For five years Matthew Stafford was the NFL equivalent of the wild point guard who kept both teams in the game. He could throw the ball, as the old saying goes, through a speeding locomotive; he could also throw it to the other team.
He’d been the No. 1 overall pick out of Georgia in 2009, and in 2011 he’d thrown for 5,000 yards, which even in the era of inflationary passing was a big deal. But almost none of those inane discussions about “elite” quarterbacks ever included the guy from Dallas by way of Athens. He was more curio than constant
The Stafford the Falcons will see at Wembley on Sunday is said to be a bit different, a bit more nuanced. After throwing 72 interceptions over his first four full seasons (against 103 touchdowns), he has downshifted. He has managed only one 300-yard game in Detroit’s first seven, but the Lions are 5-2 and Stafford has dialed back on touchdowns (nine) and INTs (six).
Some have suggested that the NFL’s leading slinger has, under the calming hand of new coach Jim Caldwell, become a “game manager.” Asked about that Thursday at the Lions’ distant-from-downtown Bagshot hotel, Stafford didn’t wince. Neither did he muster much enthusiasm.
“I’ve never really gotten into labels,” he said.
Then someone wondered what Stafford thought when he heard the phrase “game manager.” His response: “It has a negative connotation. But it doesn’t need to be that way.”
Any slinger worth his arm strength — and Stafford’s is the league’s strongest — would balk at being called a mere manager. This is the NFL. It’s a quarterback’s league. Quarterbacks are supposed to lead breathless winning drives and deliver lasered touchdowns. Being a game manager connotes, as Stafford suggested, that a quarterback isn’t gifted enough to do much more than call audibles and flip dinky passes.
“It doesn’t matter to me (how he’s characterized),” Stafford said, though clearly it matters a little. “I’m not holding back. I’m just trying to take what’s there.”
Last week he took more than that. He outdid the Saints’ estimable Drew Brees in leading the Lions from 13 points down with four minutes remaining. Stafford threw a 73-yard touchdown pass to Golden Tate to bring Detroit close, and the game-winner to Corey Fuller was one of those passes only Stafford and maybe two other quarterbacks can make — a frozen rope that Fuller had to soar to snag.
“(Stafford) has progressed every year,” said Calvin Johnson, the best-in-the-business receiver from Georgia Tech who has missed two games with a sore ankle but is hopeful of playing Sunday. (More good news for the Falcons!) “He’s a great guy, a great teammate. He has always had a cannon, but now he’s gaining touch with it.”
About that arm, Johnson said: “He threw some balls last week that went 50 yards and didn’t get 10 feet off the ground.”
That mighty arm was the reason Stafford was rated the No. 1 quarterback in the class of 2006, the reason Georgia coach Mark Richt turned to the freshman despite his tendency to be loose with the ball. (In a loss at Kentucky that year, Stafford threw interceptions from inside the Georgia 2 and the Kentucky 2 on consecutive series.) That mighty arm was the reason the Lions took Stafford, who never led the Bulldogs to the SEC title game, with the No. 1 pick. And that mighty arm, it must be said, has more than occasionally been likened to Jeff George’s.
George was a No. 1 overall pick who did time with many teams, the Falcons included, without accomplishing much. His career ended with one playoff victory, that against an 8-8 Dallas team coached by Chan Gailey. Since drafting Stafford, the Lions have had one winning season (in 2011) and no playoff victories. Not all of that was his misdoing — those Lions were coached by oddball Jim Schwartz — but this, remember, is a quarterback’s league.
Just as baseball pitchers who throw 95 mph need to learn command and control to win big, so must a quarterback with a mighty arm grasp that he is in position to lose games just as quickly as he wins them. As Johnson said: “Turnovers are pretty much why teams lose games.”
Stafford’s mechanics have always been a horror — when you’ve got an arm like that, you tend not to sweat the details — and the memories of his off-the-back-foot interceptions have, in the minds of Lions fans, counterbalanced his awe-inducing touchdowns. But that was then; now is looking rather different.
The Lions have scored more than 24 points only once in seven games, having mostly relied on their top-ranked defense. Stafford’s stats are nothing outlandish — he’s ninth in passing yards per game, 12th in yards per attempt, and 23rd in passer rating — but his team is winning.
He isn’t planning on losing Sunday. “A plane ride home after a loss is awful,” Stafford said. Then he smiled. “This would be a long plane ride.”
