Calvin Johnson Injury: At 5-2, Detroit Lions Thriving Without Primary Offensive Weapon Megatron after Beating New Orleans Saints and Drew Brees
Golden Tate is thriving right along with his new team, the Detroit Lions, after signing with them in free agency after winning the Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks last year. With Calvin Johnson and Reggie Bush missing much of the season thus far due to injury. With the absence of quarterback Matt Stafford's primary offensive weapon in Megatron, newcomer Golden Tate has become Stafford's favorite new target. And although New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton was vocally displeased with some of the calls made during the game, Drew Brees and the Saints couldn't topple the (now) 5-2 Lions.
Detroit are perhaps exceeding outside expectations this season, even if they had high hopes for themselves.
New addition Golden Tate is certainly making a big contribution, especially in the two weeks Megatron has been out with an ankle injury. His career-high ten catches for 154 yards on Sunday certainly seemed to impress Detroit QB Matt Stafford (via NFL.com):
"That play he made on that long touchdown is as good of a play as I've seen in a long time. Gave him a chance on a ball. He came back and caught it, he did the rest."
As for Johnson, no one within the organization is prepared to discuss a time table for his return (via Detroit Free Press):
"It's not going to be a thing of degrees. It's when they say he's cleared and he's ready to go and he's feeling great. When the doctors give us that OK, that's when it's going to happen. And there's not going to be a whole lot of in-betweens."
As for New Orleans' disappointing season, coach Sean Payton didn't necessarily blame their loss to Detroit on bad officiating, but he let it be known he wasn't happy about a few certain calls.
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