In the lead-up to this head coaching matchup with his former defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell predicted there would be “a knockout, 60-minute brawl.” It proved to be a good prediction, as the game would go right down to the wire. Detroit would hold on to win 31-24, though, dropping the Jets to 1-2 on the season.

It certainly started out as Campbell predicted, as the first five possessions of the game all ended in punts, before the Lions eventually took the lead on a 30-yard Jake Bates field goal with 9:35 remaining in the second quarter.

New York hit right back as Geno Smith completed first-down passes to Breece Hall, Jeremy Ruckert and Jelani Woods before connecting on a spectacular 22-yard touchdown pass to a diving Kenyon Sadiq. For the rookie tight end, it was his first NFL touchdown reception.

However, Detroit led 10-7 at the half, following a touchdown drive on their next possession that was finished off with a four-yard touchdown pass from Jared Goff to Amon-Ra St. Brown with 1:36 remaining.

Having failed to score on a two-minute drill at the end of the first half, the Jets kicked off to Detroit at the start of the second half, and they drove downfield to score again and extend their lead to 17-7. Jahmyr Gibbs looked to have been bottled up in the backfield, but he reversed his field to escape for a 17-yard touchdown run.

After a Jason Sanders field goal cut the lead to 17-10 with six minutes remaining in the third quarter, Gibbs scored again, on a one-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 24-10. That capped off an 11-play drive.

The Jets showed some resilience with another touchdown drive on their next possession to cut the lead to 24-16 with 11 minutes remaining on Smith’s five-yard pass to Ruckert. However, they opted to go for two and failed to convert.

After a fourth-down stop near midfield, the Jets faced 4th-and-6 from the 23-yard line and made the gutsy decision to go for it. Smith’s deep pass was spectacularly hauled in by Garrett Wilson for a touchdown and then Smith found the debuting Sterling Shepard for a game-tying two-point conversion.

Unfortunately, the defense blew a couple of coverages on the next Lions drive and they regained the lead on Goff’s 11-yard pass to Gibbs with 2:25 remaining.

Down by seven, the Jets drove down to the Detroit 23-yard line with under a minute remaining, but Smith’s fumble on a sack ended the comeback bid.

Here are the key takeaways...

-- Smith was working with a depleted arsenal of weapons due to Adonai Mitchell and Mason Taylor both being ruled out, in addition to the three receivers who are already on injured reserve. Despite this, he was effective against the Lions’ 31st-ranked defense, completing 14 of his first 16 passes and spreading the ball around well. He ended up with 321 yards and three touchdowns as both Wilson and Sadiq had 100-yard games.

-- Hall once again was held in check in the running game like last week as he had a high percentage of his runs stuffed at or behind the line of scrimmage. He ended up with 32 yards on 13 carries and left the game with a thigh injury after consecutive runs inside the five-yard line were stopped at the line of scrimmage in the fourth quarter.

-- In addition to being inconsistent in the running game, the Jets had too many letdowns in pass protection. Olu Fashanu got beaten for 2.5 sacks and Smith was sacked five times in total. An unblocked Chuck Clark’s strip sack iced the game in the last minute.

-- The Jets’ own pass rush got home for two first-half sacks, but these came on blitzes by Andre Cisco and Demario Davis, as their defensive front once again didn’t generate as much pressure as you’d ideally like to see. Rookie David Bailey made a couple of nice plays against the run, but this was his first game without a sack.

-- After last week’s letdown, the special teams unit continues to be a concern, as the Lions consistently generated good field position via their return unit, while the Jets didn’t see much success. In addition, the usually reliable Austin McNamara badly shanked a punt when he had a chance to pin the Lions deep in their territory.

-- One area that was significantly improved over last week was the penalty count. This week, the Jets were only called for four penalties for a total of 30 yards. However, the Lions were just as disciplined, with 41 yards on four penalties.

-- The decision to go for two while down by eight in the fourth quarter is yet another game management decision by Glenn that will be second-guessed. Many of these decisions follow the common consensus from the analytics community, but they never seem to play out in the Jets’ favor. Maybe the successful decision to go for it on 4th-and-6 with four minutes remaining is a sign that the tide is turning. We may never know if they would have gone for two again had they scored at the end.

-- Recent trade acquisition Jordan Meredith had to fill in at left guard for the Jets in the fourth quarter after starter Dylan Parham was lost to a knee injury.

Game MVP: Jahmyr Gibbs

The Jets struggled to stop Gibbs all day as he consistently picked up extra chunks of yardage by slipping tackles or falling forward at the end of a run. Gibbs ended up with 99 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He was also an asset in the passing game with seven catches for another 65 yards and a third score.

Here are the key takeaways...

Game MVP: Jahmyr Gibbs

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