My brother took me to the Lions-Steelers game today. It was my first time at an NFL game, and my first time at Ford Field. And even though the Lions lost 28-20, I still had a fun time. Here are a few thoughts:
- I wasn't sure how I would like football in an indoor stadium. It does feel different, but not bad-different, just different-different. If I had to choose I would pick an outdoor stadium...but don't ask me that in late November....
- I enjoyed watching the defenses move around pre-snap, attempting to disguise coverages and confuse the offense. You can see the offense audible on TV, but you almost never get to see what the defense is doing to force those audibles. It's interesting to see the cat-and-mouse game. The safety moves up and shows blitz, the OL audibles, the safety moves back, the QB audibles, the linebacker moves, the QB audibles again.......it's not just Peyton Manning making the pre-snap reads (although I think that it would be fun to see Peyton live, at least just as a comparison)
- It would be a lot more fun to attend games if the Lions were better.
- The Lions have a "fight song" that they play after every score. I had no idea it even existed. I have to say though, I'm not a fan of professional sports teams having songs, leave that to college football. (The only professional teams allowed to have songs are soccer teams, with the stipulation that they are sung throughout the entire game.)
- TV timeouts ruin the flow of the game.
- There were WAY too many Steelers fans at the game today. It was at least a 50-50 crowd, if not slightly tilted in the Steelers favor. Absolutely no home-field advantage, it's sad. It was weird during the end of the game, when the Steelers fans were trying to do a "let's go Steelers" chant and the Lions fans were doing a "here we go Lions, here we go" chant at the same time. It turned into a big competition as to who could be loud enough to get their chant intelligible.....no one won.
-Punts and field goals are a lot more impressive live than on TV.
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6 comments:
Soooooo...
Which is better (or would you prefer): being at the game live, or in the comfort of your home???
Be honest now...
Assuming the ticket is free, I would rather go to the game and watch it live than watch it on TV.
I would have guessed you would have chosen the other way around, with the sole reason being the long commercial breaks that interupt the flow and action of the game. That's what would bother the heck out of me, and why I like having the option of switching to another game that's not on commercial.
I'd be curious to see how the Ford Field experience (dome) compares to the Lambeau experience. Would the atmosphere trump the bitter cold? Would the prestige of a winning franchise make the game feel more...special (like you were on hallowed grounds)? I think I'd rather be in Ford Field with the Lions...70 degrees and comfortable. Fuck the Packers and fuck their tradition.
I think I agree with you about Lambeau, but if I were a Packers fan, it might be different
Woah I leave for 2 weeks and your blog format changes. I like it - it seems like a very appropriate design. I saw this game from a complete box score/article perspective in the Monday edition of USA Today. They said the crowd was mostly Steelers and that the Lions offense had to watch the snap because they couldn't hear the QB. It appears that Culpepper had a good outing - where would we be had they started him all season? Or is it not fair to pin anything on Stafford?
NFL is the only sport I haven't seen live, but I know from my other experiences that it is always better live. I agree that fight songs need to be left to soccer and college.
I think that the experience with the weather has to depend on the gameplay. Stacey and I inexplicably got front row tickets for a MSU game on the 30/40 yard line against Minnesota because it was raining and about 45 degrees. As miserable as the weather was, we loved having great seats and getting to see them win by 20-30 points.
Did you take any photos of the game?
Welcome back Adam!
Culpepper played decent, I would put this loss on the defense more than anything. I think Stafford would have had about the same result. (The loss of Calvin Johnson hurt a lot, no matter who is the QB)
Winning definitely cures bad weather...but losing makes it worse.
I didn't take any photos, we remembered the camera right when we got to our seats. (Murphy's law of course)
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