Tuesday, October 9, 2001

Rams strong passing attack topples Lions
Associated Press

PONTIAC, Mich. — The St. Louis Rams thrive on the pass. The Detroit Lions die by it, which is one reason the Rams are unbeaten and the Lions are winless.

Kurt Warner threw three touchdown passes and Dre' Bly returned an interception of Ty Detmer 93 yards for a score Monday night as the Rams remained the NFL's only unbeaten team with a 35-0 victory over the Lions.

It was hard to tell if the Rams (4-0) were good or the Lions (0-3) were bad in a game that was really never in doubt after Warner threw first-half touchdown passes of 15 yards to Az-Zahir Hakim and 36 yards to Torry Holt. Those scores capped two drives in which Warner threw 16 straight times. So easy was it for the Rams to pass on a Lions secondary minus Bryant Westbrook, recovering from a torn Achilles' tendon, that St. Louis ran the ball just three times in the first half while Warner went 16-of-21 for 197 yards, many of them underneath Detroit's deep zone. Warner finished 29-of-37 for 291 yards.

Detmer was 14-of-17 for 143 yards, a deceptive figure if there ever was one.