The Detroit Lions defensive line made a statement Sunday night against a battered Los Angeles Rams offensive line and are in line to add D.J. Reader back into the mix.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell said Monday the team still wants to get Reader back into the fold this week. This has been the team’s plan for Reader’s recovery from a torn quad muscle since they took him off the physically unable to perform list just before the start of the season.

“I think the plan was, ultimately, if we couldn’t get D.J. up last week, or just we didn’t feel quite there, that Tampa was always the target,” Campbell said. “So, providing there is no setbacks, we’d like to get him going. This week, he looked pretty good in practice.”

Reader has been out since Week 15 of last year with a torn quad he suffered as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals. The Lions signed him to a two-year, $22 million deal to anchor the defensive line as a hole-stuffing nose tackle to play alongside the Lions’ other young defensive tackles, Alim McNeill and Levi Onwuzurike. McNeill said he is excited to see the space he clears taking on double-teams on the interior.

“He’s going to have to take up some double teams so I can get some one-on-ones,” McNeill said with a smile. “He has to take some double teams on because he destroys centers. That’s just what he does and that’s what he did when he was in Cincy.”

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He will re-join a defensive line that was one of the standout position groups for the Lions in the 26-20 overtime win over the Rams on Sunday. The Lions recorded just two sacks, but constantly lived in the backfield against the Rams’ beat-up offensive line with backups across the board. Matthew Stafford was getting rid of the ball as fast as possible while absorbing hit after hit. He took 12 quarterback hits and only three of his 34 completions traveled more than 10 yards down the field, according to NFL Next Gen Stats.

“Just about every one of them had a winning performance up front,” Campbell said. “I thought they played big. I thought they played physical. And we feel like we have a good defensive line.

“And I know that it’s game one but just since the spring and training camp and seeing where we are at, it’s the right mix. It’s the right balance of length, power, size, aggression. And that’s just game one. We got so much room to grow in there too.”

Aidan Hutchinson led the way as a destructive force, caving in the Rams offensive line wherever he lined up while Marcus Davenport crashed in from the opposite edge in a productive Lions debut. Hutchinson had one sack, five tackles (one for loss) and four hits on Stafford’s drop backs. Davenport linked up with Onwuzurike on the team’s first sack and also chipped in four hits on Stafford.

“I thought Hutch and Davenport on the perimeter, all day long, were a force,” Campbell said.

According to Pro Football Focus’ postgame analysis, Hutchinson graded out as the Lions’ best performer on offense or defense with a score of 94.0 on a 0-100 scale. He caused issues for whoever the Rams had at left tackle, whether it was Joe Noteboom or A.J. Arcuri, with his power moves to the inside or his patented spin move to win with speed.

Onwuzurike played a career-high 50 snaps and had the half-sack, two hits on Stafford and two total tackles. The performance was what his teammates and coaches expected after he had a fully healthy offseason into a strong training camp.

“That’s the type of player he is,” McNeill said. “He’s worked and got himself back in that position to be Levi again. He’s comfortable. You saw him, he got a sack last night. So, he’s doing great.”

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Lions defense steps up in big moments

The Lions came up with two defensive stops to give their offense a chance at a comeback after the Rams took a 20-17 lead with 17 unanswered points.

The Lions gave the ball back to LA with 4:10 left and an opportunity to salt the game away, but the Lions forced a punt to get the ball back with just over two minutes. The offense executed well enough to get the game-tying field goal, then closed regulation with Hutchinson’s sack on what ended up being the defense’s final snap.

The defense’s effort was well-rewarded by the offense’s game-winning touchdown drive in overtime that kept Stafford and the Rams’ offense off the field.

“Y’all have heard that word 1,000 times but that right there is the definition of grit,” Onwuzurike said.

The Lions also held the Rams to 20 points on six trips inside Detroit’s 25-yard line, including pulling in an interception and forcing a turnover on downs. It was far from a perfect performance, McNeill said, since they still gave up more than zero points, but did what found a way to get stops with their backs against the wall. Onwuzurike said the emphasis on the red zone is a key pillar of defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn’s approach, which proved effective Sunday.

“He talks about how that’s how you win games — in the red zone,” Onwuzurike said. “So, we take that serious. We’ll see guys like Hutch, BB (Brian Branch), Anzo (Alex Anzalone), all these guys, kind of look us in the eye and say ‘we gotta lock in here. This is how we win games.’”

Carlton Davis simply got the wind knocked out of him.

Davis left the Detroit Lions’ 26-20 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday on the second-to-last play of regulation after dropping an interception that might have kept the game from going to overtime at Ford Field.

Davis stayed hunched on the ground for about a minute and was tended to by trainers before walking off the field under his own power.

“Shoulda caught the ball,” Davis said after the game. “It hit my stomach and knocked the wind out of me.”

Ennis Rakestraw Jr. replaced him and played the final snap of regulation, when Aidan Hutchinson sacked Matthew Stafford, and the Lions won the overtime coin toss and scored a touchdown to end the game.

Davis would have been able to return had the Lions needed him on defense, and indicated he’ll be fine for next Sunday’s game against his old team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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An offseason trade acquisition, Davis made 10 tackles in his Lions debut but said he and the Lions’ new-look secondary need to be more opportunistic going forward. He dropped a would-be interception on an overthrown Stafford pass with 11 seconds to play. Had Davis held onto the ball, the Lions would have taken possession near midfield with one timeout.

Safety Brian Branch also dropped an interception, and the Lions allowed Stafford to complete 34 of 49 passes for 317 yards on a day he played behind a severely shorthanded offensive line, and lost Pro Bowl receiver Puka Nacua to injury.

“I thought we played good as a secondary for sure,” Davis said. “Like I said, we want to be perfect, we want to be the best in the league so we’ve got to be better and be more opportunistic, especially with the ball. We just had too many dropped picks. But overall we kept the score down, 20, we just got to get better, work on the little things. First game out, we’re still building on chemistry in the back end but it’s coming together.”

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Slip and slide at Ford Field

Several Lions players had issues with their footing Sunday, slipping at times on the Ford Field turf.

Jahmyr Gibbs stumbled as he ran open in the Rams’ secondary with just over a minute to play, causing Jared Goff to sail a would-be touchdown over his head. Amon-Ra St. Brown slipped on an in-breaking route later in the same drive, and Kalif Raymond lost his footing on a third-down incompletion before the Lions settled for the game-tying field goal.

Lions running back David Montgomery said he slipped on multiple occasions Sunday, but said it wasn’t an issue with the Ford Field turf.

“I definitely was slipping,” he said. “Got to get my feet under me, play more on my toes. That can’t be an excuse to why I slip. I just got to be sure I get my feet under me and I’ll do that.”

Wide receiver Jameson Williams said he thought some of the issue was the Lions playing on turf for one of the first times this preseason.

“I wouldn’t say it was slippery,” he said. “But it’s first game being on turf for a lot of us. Some of us didn’t play in the preseason so we just like getting back to the turf feel. We practice on grass a lot so that may be a thing. I’m not really sure about the turf. I think it was OK. I don’t really know. I didn’t slip.”

Dave Birkett is the author of the new book, “Detroit Lions: An Illustrated Timeline.” Preorder it now from Reedy Press.

Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on X and Instagram at @davebirkett.