The Lions improved to 1-1 on the season with their 36-27 victory over the Commanders on Sunday. While defensive end Aidan Hutchinson rightly grabbed headlines for his 3.0-sack performance, one of Detroit’s young receivers continued to display his talents.
Amon-Ra St. Brown caught nine passes for 116 yards with a pair of touchdowns. And he took a pair of carries for 68 yards — one of which was a 58-yard end around that helped set up a touchdown to give Detroit a 29-15 lead in the third quarter.
St. Brown has now tied an NFL record with eight straight games of at least eight catches, dating back to last season.
“He’s a very friendly target is the best way to describe it, if that makes sense,” quarterback Jared Goff said postgame. “[A]lways comes back to the ball, always catches the ball away from his body, is always where he needs to be, understands coverage, understands what I’m looking at, what I’m looking for. Always asking questions. Comes downhill when he’s breaking out on that touchdown just to make sure that guy can’t make a play on it. Little things like that that typically you can’t teach, and he has it.
“So, it’s a guy I’m lucky to play with, and sky’s the limit for him.”
Through two weeks, St. Brown has 17 receptions for 180 yards with three TDs. A fourth-round pick out of USC in 2021, he finished his rookie season leading Detroit with 90 receptions, 912 yards, and five receiving touchdowns.
Goff said that at this point, it’s a surprise when St. Brown makes a rare error.
“[H]e’s mistake-free pretty much and does such a great job both in the pass game and in the blocking game, and is such an anchor for us in both areas of the game, and a guy that we always just want to get the ball to,” Goff said. “We have a few of those guys on our offense, but he’s one of them where it’s like, ‘How do we find a way to get him in space?’
“[H]e played great, and he was the first one to say like, ‘Man, I had that one and that one, that could have been that one.’ And that’s the best thing about him.”
As the Lions try to build a winner under head coach Dan Campbell and G.M. Brad Holmes, St. Brown certainly looks like a player they’ll be able to build around for years to come.