The Detroit Lions are a team filled with petty. Ask Ben Johnson and the Bears who just got a 52 piece. Dan Campbell’s team holds grudges and the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson have gotten the better of them. Hence, Jared Goff is warning their rivals for Week 3 as that grudge is still burning inside the Lions’ locker room.

The Ravens beat Detroit 38-6 in Week 7 of the 2023 season. That day, the Lions were losing 35-0 at one point. “Yeah, they kicked out butt,” Jared Goff said in Thursday’s press conference. “They got after us early and often. Yeah, we certainly remember that.”

The Lions will try to avenge that loss not only with a win, but with a masterclass. Now, that’s easier said than done, as Baltimore is one of the best teams in the NFL. They’ve scored 81 points in the first two games of the season. However, the Bills also scored 41 on them, and the Lions just scored 52 last week. It’s likely we’re going to see a shootout.

Lamar Jackson is the NFC’s boogeyman

Jackson is 24-4 against NFC teams in his career. The Ravens’ QB is just too big of a puzzle for NFC teams to control him. NFC teams play Lamar once every four years, so he is constantly creating problems for them and they can’t study him properly. He brings a pace they can’t replicate in training, and takes them by surprise.

Quarterback Lamar Jackson #8 of the Baltimore Ravens

Lamar is a unicorn. He can create plenty of troubles with his passing, but also with his feet. Even if he’s not running, he has elusiveness in the pocket and it’s very hard to sack him.

It’s a very telling game for the Lions

The Lions lost handedly to the Packers in Week 1 but then destroyed the Bears in Week 2. So what do we make of them? What are the expectations? Is the team a real contender or is it just an illusion caused by a beatdown against a lower-level NFL team?

This game will tell us what the expectations on the Lions should be. They don’t even need to win the game, but keep it close. After all, the Ravens are a Super Bowl contender. As long as the game is a back-and-forth, the overall opinion will be that the Lions, win or lose, are a serious team.