Schwartz on Stafford's rough day: It's not all him
Dropped passes aside, it's a fair question to ask about Matthew Stafford: Is the knee still bothering him?
His mobility doesn't seem noticeably impaired, even with the right knee wrapped. But there were a few throws today where it appeared Stafford and that rocket arm came up short, and his completion percentage the last two weeks is just 47.4 percent. Again, there's probably about 8-9 drops that'd change that stat. (And keep in mind, the other top rookie QB, Mark Sanchez, also had a five-INT day earlier this season.) But Stafford has thrown for only 371 yards and two TDs with six INTs against ho-hum defenses the last two weeks.
"It's frustrating," said Stafford, who was clearly irritated -- with himself and with the questions he fielded -- after the game. "Didn't play well. Just made some poor throws, really. I was aggressive sometimes, but if I make a good throw in those situations maybe we're coming out with touchdowns instead of picks. But obviously I can't turn the ball over like that."
Coach Jim Schwartz wasn't arguing that point Sunday. But he was a little defensive about Stafford getting the Lions' share of the blame. A Casey FitzSimmons drop here, an Aaron Brown blown assignment on a screen there -- it all adds up.
"We need to be able to hold up a little bit longer in pass (protection), we need to be able to make catches, he needs to make smarter decisions, he needs to make more accurate passes," Schwartz said. "It's not just one person. It's all around. The turnovers are on our whole offense. I mean, Matt made some decisions that I'm sure he'd like to have back, but it's not all him. There's other breakdowns along the way."
