The Lions were able to finish the 2022 season with a winning record thanks to a road win over the Packers that saw them take the lead in the fourth quarter with a rushing touchdown and then keep the previous season’s MVP quarterback from putting his team back on top.
The start to the 2023 season didn’t look terribly different. David Montgomery’s rushing touchdown with seven minutes to play put the Lions up 21-20 and they did not 2022 MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to pick up a first down on either of their final two possessions. The win gave the Lions their first 1-0 start since 2017, but head coach Dan Campbell said at his postgame press conference that it didn’t teach him anything new about a team that’s coming into this season with high expectations.
“I didn’t learn anything. I got verification of what I already knew,” Campbell said. “And this is a resilient team. It already was a resilient team, and we added pieces to that resilient team. We’re built to handle some stuff, and we did that today against a very good opponent.”
Campbell might not have learned anything about his team, but a win like that on a stage like that likely justified some of the offseason hype around the Lions for people outside the organization. More of the same in the weeks to come would leave little doubt that these aren’t the same old Lions.
