Detroit Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown on ankle injury recovery
Amon-Ra St. Brown said he started feeling better two days before the Detroit Lions’ game against the Cowboys, after injuring his ankle Thanksgiving.
When you need divine help, you call on a Saint.
Here were the Detroit Lions, their fans praying hard, in a game that they had to have, on a series that they had to control. They were clinging to a one-touchdown lead over Dallas with less than three minutes to go. Conventional wisdom says, “Run the ball. Take seconds off the clock. Force the opponent to use a timeout.”
Instead, Jared Goff dropped back on second down and saw his favorite target streaking across the middle: Amon-Ra St. Brown – aka “Saint” – who, as the whole city seemed to know, was a game-time decision with an ankle injury. Don’t ask me which ankle. They were both working fine on that play.
St. Brown grabbed Goff’s perfect pass in full stride and took off running. Thirty-seven yards later, he went down, his feet inbounds and the game suddenly, blissfully, in hand. And for those who before this contest had their shovels ready and a pile of dirt stacked high, the Lions had a message:
Not dead yet.
“St. Brown is what we are,” coach Dan Campbell declared after the Lions outlasted the Cowboys and captured their biggest game of the year so far, 44-30, on Thursday, Dec. 4. “He’s what we are. That guy … Where he goes, we go.”
Where they went was smack back into the playoff picture with an 8-5 record. Had the Lions lost this game, according to the stat geeks, their chances of making the postseason would have been 19%. Instead, they are 55%. That’s the difference between a pile of chips on the blackjack table versus one last chip rolling between your fingers.
And while St. Brown was hardly the only contributor to this outcome, he was the most symbolic. His exit from the Thanksgiving loss to Green Bay ruined many fans’ appetites. The prediction was that he would miss “1-2 weeks.”
Instead, St, Brown came running through the tunnel Thursday night to the loudest ovation of anyone at Ford Field. And the first offensive play of the game was a pass to him cutting across the middle for 7 yards. The crowd roared again.
“Did you think you’d be able to do as much as you did?” someone asked St Brown after he racked up six catches for 92 yards, a terrific days for a healthy receiver.
“Nah,” he said. “I hurt it on Thursday. Friday, I couldn’t walk. I was on crutches. Saturday, I could barely walk. At that point I was like, yeah, I probably can’t play, it hurts too bad.
“Then Sunday came around and I was able to walk, felt a little better. … Then, I think Tuesday came, it felt a lot better.
“Wednesday, I was like, OK, I think I can play.”
Hmm. Maybe we should call him the patron Saint of miraculous recoveries.
Not dead yet.
Problems? What problems?
Now, here is a truism of all big-time sports: Before you can overcome an opponent, you must overcome yourself.
The Lions had a mountain of internal problems going into this game: crippling injuries; inexperienced players; a recent lack of poor execution – no turnovers, bad line play, a quarterback who wasn’t getting enough time – and a dangerous tally of five losses, including their most recent defeat by the Packers a week ago.
Forget how good Dallas had been playing. If Detroit didn’t get out of its own way, this game seemed already decided.
But the franchise that, under Campbell, still hasn’t lost back-to-back games in more than three years, came out Thursday with eraser in hand, ready to wipe away every black mark on the board.
No pass rush? Here was a new, sudden, freight train attack, with linebacker Jack Campbell finishing a bullrush on Dak Prescott to sack him on the lip of the end zone, and Al-Quadin Muhammad chalking up three more sacks on Prescott, including one on Dallas’ next-to-last play.
Bad offensive line play? Here was one total sack allowed on Goff, and David Montgomery following beautiful blocks by Penei Sewell and squirting ahead on a 35-yard scamper to the end zone and Jahmyr Gibbs hitting paydirt when it counted, three touchdown runs (of 1, 10 and 13 yards).
Lagging special teams? Here was Tom Kennedy, subbing for Kalif Raymond, exploding on kickoff returns with the trajectory of a cannonball fired chest-high, averaging 40 yards per return.
Quarterback doubts? Here was Goff (“We told him we were going to put this on him” Campbell said) responding with a steady, intelligent, engineer-like performance, dropping long passes to Jameson Williams and short sharp ones to Gibbs, finishing with 309 yards on 25-for-34 passing with no interceptions.
“It felt like we kind of got back to who we are,” Goff said afterwards. “… I think you could see an uptick in urgency from everybody.”
Not dead yet.
‘He refuses to fail’
Still, for all these contributors, the key stitch in Thursday’s tapestry was St. Brown returning and playing so well. He is broadly admired for his discipline, work ethic, physical strength beyond his size and ferocity in getting everything right. In a year when the Lions seem to lose key players every week – and even a guy they pulled out of retirement, Frank Ragnow, failed his physical – St. Brown not missing a single game after that serious ankle injury felt like divine intervention.
Then again, he is a Saint.
“His toughness and his will power, his desire to compete, to help those guys around him, to do whatever it takes to win, is second to none,” Campbell gushed. “He is rare, man. His mentality. His mindset is just, he refuses to fail. …Nothing is going to dictate where he goes, what he does. … He will dictate to himself what he’s going to do…”
“His teammates feed off of that.”
Good players perform well in big games. Great players inspire others to play better as well. St. Brown inspired that in Thursday’s win.
Now, don’t misunderstand. This was hardly a perfect game. Too many penalties, too many blown coverages, too much sloppy execution – and yes, the Lions benefitted by the third-quarter exit of CeeDee Lamb, the star receiver who’d been chewing up Detroit’s D.J. Reed all night (six catches, 121 yards) until he was ruled out with a concussion.
But for every hurdle the Lions put in front of themselves, a leap followed. They went from one takeaway in their previous three games, to three takeaways against Dallas. They went from allowing eight sacks in their previous three games, to allowing just one Thursday.
“They don’t get panicked,” Campbell said of his troops. “They don’t make something out of it that it’s not. Don’t make more of it than it needs to be. There’s a reason why you’re not able to win the game and here’s what it is and oh, by the way, is it correctable? Yes, it’s correctable. …
“I think where you get in trouble is if you start panicking and you … start doing more than you need to do. Just do your job and do it the best you can do it.”
Maybe it is that simple. But know this: Given their injuries, their personnel, and their schedule the rest of the way, if the Lions do reach the end of their yellow brick road, it’s going to be like Thursday. Not dominance. Not blowouts. They’ll have to climb, slip, grab on, climb some more.
It’s not easy. But desire will carry you places mere flesh will not. The Lions knows this. They are living it.
Not dead yet. Don’t count them out. After all, 55% is a pretty decent chance. And it’s never wise to bet against a Saint.
Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom on x.com.