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3 reasons Detroit Lions can contend for Super Bowl: 'Belief is everything'
Dave Birkett
Detroit Free Press
Jared Goff won’t let himself go there yet.
“It’s four games in,” he said.
Dan Campbell thinks it’s a bit premature, too.
“Yeah, I’m not going there,” Campbell said
But for everyone on the outside looking in, it’s OK to dream a little about the Detroit Lions and what they can be this season.
The Lions won their second primetime September road game Thursday, drubbing the Green Bay Packers, 34-20, at Lambeau Field.
They are the clear class of the NFC North a quarter of the way into the season, owners of one of the best all-around rosters in football, and their unflinching approach and fervent fan base have helped them walk out of two of the most iconic venues in the NFL winners.
If they can do that in September — the Lions are just the sixth team ever to win two primetime road games in the first month of the season, according to NFL.com — history says something special could be in store.
Of the five previous teams to accomplish the feat, two (the 2015 Denver Broncos and 1995 Dallas Cowboys) won the Super Bowl and two others (the ’95 Packers and 2009 Indianapolis Colts) won their divisions.
Only the 1995 Chicago Bears failed to reach the postseason.
“We have our own standards, our own goals of what we wanted to do and certainly one of those is win the division,” Campbell said Thursday. “You got to win your division games, and, man, if you can get them on the road that goes a long way. So we knew that and this is important. It’s not the end all be all, but it is important.”
The Lions’ goals aren’t much different than most other NFL teams, but for the first time in a long time, they seem on their way to checking them off.
The Lions entered the season as strong favorites to win their first division title in 30 years, and the past four weeks have only enhanced their status as NFC North frontrunners.
The Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings are two of four winless teams left in the NFL. The Bears are a hot mess with no quarterback and no direction. And the Packers just got outcoached, outclasses and out-quarterbacked by a Lions team that’s had their number since late in 2021.
But winning the division isn’t — and shouldn’t — be the Lions’ only goal.
Yes, it’s the first step, and what their primary focus should be for now. But the Lions are bona fide Super Bowl contenders who have a real shot of hosting multiple playoff games for reasons that were obvious to anyone watching Thursday night.
The defense is real
I wrote a couple weeks ago that this year’s Lions defense has the chance to be “at least the franchise’s best” since the 2014 group that led the Lions to the playoffs, and nothing has changed since then.
The Lions held a Kansas City Chiefs team with the best quarterback on the planet (albeit one without his favorite target, and Taylor Swift beau, Travis Kelce) to 20 points in their season opener and have held two of their other three opponents at or below that mark. They enter the weekend fourth in the NFL against the run, 12th in sack percentage and fifth in yards allowed per play.
On Sunday, they got five sacks — one each from five defensive linemen — forced two turnovers and held the Packers to 23 net yards and three points in a dominant first half.
“For real, I love my team but I’m looking at the score like, ‘Yo, we got these folks to three points,’” an incredulous Lions cornerback Jerry Jacobs said after the game. “We’re going to halftime like, ‘Come on, bro. Like an NFL game?’ That was crazy.”
The Lions play fast, physical and aggressive on defense, they’ve built excellent depth on that side of the ball and they have two rising stars in Aidan Hutchinson and Brian Branch. With one top-tier passing quarterback on their schedule the rest of the season — the Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert — there’s no reason they shouldn’t finish the year top 10 in most categories.
The offense is diverse
The Lions ran the ball well last year, but their rushing attack never consistently felt like the kind that could take over a game. On Sunday, the Lions hammered the Packers with the run, giving the ball to David Montgomery over and over again — 32 times — while Green Bay tapped out.
Montgomery finished with a season-high 121 yards, scored three touchdowns and had a career-best 113 yards after contact, according to the NFL’s NextGen stats. He sat out the Lions’ Week 3 win over the Atlanta Falcons with a thigh bruise, but when he’s right — and with the expected continued improvement of rookie Jahmyr Gibbs — the Lions have the makings of a true dual-threat offense.
Goff has played winning football since midway through last season, and although he needs to take better care of the ball, he’s blessed to play behind one of the league’s best offensive lines. If Jameson Williams can add anything as a deep threat in his return from suspension to compliment Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta, the Lions offense has the potential to be scary-good.
