Colt McCoy in Browns practice, August 2011

Detroit

- WR Nate Burleson and Matt Stafford had a very good 1st quarter together. With Calvin Johnson out, Stafford looked to Burleson early in the game and was rewarded with a TD on one catch and a 30 yard gain on the other.

- Jim Schwartz cannot be happy with how often the Lions were flagged against the Browns. All told, the Lions ended up with 14 penalties for 123 yards and of particular concern has to be the amount of defensive penalties the team was flagged for. The secondary was a major concern for the Lions last year and they have to get better play from their CBs this year (including free agent Eric Wright) if they hope to fulfill the promise that many see for them this season.

- I've always enjoyed the creativity of Scott Linehan as an offensive coordinator and was mildly surprised (and pleased) that the Lions opened up the game with their first play coming out of a pistol formation. With so many colleges switching to the Pistol based on the way it allows them run the ball, I wouldn't be shocked to see some NFL coordinators try and incorporate it in their repertoire this year.

- It is clear that one of the offshoots of the new kickoff rule that has moved the ball from the 30 to the 35 is that officials have been instructed to be less lenient on offsides during kickoffs. On almost every NFL kickoff it seems like you can find someone from the kicking team who is offsides, but in the past the players have gotten away with it. This year, it looks like officials are waiting to call it. Of course the Lions got flagged for an offsides.

Cleveland

- TE Evan Moore looked fantastic showing great quickness out of his break in the redzone which got him wide open for a touchdown and making an spectacular over-the-shoulder catch in the endzone while dragging his feet for a TD as he headed out of bounds. Moore plays with the quickness of a big WR rather than a TE and lined up as a WR at times. Moore could end up being a big part of the offense as Colt McCoy has a history of making the short, quick throws to reliable targets.

- While the Lions ran the ball better as the game moved along, they had a tough time running at all when Ahtyba Rubin and rookie Phil Taylor were manning the DT spots. Taylor and Rubin both have the strength to stack offensive linemen and allow the Browns LBs to flow to the ball and if they do that this year, the Browns won't be easy to run against.

- If you looked at the boxscore and saw Colt McCoy's 3 TDs, you would think he had another strong performance following up on his effort from week 1 of the preseason, but he actually struggled with floating the ball at times in his half of work and he lead a couple of his receivers (a TE and a FB to be exact) into big hits. The Lions pressure had McCoy limiting his vision to mostly short stuff. On the flip side, he was victimized by too many dropped balls in the first quarter.

- WR Greg Little caught a TD pass towards the end of the second quarter and punted the ball into the stands after scoring. Do you think he did or didn't get a talking to on the sideline by head coach Pat Shurmur when he made it back to the sideline? Yep... you're right.