Lions' Matthew Stafford needs to heat up in season's final month

If the Detroit Lions were playing baseball, they’d be golden. That’s because they have their very own Mr. October in the form of Matthew Stafford.

The Lions’ golden-armed quarterback has been simply sterling in October over eight seasons. He has a 15-12 record good for a 55.5% winning rate in that month. It’s by far the best of his career.

But December is a different story. The month that is the most crucial of the season when it comes to determining postseason positioning, is by far Stafford’s worst month. He has an 8-14 record and 36.3% winning rate in December. That’s a steep drop from his next-lowest winning rate of 46.4% in November.

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“You know, I know we had some chances to make some playoff runs in the past and hadn’t had it happen for us as a team,” Stafford said of the Lions’ struggles in December. “But you know, I can’t remember all of them.”

Quarterbacks usually get too much blame and too much credit for wins and losses. It’s the nature of the position. And it’s not exactly fair to expect Stafford to account for nearly a decade’s worth of struggles in one specific month.

But as the Lions kick off play in December once again, and riding high atop the NFC North and closing in on a possible home playoff game, no one could argue the magnitude of what this month means to the Lions.

“Yeah, it’s up there,” Stafford said. “You know, it’s a lot of fun. It’s what you fight and scratch for this position, to be playing meaningful games in this month. And, you know, we’re in that position and we know we have to bring our best because we’re going to get the best from everybody else and go out there and see what happens.”

And now some good news for the Lions’ struggles in December. They’ve actually been pretty good during this month under coach Jim Caldwell, going 5-3 the past two years, including a win at New Orleans last December.

“November, December are the times where you have to be playing your best,” he said. “You certainly can’t be taking a nose dive or you certainly can’t be staying status quo unless you’ve been extremely good the first couple quarters.

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“So, you know, it’s extremely important. That’s kind of how we’re designed, how we’re built. I mean if you look at us from the last few years, just take a look at the numbers. You know, this time of year is the time of year that we think we should be playing well, should be getting better. If you’re not, you’re going to be in trouble.”

And that brings us back to some more bad news for the Lions. As a team, they are playing well, especially with a special-teams unit that borders on elite and a surging defense that keeps making big plays.

But the offense is sputtering, having scored just one touchdown in each of the past two games. The Lions beats the Saints, 35-27, last year. But the Lions jumped to a 21-3 halftime lead and used a great rushing performance from Ameer Abdullah and Joique Bell, who combined for 148 yards.

This year? It’s hard to imagine the Lions could replicate that kind of offensive output. They no longer have Calvin Johnson — even as a decoy — and they haven’t topped 100 rushing yards since Sept. 18.

Very little stays the same each year in the NFL. Even with their recent success against the Saints, the Lions readily admit there’s no formula or template for beating New Orleans on Sunday.

“We have different personnel, they have different personnel,” Stafford said. “I think their defensive coordinator had only been with them for three weeks at that point, or whatever it was. So they’re a little bit different there, too.

“But anytime you can have success in a place it’s better than not having it. Obviously felt good about how we played there last time, know how big of a challenge it is to play well there. Have to go out there and try to do it again.”

Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez. Download our free Lions Xtra app on your Apple and Android devices.