Lions QB Matthew Stafford continues to show improvement moving around on an ankle that he injured last Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons.
With Stafford’s increased workload in Thursday’s practice, which also included work with the first team, it’s seeming more and more likely that Stafford plays Sunday against the Denver Broncos.
Jim Schwartz is also cautiously optimistic regarding Stafford’s probability for Sunday…
“We’ll have that (injury) report come out when we do it, but he has improved today over yesterday,” Schwartz said. “I think he’s on a pretty good track right now.”
Aside from Stafford’s improvement this week, he also got some criticism from a former NFL quarterback.
During an interview by Kara Henderson on the NFL Network, Kurt Warner was asked why Detroit’s offense has declined. Warner placed the blame on Stafford for his inability to make underneath throws.
Here is what Warner had to say…
“I’m not so sure, Kara, the offense is declining, but I think people have figured out the flaw of this football team. If you look at them over the course of the first five weeks, this is a team that is built on the big play. It’s built on the big arm of Matthew Stafford. It’s built on throwing that ball up and letting Calvin Johnson go get it. Now teams are forcing them to be more consistent, forcing Matthew Stafford to make the consistent underneath throws, and that’s where he has struggled up to this point. You see over the last few weeks his completion percentage has gone way down. He struggles a little bit when he has to make the 10, 12-play drive, and the consistent throws time and time again. I don’t know if they’ve digressed. I just think people are starting to figure them out, forcing them to do something they don’t want to do.”
Warner was also asked how Stafford could bounce back. Once again, Warner reiterated Stafford needed to improve his short throws:
“I think he just has to be more consistent underneath. The only way those big throws are going to continue to come is if he can force teams to attack him, to come up the field, to take away the underneath stuff. Then they can use the double moves. Then they can use the big throws down the field to Calvin Johnson, but if they can’t do that, and they continue to struggle with that, I think they are going to struggle to get back on track and score a lot of points.”
Does Stafford need to improve in this area? Sure but a lot of his inconsistencies that past couple games can directly be attributed to lack of protection from the offensive live.
Ref: Mlive.com, NFL Network,