Yes, the NFL season is long. And yes, it’s not even halfway to the finish line. But if championship games are all about excitement and great story lines, we need to see the Detroit Lions take on the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. There are many reasons why this particular matchup is imperative, so let’s take a deeper dive into why we want it.
The Detroit Lions are the most exciting team in the NFC
You don’t need a PhD in X’s and O’s to know why we need the Lions to rip through the NFC. In many ways, they’re already doing it, although their matchup with Minnesota would be a heck of an NFC championship game if the Vikings can somehow keep Sam Darnold on track.
In the meantime, we’ll focus on the Detroit Lions. They score with impunity, and they have an outstanding running game to go with a group of excellent receivers. Jared Goff is lighting up defenses throughout the conference, and right now it looks like he could go toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes and have more than a puncher’s chance.
The defense has some issues, but that’s part of what makes things exciting. The Lions lost star pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson early on to a serious leg injury, but they’re still making enough plays to get by against good teams. They’ve also handled lesser teams easily, as yesterday’s 52-14 win over Tennessee once again verified.
Winning the division will be a formidable challenge. The NFC North is suddenly stacked—all four teams probably won’t make the playoffs, but this is easily the NFC’s best division so far. The biggest threat right now is the Packers, providing they can keep Jordan Love healthy, and the Vikings may be there as well if they can keep Sam Darnold from doing a slow fade in the second half of the season.
The rest of the NFC doesn’t look nearly as threatening. San Francisco clearly isn’t the same team without Christian McCaffrey, and who knows when or even if he’ll be back on the field. They have enough talent to give Detroit problems, but the other contenders look mostly like pretenders at this point.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are marking time until the playoffs start
Is it possible to be undefeated and kind of sputtering along? That’s where the Chiefs are right now, but no one in Kansas City seems especially concerned about this. There’s no reason they should be, either, with a 3.5 game over Denver. The Chargers could be a minor threat if everything comes together for them, but at this point it’s hard to take them seriously.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs are marking time. They added DeAndre Hopkins, who chipped in with a couple of catches yesterday against the Raiders, and he should only get more productive with more time in Kansas City’s system. They also added Joshua Uche in a trade from New England, which will give them another pass rusher to terrorize playoff opponents and take some of the onus off Chris Jones to do that on his own.
The playoff challenges in the AFC basically look like the usual suspects, i.e., the Bills and the Ravens. Neither team looks capable of taking the leap to beat Mahomes right now—Josh Allen is still a formidable playmaker, but he doesn’t have a great array of weapons, and Lamar Jackson still looks beyond frustrated with Baltimore’s passing game. Both teams will be tough outs, but it’s hard to imagine either one beating Kansas City.
A Super Bowl for the ages
What would the actual game between Detroit and Kansas City look like? On paper it’s a track meet game, depending on how many plays the defenses make. The Chiefs would try to test Goff’s pocket presence, and the Lions would be forced to scramble to keep up with Mahomes’ playmaking ability. It’s the Super Bowl we all want and deserve, to let’s cross our fingers and hope it comes to fruition.