The Detroit Lions, fresh off an impressive Monday Night victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are proving to be the most terrifying version of their team yet. This is not because of how well they played, but because of their ability to absolutely dominate top-tier competition even when playing what can only be described as bad football. To put it bluntly, Detroit played awful and beat an experienced division leader by 15 points in primetime. This current 2025 Lions squad, under Dan Campbell’s leadership, is demonstrating a physical dominance and resilience that should deeply concern the rest of the NFL.
The Monday Night matchup against the Buccaneers, a very good and feisty team with recent playoff experience, demonstrated exactly why the this Lions team is their best yet. Despite winning comfortably by a double-digit margin, the Lions’ performance was riddled with mistakes, miscues, turnovers, and penalties. If the game were analyzed purely on efficiency (Expected Points Added), the Lions actually registered a negative EPA, suggesting a disastrous offensive outing relative to expectations. Yet, they won comfortably and never trailed.
A deeper look at the box score reveals a shocking level of physical superiority that was masked by the team’s own errors. The Lions statistically obliterated the Buccaneers in key areas: they finished with 380 total yards to Tampa Bay’s 251, a massive discrepancy that ballooned at one point to 270 yards to 50. Their rushing attack was particularly devastating, tallying 164 yards compared to the Buccaneers’ 41. The yards-per-play metric underscored this dominance, with Detroit posting 5.8 to Tampa Bay’s 3.8. The Lions, in essence, were physically dominating up front on both sides of the ball. The fact that they didn’t score at least 40 was a travesty.
Film review further emphasizes the incredible volume of missed opportunities. There were numerous running plays where a tight end missed a block or a running back was stopped after minimal gain where those plays should have been 20- to 30-yard runs or even touchdowns. Take the below screenshot for starters. The Lions offensive front has blown the Buccaneers off the football, creating a huge hole off tackle. It looks like this play will be a Touchdown right? Wrong, because Brock Wright tripped and missed his block. So what should have been a huge gain went for a total of 0 yards.
This wasn’t the only big play the Lions left on the table. Take the below screenshot. Here Detroit has a hat on a hat for everyone in the Buccaneers defense. There is no one in the picture that can tackle Montgomery as he looks to bounce outside. But Amon-Ra St. Brown gets beat across his face and once again a play that should have gone for 50 went for 0.
The ultimate takeaway from this performance is that the 2025 Lions have developed an unheard-of ability to win comfortably even at their worst. In past seasons (2023, 2024), a game with this many miscues (turnovers, missed field goals, blunders, and overall sloppy play) against a quality opponent would have almost certainly resulted in a loss, or at best, a narrow, miraculous victory. The fact that the Lions played what many consider a “C-minus game” in the NFL and still won by double digits against a playoff-caliber opponent speaks volumes about their physical dominance and overall talent level. No other team in the NFL can play that poorly and still emerge as the clearly superior team, never trailing, and winning comfortably. This mental fortitude and ability to overcome self-inflicted adversity makes the Detroit Lions a fundamentally scarier team than they have ever been. The only logical conclusion is that they are currently the most dangerous and best team in football.
Disclaimer: The content of this article was originally published as a YouTube video on the Saturday Morning Inspection YouTube channel. With AI assistance, the publisher of the video created this article based on the content of that video.
