Just a little less than two weeks ago, the Detroit Lions played a hard-fought game against one of the best teams in the NFL in the Kansas City Chiefs. The Lions ultimately lost the game 34-30, but many football fans, especially Lions fans, did not expect the Lions to win the game or even come that close. Everyone expected a blowout in favor of the Chiefs, but the Lions played surprisingly well to the point where many thought that the Lions can pull away convincingly. Coming out of the bye week Monday is making Lions fans, and even the football world, think very optimistically about this year’s team. Can they stay great and continue to pull out statement wins? Or will the heavy downsides early this season catch up with them and make this season a flop? 

Starting with the positives, the first one has to be the improved consistency of the offense. This can be credited to new OC Darrell Bevel for turning around this offense to the point where they are putting up about 20 points per game. Lions QB Matthew Stafford has also brought more consistency to his play as he has seemed better this season more than any other season in his career. Another positive has to be the big plays made on defense. The defense has come up with some big plays to help seal games and big stops to help win games. 

With all the positives this team has, they do have downsides. One of the glowing negatives so far this season has been the special teams unit. K Matt Prater, despite still being very good, seems a bit off this year. The punting game also hasn’t been that strong, along with fumbles on kickoff and punt returns, the special teams unit has to clean it up. Another issue is the defensive unit as a whole. The defense has been fairly suspect in some cases, most notably week 1 in Arizona when they allowed the Cardinals to score 18 unanswered points to lead to a tie game in a game the Lions should have won.  

Coming out of the bye week, Lions fans have a lot to look forward to on Monday night. If they lose, the close loss to the Chiefs may seem like it was false hope. But if the Lions go into Lambeau and beat the Packers under the lights, people will have A LOT to talk about!