Alim McNeill glanced Aidan Hutchinson's way and grinned. The next day, Hutchinson said it himself: "I definitely heat up later in the season." This was last week, a few days removed from Hutchinson's most dominant game of the year in the Lions' controversial loss to the Cowboys. And the message was clear: his best football is in front of him.
"He’s about to turn it up a little bit more," said McNeill. "That’ll be really fun to see what he’s about to do."
Hutchinson responded with another wrecking-ball performance in the Lions' win over the Vikings in the regular season finale. He had two sacks among his typical pile of quarterback pressures and a third tackle for loss when he flew through the air like Superman to take down Justin Jefferson on an end-around. For those keeping score at home, that gives Hutchinson five sacks, seven tackles for loss and 10 quarterback hits over the last two games.
And 11.5 sacks total, a number more befitting the havoc he caused all season. The former No. 2 pick finished first in the NFL in QB hits (23) and second in QB pressures (101), per Pro Football Focus, and, after his late flurry, just outside the top 10 in sacks. Hutchinson said he was "never too stressed out" about the lack of sacks, "it was just something that was a little frustrating."
"But I think the timing is on my side right now and the universe is flowing, so it’s good," he said. "I'm glad I got this going into the playoffs."
So are the Lions, who put up 18 sacks in their final six games after posting 23 in their first 11. Their run defense has been strong all season, ranking in the top three in the NFL. But the overall unit tends to go as the pass rush goes, which goes as Hutchinson goes. He's the most valuable player to Detroit's defense, and it isn't particularly close.
Hutchinson lives a spiritual life. He believes in the power of meditation and visualization. He says certain things are "written in the stars," like his alma mater Michigan winning the national championship Monday night. Ahead of the Cowboys game, which came on the national stage he covets, Hutchinson sensed his breakout was coming. He called it "a knowing."
"I could feel that my time was now," he said. "I felt that all of the adversity and frustrations of this year -- not like I was playing bad, but the frustrations of the sacks not coming early -- in that Dallas game I just knew. It was a knowing, and I know now, that all of the stuff I went through was to develop me and to get me on a different level for that game and the games to come."
Hutchinson stopped short of calling it a realization, more of an understanding that "everything that I had been through was to teach me what I needed to know. And now I know that and I’m going to continue to learn and get better." He came from all over on Sunday, snuffing out a trick play to drop Jefferson for a 12-yard loss, smoking a tight end off the left edge for his first sack and ripping past the right guard for his second.
"His hand’s have gotten so much better," said FOX color commentator Daryl Johnston.
"His game, I just bring it up, he’s a guy who he’s relentless," Dan Campbell said after the Lions' 30-20 win. "He works his craft. He’s got a quick first step, he’s an explosive athlete, but then he constantly is working his hands and his body and he’s lean and his torque and just every day he gets a little bit better at something. And here we go now, we get to Week 18 and he continues to improve and develop."
Week 17 was just as impressive, maybe more. Hutchinson got his first sack by beating Cowboys star left tackle Tyron Smith, one of the best pass blockers in football, with a quick move to the inside, his second by powering past Pro Bowl center Tyler Biadasz on the interior and his third, which came on the most critical down of the night for the defense and set up what was nearly a game-winning drive for the Lions, by hitting Terence Steele with a spin move that left the right tackle grabbing air.
"His production as far as pressure on the quarterback has been there every week," Campbell said. "He’s having to beat double-teams and nudges and you know what, he’s getting better at that. And that’s the thing, man. Once you finally live in that world and you realize, 'I have no way out, I have to find a way to beat two guys a lot of times,' the minute you get your one-on-one, just you and him, you have to win that. And he’s been able to do that."
The biggest games of Hutchinson's life are on deck, starting Sunday night against the Rams.
"And in the biggest games, I feel like that’s when I show up," he said.