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Lions - 2 scores on 3 chances (1 touchdown, 1 field goal, 1 turnover on downs)

The Lions didn't even have a single red zone appearance until late in the third quarter, but they ended up with three over the course of the final 20 or so minutes of the game.  The first was barely even a trip to the red zone and produced a field goal.  The second, much like one of Arizona's appearances, was the direct result of a muffed punt.  The Lions unfortunately couldn't take advantage of the mistake, though, and came up short on 4th and 1.  The final appearance did result in a touchdown, as Drew Stanton got into the end zone on a QB sneak from a yard out.

Cardinals - 4 scores on 4 chances (4 touchdowns)

This was one of the Lions' worst red zone performances on the defensive side of the ball in terms of giving up touchdowns.  Usually the Lions will allow the opposing team to get into the red zone an awful lot, but the common theme is not giving up a ton of TDs.  Well, that wasn't the case this past Sunday.  The Cardinals scored a touchdown every time they got into the red zone, though they did turn the ball over twice right as they were about to enter the red zone.  The first turnover came at the 24-yard line when Cliff Avril sacked Kurt Warner and forced a fumble, and the second turnover was Louis Delmas' interception in the end zone.  The Cardinals had the ball on the 20-yard line on the play where Delmas picked off Warner, so although they weren't officially inside the 20, it was a difference of a few feet.  In that sense the Lions' defense did a good job, but still, it would have been nice if just once they could have held the Cardinals to a field goal when the ball was in the red zone.

Overall

The Lions' offense broke the streak of having only one red zone appearance a game, but unfortunately their three trips inside the 20 against Arizona only produced 1 touchdown.  The turnover on downs hurt the most, although the Lions ended up tying the game later on anyways.  Even so, it is always frustrating to watch the Lions struggle in short-yardage situations, and when it is 4th and short inside the 20, it is even harder to stomach a run that goes for no gain.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Lions did not do a good job of keeping Arizona out of the end zone.  I may be just thinking things, but I want to say that a stat was mentioned during the game about Arizona's success in the red zone, so perhaps this was more of a case of the opponent playing well rather than the Lions playing poorly.  After all, the Lions have consistently done a good job of keeping opponents out of the end zone when they are inside the 20, so hopefully this is just an off week combined with facing a good red zone team.

What's up, Niners Nation?  This is Sean from Pride of Detroit, and I'm making my way over to NN to answer any questions you may have about the Lions.  To quickly run down Lions fans' thoughts on the game, I'd say the only reason there is any interest in it is because Drew Stanton is finally going to get his first career start.  Matthew Stafford is out again with a shoulder injury, and the coaches have finally benched Daunte Culpepper, who is just plain terrible.  Most Lions fans have been focused on the draft for the last few weeks and have all but moved on from actual football, so it really is a case of going through the motions from a fan's perspective.  The general expectation for Sunday, like most weeks, is a blowout.  The Lions are bad, and they are even worse on the road, so we all expect SF to win big.

If you have any questions about the Lions, fire away and I (and readers from POD) will do our best to answer them.

• Based on who took the first-team reps in practice today, it looks like Drew Stanton finally is going to get his shot at being the starting quarterback.  Matthew Stafford will be out for the third week in a row, and it appears the coaching staff has finally realized that playing Daunte Culpepper is just pointless, especially based on what happened on Sunday.
  
  UPDATE: Stanton has now been named the starter for Sunday.
• The Lions added Terrance Taylor, who was released to make room for Dan Gronkowski, back to their practice squad today.  A spot opened up because Dan Gerberry was signed to the 53-man roster after Melvin Fowler was waived.  
• While Don Muhlbach practiced today, Phillip Buchanon, Larry Foote, and Vinny Ciurciu did not.
• Schwartz benched Gosder Cherilus on Sunday and said that "he's still a work in progress [with technique]."
• Jason Hanson thinks he is struggling so much because he is over-kicking the ball on some field goal attempts.
  
• Louis Delmas is a candidate for Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week.  You can vote for him over at NFL.com.
• Grady Jackson's brother was sentenced to 20-50 years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder.
  

