KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jared Goff passed for 253 yards and a touchdown, new Lions running back David Montgomery ran for the go-ahead score late in the game and Detroit spoiled Kansas City's Super Bowl celebration with a 21-20 victory over the Chiefs on Thursday night.
There was a buzz around Arrowhead Stadium, where the Kansas City Chiefs are nearly unbeatable and were trying to open their latest Super Bowl title defense with a win.
But the Lions had other plans.
“We expected to win this game,” said Detroit coach Dan Campbell. “We came in here, knew what we needed to do, knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and we did that. We won.”
Amon-Ra St. Brown had six catches for 71 yards and a score, and Lions rookie Brian Branch returned Patrick Mahomes’ first pick in an opener 50 yards for another touchdown, to help Detroit snap the Chiefs’ eight-game Week 1 winning streak.
The Lions also won their first opener since the 2017 season.
Branch's big play came at a critical time, as the Lions' offense was struggling at that point. Branch caught a pass that bounced off Kadarius Toney’s hands and found nothing but 50 yards of grass separating him from the end zone and a 14-all tie.
Up until that point of the game, Mahomes had thrown 20 touchdown passes and no interceptions in five-plus season openers.
The Chiefs would respond by tacking on two field goals, but the missed out on chances to get into the end zone and it proved costly.
The Lions would get the ball back after Harrison Butker’s second kick and drive 75 yards and convert third downs on two occasions during the drive. Montgomery would cap the march with a 9-yard touchdown run to give Detroit the the lead for good.
Kansas City would go three-and-out on their following possession, punting the ball back to Detroit with 5:07 remaining in the game.
The Lions tried to run out the clock, but when Goff’s fourth-down pass near midfield was batted down with 2:30 left, the Lions gave the ball back to the Chiefs for one final chance.
But it turned out to be a mess as Toney dropped a potential 20-yard gain, a deep completion was called back for holding, Skyy Moore dropped a pass and a false start left Mahomes heaving a fourth-and-25 throw downfield.
When Mahomes' pass fell incomplete and Detroit took over, Montgomery ran for a first down that allowed the Lions to run out the clock.
Mahomes finished the game with 226 yards passing and two touchdowns, despite all the dropped balls by his receivers. He was also the leading rusher for the Chiefs.
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