Stafford-No look pass on the final drive
This ranks among the most remarkable passes I can recall. Two different angles show the brilliance.
Stafford brings Von Bell out of the deep middle passing lane with his head and eyes and delivers a 22 yard strike down the middle to Cooper Kupp, just past Bell’s reach. Bell had the route covered and came off it.
February 15th, 2022 at 1:56 AM ^
Super Bowl Champion Matthew Stafford
February 15th, 2022 at 8:17 AM ^
It's disappointing the NFL didn't have the Officials hand the trophy over. Come on, they were atrocious, and the video shows it all game long. False Starts not called including the last two minutes, rams dline lining up off sides not called. PI and Holding all game only to call it in the last two minutes. Nothing worse than a poorly officiated game and changing how it's officiated in the last two minutes......... Hell at least 2016 osu game was consistent from beginning to end...
February 15th, 2022 at 8:31 AM ^
Seems like sour grapes to me. Especially considering most those 2 minute calls were justified and the only reason the Bengals had a chance was the no call on that long TD pass.
February 15th, 2022 at 12:01 PM ^
Mods-please edit title to read. energyblue’s crusade of officiating anguish….Not the appreciation of a great Matt Stafford play.
February 15th, 2022 at 9:07 AM ^
I don’t know how these guys miss the face mask on the Bengals TD or jumping offside when these are obvious to the naked eye at home. Still not sure about the PF on Kupp in the end zone that nullified holding on the Rams. Was it a head shot? And I still can’t believe hardly anything has been said or written about the last play. Looks to me that Perine had a shot at a catch with a dive. Anybody else think that? Even Donald was quoted as saying he thought the RB was going to catch that ball.
February 15th, 2022 at 9:16 AM ^
The fact that those calls were that bad, missed and several more.
The Higgins facemask, Ramsey had the ArmBar hold going on which is also PI.. He got manhandled by Higgins and left on the ground. That's first defensive PI.
The 3rd and Goal from the 8yd line, three penalties on the Rams are not called. 1st, it's one of two against the rams, either Illegal formation because Whitworth is as far off the los as Kupp or Kupp is covered up by the outside rec, take your pick on which one that is. Next the entire Rams oline false starts... so take your pick, all are presnap penalties or Kupp is illegal man down field hence an ineligible rec...
3rd and goal from the 13... just because you boys like Stafford doesn't change how bad the officiating turned the last two minutes. And if you're going to say Higgins facemask then go back to the bengals first FG drive when Higgins was at the Goal Line and Ramsey was holding the entire route no call.
Which is the point of the posts. The refs let them play all game long both ways. They weren't calling false starts by the Rams Oline which happened a ton trying to get back in pass protection early... Weren't calling off sides all game which both teams did but the rams several more times than the Bengals.
Only to go the last 2 minutes and change the outcome of the game with those BS Calls.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:10 AM ^
You should probably Let it Go, Olaf.
Even those replays show the Bengals defenders with obvious holds easy for all to see, as opposed to Ramsey switching hands, holding low on the hip and not obviously using the receiver to sling shot to the ball. Sure, all of them are holds, one was just done well enough to be missed.
February 15th, 2022 at 12:59 PM ^
AT BEST, the Higgins/Ramsey play you are claiming as a DPI (which is something) was still a facemask and therefore would be offsetting.
February 15th, 2022 at 1:15 PM ^
Apparently someone lost money on their Super Bowl bet.....
February 15th, 2022 at 9:12 AM ^
how can you fix your lips to say that bullshit after seeing the OPI on Higgins with the facemask? Literally a touchdown given to the Bengals.
Nothing else comes close to that bullshit call.
Better team won (and I don't care about either of them).
February 15th, 2022 at 12:00 PM ^
So how about that pass energyblue?
That fucker was a laser now wasn’t it? I’m betting Joe Burrow has that in his bag of tricks before his career is over.
February 15th, 2022 at 2:20 PM ^
Why do you have to reply to the top comment with your unrelated diatribe? I came to this post to read about Stafford's amazing pass, not your take on officiating. Sorry, but it bugs the heck out of me when I click on something and the whole topic is taken for a ride elsewhere. All because someone wanted their opinion seen first.
February 15th, 2022 at 8:17 AM ^
It's disappointing the NFL didn't have the Officials hand the trophy over. Come on, they were atrocious, and the video shows it all game long. False Starts not called including the last two minutes, rams dline lining up off sides not called. PI and Holding all game only to call it in the last two minutes. Nothing worse than a poorly officiated game and changing how it's officiated in the last two minutes......... Hell at least 2016 osu game was consistent from beginning to end...
