DETROIT (AP) – The scoreboard could have read: Eddie Drummond 14, Detroit 3.

Drummond outscored the rest of his team with two punt returns for touchdowns in the fourth quarter – the first NFL player to accomplish the feat – in a 23-17 overtime loss last week at Jacksonville.

His impact on special teams has not been quite that dramatic all season for the Lions, but they would be in rough shape without him.

“Honestly, I’d rather win with an average day than lose with a game like I had,” Drummond said. “I want to go to the playoffs as quick as possible. I don’t want to be the guy that’s never been.”

Despite a 4-5 record and a three-game losing streak, the Lions have postseason hopes because they’re only one game behind Green Bay and Minnesota in the NFC North. Detroit is on the road this week against the Vikings.

“It will be a good measuring stick to see where we’re at in the division,” he said.

It would be tough for any returner to measure up with the game Drummond had against the Jaguars. He had six punt returns for 199 yards, a single-game total that trails only two in NFL history.

With Jacksonville leading 17-0 early in the fourth quarter, Drummond returned a punt 55 yards for a score after two Jacksonville players touched the ball and failed to down it.

He tied the game with 46 seconds remaining on an 83-yard return, becoming the first player to score off two punts in the fourth quarter and the 11th player to do it twice in a game.

“He’s this year’s Dante Hall,” Vikings coach Mike Tice said. “Our coaches are raving about him. Our players are very concerned. We almost have to be perfect to be able to stop him, so it is really going to be a tough task for us to be perfect because we haven’t been to this point.”

When Drummond started his NFL career in 2002 as an undrafted free agent, he made Detroit’s team as a returner even though he had run back only one kickoff at Penn State.

“I had a lot to learn in my first training camp,” he said. “I was lucky enough to be able to learn from Desmond Howard, one of the best.

“About 70 percent of what I do is instincts. The rest of it is planning.”

Drummond was given a chance as a rookie when Howard and Az-Zahir Hakim were sidelined with injuries. He made the most of the opportunity by returning a punt for a TD and averaged 26 yards on kickoff returns, ranking among NFC leaders.

He got off to a strong start last season with a score off a punt return in the opener, but was hobbled for much of the season after a tackle left him with an injured knee and ankle.

Following an offseason regimen of Pilates and other exercises to strengthen his legs, Drummond is enjoying a productive and injury-free season.

“He’s as good as there is,” Lions special teams coach Chuck Priefer said. “He’s a strong runner. He’s physical. He’s got great vision.”

Drummond is averaging an NFL-best 15.2 yards on punt returns and his two TDs are tied atop the league with Baltimore’s B.J. Sams. He has scored once on a kickoff return and ranks fifth in the NFL with a 25.9-yard average.

“He doesn’t seem to have any fear,” Tice said.

Drummond said it doesn’t unnerve him to have 11 muscle-bound, world-class athletes sprinting toward him – hoping to crush him – every time he touches the ball.

“I’m never nervous back there. I’m actually pretty calm,” he insisted. “Usually, I’m so excited for the ball to get to me that I’m usually singing a tune in my head.

“I don’t think about guys trying to kill me. I’m thinking about the play I’m about to make.”

Drummond is glad he gets a chance to also do some hitting on Detroit’s punt and kickoff coverage teams.

“It gives me a chance to get back at the other team for coming after me,” he said. “It allows me to get some aggression out. I had one concussion my rookie year and it wasn’t returning, it was breaking up a wedge on a kickoff.”

Drummond earned NFC special teams player of the week honors after his latest spectacular game. He was the NFC special teams player of the month in September.

Drummond also is leading NFC returners in voting for the Pro Bowl.

“Finally,” he said. “Last year I was on the same road through the first three games and then I got hurt. Now, (we’re) halfway through the season, so it is like everything is evolving right now. Luckily the league and other teams are seeing that I’m a contender.”

AP-ES-11-18-04 1503EST