It was that unique ability that prompted the Lions to select the former Western Michigan safety in the second round of last spring's NFL Draft. He has started at free safety since the first game of the regular season and has been extremely productive.
So far this year Delmas has become the first rookie and only the second defensive player in NFL history to score on a safety, an interception and a fumble recovery. He's second on the team in tackles and is tied for second in passes defended.
Delmas treated Sunday's crowd at Ford Field to one of the highlights of the year for Detroit.
Moments after Arizona's Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie intercepted one of
He picked off a Kurt Warner pass at the goal line and tight-roped the sideline for a 100-yard touchdown. That seemed to jump start the Lions, who scored all 24 of their points in the second half of a 31-24 loss to last year's NFC champions.
Delmas gave a lot of the credit to secondary coaches Tim Walton and Daron Roberts.
"My coach did a good job of preparing me for that," Delmas said. "When I saw the 'one man' go in motion, I knew the deep pass was going to come on the back end. My coach did a good job showing me how to disguise it so I could get a better look."
Once the ball was securely in his hands, Delmas' focus changed.
"I saw the end zone and after that I just tried to run 100 miles-an-hour," Delmas said. "I wasn't even looking at (the sideline). I was just trying to avoid the defender who was trying to knock me off balance. I didn't know how close I was to the sideline until I saw it on the jumbo screen."
Even though Delmas has been nursing a sprained ankle, veteran linebacker
"I knew that with guys blocking downfield, he'd be gone," Peterson said. "He's one of our fastest guys and one of our playmakers. If we can get the opportunity to get him some room and some daylight, we know he can get in the end zone."
Peterson held his breath for an instant because he thought he might have nudged Delmas out of bounds when making a block for him.
"I thought I pushed him out but he tight-roped the sideline," Peterson said. "That made me happy right there."
Delmas' performance this season put him in the NFL record book. He's the only rookie to score on a safety, fumble recovery and interception and only the second player in league history -- Los Angeles linebacker Rod Martin did it in 1984 -- to accomplish the feat.
The last rookie to return an interception 100 yards for a touchdown was Mike Gaechter of Dallas in 1962. Delmas is the second Detroit rookie to have a 100-yard interception return. The other was Vern Huffman in 1937.
Delmas is the fourth Detroit player and the first since Bryant Westbrook brought back an interception 101 yards in 2002 to have an interception return of 100 yards.
Delmas' interception return was just one of several good plays the Lions' defense made, especially in the second half when Detroit made Arizona punt on four of its first five possessions.
"We had some other opportunities (for interceptions) but didn't catch the ball," Peterson said. "Some of those were hard catches, but before you make that next step, you have to find ways to make those catches. If we continue what we're doing, we're heading in the right direction and we'll make those turnovers and get points on the board to help the offense."
Sunday was redemption for a disappointing performance a week ago in Baltimore when the Lions gave up a season-high 48 points.
Still, it wasn't quite enough. And that tempered Delmas' joy over his individual accomplishments, which included eight tackles.
"With all the good things that we did, we made a bad play on that last drive (to allow Beanie Wells to break loose for a 33-yard gain to set up the winning touchdown) and they scored," Delmas said. "That put a dent in our hearts and it put our offense in a bad position."
Even though the Lions trailed 17-0 at halftime, the defense was determined to keep the game from getting away like it did the previous week.
"We weren't going to give up," Delmas said. "The mindset we came in with was that no matter what the score was, we were going to come in at halftime, make our adjustments and play four quarters as hard as we can. And that's what we did."
Peterson said that the performance in Baltimore was a perfect storm of everything going wrong.
"If one team was struggling, the next team came in and struggled the same way," he said. "We had all three phases struggling last week. This week, if one of us had a little struggle or a bad series, either the special teams made a play or the offense made a play. That's what team ball is. When you play team ball together you can compete and be in a game like this."
Peterson certainly wasn't surprised that the Lions played better this week.
"We expect an effort like this all the time," he said. "We can accept the fact that we didn't win the game. If you can look in the mirror and know you gave 100 percent and not look down at yourself, you can live with it."
With players like Delmas,
"You have no choice but to look to the future," Delmas said. "We have a bright future, but the future includes the last two games. We want to go out with a bang."
