A few days before Jamal Agnew recorded his longest kickoff return since last season, Detroit Lions special teams coordinator Brayden Coombs predicted he was close to breaking through.
Agnew barely missed on scoring a touchdown when he returned a kickoff 71 yards late in Sunday’s 31-24 loss to the Green Bay Packers.
As if the disappointment of not scoring wasn’t bad enough, Agnew also might have to kick in some cash to pay a good-natured team fine for the sin of getting tackled by the kicker.
[ Major roster decisions await next Lions GM: Who should stay, who should go ]
“(The lengthy kickoff return)was good to see,” Coombs said Tuesday during a conference call. “I wish we could’ve finished it. Ag will have to put a couple dollars in the swear jar this week. We don’t get tackled by kickers and punters here. He’ll have to pony up there.
“But it was good to see him make a play. Sometimes those things come in bunches, so hopefully that opens the floodgates for us.”
With 3:30 left and the Lions down, 31-21, Mason Crosby kicked 4 yards deep into the end zone. Agnew fielded the kick and made a nice cut to his left. Only cornerback Josh Jackson was on his tail as he streaked down the left sideline. But Crosby played his angle well as the last defender and made a diving tackle to knock Agnew out of bounds.
SPIELMAN HIRED: Explaining Chris Spielman’s role with Detroit Lions
3 THINGS: I don’t love the Lions’ hiring of Chris Spielman. Here’s why.
NEW ADVISER SPIELMAN: ‘I’ve always respected’ Matthew Stafford
It was Agnew’s longest kick return since he ran back a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown against the Philadelphia Eagles last season.
“That’s a huge play,” Coombs said of Agnew’s return against the Packers. “Obviously we’ve been looking for one of those, felt like we were close and just a matter of bringing it all the way through. Obviously Agnew is electric, he’s a playmaker. Any time he has the ball in his hands, we all know he has a chance to make something happen.
“It was really just a matter of being patient throughout the game — really throughout the course of the last several weeks, just wishing we had a little bit more opportunity. But everyone staying ready for when that time came, and everyone did a great job of that. Throughout the course of the game, easy to get lulled to sleep when you just watch it go over your head touchback after touchback. But those guys did a heck of a job staying locked in.”
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.