Who’s to blame for the Detroit Lions slow start?

Sep 20, 2015; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) passes against the Minnesota Vikings in the third quarter at TCF Bank Stadium. The Vikings win 26-16. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports

Next, Matthew Stafford has to be better under pressure.

When not under pressure he has shown a 102.5 quarterback rating with a 78.8 completion percentage. Now, the problem comes under pressure where his rating drops drastically to 43.1  and having only a 32.3 completion percentage.

Now, I will follow this by saying, the article in which this information came from via Pro Football Focus fails to mention one important piece of information to help properly gauge this drop in stats when under pressure. There are no stats stating the percentage of plays he is under pressure in a game, and the number of hits taken. That would really help to explain these numbers a bit more.

Also at SLR: Matt Stafford: Elite or not, he is the man for the job

Of course, when your quarterback takes a beating, it wears on them, and the numbers go down. Regardless of the lack of information, his performance under pressure needs to be better. And that can all be affected by the playcalling and the protection scheme.

As you can see multiple times during a game, Stafford will go to the line and change the protection scheme based on what he is seeing. Being outsiders looking in, there is no way to tell if he is changing to the wrong protection, or if the linemen are just doing that poor of a job in the blocking department. The only people who really know this are the players on the field and the coaches.

Next: Jim Caldwell