Motown is left singing the Blue’s as of late

It wasn’t no more than two weeks ago that the Detroit sports teams were riding high. The Tigers had just defeated the New York Yankees to advance to the America League Champion Series against the Texas Rangers,  and the Lions were coming off their first nationally televised game in over a decade, and the Red Wings, we all know the Red Wings are doing the typical winning for the city as they have always have been.

It was just yesterday you remember the Tigers had their backs against the wall as they headed to the Bronx to take on the high powered Yankees for a 5^th and deciding game to advance to the American league Championship series. The Tigers did what they do best and came out swing and knocked off the Yankees and was headed to Texas to take on the defending America league champion Rangers. At the same time the Detroit Lions were getting ready for their first nationally televised game in over a decade as they took on the division rival Chicago bears. The lions were riding on their high horse coming into the game 4-0 lead by stud Wide receiver Calvin Megatron Johnson and that high octane offense. The game had been sold out since 12:15pm the same day they went on sale at noon. The Detroit Red Wings were riding a 3-0 start and outscoring opponents 10-3 and coming off with back to back shutouts. You couldn’t tell no Detroiter anything different about their team. Detroit has a whole was kicking buts and taken names and the story read no different but one thing is for sure you didn’t want your favorite team to  come to Motown.

The following week went as planned the Lions beat the bears 24-13 to bring their record to 5-0 only one other team had and unbeaten record. (Green Bay Packers)  The Red wings won also and that brought their unbeaten record to 5-0 and the tigers were doing what they do best, stay afloat in dog fight. Going into the weekend the Lions and Red Wings were both undefeated and the Tigers had just won to send the series back to Texas down 2-3 with hopes of pulling out the upset in Game 6 to send it to a deciding game 7.

Pride and energy on high going into the weekend of October 14, 2011 is when the Detroit sports world would be put on mute. The Lions going to face the San Francisco 49ers at home suffered its first loss of the season 19- 25 and even though head coach Jim Schwartz tried to even the score in the parking lot with 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh after a little tussle, the lions went on to lose the following week to the Atlanta Falcons 16-23 and left them on a record of 5-2 on a two game losing streak. The Tigers went on to get slaughtered in a lopsided Game 6 loss 5-15 and sent the Rangers to the World Series and the tigers to clean out their lockers for the offseason. The Red Wings somehow found themselves in the same lane not as the tigers cause there season just started but in a two game losing streak that left them at a record of 5-2. Fans went from thinking World Series, 16-0, another Stanley cup championship to looking for tigers opening day tickets, “same ol lions,” come on wings!”

You might have won on the field but you wont win in the parking lot

The Lions, Red wings and tigers all had a rough weekend that lead to a dry week in Hockey/sports town. There were not any games at Comerica park, lions fans are left scratching their head and oh yea Welfare was cut this month.  Detroiters were hit with a lot of tough blows as of lately but as the upcoming weekend approaches both Lions and Red Wings have the chance to wipe the slate clean. The Red Wings get the first crack at it as they take on the team that knocked them out the playoffs last year in the San Jose Sharks Friday night at Joe Louis Arena. The lions this week head to Mile high Stadium to take on the Denver Bronco’s and Tebow nation. That old saying “win just one for the Gipper” and that’s all the Lions and Red Wings need to do this week to ensure some faith back into Motown. Granted the Red Wings have a long season ahead but indeed the lions are going in a bye week and having a 3-game losing streak will not sit well in Motown.

Detroit Lions take their second consecutive loss from the hands of the Atlanta Falcons

Detroit……. The Detroit lions forgot to tell their offense what time kickoff was as they took on the Atlanta Falcons at ford field ­­for a NFC showdown. The delay arrival if any of the lions offense sent them into a constitutive loss and left them at 5-2  and sent the Atlanta Falcons  to 4-3.  The ground game and penalties played a major role for the falcons as they were able to knock off the Lions on their home turf 16-23. The First quarter showed that the Lions were doing more work on the penalties that on the offensive side of the ball at the end of the 1^st period they had -1 total offense and 34 years on five penalties. Those types of stats set the tone for the remainder of the game and put the lions in a hole they could not climb out of.

