettable situation, particularly the fact that it detracted from what happened in the game.”

Harbaugh didn’t apologize, either.

“I don’t think there’s any reason for an apology,” he said Monday at his news conference. “We spoke about it after the game. At some point we’ll talk in private. Apologies always seem like excuses to me.”

Schwartz spoke to league officials Monday and gave his version of the story. Harbaugh did the same. Neither will be fined.

“Fortunately, there was no fighting and thus no basis for a fine,” NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said via his Twitter account. “Both coaches told Ray Anderson (executive vice president of football operations) that their postgame conduct was wrong and it will not happen again.”

Schwartz said whatever ill wind was blowing between the two has subsided.

“I have shaken hands after games 40 or 50 times that last two and a half years and never had anything come up,” he said. “Obviously, something did. It happened. It was regrettable, but there is nothing going forward between us personally or between the two teams.”

Schwartz said he didn’t think there was any bad blood between the two before the game, either. They were together for a year in Baltimore when Harbaugh was still a player.

“I was a lowly quality control coach on defense and he was the quarterback,” Schwartz said. “I haven’t exactly stayed in contact with him. There’s nothing there and there’s nothing now. It was just something that happened at the end of a game and it took away from the fact that it was a tough, hard-fought football game.”

Harbaugh delivered the same message.

“The thing that you feel bad about is that it detracts, takes away, from what our football players did, what their football players did, and the game itself,” said Harbaugh, the former Michigan quarterback. “When you see what is being talked about today, it’s about that last night. That was unfortunate. Like I said after the ballgame, I take responsibility for my part in that.”

Both are young, passionate and emotional coaches. Both can come off as arrogant, cocky, hot-headed. Both have a penchant for rubbing opposing players and coaches the wrong way. It was probably inevitable that they would clash.

Harbaugh, when he was at Stanford, had words with then-USC coach Pete Carroll after he went for a two-point conversion with a 34-point lead.

He once threw a punch at former Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, who, as a network analyst, challenged Harbaugh’s skills as the team’s leader.

Schwartz has gotten under coaches’ and players’ skin with his demonstrative fist-pumps after games and with some of his biting postgame remarks.

Case in point — his shots at Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and receiver Dez Bryant after the Lions won Oct. 2 in Dallas.

On Sunday, Schwartz was shown mocking Harbaugh for an illegal challenge after the Lions scored.

The seeds for Harbaugh’s exuberant postgame handshake and backslap may have been sown back in March during the NFL meetings.

According to a story posted March 23 on Philly.com, Schwartz told Harbaugh he would struggle mightily as a rookie coach if the lockout wiped out all offseason work — which it did.

John Harbaugh, Jim’s brother and the Ravens coach, recalled the conversation.

“We were having dinner the other night and Jim Schwartz told him basically there’s no way you’re going to be able to get it done (if the lockout lasts into the summer),” John Harbaugh said. “He told him there’s no way you’re going to be able to accomplish what you need to accomplish in two weeks if this thing lasts a while.

“Jim just kind of bit his tongue, which is what you’ve got to do in this situation. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Except bring your team to Ford Field and spank Schwartz’s Lions.

“Protocol is not for you to retaliate, if you are Jim Schwartz, by chasing the other coach down into the tunnel and going after him,” said former coach Tony Dungy, speaking to NBC’s Bob Costas on Sunday night. “I don’t know what Jim Harbaugh said, but whatever he said, it didn’t merit that.”

Rodney Harrison, a former player, put it this way.

“Both coaches were wrong. Jim Harbaugh, first of all, smacked him on the back,” Harrison said. “Putting your hands on a grown man, you can’t do that. If you’re Jim Schwartz, what do you tell your kids?”

To which Dungy replied — “Be the bigger man … If you are Jim Schwartz, you know what, let me go in the locker room and tell our guys, ‘I hope we see these guys again.'”

The Lions players, after having a night to digest it and watch replays, still have their coach’s back.

“I saw it one time last night and I don’ think it’s that big of a deal,” receiver Nate Burleson said. “It’s one of those things that happens and we moved past it pretty fast. I don’t think anything serious is going to come from it.

