"If Daunte Culpepper plays quarterback Sunday against Pittsburgh instead of the injured Matthew Stafford, will the Lions' offense be more conservative?

Culpepper made fewer mistakes than Stafford in the exhibition season but still lost the QB competition. He didn't make as many big plays as Stafford, the No. 1 pick in the draft.

"I think Daunte played the preseason exactly how we wanted him to play," offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said Thursday. "He was very efficient, did a lot of things, wasn't doing things that were going to hinder or hurt us, and he was playing winning football."

Culpepper didn't throw an interception in three exhibitions; Stafford threw four interceptions in four exhibitions. Culpepper completed 64.7% of his passes; Stafford completed 54.5%. Culpepper's passer rating was 89.6; Stafford's was 52.8.

But Stafford completed seven passes of 19 yards or more; Culpepper completed two. Stafford completed three passes of at least 37 yards; Culpepper completed none. Stafford threw for 389 yards; Culpepper threw 194. That doesn't take into account that Stafford had four passes dropped and a 34-yard touchdown pass called back because of a penalty.

Told that it didn't seem Culpepper went vertical as often as Stafford did, Linehan pointed out the Lions were running a vanilla offense and top receivers Calvin Johnson and Bryant Johnson sat out the first two games with injuries."