After a long 212 days without football, the NFL is back in action. The 2023-2024 regular season kicked off on September 7 with an unforgettable game, even more so for the Detroit Lions. The first Thursday night matchup of the season featured the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions. The Lions marched into Arrowhead Stadium to prove what Detroit Coach, Dan Cambell has turned the franchise around to be.
After a promising end to the Lions’ season last year, fans were itching for them to get back on the field, and live up to their hype from last season. Others may say the hype for the Lions was overrated, but loyal Detroit fans had hope. After watching the same old Lions team forever, true fans were ready for what they saw this team could bring. The Lions started 1-6 to the season last year living up to their usual expectations. However, after a rally in the second half of the season, they ended at 9-8. Including an eye opening 8-2 record in their last 10 games. This didn’t go unnoticed by fans and analysts. The season ended with a disappointing miss of the playoffs, but got a exciting win against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. After it was announced the Lions would play the Chiefs for the first game of the season, the excitement was built up. Although the Lions looked promising for this season, Kansas City would be a tough challenge. The Chiefs had a much more exciting end to their season, as they got to go home with the Lombardi trophy. The Chiefs ended their season with a record of 14-3 in the regular season, and got to cap it off with a Superbowl victory against the Philadelphia Eagles. So, the Lions getting to play the chiefs in the season opener for the first time ever, was very exciting.
Although Lions fans were very excited about the game, they weren’t the only ones. Many analysts and writers had been predicting this game for weeks. This game would show if the Lions could live up to everyone’s expectations. The opening spread for the game was -6.5 favoring the Chiefs. At kickoff the spread had been brought down to -4.5 still favoring the Chiefs. The Lions were placed at the 11 spot in the preseason power rankings, while the Chiefs were at one. This may have looked scary to some, but for the Lions to start that high, was impressive and hopeful. With the average division the Lions are in, combined with the ending of last season, many saw the strong possibility of the Lions winning their division, the NFC North. The Chiefs obviously already had their shoes filled, and predicted by some to even win the Superbowl again. As the game got closer, news released that Kansas City star tight end, Travis Kelce, would be out for the game, along with major defensive asset Chris Jones. Now, the Lions had a golden opportunity to win the game.
The game kicked off at 8:20 in a loud Arrowhead Stadium, packed at over 100% capacity. After two unsuccessful drives by each team to start the game, the Lions drew first blood towards the end of the first quarter, 7-0 Lions. Though, the Chiefs were quick to bite back and evened the score going into the second quarter, 7-7. After a Lions fumble, a couple of fourth downs, and a Chiefs touchdown, the score was 14-7 Chiefs going into halftime. Not a bad start for either team. At the start of the second half the Lions were quick to bounce back with a pick six from Rookie Safety Brian Branch to tie the game at 14-14. As time ran off the clock without an offensive run from the Lions, the Chiefs went up by two field goals to make the score 20-14 at the beginning of the last quarter. Things started looking uncomfortable for fans as the time ran down with the lions still behind. Then halfway through the quarter the Lions took a 75 yard drive to the house and went ahead 21-20, with seven minutes left on the clock. It was a slow and scary last few minutes but when the clock finally ran out the Lions had hung on to win the game at 21-20 after a couple defensive stops.
“We expected to win this game,” said Detroit Head Coach, Dan Campbell to ESPN after the game. “We came in here, knew what we needed to do, knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and we did that. We won.”
The Lions ended the game with 368 total yards on 70 plays, just over Kansas City. Quarterback Jared Goff threw for 253 yards with one touchdown.
“A lot of work has been put in this offseason,” Goff told ESPN, “and you want\\ to start off winning the first one, and we did that today. We didn’t play the best on offense, I thought the defense kept us in the game, but we found a way.”
It was a good showing for rookie players, especially Running Back, Jahmyr Gibbs, who was selected 12th overall in the 2023 NFL draft. Along with Safety Brian Branch. Gibbs ended the game with only 47 rushing yards, but showed off his major potential for the future. While Branch had three tackles and a table turning pick six that one could argue saved the game for the Lions.
“It felt good to be out there with the gang. Everybody did a great job of executing,” Gibbs told ESPN. “We didn’t start off how we wanted to, but coach [Campbell] says, ‘steady pace wins the race’ so that’s what it came down to.”
Other non-rookies that stood out for the Lions included Aidan Hutchinson, 2nd round draft pick from last year, who had four tackles and brought immense pressure on Chiefs Quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. Alex Anzalone led the defense with 6 total tackles including a QB hit. New addition to the roster this season, C.J. Gardner-Johnson, was also a big asset to the defense with five tackles. On the offensive side of things, returning receivers Amon-Ra St Brown and Josh Reynolds combined for 151 receiving yards on 10 receptions. Former Chicago Bears Running Back, David Montegomry, also made an impact with 74 rushing yards on 21 carries and the game winning touchdown.
“We’re tired of losing. We’re tired of being on the poor side of things. You walk away from these games and it’s a close game, but we lose, and I think we’re tired of it,” Hutchinson told ESPN following the win. “Man, I think we’re coming this season. Even though KC was a little short-handed on defense and offense, I don’t care. A win is a win and we’re going to carry this momentum and we’re going to keep going.”
After a statement win, the Lions are hungry to show what they can do the rest of the season, and set a new standard for the franchise. Who knows, maybe we’ll be back here in February writing about them in the Superbowl