Via John Niyo, the Lions' opponents in 2010 are now set.  The actual schedule won't be out until April, but below is a list of Detroit's opponents next season.

Home:

Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
Philadelphia Eagles
Washington Redskins
New England Patriots
New York Jets
St. Louis Rams

Away:

Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
Dallas Cowboys
New York Giants
Buffalo Bills
Miami Dolphins
Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Overall that looks like a pretty tough schedule, but the one good thing is that outside of the Rams and Redskins, there are quite a few good teams coming to Ford Field.  Hopefully that (and hopefully an improved Lions team) means fewer blackouts next season.

Out of all the games on the schedule, the one I'm looking forward to most is the one with the Jets because it will be the first meeting between Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez.  This is a complete guess, but I'd pencil that game in for Thanksgiving.  Next year the Lions will play either the Jets or Patriots on Thanksgiving since it will be on CBS and require an AFC opponent, and I think the more intriguing matchup is with the Jets.  We all saw what happened the last time the Lions and Patriots played on Thanksgiving, and although they are definitely a big draw, my guess is the New York market and the storyline of Stafford and Sanchez will be why the Jets and Lions play each other on Thanksgiving.

If the season ended today, the Lions would have the No. 2 pick in the draft thanks to the Browns and Buccaneers winning their games this past Sunday.  The win by the Browns gave them 3 for the season, and the Buccaneers' upset victory over Seattle gave them 2 for 2009.  That means that the Lions and Buccaneers are the only 2-12 teams, and only the Rams have a worse record.  St. Louis looked like they might pull off an upset of their own against Houston to improve to 2-12 as well, but they ended up losing and are still 1-13.

The reason the Lions would have the No. 2 pick if the season ended today is because they hold the tiebreaker -- strength of schedule -- over the Buccaneers.  There has been some confusion on here over what that means, but let me explain.  The team with the easier schedule (i.e. lower winning percentage among its opponents) gets the higher pick in the first round of the draft if there is a tie.  Right now Detroit's schedule is easier than Tampa Bay's, so according to the tiebreaker, Detroit would get the second pick.  Below is a look at what the top five picks of the draft would be if the season ended today.

Had Cleveland lost to Kansas City, the Browns would be ahead of the Lions in the draft order based on a difference of only one game in the tiebreaker. That's how close this can be. If St. Louis had won, the Lions would be at the top of the draft board because their schedule is easier by four games. The difference is much greater with Tampa Bay, though.  Compared to Detroit's schedule, Tampa Bay's is tougher by ten games. 

The thing that is so interesting about the possibility of the strength of schedule tiebreaker coming into play is that St. Louis, Detroit, and Tampa Bay have a lot of the same teams on their schedules.  That is especially true for the Rams and Lions, which play each others' divisions.  This means that if St. Louis were to win another game and the Lions were to lose out, the No. 1 pick in the draft very well could be determined by the outcome of a game that neither team is even involved in. (By the way, if two teams finish with the same record and same strength of schedule, the deciding tiebreaker would be a coin flip.)

• Jim Schwartz didn't make it sound like Matthew Stafford will be back this week, but that isn't a guarantee by any means.  If Stafford is out, though, the coaches will have to decide if Daunte Culpepper or Drew Stanton will start, and as of right now no decision has been made.  The players will know by Wednesday, and I'm hoping they will learn that Stanton will finally get a chance to start.  The fact of the matter is that the offense scored points with Stanton in the game.  Yes, he made some mistakes, but he played better than Culpepper in my opinion.  Plus, Stanton deserves a chance to get some experience.  What is the point in playing Culpepper at this point?  I think Stanton has just as good of a chance of leading the Lions to victory as Culpepper, so there really doesn't seem to be any point in not getting him more experience if Stafford can't go.
• Dan Gronkowski cleared waivers and was signed to the practice squad.  Terrance Taylor, who was just signed last week, was released to make room for Gronkowski.
• Kevin Smith was scheduled to visit Dr. James Andrews in Alabama today, and he said he doesn't want to leave without having surgery.
• Louis Delmas was pissed off after the Lions' loss yesterday, to say the least.
• Drew Stanton shared his thoughts on yesterday's game on his blog.

