Why Detroit Lions' Frank Ragnow won't succumb to injury: 'It was tough, but it was worth it'

Detroit Lions center Frank Ragnow was in considerable pain as he limped off the field after Calijah Kancey sacked Jared Goff into the back of his left knee late in the first half, which if you know anything about Ragnow's career isn't all that uncommon.

Ragnow has played through a laundry list of injuries since the 2020 season, when he fractured cartilage in his throat, missed two games, then returned for a meaningless Week 17 game to finish the season. He missed most of the 2021 season with a toe injury, played through recurring foot problems last year, and last week showed up on the injury report with a trio of ailments — knee, back and toe — that had no chance of keeping him out of his second ever playoff game.

A second-team All-Pro selection and one of the most important players on the Lions roster, Ragnow said he got his toughness from his parents, who he called Sunday two "of the toughest people I’ve ever met."

"And I just take a lot of pride in being out there with the guys, being out there for the city," he said. "They signed me to this extension a few years ago and I want to be fulfilling that. I don’t want to be that guy who gets paid and not doing that stuff. I want to be out there and finding a way to win."

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Ragnow played a key role in Sunday's 31-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which propelled the Lions to the NFC championship game for the first time since the 1991 season and the second time in the Super Bowl era.

Ragnow was masterful in making offensive line calls against a Bucs defense that's one of the best in the NFL. Tampa finished third in the regular season in blitz percentage and came into Sunday's game determined to pressure Jared Goff.

Goff took two sacks in 46 dropbacks Sunday, completed 30 of 43 passes for 287 yards and two touchdowns and did not commit a turnover for the second straight playoff game.

"(Bucs coach) Todd Bowles is one of the great defensive minds in this league and he does a great job of mixing different personnel packages, (making them look) the same way and then having different thing happens, if that makes sense," Ragnow said. "So I got to kind of diagnose what personnel they’re in and then realize from my film study throughout the season what blitzes they’ve brought out of this year from that personnel and then kind of be aware, like, 'Oh, this personnel they’re doing something different,' and then trust your instincts with safety rotation and what not. So me and Jared are really kind of playing a chess game throughout the game and it’s a lot of fun. That’s the part of the game I really love is trying to diagnose what he’s trying to throw at us."

As difficult a job as that is in the 15 or so seconds he may have after the Lions break the huddle, Ragnow had an even tougher task Sunday: Blocking monstrous Tampa nose tackle Vita Vea (6 feet 4 and 347 pounds).

Vea had one tackle and one quarterback hit, but the Lions rushed for 114 yards and Ragnow delivered the key block on one of the Lions' most important plays.

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With the game tied at 10 and just under 4 minutes left in the third quarter, the Lions ran dive up the middle on fourth-and-goal from the 1. Ragnow stopped Vea in his tracks and the guards on both sides of him opened holes as Craig Reynolds barreled into the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown.

That play came long after Ragnow limped off the field at the end of the second quarter and sought treatment — and clearance — from the Lions medical staff at halftime.

Ragnow said a team surgeon gave him the go-ahead to keep playing after examining his knee, and the training staff "had a great wrap and tape job thing for me and it worked out great."

“Frank’s a stud," Lions coach Dan Campbell said. "That’s what he does and he just — he’s willing to lay it on the line and he’s not going to miss it. We talk about it all the time, but it’s like man, you may not be 100%, but if you feel like you can produce and you can win at 80% of yourself, and that’s what Frank does. He believes he can and he trusts himself and he trusts those guys next to him. And it’s just – there’s nothing easy about that. Not everybody can do it. And that’s OK, but he can. And he helped us win today.”

Ragnow left no doubt after the game he'll be back on the field for next week's NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers, when he'll be fighting through more pain for the right to go to the Super Bowl.

"To me, the pain, I’m not trying to sound like some brute, tough guy here, but I was just more frustrated than anything the fact that it’s just (happening) again," he said. "It was tough, but it was worth it."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why Detroit Lions' Frank Ragnow refuses to succumb to injury