A few thoughts from Preseason Game 2 against the Ravens

I'm going to try something different here.   I'm going to post my thoughts from the game.   Not sure if I will do this every game or not.

*Stafford and CJ - The 57 yd reception and the TD were outstanding plays.   Yes, I know it was against Baltimore's second string defense, but we all know they can do this against first string defenses too.   They did it all last season.    I was surprised Schwartz kept them in as long as he did.   Also, I'm not worried about the slow start.   The Lions had a tendency to start slow last year too, but they eventually got better as the game went on.  

*Titus Young - Nice to see him out there last night.   Nice catch and great play to make sure he gets in the endzone.    I like to see that.   So often the Lions make great catches near the goal line and then can't finish it off.   Nice to seem him make sure the job gets finished.  

*Broyles - Nice to see him play last night.   He caught both passes that were thrown to him so that's good.  

*Running Game -  It wasn't as good this week as it was against the Browns.   We didn't run as much as this week - 27 runs, 45 passes.    Last week it was split.    Smith didn't look nearly as good yesterday.   Bell needs to hold onto the ball.   I know the ball was probably slippery from the rain and humidity, but still can't do that in the regular season.   Green's TD run was nice.   That was the biggest bright spot for our running game.

*O-Line - It looked pretty good again.   Reiff had another solid game.   Overall a good game for the o-line.

*Backup QBs - Hill didn't look nearly as good as did against the Browns.   He did make a couple nice plays to stay out of trouble, but he really didn't do much else.   Moore was better against the Ravens.   His passes were more accurate and he looked more comfortable out there.

*Special Teams - What a disaster.  We got lucky that penalties took away two TD returns.   So many missed tackles and whiffs on those plays.   It scares me every time we have to kick the ball.   Our punter just needs to kick it out of bounds, period.   Hanson needs to boom it out of the endzone.   Speaking of punter, I thought Donahue was better.    We still have no return game.   I wasn't impressed with any of our returners once again.   The only brightside was Willie Young's punt block.   That was just a great play.   Logan had what looked like a nice return, but a bad penalty negated.   Unfortunately Logan got injured, not sure what the Lions will do about that.   Hanson looked like the Hanson of old.  Kicking a 50 yd FG outdoors is impressive for the oldest player in the NFL (Had no idea he's the oldest).  

*Penalties - Ridiculous in the first quarter.   Way too many penalties.   We had 5 in the first quarter alone.   Good to see the Lions get it under control in the second quarter.   We had 6 the rest of the game.

*Defense - The Lions didn't allow a TD against a talented Baltimore offense, so that's a huge bright spot.   I believe our first stringers didn't allow a TD against the Browns either.   Avril needed to hang onto that gift.  Can't get much easier than that.   Our secondary did a nice job of keeping Flacco and the Ravens out of the endzone on those first couple drives.   Houston made some nice plays.   Our first string defense needs to get the penalties under control.  

*Overall - A much better game by the Lions.   Still some kinks to work out, but this was a nice game for the Lions.   It was good to see our first string offense get into a rhythm and find the endzone.  Also nice to see our defense not allow a TD.   I did like the playcalling much better in this game than in the Browns.