Matthew Stafford is now in his 11th season as quarterback for the Detroit Lions and whether you love him or hate him (or are somewhere in between), you cannot argue that he is extremely smart.
So, you would think that the Lions coaches, specifically offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and head coach Matt Patricia, would trust that Stafford knows when a formation is about to be exposed by the opposing defense.
http://gty.im/1173230250
Late in the fourth quarter during Sunday's tie against the Arizona Cardinals, the Lions opted to call a time out with 2:42 remaining, rather than trusting Stafford to run the play that was originally called. The timeout nullified what was clearly going to give the Lions a first down and likely a win.
After coming back from the timeout, Stafford threw an incomplete pass downfield and was visibly upset as he walked off the field and took off his helmet.
After his helmet came off and his baseball cap was on, Stafford could be seen yelling for his coaches to trust him.
“Trust me!” Stafford appeared to yell on Lions' sideline.
Check it out.
https://twitter.com/DetroitMoments/status/1170866016794107911?s=20
Following the game, Patricia told the media he called the timeout because he saw the play clock running down.
From Detroit Free Press:
“Call it 0 (seconds), call it 1, wherever it was in that situation, you'd rather be in third-and-5 than third-and-10 in that got-to-have-it situation,” Patricia said. “We just got to go out and execute. It doesn't matter at that point. It's a play where we've got to go finish no matter what happens. That's where we were.”
Former Lions' offensive lineman T.J. Lang certainly agrees with Stafford that the Lions' coaches have to trust him.
#9 “Trust me!”.. yep.
— Teej. (@TJLang70) September 8, 2019
What do you think, Nation? Has Matthew Stafford earned this trust or would you rather Matt Patricia handle these situations as he did on Sunday?
