How the Detroit Lions finally were able to 'finish' in upset of Arizona Cardinals

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Maybe this was just the Detroit Lions being the Detroit Lions. It wasn't the first time, after all, that they won a game no one gave them a chance to win, against a hot team that had taken the NFL by storm.

But after Matt Prater made a 39-yard field goal as time expired to beat the previously unbeaten Arizona Cardinals, 26-23, the Lions, you could sense, felt like it was something more.

Prater made all four of his kicks Sunday after a couple long, costly misses earlier this season, and the Lions overcame the type of mistakes — and turned in the type of defensive effort — that had haunted them early in the season to snap an 11-game losing streak that dated back to last year.

“We put it on ourselves, man,” linebacker Jamie Collins said. “We set our bar high on defense no matter what. It’s been rough the last couple of games, but this don’t stop. Regardless of what we’ve giving up, we’ve still got games to play.”

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The Lions turned three Kyler Murray interceptions into 10 points, got two big defensive stops in the fourth quarter and withstood a late-game penalty to set up Prater’s heroics.

Murray, who generated early season MVP buzz for his play the first two weeks of the season, struggled Sunday against a defense that entered the week near the bottom of the league in points and yards allowed.

The Lions clouded Murray’s passing lanes by playing more zone defense than usual, kept his big-play scrambling ability in check with a disciplined pass rush and were opportunistic when he made poor throws.

Duron Harmon intercepted a Murray pass on the opening drive, Collins had another pick in the second quarter that set up a Lions touchdown, and rookie Jeff Okudah got his first career pick late in the third quarter to set up a field goal.

Entering Sunday, the Lions were one of two NFL teams without a takeaway.

“I think I’ll probably keep the philosophy (of how to stop Murray) to ourselves, but I think the guys did a good job,” Lions coach Matt Patricia said. “You can see how dangerous he is when he gets out in space. I mean, there’s a couple plays in there and we had a couple missed tackles on him. He’s got unbelievable quickness, he’s got unbelievable acceleration and obviously that was a big priority for us just to make sure that we did the best we could to stop him. He’s going to make plays, but we just got to line up and try to make the next one the best that we can.”

Murray was 23 of 35 passing for 270 yards and two touchdowns, but the Lions’ much-maligned defense came up with two huge stops in the fourth quarter.

Trailing 23-20 with 12:08 to play, Patricia passed on a 58-yard field goal attempt and opted to punt. Jack Fox pinned the Cardinals at their own 2-yard line, and the Lions forced two incomplete passes as Arizona (2-1) went three-and-out on the series.

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The Lions (1-2) tied the game on their next drive, an eight-play march that covered just 19 yards, then got another big defensive stand when they forced two Murray incompletions near midfield.

With 4:49 on the clock, the Lions started the winning drive at their own 9-yard line. Matthew Stafford picked up first downs with completions to Adrian Peterson and Marvin Jones, then had a long pass to Marvin Hall nullified by a holding penalty.

In previous weeks, the Lions compounded mistakes one on top of another, but on Sunday, they shrugged off the setback, drew a pass interference penalty on the next play, then moved quickly into field goal range.

“You can’t flinch in that situation,” wide receiver Kenny Golladay said. “And we didn’t. We overcame the flag and we went out there and we just made plays.”

Prater, who missed a 55-yard field goal wide right in the fourth quarter of the Lions’ season-opening loss to the Chicago Bears, and a 57-yard wide right just before halftime of last week’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, made kicks of 37, 24, 35 and 39 yards Sunday.

“I'm happy for him," Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford said. "He's as clutch as they get. I've been around him long enough to know he loves that moment. That moment has Matt Prater written all over it."

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Stafford finished 22-of-31 passing for 270 yards and two touchdowns and Peterson added 75 yards on 22 carries for the Lions, who host the New Orleans Saints next Sunday in an effort to even their record heading into the bye.

“At the end of the day, we just said we had to finish,” Harmon said. “We had to play better, we had to do better and nothing was perfect today. But what we did was finish and we fought throughout the whole game. We said we wasn’t going to go in the tank, when something bad happened we wasn’t going to just let it deter us form what we wanted to do and that’s win.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. The Free Press has started a new digital subscription model. Here's how you can gain access to our most exclusive Lions content.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How Detroit Lions finally were able to 'finish' off Arizona Cardinals