Carlton Davis simply got the wind knocked out of him.
Davis left the Detroit Lions’ 26-20 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday on the second-to-last play of regulation after dropping an interception that might have kept the game from going to overtime at Ford Field.
Davis stayed hunched on the ground for about a minute and was tended to by trainers before walking off the field under his own power.
“Shoulda caught the ball,” Davis said after the game. “It hit my stomach and knocked the wind out of me.”
Ennis Rakestraw Jr. replaced him and played the final snap of regulation, when Aidan Hutchinson sacked Matthew Stafford, and the Lions won the overtime coin toss and scored a touchdown to end the game.
Davis would have been able to return had the Lions needed him on defense, and indicated he’ll be fine for next Sunday’s game against his old team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
An offseason trade acquisition, Davis made 10 tackles in his Lions debut but said he and the Lions’ new-look secondary need to be more opportunistic going forward. He dropped a would-be interception on an overthrown Stafford pass with 11 seconds to play. Had Davis held onto the ball, the Lions would have taken possession near midfield with one timeout.
Safety Brian Branch also dropped an interception, and the Lions allowed Stafford to complete 34 of 49 passes for 317 yards on a day he played behind a severely shorthanded offensive line, and lost Pro Bowl receiver Puka Nacua to injury.
“I thought we played good as a secondary for sure,” Davis said. “Like I said, we want to be perfect, we want to be the best in the league so we’ve got to be better and be more opportunistic, especially with the ball. We just had too many dropped picks. But overall we kept the score down, 20, we just got to get better, work on the little things. First game out, we’re still building on chemistry in the back end but it’s coming together.”
Jahmyr Gibbs stumbled as he ran open in the Rams’ secondary with just over a minute to play, causing Jared Goff to sail a would-be touchdown over his head. Amon-Ra St. Brown slipped on an in-breaking route later in the same drive, and Kalif Raymond lost his footing on a third-down incompletion before the Lions settled for the game-tying field goal.
Lions running back David Montgomery said he slipped on multiple occasions Sunday, but said it wasn’t an issue with the Ford Field turf.
“I definitely was slipping,” he said. “Got to get my feet under me, play more on my toes. That can’t be an excuse to why I slip. I just got to be sure I get my feet under me and I’ll do that.”
Wide receiver Jameson Williams said he thought some of the issue was the Lions playing on turf for one of the first times this preseason.
“I wouldn’t say it was slippery,” he said. “But it’s first game being on turf for a lot of us. Some of us didn’t play in the preseason so we just like getting back to the turf feel. We practice on grass a lot so that may be a thing. I’m not really sure about the turf. I think it was OK. I don’t really know. I didn’t slip.”
