First Quarter: Rams Strike First, Lead 3-0
The Lions opened the game by establishing running back Kevin Smith, who carried the ball on the first four plays of the game. He earned one first down, then back-up running back Maurice Morris earned another with his first carry.
A holding penalty finally forced the Lions out of their run-first mode. In a third-and-9 situation, the Lions earned a motion penalty. On third and 14, Bryant Johnson blew past cornerback Ron Bartell, reeled in Matthew Stafford’s pass . . . and then failed to hang onto the ball as he came down.
So despite producing 23 yards rushing on seven carries, the first Lions possession ended with a punt.
After Steven Jackson gained four rushing yards on the Rams’ first play from scrimmage, Marc Bulger hooked up with Keenan Burton on a 22-yard completion. Burton made a nice run after the catch against this suspect Lions secondary.
Jackson clicked off another Rams first down, with a 6-yard run and a 5-yard reception. Then Bulger gunned another completion, this time to Donnie Avery for 15 yards, to move the Rams into scoring position.
A false start on Adam Goldberg, playing right guard in place of the injured Richie Incognito, put the Rams in a third-and-9 situation.
But then a roughing-the-passing penalty on the Lions gave the Rams new life on the Detroit 13. Then a holding penalty on Jacob Bell sucked some of that life away.
This whole sequence underscored why these two teams have won victory between them. What a mess!
Bulger went for six points, rifling a pass down the middle toward Randy McMichael. He overthrew the tight end, though, and set him for a crushing hit that knocked him out of the game.
On third and 20, Bulger went back to the end zone . . . but overthrew a well-covered Daniel Fells.
That brought Josh Brown in to crush a 41-yard field goal and give the Rams a 3-0 lead.
The Lions came back on the ground, with Aaron Brown and Smith rushing for first downs. Then they burned the Rams big time with a screen pass to Smith, catching them in a blitz.
As the quarter ended, the Lions were on the Rams 42.
YAWN! Once again, the Rams can’t put the ball in the end zone. And people actually think this team will win a game..LOL
“roughing-the-passing”
“two teams have won victory”
Hitting the sherry a little early, eh?
Even worse - the defense is getting shredded by a Linehan offense. Now an idiotic safety. Ridiculous!
Bulger is just the worst starting QB in the red zone. We will never amount to much with him. James Butler what the heck??? This is just the dumbest St Louis team EVER! The old Big Red of St Louis would just kill this bunch… This is definitely a sign of some coaching deficiencies… Spags needs to shuffle his staff every bit as much as the player roster.