Matthew Stafford hits 40,000: 40 memorable moments (part II)

From 10,000 to 20,000 yards

11. Thanksgiving 2012 (Nov. 22, 2012)

With things slipping away from them fast, Stafford and the Lions put on one of their best team performances of the year in this overtime game against the 9-1 Texans.

With 61 pass attempts, 441 yards, 2 touchdowns and no turnovers, #9’s effort especially was a valiant fight to try and rescue this lost season. But the majority of people only remember this as being the infamous “challenge flag” game, ending in a 34-31 loss.

12. Calvin Johnson breaks Jerry Rice’s record (Dec. 22, 2012)

This moment is more about Megatron than Stafford, but it does provide an interesting cross-section into the ‘Stafford piles up meaningless stats’ narrative. In this particular game, Stafford ripped out another 56 pass attempts for 443 yards, watching his top receiver set the all time league record for receiving yards in the season.

The flip side of this was zero touchdown passes, the game was never close, the Lions dropped the game 31-18 for their 7th straight loss, falling to 4-11. 2012 was the start of the ‘Statford’ criticism (most passing attempts, nearly 5,000 yards, not many TDs/not many Ws), and probably the only year that it was really valid.

Calvin Johnson on the other hand, never had his numbers (1,964 yards) called into question in quite the same way, though both were in the same boat in that department.