The Lions came into Monday night’s game against the Buccaneers missing their top two safeties, their top two cornerbacks and a few other defensive backs, but turning to the next men up turned out just fine.
Amik Robertson, Rock Ya-Sin, Erick Hallett, Arthur Maulet, Nick Whiteside, Thomas Harper, Loren Strickland, and Tre Flowers all saw snaps in the secondary and their work helped hold the Bucs to a season-low point total in Detroit’s 24-9 win. Maulet had an interception, Robertson forced a fumble, and Whiteside had a pair of key pass breakups while playing behind a front seven that produced four sacks of Baker Mayfield.
“I told those guys, man, after the game, [how proud I was](https://www.mlive.com/lions/2025/10/lions-dbs-ball-out-support-suspended-safety-with-jersey-tribute-money-cant-buy-loyalty.html) of them,” Robertson said, via Benjamin Raven of MLive.com. “Every single last one of them — Whiteside, Harper, all of them. All I thought about when I was out there, man, is play for those guys. I told them, even though this maybe y’all first opportunity, show the world. We heard the noise. Those guys went out there and played their hearts out. I had no doubt in them. Let’s go out there and show everybody and not talk about it, and that’s what I felt like we did tonight.”
Safety Brian Branch’s suspension will be up when the Lions return from their Week 8 bye and the team will be hoping to get some of their other missing pieces back as well. If that doesn’t happen, there won’t be any lack of confidence in the players that they will have on hand.
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