If you take a quick glance at Matthew Stafford’s numbers, they don’t look great. He’s only completing 60.3% of his passes (lowest since 2014), he has just two touchdowns and four interceptions and a passer rating of 74.5 (lowest since his rookie year).
He is averaging a healthy 303.3 yards per game and 7.2 yards per attempt, but the surface-level stats are very underwhelming for the Rams quarterback. That doesn’t bother Sean McVay in the least bit because having watched the film, he knows Stafford is playing better than his numbers indicate.
Buy Rams TicketsOn Wednesday, McVay shared some insight on Stafford’s play this season and he’s not worried about the high interception total because two came on tipped passes.
“I think Matthew’s done a really good job,” McVay said. “I thought the first two games were really high-level ball. I think we’ve had some unfortunate situations relative to the turnovers that, you’re talking about two out of those four plays are truly tip picks where he’s making the right decision, he’s going to the right read. The other one the other night was a miscommunication in protection. He’s trying to make a play. He knows better than that to be able to kind of throw late over the middle and (Logan) Wilson ended up making a play. But overall, I think he’s throwing the ball with accuracy, anticipation and we’ve got to continue to do a good job of playing well around him. I can do some different things to help and that’ll always be the case, but I love the way Matthew’s played for us.”
Stafford’s first interception came on a dropped pass by running back Kyren Williams. The ball went right through his hands and was picked by 49ers cornerback Isaiah Oliver. Against the Bengals on Monday night, Mike Hilton tipped Stafford’s pass at the line and Logan Wilson was in the right spot to make the play.
Stafford’s two other interceptions were questionable decisions, throwing late over the middle against the Bengals and again across the middle on a route that the 49ers defender undercut to make a great play.
McVay knows what Stafford is capable of and though he’s caught a couple of bad breaks, the veteran quarterback should bounce back with a better performance against the Colts.