“He’s passionate about the game. I will say that, and I like that about him. We’re an emotional team. We go as our head coach goes. I think how we’ve been playing is a direct reflection of Jim and that’s been pretty good for us so far.”

Schwartz said he did talk to Harbaugh briefly after the scuffle.

“Afterwards, in the tunnel, I spoke to him after everything died down,” Schwartz said. “We will talk again soon.

“Everybody is a competitor. Usually when a game is over you shake hands and move on to the next game. That’s what we are here to do.”

Falcons at Lions

Kickoff: 1 p.m. Sunday, Ford Field, Detroit

TV/radio: Fox/97.1

Records: Atlanta 3-3, Detroit 5-1

Line: Lions by 4

Series: Detroit leads 23-10 (Atlanta 34-21, Sept. 7, 2008)

Did you know?: The Falcons are one of four teams in the NFC the Lions have a winning record against.

chris.mccosky@detnews.com

twitter.com/cmccosky

John Wendling shows Lions he’s more than just a special-teamer


Chris McCosky/ The Detroit News

Allen Park— Two teams over the course of four seasons tried to convince John Wendling his role in the NFL always would be limited to special teams.

Wendling bit his tongue, nodded his head and made himself one of the best special teams players in the league. His 83 special teams tackles is the most in the league the last four seasons, and he was rewarded by being named a Pro Bowl alternate last season.

All the while, though, he never stopped believing there was another dimension to his game that he wasn’t being allowed to show.

“I never accepted that I could only play special teams,” Wendling said. “My thing has always been, I can play safety in this league and I’ve always wanted to and I’ve always prepared myself to. I am going to take care of my stuff on special teams and whatever role I’m asked to do, I am going to do my best. But, yeah, I’ve kind of been waiting for the chance.”

The chance has come, albeit not the way Wendling would have wanted.

The Lions announced Thursday safety Erik Coleman, the primary backup behind starters Louis Delmas and Amari Spievey, was placed on injured reserve with a high ankle injury and will miss the rest of the season.

Both Delmas (abdomen) and Spievey (hamstring) have been battling nagging injuries, as well. Veteran Vincent Fuller, whom the Lions signed last week, missed practice Thursday with a right elbow injury and is questionable for Sunday’s game against the 49ers.

That leaves Wendling as the only healthy backup safety.

“We haven’t had a bunch of injuries but at that one position we have had some issues,” coach Jim Schwartz said. “With Erik, that’s a significant high ankle sprain. It’s been two weeks (since he injured it against Dallas) and he’s still on crutches. So that’s going to be a while.”

Out of necessity comes opportunity. Wendling finally gets to prove what he’s known in his heart all along.

“When I was in Buffalo (2007-09), it was a chip on my shoulder a little bit,” Wendling said of being labeled as a special teamer only. “I came to Detroit with the idea of, ‘Hey, I want to show them I can play safety. I can play this position. I can play in this league.’ I worked that way every day.”

Already this season, he has taken more defensive snaps than he has in four seasons combined. He made his first career start last week, filling in for Spievey, and made three tackles.

“I think the guys who have filled in have done a good job,” Schwartz said, referring to Wendling and Fuller. “They’ve tackled well and defended the deep part of the field. When you are getting poor safety play, you are giving up long runs — I’m not talking 20 yards, I am talking 60 yards — and long passes down the middle of the field. We’ve not had that.”

Funny thing: Although Wendling has had a bear of a time convincing coaches he could play defense — even after his six-tackle performance filling in for Delmas at Tampa Bay last season — none of his teammates doubted it.

“He has a lot of respect,” Delmas said. “He took no reps except on special teams and for him to come in and fill in as well as he has, that’s very impressive. But that’s just being professional. Even though you don’t get as many reps on the field, you still have to get into that playbook and if a guy falls, you have to be ready to step in right away.”

Despite the injuries, there hasn’t seemed to be any drop-off in continuity between cornerbacks and safeties, or the overall cohesion of the secondary.

“It doesn’t disrupt anything because the guys who are stepping in are performing just as well,” cornerback Chris Houston said. “There’s never any drop-off in our room. We don’t have to help or cover up any areas. Everybody in our room is professional and they know what to do.”

You might not guess it to look at him, but Wendling is an athletic marvel. He’s 29 and can still run the 40 in 4.4 seconds. His leaping ability is legendary at Wyoming, where he started for four seasons. He once cleared a 66-inch hurdle — the equivalent of leaping over teammate Stefan Logan — off a three-step approach.

Don’t believe it? Check it out on YouTube.

“This has been a long time coming for me,” Wendling said. “I’ve always prepared like I am playing every Sunday.”

49ers at Lions

Kickoff: 1 p.m. Sunday, Ford Field, Detroit

TV/radio: Fox/97.1

Records: San Francisco 4-1, Detroit 5-0

Series: San Francisco leads 34-26-1 (San Francisco 20-6, Dec. 27, 2009)

Line: Lions by 41/2

Did you know?: The Lions have a winning record against only one team from the NFC West — the Cardinals (31-24-5).

chris.mccosky@detnews.com

twitter.com/cmccosky

Bob Wojnowski: Lions shine on prime-time stage, run record to 5-0


Bob Wojnowski

Detroit— The noise and the numbers are ratcheting so quickly now, they’re starting to echo. The Lions no longer are just Detroit’s riveting fresh story. They’ve gone national and gotten numbingly tough, rolling in ways we’ve almost never seen.

The Lions were determined to make their loudest clamor yet Monday night. So were their fans. And with an offensive blur and a defensive blast, they hammered the point — repeatedly.

The Lions beat the Bears 24-13 in front of 67,861 shrieking fans, and there’s no turning back now. Every expectation for this team has rocketed, now that it’s 5-0 for the first time in 55 years and has won nine straight for the first time in 57 years.

See what I mean about the numbers? And the noise?

“It was electric — the fans did an unbelievable job,” said quarterback Matthew Stafford, who was 19-for-26 for 219 yards. “You saw what it can do to an opposing offense, and our defense fed off it. You couldn’t even hear yourself think.”

The frenzy for the Lions’ first Monday night game since 2001 was incredible, as loud as Ford Field has ever been. The full-throttled crowd literally affected the game, causing Bears players to be penalized nine times (yes, nine) for false starts, unable to hear the signals over the din.

There’s nothing false about this start. The Lions have stars in key places, and each one did something big, from Stafford to Calvin Johnson to defensive menace Ndamukong Suh to speedy back Jahvid Best. They’re hitting from all directions, upstaging even playoff baseball. Shortly after the Tigers dropped a crushing, 7-3, 11-inning game in Texas, the Lions launched their whomping, and they whomped hard.

The comeback team in a comeback city, tied together by talent and toughness? It may be trite, but if it fits, go for it.

Past meets present

It fits the Lions, that’s obvious. They trailed at halftime again and took off in the second half again. When Best sprinted 88 yards for the clinching touchdown, and defenders then took turns flattening poor Bears quarterback Jay Cutler, the physical punishment was complete.

“We need to get used to playing in games like this, in prime time,” coach Jim Schwartz said. “It was a big step for this team and a big step for this city.”

You can’t say the Lions shocked anyone this time because they were favored, and probably will be favored in their next three games, at least. You do the math and you realize this is a playoff team, arriving ahead of schedule.

There were ghosts in the building, a convergence of past, present and future, stirred in a cauldron. Barry Sanders was here, the Lions’ preeminent symbol of lonesome glory. On the Bears’ side were Rod Marinelli, the beleaguered former Lions coach, Mike Martz, the former Lions assistant, and Roy Williams, the former Lions receiver. At some point, all were symbols of fake swagger, slowly reduced to footnotes.

“Imported From Detroit” is the auto theme and it’s just a coincidence the car companies are rebounding along with the Lions and the Tigers. But it sure adds to the depth of the pride, and you didn’t have to be wedged into Ford Field to feel it.

If this wasn’t the biggest day in Detroit sports history, it was one of the busiest. In droves, people swarmed in and around Ford Field, clamoring to see first-hand what was going on. In many ways, this was an unveiling for the Lions — to the nation and to their own fans.

