DETROIT — It was late. He was tired. He had a child to put to bed. For a lot of reasons, David Montgomery hates working overtime.

He played like that too and ended the Los Angeles Rams.

The Detroit Lions running back left tire tracks for the Rams in overtime Sunday night, rushing five times for 46 yards and slamming into the end zone for a touchdown that provided the final blow in a 26-20 opening night victory at Ford Field. He finished with 91 yards on 17 carries.

“I’ll be honest with you, I hate overtime,” Montgomery said a few minutes later. “It’s a late game, I want to see my son. But we’re here, Coach (Dan) Campbell always says, when your number is called, and when you get an opportunity, you’ve got to take advantage when it’s called. I made sure that when I got the opportunity, I was going to take full advantage of it.”

During his year-plus in Detroit, Montgomery took full advantage of his opportunities. He was a very good player during his years in Chicago, and then immediately rushed for a career-high 4.6 yards per carry in his first season in Detroit. Despite all the fuss about Jahmyr Gibbs’ breakout rookie season, it was Montgomery who led the Lions’ powerful running game with 1,015 rushing yards.

But what makes Montgomery so great goes far beyond the box score. He’s a physical tone-setter early in a game and has a special talent for closing games late in the game. When Jake Bates sent the season opener to overtime and Jared Goff won the ensuing coin toss, there was no question where the Lions would go with the ball.

“Just give it to D-Mo, man,” Goff said. “He’s a battering ram. Just give it to him, and he did the rest, and it was fun. It was fun to see him — kind of get a second wind in that overtime, and our O-line the same way. I joked with him when we called the play on the 1-yard line, it was like, ‘This is a score.’ There was no doubt — and he slammed it in. It was awesome.”

After opening overtime with an end-around to Kalif Raymond, the Lions called Montgomery’s name five times on the final seven plays of the night. The first touch was the best of them all, bouncing off a defender for a 21-yard carry that gave Detroit the ball near midfield.

The next snap, the Lions ran the same play to the other side of the field. There was no mystery what they were doing, where they were going, or who was getting the ball. They were essentially daring L.A. to stop Montgomery.

Montgomery then drove the ball another 9 yards against three defenders.

After Jahmyr Gibbs had a few touches on the ball, Montgomery controlled the final three plays of the night, dragging the Rams players 6 and 8 yards, then charging into the end zone at the goal line after a pancake block by Frank Ragnow for the winning goal.

That’s seven running plays in eight overtime periods, five of which went to Montgomery for 46 yards, and one of which ended the night without Matthew Stafford ever touching the ball again.

No razzle-dazzle. Just plain old grit, all the way to victory.

“Nothing against them, I was in the mode,” Montgomery said. “I was already stuck at that point where I felt like I had to prove myself. So (it felt good) to be able to go out there and close it out.”

And that’s David Montgomery, one of the best closers in the league.

“He runs heavy,” Campbell said. “He’s tough, he’s physical and I think he’s a catalyst for us. He’s starting to wear it and he’s getting better and better and I think the line feeds off of him and he feeds off of them. The guy’s a stud.”

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