Matt Stafford Finds Career-Saving Confidence in Lions' First Win

It's been a dark season for the Detroit Lions and quarterback Matthew Stafford. Five straight losses to open the season. A Week 5 benching in a blowout loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Rumblings that Stafford's days in Motown were numbered.

Sunday's overtime win against the Chicago Bears was much more than just Detroit's first win of 2015. Or easily Stafford's best performance of the season. It may just have been a turning point. A stepping stone toward Stafford salvaging not only some shreds of success this season, but also his career with the Lions.

Stafford threw for 405 yards and four touchdowns in the victory, and as Michael Rothstein of ESPN.com wrote, the game featured something that has been sorely missing from the Detroit offense—the sort of vertical passing that has long been a hallmark of Stafford's game:

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Stafford’s performance included a smattering of downfield passing, the first time this season it really showed up regularly. He found Calvin Johnson on a 38-yard pass. His 20-yard touchdown pass to Lance Moore was a great throw and route. He also had a threaded touchdown pass to tight end Tim Wright in the back corner of the end zone.

This looked like the offense many had expected from the Lions, instead of the short-passing team that showed up over the first month-plus of the season.

Stafford looked more comfortable than he has all season.

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Stafford also managed to avoid the sort of mistakes that got him the hook a week ago against Arizona. After throwing three interceptions against the Cardinals (which raised his NFL-leading total to eight through five games), Stafford threw only one (albeit an ill-advised one deep in his own end) against the Bears.

OK, there may have been two, depending on how you feel about the controversial call on Golden Tate's touchdown catch.

But if the zebras say it's a score, it's a score.

And it was a desperately needed performance. There had been more than a few Motor City musings over the past week that the time had come for the Lions to prepare for a future without their franchise quarterback. That the tens of millions in salary that had been paid for zero playoff wins was enough already.

As Bleacher Report's own Matt Miller tweeted, however, those sorts of problems are a lot easier to talk about solving than to actually solve:

Also, as Mike Renner of Pro Football Focus reported earlier this week, via the Washington Post, Stafford's problems this season haven't been solely his:

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The theme of the season for the Lions’ starting quarterback is pressure. It started in the offseason with the external pressure to build upon last year’s playoff berth with a young roster. Then there’s been the internal pressure to carry a whole offense upon his right arm when asked to drop back to pass on 73 percent of snaps, a record pace. And lastly, there’s the physical pressure from opposing defenders that he’s felt on 38.8 percent of his dropbacks, by far the highest rate of his career.

The effect of the combined pressure is obvious, Stafford has cracked.

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The Lions were taking a strong-armed quarterback and asking him to dink and dunk all day. Sure, it was partly because the offensive line has been horrid, but it's like driving a Camaro in first gear all the time.

As Tim Twentyman of the team's website tweeted, Sunday the Lions finally floored it:

And the play that set up the game-winning field goal is a perfect example of what can happen when the Lions let Stafford be, well, Stafford.

Head coach Jim Caldwell hailed his quarterback's performance while speaking with Jim Brandstatter on the Lions radio network, per Aaron McMann of MLive.com:

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What a heck of a performance by him. We've seen him play well like that before, but he did a nice job, particularly of coming back off last week. With the way this business is, there's always questions and doubts and all those kinds of things, and those guys stand up to pressure and were able to deliver.

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Does this single game fix all that ails Stafford and the Lions? Hardly. The line is still a mess. Stafford's interception was a lousy decision with the ball in a season where there have been far too many of them. The Bears aren't exactly world-beaters.

But Stafford and the Lions were able to get a win. Build some confidence. Establish a little positive momentum. And Stafford did it by getting back to doing what he does best. Throwing the ball down the field.

The next step is trying to build on that heading into next week's home tilt with the Minnesota Vikings.

But for today at least, Stafford and the Lions can celebrate.

The team is no longer winless. And Stafford got up off the mat.

Gary Davenport is an NFL analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPSharks.