Stafford Injured His Throwing Hand During Sunday’s Home Game.
If you consider yourself a Lions fan then you know by now that quarterback Matthew Stafford injured his middle finger on his throwing hand. He will have to play with a glove on for a while.
There has been plenty of speculation about how this will affect Stafford’s play moving forward, but this situation isn’t completely unknown. In 2011 during a week eight game against the Broncos, the Lions quarterback fractured his right index finger.
After having their bye during week nine the Lions traveled to Chicago to take on the Bears. Stafford wore a glove for the first time in his career that game. The results weren’t great, the Lions lost 37-13 and Stafford threw four interceptions as well as starting a brawl. He didn’t blame it on the glove or his finger but the high winds in Soldier Field that day.
Stafford wore the glove for the next two games with mixed results. Against Carolina in week 11 he performed well, throwing for 335 yards and five touchdowns but he did throw two picks.
Against Green Bay in week 12 Stafford had another bad game, throwing three more interceptions.
In total Stafford threw nine interceptions in the three games he played dealing with the injured finger and glove. The Lions went 1-2 during that stretch.
The quarterback did throw two interceptions after injuring his finger last week. One was a pass thrown into the endzone which deflected off of Golden Tate and was picked. The other was a poorly placed pass to Anquan Boldin on an out route.
However there is some reason to believe that Stafford will fair better this time around. In 2011 the Lions were more of a vertical offense than they are now. They relied more on Stafford making throws deep down the field.
This year’s Lions focus more on shorter passes and counting on guys to get yards after the catch. Also they don’t ask Stafford to throw as much as they did in 2011.
The team is certainly hoping that Stafford’s performance doesn’t suffer severely. They are heading into their most difficult three game stretch of the season and need Stafford to play well in order to have any shot at success.
