These are not the same Detroit Lions we’ve been accustomed to seeing over the last several decades — or even the same Lions we saw just last year.
If the Lions beat the Ravens on Sunday, Detroit will improve to 6-1 on the season, a dramatic turnaround from their 1-6 start to the 2022 season.
That would make the Lions just the second team in the last 10 years to go from a 1-6 or worse start one year to a 6-1 or better start the next. The other team to do it was the 2018-2019 49ers, who lost seven of their first eight games on the way to a 4-12 record in 2018 and then won their first eight games on the way to a 13-3 record in 2019.
That 49ers team went to the Super Bowl after the 2019 season. The Lions, a franchise that has never been to the Super Bowl, can only hope for the same fate.