Pride of Detroit
The Detroit Lions and New York Giants face off on Sunday night in an NFC bout that means a lot to one team, and not too much for the other.
The 6-4 Lions are on the fringe of a playoff spot, and may need to finish the season 5-2 to lock in their spot to the postseason. With upcoming games against the Packers, Rams, and Bears—among other playoff contenders—the Lions cannot afford a slip up against a team like the Giants, who are completely out of the playoff race. Sunday could also provide a nice opportunity for the Lions offense to find itself again, after a tough showing against the Philadelphia Eagles last week.
As for the Giants, at 2-9 there’s no hope of the postseason. The rest of the year is about evaluating the players currently on the roster and seeing who will be around for the next regime. New York fired head coach Brian Daboll a couple weeks ago, and that means big changes are coming. Mike Kafka is running the show in the meantime, and the team is at least showing some fight still. Last week, they took the Green Bay Packers to the bring, but a late Jameis Winston interception doomed their comeback.
Winston will start again this week with rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart still sidelined and in concussion protocol. That’s just another reason the Lions cannot afford to let this game slip.
This page will provide live updates from Lions vs. Giants as the game kicks off at 1 p.m. ET. We’ll have drive-by-drive analysis, highlights, injury news, and, of course, the score of the game. Just refresh this page after kickoff.
The Lions won the toss and deferred, giving the ball to the Giants offense to start the game.
The Giants hit on a big play to start the game, with Jameis Winston finding Darius Slayton for 23 yards. Then the Giants pulled out their bag of tricks on a third-and-2 with a double pass to Wan’Dale Robinson for a 39-yard touchdown pass and a 7-0 Giants lead out of the gate.
The Lions were able to get the ball moving a bit to start the drive with a heavy dose of Jahmyr Gibbs—four rushes for 22 yards. But when the Lions got into a third-and-7 in Giants territory, Jared Goff took a sack that pushed them out of field goal range, and they were forced to punt. Lions punter Jack Fox successfully pinned the Giants at their 8-yard line.
New York promptly went three-and-out with two rushes for a single yard and a pass that fell incomplete. The Giants’ punt went off the side of his foot and the Lions took over at their own 47-yard line.
The Lions failed to do anything with the good field position, though. Gibbs was tackled behind the line of scrimmage on a first down end around, and St. Brown dropped a second-and-long pass. Goff to checked down on third down, and Detroit, once...
