Matthew Stafford Leaves With Knee Injury In Lions' Loss

Coming off their first victory since December of 2007, the Lions played another good half of football Sunday. Heading into halftime, Detroit stood even with the Chicago Bears, 21-21. Matthew Stafford had engineered three touchdown drives, including a 98-yard beauty that greatly resembled the Lions' 99-yarder last week.

The second half, though, was another story. Johnny Knox, the Bears rookie wideout/returner, took the second half's opening kickoff back for a touchdown and his team never looked back. When the dust settled, the Bears had routed the Lions 48-24 and injured their rookie quarterback. On a play during the fourth quarter, Stafford was sacked by Adewale Ogunleye. In the process, Stafford's body was awkwardly twisted around and he screamed while grabbing his right knee. He did not return.

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There is no news yet of the exact injury nor of the extent. What we do know is that Stafford was noticeably limping on the sidelines and that he was replaced by Daunte Culpepper. You can bet there's an MRI in Stafford's future.

"He wasn't able to get it warmed back up again and we didn't want to put him back in the game," Schwartz said in the post game press conference. "If he was healthy enough, he would have gone back into the game."

UPDATE: Adam Shefter passed along, via Twitter, that Chris Mortensen is reporting Stafford suffered a dislocated kneecap (or subluxation of the patella, for you med fanatics out there). He says it was popped back in, but that doesn't sound fun. It's entirely possible Culpepper will take the field next week for the Lions as their temporary starter.

As far as the game itself, Stafford played relatively well. He completed 24 of 36 passes for 296 yards and a touchdown. He did throw one interception, and it was a bad one, coming on the Lions' 14 and setting the Bears up for an 8-yard (after the return) touchdown drive. He also missed several wide-open receivers in the Bears' zone coverage. He did lead those three drives in the first half and seemed to be on the same page with No. 1 receiver Calvin Johnson (eight catches for 133 yards).

The Lions outgained the Bears 398 yards to 276 and had the ball for 13 more minutes. The difference in the game was the Bears' efficiency on offense and special teams play. The Bears got good returns all day, not just on Knox's touchdown, in addition to stellar punting from Brad Maynard. The result was the Bears having an average starting position of Detroit's 46 compared to the Detroit 17-yard line for the Lions, which is an astounding difference.

The Lions will look to get back on track next week at home against the defending Super Bowl champs, the Pittsburgh Steelers. If Stafford is healthy, he'll face a tough test, but he appeared to be developing nicely Sunday in Chicago.