It's unlikely Detroit Lions' players were buying into any hype heading into Week 7 against the Baltimore Ravens. But in another way, it was possible to see it a bad matchup for them on both sides of the ball and it proved to be true.
Garbage time inflated the Lions' total offensive output to 337 total yards on Sunday. If the Ravens had needed to keep the foot on the gas in the fourth quarter, they would have had more than 503 yards of offense. Yards per play (9.1 for the Ravens to 4.7 for the Lions) ended up as the greatest indicator of Baltimore's domination, as the aforementioned garbage time evened out most other things.
It was just one of those days for the Lions, and they aren't the first (and they won't be the last) good team to beaten badly in a game. It's not an indicator of anything substantial, beyond it being a sound reality check that they aren't quite there as they continue their rise to being a legit contender.
Dan Campbell sees loss to Ravens as something that may have been needed
As expected after the game, head coach Dan Campbell was frank about the performance against the Ravens.
"They kicked our a*s."
Campbell expanded on that initial thought, and explained what he meant when he said "we probably needed" Sunday's loss as a firm reality check.
"You don't want these to happen, but when it does, it re-centers you, it refocuses you. And that's all I know. I don't want it to happen. Nobody wants it to happen," Campbell said. "Nobody likes to look over there and watch them having a great time because they kicked our ass. Nobody thinks that's fun, but I know that motivates me for next week, it motivates our team. You'll do any and everything you can not to have that feeling again. That's all I mean by that."
The Lions have a nice rebound opportunity coming next Monday night against the Las Vegas Raiders. Pity on Josh McDaniels' reeling team on the heels of Sunday's blowout loss to the Bears, after the Lions were dominated the way they were on Sunday. Campbell is the front face of what will be a mad and plenty motivated team.