All of the Lions' first Monday Night Football appearance in a decade was special. The record crowd.'s Head splitting noise. And even more results.
At night, when ring announcer Michael Buffer has made pre-game show and the introduction of Barry Sanders served as an honorary captain, running back Jahvid Best delivered a knockout blow to the Bears, rushing for a career-high 163 yards to lead Lions for a 24-13 victory.
The best is only 12 times and scored on a 88-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter of Lions team that entered the game twenty-ninth in the NFL in rushing.
"I think it's kind of an example with Barry Sanders in the house, maybe a little wiped out," Lions coach Jim Schwartz. "Our run game is obviously up to our pass game, and I think that we want to work, but we also need some blasting work, like what we were missing. It is obvious that we had that today."
The best is never rushed for more than 78 yards in his career and went on Monday on the average only 3.2 yards per carry.
But along with its third quarter touchdown that gave the Lions lead 21/10, he had two great advantages to put the game away late in the fourth quarter.
Best ran 43 yards Lions backed up near their own goal line and clinging to the eight-point lead with just over four minutes to play, and he turned third-and-9 at the end of the disk to create an insurance Jason Hanson's 31-yard field goal.
On his touchdown run, the best slip center Dominic Raiola hip and in the open field. In the absence of defender around Chicago, he started pointing at the crowd of Ford Field about 30 yards to end zone.
"It was not anything new," which received a running game going, Best said. "We're still kind of doing the same thing, it just folds were slightly wider than today."
Calvin Johnson scored his ninth goal of leading the NFL in the 73-yard bomb from Matthew Stafford to revitalize struggling Lions offense in the first half.
Johnson finished with five catches for 130 yards. He ran a two-deep zone defense, which was designed to stop him on his landing, flying past safety Chris Harris and Brandon Meriweather stiff arms on the way to the end zone.
Stafford was19 of 26 passing for 219 yards and threw a 18-yard scoring pass to Brandon Pettigrew, who gave the Lions half-time lead, 14.10.
Bears have relied on running back Matt Forte early.
Coming off a career best 205-yard rushing day, Forte carried 15 times for 84 yards in the first half and finished with 116 yards rushing.
But Chicago missed a chance at scoring early Ndamukong Suh Forte stuffed on back-to-back starts after a short footage of executions are imbued with about seven minutes, and never seemed to recover.
Bears defender Jay Cutler completed 28 of 38 passing for 249 yards, but could not lead Chicago at the end zone on a desperate final drive.
As the final seconds tick clock, Ford Field record crowd of the regular season 67 861 - which helped lead to a false start penalty nine bear - shouted down, "3, 2, 1," and erupted in celebration.
With the victory, Lions have combined their NFC North rivals as the Packers only unbeaten teams in the NFL. This is their first 5-0 start since 1956.
"It was a great night for the city, and we need to get used to playing in games like this and have an atmosphere like this," Schwartz said. "The fans did their job today, and we took a sample from them. The nine failed attempts is very many, and all credit to our crowd."
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