by Michael David SmithAny time a team loses a game in overtime -- as the Detroit Lions did against the New York Jets on Sunday -- it's easy to point to any particular play and say, "If that play had gone differently, we would have won."But Lions coach Jim Schwartz deserves scrutiny about two particular plays that were costly for the Lions in their 23-20 overtime loss: One was the incomplete pass thrown by third-string quarterback Drew Stanton with just under two minutes left in the game, and the other was the extra point that defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh missed after kicker Jason Hanson went down with an injury. If either of those two plays succeeds, the Lions win the game. Both failed, and the Lions lost.
Schwartz, to his credit, has acknowledged mistakes on both plays. But he also said his decision-making was sound.
That Stanton incomplete pass stopped the clock and gave the Jets plenty of time for their game-tying drive. A run to keep the clock going would have made a lot more sense, but Schwartz said he thought Stanton could pass for a first down -- and he said his biggest mistake was failing to emphasize to Stanton that it would be better to take a sack and keep the clock running than to throw incomplete.
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