Lions need to keep getting big plays in all phases to win the tough NFC North

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Lions need to keep getting big plays in all phases to win the tough NFC North

2024-10-22 06:46 Last Updated At：07:02

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Lions were about to fall to drop to 4-2 and lose crucial ground to the unbeaten Vikings.

With five minutes left and Minnesota leading 29-28, the Lions were facing fourth-and-20 at their own 20. Not even Dan Campbell was willing to go for it in that situation.

Punter Jack Fox took the snap with 4:25 to play and the Lions didn't make another mistake.

Fox kicked the ball 63 yards and Brandon Powell could only return it to the Vikings 27 with 4:16 left. Aaron Jones rushed twice for 6 yards and Sam Darnold's pass to Justin Jefferson fell incomplete.

Kalif Raymond returned Minnesota's punt to the 30 with 2:41 to play, and the Lions controlled the game from there. They ate up all but 15 seconds of the clock before Jake Bates hit a 44-yard field goal for a 31-29 win.

“That was all three units of our team coming through when we needed them,” Campbell said Monday. “Fox with a 63-yard punt and our guys get down there to cover it, the defense gets us a three-and-out and the offense does an outstanding job to set up Jake for the field goal.”

“All three of our coordinators had a great plan, and the guys went out and executed.”

After the Lions won two home playoff games last season — the first time they had done that in franchise history — Campbell doesn't want to leave Ford Field this year until the Super Bowl. To do that, his team has to win what has become the toughest division in football.

“You talk about the endgame and where you want to be at the end of the season, and then you work backwards to figure out the steps to get there,” he said. “It starts with winning your division. Everything needs to run through Detroit, and to do that, you have to win your division games to be home in the playoffs.

“So this was big.”

The Lions still have to host Minnesota and play two games each against Green Bay and Chicago.

Jared Goff is on one of the NFL's greatest hot streaks for a passer. In the last three games, he is 58 of 68 (85.3%) for 887 yards and seven touchdowns. In that stretch, he also has more touchdown receptions (one) than interceptions (zero).

“It's interesting, but I guess I'm just not surprised,” Campbell said. “I hear these numbers and I'm just like he's playing really good quarterback. I expect that from him. He's playing at a very high level, he's tough, he's competitive and when it is crunch time, his heart rate just levels out.”

No one expected the Lions' pass rush to continue operating at a high level without Aidan Hutchinson, who is out for the season with a broken leg, but Darnold had too much time in the pocket. Three of Detroit's four sacks came late in the game and weren't enough to stop scoring drives.

“It wasn't perfect, but my God, those guys competed and gave us a chance,” Campbell said. “But we know we can be better. We asked our coverage to do a whole lot. We need just a little more.”

With RB David Montgomery dealing with a minor knee injury, Jahmyr Gibbs rushed for 116 yards and two touchdowns and caught four passes for 44 yards.

The Lions run as many fake punts as anyone in the NFL and rarely miss, but Jalen Reeves-Maybin was stopped for a 1-yard gain early in the game. Campbell said he'd do it again.

“I'm disappointed that it didn't work — everybody is — but the look was there,” he said. “We're going to keep looking for it, keeping coaching it up and giving the guys a chance.”

Montgomery had to be helped off the field after injuring his knee, but was back after just two possessions.

“He obviously had pain in the knee, so you need to get it checked out,” Campbell said. “But it turned out he got kneed in the back of his knee, so it was just a bruise or a contusion and he was able to come back.”

7.4 — Minnesota's average yards gained per play. The defense hadn't given up more than 6.6 yards per play in any other game and held the Cowboys to 3.9 last week. That's not all because of Hutchinson, but they definitely need to do a better job up front.

Avoid looking past the Tennessee Titans next weekend at home.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Eyewitness video captures frantic efforts to save lives after deadly collapse of dock walkway

2024-10-22 06:56 Last Updated At：07:01

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The metal gangway where dozens of people waited to board a ferry boat made a loud, creaking noise before snapping in the middle amid panicked cries from those sent plunging into the water. Some clung desperately to the railing, while others began to float away with the tidal current.

