It took until his twelfth season, and three different games against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford has now thrown a touchdown pass against all 31 opponents in the NFL.
Earlier this week in a virtual interview, Stafford was told that despite being 2-0 in his career against the Jaguars, they were the only team in the NFL that he had not thrown a touchdown pass on.
When asked if that provided any extra motivation for him to find the endzone this week, Stafford quickly responded:
“Yeah, that needs to happen for sure.”
And in the third quarter, it did indeed happen.
On the Lions second possession of the second half, the Jaguars jumped offsides, giving Stafford a free play, and he targeted Kenny Golladay 48-yards downfield, securing the catch inside the 10-yard line. Another pass to Golladay got the Lions to the one-yard line, and after two incompletions, the Lions decided to go for it on fourth down.
A simple rub route opened up T.J. Hockenson underneath and Stafford completed his 265th career touchdown pass:
Stafford finds @TheeHOCK8 on fourth down for the score!#DETvsJAX | 📺 FOX | #OnePride pic.twitter.com/0oh3row0NH
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) October 18, 2020
Stafford doesn’t typically get caught up in individual achievements, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate the achievement. When he closed his media session this week, he wrapped it up by saying:
“Yeah, we need to make that happen… that’d be great. I’d love to have that on the tombstone one day or something.”
