Detroit Lions– 17, New Orleans Saints – 31

It’s starting to become quite fun to watch the Lions each week, just for the opportunity to see in what way they’ll self destruct in a game.  This week, it was stupid penalties that did them in, as they racked up a whopping 11 for 107 yards, making it so Matthew Stafford (408 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) didn’t have much choice but to air it out early and often.  Drew Brees (342 yards, 3 TDs) made the Lions pay for their mistakes over and over again, tossing out 300 and 3 as easily as any other QB in the league can.

Look at that, Robert Meachem (3-119, 1 TD) showed up all of a sudden!  I predicted a long bomb to Meachem in this game in my preview of this matchup (http://www.footballnation.com/content/week-13-fantasy-football-previews/11495/2/), and I even predicted that Devery Henderson (0-0) would disappear after having a fine game last week.  Yes, I’m tooting my own horn… live with it.   Marques Colston (6-54) didn’t have quite the type of game I thought he would have, but Jimmy Graham (8-89) was indeed a matchup nightmare that the Lions had no real answers for.

Nate Burleson (5-93) ended up with decent enough stats; too bad he got flagged not one, not twice, but three times for offensive pass interference.  Burleson was one of the biggest drive killers in the game for the Lions.  Calvin Johnson (6-69) had a fairly quiet game, as he’s slowed considerably from his first half of the season pace.

Mark Ingram (16 car., 54 yards, 1 TD) had his second straight week with a touchdown, as he was once again used to grind out the clock at the end of the game.  As long as the Saints are up by two scores in a game, Ingram will be a good play.  Darren Sproles (4 car., 28 yards; 5 rec., 46 yards, 1 TD) got back in the endzone after a drought of a few weeks as well, and looks to be back on track to being an important cog in fantasy playoff teams.

Well, Kevin Smith (6 car., 34 yards, 1 TD; 6 rec., 46 yards) does happen to look good for the 1.5 quarters he plays in games these days.  He didn’t play a whole lot, but he ended up with just as good of stats as Maurice Morris (12 car., 28 yards; 5 rec., 47 yards, 1 TD), who played almost the entire game once Smith got hurt again.

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