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Golden Tate feeds off of the doubters. He's done it throughout his career. But this was different.
Tate is one of the best receivers in the Detroit Lions‘ system, gaining 1,331 yards through the air in 2014 before scoring six touchdowns last season. The Seahawks had previously deemed him expendable, but now he was on top of the mountain in Detroit.
But, early on during the current 2016 campaign, Tate was reeling.
Through three games, Tate only had 94 yards and no touchdowns. He was dropping too many passes, and his role in the offense dimmed. Then, in Week 4 against the Bears, Golden ran the wrong route. He was benched for nearly all of the second half, gaining just one yard on the day.
After the game, Tate turned inward for answers. From Kyle Meinke of Mlive.com:
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“You've got two options: Make a play, or not make a play,” Tate said. “Which GT do you want to be?”
Rather than let his struggles consume him, Tate has turned his season around. In the three games following the debacle in Chicago, Tate has caught 17 passes for 297 yards.
It appears the Golden Tate we've come to know is back, and he credits his benching for the turnaround:
“(The Chicago game) kind of lit a fire under my tail a little bit,” he said. “I had to dig deep a little bit. I had to soul search and think about some things. But it just came down to one thing for me — be confident in who I am as a player, work my tail off and control what I can control. And that's when the ball is thrown my way, make something happen.”
