Lions News

[whatever_gong82]

I didn't know Mitch Albom still wrote sports articles. Thought he was all about his books and his column.

[Sanders Fan]

I used to really like when Albom was on the Sports Reporters. Level-headed people talking about sports on TV isn’t tolerated any longer.

[whatever_gong82]

'This team is full of winners': Detroit Lions open 2023 season with 21-20 win over Chiefs


Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press


KANSAS CITY, Mo. — C.J. Gardner-Johnson has played for nothing but winners in his NFL career.

He helped the Philadelphia Eagles reach the Super Bowl in February. He won 13 games as a rookie. He has never played on a team that's finished below .500.

"Winners know what winners look like," Gardner-Johnson said Thursday. "This team is full of winners."

The Detroit Lions beat the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, 21-20, in the NFL's season opener at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night, stifling the league's best offense and spoiling the Chiefs' banner-raising ceremony while unveiling themselves as legitimate title contenders to the rest of the world.




David Montgomery scored the game-winning touchdown on an 8-yard run with 7:06 to play, and the Lions got two key defensive stops in the final six minutes to start 1-0 for the first time in three seasons under Dan Campbell.

As the game ended, they were serenaded by chants of, "Let's go, Lions," from thousands of fans in Honolulu Blue jerseys.


"I didn't learn anything (new about my team today)," Campbell said. "I got verification on what I already knew. This is a resilient team. It already was a resilient team and we added pieces to that resilient team. So we're built to handle some stuff and we did that today against a very good opponent.”




Montgomery, playing his first game as a Lion after four seasons with the Chicago Bears, ran for a game-high 74 yards on 21 carries, but it was the Lions' rebuilt defense with three new starters in the secondary that was the star of the night.

Facing a Chiefs team that led the NFL in scoring and total offense last season — but was playing without All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce — the Lions held the reigning Super Bowl champs to 316 net yards and did not allow a touchdown in the second half.



The Chiefs, who had won eight straight openers (tied for the fifth-longest streak in NFL history) and 16 straight games against NFC opponents entering Thursday, had fewer yards in just two games last season.

“I feel like we put ourselves in some bad situations," Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon said. "When you play against a good team, you can’t do those things, and if you can’t come up with points, this is what happens."




The Lions trailed, 14-7, at halftime, but held the Chiefs without a third-down conversion in the second half and got two big defensive plays from rookies to flip momentum their way early in the third quarter.

Jack Campbell, the Lions' second of two first-round picks in April, made a diving deflection on a Patrick Mahomes pass to Kadarius Toney that would have gone for a first down, and second-round pick Brian Branch intercepted a Mahomes pass that deflected off Toney's body two plays later and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown.

Entering Thursday, Mahomes, the reigning NFL MVP, had 18 touchdowns and no interceptions in season-openers for his career.



Mahomes led two field goal drives to give Kansas City a 20-14 lead early in the fourth quarter, but after Montgomery followed a block from another rookie, tight end Sam LaPorta, into the end zone for his touchdown, the Lions turned the game back over to their defense.

Josh Paschal stopped Rashee Rice for a 3-yard loss on a third-and-1 trick play to force a Chiefs punt, and the Lions pinned Mahomes in a fourth-and-25 on Kansas City's final series.




Paschal's tackle came after tight end Blake Bell, playing in place of the injured Kelce, took a direct snap under center and handed the ball to Rice on a jet sweep from the Chiefs' 34-yard line. Linebacker Alex Anzalone said the Lions recognized the play from something Kansas City ran in the preseason, when the tight end under center took the snap and converted a quarterback sneak.

"That’s just a guy that executed at the right time, had the right keys," Anzalone said. "It’s really encouraging to see that player make that play in that situation, cause good dude, works hard, and it was one of the biggest plays of the game, obviously."


Mahomes, who finished 21-for-39 passing for 226 yards, albeit with at least five drops, said he had no problem with Chiefs coach Andy Reid's decision to try and convert on fourth-and-25 rather than punt with 2:09 to play and three timeouts left.




