At the risk of doing this when everyone (me included) is emotional about how we lost this game, I wondered how everyone else felt about 9's play so far this year.

As evident by previous posts I am a Stafford fan, but I honestly don't think he is playing all that well. I know his numbers look decent but he misses A LOT of throws. He got decent protection today and still didn't play well. He appeared to completely quite on the last drive, and throws alot of balls away prematurely.

It seems he is a good QB, but not great. Not someone you can give credit for a win but rather someone who can "not lose."

Am I being too harsh, or are others seeing the same type of play? Maybe I'm just pissed about thisgame but this isn't the first time I've thought he played poorly.

He is virtually, still a rookie. As such, he is still working through rookie mistakes. But, he is having far less rookie mistakes than most rookies. He will be just fine. We are 5-1. We will be 9-1 going into Thanksgiving.

He has put us in position to win games this year, but I am starting to get tired of him completely missing his throws to begin games. I also do not know why he didn't throw it Calvins way in the Red Zone. I don't care if he looks covered, no one can stop him down there if you give him a chance.

To answer your question he has the qualities of a great qb, and to be fair he is still young and learning but these types of performances have to stop for the lions to progress.

Don't start this.

What is the difference between the '10 Lions and the '11 Lions? A healthy Stafford.

Next time I'll run it past you before I ask a question.

I think his play has actaully declined a little. Perhaps with the loss he can relax some. I have been ripping the oline in a few threads, so I won't do it here, but they are as much to blame in Staffords poor play. No excuses for missing wide open receivers however, that's totally on Stafford.

I was at the UT/LSU game on Saturday and was talking with a LSU Fan and we were talking NFL. He was ripping Matt Stafford for his inaccuracies during his college career at Georgia.

I think Matt is the right guy and he still has some inexperience. I mean really the kid hasn't played much and then they end up 5-0. Nine straight wins and he had to be feeling some pressure. This loss might be a blessing, now they can just go play football!

How about 3rd and 5 when he had a wide open (burleson I think) and threw the ball 3 yards in front of him in the turf? It was a 8 yard throw!!!

Stafford is streaky, starts games slow, and seems to have some hefty mental lapses at inopportune times. I'm trying to be a fan, but I can't give him much love. He missed a lot of mediocre throws against an average secondary

You ever have one of those days where things you normally do easily just seem impossible to do? It was one of those days for Stafford. It happens.

Unfortunately, Staffords being paid $70 million to NOT have those days on Sunday's or Monday's. It looked like the communication was off too. He missed cj, best, pett, etc all wide or behind on numerous plays. Or the ball he hit smith in the chest with. Lucky he is a lineman and has terrible hands.

How many picks did Brady throw against the Bills this year? 4?

Even the greatest QBs have bad games.

Further, I wouldn't put this loss solely on Stafford. The defense continues to let up the big run. Special teams coverage was awful.

WOW, one loss. After 5-0 start, 4-0 preseason, and 4 at the end of the year last year.

Staffords performance for the year. "A" 5-1 and what 6th or 7th best passer rating in the league without the help of a credible run game.

A. IMHO

One thing that this highlights to me is that people continue to have this illusion about the Lion's identity.

People still continue to believe the team is the Dline. It's not.

This team is about Stafford throwing the ball to Calvin. That's it. If that isn't happening then the Lions will lose.

I disagree. Cj must be a factor, but he doesn't need 7 or 8 catches and multiple TDs. Stafford has to make throws, yes. He has to force feed cj a few. CJ had safety help quite a bit, most of the game in fact. Stafford has to find pett, Titus, Nate, best, etc and actually complete the damn passes. When CJs drawing an extra man, someone will be open, give the man some damn time to find the open guy and staff actually has to throw the ball on target, which he was severely lacking today.

I agree that this is a dangerous thing to talk about but when we think the QB had a bad game and his actual performance is:

28/50 293 yards 2 tds 86.5 passer rating and no turnovers when he gets sacked 5 times and hit another 10, its a pretty good indicator of how good he is and how high he has raised the standard of play from that position.

yeah, he missed some passes, he had a hard time in the redzone and it feels like he took a bad sack when we had no timeouts left in the two minute drill. I will remind us all that we had a few dropped passes, Pettigrew didnt get many yards after the catch, the line struggled with protection, the niners have a good defense and an intentional grounding is a worse result than a sack. nerves were a factor as well and through it all he didnt give the game away.

a better game from him is probably a win but a win might also have been the result of better punt coverage or maybe just directional punting and downing a ball at the 10 instead of trying to stop it at the 1, a win might also have been the result of not letting a guy gash you for 50 yards when the defensive line has blown up the play or coming away with more than just one of several errant or deflected passes by Alex Smith. Stafford played good enough to win as did the special teams, receivers, offensive line, defensive line, linebackers and secondary. None played egregiously. As a whole, however we lost. There are plenty of teaching points to go around to help us improve at multiple areas including the 23 year old QB with 15 tds and 4 ints. That he has room to improve is great news not something to complain about.

P.S. In the history of the Detroit Lions and Portsmouth Spartans which dates back to 1930 there have been only four yes four QBs with even 20 TDs in a season. Nobody has done it twice. Im not going to jinx Stafford in any way by making predictions but lets just savor what we have here. Also there have only been 8, 10 win seasons in franchise history so enjoy.

Jon Kitna 21 in 2006
Scott Mitchell 32 in 1995
Earl Morral 24 in 1963
Bobby Layne 26 in 1951


Anyway for the season and history of the franchises 81 years I give him a solid A

Stafford's stat line is a bit misleading because there were some bad throws that should've been picked and weren't simply because the 49ers defenders couldn't catch. One throw in particular, Stafford literally hit the 49er straight in the chest as if he was the intended receiver.

That said, the Lions have been built to rely on the QB position. If Stafford is not playing above average, they will probably not win. The running game is entirely dependent upon the passing game; the defense is good but not good enough to win games alone.