Detroit Lions QB Matthew Stafford's favorite TD pass? To Calvin Johnson, of course

His first completion was a 4-yard pass to Bryant Johnson against the New Orleans Saints. His last — for now — was a 6-yard out to Logan Thomas against the Kansas City Chiefs.

In between, Matthew Stafford has completed more than 3,400 passes in his career with the Detroit Lions, and as he closes in on becoming the fastest player in NFL history to reach 40,000 yards passing, we asked him and 40 of his receivers to share their favorite passing play from the years.

“I don’t mean to sound like a loser by saying this, but there’s so many. There’s some fun ones,” Stafford said. “A cool one I remember was two-minute, Philly, what year was that? Thanksgiving (in 2015). Calvin (Johnson) had three TDs. Right before half, we get (the ball back) we’ve got the ball on the plus-30, 35. And not much time left. Maybe we were driving. I can’t remember what it was. Timeout. I’m coming off the sideline. I think it was a timeout. (Offensive coordinator) Jim Bob (Cooter)’s in my helmet and he calls this play that’s like slants or slant flat, or something kind of short and quick.

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“And I was walking to the huddle and I just kind of like shook my head. And I guess he was watching me, and he was like, ‘What, you don’t like that?’ And I (picked up my head and looked around). And he’s like, ‘All right, fine.’ And he called the deep ball that I threw to Calvin for a touchdown one-on-one, to the X, and the safety was leaning over there. And I got the safety moving enough and stepped on one and Calvin made a great catch. But I remember throwing that one and being like, ‘See I told you.’”

The Lions led 17-7 at the time, and on the play Stafford referenced, they faced a third-and-17 at the Eagles’ 25-yard line after a sack.

Johnson was matched in man coverage against Eagles cornerback Eric Rowe, and Stafford lasered a pass into Johnson’s outstretched arms before safety Walter Thurmond could react with help.

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Stafford said it hasn’t happened often in his career, where a coach changes a play call because of his body language, but he called that pass “a fun one that turned out good for us in a big game.”

“It wasn’t like trying to show him up,” Stafford said. “We were rolling that game so I was like, ‘Let’s stay, let’s keep pouring it on.’ I was just feeling good and I’m glad it worked out.”

Here are 10 other plays that Lions receivers said were their most memorable:

Joique Bell

Years with Stafford: 6 (2011-2016)

Stats with Stafford: 159 catches, 1,607 yards, 1 TD

Favorite play: “Ok, I got a couple. I had one where we were playing, it was my first year really playing. So I got to the Lions at the end of 2011, but I didn’t play a game. And then the following year, 2012, I remember him playing Cincinnati, the game that Calvin caught that touchdown pass over like three defenders and went into overtime, I think, or we thought we were going to win it but end up losing. It was at a point in the game, he was scrambling, I kind of set down 5 yards off the ball, and he kind of threw it in distress. And it was probably about 2 yards, 2 or 3 yards outside to my right so I had to dive and I was level with the ground. I had to dive with one hand and I caught it with one hand. I remember catching it and rolling over, and the linebacker hit me and he said, ‘He didn’t catch it.’ Then he looked at me catching it and he said, ‘How the hell did he just?”

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“There was another pass that I did a flare route and Stafford was throwing it and he threw it like it was a terrible ball. He like threw it at the back of me, like at my foot, like below my knees. I had to do a 360 catch. I turned around and caught it with one hand, 360 catch, turned around and caught it, then I made a move and I got hit out of bounds. Then I said, 'Stafford, you like that catch?’ He said – I came back to the huddle and I said, ‘You like that catch?’ He said, ‘Honestly, I was throwing it away.’ He said, ‘Honestly, I was throwing it away.’ I said, ‘Oh, (expletive). My bad.’ ”

Golden Tate

Years with Stafford: 5 (2014-18)

Stats with Stafford: 411 catches, 4,695 yards, 22 TDs

Favorite play: “We had some pretty incredible plays. Early in my career there, I guess like our first year – we have a number of plays that come to mind. When we went to London and we were down (21-0) at half. The Falcons game. We came back and touchdown together and ended up winning that game. But anyway, there was one pass that stuck out. It was later in the game and kind of the play had broke down and I was kind of up the sideline in a Cover 2 and Stafford pretty much was rolling out to the right. I guess he kind of stopped his feet, which kind of stopped the safety’s feet. Meanwhile, at this point I’m like 40 yards, 50 yards down the field and the guy chucks it on a rope, I’m talking about in stride, into my hands, and I walk in for a touchdown. It was such a great pass I think the safety couldn’t even believe that he overthrew me, I guess, to the point where I had to run up under it so it ended up being an easy touchdown. So that was a spectacular one.”

Marvin Jones

Years with Stafford: 4

Stats with Stafford: 169 catches, 2,816 yards, 19 TDs

Favorite play: “It has to be the one, the Minnesota game. That’s one of my favorite catches. On that one there was 12 men on the field and he goes and just chucks it up there. I caught it and then immediately after that, seen the hit, if he was good or not. It was just a good moment. He did (get smoked), so it was a quick celebration for me cause I was more worried about him after the touchdown, but he put it up in a perfect spot. That has to be one of my favorite catches and one of my favorite throws that he was throwing.”

