Don’t count the Detroit Lions out of the NFL playoffs yet.
Jahmyr Gibbs caught seven passes for 77 yards and ran for three touchdowns and the Lions forced three turnovers – one more than they had in their five previous games combined – to beat the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football in a virtual elimination game among NFC playoff contenders, 44-30, at Ford Field.
Al-Quadin Muhammad sacked Dak Prescott three times to help fend off a Cowboys rally despite Dallas losing No. 1 receiver CeeDee Lamb early in the third quarter to injury.
The Lions (8-5) remain just outside of the NFC’s final wild-card spot with four games to play, but they helped their postseason chances dramatically with the victory.
The Lions are eighth in the NFC playoff standings, the first team out with four games remaining, behind seventh-place San Francisco 49ers (9-4).
The Lions now have a 54% chance to make the playoffs, according to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. It would have been 19% with a loss.
The Cowboys (6-6-1), who had won three straight, have a 9% chance to get to the playoffs, and likely need to win the NFC East to get in the postseason. They trail the Philadelphia Eagles (8-4).
The Lions led 27-9 in the third quarter before the Cowboys cut their deficit to three points in a high-scoring second half. Gibbs scored his second touchdown of the game to give the Lions a 37-27 lead with 7:17 to play, and three plays after Dallas answered with a field goal, he scored again on a 13-yard run.
Jared Goff finished 25 of 34 passing for 309 yards and Jameson Williams (seven catches, 96 yards) and Amon-Ra St. Brown (6-92) had big nights for the Lions, who have alternated wins and losses in their past nine games. Rookie Isaac TeSlaa caught a 12-yard touchdown early in the third quarter.
Here are three thoughts on Thursday’s game between the Lions and Cowboys:
Jahmyr Gibbs rules
Gibbs is the best running back in the NFL right now, and if he keeps this up he could down as one of the best in NFL history.
With three scores against Dallas, Gibbs now has 47 career TDs, tying Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders for the most TDs in NFL history by a player before his 24th birthday. Gibbs will turn 24 in March.
The Lions didn’t try running the ball much against the Cowboys’ big defensive tackles – their running backs had 10 carries through three quarters. But they didn’t need to the way they used Gibbs in the pass game.
Gibbs was a force on the perimeter, playing in packages on occasion with teammate David Montgomery, and showed his rare versatility in a five-play span in the third quarter.
On a third-and-8 play midway through the period, Gibbs ran an out route just short of the sticks and stopped in his tracks on a catch near the sideline. As Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland tried to halt his momentum to tackle Gibbs and tripped on the turf, Gibbs knifed forward for 4 extra yards and the first down.
Five plays later, Gibbs caught a pass in the right flat, stiff-armed Bland, knocking him to the ground, and lunged forward for a 4-yard gain.
Gibbs entered Thursday with 1,416 yards from scrimmage and 13 touchdowns. He has scored at least 10 rushing touchdowns in each of his first three NFL seasons, has two straight 1,000-yard rushing campaigns and is the most unique weapon in the NFL.
Amon-Ra St. Brown overcomes injury
St. Brown has missed two games in his career, one with an ankle injury in 2022 and one with an abdominal injury the following season. He wasn’t about to miss a third Thursday.
With the Lions’ season in jeopardy, St. Brown turned in a gutsy effort playing through a sprained ankle to help the Lions offense put on one of its best offensive displays of football this year.
St. Brown, initially expected to miss a week or two with his injury, had four catches for 46 yards in the first half, and drew a pass interference penalty to help stake the Lions to a 20-9 lead.
He had a 27-yard gain on a slant route that dug the Lions out of a first-and-15 situation and set up Gibbs’ first touchdown. He had two catches and drew that PI call on the Lions’ important two-minute drive just before halftime. He had a 37-yard catch-and-run with just under 3 minutes to play to set up Gibbs’ last score.
Lions coach Dan Campbell explained after St. Brown’s injury last week just how much he does in every facet of the game.
“Everybody knows the production and the versatility he has, but also all the dirty work he does in the run game. All the little things, man,” Campbell said. “The nuances of where you line up to where you go, to who you block if it’s this look, to now if they go here you need to slide back to do that. I mean, he’s so fricking smart, man, and he’s tough. And so there’s a million jobs he does and he does them at a high level.”
Let’s go streaking
The Lions simply don’t lose back-to-back games.
Including Thursday, the Lions have won 15 straight games after a loss, outscoring their opponents by an average of 16.1 points in their wins.
This season, they’ve beaten the Washington Commanders, 44-22, after a loss to the Minnesota Vikings, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 24-9, after a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Chicago Bears, 52-21, after a season-opening loss to the Green Bay Packers, and the New York Giants, 34-27 in overtime, after a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, and now the Cowboys.
The streak covers 57 games and dates to the middle of the 2022 season, Campbell’s second year.
The Lions can’t continue to alternate wins and losses and still make the playoffs, but with games to play – against the Los Angeles Rams next week on Dec. 14, and Pittsburgh Steelers (Dec. 21), Minnesota Vikings (Dec. 25) and Chicago Bears (Jan. 3 or 4) to close the season – there is a comfort in knowing they know how to avoid the ruts that often cost teams playoff spots.
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Dave Birkett covers the Lions for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Bluesky, X and Instagram at @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Lions out-tough Cowboys 44-30 to boost playoff odds
Reporting by Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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