So this is thirty six.
Throws the cross crying ranks.
Rookie tis the game with this first NFL touchdown from the one left hand catch by my homes up a snack scared lookers on a touchdown, It's truce. The drumming some admitted to the end times for the touchdown.
Like the only time you can get a ticket for Lions game this year is when you're on the road.
It's right that set.
You've gotta be happy for this tab. You've gotta be happy for this organization. They have homes more techniques with modern play design.
The Detroit Lions start the twenty twenty three season in style, going to Arrowhead and coming out of there with a twenty one twenty win over the defending champion Chiefs. A shorthanded Chiefs team that looks shorthanded when it mattered most. And how about this. Dan Hans is here with Greg Rosenthal and Mark Sessler boys the site of Jared Goff running out the clock waving his arms, imploring fans who have traveled from Michigan and other areas of the Midwest
to celebrate a Lions team they believe in. That is a hell of a way to start the season for the Detroit Lions.
I feel like anything is possible.
This twenty twenty three season couldn't open any better seeing that.
I mean, that's something we'll remember forever.
I'll remember that Week eighteen finished forever, and I know that we had a whole playoff run after that, But that was the last time we saw these lines for the first time in a big spot on NBC. And they come through and they end Aaron Rodgers's Packers' career. What do they do the next'm on TV? They go to Kansas City and their fans show up in such big numbers that at the end of the stadium, at the end of the game, they're chanting.
I will never forget that moment.
And we can get to all the particulars of how it happened and the ex'es and o's, but I'm just saying the Lions saw us try to take away that team of around the NFL, and they said, we're not letting go of your heart.
We're too good.
I think you know, Greg, like I was thinking during this game how this conversation would go based on everything you just said.
But this is sort of what I.
Have always wanted in football where I think that, you know, I've bumped at times against the inevitability of Patrick Mahomes and the Travis Kelcey Chiefs where it's like in another world and most worlds we lived in, like they would have marched down the field and found a way to
win that. And then tonight what happened, what an emphatic start to the season, kind of made me think that this year can be different because this Lions team that he even seven hundred days ago, we thought were nothing but the lowest storyline in the league have become one of the most joyful storylines.
So, I mean, the Chiefs.
They'll bounce back, But what we saw tonight from Detroit was really a continuation of what they built last year. I think that's the most hopeful thing for a Lions fan. What they were good at last year. We saw that and more tonight.
That is, we were at a Counting Crows concert Mark Sessler twenty four hours ago, and I think we were kind of accidentally maybe hit on a Derretz lyric one of the greats. Maybe this year will be better than last for the Detroit Lions. And last year was fine. Last year was a big growing season wake up call. I think it's a wake up call for the Chiefs this game because it's a wake up call that you can't rest on your laurels in any way, including your
fan base who let Honolulu Blue invade Arrowhead. But beyond that, listen Tyreek Hill leaving that team. Why because they still had Travis Kelcey and then Kelsey had his best season, arguably last season. Kelsey doesn't play in this game, hyper extended me. You think maybe he'll get out there because he hasn't missed a game for injury since twenty thirteen.
He doesn't. Chris Jones. Chris Jones isn't out there, and yet he's doing the Liam Gallagher at Oasis Unplugged ninety six move, going up and sitting in the in the suites looking down on his own group of guys, which I thought was very odd and strange. And I'm not taking anything away from the Lions, because this is what's great about this Lions team. I love the way Dan
Campbell coached this game. I loved how they leaned on their running game and closed out the Chiefs, who clearly look gassed and were losing at the line of scrimmage. But even with all that, and maybe this is a little magic dust on the Lion season and this is just the beginning. It was. It took Kelsey out of the mix. It took Kadarius Tony having one of the worst games I've ever seen a wide receiver have in primetime.
If he catches that ball after they get the ball near midfield late in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs have first and ten from the twenty five, and it's probably a rap, but it didn't work out that way, and I thought the Chiefs seemed very vulnerable. And the wake up call is with if Travis Kelcey is not superhuman, who can Patrick Mahomes trust on this team? Because I didn't see it tonight.
