Terry Foster's Blog

Misdirection play by Lions

Let's roll back to Sunday's frustrating 17-10 loss to the St. Louis Rams at Ford Field. The Lions trailed 10-2 with a few seconds left in the first half and the team called a Hail Mary to the end zone, hoping to pick up a lucky touchdown or maybe a pass interference penalty.

Coach Jim Schwartz told quarterback Matthew Stafford to throw the ball out of bounds if nothing was open. The Rams dropped five defensive backs back to protect the end zone. So Stafford threw the ball into the stands, which makes absolutely no sense.

If he can throw it in the stands, why can't he throw it in the end zone to perhaps create a lucky break?

Here is the first lesson about desperation Hail Mary passes: They are never open. You just sort of throw the ball up for grabs and hope for the best. But the Lions did not do that. Schwartz set Stafford up for ridicule and failure, which fans took full advantage of.

We were in the stands and a number of people screamed: "Hey Matthew! I was open." We all laughed because it was funny. In my four decades of attending football games or covering them I have never seen someone throw a Hail Mary into the stands."

I did not know this misguided pass was per instructions from the coach, and nobody in the stands did either.

Some fans screamed at Stafford about the play and Dominic Raiola went off on them. I applaud him for sticking up for his quarterback. But this was not the time or place.

Most people are not really that down on Stafford. They do not want to run him out of town. They simply wanted to know why he threw the pass into the stands. Now we have an explanation and the guy you should question is Schwartz, not Stafford. Stafford was following instructions.