ALLEN PARK, MICH. (AP) - The climb began late in 2010. First, Detroit beat a Green Bay team that went on to win the Super Bowl. Then the Lions even won a road game.
Now, it seems every week brings a new milestone for this resurgent franchise, and coach Jim Schwartz is far from satisfied.
“Our biggest win hasn’t come yet,” Schwartz said.
After beating Minnesota 26-23 in overtime Sunday, Detroit has won seven consecutive games dating to last season. Still, these are the Lions, and everything they accomplish is viewed in the context of the team’s sorry past.
That’s what Schwartz is trying to change. Yes, Detroit won at Minnesota for the first time since 1997, and yes, the Lions are 3-0 for the first time since 1980. Those were important steps _ nobody denies that _ but Schwartz doesn’t feel like grading his team on a curve.
A lot has changed since Detroit went 0-16 three seasons ago and brought in Schwartz as its new coach.
“I think I said a while ago _ this maybe goes back a couple years,” Schwartz said. “We don’t need to have ticker-tape parades over regular-season wins.”
Detroit’s players did have a well-deserved day off Monday after rallying from a 20-0 deficit against the Vikings. As recently as a year ago, this kind of victory would have been unheard of for the Lions. They’d lost 19 consecutive games against the NFC North before beating the Packers in December to start what is now the longest active regular-season winning streak in the league.
Detroit had also lost 26 consecutive road games before winning at Tampa Bay late last season. Now, the Lions are winning on the road and within the division.
They appeared to have met their match in Minnesota. The Lions struggled to protect Matthew Stafford and fell behind early, but nobody has been able to keep the Detroit quarterback down for long lately. Stafford went 32 of 46 for 378 yards, including a pair of touchdown passes to Calvin Johnson.
The Lions finally won it on Jason Hanson’s overtime field goal.
“I always go on and on about how they all count the same, but road counts a little bit different,” Schwartz said. “It is tough winning on the road in the NFL, and the Metrodome is a very, very difficult place to play with the crowd noise. And then a division opponent _ when you get a win you are always putting a loss on one of your division opponents, so it means a little bit more there.”
Yes, the Lions can start to think seriously about the division title race. Stafford, who struggled to stay healthy in his first two pro seasons, is looking like the quarterback the Lions were hoping for when they took him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft. He’s completed 67 percent of his passes for 977 yards in the first three games of the season. Johnson has six touchdown catches already, and tight end Brandon Pettigrew had 11 receptions for 112 yards against Minnesota, giving his quarterback another reliable target opposing teams can’t always pay too much attention to.
“He is a great leader in there,” Pettigrew said of Stafford. “When we are slouching and not getting it done, he’ll snap it and get it done. He has a little fire started and that’s what we need on offense.”
On defense, the Lions held Minnesota to three points after halftime and stopped the Vikings on a crucial fourth-and-1 at the Detroit 17-yard line with the score 20-17 in the fourth quarter.
Detroit isn’t a complete team yet. The Lions didn’t look good at all on the offensive line against the Vikings and haven’t been much of a threat to run the ball. They rushed for only 20 yards last weekend.
Those problems will be on the agenda as Detroit prepares to travel to Dallas for its next game. After that, the Lions host Chicago in a Monday night game. The city of Detroit will be ready for that one _ and it looks like the team will be too.
“It’s good to be able to nit pick over things when you’re 3-0,” Schwartz said. “There’s points that you can make. I think if you go down to our locker room after each of these three weeks, there’s nobody that felt that we played our best football yet.”
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