TAMPA, Fla. _ Just make it stop.
All the ugly football.
The ugly turnovers. The ugly penalties.
Yes, the Lions won this game, 24-21, over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.
But this was nothing but an ugly display of football, two bad teams that were perfect dancing partners, trading mistakes and penalties and turnovers.
Technically, this was another one of those Matthew Stafford fourth-quarter comebacks. It was another Matthew Prater last-minute field goal for the win. But it was so ugly, so painful to watch, that you just wanted it to end.
To be fair, the Lions had the right number of players on the field, at least for the big moments in the game.
Coming into this game, there was concern after Stafford injured his hand late against Baltimore. But he showed no ill effects.
Stafford opened this game with precision and accuracy. In fact, it would have been fantastic performance in the first half, if it weren't for a pair of interceptions.
One of the interceptions was a bad pass and the other was a bad decision.
Late in the second quarter, the Lions got to the Tampa Bay 30 with less than 19 seconds left. Then, Stafford got greedy. He could have grounded the ball and walked away with the points. But he forced a throw that was intercepted.
The star of this game was the Lions ball-hawking defense, which forced five turnovers.
There was Quandre Diggs making a tremendous defensive play, hitting O.J. Howard and knocking the ball free. Early in the second quarter, Darius Slay had a tremendous interception, a truly great play. Reading the route. Trusting his instincts. Jumping the route. Catching the pass. And getting his knee down in bounds.
There was Glover Quinn tomahawking the ball way from Doug Martin.
The state of the Lions was summed up before the game when Fox spoofed the Lions for not having 11 players on the field against the Baltimore Ravens.
The Lions hurt themselves, once again, with penalties and turnovers.
One possession ended after an Eric Ebron fumble. Another ended because of a pair of holding penalties. And then, there were those two Stafford interceptions.
But fortunately for the Lions, they were playing a team that was worse than them.