"I’m always hoping we go for it," he said. "The defense was playing good and we kicked the field goals and it set us up to have a situation where we just needed a field goal at the end of the game, we just didn’t convert on it."

Jared Goff completed 22 of 35 passes for 253 yards for the Lions. He threw one touchdown, a 9-yard pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown that came 10 plays after the Lions converted a fake punt on a direct snap to personal protector Jalen Reeves-Maybin at their own 17-yard line, and Marvin Jones lost a fumble deep in Chiefs territory.

"You get a coach like that who's ballsy and lets his nuts hang a little bit, it's big to be a part of that," Montgomery said.


For a team that hasn't made the playoffs since 2016, Campbell said it was big to be part of a win like Thursday's, too, even if it was just the start of what the Lions hope to accomplish this year.



“We expected to win this game," he said. "We came in here and we knew what we needed to do, and we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We did that. What it really means is that it is one. That is one. We have to clean up our issues that hurt us on some stuff today and be ready for Seattle in 10 days."

The Lions host the Seattle Seahawks in their home opener Sept. 17.



Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

[whatever_gong82]

Mike Tirico puts damper on Detroit Lions' win with 'asterisk' remark, and fans lash out


Kirkland Crawford

Detroit Free Press


Of all the NFL announcers, you'd think it wouldn't come from him.

As the Detroit Lions were putting the finishing touches on their season-opening win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night, NBC cameras were showing players exchanging handshakes on the field.

It was then when NBC play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico, inadvertently or not, pulled in a rain cloud on the Lions' victory parade.





"This (win) has an asterisk because of no Chris Jones and no Travis Kelce," Tirico begins to explain, finishing by saying that the way in which the Lions finished last season shows that Thursday's win in the home of the defending Super Bowl champs is no fluke.



Tirico, the top voice of NBC and, before then, the voice of "Monday Night Football" has lived in southeast Michigan for 20-plus years. He's an ambassador for the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament and doesn't hide the fact that he's a staunch supporter of all things Great Lakes State and that usually shines through in his coverage.

Alas, the "asterisk" comment has drawn the ire of Lions fans and football observers alike. Injuries, like the one to All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce's knee a couple of days before the game, happen in the NFL all the time. And holdouts, like the one All-Pro defensive lineman Chris Jones is staging, are nothing new in high-stakes football. The Chiefs still had Patrick Mahomes, last season's Super Bowl MVP and perhaps the best player in the game.


The Lions were simply one-point better on Thursday night, which is all that matters in the NFL. A quick check of the standings only shows 1-0, and no other markings near or around that record for Detroit.


Here's just a sampling of how people are reacting to Tirico's comments:

The first one here.



The second one here.



The third one here.



The fourth one here.



The fifth one here.


The sixth one here.



The seventh (and last!) one here.




Hey Deb, I've had trouble posting the Twitter(X) links, so could you PM me with a video on how to post these properly? And if necessary, to edit this post so that the links work properly? Thank you.

[whatever_gong82]

Unless I get some stuff from the national papers, this is probably the last article on last night's win.


Aidan Hutchinson, Brian Branch highlight standout day by Detroit Lions' defense

Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Free Press sports writer Dave Birkett highlights the best and worst performances from the Detroit Lions' 21-20 win over the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium:


Game balls

Brian Branch

The Lions had a couple coverage mix-ups early, including at least one that Branch appeared to be involved in. But the rookie came up with the Lions’ first takeaway early in the third quarter when he made a one-handed interception on a Patrick Mahomes pass that deflected off Kadarius Toney.

Branch showed great body control and awareness on the play, and he flipped momentum the Lions’ way by returning the pick 50 yards for the tying score at a pivotal point in the game. A second-round pick out of Alabama, Branch finished his NFL debut with three tackles before leaving in the second half with a calf cramp.




