Lions get first win, beat Bears in OT

It was a game of twists and turns and controversial calls, but the Lions proved victorious in the end. Calvin Johnson gave an incredible performance that helped lead the Lions to their first win on the season.

Story by Kyle Meinke from Mlive

The Detroit Lions have lost games all kinds of ways this season, and tried all different kinds of ways to lose this one too.

Even after taking a 34-31 lead with 21 seconds left, on a 4-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Johnson, they allowed the Chicago Bears to move 69 yards in three plays, and Robbie Gould forced overtime with a chip shot as time expired.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford rolled out of the pocket right out of the pocket and heaved a 57-yard bomb to Johnson at the Bears’ 6, and Matt Prater converted the 27-yard field goal with just 2:30 left to give Detroit a 37-34 win in overtime.

The victory snaps the Lions’ NFL-worst losing streak at seven, dating to last season, and ends their winless streak to open this season at five. They hadn’t lost that many games to open a season since 2008.

Detroit’s last two wins have come against the Bears, and it has won five straight in the series overall.

Stafford, playing his first game since getting benched in last week’s loss against the Arizona Cardinals, played easily his best game of the year. He had three touchdown passes by halftime — half his season total — and finished with four for the game.

He was 27-of-42 passing for 405 yards and had a rating of 117.7. He had just one interception, after entering the day with an NFL-worst eight.

Stafford was big in the biggest spots, includes engineering a fabulous go-ahead drive in the waning moments of the fourth quarter. With 2:23 showing on the clock, he hooked up with Theo Riddick for a 34-yard gain and then Lance Moore for a 26-yarder.

Just like that, Detroit was at Chicago’s 6-yard line.

Stafford was flagged for intentional grounding, which backed up Detroit and drained 10 seconds off a clock that showed just 44 ticks left, but Chicago was then whistled for roughing up Stafford, moving the ball back to the 4-yard line.

From there, Stafford hit Johnson streaking into the end zone for what appeared to be a game-winning touchdown with 21 seconds left.

The Lions had to hang on, though, after the Bears mustered a three-play, 69-yard drive in those final moments, aided by a huge Darius Slay pass interference penalty that gave Chicago possession at the 11-yard line. Robbie Gould nailed a chip-shot from there to force OT.

But Stafford hooked up with Johnson once again, and at last, the Lions had their first victory of the season.

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