“When we can run it the way we (did Thursday) and get the play-action off of it, you’ve got some dropback off of it, you got all sorts of things off of it, that’s when we’re at our best,” Goff said.
The belief is palpable
As good as the Lions have been defensively, and as complete as the offense looks on paper, the most striking thing about their 3-1 start is the unflinching belief the team has in itself.
Anywhere, any time, any place, in any venue, on whatever stage and with whatever obstacles are in front of it, this Lions team has a confidence in getting the job done that far surpasses any team I’ve ever covered.
“Belief is everything,” Campbell said. “I don’t care how talented you are, if you don’t believe you can win games, or you don’t believe the coaches can put you in position to win games, or you don’t believe the guy next to you is going to do his job, it doesn’t matter. You’ll struggle to win and you’ll always have doubt. This team believes, this staff believes, and we know we can go into any and every game and we’re going to have a chance to win it.”
There’s a danger, of course, in being overconfident, and that’s something Campbell, his staff and the locker room will have to police in the coming weeks.
This group of players has never won a title, never played deep into January, never even made the playoffs together, and they won’t face a truly elite foe — save for maybe the Dallas Cowboys in late December — until the postseason.
That doesn’t mean the Lions will finish 16-1. There will be bumps along the way, and as Goff said Thursday, how the Lions navigate those is “how we’ll know what we’re made of.”
With that in mind, Campbell said Friday the Lions still have to act like they’re on the hunt, even now that they have a target on their back.
“I said this back in training camp, but if you’re hunting us, you don’t have to look far. We’re going to be on your front porch when you open the door,” Campbell said. “That’s very much the mindset. We still got a lot to prove. We want to win this division and we still, we’ve done nothing yet. We’re on course, we like where we’re at but, man, we’re still hungry. And I think we have to approach every game that way, no different than last night.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
Next up: Panthers
Matchup: Lions (3-1) vs. Carolina (0-3).
Kickoff: 1 p.m. Oct. 8; Ford Field, Detroit.
TV/radio: Fox; WXYT-FM (97.1).
Line: TBA.
Dave Birkett
Detroit Free Press
Jared Goff won’t let himself go there yet.
“It’s four games in,” he said.
Dan Campbell thinks it’s a bit premature, too.
“Yeah, I’m not going there,” Campbell said
But for everyone on the outside looking in, it’s OK to dream a little about the Detroit Lions and what they can be this season.
The Lions won their second primetime September road game Thursday, drubbing the Green Bay Packers, 34-20, at Lambeau Field.
They are the clear class of the NFC North a quarter of the way into the season, owners of one of the best all-around rosters in football, and their unflinching approach and fervent fan base have helped them walk out of two of the most iconic venues in the NFL winners.
If they can do that in September — the Lions are just the sixth team ever to win two primetime road games in the first month of the season, according to NFL.com — history says something special could be in store.
Of the five previous teams to accomplish the feat, two (the 2015 Denver Broncos and 1995 Dallas Cowboys) won the Super Bowl and two others (the ’95 Packers and 2009 Indianapolis Colts) won their divisions.
Only the 1995 Chicago Bears failed to reach the postseason.
“We have our own standards, our own goals of what we wanted to do and certainly one of those is win the division,” Campbell said Thursday. “You got to win your division games, and, man, if you can get them on the road that goes a long way. So we knew that and this is important. It’s not the end all be all, but it is important.”
The Lions’ goals aren’t much different than most other NFL teams, but for the first time in a long time, they seem on their way to checking them off.
The Lions entered the season as strong favorites to win their first division title in 30 years, and the past four weeks have only enhanced their status as NFC North frontrunners.
The Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings are two of four winless teams left in the NFL. The Bears are a hot mess with no quarterback and no direction. And the Packers just got outcoached, outclasses and out-quarterbacked by a Lions team that’s had their number since late in 2021.
But winning the division isn’t — and shouldn’t — be the Lions’ only goal.
Yes, it’s the first step, and what their primary focus should be for now. But the Lions are bona fide Super Bowl contenders who have a real shot of hosting multiple playoff games for reasons that were obvious to anyone watching Thursday night.