Aaron Glenn

Glenn has taken plenty of heat for the Lions’ defensive struggles the past two seasons. One of the NFL’s worst statistical units in 2022, the Lions invested heavily in defensive upgrades this offseason, signing Cam Sutton, C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Emmanuel Moseley in free agency and drafting Branch and Jack Campbell. Glenn has meshed the new and old into one cohesive unit and he both put together a solid game plan and made good in-game adjustments Thursday. Reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes struggled to find open receivers with favorite target Travis Kelce sidelined, and the Lions did a good job keeping Mahomes in the pocket after he hurt them early with his legs.

The Chiefs finished with 316 yards of offense Thursday, fewer than they had in all but two games last season. If Glenn can keep his defense playing near Thursday's level, the Lions will be tough to beat.




Aidan Hutchinson

Hutchinson had a sack-less debut Thursday, finishing with three solo tackles and one assist, but those stats don’t begin to explain the impact he had as a pass rusher. Hutchinson was credited with three quarterback hits, had at least twice as many pressures and drew one holding penalty. He gave right guard Trey Smith fits as an interior rusher and played relentlessly when he lined up on the edge.


The runner-up for Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2022, Hutchinson needs to finish more rushes to truly to be considered one of the best defensive ends in the NFL. But he was a thorn in the Chiefs’ collective side Thursday and the star of the Lions’ defense.




Goats


Marvin Jones

Jones didn’t have a great day in Game 1 of his second go-round with the Lions. The veteran receiver lost the first fumble of his career deep in Kansas City territory in the second quarter, costing his team a scoring opportunity. Jones also had a drop and let another pass sail through his hands (though that ball was high enough that it would have made for a tough catch). The most veteran player on the Lions offense, Jones has done enough over his career to chalk Thursday’s performance up to "one of those days." Still, the Lions are thin enough at receiver that they could run into trouble if he’s not better going forward.



Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

[ghandi]

Mike Tirico puts damper on Detroit Lions' win with 'asterisk' remark, and fans lash out


Kirkland Crawford

Detroit Free Press


Of all the NFL announcers, you'd think it wouldn't come from him.

As the Detroit Lions were putting the finishing touches on their season-opening win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night, NBC cameras were showing players exchanging handshakes on the field.

It was then when NBC play-by-play announcer Mike Tirico, inadvertently or not, pulled in a rain cloud on the Lions' victory parade.





"This (win) has an asterisk because of no Chris Jones and no Travis Kelce," Tirico begins to explain, finishing by saying that the way in which the Lions finished last season shows that Thursday's win in the home of the defending Super Bowl champs is no fluke.



Tirico, the top voice of NBC and, before then, the voice of "Monday Night Football" has lived in southeast Michigan for 20-plus years. He's an ambassador for the Rocket Mortgage Classic golf tournament and doesn't hide the fact that he's a staunch supporter of all things Great Lakes State and that usually shines through in his coverage.

Alas, the "asterisk" comment has drawn the ire of Lions fans and football observers alike. Injuries, like the one to All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce's knee a couple of days before the game, happen in the NFL all the time. And holdouts, like the one All-Pro defensive lineman Chris Jones is staging, are nothing new in high-stakes football. The Chiefs still had Patrick Mahomes, last season's Super Bowl MVP and perhaps the best player in the game.


The Lions were simply one-point better on Thursday night, which is all that matters in the NFL. A quick check of the standings only shows 1-0, and no other markings near or around that record for Detroit.


Here's just a sampling of how people are reacting to Tirico's comments:

The first one here.



The second one here.



The third one here.



The fourth one here.



The fifth one here.


The sixth one here.



The seventh (and last!) one here.




Hey Deb, I've had trouble posting the Twitter(X) links, so could you PM me with a video on how to post these properly? And if necessary, to edit this post so that the links work properly? Thank you.

There are so many ifs,ands, or buts in the NFL...Sure it was a nice break not having those two players there, but its the NFL...Players get hurt...Players hold out...Our fastest player is suspended for a weak gambling rule....Every team has to deal with these things.

