Jahmyr Gibbs isn’t just the most explosive player on the Detroit Lions. He’s the most valuable weapon they’ve got. And after their game on Sunday, Nov. 23, he ought to get a Detroit bank commercial.
Because his latest deposit just saved the Lions season.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementOn the first play of overtime in a game the Lions had trailed in from the opening minutes until the final seconds, Gibbs took a handoff, made one tight cut and bolted for the end zone. Penei Sewell threw his hands in the air, making the touchdown sign – even before Gibbs was halfway through his 69-yard dash to glory. He knew. You don’t catch lightning.
“(Gibbs) bailed us out today in a big way,” coach Dan Campbell admitted, sounding relieved after the Lions escaped with a 34-27 overtime victory over the lowly New York Giants on Sunday to keep their playoff hopes realistic. Gibbs had the most runs, the most catches and the most touchdowns (three) of anyone on Detroit’s offense, and accounted for 264 yards from scrimmage. His overtime touchdown will go down in Lions lore as the most enjoyable explosion since fireworks.
But just as with fireworks, when the smoke clears, you still have the same sky. And the Lions’ sky is currently rather cloudy.
“Good win,” Campbell said, as if assuring himself. “It’s good win. It’s not perfect, but we’ll take it.”
Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs (0) makes a catch for a touchdown in the second quarter against the New York Giants at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025.SHAWN WINDSOR: Jahmyr Gibbs just saved the Detroit Lions' season
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWell, sure. You always take a W. Especially one in which you were outdone by your opponent in yards, first downs, third-down efficiency, penalties and sacks.
But the question gnaws: Why was it so hard to take? Why did Detroit come so close to losing a game it, frankly, never should have lost?
Why, if not for Jake Bates’ 59-yard field goal toward the end of regulation, and Gibbs’ theatrics early, midway and late in the game, might they have been looking at a mountain to climb just to get to the postseason?
It’s always good to have a miracle man.
It’s never good to rely on miracles.
THE WIDEOUT: Even Amon-Ra St. Brown knows what Lions should do: Feed Jahmyr Gibbs
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“I wasn’t really thinking about carrying the team,” Gibbs said after Sunday’s game, when someone suggested he had. “I just do whatever it takes to win, whatever they call me for….
“It was a must-win. I think the next six or seven more games are must-wins, so we’ve got to keep going.” He’s right about the must-win part. Detroit knew it. The fans knew it.
But when the scoreboard lit up with “LIONS WIN!” and people in Honolulu Blue jerseys began dancing to the familiar victory song, you couldn’t help but contrast what a sea change this was from less than an hour earlier: fourth quarter, the boos raining down, fans shaking their heads.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn that moment, Ford Field seemed to forget about all the recent success, the Dan Campbell turnaround, the shift in culture, the dreams of a Super Bowl. In that moment, it felt like just another embarrassing moment in Detroit Lions football.
The Giants, with a backup quarterback, an interim head coach and two wins in 11 games, had just duped Detroit's defense again, with a pitch to a wide receiver named Gunner Olszewski, who escaped the defense, stepped up and threw to – are you kidding me? – Jameis Winston, the 31-year-old quarterback who had no business catching a pass and even less business eluding the grasp of Derrick Barnes and spinning into the end zone.
But he did both things, which gave the Giants a 10-point fourth quarter lead.
And the boos came thundering down.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Look, there’s things we can clean up,” Campbell said, offering a positive spin. “I know that. But there was a number of things that we got thrown our way [Sunday] that we adjusted to, we got hit on, they’re not always going to all be that way.”
They were Sunday. You know how, when you have a lingering cold, you say “I just don’t feel like myself”? That was the Lions during regulation against the Giants. You watched them and you wanted to invoke Butch Cassidy: "Who are these guys?”
They were dropping footballs. They gave up critical third downs. They drew penalties at the worst times. They played from behind. They gave up nearly 500 yards of offense to a team that is already just playing out the string.