I mean, Tony, that was one of the worst games. You said it on Twitter, Dan, that a wide receiver, a skill position player can have five targets, one catch, a couple of massive drops, a couple of miscommunications play where it probably wasn't on him, but they ran one of their sweeps, kind of a trick play on a second and one where he ended up losing three yards and they ended up not getting that first down, and that continued a second half of total discombobulation, really an
entire game of discombobulation. They had a couple plays at the end of the first half that got them a quick touchdown, and one of those could have gone different too, But for the most part, they were out of sync. And yeah, anyone that started Tony or sky Moore who didn't drop passes, but he didn't make tough catches and Mahomes missed him a couple of times. Anyone who started them in their fantasy league like good luck. I think this Lion's team. We know who they are, but they're
a different team. The combination of their pass rush with Hutchinson who was there, and their secondary making Mahomes hold the ball is different. But part of that, as you mentioned, Dan is the receiver group for Kansas City, And to me, they're a little different too. You know, they lose Juju Smith Schuster, who's a good player, and they're different at their tackle positions, and their tackles weren't good tonight.
For the most part.
It was half of the conversation during the game. So I'm not worried about them long term, Like Nick Westling is texting us that they're going to miss the playoffs, but I think they are a different team, and those differences showed up tonight.
I think Kansas City will this is like, this will be the week of overreaction to everything we saw tonight. Fair enough, let that week progress, but I trust them to figure the situation out to some degree. But yeah, if you don't have Kelsey, they were a completely humanized operation. The one thing that surprised me a little bit, like, I think at halftime Mahomes had and again I think, if he's going to grow in one way, like his
mobility continues to be a problem for defenses. And I think at half he had like twenty seven yards rushing, but no one else on the team had more than ten. And I thought with their interior line, this Chiefs team would be able to run the ball.
And we've seen.
You're right, Greg that the Detroit defense in the secondary with Gardner Johnson and the rest of them, the pick six like they did. Those elements were not part of their team a year ago, and they were in these shootouts where they What we saw the night was a team that, for the first time in a while kind.
Of controlled the Chiefs confused them.
They had that one drive before halftime where Mahomes had three twenty five plus yard completions, but outside of that spurt, they just couldn't really get on track. They just looked like they didn't have the per snell tonight to deal with Detroit's defense, which is not really what I thought going into this game would be the storyline.
Mahomes had to run because he didn't have a choice, so it it's a great point. Mark Daniel Jeremiah original six runs for forty five yards by Patrick Mahomes in this game, but I thought multiple times it was kind
of because they didn't it couldn't do anything else. There was actually one specific play in the middle of the third quarter where they did go on for I think it was a field goal drive where in most situations, I swear in a third quarter of a game, Mahomes would have gone down, but instead he stayed up to try to get that first down running he ended up taking a big hit, and it was because he was
their whole running game. That was a difference. Like neither team could really run the ball for most of the game, but at the end the Lions ended up mashing them. They passed protected well and they ran well at the end and at no point did the Chiefs ever run the ball.
Yeah, Mahomes leading the team and rushing that shouldn't happen. Isaiah Pacheco averaged less than three or to carry. Clyde Edwards Hilaire continues to be a non factor for the most part. But let's give it up for the Lions because I liked what I saw and I know, like, for instance, Fantasy managers, especially the first game of the year, but he just freaks out about stuff like Jamiir Gibbs. People are annoyed he only got seven carries in this game.
But I liked what it looked like. I like that David Montgomery Jamier Gibbs won two punch And things I'll take out of this game is I'm not I don't see the Lions as now a game wrecking force who's gonna roll through the league, because I really do think this was a minimalized Chiefs team because of the injuries. And I should have gotten out of the lock when I made the lock.
Nice nice job by you bringing that up. It was a tough night for the old zeuser.
