Lions Insider

First Down

The Lions were leading 31-10 early in the fourth quarter Saturday with the Chargers on the their 2-yard line with a first-down-and-goal hoping to trim the Lions’ lead to two touchdowns.

Lions defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham didn’t call any gimmicky blitzes or exotic coverages. The Lions played straight man defense on all four plays and the Chargers failed to score.

“We were man-to-man the whole time and that was big for everybody,” said Lions linebacker Justin Durant, who led the team with 11 tackles and a sack.

“Just to go out there four plays in a row on man-to-man and make stops shows that we’re not afraid of anything and we’re not going to sit back and play zone and make you throw it. We’re going to get up in your face and play man and everybody played great.”

Second Down

Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew had a smile on his face all game when he continued to see Charger linebackers trying to cover him in man coverage.

“I was licking my chops,” Pettigrew said. “Matthew (Stafford) is going to see that and he’s going to continue to go to favorable match-ups.”

Stafford found Pettigrew nine times for 80 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown on the team’s first possession of the game.

Pettigrew set a new team single-season record with receptions by a tight end, now with 76 on the season. He broke the club record last year when he caught 71.

Pettigrew is now the only tight end in team history with two seasons registering 70-plus catches.

“Pettigrew did a great job, really all game – had an awesome game – was getting open for me when they were trying to take away the outside really the whole game,” said Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford.

Third Down

It was evident from the very first play of the game Saturday that Stafford and the Lions offense was in attack mode.

Stafford hit receiver Calvin Johnson on a 46-yard bomb on the game’s first play.

“Yeah that was the plan,” Stafford said. “Let’s go out there, let’s be aggressive on both sides of the ball.”

Stafford connected on six passes of 20-plus yards.

He hit Calvin Johnson with three (46, 21 and 21), Tony Scheffler (26), Nate Burleson (30) and Titus Young (24).

“I’m sorry for all the people who want us to run the ball 40 times a game, but we’re going to put the ball in No. 9’s hands and he’s going to make plays for us like he did today," Lions coach Jim Schwartz said.

Fourth Down

The Lions’ four-game streak of reaching at least nine penalties came to a halt when they had just three for eight yards against he Chargers.

The Lions had false start and holding penalties inside their own 5-yard line and one other false start.

It’s the lowest total of the season for the Lions for both number of penalties and yardage.

The Chargers had one holding penalty for 10 yards.

The Lions entered the game having 11, 11, 10 and nine in their previous four games.