BALTIMORE -- On a day when the Detroit Lions had little else to smile about, Tion Green shined bright.

He waited 12 weeks to make his NFL debut. Then the rookie running back blistered Baltimore for 33 yards on his first professional carry, and scored a 6-yard touchdown on his first touch in the red zone.

He finished with a team-high 55 yards on 11 carries.

"He ran pretty well," Lions coach Jim Caldwell said. "He had some pretty good runs out there, made some tough runs. His touchdown run was a very good run, and obviously, he had a pretty nice gain there coming off the left side. He did some nice things. He got his shoulders square, and I thought he did well."

Green was one of the feel-good stories from Lions training camp this year. An undrafted rookie out of Cincinnati, he faced long odds of making a four-man rotation that returned all four players. But he won over coaches with his tough running on the field, and energy away from it, and convinced team brass to carry a fifth back.

But he had to bide his time before he finally got his chance to play. By Week 12, he was the only player left from the opening day roster who had not played. He told MLive it hurt him to see Detroit's running game struggle so much, when he believed he could help.

"You know I want to play," Green said. "Everyone wants to play on Sundays. It hurts my heart sometimes when we're on the goal line. Man, that's all I did in college."

Days later, with Ameer Abdullah (neck) and Dwayne Washington (hip) unavailable to play against the Ravens, Green got his shot. He made his debut at the start of the second quarter, then followed some nice blocking for a 33-yard splash play to the left.

The Lions had given 230 carries to their tailbacks before that time, and only one -- a 34-yarder by Abdullah -- had gone for longer.

Then in the third quarter, with the Lions trailing 20-7, they pitched the ball to Green from the 6-yard line. He followed nice blocks from Taylor Decker and Don Barclay, then barreled through contact into the end zone.

It was the kind of power play the Lions have struggled to punch into the end zone all season. And Green had done it on his first try.

"I'm very impressed with him," receiver Golden Tate said. "He's been a guy working his tail off every day. He got his opportunity, and I think he made the best of it. Hopefully, he keeps building off this."

Caldwell didn't want to make any rash proclamations after the game about what kind of role Green had won for himself, but it's not hard to see why the Lions used a roster spot to develop him this season either. They're committed to the rookie, and he rewarded that faith with a promising debut against the league's seventh-best defense.

Now it'll be interesting to see how Detroit tries to work him into the fold as Abdullah returns to the field, and at whose expense. It could be Zach Zenner, who had just one carry for 4 yards while working behind both Theo Riddick and Green against Baltimore.