The Lions are looking for their fifth straight win, while the Chiefs are coming off a 31-28 loss on Monday night to the Jaguars. Kansas City is off to a bumpy start this season but that hasn’t changed how Lions coach Dan Campbell sees them.
The Lions (4-1) and Chiefs (2-3) meet on Sunday Night Football in Kansas City.
“I mean it – to be able to come back year in and year out and stay hungry, stay competitive, do the right things, don’t get complacent, eliminate entitlement when you’ve been a champion over and over, I think that takes a special kind of group, a special kind of coaching staff, special kind of leadership, players, the whole thing,’’ Campbell said.
“They have that winner’s makeup, that champions makeup. But that’s right up our alley, we love this. This is – you want to look back on this in a few years and say that’s what we’ve become,’’ Campbell said.
He sees the same thing building in Detroit.
“Absolutely it’s building. And that’s what we preach here. Our players believe in it. You’ve got to stay hungry and every game is a new game and you’ve got to take it personal,’’ Campbell said. “You’ve got to take it personal.”
The Lions opened the 2023 season with a 21-20 win at Kansas City, a shocker to everyone but themselves.
“You could tell it was the first game of the season. There’s a number of things – they could probably say the same thing too – there were a lot of things you wish you would have done better,’’ Campbell said. “But at the end of the day we hung in there and we really played great complementary football. That’s what won us the game between special teams, offense, defense when we needed it most each unit picked up the slack.’’
It was two years ago, but it kickstarted two solid seasons.
“It was huge. Back then that was kind of a confidence thing, knowing we could go in there and do that,’’ defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said. “Now flash-forward a couple years and we believe we can compete against anybody. We’re going to go in there and try to execute our gameplan to the best of our ability and hopefully come out with a win.’’
Five things to watch:
ONE: Jared Goff is 2-0 in his career against the Chiefs — once with the Rams and then with the Lions in 2023. He’s at the top of his game but knows being up against coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s defense is a challenge. “I think that they do a really good job of being very multiple in what they do. And oftentimes you can watch a ton of tape and defenses have certain tells or when they’re in this formation, they do this. They don’t really have much of that,’’ Goff said. “You kind of have to figure it out when you’re out there to some extent. There’s tape we can watch, but they do a good job of making different things look the same and same things look different, type of thing. And they’ve got good players too and that makes it really hard.”
TWO: With the Lions secondary banged up, it’s going to be more of a challenge to defend against the Chiefs’ three speedy wide receivers – Xavier Worthy, Tyquan Thornton and Rashee Rice. “You can do everything right – you can do discipline, you can play the coverage, OK we’ll top some of this stuff, we’ll be disruptive on the releases and all the sudden you missed on one or you didn’t quite get to your landmark in the back end and all of a sudden there’s 60 over the top of your head,’’ Campbell said. “Or you get a catch and run and you miss a tackle and they’re through it.
“The good news is our defense has faced speed. They got a full dose of that in spring and training camp with (Jameson Williams) and (Kalif Raymond) ,and (Dominic) Lovett is not a slouch either. So we’ve got some juice here too and our guys have to face it. You have to be on point when you have that kind of explosiveness. It only takes one play and all of a sudden they’ve got seven out of it,’’ he added.
THREE: Patrick Mahomes is still Patrick Mahomes even though the Chiefs are 2-3. He’s smart and tough. “You have to do a number of things with him – first of all he can smell a rat from a mile away. If you’re going to disguise it better be worthy of a Grammy, because this guy sees it all, he smells it immediately, he can alter protections, he can get to different things in the pass game,’’ Campbell said. “I think you have to do a number of different things but you have to be careful because you don’t want to become something you’re not either. You still want to hang your hat on what you do well.
FOUR: With Terrion Arnold out with a shoulder injury, expect Amik Robertson to step up. “He’s more than a security blanket, it’s one of the reasons we wanted to get him here as a free agent. He’s so feisty and competitive. One of the things he really majors in is man coverage,’’ Campbell said. “He’s a sticky cover guy, very confident, he’s got great hips movement skills and he’s got ball skills. We’re completely comfortable with him playing outside and in the slot. Thank goodness we’ve got him. We don’t feel there’s a dropoff with Amik.’’
FIVE: Another corner expected to get more playing time is veteran Rock Ya-Sin. Running backs coach Scottie Montgomery liked what he saw from him in training camp. “He does provide a tremendous amount of conflict at the line of scrimmage, not only there but at the top of routes where you usually can lean on guys, get heavy leans on people, maybe give them a little something at the top,’’ Montgomery said. “He’s done a really good job of staying close, staying sticky. And then he has an understanding of safety play and corner play so he knows exactly where he can take some of these chances.’’
BONUS: In 2024, the Chiefs were 10-0 in games decided by 7 points or less. This season so far they are 0-3 in those situations.
INJURIES: OUT for the Lions: LT Taylor Decker, DT Alim McNeill, CB Terrion Arnold, LB Zach Cunningham, RB Sione Vaki, DB Avonte Maddox and OL Gio Manu. … QUESTIONABLE: DB Brian Branch, S Kerby Joseph and WR Kalif Raymond
PREDICTION: Lions 28, Chiefs 27.
Lions Lowdown 