Lions - Chargers Player of the Day: 5 Game Ball candidates

The Detroit Lions got that big win that they needed to rebound after a disappointing Week 1 tie. It wasn’t easy, but a few individual plays got them just over the hump to pull out the 13-10 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers. Now it’s time to hand out a little hardware, including our Player of the Game Ball.

Before we get into this week’s candidates for the Week 2 Game Ball, here are the standings so far this year.

Reminder: First place in voting gets three points, second place receives two points, third place gets a single point.

Game ball standings through Week 1:

T.J. Hockenson - 3
Matthew Stafford - 2
Devon Kennard - 1

Onto this week’s candidates:

Kenny Golladay

Stats: 8 catches, 117 yards, 1 TD

Golladay was quiet in Week 1, but he made a couple of huge plays on Sunday. He turned 10 targets into eight catches and 117 yards, including this game-winning score in which he perfectly bodied off the defender:

Darius Slay

Stats: 5 tackles, 2 passes defended, 1 INT

It wasn’t a great day for Darius Slay, but early on, he held his own against Keenan Allen. However, Allen started taking over in the second half and it looked like Slay may be the goat of the game. Instead, he was the GOAT of the game, picking off Philip Rivers on what would have been a game-winning pass.

The INT not only prevented a touchdown, but gave the ball to Detroit when Los Angeles would have been in field goal range to tie the game.

Matthew Stafford

Stats: 22-of-30, 245 yards, 2 touchdowns, 2 INTs, 91.7 passer rating

The two interceptions were both bad and inexcusable, but putting those plays aside, Stafford was electric. His touchdown pass to Kenny Golladay was quite literally perfect, and he made big plays on fourth-and-1 and third-and-6 to clinch the win.

Fourth-quarter comeback Stafford is back.

Tyrell Crosby

Stats: 0 sacks allowed

Consider, for a moment, your feelings when you heard that Taylor Decker was not going to play against Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram III. There were probably plenty of cynical fans that thought that was a good thing, but most felt like it was a death sentence for Matthew Stafford.

Instead, Crosby fulfilled our own Hamza Baccouche’s Bold Prediction of the Week and was part of an offensive line that kept Stafford relatively clean all game. Los Angeles didn’t record a sack and the Chargers had just one quarterback hit. That’s pretty damn impressive.

Kerryon Johnson

Stats: 12 rushes, 41 yards; 2 catches, 47 yards, 1 TD

The Lions still struggled in the running game on Sunday, but Johnson still proved to be a playmaker with his hands on the ball. Not only was he responsible for this sick touchdown:

But, man oh man, is he fun to watch: