| | | | | | | |  Wednesday, October 10, 2001
Frozen Moment: Dre' Day in Detroit
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
PONTIAC, Mich. -- It was only a matter of time before the "CHARLIE! CHARLIE!" chant thundered through the deafening echoed grounds inside the Silverdome.
|  | | Dre' Bly's interception proved to be a 14-point swing. |
After all, it is virtually a plain fact that the backup quarterback is the most beloved player in the eyes of the fans, especially the talk-radio pundits, when they are forced to watch a poor to mediocre football team week after week. But couple seven interceptions (it's still hard to believe, isn't it) by starter Ty Detmer in the team's previous 24-14 loss to Cleveland and the fact Charlie Batch is still a promising young gunslinger who has had success in Detroit the past three seasons, and you had a Motor City upheaval waiting to happen.
And that's exactly what happened after Dre' Bly intercepted Detmer on a poor throw that resulted in a 93-yard return for a touchdown -- one of many in the Rams' 35-0 victory over the Lions on Monday night.
Boos rained down on the former Heisman Trophy winner as though he was Ryan Leaf in a San Diego shopping mall. Detmer had played fairly well up until that point in the game, but his soft, underthrown pass off his back foot was enough to lose whatever crowd support he enjoyed in the first quarter.
Detmer had thrown for 97 yards on a cool 10-for-12 passing, and was driving the two- touchdown underdogs towards the end zone in a 14-0 game with just under four minutes to go in the half. A TD would have ignited the crowd, and put the winless Lions just seven points behind a team that's the class of the NFL this year.
Faced with a second-and-13 from the St. Louis 19, Detmer dropped back to pass against the revamped Ram defense. At the end of his five-step drop, the 10-year veteran out of Brigham Young felt pressure from his blind side and released the ball off his back foot before taking a hit from Rams rookie safety Adam Archuleta. But instead of leading his receiver, Germane Crowell, into the end zone with a leading pass to the inside of the defense, Detmer fluttered a duck into the sterile air inside the dome.
"The coverage was man where the safety helps, so I did my job," said Bly, who made his third interception of the young 2001 campaign. "I forced him to the inside. But Detmer threw it behind him, kind of threw it short. And I just made a play on the ball."
Bly, never one to lack confidence, said he felt he had a shot at the pass as soon as it left the QB's hand, saying, "Any time I see the football, I feel like it's mine." Yet, he wasn't so sure when he had the pigskin tucked into his arm back on the seven-yard line that he was going to end up getting the six on his return.
"I knew I had a shot," said Bly. "The first thing I was looking for was the quarterback and the running back. I knew I was out in the open on the sideline, and I knew that there was no lineman that was going to catch me."
Busting to the outside down the right sideline, the excitable cornerback had a clear alley to the goal ahead of him.
"I looked back to see where Crowell was or any of the other receivers," said the 5-foot-9, 190-pound cornerback. "I didn't see anyone. After that, I was just trying to find the end zone."
It was a play that took the blue and silver out of the Lions and gave them a 21-0 deficit at halftime. It was also something that Bly felt in his heart might happen against this team after a solid week of practice back in St. Louis.
"We were making plays all week in practice -- making interceptions, picking up fumbles," said Bly on his interception that was the fifth-longest in Monday Night Football history and sixth-longest in Rams history. "Every time we did that in practice we were trying to score. And that was the first thing I was looking for once I caught the football -- the end zone. I had some excellent blocks from the linemen and the secondary. I was able to get to the end zone, and it was key."
It was also Bly's way of sending a message to the Lions and the rest of the NFL that you can't pick on this once can't-miss prospect out of North Carolina, who was in the game only because starter Aeneas Williams left the game with an injury earlier in the quarter.
"I know that any time a player of his caliber leaves a game, they're going to attack the guy who comes in," he said. "I wanted to just hold my own."
Not only did he hold his own aiding a defense that registered its first shutout since 1994, he showed flashes of the three-time consensus All-American seen lighting up fields around the ACC as a Tar Heel from 1995-98. He laughed at the memory of his glory days in Chapel Hill when it was brought up that he looked like the Dre' Bly of old, but then quickly changed the subject.
"I had a couple (touchdowns) at UNC, but I'm past that," said the third-year corner, who also made six tackles on the night. "I'm trying to get many here in the NFL."
What he did do with this timely pick was essentially add a third "L" to the Lions loss column, and help knock Detmer out the game in favor of the man the Lions faithful had been chanting for since his interception one series later.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online. He can be reached at marc.connolly@abc.com.
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Eric Dickerson talks with Kurt Warner following his 286-yard, 3-TD performance.