MUNICH, Germany — The first big cheer for Detroit Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown at Allianz Arena came before kickoff when he ran out of the tunnel carrying a German flag.

The next and loudest was on Detroit's opening drive, when he left Christian Gonzalez in the dust with a vicious juke and cut upfield, racing all the way to the end zone with defenders trying to bring him down from behind for a 56-yard touchdown — the first of two scores on the day for St. Brown — as almost the entire stadium rose to their feet and let out a roar for their favorite (American) footballing grandson.

In any other game, in any other place, maybe St. Brown would have been caught on the third-longest touchdown of his career.

But after bursting into open field, it was obvious that nobody would deny St. Brown the end zone in Munich, and even following an injury to defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, nobody was going to deny the Lions in a 35-10 victory, Detroit's fifth straight win, moving the Lions (7-2) into first place in the NFC North.

"I feel great, man. It was a memorable three days, three days I'll never forget in my career," St. Brown said. "My first game in Germany, a place that I call basically my second home, it was amazing from the start of the game to the end, the way we played as a team."

And the final image of his return was the same as the first. As players emptied the field, St. Brown took a few moments to continue soaking it in, standing on the edge of the stands and waving the German flag in front of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of screaming supporters. With his inspiring performance, the Lions likely gained a few more fans on Sunday.

"I think as a kid, like — thinking kids can finally watch the game because it's on 3:30, different time normally than Sundays, to gain any type of Lions fans would be amazing," St. Brown said. "When you're a kid, you get a Lions ball, you have a Lions jersey, you're four, five years old, you don't know anything. As you get older, first jersey, I'm a Lions fan. To build more football fans in general, Lions fans (would be awesome).

"The way we play, Detroit and Germany, I think Dan said it earlier, we had some similarities in the grit, the way Detroit is built, the way Germany is built, the way people work, their mindset, their work ethic."

St. Brown scored a second touchdown with 8:16 left in the third quarter to put Detroit up 28-3, and a Patriots fan in front of the press box wearing a Drake Maye jersey raised his arms to celebrate. Amid talks of whether this would be a pro-Lions or pro-Patriots crowd (it was heavily slanted toward the former), only a small fraction of the Munich-record 70,225 fans in attendance were not pro-St. Brown.

"It's like a dream come true," St. Brown said.

His German-born mother, Miriam, was the belle of the ball in Munich this week, a long way from her hometown of Leverkusen but feeling right at home as what felt like the entire country showered her son with adoration. He finished with four catches for 98 yards and two touchdowns.

"It's great," Miriam told The Detroit News earlier this week. "This is not my hometown, but it's still great. It's wonderful."

The "blue wave" crashed furiously in the streets of Munich this week, but everyone in the organization knew the feeling wouldn't last if the Lions couldn't drown the Patriots (5-5) on Sunday.

"This has been an unbelievable experience," said a happy Dan Campbell after the game, who earlier this week said that the team would be sick to its stomach if it didn't go home with a win.

"Been very special. We did feel like this is a home game. We felt like this is our home. That was important. Everybody has taken unbelievable care of us all week. The hospitality has been unbelievable here. This is icing on the cake."

No worries there: The Lions pulled their starters with 7:04 left in the fourth quarter.

The only player who came close to bringing the crowd to its feet like St. Brown was running back Jahmyr Gibbs, who carried the load after St. Brown's opening-score drive. Gibbs racked up 252 yards from scrimmage (153 rushing, 99 receiving), the second-most of his career, with two touchdowns, including a 28-yard score with 8:56 remaining that put Detroit up 35-10 and shut the door on a Patriots comeback.

Gibbs — and many other Lions players — were happy to deliver an emphatic victory for St. Brown's return.

"It meant a lot to him," Gibbs said. "He's German, he grew up here a little bit. I told him we got him, and I knew we were all going to play hard for him."

Patriots quarterback Drake Maye suffered an ankle injury during a third-down sack by Hutchinson on New England's opening series, a play that proved costly for both teams. Hutchinson suffered a scary knee injury while celebrating on the slippery field and did not return, reminiscent of linebacker Stephen Tulloch. Maye was ruled out with an ankle injury, and the Patriots' offense turned lifeless after inserting Tommy DeVito into the game.

Campbell said he'll know more about Hutchinson's injury when the team returns to the U.S., while other reports suggest that Hutchinson could be out for the season.

"Anytime you lose a player like that, you don't know the entirety of it, but knowing Hutch, for who he is, it's likely he doesn't stay down long," Campbell said. "It does. It hurts a little bit."

The Patriots netted negative-1 yards on their next six drives to close the half. New England finished the game with 151 yards total and scored their first touchdown of the game with 12:40 to go, a 10-yard pass to running back Lan Larison that cut Detroit's lead to 28-10. The Lions finished with 493 yards.

Cornerback Rock Ya-Sin called it a "home game" for St. Brown.

"He came out and showed up. Oh, my God, he balled. We definitely wanted to win for him ... he's a great player. He showed up. He always shows up in the big moments," Ya-Sin said.

Defensive tackle Alim McNeill, who had a sack, said he wanted to win the game for St. Brown, but "probably not more than he wanted it for him, though."

"That guy's a nut. He's an animal. What'd he have today? He said something crazy in there. Two (touchdowns), though," McNeill said. "(To) come back to where the other half of his family (is from) and show out, nobody wants it more than that guy for himself."

Added edge defender DJ Wonnum, who had a sack and two tackles-for-loss: "We knew this was a big week for Saint. We just play for one another, man. I'm sure coach, offensive coordinator dialed it up for him to go out there and make plays. And it wasn't surprising that he made those plays. He's a great player for us."

Quarterback Jared Goff was 20 for 31 for 303 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, including one to Kevin Byard when Detroit was on the doorstep of taking a 28-3 lead entering halftime.

After New England kicked a field goal to begin the game, Detroit answered on its own opening drive with St. Brown's sensational touchdown, his sixth of the season and first since Week 3.

"I don't know if anyone could have tackled him on that one," Goff said. "He was not going down. He would not be denied."

The Lions took a two-score lead with 12:57 to go in the second quarter. After Gibbs and Sione Vaki helped move the Lions downfield, Isaac TeSlaa made a diving back-shoulder catch from 12 yards out to put the Lions up 14-3.

TeSlaa said of St. Brown's return: "It was amazing. I think the coolest part was just seeing the crowd react to him running out with the flag and just the amount of pride he has in this country."

Gibbs single-handedly gave the Lions a 21-3 lead with 2:06 left in the second quarter, accounting for all 84 yards on a touchdown drive, including a 5-yard score to cap things off.

The Lions missed an opportunity to drive another stake into New England's heart when Goff coughed up his second interception of the game on a throw to Williams in the end zone with eight seconds left in the half.

But all the missed chance did was allow St. Brown to put an exclamation point on the win. He began making contact with a defender around the 9-yard line as Patriots defenders rallied to the ball, but it seemed fitting that at least five of St. Brown's teammates arrived shortly after to bulldoze one of their captains into the end zone for a 28-3 lead.

"I think the guys are going to have a good taste in their mouth from Germany, especially after the way we played," St. Brown said. "It's been an amazing trip."

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