Lions vs. Chiefs: Will injuries really make a difference?

We’ll learn something about the Lions today

The goal of general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia is for the Lions to make the playoffs and to win games there. Even if they haven’t been willing to come out and say it, Bob Quinn’s statement about 9-7 not being good enough when he relieved Jim Caldwell of the Lions head coaching duties on New Year’s day 2018, says it all.

He didn’t hire Matt Patricia to be some sort of care-taker. He hired Patricia to bring a new attitude to the Lions locker room. He brought Patricia here to make the Lions champions, not contenders. Make no mistake about it, the two former Patriots believe they have the right vision to turn this team around and maybe, just maybe, we’re slowly starting to see the fruits of their labors.

Everything we expected of the 2019 Detroit Lions has not really been the case. Many expected Darrell Bevell’s offense would feature running the ball at all cost to keep Matthew Stafford under wraps. To keep him from losing games after a down season last year.

Yet Matthew Stafford has been the Lions offensive MVP so far. His return to his gunslinger ways has opened up the offense and he has been one of the biggest reasons the Lions are undefeated.

Meanwhile, the defensive line was expected to be a strength to the point that we all thought they could be one of the best lines in the entire NFL. Instead, they have struggled and the defense as an overall unit has given up a lot of yards. However, they have limited the points they have given up.

Together they have had numerous opportunities to bury their opponents and win all three of their games by blowout scores. Instead, they have survived close calls for three straight weeks and regardless of the tie against the Cardinals, they are undefeated going into today’s showdown.

So what will they do for an encore today? Will they scrape and claw to another close win or will they be drilled by a team that has routinely routed their opponents since Patrick Mahomes has taken over the reins?

Win or lose we should expect to learn something about the Lions today. What we learn may not necessarily be reflected by a win or loss, but perhaps most importantly by how they battled. No one should be upset with a sloppy win, but a well-played close loss says a lot too, even if the bottom line is to win regardless of who they play.

Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia have built this team to win games, make the playoffs and then keep winning. The Chiefs are a worthy playoff opponent and the Lions need to play like a playoff team themselves today to pass this test. If for no other reason then because that’s what they were put together to be.