February 15th, 2022 at 9:43 AM ^
I do think the better team won and there were bad calls both ways, but the Bengals got a huge TD out of theirs so.....
It is weird that refs don't call the false starts on OL when the tackles step back early. How can I see it watching TV and they can't? Didn't OSU/Iowa do this too against Michigan? Seems weird.
February 15th, 2022 at 2:48 AM ^
Yeah I saw some had called it a no-look pass before but I just thought it was a great play where he looks them off and then comes back, but it's a legit no-look throw. Amazing play. I think Stafford is great and I'm glad for him, but someone did have a funny comment in the replies on Twitter, "So that's why he throws so many interceptions".
February 15th, 2022 at 7:53 AM ^
Nice play. I used to make this same throw in dodgeball in gym class though. Punks never saw it coming.
February 15th, 2022 at 8:02 AM ^
User name, as so often here, checks out.
February 15th, 2022 at 9:24 AM ^
Lol, well, to me he just has the same syndrome Marino and Favre had. They believe they can make every throw they want to make, it just has to be perfect. They fail to take into account there is another human on the other side who can make even the perfect throw wrong.
I'm glad he got his SB. But I would have loved watching him play for the Lions for the rest of his career though.
February 15th, 2022 at 6:55 AM ^
Pretty amazing. But typical of Stafford's high risk/high return style.
February 15th, 2022 at 6:57 AM ^
he is a bum. got lucky. nothing but all-stars around him, a pop warner QB could've won the super bowl with that team. he owes the lions. (am i forgetting any?)
February 15th, 2022 at 8:17 AM ^
Refs/NFL wanted the Rams to win.
February 15th, 2022 at 8:55 AM ^
how about:
with brady gone, the nfl needs someone else to cheat for
February 15th, 2022 at 11:53 AM ^
NFL didn't want to be on the wrong end of one of Kelly's IG rants...?
February 15th, 2022 at 4:00 PM ^
Or one of her pretzels!
February 15th, 2022 at 7:23 AM ^
That’s talent. Both the No-Look and pin point accuracy.
February 15th, 2022 at 7:51 AM ^
I can't see the replay, so I'll have to look later when I get home. But that throw, I thought at the time he made it, was simply awesome. He avoided the LB (Bell) and placed it between the corner and safety where only Kupp was going to get it. And the velocity was unreal! That was a helluva throw, even without seeing video that shows it was a no-look!
February 15th, 2022 at 8:21 AM ^
Ehh, I can make that throw in my sleep.
Oops- I meant I can only make that throw in my sleep.
February 15th, 2022 at 8:41 AM ^
Stafford is the best QB in Lions history. I'm sure all the confused Lions fans that wanted him out are scratching their heads for explanations right now.
February 15th, 2022 at 8:54 AM ^
No reasonable Lions fan doubts that he's the best we've had (which isn't saying much) nor his arm talent. Still, this was the same version of Stafford that was in Detroit. What was different was his All-Pro defense and solid O-line. If the Lions draft Donald instead of Ebron, the fortunes of both franchises are probably a lot different.
February 15th, 2022 at 9:07 AM ^
Totally agree. It seems like so many Lions fans now all of a sudden want to anoint him as one of the best QBs of all time bc he has a Super Bowl. Trent Dilfer also has a super Bowl. So does Joe Flacco. Terry Bradshaw has 4.
Stafford is a Hall of Famer. But he isn’t ever going to carry a team, he needs the right pieces around him. I view him similar to Brett Favre (albeit I think Favre was better). Lots of talent, lots of bonehead mistakes.
February 15th, 2022 at 12:23 PM ^
There is so much talk about team talent as there should be. Nobody wins a Super Bowl without a good team.
Coaching, system, and operations is key. Joe Montana is not in the Hall of Fame playing for the Lions. Steve Young was not heading for greatness until he landed in SF.
Bradshaw with the Steelers? They had every ingredient. Stafford might have three straight Super Bowl wins if he had been with LA all that time.
Are you seriously comparing Stanford’s talent to Dilfer?
February 15th, 2022 at 9:10 AM ^
This. Hindsight is 20/20 but so many good picks after Ebron.
February 15th, 2022 at 9:36 AM ^
If anyone thought Donald would turn out this way, they're lying. But most people knew Suh was likely gone in free agency and Nick Fairley was inconsistent.
That draft was a chance for the Lions to go from a wild card contender to building a foundation for a long period of success.
February 15th, 2022 at 9:09 AM ^
Better then Eric Hipple?
February 15th, 2022 at 9:14 AM ^
Hipple was QB when I first really following the Lions as a kid. Loved me some Eric Hipple!
