Three times during the Detroit Lions’ 16-9 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, Nov. 16, punt returner Kalif Raymond caught the ball with barely any room to run.

He got 4 yards on one of those returns. On another, he wound up with negative yardage. In total, he picked up 3 yards on his three attempts, an average of 1 yard per return, while also calling for fair catches on two other punts.

It likely had many Lions fans asking: Why not more fair catches?

Turns out, there are a lot of reasons.

Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp acknowledged Thursday that fans might rather see a fair catch in those instances, but he still favors a return.

“Because he returned it and got 1 yard … that was a yard better than fair-catching. Or he got 5 yards on one, that’s 5 yards better than fair-catching,” Fipp said. “We’re fighting for every blade of grass, and so if we get 5 yards, that’s better than taking a fair catch.”

Raymond echoed Fipp’s idea, but also had a couple more reasons for trying to run it back without much room.

“For one, I trust my guys, so I’m going to take every opportunity that I can,” he said. “You miss 100% of the pitches that you don’t swing at, and I trust my guys to know that I’m going to swing at every one, because I know [they] are working.”

Raymond also said he’s willing to take the hits that come with that aggressiveness.

“I’m willing to sacrifice the possibility of getting hit than just to fair-catch it and nullify the work they put in, the 40 yards they ran down the field,” he said.

Raymond’s aggressiveness exemplifies a lot of Detroit’s organizational philosophies, specifically the willingness to fight for every yard and the trust in his teammates to put their bodies on the line for the team’s success.

So even when 1-yard returns don’t look so good on the stat sheet, Raymond is confident that he’s making the right plays.

“If I can make this one guy miss – which I haven’t been doing all the time – but if I can, there’s another 10 guys blocking for me,” he said.

That line of thinking showed up in Week 4. Against the Cleveland Browns, Raymond lined up for six punt returns, calling a fair catch on one and returning the other five. Four of those returns didn’t yield much yardage, but one did –Raymond broke one for a 65-yard touchdown that gave the Lions a 26-10 lead, putting the game away for good.

Raymond said teams have been playing the Lions punt-return unit differently since that touchdown – though he didn’t want to reveal specifically how.

But even though teams appear to have schemes against the Lions, Raymond doesn’t plan on doing much differently.

“At the end of the day, those 10 guys are still blocking, and I’m still going to be aggressive. And hopefully one of these games, one of these one-or-two-yard returns [turns into] that 70-yard touchdown,” he said.