Detroit Lions upset Kansas City Chiefs in Thursday Night Football opener: Highlights, analysis and news

Inside the NFL’s loudest stadium, on a night the defending Super Bowl champs raised a banner and kicked off a new season as the league’s gold standard, the home crowd fell eerily silent. With less than a minute to go, the Red Sea departed, heading for the exits. This was not the night they had anticipated.

Left amid the aftermath was an upstart Detroit Lions team, lining up for victory formation and a victory lap. All offseason, they told us this was different. That they were building a core capable of not only going toe-to-toe with the best in the league — but coming out on top.

You’ll have to excuse them for saying they told you so.

“I didn’t learn anything,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said following his team’s 21-20 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. “I got verification of what I already knew.”

It feels so long ago now, when Campbell didn’t know what he had. It was a process of trial and error. Finding the right fits. Trying to establish an identity. Taking their medicine along the way, as GM Brad Holmes put it last week. But Campbell and everyone in this Lions organization feel confident in their ability to win games like this because of what they went through.

Read more here.