NEW ORLEANS – Matthew Stafford had one of the best first halves of his career on Sunday against New Orleans, and as part of it he set a franchise record.

Stafford completed 13 consecutive passes in the first half, passing Jon Kitna’s record of 12 in a row against Arizona on Nov. 19, 2006. The streak started with a pass to Dwayne Washington in the first quarter and continued all the way until Detroit’s last drive of the second quarter, when he missed Eric Ebron on a deep ball.

Matthew Stafford established a Lions record in the first half against the Saints with 13 consecutive completions. Crystal LoGiudice/USA TODAY Sports

Stafford was on-point throughout the first half, completing 19 of 23 passes for 175 yards and a touchdown.

"It’s great. I really don’t ever really notice it’s happening," Stafford said. "You’re just going out there trying to treat each play as if it’s the next play and execute it and we’re doing that, that means the guys outside are catching the rock, the guys up front are blocking and I’m doing a good enough job getting it close to ‘em.

"That’s not just a me stat, that’s an everybody stat when you have a good little flow going like that."

The only games where Stafford was more accurate in the first half were last season against the Saints, when he had a career-best 92.3 completion percentage (12 of 13) and against the Bears in 2014, when he completed 22 of 26 in the first half (84.6 percent).

The Lions have won all four games in Stafford’s career where he has completed more than 82 percent of his passes in his first half.