Thursday August 28, 2008, 11:45 PM
Lions injury-free, unbeaten as preseason ends
by Tom KowalskiORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- The Detroit Lions became the only NFL team this year to finish the preseason undefeated, but that wasn't the biggest news about Thursday night's 14-6 victory over the Buffalo Bills.
The Lions got through the entire training camp and preseason schedule without suffering a significant injury to any player who was expected to make the 53-man roster.
As the Lions head into their regular-season opener Sept. 7 against the Atlanta Falcons, that was the most important thing.
But Lions defensive tackle Cory Redding said the 4-0 record means something, too. No, it doesn't count and everybody goes back to 0-0 in 10 days, but being undefeated isn't meaningless.
"It does mean something,'' Redding said. "We put in our work throughout the week to go get a victory. The meaning of that is to build something, so everything shows up on tape. Run to the ball, be in your gaps -- we practice to win. We have something to build on for the regular season.''
The other interesting developments of preseason were the Lions only turned the ball over once and also didn't allow a single opponent to score more than 10 points.
Lions coach Rod Marinelli said that in itself has meaning.
"It does. Two things -- if you tackle really well, it's hard to move the chains on a team when you don't have missed tackles,'' he said. "And you have to lead the league in effort and get a lot of guys to the pile.''
As far as the 4-0 record, Marinelli said it meant "nothing.'' When asked if he would concede that being 4-0 is better than being 0-4, he nodded.
"I would if the fundamentals are right,'' he said. "The winning part isn't the key, it's 'Are we laying a foundation?' That's the only thing. A foundation of tackling and run fits and trying to run the ball -- it's still not good enough -- and we're looking for blockers. The turnovers are critical and we have to keep reducing our penalties. That's the goal from day one, to get a foundation for this team. And we need to cover kicks a lot better.''
The Lions haven't been 4-0 in the preseason since 1990, not that it's much of an indicator of what's to come in the regular season. The Lions finished 6-10 that year.
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- The Detroit Lions became the only NFL team this year to finish the preseason undefeated, but that wasn't the biggest news about Thursday night's 14-6 victory over the Buffalo Bills.
The Lions got through the entire training camp and preseason schedule without suffering a significant injury to any player who was expected to make the 53-man roster.
As the Lions head into their regular-season opener Sept. 7 against the Atlanta Falcons, that was the most important thing.
But Lions defensive tackle Cory Redding said the 4-0 record means something, too. No, it doesn't count and everybody goes back to 0-0 in 10 days, but being undefeated isn't meaningless.
"It does mean something,'' Redding said. "We put in our work throughout the week to go get a victory. The meaning of that is to build something, so everything shows up on tape. Run to the ball, be in your gaps -- we practice to win. We have something to build on for the regular season.''
The other interesting developments of preseason were the Lions only turned the ball over once and also didn't allow a single opponent to score more than 10 points.
Lions coach Rod Marinelli said that in itself has meaning.
"It does. Two things -- if you tackle really well, it's hard to move the chains on a team when you don't have missed tackles,'' he said. "And you have to lead the league in effort and get a lot of guys to the pile.''
As far as the 4-0 record, Marinelli said it meant "nothing.'' When asked if he would concede that being 4-0 is better than being 0-4, he nodded.
"I would if the fundamentals are right,'' he said. "The winning part isn't the key, it's 'Are we laying a foundation?' That's the only thing. A foundation of tackling and run fits and trying to run the ball -- it's still not good enough -- and we're looking for blockers. The turnovers are critical and we have to keep reducing our penalties. That's the goal from day one, to get a foundation for this team. And we need to cover kicks a lot better.''
The Lions haven't been 4-0 in the preseason since 1990, not that it's much of an indicator of what's to come in the regular season. The Lions finished 6-10 that year.
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