Jahmyr Gibbs Piles Up 252 Yards and Amon-Ra St. Brown Scores Twice in a 35-10 Munich Rout

Amon-Ra St. Brown came to Munich with a German mother, a week of homecoming headlines behind him and no touchdowns since Week 3. He left Allianz Arena with two of them, and somehow that was only the second-best performance on his own sideline.

The best belonged to Jahmyr Gibbs, who piled up 252 yards from scrimmage and scored twice as the Detroit Lions flattened the New England Patriots 35-10 on Sunday in front of 70,225 fans, a Munich record for an NFL game. Detroit is 7-2 with five straight wins and right in the thick of the NFC North race. New England falls to 5-5, and the final score was not even the worst part of its morning.

Drake Maye and Aidan Hutchinson both left on the same first-quarter snap and never returned. A.J. Brown followed them to the locker room in the fourth quarter with a hamstring injury.

One Patriots Drive, Then a Detroit Landslide

For about six minutes, New England looked like the sharper team. Maye moved the ball into Detroit territory on the opening possession, finding Hunter Henry for gains of 10 and 12 yards and hitting Mack Hollins on a 26-yard flea-flicker. Then the drive unraveled. A false start on Will Campbell and a delay of game shoved the Patriots from the Detroit 3 back to the 13, and on third-and-goal Hutchinson came free to sack Maye. Andres Borregales settled things with a 33-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

That play rewired the afternoon. Hutchinson jumped to celebrate, came down awkwardly on the slippery field and grabbed his right knee. He walked off under his own power, spent time in the blue medical tent and went to the locker room. Maye, hurt on the same sack, limped off with an ankle injury after completing 3 of 4 passes for 48 yards. Both were ruled out, and Tommy DeVito ran the New England offense the rest of the way.

Detroit needed one possession to flip the score. On third-and-9, Jared Goff threw a short out to St. Brown, who slipped Christian Gonzalez's tackle attempt and raced 56 yards for a touchdown. Late in the first quarter, after Mitch Wishnowsky's punt pinned the Lions at their own 3, Detroit went 97 yards. Goff kept the drive alive with a sneak on third-and-1, Gibbs broke a 25-yard run, Sione Vaki added a 17-yard catch, and Isaac TeSlaa contorted for a diving back-shoulder grab on a 12-yard touchdown at 12:57 of the second quarter. It was 14-3.

The teams then traded interceptions, Gonzalez picking off Goff and Roger McCreary intercepting DeVito and returning it 22 yards. Gibbs capped an 84-yard march with a 5-yard touchdown run with 2:06 left in the half. Kevin Byard took away a chance at more, snagging Goff's throw for Jameson Williams in the end zone with eight seconds to go, but the 21-3 halftime score barely captured the gap. Over their final six possessions of the half, the Patriots gained a net of minus 1 yard.

St. Brown made it 28-3 at 8:16 of the third quarter, taking a catch 28 yards and absorbing contact near the 9 before his teammates helped shove him across the goal line. New England finally found the end zone early in the fourth when DeVito hit running back Lan Larison for a 10-yard score, the first touchdown of Larison's career and DeVito's first touchdown pass as a Patriot. Gibbs answered at 8:56, sprinting 28 yards around the right edge behind a pulling Penei Sewell for the final margin. Detroit pulled its starters with 7:04 to play.

Gibbs Did Everything, and St. Brown Got His Moment

Gibbs ran 22 times for 153 yards and caught seven passes for 99 more, which The Detroit News called the second-highest scrimmage total of his career. He did damage on the edge, between the tackles and in space, including a 50-yard catch-and-run. Based on ESPN's pregame figure of 847, the rushing yards put Gibbs at exactly 1,000 for the season, with eight games still to play.

St. Brown finished with four catches for 98 yards and both of his touchdowns. Earlier in the week he had more or less called his shot. "I haven't been in the end zone in some weeks, so I feel like Germany would be a great time to touch the paint again," St. Brown said, as reported by The Detroit News. Point taken.

Goff was 20 of 31 for 303 yards with two touchdown passes to St. Brown and one to TeSlaa. The two interceptions were the blemish on an otherwise clean afternoon, and the second one cost Detroit points right before the half. Jameson Williams added four catches for 50 yards, including a 19-yard toe-tap grab. The defense, even without Hutchinson for most of the day, got first-half sacks from Hutchinson, rookie Derrick Moore, DJ Wonnum and Alim McNeill. Moore's was an 11-yard drop on third down that forced a punt, and McNeill's pushed the defensive tackle's season total to 6.5.

The Sack That Changed the Game

Every recap of this game will start with the scoreboard, but the real hinge came at 9:43 of the first quarter. Before Hutchinson's sack, New England had 11 plays, 60 yards and real rhythm. After it, the Patriots had DeVito, a backup facing a defense that had just lost its best player and somehow got meaner.

DeVito finished with 12 completions for 81 yards, the Larison touchdown and the McCreary interception, plus 19 yards on the ground. The run game offered no relief. Corey Kiner managed 25 yards on 10 carries and Rhamondre Stevenson had 4 yards on six. Hollins led New England with five catches for 48 yards, and Brown, in his first game back after missing two straight with a knee injury, caught two passes for 27 yards before the hamstring forced him out for good.

The Numbers Behind It

• 252 scrimmage yards for Gibbs, with 153 rushing and 99 receiving.
• 493 to 151 in total yards, Detroit's way.
• 97 yards on the drive that ended with TeSlaa's touchdown, after the Lions started at their own 3.
• Minus 1 net yard for New England on its last six possessions of the first half.
• 70,225 fans, a Munich attendance record, for the first Lions regular-season game in Germany.

What It Means

Detroit is rolling. A week after the Lions ground out a 19-9 win in Miami, they produced their most complete game of the streak in a home game that was a road trip in every other sense. Dan Campbell set the bar on Friday. "As great as this experience could be, if we don't win this game, we'll be sick to our stomachs going home," Campbell said, according to The Detroit News. Nobody will be queasy on the flight. The only cloud is Hutchinson, and so far the only word is that a knee injury ended his afternoon. Detroit hosts Tampa Bay at Ford Field on Nov. 22, then the Bears on Thanksgiving.

New England has now allowed 80 points in two straight losses and heads into its bye at .500, waiting on news about its quarterback. Maye's ankle is the headline, and Brown's hamstring is another blow for a receiver who has spent much of the season in and out of the lineup. The Patriots return on Nov. 29 at the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football.

Heimspiel

The NFL billed this one as a home game for Detroit, and on Sunday the Lions treated a Bavarian soccer cathedral like Ford Field with better beer. St. Brown got his touchdowns in his mother's country, Gibbs got his thousand yards, and Detroit left Munich with its fifth straight win. The only souvenir the Lions did not want was the one on Hutchinson's knee.

Stats from the box score via Bleacher Report and CBS Sports. Reporting from The Detroit News, ESPN, NFL.com, Patriots on SI, SB Nation, FOX 2 Detroit, Pro Football Talk and WCVB. Pregame quotes as reported by The Detroit News.