The Detroit Lions are winless no more.
Players and coaches talked all week about needing to learn how to finish games to notch that first victory. Sunday, they finally figured it out, putting together an epic two-minute drive, culminating in an 11-yard Jared Goff to Amon-Ra-St. Brown touchdown as time expired, to give the Lions a 29-27 come-from-behind win for their first victory of the season.
The win is the first for Dan Campbell as head coach in Detroit, and he has to be happy with how all three phases had a hand in this one.
After failing to convert on a 4th and 1 at the their own 29-yard line holding on to a thin, 23-21 lead, Minnesota took over and eventually took the lead, 27-23, on a 3-yard Kirk Cousins to Justin Jefferson touchdown with just one minute and 50 seconds left.
That's where it came down to Goff and the offense to drive the field and secure the win.
Goff orchestrated a beautiful 13-play, 75-yard drive culminating in St. Brown's 11-yard touchdown catch as time expired, the first touchdown of St. Brown's young career.
Goff threw three touchdown passes in the game, also hitting tight ends T.J. Hockenson (9 yards) and Brock Wright (23).
Detroit held a 20-6 halftime lead, weathered the Vikings' comeback, and finally finished a game to move to 1-10-1 on the season.
QB comparison: Goff finished completing 25-of-41 passes for 296 yards with those three touchdowns and one interception for a 97.2 passer rating.
Cousins connected on 30 of his 40 passes for 340 yards with two scores. He finished with a 116.7 passer rating.
Key moment: Leading 23-21 and facing a 4th and 1 at their own 29-yard line, Campbell opted to go for it and called a play-action pass that took too long to develop and resulted in Goff getting sacked and fumbling at Detroit's 19-yard line, which is where the Vikings took over with 4:01 left.
The Vikings would score a touchdown off the turnover on a 3-yard pass from Cousins to Jefferson. The Vikings failed on the two-point try (the third failed two-point try in the game), but took a 27-23 lead with one minute and 50 seconds left.
That ended up being too much time to leave the Lions. Campbell did a nice job turning a bad situation into a manageable one with his use of timeouts to give the Lions enough time for a comeback.
Goff did an amazing job orchestrating the two-minute drive, and threw the strike to St. Brown for the win.
Injury report: Veteran defensive end Nick Williams left the field after just the second play of the game holding his left arm. He went straight to the locker room, but did return to the game.
Rookie cornerback Jerry Jacobs left the game for a short time with a neck injury, but he also returned.
Next week: at Denver
