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    • Aidan Hutchinson’s injury casts dark clouds over Lions after victory
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    Aidan Hutchinson’s injury casts dark clouds over Lions after victory

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    ARLINGTON, Texas – One minute they were blasting the Dallas Cowboys all over Jerry World’s lawn. They were winning in the trenches, on the edges and in the belly.

    It was, as they say in Texas, an old-fashioned ass-whupping.

    The next moment, the Detroit Lions knelt in respect.

    Sunday’s 47-9 loss at AT&T Stadium was interrupted by a football reality check more than 10 minutes into the third quarter as Detroit’s spectacular defenseman Aidan Hutchinson lay in misery. Hutchinson entered the game as the NFL leader with 6 ½ sacks. He left on a cart with his left leg in an air cushion.

    Hutchinson suffered a broken tibia and was scheduled to undergo immediate surgery. It is believed the fracture occurred in his lower leg.

    “It was tough,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “Obviously he’s going to be down for a while.”

    The “heartbeat of this team” is what running back David Montgomery Hutchinson called. That certainly speaks to his courage, skill, passion and leadership.

    Yet Hutchinson, a third-year vet, is also a reminder of how fortunes on a football field can change in an instant. Each play can be the last play of a match, season or even a career. Football is so tough, and every participant signs up for it.

    The sport also has a way of dishing out perspective. The Lions (4-1) won and, to some extent, lost. While Campbell called the 38-point victory the most complete game of his tenure — the Lions racked up 492 yards, never punted, forced five turnovers and didn’t give up a touchdown — his team suddenly had to deal with the loss of perhaps its best. player.

    This had to come quickly. But it’s part of football. At one point, as doctors and athletic trainers treated Hutchinson, concern became apparent about the silence that fell over a crowd of 93,644 that roared for much of the afternoon. Players from both teams got down on one knee. Campbell hurried to where Hutchinson lay. The entire Lions bench emptied, joining teammates who gathered around Hutchinson. As the cart moved toward center field, it was clear that it would not run away, even with help.

    “Those are tough moments,” said Campbell, who played 11 seasons in the NFL as a tight end. “It’s difficult for everyone. When you’re standing there and that’s one of you when something like that happens… Our guys did a good job, our coaches, of getting them focused again.”

    Reorient. That may seem a bit cruel. A comrade is taken away, and now you’re tasked with strapping him back in for football as usual, with violent clashes and tug-of-war over a blade of grass.

    Yet it is not cruel. As the Lions have reminded us, the ability to manage the emotions brought on by Hutchinson’s setback and then focus on the heat of the moment is a matter of survival. It brings with it the obligation to be a professional, albeit with an undeniable human element.

    No, they’re not robots.

    “It’s tough,” Lions defensive tackle DJ Reader said. “Especially for someone who has been there before. Not necessarily that injury, but you lay on your back with your eyes looking at the ceiling. You get a little emotional because you know what it takes. You don’t know what kind of fight awaits you.

    “But I know as a team, (shoots), it’s been our whole life. Like we can go practice and people get hurt. It happens in games. So it’s one of those things where you can click again. I think there’s a time to be human during the game. So we understand how to be human, then process it and get back to what we need to do.

    Campbell knows. It was vital for the Lions to remain aggressive after Hutchinson was taken away. That’s a cold, hard football mentality.

    “You dwell on that too much, you start to get a little timid, and that’s when you get hurt,” Campbell said. “So our guys came right back in.”

    Now they will be challenged to come to terms with the lengthy loss of Hutchinson. After advancing to the NFC title game last season, Detroit is certainly equipped to make another legitimate run at the franchise’s first Super Bowl berth. The mission has undoubtedly become much more difficult, but it is not impossible.

    “It’s an unfortunate loss for us, a big blow for us,” said Montgomery, who rushed for 80 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday. “It’s more personal for us now.”

    Reader added: “You don’t really replace a player like that. You just hope other guys take it a step further.”

    Notably, Hutchinson was injured on a big play when he sacked Dak Prescott for a six-yard loss. It wasn’t a particularly violent play that took him out. His leg appeared to collide with that of linemate Alim McNeill as Hutchinson pulled Prescott down with him as he fell awkwardly to the turf.

    Incidentally, Prescott suffered a similar injury in 2020, suffering a compound fracture to his right ankle.

    “That’s obviously hard to watch,” Prescott said, “after living through it and knowing where he is at that moment. I hated it. I hated every bit of it.”

    Prescott made a point to share some words of encouragement before Hutchinson was led away.

    “I just told him to keep his head up,” Prescott said.

    Thinking back to the moments after he suffered his own injury, Prescott isn’t even sure Hutchinson heard him.

    “When you’re in there, it’s blurry,” Prescott said.

    He’ll get Hutchinson’s phone number from one of the Cowboys’ Michigan guys and reach out again in due time with more encouragement. Prescott hasn’t forgotten how a particular book he received, “Relentless,” helped with his mindset during his recovery. So he plans to do the same with Hutchinson and may share the book.

    Prescott expects Hutchinson to bounce back, with the injury setback providing a new chapter in his journey.

    “The man he appears to be, without knowing him, will get better after this,” Prescott predicted. “I know it’s probably hard to imagine right now. I just told him, it’s part of his story.

    “A great player,” he added. “I mean, he did it going out on a sack. So a game changer.”

    For today’s Lions, that certainly cuts in more than one direction.

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