DETROIT – That Matthew Stafford is a sneaky guy.
He said spike. He yelled it over and over. His offensive linemen totally believed him. The defense bought it hook, line and sinker.
And then Stafford took the snap, jumped as high as he could, reached the ball over the goal line and the Detroit Lions started celebrating an improbable last-minute comeback for a 31-30 victory that shocked the Dallas Cowboys Sunday afternoon at Ford Field.
The Lions got the ball at their 20-yard line, trailing by six points with 62 seconds and no timeouts left.
Call it the Miracle in Motown.
The clock was running down. Twenty-some seconds to go. Stafford had just completed a pass to Calvin Johnson down inside the 1-yard line. The offense was scrambling to get lined up.
“I was screaming clock … maybe a hundred times,” Stafford said. “I was gonna spike it.”
First, he had to wait for his left tackle, Riley Reiff, to get up to the line. Reiff thought Johnson had scored. He was “down the field, celebrating with the crowd,” Stafford said.
If the Lions had been called for a penalty, there would have been a 10-second runoff on the clock.
“Almost gave the head coach a heart attack,” Lions coach Jim Schwartz said of Reiff. “He’s going to pay for that somewhere along the line.”
Running back Reggie Bush was impressed with Reiff’s desperation sprinting ability under the circumstances.
“I think he probably ran a 4.3,” Bush said, laughing.
Once everybody finally got lined up, Stafford decided to pull a fast one. Everybody thought he was going to fold, but he threw down four aces.
Not even his center knew what was coming.
“I looked down and we were that far (inches),” Stafford said. “It was just in my head. It was a feel thing. Shoot, I figure I’m going to get that.
“I saw the linebackers kind of standing like this (straight up, flat-footed). If their linebackers are standing in the A-gap, ready to fire off at me, I’m going to just spike it.
“Our guys didn’t fire off (on the snap), they just stood up. I think that probably helped. I think maybe their D-line probably just stood up and was like ‘Oh, he’s not doing anything.’”
Little did they know, but Stafford was willing to – perhaps - risk everything with his improvisation.
If he’s stopped, who knows? Maybe there would have been just enough time to spike it for one last chance. But maybe not.
Stafford was going all in.
“Just making a play, man, trying to help my team win,” he said. “Shoot, it worked.”
He added with a little sarcasm, “Felt like I used my supreme vertical (jump) and got up and got it in.”
For Bush, it was “déjà vu all over again.”
He immediately thought back eight years ago to his college days at Southern California, when quarterback Matt Leinart pulled off the same trick against Notre Dame in South Bend. Leinart called for the spike before taking the ball over on a sneak, with Bush pushing him into the end zone from behind.
This was one emotional game for the Lions, who now go to their bye week with a 5-3 record.
“I think I experienced just about every emotion possible today,” Bush said.
The crazy ending kept the Lions from wasting a career day by Johnson, who had more receiving yards (329) than the Cowboys had total yards (268).
The Lions moved the ball up and down the field, but they kept botching opportunities. They won despite a minus-four turnover margin, which is almost unheard of in the NFL, where takeaways and giveaways usually determine the outcome.
The strange part is that it was Lions’ stars who were giving the ball away. A drop by Johnson resulted in an interception. A misread by Stafford turned into another pick. Johnson fumbled. Bush fumbled.
It looked like they were destined for one of those "Same Ol' Lions" losses.
But then, suddenly at the last moment, they snatched back everything they’d given to the Cowboys.
Stafford and Johnson will get most of the credit, but there was a true unsung hero in this one.
None of what happened in the final minute takes place if not for rookie defensive end Devin Taylor.
It was Taylor who drew a holding penalty against Dallas offensive tackle Tyron Smith to put this unpredictable chain of events in motion.
Because of the penalty, the clock automatically stopped with 1:07 left. The Cowboys went on to kick a field goal on the next play, but they weren’t able to run off another 35-40 seconds.
That gave the Lions more than a minute to move downfield instead of probably 25 seconds or so.
“That might have been the biggest play of the game,” teammate Willie Young said of Taylor getting held.
Schwartz added: “Any time you’ve got a minute, you’ve got our offense, we like the odds.”
Not only did Johnson -- who finished with the second most receiving yards in a game in NFL history -- make two more catches on the winning drive, but Kris Durham came through with a 40-yard reception that put the Lions in range to complete the rally.
It is the 12th time that Stafford has led the Lions to a victory with his team trailing or tied in the fourth quarter during his five-year career, and the fifth time in the final minute of regulation.
“For Matt to come back and do what he did after what he went through early in the game, is crazy,” Raiola said, referring to the costly interceptions. “To mentally overcome that ... I love that guy. I love his toughness, I love his moxie.”
He just isn’t going to trust him in a poker game anymore.