A couple of things when I made that lock, I honestly thought Chris Jones and Travis Kelsey were gonna play. I just I just figured, or.
At least, why did you think Chris Jones was playing Tavis Kelcey. I'll totally give you everyone thought he was playing.
I mean the.
Holdouts, these holdouts. You know there was reports right before the game. It doesn't matter, but like, oh hell, he might even play in this game if they could get something. Nothing gets done and he's Liam Gallagher in the suite. But like, the one thing that I think will hold for the Lions and they'll continue to win games because of it is what we saw and what we talked about all through the end of last year leading into this game. That offensive line is gonna wear teams down.
They are gonna run the ball well. And Jared Goff, who has had an incredible kind of NFL journey where he came in as the number one overall pick. He was down bad and then he was up real good, and then he was down bad and cast off to Detroit, and now he's up again. He's gonna have another big year. I think I think he's This offense is gonna eat with Ben Johnson. So yeah, there's a lot of reasons to be excited as a Lions. Did they get away
with one a little bit in some ways tonight? They get some breaks, yes, absolutely, but they made the most of them, so good for them.
There was a moment where I got concerned for the Lions because it's like I think mentally, if you're a fan, or if you're anyone that's observed tape or watched the Chiefs, it's like you're just if you give Patrick Mahomes even you know, a minute and a half to operate, there's an assumption by many that he's just going to go down the field and score the touchdown.
And it was I think it was about like two thirty left.
In the game.
It was twenty one to twenty, and they Lions got in this situation where it was like a big like third down call and they go they try to throw the ball where it's like this Lions team, their line just gets stronger and stronger.
Is that as this as the game goes on?
Which is why I think they have the basic infrastructure to win twelve games. I really do, And I just think in that they I hope they learned from that. Their run, their ground game is going to be the story of their season. I really do I think, like David Montgombery, I was never really excited about that signing.
We'll see what happens.
But Gibbs, to me, like from from what we saw of him, I think he's going to be a mass problematic entry for the rest of that division, the rest of the NFC. I just love the way they're built, and I think the reason that you're gonna see Goff have like another season, like why last year wasn't a mirage is because he's protected well. They've got a great system around him, a good ground game, guys like Josh Reynolds making big plays. I'm on Ross, Saint Brown, at
some point, you got Jamison Williams. It's like it is a huge arrow up because of what they went and did tonight. It's like, this is what the Lions were built to do, and they went and did it successfully against the Super Bowl champions. I don't know how you start the season on a brighter note.
Right, I mean, they didn't get a good game from GoF. They didn't get a bad game from GoF. They got a normal game from GoF. He had some frustrating moments and that fourth down that you mentioned. You're right, as someone who is rooting for the Lions here. I was dying watching Jared Goff step in the pocket, which he did a couple of times nicely in the night, and twenty five of the starting quarterbacks in the league just go run for that first down.
There's no one in front of him.
Knocking his big Yeah, drawback his game.
It's not in his mo and it got knocked down. And he made a few really nice throws. He had a few misses. It all sort of balanced out. They protected him well, like he did his thing. But he doesn't need to be the starring guy. He's now got Gibbs, who you guys are right, I mean, his burst was just crazy. Laporta showed up their rookie branch. Is a rookie gets to pick six. I like that defensive Rookie of the Year pick right off the bat. It turns out when he left it it was just with cramp
so it sounds like he's okay. It's just they're a deeper team and Campbell's gonna do some things that you don't know what's going on. He calls a fake punt inside his own twenty five minutes into the game. He gets it. It leads to seven points. But then later in the game, they punt on a pretty clear go forer its situation on fourth and three at the forty, and I think he was thinking in that situation and I understood it that his defense was playing so well,
which they did for most of the game. He was really trusting his defense there to go pin Mahomesda And that happened to be the one drive in the second half where the Chiefs looked like the Chiefs and they made him look bad, and so that decision didn't work out. But for the most part, I love that he stayed aggressive.
