There was no sixth game-winning drive. No road playoff win for the first time since 1957. No first away win over a team with a winning record.
Just don't pin all the blame on quarterback Matthew Stafford for the Detroit Lions falling to the Dallas Cowboys in gut-wrenching fashion during Sunday's NFC Wild Card at AT&T Stadium.
Quarterbacks often shoulder too much of the blame for losses and receive too much praise for wins. This narrative effect is typically amplified in the postseason, when seasons hang in the balance and the margin for error shrinks to microscopic sizes.
Stafford will take heat in the coming days. Most of it will be unwarranted.Stafford, who fumbled away the football on the final drive to cement a 24-20 loss, failed to snap Detroit's now 10-game road losing streak in the postseason. The Lions remain without a single playoff win since 1991 (eight straight losses), while the club's losing streak against teams with a winning record away from Ford Field extended to 18 games with Stafford under center. These are team realities. So is the fact that Stafford played more than well enough for the Lions to win a road playoff game against a 12-win Cowboys team.
His final line wasn't particularly impressive. He completed 28 of 42 passes for 323 yards, one touchdown and one interception. His passer rating of 87.7 fell below 90.0 for the 13th time in 17 tries this season.
Regardless of the numbers, Sunday was still one of Stafford's better games of 2014-15. He was efficient, productive and mostly safe with the football.
He was also a big reason the Lions jumped out to an early two-score lead.Stafford completed all three of his passes on Detroit's first drive of the game, including a 51-yard touchdown to receiver Golden Tate. On the score, Stafford stepped into a collapsing pocket and delivered a frozen rope—perfectly anticipated and accurate—from his right hand to the waiting mitts of Tate, who made one move on safety J.J. Wilcox and went the distance.
A drive later, the Lions found themselves backed up to the one-foot line. Stafford led the Detroit offense all 99 yards, using a penalty for running into the kicker and a gutsy 9-yard scramble on 3rd-and-8 to extend the drive early. Running back Reggie Bush later scampered into the end zone from 18 yards out to give the Lions a 14-0 lead
Source http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2319226-dont-blame-matthew-stafford-for-lions-gut-wrenching-wild-card-loss
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