Can Anyone Stop The 49ers? Lions Come Up Short Against San Francisco.
Sunday, for the Football America game of the week, we saw a match-up which pitted the Detroit Lions against the best team in the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers. Last season after a big victory in Detroit, there was a post-game scuffle between both teams started by a handshake over coaches Jim Harbaugh, Jim Schwartz. Detroit had been waiting for this game since last year to get revenge on their new NFC rival but this game would harder than they (we) thought. After a week 1 due against the 2011 NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers, Alex Smith would continue his dominate play in the game.
In the opening minutes after a quick 3 and out from the Detroit, San Francisco would set the tone for the rest of the game as Mario Manningham would rush for 29 yards on a reverse. Two plays later, Alex Smith would hook up with Vernon Davis for their first touchdown of the game with a 21 yard pass to get the games points. Matthew Stafford who had a tough time against the 49ers defense, would throw a interception which was recovered by safety Dashon Goldson.
Still in the first quarter, 49ers kicker David Akers who chipped in a 63-yard FG, was hit late after a 35-yard attempt. That FG was nullified which gave San Francisco a first down with an opportunity to continue their drive. Detroit would be victims to another flag as Jacob Lacey would be called for pass interference on Randy Moss on a in-zone attempt by Smith. On the next play Frank Gore would rush for a 1-yard touchdown to put the score at 14-6. This play essentially sucked the life out of the entire Lions team at just only the second quarter. For nearly the entire duration in the rest of regulation, Matthew Stafford was denied the Red Zone up until garbage time when he threw a 9-yard TD pass to Brandon Pettigrew to make the game respectable on the score box at 27-19.
Alex Smith who’s been playing MVP level this season (bloody nose and all suffered from a hit by John Wendling) so far, completed 21 of 31 passes for 226 yards extending his franchise-record streak of throws without an interception to 216. Next week, the 49ers travel to Minnesota to play the Vikings with hopes to keep their undefeated streak alive; while Detroit has inter-league play against the win-less Tennessee Titans.