Lions’ Williams has request for fans at next game
Wide receiver wants crowd’s energy to stay high-pitched
Dave Birkett
The Detroit Lions won their first playoff game in 32 years last week, but Jameson Williams said fans have made it feel like the Lions already have won something bigger.
“I think the city is giving us a boost,” Williams said Thursday. “Like how excited everybody is in this city, how they making us feel, they making us feel like we done already won the Super Bowl just from winning one game for them.”
The Lions beat the Los Angeles Rams in their playoff opener last week, 24-23, to advance to the divisional round of the playoffs Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Lions need two more wins to reach the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl.
The winner of Sunday’s Lions-Bucs game plays the San Francisco 49ers-Green Bay Packers winner in the NFC championship game on Jan. 28.
Williams said he’s appreciative of Lions fans and the energy they brought to the stadium last week.
The Rams were forced to take two timeouts early in the second half to avoid delay-of-game penalties, leaving them just one when they were trying to stop the clock and get the ball back late in the game.
The second-year receiver said he was amazed by the support fans showed quarterback Jared Goff last week, too, as they chanted Goff ’s name at various points during the game.
“That was turnt,” Williams said. “Last year when I came back for the first game they were saying, ‘Jamo,’ but what they said to JG, they was doing that all game. They need to do that again this week. Do that again this week, for everybody. Everybody. Whoever gets the ball, I just need y’all to yell their name, whole name.”
Lions activate Houston from injured reserve; ‘I want to be out there’
James Houston is back and ready to help the Detroit Lions in the playoffs.
The Lions activated Houston off injured reserve Thursday, four months and one day after he fractured his fibula in a Week 2 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
Houston, who was nearing the end of his 21day practice window, was listed as a full participant on the Lions’ estimated practice report Wednesday, when the team held a walkthrough instead of a practice.
The Lions waived outside linebacker Julian Okwara to clear a spot for Houston’s return.
“I’m ready to get out there,” Houston told the Free Press on Wednesday. “It looks like it’s fun. They’re winning and the whole city is behind them, so I want to be out there.”
Houston’s return could help a Lions defense that has struggled to generate pressure with its four-man pass rush at times this season.
Aidan Hutchinson has seven sacks in the past three games, but he was the only Lions defensive player who had more than five sacks in the regular season.
Houston, a sixth-round pick in the 2022 draft, had eight sacks in seven games as a rookie after opening the season on practice squad. He is one of the Lions’ most gifted pass rushers, though Lions coach Dan Campbell said earlier this month he will face challenges playing his first game since Sept. 17 in the playoffs.
“That’s a lot to ask,” Campbell said before the Lions’ Week 18 game against the Minnesota Vikings. Whenever you’re coming off an injury, any player, it’s just a matter of how fast you can get your confidence back in your own abilities, your body. You’re rusty. It takes a minute to get used to what it is, cause it’s not going to feel like it did before, it just never does. So a lot of that will be just time on task, getting out there moving, running and see how far he can come.”
Houston said Wednesday he’s ready for the intensity of the playoffs and expects to contribute as a situational rusher upon his return.
“I hear people say playoff game’s more intense and stuff like that, but it’s a football game for me,” Houston said. “At the end of the day I’m going to go out there and I’m going to try to execute my job the same way I did when I played last year or this year.”
Injury update
Kalif Raymond did not practice Thursday because of the knee injury he suffered in the Lions’ Week 18 win over the Minnesota Vikings and could miss his second straight game Sunday.
Tight end Sam LaPorta was a limited participant in practice after being listed as a full participant on the Lions’ Wednesday practice report. LaPorta continues to practice with a large brace on his left knee.
Alex Anzalone (shoulder/ribs) was a full participant in practice and will play Sunday.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com . Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.