Detroit Lions go the distance with the Chiefs, but bow out in the final round

The Detroit Lions traded punches with one of the NFL’s best, but couldn’t land the final haymaker in 34-30 loss to Kansas City.

After playing checkers for much of 2018, and getting jumped by several next generation quarterback blue chips, Sunday’s gutty performance made it clear that Mathew Stafford is back to playing chess. Only problem is, with everything on the line for the Detroit Lions in the final two minutes, Patrick Mahomes wasn’t playing at all.

I said I wouldn’t make any bold proclamations about the team, or the season, or the state of the franchise based just on this game, and I’ll stick with that. After all, nothing is decided in September, and at the end of the excitement of locking horns with the Chiefs offense, one that looks like it’s visiting from about ten years in the future, it’s still just a tick in the loss column.

It would be easy to look at the way reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes was kept mostly in check for most of the time, or the balanced Detroit offensive attack that looked just as hard to stop, and consider it validation that the Lions have arrived. I’ll caution against that approach though, and once again remind that nothing is decided in September.

In early 2014, the Lions lost a stinker at home to a hapless Bills team, yet went on to win 11 games. Last September, they beat the stuffing out of the eventual Super Bowl champs on national TV, yet it was hardly a kickstart to greater things in that 6-10 mess.

Just two days ago, Tampa Bay went on the road and put up a franchise record 55 points in a shocking win over the NFC Champion Rams. I’m not hearing many claims that the Buccaneers are sudden contenders…just further confirmation that the NFL can be a strange place.

Still, the Lions looked pretty good on Sunday, and really, they’ve looked pretty good for most of the first month.