[whatever_gong82]

Hey, the Athletic 3 hours ago posted an article about Jawaan Taylor, KC's RT and his non-penalty lining up against Detroit. Worth a quick read:



Was Jawaan Taylor lined up illegally? Explaining the rule and why it’s often overlooked


By Kalyn Kahler
3h ago


It’s not often that a right tackle gets their 15 minutes of fame. The left tackles usually take up all the attention we can muster for the least-glorified position group in football. But Thursday night, Chiefs right tackle Jawaan Taylor might have set a new NFL record for right tackle air time during NBC’s broadcast of the first game of the 2023 season.

It was impossible not to notice No. 74’s suspicious technique. He consistently moved backward into his pass set before the rest of the Chiefs offensive line, and he was lined up shockingly deep behind the line of scrimmage. Either of these two curiosities could merit a penalty for a false start or illegal formation. But Taylor wasn’t getting called.



There are four basic rules for legal offensive formations: Seven players have to be on the line of scrimmage; the two players on the end of the seven have to be eligible receivers; no player can be out of bounds, and no player can be in the neutral zone. Taylor looked to be violating the first requirement of a legal NFL formation because he looked as close to the line of scrimmage as the Arrowhead hot dog vendor.

“He’s so deep, you wonder if he’s legal or not,” NBC’s Mike Tirico said at the end of the third quarter.


NBC’s cameras zoomed in on Taylor’s face as he wiped off sweat with a towel.

“To be on the line of scrimmage, his helmet has to break the waistline of the center,” NBC officiating analyst Terry McAuley said. “And to be honest, we’ve watched him the whole game, he’s really not remotely close. It’s putting the defensive end at a tremendous disadvantage when he can be that far back.”


“And then it’s that early jump he gets, and the Chiefs knew that,” Tirico said. “They played him last year in the divisional playoff in this stadium last year."



“I give him credit for that,” NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth replied. “For his ability to time out the snap count the way that he does. But it’s also part of the responsibility of the coaching staff of the Lions to go, ‘Hey, c’mon, you can’t give him that kind of advantage.'”



We don’t know for certain whether the Lions coaches pointed this out to the officials, but even if they did, it wouldn’t be new information to the crew. A staffer with a team that competed against Taylor when he played for the Jaguars told The Athletic that their staff warned officials pregame about Taylor’s tendencies, but he still didn’t get called enough. “He has gotten away with it his entire career,” the staffer said.


The staffer said Taylor is in a league of his own when it comes to his movement before the snap, and lining up illegally deep. Another staffer for a different team that has played Taylor in the past said they also had to warn officials about it beforehand to put it in their heads, and he pointed out Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari is another lineman who deploys this movement before the snap technique.


Officials will often look past a little bit of movement before the snap. Each crew has its own philosophy. Former referee Gene Steratore told me last year that his motto was not to focus on ticky-tack calls. “We fish for whales and not for minnows,” he said.

So many officials aren’t very legalistic about false starts unless a player is egregiously early, which is exactly what finally happened with two minutes to go in the fourth quarter when line judge Carl Johnson (a three-time Super Bowl official and former head of officiating) could not continue to look away from Taylor’s solo frolic through a statue garden.




Lions head coach Dan Campbell was asked about it during Friday’s media availability and while he was careful to not draw a fine talking about it, he did acknowledge that each officiating crew will have its own tendencies.

“Yeah, I can’t talk about the officials. I’ve been told that, so I’m not even gonna go there,” Campbell said. “But here’s the thing, man, the officials are gonna call or not call what they’re gonna do. I mean that’s — every crew is different and they decide what they are or aren’t gonna do and we gotta play by the rules. They were good with it and we gotta adjust.”




There’s a perception that Taylor isn’t flagged enough for his early jumping, but he’s still seen his share of penalties for it. Per TruMedia, which tallies accepted penalties for individual players, Taylor has been flagged 39 times in 67 games, which means he’s been called for an accepted penalty in a little over half the games he’s played over four seasons. Sixteen of those penalties were false starts — tied for third among offensive linemen during his four-year career — and 19 were for holding, first among offensive linemen during that period.

Taylor has mastered the art of timing his movement with the snap, and often getting away with false starts, a penalty with a bit of gray area to play around in. But he’s rarely been flagged when it comes to illegal formation, a much less subjective rule.



