Matthew Stafford playing like an MVP candidate once again

The Detroit Lions lost Sunday in gut-wrenching fashion to the Kansas City Chiefs. Despite losing, quarterback Matthew Stafford looked to be back in MVP form.

Even though the Detroit Lions lost on Sunday to a team many expect to be in the Super Bowl this year, their were still some positives to take away from the loss. Chief among them being that quarterback Matthew Stafford looked like he was regaining his MVP form from a couple of years ago.

Stafford, despite dealing with a painful hip injury, was effective and efficient with his passes Sunday. He was constantly fitting the ball into tight windows and navigating the pocket at a high level. Despite getting pressured quite a bit by elite defensive tackle Chris Jones and having to contend with a secondary that included elite safety Tyrann Mathieu, Stafford still managed to put forth a great game.

Stafford started out his impressive day on the opening drive completing two passes for 52 yards, both of which were on a line down the middle of the field. The frozen rope to wide out Kenny Golladay to start his day off was particularly impressive. Stafford had the offense driving all the way inside the five yard line before a sack on third and goal caused the drive to end in a field goal.

Stafford continued his impressive performance throughout the entire game, making only two real mistakes all game with only one of them proving costly. Stafford fumbled the ball twice, both times due to pressure from the Kansas City defensive line.

However, the most costly fumble was one in the third quarter when the Lions had just forced a fumble themselves and were driving into the red zone. Stafford, feeling pressure, escaped the pocket out to his left. When attempting to switch the football between hands he was hit and let the ball slip from his grasp, allowing the Chiefs to recover.

Other than those two fumbles, only one of which was lost, Stafford played at a near perfect level and put forth an MVP worthy performance. Stafford finished the game 21/34 (61.7%) with 291 yards and three touchdowns (finishing with a rating of 118.6). He also averaged 8.56 yards per attempt and 13.86 yards per completion, both very good numbers.

In addition to passing the ball extremely well, he also contributed on the ground for 18 yards on two carries, including a carry in which he broke two tackle attempts and rammed himself into a defender to get an extra yard or two which resulted in the Lions going from what would have been a third and long situation to a third and one situation.

Stafford carried the Lions a lot during this game, but did get some relief from the run game. However, had it not been for Stafford playing at an elite and MVP-like level the Lions would have never had been able to stay in this game.

Stafford brought his A-game Sunday and it showed in both the box score and on the field as he was constantly ripping passes into tight windows and putting the perfect amount of touch on balls when he needed to.

At the end of the day, despite losing the game, Stafford out-gunned and out dueled the reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes while playing at an MVP level himself. If the Lions make the playoffs (and I believe they can and will) Stafford may very well be getting at least a little MVP consideration as long as he continues to perform as well as he did this past Sunday.