Jahmyr Gibbs rushes for 3 TDs and Lions get much-needed 44-30 win over Cowboys

DETROIT (AP) — Jahmyr Gibbs and a defense that suddenly generated pressure and turnovers helped the Detroit Lions stay in contention for a playoff berth.

Gibbs ran for three touchdowns, including a 13-yarder with 2:19 left that sealed the Lions' much-needed 44-30 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night.

The Lions sacked Dak Prescott five times — a week after they had no sacks and lost to Green Bay — and had two interceptions and recovered a fumble.

“You could see an uptick in urgency from everybody,” Jared Goff said.

The Lions (8-5) avoided losing consecutive games for the first time in more than three years. They remain outside the playoff picture with four games left, but they improved their odds considerably.

“They don’t get panicked,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said. “We played our best game that we played all year.”

Detroit’s playoff probability is now 54% and Dallas’ fell to 7%, according to the NFL.

The Cowboys (6-6-1) had surged into postseason contention with a three-game winning streak. But against the Lions, the NFL’s top-ranked offense had to lean on powerful kicker Brandon Aubrey too much and Dallas' revitalized defense was humbled.

“It seemed like every time we got some momentum, they hit another explosive play,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “They have a lot of speed, and they can make big plays.”

Goff went 25 of 34 for 309 yards with a 12-yard touchdown pass to rookie receiver Isaac TeSlaa that put Detroit ahead 27-9.

Dallas pulled within three points twice in the fourth quarter, including with 3:42 left when Aubrey matched a career high with his fifth field goal.

Tom Kennedy returned the ensuing kickoff to midfield and Goff threw a 37-yard pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown to set up Gibbs' third score.

Gibbs had seven catches for 77 yards and 43 yards rushing on 12 carries.

“He’s unique,” Campbell said. “He’s special.”

Williams had seven catches for the second straight game and finished with 96 yards. St. Brown, who had been listed as questionable with an ankle injury, left no doubt of his value with six catches for 92 yards and a lot of key blocks for teammates.

“He was going and nobody was going to talk him out of it,” Campbell said.

Detroit's Al-Quadin Muhammad had a career-high three sacks and Jack Campbell had a sack and forced a fumble for a team that hadn't been generating much pressure on quarterbacks.

Prescott wished that trend continued.

He was sacked five times and pressured many more times as he was 31 of 47 for 376 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. He lost his top target in the third quarter when CeeDee Lamb suffered a concussion after he had six catches for 121 yards.

George Pickens didn't pick up the slack, catching just five of the nine passes thrown his way for 37 yards.

Dallas settled for too many field goals from its extraordinary kicker.

The 30-year-old Aubrey converted from 63, 57, 55, 42 and 29 yards, becoming the first in NFL history to make three field goals or 55 yards or more in a game, according to Sportradar.

“These guys aren’t deflated right now, they are (ticked) off,” Prescott said. “We just need to use that the right way — as fuel for the rest of the season.”

Cowboys: Edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney, CB Trevon Diggs and LT Tyler Guyton were inactive.

Lions: S Brian Branch suffered an ankle injury late in the game. S Thomas Harper, filling in for injured All-Pro Kerby, left the game in the first quarter with a concussion. TE Brock Wright was put on injured reserve earlier in the day and WR/PR Kalif Raymond and S Kerby Joseph were inactive.

Cowboys: Host Minnesota in prime time on Dec. 14.

Lions: Visit Los Angeles Rams on Dec. 14.

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

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Ceedee Lamb (88) attempts a catch in front of Detroit Lions cornerback Amik Robertson (21) during the second half of an NFL football game Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams (1) is stopped short of the goal line by Dallas Cowboys defensive end James Houston (53) during the first half of an NFL football game Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) is sacked by Detroit Lions linebacker Jack Campbell, not visible, during the first half of an NFL football game Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Detroit Lions running back David Montgomery (5) runs for a touchdown while Dallas Cowboys running back Malik Davis (34) tries to stop him during the first half of an NFL football game Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs (0) runs the ball as Dallas Cowboys linebacker Jr. Kenneth Murray (59) tries to stop him during the first half of an NFL football game Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

DUMAYR, Syria (AP) — A raid by U.S. forces and a local Syrian group aiming to capture an Islamic State group official instead killed a man who had been working undercover gathering intelligence on the extremists, family members and Syrian officials have told The Associated Press.

The killing in October underscores the complex political and security landscape as the United States begins working with interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in the fight against remnants of IS.

According to relatives, Khaled al-Masoud had been spying on IS for years on behalf of the insurgents led by al-Sharaa and then for al-Sharaa’s interim government, established after the fall of former President Bashar Assad a year ago. Al-Sharaa’s insurgents were mainly Islamists, some connected to al-Qaida, but enemies of IS who often clashed with it over the past decade.

Neither U.S. nor Syrian government officials have commented on al-Masoud’s death, an indication that neither side wants the incident to derail improving ties. Weeks after the Oct. 19 raid, al-Sharaa visited Washington and announced Syria would join the global coalition against IS.

