Only for Guild Members » starts. He said if the Lions had played well

DETROIT (AP) — Davis Webb took a step toward restoring confidence that he can be a capable backup quarterback for the New York Giants.Webb took advantage of his opportunity to play for Eli Manning Michael Roberts Jersey , throwing a go-ahead touchdown in the second quarter to help the New York Giants beat the Detroit Lions 30-17 Friday night.“Everyone says that wins don’t matter in the preseason, but they leave a much better feeling in the locker room,” Giants coach Pat Shurmur said.Webb was 14 of 20 for 140 yards with an 8-yard TD pass to Wayne Gallman Jr., who scored for a second time later in the game. Webb showed poise in the pocket and touch down the field, connecting on a perfectly lofted 40-yard pass to Russell Shepard to set up Aldrick Rosas‘ 55-yard field goal in the second quarter.“I just wanted to hit the reset button on everything that happened last week,” Webb said.Manning, a two-time Super Bowl MVP, was a healthy scratch.Webb, a 2017 third-round pick, played well after performing well last week. He was 9 of 22 for 70 yards, sailing passes over open receivers in the preseason opening loss against Cleveland to raise some concerns about whether he’s ready to be the team’s No. 2 quarterback.“I was very happy to see Davis Webb bounce back that well as a starter,” Shurmur said. “He made significant improvements from last week to this week, and that shows why we have so much confidence in him. I thought he was calmer and he did a very nice job.”The Giants rested rookie running back Saquon Barkley with a strained hamstring and didn’t test receiver Odell Beckham Jr.’s surgically repaired ankle.Giants rookie quarterback Kyle Lauletta, a fourth-round pick, scrambled and scored on a 10-yard run in the third quarter to put the Giants ahead 17-3. Gallman took an inside handoff and bounced to the outside on an 11-yard run to put New York up by three TDs early in the fourth.The Lions started Matthew Stafford after sitting him in last week’s game at Oakland and he didn’t have much time to make plays behind a porous offensive line. Stafford was 2 of 5 for 51 yards and was sacked twice and hit once as he threw.Detroit coach Matt Patricia, though Travis Fulgham Detroit Lions Jersey , refused to blame the guys up front.“I don’t think we played particularly well at any position,” he said.Jake Rudock replaced Stafford in the second quarter and finished 23 of 30 for 171 yards with a TD. Rudock came back in the fourth, relieving veteran Matt Cassel, who threw an interception.Even though it was just a preseason game, Patricia was clearly not happy with his players, staff and himself.“We got to do a better job and it starts with me,” he said. “We’ve got to get these guys ready to go. We obviously have a lot of work to do.”INJURIESGiants: RB Jalen Simmons left the game in the second half with a concussion. Shepard left the game in the fourth with a finger injury.Lions: LB Steve Longa appeared to hurt his right knee when he tried to tackle Lauletta on his TD run in the third quarter. After being evaluated on the field, Longa walked off the field slowly and went toward the locker room.HE’S BACKLions defensive end Ezekiel Ansah played for the first time this preseason, coming back from an undisclosed injury that kept him out of the beginning of training camp.“I noticed him on a couple plays,” Patricia said. “It was good that he was out there, working hard.”NATIONAL ANTHEMThere were no player protests during the national anthem. The Lions, as they did last week, stood on the sideline with their arms locked together. The Giants all stood at attention and many players held their right hand over their heart.PREGAME CHATHall of Fame running back Barry Sanders met Barkley before the game, chatted briefly and posed for some pictures.“He’s put together,” Sanders said.UP NEXTGiants: Face the Jets on the field they share, technically as the visitors on Aug. 24.Lions: Visit Tampa Bay on Aug. 24. DETROIT (AP)Matthew Stafford and Jim Caldwell could offer no easy solutions to the problem that won’t go away for the Detroit Lions. Another slow start forced the Lions to try to come from behind Thursday Travis Fulgham Jersey 2019 , and they fell short in a 30-23 loss to Minnesota that likely ended Detroit’s chances of winning the NFC North. The Lions trailed 13-0 early, and although they’ve spent much of the past two seasons pulling off fourth-quarter comebacks, they weren’t up to the task this time. Afterward, Stafford and Caldwell were asked about Detroit’s poor starts and what can be done about them. ”Nothing other than what I know,” said Caldwell, in his fourth season as the team’s coach. ”It’s just hard work. Just keep working at it.” The Lions have been outscored 73-30 in the first quarter this season and 68-57 in the third. They’ve outscored opponents 106-79 in the second and 101-44 in the fourth. That pattern continued in their Thanksgiving matchup with the Vikings. Detroit wasted solid field position after the opening kickoff, going three-and-out and then punting. Minnesota promptly drove 80 yards in 14 plays, scoring the opening touchdown on a 1-yard pass when the Lions had only 10 men on the field. Then Detroit turned the ball over on a fumbled exchange between Stafford and Ameer Abdullah. The Vikings quickly added another TD to make it 13-0. ”I think we’ve just got to execute better,” Stafford said. ”Obviously, we had the turnover that wasn’t good there early. We got to find a way to avoid that and just as a team, we got to start a little faster.” The Lions can still make the playoffs, but in Thursday’s loss, two of their biggest problems – slow starts and a poor running game – were crucial. Detroit didn’t come any closer to solving either. The Lions weren’t sharp at the beginning of the game, and they were just as bad coming out of the locker room to start the second half. Minnesota drove 75 yards on four running plays, scoring a touchdown that made it 27-10 early in the third quarter. ”They just took it right down the field,” Caldwell said. ”Up until then Taylor Decker Jersey , I thought our guys had been doing a pretty decent job of getting (them) stopped in that first half, but that one was tough. It didn’t knock us out of it, but nevertheless it made things more difficult.” Stafford seems well on his way to throwing for over 4,000 yards again, but he’s done some of his best work when his team has been behind, and sometimes that’s not enough. When the Lions have tried to establish the run early, it hasn’t worked. On Thursday, Detroit elected to receive after winning the coin toss, and Stafford threw on two of the first three offensive plays – but those completions netted only 2 and 4 yards, and the Lions were unable to make a first down. Then the defense allowed three third-down conversions on Minnesota’s long drive. Stafford seemed tired of all the talk about slow starts. He said if the Lions had played well at the beginning of the game and then poorly for the rest of it, there would have been questions about that. True enough, but if the Lions are going to take another step toward becoming an elite team, they’ll need to play more consistently for 60 minutes a game – and right now their biggest deficiency is at the start. ”We didn’t win the game. We didn’t play well enough to win,” Stafford said. ”Didn’t make enough plays. Would love to start fast early and we didn’t, but we fought tooth and nail to get back in.” —