Lions Lose to Packers in week-12

One step forward and one step back. So goes the progress of Matthew Stafford as the Detroit Lions quarterback. A few weeks ago, he had five interceptions. A week and a half ago he had five touchdowns and only one interception. This week he had one touchdown and four interceptions en route to a 34 to 12 drubbing by the Green Bay Packers.

I believe it was in the 3rd quarter when Matthew Stafford threw his first deep ball. It was incomplete, not even real close to catchable, but that is not what matters. The point is they did not even attempt a deep throw in the first half.

Maybe Stafford was hurting more than we knew and it threw him off. That doesn't matter either. If he was too hurt to play well, he should not have been playing. If he was healthy enough to play, then the four interceptions is inexcusable. Yes he has had a couple real nice games. He has had far more horrible games.

Sure he is tough. The fans love him because he went out and played injured. This fan does not care. I would rather have a quarterback throw a consistently accurate ball than a quarterback who is tough and consistently throws behind his receivers.

Calvin Johnson is playing hurt too. It is very evident every time he struggled to get up off the ground. His injury is in his legs, something that affects him more than Stafford's non-throwing shoulder. Yet I don't hear people loving how tough Calvin Johnson is being.

As expected, the Lions defense could not stop the pass as they let Aaron Rodgers accumulate 348 yards while completing nearly 72% of his passes. As usual the Lions rarely blitzed as Rodgers had all day to make many of his throws. The long pass to Driver down the middle? Rodger must have waited nearly 4 seconds before letting that one go. People are upset with Marvin White because he got burnt by Driver on that play. Let me tell you something. If it took Driver four seconds to break free, White did his job. It was the defensive line that failed!

I would love for the television station to put a timer on the quarterbacks. Down in the bottom corner of the screen where it is out of the way. When the ball is snapped, the timer starts. When the quarterback lets go of the ball, it stops. I would love to see the average amount of time the Lions allow opposing quarterbacks before they have to throw the ball. If there is any position the Lions absolutely need to address with a real force, it is defensive line. They need players that can actually get around a block more than once a game. Seriously, wouldn't it be nice if opposing quarterbacks knew they could no longer bring a bag lunch to dig into while waiting for their receivers to find an opening? The fact the quarterbacks take a cot out on the field to take a nap before throwing the ball is bad enough. What is really embarrassing is that they have to use an alarm clock to get them up because they cant count on Lions players shaking them awake.

Next week the Lions play the Bengals. Do you think the outcome will be much different?