Roarin'

 Got a friend from Detroit who posts one of two images on his social media in the fall, depending on what his chronically doomstruck Detroit Lions do on any given Sunday.

If they lose, which has been often, he posts a photo of Bobby Layne, the last quarterback to win an NFL title for the Lions and the namesake of the fabled (at least in Detroit) Curse of Bobby Layne.

If they win, which has been not nearly so often, he posts a photo of cornbread with the caption "Cornbread for everyone!" or something similar.

In my mind's eye this morning, I see pans and pans of cornbread on my friend's social, mountains of cornbread, steaming hot and melt-y with butter.

I say this because his Lions marched into Kansas City last night and -- on national TV in the kickoff game to the NFL season -- did not Lions it up. The Blob was fearful that was going to happen, because the Lions are the Lions and everyone was pumping them full of unaccustomed air, and it would been customarily Lions-ish for deflate all that by going into Arrowhead and falling flat on their faces against Patrick Mahomes and the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs.

But they didn't!

In fact, they beat Mahomes and the Chiefs, 21-20!

("Why are you using exclamation points?" you're asking now)

I don't know. Just seemed appropriate, given everything.

Anyway, the Lions won, and head coach Dan Campbell showed off his big brass grapes by running a fake punt on his own 17-yard line early on. It was a dumb thing to do, but he got away with it, and it set a tone.

The rest was Jared Goff passing passably enough and Bears refugee David Montgomery running passably enough, and a rookie DB named Brian Branch taking an interception 50 yards to the house. The last time a Lions rook did something that noteworthy, his name was Lem Barney, and it was Green Bay legend Bart Starr he was pick-sixing -- 56 years ago.

The Lions also beat the defending Super Bowl champs that day, by the way. Harmonic convergence.

Anyway, what was revealed is that the Lions might actually not be the Lions this year, if you know what I mean. Also, Mahomes is not Mahomes without his trusty sidekick Travis Kelce, who sat this one out with an iffy knee. 

Besides the pick six, his wideouts dropped passes like they thought they were Indianapolis Colts.  When a Lions fourth-down pass failed at midfield and Mahomes got the ball back with 2:30 to play, it was his receivers who betrayed him: Kadarius Toney dropped a potential 20-yard gain, Skyy dropped another ball, and the O-line got called for holding, erasing a deep ball that actually was caught.

Meanwhile, Goff was an efficient 22-of-35 for 253 yards and a score. He was sacked only once.

And the Lions won!

Sorry, Those exclamation points, they creep up on ya.