The defense started the game for the Lions on one of the few high notes with defensive back Eric Wright intercepted Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan who ended the game 20/34 for 218 yards one touchdown and two interceptions and gave the Lions offense the ball on the falcons 15 yard line but with a couple penalties they had to settle for the Jason Hansen 47 yard field goal, and which he made two more (38, 29) to help the struggling offense out. Falcons running back Michael Turner helped keep the force on the ground as he finished the game with 122 yards on 27 carries to help spark the victory. “The ground game was our top priority coming into the game, we knew if we could succeed down there we have a better chance at coming out with the victory,” said turner.

The lion’s offense was nonexistent through the first half and only able to get five first downs and 88 yards total offense but did manage unfortunately to get six penalties for 49 yards. “We shot ourselves in the foot too many times today, we make it harder for ourselves to win, when we go out there and play like we did, we still don’t know what it is like to play four quarters of football and until we can do that we are just going to be inconsistent and have these reoccurring problems,” said the Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson.  Johnson finished the game with five receptions for 115 yards including a 57 yard TD in the 3^rd period. Lions quarterback Matthew Strafford wasn’t able to find the consistent rhythm as he finished 15 for 32 for 183 yards and one touchdown and even noticeably limped off the field on the offense’s last play.  In the second half the lions were able to mustard up a very well drive that ended with Johnson 57 yard touchdown. The drive capped off six plays for 84 yards that took all of 4:42 off the clock to get the lions within four. But late field goal by falcons Matt Bryant sealed the fate for the home team. Late in the game a pass interference penalty was review and over turned because Strafford’s pass was tipped by Falcons Defensive tackle Cory Peters. Which would have given the ball to the lions on the falcons 27 yard line with over a little under two minutes to play but instead gave them 4^th down from the falcon 42 and wasn’t able to convert the 1^st down.

The lion’s inability to get the offense going and to stop the falcons ground game was leading factory on the demise of the lions. The same blueprint the San Francisco 49ers used the week before to hand the lions first lost of the season was the similar road that needed to be traveled to have given the lions their 2^nd straight lost after starting off, a smoking 5-0. This game put the lions looking to stop the nose bleeding as the head to the mile high next week and take on the Denver Broncos which is currently lead by Tebow nation before heading into the bye week.

Defensive Linemen Cliff Avril and Ndamukong Suh get pumped after a 2nd quarter sack

Game Notes:  Lions Calvin Johnson caught his 10 touchdown catch today which makes him the first Lion to catch more than 10 touchdowns in three different seasons.

Today’s game was fourth consecutive sellout crowd for the Lions.

Head Coach Todd McLellan Post game press conference round 2 game 3

Head Coach Todd McLellan

 

Q. So Todd, are you guys going for Montreal’s record?

 A.  We’re just trying to win games.  There’s no thought or any talk of that.  The teams are so evenly matched.  It’s a bounce, a break, a save here or there.  It went our way tonight.  I thought the game itself was the tightest game yet.  I didn’t think we skated particularly well.  I didn’t think we had enough guys going.  For us to continue on we have to find a few more guys.

 Q.  Can you talk about the goal that forced overtime and then the winner?

 A.  Earlier in the year when we were not winning we were concerned not so much about special teams – power play, penalty kill – but a lot about our five on five play, on both sides of the puck.  You look at the game tonight and power plays played even.  It was important for us to try and match their five on five play.  We stuck with it in the third period.  It is hard to hold a lead right now, there is so much tension and stress out on the ice.  We just kept getting pucks to the net and finally one went in for us.  In overtime I’m not sure we were the better team.  They had a number of chances, our goaltender made some good saves, and we were opportunistic when we finally did get that chance. 

 Q.  Since the script is so similar to last year, obviously with game 3, I guess we should bring up game 4 and it was a bit of a crash there.  Do you use that now?

 A.  We’ve tried very hard as a coaching staff to eliminate and separate last year’s series from this year’s.  I think I have referenced that a number of times both the different line ups and all the circumstances that come into play.  There will be a lot made out of the same date, overtime, all that type of stuff.  It is completely irrelevant in my opinion.  And I hope it is because we took one hell of a lickin’ in game 4 last year.

