By Michael Stets
ALLEN PARK–The Lions placed Ameer Abdullah on injured reserve on Wednesday morning and will move forward with Theo Riddick as the team’s No.1 back heading into their week three game at Green Bay.
Abdullah suffered an injury to his foot in last Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans and will miss at least the next eight weeks now that he’s been placed on injured reserve. He had surgery on the injured foot on Wednesday morning. The earliest the second-year back would be able to return is the November 20 game against Jacksonville.
As per usual, Lions head coach Jim Caldwell remained cryptic when asked if an Abdullah return later on in the season was a possiblity, saying “We’ll see,” before offering somewhat of a glimmer of hope.
“I’m certainly not going to go into all the details, but he did have surgery and we’ll see what happens,” Caldwell said. “He’s always proven to be a pretty quick healer.”
After two weeks of play, Abdullah has 101 rushing yards on 18 carries and 5 receptions for 57 yards and one touchdown. Losing No.21 certainly hurts, but Caldwell, who always preaches “next man up,” is still confident that the backfield will produce in his absence.
“Guys have to step up and play,” said Caldwell. “Somebody has to take a few more carries than they would have ordinarily and obviously I think we have a number of guys that can do that for us.”
Matthew Stafford also addressed the Abdullah injury, adding: “We gotta continue to call the same football plays and have the other guys on our roster step up and make plays and I have full confidence we will be able to do that.”
Those “guys” will be Theo Riddick and the team’s 2016 seventh round draft pick, Dwayne Washington. Riddick, who Caldwell said is “more than capable” of stepping up, had 80 catches in 2015, and currently has 82 yards on the ground, nine catches for 91 yards and a pair of scores after two weeks.
“He’s done a nice job,” said Stafford. “Every time we hand him the ball it seems like he’s picking up positive yards. He’s doing it in the passing game like he’s always has, but he’s doing a really nice job in the running game. Credit to our guys up front, tight ends and guys on the perimeter blocking, but he is doing a nice job as well.”
Washington has played sparingly in the first two games, but the rookie out of the University of Washington has made the most of his touches thus far and found the end zone in the season opening win against the Colts. With Abdullah out, he’s certainly going to have an expanded role in this week’s game and going forward.
“When he [Washington] touches the ball he’s generally pretty productive, but he’s young,” Caldwell said. “But I think you’ll see him improve and keep getting better week by week.”
“He’s a smart kid,” said Stafford when asked about Washington’s attributes. “Obviously a big, physical kid. Probably our biggest back. Does a really nice job in the run game. Like you said, he’s a young kid and he’s obviously still learning the game, but everything we’ve given him he’s done a nice job of soaking it up.”
There is plenty of football left to be played in 2016 and the Lions aren’t alone in losing a key player. Minnesota Viking’s star running back, Adrian Peterson, went down with a torn meniscus that will sideline him for several weeks and the San Diego Chargers lost their start wideout, Keenan Allen to a torn ACL. Those are only two of the many injuries that have occurred throughout the league over the first two weeks of the season.
Coach Caldwell remains resolute that his players–most notably the running backs–will step up as the team moves on without Abdullah into this week’s matchup against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.
“I don’t think you’ll ever find a team in this league that’ll just completely collapse when that situation happens because you’ll go out and you’ll find guys that can come and do the job for you. They may not be able to do it exactly the same way, but they can do it. For us, we have guys that can play, I think, and have been productive and have proven to be productive. It’s just a matter of how many times they touch it. We feel good about the guys that we have in that spot.”