The Detroit Lions went on the road and easily took down division rival Green Bay Packers on Sunday, but they did lose safety Brian Branch during the game. Branch was ejected from the game because of a late hit, and on his way out, he flipped off the Green Bay crowd with both fingers.
Emotions were obviously running high on Sunday as that was a huge game and Brian Branch is one of the most important players on this Lions team. He was upset about the call, and he got carried away. He apologized on Tuesday when speaking to reporters.
“That’s not something I wanted to show or want people to notice me as that,” Branch said, according to an article from ESPN. “That was just the heat of the moment for me, and I apologize to everyone who seen that and that won’t happen again.”
Branch obviously didn’t agree with the call when he was ejected from the game, but after looking at it more closely, he noted that he does agree with it and he has to change his target area.
“I most definitely agree with the call,” Branch said. “My target was obviously high, but that was never my intentions to aim for the head. Moving forward I do have to move my target down.”
The Lions will have Brian Branch and Jameson Williams this weekend
Brian Branch will be back on Sunday when the Lions play the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football, and they will also be getting wide receiver Jameson Williams back. Williams has been out for the past two games after being suspended for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing substances policy.
“He’s been here,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said. “So, he couldn’t be out there in practice, but he was here training, we had him running, he’s in the meetings … all of that,” Campbell said on Monday. “So, he’s been here and honestly, throwing him back in there. I mean, he’s going. Let’s go. So, we’re gonna kick him out there with the offense and get him going. I expect him to be ready to roll.”
Jameson Williams has received a lot of support from his head coach, and he talked about how much that means to him.
“It means a lot,” Williams said. “That’s my head coach and I’ve been through a lot playing under him and we’ve bumped heads in certain situations, but now I see that he has faith in me, and he understands what happened so it’s big to me with him having faith in me and being along with me in those situations.”
After Branch went down against the Packers, that just added another important player that the Lions were missing. They still went on to win the game 24-14, and they had a big lead for the entire second half. Detroit will have those two key guys back against the Texans.
The Lions and Texans will kick off at 8:20 ET/7:20 CT on Sunday night from NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, and the game will be airing on NBC. Detroit is currently favored by four points.
