Rookie WR Titus Young nominated for Pepsi Rookie of the Week

Rookie wide receiver Titus Young has been nominated for Pepsi Rookie of the Week for his Week 8 performance at Denver.

Young finished with four catches for 66 yards including a 41-yard touchdown – the first of his career – to put the Lions on the board in the first quarter.

Fans can vote for Young on NFL.com/rookies until Friday at noon ET! The Pepsi NFL Rookie of the Week will be announced Friday on NFL Total Access on NFL Network and on NFL.com.

QB Matthew Stafford nominated for FedEx Air Player of the Week

Quarterback Matthew Stafford has been nominated for FedEx Air Player of the Week for his Week 8 performance at Denver.

Stafford led the Lions to a 45-10 win over the Broncos, finishing 21-of-30 for 267 yards with three touchdowns for a 130.8 passer rating.

Also nominated this week are Eli Manning of the New York Giants and Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Fans can vote for Stafford at NFL.com/FedEx until 3 p.m. EST on Friday.

The winners will be announced Friday on NFL Total Access on NFL Network and on NFL.com.

Stafford will start at Denver; Morris will start at RB

The Detroit Lions have confirmed that QB Matthew Stafford will start for the Lions at Denver this afternoon.

RB Maurice Morris will start in place of RB Jahvid Best.

Full list of Detroit Lions inactives:

• QB Drew Stanton
• CB Don Carey
• S Chris Harris
• RB Jahvid Best
• T Jason Fox
• WR Rashied Davis
• DT Nick Fairley

Full list of Denver Broncos inactives:

• QB Brady Quinn
• RB Willis McGahee
• S Rafael Bush
• FB Quinn Johnson
• G Manny Ramirez
• T Tony Hills
• DE Derrick Harvey

S Quinton Carter will start in place of S Rahim Moore and RB Knowshon Moreno will start in place of RB Willis McGahee.

Calvin Johnson on the offense, red zone woes and snow in Denver

“It was a tough practice today because everybody’s sore. I’m sore. It was slow at first, but it definitely picked up in the end, though. So that was good. It turned to be a really good practice.

“As an offense, we’re just trying to get our mojo back. Guys are still into it. I can’t say exactly why we haven’t been clicking the way we were early in the season – in the preseason and stuff. We just have to get back to being us. Having fun out there. It’s been a little different in the huddle. We used to be fooling around out there all the time. We’ve got to get back to that – having fun out there.

“One factor is that we have gone against some good coordinators – some guys that have some good schemes and then have players on top of that to play out those schemes. That’s tough. Everybody has a job to do on both sides of the ball. Those guys get paid, too, but I feel when we’re on our stuff and we’re doing what we have to do then we’re always going to win.

“As far as me getting the ball in the red zone … these coordinators, these teams, they’re playing more disciplined. There’s not a lot of man in the red zone. You’re going to see brackets, you’re going to see a safety over the top most of the time, but that’s not to say you can’t beat that. We definitely can. We just need to get back to what we’re capable of.

“I was looking at the weather report on my phone and see that it’s snowing in Denver. I looked at it further in the week and it’s supposed to be like 50 on Saturday. So it’ll probably all melt, if not today then tomorrow. We’ll be fine. It might be a little chilly on Sunday, but that’s fine as long as it’s not freezing cold like Green Bay.”

Suh: “My mentality is to never disrespect the game or disrespect the guys that have come before me.”

“It was a good game. Obviously, we didn’t come out on the right end of the stick, but I think we learned a lot of good things. It’s a matter of us continuing to learn from these mistakes that we’ve made, that have caused us to not come out on the right end of these games. Now, we have an opportunity to move past it, as I felt we did on Monday, and now we’re getting focused on taking care of the business on the road again as we play Denver this Sunday.

“With a win, you need to approach it like a loss, it’s maybe a little more in depth with an (actual) loss because you didn’t come out on the right end of it, but you need to have the 36 hour rule. Live and learn from it and move on because there’s nothing you can do with that game anymore except to learn from your mistakes and not let it happen again. I think that’s the biggest thing you need to do and I think we’ve done that as a team. I think we came out today with a great practice, and obviously we need to finish strong going into this bye week.

“Tim Tebow is a quarterback that’s been in a lot of big games. He just got his first start of this year, but he’s definitely played a good amount in that offense, he played a good amount last year, and now at this point in time in his career he’s getting the opportunity to take that team by the ropes and really make the most out of it. I think he did that last week, bringing the team back in Miami and now he’s able to get home and maybe feel a little more comfortable with his fans behind him and so forth.

“Ultimately, us as a defense and as a front four, we want to go in and cause havoc and we feel that if we shut down the run as we want to do every single game, making them one-dimensional, they’ll have a tough time beating us because we feel we have the type of players that can keep them on their heels and force them to play the way we want them to and if that happens we should definitely come out with a win.

“My character and mindset when approaching the game of football, a sport that I love and have grown to love, my mentality is to never disrespect the game or disrespect the guys that have come before me. I only want to live up to the things that they’ve done in the past and try to exceed them and I think that’s what they would expect and hope for. That’s my mindset and approach to the game.

“With that, really being in everything, with the team that I’m on, the type of players that I’m around, I play for them and the coaches and the true fans that we have that stick by us no matter what, that don’t waiver because we may have had two stumbles. I think this team is continuing to really grow and I think we’re only going to get better. I think these two losses at home are only going to allow us to get stronger. We don’t want to allow that to ever happen again at home for the rest of the regular season and hopefully moving forward into the playoffs.”