ALLEN PARK -- Quarterbacks have a way of drawing too much praise for when things go right, and too much blame for when things go wrong. The latter has been especially true for Matthew Stafford, a highly regarded QB among his peers, but lightning rod for fans who have grown tired of watching six decades of losing football.

Now the Lions are losing again. They're losing a lot, and they're losing big. And Stafford has drawn considerable and predictable scorn from fans who have seen enough. But how much of it is deserved?

Asked for his perspective on how Stafford has played this season, Jim Bob Cooter punted.

"I'm really not huge on getting into player evaluations through the media and all that stuff," the offensive coordinator said. "We talk through all that stuff in-house here. That's sort of Detroit Lions information.

"We're talking through everything, evaluating every snap during the game, during practice, what we're doing well, what we can do better. Same thing with, 'This play's good, that play's not that great,' during a practice week. We're discussing a lot of things, and that's some in-house business I'm not looking to share with the media."

Stafford has completed 66.8 percent of his passes this season, which puts him on track for the second most accurate season of his career. But most of his other numbers are down. He's averaging just 7.2 yards per completion, which matches his fewest since 2014. He's on pace for 4,240 yards overall, which would be his fewest in any full season, and 15 interceptions, his most since 2013.

He's also on pace for 52 sacks, which would blow away his previous career high of 47 -- set just last season.

Stafford actually enjoyed solid protection early on, taking 13 sacks in the first seven games of the season. But then he lost his favorite receiver and best security blanket, with Golden Tate getting dealt to Philadelphia just in time for a pair of games against top-10 defenses.

Minnesota and Chicago brought lots of pressure, forcing Stafford to make quick decisions without his safety valve. And that approach was wildly successful, with Stafford going down 16 times in just two weeks.

Asked if Stafford has started to change his play because of the constant pressure, Cooter opened up with some thoughts.

"No, Stafford's a really tough guy," Cooter said. "Obviously offensively, I have to do a better job and we have to do a better job of protecting our quarterback through playcalling, scheme, execution, all those things. At the end of the day, we have to get that number down and do a better job with that.

"Stafford hangs in there. Stafford's a tough guy. He'll take a hit when needed. We just need to do a better job of protecting him. It starts with me, I have to improve the way we're going about doing that and fix some of those errors."

The pass blocking has struggled against the likes of Danielle Hunter, Everson Griffen and Khalil Mack the last two weeks, to be sure. And losing Pro Bowl guard T.J. Lang for the last game-and-a-half to a neck injury hasn't helped either. But Stafford shares a role in the sacks too, sometimes holstering the ball too long as the defense closes in.

He took one particularly costly sack last week, opening that game against Chicago by taking a third-down sack that pushed Detroit out of field goal range. It would not score until it trailed 26-0.

"It's really just putting us behind the sticks," Stafford said after the game. "Talking about trying to stay ahead of the sticks -- that puts us behind the sticks. For me, I play the next play, whatever happens. Like I said last week, and it's true again this week, it's not all on those guys (the offensive line). Especially late in the game, that's as tough a situation as it can be to play offensive line in the NFL. Go block those four guys, the entire stadium knows we're going to throw the football, I thought our guys battled really well."

So, sure, Stafford deserves some blame for the Lions' 3-6 start. But he's certainly not the team's biggest problem either. He's not blocking anybody. He's certainly not tackling anybody. And he's most definitely not trying to cover anybody either.

Detroit started this three-game losing streak by allowing a perfect quarterback rating to Russell Wilson, then nearly did it again Sunday against Mitchell Trubisky. He completed his first seven passes, 13 of 15 in the first half and carried a perfect passing rating into the third quarter. He accounted for three touchdowns overall and finished with a career-high 355 yards passing.

And none of that has anything to do with Stafford.

"Look, he's (a) really tough, smart quarterback," Patricia said. "He's a guy that is going to stay in there and try to get the ball out and try to make the plays that he can make. And he's trying to do everything the right way. So I give him a lot of credit for just fighting through this whole thing."