Detroit — It was now or never for the Detroit Lions in Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys at Ford Field.
And they chose now.
Detroit entered the pivotal must-win matchup with its hair on fire, scoring 10 first-quarter points and holding off a ferocious comeback attempt from the red-hot Cowboys by sacking Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott five times in a 44-30 Lions victory.
With the win, Detroit (8-5) staved off the Cowboys (6-6-1) from climbing back into the NFC playoff race and improved its own playoff chances to 45% from 30%, according to the New York Times’ playoff simulator. A loss would have dropped Detroit’s playoff odds to 13%. Detroit also advanced to 15-0 after a loss dating back to 2022, a new NFL record.
The Lions put the ball in the air for most of the first half and took it to the ground for the second, executing a perfect game plan to put the Cowboys away.
“It felt like we kind of got back to who we are earlier in the week, addressed a lot of what happened in that Packers game, what went wrong, what we could have done better,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said. “I think you could see an uptick in urgency from everybody.”
BOX SCORE: Lions 44, Cowboys 30
Lions running back David Montgomery, who’s seen a significant decrease in his production this season, stepped up at the perfect time: He carried the ball six times for 60 yards and a 35-yard rushing touchdown on a night where Gibbs (43 rushing yards, 12 carries) wasn’t able to get going on the ground.
Gibbs, however, had 77 receiving yards and three total touchdowns. He delivered a critical 10-yard rushing touchdown to go up 10 points, 37-27, with 7:17 remaining in the game. After the Cowboys added another field goal, Gibbs then iced the game with a 13-yard rushing touchdown to put the Lions up, 44-30, with 2:19 left.
“He’s unique. He’s special,” Campbell said. “Everybody knows what he can do in the run game and really, we couldn’t quite get him going in the way we wanted to in the run game now. … But the pass game stuff, he just continues to grow.
“The more we give him and the more we work with him in practice, we just continue to try to open his horizons and give him a little bit more. Man, he just grows. He gets better and better. Then it gets in the game and the routes get crisper and crisper.
“He just keeps going. There’s just not a cap on this dude yet. There again, he works his tail off. He’s freaking smart. He’s instinctive. He’s a team guy. He’s something else. So the sky is the limit for him. He’s just getting started now. He’s just getting started.”
Amon-Ra St. Brown came back from his ankle injury sooner than expected and was his old reliable self in a game where the Lions desperately needed him. He caught six passes for 92 yards. St. Brown was questionable entering the day and made active after testing his ankle pregame.
“Obviously, his play speaks for itself tonight, but bigger than anything is everyone knowing what he’s kind of dealing with, and him being like, ‘I’m going to be out there,’ and figuring out a way to get out there,” Goff said. “Not many guys like him.”
Jameson Williams led the team with 96 receiving yards and caught several big passes, including a 29-yard reception on third down, leading to Gibbs’ 10-yard score, after the Cowboys had trimmed their deficit from 18 points to 3.
Detroit forced three turnovers, including an interception by Derrick Barnes on the first play of the second half. Amik Robertson broke up a pass and popped it into the air for Barnes, who returned it to the 14-yard line of Dallas. The Lions turned that into a touchdown two plays later, with Goff connecting with Isaac TeSlaa for an 11-yard score to go up, 27-9, with 14:14 left in the third quarter.
“That game there is one of the few we’ve had where we really played complementary football. I mean, we really did,” Campbell said. “… That, above all, is what really makes a difference. That’s what good teams do. It doesn’t matter how good your offense (is), your defense is, if you’re not able to help each other out when you need it with one of the phases, it’s tough.”
Another takeaway came with 6:28 left in the second half. Jack Campbell punched the ball away from Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson. Branch recovered, leading directly to the 35-yard rushing touchdown by Montgomery, which put Detroit up 17-6 with 4:27 to go in the second quarter. Lions cornerback D.J. Reed iced the game with an interception on the Cowboys’ final offensive series.
The Lions’ maligned pass rush got home all night. Detroit sacked Prescott five times, with three of them coming from Al-Quadin Muhammad, who now has nine sacks through 13 games.
“I’m a team guy, so, definitely, we needed this,” Muhammad said. “The coaches challenged us the other day (about) how we [were] going to come into this game and the type of game plan we [were] going to come into this game with. We had to win one-on-ones up front, and we did that, and we came up with a win. And we got some turnovers.”
Prescott was 31-for-47 passing for 376 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb caught six passes for 121 yards before exiting with a concussion in the third quarter, and receiver Ryan Flournoy caught nine passes for 115 yards and a touchdown. The Lions held running back Javonte Williams to 67 yards on 17 rushing attempts.
Kicker Brandon Aubrey was Dallas’ most valuable player. He was five-for-five on field-goal attempts with makes from 57 and 63 yards.
Lions kicker Jake Bates had an attempt blocked, but was three-for-three on his other attempts with a long of 47.
Both teams began the game with a field goal, playing to a 3-3 tie with 8:07 left in the first quarter. After Gibbs scored a 1-yard rushing touchdown, the Cowboys added another field goal when Muhammad came around the corner untouched and sacked Prescott, making it 10-6 with 9:23 left in the second quarter on a 42-yard attempt.
Detroit led, 17-6, by way of Montgomery’s 35-yard score when Aubrey added his third field goal of the half, a 55-yarder to make it 17-9.
The Lions were aggressive before halftime and quickly moved the ball downfield. Goff had a wide-open Isaac TeSlaa in the end zone as the defender in coverage fell down, but missed the throw with four seconds left in the half as Detroit settled for a field goal to go up, 20-9, entering halftime.
“If I could have had like a split-second longer, I would have thrown him a touchdown. I just wanted to get rid of the ball at that point,” Goff said.
The Lions jumped on Dallas out of halftime with Barnes’ interception, then TeSlaa’s touchdown, to go up 27-9.
Dallas answered with its first touchdown of the game, going 65 yards in nine plays — 37 yards came via penalties on Reed — culminating in a 1-yard rushing touchdown by Javonte Williams that cut Detroit’s lead to 27-16 with 10:41 to go in the third quarter.
After Bates had a field-goal attempt blocked in the third quarter, the Cowboys made it a one-score game when Aubrey hit a 63-yard attempt to draw the Cowboys within a score, 27-19, at 2:49 in the third.
Detroit regained the two-score lead, 30-19, as Bates responded with a 46-yard field goal with 11:50 left in the game.
But the Cowboys just wouldn’t go away. A coverage bust led to Prescott connecting with receiver Ryan Flournoy for a 42-yard touchdown with 9:52 remaining in the fourth quarter, and the Cowboys cut the deficit to 3 with a successful 2-point attempt that was caught by Ferguson.
The Lions will now get a mini-bye and travel to Los Angeles for a date with the Rams next Sunday, where they will continue to try to keep their playoff hopes alive against ex-quarterback Matthew Stafford.
“We need to string some wins together now,” Campbell said. “OK, we battle back. Now we need another one.”
nbianchi@detroitnews.com
@nolanbianchi