Listen to prosportsblogging.com writer Bob Ballard as he and others discuss who will play for the BCS National Championship Game, who will win the Heisman Trophy, and predict this week’s top games.  Those games include:

   - #3 Arkansas @ #1 LSU

  - Ohio St. @ #15 Michigan

  – #2 Alabama @ Auburn

  - #22 Notre Dame @ #6 Stanford

  - #13 Georgia @ #23 Georgia Tech

Click on this link to listen: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/audioPop.jsp?episodeId=561883&cmd=apop

Before Sunday’s matchup with the Carolina Panthers, the signing of RB Kevin Smith during Detroit’s bye week barely made any headlines.  The Lions’ record when Smith played was a lousy 4-32.  Smith was a third round draft pick in 2008, but was the featured back during that awful 0-16 season with 976 yards rushing, 8 TDs.  Smith never displayed any breakaway speed and some people doubt the Lions should have drafted him in the first place  – of course, it did not help Smith’s case that he was drafted by Matt Millen.  In 2010, the Lions drafted Jahvid Best to take some of the workload from Smith.  Smith tore his ACL last year and seem forgotten as the Lions drafted another running back in 2011, Mikel Leshoure, and waived him.  Smith rehabbed his knee, but did not receive any training camp invitees by other teams due to the lockout.

While Smith was laying on his couch a couple of weeks ago, the Lions called Smith for a tryout during their bye week.  The Lions were thin at RB as Leshoure tore his achilles tendon during preseason (out for season) and Best had a concussion.  All of sudden, the Lions struggled running the ball which led to them losing 3 out of their next 4 games.   The Lions signed Smith in hope to carry the some workload off of RB Maurice Morris.  Little did they know how much they would need him on Sunday.

Much of the talk this past week was QB Matthew Stafford’s right index finger he hurt against the Broncos back a couple of weeks ago.  Stafford threw four interceptions against the Bears and fans were wondering maybe the Lions should go with backup QB Shaun Hill until Stafford was healthy.  That debate heated up quickly on Sunday as Stafford threw 2 more interceptions all in the 1st quarter.  But in the 2nd quarter, enter Kevin Smith.  Smith on the first play of the 2nd quarter, rushed for 43 yards and then on the next play scored on a 28 yard TD pass from Stafford.  Smith would finish the day with 140 yards rushing and scoring 3 TDs – all career highs.

Now Smith’s strong performance does not come against a powerful run defense.  In matter of fact, Carolina has the third-worst run defense in the NFL, allowing 140.7 yards per game on the ground, and also in the bottom five, allowing opposing backs to gain 4.8 yards per carry.  It will be interesting to see if Smith will be a major contributor throughout the rest of this season – or was this just an average running back having an unbelievable day against one of the worst run defenses in the league.

Behind Smith and Stafford, the Lions pulled out a 49-35 win despite being down by 13 at halftime.  Stafford threw for 5 TDs and while none went to WR Calvin Johnson.  As good teams are suppose to do, they found a way to win despite not playing their best.  Next up for the Lions – the Packers.  Unlike other games this season, the Lions cannot get down in the 1st half and expect to rally in the 2nd half against the undefeated Packers.

Matthew Stafford lived in Tim Tebow’s shadow during their college days when both were SEC East rivals.  As Stafford’s Georgia Bulldogs finally beat Tebow’s Florida Gators on Saturday, Stafford continued the trend as he outplayed Tebow in Detroit’s 45-10 win over the Denver Broncos.  Detroit’s defense sacked Tebow seven times and turned two turnovers into touchdowns as the Lions snapped a two game losing streak.

While Tebow was praised last week for his performance against Miami, Stafford was often criticized for his performance against both the 49ers and Falcons.  But Stafford answered his critics by going 21 for 30 for 267 yards and 3 TDs – QB rating of 130.8.  Tebow’s QB rating – a dismal 56.8.

The Lions looked like they might be in for a long afternoon during the Broncos first drive as Denver drove 64 yards down the field, but the Broncos settled for a field goal.  The Lions answered back as WR Titus Young got behind a confused Broncos secondary and was wide open for 41 yard touchdown catch.  The Lions defense made some key adjustments after the first drive as the Lions crowded the line to neutralize the Broncos running attack and forced Tebow to throw.  The Lions also blitzed 55% of the time forcing Tebow to throw early as he never got into any rhythm.

Meanwhile, the Lions offense, which has struggled the last two weeks, found ways to move the ball at will as the Lions built a 24-3 halftime lead thanks to some find catches by former Bronco TE Tony Scheffler and RB Maurice Morris’s 1 yard touchdown run.