“There was no time for anyone to get off,” said Icy White, who watched from about 30 feet away at the ferry dock on Sapelo Island. “It took seconds.”

White’s family was among hundreds visiting the isolated Georgia barrier island Saturday for a fall festival spotlighting the history and culture of its tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants. The celebration gave way to tragedy when the gangway collapsed, sending seven visitors to their deaths.

White of Atlanta recorded video of the immediate aftermath on her cellphone and shared it with The Associated Press. It shows tourists and island residents jumping into action to rescue imperiled strangers and render aid to the injured in a remote location with few trained first responders initially on-site.

“There was no EMS that was there,” said Darrel Jenkins, White’s cousin. “We were the EMS.”

Largely unspoiled Sapelo Island, most of which is owned the state of Georgia, has no roads or bridges connecting it to the mainland. Residents and visitors typically rely on ferries operated by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to make the 7-mile (11-kilometer) trip.

Natural Resources Commissioner Walter Rabon told a news conference Sunday an estimated 700 visitors showed up for the Cultural Day event hosted by residents of Hogg Hummock, a tiny enclave founded after the Civil War by slaves who had worked the island plantation of Thomas Spalding.

Rabon said his agency had 40 staff members working on the island during one of its busiest days of the year. The U.S. Coast Guard and local sheriff's and fire departments later joined search and rescue efforts with boats and helicopters. But Rabon praised civilian bystanders for their efforts immediately after the collapse sent about 20 people into the water.

“Their quick response and action saved additional lives,” Rabon said.

White's video shows people clinging to metal railing on the broken gangway, dangling at a steep angle into the water. Some holding on at the bottom are partly submerged, while those closer to the top extend hands trying to reach and pull them up. Others pass orange life preservers to those at the bottom.

At least a dozen people floating in the water can be seen drifting away from the dock, pulled by a strong tidal current that threatened to drag them out to sea. Still recording on her phone, White runs into a dockside parking lot shouting for others to come help.

“Who can help? Who can swim? Please, help! Help! Help!" she calls out. "The bridge fell! It fell! Please help! People are in the water!”

Another video clip shows volunteers attempting to comfort a crying woman with a broken leg at the water's edge. A few feet away, a man in latex gloves kneels performing chest compressions on someone sprawled on the ground, a muddy mix of rocks and shells.

Other footage shows volunteers using a blanket to form a makeshift stretcher for an injured woman, then carrying her toward a boat for evacuation.

The seven people killed were all seniors, ranging in age from 73 to 93, according to McIntosh County Coroner Melvin Amerson.

Officials said none of them lived on the island, and Hogg Hummock resident Reginald Hall said none of them appeared to be islanders' family members.

They included Charles L. Houston, 77, of nearby Darien, a chaplain for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Also killed were William Johnson Jr., 73, and Queen Welch, 76, both of Atlanta. The remaining four were from Jacksonville, Florida: Crews Carter, 75; Cynthia Gibbs, 74; Carlotta McIntosh, 93; Isaiah Thomas, 79.

The broken gangway was removed from the dock and taken to what the Georgia Department of Natural Resources on Monday called a “secured facility.”

An investigative team with expertise in accident reconstruction and engineering was assigned to determine what caused the collapse that Rabon, the Natural Resources commissioner, referred to Sunday as a “catastrophic failure.”

Rabon's agency operates the Sapelo Island ferries and dock, which was rebuilt in 2021. The agency said the gangway was last inspected in December 2023 with no concerns identified.

Rabon told reporters about 40 people were standing on the gangway waiting to board a ferry when it collapsed in the middle.

Hogg Hummock is among a shrinking cluster of small Southern communities descended from enslaved island populations known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia. Scholars say residents retain much of their African heritage — including a unique dialect and skills such as cast-net fishing and basket weaving — because of their separation from the mainland.

Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.

But the community’s population has been shrinking for decades, and some families have sold their land to outsiders for vacation homes. Last year, county commissioners approved zoning changes that doubled the size of homes allowed in Hogg Hummock. That raised fears among residents that larger homes could spur tax increases that could force them to sell land their families have held for generations.

Wagster Pettus reported from Jackson, Mississippi.