GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Matthew Stafford took a chance -- and it resulted in his 200th career touchdown pass.
Stafford is now the sixth fastest in NFL history to 200 career regular-season passing touchdowns, accomplishing the feat in just 117 games. Only Dan Marino (89), Aaron Rodgers (99), Peyton Manning (106), Brett Favre (107) and Tom Brady (116) reached that milestone quicker than Stafford. Stafford, 29, also is the fourth player to throw 200 touchdowns before the age of 30, joining Favre (218), Manning (244) and Marino (245).
The Detroit Lions quarterback launched a deep shot to receiver Marvin Jones Jr. with 1:45 left in the first quarter on Monday night against the Packers, completing a 25-yard pass to Jones for the touchdown. It was a good pass from Stafford and a good reception by Jones, who created late separation and dove into the end zone for the score. It also pushed Stafford past Phil Simms into 40th place all time in passing touchdowns.
Stafford followed his first-quarter milestone TD with an 11-yard scoring pass to Jones with 8:06 remaining in the Lions' 30-17 victory, putting the game out of reach with a 17-point lead.
"Those guys outside were doing a great job of winning, and I was just trying to get it to the open guy," Stafford said. "All sorts of guys were winning, and we can spread it out and use a bunch of weapons like we did tonight when we're at our best."
Stafford also eclipsed Sonny Jurgensen (32,224) for No. 39 all time in passing yards. He did so on a 9-yard pass to Ameer Abdullah in the second quarter.
"All the guys played well, I thought," Stafford said. "I didn't think anybody was off their game, so that was nice."
In all, 35 receivers have contributed to Stafford's 200 touchdowns -- with Calvin Johnson nabbing over a quarter of them with 54. Golden Tate, who signed with Detroit in 2014, and Stafford's fellow 2009 first-round draft pick, Brandon Pettigrew, are next with 15.
It's the eighth time Stafford has thrown a touchdown to Jones -- three of them coming at Lambeau Field.
Of the 200 scoring strikes, 12 players caught only one touchdown from Stafford.
Touchdown No. 1 came in the second quarter of Stafford's second career game in 2009 on an 8-yard pass to Johnson as part of a 27-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. The first player to catch multiple touchdowns from Stafford was tight end Will Heller, who caught touchdowns in Week 4 and Week 9 that same season.
Heller ended up catching four touchdowns from Stafford -- three in the 2009 regular season and one during the 2011 playoffs -- though the postseason score doesn't count toward Stafford's career total. Stafford has thrown four playoff touchdown passes in all.
Monday night also marked the first time this season the Lions tallied a touchdown pass on their opening drive.