Competitors Taylor Decker, David Montgomery Aiming for Primetime Return
Two key members of the Detroit Lions' offense are strongly eyeing a return against the Green Bay Packers.
Taylor Decker revealed to reporters he suffered a high-ankle sprain, with a bone bruise, in the opener against the Chiefs.
He believes he suffered the injury on the 19th offensive play of the game. Despite the injury, the veteran was able to play all 70 snaps in a nationally-televised game.
"It sucks when you're not out there, when your friends are out there. Especially this past week, (when) we got a win," Decker said. "But, the week before, you're at home watching, watching your team and they lose and you're like, 'S**t, if I could have been there, I could help.' Basically the medical staff is making the best decision for the entire season. I mean, it was a pretty good high ankle (sprain), with a bone bruise. They said usually, you can finish the game on those and then the next day, it just blows up, which it did. Walking boot for a little while, and try to turn it around as quick as I can. So, it's probably just gonna f*****g hurt."
If he is able to return this week, Decker is going to still have to fight through a certain level of pain.
"It's going to hurt," Decker said. "But, as long as I can be functional, I can deal with the pain. I've done that plenty of times before. I'm confident I can go out there and help us win. So, it'll just be fun being back out there with everybody.
"Big thing is just the days leading up to the game. Just make sure it's feeling as good as it can and then, you know, just go out there and you're going to have the adrenaline pumping. And, I'm sure it'll feel even better than it did today."
David Montgomery, who is nursing a thigh bruise, expressed he is taking it day-by-day. However, similar to Decker, if the decision were up to him this week, he would suit up and play.
Playing against the Packers, which the Bears, Montgomery's former team, notoriously struggled against, and having the potential to secure a victory means a lot to the veteran running back.
Montgomery expressed, "I think if anybody who is a competitor, they would say that they want to go out and play. So, that's where I'm at. Like I said, just taking it day by day."
Despite telling reporters he is not an optimistic type of person, his competitiveness fuels him to play and to correct even minor mistakes, which highly frustrate him.
"I'm a competitor," said Montgomery. "I want to play, whether it is Green Bay or, you know, it's high school. I just want to play ball. I want to go out and play with my guys. With what they sacrifice, is the thing that I've sacrificed, as well. So, I definitely want to go out there and play ball."
Quick turnaround to prepare for the Packers
The Lions do not have much time to review what occurred against the Falcons.
With a game approaching quickly on Thursday, Dan Campbell and the coaching staff must quickly turn around and focus their attention on the 2-1 Green Bay Packers.
"There were a couple of things we needed to clean up from yesterday, so you just hit that quickly. But, pretty much immediately, I told the staff we weren’t going to – let’s not spend time on Atlanta," said Campbell. "We’ve got too much to do with game-planning everything. Doesn’t mean that -- inevitably, you’re going to watch it, all the coaches watch it as fast as they can. But then their focus goes to Green Bay, so we turned it really quick.”
