The Lions were able to finish the 2022 season with a winning record thanks to a road win over the Packers that saw them take a fourth-quarter lead with a rushing touchdown and then keep the previous season’s best quarterback from putting his team back on top. .

The start of the 2023 season doesn’t look much different. David Montgomery’s rushing touchdown with seven minutes to play put the Lions up 21-20 and they couldn’t get 2022 MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to get a first down on any of their final possessions. The win gave the Lions their first 1-0 lead since 2017, but head coach Dan Campbell said in his post-game news conference that it didn’t teach him anything new about a team that would come into the season with high expectations.

“I didn’t learn anything. I got validation for what I already knew,” Campbell said. “And this is a resilient team. It was a really resilient team, and we added pieces to that resilient team. We’re built to handle some things, and we did that today against a very good opponent.

Campbell may not have learned anything about his team, but a win like this on a stage like this likely justifies some of the offseason hype around the Lions for people outside the organization. More of the same in the coming weeks will leave no doubt that these are not the same old Lions.