Lions Turn Into Turkeys

Peyton Manning barks and gestures at the line of scrimmage, adjusting to defenses and changing play calls.

It might seem like chaos, but he's in complete control. Blitzing linebackers or disguised coverages don't faze him. Manning truly seems flustered only when he's far from the field, standing in a locker room to talk about his remarkable performances.

In his latest brilliant display, Manning threw for six touchdowns in less than three quarters and raised his season total to 41 TD passes, leading the Indianapolis Colts past the Detroit Lions 41-9 Thursday.

He set an NFL record with at least four TD passes in a fifth straight game - and he did it by halftime. Dan Marino had a four-game streak with at least four TDs in 1984, when he also set a league mark with 48 TD passes in a season.

The Lions tried that at times, but they were no match for Manning's quick release and sound decision-making.

Kevin Jones ran for 99 yards on 12 carries for the Lions, who fell to 33-30-2 in their traditional Thanksgiving Day home games. The Colts handed Detroit its most lopsided loss on the holiday.

Indiana basketball underway

The season opener against Indiana State was alot closer then expected. Indiana state has been alot tougher to beat over the last couple of years, this annual game was suppose to be a blow out in favor of IU. With a great recruiting class coming in this year, IU was bound for 20 point win at home against Indiana state. But with about 2 minutes left the game was tied. Lucky for IU Marshall Strickland found a way to score and give Indiana the lead. They would hold on and win 56-52.

Bracey wright gets player of the game with 20 points and nice shooting. Errek Suhr also played a great game.

Tigers sign Troy Percival!

Yesterday the Detroit Tigers finalized a two year, 12 million dollar deal with relief pitcher Troy Percival. I thought it was still kind of early for a big signing like this, but I guess Troy saw something he really liked in Detroit.

Troy Percival is good friends with Troy Glaus, they played together on the Angels for some years. This means more then just getting Percival, it hopefully means more signings to come.

Lions Lose At Home

Clinton Portis has run for more than 100 yards three times this season. Those are the only games Washington has won.

Portis ran for 147 yards on 34 carries and threw a tiebreaking touchdown pass to lead the Redskins to a 17-10 victory over the Lions on Sunday.

Detroit rallied late, but its hopes for a tying drive ended at the Washington 20 as time expired.

With back-to-back 21-yard gains to open the second half, Portis became the first player to run for 100 yards against Detroit this season. Those powerful runs with sharp cutbacks set up his 15-yard pass to Laveranues Coles that gave Washington a 10-3 lead.

Harrington was 26-of-52 for 269 yards with a TD and an interception. Az-Zahir Hakim caught seven passes for 120 yards.

With two of the worst offenses in the NFL and two solid defenses, the first quarter was so lackluster the punters provided highlights. Nick Harris pinned the Redskins to their 8 and 3, and Tupa had a 54-yard punt land at the 1. The second quarter was not much more entertaining, but at least each team made a field goal.

Detroit Trio emailed Lynn Henning, Det News tigers columnist questions on the future, here they are.

DetroitTrio: will the Tigers be buyers or sellers in this off season? LH: the Tigers will be buyers, hoping to trade a few expendable parts. They are concerned about the bullpen, centerfield, right field, third base, and starting pitching. DT:What position will they go after? DT: predict an opening day lineup. LH: Any attempts at listing an opening-day lineup would be premature. You might as well use the end of last season's lineup until probable trades and acquisitions are being made. DT: When do you see Verlander coming up to the big leagues? LH: Verlander will probably be up late in 2006. No sooner, perhaps later. DT: Do you think the Tigers will be in position to make a realistic playoff run next season? LH: The Tigers aren't likely to be a playoff team for the next few seasons, although changes in their lineup could make them a surprise player in 2005. But that's being optimistic.

