Kalif Raymond took that ball and headed down the sidelines, then cut diagonally into overdrive and left everyone behind.
Sometimes it’s your quarterback, sometimes it’s your All-Pro running back, sometimes it’s your sack specialist, and once in a while, when you really need it, it’s your punt returner, the guy you take for granted on all those fair catches and balls over his head and 3-yard dives into a pile of bodies.
Until you really need him.
And then he’s your life raft.
Here was a game mired in the mud, the Super Bowl-hopeful Lions hosting the ever-struggling Cleveland Browns, and in the fourth quarter it was still too close for comfort, just a 20-10 lead, and the Lions had thrown an interception and dropped long passes and drawn too many penalties and lost some key guys to injuries.
It just felt like they were swimming in goo, letting the Browns hang around, perhaps dangerously. After all, the week before, Cleveland had scored all its points in the fourth quarter to stun Green Bay, 13-10.
And then a Browns punt landed in the hands of Kalif Raymond, a guy who played college ball with the Holy Cross Crusaders, an undrafted speedster who, at 31, has been signed and released so many times by so many teams, he should come with his own realtor. He took that ball and headed down the sidelines, then cut diagonally into overdrive and left everyone behind.
He raced into the end zone, 65 yards, touchdown, and the crowd at Ford Field breathed normally again.
Once they stopped screaming.
Everybody Loves Raymond.
“It’s just a blessing to be out there man,” he said on the field, smiling after the eventual 34-10 win that his punt return shook loose. “We got so many weapons on this team, man, when you have a ball come your way, you better make the most of it.”
Mission accomplished.
Detroit Lions find new outlet
Now let’s be honest. One of the problems for a team with Super Bowl aspirations is that games against weak teams don’t offer you much. At best, you beat a squad everyone expects you to beat. At worst, you lose and everyone squawks about the upset.
And then there’s the in-between, which is what the Lions got Sunday at Ford Field. Yes, they beat the Browns, handily, in the end, as they were expected to. And they had some nice plays, like an 8-yard Jahmyr Gibbs wiggle for a touchdown, and a diving interception by D.J. Reed, and a quick hit to Amon-Ra St. Brown for a score − and of course, the 65-yard Raymond return.
But they also struggled with things that usually come easy, and much of the game felt as if it were being played uphill. Rushing the football was tough, especially up the middle. David Montgomery’s first six tries got him 6 yards. There were too many untimely penalties. Potential interceptions were dropped by the defense.
And Jared Goff had one nice connection with Jameson Williams followed by seven straight misses, including some bad drops and an ugly interception.
Then Reed went down with a hamstring injury and Terrion Arnold left with a shoulder injury, meaning the Detroit cornerback room just moved into the flashing red light district. And all these things led to a level of concern that you don’t really want when playing at home against a decided underdog.
Raymond cracked that open, and the Lions added another scoring drive after that.
“Man, I don’t know if I can say enough great things about Leaf,” Campbell said. “He’s such a stud. ... He was fearless the whole game. ...
“The guy just said, ‘Ok, you want (a touchdown return), I’ll give you one.'”
They’ll take it.
Lions, Browns were both right
Know this about the Browns, they may not excite a lot of people (outside of Myles Garrett, their most talked about player is probably their third string quarterback, Shedeur Sanders) but they do play a tough defense. They came into Ford Field allowing just 204 yards per game in total offense. That’s stingy. And they were to rushing attacks what a fallen tree is to a stream. Hard to get through.
There was even a small war of words during the week, with Lions offensive coordinator John Morton saying Cleveland had "not seen a run game like ours yet" and Garrett countering that the Lions had “not seen a defense like ours yet.”
Well, they saw each other. And they were both kind of right. The Browns bottled up many of the Lions attempts and definitely thwarted the power game of Montgomery. But the speed game of Gibbs proved too much. He finished with 91 yards, a touchdown, and a couple of big-burst runs. And remember, this was against a browns defense that had held Baltimore’s Derrick Henry to 23 yards and Green Bay’s Josh Jacobs to 30.
These are important games, if not thrilling ones. The road to greatness starts with wining the games you’re supposed to win, then going after the rest. Forget that and you head backwards. To be fair, this game should have come with a stumble warning. The Lions were playing the early Sunday slot after a short week, a marquee road win Monday night, against the mighty Ravens. They came up big that game. They came home happy, feeling chuffed. The risk is, the Browns might be seen as less of a challenge, and at home, and no matter how you’re supposed to take every team as seriously as the next, human nature is human nature. It can make you come out slow.
Which the Lions did. They exited quickly on their first drive, then saw Flacco lead the Browns 88 yards, completing all five of his passes, and the Browns punched in a fourth-down run for a 7-0 lead. You almost wanted to yell “WAKE UP!” And for all we know, maybe Campbell, in his way, did that.
But better teams should win in the end and the Lions did and they should be complimented.
“We can be so much better,” Goff said. Then again, as Campbell warned, “In the grand scheme of things, you should be careful grading wins.”
They’re both right. The Lions are 3-1 after the first (sort of) quarter of the season, with a game against Cincinnati (minus Joe Burrow?) on the road next week before a big road game against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
So winning the expected is critical. Sometimes it’s your quarterback who insures that, sometimes your running back, your sack specialist, heck, even your kicker.
And sometimes it’s the guy that everyone on the team loves, the gamer who keeps hanging around, who never lets a pink slip bother him. When he bails you out, you smile a little broader. The Lions had that look after Sunday.
“He’s amazing,” Goff said. “He’s one of those heartbeat guys for us.”
The heart is beating better right now.
Everybody loves Raymond.
Contact Mitch Albom: [email protected]. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom on x.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Albom: Kalif Raymond was just what Lions needed to avoid trap game
Category: General Sports
