In order to help solving the technical puzzles of lacking in scientific, reasonable and quantitative surrounding rock stability criteria in the initial lining during tunneling excavation by NATM and occurring of many cave-ins, in this paper some viewpoints are put forward, the essentials of which are as follows： 1. Advance the basis for the hypothesis of deformation rate ratio criterion (DRRC) and the method for obtaining the threshold of this criterion, and enumerate five typical cases for the application of this criterion to the tunnelingexcavation; 2. The success and failure in the Maoshan expressway tunnel excavation are deducted and verified from positive and negative aspects. DRRC was used in two excavating sections to forecasted dangerous situations resulting in coming safely out of cave-in accidents, while the use of DRRG was compelled to stop in another excavating section and a big cave-in accident happened; 3. Obtain the method of DRRC for constituting a typical information method, which is characterized by the combination of prototype information and typical information. DRRC is a kind of hypothetico-deductive method, and it is also a preliminary application of metasynthesis from the qualitative to the quantitative.