Q.  Can you talk about the timing of Devin Setoguchi’s first playoff hat trick?

 A.  Very big.  You need heroes.  You need people to step up.  And he was ours tonight.  I kind of whacked him earlier talking about his penalties and we’ll have to deal with that but he’s got a tremendous trigger, puts himself in situations where he can shoot the puck, and he’s got a couple of very good players playing with him. 

Q.  How important is it for you guys to put this thing to bed in the next game?

 A.  That’s obviously going to be our goal.  Clichés, the last one is the toughest, whatever you want.  It will be as hard on us as we make it.  Again, tonight we didn’t have a lot of polish, we didn’t have enough players in my opinion to play.  We got away with one.  We’ll have to be better.  They have proven to us that they are not going away.  They did it last year and they sent a very stern message to us in game 4.  We have to be much better than we were a year ago.  And we’ll try to approach the game a little bit differently and prepare a little bit better. 

Early Strikes helps the Detroit Red Wings prevail to take a 3-0 series lead over the Phoenix Coyotes.

 

The Detroit Red Wings use early goals in every period to shoot down the momentum for the hosting Phoenix Coyotes. It was hard for the fans at the Jobing.com arena to get into the game. With 1:57 into the game red wings Ruslan Salei put in a slab shot past Coyotes Goalie Ilya Bryzgalov to silence the built up excitement, then 44 seconds later Drew Miller followed up with a goal of his own. Plays like that are how the wings used quick strikes to keep the coyotes at bay to take the 4-2 victory to take a 3-0 series lead in the first round of the western conference playoffs.

Quick scoring was the key to wings victory over the coyotes, in every period to seal the fate of the coyote’s fans. Within 241 seconds into the first period it was 2-0. In the start of the 2^nd period with 1:14 into the period Valtteri Filppula was able to put in his first goal of the playoffs to stop any momentum the coyotes thought they were going to be able to obtain coming out of the intermission. The coyotes were able to take advantage of their first power play of the night when David Schlemko was able to beat Jimmy Howard on a goal to break up the shout-out. Howard who finished the game with a total of 28 saves

With 53 seconds into the 3^rd period John Franzen added a goal of his own, to help lead the charge into the last period of the night. With Franzens goal that just adds to his post season dominance 21 points in his last 15 post season games. Ray Whitney help cap off another power play goal for the Coyotes that brought the score to 4-2 but that was all the coyotes were able to pull out their hat. And now must prepare for a elimination game on their home ice which might even be the last game in the arena where rumors are the Coyotes could be headed back to Winnipeg at season’s end.

The red wings have really been getting help from their depth chart in these games thus far against the Coyotes.  Phoenix has not scored on any full 5 on 5 during this series and only scored during their power plays, which shows the wings need to work on their penalty killing. The wings have gotten a lot of quality minutes from the back of the depth chart. The 3^rd line has really come alive for the wings here one game the stars come alive the next stars get to sit back and watch the young ones get in on the fun. The wings are using balance of the lines and solid goaltending to keep the coyotes at bay and from getting any fuel to get going. The wings have been able to do this continuously without their star Henrik Zetterberg who is still out with a knee sprain.

The wings will play game 4 on Wednesday in hopes to cap off the first sweep of the playoffs, and coyotes are looking to extent the series back to Detroit.

A High Power 2nd period helped the Detroit Red Wings capture a leg up in the playoff series against the Phoenix Coyotes

The Detroit Red Wings had to use a surging 2^nd period to take down the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday night at Joe Louis arena to take the lead in the opening round of the Western conference playoffs serious 1-0.

 

The Wings came out the gate with flying octopus and a lot of defense that was needed to help get out of a sluggish 1^st period alive. An also playing without their star Henrik Zetterberg who is still recovering from a lower body injury in which the team is hoping to have him back sometimes during the series.