 The Broncos did a good job containing WR Calvin Johnson in the first half thanks to All-Pro DB Champ Bailey play, but Stafford hooked up with Johnson on a 56 yard touchdown grab to take a 38-3 lead late in the third quarter.  It was Johnson’s 11 TD catch of the season tying Randy Moss as the only wide receivers since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to catch 11 TD passes in their team’s first 8 games.   

For once since the Monday Night game against the Bears three weeks ago, the Lions were having fun and looked like a team that might be headed to the playoffs.  They even poked fun of the ‘Tebowing’ craze as a couple of Lion players struck the Tebow pose during key plays. 

The Lions go into the bye week 6-2 and gained back some confidence lost during their 2 game losing streak.  Interestingly, the Lions were 6-2 four years ago after dismantling the Broncos.  Unfortunately, they went 1-7 the rest of the season.  And if that was not bad enough, they went 0-16 the following season.   But this is a different Lions team than in 2007 with offensive weapons and a dominating defense line.

One more interesting tidbit, the Lions recorded their 4th road win of the season on Sunday.  Going back to last season, they have now won 6 straight road games.   This after snapping a NFL record 26 road game losing streak.

Listen to prosportsblogging.com writers’ Bob Ballard and Darryl Jordan discuss SEC expansion and predict this week’s top games.  Those games include:

• #14 Texas A&M vs. #18 Arkansas
• Mississippi St. @ Georgia
• Auburn @ #10 South Carolina
• Michigan St. @ Ohio St.
• #13 Clemson @ #11 Virginia Tech
• #8 Nebraska @ #7 Wisconsin
• #3 Alabama @ #12 Florida

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/audioPop.jsp?episodeId=541220&cmd=apop

The Detroit Lions are now 3-0 with their unbelievable, come from behind win against the hapless Minnesota Vikings.  The Vikings dominated all three phases of the game in the first half and built a 20-0 lead by the time the half ended.  But the Vikings and the noisy crowd at the Mall of America field (also known as the Metrodome) could not stop the tandem of QB Matthew Stafford to WR Calvin Johnson in the second half and overtime as the Leos won 26-23.  Johnson already has 6 TDs this season becoming the first NFL player in history to have 6 TDs in the first 3 games of the season.

Just last year, the Lions had their 26 straight road game losing streak snapped last season against Tampa Bay – now the Lions have won 4 straight road games.  Another streak – they have won 7 straight games dating back to last season when they won their last four (they also won all four of their preseason games).  Yesterday’s game was the largest comeback on the road in franchise history after being down by 20 – third largest comeback all-time.  Let’s see – anymore positive streaks – oh yeah – they finally beat the Vikings at the Metrodome something they have not done since 1997.  That’s 13 straight losses to the Vikings on their home turf.  And finally, the Lions are 3-0 for the first time since 1980.  How long ago was that?  Stafford and most of the Lions weren’t even born yet.  Jimmy Carter was still the President of the United States.

The more important thing now is the Lions have confidence with each other.  Case in point, the game was tied at 23 late in the fourth quarter, the offensive line nearly cost the Lions the game.  Starting at their own 20-yard line, OT Jeff Backus drew two consecutive false start penalties — a rarity for him.  He followed that by allowing DT Jared Allen to get his third sack of the game, pushing Detroit back to their own three-yard line.  Allen then almost ended the game on a safety, when Lions running back Jahvid Best was forced to bounce a run outside, but the defensive end failed to wrap him up.  The Lions ended up punting and not folding under pressure as they usually would being on the road and playing in front of a hostile environment.

Give the Lions their due.  Yes, the Vikings have issues at the QB position, but they were up 20-0 and arguably have the NFL’s best running back playing in their home turf.  The Lions D came up big and only allowed Peterson to gain 7 yards in the 2nd half.  Stafford and the offense made huge plays to rally them and to setup the winning FG in OT.  The Lions never panic on Sunday before rallying in the 2nd half – something they have not done in quite some time.

The Lions hope to keep their streaks going next week when they invade Matthew Stafford’s hometown – Dallas.  It will be interesting to see how Stafford and the rest of the Lions handle their success while preparing to play the Cowboys.

Listen to prosportsblogging.com writers’ Bob Ballard and Frank Sullivan discuss Virginia Tech football and predict this week’s top games.  Those games include:

• #18 West Virginia @ Maryland
• #21 Auburn @ Clemson
• #15 Michigan St. @ Notre Dame
• Tennessee @ #16 Florida
• #24 Texas @ UCLA
• #17  Ohio St. @ Miami,FL
• #1 Oklahoma @ #5 Florida St.

