Lions receiver Jameson Williams happy to be right back in mix after two-game absence

ALLEN PARK, Mich.— After quarterback Jared Goff tossed his fifth interception against the Houston Texans on Sunday, wide receiver Jameson Williams, who was the intended target on the play, went to the sideline with a question for Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson.

"Hey, was my angle right?" Williams posed, according to Johnson's recollection Thursday.

"No, it wasn’t right. It’s not what we had talked about," Johnson replied before assuring Williams he'd have an opportunity in the fourth quarter to make up for his mistake.

That came to fruition when Goff fired a pass to Williams early in the final frame. Williams picked up 17 yards on the play to help teammate Amon-Ra St. Brown score a touchdown two snaps later, but he certainly paid the price for it. As Williams was looking the ball in, he was hit by both the defender in front of him and the one behind him. He was shaken up, but returned the next drive.

Williams finished with 53 yards on three catches, helping the Lions beat the Texans in his first game back from a two-game suspension.

"He’s really coming on and showing up," Johnson said. "When you challenge him on the sidelines, he typically responds in a positive way and we knew, particularly with the turnovers, our margin for error had gone down, so he needed to make that play for us at that time and he did. But the level of confidence in him and his hands and his detail continues to rise."

Williams said he appreciated how the staff was confident enough in him to reinsert him right back into the lineup after he served the two-game ban. He noted how when he was previously suspended — Williams missed four games last season for violating the league's gambling policy — it took time for him to get massaged into things.

Not the case this time. Right back to it, and right back to making plays.

"When your number is called, you've got to make a play no matter the circumstances (or) if you're getting hit in the front and the back, you've just got to make a play," Williams said. "It was big for us, we were making our comeback (and) we were trying to win the game, so every play has to be made when somebody's number is called. That was my thing, I just felt like I had to make a play, and I just rung it in."

Don't mess with Bates on game day

Special teams coordinator Dave Fipp has had to learn a lot about rookie kicker Jake Bates over the last few months.

Fipp has had to figure out Bates' strengths and weaknesses, of course, but he's also had to discover the type of person Bates is. How does he like to be coached? What does he respond well to? When is the best time to deliver a coaching point?

One of the main things Fipp learned? Back off on game day.

"We’re going in the preseason and I’m getting to know him and we’re in the middle of a preseason game and I go up to him to say something, and man, you could tell he wanted no part of nothing at that moment," Fipp said Thursday. "He was so locked in and focused, and then I kind of watched him more in his pregame. I mean, he doesn’t talk to anybody, he stays locked in. ...

"I watch him in the warmups (to see) if there’s any pointers to give at that time, just very subtle things that I think might help, and then I say it. If not, I let him go. I’ll stay working on other guys around him, but the rest of it’s on him."

Bates has begun his career with 14 consecutive made field goals, including the game-winning kick he sunk at the buzzer to beat the Texans.

"Every player that you coach is different," Fipp said of kickers. "I think a lot of times, coaching that position, people over-coach those guys all the time; they get in the way. It’s a position, to me, where less is a lot more. ... Everybody’s got a different stroke, everybody’s got a different technique or way of going about it. So, I am definitely less is more with that position in general."

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