ARLINGTON, Texas — Aidan Hutchinson was on a stretcher, his left leg immobilized, heading towards an ambulance waiting to take him to a local hospital, when Alex Anzalone leaned in close and looked his teammate in the eyes.
Anzalone said he doesn't remember exactly what he said to Hutchinson, but he knew he had to be there for the Pro Bowl defensive end after he suffered a broken tibia early in the third quarter of the Detroit Lions ' 47-9 win over the Dallas Cowboys .
"It's just an emotional moment," Anzalone told the Free Press. "You don't really remember what you say or whatnot, but it's just one of those guys. I have a really close relationship with him and to see the emotion in that moment and to lock eyes in someone with someone in that type of situation is tough, but you're just trying to show that you're there for them and that you're thinking about them. Football doesn't even matter, it's just the disappointment and the disheartening feeling that he's probably feeling that he knows something is wrong. Just, it's hard."
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Lions coach Dan Campbell said Hutchinson would stay overnight in Dallas after undergoing surgery for the injury he suffered with 11:43 left in the third quarter.
Hutchinson was hurt when his leg whipped into teammate Alim McNeill as he took Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott to the ground for a sack.
Hutchinson released Prescott from his grasp as he fell to the ground, and immediately took the gloves off both hands as he writhed in pain.
"It was frightening to see," McNeill said. "That was scary to see. He was just down there. I knew it wasn’t nothing crazy, crazy, crazy, but he couldn’t move that leg. He wasn’t moving that leg so I was like, I don’t know what happened. But Hutch being Hutch, who knows when Hutch’ll be back. That's who he is. He’s going to work hard, he’s going to fight in that rehab. But I don’t know exactly what it is myself, but that was scary to see him down there."
The Lions played their best overall game of the season Sunday, scoring on nine straight possessions to open the game (not including a knee-down snap at the end of the first half) and holding the high-powered Cowboys offense to three field goals.
They allowed one of those field goals on the series Hutchinson was injured, and will have to play indefinitely — perhaps for the rest of the season — without their best defensive player.
Campbell said Hutchinson will "be down for a while" with his injury and expects to know more about his timeline for recovery Monday.
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"Those are hard moments," Campbell said. "That's hard for everybody when you’re standing there and that’s one of yours, and then something like that happens. But I just — look, our guys have done a good job, and the coaches have just refocused on the job ahead of them. Because if you dwell on that too much and you start playing a little timid, that's when you get hurt. So our guys snapped right back in and they lived in the moment and that’s a credit to our players and the coaches."
Replacing Hutchinson won't be easy.
He led the NFL with 6½ sacks through four games and was the NFC Defensive Player of the Month in September. He had at least one sack in four of the Lions' five games this season and had 4½ sacks in a Week 2 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Lions, already without two of their other top pass rushers likely for the year — Marcus Davenport tore his triceps in a Week 3 win over the Arizona Cardinals and Derrick Barnes suffered a knee injury in the same game — finished Sunday's game with Josh Paschal, Trevor Nowaske and practice squad linebacker Isaach Ukwu as their top defensive ends.
Paschal, who has started the past two games in place of Davenport, had two tackles and one quarterback hit Sunday. Nowaske had his first career sack in the second half. And Ukwu made two tackles in his first career game.
Anzalone expressed confidence in the Lions' in-house replacements but said he expects the team to explore all options to add to their defensive line, given their status as one of the NFC's top Super Bowl contenders.
"It is hard to replace a player like Hutch, and I'm sure they're going to do their best to try to get that production from somewhere, whether that's — who knows?" Anzalone said. "You don't really know (what rumors are) true or what's not, but from a player perspective, I guess you'd expect it for where our team's at and what we could potentially do."
Dave Birkett will sign copies of his new book, " Detroit Lions : An Illustrated Timeline" at 7 p.m., Oct. 21, at 24 Seconds Bar & Grill in Berkley, and from 5:30-7 p.m., Oct. 22 at Stadium Cards & Comics in Ypsilanti. Order your copy here .
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com . Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett .
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson to stay overnight in Dallas with 'frightening' leg injury
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