The Pressbox

I covered tonight’s Huron League football showdown between Airport and SMCC.
I can’t remember ever seeing a game that featured such a dramatic turnaround.
Airport completely dominated the first half, outgaining the Falcons 283-21. The gap in first downs was 16-1.
SMCC stopped an Airport drove at the four-yard line and returned a kick-off for a touchdown, otherwise the halftime deficit would have been much greater than 17-6.
If you asked me at halftime if SMCC had any chance of coming back to win the game I would have said no.
But the Falcons showed how much I know, dominating the second half almost as thoroughly as Airport dominated the first.
That’s the great thing about high school athletics. These aren’t hardened pros. Emotions play a huge roll in these games.
It was a pleasure to watch two well-coached, talented teams battle before a big crowd.

I really enjoyed watching the Detroit Shock’s game against Phoenix Tuesday night.

Bill Laimbeer has his team playing some pretty good basketball. Detroit showed amazing poise, hitting clutch shot after clutch shot every time Phoenix got close.

Phoenix runs one of the ugliest offenses you are ever going to see. It seems like the plan is to fire up the ball as soon as they touch it on the offensive end. But it was working Tuesday night. The Mercury hit some unbelievable shots.

Detroit can wrap up the WNBA title Thursday night. Watch a little bit of the game if you get a chance. You might be surprised at how well these women play.

Can the first game of an NFL season be a must-win situation?

Probably not, but the rules are sometimes different for the Detroit Lions.

Confident voices have been emerged from the Lion locker room during the preseason. Jon Kitna boldly predicted 10 wins or more. Many of the players supported their quarterback.

But that kind of talk quickly flies out the window if the Lions can’t open today with a win over the only team in the NFL that was worse than them last season.

What a blow it would be to the Lions if Josh McCown, who was traded to Oakland after not being able to beat out Kitna for the Detroit’s starting quarterback job last year, leads the Raiders to victory.

So, for the Lions, maybe Game 1 is must-win.

I was at Monroe High’s football game last night.
That was a good assignment for a couple of reasons.
First, it was one of the few games in the county that wasn’t delayed by weather and, secondly, the Trojans put on a great show.
Monroe completely dominated a team that came in at 2-0.
Ben Notario had as good a first quarter as you’ll ever see: three touchdowns, hard-running inside, a bone-jarring tackle that forced a fumble and a great one-handed catch.

The Trojan defense was very active, especially the linebackers, and quarterback Willie Jones threw the ball effectively.

There were a couple of silly penalties that frustrated the coaching staff, but all-in-all, it was a terrific way to bounce back from last week’s frustrating loss.

What a miserable weekend it was for sports fans in southeast Michigan.

Two frustrating Detroit Tiger losses were combined with a humiliating loss for the University of Michigan football team.

It might have signalled the end of championship hopes for both.

Michigan still has a lot of season to play, but teams that lose to Appalachian State don’t generally win national championships.

As for the Tigers, the weekend summed up how frustrating the season has become.

They made a nice comeback to tie Oakland in the ninth inning Friday night, only to lose in the 10th.

Then on Sunday, they built a 7-0 lead only to let it slip away in a 10-inning loss. It was a golden opportunity to gain ground on the rest of the teams in the playoff hunt with the Yankees, Indians and Mariners all losing.

The Tigers finished a six-game road trip to Kansas City and Oakland - two teams out of contention - with a 2-4 record. That’s not how you launch a playoff run.

I guess we’re just lucky the Detroit Lions didn’t play Sunday to add to the misery.