Not long ago, the Detroit Lions were most teams' easiest home game of the season. Now they're the NFL's best road warriors.
Following Sunday's 24-6 win at the Indianapolis Colts, the Lions moved to 10-1 on the season -- their best start to a season since 1934 -- and 6-0 away from home. It's amazing how fast the transformation has happened.
"We come together on the road," said quarterback Jared Goff, who has seen both ends of the process, per the team's official website. "We are road warriors. It's an us-against-them mentality."
At one point two seasons ago, they couldn't buy a win away from home. Lions head coach Dan Campbell said he recently thought back to the streak that lasted into the 2022 season where they were 0-11-1 away from home to begin his tenure. Several players from that team have been huge parts of the reversal of fortune.
"Just thinking about that, and now I think we're 16-5 since then," Campbell said on Sunday. "Just that group of guys. I said something in the locker room about it. Goff and Frank (Ragnow) and (Taylor Decker) and (Penei) Sewell and Alim (McNeill) and Saint (Amon-Ra St. Brown). It's like, 'Man, you remember that?'
"But all of those guys are responsible for the flip. Everybody that's in that locker room is responsible for it."
The "flip" has also revealed a nice closing-run benefit: four of their final six games are at home. Their lone loss, to the Bucs in Week 2, came at Ford Field.
Since that point, they've won at Arizona, Dallas, Minnesota, Green Bay, Houston and now Indianapolis. Of that group, only the Cowboys are out of contention.
The Chiefs, who won Sunday at the Carolina Panthers, are the only team in the NFL with one road loss; all other teams have at least two.
The Lions don't just prepare for a specific opponent, Decker said, but also for where they're playing.
"I think first and foremost we prepare for it," Decker said. "We prepare for loud environments. We have a bunch of guys that are competitors that are not going to bat an eye, and they want to go into the lion's den.
"They want to go into the arena because it's fun. It's fun to go out there into hostile environments when you're a competitor. I feel like we have a locker room full of guys that are just competitive, and they want that challenge."
