Blue Wave Has Swept Detroit, NFL
It's official: It's time to put to bed the "Same Old Lions" mantra.
The Lions failed to play their "A" game Thursday night, and still managed to knock off the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Among the lowlights, Ben Johnson didn't have his best game calling plays, the offense experienced its fair share of struggles moving the football down the field and Patrick Mahomes still had a handful of moments where he looked like the two-time NFL MVP that he is.
Yet, all of that was irrelevant Thursday, because Detroit proved to be the grittier and more relentless team. And, most importantly, the Lions, despite their offensive woes and miscues (i.e. Marvin Jones' fumble in the second quarter), were the better team and deserved to beat Mahomes & Co. in the highly-anticipated season-opening matchup.
It almost feels too good to be true, but guess what, folks, it's a reality. And, when you can win a contest without playing your best game, that, to me, is the very mark of a good NFL team.
Your father's and grandfather's Lions would have never, and I mean, would've never pulled out a win – and especially on the road against a formidable opponent like Kansas City – while playing less than their very best football. But, your father's and grandfather's Lions also never had as much support as these Lions did for a season-opening road game. Detroit fans showed up in droves in Kansas City.
“When I walked out in the pregame, I’m looking and I saw a sea of blue,” Campbell said. “I’m like, ‘wow’. And then about the third quarter, you could start hearing them. You could hear them, and it just started to grow.”
Remember, these aren't the Same Old Lions. These, instead, are the "Brand New Lions," which play a new and improved, winning brand of football. They expect to prevail victorious each time they take the field – no matter the difficulty of the opponent – and such was undoubtedly the case at Arrowhead Stadium Thursday.
"It’s got to be expected. And, it (winning the game) was expected," Detroit general manager Brad Holmes told WDIV-TV (Local 4) after the Lions' victory over the Chiefs. "That’s the standard that we have to raise. In years past, 'They play hard, they play hard, they play hard.' No, now, it’s expecting to win. And, we did that, for sure, tonight. We showed the world."
Detroit certainly has turned the corner since its 1-6 start to the 2022 campaign. Since then, the Lions have gone 9-2, with their last two wins coming against the Packers at Lambeau Field and the Chiefs at Arrowhead.
This is easily one of the most impressive 11-game stretches for Detroit in my 30 years of inhabitance on planet Earth. And, with each win, Dan Campbell's squad is increasingly proving that it is for real and can compete with the NFL's best.
Going into Thursday's season-opening tilt, Campbell himself, however, didn't need any further convincing that Detroit can hang in there with the upper echelon of the league's 32 franchises.
"I didn’t learn anything. I got verification on what I already knew. This is a resilient team," Campbell told reporters after the game. "It already was a resilient team, and we added pieces to that resilient team. We are built to handle some stuff, and we did that today against a very good opponent.”
Campbell's bunch is definitely a team able to overcome adverse circumstances. And, on the defensive side of the ball, it's because of players like second-year EDGE Aidan Hutchinson. He led Detroit's pass-rushing efforts against Mahomes & Co., notching a career-high six pressures.
In case you were wondering, Mahomes was just two-of-six, with two throwaways, in those instances where Hutchinson exerted pressure.
Hutchinson has played an integral role in changing the narrative in the Motor City.
"We’re tired of losing, man," the second-year pro told ESPN's Scott Van Pelt after capturing the upset win in Kansas City. "We’re tired of being on the poor side of things, where you walk away from these games and it’s a close one but you lose. We’re coming this season, dude."
Hutchinson is committed to proving the remaining Lions doubters wrong, and to turning the franchise into a consistent model of success.
And, he believes it's going to happen with this current version of the team.
"I don't think it's the 'Same Old Lions' anymore," he told All Lions after the game. "We turned a new leaf. We are going to make winning the culture around here."
Lions fans, it's finally safe to consume more than one serving of that Honolulu Blue Kool-Aid.
Your team is not only here to stay, but I'm willing to also declare that it's on the verge of winning its first division crown since the 1993 campaign (when the NFC North was still known as the NFC Central).
So, do yourself a favor and indulge in that ever-so-sweet Kool-Aid. It's about to be a highly memorable season for your Detroit Lions.
