Lions' Ndamukong Suh Fined $15,000 For Hit On Bears' Jay Cutler

Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz felt that defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh shouldn’t have been penalized for his hit on Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler last Sunday. Suh was flagged for unnecessary roughness, a penalty that gave the Bears a first-and-goal at the seven-yard line, helping them toward a game-winning touchdown.

Suh said on Tuesday that he hit Cutler “on top of the numbers on his back,” but acknowledged that Ed Hochuli called what he thought he saw on the play.

Despite replays supporting Suh’s contention, the NFL agreed rather authoritatively with Hochuli’s call and fined Suh $15,000 on Wednesday for his “unnecessary non-football act.” Suh said he would appeal the fine, however.

From the Detroit Free Press:

“I do intend to appeal it and, to be honest with you, my mentality right now is I owe it to my teammates, the fans and the former players and my coaches to play as hard as I can,” Suh said [Wednesday]. “At that particular point in time and throughout that game, all I was trying to do was play as hard as I can. As Cutler was trying to make a play, I was trying to make a play.”

Fanhouse’s Michael David Smith asks a pertinent question: If replays showed Suh didn’t level Cutler with a dirty hit, why did the league still fine him harshly? Smith’s theory is that it’s all about perception. Suh’s hit looked dirty, so maybe this was a warning to him to cool it (also factoring in his hit on the Browns’ Jake Delhomme during the preseason, for which he was fined $7,500).

Does this mean Suh needs to change the way he plays? Schwartz said he wasn’t sure what he should tell Suh to do in such a situation.

“I think that there’s some things you can learn from, and I think Suh learned a lot from the preseason play on Jake Delhomme,” Schwartz said. “That was a play that happened on his college tape about three or four times, him doing that to quarterbacks, and he never got penalized for it in college and got penalized for it in the preseason and learned how NFL officials are going to protect the quarterbacks. This is a little different situation.”

VIDEO: Lions Ndamukong Suh's Personal Foul Penalty On Jay Cutler Has Jim Schwartz Confused

Ndamukong Suh, defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions, has been known to be a bit rough when it comes to sacking the opponents quarterback, but Lions head coach Jim Schwartz doesn’t believe Suh should have been flagged for his hit on Jay Cutler over the weekend.

“It’s been reported that the flag was thrown because Cutler was hit in the back of the head when he was in the process of going down. I think it’s fairly obvious that neither of those ended up being correct,” Schwartz during a press conference Monday. " I know he wasn’t hit in the head and I know he wasn’t going down, I know that for sure. There are a lot of things that somebody thinks they see on the field, they think he stepped out of bounds but he really didn’t, or they think it was a facemask and it really wasn’t. That stuff occurs, it happens in the game."

Looking at the video, shown below, it seems that Schwartz is right to be confused.

Lions Vs. Bears: Jay Cutler's 4th Quarter Touchdown Gives Chicago 24-20 Win

Detroit, MI (Sports Network) - Brandon Manumaleuna caught the game-winning touchdown pass in the fourth quarter as the Chicago Bears rallied for a 24-20 win over the Detroit Lions at Ford Field.

Jay Cutler went 21-for-26 with 234 yards and one touchdown while Matt Forte and Chester Taylor each ran for a score for the Bears (9-3), who have taken five straight and will remain a game ahead of Green Bay for the top spot in the NFC North as the Packers are currently dominating San Francisco late in the fourth.

Earl Bennett caught seven passes for 104 yards as Chicago improved to 5-1 on the road this season.

Drew Stanton, making the start courtesy of injuries to Matthew Stafford and Shaun Hill, had 178 yards and a score on 16-of-24 passing for the Lions (2-10), who have dropped five straight. Calvin Johnson caught three passes for 66 yards and a score in the loss.

