Out For The Season, Hilliard Made A Lasting Impression In His Only Game
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
ALLEN PARK (CBS DETROIT) - Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford does not often speak effusively. Even while complimentary, he normally comes across measured and collected, not particularly moved or excited. When he talked about right tackle Corey Hilliard, who was lost for the season after suffering - and then playing through - a Lisfranc injury in Monday's game, Stafford spoke almost reverently.
"It was pretty inspiring for him to play the rest of that third and most of the fourth on a pretty hurt foot," Stafford said. "We all appreciate that very much, just his sacrifice.
"I saw the play when he got dinged up a little bit, and I knew he was hurting," Stafford continued. "And so I think a little bit in the fourth quarter, I just didn't know how bad it was, and just more than looking at him or making adjustments, just continuing to talk with him. 'Hey, how are you? Is this going to be a thing when you're going to try and drop back in a pass set and you're just going to crumble and they're going to have a free - ?' Just kind of trying to verbalize with him, talk with him. What guts, man, to hang in there and play for us. We really appreciated it."
Hilliard had never felt the kind of pain he experienced in his right foot when a linebacker rolled up on it, but he continued anyway.
"I wasn't trying to be heroic or nothing, but we really didn't have another tackle," Hilliard said, managing a laugh as he sat, crutches across his lap, in front of a locker Wednesday. "I kind of had to stay in there. I didn't really have a choice.
"We kind of formulated a plan from there on what we could do to kind of keep me out of situations where I could potentially hurt the team, so we did a few more chips, and Stafford would come up to me and was like, 'Hey, we're going to run this, are you good with that?'" Hilliard continued. "I was just letting [offensive coordinator] Joe [Lombardi] know that, 'Hey, I don't know what's going on with my foot, but it's pretty considerable, so just kind of take care of me. Don't kind of put me out there on an island too much where I have to pass block by myself.' That was my main concern because a strip sack or anything could turn a game around like that."
Lions head coach Jim Caldwell said the team had been preparing tight end Brandon Pettigrew to play some snaps at tackle - Cornelius Lucas was inactive for the game - but Hilliard was able to, as Caldwell phrased it, not just survive but thrive for the rest of the game.
Hilliard insisted on characterizing it more as surviving - and doing so with some help.
"It was a total team effort," Hilliard said. "I don't want to make it seem like I was out there blocking guys by myself on one foot. I told everybody that needed to know so we could all do it as a team together."
The adrenaline and the fact his team counted on him helped Hilliard play through the discomfort that by the next morning had turned to pain so severe that he could not put any weight on his foot. His wife had to help him around the house. Hilliard will have surgery some time next week.
Hilliard had an MRI, X-ray and CT scan on the foot and also visited a foot specialist. He said he was holding out hope - "big-time" - that the injury would not end his season. He stayed optimistic until the moment the doctors gave him the news.
"I was like, 'Maybe I can come back in a month, two months,'" Hilliard said, "and they were like, 'No, you're done.'"
Hilliard said he cannot put weight on his foot for two months after surgery, but he will try to be around the team as much as he can.
"We're so interactive in our o-line room about game planning and stuff, so I think my input would be used," Hilliard said. "I'll be there for them."
With Hilliard out for the season and fellow right tackle LaAdrian Waddle also injured, the Lions brought in offensive lineman Garrett Reynolds, who spent training camp with the Lions. The team will also likely rely more heavily on undrafted rookie Cornelius Lucas, who was not active for Monday's game, a disappointment about which Hilliard had counseled Lucas.
"We actually had this conversation with him last week about him staying ready because you never know what happens because he was kind of concerned that he wasn't going to dress for the game," Hilliard said. "I was like, 'Man, you've just got to stay ready. You never know what's going to happen.' Sure enough, after one week, he's kind of got that opportunity now. That's the way of the NFL, man. You've just got to stay ready."
