"It was awkward at best.

When the Lions quarterbacks came out for warm-ups about an hour prior to kickoff against Green Bay, Matthew Stafford -- a surprise starter after sitting out practice all week with an injured left shoulder -- immediately began tossing a football. So did Drew Stanton, the team's emergency third quarterback for Thursday's game.

Backup Daunte Culpepper, who didn't learn he wouldn't start until Thursday morning, conspicuously sat on the bench. And he stayed there for several minutes, until after a conversation with general manager Martin Mayhew, who approached him on the bench as soon as he came out of the tunnel onto the field. The two shook hands after a brief but animated conversation -- more of a lecture, actually -- and Culpepper joined the warm-ups moments later. Mayhew and Culpepper both declined comment after the game. When asked about Culpepper sitting on the bench initially, coach Jim Schwartz said, "He did some other warm-ups. I mean, he was upset, sure."

But Schwartz said he understood Culpepper's disappointment.

"Daunte's a competitor," Schwartz said. "When Matt had hurt his knee (Oct. 4 at Chicago), we told Daunte early on in the (next) week, 'Hey, this is gonna be yours. You're gonna go.' We had a short week this week. We didn't want to close any doors. We didn't know up to game time who the starter was gonna be. We had a nationally televised game. Daunte's a competitor. He wants to be out there. "