Video: Someone Needs To Teach Drew Stanton How To Dougie

Drew Stanton put the Lions on top by a score of 7-0 in the first quarter of today's game between Detroit and the Chicago Bears. Stanton scored the TD on a quarterback draw and celebrated the score by doing the Dougie. Actually, I should say he attempted to do the Dougie because, well, it wasn't exactly the smoothest end zone dance I have ever seen. Check it out for yourself:

The Lions are currently trailing the Bears, 14-10. Hopefully by the end of the game Stanton will have scored a few more times so he can refine his end zone celebration. I'm not saying Stanton trying to do the Dougie was the worst celebration I've ever seen, but it definitely needs some work. Maybe he can call up former rival Braylon Edwards or even Puddles the duck (Oregon's mascot) for advice.

(All kidding aside, it was a good play by Stanton. So far he has played pretty well and most importantly, hasn't made many mistakes.)

Lions QB Shaun Hill Says He'll Play Again This Season

Earlier in the week, reports said Detroit Lions quarterback Shaun Hill might be done for the rest of the season, due to a broken finger on his throwing hand.

Hill says, however, that reports of his demise are greatly exaggerated. Though he’s out for Sunday’s game versus the Chicago Bears, Hill says that he’ll return this season. Exactly when?

From MLive.com:

“I don’t know, to be honest with you. I’d like to think, historically, that I’m a pretty quick healer. Definitely before the season is over.’’

HIll actually finished the Lions’ game against the New England Patriots with that broken finger. But previous experience with a similar injury is what gives him confidence he’ll play again this year.

“I never took any time on that one,‘’ Hill said. "It was a very similar break. A different knuckle, but similar break. I just kept playing with it. It turned that whole joint into bone dust and needed to take a bone out of my left hand to reconstruct that joint. I can’t do that on this one. I’ve definitely got to make sure that it gets healed.’’

After Sunday’s game with the Bears, the Lions have four games remaining on their 2010 schedule.

Lions Vs. Bears: Injury Report

The injury report for Sunday's Lions-Bears game is flat out depressing to look at. The Bears have only one player on their entire injury report. The Lions, on the other hand, are down two quarterbacks and starting defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch is doubtful to play on Sunday. Starting right tackle Gosder Cherilus is questionable, so it's no guarantee he will play as well. Needless to say, the Lions are a banged up football team, whereas the Bears are very healthy.

Detroit Lions

QB Shaun Hill (Right Finger) - Out

QB Matthew Stafford (Right Shoulder) - Out

RB Jahvid Best (Toe) - Probable

WR Nate Burleson (Hamstring) - Probable

TE Tony Scheffler (Rib) - Probable

OT Gosder Cherilus (Knee) - Questionable

DE Kyle Vanden Bosch (Neck) - Doubtful

DE Cliff Avril (Quadricep) - Probable

DT Corey Williams (Shoulder) - Probable

LB DeAndre Levy (Groin) - Probable

Chicago Bears

LB Pisa Tinoisamoa (Knee) - Out

Lions' Nate Burleson: 'I Said We're Going To Win'

Okay, it’s not quite Joe Namath guaranteeing the New York Jets would beat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. But any time an athlete on one team says they’re going to win a game, eyebrows are raised.

Detroit Lions wide receiver Nate Burleson is the latest to make such a bold statement, guaranteeing a win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

From the Detroit News:

“Yeah, I said we’re going to win,” Burleson said. "We only have five games left and my goal is to finish 7-9. Like I’ve been saying all year, we don’t have a team on our schedule that we can’t beat.

Never mind that the players, coaches, etc. should feel that way, right? Have we ever heard someone say, “Well, we might win, but I doubt it. We stink, really.” Now that would be worth a blog post (or news article)!

But Burleson wouldn’t say that. He said so:

“I am not saying the Chicago Bears aren’t good,” Burleson said. “They are a very good football team. They can take this as bulletin board material if they want, but we play to win the game. I am not going to tell you I hope we win or that we’re going to lose in a close battle. Whoever steps onto our home field Sunday, we’re going to try and leave with a victory.”

ESPN.com’s Kevin Seifert thinks Burleson isn’t naive with the media. He knows exactly what he’s saying and how it will be perceived. Well, this does make things a bit more interesting.

The Bears have beaten the Lions in their last five meetings, by the way. Maybe that makes the Lions due for a victory. But how often has it really worked out that way for Detroit’s Honolulu Blue-clad gridiron heroes?

