The Lions sat wide receiver Calvin Johnson out of Sunday’s game against the Vikings after watching Johnson play at considerably below 100 percent in the previous two weeks because of a high ankle sprain.
Their offense suffered from his absence, Matthew Stafford was held under 200 passing yards for the seventh time in his career on Sunday, but the defense overwhelmed Minnesota and the Lions went home with a 17-3 victory to improve to 4-2 on the season. It’s not clear yet if they’ll have to follow the same blueprint against New Orleans in Week Seven or if they’ll have Johnson back in the lineup before their Week Nine bye.
Coach Jim Caldwell said Monday that the team is still taking a “wait and see” approach to the receiver’s availability.
“I do not hold a medical degree. It may appear I do from time to time to you maybe, but I don’t,” Caldwell said, via ESPN.com. “The fact of the matter is I leave it up to the doctors. Those are the professionals. They know exactly what it takes. Them in conjunction with Calvin and how he feels, they treat not only symptoms of the situation but also the patient as well in terms of how he feels. So they’ll let us know what’s the best path to take.”
Johnson has to be accounted for whenever he’s on the field, but his decoy services are less valuable to the team than his ability to make big plays all over the field. Getting him healthy enough to do that again should be the top priority, even if it continues to put pressure on the defense to lead the way a little while longer.