Lions get much needed reality check from gritty win over Rams

The Detroit Lions left with a 26-20 overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night. But it was surely an inconsistent performance.

Defensively, Detroit's new-look secondary was up and down. Brian Branch dropped a pair of potential interceptions. The offense had stagnant stretches minus Jameson Williams. Jared Goff struggled at times, and Amon-Ra St. Brown was locked down. When the Lions had the chance to put the game away in the third quarter, they failed to deliver and the Rams got back in the game.

It seemed unlikely the Lions would fall pray to any offseason hype. The reality is, there was always football to be played. They can't expect to show up and win with average efforts. Sleepwalking through portions of games will cost them, as will reading their own press clippings. They have to stay hungry and continue to remain the edgy team they have been since the second half of the 2022 season. There are no shortcuts to success, especially on the doorstep of greatness.

Perhaps wrestling victory from the jaws of defeat right away will help the Lions wake up to their championship mission this season.

Dan Campbell seeks to clean up mistakes from Detroit Lions' Week 1 performance

Even though the Lions won, head coach Dan Campbell understands they are going to need to see a much better effort if they want to sustain success this season. The days of the Lions sneaking up on anyone are over, given heightened expectations. They will now receive every team's best shot.

Finding a way to improve the small details is the goal for Detroit, especially after six penalties for 56 yards nearly crippled them against the Rams. That leaves Campbell looking for cleaner play moving toward Week 2.

"If there's any frustration with me, it's you know (that) it's not going to be perfect, you just want it to be cleaner. Even for the first game. Ultimately, it's always going to be about (how) we've got to get better. Whether we won or lost today, we got to get better. We won, we still have to get better. We'll clean all this up and we've got to play better against Tampa Bay."

The hope is the close call against the Rams can snap the Lions back to reality. It's no longer the offseason, and champions are not crowned on paper. Detroit has to earn it every single week, and they have to improve greatly in order to get it done.

Winning Week 1 is definitely better than the alternative, but portions of the game showed the pitfalls that can await if the Lions cannot stay focused.