3 Detroit Lions game balls for Week 9 vs. the Packers

2. LB Derrick Barnes

Before Sunday Barnes had a limited role for the Lions, never playing 25 defensive snaps in a game and playing less than 20 in each of the previous three games. But with Malcolm Rodriguez going down early due to what looked to be an arm injury, opportunity knocked for the second-year man and he answered the door.

Barnes played 50 defensive snaps against Green Bay, with a team (and career) high 12 tackles and one sack as be appeared to be everywhere at times. Highlights, apart from the sack of Aaron Rodgers, included a goal line stuff and a lucky deflection off his helmet that Kerby Joseph intercepted in the end zone.

Barnes got a solid 76.1 grade from Pro Football Focus for his work on Sunday (fourth-best among Lions’ defenders), and head coach Dan Campbell mentioned him by name after the game.

"And Barnes, every week, has improved. Every week he’s improved,” Campbell said. “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"

Finding room for Barnes to play with Rodriguez healthy is surely a problem the Lions would welcome having. But in the here and now, he the Purdue product gets a Week 9 game ball from us