Tony Scheffler

Years with Stafford: 4 (2010-13)

Stats with Stafford: 82 catches, 988 yards, 7 TDs

Favorite play: “Going back to Denver, personally, was probably my favorite moment as a Lion. He threw a go route and I had that juggling catch at Denver. They treated me really well in that game. (Offensive coordinator Scott) Linehan, he called the first play of the game was to me, a pass to me, and it worked out that I caught the ball first play of the game. I had that juggling catch deep, it was on a go route, and then I think a couple of plays later they called a slide route to score a touchdown at Denver. So that was kind of my favorite memory as a Lion with Stafford, was going back to Denver and getting the first catch and that long juggling catch and the touchdown to follow it up. Him and Coach Linehan kind of thought it would be cool for me, my first time going back to Denver, to start off with a catch. I caught it and they booed me, I was like, ‘Man, I thought they liked me.’ So yeah, that was planned.”

Kris Durham

Years with Stafford: 2 (2012-13; also played with Stafford at Georgia)

Stats with Stafford: 46 catches, 615 yards, 3 TDs

Favorite play: “I’d probably go with the Green Bay catch on Sunday night in 2012 at Green Bay in December. It was down the sideline, Sunday night game. So when we lined up, Matthew actually signaled me – he used a signal from when we were in college. He gave us – so we had a play that basically called for a stop and go and so he literally signaled me before the play, the actual signal from when we were in college. So he actually changed my route during the play and I was able to obviously recognize what he saw and the signal and everything else. He trusted me and came back to me and we were able to make a really big play during that moment of the game.”

Lance Moore

Years with Stafford: 1 (2015)

Stats with Stafford: 24 catches, 291 yards, 3 TDs

Favorite play: “I would say probably the game-winning touchdown at Green Bay. A place obviously that the Lions hadn’t won in a long, long time. That one, or I guess there’s two big ones. That one when we were playing at home against Chicago, late in the game. I believe we were still down at this point, back and forth game. And like a third down, he hit me kind of on a double move, outside the numbers. Going toward the end zone. For me it was almost like a trust throw where I wasn’t wide open by any means, the defender was running along with me. And we needed a play, and obviously the play was called for me but it was one of those situations where he literally had to just trust me to make a play for him in a big moment in the game. And, yeah, obviously we wound up winning that game. But that for me was kind of like the first of kind of moments where I felt like, ‘This guy trusts me and he’s going to allow me to make some plays.’ One of those two for sure were plays that definitely stick out in my mind.”

Hakeem Valles

Years with Stafford: 2 (2017-18)

Stats with Stafford: 1 catch, 6 yards, TD

Favorite play: “Honestly, my first catch in a game from him. I want to say it was – it was a preseason game, and the reason why it’s so memorable to me is because when I was in Arizona for that full year and a half (before coming to Detroit), I had no catches, never caught a ball in the preseason from Carson Palmer. Like, nothing. But when I was in Detroit, my first catch was in preseason from him. I just remember like, it was the coolest thing to me that I finally caught a pass in a game from a starting quarterback, and it was Stafford.”

Dorin Dickerson

Years with Stafford: 1 (2013)

Stats with Stafford: 2 catches, 34 yards, 0 TDs

Favorite play: “My favorite catch was probably the catch I had on Thanksgiving. I think it was like 26 yards. It was just like a little under route, flat route. But the funny thing is, is whenever I first got there, our tight end coach Bobby Johnson, he’s like, ‘Listen to me.’ He’s like, ‘I know that you know Matt Stafford, but you’ve never played with him, so he will surprise you with some throws and he will surprise you with some plays he makes because he’ll be rolling out to the right and throw it all the way across his body to the left and not even looking at you. Just be aware every single time that you’re running routes because you might get the ball.’ He has a Brett Favre-esque type talent to his game where he can make every single throw. It can be underhand. He can surprise you in any way.' "

Taylor Decker

Years with Stafford: 4 (2016-19)

Stats with Stafford: 1 catch, 11 yards, TD

Favorite play: “I guess the special thing about (my touchdown) would be that it didn’t work in practice. The safety read it, just saw it coming. Obviously, it’s special for me. I’ve played football since first, second grade, so almost 20 years, I’ve never scored a touchdown and that first one was in the NFL, so that was pretty cool. It was just a cool experience and obviously with him and everything he’s got going on, he’s just a phenomenal teammate, everything you’d want in a franchise quarterback. We obviously love him. All the guys love him in here. It’s funny that I’m in that group (of players who've caught a pass from him).”

Kenny Golladay

Years with Stafford: 3 (2017-19)

Stats with Stafford: 115 catches, 1,761 yards, 12 TDs

Favorite play: “It would have to be my rookie year, first year against Arizona, the diving catch. He just laid it out there. Good ball, I had to just finish it really. It was just a bomb, to be honest. With Staff, you just got to be ready at all times. He can get the ball down the field from, to me, it seems like any position as far as any body position that he’s in. And that’s what makes him great really is just the arm on him and just football IQ, really.”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Read more on the Detroit Lions and sign up for our Lions newsletter.