Jahmyr Gibbs leads way as Lions hold off Jets

Nolan Bianchi, The Detroit News on Sep 27, 2026

Published in Football

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DETROIT — Just like they did in Week 1, the Detroit Lions watched a double-digit lead melt away in the fourth quarter at Ford Field on Sunday.

But as in the opener, the Lions battened down the hatches and weathered a late New York Jets storm to escape with a 31-24 victory in the return of Jets coach and former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn.

Defensive back Chuck Clark strip-sacked Jets quarterback Geno Smith, leading to a recovery by linebacker Jack Campbell with 45 seconds remaining to put the Jets away for good.

After Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs scored his second touchdown of the game to put the Lions up 24-10 on the opening play of the fourth quarter, Detroit took one untimely penalty after another — on both sides of the ball, but particularly on defense — and allowed the Jets to tie the game at 24 with 4:06 remaining in the contest.

Following the Jets' tying score, the Lions' offense recovered by starting the ensuing drive with a 49-yard completion to Isaac TeSlaa that immediately put Detroit within striking distance. TeSlaa had three catches for 66 yards.

Gibbs caught two passes, one for 6 yards to climb out of a hole on second-and-long, and then another in the flat where he raced to the end zone for his third touchdown of the day to go up 31-24 with 2:25 left.

This time, the Lions' defense answered the bell in regulation.

Gibbs finished the game with 99 rushing yards and 65 receiving yards to go with his three scores. Lions quarterback Jared Goff was 25 for 32 for 269 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

The Lions defense once again allowed several explosive pass plays as Smith finished 31 for 37 for 321 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions.

The Jets were upstream without a paddle in the run game as Breece Hall was limited to 32 yards on 13 carries before being knocked out of the game by a Trevor Nowaske tackle, but it didn't slow down the Jets' passing game.

The Lions got off to another slow start offensively, as both of their first two drives got off to promising starts before being derailed by backbreaking sacks. On the first, Gibbs missed the extra rusher (safety Andre Cisco) entirely; on the next, he got steamrolled by Demario Davis as the pressure gave out on the entire left side of the line before Davis finished the sack.

Detroit eventually took a 3-0 lead with 9:35 left in the second quarter on a 30-yard field goal by Jake Bates.

Rookie tight end Kenyon Sadiq put the Jets on top just four minutes and two seconds later. He dove to haul in a 24-yard touchdown pass from Smith while fighting off relatively tight coverage from Lions cornerback Roger McCreary, who started in place of Rock Ya-Sin.

The Lions regained their lead with 1:36 left in the first half on a drive that was ignited by a 44-yard kick return by Jacob Saylors, giving Detroit first-and-10 at its own 47. The 12-play series was capped by a 4-yard touchdown to St. Brown on a fade route, his fifth touchdown catch of the season.

Gibbs put the Lions up by two scores on a 17-yard touchdown where he channeled Lions legend Barry Sanders. He took a pitch to the right, ran out of real estate, cut back left and beat everybody to the pylon with 10:56 to go in the third quarter, giving the Lions a 17-7 lead.

The Jets answered with a quick downfield shot to Garrett Wilson (32 yards) and got into the red zone, but Alim McNeill recorded sacks on back-to-back plays (he split the second with DJ Wonnum, who had a third-down sack earlier in the day) to force a field goal. Jason Sanders made the 42-yard attempt, making it 17-10 at 6:41 in the third.

Gibbs scored his second touchdown of the game to go up 24-10 on the opening play of the fourth quarter. He punched it in from 1 yard out, passing Billy Sims for the second-most rushing touchdowns (43) in Lions history; he now trails only Sanders (99). Defensive tackle Skyler Gill-Howard went in motion and laid a block on the play.

The Jets didn’t go down quietly, however. New York hit on back-to-back explosive plays — 21 yards to former Lions receiver Isaiah Williams and 43 yards to Sadiq — to reach the red zone, and then benefited from a defensive pass interference penalty on Lions corner D.J. Reed to get first-and-goal at the 4, resulting in a 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end Jeremy Ruckert.

But Smith didn’t see a wide-open Sadiq on the two-point try and threw an incompletion, holding the Lions’ 8-point lead, 24-16 at 11:17 in the fourth.

On the ensuing Detroit possession, Gibbs was stuffed on a fourth-and-2 attempt to the Jets' 45-yard line, giving New York the ball back with 8:32 left in a one-score game.

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