Detroit Lions’ OT win was the sort of enjoyable you count on in Week 1

The quarterback took the snap, checked off his choices, felt the strain, and lofted a go to the nook of the tip zone, a ball within the air to win it, a ball within the air to intestine the Detroit Lions’ season opener, a ball within the air to ship 65,000 Ford Field followers out the doorways screaming concerning the collapse that they had simply witnessed.

Except the ball sailed simply past attain of the well-covered receiver, the 2-point conversion failed, extra time ended, and as a substitute of shedding by one, the Lions had simply received by the identical margin. The complete constructing exhaled.

And like a glimpse of the tail of the Loch Ness monster, everybody struggled to elucidate what they’d simply seen.

“We made the last play to win it, that’s the most important thing” Lions coach Dan Campbell mentioned after this loopy marathon lastly ended, 31-30, Lions over the Saints. “It’s good to have the win [and] now you can clean it up, and you don’t have the L and have to clean it up.”

Yeah. What he mentioned.

Let’s face it, Lions followers. This was a factor of magnificence till it wasn’t, after which, on the finish, it was once more. The Lions, on opening day of their 2026 season, determined to offer the hometown crowd three video games for the value of 1: the primary 36 minutes, the final 24, and extra time. If you paid by the emotion, you bought your cash’s value.

But should you had been hoping for a smooth-sailing forecast for this 12 months’s crew, you went house hungry.

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“The way they come doesn’t matter to us,” mentioned quarterback Jared Goff, who seemed as relieved as the remainder of his teammates to be going house victorious. “Yeah, of course we’d love to keep scoring and win 49-0. … But listen, it’s the NFL. This thing’s hard.”

It is.

It’s additionally sometimes, as within the case of Sunday’s recreation, bonkers.

The first act

Here was a day wherein the Lions plowed steadily to a 21-0 lead with just below 9 minutes left within the third quarter. At that time, they had been Maximus close to the tip of “Gladiator,” obtrusive over his vanquished foe.

An hour or so later, they had been Apollo Creed on the finish of “Rocky,” bloodied, dizzy and mumbling, “Ain’t gonna be no rematch.”

What happened in between? Everything. Tyler Shough, the Saints’ second-year quarterback with a last name no one gets right on the first try, came out for the third possession of the third quarter like a punching bag being hung in a dirty gym.

At that time, he’d accomplished lower than half of his passes, had been sacked twice and picked off twice. His earlier two drives had resulted in an interception and a fumble. He may as effectively have been carrying a kind of T-shirts that claims, “Don’t talk to me, I’m having a bad day.”

And then.

And then the child caught fireplace. His title is pronounced “Shuck” − and the Lions protection abruptly seemed like his oyster. He started with a 47-yard bomb to broad receiver Chris Olave.

Next thing you know, the shucker was Tom Brady.

Shough led the Saints to a touchdown on that drive, a touchdown on the next drive, a field goal on the next drive, and a touchdown on the next. He completed 20 of 28 passes for 252 yards in that stretch. That’s a great game for most NFL quarterbacks. This was in a half!

“When you’re able to get more swings at the bat, and they come a lot quicker, you can find a little rhythm, and that’s kind of what happened,” said Campbell who, rather than faulting the defense, blamed a string of punt-it away Lions possessions that allowed Shough and the Saints to get their groove.

“We possessed the ball a little bit more in that first half, and then we fizzled on offense,” he added. “And so, if I’m going one way or another, I’m like, man, we’ve got to be more efficient on offense. We kind of spit and sputtered there and then they … had some tempo going.”

Some tempo? They outscored the Lions 24-3 and had a 62-yard field goal attempt to win it in the final seconds of regulation that just missed.

Had that kick gone through, we’d be having quite a different discussion this morning. A ball in the air can change everything.

A second chance

Instead, the attempt failed and the Lions got overtime penance to correct their sins. Offensively, they did, marching 70 yards in 10 plays to take a 31-24 lead on Goff’s 4-yard scoring pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown.

But the defense, particularly the pass defense, which was most people’s concern coming into this season, could not keep Brady – sorry, Shough – from driving New Orleans 80 yards, including a fourth-down conversion to Olave for 20 yards and a whippet 8-yard touchdown pass to tight end Noah Fant.

The crowd held its breath. At that point, the Saints could have kicked an extra point and hoped to eke out the final 94 seconds for a tie. But they went for the two points to win it. No surprise, according to Campbell.

“If I’m [Saints coach Kellen Moore], I’m doing that,” Campbell said. “You’re going for two.”

The Lions defense stiffened. They took away Slough’s first two options, and with the pocket collapsing, all he had was that corner throw to receiver Bryce Lance, a ball in the air that didn’t connect.

“It was a close play,” Shough said afterward. “Was trying to give him a chance, and they made a good play on it. So [it] just sucks.”

Well, not if you’re a Lions fan.

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Senses tingling

But if you are, there is reason for both optimism and doubt. On the upside, Jahmyr Gibbs’ debut as the bell cow of the Detroit offense could not have gone any better. Detroit worked him and worked him some more: 29 carries for 156 yards and two touchdowns, another five receptions for 30 more yards.

Campbell called it “a very promising Week 1.” He could have been winking when he said it. Gibbs is simply Superman right now. And how great was it to see Sam LaPorta back doing his thing, eight catches for 48 yards? And St. Brown was his usual clutch self, and Goff looked like he just took a shower after last year’s season finale then trotted back out there and picked up where he left off.

Defensively, there was Derrick Barnes, who had a monster recreation, together with a momentum-swinging interception and an enormous sack. Barnes is being known as upon to do extra this 12 months with the shifting forged of the linebackers, and Sunday’s recreation was a improbable begin.

He not solely made historical past as the primary Lions linebacker with two go defenses, a sack and an interception in a single recreation, he additionally turned the primary Lion to ever arrive for a recreation dressed as Spider-Man.

I’m not making this up. He and his son got here to Ford Field in Spider-Man costumes, and took images collectively outdoors the stadium within the signature Spidey poses.

“My wife’s best friend got the costume,” he explained. “I saw the package coming, it was pretty heavy, and it was a Spider-Man suit. So I was like, I know where this is about to go.”

Hey, if he plays that way as Spider-Man, next week he should come dressed as the Incredible Hulk.

Now what?

Which brings us to the Game 2, Thursday night time at Buffalo, and the beforehand talked about causes for concern. Let’s be blunt. If Tyler Shough can shred your protection for 410 yards, you shudder to assume what Josh Allen may do.

The Lions’ secondary was hit or miss Sunday, and their go rush, whereas noisy sufficient to provide 5 sacks, didn’t get house when it needed to a number of instances. Allen will make you pay for that. Rock Ya-Sin has his moments, however I’m undecided Avonte Maddox or Chuck Clark are scaring any quarterbacks from going their approach.

And Jameson Williams had a case of slippery fingers Sunday, with a number of go drops and a botched pitch from Goff. You hope that clears up quick.

But hey, there’s no level in projecting bother from a squeaky win over a Saints crew that was 6-11 final 12 months, any greater than saying Michigan barely edging Western Michigan means they’ll get creamed by Oklahoma. (Oops.)

You’ve simply got to play it out.

“Week 1,” Campbell said, “you never know which way it’s gonna go. Just glad we got the W.”

That’s W as in wild, weird, wacky and wow.

A ball in the air? A game on the line? A sold-out crowd on its feet? Tell me it’s not fun to have our football team back in action.

Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates on his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow @mitchalbom on X.