Detroit Lions: The curious case of Matthew Stafford
By Robert Jones
There have always been the naysayers that don’t believe in Matthew Stafford’s ability to lead the Detroit Lions to the Super Bowl. The fact that he’s been at the helm of this team for 10 years and he hasn’t come close to making it happen doesn’t help either.
10 years, three playoff appearances and not one postseason victory.
That’s kind of hard to live down when your the first overall pick in the draft because choosing a quarterback number one overall is done for one singular purpose; they are expected to win the Super Bowl.
Period. Enough said.
The wolves are howling at the gate and Stafford’s play falling to new lows has given them a reason to howl their lungs out.
Yet is it really all his fault?
As the Lions entered the season, it was assumed that with the help that was brought in for the offensive line and backfield, plus the return of offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter for continuities sake, that the offense was going to be a strength. Especially while the defense was trying to learn Matt Patricia’s complex defensive scheme.
Building the defense on the run was going to be OK because the offense was going to be scoring and keeping them in games.
The truth of the matter is that despite the awful showing against the Jets to open the season, the offense did put points on the board, but the defense couldn’t stop their opponents. especially on the ground.
Teams ran roughshod through the Lions defense and were able to outscore the Lions on a consistent basis. This, of course, led to a poor start and a poor record the Lions never recovered from.
But through the first seven weeks, the Lions averaged 26.1 points a game. Which isn’t chicken feed. And Stafford? If you threw out the horrible opener, his completion percentage (70.9%), touchdown passes (11) and quarterback rating (115.02) with only one interception were all outstanding as they culminated in his best game of the season against the Miami Dolphins in Week Seven.
In Week Eight against the Seattle Seahawks, he still posted a good game by completing 67.5% of his passes for 310 yards with a pair of scoring strikes and one interception giving him a 96.9 rating. But his late fumble was huge.
It was week nine that the wheels started to come off and part of that was the Minnesota Vikings setting a team record by sacking Stafford 10 times.
When you also consider the trade that had already sent Golden Tate packing, then Kerryon Johnson and Marvin Jones landing on Injured Reserve for the remainder of the season, things started to get a little foggier as to how he was going to continue to play at the level he had during his run from week two through week seven.