Team Seems To Quit On Culpepper

Something I have to acknowledge, or at least question, is the feeling about Daunte Culpepper in the Detroit locker room. Obviously, he has played terrible and the coaching staff had enough. Finally, they turned to Drew Stanton and while he didn’t play great, it seemed the team responded to him. All of sudden, the line are opening holes for long runs and the offense proved to do more waste time until the punter can come unto the field. Sure, Stanton failed to move the ball on the final drive but that had to be the definition of behind the 8-ball. Imagine you’re a quarterback with one good receiver, no timeouts, a long field and you haven’t played a meaningful snap your whole career. Thanks, coach!

Anyways, it was odd to see how much better the offense gelled around the youngster as opposed to the ‘savvy’ vet who was supposed to bring a calming influence to the huddle. I can’t help but to think something happened between(or during) the Pittsburg game and the Green Bay goose egg game. The team seemed to play for him against the Steelers, but dropped a donut at Lambeau Field. Even Jason Hanson doesn’t like playing for him, going into a funk when ever Culpepper is the quarterback.

This is the point in a player’s career when he thanks the coaching staff for giving him a chance and rides off into the sunset. I was a fan of Culpeppers when the season started and was hoping he would win the QB battle during the preseason. I think Stafford was too erratic and inaccurate. He still may be but he has something I believe Culpepper may have never had; leadership. Even in Minnesota, that was Cris Carter’s and Randy Moss’ team. He just didn’t have to screw it up. Now, when asked to be the “Man” on a young team, not only does he choke, but the rest of his unit doesn’t seem interested in helping him out.

I may be wrong, but that’s what it seems like to me at least.