5 big winners (and one obvious big loser) from Detroit Lions Week 10 win over the Los Angeles Chargers
Winner: WR Amon-Ra St. Brown
St. Brown came back home to Southern California, and set a career-high with 156 yards on eight catches as he repeatedly came up with big plays. He also had a very nice touchdown catch where he plucked a low pass and took it in.
Campbell praised St. Brown after the game, saying (in so many words) that there's no one in the league quite like him. St. Brown fittingly got one of two game balls in the postgame locker room, as a nod to his performance and his homecoming to SoCal.
Winner: Jahmyr Gibbs/David Montgomery
Counting the Lions running backs together yet separately here (one blurb, two winners). Gibbs was leaned on as the lead back, playing 58 snaps to Montgomery's 38 due a lot to the pace of the game, while averaging 5.5 yards per carry with 112 total yards and two short rushing scores.
Montgomery's yardage (116) was inflated by his 75-yard touchdown run, but on his other 11 totes he averaged a respectable 3.7 yards per carry. This was just not his style of game overall. But the Lions now know what having both of their top running backs healthy and fully acclimated for a game looks like. And it looks mighty good.
Winner: Dan Campbell
The Lions head coach has at times straddled the line of smart and unfocused/not smart with his fourth down aggressiveness. But the unabashed faith he has in his players is now marrying nicely with his feel for situations and game flow. Going for it five times on Sunday paid off with four conversions to allow the offense to keep the ball, and thus also keep a defense that had no answers for the Chargers' offense off the field.
Campbell has become more than a cliche' that some may still want to lean into as he offers up memorable quotes and speaks a certain way. He is sheerly a good football coach, and the world is realizing it.