Detroit was a wounded team heading into Sunday's 35-27 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, and they left with more injuries they'll have to deal with throughout the week.
Safety Tracy Walker, fullback Nick Bawden, kick returner Jamal Agnew, center Frank Ragnow and defensive end Trey Flowers all left the game with injuries and did not return. Lions head coach Matt Patricia confirmed after the game that Ragnow and Flowers were being evaluated for concussions.
Walker missed the last two games with a knee injury, and it was a knee issue that caused him to leave Sunday's game and not return.
"We had done a couple of things with him through the course of the week and just really saw everything looked normal," Patricia said of Walker being active after missing practice Wednesday and Thursday, but returning Friday in limited fashion and then being active Sunday.
"Everything looked fine from the physical standpoint. (We) had a couple of packages that we thought it would be good for him to be in and not really be in a situation where it would be high-risk from that standpoint. Certainly, then obviously in the game (he) just kind of felt a little bit of something. So, we just thought it was better to be a little bit safer there. I don't think it was a re-injury, but it was just all kind of symptomatic."
PENALTIES
For a second consecutive week, Patricia addressed penalties as being a big disappointment for him in his opening statement to the media following the game.
"I think the biggest thing for us right now that I'm continually talking about is the penalties and the penalty situation and just continues to hurt us," he said. "So, put ourselves in some really tough situations by committing some of those penalties.
"Some of them, I know we can clean up. Some of them are just concentration penalties that we have to do a better job of and some of them obviously is when our technique fails, and we get outside the things that we're supposed to do. So, we have to get that cleaned up."
Detroit finished the game with 11 penalties for 89 yards.
KICKOFF AT 35
There was no play Sunday that better summed up Detroit's penalty problems of late than Dallas having a kickoff from the Detroit 35-yard line following a second-quarter touchdown.
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott hit wide receiver Randall Cobb on a 19-yard touchdown pass that Lions safety Will Harris was flagged 15 yards on for initiated contact to Cobb's helmet. The 15 yards were enforced on the ensuing kickoff.
Then, on the extra point try, Lions defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. That's another 15 yards enforced on the kickoff. It resulted in Dallas kicking off from the Lions' 35-yard line and attempting an onside kick.
Lions wide receiver Kenny Golladay recovered the kick at the Detroit 15-yard line where the offense then had to start the drive.
EXTRA POINT
- Marvin Jones Jr. now has eight receiving touchdowns through Week 11, tied with Golladay for the most in the NFL. They're the first Lions receivers through the first 10 games of a season to have eight touchdowns apiece since 1963 (Terry Barr and Gail Cogdill).
