its been since the early to mid 90s that i was excited about the lions. barry, herman moore, brett perriman. by the mid 90s scott mitchell was supposed to be the final piece to that offense.
1991 they opened against washington (one of the best teams in nfl history) and got smacked 45-0. they went on to win the division and their only playoff game in the modern era (and then get smacked again by washington 41-10). so even if they get blown out its not the end of the world or the season.
the other time was 1995 when they started off 0-3 and 2-5 but bounced back to make a wild card. that offense was humming down the stretch and all they had to do was go to philly and beat a .500 eagles squad with rodney flipping peete as qb...
they were down 38-7 at halftime. fontes got an extension after the game.
so im still a little gun shy about getting excited about detroit. once bitten, twice shy....bitten thirty five times and you might be really reticent to commit.