If Jameson Williams is really that good, the Lions are going to be scary this year

If Jameson Williams is really that good, the Lions are going to be scary this year

DETROIT — Amon-Ra St. Brown had 13 yards. Sam LaPorta had 27 yards until the final seconds of the game. These guys were All-Pros last season, and the Los Angeles Rams sold everything against them. It worked.

It didn’t matter.

The Detroit Lions didn’t tackle well. They dropped two picks. They struggled against Matthew Stafford. They didn’t run the ball particularly well until overtime.

That still didn’t matter.

That’s the endless, tantalizing possibility of a superstar like Jameson Williams. And if he plays like he did Sunday night — converting six touches into 134 yards and one breathtaking touchdown — anything is possible for the Detroit Lions. Even a 26-20 overtime win over the mighty Los Angeles Rams on a night when Detroit wasn’t at its best in every other way.

That’s Jamo.

And on Sunday night he finally played the way he was supposed to.

“I plan on playing a lot more,” Williams said. “I don’t expect this to be the best match of my career. I’m just starting to be myself.”

A scary thought, isn’t it?

The Lions had already become an NFC elite thanks to an offense that ranked among the league’s five best the past two seasons. And they did it while getting very little out of the former 12th overall pick. He barely played as a rookie because of an ACL injury, catching just one of nine passes when he finally hit grass because he was so far behind. A year later, he was suspended for the start of the season, putting even more of a damper on his development in training camp — and then he missed most of training camp with injuries to one hamstring, then the other.

But Williams put together a solid practice when he finally returned to the field, warming up in the final stretch and then exploding with rushing and receiving touchdowns in the NFC championship game. That raised expectations for Year 3, and the Lions went all out. So much so that they didn’t even bother replacing Josh Reynolds in the lineup.

They gave Williams the No. 2 spot, and he repaid that trust with his best offseason yet as a pro, and then with his best game yet as a pro right from the start. He turned a short crosser into a 36-yard chunk on his first touch of the season for a go-ahead touchdown. Then he scored himself on a play the Lions knew would work.

They saw something on film that led them to believe that Rams cornerback Tre’Davious would bite White hard as Williams faked a hitch and then hit him on the deep route. That’s exactly what happened. White bit so hard that he had to grab Williams’ waist to slow him down, and pulled a flag in the process — and Williams had beaten him so hard that the speedster still managed to score a 52-yard touchdown.

“That little double play we had, we were ready for it all week,” quarterback Jared Goff said. “He kind of took the brunt of it, and put the ball in front of him, made a great catch. Some big plays by him all night. He did a great job.”

It’s true. Williams became the first receiver in franchise history to record at least 121 receiving yards and 13 rushing yards in a game, and was awarded a game ball for his efforts. The first game ball of his career at any level, if you can believe it. He carried that game ball with him to his postgame press conference — also a first in his NFL career — and hinted that he might actually sleep with it that night.

“It means a lot, you know?” Williams said. “I’ve put a lot of work into it, not just this year. It’s been continuous work since I’ve been in the league, and it’s just time to show it. It’s the first game, it’s just the beginning. We’ve got 16 more in the regular season, playoffs, we’ve got a lot more ball to play. It’s just the beginning.”

That’s the way it is in this city these days. The Lions are Super Bowl contenders, and no one is shying away from those expectations. Not even Calvin Johnson, who starred in a pregame video and uttered those words — “Super” and “Bowl” — in what may have been a first in Ford Field history.

Winning is always good in this league, and winning without being your best is usually a good sign that more winning is to come. Winning against one of the best teams in the conference on a night like this, well. This was just one of many victories to come this season. And the emergence of someone like Williams is one of the most promising signs yet that a Super Bowl is definitely within reach.

This offense will still flow through St. Brown, and LaPorta is too good not to get his own soon. The running game will also get going, as it did in a strong effort in overtime. But there’s little doubt the Lions would have seen OT if Jamo hadn’t finally become Jamo, keeping the offense afloat when nearly everything else was shut down.

As Jamo says, this was just one game. But if this is the Jamo we’re going to see this season, a good team is going to be scary as hell.

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