The Lions beat the Saints 31-30 at Ford Field, and the margin came down to a two-point conversion that fell incomplete.
Detroit led 21-0 after forcing back-to-back turnovers. New Orleans then outscored them 24-3 for the rest of regulation, got to overtime when Daniel Carlson's 62-yard attempt went wide right, and had a chance to win it after Tyler Shough found Noah Fant for an eight-yard touchdown in the extra period. Kellen Moore went for two. It didn't connect.
New Orleans ran 86 offensive plays and outgained Detroit 469 to 369. They still lost, which is roughly the story of the whole afternoon.
Jahmyr Gibbs touched it 34 times
Twenty-nine carries for 156 yards and two touchdowns, plus five catches. A hundred and eighty-six scrimmage yards.
That's the number that matters more than any of the others. Twenty-nine carries is not a split. It's a workload, and it's the first real evidence of what this backfield looks like now that David Montgomery is in Houston.
Detroit ran it 33 times as a team at 5.0 a carry, and Gibbs took 29 of those. He got both short touchdowns. He was the engine of the ten-play, 70-yard overtime drive that set up the winning score. Five catches on top of it.
Last season Gibbs put up numbers that were already excellent while splitting with Montgomery. If the carry share now looks like this, he isn't just repeating that... he's operating in a tier the position rarely reaches. A back getting 29 carries and five targets in a functioning offense with goal line work is the profile that produces historic fantasy seasons.
One game is one game, and a 73-play afternoon where Detroit controlled the clock for 36:51 is a favorable sample. But this is what people were hoping the Montgomery trade would unlock, and Week 1 delivered it immediately.
Goff spread it around, which is fine and also the ceiling
Twenty-six of 39 for 206 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, a 96.7 rating. Five point one yards an attempt.
That's a lot of completions for not many yards. Detroit's receivers also dropped four passes, which doesn't help.
The distribution is the notable part. Amon-Ra St. Brown drew 14 targets, Jameson Williams nine, Sam LaPorta eight. Goff went to everybody and nobody got a big yardage day, which is both the strength and the limit of this passing game. Detroit went 5 for 13 on third down and struggled to sustain drives after building the lead.
He's a fine real-life quarterback and a mediocre fantasy one most weeks. Nothing here changes that.
Amon-Ra is a locked-in start and Sunday proved it twice
Fourteen targets. Two touchdowns, the 19-yarder that made it 21-0 and the four-yard score in overtime that won the game.
Fourteen targets on 39 attempts is a 36 percent share. He was the first read, the red zone answer, and the guy Detroit went to when the game was on the line in extra time.
There's nothing to analyze here. He's a must-start every week and the target share says the offense knows it.
Jameson Williams is the same story again
Nine targets and not much to show for them.
This is the fourth straight season where the setup looks right and the production doesn't follow. The talent has never been the question... Williams can take the top off any defense and he's had stretches that look like a WR1. What hasn't happened is the week-to-week consistency, and Week 1 looked like the version people have seen before.
He also had the play that nearly cost Detroit the game, failing to haul in a third-down catch with a minute left in regulation that forced a punt and gave New Orleans the ball back for the 62-yard field goal attempt.
Nine targets is real volume and it's a reason not to give up on him. But if you drafted him expecting a leap, Sunday looked a lot like the seasons where expectations outran the box score.
Tyler Shough threw it 56 times, which is the caveat on everything
Thirty-five of 56 for a career-high 410 yards with three touchdowns, two interceptions and a lost fumble on a sack.
He was bad early and very good late. The two picks and the strip-sack all came before New Orleans found anything, and Detroit turned that into a 21-0 lead. Then he threw for the rest of the afternoon and nearly stole it, hitting Olave for 47 and again for a contested 43 to set up the tying score, converting a fourth down to Bryce Lance, and finding Juwan Johnson in the back of the end zone with 1:07 left.
He distributed well and the volume was enormous. Fifty-six attempts with Kellen Moore's up-tempo approach and an extra period produced 86 total offensive plays.
That's also why the 410 yards isn't a weekly projection. Fifty-six attempts came from a 21-point deficit and overtime, not from a normal game plan. Six point two yards an attempt is the more honest number underneath it.
As a rookie last season Shough took 31 sacks in nine starts but posted 7.3 yards an attempt with 13 total touchdowns. The arm is real. The turnovers are the thing to watch.
Olave dominated the targets without finding the end zone
Thirteen targets, second on the team only to the sheer volume of throws going around.
He made the two plays that saved the comeback, a 47-yard completion that finally got New Orleans on the board and a contested 43-yarder that set up the tying touchdown. No scores.
Olave is coming off a career year of 100 catches for 1,163 yards and nine touchdowns on 156 targets, and Week 1 says his role hasn't moved. Thirteen targets in a 56-attempt game is a dominant share in both targets and catches, and the touchdowns follow volume like that over a season.
He's a WR1 and a hold through any quiet weeks.
Etienne's debut was quiet and the script explains most of it
Nine carries. Seven receptions for 32 yards.
That's the whole situation in two numbers. New Orleans ran the ball 25 times total because they spent most of the afternoon down multiple scores and throwing on nearly every down. Kendre Miller got nine carries of his own and scored the eight-yard rushing touchdown, so the ground work was split evenly and there wasn't much of it.
The seven catches are the encouraging part. Etienne was heavily involved as a receiver, which is the role that holds up in negative script, and in a game where the Saints threw 56 times he was a real part of the plan.
Better matchups should produce better rushing volume, and this is a Saints team that won't trail by 21 every week. But the Miller split is worth watching, because a backfield where both backs get nine carries isn't one where either produces reliably on the ground.
Juwan Johnson has a real opening
The nine-yard touchdown that tied it with 1:07 left, plus a 27-yard reception in overtime that helped set up the Fant score.
The reason this matters more than a normal tight end line is who isn't on the field. Jordyn Tyson, the eighth overall pick out of Arizona State, suffered a hamstring injury in a joint practice with Jacksonville on August 13. Reports at the time put the timeline at up to two months, which would be roughly the first five games.
Tyson was supposed to be the starter opposite Olave and the second real target in that offense. Until he's back, the targets that were earmarked for him have to go somewhere, and Johnson and Devaughn Vele are the two most likely destinations. Vele caught a one-yard score of his own.
That's a genuine window rather than a one-week outcome. Johnson is worth starting while it lasts, and worth reevaluating the moment Tyson practices.
Noah Fant is also involved enough to note, having caught the overtime touchdown.
What carries forward
Gibbs is the headline and it isn't close. Twenty-nine carries, five catches, 34 touches, both short scores, and no Montgomery in the way. If that's the workload, he's in the conversation for the best fantasy season any running back has in a while.
St. Brown at 14 targets is exactly what you want. Williams at nine targets and little production is exactly what you were afraid of.
On the New Orleans side, Shough's 410 yards came with 56 attempts and three turnovers, so take the distribution as the signal and the volume as circumstance. Olave is a WR1 whose touchdowns will come. Etienne is a hold whose rushing depends on game script and a split with Miller. Johnson has a five-week window while the rookie heals.
Detroit goes to Buffalo on Thursday night, which is a short week and a hard place to go. New Orleans hosts a chance to show that the second half was the real team rather than the first.