Lions Smother Jets, Enhance Playoff Hopes : Pro football: Sanders gains 127 hard-earned yards in 18-7 victory. Monk sets consecutive-game receptions record.

While Barry Sanders was going backward much of the time, the Detroit Lions took a big step forward Saturday.

The Lions (8-6) enhanced their playoff chances with an 18-7 victory over the sliding New York Jets. After Art Monk set an NFL record for consecutive games with a reception on New York’s first play, the Jets rarely did much against the league’s 23rd-ranked defense.

Sanders gained 127 yards, many of them on a final drive as Detroit clinched the victory with Jason Hanson’s fourth field goal, a 23-yarder with 3:02 remaining. Often facing an eight-man front, Sanders was thrown for losses nine times. But he also had runs of 29, 27 and 22 yards as the Lions remained in the middle of the NFC playoff chase with their third victory in a row.

“I’ve been through stretches like this before,” said Sanders, who has 1,721 yards this season. “You just don’t let it worry you. Our offense is well balanced enough where, sooner or later, we are going to break it open.”

That never really happened. But with 15-year veteran Dave Krieg at quarterback, the Lions never lost control, either.

“They sent a lot of guys up front to stop Barry and that opened up the passing game,” said Krieg, who completed 18 of 24 passes for 189 yards--at one point hitting 11 in a row--and found Sanders for a five-yard touchdown. “Because of the way defenses gear up to stop him, we should always be able to throw the ball.”

The bungling Jets (6-8) fell for the third consecutive week. Their main highlight was Monk’s five-yard catch on the game’s opening offensive play. He caught the short pass from Boomer Esiason on a crossing pattern, giving him 178 consecutive games with a reception, breaking Steve Largent’s NFL mark. Largent was on hand to congratulate the 15-year veteran.

“I’m just glad it happened on the first play,” Monk said. “I thought that might have been the spark to generate us, but it didn’t happen.”

Other than one long second-quarter drive, the Jets did nothing offensively. New York’s attack showed little interest in keeping alive the team’s flickering playoff hopes.

“There’s no consistency right now that we can find,” Coach Pete Carroll said. “We are hurting right now. We didn’t throw the ball well today. They were crowding us and we couldn’t hit anything up top.”

The Lions still think they can finish atop the NFC Central, even though they trailed Minnesota and Chicago heading into the weekend.

The Lions didn’t use Sanders much to get their first score, Hanson’s 37-yard field goal. Krieg had passes of 14 yards to Herman Moore and 20 to Brett Perriman, while Sanders gained only two yards on the drive.

Sanders was busier on the next scoring drive, a 79-yarder on which he rushed for 24 yards and caught a five-yard pass in the front corner of the end zone. It was his first touchdown reception this season.

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The Long Haul

Longest pass - catching streaks in NFL history:

Player Games x-Art Monk 178 Steve Largent 177 Ozzie Newsome 150 x-Jerry Rice 140 Harold Carmichael 127 Mel Gray 121 Anthony Carter 105 Dwight Clark 105 Danny Abramowicz 105

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