 The Coyotes wasted no time to strike first blood against the Wings when Coyote’s Kyle Turris got a slap shot past Goalie Jimmy Howard to take a 0-1 lead.  After that every scoring opportunity the Coyotes needed to put away the Wings in the 1^st period they got.  The Wings penalty killing was put to the test last night when they suffered four penalties and even at one point was down to 3-5 man disadvantages. But the Wings managed to past the test without giving up any goals, while watching their defense prevail.

The Coyotes had all the scoring opportunity they need in the 1^st period, but in the 2^nd it was all Wings. Pavel Datsyuk added his first goal of the post season with a nice wrap around on Coyote’s Goalie Ilya Brygalov, to bring the score to an even 1-1. After a Todd Bertuzzi 5 minute major penalty for fighting Rostislav Klesla, that just added some much needed momentum for the Wings. They took fire on the coyotes goalie and lead the period with a shot on goal advantage  17-9 in the 2^nd period alone.  Johan Franzen added in his own slab shot goal to break our his slump and a power play goal by defenseman Brian Rafalski helped the Wings take a commanding 3-1 lead into the intermission. The Wings dominated the puck and played majority of the period deep in the Coyotes end. The whole 360 turn for Wings paid off in the 2^nd as they took advantage of their scoring opportunities that the Coyotes couldn’t in the 1^st.  Jiri Hudler added to the party with his own goal in the beginning of the 3^rd to make the score 4-1.  A late goal by Coyotes Radim Vrbata was all they could add before falling to the Central division champs.

The Wings were able to finish off the Coyotes 4-2 to strike first blood in the series and take a 1-0 lead headed into Saturdays Game 2.  With Franzen’s goal he has at least a point in 13 consecutive games, and the Wings know if they are going to make a run that he has the man leading the charge. With Howard in net who ended the night with 26 saves seem to have at some of the necessary elements to make this series stay in their favor.

Post game interview with Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett

Head Coach Dave Tippett
Post-Game Press Conference, Round 1 Game 1
April 13, 2011
 
Q. Coach, obviously you guys got off to a good start. How key were the penalties that you guys didn’t capitalize on at the end of the day?
 
A. Well, that was the difference in the game. We could have extended that lead with our power-play. We just needed better execution early on, especially in the first period. We didn’t get the results we needed to push the game along after a decent start. Once they got the momentum in the second period we couldn’t get it back.
 
Q. Did you still like your chances though as the game wore on?
 
A. Yeah, we hung around. We’re going to have to be much better. Our puck movement wasn’t near good enough. We just didn’t execute well enough to create an up and that’s two-fold. That’s competing for loose pucks and executing under pressure and executing when you don’t have pressure. We’ll just have to be better at game 2.
 
Q. Franzen and the playoffs- just on a tear- you saw a little bit of it last year. What makes him so tough this time of year?
 
A. The goal he got was- he just shot the puck. He’s a good player without a doubt, but I’ve got lots to worry about with my team rather than worrying about him.

2nd period intermission with Phoenix Coyotes Shane Doan

CBC Interview with Shane Doan

2nd Intermission, Round 1 Game 1

April 13, 2011

 Q:       So many good things over the first 25 minutes of the game, what seemed to change for you guys?

A:        Well once you get that first goal, you get some momentum. And in the first 20 minutes we controlled the puck and we just weren’t able to take advantage as much as they did with their opportunities.

Q:        It’s all about momentum in series’ like this, so how do you change it around going into the final period?

A:        Oh, we have to put the puck in their zone a little bit more. We weren’t playing enough in their zone, if you give them half the ice to come at you it’s going to be hard to play. We have to get back to getting the puck deep on them and we will better our chances to win.

NHL PLayoffs Round 1 Red wings 1st period intermission interview

CBC Interview with Nicklas Lidstrom

First Intermission, Round 1 Game 1

April 13, 2011

Q. Nick, that’s not the opening period you were looking for.

A.  No.  They came after us pretty good and we were spending way too much time in the penalty box.  We were hurting ourselves.  We have to keep moving our feet and keep our sticks down.

Q.  Are you surprised at how your team reacted in the opening period?  I know  you would have expected something like this from Phoenix.

