Lions Insider

Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford left Sunday's 44-41 loss to the Titans with a right leg injury.

Stafford said after the game that he was "okay" but he still needed an MRI to make sure. Lions head coach Jim Schwartz declined to give any updates on the status of his starting quarterback other than to say the team would monitor his progress throughout the week.

He did, however, say that there wasn't a special level of concern regarding Stafford's availability for Sunday's game.

"Not yet," he said. "We'll see how the week goes and then Friday we'll make a determination what that availability is. Same as every team does."

Stafford was injured in the fourth quarter after Alterraun Verner stripped Brandon Pettigrew of a pass and returned it 72 yards for a touchdown.

Stafford, who missed most his first two seasons with shoulder and knee injuries, played through a broken finger and a sore ankle to ultimately start every game last year.

Shaun Hill finished Sunday's game and threw two touchdown passes in the final 18 seconds of regulation to force overtime, but eventually lost in the extra period. Hill finished 10-of-13 passing for 172 yards.

Stafford completed 33-of-42 passes for 278 yards and a touchdown before the injury.

AGGRESSIVE PLAY CALL
Lions center Dominic Raiola admitted Monday that the miscommunication between him and Hill that caused the final fourth-down play to be snapped was his fault.

"I totally read Shaun's lips the wrong way," he said Monday. "I ran fullback dive. It was just missed execution on my part."

Raiola might have technically been at fault, but Schwartz said Monday that it was his fault for being too aggressive.

"I think that's a great example of an overaggressive call by the head coach," he said. "Going into the play it seemed like there was no down side. Try and draw them offsides and if we jump offsides or did something we move back five yards and we still kick the field goal.

"But what was supposed to not have any down side did have down side and that's on me as a head coach."

WHAT A DEBUT
Mikel Leshoure had 100 rushing yards and a touchdown in his debut Sunday, but those numbers don't tell the full story of how effective Leshoure really was.

"Eleven rushing first downs I think is the most since I've been here as a head coach," Schwartz said. "We chart running back efficiency. A good run on 3rd down and 1 is a 1-yard gain; a 10-yard run on 3rd-down and 12 is not a good run, like that. We were 66 percent efficient, which is the highest we've been since I've been here.

"So we ran the ball efficiently and we got first downs, that's something we wanted to do. We just didn't get enough in the game."

Leshoure became the first Lions player since Billy Sims back in 1980 to run for at least 100 yards in the NFL debut.

LIKE A ROCK
Schwartz said it was possible the Lions will need to sign a punter this week after Ben Graham hurt his calf early late in the first quarter Sunday.

He also said the job kicker Jason Hanson did filling in for Graham on the punting duties, while also making four field goals, was clutch.

"Jason Hanson had a lot on his plate in this game," Schwartz said. "It's very rare that you see a guy make all his field goals and also punt in a game."