The emotions appeared to hit Miles Frazier all over again. Asked how it felt to play in his first NFL game last week after a knee injury derailed the start of his career, Frazier paused, exhaled and said, "It was a surreal moment."
"I felt like I was playing Madden, seeing Cowboys logos and my teammates’ Lions logos, I was like, oh, snap, this is for real," said Frazier.
At times, Frazier said, "I was like, oh snap, 'R2, R2!'" the trigger button in the video game that's used for viewing a play before the snap or accelerating in action. For the most part, the rookie offensive lineman looked like he was, well, in control, in Detroit's potentially season-saving win over the Cowboys.
Frazier entered the game at left guard for the Lions' third drive, in a rotation with Trystan Colon. His first two snaps came against star defensive tackle Quinnen Williams in pass protection, and Frazier did his job. After the Lions worked the ball down to the goal line, Frazier cleared out defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa to open a lane to the end zone for Jahmyr Gibbs.
He deflected any credit for the touchdown block, saying "I really didn’t even do anything," attributing it all to Gibbs. But it was a calm, clean block for a rookie in his NFL debut against a proven vet, the sort of stuff Frazier has been demonstrating on scout team for the Lions since he started practicing about a month ago.
"He’s shown in practice that he has the ability to play for us and help us win," offensive line coach Hank Fraley said Wednesday. "That’s why he’s in there — it’s not just to get a look. He did a nice job."
Frazier, a fifth-round pick out of LSU, laid another strong block on Gibbs' second touchdown, initially helping Graham Glasgow on Williams before picking up a defensive end from Decker so that Decker could push aside a linebacker coming off the edge. Again, Frazier declined to take any credit for a pretty seamless play, nothing that the two vets "next to me make my job so much easier."
"Decker's my dawg," said Frazier. "He helps me with anything I need, during the plays, in the building, whatever I need, so I definitely appreciate him."
Decker, in fact, was one of the very first people to reach out to Frazier after he got drafted. Frazier pulled out his phone on Thursday and read the text: "Welcome to Detroit, bro. This is Taylor Decker. Enjoy it with the fam." Frazier quickly texted him back, "Appreciate it."
"I knew who Decker was, obviously, before I got here, but for him to text me, I’m not gonna lie, I was kinda starstruck," Frazier said.
The Lions have had a weakness at left guard since Christian Mahogany broke a bone in his leg in their Week 9 loss to the Vikings. Mahogany and Frazier are tight, a pair of New Jersey natives. Their stories are similar, Mahogany shelved by mono at the outset of his career before stepping in amid injuries at guard late last season and playing well.
"I guess that’s the blueprint maybe? Miss all of camp and then just get your reps," Mahogany joked on Thursday.
Mahogany is back at practice himself, eyeing a return either Sunday against the Rams or next week against the Steelers. As soon as he knew he didn't need surgery on his leg, "I just said, 'What do I need to do to be able to play this year?'" He's been through worse, including a torn ACL in college. This, by comparison, "was like the best-case scenario."
"We’re good where we’re at," he said. "Now it’s just dusting off some rust and feeling good."
Suddenly, the Lions have options at left guard that look more appealing than Colon and Kayode Awosika. Together, Frazier and Mahogany could stabilize a wobbly position down the stretch. The Lions intend to keep using Frazier on Sunday, likely in another rotation. He earned more reps than they planned on giving him last Thursday by playing well.
"It felt comforting knowing that the coaching staff trusted me to go out there, because it’s not an easy job, with no training camp, not too much practice, to be able to go in," Frazier said. "There’s a lot of mistakes I gotta clean up, I would say in the run game and with the false starts, I had two of ‘em, but I’ll get them cleaned up and it’s not going to happen again."
The advanced metrics didn't paint a great picture of Frazier's performance against Dallas. In fact, he was the Lions' lowest-graded player by Pro Football Focus, which charged him with three quarterback pressures on 12 pass-blocking snaps and didn't love his work in the ground game. One of those pressures happened to come on maybe Jared Goff's best throw of the night, a third-down crosser to Jameson Williams for a big gain midway through the fourth quarter that set up a touchdown and helped restore the Lions' double-digit lead.
Frazier held up just long enough in a one-on-one with Quinnen Williams for Goff to stand in there and find his receiver; he probably got away with a hold at the last second. Regardless, Frazier put his hand up and credited Williams, a three-time Pro Bowler, for "lulling me to sleep" over the course of the game before beating him on a crucial play.
"I always knew he was powerful, but he would work hands, hands, hands, so when I circle-punched because I thought I was going to get hands, he got in my chest and my weight was backward, causing me to get bulled back," said Frazier. "I was like, dang, that was kind of a Welcome to the NFL moment."
Still, by and large, Frazier "held his own in there," said Fraley. "And he’s going to get better. The more you play in this game, as long as you’re learning from it, he’ll become a good player."
The Lions loved Frazier's "play style at LSU," Fraley said, from his physicality to his smoothness in handling games and stunts. They like what he's done in practice, to the point that they decided, "Hey, he should be up on game day," said Fraley. "Let’s give him a shot." And they were pleased with his showing last Thursday, with another one coming this week.
"He wrote his first chapter in his book with that game," Fraley said. "The Rams are going to be looking at it, how can they attack him and what can they use against him? But he’s going to learn from the experience he got."
Frazier and the Lions will be better for it moving forward.