National Football League

Megatron has a game for the ages

Published Oct. 27, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

Sam Gardner

There was talk earlier this week about whether Dez Bryant is as good as Calvin Johnson. Allow me to provide a simple answer to that debate: No. Dez Bryant is not as good as Calvin Johnson.

And frankly, there might not be a receiver in the league who is as good as Calvin Johnson — who, on Sunday, was better than just about every receiver who has ever played a down of professional football.

Johnson hauled in 14 catches for 329 yards and a touchdown in Detroit’s stunning 31-30 victory over Bryant’s Dallas Cowboys. Only the great Flipper Anderson (15 catches for 336 yards and a score in a 1989 win over the Saints) has ever turned in a more productive day of pass-catching in NFL history.

Johnson made long catches:

And catches in traffic (which we’ve seen from him before):

And two crucial grabs on the Lions’ game-winning drive, which went 80 yards in 50 seconds and ended with Matt Stafford fooling the Cowboys with the ol’ call-a-spike-then-dive-over-the-line-for-the-game-winning-touchdown play:

Basically, Megatron snatched everything that was thrown his way — OK, that’s not entirely true, he had 16 targets, so there were at least two he missed. He also successfully embarrassed Bryant and the Cowboys in the process, so it’s probably no wonder why Bryant was feeling so ornery on the sideline while the Lions were stealing the win.

Detroit’s next game is Nov. 10 against the Chicago Bears. Brandon Marshall probably fancies himself as good as Calvin Johnson, but if he learned anything from Johnson’s near-record performance Sunday, he might be wise to keep that opinion to himself, should anyone ask.

share

Get more from National Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

National Football League