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Three-fourths of the way through the NFL season, Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was often named as a candidate for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award. With the Lions backing into the playoffs on the heels of their third consecutive loss, Stafford no longer looks like an MVP.

Early in the Lions’ 13th game of the season, Stafford suffered an injury to the middle finger on his throwing hand. Since then he has been wearing a splint on the finger and experimenting with different gloves to keep the splint in place, and his passing statistics have declined considerably.

Before his finger injury, Stafford had completed 67.2 percent of his passes and thrown 21 touchdown passes and five interceptions, and the Lions were 8-4.

Since his finger injury, Stafford has completed 60.2 percent of his passes and thrown three touchdown passes and five interceptions, and the Lions are 1-3.

It should be noted that the Lions’ schedule got tougher at the end of the season, ending the year with games against the Giants, Cowboys and Packers. So some of Stafford’s decline may simply be a matter of the Lions playing against tougher opponents.

But, of course, now that the Lions are in the playoffs, there are no easy games left. They need Stafford to get better in a hurry, or else their season is going to end on Saturday night in Seattle.