With the Lions needing one stop to complete an improbable comeback last Sunday against the Bears, Dan Campbell gathered his defense and told them to finish the job. "This is the moment," Campbell said. You get the feeling he looked specifically at Aidan Hutchinson.
Hutchinson was going on five games without a sack. Despite another handful of quarterback pressures, he hadn't been able to get Justin Fields to the turf. He had admitted last week his frustration was mounting, but vowed the sacks would soon start "flowing." Then he "goes out and makes the sack-fumble of his life for a safety," Campbell said.
It reminded Campbell of a play he watched Hutchinson make two years ago in Michigan's memorable win over Ohio State, before the Lions drafted him second overall.
"There was a play when he was coming out where they were playing Ohio State and the slide was coming to him, and it was a critical play, and I just remember he’s calling for the slide. Like, ‘I know you’re sliding to me.’ And it was, ‘Watch this.’ Like, this is about to go up one more level," Campbell said Tuesday on 97.1 The Ticket. "And that’s what I felt like the other day."
On the first play of the Bears' final drive, the Lions leading by three with 30 seconds to go, Hutchinson powered past rookie right tackle and 10th overall pick Darnell Wright like a man who wouldn't be denied and drilled Fields for the game-winning strip-sack safety.
"Game on the line, he hadn’t quite gotten there yet, and all of a sudden, man, he’s going to will himself right through this tackle to make a play," Campbell said. "And that’s exactly what he did. There was no flash to that move. That was just, man, quick first step, here comes my power, here comes my rip, I’m going to take the ball away and we win the game. It’s outstanding."
Hutchinson terrorized the Buckeyes in 2021 with three sacks and 15 QB pressures on C.J. Stroud. It was the performance that sealed his status as a top-three pick. The moment Campbell remembers came late in the fourth quarter with Ohio State facing fourth down toward the end of a long drive. Hutchinson, as he'd recall later, was "getting a little pissed off." Then he saw the center motion to him "like they're sending the slide to me and I'm like, 'Let's go, bi*ch. Send it all at me. I want it all.'"
Hutchinson tore off the ball on a bull rush and pancaked left tackle Thayer Munford, now with the Raiders. He said at the time it "was probably the coolest thing I've ever done in my life, me waving him over and then putting him on his ass." He might have topped it last Sunday, and he took down another Buckeyes quarterback as bonus.
"I didn't even think about that," Hutchinson said afterward, with Michigan hosting Ohio State this weekend in a battle of unbeaten teams. "You put that in my head. Hopefully the boys will get it done."
Hutchinson was relieved the Lions got it done against the Bears, and happy to snap his sack drought in the process. For a player who prides himself on punishing the quarterback, the lack of production was difficult to accept. Pressures are great, and Hutchinson now has the third most (58) in the NFL behind only Maxx Crosby and Micah Parsons, but sacks will always be gold for a pass rusher.
"It's hard when you don't know what the outcome's going to be," Hutchinson said. "You just gotta keep pushing, keep fighting and keep trying to play our ass off. And it finally came today. I think from here on out, as a defensive line, we're ready to go."
As Hutchinson was speaking with reporters in front of his locker, Jared Goff walked past and yelled, "Yeah, HUTCH!" The Lions quarterback said Tuesday that one of the marks of a special team is "your best players showing up when it really matters."
"And Hutch finishing it off there on defense was huge," he said.