Kneejerk America, a phrase that is a redundancy in entirely too many instances, will view the entrails of the Lions-Ravens Monday Night Football matchup and render a swift judgment—that Detroit is pure movie magic, with cutting-edge special effects and a popping script, whereas Baltimore is a black-and-white movie with stiff dialogue that just looks cheesier with age.
That is, of course, simplistic and bordering on nonsensical—a fine straw man that can be blown over with a healthy wind, if we do say so ourselves. You’re welcome for that.
But if it’s unwise to write anything off based upon one Week 3 game, it’s also true that sports is about feel, and on that front neutral observers will quite naturally be far more enchanted by Detroit than Baltimore based on two events. If you're deep into the Lions or Ravens, well, you'll probably die alone anyway, but the joy of the enchanted neutral has the benefit of faux objectivity. And who doesn't like faux knowledge this early in the season? After all, as the anti-Tylenol people will tell you, what other kind is there?
These are the two moments, starting with Baltimore. The Ravens had been gifted fine field position by a Rasheen Ali kick return to midfield late in the first half with the score tied at 14, and moved to the Lions 3 after two sharp Lamar Jackson throws. They then did what logical football people would do—run Derrick Henry brutishly between the guards, and if that didn't work, send Jackson off the right side. None of those plays produced anything of note unless you regard Jackson being sacked by Jack Campbell and fumbling noteworthy. The game remained tied, but the look on Jackson's face was that of someone who'd just watched his car being towed away, then dropped off the side of a bridge.
One quarter later, at 21-21, the Lions got the ball to the Ravens 8 and decided to go to the same place in their playbook, with a dumpoff over the middle to tight end Sam LaPorta and a run into the line by Jahmyr Gibbs. Each gained two yards, leaving a fourth-and-1 from the 4. You knew the Lions would go for the touchdown; Dan Campbell loves going for it the way children love high-sugar snacks, and America mostly loves him for that.
But the play they ran in that situation was just kinky enough to remind you why neutrals love the Lions for their minds. Jared Goff handed the ball to Amon-Ra St. Brown on a jet sweep off the right side, but did so with the ball pointed vertically so that St. Brown could then pitch it easily to Gibbs, who was running outside St. Brown and had a clear lane to the end zone. The Lions scored, took a 31-24 lead, and won, 38-30. It was the proper result based on the run of play, but the two teams could not be more different based on the most important metric of all—cool.
The Lions are 2-1 and the Ravens 1-2, which is not important given that 28 of the 32 teams in the league are either 2-1 or 1-2, and more to the point, IT'S STILL SEPTEMBER, YOU SHORT-ATTENTION-SPAN MOPES. But Baltimore looked both old and old hat in defeat, despite having their own multitude of weapons. Their justifiably Henrycentric offense is being undermined by Henry's newfound struggles with fumble-itis, and there’s only so much to say or do about that. The Lions, though, are what they were a year ago despite an almost entirely new coaching staff under Campbell—they just do fun stuff, seemingly for the sheer hell of it, while also having the sort of properly malevolent defense that the best teams are supposed to have.
Given that the NFL likes to give out some early-schedule cake every year, this felt like a pivotal game even though 82 percent of the season remains. It is of course not a pivotal game, but again, how it felt matters, too. The Ravens' last Super Bowl was 13 years ago, and John Harbaugh has maintained the same jut-jawed facial expression for nearly two decades. Conversely, the Lions started mattering only two years ago and Campbell, their even more jut-jawed coach, is still pushing the tactical envelope almost reflexively, even though league best practices suggest that you save the coolest stuff you know works for later in the season when the games weigh more.
But as a wise, honored, and downright eye-candy-level fellow pointed out not long ago, people like new stuff once they've seen the old stuff often enough. The Ravens are still good, but they're the old kind of good, and humanity, and especially the American part of it, has always been biased toward what’s new. The Lions are good, too; the illusion that they are fun only works when they are good. Otherwise they are just wacky screwoffs who will spend more time in the principal’s office for putting yogurt in the science teacher's experiments.
It would be foolish to estimate how much time they’ll spend in detention during the remaining 82 percent of the season. In September, good and fun works just fine, and that's what you're feeling now. You’ll swallow it hesitantly for the same reason that the two best teams in the league at this moment might be Indianapolis and the Los Angeles Chargers, and you’re right to hesitate. But it's what-the-hell-was-that season, and now and for the foreseeable future the Lions are clear industry leaders in what-the-hell-was-that.
