On November 12, 2023, the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Chargers scored 79 points between them in Inglewood, California. Neither team was sacked, the Chargers scored touchdowns on their last five possessions, and the game was tied 38-38 with less than two minutes left.
Then Lions coach Dan Campbell passed up a go-ahead field goal. He went for it on fourth-and-2 so that Justin Herbert would not get the ball back. Jared Goff converted, kneeled three times, and Riley Patterson kicked a 41-yard field goal with 2 seconds left. Detroit won 41-38.
Detroit’s fast start
The Lions came in 6-2 and were favored by two and a half points. The Chargers were 4-4. Detroit led 17-3 midway through the second quarter after two 1-yard touchdown runs by rookie Jahmyr Gibbs. The first one came after Gibbs ran 35 yards down the right sideline to the 1. The second came on fourth-and-goal.
The Chargers answered with a 29-yard touchdown pass from Herbert to Keenan Allen. On the next snap, David Montgomery ran up the middle, made three Chargers miss and went 75 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown. A replay review checked whether he had stepped out of bounds, and the play stood. “It was close. I started praying again,” Montgomery said. It was the Lions’ longest touchdown run since 2011.
Los Angeles scored on a 2-yard run by Austin Ekeler on fourth down with 23 seconds left in the half, and the Lions led 24-17 at halftime.
Tied, again and again
After a Detroit punt to start the third quarter, Herbert threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Jalen Guyton, and it was 24-24. From there, Detroit kept going ahead and Los Angeles kept catching up. Amon-Ra St. Brown, who grew up in nearby Anaheim Hills, caught a 20-yard touchdown pass for a 31-24 lead.
The Chargers’ next drive reached the Detroit 1 early in the fourth quarter. Herbert’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete, but a pass interference call on Cameron Sutton gave the Chargers a new set of downs. The Lions stopped three more runs at the 1. On fourth-and-goal, Herbert threw to rookie Quentin Johnston for his first NFL touchdown, and it was 31-31.
Detroit went 75 yards in seven plays, and tight end Brock Wright was alone down the middle for a 25-yard touchdown on third-and-1. Los Angeles came back again. On fourth-and-1 at the Detroit 38, Herbert threw deep to Allen for a touchdown, and it was 38-38 with 3:34 left.
| Time | Play | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 2nd quarter, 7:34 | Jahmyr Gibbs runs 1 yard for a touchdown on fourth-and-goal | Lions 17, Chargers 3 |
| 2nd quarter, 3:21 | David Montgomery runs 75 yards for a touchdown | Lions 24, Chargers 10 |
| 2nd quarter, 0:29 | Austin Ekeler runs 2 yards for a touchdown on fourth down | Lions 24, Chargers 17 |
| 3rd quarter, 8:03 | Justin Herbert throws 18 yards to Jalen Guyton for a touchdown | Lions 24, Chargers 24 |
| 3rd quarter, 4:36 | Jared Goff throws 20 yards to Amon-Ra St. Brown for a touchdown | Lions 31, Chargers 24 |
| 4th quarter, 11:33 | Herbert throws 1 yard to Quentin Johnston on fourth-and-goal | Lions 31, Chargers 31 |
| 4th quarter, 7:35 | Goff throws 25 yards to Brock Wright for a touchdown | Lions 38, Chargers 31 |
| 4th quarter, 3:42 | Herbert throws 38 yards to Keenan Allen on fourth-and-1 | Lions 38, Chargers 38 |
| 4th quarter, 1:47 | Goff throws 6 yards to Sam LaPorta on fourth-and-2 at the Los Angeles 26 | Lions 38, Chargers 38 |
| 4th quarter, 0:02 | Riley Patterson kicks a 41-yard field goal | Final: Lions 41, Chargers 38 |
Fourth-and-2
Goff started the last drive with a 41-yard pass to Kalif Raymond to the Los Angeles 34. Two plays lost four yards, and St. Brown caught a 12-yard pass on third-and-14 to set up fourth-and-2 at the 26. The Chargers had called their second timeout at 1:51, so they had one left.
A field goal from there would have been about 43 yards. If it went in, the Lions would lead 41-38, and Herbert would get the ball back with more than a minute and a half left and a chance to tie or win. Campbell left his offense on the field. Goff threw a short pass to the left to rookie tight end Sam LaPorta, who caught it for six yards and a first down at the 20.
The Chargers used that last timeout right after the conversion, with 1:40 left. With none remaining, they could not stop the clock. Goff kneeled three times, Detroit called its first timeout with 2 seconds left, and Patterson’s kick ended the game. (Our kneel-down guide explains how the play clock decides when a team can do that.)
“I’m sure in his head he didn’t want to give Justin the ball back with a minute and a half,” Goff said. “It’s a lot of fun when he puts the ball in our hands to make a play.”
Chargers coach Brandon Staley said his defense had the first part of the play covered. “Then he was just able to kind of progress and he kind of optioned away from K9,” Staley said, using the nickname of linebacker Kenneth Murray Jr.
| Lions | Chargers | |
|---|---|---|
| Points | 41 | 38 |
| Total yards | 533 | 421 |
| Rushing yards | 200 | 98 |
| First downs | 23 | 24 |
| Third downs | 4 of 13 | 7 of 14 |
| Fourth downs | 4 of 5 | 3 of 3 |
| Sacks allowed | 0 | 0 |
| Turnovers | 0 | 1 |
| Time of possession | 30:34 | 29:26 |
The numbers
Goff completed 23 of 33 passes for 333 yards and two touchdowns. St. Brown caught eight passes for a career-high 156 yards, Montgomery ran for 116 yards on 12 carries and Gibbs scored twice. The only turnover of the game was a first-quarter interception of Herbert by Kerby Joseph.
Herbert completed 27 of 40 for 323 yards, four touchdowns and the interception. Allen caught 11 passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns. “I thought early on it was gonna be a shootout, and that’s what it ended up being,” Allen said. “You got two great offenses. No matter how good a defense is, it’s hard to stop a great offense.”
“One of those things we haven’t done a lot of is win the close shootouts,” Campbell said. “Every time you win and get it done you learn something from it.”
What came next
The win made Detroit 7-2. The Lions finished 12-5 and won their first division title since 1993. They beat the Rams 24-23 and Tampa Bay 31-23 at home in the playoffs, then lost the NFC Championship Game at San Francisco 34-31 after leading 24-7 at halftime.
The loss dropped the Chargers to 4-5, and they won only one of their last eight games, a 6-0 game at New England. Staley was fired after a 63-21 loss at Las Vegas in December, and Los Angeles finished 5-12. Jim Harbaugh was hired the next month.
This season, the Lions play at Miami on Sunday, November 8, and the Chargers host Houston the same day.
Related WhyNFL reading: how timeouts work, the 10-second runoff and Tom Dempsey’s 63-yard kick against the Lions in 1970.
No published comments yet. Start the conversation.