Lions Week 12 Unsung Hero of the Week: Return of the beast

May your casserole be fluffy, gravy be tasty, and table look better than the Lions did on Thursday. Although we know the Lions aren’t very good, the Bears showed why they’re real contenders in the NFC and created even more distance in the divisional race on primetime TV. With backup quarterback Chase Daniel, who has very little real game experience, taking the reins for the Bears, it seemed like the Lions would have a chance in this one. On the bright side, we got three-and-a-half competitive quarters, a significant improvement over the last time the Lions played the Bears. Another bright side? There seemed to be one guy always in Daniel’s face.

Unsung hero of the week: Ziggy “always on the injury report” Ansah

This was the best version of Ezekiel Ansah we’ve seen probably all year. To add to the fact that he’s (eternally) injured, Matt Patricia and Paul Pasqualoni have used him only situationally, typically on obvious passing downs.

For Ansah to finish the day with a sack, three tackles, and two quarterback hits in a situational role is not bad at all. What really gets him this award is the fact that it’s Ziggy, and we haven’t seen him play like this in a long time.

While there has been talk all season of him getting paid $17 million to do nothing, Thursday’s performance served as a reminder to us all of why he was considered worth $17 million in the first place, even if it’s not enough to sway management in the direction of keeping him.

Whether or not Ansah sticks around at the end of the season is going to be a big decision, and Thursday made it a little bit tougher. If Ansah can keep that form the rest of the season, then he will surely get paid somewhere. His performance was a small bright spot in the Lions’ Turkey Day loss, and hopefully he can continue to perform that well the rest of the season.