The Detroit Lions were forced to play most of a Week 7 loss to the Dallas Cowboys without top wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.
The second-year wideout from USC suffered a head injury and was ruled out in the first quarter of Detroit’s 24-6 loss. Head coach Dan Campbell said St. Brown remains in the NFL’s concussion protocol but should be cleared by the time Detroit takes on Miami Sunday.
“He’s in the protocol just to go through the process of it,” Campbell said. “But I would anticipate us having him this weekend.”
The head coach clarified that St. Brown did not suffer a concussion in the loss to the Cowboys. Under new NFL rules, players can be ruled out of games if they show signs of concussion-related symptoms.
“My understanding is, you know he looked a little disoriented, certainly, and go to the tent and you’re gonna go through the whole process of clearing him,” Campbell remarked. “In the meantime, they look at the video. So when they see the video, plus what they saw there, it’s automatically, ‘You’re out.’”
Campbell later said St. Brown passed his checks but was ruled out by the officials.
"He had passed everything," Campbell noted.
The injury occurred on St. Brown’s only catch of the afternoon, which went for four yards. In his absence, Kalif Raymond led the team in receiving with 75 yards on five catches.
Unsettled offense leads to struggles
After leading the league in scoring through four games, the Lions’ offense has struggled to produce in their last two games.
In Week 5, Detroit was shut out by New England. The bye week gave the unit a chance to reset, but it could only produce two field goals in the loss to Dallas.
Quarterback Jared Goff has sputtered since a strong opening to the season, throwing no touchdowns and three interceptions while losing three fumbles over the last two outings.
Against Dallas, Goff committed four second half turnovers, three of which came on consecutive drives in the fourth quarter. Two led to Dallas touchdowns, which turned a 10-6 deficit into the final three-score margin.
When asked what’s changed about the offense, Campbell said the rash of injuries and uncertainty about availability are two top causes for the regression.
“I think there’s a number of things to that,” Campbell said. “Certainly the injury at the receiver position has done a little bit to that. I think not having Swift has hurt a little bit because you lose a little bit of explosiveness in the run game. And then, it took us a minute to figure out our O-line. Just with, Skip came in for a game and then we got Evan Brown. I think there’s just a combination of things that have maybe been a little unsettled, unsettling. On top of that, there’s a number of these guys that we’re going into games with that aren’t even practice because that’s kind of where we’re at. We have to have them to play the game and to do that, we can’t practice them to feel like we can get them to the game and that’s hard, but that’s the task we’re given right now.”
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