(My Sportsbook) - As much as Sunday's 19-14 victory over the
Washington Redskins closed a chapter for the
Detroit Lions, it also began a new one.
The team's first win since Dec. 23, 2007, which snapped a 19-game losing streak and introduced a bright spot into what has been the darkest era in the team's long history, needs to be the start of something, not the culmination, according to first-year head coach Jim Schwartz.
"We shouldn't be content with a win," said Schwartz. "There are other things we can improve on. Part of the NFL is what we've talked about the previous two weeks, is putting it behind you. You need to be able to put losses behind you; you need to be able to find what you did well, what you did poorly and move on, and the same thing for a win. Once Wednesday comes...we should be moved on. This one has got to be out of our blood by the time the players leave [Monday]."
The things the Lions did well were in more plentiful supply than they had been in the team's first two miscue-laden losses, to the Saints (45-27) and Vikings (27-10).
Rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford, who had been plagued by turnovers over the first two starts of his NFL career, was 21-of-36 for 241 yards with a touchdown pass and no turnovers for the first time this season. Stafford spread his 21 completions around to eight different targets.
Running back Kevin Smith piled up 101 yards on 16 carries in the win, though he left the contest with a shoulder problem that could limit his availability for Sunday's game a the Bears.
And the defense, clearly energized by the fact that they weren't playing the best quarterback (Drew Brees) or running back (Adrian Peterson) in the league, shut down the Redskins running game (14 carries, 65 yards), kept Washington's big plays to a minimum, and held Washington to a dismal 2-of-10 on third-down conversions.
In the end, it was a complete performance from a team that couldn't even complete a victory during the entire 2008 season, though while noting the special nature of the triumph, Schwartz, who has remained even-keel in his message to his team and the media, also attempted to minimize it.
"This was a significant win in this organization; for this franchise, for the players," said Schwartz on Monday. "It was my first win, but I think the important part of that is just putting it behind us so it wasn't an issue of 0-19 and 'haven't won since 2007,' and all those things. Now that's not a storyline anymore. Now the players can worry about doing their jobs and playing and we can worry about the Chicago Bears this week, rather than worrying about the Bears [as well as] all the baggage from the last couple years.
"So, you know, it's hard for me to have that kind of message to the team and then be running around like a fool after the game when we're 1-2. That's it. We're excited? Yeah. But let's put it where it is: it's a Week 3 win, we're 1-2, we need to get a win this week against a division opponent to get back to 2-2. Sorry to be so boring."
BEARS: Have the Chicago Bears looked like a Super Bowl contender during the first three games of the Jay Cutler era?
Not really, though many teams that have ultimately hoisted the Lombardi Trophy have looked like something less than championship-caliber clubs during the month of September.
The better question is probably, "What would be this team's record at the moment if Cutler wasn't in the fold?"
After eliciting his share of criticism following the Bears' opening-night loss against the Packers, the easy-going signal-caller has pulled out a pair of come-from-behind wins to move Chicago to 2-1. In Sunday's 25-19 win at Seattle, Cutler rallied the club first from an early deficit of 13-0, then, with the team down 19-17 late in the fourth-quarter, engineered a six-play, 71-yard touchdown drive to give the Bears their second straight dramatic win.
The big strike was a 36-yard scoring pass to Devin Hester, one of four Bears targets who caught more than four passes on Sunday. For the day, Cutler finished 21-of-27 for 247 yards with three touchdowns, just one interception, and a 126.4 passer rating.
"Whenever we get those opportunities, we've got to take advantage of that as an offense," said Cutler of the decisive drive. "I pride myself in that. I want the ball in those situations and I think this offense is starting to get a feel for it. The fourth quarter is when we have to play our best, and I think we are right now."
Despite his four-pick performance in Week 1, Cutler has raised his season passer rating to a respectable 86.2, with a strong completion percentage of 64.4, and his six touchdown passes through three games rank second in the NFL behind only the nine tossed by Drew Brees.
Bears head coach Lovie Smith sounded unsurprised by his QB's work.
"I definitely think this is what we're going to see," said coach Lovie Smith. "He's a good player. He's been a good player. This is Jay's background. He's been in situations like that.
"To me, you judge good quarterbacks based on what they do late in the game, and Jay wants the ball in his hands. He had a good look about him, knowing that we had to go down and score. We all had confidence that he would lead us."
Cutler predicted that the best from both him and the Bears attack is yet to come.
"This offense is young," said Cutler. "We're all still learning from each other and trying to get some mesh and cohesion going. We're making plays to win ballgames, and that's a big thing. You look on the film and you see us making mistakes, but when it counts we're making plays."
PACKERS: Winning on the road in the National Football League is difficult, even when you're facing an opponent as woeful as the St. Louis Rams.
The Packers went to the Gateway City and handled the Rams, 36-17, on Sunday, spoiling head coach Steve Spagnuolo's home opener with the team and washing away some of the residue of the previous week's home loss to the suddenly- relevant Cincinnati Bengals.
Fans in Green Bay were probably a bit loathe to take much meaning away from the Rams win, given that struggling St. Louis scored a season-high 17 points and hung around until the fourth quarter, but head coach Mike McCarthy didn't see it that way.
"We needed it as a team," said McCarthy. "Week 3 in my experience tells you a little something, because the first two games are pretty sporadic and a little crazy. Week 3 you start to settle into a grove, and today we found a way to make the plays and get the win."
Aaron Rodgers completed just 13-of-23 passes, but made those completions count for 269 yards including big plays down the field to Greg Jennings (catches of 53 and 50 yards) and Donald Driver (a 46-yarder plus a 21-yard touchdown catch).
Defensively, the Pack was far from perfect, giving up 163 total yards to Steven Jackson and allowing Kyle Boller to emerge from the scrap heap with two touchdown passes, but kept the Rams off the scoreboard for the final 23-plus minutes in order to emerge with the win.
That effort should be a confidence builder going into the team's Week 4 game, a monumental Monday night affair against Brett Favre and the Vikings at the Metrodome.
"We have had two games where we have not been able to [tighten up late] and one that we have," said linebacker Aaron Kampman, who had the team's only sack on Sunday. "Hopefully, we can make the former the trend. That was big for us heading into next week, a Monday night game, it would be huge for us to get a win."
VIKINGS: The fact that Brett Favre could have easily been the goat in Sunday's 27-24 win over the 49ers will ultimately fade from memory, if it hasn't already.
Favre was nowhere near perfect in the win, missing on 22 of his 46 pass attempts, throwing his first interception as a Viking, and eliciting some grumbles when a late-game game drive ended in a punt that nearly erased Minnesota's opportunity to stay unbeaten.
But the Vikes defense tightened, giving Favre a shot to lead another of the late-game drives that have made him famous. The 10-play, 80-yard march ended with the throw that has made more highlight reels this week than any other, a 32-yard strike to the back of the end zone on which reserve wideout Greg Lewis made a nifty toe-tapping grab with two seconds to play.
And that's the memory of the game that will linger, as it probably should, since the win trumps all other factors.
"I wanted to be able to drill one," said Favre of the pass. "It's still hard to make it work, but I thought that was better than laying one up."
For the day, Favre was 24-of-46 for 301 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, with the 300-yard day ranking as the Vikings' first since Daunte Culpepper reached the plateau way back in 2005.
"It's hard to even recall all of 'em," said Favre of his many NFL comebacks. "This one was pretty special."
