Down The Field: Week 7

By: The Polish Prince

MVP! MVP! MVP! Matt Stafford, you Dawg (see what I did there?). This guy has been excellent. I don’t think there has been a guy that was always solid but super polarizing quite like Stafford. Now he is in MVP talks, yea I don’t think its crazy. I haven’t seen such a large sweeping love for one thing since the Weekend Wednesday movement of 2014. Its been said a lot but the Lions win maybe, MAYBE, one game if Stafford isn’t the QB this year. I love him, I love his fire, and I love his poise in crunch time. He is putting up elite like numbers. He has the most game winning drives since 2011 and has the most yards and completions in his first 100 games than any other QB in NFL history. The hype is real this year, until it aint. I realize that doesn’t really mean anything but what I’m trying to say is there is no reason to believe that Stafford won’t engineer a game winning drive when he needs to. He is that good right now.
 
The Good:

• Matt Stafford: (see above) and 266 yards, 1 td, 0 int, and a 103.5 passer rating.
• Receivers: Golden Tate- 6 receptions for 93 yards, Marvin- 4 receptions for 94 yards and a huge 52 yard bomb in the 3rd quarter, Anquan Boldin- 3 receptions for 28 yards and a massive touchdown. The top three targets were great and shout out to Andre Roberts for having that impressive snag on the game winning drive. Still a couple of drops on the day. They really need to clean that up but they got the job done when it mattered.
• JBC: Offense looked good, not great. But the play calling in the final minute was creative, efficient, and overall perfect. He has brought out the absolute best in Stafford since he took the OC position.

 
The Bad:

• The Defense: They need to be clutch, not good. Been saying it for weeks now. Despite holding a hot Redskins team to only 17 points, they gave up back to back touchdown drives on the final two Washington drives of the game. Pass rush looked there through out the game though. If Slay is out for an extended period of time, they are in some big, big trouble *Billy Madison voice*
• Special Teams: The field goal unit missed a relatively easy kick early on. It was a high snap that changed the timing just a little bit. Blaming all of it on Prater would be wrong.
• Jim Caldwell: Still not sure he can manage the clock but luckily it worked out, kind of. If Stanton didn’t run that ball in when he did, the Lions could have been in a lot deeper hole because of poor clock management.

 
The Ugly

• Matt Jones: Doesn’t play for the Lions but what the f, man? Hold on to the damn ball.

 
Another come from behind game that was decided by 7 points or less. This team may not be great but they are right in the thick of it. No reason to think they couldn’t grab a Wild Card spot. The rest of the league, outside of the Pats, is pretty mediocre. Just wish we could have won that Tennessee game. The eternal song of Lions fans, “if only”. 

Photo Creds: NFL Network

​Bonus: R.I.P Drew Sharp. From what everyone said he is a great guy. I didn’t know him personally and I didn’t really like how negative his articles always were but I know that’s the role he played. I have to respect a man that can elicit that much emotion from writing and he will be missed. Like Bill Laimbeer once said “Some one has to wear the black hat” and no one did that as well as Drew Sharp.
 
Double Bonus: Saw the Lions traded Van Noy today. He wasn’t doing anything for us and I think it’s a good trade. It will look like it backfired because he will almost inevitably be a Pro Bowler but that’s only because he went to the Pats. Any other team and this is a giant W for the Lions.