Michigan edges up Michigan State

The Michigan Wolverines just beat Michigan State in tripple overtime. The Michigan squad has been showing that they have been making progress and having what it takes to go to the Rose Bowl. Braylon and Chad Henne are begining to know each other better and know the roots. Freshman Michael Hart is great and shows progress along with Avant and Breaston in the feauture. Imagine what these players can do when they are seniors. The Michigan wolverines need Wisconsin to loose one game to go the the Rose Bowl which could happen on the improved Iowa Hawkyes. More to come later

IU upsets Minnesota

Yesterday was homecoming at Indiana and the football team gave allumni a treat. The Hoosiers offense had a mistake free game, no interceptions or fumbles. The defense held Minnesota's rb duo to less than one hundred yards which was great. Indiana now has a conference record of 1-4 and an overall record of 3-5. Indiana still finds itself bowl elgible 8 weeks into the season, thats one step forward.

Lions Shock Fans

The team that couldn't win on the road now can't lose away from home.
Detroit's 28-13 win over the New York Giants on Sunday lifted the Lions to 3-0 as visitors this season after they set an NFL record with 24 straight road losses.

The Lions are one of three undefeated teams on the road, joining New England and Philadelphia, because they have a plus-9 turnover margin.

Detroit is just 1-2 at home, with a win over Houston and losses to the Eagles and Green Bay, in large part because its turnover margin is only plus-1.

Lions face Dallas on Sunday.

Red Sox!!!

Has the curse been reversed? we'll have to wait until the end of tonights game before you know. Since I, Johny or Alex don't know too much about the Red sox or Yankees because we are Detroit sports fans, go to the Fire Brand of the AL, I put a link on the title there you should find great series coverage.

Link to tigers news.

The word is Tigers first round pick Justin Verlander Will not Take a deal with the Tigers and wait for next years draft. So, expect the Tigers to be buyers in the free agent market, going after a every day third baseman. And the Tigers might sign Derek Lowe to help them with pitching. Until next time.

The Lions Learn To Win On The Road

Michael Vick is still trying to get a handle on the West Coast offense.
After going three years without a road victory, the Lions made it two in a row Sunday with a 17-10 victory over Vick and the previously unbeaten Atlanta Falcons.

Joey Harrington threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Az-Zahir Hakim on fourth-and-5, and Artose Pinner scored on a 1-yard dive with 1:57 left in the first half, the Lions' first rushing TD of the season.

Detroit set an NFL record by losing 24 straight road games over the previous three years, but opened the season with a 20-17 victory in Chicago.

Late in the first half, he threw an interception that linebacker Alex Lewis returned 33 yards to the Atlanta 2.

Even Detroit's running game could handle it from there. Pinner, in his first career start, was stuffed twice before plunging into the end zone for a 14-7 lead.

Lions win 17 -10.

The Lions lost a couple of players. FB Cory Schlesinger went out in the first half with a hamstring injury, and WR Roy Williams hobbled off in the third quarter with a gimpy ankle. Atlanta backup TE Eric Beverly went out with a shoulder sprain on the first possession. In 1986, the Falcons failed to make the playoffs after starting 4-0. They finished 7-8-1 and coach Dan Henning was fired.

The Lions play Green Bay next week

Michigan State Beats Illinois

Drew Stanton threw three touchdown passes and caught another to lead Michigan State to a 38-25 victory over Illinois on Saturday.

The Spartans (3-3, 2-1 Big Ten) have beaten the Illini (2-4, 0-3) eight straight times. Illinois hasn't won in the series since 1992, and hasn't won at Spartan Stadium since 1989

Pierre Thomas had 188 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries for Illinois, but it wasn't enough to prevent his team's 11th consecutive Big Ten loss.

Illinois scored on a blocked punt to cut a once-commanding Michigan State lead to five at 30-25 with 14:13 left. Kevin Mitchell blocked the punt near the Michigan State 20 and teammate Sharriff Abdullah recovered for an Illini touchdown.
But the Illinois comeback ended there.

Michigan State begins the toughest part of its schedule next Saturday, hosting Minnesota. The Spartans also have games remaining with Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State and Hawaii. Illinois hosts Michigan next week.

