Contents Lions c. Chiefs
Rookie Brian Branch scored a touchdown returning a Patrick Mahomes interception into the end zone, David Montgomery scored the game-changing middle finger on an eight-yard run in the fourth quarter and the Detroit Lions beat the Kansas City Chiefs 21-20, Thursday night in the first game of the NFL season.
The Lions thus ended an eight-game winning streak for the Chiefs in the first game of the season.
“We expected to win this game,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. We came here, we knew what we had to do, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and that’s what we did. We won. »
In the absence of Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce, out with a knee injury, the Lions took advantage of several dropped passes by Kansas City receivers, particularly Kadarius Toney, who dropped four passes.
“We have to improve,” summed up Mahomes after the defeat.
Toney notably looked bad on Branch’s interception, then on the first play of the Chiefs’ final offensive sequence.
First on the interception, Mahomes’ pass was not controlled by Toney and the ball ended up in the hands of Branch, who raced 50 yards to tie the game 14-14 early in the game. third quarter.
Branch then became the first Lions player to score a touchdown on an interception return in his first NFL game since future Hall of Famer Lem Barney accomplished the feat in 1967.
Harrison Butker then gave the Chiefs the lead again with field goals of 35 and 39 yards before Montgomery scored what proved to be the game-winning touchdown on an eight-yard run with 7:06 on the clock.
After two short offensive sequences on each side, the Chiefs regained the ball with a single point behind and 2:30 to go. Once again, Toney fumbled a Mahomes pass while completely unmarked for a potential 20-yard play on the first play of the sequence.
Another 20-yard gain was negated by a penalty, and Skyy Moore also fumbled a pass before a false start put Mahomes on fourth down and 25 yards.
Mahomes attempted a long desperation pass, but was unable to connect with Justin Watson. After the turnover on tries, Montgomery got a first down with a run, allowing the Lions to let the last seconds tick away.
“The Lions did a hell of a job. They capitalized on a couple of things and we need to fix that,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. I liked the aggressiveness on the defensive end. There were some good things on offense. We just need to be more consistent. »
“I didn’t learn anything about my team. I confirmed what I already knew: This is a resilient team,” said Campbell.
Mahomes finished the game with 21 completions on 39 attempts for 226 yards with two touchdown passes and an interception. He also rushed for 45 yards, a Chiefs high.
The star quarterback helped the Chiefs take a 14-7 lead with two touchdown passes in the second quarter. He joined Rashee Rice and Blake Bell for majors with passes of one and four yards respectively.
The Lions opened the scoring by scoring the only touchdown of the first quarter. Amon-Ra St. Brown then reached the end zone on a nine-yard touchdown pass thrown by Jared Goff. Several games earlier, the Lions were able to continue their streak after a rigged play on a 4th down while deep in their territory.
Goff completed 22 of 35 passes for 253 yards with one touchdown. St. Brown caught six balls for 71 yards.
Montgomery had 74 rushing yards on 21 carries. Rookie Jahmyr Gibbs ran seven times for 42 yards.
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2023-09-07 15:00:00
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