Rule 3-19-3 Item 1. Non-Snapper. If he is not the snapper, no part of his body is permitted to be in the neutral zone at the snap, and his helmet must break a vertical plane that passes through the beltline of the snapper.





Reading between this convoluted legalese of the NFL’s rulebook, Taylor is supposed to line up with his helmet in line with the center’s waist. But repeatedly on the Chiefs passing downs Thursday, he looked to be fully behind the center, to the point where Collinsworth jokingly called him a slot receiver.

Per Trumedia, which tracks accepted penalties, Taylor has been flagged only once for illegal formation, in Week 1 of the 2021 season. The Jaguars were flagged five times for illegal formation penalties (accepted and declined) since 2019, and only that Week 1 2021 penalty was designated to Taylor.

Land Clark’s officiating crew called the Urban Meyer-era Jaguars three times in that game for illegal formation, two of those for the tackles lining up too deep into the backfield.



When a player lines up like this in a game, officials will usually first warn the player that they are lined up too far back, but the penalty itself is rarely called. Another NFL club staffer who works closely with rules said that this is a penalty officials won’t consistently call play after play. They may flag the player once and then let it be.

Taylor is exploiting an advantage in officiating tendencies, something all good competitors and teams do. But the officiating office reviews each crew’s performance and grades them, and after such a public display of Taylor’s personal cheat code, it’s worth wondering if the crews will adjust.

Let’s salute this right tackle for his standout performance while we still can.



Kalyn Kahler is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the NFL. She previously worked as a staff writer for Defector and at Sports Illustrated, where she worked her way up from editorial assistant and personal assistant to Peter King. She is a graduate of Northwestern University.

[froot loops]

I thought the refs were pretty fair yesterday., That deal with Taylor is an NFL wide problem, I kind of think the jig is up for him on those tricks. You can get away with it in the Jacksonville hinterlands. The anonymity allows him to skate on that, but it was so egregious yesterday that it's going to be pointed out all the time now.

If your tackle has to consistently jump his snap to get an advantage it means the snap is extremely predictable, in theory the defense should be able to figure out the cadence as well to get the jump.

[chemiclord]

My issue with Taylor was two fold. The first part was that he got away with it all game.

The second part ties with my problems with the officiating in the Super Bowl last year. If it's not going to be a penalty for 59 minutes, it better not be a penalty in the final one.

Yeah, I'd rather officiating crews follow their own rule book, but if you're not, at least be consistent in what you call or what you don't. Once you tell a player from your lack of action that [x] is going to be okay, abruptly saying it's not in crunch time is effectively putting your finger on the scales. Sure, in this case, 4th and 20 and 4th and 25 may not seem that significant, but it's just another aggravating sign of the inconsistency among officiating crews.

[froot loops]

I didn't see a a replay of the time the false start call on Taylor, but it seemed to me it was a true false start and not the crap he was getting away with the rest of the game.

[whatever_gong82]

Coach Dan Campbell's Lions are 1-0 with no asterisk required, and they look like a playoff contender


LARRY LAGE, AP Sports Writer




Sep 8, 2023


The Detroit Lions can bask in the afterglow of one of their biggest wins in years before getting back to work.

Detroit beat the Kansas City Chiefs 21-20 Thursday night and don't play again until hosting Seattle on Sept. 17.

“It's crucial,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said Friday. “I think it’s big to rest the body for about three days before we get ready for Seattle.


"I think it’s huge and I think it worked out perfect for us.”

The Lions matched, or perhaps exceeded, the hype about their ascending franchise with a road win over the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs.

“Not the same old Lions, the 1-0 Lions,” NBC's Mike Tirico said during the broadcast.


Tirico went on to mention Kansas City's win over the defending champion New England Patriots several years ago on the road in an opener that announced the Chiefs would be a factor.

“This has an asterisk because of no Chris Jones and no Travis Kelce, but after what you saw at the end of last year and what you saw tonight, the blue and silver is for real,” Tirico said.



Campbell was asked a day later about what Tirico said with a question that didn't include the rest of the broadcaster's sentence.

