Matthew Stafford played well enough to win that game?

The Den
1

This is against my better judgement, as QB conversations are on my “No Fly Zone”. But…

Every commentator since the game ended has had nothing but praise for how Matt played. I couldn’t help but be reminded of so many Stafford-era Lions conversations that pinned every loss on him.

Now that we’re on the other side of that Stafford loss, do you still blame the QB?

Did we win because Stafford made 2 bad throws and 1 bad decision? Is that all it took?

In a game where individual players rose to the occasion (for both sides) are you content with hanging the win or loss on either QB?

  • Yes
  • No
0 voters
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@linebusy, we won bc we are a team of destiny!

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Stafford was awesome
Stafford has a history of taking over games and Beating average teams… But he could never beat good teams by himself.

In the NBA that can work… Not in the NFL

Stafford is amazing, but he can’t overtake a good playoff team by himself

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Well said, Natty.

I think the bar of a “QB being good enough to beat good teams by himself” is too high for any QB to reach, IMO.

By the way, I completely botched the poll and had to reset it.

5

Stafford played good enough to win both games. He’s a better QB now than he was in Detroit….just like Goff is a better QB now as well.

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It was similar to a lot of his games as a Lion. He had no running game and 1-2 weapons on offense.

Just like with the Lions he can’t win like that despite playing really well.

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Did he play well enough to win that game? Absolutely.

Did he make a few mistakes where his team probably would’ve won if he didn’t make them? Absolutely.

Both things can be true.

Football is a team game. If they held us to 17 in regulation, Stafford and the Rams win that game.

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I voted yes but also think no as well. Yes because of the pick and no because thats part of the game. Mistakes happen.

1 Like
9

Both QBs had a pick. Staffords took points off the board. They were well within the red zone.

I thought both QBs played poorly. Yes Stafford got the ball out quickly by design but only threw dink dunk passes. Only two completions past 11 yards and none more than 20. Out DBs also dropped two more easy picks

Goffs one pick was a rare lost battle by Amon. He usually outmuscles those. But he was lucky the floater to Jamo didn’t get snagged

So IMO they both played well enough to win but also made enough mistakes to lose. Lions just had more grit in the end

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The Rams having their 4th and 5th options at tackle, and losing Avila and Nacua was the difference.

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We dont really know how it would have worked out if the above was different. I will say when offensive lineman are allowed to do rear naked chokes and trip their opponent it makes up for a bit of a talent gap.

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I was never a blame Stafford person when he was here. He had his bad games but overall there were very few games we lost that I would pin directly on the QB play. Same goes for Goff, he had a rough day but the Rams did a great job taking away his #1 weapon and our running game stalled almost the entire 2nd half. Stafford threw 50 times at almost 70% without his 2 starting tackles and his #2 target for most of the game. He played well enough to win but we crapped on their running game and then smacked up the defense in OT.

3 Likes
13

I will go ahead and say it. Stafford lost the Rams that game. In fact, we’ve literally SEEN this game many many times as Lions fans.

I can give many examples, but I will save it for a few. Rams literally took Kyren Williams, a good RB, out of the game because they wanted to keep throwing. They will say it’s because the offensive line was depleted, but do you know what the most basic play for offensive lineman is? Running the ball. Also, how do you slow down a team that is trying to pass rush you to death? Run the ball.

Now, the series where Stafford got the 1st and goal from the 1. That should be an automatic TD. Like it was for us later. Anyways, they tried to run once, and got stopped. Then came the facemask penalty that knocked them back 15. That saved us, but I want to point out the 3rd down play. Before the play even happened, I told my son “Watch Stafford throw up a prayer to Kupp.” Why? Because Stafford still has the same problem he has always had his whole career. Once he sees a play working, he goes back to it every…single… time. Remember how we always had different offensive coordinators, but somehow, someway, the other teams ALWAYS knew our plays? During the playoff game, the Lions won because we locked out the Rams in the red zone and forced them to FG’s. In that game, Collinsworth said “You have to wonder if the Rams are getting a little too predictable with these plays.” So it’s not my opinion, announcers are seeing it too. If the common fan and announcer can see something, other teams see it too.

Last point, and the more damning one. Lions get stopped on a 3 and out, and punt the ball away. Rams get the ball back with 3 minutes left and Rams are up 3. I will fully admit it, I thought we were wrong to punt it away and that we were dead. The last Rams drive was 7 minutes, and the defense was still gassed. With the lead and the ball back, your only job is to run the ball, and bleed the timeouts. RUN THE BALL, bleed the timeouts. What do the Rams do? Come out firing baby! Stafford then throws 2 incomplete passes, saving us 2 timeouts and keeping the 2 minute warning in play. That whole sequence is the only reason we are able to get the ball back and go for one last drive. Stafford apparently decided to play for the Lions one last time.

Our drive down the field was so good, it was looking like we could have gotten a TD before the drive stalled. Kudos to Dan for trusting his rookie kicker in his first NFL game to send the game to OT, and the rest was history.

To answer the question, did Stafford play well enough to win the game? Yes he did. Did he also end up costing his team the game? Yes, he did. It was well noted that this was a revenge game for Stafford. He wanted the ball in his hand, he wanted to be the one to close it out, and instead of being the one who drove the nail in the coffin, he was the one who dug his own hole. This is something we saw many times in Detroit. Seeing it one more time didn’t hurt my feelings one bit.

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I disagree.

15

Both teams played well enough to win. Like many games, it wouldn’t take too much to flip the game either way. Matt Stafford did play well enough to win the game.

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Sarcastic Boy Meets World GIF

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Matt was the reason that they had any chance to stay in or win that game and also the reason that they lost. That pick was awful. Honestly that’s the way he was with us. He gave us a shot to win many games.

I think Goff would have been demolished if he was behind that Rams shit line and no Puka. And I love Goff. Stafford just has great instinctive play that sometimes gets him into trouble.

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I suppose you think that if the Lions didn’t have Jamo, Decker, Sewell and Glasgow the results would have been the same.

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  1. Is our backup oline allowed to play by wrestling standards? Lol

No but i am also not going to sit here and guarantee results for a hypothetical considering we have all seen teams that had no business winning pull out a game on sundays.

Said differently if we lost all of the mentioned players do you feel we dont win a single game? That is effectively your point when you deal in absolutes like you were.

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It’s a good point. That offense all day did remind me of all the Stafford years here. Throw throw throw throw throw throw shotgun shotgun shotgun shotgun

Then we rack up passing yards losses and complain there’s no run game