February 15th, 2022 at 12:04 PM ^
I saw him speak recently (about youth suicide) and his cold open was a YouTube video called Hipple Gets Blasted or something like that. It was an old school head hunting type hit as Hipple was running out of bounds. The defender would have been ejected in today’s nfl. I don’t remember the officials even throwing a flag but I could be wrong.
He made light of it like this is what he’s most famous for because of the number of views or something like that, and after that hit all he wanted to do was survive until he reached the nfl minimum so he could collect a pension. (I think he did.)
Great public speaker and referenced his close ties with the UofM medical community several times.
I felt like a little kid when I met him afterwards, he brought a lot of joy to a crappy Lions team.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:50 AM ^
This view is terribly simplistic. It ignores that likelihood that Matthew Stafford in Detroit wins the club a 2-3 additional games, but the team still stinks. It ignores that Stafford wanted a trade and didn't want to play in Detroit any longer.
Both sides of the trade got an excellent outcome. The Rams mortgaged the future (draft picks) for the present (potentially elite level QB play) to win now. The Lions accelerated their rebuild (if we're being honest, they are in a constant state of rebuilding). The roster needs to be overhauled and is going to take time to be shaped into a playoff team, but in theory the additional draft picks should greatly accelerate that process.
Bobby Lane was the greatest QB in Lion history. Won titles in '52 and '53. Lost for the playoffs to a broken ankle in the last game of the '57 championship season.
Lane won playoff games. Stafford is probably more talented. But at some point talent needs to translate into wins.
February 15th, 2022 at 8:12 PM ^
The Lions are not rebuilding, they are continually building the same pile of crap. Rebuild implies getting back to something better. There is nothing better to get back to.
(The 1950s doesn’t count anymore. When zero current players or coaches were alive, it does not count)
February 15th, 2022 at 8:53 AM ^
Apparently that is what is necessary to win at the highest levels. Crazy.
I do wonder why QBs don't wear some kind of shades/goggles to better hide their exact eye movements - then, you could point your head in one direction but move your eyes where you want. Is it illegal?
February 15th, 2022 at 11:03 AM ^
It's not illegal, most QBs just wouldn't want the obstruction to their vision. Except Jim McMahon. But that stemmed from a fairly horrific eye injury when he was a kid so you seldom saw him without sunglasses off the field.
EDIT: the NFL has since updated it's rules and banned dark visors unless you have a medical exemption, though slightly tinted visors are OK.
February 15th, 2022 at 9:00 AM ^
Happy for Stafford, he paid his dues and then some.
I would have been equally happy for Little Chris Evans had the game gone the other way, after his expulsion and redemption at U of M, it would have been pretty cool.
I'd rather argue about the crew calling the game than the halftime show:
Since there is only one player named Kupp on the field, why do they insist on calling him Cooper Kupp?
Michaels actually did refer to him as Kupp several times in the game, I'm guessing it annoyed him as much as it did me. LOL
Collinsworth talking is like nails on a chalkboard.
February 15th, 2022 at 9:10 AM ^
Alliteration.
February 15th, 2022 at 9:01 AM ^
Meanwhile the world finally gets to see what we Lions fans have been watching for years. Golden Tate used to talk about Stafford making passes like this all the time. But because Stafford was wearing Honolulu blue and not the puke green and piss yellow of GB or KC red, no one bothered to take notice.
February 15th, 2022 at 9:45 AM ^
Agreed fellow Bear. Also doesn't he have one of the highest 4th quarter comeback ratios, like, ever? Once he was in that spot I knew the Rams were going to win.
February 15th, 2022 at 1:50 PM ^
Sorry, ML Titan here.
February 15th, 2022 at 12:26 PM ^
It’s interesting how so many NFL players through the years rave about not Stafford’s raw talent but his leadership and team skills. The guys that have seen him day to day and not just on Sundays
February 15th, 2022 at 9:44 AM ^
Stafford was always an above-average QB in the NFL and the Lions fans who said he sucked were always dumb and don't Know Ball.
February 15th, 2022 at 10:02 AM ^
Great play by Matthew, and it might have been a no look pass, but the photo at the end of the article showing his eyes looking right, in line with his helmet, was from a different play. Look at the OL, particularly #55.
I'm not saying it wasn't a no look pass. In fact, enlarging the thumbnail for the second twitter post in the piece appears like he's looking right.
A lot of Detroit sportscasters, and fans, argue Stafford sucks, or is OK but not good, or is very good but not great or elite.
I guess I'll just say if someone is in the top 10 or 20 or 30 of their profession worldwide, that's pretty good.