I 0 28 - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - September 13, 2004 Lions end 24-game road losing streak Ja £tdtj&dg Athlete of the Week CHICAGO (AP) - Bracy Walker got one of the game balls and rightfully so. Needing intravenous fluids to fight off dehydration, Walker rescued the Detroit Lions from the NFL's longest road los- ing streak yesterday. He rambled 92 yards for a TD after teammate Shaun Rogers blocked a third- quarter field goal attempt. And later he preserved Detroit's 20-16 victory over the Chicago Bears, intercepting Rex Grossman's pass in the end zone pass with 18 seconds left. "It's important to end the streak for all the obvious reasons," Lions coach Steve Mariucci said after his team's 24-game stretch of road losses was wiped away. "We are glad it's over, believe me." Detroit's victory spoiled the coaching debut of the Bears' Lovie Smith, whose team was bogged down by penalties and mistakes. The victory was a costly one for the Lions. They lost receiver Charles Rog- ers to a broken collarbone for the second straight year and he could miss most of the season. He got hurt going for a first- quarter pass. Rogers, the second overall pick in the 2003 draft, played only five games last season. Pro Bowl cornerback Dre' Bly will have an MRI on Tuesday after spraining a knee ligament in the first quarter. Joey Harrington tossed a four-yard go-ahead TD pass to Az-Zahir Hakim in the fourth quarter and Detroit held on for its first road victory since beating the Jets on Dec. 17, 2000. With 1:54 left, facing a difficult punt out of their own end zone, the Lions chose to have punter Nick Harris run out of the end zone for safety. It cut the lead to 20-16, but gave the Lions a free kick - a strategy that nearly backfired. R.W. McQuarters returned the free kick 37 yards to the Detroit's 47 and Grossman's 19-yard pass to David Ter- rell and a 15-yard run by Thomas Jones got the Bears to the Lions nine. With no timeouts, Grossman was sacked and then had to spike the ball on second down. Scrambling on third down, he threw the ball to the corner for Terrell, but Walker made the pick. "Grossman started to scramble and I thought he was going to try and run it into the end zone," Walker said. "He just so happened to throw the ball, and I looked and it fell into my hands." Grossman, who lost a fumble and had two interceptions, took the blame. "I was trying to throw it up for a jump ball situation for David in the back of the end zone. I threw it a little short," Gross- man said. "I should have thrown it away. I didn't." The Bears had three second-half turn- overs and three big penalties - one on Terrell for taunting after he made a catch along the sideline and then handed the ball to Harris. Two more were for per- sonal fouls, one on center Olin Kreutz and another on defensive back Charles Tillman for shoving a scrambling Har- rington after he'd run out of bounds. "I just dropped the ball. I didn't throw it at him," Terrell said. "The refs called nitpicky fouls all day . The personal foul on Olin Kreutz wasn't a personal foul. So they made bad calls." Name: Therese Heaton Hometown: Wheaton, I11. Team: W Soccer Class: Junior Why: Heaton led the Wolverines past No. 22 Boston University yesterday, scoring two of Michigan's three goals in its 3-0 victory. The junior now has six goals this season, and has scored a goal in five consecutive games - the first Wolverine to accomplish such a feat since 2001. Heaton 'M' SCIIEDIJE1 Date 9/17 9/17 9/17 9/17 9/17 9/17 9/17 9/18 9/18 9/18 9/18 9/19 9/19 Matchup/event Volleyball vs. Virginia Tech M Cross Country at Spartan Invite W Cross Country at Spartan Invite W Soccer vs. Northwestern Field Hockey vs. Central Michigan M Soccer vs. Bowling Green Volleyball vs. Western Michigan Football vs. San Diego State Volleyball vs. Tennessee W Golf at Spartan Invitational M Golf at Northern Intercollegiate Field Hockey vs. Northeastern W Soccer vs. Illinois Location Ann Arbor East Lansing East Lansing Ann Arbor Ann Arbor Ann Arbor Ann Arbor Ann Arbor Ann Arbor East Lansing Madison Ann Arbor Ann Arbor Time 11 A.M. 2 P.M. 2 P.M. 2:30 P.M. 3 P.M. 5 P.M. 7:30 P.M. 12 P.M. 7:30 P.M. All Day All Day 12 P.M. 1 P.M. AP PHOTO Lions running back Artose Pinner rushed five times for 21 yards in Detroit's win. I NFL FIRST WEEK STANDINGS Val is NF16 Power qRankinqs NFC East Philadelphia Washington N.Y. Giants Dallas NFC North Minnesota Detroit Green Bay Chicago NFC South Atlanta Carolina New Orleans Tampa Bay NFC West Seattle St. Louis Arizona San Francisco W 1 1 0 0 W 1 1 0 0 W 1 0 0 0 W 1 I 0 0 L 0 0 1 1 L 0 0 0 1 L 0 0 1 1 L 0 0 1 1 PF 31 16 17 17 PF 35 20 0 16 PF 21 0 7 10 PF 21 17 10 19 PA 17 10 31 35 PA 17 16 0 20 PA 19 0 21 16 PA 7 10 17 21 AFC East New England N.Y. Jets Buffalo Miami AFC North Cleveland Pittsburgh Baltimore Cincinnati AFC South Jacksonville Tennessee Houston Indianapolis AFC West San Diego Denver Kansas City Oakland w 1 1 0 0 w 1 1 0 0 W 1 1 0 0 w 1 1 0 0 L 0 0 1 1 L 0 0 1 1 L 0 0 1 1 L 0 0 1 1 PF 27 31 10 7 PF 20 24 3 24 PF 13 17 20 24 PF 27 34 24 21 PA 24 24 13 17 PA 3 21 20 31 PA 10 7 27 27 PA 20 24 34 24 2. Philadelphia - If not for two Eagles goal-line stands, dropped balls and poor tackling by the G-Men, the Giants might have won. 4. Seattle " Fantasy owners got a scare when Shaun Alexander went down, but his three TDs and 135 yards led the Hawks to victory. 6. Tennessee * The game was moved up to Sat- urday, and it wasn't pretty. Tennes- see might not be pretty, but they win games. Yesterday's games PITSBURGH 24, Oakland 21 Seattle 21, NEw ORLEANS 7 Atlanta 21, SAN FRANCISCO 19 PHILADELPHIA 31, N.Y. Giants 17 MINNESOTA 35, Dallas 17 CLEVELAND 20, Baltimore 3 Detroit 20, CHICAGO 16 Yesterday's games ST. Louis 17, Arizona 10 NY JETS 31, Cincinnati 24 Jacksonville 13, BUFFALO 10 San Diego 27, Houston 20 WASHINGTON 16, Tampa Bay 10 DENvER 34, Kansas City 24 8. Detroit - Detroit's on this list for one rea- son: it won for the first time in its last 25 road games. Sorry about Charley. Shaident 3% OFFICIAL PIZZA OF U OF MATHLETICS SU RVIALKIT 0 @0 0 0 0 0 *0 0*0 0. 0 .0 0 00 O o e a B e o OO Oe J O e B e All clinks are held at the Intramural Sports Building. 332-1111 Ofstval efmpas/retek }causes 2282 S. Main Street ,,$..(near Block Buster) Nn oeeo