Matt Patricia: T.J. Hockenson was in great spirits after game

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Lions tight end T.J. Hockenson suffered a scary looking injury during Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs when he was hit while trying to hurdle safety Tyrann Mathieu and wound up landing headfirst on the turf.

Hockenson stayed down and was attended to by medical personnel in the field during what head coach Matt Patricia called “not a good situation to walk out into” in the third quarter. He was eventually carted off and quickly ruled out with a concussion, although Patricia said he got Hockenson to smile on the field and that the tight end was with family after the game.

“He was in great spirits,” Patricia said, via the Detroit Free Press. “His mom and dad are here. It was good. We’ll just see how it goes.”

Hockenson joined tight end Logan Thomas in being taken down hard while trying to hurdle Mathieu, which led to a question for Patricia about his feelings for that maneuver.

“We got to be real careful when you do leap and you do go up in the air,” Patricia said. “There is an added risk that’s involved in the play, and a lot of time I think those guys, sometimes they take real calculated risks on those situations, sometimes it’s something that we’ve seen on tape maybe previously, or an opportunity that we think maybe a guy goes low. But that particular situation, we’re just trying to keep the players as safe as possible. I want to keep them safe.”

The Lions have a bye in Week Five, which will leave Hockenson with an extended window to be cleared through the concussion protocol before the team’s next game.