Ever since Jim Caldwell was hired as the Detroit Lions head coach, he has been ultra-consistent about what he says and does not say about his team. He is always very calm, regardless of the situation, and he does not believe in getting too high or too low.
When it comes to calling out individual players, Caldwell seemingly would rather just avoid the situation altogether. Very rarely will he single out a specific player or make a negative comment about an individual on the roster, regardless of how they performed on the field in a given game.
That’s why one of Caldwell’s post-game comments following the Lions 52-38 loss to the New Orleans Saints caught our attention.
When asked to talk about Matthew Stafford‘s performance on Sunday, Caldwell did his best to be positive, as usual, but he did let reporters know that Stafford was not consistent enough throughout the game.
Note: We have bolded the part of the quote in question.
“He had a lot of ups and downs in this game. He still put us in position where we had a chance to tie this thing up and go… The guy did a lot of really good things for us, but not consistently enough from how he usually plays. And, he’s got to have some help, too. It’s not just a one man show. One thing we do know is that he will keep getting better.”
Whenever there is a “but,” you have to think twice about what follows. Caldwell was obviously referring to the fact that Stafford turned the ball over five times in the game (3 interceptions and 2 fumbles) and he only completed 48% of his pass attempts. Was Caldwell blaming Stafford for the loss? Absolutely not, BUT he clearly was not satisfied with his overall consistency.
Nation, you make the call. Knowing how difficult it is to actually get Caldwell to say anything negative about a player on his team, was this his way of calling out Stafford?
https://detroitsportsnation.com/detroit-lions-news/ddrysdale/whoa-detroit-lions-cb-nevin-lawson-loses-asked-aaron-rodgers-injury/96792/
Matt had a horrible game. Perhaps his worst. But what about the BUT for the O line? They are letting Stafford get his butt kicked.
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