San Francisco -- Is there such a thing as a big game in Week 2?The media posed that question to Lions head coach Jim Schwartz earlier this week and Schwartz answered the question exactly like he should have. He said every week is a big game in the NFL when you only have 16 of them.
Schwartz is right, but no matter how much he or some of his players try to downplay tonight’s matchup with the 49ers as just another game, it isn’t. It's a measuring-stick game for this team.
“I mean, you can say that,” Lions receiverCalvin Johnson
said this week when asked if the Lions are measuring themselves against the 49ers. “A lot of people will say that, you know. We definitely want to see where we stack up too and we feel that we’ve got a good shot going in here. A great shot.”
Tonight’s matchup in Candlestick Park isn’t just another game because this is the NFC’s elite we’re talking about. The 49ers were 13-3 last season and a couple muffed punts away from the Super Bowl. They’ve already sent an early statement to the rest of the league when they went into Lambeau Field and beat the Packers last week. Most people consider them the favorites in the NFC.
Schwartz and Lions general manager Martin Mayhew have done a great job building this roster to be good for a long time. All the pieces seem to be in place to be a consistent winner -- and by that I mean quarterbackMatthew Stafford -- but the Lions still haven’t proven they’re contenders with a signature win.
They won 10 games last year and made the playoffs for the first time in 12 years, and all that was great, but they beat one playoff team (Broncos) along the way. They lost to all of the NFC’s elite teams a year ago. The 49ers beat them (albeit in comeback fashion) and so did the Falcons, Packers (twice) and the Saints (twice, including the playoffs).“I mean, you can say that,” Lions receiver
Tonight’s matchup in Candlestick Park isn’t just another game because this is the NFC’s elite we’re talking about. The 49ers were 13-3 last season and a couple muffed punts away from the Super Bowl. They’ve already sent an early statement to the rest of the league when they went into Lambeau Field and beat the Packers last week. Most people consider them the favorites in the NFC.
Schwartz and Lions general manager Martin Mayhew have done a great job building this roster to be good for a long time. All the pieces seem to be in place to be a consistent winner -- and by that I mean quarterback
Detroit won all the games they should have won last season, which is the sign of a good team. But they can’t be considered among the NFC’s elite teams until they show they can beat one of them; not just keep it close and make a game of it, but beat them.
That’s why tonight is a big game. Is it the end of the world if they lose tonight on the road to a very good opponent? Of course not.
“I mean it’s a big game and people are talking and we certainly are excited to play,” Schwartz said this week. “But we still have 14 games after this one. Whether we win the game or lose the game, we’re playing next week.”
Schwartz is right again, but I’m guessing this Lions team stands a little bit taller on Monday after a victory over the 49ers than they did last week after beating the Rams.
That is why tonight isn’t just another game.
