DETROIT — Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford exited Sunday’s 31-24 loss to the Green Bay Packers after injuring his ribs in the fourth quarter, the second time this season he was forced from a game due to injury.
Stafford underwent X-rays on his ribs after the game, and coach Darrell Bevell said he did not yet have complete information on the extent of the injury. Bevell said he planned to have more of an update Monday, and couldn’t speculate as to whether or not Stafford would be available next Sunday against the Tennessee Titans.
“I think it’s too early to tell,” Bevell said. “Matthew Stafford is as tough as they come. He’s a huge competitor. I know he’s going to want to be out there with his team so it’s going to have to be pretty drastic for him not to be in there.”
Stafford injured his ribs on a 6-yard scramble with seven minutes remaining in Sunday’s game. He stayed in for the end of that drive, then went to the locker room. He emerged from the locker room and tried to warm up, then quickly went back to the locker room again, re-emerged, and tried throwing the ball.
Bevell said a combination of pain and things Stafford could and could not do as a result of the injury kept him from returning to the game. Backup quarterback Chase Daniel, who replaced the injured Stafford, said Stafford was in pain on the sideline while trying to see if he could return to the game.
Stafford, who completed 24 of 34 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown before the injury, was not available to the media after the game, a rarity for him.
Daniel, who completed 3 of 6 passes for 29 yards in relief of Stafford, said he had “no idea” whether he expects to start next week against Tennessee. Daniel said Stafford is one of the toughest players he’s played with, and that Stafford was “in pain, for sure.”
“He just got bent over backwards and sideways, so he took a crucial hit … but he was the main reason we scored on that drive,” Daniel said. “That was a big third down, got a yard or two past the sticks, and the next play we scored and he came off.”
Daniel said the hit, to him, looked like it hurt when he saw it on the replay.
The Lions played eight games without Stafford last season after he suffered a season-ending back injury against Oakland. Detroit did not win a game without Stafford in the second half of the 2019 season. The last time the Lions won a game with someone other than Stafford as the starting quarterback was almost a decade ago — a 20-13 win over Minnesota on Jan. 2, 2011.
Bevell said he has confidence in both Daniel, who the team signed in the offseason to back up Stafford, and in third-string quarterback David Blough, who ended last season as the starter after Stafford’s back injury, if Stafford can’t play.
But without Stafford, Detroit would be missing its team captain and most explosive offensive player.
“It’s hard to say. Chase is a great quarterback as well, a good backup,” tight end T.J. Hockenson said about what life would be like if Stafford couldn’t play. “When [Stafford’s] in there, you always know that you’re in it and you always know that you’re ready to go, so he’s our leader. He’s our captain. Guys all look up to him.
“Obviously not having your captain, not having a guy like that, is tough but we all just need to move on, get some chemistry with Chase and just keep rolling and try to keep going and keep fighting.”