DETROIT -- Devin Taylor lined up on the edge, the same place he typically does every snap he’s in the game. He didn’t have his usual partner at defensive end, Ezekiel Ansah, on the other side of him because Ansah was out with an ankle injury.

But on this play, it didn’t matter. Tennessee was on its own 5-yard line after Sam Martin booted another punt pinning an opponent deep on its own side of the field. And with the Titans a heavy run team to begin with, it seemed like a chance for the Detroit Lions to make a play.

And with 7:20 left in the first quarter, Taylor did, recording a safety after the entire Lions defensive line blew up a Titans running play.

The field position set it up.

“That’s crucial, right,” Stefan Charles said. “That’s just like being able to make a layup on the low block. That’s the same thing, like you’ve got to make that happen, right.”

Detroit lined up in its base 4-3 defense, with Taylor on the left edge and Khyri Thornton next to him. Charles was the other defensive tackle with Wallace Gilberry where Ansah might have been on the right side.

Taylor was lined up just to the outside of Titans right tackle Jack Conklin – an important point based on what happened next.

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Conklin said after the game the play was changed, but that still shouldn’t have led to what happened.

When the ball was snapped, Thornton immediately took advantage of Tennessee. He bull-rushed Titans right guard Chance Warmack, pushing him into the backfield before Tennessee quarterback Marcus Mariota had time to hand off to DeMarco Murray.

He got the ball to Murray, but Thornton’s annihilation of Warmack, combined with Charles beating left guard Quinton Spain, shut down the middle of the line.

“Rushing from the middle, first of all, he had to bend it from the jump,” Charles said. “That’s what made him hesitate, bringing pressure from the guys in the middle and obviously that’s gonna free up Devin to make that tackle.

“Just an ideal situation, you know, positioning and doing the right things.”

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With the interior rush handling the middle of the field, Murray read that and started to cut out to the right. As he’s starting to do that, Taylor rushed to the outside of Conklin and beat Conklin off of the snap. The rookie from Michigan State had no chance to recover, considering Taylor’s size and speed.

By the time he did, Taylor had already moved past him to converge on Murray at the goal line.

“The play was changed,” Conklin said. “But it’s my fault. Still, I knew what the play was. It’s not like I didn’t know what the play was.

“I could have took a better angle and blocked him better.”

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He didn’t, leaving Murray no room to run. Taylor wrapped up Murray properly and gave the Titans back no room to shake free in the end zone, resulting in a safety and the Lions’ first points of the day.

It was part of a big day for Taylor – something that went overlooked in the Lions’ loss. He had seven tackles, 1.5 sacks, two tackles for loss, two quarterback hits and the safety.