ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Green Bay will look a little bit different to Matthew Stafford this time around. For the first time in his career, Dom Capers won’t be the defensive coordinator he’ll face. He won’t know exactly what to expect. It’ll alter his preparation.
But still, there is more familiarity there than with other teams — the way it usually is in the NFC North.
“Maybe in the past,” Stafford said. “They’ve got a new defensive coordinator this year, so for the first nine years of my career, it was Dom Capers. I wouldn’t say it was easier, but I was more familiar with what they were all about.
“Obviously they have a new defensive coordinator this year, so I’ve got quite a bit of learning to do on these guys. Do I know a few of their players maybe better than some nondivisional opponents? Yes. But they’ve got plenty of new guys around, too, to get to know.”
This isn’t the first time, though, Stafford will face a new defensive coordinator within the division. And for all the middling success the Lions have had against the NFC North during Stafford’s career, he has actually played pretty well in the division. Three of the past five seasons, he has been over .500 against the NFC North, including last season.
Take out his first two seasons, when his team was mostly noncompetitive in 2009 and when he was injured for all but one division game in 2010, and Stafford is 23-19 against the NFC North. Of course, there are no division titles in there, but the success has helped lead the Lions to three playoff berths in seven seasons. He hasn’t had a losing record against the division since 2012, when the Lions went winless against Green Bay, Chicago and Minnesota.
Since 2011, he’s 10-4 against the Bears, 8-6 against the Vikings and 5-9 against Green Bay — which has been the best team in the division over that stretch.
Individually, he has thrown more touchdowns than interceptions in the division every year of his career except his rookie year. Since 2011, he has thrown 2.08 touchdowns for every interception against the Bears, Packers and Vikings.
“We got a heck of a division with a bunch of really good teams, so it doesn’t make it any easier,” Stafford said. “We have good teams. We’re conditioned in the NFL to show up and play whoever we’re playing, wherever we’re playing them and learn them from that week and go from there.”
But as he has grown — and as the familiarity with what he’s seeing has improved — he has gotten better. Last year was, by far, his best season against the division. He went 5-1, tied for the best record against the division in his career. He completed 68.2 percent of his passes, had a passer rating of 112.3 and threw 11 touchdowns to only one interception.
At least some of that could be credited to familiarity — and Sunday that could work both ways, with Aaron Rodgers and Stafford the most experienced quarterbacks facing each other in the division. That could provide an advantage to the quarterbacks.
“That’s one of the hardest parts of playing in the division,” Lions coach Matt Patricia said. “You’re so familiar with the teams and the players that are in that division that you play them twice a year and you’re ready to go, and it’s a lot of the same guys every single year. So it makes it very difficult, a much more difficult chess match.”
How that plays out during a game also factors in. Patricia said early on in a game like this, scheme can take hold until both quarterbacks figure out what is going on with opposing defenses. This, he said, is where sticking to the game plan is important.
Then, once the “feel-out period” is over, that’s when the experience of Stafford and Rodgers could end up being a difference, and if one is playing much better than the other, the difference.
“That’s where the player part really kicks in,” Patricia said. “You know, they understand, ‘Hey, this is how they are using everybody.’ Or, ‘This is what maybe they are trying to do.’
“Then you try and adjust based on who those guys are.”
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