The defense is real
I wrote a couple weeks ago that this year’s Lions defense has the chance to be “at least the franchise’s best” since the 2014 group that led the Lions to the playoffs, and nothing has changed since then.
The Lions held a Kansas City Chiefs team with the best quarterback on the planet (albeit one without his favorite target, and Taylor Swift beau, Travis Kelce) to 20 points in their season opener and have held two of their other three opponents at or below that mark. They enter the weekend fourth in the NFL against the run, 12th in sack percentage and fifth in yards allowed per play.
On Sunday, they got five sacks — one each from five defensive linemen — forced two turnovers and held the Packers to 23 net yards and three points in a dominant first half.
“For real, I love my team but I’m looking at the score like, ‘Yo, we got these folks to three points,’” an incredulous Lions cornerback Jerry Jacobs said after the game. “We’re going to halftime like, ‘Come on, bro. Like an NFL game?’ That was crazy.”
The Lions play fast, physical and aggressive on defense, they’ve built excellent depth on that side of the ball and they have two rising stars in Aidan Hutchinson and Brian Branch. With one top-tier passing quarterback on their schedule the rest of the season — the Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert — there’s no reason they shouldn’t finish the year top 10 in most categories.
The offense is diverse
The Lions ran the ball well last year, but their rushing attack never consistently felt like the kind that could take over a game. On Sunday, the Lions hammered the Packers with the run, giving the ball to David Montgomery over and over again — 32 times — while Green Bay tapped out.
Montgomery finished with a season-high 121 yards, scored three touchdowns and had a career-best 113 yards after contact, according to the NFL’s NextGen stats. He sat out the Lions’ Week 3 win over the Atlanta Falcons with a thigh bruise, but when he’s right — and with the expected continued improvement of rookie Jahmyr Gibbs — the Lions have the makings of a true dual-threat offense.
Goff has played winning football since midway through last season, and although he needs to take better care of the ball, he’s blessed to play behind one of the league’s best offensive lines. If Jameson Williams can add anything as a deep threat in his return from suspension to compliment Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta, the Lions offense has the potential to be scary-good.
“When we can run it the way we (did Thursday) and get the play-action off of it, you’ve got some dropback off of it, you got all sorts of things off of it, that’s when we’re at our best,” Goff said.
The belief is palpable
As good as the Lions have been defensively, and as complete as the offense looks on paper, the most striking thing about their 3-1 start is the unflinching belief the team has in itself.
Anywhere, any time, any place, in any venue, on whatever stage and with whatever obstacles are in front of it, this Lions team has a confidence in getting the job done that far surpasses any team I’ve ever covered.
“Belief is everything,” Campbell said. “I don’t care how talented you are, if you don’t believe you can win games, or you don’t believe the coaches can put you in position to win games, or you don’t believe the guy next to you is going to do his job, it doesn’t matter. You’ll struggle to win and you’ll always have doubt. This team believes, this staff believes, and we know we can go into any and every game and we’re going to have a chance to win it.”
There’s a danger, of course, in being overconfident, and that’s something Campbell, his staff and the locker room will have to police in the coming weeks.
This group of players has never won a title, never played deep into January, never even made the playoffs together, and they won’t face a truly elite foe — save for maybe the Dallas Cowboys in late December — until the postseason.
That doesn’t mean the Lions will finish 16-1. There will be bumps along the way, and as Goff said Thursday, how the Lions navigate those is “how we’ll know what we’re made of.”
With that in mind, Campbell said Friday the Lions still have to act like they’re on the hunt, even now that they have a target on their back.
“I said this back in training camp, but if you’re hunting us, you don’t have to look far. We’re going to be on your front porch when you open the door,” Campbell said. “That’s very much the mindset. We still got a lot to prove. We want to win this division and we still, we’ve done nothing yet. We’re on course, we like where we’re at but, man, we’re still hungry. And I think we have to approach every game that way, no different than last night.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
Next up: Panthers
Matchup: Lions (3-1) vs. Carolina (0-3).
Kickoff: 1 p.m. Oct. 8; Ford Field, Detroit.
TV/radio: Fox; WXYT-FM (97.1).
Line: TBA.
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