Fueled by two blowout wins in their last three games, the 6-1 Detroit Lions lead the NFL with a +100 point differential through Week 8. Last Sunday's win over the Tennessee Titans was dominant in a unique way, driven by special teams and the defense with one of the league's best offenses largely along for the ride.
The Kansas City Chiefs are undefeated, but it's hard to argue against the Lions being the best team in the NFL as November approaches.
Advanced football analytics can be easy for some people to dismiss, but they also carry insight and can be predicitive. Aaron Schatz created DVOA (Defense-Adjusted Value over Average) to account for strength of opponent to determine how efficient teams are in a wide array of areas.
DVOA shines brightly on the 2024 Detroit Lions
Through eight weeks this season, as Schatz posted, the Lions are No. 1 in team DVOA "by a wide margin."
Through Week 8 the Lions have a +44.8 percent total team DVOA (0 is average). The Baltimore Ravens are second at +31.4 percent. The Minnesota Viking were No. 1 two weeks ago, and they are third at 29.0 percent. The unbeaten Chiefs are fourth at 28.1 percent.
The Lions have the fourth-best offense, the third-best defense and the best special teams unit by DVOA. Looking at the offense and the defense, only the Lions' pass offense is not top-10 by DVOA right now (12th).
On Tuesday, Schatz added a historical layer of context to where the Lions are in DVOA through Week 8. They are just the ninth team in DVOA history (45 years) to rank top-five in all three phases after Week 8. In other words, at or close to a half-season sample-which all but removes the element of unsustainable randomness.
Six of the previous eight teams to accomplish that feat won the Super Bowl, and another (the 2007 New England Patriots, who went 16-0) went to the Super Bowl the same year. Only the 2022 Buffalo Bills did not at least go to the Super Bowl after being top-five in DVOA in all three phases through eight weeks of a season.
Only nine teams since 1979 have ranked in the top 5 of DVOA in all 3 phases after Week 8 of the season.
— Aaron Schatz 🏈 (@ASchatzNFL) October 29, 2024
Six of those teams won the Super Bowl.
The Detroit Lions are the ninth team. #OnePride pic.twitter.com/QtclUQpbwg
The Lions are doing work in all three phases of the game so far this season, and deeper analytical data is not necessary to prove that, But as always it's nice when that kind of data backs up what's being seen on the field, and in this case there's some big historical context.