We still don’t have a firm update on Aidan Hutchinson after he suffered an injury celebrating a first-down sack in the Detroit Lions’ Week 10 win over the New England Patriots. However, Lions coach Dan Campbell was asked several questions about the situation, even though he didn’t provide an exactly diagnosis.
What’s the latest update on Aidan Huthcinson?
Hutchinson was initially listed as questionable with a knee injury, then downgraded to out in the second half. Campbell would not offer up any additional information.
“Nothing new. We’ll know
more when we get back in the States,” Campbell said. “But anytime you lose a player of his caliber, the type of teammate that he is, he’s a captain of ours, that doesn’t make things easy. But I thought guys stepped up in his wake and showed up for us today and helped us out.”
Does Hutchinson’s injury put a damper on the win over the Patriots?
Campbell:
“Anytime you lose a player like that and you don’t know the entirety of it–but knowing Hutch for who he is. It’s like he doesn’t stay down long. It does, it hurts a little bit, but as far as this game was concerned our guys stepped up and finished. We stayed strong. This is the second time this has happened—our guys have responded in a tough situation and didn’t bat an eye. Just went back to work, and that’s not easy to do. But, no, certainly you don’t want to know that a player like that is down.”
What kind of depth do the Lions have?
Detroit managed to create four more sacks on the day after Hutchinson’s injury—two by rookie Derrick Moore, one from Alim McNeill, and one from DJ Wonnum. Campbell expressed confidence in the Lions’ group of pass rushers, regardless of what Hutchinson’s ultimate diagnosis is.
“We like ‘em,” Campbell said. “That’s why we applied them where we did. And I know this, Derrick Moore gets better every game. The more reps he gets, he gets better. It was good to get Wonnum back today. We know what Mac [McNeill] is, Sky(ler Gill-Howard). So can Tyleik (Williams). And all those guys, even Levi (Onwuzurike), (Tyler) Lacy, they play a different flavor, but they push the pocket, they got movement. But I think the important thing is, man, we knew we had to do to get out of this game with a win. We had to play really good defense.
“And I really thought the back end played outstanding. We played some stick coverage today […] We’re improving. We gotta go. We gotta go. We’ll see where Hutch is at, but we’ve gotta step up now. We need some guys to really step up—and if that is the case (with a serious Hutchinson injury), fill that role.”
