There's running hard, and then there's hard running. David Montgomery has been doing a lot of both. In the Lions' win in Cincinnati a couple weeks ago, the Bengals were so hellbent on limiting Detroit's rushing attack that "they were putting, like, goal-line fronts out there to stop it," said center Graham Glasgow. Montgomery pounded away at the wall until it cracked a couple times in the second half. He earned all 65 of his yards on the ground.
Montgomery has faced at least eight men in the box on 40 percent of his carries this season, per NFL Next Gen Stats, the second highest rate in the league. (Only Quinshod Judkins of the Browns has faced more.) That's up from about 25 percent last season and 21 percent the season before that. Asked if he's felt the difference, Montgomery shrugged and said, "Nah, I don’t really pay attention to none of that. I just go out and play, whatever it is."
"I approach every carry the same. I think it’s a sign of respect, knowing that they’re putting that many guys in the box to try to stop the run or stop me when I got the ball in my hands," he said. "But when you got two high-caliber guys, you gotta find ways to try and stop that."
The other is Jahmyr Gibbs, who's had the ball in his hands far more often than Montgomery. The duo had an even slice of the backfield pie last year before Montgomery injured his knee and missed the final three games of the season. This year, Gibbs has seen six more touches and almost four more carries per game than Montgomery. He's faced at least eight men in the box on only 23 percent of his carries.
Interestingly, Montgomery is averaging a career-high 5.1 yards per attempt, eighth among NFL running backs. Gibbs is 17th at 4.5, which is actually a career low. Montgomery said he doesn't have enough time to reflect on his individual performance in the middle of the season.
Similarly, asked whehter his workload has been a bit lighter than he expected, he said, "I don't have, I've never really had expectations on (that), more so just playing my role whatever it is and doing it to the best of my ability."
The Lions intend to get Montgomery more involved. While the game script got away from them in their loss to the Chiefs last Sunday, there's really no world in which Montgomery should ever get zero carries in the second half, especially as a back who takes a heavier toll on the defense with each touch. He had four carries and six total touches on the night, which he turned into 61 yards. The Lions found 17 carries for Gibbs, the bulk of them in the first half.
"At the end of the day it’s about winning, no matter how it looks," Montgomery said. "Of course I’m a competitor. If I’m a player who wants to compete, I want the ball every play, but that’s just not how it works out sometimes and that’s fine. You just gotta find other ways to win and get involved and ensure that I’m helping my teammates do the best that they can, so that we can win."
On that note, Montgomery has been the best pass-blocking running back in the NFL this season, per Pro Football Focus. He lit up when told his grade is at the top of the charts and said, "Oh, is it? I didn’t know that!" Not only is he first among 53 qualified running backs, Montgomery has jumped from 34th out of 57 last year and 47th out of 63 the year before that. He has quietly made major strides in one of the most underrated areas of his job.
"I just take high pride in protecting my quarterback," he said. "I don’t want JG to get hit. He’s the best when he’s not getting pressured, so any way I can help, if that means putting my body on the line to ensure that he don’t get touched, I’m gonna deliver."
The Lions under Dan Campbell are keenly aware of how larger decisions affect each player. It was no mistake, for example, that Montgomery got a season-high 18 carries and threw a touchdown in his Cincinnati homecoming in a game that meant a lot to him and his family. It was a mistake, in some ways, that he got the fewest carries of his Lions tenure a week later. As offensive coordinator John Morton said, "We didn’t have enough plays last week. I mean, we only had, like, seven or eight (drives)."
"As the game goes, it just so happens it had to be that way. It’s not like we’re going in, ‘You’re not getting this, you’re not getting that,'" Morton said. "Every game is different, I’ve told you guys. It might be D-Mo this time, it might be Gibbs the next time. It might be somebody else. That’s just the way it goes."
Jared Goff often raves about Campbell's "emotional IQ." It wouldn't be a surprise to see the Lions reward Montgomery's selflessness with a much bigger workload on Monday Night Football against the Buccaneers. Just as importantly, it would make some strategic sense in a game that could be won with hard yards against a heavy, physical run defense.
Morton declined to say if there would be a focus on getting Montgomery more touches Monday night, not wanting to give away the plan. Fair enough. The play-calling will change with "the ebb and flow of the game," he said. But his non-answer might have been the answer.
"Our guys are unselfish, that’s the beauty of it," Morton said. "There’s not a lot of pressure for that, to get that done."
But there is good reason to get it done Monday night. Detroit's offense isn't whole without Montgomery involved. Its defense isn't whole at the moment, decimated by injuries in the secondary. With Baker Mayfield slinging it on the other side, the Lions might have to win a shootout. They also might have to take some air out of the Bucs' offense by giving their own defense a breath.
And that might start with giving the ball to No. 5.
"Every chance I get to put on some cleats," said Montgomery, "I expect a big game from myself -- so we just gotta see."