At the beginning of the season, the Detroit Lions were doing a great job of protecting Matthew Stafford but the last few weeks they have gone off the rails and offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter knows that he needs to do better to get him more protection.
In the last two games against the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears they gave up 16 sacks and it has been a big reason they have lost both games. They now have a 3-6 record and are sitting in last place in the NFC North. Cooter was asked if the pressure was changing Stafford's play and that isn't something he thinks is happening.
“No, Stafford’s a really tough guy,” Cooter said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “Obviously offensively, I have to do a better job and we have to do a better job of protecting our quarterback through playcalling, scheme, execution, all those things. At the end of the day, we have to get that number down and do a better job with that. Stafford hangs in there. Stafford’s a tough guy. He’ll take a hit when needed. We just need to do a better job of protecting him. It starts with me, I have to improve the way we’re going about doing that and fix some of those errors.”
This weekend the Lions face the Carolina Panthers and they have done a good job getting pressure on quarterbacks racking up 22 sacks already this year.
If Cooter doesn't figure out something to change with the scheme, it's going to be another long game for Stafford and the offense.
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