When Amon-Ra St. Brown left early in Thursday's game with an ankle injury, "I feel like somebody had to come up and make some plays," said Jameson Williams.
"Jamo became that guy," said Jared Goff.
The Lions called his number over and over and Williams turned 10 targets into seven catches for 144 yards, all season-highs. His touchdown late in the first half on a screen where he broke a tackle at the point of the catch and cooked 22 yards to the end zone was one of his many highlights.
But after the Lions' 31-24 loss to the Packers, Williams was lamenting his one big mistake: "I dropped it," he said with a shake of the head.
The Lions were trailing by 10 early in the fourth quarter when Dan Campbell left his offense on the field facing 4th and 3 from Green Bay's 21. Goff rolled out to his right and had Williams running across the middle for what should have been an easy pitch and catch, but Goff threw slightly behind him and Williams failed to reel in the pass.
Williams reacted angrily when the ball hit the turf, furious with himself for not making the play.
"I dropped it," he said. "I dropped it, that’s all. I catch that, we get a first down, we don't have to kick a field goal, maybe we can get seven instead of three right there, so I was just beating myself up on a big play."
Goff took the blame on his end, saying, "I’ve got to give him a better throw, and he makes the catch. He might score right there and the drive might be over. That’s the one that will hurt me for a while. ... I wish there was some magic potion to take to be better on fourth down, but there’s not. I had Jamo open, he’s streaming across, I’ve got to hit him. That’s the bottom line. There’s no other way to fix it."
Williams otherwise had what Dan Campbell called an "electric" performance, ripping off big play after big play with the Lions' No. 1 receiver sidelined.
"And we thought he would," said Campbell. "I wish we could’ve got it in his hands more. We had some calls there where the defense took him away, so it had to go somewhere else. He did a good job."
On his touchdown, where Williams showed the strength to shake off a tackle before breaking free, "he ain’t wrap up and I just bounced off," Williams said. "Saw my linemen come out, a wave of blue come out, get under them and the rest was history."
The loss of St. Brown stung for the Lions, with Williams calling him "the heart and soul of the team." But Williams emerged in his absence, accounting for four of Detroit's six longest plays, mostly on crossing routes over the middle.
"Kind of knew it would become Jamo’s game there, really before the game and then when that happens (to St. Brown,) you really know it," Campbell said. "I guess, moral victory that we were able to get Jamo going like that."
The loss drops the Lions to 7-5 and fighting for life in the NFC playoff race. They've alternated wins and losses since moving to 4-1 with a win over the Bengals. To Williams, it's "the little things" that are holding the team back.
"We’re making mistakes and only losing these games by, like, one thing," he said. "We can get these things fixed, turn things around and have a good stretch at the end of the season. It’s going to turn around for us."