Editor’s note: This is an opinion piece by MLive.com reporter Kyle Meinke.
ATLANTA -- Before Matt Prater won the game from 48 yards, before T.J. Hockenson tied it from 11 with no time on the clock, before Matthew Stafford stepped up into the pocket and flipped that final touchdown pass, before all that, there was Kenny Golladay.
And without Kenny Golladay, perhaps there is nothing else.
The Detroit Lions were lucky to have the ball back at all -- they have Todd Gurley’s mind-numbing decision to run the ball into the end zone for that -- but were still trailing by six points and all the way back at the 40-yard line with 20 seconds left, then 19, then 18, as Golladay was running up the left seam. This was it. Miss here, and there wouldn’t be enough time for anything but a couple desperation heaves for the end zone. This was the Lions' last good chance to pull off a miracle.
“If we don’t make that play, we’re probably throwing a couple of Hail Marys from the 50 or something," Stafford said.
Golladay, of course, made the play. He made the play even though he had a safety draped all over him. Hell, the officials could have thrown a flag for pass interference on the play. And it didn’t matter, because Kenny Golladay is that good.
The play went for 29 yards, the Lions were able to spike the ball at the 11-yard line with 2 seconds left, and, well, you know the rest by now. Stafford stepped up in the pocket, found Hockenson for an 11-yard touchdown with zeros on the clock, yelled some R-rated stuff at Danny Amendola for a while because the receiver had taken off his helmet, and Prater punched in the extra-long extra point for a stunning 23-22 win in Atlanta.
“Any time the ball is in the air, I want it to be mine,” Golladay said after the game. “It has to be mine. I just got to make that play.”
Just like that, the Lions have won two straight games. OK, so those wins came against teams that have one victory apiece. Jacksonville (1-5) sucks. Atlanta (1-5) has talent, but might be the only team that coughs up leads worse than Detroit. So, yeah. Maybe don’t book your flight to the Super Bowl quite yet.
Still, don’t look now, but the Lions (3-3) have won three of their four games. Now they’re back at .500, and just one game back in the chase for the final playoff spot in the NFC. Yes, really.
A couple weeks into the season, it looked like Matt Patricia might not even make it out of the bye alive. Now the Lions are about to play some meaningful football in November, and those meaningful games will come largely against terrible teams over the next month-and-a-half.
There are so many reasons for their resurgence, including the quality of opponent, but don’t overlook this either: The Lions were 0-2 when Kenny Golladay was sidelined with a hamstring to start the season, and are 3-1 since his return.
This guy is so good. OK, so you probably didn’t need me to tell you that. Not after what he did last year, you know, leading the NFL in touchdown catches and 25-yard catches and all that. Probably not after what he did just last week either, when he caught four passes for 105 yards, set up one touchdown with a 48-yard bomb, and yet another when he drew a defensive pass interference penalty in the end zone.
Golladay was feeling himself so much after that game, he posted on Instagram: “That shit gone cost you.”
“I’m going to let you guys, you know, figure out what it means,” Golladay said on Sunday. “I’m gonna just focus on this huge win we just got, and, man, that was a crazy game.”
Fair enough. But you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what he meant either.
The Lions began negotiating a contract extension last summer, but the sides haven’t been able to come to an accord. That means Golladay is still playing out the final year of his rookie deal. Base salary: $2.13 million.
The going rate for a top-10 receiver? It starts at $16.25 million.
And Kenny Golladay continues to look like he’s worth every penny of that. More games like this, and he could be worth a lot more.
There are other reasons the Lions have suddenly started winning, of course, including much better play from the defense. They just posted their two best games against the run in consecutive weeks, and even the pass rush has come to life. Romeo Okwara’s two sacks -- one of which jarred the ball loose and led to a field goal -- were a huge difference in Atlanta. All this, coming one week after the defense’s best all-around performance of the Matt Patricia era, is an encouraging sign that maybe, just maybe, that unit is finally finding its way.
But none of that matters if the Lions don’t have Kenny Golladay doing Kenny Golladay things. They wouldn’t have won this game without that catch up the seam. And for as good as that catch was, it might not have even been his best of the day.
He laid out belly-up for another 29-yarder early in the third quarter, and took a big shot from the safety while doing it. It happened on a third-and-11 too, and led to a Matt Prater field goal.
Golladay finished with six catches on seven targets for 114 yards. That line is so good, and yet it still tells only part of the story. Because the Falcons defense seemed determined to stop him, and couldn’t. The Falcons hit him and hit him and hit him again. They threw double coverages at him, and man coverages, and zone coverages, and Golladay still caught everything thrown his way except a late pass that Stafford threw too far out of bounds.
Then he more than made up for it with the 29-yarder that teed up the winner. The Falcons knew the Lions had to push the ball down the field on that play, and they knew the guy who could hurt them most, and they had safety Keanu Neal all over him. And Golladay still stuck a dagger in their heart.
“They were not letting us get over their head," Stafford said. "So, I had to get it over the WILL linebacker who was probably 30 yards deep and underneath the safety who was like 50 yards deep. Kenny was feeling the same thing I was feeling, because I had to cut that ball loose a lot sooner than I wanted to. I can’t hold it forever. I try to throw it to a good spot and he was on the same page as I was. He bent it in front of the safety and made a great catch.”
Anyone can catch a wide-open pass. What separates great receivers from the good ones is an ability to take the defense’s best shot -- to have defenses designed specifically to stop you -- and still make plays. Kenny Golladay is on that list. He’s been on that list for a while. And guys on that list get paid a lot of money.
I don’t know why an extension hasn’t happened yet. Bob Quinn has always kept a pretty tight lid on contract negotiations, but this one has been especially quiet. Perhaps Golladay is asking for too much money. Perhaps Quinn has sticker shock over paying elite money to a receiver when there are still so many short- and long-term roster needs to consider. Perhaps COVID is mixing some financial uncertainty into the situation.
Without knowing those variables, it’s impossible to say what has to happen to get a deal done. But what we know is this: Kenny Golladay is on the short list of great receivers in the NFL. We also saw in the first two weeks of the season what life is like without him, and it wasn’t pretty.
The Lions might not want to pay elite receiver money. Too bad. They have an elite receiver, and the time to pay that man his money has arrived. Because with the way he’s playing, the price will only go up.
Asked about that, Golladay didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to either.
He just laughed.