James Jahnke

Detroit Free Press

Consider us uncultured Americans, but we always get a kick out of the turns of phrase of the British press. So indulge us as we take a tour of the English's English in describing Sunday's 22-21 victory by the Detroit Lions over the Atlanta Falcons at Wembley Stadium in London:

• BBC: "The Lions missed a two-point conversion attempt to level the match but (Matthew) Stafford moved his team up the pitch in the final 90 seconds to give (Matt) Prater his match-winning shot."

• The Guardian: "It's also worth mentioning that before today, Detroit had missed ten of their sixteen field goals – and Prater missed his first attempt, but displayed stones of steel to tuck away a second kick after a penalty call. He wasn't the only one – Stafford and his motley crew of receivers got the job done in Calvin Johnson's absence."

• The Independent: "The form book hadn't just been ripped up, it had been shredded, mashed, pulped and taken to a dump. Matt Stafford, one of the best young throwers in the NFL, may have been missing star receiver Calvin Johnson, top running back Reggie Bush and three tight ends, but he was as much to blame for his team's ills as the dropped passes of his second-string receiving corps."

• Metro: "The reality is though that the Falcons have only themselves to blame. Such was their domination in the first half that you were busy checking the biggest defeats in the Wembley games to see if the record was threatened."

• Daily Mail: "Both teams head into a mid-season bye and while the flight home will be a jubilant one for Detroit, one imagines it will be a sombre mood on the plane to Georgia. And while Falcons owner Arthur Blank has said he has no plans for a change of head coach, their record is a meagre one. And this defeat will hurt."

• London Times: "It was said that Texas Stadium, the former home of the Dallas Cowboys, had a hole in its roof 'so God can watch his favourite team play'. Well, the American football gods were certainly smiling through the hole in Wembley's roof for the NFL's big London showcase. With a kick-off time of 1.30pm local time -- 9.30am on the east coast of the United States and 6.30 on the west coast -- you would have forgiven many Stateside fans for going back to bed after a first half that that Atlanta Falcons dominated."