Matthew Stafford vs. Aaron Rodgers: An incomplete history

‘Life at the Crossbars’ 2018

 Aaron Rodgers threw for an obscene amount of yardage in this one, but some timely defensive stops and an even more timely case of the yips from Pack kicker Mason Crosby kept the Lions in front from wire-to-wire.

Stafford was in game manager mode for most of the day. After chasing down Rodgers, Da’Shawn Hand forced and then recovered a fumble in Lions’ territory, setting up a Stafford touchdown pass to Marvin Jones to go up 24-0 in the final minute of the second quarter. The good vibes in the stadium heading into halftime of that game was probably the highlight of the entire Matt Patricia era for the Lions.

Green Bay came back somewhat in the second half, maybe even more if Crosby wasn’t having his worst ever day at the office. He hit both uprights on the day, missing four field goals and an extra point and the Packers never got within 8, even with Rodgers passing for over a quarter mile on the afternoon.

Detroit 31 Green Bay 23

Stafford: 14-26, 183 yd, 2 TD, 101.9 QB rating

Rodgers: 32-52, 442 yd, 3 TD, 108.0 QB rating

‘Illegal Hands to the Face’ 2019

Green Bay 23, Detroit 22

Stafford: 18-32, 265 yd, 0 TD, 83.5 QB rating

Rodgers: 24-39, 283 yd, 2 TD, 90.0 QB rating

I’m not yet willing to talk about last year’s travesty on Monday Night than is absolutely necessary, so I’ll just say that it happened and leave at that. Here is my write-up from a year ago.