Jake Bates didn’t steal the headlines in the Lions’ Week 1 thriller, but he absolutely did his part in Detroit’s 31-30 overtime win over the New Orleans Saints.
That mattered in a game decided by the slimmest possible margin. According to NFL Game Data’s Lee Sharpe on X, every Week 1 matchup finished with a different point differential - the first time that’s ever happened in any week with 16 games in NFL history. Detroit’s game landed right in the middle of that wild opening slate, and it was the one that ended with a single point separating the teams.
Bates was steady from start to finish. He went 5-for-5 on kicks, with four extra points and one 23-yard attempt.
He wasn’t forced into any high-pressure, long-range drama, but he still delivered seven points in a game the Lions won by one. That included Detroit’s only points in the fourth quarter and the extra point that proved to be the difference in overtime.
That clean performance came after a shaky stretch that had plenty of Lions fans on edge. Bates went 3-for-4 on field goals and 3-for-5 on extra points during the preseason, then finished the final preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts 1-for-3 on extra points.
The nerves didn’t exactly disappear before kickoff, either. James Nahikian of Section 334 Lions on X said Bates had a rough warmup before Week 1, missing “3 or 4 straight 45 ish yarders,” including “One he literally shanked on the ground unbelievably bad.”
Nahikian also said the extra point attempts “barely went in.”
So the concerns were real, and the calls for a kicking competition had been growing louder in training camp. But on Sunday, Bates answered with a perfect day when the Lions needed one.
He won’t be the player most people remember from this game, not with Jahmyr Gibbs turning in a bigger spotlight performance. Still, Bates was one of the reasons Detroit walked out of Week 1 at 1-0.
That kind of calm will matter again quickly. The Lions head into a Thursday night primetime matchup with the Buffalo Bills to open their new outdoor stadium, and after both teams scored and allowed 30-plus points in Week 1, Bates could be asked to come through again.
In a game like this, the lesson is simple: every point matters.
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