"Well, is there an asterisk by the 1-0?” Campbell asked.

Tirico, who lives in Michigan, was inundated with interview requests on Friday.


“If you listen to the entirety of what I said, it's much more in context with just lifting half the quote,” he said. “I understand the disappointment with the word asterisk, and that's OK.”



WHAT’S WORKING



General manager Brad Holmes, in his third year, looks like he hit more than he missed in this year's NFL draft.

Brian Branch, the No. 45 selection overall, picked off Patrick Mahomes and returned the interception 50 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter to help the Lions pull into a 14-14 tie.

First-round pick Jahmyr Gibbs and second-round selection Sam LaPorta combined for 99 yards of offense. Gibbs, a dynamic running back, had 42 yards on seven carries. LaPorta caught two passes for 18 yards and was a key blocker on some plays. Linebacker Jack Campbell, drafted No. 18 overall, had two tackles.

“They settled in and the stage wasn’t too much for them,” Campbell said.


WHAT NEEDS HELP


Campbell said at the top of the team's to-do list is improving the offense's tempo.

“We can be so much better,” he said.


STOCK UP

Campbell. The gutsy coach called for a fake punt in the first quarter and converted for the seventh time in eight fake punts in his three seasons. Campbell has seemed to make all the right moves on and off the field, leading the Lions to nine wins in 11 games dating to last season.


STOCK DOWN

Marvin Jones was targeted six times and had two receptions for 8 yards and lost a fumble deep in Kansas City territory late in the first half. It was the wide receiver’s first fumble in his 12-year career.

INJURIES

Offensive tackle Taylor Decker had an ankle injury early in the game, but the ailment didn't prevent him from playing.


KEY NUMBER

359 — The number of passes Goff has thrown without an interception, trailing streaks by Aaron Rodgers (402) and Tom Brady (399) in NFL history.



NEXT STEPS

Host the Seahawks on Sept. 17.

[chemiclord]

I didn't see a a replay of the time the false start call on Taylor, but it seemed to me it was a true false start and not the crap he was getting away with the rest of the game.

It didn't seem particularly more egregious than the "go on one on a three-count" that he had been doing all game to me.

[whatever_gong82]

This is an article from the Boston Globe, basically saying anyone can win in today's NFL. It's New England Patriots specific though.

Why does the Chiefs’ loss matter to the Patriots? Because it proves there are no unbeatable teams in the NFL.




By Gary Washburn Globe Staff, Updated September 8, 2023


What we learned from the Lions’ upset win over the defending champion Chiefs is that opening days tend to be overrated and the reduction of preseason games, along with injury precautions with key players, have hindered chemistry.

That’s why Patrick Mahomes looked pedestrian at times and why his receivers looked as if they were catching balls with cooking oil on their hands Thursday in the 21-20 loss to the Lions. The key in Week 1 is to develop cohesion, to take a step forward, and the Patriots have that opportunity in their opener against the Eagles on Sunday.



The encouraging news for the Patriots is that the Chiefs’ loss proves there are no great teams in the NFL. Kansas City looked slow at times, especially without All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce, while star defensive lineman Chris Jones was chilling in the luxury suite of Arrowhead Stadium still waiting for a new contract.


Decades ago, then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle made parity his primary focus after the Steelers, Cowboys, and Dolphins took turns dominating the 1970s. Now, the best teams get the most difficult schedulHees. The weakest teams are allowed to nab the best quarterback prospects with high draft picks. (But ask the 49ers how that turned out with Trey Lance.)




The league doesn’t want a repeat champion. They want the Bengals, doormats for decades, to emerge. They want the Jaguars to finally become competitive. They love that the Lions, after years of ineptitude that practically encouraged Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson to retire in their primes, have finally become a respectable franchise with a promising future.

The Patriots are in that middle-class neighborhood where really nobody wants to live. They’re good enough to make the playoffs, to perhaps win 10 games, get to the wild-card round, and maybe pull off an upset. But barring a brilliant season from Mac Jones; a combined 1,800 yards from Rhamondre Stevenson and Ezekiel Elliott; a rejuvenated season from JuJu Smith-Schuster; a stellar rookie season from Kayshon Boutte or Demario Douglas; and a top-10 defense; the Patriots will be battling for that final playoff spot.


