Lions Injury Report: Calvin Johnson Has Nerve Damage

Even an artificial life form made of non-human parts is still human.  Megatron, or Calvin Johnson if you prefer, said he suffered nerve damage when he took two big hits in the Detroit Lions' game against the Minnesota Vikings back in September.  In that game, Johnson also admitted to suffering a concussion that he played through. According to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Johnson's nerve problems have subsided, but he is still dealing with a lingering knee problem that kept him out of practice this week.  Johnson also missed practice all of last week. Johnson has seen his production dip this season after an incredible year last year.  The reason is likely related to the hits he took in that Vikings game.  So far this year, Johnson has 767 yards receiving and just one touchdown.  In 2011, Johnson has 1,681 yards receiving and 16 touchdowns - both career highs.  He is still a force that causes opposing teams to scheme differently on defense, but his production dip seems to correspond with the Lions lack of success this year. Detroit is 4-4 after back-to-back wins that got them back to .500, but they would love to have Johnson back to 100%.  He and Matthew Stafford are the two most important players on the offense for Detroit. Johnson has managed to play in all of the team's games but once again, he is listed as questionable this week against the Minnesota Vikings. Follow @TheNFLInjuryRpt !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="http://www.thenflinjuryreport.com//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-34100676-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();