- I haven't heard anybody complaining about Riley Reiff lately, have you? He looks like a pretty good NFL player to me. Larry Warford, too.
- Few quarterbacks can throw seams routes as well as Matthew Stafford. It is probably the biggest factor separating him from other QBs. That type of pattern he hit Calvin Johnson on for a long touchdown during the second quarter was completely taken away from him most of the time last season. There were no seams because of five- and six-man boxes and so many defenders popping up in coverage. It wasn't only a brilliant throw by Stafford into a small window on a rope, and a great catch-and-run by Johnson, but the Reggie Bush factor was a part of it. The Cardinals had nine players within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. It doesn't happen if Mikel Leshoure is the main running back instead of Bush.
Joique Bell is an adequate replacement for Bush, but not nearly the same type of differencemaker when it comes to having a bearing on the way defensive schemes are set against the Lions' offense.
- When Chris Houston came to the Lions from Atlanta, the big knock on him was his inability to play the ball effectively in the air. It's not nearly the problem it once was, and he can run with just about any wide receiver in the NFL It was impressive how he was able to run stride for stride with little effort, and Floyd can fly,
- Sometimes the zone blitz is maddening. Come on. Dropping Willie Young back in coverage? It's a concept which is overused and has been adjusted to by NFL offensive coordinators.
- You can detect some Stefan Logan in Micheal Spurlock. He literally went to the brink of disaster, didn't he?