Jets vs. Lions: Highlights, game tracker for Week 1

The New York Jets faced on the Detroit Lions on Monday, Sept. 10 in Week 1 of the 2018 NFL season. Highlights and more from the game.

The first game of the Monday Night Football doubleheader featured the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions meeting for their second Monday primetime meeting ever. The Jets came in with a lot of hope for the future as many suspect they have finally drafted their franchise quarterback, Sam Darnold. The Lions, on the other hand, appear to be stagnant. Their hopes are limited being that they play in the NFC North with two good teams ahead of them.

Darnold’s NFL career, however, got off to a bad start. With New York starting with the ball, the rookie out of USC dropped back to throw and, instead of his own man, found Lions defensive back Quandre Diggs. Off the interception, Diggs took it to the house to give Detroit the early 7-0 lead.

After that immediate blunder, Darnold seemed to settle down a bit. After another fruitless drive, the Gang Green defense forced a three-and-out, and Andre Roberts set the rookie quarterback up with great field position after a huge return. The offense drove down the short field and punched it in with an Isaiah Crowell run to tie it up.

Following a field goal, the Jets offense would find the end zone once more before halftime, this time around with the signal-caller coming to life. Darnold connected with the speedy Robby Anderson on a 41-yard toss that put the Jets up 17-10 going into the locker room.

Coming out of halftime, it looked as if Detroit and Matthew Stafford planned on making a game of it as the veteran quarterback found Golden Tate for the game-tying score. Unfortunately for them, however, all that did was signal the beginning of a Gang Green onslaught.

First in that order of business was Darnold’s second touchdown of the night, this one going to Quincy Enunwa. Then the defense began to hold up their end of the scoring bargain. Darron Lee picked off Stafford and matched Digg’s early interception return touchdown with one of his own. That was followed by Roberts again coming with a big return, this time taking a punt all the way to the end zone.

Just for good measure, Lee added another interception after that. That only resulted in a field goal, but after another Jets defensive stop, Crowell got back in the mix by breaking off a 62-yard touchdown run to give New York a commanding 48-17 led. At that point, the Lions could only try to make things respectable, but it was a tremendous showing for all the Jets on the night.

Highlights

Darnold’s career began by finding Quandre Diggs with his first NFL pass — unfortunately, Diggs plays for the Lions and took it to the house.

After getting the ball back, Darnold and New York turned things around, capping off a drive with an Isaiah Crowell touchdown run.

The Jets defense then got in on the party as Morris Claiborne picked off Matthew Stafford to give New York the ball back, which led to a field goal and a 10-7 lead.

Darnold continued to get on the right track as he found Robby Anderson for his first career touchdown.

At least for a second, the Detroit offense found a bit of life as Stafford connected with a gorgeous pass to Golden Tate.

Taking back the lead, Darnold tossed another score to Quincy Enunwa.

The Jets defense started to take control thereafter, beginning with a Darron Lee pick-six.

https://twitter.com/nyjets/status/1039326298835828737

Don’t forget about the special teams as well as Andre Roberts took a punt return all the way back for another New York touchdown.

Pouring it on, Lee added another interception on the night.

Not to be forgotten, Crowell busted open a long one for his second touchdown of the night and to essentially put the Lions to bed.

With Patricia in as head coach for the Lions, there is hope that they can get over the hump now. Hope also exists for the Jets with the arrival of Darnold. But it takes more than hope to win, and we’ll see if either team has more for the 2018 season.