What to know about the Seahawks’ Week 2 opponent, the Detroit Lions

SEATTLE – So all the Seattle Seahawks have to do now after suffering one of the worst losses of the opening weekend of the NFL is go on the road to play a team that had one of the best wins – the Detroit Lions.

“Going to go against one of the hottest teams in the world,” is the way coach Pete Carroll put it after Sunday’s 30-13 loss to the Rams at Lumen Field.

The Lions were already one of the chic picks to be a surprise team in the NFL this season after the way they finished a year ago, winning eight of their last 10 games to turn a 1-6 start into a 9-8 final record.

Seattle fans need no reminding of the last win in that stretch a year ago, a 20-16 win at Green Bay that clinched a playoff spot for the Seahawks in Aaron Rodgers’ final game as a Packer.

The Lions only heightened expectations by going to Kansas City and beating the Chiefs 21-20 on Thursday on the night Kansas City raised its banner for winning the Super Bowl.

Here are three things to know about the Lions.

Jared’s revenge

Quarterback Jared Goff was perceived as having been sent to the NFL’s version of Siberia when he was traded from the Rams to Detroit as part of the Matthew Stafford deal two years ago – especially when Stafford and the Rams won the Super Bowl.

But a funny thing happened along the way.

Goff showed last season that maybe his big years with the Rams weren’t just a function of playing in Sean McVay’s offense when he rebounded from a shaky start in 2022 to emerge as one of the hottest QBs down the stretch, notching a 14-to-0 touchdown-to-interception ratio in the final seven games and finishing at 29-to-7 overall.

He backed that up with a solid performance against the Chiefs on Thursday going 23 of 35 for 253 yards, a TD and no interceptions.

That ran his streak of passes without an interception to 359, the third-longest streak in NFL history behind Rodgers at 402 and Tom Brady at 399.

One of his seven interceptions in 2022 was a pick-six by Seattle’s Riq Woolen, a key play in the Seahawks’ 48-45 win over the Lions on Oct. 2.

But he threw only four more the rest of the year – his last interception came at the hands of Green Bay’s Jaire Alexander on Nov. 6.

Offense fires on all cylinders

Goff is hardly alone in giving the Motor City what has become one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL – the Lions finished fifth in points scored last season (453) and fourth in yards (6,460).

The Lions have an offensive line that Pro Football Focus rated as the fifth best in the NFL heading into the season, writing that center Frank Ragnow “is as good as any” center in the league. Right tackle Penei Sewell, the seventh overall pick in the draft out of Oregon in 2021, also appears to be a rising star while the return of Halapoulivaati Vaitai at right guard after missing all of last season with a back injury has helped solidify the interior of the line.

And there’s no lack of skill position power.

Third-year receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, taken in the 2021 fourth round out of USC, made the Pro Bowl last season and owns the NFL record with six straight games with both at least eight receptions and a touchdown.

And the Lions have a rugged duo at running back with free-agent signee David Montgomery and rookie Jahmyr Gibbs.

Montgomery, who had 3,609 yards from 2019-22 with the Bears, gained 74 yards on 21 carries with a touchdown against Kansas City while Gibbs gained 42 on seven.

The Lions took Gibbs with the 12th overall pick this spring out of Alabama, though Carroll indicated Monday the Seahawks had their eye on him, too.

“I wish they hadn’t (drafted him),” Carroll said. “Because they got a really good player with their pick. Gibbs is a great player. Wish (they) would’ve changed (their) mind about that.”

There may finally be some ‘D’ in Detroit

As Seattle’s 48-point outburst last season showed, the Lions had some defensive issues in 2022.

Detroit finished 28th in points allowed last season at 25.1 per game and were dead last in yards allowed (392.4).

But those overall numbers don’t tell the whole story.

The Lions, with a number of young players playing key roles, got progressively better as the year wore on, holding six of their final 10 opponents a year ago to 18 points or fewer, a stretch that included two wins over Green Bay as well as victories over eventual playoff teams the Giants and Vikings.

Spurring that charge was edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson, the second overall pick of the 2022 draft out of Michigan. Hutchinson led all rookies with 9.5 sacks last season and also had three interceptions, the first rookie to achieve both those numbers since sacks became an official stat in 1982.

Hutchinson picked up where he left off in the opener against the Chiefs with seven pressures, tied for the third most in the NFL, in a game in which Detroit held Kansas City to 0-of-7 on third downs in the second half.

The Lions, under defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, a former NFL cornerback who was a first-round pick of the Jets in 1994 when Carroll was the head coach, are also one of the more blitz-happy teams in the NFL, blitzing 35% of the time in 2022. The league average was 27%.

All of that means a Seattle offensive line with an uncertain situation at offensive tackle entering the week – with both left tackle Charles Cross and right tackle Abraham Lucas nursing injuries – is going to be in for a challenge.