More photos » by Al Goldis - AP

3 days ago: Arizona Cardinals receiver Anquan Boldin (81) falls into the end zone to score the go-ahead touchdown with less than two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Detroit Lions, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2009, in Detroit, Mich. The Cardinals won 31-24. (AP Photo/Al Goldis)

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Here is a drive-by-drive look at how the Cardinals beat the Lions by a score of 31-24 on Sunday.

1st Quarter

• Maurice Morris moved the chains once for the Lions on the opening drive of the game, but it quickly stalled after that thanks in part to a false start by Manny Ramirez.
• Arizona couldn't do anything on its opening drive and went three and out.
• Similar to the first drive of the game, the Lions moved the chains once before it stalled.  This time it stalled on an incompletion on 3rd and 2.  Why the coaches felt the need to pass the ball out of the shotgun on 3rd and 2 is beyond me, but even if the pass had been complete, an offensive pass interference penalty would have negated it.
• Arizona moved the chains twice on its next drive -- a 13-yard pass to Beanie Wells and a 16-yard run by Wells.  After that Wells ran for 6 and 3 yards, but he was dropped by Larry Foote and Louis Delmas for a loss of 3 on 3rd and 1.  The Cardinals had to punt, but Dennis Northcutt fumbled away the defense's hard work by muffing the punt.  A Cardinals player fell on it at the 13-yard line, and three plays later Kurt Warner threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Larry Fitzgerald, who caught it after it was deflected into the air.
• Daunte Culpepper picked up where he left off last week and was picked off on a terribly-underthrown pass on 3rd and 14.  It came nowhere near Calvin Johnson, allowing Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie to pick it off and take it back to midfield.

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Tampa Bay is up 13-7 right now with 3 minutes left in the third and they are inside the 10!

More photos » by Carlos Osorio - AP

3 days ago: Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin (81) is congratulated by teammates after scoring a touchdown as the Cardinals defeat the Detroit Lions in the closing minutes during an NFL football game at Ford Field in Detroit, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2009. At far right is Detroit Lions cornerback Anthony Henry (32). (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

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The same ol' Lions showed up during the first half of today's game.  The offense couldn't do anything under Daunte Culpepper, and although the defense played fairly well, Arizona still led 17-0 thanks in part to a muffed punt.  The biggest problem for the Lions was that the offense absolutely stunk and was completely irrelevant.  As bad as the defense looked on some plays, it did a good enough job to keep this somewhat close, but there was no hope whatsoever with Culpepper in the game at quarterback.

As the second half got underway, my expectation was that like the same ol' Lions usually do in the third and fourth quarters, the offense would continue to be nonexistent and the defense would get blown out.  Instead, though, the Lions came to life.  Drew Stanton finally replaced Daunte Culpepper, and though Stanton didn't do a whole lot of positive things outside of one drive, the Lions seemed to be sparked by the change at quarterback.

The first good thing to happen to the Lions in today's game was actually on the first play after Stanton threw an interception.  Kurt Warner tried to go to the end zone, but Louis Delmas read the play perfectly and picked off the pass.  He proceeded to run down the sideline and managed to stay inbounds to return the pick 101 yards for a touchdown.  The Lions had momentum on their side, and on the first play after a punt (the Cardinals went three and out), Maurice Morris ran 64 yards for a touchdown.  Just like that, the Lions went from being down 17-0 to only trailing by a field goal.  And actually, after another three and out, the Lions did get a field goal to tie the game at 17 as the third quarter came to an end.

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More photos » by Paul Sancya - AP

3 days ago: Arizona Cardinals cornerback Bryant McFadden (25) brings down Detroit Lions wide receiver Bryant Johnson (80) in the second quarter of an NFL football game in Detroit, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

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The Lions have stormed back to tie the game at 17 with one quarter left to play.