It’s A Big Win, But Take It Easy With The Lions

The bandwagon for your gridiron heroes, the Detroit Lions, is getting bigger by the minute after the Lions beat the defending World Champion Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night, 21-20.

Social media went crazy after Thursday night's game.  With Lions fans, AND MEDIA (which is not their role, BTW), professing their undying love to the franchise that has won ONE playoff game since they won the NFL title back in 1957.

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The point of this article is:  Yes, it's a big win.  Beating the defending Super Bowl champions on the road on national television is a big deal.  And the Lions are worthy of lots of praise because of it.

But folks, it's only one game.  It's game 1 of 17 in the regular season.  They're 1-0.  Not 4-0 after one week.  Everybody needs to take it easy.  Be positive, yes.  But don't buy your Super Bowl tickets, let alone your playoff tickets yet.

There are legitimate reasons why fans need to put the brakes on the optimism:

BETTER HOPE THEY DON'T GET INJURIES, ESPECIALLY ON THE O-LINE

The Lions have only eight offensive linemen on the 53-man roster.  Their starting line of Taylor Decker, Jonah Jackson, Frank Ragnow, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, and Penei Sewell is excellent.  But they don't have much depth behind them.  Graham Glasgow, Matt Nelson, and Colby Sorsdal are the backups.

If any of the starters get hurt and miss any length of time, it's a problem.

THERE ARE 16 GAMES TO GO!

The win over Kansas City happened in Week 1.  Not in Week 14 where it clinches a playoff berth.  They still have their six games to play in the NFC North.  And they've still got games against last year's playoff teams in Seattle, Tampa Bay, L.A. Chargers, and Dallas.

Yes, those are games the Lions can win.  But there's plenty of games they could still lose.

Yes, be happy with the one win.  But a long season awaits.

WILL DAN CAMPBELL MAKE MORE DECISIONS THAT LOSE GAMES?

Even though the fake punt call worked in the first quarter, it was the WRONG decision.  Dan Campbell calling for the fake punt was absolutely stupid, IMO.  You don't go for a fake punt inside your own 30 in the 1st quarter when it's a scoreless game.  Had that not worked, you're just giving the Chiefs at least 3 points and probably 7 points.

This was one of those things where you make the wrong decision, and it actually worked.  Whereas there have been many other instances where the right call was made and it didn't work out.

Dan Campbell lost two games last season with poor in-game decisions (@ Minnesota and home vs. Buffalo on Thanksgiving Day). And he was outcoached in the Carolina game on Christmas Eve.  That is unacceptable.  I'm still not sold on Dan Campbell as a game coach.  Sorry, folks.

There's lots of reason for optimism after one game.  But let's let the season play out a bit more before jumping all-in with this squad.  Just relax a little bit, OK??!!