Detroit Lions: A look at Matthew Stafford’s First 100 Games

2009

10 games, 2-8 record, 2,267 yards passing, 13 TD, 20 INT, 108 rush yards, 2 TD

April 24, 2009 Matthew Stafford was selected by the Detroit Lions. New head coach Jim Schwartz immediately named him the starting quarterback and his first game was September 9th, 2009. It wasn’t a memorable game for fans, as he completed 16 of 37, zero passing touchdowns, three interceptions, and one rushing touchdown.

His breakout game would come in November against the Cleveland Browns. In that game, Stafford became the youngest player (21 years, 288 days) ever, to throw for five touchdowns in a single game.

Here’s a look at Stafford’s end of game heroics, uncut, with an introduction from Steve Sabol:

“The kind of stuff that endears you to a city”, by Matt Shepard on the radio broadcast call, still gives me chills.

Stafford’s shoulder would eventually not recover, and in late December he would land on injured reserve for the remainder of the season.

2010

3 games, 1-2 record, 535 passing yards, 6 TD, 1 INT, 11 rush yards, 1 TD

This was not an eventful season for the Lions quarterback. In the opening game he would injure his throwing shoulder, and would miss the next five games. When he returned, he only played in two more games before re-injuring the same shoulder in week nine. This time the injury would land him on injured reserve.

Now with a total of 19 games missed in his first two seasons, Stafford was starting to get the injury-prone label. But, he would quickly shed the “China Doll” label, and go on to start the next 87 games (and counting).