Jared Goff hadn't been sacked in three games. Midway through the first quarter in Cincinnati, Trey Hendrickson tore past left tackle Giovanni Manu and strip-sacked Goff on his blindside to force a turnover. Welcome to the League -- "not preseason," said Dan Campbell, "it’s real." In the first start of his career, Manu took the bulk of his snaps against the NFL's sack leader over the last three seasons.
"You just grow from it," said Campbell. "It’s a good experience."
The Lions started Manu in their win over the Bengals to give Taylor Decker a week of rest and recovery. They're playing the long game with his injured shoulder. So they are with Manu, hoping that the massive offensive lineman from the Polynesian island of Tonga eventually develops into a sturdy tackle. But the short game matters now, too.
Manu found out he was starting in Week 5 when Lions offensive line coach Hank Fraley called him Tuesday night on Manu's drive home from the facility. Manu cried upon hearing the news, and immediately called his parents, his sister and his family back in Canada, where Manu's mother sent him at the age of 11 to live with his aunt. That's where he discovered football. He teared up again on the field multiple times before Sunday's game, "just because my journey, I would never think that I would start or be in the NFL."
"I’m just a kid from an island, played in Canada, and now starting at left tackle for one of the top teams in the NFL," said Manu. "It’s a dream come true."
His performance was a bit sobering. Manu looked overmatched at times on the left edge, especially against Hendrickson. He was guilty on two of the Bengals' four sacks against Goff, which exposed the Lions' most important player to some heavy hits. Manu was charged with two additional quarterback pressures and had the lowest pass-blocking grade of 57 qualified tackles in Week 5, per PFF. He was not pleased with how he held up in his first true NFL test.
"Two sacks. That’s all I’m going to say. There’s a standard in our room, and there’s a standard that I hold myself to, and that’s just not the standard," he said.
It wasn't so much the speed of the game that caught Manu off guard. In fact, he felt practice last week in Allen Park "was more intense than what I faced out there" on Sunday. Rather, on the first sack he allowed, Manu said he didn't hear the audible before the snap, which led to Hendrickson winning around the edge. On the second, "I was too aggressive on the run sell" against Joseph Ossai, who quickly shed Manu with a speed move and clobbered Goff from behind for a nine-yard loss.
Campbell described Manu's outing as "up and down." Goff said the 24-year-old "fought his tail off." They both indicated, at least on first impression, that Manu was stronger in run-blocking than pass protection.
"I thought he did some good things in the run game, I thought there were some play-passes where he did a good job," said Campbell. "And then there were some that, man, they weren’t good, and he’ll learn from. He’s gotta learn from them. That’s what you look forward to, man.
"You don’t want to have a couple of plays where your quarterback gets hit, but at the same token, that’s probably the best way to learn, because you don’t want that to happen again. And it’s like, 'Man, what do I need to hone up, what can I do better, how do I handle this?'"
Manu was pretty hard on himself after the game. Goff tried propping him up by telling him, "Dude, you’re not going to be perfect. You’re going to make mistakes. It’s OK -- as long as the next one is better and the next one you learn." Manu also got some coaching between drives from Decker, who's taken Manu under his wing in Detroit.
"He was like a second Hank to me. Anything I needed help with this whole week I would go talk to him. Even on the sideline coming off after every drive, he was right there, telling me what I could do better and what I did good at," Manu said. "It’s vital to have a veteran guy like that, so I’m always appreciative of Deck and he’s always a mentor to me."
Decker always wants what's best for the team. It's likely part of the reason he was amenable to sitting down last week, even as someone who's inclined to play through anything. Because he's wired to "go out there at 50 percent (if) I can help the team win," Decker explained, he's told the Lions' training staff in the past, "They need to sometimes protect me from myself." Detroit needs its top left tackle in December, January and perhaps beyond. An early-October game against a wounded opponent could wait.
"I do think I'm playing well. But the frustrating thing for me is I think I could play better if I felt better, so that’s the thing," Decker said last Wednesday. "Yeah, the performances have been pretty good, but for me the frustrating thing is I have my own personal standards and when you’re not at 100 percent it’s hard to get to those."
Decker is experienced enough in year 10 of his career to play without practicing. Assignments and game plans have never been an issue for him, even as a young player. But the physical inactivity was starting to hurt his shoulder more than help it. The Lions were seeing "diminishing returns every week" with his recovery, Campbell said Sunday, "and we just felt like, man, we needed to give this guy a little time."
"It’s something I’m gonna have to deal with for a good portion of the year, but we have a plan in place right now and for moving forward to try and mitigate having to deal with it," Decker said. "Whatever the plan has to be is fine, but I don’t want to have to not practice and not be able to do all the lifts that I need to do the entire season and then to be at a net negative on the backend."
As of Sunday, Campbell said he doesn't quite know how long Decker will rest. The Lions might consider giving him the next two games through the bye for what would amount to an extra month of recovery time. But their thought process here is prudent, and reflective of their Super Bowl ambitions: "I didn’t want to put Decker out there if it means that we get a couple of games and we don’t have him for the rest of the year," Campbell said. "It makes no sense."
In the meantime, this is not necessarily Manu's job. Campbell mentioned both Dan Skipper and fellow practice-squad veteran Devin Cochran as candidates to spell Decker moving forward. Skipper has recovered from an early-season ankle injury and has been Detroit's top swing tackle in the past. What's clear is that Decker will be back in time, maybe as soon as Sunday night in Kansas City.
"This is so that we get him back," Campbell said. "That’s what this is, man: let’s get this thing to calm down, let's get some strength back in the shoulder to where he feels good. So all of this is for a positive."
Likewise, there were positives to be drawn from Manu's first NFL start. He will be better for it in his next one, whether that's in Kansas City or further down the line.
"It wasn’t the performance I wanted," Manu said, "but it’s definitely a small step in this journey."