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Calvin Johnson: ‘It’s going to be fun’

By Kevin Parvizi

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The strength of the New York Giants lies in their secondary after the additions of Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Walter Thurmond to a unit that already contained the likes of of Antrel Rolle and Prince Amukamara, but the Giants were powerless against the new-look Detroit Lions offense. Matthew Stafford absolutely carved up the Giants, and you can only wonder how crisp this passing attack will be once Thanksgiving rolls around. Joe Lombardi and Jim Caldwell seem to be getting the most out of Stafford early on, but it might be more about the fact that Stafford actually has a great No. 2 wide receiver on his hands in Golden Tate, who caught all six passes thrown at him for an impressive 93 yards.

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    • As expected, the symbiotic, “pick-your-poison-you’ll-die-either-way” relationship between Johnson and Tate was on full display in last night’s big win over the Giants. Calvin Johnson scored on a broken defensive play (a 67-yard TD) and on a wonder-catch for 13 yards, and his final 7-164-2 line was Megatron at his finest. Compare that to last season’s opener when he was completely covered by the opposition and Nate Burleson nickel-and-dimed the Minnesota Vikings porous secondary. If you try and focus in too much on Johnson, then Tate will destroy you.

    Last year, the Giants did the same thing in their opener to Dez Bryant and the Dallas Cowboys, as they pretty much ignored Miles Austin. Last night, they tried to put DRC in man coverage on Johnson for most of the game, and not even DRC could handle him one-on-one. But once they eased up on Megatron, Tate came out.

    Calvin Johnson said, via MLive.com’s Kyle Meinke, “It’s going to be fun.”

    There’s no better way to put it than that. “It’s going to be fun” to watch the Lions rip on secondaries with Stafford, Johnson, Tate, a great running back group, and talented TEs. This offense is stacked, and the WR duo is at the heart-and-center of it, and the impact of adding a top-notch WR2 cannot be understated, especially now that we’ve seen it in action.

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