Still, al-Masoud’s death could be “quite a setback” for efforts to combat IS, said Wassim Nasr, a senior research fellow with the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank focused on security issues.

Al-Masoud had been infiltrating IS in the southern deserts of Syria known as the Badiya, one of the places where remnants of the extremist group have remained active, Nasr said.

The raid targeting him was a result of “the lack of coordination between the coalition and Damascus,” Nasr said.

In the latest sign of the increasing cooperation, the U.S. Central Command said Sunday that American troops and forces from Syria’s Interior Ministry had located and destroyed 15 IS weapons caches in the south.

The raid occurred in Dumayr, a town east of Damascus on the edge of the desert. At around 3 a.m., residents woke to the sound of heavy vehicles and planes.

Residents said U.S. troops conducted the raid alongside the Syrian Free Army, a U.S.-trained opposition faction that had fought against Assad. The SFA now officially reports to the Syrian Defense Ministry.

Al-Masoud’s cousin, Abdel Kareem Masoud, said he opened his door and saw Humvees with U.S. flags on them.

“There was someone on top of one of them who spoke broken Arabic, who pointed a machine gun at us and a green laser light and told us to go back inside,” he said.

Khaled al-Masoud’s mother, Sabah al-Sheikh al-Kilani, said the forces then surrounded her son’s house next door, where he was with his wife and five daughters, and banged on the door.

Al-Masoud told them that he was with General Security, a force under Syria’s Interior Ministry, but they broke down the door and shot him, al-Kilani said.

They took him away, wounded, al-Kilani said. Later, government security officials told the family he had been released but was in the hospital. The family was then called to pick up his body. It was unclear when he had died.

“How did he die? We don’t know,” his mother said. “I want the people who took him from his children to be held accountable.”

Al-Masoud’s family believes he was targeted based on faulty intelligence provided by members of the Syrian Free Army.

Representatives of the SFA did not respond to requests for comment.

Al-Masoud had worked with al-Sharaa’s insurgent group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, in its northwestern enclave of Idlib before Assad’s fall, his cousin said. Then he returned to Dumayr and worked with the security services of al-Sharaa’s government.

Two Syrian security officials and one political official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly, confirmed that al-Masoud had been working with Syria's interim government in a security role. Two of the officials said he had worked on combating IS.

Initial media reports on the raid said it had captured an IS official. But U.S. Central Command, which typically issues statements when a U.S. operation kills or captures a member of the extremist group in Syria, made no announcement.

A U.S. defense official, when asked for more information about the raid and its target and whether it had been coordinated with Syria's government, said, “We are aware of these reports but do not have any information to provide.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with regulations.

Representatives of Syria’s defense and interior ministries, and of U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, declined to comment.

At its peak in 2015, IS controlled a swath of territory across Iraq and Syria half the size of the United Kingdom. It was notorious for its brutality against religious minorities as well as Muslims not adhering to the group’s extreme interpretation of Islam.

After years of fighting, the U.S.-led coalition broke the group's last hold on territory in late 2019. Since then, U.S. troops in Syria have been working to ensure IS does not regain a foothold. The U.S. estimates IS still has about 2,500 members in Syria and Iraq. U.S. Central Command last month said the number of IS attacks there had fallen to 375 for the year so far, compared to 1,038 last year.

Fewer than 1,000 U.S. troops are believed to be operating in Syria, carrying out airstrikes and conducting raids against IS cells. They work mainly alongside the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast and the Syrian Free Army in the south.

Now the U.S. has another partner: the security forces of the new Syrian government.

Airwars, a London-based conflict monitor, has reported 52 incidents in which civilians were harmed or killed in coalition operations in Syria since 2020.

The group classified al-Masoud as a civilian.

Airwars director Emily Tripp said the group has seen "multiple instances of what the U.S. call ‘mistakes,’” including a 2023 case in which the U.S. military announced it had killed an al-Qaida leader in a drone strike. The target later turned out to be a civilian farmer.

It was unclear if the Oct. 19 raid went wrong due to faulty intelligence or if someone deliberately fed the coalition false information. Nasr said that in the past, feuding groups have sometimes used the coalition to settle scores.

“That’s the whole point of having a hotline with Damascus, in order to see who’s who on the ground,” he said.

A relative of Khaled al-Masoud holds a piece of a munition said to have been used in the raid that killed him, in the town of Dumayr, in the Damascus countryside, Syria, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Sabah al-Sheikh al-Kilani, the mother of Khaled al-Masoud, sits with several of his daughters at the family home after he was killed during a raid in the town of al-Dumayr, in the Damascus countryside, Syria, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Sabah al-Sheikh al-Kilani, the mother of Khaled al-Masoud, points to bullet holes in the wall of her son's home after he was killed during a raid in the town of al-Dumayr, in the Damascus countryside, Syria, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)