Matthew Stafford followed up his Week 1 dominance with a slight letdown on the road to a very good Carolina Panthers defense.
Last week's performance led to questions about whether Stafford is reverting to his tradition of force-feeding Calvin Johnson the ball, even when the receiver isn't open.
Lions coach Jim Caldwell, however, isn't concerned about Stafford's distribution process.
"I think if it hadn't been for the interception (Stafford threw Sunday), nobody would even say a word about whether or not they think that he's forcing the ball to Calvin." Caldwell told WXYT-FM, per CBS Detroit.
The interception came on a deep ball in which Johnson was bracketed from the start and never really open. The big trouble came when Stafford's woefully underthrown ball was tipped and intercepted.
We should point out that: A) There were several other times in the game that Stafford tried to fit a pass into Megatron, they just weren't picked. And B) Those decisions to try place it in a tight window make the room for error much lower -- as displayed by the interception. The decisions, accuracy or both must improve.
Caldwell pointed to the Green Bay Packers, Sunday's opponent, and cited how Aaron Rodgers targets Jordy Nelson a whole lot more than any other receiver without many complaints.
"Rodgers throws the ball to him three times more than he throws to anybody else ..." Caldwell said. "So I think you find in this league in particular that you want to be able to get the ball to guys that can make a difference in the game.
It is true that Nelson accounts for 40.5 percent of the Packers' targets, highest in the NFL. It's also true that Stafford doesn't own Rodgers' pinpoint accuracy.
This summer the Lions brought in Golden Tate and added tight end Eric Ebron to be able to spread the ball around more. However, when push comes to shove, Stafford will always look for Megatron. Some games it will work, others -- like in Carolina -- it won't.
Caldwell sounds content to live with those results.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast recaps the Falcons' lopsided win over the Bucs and previews every other game in Week 3.
