- The Lions seem to be falling into past problems. Their special teams coverage units have been poor today They were fortunate a kickoff return for a touchdown by Eric Weems was called back because of a penalty. Then Weems broke loose for a long punt return that set up a score. That's flirting with disaster. Also, the penalties are not a good sign.

- An obvious difference so far is the Falcons have a balanced attack, and the Lions do not. This could become the Lions' major issue.

- Good idea by the Lions putting up the definition of a false start penalty on the big scoreboard at Ford Field, and then showing some examples from the Monday night game against the Bears. Crowd picked up on it and became extremely loud, drawing a false penalty by the Falcons offense.

- Ndamukong Suh appears much aggressive this week. The face mask penalty didn't hurt the Lions. He made a big stop on third and short near the goal line, flinging down a Falcons' lineman as the play ended. Keeping the Falcons to a field goal there was important.

- The good news for the Lions: This should be worse than 10-3. They are clearly getting outplayed so far. The gig is up. They aren't sneaking up on anybody anymore.