Yeah, let's talk about some of the coaching decisions, because I think obviously the one that was always you know, it's the tone setter. As they say all that fourth and short, like you said inside their twenty, they call the fake punt. It works. And even better, they then turned that into an adr touchdown drive and that got I think that set the tone for the game and in a really positive way for Detroit, even though Kansas
City then kind of took control of the game. It seemed they scored the next two touchdowns, and I thought Campbell made a bad mistake actually near the end of the half when they had the Chiefs fourth and about two right around midfield, and there was a holding call and instead of keeping it fourth and two, they elected to take the penalty Detroit. They back up Mahomes the third and I believe fifteen or so, and then that began the Mahomes ding ding ding touchdown that put the
Chiefs in control. And then the last one that jumped out to me, Well, Greg, Mark, you already brought it up. I was really surprised with two point thirty to play on that fourth down that you don't run the ball down the throat of the Chiefs, because I thought the game was over there. If they run the ball, they pass incomplete. But maybe it wouldn't have mattered because maybe, like I'm saying, the running game of the lines would
have ended it either way. But I am not down with Andy Reid fourth and twenty five deep in his own end, down twenty one to twenty to sigh on a day. No, no, no, there's living a little, Greg, and there's being completely just a suicide mission when you have an offense that is completely sputtered out and you don't have anybody to trust. If you're Patrick Mahomes it's not fourth and ten or fourth and fifteen, or even fourth and twenty, there's another penalty. It's fourth and twenty five.
That was a suicide mission. And as soon as that's an incomplete pass, you don't even give your defense a chance because they're in field goal range. And the letdown to me was obvious. They it was over at that point.
I did not have a problem with fourth and twenty because just about four five, No, fourth and twenty five got a little extra, no doubt about it. And I think you know, we texted about that a bit. But fourth and twenty when you've got Patrick Mahomes, and there had been a number of big, bigger passing plays by Mahomes in this game, where it's like everything about them tells me you don't give the ball back. If you're
Patrick Mahomes, you go for fourth and twenty five. I'm with you that it got perilous at that point, and there's a sense of desperation which you don't really get from the Chiefs that often.
I think they realized they were in.
It was sort of their last gasp, and it was yep, maybe you punt the ball away. But I mean with the way that the Lions were running to the ball at that point and chewing up the clock like that first when they went for the fake punt. That drive was what eight plus minutes. Because I was in I was in my world, We're like, whoa this game. It's like it's like five fifty five on the West Coast and we're done with We're like midway through the second quarter.
It's like, I know that we'll get to a point where like the third quarters an hour and forty seven minutes long.
For some reason, it does.
But it's like they but their their ability to kind of like take keep the ball out of Kansas City's hands, I think might have led to that decision where it's like, we've got.
To hope the Mahomes does this.
But I'm with you that fourth and twenty five got a little bit bizarre.
Yeah, I don't have any because of what you said. They probably aren't gonna stop me either way, and they didn't. They knew the run was coming.
They didn't stop him on the previous drive. Greg it should be.
Said, not on a three and out though they needed.
They got him on fourth down, they got him off the field. Maybe not three and out, but you're right, they got the stop they needed, they only gave up first, put him back on their side of the field. You put ten in the box and you get stop and give them Homes a real chance. It's it's kind of beside the point though. I I don't want to get dwell on it because I think at that point the Chiefs had had their best chance and not to bring it back to Tony too much longer. But it's crazy.
Tony had a drop right in his hand that that was the pick six that changed the game. And then that final pass when they got the ball back after the fourth down stop, he is wide open.
That's why.
That's why you go for it, because you had you found a way to get one guy open one play, and you think maybe you can do it one more play.
But there wasn't many of those plays either.
There weren't many plays that they missed, you know what I mean, Like they they were they were fighting up hill and someone's got to take dan'sire here, and it makes sense and Chiefs fansire, it makes sense for it to be Canarious Tony.
