Stafford had one semi-serious injury during his high school and college years, but is already facing his second of his short NFL career. In the first half, Stafford was drilled from the blindside by Julius Peppers and had his throwing shoulder driven into the ground. Stafford immediately rolled over in pain and walked gingerly off the field, nursing his right arm. While the Lions offense wasn't going to get back on the field in the first half, Stafford's pads were off before the final seconds ticked off and seen displaying some negative body language, dejectedly shaking his head when talking to teammates. In the second half, Stafford didn't come out until the Lions second possession. He was in street clothes and a sling. Eek.

There were no other reports after the game, but there has been speculation that he could miss anywhere from 2-6 weeks. Peter King said it was a second degree sprain and he'll miss two weeks, while Jason LaCanfora of NFL Network said the Lions are bracing to be without their second-year quarterback for 4-6 weeks.

Nobody from the Lions mainstreem media is reporting anything nor speculating anything beyond "it doesn't look good,"

I guess we'll do the same. If you think "doesn't look good," is 2-6 weeks, then I'm comfortable saying that considering the body language, sling and unconfirmed speculation from normally reputable sources. If "doesn't look good," means more than 4-6 weeks to you, I'd say wait until we hear some results. Stafford is expected to be examined on Monday, so we all should know more by Tuesday. Let's just hope today's referee crew isn't interpretating his test results.

Here it is. The Calvin Johnson touchdown catch that was ruled a touchdown on the field by the referee in the picture and then overturned (in fact, it was overturned on the field, reviewed, and the second on-field call was upheld -- no touchdown).

Everyone's citing the NFL rule as the fault here, not the ultimate call:

The rule in question states, "If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball after he touches the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone. If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete."

The rule is actually being misinterpreted here. Calvin had control of the ball the entire time - from the time he first snagged it mid-air, to the time his butt hit the ground. The rule says that if he loses control prior to the ball touching the ground, it's incomplete. But he had control prior to the ball touching the ground when he used the ball to break his fall, therefore "the pass is complete."

Lions should be 1-0, or at least up 20-19 with a two-point conversion on the way with 24 seconds left. Instead, Lions fans like me just want to eat a tube of cookie dough and cry mercilessly:

Ndamukong Suh put out a personal video today on Twitter of him signing his playing cards and putting them in envelopes, while relaying a very nervous/probably scripted "just showing my fans some love" message. Super move by the Suh PR team.

I can't recall ever seeing a player put out a video of himself signing autographs for his fans. Social medias like Twitter make this type of stuff more noticeable. It's awesome.

For the third year in a row, D4L will be making weekly NFL picks against the spread. In the past, I'd explain my picks and give you a prediction for Game of the Week, but I'll probably just let the highlighting do the talking most weeks this season. It'll save me some embarrassment. Anyway, on to the picks.

Here are my picks for Week 1 (all picks are highlighted in yellow):

GoW: Colts @ Texans - Texas shootout and Texans win a close one late.

Dupree's Week 1 picks (he decided to get all fancy on us):

Rob's Week 1 picks:

GoW: Minnesota wins on a last minute Brett Favre TD pass.

Brady's Week 1 picks (click to enlarge):

Standings

This website is insane. It lets you simulate games between any teams from any year. And, since it is on the internet, you know that the logic it uses is flawless. Anyways, I took some of Detroit's best and put them to the test.

Classic matchup #1.

The 2008 Lions (0-16) vs. the 2007 Patriots (16-0)

Sorry for the spoiler up above, but as you see the Lions were just too much for the overmatched Patriots. Tom Brady's Bieber hair cut was probably the reason.

If you haven't been to Dr. Rahmani, that might be difficult to read. Here you go. As you can see, A Dan Orlovsky to Mike Furrey TD in the 4th put the game essentially out of reach for the hapless Pats. Sadly, the '08 Lions were not always victorious, such as this game, when they lost a squeaker by 77.

After the jump, two more "classic" matchups.

Louis Delmas made his 2010 debut in this past Saturday's preseason game against the Browns and was all kinds of jacked up. So jacked up that he truck sticked some kids running onto the field after being introduced. The falling bowling kids starts around the 1:15 mark:

[Pride of Detroit]

The Freep supplied the picture, and the NFL supplied the video. I about choked on my cornbread when Suh decided preseason game 3 was time to prove that his Dick's TV commercial was for realzies. After he pulls Delhomme down by the face mask, his pick up and throw of him was classic NFL Blitz.

I guess when this is on the line...you let it all hang out. The Lions are once again champions of the Great Lakes Classic after a 35-27 victory. This is the first of many championships we can expect our 2010 Lions to bring home. Here's my expert summary after watching the game on a shoddy internet stream....Offense, good. Defense, poor. Knowing this, I think a good strategy for the Lions this season would to be to score on every possession. This would significantly improve their chances of success.

Oohhhh, just breathe in that nostalgia. Some of my fondest memories were of playing Green Bay and sacking Favre and doing flying elbow drops on him after every play. And then the Lions would win the championship. And then I would drink some capri suns. And then I would chat with mega babes on AOL chatrooms. Yep.

Lions first-round pick Ndamukong Suh was in a car accident last night in Royal Oak, MI when a woman turning onto Campbell hit Suh's car. Suh, of course, was uninjured, but the woman who hit him was taken to the hospital with "minor injuries." Authorities are saying that not being hit by Suh saved her life. Suh was not at fault and there is no word yet whether or not he will SUH (!) her for being a huge inconvenience to his evening.

[SB Nation Detroit]

On paper, it seems like Lions GM Martin Mayhew knows something the rest of the NFL doesn't. Today, Mayhew added to his list of "great trades at first glance" by trading an undisclosed draft pick (rumor is a 6th rounder) to the Seattle Seahawks for DE Lawrence Jackson.

Jackson was a first round pick out of USC in 2008, but hasn't impressed in the NFL so far. He has just 4.5 sacks in two years, but hopefully a new team will revitalize the promising young player. A couple years under the tutelage of Kyle Vanden Bosch probably won't hurt either.

If there's one thing to worry about with this trade, it's that Pete Carroll -- Jackson's college coach, remember -- was OK with trading him away. Still, considering how Carroll's last NFL stint went, I like this move.

[Pride of Detroit]

Something tells me Tiki Barber took one too many thumps to the head during his 10-year NFL career. While many reasonable individuals -- this writer included -- are expecting a modest improvement out of the Lions, Tiki Barber is going through Kool-Aid like Lindsey Lohan goes through cocaine. Barber went out on a limb jumped off a cliff and predicted 9+ wins for the Lions this year in a Yahoo Sports segment.

Even the fake-tan-sporting Larry Biel thinks Tiki is nuts for that prediction. I will give him this though: if the defensive line is as dominant as they were in the early part of the Lions' first preseason game, Tiki might not turn out to be as bat-shit crazy as he seems right now.

[SB Nation Detroit]