ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- He's been somewhat mortal the past three weeks -- at least for a guy who has the nickname of a machine and for almost his entire college and NFL career has played like one, too.
But Calvin Johnson -- as his former coach, Jim Schwartz, used to say -- is clearly human. He makes mistakes. He drops passes. He gets injured. And it's that latter part that has led to the questions lately, as he's caught less than 50 percent of his targets the past three weeks as he returned to the Detroit Lions' lineup off an ankle injury.
He says he's the "same guy" as he was two seasons ago, when he caught 122 passes for 1,964 yards -- both career highs. His quarterback, Matthew Stafford, still calls him the best receiver in the game. But maybe, people are seeing just how hard it is for the guy nicknamed Megatron to keep up that pace of play.
"It's never easy," Johnson said. "It's always tough to make a big game or to have a big game. It takes a lot of moving parts to make those things happen. It takes 11 to make all of those things happen, especially if I have a big game.
"It takes all of those guys on the front line, my receivers, quarterback, it takes everybody."
It may have taken everybody, but Johnson was a giant bailout clause for Stafford in the offense because of his ability -- and he's still shown it -- to make the difficult catch in double-and-triple coverage that he still sees. To use his 6-foot-5 frame along with his speed to make the uncatchable to the average receiver look somewhat routine. Lions coach Jim Caldwell said Johnson is still a guy who is able to run by people.
Yet Johnson is on pace for his fewest receptions and yards -- he's got 38 catches for 578 yards -- since 2009, when he had 67 receptions for 984 yards. And injuries have had a lot to do with it. Johnson missed three games in a season for the first time in his career with that high right ankle sprain. He played but was limited in two more.
This after a 2013 season where he played through finger and knee injuries that he had to have offseason surgery on. And a 2012 season where he had some nerve damage and a knee injury.
So there could be some concern that these injuries are starting to accumulate on his body and his precocious talent. At least publicly, he says he's not worried about his long-term health, though.
"You're going to have some nicks and bruises here and there," Johnson said. "You can't sit back and really worry about those things. You still have to be able to go out there, try to put those things in the back of your mind and play."
For the past three seasons, he's done that and to this point has given no reason he won't continue doing so.
And now, a look around the Interwebs in search of Lions and other football news:
Lions plummet in latest power rankings. Reggie Bush, LeBron James comment on Ferguson decision. Dominic Raiola not fined for his cut block against New England. A quarterback snapshot of Matthew Stafford. Jim Caldwell said the Lions have no comfort zone on offense. Weekly film review looks at the lack of quarterback pressure. The Lions promote Rodney Austin to the 53-man roster.
A really interesting story about Ndamukong Suh the businessman, from Kevin Clark of the Wall Street Journal.
Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press writes that Dominic Raiola shouldn't start Thursday against Chicago to send a message.
The Lions' play calling is puzzling, writes Josh Katzenstein of the Detroit News.
Detroit has a chance to shed that all-too-familiar Same Old Lions label, writes Justin Rogers of MLive.
We talk about receivers up top and here's an interesting story about another NFL receiver, Steve Smith, and how he keeps going at age 35 from Greg Bishop of Sports Illustrated.