Another Sunday spent watching the Lions, another Sunday wasted. Wait, maybe...I...We...You...Them...I...uh...nope, it was wasted.

Well, there was one thing I could take from the Lions' loss to the Vikings.

Matthew Stafford was used, abused, knocked silly, knocked senseless, constantly scrambling to keep plays alive and took far more punishment any man should ever have to suffer against the Vikings. But he kept coming back for more. Sure, he was only sacked 3 times, but he was hit on damn near every passing attempt.

Stafford will be seeing Purple People Eaters in his nightmares...

Regardless of getting hammered every time he was in the pocket (or more correctly, as the pocket crumbled) I didn't see a quarterback running scared. I didn't see a quarterback unloading the ball to avoid getting hit. I didn't see happy feet. I didn't see a quarterback shy away from contact. I didn't see a scared quarterback. I didn't see Joey Harrington. I didn't see Scott Mitchell.

I did see a quarterback with balls the size Joey Blue Skies and the happy footed Mitchell could only dream of having.

Towards the end of my running diary I called Stafford the "one bright spot" in what was a dreary afternoon for Lions fans:

There's one bright spot today. Stafford has thrown the ball 51 times, but zero picks. After the 5 pick horror, that's progress. I'm not going to pin much blame on Stafford for the loss. If anything, the rookie proved he's willing to stand up under pressure, and throw the ball while taking a great deal of punishment.

Michael Rosenberg said as much in his Freep post game column:

But this isn’t about his arm. It is about his toughness. The Vikings hit the rookie everywhere but his paycheck — by the end of the game, his left shoulder pad was hanging out of his jersey and he was out of breath at the line of scrimmage.

Yet he never looked scared, not for a second.

So did Killer Kowaslski at Mlive:

This is not the season for Stafford to put up gaudy numbers or engineer a lot of wins, there's just not enough help around him to do it. But what Stafford has done so far this season is show he's got the toughness and the leadership it takes to be a successful quarterback in the NFL.

You could say a lot of things about Stafford today. Most of them good.

Stafford didn't turn the ball over despite the Vikings' front four coming for him with their ears pinned back. Thanks to his inhuman arm strength, Stafford made throws only a few NFL quarterbacks would even attempt.

But more often than not, his receivers would drop the ball. The most egregious being Bryant Johnson's drop in the end zone when the game was still somewhat in doubt. Stafford threw a frozen rope, and the only player who could have caught the pass...let it slip right through his hands.

Typical.

The receivers continued to treat the ball like it was radioactive. Kevin Smith gift wrapped a Vikings score by fumbling on the opening drive in the 2nd half.  The offensive line was overwhelmed by Minnesota's front four. The defensive backs, when they weren't leaving the field injured, were getting burned by the likes of Sidney Rice. (Sidney F'n Rice? He had more receiving yards against the Lions (201) than he had in all of 2008 (141)!) The defensive line was, once again, their normal selves...invisible.

Typical.

Bitch all you want about the Lions. They have it coming. They deserve to be called out.

But lay off of Stafford. This loss is not on him.

And anyone (I'm looking at you, Mlive commenters) who thinks Stafford was playing scared or didn't show "heart", is a clueless, mouth breathing, moron.

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