That was yeah, it was bad. It was bad.
That was brutal because I think you know you you didn't just lose the lock to start the season. I think you are the first person to ever lose a prop on the kickoff, you said the Lions wouldn't be in sole possession of first place.
They want to know, baby, you gotta live wild.
There's a lot of ball game ahead of me. And I'm I'm I'm the all time leader in the locks Challenge or in the uh go get my lunch Challenge for a reason.
Yeah, this is bother me.
It's annoying, It's It is also, though, what I love about sports, because the the the fact that everything I fought, like five different things had to line up for the Chiefs to lose their home opener here and they all did and then credit the lines for taking advantage of it. Really a good way to start the season. Not for me, but whatever. It's early enough in the year where I could I could handle this and and I'll move forward with my life. But like, that was a good game
like that. There's been some slogs in the Thursday Night I Open Earth. There's been some sloppy games. That was pretty crisply played and a nice like back and forth game. It's a good way to start the season.
Can I like one thing that bugs me and I know that, like if you're a PFF and like they look at interceptions differently, But like that interception by Mame by Mahomes which wasn't by him, Like why is that called an interception? Why isn't there like a secondary stat that's like not quarterback related, like thank you Kadarius Tony, but it's like a Patrick Mahomes interception.
But it's like, what's happening here?
That's a great call? What if it's Canarious Tony that has an interception?
Well or at least something where it's like the turnover transferred. It's like an error in baseball almost. It's like, how do we correctly you know, a tribute who Well, I.
Guess that's that's what they'll say, PFF and the like we'll say that's what we're.
For they do, but that's not gonna be that we seem like giant nerds.
So like that's a positive graded throw by Mahomes who put it right on the money and his receiver ghacked. And it's to be fair to Tony by the way, the previous game they played was in Super Bowl and he was a badass and he made big plays, including the huge punt return that basically set them up for glory. So I hope, I hope he bounces back, but that's gonna be I don't know what. The media how and the fans seem to be overall a more kind lot than maybe where I grew up or where we grew
up in the Northeast. But Tony, I would imagine we'll get roasted in this game. That's a tough spotlight. Tough spotlight.
It is in the and they are they're nicer there, but it's maybe training camp does matter because he was injured the whole time. He basically didn't practice at all for five or six weeks, and they kind of forced them out there because they need as many weapons as they can. There is something awkward about having seven you know,
receiver one bees or whatever they are three bees. I mean, but you get Kelsey back most likely next week according to the NBC broadcast, and you get Chris Jones back at some point, and it will feel a little different. But the rest of the NFC North like they're all gonna have to play the Chiefs too, and we'll see if any one of them beats them.
That that's one game up. The Lions probably get and.
We also get a little burned out on the NBC cover of Jawan Taylor's deep sets in Early Moves. That was like, it was a fair point, but I felt like it was the only thing that we were like getting in depth. The only thing that I liked less was the completely wasted, wired up Hutchinson family. Just no pop, no heat, nothing worth you don't you don't need to go to them if it's not singing, no more than once.
Is it weird that to have the dad call the sun hutch I don't know what a game though, Aiden Hutchinson, what a game? I mean, he was one of the best players on the field. We very we should note that was a great job. I do want to point out just one last point of order before you know, if we're if we're wrapping up here, because you know this team, the Lions team, they stole our heart last year, they had our heart, and I've been saying all off season, you know, why not run it back right off the top?
I said that, And at first, how I remember it? You guys were like, oh man, maybe maybe maybe it was that night they won the game, that was probably it. We were all in our feels and then quickly you guys just stopped it cold as a as a possibility. Randy, I don't know if you got the song back there right now, but I don't think it's ever too late to change our minds and open our hearts back up to the Detroit Lions have the team of the Around the NFL Podcast.
This isn't an by anyone. We're playing this just for all good times. Come on, bring him back, Danny, bring him back.