The Lions had played at home only once so far, returning after huge road comebacks at Dallas and Minnesota. For hours beforehand, the streets filled, and as the Lions warmed up on the field, fans watched the Tigers on the stadium scoreboards. When Jose Valverde escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth, the crowd erupted. It was the last roar for the Tigers on this night, but it was only the start of the noise.

“There was so much energy in the building, I’ve never felt anything like it,” tight end Brandon Pettigrew said. “You could physically feel it on you.”

Almost out of control

This was it, the chance for the hungriest fan base in the NFL to release the beast within. It was almost, dare I say, too much racket and rancor, as the Lions came out determined to prove they’re one of the feistiest, nastiest teams around.

It’s a badge of honor and they’re happy to shove it in the opposing quarterback’s face. The Bears were rattled, no doubt. On their first possession alone, they committed three false-start penalties.

The energy was incredible and the Lions feasted on it — and initially, gorged a bit too much. They had six penalties in the first half, most for committing general acts of mayhem upon Cutler.

The Lions were hitting with impunity (which is still permitted, I believe), and officials tried to keep things under control. Cutler was getting up slowly but he was getting up, and the Bears hung in.

For the Lions these days, it goes back to their stars, and in one stunning sequence, they all made their mark. Facing fourth-and-inches at the Lions’ 25 in the first quarter, Bears coach Lovie Smith inexplicably disdained the field goal and went for it. Running back Matt Forte was crushed by Suh in the backfield, killing the drive.

Three plays later, Stafford lofted a perfect pass to Johnson, who caught it in stride for a 73-yard touchdown. After Johnson leaped atop the end zone wall to celebrate, the Lions had a 7-0 lead and “Megatron” had his ninth touchdown of the season.

But this is the NFL and the Bears are defending division champs, and a team can only ride raw emotion for so long. Somehow, the Lions were outscored 40-3 in the first halves of their last two games, and won both. And when Cutler hit Kellen Davis for a 9-yard touchdown, the Bears were on top at the half, 10-7.

Not for long, of course. Remember, if you can, the last time the Lions lost a game. It was last Dec. 5, 24-20 to Chicago. That was the Bears’ sixth straight victory in the series, so the Lions still had demons to address here.

They addressed them head on, without ambiguity, with everyone watching. The stage was theirs, and they took it like they absolutely meant it.

Bob.wojnowski@detnews.com

Twitter.com/bobwojnowski

Ndamukong Suh wants fans to answer the call on Monday night


Chris McCosky/ The Detroit News

Allen Park— Suuuuuhhhhh!

Get your vocal cords ready. Ndamukong Suh wants to hear you Monday night.

“One thing I really feed off is hearing my name out there,” Suh said Thursday. “Players may say they tune all that out, but when I make a play and hear my name, those things really feel good.”

Suh was in the midst of the din at Comerica Park for Game 3 of the American League Division Series this week, and he’s counting on a similar roof-raising decibel level at Ford Field on Monday against the Bears.

“Being at that Tigers game, that was a great example of feeling that atmosphere,” he said. “I was six rows up and being able to feel the crowd, that noise, I am definitely looking forward to the same type of thing. I really expect nothing less from the Monday night game. I am excited for it.”

Aware of game’s magnitude

Crowd noise, though, is generally proportionate to the quality of play on the field. As quarterback Matthew Stafford said, “We know this game is big for the city, but we also know we have to play well for it to be any kind of fun.”

Suh understands that, which makes him all the more anxious to get at it.

“Probably the most exciting thing about our team is that we have yet to play a perfect game,” he said. “We’ve played very mediocre. With that, there’s a lot of room to improve.”

Suh, an all-Pro and defensive rookie of the year last season, is off to what can be best described as a quietly effective start. He has 11 tackles and two sacks — far from the torrid pace he set last year when he had 10 sacks.

But, in the grand scheme of the defense, he and the rest of the line has keep steady pressure on quarterbacks and been at times overtly disruptive, other times subtly disruptive.

“Any competitive defensive lineman wants a lot of sacks and it’s unfortunate that we are down on our numbers, but we understand we’ve done some good things,” Suh said. “One way to measure us to see the things we’ve done in the backfield, causing pressure and making quarterbacks loft balls up that lead to interceptions. But by all means, we want to get back to sacking the quarterback.”

