Tweet
Lions hope to extend Rams’ 17-game losing streak
By LARRY LAGE, AP Sports Writer
Oct 31, 12:04 am EDT
DETROIT (AP)—Somebody’s got to win, right?
Detroit, which has one victory since enduring the NFL’s first 0-16 season, is hosting the winless St. Louis Rams, who might have their best shot to avoid joining the Lions in league infamy, in an oddly intriguing game.
“Both of us are hungry for a win,” Lions linebacker Julian Peterson(notes) said.
Starving, really.
The Lions quietly slipped out of the national watch of terrible teams when they finally won a game in Week 3, snapping a 19-game losing streak and ending talk about the possible pursuit of Tampa Bay’s league-record 26-game skid.
Detroit hasn’t won since beating Washington, though, and its 2-28 mark since the middle of 2007 matches the worst 30-game record in league history.
The Rams are winless through seven games and if they don’t beat the Lions, they might be bad enough to replicate Detroit’s unenviable achievement with an 0-16 year and match the Buccaneers’ mark for futility set during the 1976-77 seasons.
Detroit running back Kevin Smith figures the Rams are looking at the matchup as their week to finally win.
“If I’m St. Louis, I’m saying, `OK, you’ve got a 1-5 Lions team that went through our situation last year, let’s try to get a jump start on our season with a win versus the Lions,”’ Smith said. “You have to anticipate that’s what they’re thinking.”
Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo insisted that’s not the case.
“We don’t go there,” Spagnuolo said.
The message has sunk in with his players.
“Records in the NFL mean very little,” quarterback Marc Bulger said. “Arizona was 9-7 last year and I don’t think anyone gave them a chance of going to the Super Bowl. You treat every week like it’s own Super Bowl and I think that’s what coach is trying to preach to us.”
The Lions have a chance to get their top two players back on offense— receiver Calvin Johnson and quarterback Matthew Stafford—after both missed games with injured right knees.
“Calvin obviously changes the game,” Detroit coach Jim Schwartz said. “He changes not only our offense, but he changes the way defenses play.
“The strides that Matt had made early in the season, he needs to be able to pick that back up again.”
Stafford, the No. 1 pick in the draft, said he learned something while he was relegated to standing on the sideline.
“It was tough watching, I don’t really like it,” he said. “You feel like you learn more playing than you do just sitting there watching because you’re so much more in tune.”
The Rams are out of sorts on both sides of the ball, especially when they have it inside opponents’ 20. They have scored on just half of their trips to the red zone—easily the lowest rate of success in the NFL—and only Cleveland has been worse in terms of turning chances into touchdowns.
St. Louis running back Steven Jackson had a season-high 134 yards rushing, including 95 in a quarter, in the latest loss for his third 100-yard game, but he and his teammates have combined for no TDs rushing.
Passing hasn’t been effective, either, in part because the Rams haven’t made up for the salary-cap subtraction of receiver Torry Holt.
Defensive end Clifton Ryan doesn’t think Spagnuolo is surprised at the challenge he has undertaken: trying to turn around a once-proud franchise after being a successful defensive coordinator for the New York Giants and assistant coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I’m quite sure he knew he was getting into a major rebuilding process,” Ryan said. “You can’t turn it around overnight. He’s been a part of two great franchises and he’s won a Super Bowl, so he knows what it takes. He knows he’s not going to get the job done in eight games.”
Spagnuolo was interviewed by the Lions, who chose to hire Schwartz away from the Tennessee Titans to play a key part in their latest restoration project.
If Detroit hasn’t turned things around enough to beat the Rams, linebacker Larry Foote won’t want to try to explain why to reporters.
“Every loss is bad, but this would be a big loss just because of the questions we would have to ask after losing to an (0-7) team,” Foote said. “That’s what would be the bad part of it—we’d have to face your questions.”
By LARRY LAGE, AP Sports Writer
Oct 31, 12:04 am EDT
DETROIT (AP)—Somebody’s got to win, right?
Detroit, which has one victory since enduring the NFL’s first 0-16 season, is hosting the winless St. Louis Rams, who might have their best shot to avoid joining the Lions in league infamy, in an oddly intriguing game.
“Both of us are hungry for a win,” Lions linebacker Julian Peterson(notes) said.
Starving, really.
The Lions quietly slipped out of the national watch of terrible teams when they finally won a game in Week 3, snapping a 19-game losing streak and ending talk about the possible pursuit of Tampa Bay’s league-record 26-game skid.
Detroit hasn’t won since beating Washington, though, and its 2-28 mark since the middle of 2007 matches the worst 30-game record in league history.
The Rams are winless through seven games and if they don’t beat the Lions, they might be bad enough to replicate Detroit’s unenviable achievement with an 0-16 year and match the Buccaneers’ mark for futility set during the 1976-77 seasons.
Detroit running back Kevin Smith figures the Rams are looking at the matchup as their week to finally win.
“If I’m St. Louis, I’m saying, `OK, you’ve got a 1-5 Lions team that went through our situation last year, let’s try to get a jump start on our season with a win versus the Lions,”’ Smith said. “You have to anticipate that’s what they’re thinking.”
Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo insisted that’s not the case.
“We don’t go there,” Spagnuolo said.
The message has sunk in with his players.
“Records in the NFL mean very little,” quarterback Marc Bulger said. “Arizona was 9-7 last year and I don’t think anyone gave them a chance of going to the Super Bowl. You treat every week like it’s own Super Bowl and I think that’s what coach is trying to preach to us.”
The Lions have a chance to get their top two players back on offense— receiver Calvin Johnson and quarterback Matthew Stafford—after both missed games with injured right knees.
“Calvin obviously changes the game,” Detroit coach Jim Schwartz said. “He changes not only our offense, but he changes the way defenses play.
“The strides that Matt had made early in the season, he needs to be able to pick that back up again.”
Stafford, the No. 1 pick in the draft, said he learned something while he was relegated to standing on the sideline.
“It was tough watching, I don’t really like it,” he said. “You feel like you learn more playing than you do just sitting there watching because you’re so much more in tune.”
The Rams are out of sorts on both sides of the ball, especially when they have it inside opponents’ 20. They have scored on just half of their trips to the red zone—easily the lowest rate of success in the NFL—and only Cleveland has been worse in terms of turning chances into touchdowns.
St. Louis running back Steven Jackson had a season-high 134 yards rushing, including 95 in a quarter, in the latest loss for his third 100-yard game, but he and his teammates have combined for no TDs rushing.
Passing hasn’t been effective, either, in part because the Rams haven’t made up for the salary-cap subtraction of receiver Torry Holt.
Defensive end Clifton Ryan doesn’t think Spagnuolo is surprised at the challenge he has undertaken: trying to turn around a once-proud franchise after being a successful defensive coordinator for the New York Giants and assistant coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I’m quite sure he knew he was getting into a major rebuilding process,” Ryan said. “You can’t turn it around overnight. He’s been a part of two great franchises and he’s won a Super Bowl, so he knows what it takes. He knows he’s not going to get the job done in eight games.”
Spagnuolo was interviewed by the Lions, who chose to hire Schwartz away from the Tennessee Titans to play a key part in their latest restoration project.
If Detroit hasn’t turned things around enough to beat the Rams, linebacker Larry Foote won’t want to try to explain why to reporters.
“Every loss is bad, but this would be a big loss just because of the questions we would have to ask after losing to an (0-7) team,” Foote said. “That’s what would be the bad part of it—we’d have to face your questions.”
Comment