Detroit — T.J. Hockenwho?
Just days after trading away their former first-round tight end T.J. Hockenson, the Detroit Lions on Sunday responded by giving two other tight ends their first career touchdowns in a 15-9 win over the Green Bay Packers.
The first went to Shane Zylstra, the second-year tight end out of Minnesota State. He got wide-open in the end zone on a play that fooled the Packers — he had 14.6 yards of separation when the pass arrived, per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats — to give the Lions a one-touchdown lead late in the second quarter.
Then, with the Lions desperately needing to extend their lead, rookie James Mitchell caught a 3-yard pass from Jared Goff that gave Detroit a two-touchdown advantage.
“It’s really exciting, and I think those two guys, specifically, have been so consistent through time and have finally gotten their chance this week,” Goff said. “… They’re very conscientious about where they’re supposed to be and understanding the play and understanding everything. It’s really good, man. It’s a lot of fun to play with those guys.”
Making the moment even more special for Mitchell was the fact that his mother, Marcia, and father, Jimmy, were in attendance for the game. Marcia got to see him make his NFL debut against the Seahawks in Week 4, but Sunday’s game against the Packers was Jimmy’s first time seeing his son play live.
“It was a pretty good feeling. My dad actually kind of manifested it. He was like, ‘I think you’re gonna get in the end zone this week,’ so it was cool for him to be there, and I’m excited to go up there and see them,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell added that he plans to give the ball to his dad, so he can “frame it up and put it in the house somewhere.”
More: Lions rookie James Mitchell succeeds through his mother’s sacrifice and perseverance
A similar fate is also likely for Zylstra’s touchdown ball. Zylstra was called up from the practice squad along with his brother, Brandon, a wide receiver who was signed by Detroit on Oct. 5.
“Shane’s a guy that we’ve relied on for two years now, at times,” Campbell said. “And then James kind of coming off his injury has kind of come into his own now. So, seeing them both through practice and the last handful of weeks, and getting their chances today is exciting.”
Linebacking love
He may not have been the linebacker that Lions fans wanted in critical moments, but he was the linebacker that the Lions needed in critical moments.
Second-year linebacker Derrick Barnes was huge for a Lions defense that had its best performance of the season by a country mile, coming up with a game-high (and career-high) 12 tackles, to go along with a sack and a pass deflection that resulted in Kerby Joseph’s first interception of the afternoon.
Simply put: It was the performance that everyone had been waiting for.
“It feels better when you have a performance like that and also win, and I was telling myself, no matter what happens, I want to win the game, because if we had that type of performance and you lose, none of that matters,” Barnes said.
Though the deflection for Barnes was a bit of luck — Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers chucked it into the top of his helmet — the tackle he made on AJ Dillon at the goal line, and his sack of Rodgers, was not.
On the sack, Barnes took a chip from Dillon and then beat Packers center Josh Myers to force an 8-yard loss instead of the long touchdown pass that Rodgers was looking for on the play. On the goal-line takedown of Dillon — there were two, actually, but the third-down stop set up an interception on fourth-and-goal — he was everything that the Lions were hoping he’d be when they drafted him, which is a downhill forced to be reckoned with.
“They like doing that fast (throw) to the flat, so I thought they were trying to get me out-leveraged,” Barnes said. “But I saw them hand the ball off and I guess the guard didn’t see me, and I was like, ‘This’ll be a big stop.’ And just go make a play, man.”
Barnes was taken out of Purdue No. 113 in the 2021 NFL Draft. He struggled to make a name for himself in his rookie season, and with rookie linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez coming on this year, it was more than fair to wonder whether Barnes was running out of time to prove himself in Detroit.
“Every week, he’s improved. And we all want it to be at a certain rate, but the bottom line is, he has. He just keeps coming on. It was good to see him out there running around,” Campbell said.
With more performances like these, Barnes will quiet those question marks pretty quickly.
“I think he’s starting to come along a little bit. I feel like he had a slow start to this year, but he’s coming on at the right time. It’s his second year in the league; he’s still learning football and it’s fun to watch,” veteran linebacker Alex Anzalone said. “You see a player that cares so much, has so much passion about what he does and practices the way he does, puts in time outside the facility the way he does.
“For me, it’s inspiring to see. I love him and when you see good dudes succeed, it’s awesome.”
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