On the road. Down three points. No timeouts and just 23 seconds left.
Circumstances don’t seem to matter for Matthew Stafford and the Detroit Lions, who overcame all the listed obstacles to come from behind and beat the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
The Lions’ overtime win was the team’s fifth comeback victory of the 2016 season.
“We all just believed in each other,” center Travis Swanson said, via ESPN. “I think, especially from my point of view, whenever they scored, and we have 20 or whatever seconds that was left, and you looked at the guys, and everyone was like, ‘All right. Let’s go do what we do.'”
The Vikings took a 16-13 lead with 23 seconds left. With no timeouts, Stafford completed two passes for 35 yards—including a 27-yard strike to Andre Roberts—before spiking the football and stopping the clock with two seconds left. Matt Prater came on and made the 58-yard field goal to send the game into overtime.
“We talked amongst ourselves that give Matt time, and he can make anything happen,” Swanson said.
He made more happen in overtime.
After winning the coin toss, Stafford drove the length of the field for the winning score. He converted four third downs, including his 28-yard touchdown to Golden Tate to win the game on the first possession of the extra period.
According to ESPN, Stafford now has 25 career comeback wins. And all five of Detroit’s wins in 2016 have been of the comeback variety.
Overcoming late game deficits week after week is a lot to ask of a quarterback, but no player seems more comfortable with the game on the line than Stafford. Thanks to more of his late game heroics, the Lions are 5-4 and right in the race in the NFC North.
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