GREEN BAY – The last time safety Kerby Joseph scored a touchdown was in high school when he was playing wide receiver.
It's been so long and he was so happy to get there late in the second quarter on a massive pick-six that helped Detroit to a 24-14 win over the Packers, that all he could think to do was celebrate with his teammates. He had a celebration ready for whenever got there in his NFL career, but he said he just drew a blank.
"(We) sent the blitz and I'm coming through the B-gap and the running back came to block me and I shed him, and I shed a lineman, and I just saw Jordan Love like throw the ball and the ball was just there," Joseph said after the game.
Joseph got a block from defensive lineman Levi Onwuzurike to plow the way to the end zone for his first career NFL touchdown as Joseph continues to be a thorn in the Green Bay Packers' side with his fourth career interception against them.
Detroit led 10-3 at the time and Green Bay was trying to close the gap, but Joseph stepped in front of a pass intended for running Josh Jacobs and returned it 27 yards for a touchdown that shocked the Lambeau Field crowd and gave Detroit a 17-3 halftime lead. Detroit received the second-half kick and extended the lead to 24-3 on their first possession.
It was Joseph's NFL-leading sixth interception of the season.
"That's him, he's kind of got a knack about it," Lions head coach Dan Campbell said of Joseph's ability to find the football. "He's a football player. It's one of the things we liked about him coming out. There was a rawness to him but he had these ball skills and the ability to track the ball.
"We really felt like he could grow and become a pretty good safety in this league and he's certainly done that. And he's not done. That's what excites you."
Joseph is the first Lions safety to log at least six interceptions and a pick-six in a single season since James Hunter in 1976. It was his 14th interception of his career, which is the most for a safety since Ed Reed through his first three seasons.
"I'm chasing a gold jacket," Joseph said after the game. "I always tell those boys, 'What do you want your legacy to be?' Every time I'm out there I'm just showing on tape who I am and who I'm going to be."
BRANCH EJECTION
Midway through the second quarter with the Packers facing a 2nd & 20 at their own 38-yard line, Packers quarterback Jordan Love threw an incomplete pass to wide receiver Bo Melton down the left sideline, but Lions safety Brian Branch was flagged for unnecessary roughness for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Melton.
After a review of the play from the officiating control center in New York, Branch was ejected for the hit and flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the way out, which gave Green Bay the ball at the Detroit 32-yard line.
Green Bay eventually missed a 46-yard field goal to end the drive.
"Not automatic," NFL's Senior Vice President of Officiating Perry Fewell told ESPN's Rob Demovsky of the ejection in a pool report following the game. "We reviewed all the angles, and we clearly felt that he had time and space to make a different choice, as the act was a flagrant foul. And he clearly had the opportunity to avoid the head and neck area."
Fewell said the ejection was something that was decided in concert with the officiating center in New York.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell praised referee Clete Blakeman and his crew for their transparency on the field in the immediate aftermath of the play and said it will have to be a teaching moment for Branch.
"Certainly, try to lower your target to where it doesn't become that," Campbell said. "I don't ever want to take away his aggressiveness, it's what makes him the player he is, but it doesn't help us when he's not available in the game, either. So, I'll tell him just to lower it and he's got to get used to that, too. You play in primetime games, New York is going to look at all of these."
EXTRA POINTS
- Sunday's win was the Lions' third straight victory against the Packers in Green Bay. It's the first time since 1986-88 they've accomplished that feat.
- Running back Jahmyr Gibbs rushed 11 times for 65 yards (5.9 avg.) with a touchdown Sunday. He has averaged 5.0 yards per rushing attempt in seven straight games, a record-long streak (10 attempt per game minimum).
