ALLEN PARK – The scar down his entire left forearm won’t be going away anytime soon.
But Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone says he’s feeling better after a much-needed week off to rest his still-healing broken forearm. Now, he’s ready to lead the Lions defense into the playoffs beginning with a divisional round game against Washington on Saturday night at Ford Field.
“A little better,” Anzalone said of his forearm on Wednesday after Detroit’s practice.” Last week was a struggle bus, but hopefully I’ve turned the corner a little bit in that regard. I definitely needed it.”
Anzalone suffered the injury in the Lions’ Week 11 game against the Jaguars, robbing the Lions of their defensive captain in the stretch run of the season.
He returned from a six-game absence to play in the Lions’ season-ending 31-9 win over Minnesota on Jan. 5.
That win earned Detroit a first-round playoff bye as the top seed in the NFC. Anzalone, who admitted to plenty of soreness while playing all but one defensive snap with the still-healing forearm may have needed that week off as much as anyone.
“You just kind of have to fight through the pain a little bit, and a little Tylenol helps too,” Anzalone said.
The Lions’ defense struggled at times down the stretch due to injuries to Anzalone and a host of other starters, including Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Malcolm Rodriguez and Derrick Barnes. But shined in its finale and Anzalone’s return, holding a 14-win Vikings team out of the end zone.
Now, the Commanders will bring a new type of challenge, particularly from the quarterback position. Jayden Daniels is the frontrunner to be the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year after throwing for more than 3,500 yards and rushing for nearly 900 in leading Washington to a 12-5 regular season record, then a wild card round win over Tampa Bay.
Anzalone said the Lions are looking to correct mistakes from the last time they played a mobile quarterback, Buffalo’s Josh Allen, who ran for 68 yards and two touchdowns at Ford Field in early December.
“You’ve got to look at those plays and see the plays that hurt us and correct them,” Anzalone, who didn’t play against the Bills, said. “At the end of the day you just have to be disciplined and sound in your zone read responsibilities. Unfortunately in that game we didn’t play too cleanly. Hopefully we can going into this game.”
Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn said the team’s defense will benefit from having a player back on the field who knows the game plan better than anybody.
“Any time your captain’s gone, you lose a little something, and obviously when he comes back you gain something,” Glenn said. “He understands me to a T, he understands how I’m going to call the game, he studies the game plan just as well as anybody, and if something goes down with my mic, he knows exactly what AG’s going to call, and he does a good job with that, and we have so much conversation on, ‘How do I see it?’ That he understands how I’m going to call the game.”