If not for a foolish decision by interim coach Mike Kafka, who eschewed an easy field goal and a potential six-point lead to try for a nail-in-the-coffin touchdown in the closing minutes of regulation, the Lions likely would be talking about defeat.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementInstead, they slugged their way to the Giants' 41, and with 33 seconds to go, Bates hit that career-long 59-yarder to tie the game.
“I just want to be somebody that this team can count on,” the typically modest Bates said.
Nice.
And then, to paraphrase the Coasters, along came Gibbs.
The most important Lion
Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs (0) celebrates a touchdown in the second quarter against the New York Giants at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025.Let’s just say this right now. At 23, Gibbs is the most important Lion on the field. He is capable, with a handoff or a pass, of turning any play on its side and scoring. Multiple times this season, he has yanked the Lions offense out of a torpor with some eye-blinking feat.
“That dude is as good as they come in our league,” quarterback Jared Goff said, after throwing 11 completions to Gibbs in addition to all those runs. “He’s making his claim across our league as one of the best players, regardless of position, and we are lucky to have him, man. He’s so electric.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementGibbs' first touchdown, in the second quarter, was a catch-and-run where he stretched the ball into the end zone while flying out of bounds, was a thing of kinetic beauty. His second touchdown, early in the fourth quarter, was a 49-yard burst that broke two tackles en route to a slow step into the end zone.
His final TD, well, that was his coup de grace, and nothing less than season-changing. He burst straight ahead through the line, made one tightly-muscled cut, and was off to the end zone.
“I was just running,” he said.
Yeah. And Picasso was just painting.
Goff knows better. He know Gibbs is a game-changer.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“You can tell the fear in the defense when the ball gets in his hands,” he said.
And even when the play is designed to go elsewhere, defenses must keep always an eye on Gibbs, which energizes the play-action that Goff loves to use so effectively. Quite frankly, without Gibbs’ threat, the Lions are a different team.
But he’s there, and for now, he pulled the Lions form the fire and kept them in the hunt, a 7-4 record and still on the heels of the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers in the NFC North.
A win is a win – for now
Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs (0) runs against New York Giants during overtime at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025.But no matter what the final score, Sunday was not a performance, in totality, for the Lions be proud of. The Giants didn’t just dent Detroit’s defense, they gashed it open and bled it out. They had 10 plays of over 20 yards. Ten plays? In regulation, the Lions surrendered 517 yards of offense, including that trick-play touchdown to Winston, who had never caught a pass in his 11-year career.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThose were embarrassments. The Lions couldn’t stop a third-and-17. They were just 50% on stopping third downs at all. They had nine penalties. Some Giants receivers were so wide open, they could have held a square dance.
Meanwhile, Detroit’s offense, until the very end, still looked like a shadow of itself. Amon-Ra St. Brown, although hugely effective at later moments, still had some drops that are not like him. Goff was better than last Sunday, but still looks uncomfortable when pressured. And the offensive line was hit-and-miss, opening some great plays for Gibbs but allowing some awful sacks of Goff when they could least afford it.
Who are these guys? The old, find-a-way-to-win Lions, or the new, suddenly struggling ones?
These are fair questions to ask. If the 2-9 Giants were this effective against the Lions' secondary and pass rush, what makes anyone think that the Bears, Packers or Los Angeles Rams won’t fare just as well – or better? It feels good that they won, and everybody roared when Aidan Hutchinson extinguished the Giants’ last hope with a fourth-down sack, Detroit’s first sack of the day.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBut forget stats. Use your eyes. Do you see the defense that played on Sunday stopping any elite team in the playoffs?
For now, a win is a win. And for now, a savior is a savior. Detroit may have caught a cold, but nobody is catching Gibbs.
And the Lions, who can’t afford to rely on miracles, can still be grateful for a miracle man. This would be quite a different season without him.
Contact Mitch Albom: [email protected]. Check out the latest updates with his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow him @mitchalbom on x.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions should be grateful for Jahmyr Gibbs
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