It is time for our final Game Ball vote of the year. No matter what happens, no Detroit Lions player will catch Matthew Stafford, who currently has 15 Game Ball points (remember: you earn 3 points for first place in votes, 2 for second place and 1 for third place).
However, there’s a log-jam of Lions players for the next five spots or so. Take a look at the standings after Week 16.
Matthew Stafford - 15
Marvin Jones Jr. - 8
Darius Slay - 8
Glover Quin - 7
Matt Prater - 7
Golden Tate - 5
A’Shawn Robinson - 4
Ezekiel Ansah - 3
Anthony Zettel - 3
Jarrad Davis - 3
Jamal Agnew - 3
Tion Green - 3
Eric Ebron - 3
Quandre Diggs - 4
Darren Fells - 2
Kenny Golladay - 2
Ameer Abdullah - 2
Akeem Spence- 1
Without further ado, let’s get into this week’s candidates for the final Game Ball of the year.
Matthew Stafford
Stats: 20-29, 323 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, 140.4 passer rating
Matthew Stafford capped off one of his best seasons ever with a fantastic performance. Stafford was accurate pretty much all day, didn’t make one bad decision and just torched the Packers secondary all day.
This was the first time ever that the Detroit Lions completed three passes of 40+ yards in a single game and a lot of credit goes to Stafford for his impeccable touch on deep throws. I’ll let Dan Orlovsky take it from here:
“THIS GUY CAN MAKE ALL THE THROWS”...we hear it all the time, but what’s it mean? Sometimes it’s a howlitzer and sometimes it’s just up over a LB, but in front of a safety. Yes higher or yard lower and it’s not the same result. @Lions #lions #intheknowwithdano #LionBlood pic.twitter.com/lJhmzB08aB
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) December 31, 2017
Golden Tate
Stats: 7 catches (7 targets), 104 yards, 1 TD
One of the targets of said deep ball was Golden Tate, who eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards on Sunday for the third time in four years with Detroit. According to Pro Football Focus, Tate did most of his work after the ball was already in his hands. 85 of his 104 receiving yards came after the catch.
Ezekiel Ansah
Stats: 4 tackles, 3.0 sacks, 5 quarterback hits
If that was the last game Ziggy plays with the Detroit Lions, boy did he go out with a bang. Six sacks in his past two games and Sunday’s performance was easily his best of the season. Not only did Ansah have the three sacks, but he was terrorizing Brett Hundley all game. His five quarterback hits was easily a season high for him.
Darius Slay
Stats: 1 tackle, 3 passes defended, 1 INT
By Darius Slay standards, Sunday was a relatively quiet day. He was only targeted five times all game, but he got his hands on three of those passes. According to PFF, Slay allowed just one completion for 29 yards, and Hundley had an 11.7 passer rating when targeting Slay.
After a small step back last week against A.J. Green, Slay was back to his normal self against the Packers.
A’Shawn Robinson
Stats: 6 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 1 pass defended, 2 quarterback hits
It’s been a relatively quiet sophomore season for A’Shawn this year, especially when it comes to rushing the passer. But Robinson was a force in the middle of the line on Sunday. In fact, Robinson was all over the place. He successfully rushed the passer, tallying a half-sack and two quarterback hits. He was solid in the run game, finishing with six tackles (three solo). And he even added a patented A’Swat for good measure.
His well-rounded performance was good enough to earn the fourth-highest grade among all Lions players on Sunday (84.0).
Poll
Who gets the Week 17 Game Ball?
This poll is closed
-
60%
Matthew Stafford
-
8%
Golden Tate
-
27%
Ezekiel Ansah
-
1%
Darius Slay
-
2%
A’Shawn Robinson