The Lions’ ending up in an overtime matchup with the Rams on Sunday night was not good news for Detroit, as they had led 17-3 in the second half. But after the dust settled on the home team’s only drive of the overtime period, I – Lions fan – was almost grateful for LA’s comeback, orchestrated by Matt Stafford. Without that comeback, I would not have been able to witness David Montgomery shove the ball down the defense’s throat with a commanding dominance that would have felt foreign in this city not so long ago.

The senior half of the Lions’ running back duo touched the ball five times on eight plays, gaining 45 of Detroit’s 70 yards, trampling a depleted defense. He crossed the halfway line through a completely open lane at the line of scrimmage, dodged a group of potential tacklers, gained nine yards and got into field goal range, charged forward, dragging some guys through the red zone with him, and then capped the night with a punch-in TD. It was the penultimate run on third-and-1, with Montgomery obscured by a cloud of big men drifting ever further to the left. It felt almost like an assurance to the spectators that everything had always been under control.

This was Dan Campbell’s GRIT – not a slogan on a T-shirt, but a type of physical football that the Lions have always played with their backs to the field. Montgomery ran like someone impatient to decide the game without any games or defensive reactions, because that’s what he was.

“I’ll be honest, I hate overtime,” he said after the game. “It’s a late game, I want to see my son. But we did it.”

A pretty rocky first week for the Lions, in which they had to complete a two-minute field goal drill to avoid a familiar infraction, ended with a win and new confidence for this team. It’s going to be a strange season. This time last year, I was freaking out that they had somehow managed to outplay Kansas City in the NFL pregame. In 2024, however, the expectation was an opening night win; ending the season with a win in February is the extremely dangerous hope.

I was back in Michigan on Labor Day, and the mood there is torn between excitement and the traumatic nervousness that excitement engenders. Everyone in the state grew up believing the Lions would disappoint them. It feels downright blasphemous to expect anything good. The second half of Sunday’s game would have made sense for Lions fans if the untested Jake Bates had botched a kick, or if the defense hadn’t forced Stafford off the field late, or if Jared Goff had intercepted another ball. We’ve seen it in every form imaginable. But now we’re seeing something better.