David Montgomery Got Hot in OT, Like 'Watching Steph' Curry

Lions running backs coach praises David Montgomery.

Detroit Lions running back David Montgomery (5) / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK

Detroit Lions running back David Montgomery is likely not going to be overlooked by NFL fand and pundits for far too much longer.

Even though the talented running back secured 13 touchdowns last season, a bulk of attention has been given to his teammate, Jahmyr Gibbs, due to the explosive potential of the former first round draft pick.

In Detroit's season opener, both were given their fair share of touches, but Montgomery secured the bulk of carries in overtime.

“There’s some ebb and flow to it. There’s some feel to it, right? But at the same time, there’s also this whole process that we need to make sure both of them are getting touches," running backs coach Scottie Montgomery said, when asked about how the team decides to allocates touches for their dynamic duo at running back. "A lot of it, you can kind of look at it from the standpoint of if someone gets hot, in a game, like a basketball player if he gets hot, you’re rarely gonna see somebody sub in there and get him out of there."

Montgomery, who doubles as assistant head coach, noted that watching the veteran running back in overtime was like watching Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors heat up, seemingly having everything go right for him at crunch time.

"If someone gets hot, especially with me, I’ve got so much respect for those guys, we’ll leave the hot guy in," said Montgomery. "At the end of that game, David was hot, it was like watching Steph (Curry). He was on fire, so we mixed him just a little bit just to make sure Jah got some perimeter touches and some interior run touches, which was good for us. And then just the scheme of what we were doing there really showed up in that last drive.”  

Montgomery's physical running style helped him total 91 yards on 17 carries in Sunday's win. The former Chicago Bear inked a three-year deal with the Lions last season as a free agent and has proven to be an ideal compliment for Gibbs in Detroit's multi-faceted rushing attack.

He earned an 86.6 overall Pro Football Focus offensive grade for his showing.

"He is a guy that has had to overcome several things in his life," Montgomery stated. "He’s been told he wasn’t good enough, he’s been told that he wasn’t big enough and this was all before he got out of high school. So when you continue to hear some of those things or you’ve been in situations where you haven’t been able to capitalize, even though things haven’t always gone your way, you get to a place where you can have some success, you want to make sure it’s not you (as) the reason you’re not having it. So that’s why you see the edge, as we call it."