Jahmyr Gibbs had 170 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns and the Detroit Lions quarterback came away with a 31-9 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night to secure the No. 1 seed. 1 in the NFC playoffs for the first time in franchise history.
Jared Goff completed 27 of 33 passes for 231 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions for Detroit (15-2). Gibbs rushed for 139 yards and three touchdowns and caught five passes for 31 yards and one score.
Sam Darnold completed 18 of 41 passes for 166 yards for Minnesota (14-3), which was held without a touchdown. The Vikings’ nine-game winning streak is over.
The Lions won the NFC North title for the second consecutive year. They will have a bye next week and have home field advantage throughout the conference playoffs.
The Vikings will enter the postseason as the wild card team and the No. 5 seed in the NFC. They will travel to Inglewood, Calif., to face the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Rams on Jan. 13.
Gibbs gave the Lions the upper hand with three straight touchdowns in the second half.
Detroit was clinging to a 10-9 lead when Gibbs caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Goff with 2:30 left in the third quarter. His score, on fourth-and-2, gave the Lions a 17-9 lead.
Gibbs added a 13-yard rushing touchdown to extend Detroit’s lead to 24-9 with 13:06 left in the fourth.
The sophomore running back at Alabama wasn’t done. He powered his way across the goal line with a 4-yard touchdown run to make it 31-9 with 5:14 left.
Gibbs joined Barry Sanders as the only running backs in team history to score four touchdowns in a game. He also set the franchise record for rushing touchdowns in a single season (20), surpassing the previous mark of 17 touchdowns set by Sanders during the 1991 campaign and matched by Jamaal Williams in 2022.
Detroit opened the scoring with 1:43 left in the first quarter. Gibbs cut left and ran 25 yards for a touchdown.
The Vikings pulled within 7-6 after back-to-back field goals by Will Reichard.
Jake Bates kicked a 48-yard field goal to give Detroit a 10-6 advantage at halftime.
Reichard made his third field goal of the game to cut the Vikings’ deficit to 10-9 with 9:55 left in the third quarter.
–Field Level Media