DETROIT — One of the many tasks of the folks behind the Detroit Lions’ PR account on Twitter involves keeping track of notable stats and records. It is, uh, not for the faint of heart. Things are happening fast. Sifting through media guides, Football Reference and other tools to help keep track of history for the masses can be a stressful gig in the heat of the moment, particularly when the Lions are playing like, well, this.
But much like the fans they serve, they’ll take games like Sunday’s over the alternative.
“Anytime you can set multiple franchise records, it’s a lot of fun,” Greg Maiola of Lions PR told The Athletic on his way out of the press box, roughly three hours after a day spent compiling broken records. “But it’s also a responsibility to make sure you highlight everything you can.”
These days, there’s a lot to highlight. Wins like the one we saw Sunday — a 52-6 blowout of the 2-9 Jacksonville Jaguars — happen somewhat regularly for this Lions squad. The way they’re winning some of these games against lesser opponents, you’d think they’d paid an FCS school to come to Ford Field and accept a lopsided defeat for a $1.2 million check.
This is the NFL. You’re not supposed to see games like this, this often. Even the Lions know what they’re doing is not normal.
“This is another one of those bizarre things that you’re running into,” head coach Dan Campbell said Sunday when asked about pulling starters early in the fourth quarter. “Normally, this doesn’t happen. It’s just like the third time this has come up this season, which, it’s a good problem to have.”
Per Lions PR, Detroit has produced three victories with a plus-35 point differential through the first 10 games of the season. That’s been done only twice before: by the 1973 Atlanta Falcons and the 1969 Minnesota Vikings. Each of those victories was impressive in its own right.
In early October, the Lions went to Dallas and handed the Cowboys their worst loss of the Jerry Jones era, winning 47-9 and emptying the playbook in the process. It led former New Jersey governor and noted Cowboys fan Chris Christie to call Campbell “classless” for the way his team ran up the score.
“The last time someone called me classless, I was drinking wine out of a bottle,” Campbell said in response, laughing. “It’s all good. I’m not worried about it.”
The thing is, it’s tough to say the Lions are actively running up the score. Some of it is simply a matter of game flow. Take the Tennessee Titans game a few weeks after that Dallas trip, for example. The Lions recorded only 225 yards of offense despite scoring 52 points. The team used a strong special teams display (a punt return touchdown and multiple big returns) and four turnovers from its defense to get the job done in a 52-14 win over the Mason Rudolph-led Titans.
The Lions have been winning the games they’re supposed to. And, as last Sunday’s win over the Houston Texans showed, even the games they’re not. But the way some of these wins have come is simply stuff you don’t typically see in the NFL.
Even good teams are liable to play down to the level of their opponents. That doesn’t happen here a whole lot these days.
“The reality was that they’re a team who has less wins than us, and we could have played down to our competition in some ways,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said. “Not to disrespect them, they’re a hell of a squad, but we wanted to play to our standard — nameless, faceless opponent. That’s not just them, that’s every week. I think we wanted to come out and stay on the gas the whole game, no matter what happened. If it had been a closer game, we still would have stayed on the gas.”
So, then, where should we start this week? There’s a lot of ground to cover. The Lions won the coin toss and elected to defer, giving Jacksonville the ball to start the game. To their credit, the Jaguars were able to come away with points on their opening possession, taking an early 3-0 lead.
Unfortunately, pretty much nothing that followed went their way.
The Lions scored a touchdown on their first possession to take a 7-3 lead. Then they scored another one. And another. And another. Then three more for good measure.
The running backs got the party started early. David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs took turns scoring the first two touchdowns of the afternoon, giving the Lions a 14-3 lead. They finished with a combined 218 scrimmage yards and three total scores, proving to be everything the Lions envisioned when they paired them in 2023. Montgomery became the third player in franchise history to record at least 10 rushing touchdowns in consecutive seasons, joining Barry Sanders (1995-97, 1989-91) and Billy Sims (1980-81). Gibbs, meanwhile, joined Sanders (1993) as the only player in franchise history to produce at least 70 scrimmage yards in each of the first 10 games of a season.
Wide receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams took turns making plays in the passing game. St. Brown finished with a career-high 161 yards and two touchdowns. Williams, too, notched a career high in yards with 124 and scored. St. Brown extended his franchise record for touchdowns scored in consecutive games — now up to eight in a row. Williams, meanwhile, continued his explosive ways. Each of the first seven receiving touchdowns of Williams’ career has been on receptions of 30 or more yards. The last NFL player whose first seven-career touchdown receptions came on pass plays of 30 or more yards was JJ Birden from 1990 to 1992.
Goff was masterful, after a five-interception night against the Texans last week. He completed 24 of his 29 attempts for 412 yards and four touchdowns, sporting a perfect passer rating of 158.3 — the second such game of his career. He became the sixth quarterback in NFL history to produce two games with a perfect passer rating.
When you see stats like that, it’s no wonder the Lions were able to hang 52 points on the Jaguars. The offense scored on all but one possession, a kneeldown to end the game (in field goal range). Jack Fox had the day off from his typical punting duties, since, you know, the Lions didn’t punt. Campbell pulled his starters early in the fourth quarter for the third time this season. And yet, here’s what the unit was able to do Sunday:
- The most total net yards in a game in franchise history (645).
- The highest margin of victory in a game in franchise history (+46).
- The most first downs in a game in franchise history (38), falling three shy of an NFL record.
- The most touchdowns in a game in franchise history (seven, done on six other occasions).
- The second-most points in a game in franchise history (52, done on three other occasions).
- Detroit became the first NFL team to produce a touchdown on each of the first seven drives of a game since the Patriots in Week 11 of the 2007 season.
- Produced the eighth game in NFL history with at least 625 total net yards and 50 or more points.
The Lions are averaging 33.6 points per game. That number would rank 11th all-time for a full season. When asked where this offense ranks among the ones he’s seen in his NFL career, Lions defensive back Amik Robertson offered a decisive answer.
“One. Easy,” said Robertson, who faced this offense as a member of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2023. “…I was on the other side last year. It was kind of tough game-planning against them. (Lions offensive coordinator) Ben (Johnson) has some great, great schemes, and he also has some great players, man. …I’m just glad I’m on this side, man, because they’re running it up.”
A game like this can almost overshadow what was another strong day for the Detroit defense, too. Unfortunately, they took another hit in the process. Linebacker Alex Anzalone, Detroit’s second-leading tackler, broke his forearm and is expected to be out 6-8 weeks, according to Campbell. Detroit is already without star defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who broke his fibula and tibia in Week 6.
But they held a Jaguars team without Trevor Lawrence to 170 total yards and 3.3 yards per play. The Jaguars were 2-for-10 on third down. Kerby Joseph notched his league-leading seventh interception of the year. Newly-acquired pass-rusher Za’Darius Smith recorded his first sack as a Detroit Lion, then rattled off four different celebrations. The Lions outgained the Jaguars by 475 yards — most in an NFL game since 1979.
You won’t see decisive victories like this without a complete performance from all units. But the Lions insist they’re not trying to embarrass teams. They’re not trying to break records.
This is just what they do.
“We just playing football,” Joseph told reporters in the locker room. “If you not coming ready to win, then you gonna get yo a– whooped.”
“If people got problems with what we’re doing or complaining about it, they can just come out here and play better football,” cornerback Carlton Davis said. “That’s the only fix to this problem. And we’re welcoming it, too, like, we don’t shy away from nothing. We’re going at you whether you want to, whether you’re good or bad, we’re going at you the same way every week.”
(Top photo of Jameson Williams: Junfu Han / Imagn Images)