Revenge factor?

Bears quarterback Jay Cutler has been sacked 15 times, second behind Rams quarterback Sam Bradford (18).

Last year in the game at Ford Field, Suh was fined for hitting Cutler with excessive force outside the pocket. He was asked if such a hit might have some carry-over impact on Cutler’s psyche.

“I have no idea; you’d have to ask Jay Cutler about that,” Suh said. “That’s not my concern and it was not the reason for the hit. The reason to hit him hard is to create a play, get him to fumble.”

Suh said the thing he liked most about the defense has been its resiliency and adaptability. He has shown the same traits individually.

Teams are emptying the trick box to find some way to neutralize him, occasionally with some success.

They try to use his penetration against him, either with trap blocks inside, or chipping him with an offensive tackle.

“A lot of teams do that,” Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. “They keep a tight end in and bring a tackle down. But every time they keep a tight end in, it’s one less guy in the route.”

Learning to adjust

As for the trap blocks, that’s a systemic issue.

“We’re vulnerable to trap blocks,” Schwartz said. “You tell guys to get up field and rush the passer, they’re going to be susceptible to the trap. But our linebackers are expected to play that. We don’t want our guys slowing down and playing traps. Suh is an instinctive guy. He’s seen those things before. If we are getting off the line the way we are supposed to, our linebackers should fill those (gaps) up.”

Schwartz would caution against measuring Suh merely with statistics.

“The most impressive thing about him wouldn’t be impressive to other people,” Schwartz said. “But it’s that he’s always in on the play, and it’s because he has great instincts, great balance and he’s so strong.”

He’s so strong, in fact, that even when he’s blocked well, Suh manages to, at the very least, hold his gap most times.

“The great way our defense is set up, when I get penetration, I am doing my job,” Suh said. “Even if they knock me off course — whether they are trapping me from the inside-out, or doing a wham block from the outside-in — a lot of times I withstand those blows and stay in my gap and get my job done.”

Attuned to rivalry

For a guy who grew up in Portland, Ore., and played at Nebraska, Suh seems to have a grasp of the magnitude of a Bears-Lions game, especially one played on the big stage of Monday.

“These were the two top teams in the north back in the day,” he said. “I kind of consider this like going back to the Big 12 — which doesn’t exist any more — and the Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry. I look at it the same way. The Bears are definitely a team we want to get after. They are in our division and they beat us twice last year, and they have a great team.

“For me during big game weeks, I am a little more quiet. I want to make sure I am calm. When it’s the right time and I am on the football field, then I unleash it. This is going to be a great challenge and I am ready.”

Bears at Lions

Kickoff: 8:30 p.m. Monday, Ford Field, Detroit

TV/radio: ESPN/WXYT

Line: Lions by 51/2

Records: Bears 2-2,Lions 4-0

Series: Bears lead 91-64-5 (Chicago 24-20, Dec. 5, 2010)

Did you know?: The last “Monday Night Football” appearance for the Lions was Oct. 8, 2001, against the Rams, who won 35-0.

chris.mccosky@detnews.com

twitter.com/cmccosky

Jim Schwartz isn’t satisfied with Lions’ record: ‘We have work to do’


Tim Twentyman/ The Detroit News

Allen Park— The Lions are 4-0, but you wouldn’t know it by listening to coach Jim Schwartz.

“We still have yet to play a complete game,” he said Monday. “We still have a lot of work to do. We have talent to do it but still have a lot of work to do.”

The Lions are the first team in NFL history to win consecutive games in which it trailed by at least 20 points in each contest. The Lions erased a 27-3 second-half deficit to defeat Dallas 34-30 Sunday. Last week, the Lions trailed 20-0 and rallied to beat Minnesota 26-23 in overtime.

Both the players and Schwartz know the low-scoring first halves eventually will catch up with them if the trend continues.

“It is a huge issue,” linebacker Justin Durant said of the slow starts the last two weeks. “It’s the NFL. We can’t (win) every game like this. You can’t get down by 20 points at halftime and expect to win every week. It’s not what we’re about.”