Lions Vs. Bears: Detroit Reaches Sellout

The Lions announced earlier today that they reached a sellout for Sunday's game against the Bears. It is their fifth sellout of the season, leaving the Redskins game as the only one that has been blacked out locally so far this season.

With Sunday's game being sold out, 2010 will have the most sellouts in a season since 2007 for the Lions. In 2007, the Lions sold out all eight home games, but in recent years that number had dropped drastically. This year, however, the number of sold out games is back on the up and up.

After Sunday the Lions will have two home games left: one next week against the Packers and one in the final week of the season against Minnesota. There is a good chance both of those games could be sellouts. There are no guarantees obviously, but I'm sure the Lions would be ecstatic with only having one game blacked out this year given their bad record and the state of the local economy.

Drew Stanton Will Start Sunday; Zac Robinson Will Back Him Up

Per 97.1 The Ticket, Drew Stanton has been named the starter for Sunday’s game against the Bears, further corroborating the report that Shaun Hill might be done for the season.

Zac Robinson will be Stanton’s back up and, according to Jim Schwartz, the offense will not change under Stanton.

Report: Shaun Hill Out For Season With Broken Finger

Yeah, so, the quarterback situation I touched on in the update I posted earlier seems to have gotten a little murkier.

Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press is now reporting that Shaun Hill might be done for the season:

The Detroit Lions are down to their third option at quarterback for the foreseeable future.

Shaun Hill broke the index finger on his throwing hand in the first half of last week’s loss to the Patriots and could miss the remainder of the season, a person familiar with the situation said.  

Considering the team worked out a pair of former Lions QBs, J.T. O'Sullivan and Josh McCown, on Monday, this definitely seems very believable.

If Drew Stanton is indeed the starter on Sunday against the Bears -- and he's the only remaining healthy QB that fully knows the offense at this point -- he'll have his best opportunity to prove his worth in the NFL. Stanton, who will be a free agent at the end of the season, has been given virtually zero chances of proving himself despite the fact there has been plenty of quarterback controversies and injuries during his tenure with the Lions. It'd also be pretty fitting if the first of what could ultimately be five very telling starts for Stanton comes against Rod Marinelli and Mike Martz, the two jackals who never really gave Stanton a fair chance to develop on the field.

I'm sure Schwartz will provide all the answers we're looking for tomorrow. Heh.

Lions Vs. Bears: Shaun Hill Doesn't Practice; Drew Stanton Takes Starter Reps

The perk of playing on Thanksgiving Day after a short week of practice is the Lions receive bonus time to prepare for their Week 13 match up against the Chicago Bears. It's obviously not as much time as they had before their Week 1 showdown, which resulted in the infamous "The Process" call, but the Lions could definitely benefit from this extra time. The Bears are riding a four-game winning streak, sit atop the NFC North and the Lions, who are mirroring a four-game losing streak, have a ton of wounds to lick before Sunday.

The quarterback situation, as it has been almost all season, is the murkiest. Shaun Hill, who has been playing while simultaneously recovering from a broken left forearm, did not practice on Tuesday with what is being called a finger injury. He was seen standing on the sidelines next to Matthew Stafford during the media portion of practice with a splint on his right index finger. 

Stafford, who said he might start throwing this week, also did not practice, nor was he seen making any throws.

As a result, Drew Stanton took all the starter reps. 

Jim Schwartz refused to comment on the quarterback situation, or any other injury situation for that matter:

"I’m really not going to comment on anything. We’re at Tuesday, it’s an extra day for us, a bonus day very similar to what we did coming off the bye week with the Redskins. With the Bears not practicing today it doesn’t make any sense to talk about ourselves, who practiced and who didn’t."

Kyle Vanden Bosch and Jahvid Best did not practice at all, either. Vanden Bosch's injury could be serious, according to Schwartz after Thursday's game, and Best is still recovering from turf toe(s), which kept him sidelined on Thanksgiving. 

These are not the names you want to see on an injury report with somewhat of a buzz saw coming to town.