The Detroit Lions
made a statement to the league …
NFL’s best team
My Monday morning started as my fall Monday mornings have started for the last 40 years.
I get my coffee and review the weekend’s pro football games.
With online news, I can flip through the New York Times Athletic, The Guardian, USA Today Sports, The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit news.
This morning I read sentences made up of words I never thought I would ever see in anyone’s lifetime, let alone my life.
I read …
The Lions arrived in Dallas looking for a win — their first in three tries under Dan Campbell. They’ll leave with not only that, but a statement win. This was an all-out dismantling of the Cowboys. The offense never punted and put up 47 points. The defense forced five turnovers and held the Cowboys to three field goals. You could make a strong argument this is the most complete win of the Campbell era.
Defensively, Detroit suffocated the Cowboys (3-3) offense.
The manner of the defeat on Sunday is more impactful than the loss itself. Detroit bullied the Cowboys, on offense and defense.
Losing is one thing. Being humiliated at home – again – in a season that the Cowboys entered with championship expectations is something bleaker.
A run defense that has struggled all season had no shot against the best offensive line in the NFL.
Sunday’s 47-9 drubbing at the hands of the Lions may have felt more like watching The Substance than Love Is Blind, but seeing the Cowboys being beaten on their own home turf remains must-watch TV.
In the nearly 30 years since the Cowboys last won the Super Bowl, there have been plenty of lows. Sunday’s defeat, though, felt like a nadir. It was the team’s worst loss since 2010 – and the worst at home since before the days of Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith.
The Cowboys have lost three straight since, all in embarrassing fashion. They were routed 44-19 by the Saints in Week 2, fell 28-25 to the Ravens in Week 4 in a game that was never really close, and on Sunday were dismantled by the Lions 47-9, the franchise’s worst loss since 2010 and worst at home going all the way back to 1988.
Detroit spent the remainder of the game playing with their food, trying, in vain, to draw up a touchdown for one of their offensive linemen. It almost felt like bullying.
The best division in football — which was the AFC North not all that long ago — is now unquestionably the NFC North. For the first time since the 2002 realignment, all four teams in a single division have at least four wins six weeks into the season. The Bears and Packers are 4-2, and the Lions are 4-1, trailing the 5-0 Vikings, who were on a bye.
The Lions made a statement to the league that they should be viewed as the NFL’s best team
I decided I had to be dreaming and I went back to bed.
If I was dreaming, I really didn’t want to wake up.
PS: Terrible news about the injury Hutchinson but I was intrigued that Dallas QB Dak Prescott said that he tried to talk to Hutchinson as he was taken off the field but Prescott was pretty sure that Hutchinson wouldn’t remember. Prescott said that he planned to talk to the Michigan guys who played for Dallas so he could get Hutchinson’s phone number. I was struck that Prescott was aware Hutch played at Michigan. I was struck that Prescott knew who on his team, had played at Michigan. And I was struck that Prescott sounded pretty confident that those guys had each others phone numbers and kept in touch. For some reason, a window on the pro game I hadn’t thought about.
No Haiku For You 