National Football League

Notes: Joseph Fauria injures ankle; Lions' defense ranked No. 1

Published Sep. 25, 2014 2:11 p.m. ET

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ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- It's dangerous to be a Detroit Lion these days. Players are going down with injuries at an alarming rate.

The latest is tight end Joseph Fauria, who apparently injured an ankle Wednesday night in an accident at home.

Coach Jim Caldwell confirmed that Fauria, who caught seven touchdown passes as a rookie last season, won't practice Thursday. Fauria's status for Sunday's game against the New York Jets wasn't announced, but it doesn't sound too encouraging.

"One of those innocent things, I guess, around the house and ended up miss-stepping and twisting his ankle," coach Jim Caldwell said. "He's being evaluated further in terms of MRIs and that nature."

The Lions have already lost four players -- offensive tackle Corey Hilliard (foot), linebacker Stephen Tulloch (knee,) cornerback Bill Bentley (knee) and cornerback Nevin Lawson (foot) -- for the season, not to mention numerous other injuries through the first three weeks of the season, especially in a depleted secondary.

Fauria, who has three receptions for 49 yards in three games, has been splitting the backup duties with first-round draft pick Eric Ebron, behind starter Brandon Pettigrew.

Fauria's absence would open up more opportunities for Ebron, who also has three catches, for 38 yards, so far.

"The numbers have just changed in terms of the depth at that position," Caldwell said. "You can anticipate that he's going to probably see a bit more because he'll take on Joe's role."

To this point, Ebron's role has been limited considering he was the 10th pick overall, and the Lions chose not to draft a much-needed cornerback in favor of taking another offensive weapon.

"I think his time is coming," offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said of Ebron. "You can see that he runs good routes and he's catching the ball a lot better. He's had a really good week of practice.

"We've just got to be patient, let it take its course and you're going to see some big production out of him eventually."

Probably sooner than later now because of Fauria's injury.

TOP-RANKED DEFENSE

The consensus opinion entering the season was that the Lions would have to score an awul lot of points to have any chance of making up for a porous defense, especially on the back end.

But here they are after three weeks of the season, tied for first place in the NFC North with a 2-1 record, largely because they have the No. 1-rated defense in the league.

Who knew?

The Lions, incredibly, are No. 1 in total defense (244.3 yards per game), No. 2 in run defense (63.7 yards per game), No. 3 in pass defense (180.7 yards per game), No. 2 in third-down defense percentage (28.6 percent) and, most importantly, tied for second in points allowed (15 per game).

"We don't care where we're ranked," said Teryl Austin, in his first year as a defensive coordinator in the NFL. "What we care about is how we're playing. Are we giving our offense a chance to win? Are we giving our team a chance to win?

"That's really what we're doing right now."

The shocking part of it all is that they've done it with so many injuries in the secondary, including starting strong safety James Ihedigbo, who hasn't played yet because of a neck injury sustained in the preseason.

Free safety Glover Quin said they've exceled, in part, because of a "no-excuse mentality."

"Our whole thing is it doesn't matter who's in there, we have a standard," Quin said. "If you're in there, our standards must be upheld. We don't make excuses. We've just got to find a way to get the job done."

Like Austin, Quin said he's not making too much out of the defensive rankings at this point.

"It just means we've played three decent games, that's it," Quin said. "All those numbers can be skewed depending on who you're playing and how they're playing, how the game goes. It's too early in the season to say you're the best defense in the league.

"Our goal is to keep striving to be the best. If we continue to do what we do, continue to play the way we play and continue to communicate and fly around, hopefully at the end of the season we'll still be No. 1. Then we can run back and say, 'You know what, we had a pretty good defense.' Right now, we're still working."

MEGATRON UPDATE

Receiver Calvin Johnson missed practiced Thursday for the second straight day because of an ankle injury sustained late in Sunday's game.

He indicated Wednesday that he wasn't concerned about the problem, but another day of missing practice raises some questions.

"Any time that someone doesn't practice -- in particular when it's not just a day of rest, which we would indicate on the medical report -- there's always some concern," Caldwell said.

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