​They are there, but they aren’t always noticed. They do valuable work, yet it isn’t always recognized. On a team of stars, they rarely grab the limelight. Dan Campbell refers to them as glue guys.   “Those role players are big,” he said earlier this month. “I think it’s what makes teams and it gives you that little edge.”Those comments made during the leadup to the season opener reverberated Sunday, Sept. 27, after the Detroit Lions applied the finishing touches to a 31-24 conquest of the New York Jets on Sunday, Sept. 27. The victory, in many ways, resembled a mosaic pieced together with contributions from a variety of sources. The stars, of course, did their part. Jared Goff completed 78.1% of his throws, netted 269 yards and delivered a pair of touchdown passes. Jahmyr Gibbs, Detroit’s pacesetter of a running back, led the Lions in both rushing and receiving, racking up 164 yards on 27 touches while scoring three times. Alim McNeill, their best interior defensive lineman, produced one sack and a team-high seven pressures.[ NEW SHOW: Listen to Shawn Windsor on the “Freep Sports Show” on our Detroit Free Press livestream on YouTube and available in theanywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple or Spotify). ]But all their good work could have been squandered had their unsung teammates not made their presence felt over the course of the game. They were the binding agents who kept this winning effort intact from start to finish.There was Christian Izien, the versatile defensive back who started at safety for the first time this season and then topped all Lions with 11 tackles – including three for loss.There was Jacob Saylors who helped launch two touchdown drives with a pair of long kickoff returns that gave Detroit favorable field position.There was reserve running back Sione Vaki extending the first of those productive marches by picking up 4 yards on a critical third-and-3 situation on the edge of the red zone.There was edge rusher DJ Wonnum, who galvanized the Lions’ attack by sacking Geno Smith twice.There was wideout Isaac TeSlaa who made a pivotal 49-yard catch to set up the winning touchdown scored by Gibbs with 2:30 left.And there was safety Chuck Clark, charging across the line of scrimmage to blast Smith and force a fumble that sealed the victory in the final minute.“This was definitely a team win,” Wonnum told the Free Press. “Everybody’s got a role. … When it’s your time to help the team, you’ve got to be there to help it.”Campbell must have been pleased to see so many different fingerprints on this victory. After the Lions stumbled to a 9-8 record and missed the playoffs last season, he wanted to create more competition with their ranks, with the goal of keeping his most valuable starters sharp and raising the floor of a roster that needed more output from its cast of depth pieces. The Lions then went out and signed players such as Izien, Wonnum and Clark – veterans capable of handling assignments