New York Jets
Vs.
Detroit Lions
September 7, 1968
Packers Top Browns, 31-9
Snell Plunges Over From 1 in First Quarter- Jets Stymie Late Threats
By JOSEPH DURSO
Special to The New York Times
CLEVELAND, Sept. 7—Professional football staged a mammoth preseason double-header before 84,918 tonight and the New York Jets touched off the proceedings by defeating the Detroit Lions of the National Football League, 9-6. In the second game, the defending champion Green Bay Packers scored in every period and overpowered the Cleveland Browns, 31-9.
The Jets became the first American Football League team to participate in the Cleveland carnival, which has drawn 580,327 customers in seven years. Tonight's crowd was the biggest in the series and the biggest in the Browns' history.
By winning, the Jets made it two of three in their confrontations with the National League in two seasons and they assured the junior A.F.L. the edge in the 23 inter-league games played this summer.
But the Jets, who were slight underdogs against Detroit, almost upset their own applecart late in the game, as they did against the rookies of the Cincinnati Bengals the week before. They took a 9-3 lead in the first half, then spent the rest of the game trying to outlive their mistakes.
They were buoyed by the return of Emerson Boozer, their prime running back, who scored 13 touchdowns in seven games last season before tearing the ligaments in his right knee. In his first test since last November, the 25-year-old halfback played the first quarter and part of the third. He carried the ball five times for 11 yards and said later that his knee felt fine.
Detroit opened the scoring with a 28-yard field goal by Jerry DePoyster, the rookie who had kicked 36 for the University of Wyoming. But the next time the Jets got the ball, Joe Namath drove them 75 yards in seven plays for the only touchdown of the game.
He hit Don Maynard with a 20-yard pass on the right side, then hit George Sauer for 37 yards on the left side. Boozer swept right end for 6 yards to the 1 and Matt Snell dived in for the touchdown halfway through the first quarter.
The teams were playing under the experimental rule that prohibits extra points by kicks during interleague games. The Jets tried to add the point on Babe Parilli's pass, but it was blocked.
Namath. who played only the first half, was knocking on the door again early in the second period. He threw 43 yards to Sauer on the Detroit 13, but Alex Karras spilled him for a 17-yard loss two plays later and the Jets settled for a 30-yard field goal by Jim Turner.
That made it 9-3 and the Jets might have rolled it up a bit except for a spectacular bit of open-field thievery by Lem Barney. It occurred late in the half after Namath had completed a long pass to Maynard on the New York 46. But Barney raced over from his cornerback position, spun Maynard round, stole the ball from his arms and returned it 10 yards.
The Jets' defensive linemen gave one of their better performances in the first half. They dumped the quarterback, Bill Munson, six times and got to his replacement, Greg Landry, once. The Detroit line, led by Karras, decked Namath three times.
Munson wound up with a set of bruised ribs and turned the quarterbacking over to Landry, the rookie, in the second half. Parilli took over for Namath and Coach Weeb Ewbank went the rest of the way with his bench for the most part.
That was when the game deteriorated into a comedy of errors. Parilli completed only one of eight passes and one was intercepted. A penalty nullified another completion and cost the Jets 55 yards. Two bad passes from center resulted in midget punts that gave Detroit two scoring chances.
The second punt, in fact, gave the Lions the ball on the Jets' 25 in the fourth quarter. But it was Detroit's chance to waste opportunities now. The Lions settled for a 17-yard field goal by DePoyster. Then in the last four minutes, Carl McAdams recovered a fumble by Mel Farr on the Jets' 17, and with 57 seconds to go Randy Beverly intercepted Landry's pass to prevent an upset at the finish.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| Jets | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Lions | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
DET- FG Depoyster 28
NY- Snell 1 run (pass failed)
Second Quarter
NY- FG Turner 30
Fourth Quarter
DET- FG Depoyster 17
