Believe It, Lions Are No Patsies

The Detroit Lions have won as many games in six weeks as they did all of last season. They still don’t think the general perception of them has changed.

Jason Hanson’s 48-yard field goal with 10:18 left in overtime gave Detroit a 23-20 victory Sunday over the Chicago Bears, who have lost four in a row.

“I don’t think it silences a lot of people, I really don’t,” said James Stewart, who had a career-high 172 yards and two touchdowns in 32 carries. “I really think people will still look at us as being on the bottom of the league. I really don’t think this win makes people change their minds about us, but we can’t worry about that.”

While Lions (2-4) matched their victory total from last season, the Bears (2-4) have more regular-season losses than last season, when they won their first division title since 1990.

The victory was especially sweet for rookie quarterback Joey Harrington, who failed to lead Detroit to fourth-quarter comeback victories last week against Minnesota and in his first start against Green Bay -- having passes intercepted each time. This time, he led two long drives that produced field goals that sent the game into overtime.

Chicago scored 17 consecutive points for a 20-14 lead midway through the third quarter.

Harrington, who was 16 for 30 for 199 yards with no interceptions, then led a 14-play, 66-yard drive to pull the Lions within three points late in the quarter.

The game-tying 12-play, 72-yard drive set up Hanson’s 24-yard field goal with two seconds left. A play earlier, it appeared that safety Larry Whigham’s sack of Harrington had ended the game, but it was negated by a false start by Lion rookie tight end Matt Murphy