Matthew Stafford at 40,000: 40 memorable moments (Part One)

Stafford’s first 10,000 yards (cont.)

6. “Stafford is a punk” (Nov. 13, 2011)

This was a largely forgettable 37-13 Lions loss, where Stafford threw a career high 4 interceptions (including two pick-sixes) along with a whopping 63 attempts, but I’ll always remember one moment at the very end of the game that raised a lot of “Stafford is a punk” discussion on the sports talk circuit for the next few weeks.

On Stafford’s 4th interception of the day, with the game far past any hope, the quarterback chased down the play and ended up grabbing Bears defensive back D.J. Moore by the helmet, throwing him the to ground and ignited an on-field brawl between the two teams when Moore retaliated.

I was beyond pissed off with how the game was going, but took a tiny comfort seeing that at least Stafford still had some fight in him. I vividly remember Brett Favre doing the exact same thing against the Lions in the mid-1990s. Stafford never was a punk, but he was/is/will always be a gunslinger in the mold of Favre, and that’s going to involve a few ugly games from time to time.

7. Escaping the Black Hole (Dec. 18, 2011)

After losing a fumble in his own end zone halfway through the 4th quarter, it wouldn’t have been a bad time to call it a day. The type of season that 2011 was turning into though, trailing 27-14 late in the game on the road was right where the Lions wanted to be.

The first drive took barely two minutes. Stafford ran a QB draw on 4th and 2 to keep the drive along before finding Titus Young for a touchdown to pull within one score. The iconic shot happened on the next drive though, as Stafford trebucheted a 48-yard rainbow off his back foot to Megatron, who somehow ran past double coverage to make the red zone catch.

A few plays later, Stafford threw off his back foot again, and again found an open Megatron, this time to put up the winning points of an absurd 28-27 comeback win.