Ziggy Ansah is the Hoss of the Week

Detroit Lions defensive end Ezekiel Ansah was off to a slow start this season. He had one sack, which was actually two half sacks combined, through the first five games. A knee injury he suffered in the second game of the season against the Panthers appeared to be holding him back too. But on Sunday against the Vikings, he notched the fourth mutli-sack game of his career, looking damn good doing it.

I don't think he is going to keep the half of a sack they gave him along with Lions linebacker DeAndre Levy because Levy clearly got there first. However, I can definitely see why they gave it to him at the time because he hit Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater right after Levy, and there was no doubt that had Levy been a half second late, Ansah would have taken him down by himself. His teammate, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, had a sack prior to that and Ansah was right there behind him helping him to finish off Bridgewater. He evidently was going to make sure he got a piece of Bridgewater every time anyone else sacked him.

Ansah also made a couple nice plays after dropping back in zone coverage when the Lions called a blitz to the other side. On one occasion he saw fellow Lions defensive end Jason Jones wrap up Bridgewater for a sack and ran all the way in from his drop to help finish him off.

Back to the sacks, because even without that half a sack, Ansah still had two of his own. The first one came on a third-and-8 in the beginning of the second quarter. What I loved about it is that Ansah actually used great hand technique to get Vikings left tackle Matt Kalil to extend his arms at him. Then, he sank in a rip move under his Kalil's outside arm and ran around him. He finished by swatting Bridgewater's arm causing him to fumble; only someone with arms as long as the ones Ansah was blessed with could pull that off. The Vikings were able to recover the fumble, but they were forced to punt.

With 2:21 left in the game and the Vikings down 17-3, they decided to go for it on fourth-and-9 from their own 41-yard line. Ansah came off and pushed Kalil back. Jones, who was lined up inside, looped around to the outside. Jones actually came free and clear to Bridgewater, but he was too off balance and too high to make the tackle. Instead, he ended up grabbing his helmet as he passed him. Ansah just kept pushing on Kalil, made his way inside and pushed left guard Charlie Johnson. When Johnson went looking for Jones, Ansah ran into running back Matt Asiata who was checking through the line to go on a pass route. Finally, after Asiata moved out of the way, Ansah could see Bridgewater ducking under Jones' tackle attempt and made a beeline for the quarterback, flattening him out like a steam roller.