Before anything, you have to give the Detroit Lions credit.
They won the game.
Yes, it was against a subpar NY Jets team. And yes, the 31-24 victory at Ford Field on Sunday, Sept. 27, went down to the wire.
Lose, and an all-out panic erupts in Detroit, with the Lions facing the daunting challenge of two straight road games before the bye.
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Or, as coach Dan Campbell put it, after he acknowledged the Jets’ game effort: “But as far as us, man, that's just what the doctor ordered.”
Maybe the doc wasn’t quite ready to prep the Lions for emergency open-heart surgery. But any physician might have advised a team staring at a 1-2 start ahead of two road games to consider getting their affairs in order, just in case.
Instead, the Lions healed themselves and did what they had to do. That was especially true on defense, coming off an awful outing in Buffalo. But it was also true of the offense, which faced an elite Jets defense and former Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn who was well-prepared for the challenge.
The Lions run game put up 131 yards against the Jets, who entered as the NFL’s second-ranked run defense, at just 65.5 yards per game.
Jahmyr Gibbs was extremely effective with a better workload balance and three extra days of rest. Even his backup, Sione Vaki, had a strong 4.3-yard average on six carries.
Jameson Williams was impressively, if uncharacteristically, sure-handed: four catches on four targets.
And second-year wideout Isaac TeSlaa returned from the back of a milk carton with three catches on three targets for 66 yards, including a 49-yard catch-and-run that set up the winning touchdown.
But perhaps the biggest relief for Campbell came in the form of a strong – or strong enough, at least – performance from his embattled defense and coordinator Kelvin Sheppard.
Yes, the Jets were a middle-of-the-pack offense playing on the road. But Sheppard’s crew did enough to keep 36-year-old veteran quarterback Geno Smith and the Jets out of the end zone on the final drive and sealed the win with a sack and fumble recovery in the final seconds.
It was the Lions’ only takeaway of the game – and not a minute too soon.
In the interview room after the game, the relief was palpable from Campbell as he began his news conference red-faced and raw-throated after delivering one of his typically vociferous victory speeches.
“It's all encompassing,” he said of the win. “We know what transpired last Thursday night [at Buffalo]. That's not us. We know that.
“Now it doesn't mean things aren't going to happen, [that] you aren't going to get beat, whatever. But it's – you just want to know if you're going to get beat, it’s because you're in phase. I'm there. Guy made a play. And then eventually we got to make more plays than they made, right?”
Football coaches love plans almost as much as they love players who can follow those plans. But last week’s ugly 10-point loss at Buffalo showed little evidence of any kind of plan, much less the following of said plan. Players weren’t where they were supposed to be, especially on defense.
Granted, that was against Josh Allen, a dynamic former NFL MVP, and not against Smith, who led the NFL with 17 interceptions last year. Those struggles against Allen and the Bills, and against the Saints the week prior, are why Sheppard has been under such intense fire lately.
It’s also why he kicked off his news conference Thursday with a 7-minute opening statement that made him sound an awful lot like a man fighting to save his job.
That’s also why Campbell came to Sheppard’s defense quickly after Sunday’s win, which was clinched by Sheppard’s excellent blitz call that led to safety Chuck Clark’s sack-fumble and Jack Campbell’s fumble recovery.
“And then for our defense to have to, man, they had to make that stop,” Dan Campbell said. “You know, that's what it was going to come down to. And it was such a great call by Kelvin Sheppard and those guys executing it.
“Man, you know, across the board, we get the free runner and Chuck Clark comes up with a huge fumble, and then Jack recovering it, and game's over. And I'm just proud of that defensive staff. I'm proud of those players over there, and as a whole it was a good win.”
The Lions are 1-2. They escaped the mediocre Saints in overtime, were handily outplayed by an excellent Bills team, and played a very sound, if unspectacular, game against the subpar Jets.
If the Lions want to reinforce any hope they’ve instill in their fans after beating the Jets, they have to come up with victories in their new two games, on the road at Carolina and Arizona, before they reach the bye in Week 6.
By then, we’ll have a clearer picture – perhaps not unlike an X-ray – that will give us a better idea of the Lions’ prognosis for the 2026 season.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on X @cmonarrez.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Beating Jets proves best medicine as Lions avoid loss and all-out panic
