BY SCOTT MORGANROTH of The Deroit Monitor

What a difference 17 hours makes. I’ve never seen two football games, coaches or two teams so far apart as I did on November 15-16 in covering the Detroit Lions and Florida Atlantic University Owls.

When I arrived at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte , NC , on Sunday, November 16, my good friend, Fox-2′s Jennifer Hammond, asked what time did I arrive in town? I told her at 10:30 a.m. because I had a football game in Fort Lauderdale featuring the FAU Owls and the University of Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns . Jennifer smiled and said “you’re used to those all night drives” and wondered if I was tired and did I feel okay? We exchanged hugs and I told her I was fine and thanked her for asking.

It didn’t take long for me to acclimate from going to one of the worst facilities in college football at Lockhart Stadium to the Carolina Panthers beautiful venue. Yet there were many differences between these two contests. Yet what a weekend of football I was privileged to cover.

Saturday night, November 15, FAU scored two touchdowns in the first quarter to take an early 12-0 lead as two extra points failed. Against Carolina, the Lions orchestrated an impressive 12 play, 80 yards drive which took 7:37 to complete, as Detroit took a 7-0 lead with legendary kicker Jason Hanson making his extra point. Amazingly enough, this was the first time the Lions scored on an opening drive all-season.

As for kickers, watching FAU’s Warley Leroy kick a field goal or extra point is an adventure.

Against Carolina , all Hanson did was set more records. His 56-yard field goal was the longest ever on the road for the Lions. It was his sixth 50-yarder of the season. He was the eighth player in NFL history to kick six 50 yarders in a season. Hanson recorded his 39^th 50-yarder to pull within one of Morten Andersen‘s 40. Hanson tied that mark on Thanksgiving against the Tennessee Titans. The 56-yard field goal was the longest in the Lions 75-year history by a kicker outdoors. Hanson moved into eighth place in career points with 1,714 passing Nick Lowery, The Panthers even tried to freeze Hanson with eight seconds left in the first half yet he still converted the 35-yard field goal.

Both the Lions and Owls games featured excellent running performances. FAU’s Charles Pierre, who also wears No. 20, is 5-9, 210 pounds. He has been making long runs all season for the Owls and will someday play on Sundays in the NFL. Against UL-L, he had 10 carries for 109 yards, a 50-yard TD for a 10.9 average. He has rushed for 937 yards and eight touchdowns. Like Barry Sanders, Pierre runs low to the ground, has breakaway ability and is quick.

Lions rookie Kevin Smith had the first of what will be many 100 yard games with 112. Unfortunately for Detroit , Carolina ‘s DeAngelo Williams (120) and Jonathan Stewart (130) made team history by both running for 100 yards in the same contest. I guess Detroit ‘s defense forgot that this was tackle and not flag football.

FAU’s win was its fourth straight lifting its record to 5-5 while the Lions loss sunk them to 0-10. The Owls would record their sixth win with a 57-50 win over Florida International University on November 29 to become bowl eligible and keep their post-season alive. As for the Lions, there will be no playoffs and their four-game winning streak occurred during the preseason.

Comparing Coaches Rod Marinelli and Howard Schnellenberger would be impossible. In 24 seasons as a college head coach, Schnellenberger is 147-125. He won a national championship at Miami in 1983. The only similarity between them is each have Super Bowl rings as NFL assistants. Marinelli is 10-34 as an NFL head coach and will likely end up looking for work in 2009. I’d find it hard to believe he’ll land another pro head coaching job anytime soon.

When the Panthers game was over, Detroit News columnist Rob Parker‘s relentless questioning of Marinelli made it look like he was taking target practice at a rifle range as the Lions public relations staff watched the onslaught. I never thought it was possible for a team to be this bad and have its first impressive opening drive in the 10^th game. But I was wrong.

Seven hundred miles south and 12 hours away, FAU won its game 40-29. After the Lions 31-22 loss on a beautiful sunny day in downtown Charlotte , all running back Rudi Johnson and defensive tackle Shaun Cody could do was just hope to find a win somewhere.

Being a former Southern Cal Trojan, losing is something Cody is not accustomed to.

“There is no way to adopt to losing and that’s not part of the game plan,” Cody said. “We’re trying to deal with this as a team, turn it around and it’s a little tough right now. I don’t worry about having a winless season just preparing for the next week’s game and trying to get that first win.”

Johnson would have experienced a losing season if he were with his old team the Cincinnati Bengals (1-10-1). He said he’s not thinking of going 0-16.

“This sucks and that’s something no one would have ever thought about going into the season that we’d be where we are now,” Johnson said. “What do you get out of it? Keep fighting and keep coming to work everyday, practicing and you can only get better. We have to keep striving to get better. The first win will be the hardest one but I guarantee we won’t go 0-16. We just have to keep working.”

In both games I’ve seen at Charlotte between the Lions and Panthers, it’s always record setting. The last time the Lions were in North Carolina , Detroit set the record for losing its 24^th straight road game, on December 21, 2003, dropping a 20-14 decision. As it stands now, the numbers are working against the Lions. Detroit is only the 10^th team since the 1970 merger to start a season 0-12.

With the Lions 47-10 drubbing by the Tennessee Titans, Detroit has dropped to 33-34-2 on Turkey Day. It was the worst loss ever on Thanksgiving and the 47 points were the most allowed on the holiday. Detroit ‘s defense has yielded 31.5 points per-game, the most against a team in 27 years. They have only two interceptions in 12 games.

Titans running backs LenDale White and Chris Johnson became the second tandem to rush for over 100 yards against the Lions this season. White had 106 yards and Johnson had 125. As aforementioned, Williams and Stewart recorded that feat. The Lions had six-first downs against the Titans and only two in the second half.

In a year that was supposed to celebrate 75 years of Lions football, nobody would have ever though that the season would explode so badly.

Reach Scott Morganroth at scottbullm@comcast.net. Read his articles in the Detroit Monitor, published Thursdays in Metro Detroit.

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