Wide receiver Jameson Williams reached career highs in receptions and receiving yards in the Detroit Lions’ previous game, and he may have the opportunity to challenge those numbers in their next contest.

In the Lions’ 31-24 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving, Detroit lost All-Pro wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown to an ankle injury in the first quarter. St. Brown has caught 505 passes in his 78 regular-season games with the Lions, but he had a 70-game reception streak ended by the injury.

Detroit plays the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night, and St. Brown has not returned to practice.

“I’m not sure right now, if I’m being honest,” St. Brown said on Tuesday about playing against Dallas. “Still up in the air. I’m going to try to be out there for the guys, for my teammates, but I couldn’t answer that question right now.”

Williams called St. Brown “the heart and soul of our team.”

“When our guy go down, other guys got to come up and make plays,” Williams said after the loss to the Packers. “You see (rookie wide receiver Isaac) TeSlaa come with the touchdown. We making plays out there. We just got to make way more plays and don’t even give the other guys a chance. We playmakers and just got to execute, be on the little details and get everything together. We going to be good.”

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Against Green Bay, Williams had seven receptions for 144 yards and one touchdown. Quarterback Jared Goff threw 10 passes to Williams, the second time in his 49 games with Detroit that the former Alabama All-American has been targeted in double figures.

“I just got more opportunities. That was it,” Williams said on Monday about his career-high production. “I just executed on the opportunities. I should have did it more. You know, we came out with a loss, and what I did don’t even matter because we lost.”

Particularly upsetting for Williams was one of the targets he did not catch on fourth-and-3 at the Green Bay 21-yard line with the Lions trailing by 10 points with 10:50 left to play.

“It’s a drop,” Williams said. “… I move the sticks right there, it could be a whole different game-changer for us.”

Despite that play, Lions coach Dan Campbell said the Detroit coaching staff had “high confidence” in Williams.

“He’s really growing,” Campbell said. “I mean, he just continues to grow and get better. He’s fearless. He’s fearless. And just his fundamentals, you know, for the speed and quickness he has, the ability for him to drop his weight now. And there’s really some detail to his routes. He’s becoming a hard cover. And then you see the run-after-catch ability. He’s had it.

“So his confidence is growing, our confidence is growing and he’s doing well. And I mean, he came back out this week again. I mean, he’s full tilt. You should have seen him running yesterday. I mean this guy, he works now. He works in practice every day. So love where he’s at.”

The Lions and Cowboys square off at 7:15 p.m. CST Thursday at Ford Field in Detroit. Prime Video will televise the game.

The Lions have been a playoff team the past two seasons. But with five games left on its regular-season schedule, Detroit, at 7-5, is playing catchup in the postseason race as the first team out currently.

“There’s nothing missing,” Williams said. “We got the talent, we got the great coaches, we got the great players, we got playmakers, everything is good. Like in these type of games and situations, we just got to execute and come out on top. That’s it. There’s no excuses. There’s no nothing to say about it. We just got to execute and come out on top.”

The next team in line trying to break into the NFC playoff field is Dallas, which has reached 6-5-1 by winning three games in a row.

The Lions have a 21-10 record in the regular-season games that Williams has started in his career, including a 47-9 victory over the Cowboys last season. Williams had three receptions for 76 yards and one touchdown in the game.