BREAKING NEWS: Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson Carted Off with a Gruesome Injury During Game Against the Cowboys; Defensive End Expected to Be Out ‘a While,’ Raising Concerns About His Recovery and Impact on the Team .giang

On a day where everything was going so well for the Detroit Lions, their Super Bowl hopes may have taken a huge hit with Aidan Hutchinson being carted off the field in the third quarter against the Dallas Cowboys.

Head coach Dan Campbell said after the game that Hutchinson suffered a fractured tibia and the defensive end would be “down for a while.”

The Fox television broadcast showed Hutchinson down on the field after his left leg appeared to get whipped into a teammate while he was trying to make a tackle.

The Lions quickly ruled Hutchinson out for the remainder of the game with a lower-leg injury.

Hutchinson had three total tackles, one sack and one tackle for loss in the game prior to suffering the injury. The Lions were beating the Cowboys 34-6 at the time he had to be carted off.

The Lions entered Sunday ranked 10th in points allowed per game. One of the big reasons for that defensive success thus far has been Hutchinson’s ascent to a Defensive Player of the Year-caliber star.

Hutchinson came into Week 6 leading the NFL with 6.5 sacks and tied for third with six tackles for loss. He also had 42 pressures, accounted for half of the entire Lions’ sack total and had the highest pass-rush win rate among all edge players (34 percent), per ESPN.com.

The gap between Hutchinson’s performance and every other lineman on the Lions so far this season is significant. Levi Onwuzurike was the only other player on the team with more than one sack (1.5) entering Week 6.

Hutchinson had nearly as many quarterback hits (14) on his own as every other Detroit player combined (16).

The 24-year-old will likely undergo an X-ray and potentially an MRI to determine the severity of the injury, but any sort of extended absence will have a profound impact on what the Lions are able to do on defense without his reliability on the defensive line.

After a dominant win over the Cowboys, the Lions moved to 4-1 on the season going into a huge matchup next week against the undefeated Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium.