If anyone caught Countdown's piece on the Lions tonight, you would have heard Chris Carter completely backtrack and say that Calvin must be double teamed. What a joke!

From Elias: Calvin Johnson caught a pair of touchdown passes in the Lions' victory, just as he did in their two previous games this season. Johnson is the first player to catch two or more TD passes in each of a team's first three games of a season. In fact, only one other active player has recorded three straight games with two or more TD receptions at any point in any season: Dwayne Bowe last November. Over the last quarter-century, the only other receivers with three straight 2-TD games, all in victories, were Jerry Rice (1987 and 1993) and Randy Moss (2007).

Well Cris Carter never did this, from CJs profile page on ESPN:

Nah 32+

Joking aside, Moss' record from 2007 is 23 TD catches. Even if Calvin doesn't keep up the current pace, he could threaten that record if he and Stafford play all 16 games.

Chris Carter can't review players, because no matter what he wants to try and compare them to himself, and his opinion of himself is that he taught God how to make men. He's an a$$hole, a meglamaniac, and he needs to be taken off of TV. I can't stand that self-absorbed prick.

Matthew Stafford takes a shot at Cris Carter
Posted by Michael David Smith on September 27, 2011, 5:53 PM EDT
Cris Carterx-inset-community AP

Last month, former NFL receiver and current ESPN analyst Cris Carter questioned Detroit’s Calvin Johnson, saying he’s not an elite receiver. Carter later backtracked, and Johnson brushed it off, but Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford hasn’t forgotten.

On Twitter today, Stafford noted that Johnson has two touchdowns in all three of the Lions’ games this season, and he asked whether a fourth two-touchdown game against the Cowboys on Sunday might be enough to impress Carter.

Stafford’s tweet: “Does anyone think 8 tds in 4 weeks will change chris carters mind about an “elite” receiver? #megatron.”

Carter himself owns the all-time NFL record for consecutive two-touchdown games, with four in a row in 1995. If Johnson ties that record on Sunday, one would think Carter would reconsider his opinion that Johnson is only great in video games, not real football.

Or maybe Johnson will need to break Carter’s record, with two more two-touchdown games.

September, 27, 2011
By Kevin Seifert

Earlier Tuesday, we broke down the sizzling start of Detroit Lions receiver Calvin Johnson from multiple angles. At around the same time, ESPN analyst Cris Carter was updating his assessment of Johnson's standing in a mythical and irrelevant ranking of the NFL's top receivers.

Speaking on ESPN's radio's "Mike & Mike Radio Show," Carter said Johnson is "playing at a top-5 level" and added: "He's a phenomenal player." But it sounds as if Carter didn't go far enough for many of you, most notably Johnson's quarterback.

Carter said there are "really four elite wide receivers" in the NFL: Greg Jennings of the Green Bay Packers, Roddy White of the Atlanta Falcons, Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals and Andre Johnson of the Houston Texans.

Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was either listening or told about Carter's comment. Stafford's first tweet in about a month went like this:




Johnson, of course, has six touchdowns in the Lions' first three games, giving Stafford's tweet an edgy projection about the two he would need to score Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. Stay tuned on that one.

I covered Carter at the end of his career with the Minnesota Vikings, and I can tell you he's not opposed to riling people up for the sake of riling people up. I don't doubt the sincerity of his viewpoint, but I'll say this: Y'all are letting old Cris get under your skin when the actual slight to Johnson is mild at best.

Carter paid plenty of homage to Johnson in his appearance Tuesday morning, saying: "Now, Calvin Johnson is playing the best football of his career. He's getting single coverage now and he's beating single coverage. They had double-coverage in the red zone. Him and Stafford have great chemistry together. He is playing at a top-5 level. But before this season, he wasn't better than the other four guys. He's starting to come into his own, which he should be. ... He should be coming into his prime and he's only going to get better. He's a phenomenal player."

You can listen to Carter yourself on this podcast . The Johnson segment begins at about the 17-minute mark.

And now back to our regular programming....

Well, Carter basically called himself out this morning on Mike & Mike on ESPN. He did his morning version of "Come on, man" and he called out the Ryan brothers, Rob specifically, and himself for doubting CJ. He didn't flat out say CJ was the best, but he did say that right now, CJ is the king of the WRs in the NFL. So, there you have it.