FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Amon-Ra St. Brown slipped a black brace over his right ankle, then white socks over both his feet as he got dressed in the Detroit Lions locker room after Sunday’s 29-0 loss to the New England Patriots.
The second-year wide receiver caught four passes for 18 yards in his return from a high ankle sprain Sunday, but it was clear the injury impacted his performance on the field.
“I didn’t really practice all week,” St. Brown said after the game. “I ran, ran some routes, but not too much. But like I said, didn’t practice too much but I felt 85% so I thought I’d give it a go.”
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St. Brown played far less than his usual complement of snaps Sunday, when he was on the sideline for several key third downs early in the game, and the Lions missed his big-play ability as they were shutout for the first time since November 2020.
Jared Goff finished 19-for-35 passing with two turnovers, and the Lions set a modern NFL record by going 0-for-6 on fourth downs.
St. Brown was targeted on two fourth-down conversion attempts. He caught a pass for no gain on fourth-and-2 in the third quarter and had another pass broken up on the goal line on fourth-and-goal from the 5.
“We all know what he’s about,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “He’s been wanting to play, and he gave us what he had. And I’ll say this: He did some real good things, but he was not 100%. And we all appreciate the way he’s made and what he’s about. And he went in there and mixed it up.”
St. Brown’s presence did help set up the Lions’ biggest offensive play, a 36-yard screen pass to Craig Reynolds, when he took defenders away from Reynolds as he motioned across the field. He also converted a third-and-10 with an 11-yard catch on the final play of the third quarter.
After sitting out last week’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks and missing practice Wednesday and Thursday, St. Brown said he should benefit from next week’s bye and return healthy for the Lions’ Week 7 game against the Dallas Cowboys.
“I think it’s going to help me a lot, for sure,” St. Brown said. “Especially the type of injury that I have that’ll kind of linger if you keep going. So just giving it a rest and, like I said, I knew I have this bye week coming up so that’s why it made sense for me to go. But there’s a lot of other guys on our team that I feel like can use this bye week with the injuries that we have. Like I said, I don’t think it could come at a better time.”