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/audioPop.jsp?episodeId=534584&cmd=apop

Justin Verlander earned his 11th consecutive victory and the Tigers won their 11th win in a row with a 5-0 win over the struggling Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.  Verlander picked up his 23rd victory as he threw seven shutout innings, gave up 6 hits, and struck out six.   The Tigers have won 21 out of the past 25 games increasing their division lead to 12.5.  On August 19th, the lead was only 1.5 games over Cleveland as the Tigers hosted the Indians.  They swept the Indians that weekend and eventually never looked back.

The Tigers wrap up the series with the White Sox on Wednesday afternoon and then head off to Oakland for a 4 game series.  It’s possible the Tigers could wrap up their first division title in 24 years in Oakland as their magic number is down to 4.

Back to Verlander, it’s hard to imagine he will not win the AL Cy Young.  The real debate will be what kind of consideration will he get for AL MVP based on his stats – MLB leader in wins and strikeouts.   He also has the potential to win 25 games.   Of course, there are other AL MVP candidates – Boston 1B Adrian Gonzalez, New York Yankees CF Curtis Granderson, and Toronto OF Jose Bautista.  Let the debate begin….

The Detroit Lions opened up the 2011 season with high expectations based on their nucleus of young playmakers – QB Matthew Stafford, WR Calvin Johnson, and DT Ndamukong Suh.  It also helped that they ended the 2010 season with a 4 game winning streak without their star quarterback.  The Lions went into Raymond James stadium on Sunday with no fear despite just snapping their 26 road losing streak late last season.  For once in the past 3 seasons, the Lions did not have to worry about stopping some sort of losing streak. 

Right now, the Lions had that confidence presence not seen since the Barry Sanders days back in the 1990s.   Stafford completed 24 of 33 passes, including TD throws of 36 and 1 yards to Johnson and 11 yards to TE Tony Scheffler, for 305 yards.  The defense halted Tampa Bay’s ground game and forced Tampa Bay’s QB Josh Freeman into some quick throws.  Freeman did not get comfortable until the 4th quarter when the Buccaneers were down by 2 scores.

Now, the Lions still made plenty of mistakes.  Special teams gave up a 78 yard run that allowed Tampa Bay to kick a field goal and put up it’s first points.  OT Gosder Cherilus’ personal foul that stopped the clock late in the 4th quarter and allowed the Bucs to get the ball.  A running game that struggled at times with numerous negative running plays.  When the Lions faced adversity in previous seasons, they responded with defeat.  Sunday’s win demonstrated that the Lions are not going to let the little things bothered them as years past.

On the flip side, the Lions cannot get too excited about Sunday’s win.  No one was expecting the Buccaneers to win their division or even go to the playoffs.  Even Lions head coach Jim Schwartz blasted the Lions in the post-game press conference and carried over his frustration in his weekly presser because of their silly mistakes.  It’s a long season and while playing well is one of the keys to get in the playoffs, the Lions need a little luck and their playmakers to remain healthy if they want to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

Looks like other people are beginning to notice the Lions.  A major media outlet just released it’s weekly Power Rankings and had the Lions ranked #12.  While being ranked #12 does not put the Lions in that elite group, it does show they have come along way since 2008 when they did not win a single game.

Listen to prosportsblogging.com writers’ Bob Ballard and Darryl Jordan discuss the feature game of the week - South Carolina vs. Georgia.    Other topics:

• Mark Richt’s coaching future
• Texas A&M possibly coming to the SEC
• Predictions of this week’s top games

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/audioPop.jsp?episodeId=532309&cmd=apop

The Detroit Tigers overcame a 7 run deficit to beat division rival Chicago White Sox 9-8 in dramatic finish Saturday afternoon.   Ryan Raburn and American League MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera each homered in the bottom of 9th inning to secure the win. 

With that win, the Tigers increased their lead over the White Sox to 7.5 games.   The Tigers go for the sweep Sunday night as starter Max Scherzer takes the mound.  Scherzer has struggled recently including getting shelled by Kansas City ( 3.0 IP, 10 Hits, 7 Runs) on Monday.  He will be needed in the post season should the Tigers capture their first division title since 1987.

The White Sox came into this weekend series with the hopes of sweeping the Tigers or at least taking 2 out of 3 (they were 5.5 games out when the series began on Friday).  A loss tonight would put them 8.5 games out, but the Sox have their ace on the mound – Mark Buehrle (11-6, ERA 3.05) as their last hope.  The Tigers will face the White Sox only three more times after tonight.

As for the Cleveland Indians, they are currently 6.5 games back with a key three game series coming up against the Tigers starting on Monday.   AL Cy Young candidate Justin Verlander will be pitching against the Tribe on Wednesday.  After the series with Cleveland this week, the Tigers play the Indians once more at home to conclude the season.

Things are setting up nicely for the Tigers to enter the postseason for the first time since their 2006 World Series appearance.