Jahmir Gibbs’ breakout performance propelled the Lions past the Raiders

Jahmir Gibbs threw for 189 yards and a touchdown on 31 carries as Detroit shook off a loss at the Baltimore Ravens and improved to 6-2 on the season. Las Vegas fell to 3-5.

Raiders defensive back Marcus Peters cut the early Lions lead to two points with a pick-six early in the third quarter, but Gibbs responded with a 27-yard touchdown run on three possessions to put the game away.

Detroit Lions

The Lions, playing their first Monday night game of 2018, bounced back from their first road loss of the season with a win over the Raiders in front of a fired-up crowd at Ford Field.

Entering the game, Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown was listed as questionable with an illness, but he finished with his 11th career game with 100 receiving yards. In his first three seasons.

However, the night belonged to Gibbs as the No. 12 overall pick in the 2023 draft announced his arrival on the prime-time stage.

Buy Breakout Performance: Gibbs. With David Montgomery (ribs) without a running back for the second straight week, rookie RB Gibbs carried the load with 189 yards from scrimmage. He finished with 152 rushing yards and 37 receiving yards. The Lions’ run game struggled with 124 total rushing yards the previous two weeks. In the first quarter alone, Gibbs had 11 touchdowns, the most by a starting quarterback since Christian McCaffrey in Week 15 last season.

Problematic trend: Work on integrating wide receiver Jameson Williams into the offense continues. Williams dropped a pass in the first quarter and lost 6 yards on an end-around play after being hit by Las Vegas defensive end Max Crosby. Williams, who now has three drops in three games, finished with two catches for 16 yards.

QB Breakdown: Jared Goff completed passes to eight different targets, going 26-of-37 for 272 passing yards and a touchdown. However, he threw a pick-six in the third quarter. Goff continued to exploit Sam LaPorta, throwing him an 18-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Over the past two seasons, Goff has thrown 16 touchdown passes to tight ends, which is second in the league behind Patrick Mahomes (22) in that span.

Next game: at Chargers (4:05 p.m. ET, Sunday, Nov. 12)

Las Vegas Raiders

The return of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo couldn’t spark the Raiders’ offense as they dropped their second straight game, 3-5.

Anemic under Garoppolo, who had missed the previous 2½ games with a back injury, Detroit beat Las Vegas 486-157. In fact, it was mostly ridiculous defense that kept the Raiders in the game until the Lions broke the game open in the fourth quarter. The Raiders have a short week before they next face the New York Giants at home.

Describe the game in two words: An unhappy home. Crosby, who donated $1 million to the athletic department of his nearby alma mater Eastern Michigan, showed up with several pressures and a strip and fumble recovery in his return to the Motor City, but it wasn’t enough to tip the scales in the Raiders’ favor.

Promising Trend: The defense produced three takeaways. A pick-six by linebacker Robert Spillane and a fumble recovery by edge rusher Crosby kept the Raiders in the game, with Peters’ INT the only forced turnover resulting in points for the Raiders.

QB Breakdown: Sure, Garoppolo missed 2½ games with a concussion and a back injury, but the quarterback, who was his biggest selling point upon signing with Las Vegas, his familiarity with the scheme and his winning pedigree, wasn’t comfortable. Consider his first-half stats: 3-of-8 passing for 31 yards as a wide receiver and 31 yards without an end-zone interception for a 9.9 passer rating.

Eye-popping Next Generation Statistics: Peters is the third player in NFL history with four pick-sixes for four different teams, joining Deion Sanders and Terrell Buckley. Peters had two pick-sixes with the Kansas City Chiefs, two with the Los Angeles Rams and two more with the Ravens before his 75-yarder with the Raiders in Detroit. In fact, he has six INT returns of at least 50 yards, tying Darren Sharper for second in league history (Sanders has seven).

Next game: vs. Giants (4:25 p.m. ET, Sunday)