For a little over three quarters of football, it looked like the Detroit Lions were going to start off the 2019 season on the right foot.
Unfortunately, the Arizona Cardinals did not get the memo as they stormed back from a 24-6 deficit in the fourth quarter to eventually tie the Lions 27-27 in overtime.
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But things would have been much different had the Lions not called a time out late in the game just before quarterback Matthew Stafford took the snap on a third down play. The play, which Stafford ran anyway before a whistle blew the play dead, clearly would have resulted in a big gain and more importantly, a first down for the Lions.
The game virtually would have been over with the Lions winning and Stafford knew that as he came to the sideline and yelled, “trust me!”
On Monday, Lions head coach Matt Patricia met with the media and he was asked if he trusted Stafford.
“To sum it up, a thousand percent,” Patricia said.
Matt Patricia on his trust in/for Matthew Stafford: "To sum it up, a thousand percent."
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) September 9, 2019
Following the game on Sunday, Patricia explained why the timeout was called in the first place.
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From Detroit Free Press:
“I’m calling the timeouts,” Patricia said. “We’re looking at the play clock trying to get that stuff down and get it figured out at that point. Stafford did a great job of getting it off, but really again, whether it was at 0 (seconds on the play clock) or 1, either way, the mechanics, the way that works with the officials, the guy back there, he’s staring at the play clock and he sees it. So again, we’d rather be in third-and-5 than (take a penalty and be in) third-and-10 in that got-to-have-it situation. We’ve just got to go out and execute the next play.”
Nation, do you think Patricia truly trusts Stafford?
