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Game of the Week Highlights: Lions vs Browns – Stafford shoulders the win

Matt Stafford breaks away from a member of the Lions training staff to re-enter the game against the Browns (Photo: JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/DFP)

Heading into week 11 of the NFL season, one game stood out as the match-up that nobody wanted to see – the 1-8 Detroit Lions vs the 1-8 Cleveland Browns.  The worst teams from both conferences squaring off in a game that was barely even broadcast on TV in their home markets.  Feel the power. But by Sunday evening, this clash of the basement-dwellers stood out from the pack as the most competitive, action-packed game of the week.  And the ending was certainly the most memorable!

The Browns jumped out to a lead on the arm of Brady Quinn, who threw for three 1st quarter TDs, and had Cleveland feeling good early.  But rookie #1 pick Matt Stafford led the Lions on a gutsy comeback with 4 TDs of his own, giving them one last shot to win the game as time expired.

If  you don’t know what happened by now, you can watch the complete game highlights below … or fast forward to around 5:10 to see the big finish (game recap here):

Peter King describes exactly what happened on those final two plays , including what went down after Stafford seemingly threw a pick to end the game as time ran out.  But a pass interference penalty – along with an unnecessary timeout by Eric Mangini – allowed Stafford to re-enter the game after injuring his shoulder to throw the go-ahead score.  Against the wishes of Lions team doctors.

UPDATE: Stafford suffered an AC joint separation in his non-throwing (left) shoulder.  He is likely to miss Thursday’s Lions game against the Packers, but it doesn’t look like a long-term injury.

And while it’s yet another brutal loss for Cleveland and their fans (and TheDarkHorse may kill me for this post), the win marks the coming out party for Matt Stafford as a QB who now has earned the respect of his teammates, along with the city of Detroit.   Head Coach Jim Schwartz summed it up best after the game:

“His best play wasn’t the last play, or the second-to-last,” Schwartz told me. “His best play was eluding four of our medical guys to get back onto the field.”

By playing through the pain and carrying the team on his shoulders (literally), Stafford has given hope to a franchise that hasn’t felt that emotion since Barry Sanders left town. And that’s a pretty big accomplishment in and of itself.