Author: Paula Pasche

DETROIT — Through the years, the Lions have often found different ways to lose.

Sunday was different.

The Lions lost 30-26 to the Atlanta Falcons, the defending NFC champions.

It ended on a call that Jim Caldwell said was according to the NFL rules, but left many in the crowd stunned. After the Golden Tate touchdown call was reversed, the game was over due to a 10-second clock runoff.

(Photo courtesy of Detroit Lions)

The Lions are 2-1 and play at the Vikings (2-1) next Sunday.

This ending will be a distant memory for the players and coaches but probably not for the fans.

Five standout efforts:

1. Glover Quin intercepted Matt Ryan and returned it for a touchdown while Darius Slay finished with a pair of interceptions. It was Quin’s second interception in the first three games. In Atlanta’s first two contests, Ryan had not thrown a pick. The Lions have recorded two interception return touchdowns in the first three games of the season for the first time since 1967. The team has now accomplished this for the third time in team history, including 1967 (two) and 1950 (two). Typically a team that wins the turnover battle — the Lions forced three, the Falcons forced none — wins the game. Well, that didn’t happen but it’s a good sign the secondary is playing well.

2. Safety Miles Killebrew earned a separate category since he was making his first start. It seemed like he was everywhere. With eight tackles (seven solo), Killebrew was tied with Quin for most tackles for the Lions. Tahir Whitehead was right behind with seven tackles. He started in place of Tavon Wilson who is out with a shoulder injury.

3. Matthew Stafford took the blame on that final pass to Golden Tate. The quarterback said he should’ve thrown the ball higher to make it easier for Tate to get into the end zone.  Stafford got a slow start but went 25 of 45 for 264 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked twice and hurried often. Part of that could fall on shoulders of the makeshift offensive line. With Travis Swanson (ankle) out, Graham Glasgow shifted from left guard to center. With Joe Dahl (lower leg) out, Zac Kerin started at left guard. Zac who? He was acquired off waivers from the Vikings on Sept. 3.

4. Matt Prater. Amazing. He kicked field goals of 55, 57, 40 and 35 yards. He became the second player in NFL history to make at least 10 career field goals of 55 yards or more. He now has 11. With the Lions, Prater has now made five field goals of at least 55 yards. Prater joins Jason Hanson (1992-2012) as the only kickers in team history to make two 50-plus-yard field goals in at least two different games. For his career, this marks the fourth game he has registered two 50-plus yard field goals. It was the third time since he joined the Lions in 2014 that he has made at least four field goals in a game

5. Golden Tate didn’t finish with gaudy numbers — seven catches for 58 yards. But on many plays he’s the go-to guy. He gets open and hold onto the ball. Of course he came up a half-yard short on the final play, but that call looks like it could have gone either way. “It hurts, it hurts. It hurts to lose one like that at home, especially when your defense just kept coming up with turnovers, it hurts,’’ Tate said. “But I think if anything, guys are going to — we’re going to find a way to learn from this and try to bounce back next week on the road.” Tate surpassed 300 receptions since joining the Lions in 2014, and now has 301 with Detroit. He reached 300 receptions faster than any player in team history by accomplishing this feat in 51 games. He broke the previous best of 66 games to 300 catches by Calvin Johnson.

DETROIT — For a good chunk of the fourth quarter, fans at Ford Field were on their feet. The Lions had a chance to beat the defending NFC  champion Atlanta Falcons .

With two minutes left and 89 yards of turf in front of him, the ball was in Matthew Stafford’s hands.

This is the quarterback who has led the Lions to 29 wins when they were down or tied in the fourth quarter. He is exactly the guy you want to have the ball.

(Photo courtesy of Detroit Lions.)

It looked like the Lions pulled out another huge win when Golden Tate made a diving catch on third-and-1 at the goal line and the line judge threw up his arms signalling a touchdown.

All scoring plays are reviewed and this one was overturned because Tate was down before crossing the goal line.

The clincher is that because only eight seconds were left, the official ruled a 10-second runoff so the game was over.

The Falcons won 30-26.

The fans were stunned, feeling the officials, once again, had torn victory out of hands of the Lions.

Five thoughts on the final play:

1. Jim Caldwell said the players were obviously disappointed because it’s hard any time to lose. “So what happens in that situation is that if you don’t have a timeout left you can get a 10-second runoff. (That’s exactly what happened.) If you have a timeout left, you can use that and give up the timeout. Without any timeouts off they ran off the time of the clock — eight seconds remaining — and game is over.”

2. Caldwell wouldn’t really bite when asked if the Lions didn’t get the bad end of the deal because it was the officials who made the mistake — originally saying it was a touchdown on the field. If they had ruled it short, the Lions would have had 8 seconds to run a play from one yard out. Eight seconds isn’t much but Caldwell said they could’ve gotten off a play. He said they practice it all the time. He seemed to have no doubt about it.  “You can kind of look at it that way if you want. They ruled it correctly and that’s the way it is,’’ Caldwell said. “Our guys fought hard, they have a really good football team, there were a lot of things we could have done better that we didn’t do well. We have to pick up the pieces, it’s one ball game, we have to get ourselves together. We have a tough one next week on the road against the Vikings.’’ The Lions are 2-1.

3. Caldwell wouldn’t say for certain if the rule should be changed. “I don’t think so, it’s tough to digest that all right now. In terms of how it works, we all kind of know what the situation could/would be.  In hindsight we can complain all we want but they administered the rule exactly the way it’s written,’’ Caldwell said.

4. While many fans and several media members didn’t know the rule, the important people did including Caldwell and Stafford. “I did (know the rule) but it wasn’t in my head at the time. But looked up at the clock and knew it was either going to be a positive or negative right there,’’ said Stafford who was 25-45, 264 yards, one touchdown and a 80.2 rating.

5. “It’s not fun. Obviously wish I would have thrown it a foot higher maybe help GT (Tate) stay up, a game of inches,’’ Stafford said. “Tough one to lose, great effort from our team … offense we have to convert a little bit more on third down early and when our defense gets turnovers we have to put some points on the board.’’ Glover Quin scored a touchdown on an interception return. The Lions could not capitalize on the two interceptions by Darius Slay.

BONUS: Stafford said he can’t rank the odd endings he’s been involved with in his career in Detroit. This is definitely one of them. “I don’t know there’s a bunch of them. That’s the way it goes, you just play and let the chips fall where they may,’’ Stafford said.

DETROIT — The Lions’ offensive line will be short-handed versus the Atlanta Falcons today without center Travis Swanson (ankle) and Joe Dahl (lower leg). Both were questionable on Friday’s injury report.

Graham Glasgow will likely start at center. It’s possible Zac Kerin could start at left guard for Glasgow.

Defensive end Ziggy Ansah (knee) is active. He was questionable on Friday’s injury report.

Linebacker Jarrad Davis (concussion), safety Tavon Wilson (shoulder) and Dwayne Washington (quad) were declared out on Friday.

Zach Zenner will be active for the first time this season in place of Washington.

Safety Miles Killebrew is expected to get his first NFL start in place of Wilson.

Other Lions inactives include cornerback Teez Tabor and running back Tion Green.

Defensive end George Johnson, who signed with the Lions on Thursday, is active. He last played for the Lions in 2014.

Falcons Inactives: WR Nick Williams, RB Terron Ward, LB Vic Beasley, LB Jermaine Grace, OG Sean Harlow, OT Ryan Schraeder and DE Courtney Upshaw.

Kickoff at 1 p.m.