It’s difficult to keep dominant teams together in the NFL. Salary-cap restrictions make it nearly impossible to retain an All-Pro core for the long term. It places more emphasis on the draft, uncovering gems in free agency, lower-salary players exceeding expectations, and star players remaining healthy and productive.

The Patriots have undergone a difficult transition after Tom Brady was inexplicably allowed to leave for Tampa Bay. They’ve struggled to find a reliable long-term answer at quarterback. Bill Belichick has missed on several free agent signings while the drafts have been average at best.



All of those team-building elements have to flourish for a team to remain dominant and give themselves an annual chance at a Super Bowl. But the positive for climbing teams such as the Patriots is that the elite teams are never too far ahead for too long.


The Chiefs are currently the model NFL franchise and they are indeed flawed, lacking a No. 1 receiver and an elite running back. They rely so much on the wizardry of Mahomes, Andy Reid’s methodical offensive system, and an opportunistic defense that they have maintained superiority in the AFC. But as we witnessed Thursday night, those strengths can be fleeting, and even loaded rosters can display weaknesses.


The margin for error for the Patriots is small in a competitive AFC, but they are indeed good enough to compete with — not necessarily beat — teams such as the Eagles, Chiefs, and Bills.

The Jets traded for future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers and acquired a bunch of his Green Bay buddies to bolster the offense, and there’s no guarantee they won’t finish last in the AFC East. The Dolphins are relying on a quarterback with concussion issues, a talented but unproven defense, and a running back by committee. And the Bills have become one of the best teams in the NFL with Josh Allen, but that still hasn’t resulted in a Super Bowl appearance and may not this season.



What we learned Thursday is the NFL lacks great teams. They are a handful of very good teams, and the ones that are most successful are the ones who make the fewest mistakes at the most critical times. The talent pool has been spread throughout the league. The running back position has been completely devalued. The quarterbacks are making all the damn money, but most of them — Dak Prescott or Daniel Jones or Deshaun Watson or Kirk Cousins — haven’t come close to a Super Bowl.


So the Patriots do have a chance. They need Jones to play the best football of his career and develop into a true leader. They need a bounceback season from Elliott and an unexpected All-Pro season from someone else on the offense. They’re good enough to compete on a weekly basis, but so are a lot of other teams.




The harsh reality is the NFL is a bunch of 8-9, 9-8, and 10-7 teams that are a few plays from 12 wins and a few from 6. The rules don’t allow teams to keep their best players, especially when half the quarterbacks are making $40 million per season.

Such a flawed salary system leaves the opportunity for teams with the right blend of an efficient offense with a low-mistake quarterback along with a physical, opportunistic defense to make deep playoff runs. Are the Patriots that team? They certainly can be. They should come away Thursday thinking, “The Chiefs ain’t that good, at least not yet.”

And that leaves the door open to exceed their mediocre expectations.



Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.

[whatever_gong82]

Detroit Lions' Jared Goff closing in on NFL history; more snaps coming for Jahmyr Gibbs


Dave Birkett


Detroit Free Press


KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jared Goff is a week or two away from making NFL history.

Goff completed 22 of 35 passes for 253 yards and one touchdown without a turnover in the Detroit Lions’ 21-20 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday, extending his interception-less streak to 359 straight pass attempts without a pick.

Goff now has the third-longest interception-less streak of all-time, behind Aaron Rodgers (402 attempts) and Tom Brady (399). His last interception came in the third quarter of the Lions’ Week 9 win over Green Bay Packers last November.

“Look, I appreciate that, we all do," Lions coach Dan Campbell said on a teleconference Friday. "But it’s going to come at some point, it just does, and that’s OK when it does. But right now I like where he’s at and the way he’s playing the game, cause he is. He’s playing a steady, solid, smart game right now and he helped us win last night."