Chad Henne a leader

Chad Henne was a leader on saturday against the golden gophers by leading the team for an 80 yard drive with under a minuete to go. "Chad shows great promise in the future" said Braylon. Chad has great confidence in the pocket but has been forcing the ball a little to much. I hope he will help michigan win the big ten this year. More to come later.

Injury With Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions placed cornerback Rod Babers on injured reserve Tuesday because of a collarbone injury.
Babers, signed from the practice squad Sept. 18, hurt his collarbone in Sunday's 30-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
In another move, the Lions signed fullback Stephen Trejo.
Trejo, who spent the past three seasons with Detroit, rejoins the team after being cut during the preseason. He signed with St. Louis Sept. 9 and was released Sept. 22.

Indiana moves on

IU's football team tries to move on from a dissapointing loss to a beatable team like MSU. As Johny said, Drew Stanton was the definetely the player of the game he tore apart IU's defense at the end. I think IU beat itself as much as MSU beat them. Starting the big ten season losing will make IU's confidence be very low, and there expectations.

It will not get any easier when Indiana takes on UofM tommorow, it will be nice to see if IU can stay in the game.

MSU Beats Indiana

After Saturday's game, Stanton may have earned Michigan State's job.
Stanton ran for 134 yards and two touchdowns and threw for another 172 yards to rally the Spartans from a 13-point halftime deficit for a 30-20 victory over Indiana.

Down 20-17, Stanton calmly guided the Spartans on a 10-play, 78-yard scoring march. Jason Teague's 1-yard TD run gave the Spartans a 24-20 lead early in fourth quarter and Dave Rayner made field goals from 22 and 39 yards to seal the victory.

He capped a 54-yard drive midway through the third quarter with a 1-yard TD run on fourth-and-goal, cutting the lead to 20-14.
Then Stanton showed his poise on the game-winning drive, and the Spartans held on for the win.
He couldn't have asked for anything more. MSU plays Iowa on Saturday, October 2nd.

IU drops a game

Since I love Indiana university, I will be covering there sports instead of the Tigers. IU came into last night 2-0 an unusual record for this team. Kentucky has been almost a curse to IU the past years, except yesterday Kentucky looked very beatable. Maybe IU came in to confident? no matter how bad kentucky was supposed to be, they beat Indiana 51-32. So far IU has actually had a good season, this is just one game.

Next week IU will take on Johny's team, MSU.

Tigers have small goals

Right now, we can count out a run to the playoffs. We are to far behind. But, there are small goals reachable, finish ahead of the Indians, finish .500. These goals are ones the Tigers should have hopes of reaching. There is nothing to be ashamed of this year, the Tigers have fought, and fought. Improvements are many.

Tonight the Tigers look to slow down a division rival, the Twins.

MSU Gets Upset By Rutgers

Freshman Jeremy Ito kicked four field goals and Ryan Neill scored on a 31-yard interception return to lead improving Rutgers to a 19-14 victory over Michigan State on Saturday.
The win was coach Greg Schiano's biggest since coming to Rutgers in December 2000, and it gave the Scarlet Knights renewed hope for their first winning season since 1992.
Michigan State, which went to the Alamo Bowl last year.

Despite outgaining Michigan State 273-159 and holding the ball more than twice as long as the Spartans in the first half, Rutgers trailed 7-6 at halftime.
Ito missed a 29-yarder on the opening series after Brian Leonard (25 rushes for 150 yards) opened the game with 56-yard run.
Ito was way short on a 56-yard attempt on the next possession. He finally converted from 23 yards to give Rutgers a 3-0 lead with 14:08 left in the second quarter, but then had a 24-yarder blocked on the next possession.

Ito, who added his 47-yarder with 5:08 left in the second quarter, gave Rutgers a 9-7 lead with a 23-yarder with 9:34 left in the third quarter. After Neill's touchdown, he added a 42-yarder.

MSU plays Central Michigan this weekend. It is going to be a LONG season for MSU.

Series cut short

The Tigers won friday night, and were ready for saturday. But Hurricane Frances caused the games to be re sceduled. The Tigers will get an un expected break, on monday the Tigers host the Royals. Royals hopefully will be easy like they are expected to be.