A.  We needed to come out hard.  We wanted to respond better than we did.  One of the reasons is taking penalties.  We’re not moving our feet, we’re holding our stick up, so that’s been hurting us so far.

University of Georgia Pro Day

UGA Linebacker Rennie Curran preparing for his verticle Jump

The University of Georgia hosted there offical pro day for all of its potential draft prospects.  Here are some of the Bulldogs unoffical times and Players

WR Michael Moore  4.45 seconds,   4.53

DE Rod Battle 5.0

LB Rennie Curran 4.67, 4.73

DE Darius Dewberry 4.94, 4.8

CB Bryan Evans 4.47, 4.46

DB Reshad Jones 4.52, 4.53

CB Prince Miller 4.5, 4.82

DT Jeff Owens 4.88, 4.96

OL Vince Vance 5.2, 4.96

DT Kade Weston 4.97

THREE CONE DRILL

CB Prince Miller 6.56

Vance 8.3

Weston 7.92

Moore 6.89

Evans 7.32

Dewberry 7.53

The Colts return to the Promise Land

There was a tale of two different half’s in the AFC Championship game on Saturday between the Indianapolis Colts and the New York Jets. The Colts took the first couple of Blows but ended with the jets getting knocked out. The Colts beat the Jets at their own game on the Ground and in the air taken on the Jets number one pass defense and running team. The Colts had 461 total yards with 360 yards in the air and 105 on the ground.

                The game started off like Jets Head Coach Rex Ryan had in stored: Defense!  The Jets defense produced three straight three and outs but as the 1^st Quarter finished out the Colts Quarterback Peyton Manning put together a 8-play 83 yard drive with the help from receiver Pierre Garcon with 2 big catches of 27 and 19 yard catches to set up a 25 yard field goal by kicker Matt stover

                The Jets Quarterback Mark Sanchez who finished with 17 for 30 for 257 yards and two touchdowns and one interception: was quick to match the previous drive with the longest play from scrimmage this season with an 80 yard bomb to wide receiver Braylon Edwards that was set up by a Play action. The Following drive Manning again marched all the way down the field. But on a big play by the defense on the one yard line the Jets defense stuffed the colts Quarterback sneak and prompted the colts to settle for another field goal by stover. The Jets came out doing what they do best and kept it in between the tackles from power runs from running Back Shawn Green.  The Jets caught the Colts defense peeking in the backfield when former College Quarterback now Receiver came in and on the wildcat formation went deep to fellow receiver Jerricho Cotchery for a 45yrd reception, the best drive of the first half by Sanchez ended with a nine yard touchdown to Dustin Keller on a crucial 3^rd and 6 to put the Jets up 14-6 with just 5:13 left in the first half.

                The ensuing drive running back Joesph addia was forced to have the games first turnover and help set up the Jets First field Goal of the game of 48 yards by Jay feely. The field goal had the Jets with a 17-6 lead with just 2:11 left in the half but Peyton Manning put together a 4 play 80 yard drive in all of 58 seconds that’s all were contributed to wide receiver Austin Collie and capped off my a 16-yard touchdown pass with just 1:06 left. This gave the Colts the swing of momentum and a better scoreboard of 17-13 going into halftime.

                The Third Period started off just off Payton left off in the 1^st half, a quick 8-play 57 yard drive that took all of 3:31 into the period to get a 15 yard touchdown reception by Tight end Dallas Clark. The colt’s defense finally reached the control panel and turned it on in the 3 period and the jets were only able to mustarded up 90 yards and a missed field goal attempt.  The First half momentum took a total change of sideline an the colts put together the championship drive behind its two star receivers Collie and Garcon for a 12-play 71 yards that let to the field goal that took up 5:33 seconds of the fourth quarter clock. The Indianapolis Colts came from a 17-6 deficit and scored 24 unanswered points. Peyton Manning went 26-39 for 377 yards and 3 TD and was led by Garcon record for catches in a AFC championship game 11 catches for 151 yards and 1-touchdown. This marks the Colts return trip to Miami to play for the super bowl where they won it previously in 2006.