DETROIT – I sure didn’t expect to be writing this headline after a game against the Tennessee Titans.
The Titans stink. We all know this. They’re one of only two NFL teams still searching for a second win.
But as the final seconds ticked off the Ford Field scoreboards on Sunday, I found myself as impressed with the Detroit Lions as ever.
Because I’m more concerned about how the Lions won -- not who they beat.
It’s no secret that the strength of this Lions team is the offense. David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs form a borderline unfair running back duo. The offensive line is elite. And having Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta, and Jameson Williams to go along with all that feels like an embarrassment of riches.
Jared Goff makes it all click, and Ben Johnson is the mastermind. There’s no better offense in the league.
But it wasn‘t the offense driving Sunday’s 52-14 win. In fact, the Lions only mustered 225 total yards -- by far their fewest of the season.
So how does a team put up its lowest yardage total but also its highest score? Because offense is only one-third of the equation.
This game got me thinking about something Dan Campbell said the day after Aidan Hutchinson’s injury.
“It’s why we play with three phases,” Campbell said. “We play offense, defense, special teams. It’s why we do it. We help each other out, so we’ll be just fine. We’re going to move forward.”
At the time, I kind of brushed that aside as coach speak, because you can‘t simply move on from a loss as painful as Hutchinson’s. Right? But the Lions are actually backing it up.
I mean, look at the quality of their special teams play.
Jack Fox is arguably one of the four or five best punters of all time. On Sunday he punted five times for an average -- an average -- of 61 yards. Three of those were also inside the 20-yard line.
On the season, Fox ranks second in the league in average punt distance and first in NET average. In other words, he‘s not just blasting the ball -- he’s doing so in a way that almost never allows for a return.
Then there‘s Jake Bates, the rookie kicker who made a career-long 51-yarder in Sunday‘s game. He’s one of only two players in the NFL who has attempted double-digit field goals without a miss. Oh yeah, and last week, he hit a game-winning 44-yarder to save the Lions in a crucial divisional matchup.
But as good as Fox and Bates were on Sunday, the star of the show was Kalif Raymond, who returned five kicks for a ridiculous 190 yards. Raymond had a 90-yard punt return touchdown, a 64-yard return that set up a touchdown, and a 44-yarder that led to Bates' field goal.
For good measure, Khalil Dorsey pitched in a 72-yard kick return that sparked the go-ahead touchdown right after the Titans tied the game at 14.
Let’s not forget about the defense, either. Despite being on the field for more than 35 minutes, Aaron Glenn’s group held the Titans to just two early scoring drives.
The Lions forced four turnovers -- the league-leading 11th-straight game forcing at least one. They also struggled to get pressure, a problem Brad Holmes is well aware of heading toward the trade deadline.
It felt like the Lions would take a step back after Hutchinson’s injury, and while the pass rush has struggled, the defense as a whole is finding ways to stay afloat.
That‘s what Glenn does: He finds a way. Last year, when the Lions couldn’t get pressure even with Hutchinson, he pivoted midway through the season and went with a much more creative, aggressive approach.
He has even more talent to work with this time around, and so far, his plan is working. Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph have combined for nine interceptions, and the front seven is nearly impossible to run against.
The Lions are one of only nine NFL teams allowing fewer than 20 points per game, and they’re doing it with an elite run defense and 15 takeaways (second in the NFL to Green Bay).
Look at the Chiefs, for example. They‘ve won back-to-back Super Bowls, but they didn’t do it how people think.
Patrick Mahomes might still be the best quarterback in the world, but the Chiefs are winning with defense and special teams. When they lost Tyreek Hill to free agency a couple years ago, the Chiefs made up for it by improving in other areas.
In a way, that‘s exactly what the Lions have done. Holmes built a roster that’s well-rounded enough to survive some major losses, because this team can win in many different ways.
No team is perfect, and that includes the Lions, but it’s really hard to do what they just did to a fellow group of pros.
The Lions are off to their best seven-game start of the Super Bowl era, and that’s no coincidence. They just reminded us why they could be the ones to finally break through.
