Defensive tackle Nick Fairley, the 13th overall pick in the 2011 draft, practiced on Friday. It was the first time he's put a helmet on since breaking his foot Aug. 1.

The Lions have vowed to bring him back slowly, saying their depth at that position gave them the luxury to make sure he's completely ready.

That was then and this, apparently, is now -- on Monday ESPN reported that the Lions are "hopeful" Fairley will play Sunday at Dallas.

The Lions' four-man rotation at defensive tackle -- Ndamukong Suh, Corey Williams, Sammie Hill and Andre Fluellen -- has been productive. However, Suh played 91 percent of the snaps in Minnesota, with Fluellen barely getting on the field.

Fairley did not have any setbacks after his workout on Friday.

"That was a big step," said Lions coach Jim Schwartz. "He'd been doing a lot of stuff on the side and doing a lot of lifting and conditioning and things like that, but actually putting a helmet on -- he doesn't even have any stickers on his helmet. This is just part of the process."

Cornerback Alphonso Smith had a similar foot injury and, like Fairley, missed all of camp. He's been practicing now for three weeks and still hasn't been activated for a game. For Fairley, a 300-pound man, getting back after one week of practice still seems a reach.

--The answer will reveal itself eventually, but the question is starting to be asked with more concern with each passing week -- Do the Lions need to run the ball to be a legitimate playoff contender?

Coach Jim Schwartz answered the question with a baseball analogy on Monday.

"If you are a pitcher that has an unhittable fastball, you can't just keep going with it," he said. "You need to develop a change-up or a curve ball. Whether you are throwing it 60 times a game or 10 times a game, you need your other pitches. We need our run game."

The Lions rank 26th in rushing yards per game (78.3) and 29th in yards per carry (2.8). Jahvid Best was the team's leading rusher Sunday, with 14 yards on 12 carries. Yet, the Lions rank ninth in total offense, averaging 400 yards per game, and fourth in scoring offense (33.7).

"Basically, (tight end) Brandon Pettigrew was our running game," Schwartz said of Pettigrew's 11 catches for 112 yards. "We started to spread them out more and we went to short, control passes. Of his 11 catches only one was down the seam. They were mostly ball control passes and that was our run game. The way they were rushing up front, with the front seven, really, we needed that."

Schwartz and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan are both fond of saying that it doesn't matter how you move the ball, it only matters that you move the ball and ultimately score.

But Schwartz said on Monday that the goal is to improve the running game, not abandon it.

"We can be a lot better and I think we will be a lot better," he said.

The bar is set fairly low for what would constitute a "productive" run game for the Lions. They don't need to roll up 200 yards a game on the ground. They just need the defenses to recognize the threat of it so that the play-action has some value for quarterback Matthew Stafford.

"Our biggest problem in the run game was taking lost-yardage plays," Schwartz said. "We had nine lost-yardage plays on Sunday. That puts you behind the 8-ball. What you are hoping for when you run it on first down, is to be facing a second-and-7 or a second-and-8. Well, we were facing way too many second-and-13s.

"Jahvid had a couple of good runs but the lost-yardage plays take away from that and his average doesn't look that good."

His best run of the day netted three yards and it came with 65 seconds left in regulation, in a tie game, with the Lions backed up to their own 3.

"Taking a safety right there would not have been good way for that game to end," Schwartz dead-panned. "He had nothing at the point of attack, but he bounced it outside, broke a tackle and got it out to the 3. That was a huge play."

If great things are ever going to happen with the Lions' run game, there's going to have to be improvement in a lot of different areas.

"It's not all on the running backs," Schwartz said. "We had poor blocking at the point of attack on a couple. On a couple we blocked poorly on the backside and a couple were poorly blocked on the perimeter. We can get better in every facet."

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