Detroit Lions cornerback Emmanuel Moseley left Sunday's game in the first quarter, and did not return with a knee injury.
For Moseley, it was his return to action, after a year spent recovering from a torn ACL suffered last season. Unfortunately for him, his day ended early in the first quarter, when he went to the turf while covering a route.
"We'll know more tomorrow," Campbell said. "On tape, the replay, it certainly didn't look good. But, we won't know a ton until we get the MRI tomorrow afternoon."
Without Moseley, the Lions kept Jerry Jacobs at the cornerback position. He responded with another interception, already his third of the season.
Gibbs was a late addition to the injury report, first popping up with a hamstring on Friday. He was downgraded from questionable to doubtful on Saturday, and wound up missing the game.
"Didn't feel like it was awful, but it was just enough to where we felt like we needed to sit him today," Campbell explained.
The Lions leaned on David Montgomery in Gibbs' absence, and he responded with his second consecutive 100-yard game. Craig Reynolds also scored his first career touchdown in the fourth quarter, and finished with 52 yards on seven carries.
Campbell admitted that having the depth at the position made it easier to sit Gibbs, based on the injury. With Montgomery and Reynolds shouldering the workload, it allowed the Lions to feel comfortable to allow more time for the injured rookie to recover.
"We're in a position to, if you don't feel good about a guy going, I'd rather have the healthy player," the third-year coach said. "Once again, the healthy player was Craig for us today. Craig did a heckuva job for us. It helps, it helps and to be able to know that you don't have the full roster at your disposal and you're trying to heal some of these guys up and you're still able to get a win, it's big."
Also of note, left guard Jonah Jackson left Ford Field with a walking boot.
It is unclear when the veteran offensive lineman suffered his foot injury.
"Always on the hunt'
Coming off a big win against the Green Bay Packers in Week 4, the Lions used a long week to prepare for the Panthers. Despite concerns about potentially starting slow after the extended break, they dominated wire-to-wire in a victorious effort.
Moving their record to 4-1, Detroit has staked its claim as a legitimate postseason contender. Still, Campbell continues to implore his team to remain in aggressive pursuit of their lofty goals set prior to the season.
"I think these guys are hungry," Campbell explained. "I just think they smell the wins, they enjoy winning like anybody would, but they also understand what it takes to win right now and what we're doing to win these games. From that standpoint, I think they want more, we want more. When you have that, you're always on the hunt."
Facing a winless team Sunday, the opportunity for a let-down was available.
Rather than do that, the Lions firmly took Sunday's game with a dominant effort on both sides of the ball. To their third-year coach, the Lions made a firm announcement about their ability to take control of the game regardless of opponents.
Still, their mindset remains on the future. As strong as both units looked, Campbell pointed out the small details that can make or break a team late in the season are still plaguing the team at times.
“Even the first series we had where we took it down and we scored, we had three MA’s on that and we’re fortunate that they didn’t bite us on that drive, but normally they will," Campbell said. "That’s just, for an example, as good as we played defensively, we got hit on some explosives that we don’t want to give up. You’re striving for perfection knowing you’ll never be perfect. I think that’s the name of the game here if you want to get to where you want to go. Look, we’re gonna play some really, really good teams as the season goes on. So we’re gonna have to be on it. We’re gonna play some really, really good teams as the season goes on and we’re gonna have to be on it. Every week, these games get more and more important as you close in on December and January. We’ve got to be playing our best ball by the time we get there. But we’re doing what we need to do right now to win games and that’s the important thing.”
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