Lions DB Louis Delmas dealing with knee soreness following Week 12 loss

Unable to make an impact in the overtime period against Houston on Thanksgiving after developing soreness, Detroit Lions safety Louis Delmas continues to deal with a knee issue that has plagued him for the entire season.

Delmas gutted out 44 of Detroit's 79 snaps on the defensive side of the ball on Thursday in a game that marked his first live action since Oct. 28. Though he chipped in five tackles and was a steady presence in the run game before being forced to the sideline, Delmas was simply overworking himself while his knee was less than 100 percent, according to head coach Jim Schwartz.

"It wasn't conditioning, he was just sore," Schwartz told Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com on Thursday. "That's just what happens over the long course of the game. It's an artificial-turf game, he was flying around and things like that and just wasn't able to finish."

Delmas has now been forced to miss at least a portion of game action with an injury on nine occassions in 2012, and is starting to cause a serious headache for a Lions organization that desperately seeks a consistent playmaker on the back end. The extra time off to prepare for his team's Week 13 game with Indianapolis should help, but it's clear that Delmas's injury problems are not going to dissipate anytime soon.