NEWSLETTER
They don’t call him “Big Play Slay” for nothing.
The Detroit Lions cornerback came away with two of the three interceptions thrown by Mitch Trubisky in the team’s 20-10 win against the Chicago Bears. While many came away discouraged after the Bears took a step back six days after thrashing the Cincinnati Bengals, it was the Lions’ cornerback walking away singing Trubisky’s praises.
“He’s a great one. He’s going to get better. And I can see it in him,” Slay said of Trubisky, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “He’s got the drive to keep working, and he believes in himself and the team do, so if the team’s behind his back, he’ll be alright. But he needs to learn his lesson, though. Ain’t too many times he’s going to throw over to 23.
For the record, Slay wears No. 23.
Sage advice, sir.
Slay’s interception on the second play of the second half proved to be a game-changer. The turnover nullified any momentum the Bears built after forcing a fumble and turning it into a late Mike Nugent field goal that put a small dent into Detroit’s halftime lead.
To his credit, Slay played the route perfectly. The NFL’s interceptions leader said he recognized the route from film study, broke off from covering Dontrelle Inman, and jumped it to leave Trubisky with one of two outcomes.
“It was either going to be an incomplete pass or a complete pass to me. So I just made a play on it,” Slay explained. “If he would have tried to jump and catch it, I would’ve smacked him. Right out of bounds.”
The “he” Slay is referring to is Kendall Wright, the intended target who did not make a play on the ball Trubisky sailed on him. As a result, it landed in the waiting arms of Slay.
Slay told reporters after the game the Lions’ goal was to make the Bears one dimensional and force Trubisky to beat them with his arm. He couldn’t and the Bears didn’t. But Slay also made note of the difference in game calling.
“Last week, I think they ran the ball pretty good on Cincinnati,” Slay said. “They can’t run the ball on us, so he had to throw the ball. Our goal was to make him beat us and we knew he couldn’t do that.”
Chicago, which ran for 232 yards against Cincinnati in Week 14 and 222 yards in Week 11 against Detroit, gained just 43 yards on Saturday. Because that aspect of the offense was going nowhere fast, it played right into what the Lions defense wanted all along.
