Motor City loves the Lions’ way

Detroit – There’s a feel to every Detroit Lions home game that isn’t so much about a confidence that the home team will win but about how they will win.

And the two prospects seem equally exciting.

Detroit doesn’t just revel in its success, it revels in doing it the Lions’ way, which just happens to be the Dan Campbell way. And wow, has the Motor City ever adopted every bit of it.

Talk to the ushers, the security guards or even the police officers on duty. They all feel it.

Just like you could feel the ripple of energy move throughout Ford Field when the Lions decided to go for it on fourth down on their second possession Sunday night, needing five yards for a first down from the Vikings’ 39-yard line.

With a free rusher crashing down on him for a substantial wallop, Lions quarterback Jared Goff got a pass away to Jamieson Williams for 14 yards, and the crowd went crazy with pride. On the very next play, running back Jahmyr Gibbs went 25 yards on the ground for the game’s opening touchdown.

From that moment on, Sunday night became a Detroit Lions kind of game, and there was no looking back.

And the fans loved it, they absolutely love how the Lions do it. They love the formula that screams “We will take more chances than anyone else in the NFL,” and

“Oh, by the way, we will run the ball down your throat like you’ve never experienced in your life.”

The perfect engine for that vision is 22-year-old running back Gibbs, who seems to have every single quality of a great back rolled into one.

He’s tough and physical enough to be counted upon for short yardage and loaded boxes, with the ability to take broken tackles to the house from anywhere on the field. He’s also a quality receiver, which he demonstrated once again with five catches against Minnesota.

People may forget how widely mocked the Lions were when they used the 12th pick of the 2023 NFL Draft on Gibbs, ignoring other needs to select a running back in the same off-season that they’d already invested in David Montgomery from Chicago via free agency.

Beyond that, the Gibbs selection seemed to ignore one of the NFL’s widely held drafting principles that you don’t spend high picks on a running back when there are other needs on your roster.

Gibbs, however, has marked himself as special this season.

While sharing the backfield load with Montgomery through mid-December, he’d already established himself during his second season as one of the league’s elite running backs. And in the split role he’s been spared the workload that would have been asked of a running back of his skill a generation ago.

What we’ve learned since Montgomery went out three weeks ago is that Gibbs is as elite a full-time back as he was as part of a duo. In fact, there were times against the Vikings where it felt like the Jahmyr Gibbs show, with him seemingly involved in every play.

For the third straight week without Montgomery in the lineup, Gibbs amassed more than 150 all-purpose yards, rushing for 139 against Minnesota – one of the top-ranked run defences in the NFL – with 31 yards coming as a receiver, including one of his four touchdowns on the night.

Not since Barry Sanders – who was on hand for Sunday’s game – have the Lions had a back as talented Gibbs, who set the franchise record for touchdowns in a single season with 20.

But Gibbs running all over the Vikings was just one thing we didn’t expect to see Sunday night.

The other was the Vikings’ offence – and passing game in particular – being neutralized by a much-maligned Lions defence that spent the final month of 2024 giving up more yards than any team in the NFL.

Minnesota quarterback Sam Darnold threw 23 times to his top-three targets Sunday night in wide receivers Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison and tight end T.J. Hockenson. He completed just six of those passes for just 63 yards. Jefferson had just three catches. Addison had one for zero yards.

It was a remarkable and very much-needed performance for a Detroit defence whose shortcomings had become the elephant in the room whenever the Super Bowl subject comes up among analysts.

Two things stood out about Detroit’s defence on this night.

One was the return of linebacker Alex Anzalone, a heart-and-soul Lion who makes plays all over the field. The emotional lift of seeing the four-year Lion back in uniform for the first time since Nov. 17 was unmistakable.

The other was the play of Detroit’s secondary, which seemed to be ever-present wherever Darnold was looking, particularly close to the goal line.

The Vikings had four drives – and 14 plays – inside the red zone and came away only with field goals. On one series they had three consecutive incompletions to Jefferson, who was being covered most of the night by Amik Robertson.

It was a night where every Viking pass was being contested and separation was hard to find. And when it did occur, Darnold sometimes missed.

His struggles to find open targets – once again, particularly close to the goal line –  forced him to twist and turn to buy time with his legs, which is not where Darnold is at his best.

Credit the Lions secondary for a huge performance, despite being down starter Carlton Davis and losing another – 2024 first-round pick Terrion Arnold – early in the third quarter.

Detroit’s red-zone denials during the first half paved the way for how the game got away from Minnesota.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Lions win without a few decisions that cut against the grain, and Sunday’s win had at least two.

One occurred when after requesting a measurement on a third-down play, Detroit had Goff go play-action into a deep drop and attempt to throw the ball 20 yards down the field. It was a low-percentage play in a high-percentage situation that blew up when Goff’s pass was blocked at the line of scrimmage.

The other was a fourth-and-two gamble at the Vikings six-yard line with less than six minutes to play when a field goal would have given the Lions a three-score lead.

The Vikings jumped off-side, so it’s impossible to know if the Lions weren’t really going to go for it in that situation.

But who are we kidding? This is a football team that can only do things one way.  

It was impossible to leave Ford Field Sunday night without understanding exactly what that means and just how beloved it has become.