Are we watching a historically great offense in Detroit in 2024?
The Detroit Lions have won eight straight games to start 9-1 on the season for the first time since 1934. Sunday, they scored 52 points for the second time this season and are just the third team in the Super Bowl era with three wins of 35-or-more points in their first 10 games of a season, joining Atlanta (1973) and Minnesota (1969).
Detroit scored touchdowns on their first seven possessions Sunday and didn't punt for the second time this year. Quarterback Jared Goff completed 24-of-29 passes for 412 yards and four touchdowns for a perfect passer rating of 158.3. He's the only quarterback in NFL history to have two 400-plus-yard performances with a perfect passer rating.
The Lions have scored 336 points in 10 games for a 33.6-yard average per game. If the regular season were to end today, that total would rank 11th all time in terms of scoring average.
The 2013 Denver Broncos (37.9), 2007 New England Patriots (36.8), 2018 Kansas City Chiefs (35.3) and 2011 Green Bay Packers (35.0) are the only teams in the Super Bowl era to average at least 35 points per game.
When most people think of the greatest offense in league history, the 1999-2000 St. Louis Rams come to mind, a team that featured Hall of Famers quarterback Kurt Warner, running back Marshall Faulk and wide receivers Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt. That team was coined 'The Greatest Show on Turf' and could beat teams equally throwing or running the football. Faulk recorded 1,359 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns and added 830 receiving yards and eight touchdowns that season, and both Bruce and Holt had 1,000 receiving yards with 15 total touchdowns.
This year's Lions are similarly dynamic running and throwing the ball.
Detroit's terrific running back tandem of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery have 1,391 rushing yards and 18 rushing touchdowns combined in 10 games with 461 receiving yards and another score.
Amon-Ra St. Brown (685) and Jameson Williams (538) both have a chance to be 1,000-yard receivers this season. St. Brown has a touchdown catch in eight straight games for Detroit.
"I think we have that ability, I really do. I think we have that ability," Lions head coach Dan Campbell said Sunday when asked if this offense is as good as some of the best in history. "We have everything that we need to be potent, and like I say, I feel like we're well-rounded.
"When you're able to run the ball with the big boys up front, you've got a hammer like David (Montgomery), and you've got electric, this electricity with Gibbs, and you've got (Jameson Williams) Jamo on the perimeter, and then you've got our rock (Amon-Ra) St. Brown who just continues to make plays – you put him anywhere you want to put him, and you need it, he's got it.
"And then running the whole show is (Jared) Goff. I think we can be dangerous. We have that ability because, really, we can play the game anyway we need to, as long as we're on our stuff, we're on our game, and we're locked in, and we're finishing. We can do that."
The Lions have scored 336 points in 10 games and need to score 270 points (38.5 avg.) in their remaining seven games to reach the all-time record of 606 points scored by Denver in 2013, though Denver did it in 16 games. The way this offense is playing right now, that doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility.