Goff struggled with turnovers early in his career, throwing 12 or more interceptions in three straight seasons from 2018-20. He had 10 turnovers in one four-game stretch late in his final season with the Los Angeles Rams that helped sour that organization on Goff’s prospects as their long-term quarterback.



But after similar turnover woes in his first 22 games as a Lion, when he had 23 turnovers, Goff kicked his turnover habit midway through last season.

He has benefitted from playing behind one of the NFL’s best offensive lines and having a stable running game, but also has improved his decision making and fundamentals. On Thursday, Goff took one sack, was hit just two other times on pass attempts and though he had a handful of passes tipped at the line of scrimmage, rarely put the ball in harm’s way.



“Certainly the ball security, but I think a lot of it is, man, he’s worked hard on his footwork, getting his hips in position and then playing fast and efficient, getting through his progressions," Campbell said. "It’s there, it’s not there, I’m working the next one. And I think all of that helps with the ball security and being smart with your decisions."


Goff needs 44 interception-free pass attempts to break Rodgers’ record. He could do it next Sunday in the Lions’ home opener against the Seattle Seahawks at Ford Field, but more likely will have to wait until the Atlanta Falcons come to town in Week 3.

Streak aside, Goff said Thursday he was happy to come away with what he called a “special” win against a good Chiefs team that could be a springboard to even better things this fall.



“We kind of got away with one in some ways, but that’s what good teams do," he said. "When you don’t play your best, but you find a way in the fourth quarter to get a stop on defense, to get a first down on offense, to make those catches that Josh (Reynolds) made and be able to score on that long drive we had. That’s what we’re starting to become now and it’s a good feeling.”



Fake news


Campbell downplayed the gutsiness of his fake punt call early in Thursday’s game, when the Lions were backed up in a fourth-and-2 at their own 17-yard line. But Campbell’s bold decision in another big game wasn’t lost on his players.

“The backed up fake punt was pretty ballsy,” Goff said. “But it worked.”


Jalen Reeves-Maybin, Jack Fox’s personal protector on punts, converted the fake with a 3-yard run on a direct snap, and the Lions scored their first touchdown later in the drive to tie the game at 7.


Chiefs coach Andy Reid insisted his team wasn’t caught off guard by the fake, the Lions’ ninth in 35 games under Campbell. The Lions have converted eight of those fakes, with their only miss coming on a dropped pass in 2021.

“We mentioned it to the guys," Reid said. "We were ready for everything — special teams. I mentioned it to the guys. They were double the amount of fakes than anybody else in the league last year. So, they got us on it.”



Briefly


Halapoulivaati Vaitai played all 70 offensive snaps at right guard Thursday in his return to the lineup from 2022 back surgery. Vaitai, who a training camp battle with Graham Glasgow for the starting job, didn’t allow a quarterback pressure and was the Lions’ highest-graded offensive player, according to Pro Football Focus.

Left tackle Taylor Decker also played every snap despite suffering an ankle injury early in the game.


"He played the whole game with it and finished out, which, man, that was outstanding," Campbell said. "Deck’s a tough S.O.B., man. To watch him battle out there, it was impressive. We’ll know a lot more in a few days, but I’m encouraged because I know there again he finished out that game."


Rookie Jahmyr Gibbs only played 19 snaps Thursday as the Lions' No. 2 running back behind David Montgomery. Campbell said that's about what the Lions were planning for from their first-round pick, who had 60 yards from scrimmage on nine touches.

"We really didn’t want to overload any of those (rookies)," Campbell said. "I think it’s important you go in and let them get a feel of what it’s going to be like. It’s the first one, let’s go in and make sure that the guys that have been around here, the guys that have taken a load for us, that we’ve been in games with, that they take on a bigger load and we work these rookies in and get them a feel for it, and now they’ve got that one under their belt. So for Gibbs, he’ll begin to get more touches now so that was just the beginning last night."



Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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It didn't seem particularly more egregious than the "go on one on a three-count" that he had been doing all game to me.

He actually twitched first, which they almost always call, and then got such an early jump he was about equal with Mahomes depth in the pocket by the time the ball was actually snapped. It was definitely egregious.