Detroit Lions: 7 Players Who Performed Best in Week 2 vs the Chiefs

The Detroit Lions put the rout on the Kansas City Chiefs last weekend, winning 48-3 after the Chiefs effectively gave up in the second half.

The last time the Lions won by 45 points, it was in the 1957 NFL Championship against the Cleveland Browns.

Yet it still doesn't appear to be good enough. Jim Schwartz (and many Lions fans) are convinced that the Lions can play better, and they may be right. The final score suggests domination, but really it ballooned in the second half as the Chiefs got increasingly sloppy.

If anything, the early part of the game was very nearly dominated by the Chiefs. On the first drive of the game, they drove the ball deep into Lions territory without ever taking to the air. The only thing that seemed to stop them was Jamaal Charles' knee.

But still, the Lions let up three points on the Chiefs' first drive, then no points the rest of the game. Meanwhile, the offense put up several dozen points.

That would seem to suggest there were some great individual performances, and there was far more to like about the Lions' drubbing of the Chiefs than their nail-biter of a win over Tampa Bay.

So rather than point out the players who need to step up, it's worth singling out some of the Lions' big playmakers.

Matthew Stafford

After two games, Matthew Stafford is averaging 300 yards a game. He has posted a 7/2 TD/INT ratio thus far, and most importantly, he's still healthy.

The health part is significant, since he took a number of big hits against Kansas City. He threw four touchdowns to just one (ill-advised, rookie/Favre mistake-like) interception, despite being pressured for most of the day.

Stafford has developed a bad habit of trying too hard to make something out of nothing, but he also appears to be a master of avoiding sacks. He would scramble and roll out, then double-back to avoid pursuit and scramble back towards the middle of the field, only throwing the ball away once a defender got one hand on him.

That's exactly how he got injured against Cleveland in 2009 (although that play and the ensuing one also made him a living legend), so it's understandable that Stafford's extended scrambling caused some bated breath.

Still, Stafford keeping his shoulder in its socket has to be a higher priority than squeezing in a 15-yard completion along the sideline. But don't tell him that. He's a playmaker, and he's going to do whatever he can to make plays, plain and simple. 

But never mind that. This is about what Stafford did right. Which is almost everything. He's on pace for about 4,800 yards and 56 touchdowns this season.

There's not a chance he actually keeps that pace, of course, but it's an encouraging start after an offseason full of skepticism about whether Stafford could be "the guy."

Titus Young

Titus Young was targeted once for zero receptions in Tampa. To compensate, he spent the Kansas City game posting some "are you kidding me?" moments.

He didn't quite find the end zone, and Nate Burleson had the better day overall, but Young seems to be finding his way in this offense. He finished with five receptions for 89 yards, including a 43-yard bomb from Stafford on a 3rd-and-24 play.

This game made me realize how Young can be a legitimate deep threat despite standing just a shade under six feet tall. Not only is he athletic, but he has a Stretch Armstrong-caliber wingspan.

Check out the video linked above. See how Young is notably shorter than his defender, yet when he goes up for the ball, his arms seem to reach up forever and just pluck the ball from the air? That's what you get from a second-round pick.

Eric Wright

He picked off a pass. He punched out a fumble. He notched four tackles, knocked down two passes and never let his man loose.

Maybe Eric Wright isn't Nnamdi Asomugha, but how much more can you expect from a cornerback?

I mean, if you want to take away from his accomplishments in this game, you can point out that the pick was off a hurried throw while Matt Cassel was under up-the-gut pressure from Ndamukong Suh. The fumble was punched out during garbage time and had no real effect on the outcome of the game.

But it's not like Wright did that stuff to make up for getting burned earlier. He had a great game all day, just like the rest of the secondary. Matt Cassel never got anything going. He has less passing yardage in his first two games combined then Stafford has in either game individually.

Ryan Donahue

Don't look now, but the rookie's playing some pretty good football.

Ryan Donahue has had a microscope on him since supplanting long-time punter Nick Harris in training camp, and he has not disappointed. Five of his 10 punts have been downed inside the 20-yard-line, and only two have been returned.

Total return yardage? A loss of one yard. Now, that has a whole lot to do with the coverage unit as well as Donahue, but it does mean that Donahue is hanging his punts long enough for the coverage team to get under them.

If that wasn't enough, Donahue also held for Jason Hanson on six kicks (two field goals, six extra points), all of which were good.

I wish the best for Harris for the rest of his career, but Donahue is putting him in "Nick who?" territory.

Justin Durant

I was pretty tough on Justin Durant in the preseason, and for good reason. He didn't show much at the time.

Obviously he was just saving himself.

Durant had 11 total tackles (eight solo, three assist) in this game, and he was all over the field to get them.

One tackle was for lost yardage. Some were on run plays, some were on short passes he was able to sniff out. Durant's presence helped shut down the Chiefs' short passing game.

And it appears the Chief's only passing game is the short passing game. Every time Cassel threw the ball more than 10 yards, a Lion caught it.

We're fast approaching the point where a full apology is due to the linebackers. I ripped their pedestrian performance in the preseason, but Tulloch stepped up big last week, and Durant made his name known against Kansas City.

Is DeAndre Levy due next week at the Metrodome?

Everybody in the Second Half

I'm still not sure whether to chalk this up to the Lions turning up the heat in the second half, or the Chiefs waving the white flag.

But even if it was the Chiefs coming out flat in the second half, don't the Lions deserve credit for driving them to that point in the first place?

If you wanted to be really negative, you could say the freak injury of Jamaal Charles was the proverbial tear in the Chiefs' sails. But Charles had relatively little to do with the Lions's offense hanging 48 points on the Chiefs' defense.

Regardless, I said last week that while I was upset with the Lions' lackluster attempts to close a game they controlled throughout, I blamed a great deal of it on the conditions in that game, and that I expected the Lions to close better against Kansas City at home.

I had no idea how right I was going to be. Maybe we can blame a big chunk of the scoring frenzy on the Chiefs boarding the bus with 20 minutes left in the game, but the Lions at least have to get credit for taking advantage. That's exactly what we doubted the Lions could do: kick a team when they're down.

Which brings me to my biggest winner of the game.

The Coaching Staff

I wasn't sure Jim Schwartz could properly drill discipline into his team.

The Lions finished Sunday with four penalties for 35 yards. The Chiefs had twice that many penalties and yards, and half the penalties were needless personal foul calls. They did all the stupid things the Lions did last week.

I wasn't sure if Scott Linehan could get out of his box and call the offense to close a ball game.

The Lions scored 21 points in the fourth quarter, even though they were already up 24.

I wasn't sure if Gunther Cunningham's defense could squash a comeback attempt late.

The Lions didn't give up any points after the first drive of the game and forced three turnovers in the Chiefs' final five drives.

Cunningham's unit probably has the most improvement left to make (particularly in stopping the run), but the former Chiefs head coach also had the most personally invested in getting the win.

Linehan answered questions about his "vanilla" playcalling, Schwartz answered questions about his ability to keep his team from getting flagged every other play, and Cunningham got a big win over the team he left on bad terms.

Even special teams coordinator Danny Crossman had to be pleased. His kickers were great, and his coverage teams were equally so. John Wendling showed why he earned a three-year deal despite being exclusively a special teamer. He tracked down Javier Arenas from behind as he was running east-west trying to find a crack in the punt coverage.