Schwartz said reserve safety Erik Coleman will be out “a little bit” after suffering a leg injury Sunday.

Starting safety Amari Spievey wasn’t able to finish the game because of a hamstring injury and Schwartz said he’ll be “day to day.”

Durant missed Sunday’s game with a concussion but said Monday he feels much better and he expects to be on the practice field this week and play Monday night against Chicago at Ford Field.

ttwentyman@detnews.com

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DeMarcus Ware’s the triggerman for the Dallas defense


Chris McCosky/ The Detroit News

Allen Park— Jim Schwartz thinks there might be a typo on the Cowboys two-deep roster. DeMarcus Ware is listed under JLB — which in defensive coordinator Rob Ryan’s parlance means Jack linebacker.

“What do they list him as, JLB?” Schwartz said. “What they need to do is list him as G-O-O-D.”

Truthfully, they could list the entire Cowboys defense under that heading. It ranks first in the NFC (fifth in the NFL) in total defense (288 yards), second in the NFL against the run (61.3) and first in the league in sacks (13).

Ware, who will be playing in his 100th game Sunday, has a league-high five sacks. His 85 career sacks are second only to Reggie White’s 105 in 100 games.

“Is there a better player than that guy right now on defense?” offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said.. “I have a hard time finding one that affects the game like he does.”

The Lions actually did a reasonable job against Ware last season, limiting him to four tackles, one-half sack and three quarterback hits. But Ware is operating out of Ryan’s system now, and the defense is playing with more fire.

“Yeah, this is a whole new story,” Linehan said. “It’s like they talk about with great offensive players; you try to contain them. We have to try and contain (Ware) and keep those plays that change the game to a minimum.”

Two years ago, when quarterback Matthew Stafford was a rookie, Linehan went against a Ryan-coached defense in Cleveland and found a way to produce 473 yards (422 passing) and five touchdowns. It doesn’t sound like Linehan has referenced that tape much this week.

“We won some that day but we lost quite a few, too,” Linehan said. “His defense is an absolute nightmare to prepare for. The guy’s got them coming (rushing) from everywhere. He has everybody playing hard. They’ve bought in and believe in what they’re doing. Playing him causes a lot of sleepless nights for me and the offensive staff.”

If Stafford was the type of person who lost sleep over games — he’s not — he’d be baggy-eyed this week, too.

“They are very stout against the run and they have great players up front,” said Stafford, who will be playing in his hometown for the first time since he was in college at Georgia. “That front seven is some of the best we will face all year. And the back end is experienced with guys that know how to play Rob Ryan’s schemes. They are very multiple. They do a lot of different personnel packages and they mix in blitzes. It’s a tough defense.”

As for Ware, Stafford said there are some similarities between him and Chiefs defensive end Tamba Hali, who caused the Lions offensive line some stress in Week 2.

“They use (Ware) inside some, but they will rush him from the open end (opposite the tight end) and from the closed end — we had some practice with that against Hali,” Stafford said. “They are both very talented. We will have to know where he is at all times.”

The question remains, though, how will the Lions move the ball? They have struggled with a traditional run game (26th in the NFL), so it seems futile to force that. The Cowboys take away the deep pass as well as any team — they are one of three teams that have not allowed a reception longer than 40 yards.

So, as they did a week ago, perhaps the Lions will have to live or die with the short, ball control passing game. Or, if you listen to Schwartz, maybe not.

“It’s not just their talent, it’s their schemes also,” Schwartz said. “Their scheme is designed to make a team one-dimensional. They take the run away and then are able to get after the passer once you are one-dimensional. We need to get an efficient run game. If we do a good job running the ball, then we will be able to make plays in the passing game.”

As for the Cowboys pressure, Schwartz believes the Lions have options.

“We need to neutralize it, whether it be by running the ball, throwing it quick or by using extra protection,” he said. “But we need to account for Ware on every single play.”

Be a-Ware

Sunday’s game against the Lions will be the 100th for Cowboys OLB DeMarcus Ware. How his sack numbers, in history, stack up through 100 games:

chris.mccosky@detnews.com

(313) 222-1489

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