This is the sometimes, Greg, how do I put this?
I'm annoying.
I love you, but sometimes a lighter touch would be more effective. And I feel like you're you're coming so hard. It's like the guy that likes the girl, but like he's being so aggressively forward about it that he's almost smothering her, and it's it's making her push him away, even though he's a good guy and maybe a catch. I love I love those lines. Last year, you know,
I team in a lot of ways, Greggy. I was on the I was on the bandwagon first covering him on Hard Knocks with Colleen and I. I I'm open to it. You know what I'd like to see. Let's see what happens against the Seahawks next week. I'm open to it. I'm not shutting it down, Greg, Okay, that's all I'm open.
Yeah.
I think your analgae is really well put and can explain you know, a lot of my college struggles with women, but I.
Think in this case, we're the girl that you're smothering, where it's like I want to be part of this relationship, but like you're absorbing all the energy in the room around it, where it's like I actually do like the Lions. And I was walking around my place tonight being like, what a fun, interesting, fascinating team to do what they went and did tonight. But I was like, but Greg is going to be so gregory gregarious about it that like there's no room for Mark two.
I'll dial it down, and we're lucky here even if they don't become the team. We still have Dan Campbell and these Lions in our lives and they are a big value add to the NFL. But I'll keep both of what you said in mind and look for.
A path forward.
And while I am keeping my mind open, it's more just in general, it's like, is there a team of around the NFL out there for twenty twenty three because you never force it. But you know, there could be a team over the next you know, a couple of weeks. Uh, this month really is where it's it's nomination season that we all collectively kind of gravitate toward. Maybe the Lions.
Do the Lions make more sense as a repeat offering than any organization that we've run into in a long time. So open minds and like Jess, but Greg, just remember it's like, if we're going to go on this journey, it's not you tugging Dan and I on you know, studded leashes through a field. It's like we walk on the journey together.
I mean that sounds like something you you might like there, Mark.
Yeah, but not with not not with you, I would.
In the place. Wait, what do you what are you precious boys going to do in Week three when it's the Lions v. Falcons?
Oh, that's fine, that could be a team.
Yeahs teams to this weekend.
Honestly, Greg, if the Lions spank Gino next week and then kick the hell out of your beloved Falcons, I am in so if they can start three and oh with those wins with those dubs you got my vote. No, I'll say it right now. You got my vote, all right, but they got to do that. Anything less than that, I'm not gonna because I don't. I don't really like running it back. I like the idea of it being one and done. The sequel is never as good as
the original. Well, Godfather Too is probably better than the original. There you go, notably, but that's an outlier.
Richer deeper.
This is kind of a sequel. Getting back on the horn with you guys on Thursday nights. It's been been a couple of years since we did this.
Yeah, this was a big, big day for and then
we're gonna it's gonna be part of our rotation. We did three shows today, so we had the preview episode of all the week one games that were not Island games that is available now for you obviously, this episode, which will will have a Thursday night recap every week, and the NFL Plus premiere of Around the NFL and NFL Plus that is available probably by the time you hear this as well, So those of you with an NFL Plus subscription or international fans that have Bazon go
check that out. We had fun. That was good. I really enjoyed our NFL Plus premiere where we looked in the mirror.
I did as well. I had the game, I had it on. I had like three screens going. I got the US open, I got one screen of the game on the big one and then the other one. There was a lot going on, but one of them's on the NFL Plus game. It's all happening.
So like, you know, our employer, if you're if you're anyone attached to like the hierarchy above us that you know tracks what work we do.
We are working hard. I just please know that understand proof.
It's proof and the you know, the trade off for me is like every time I see Eric ed Holmes name on the scroll for NFL Network and I think, wow, he just had to write power rankings for eight more hours, I think to myself, I like what I'm doing now, everybody wins?
Very fair?
All right, thank you everybody for following everything we do. Sincerely, that's pretty cool. You've given us a great life. All right until Sunday the Flagship Show. Heed the call