The Lions found exactly the cure they needed to snap a two-game losing streak today – Tim Tebow and the woeful Broncos.
Matthew Stafford threw for 267 yards and three touchdowns in three quarters and the Lions blitzed, battered and mocked Tebow to enter their bye week with a resounding 45-10 victory at Sports Authority Field.
Stafford, who sprained his right ankle in last week’s loss to the Falcons, completed his first seven passes and was 21 of 30 when he gave way to Shaun Hill in the fourth quarter.
He threw touchdown passes to Titus Young (41 yards; the first of Young’s career), Tony Scheffler (1) and Calvin Johnson (56; his NFL-best 11th), and the Lions added defensive scores on a fumble return by Cliff Avril and 100-yard interception return by Chris Houston.
A week after leading the Broncos to a come-from-behind victory over the Dolphins, Tebow was terrible in defeat.
He completed just 18 of 39 passes for 172 yards, but most of his stats came late with the game well out of reach. Tebow didn’t top 100 yards passing until midway through the fourth quarter and finished with a quarterback rating of 56.8.
The Lions flustered Tebow with their most aggressive game plan of the year, blitzing the unorthodox signal caller from every angle and sacking him seven times.
Avril had two sacks, stripping the ball from Tebow on both occasions. Tebow recovered his own fumble in the first quarter, but Avril scooped up his second and returned it 24 yards for a score early in the third.
The Broncos (2-5) drove for a field goal on the game’s opening possession – Tebow just missed Eric Decker for a touchdown when Decker only got one foot down in the end zone – then had just one first down on their next nine drives.
The Lions, meanwhile, avoided the slow starts that doomed them the last two weeks and dampered their 5-0 start.
Stafford hit a wide-open Young in the middle of the end zone on the Lions’ opening drive, and Scheffler and Maurice Morris (1 yard) added touchdowns before halftime to give the Lions a 24-3 lead.
The Lions forced three Broncos turnovers in the second half – the two touchdown returns and a fourth-quarter fumble – and mocked Tebow on several occasions. Linebacker Stephen Tulloch knelt over the quarterback in pretend prayer after his first-half sack (a pose coined as Tebowing last week) and Scheffler half-Tebowed then gave Johnson a Mile High salute after his touchdown.
Johnson finished with six catches for 125 yards and joined Randy Moss as the only players since the merger to score 11 touchdowns in their first eight games.
The Lions (6-2) enter their bye week with the third-best record in the NFC, behind only the Packers (7-0) and 49ers (6-1), and in control of their own playoff destiny.
The last time they started 6-2 was in 2007, when they drubbed the Broncos, 44-7, at the halfway point then proceeded to lose seven of their final eight games.
