ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Matthew Stafford says he doesn’t know if he will start the Detroit Lions’ season-opener Sept. 13 at New Orleans. But he certainly sounds like a starting quarterback.

“I feel extremely confident,” Stafford said Thursday night, after the Lions’ 17-6 victory over Buffalo in the exhibition finale. “I know this offense in and out. I know my sights, my hots.
“I know New Orleans is a blitz-aholic team. They really come after the quarterback. But if we pick it up, it’s chances to make big plays. If they want to go one-on-one with some of our guys, let them do it, because we’ve got some really good guys that catch and run.”
A reporter pointed out to Stafford that he hasn’t seen NFL defenses in their full complexity yet. He has played only four exhibitions, when teams play vanilla defense. Though he was the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, he is still only a rookie.
But Stafford pointed out NFL defenses haven’t seen the Lions’ offense fully prepared yet, either, and he saw a lot of defenses playing in the Southeastern Conference at Georgia the past three years.
“We really haven’t game-planned a team yet in preseason for more than a day,” Stafford said. “So you know, we’ll have 10 days to look at these guys.
“Maybe not back to back to back to back like they’ve done it, but I’ve seen just about every blitz you can come up with. Until we play Pittsburgh. I’m sure they’ll come up with something crazy for me.”
Stafford laughed.
“I’ve seen it before, but they do it a lot,” Stafford said. “That’s the main thing.”
Stafford started against the Bills, while his competition, veteran Daunte Culpepper, sat out with a cut foot. He went 5-for-9 for 81 yards. He threw an interception for the fourth straight exhibition. He took two sacks and fumbled on one of them. And the Bills played only second-stringers on defense.
But Stafford didn’t see the rusher on the sack-fumble, and the interception happened when wide receiver Keary Colbert slipped and couldn’t come back on a comeback route down the left sideline.
“That stuff’s going to happen,” Stafford said. “I was going to the right place, threw what I thought was a good pass. That’s all you can do.”
Stafford also made some impressive plays. He was sacked on his second snap, then faced a third-and-10 at the Detroit 8. He threw the ball just over a defender down the right sideline for wide receiver Calvin Johnson. It was a 37-yard gain, but it could have been a 92-yard touchdown had Johnson stayed in bounds.
“I cut it loose,” Stafford said, “and I thought he was gone.”
Later in the drive, Stafford hit Johnson for 19 yards, then hit him for a 34 -yard touchdown. But the TD was called back because left guard Daniel Loper was flagged for holding.
“Stuff like that’s going to happen,” Stafford said. “Obviously we don’t want it to, but we moved the ball really well. We really did.”