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Eric Woodyard, ESPN
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Weather conditions were chilly, windy and wet inside of Lambeau Field, but the Detroit Lions still walked away as winners on Sunday in their first outdoor game of the season.
The 24-14 victory over the Green Bay Packers gave the Lions three straight road wins over their NFC North rivals, the first such streak since Detroit won four straight at Lambeau Field from 1986 to 1991.
The Lions had played their first seven games of the season indoors, the only team to do so other than the 1998 New Orleans Saints in NFL history, according to Elias. But the change in environment in their eighth game on Sunday didn’t end up mattering.
According to head coach Dan Campbell, the Lions are “built to win” under any conditions.
“I know this, I’m not shocked one bit that we came out here and played pretty good football out in the elements,” Campbell said. “We’re built for this. And it doesn’t matter and just because we play indoors, it doesn’t matter. We can play anywhere. We can play in the snow. We can play in the rain, play in the mud, that’s just us. We’re built to win.”
Detroit has two more outdoor games remaining this regular season. During Week 16, the Lions will face the Bears at Chicago, then they will play at San Francisco in Week 17 against the 49ers. The team is confident that it can compete with any team in the league at this point.
“We’re supposed to be the dome team who can’t play outside. We’re supposed to be the team that can only win one way, and I think we’ve shown a handful of times that we can win in multiple ways,” said Lions QB Jared Goff, who went 18-for-22 with 145 passing yards and a touchdown. “We’re chameleons, and whatever takes to win in whatever way, that’s what we’re going to do.”
The Lions were dominant on both sides of the ball as the defense allowed its lone touchdown in the final 3:49 off a 2-yard run by Emanuel Wilson, and safety Kerby Joseph recorded the first pick-six of his NFL career with 32 seconds left before halftime to put the Lions up 17-3. Although Detroit’s offense was outgained 411-261 by the Packers, the Lions still controlled the game with zero turnovers and a strong ground attack.
The running back duo of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs combined for 138 rushing yards and a touchdown to help Detroit improve to 7-1 for the first time since 1956.
“We know we’re killers, man. Killers, kill. That’s what we do,” Lions cornerback Amik Robertson said. “We’ve got to keep on stacking them, though.”
Despite Detroit’s ability to win under new circumstances such as the bad weather this week, Campbell is still urging the team to continue to clean up other areas that it can improve on before it travels to face Houston in next week’s “Sunday Night Football” game.
“There were a number of things we talked about: run game supremacy, we talked about explosives, as crazy as that sounds in that type of weather, but whoever could come up with the most explosives, field position and turnover ratio,” Campbell said. “The fact that we took care of the football. We preached it all week. We worked it. Wet ball drills every day at practice outdoors.
“Our guys really did a great job. Goff took great care of the football, and it was the difference. It was a big difference.”
Lions All-Pro receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who entered the stadium before Sunday’s game dressed in a black hoodie that read “Green Bay Sucks,” caught seven passes for 56 yards and a touchdown and became the first wide receiver in at least 19 seasons to catch 30 consecutive targets. He has connected on 30 straight passes with Goff, who also became the first quarterback in NFL history to complete 80% of passes over a six-game span (min. 100 attempts), per ESPN Research.
Goff said this is “probably” the best stretch of his career as this victory seemingly put the Lions in the driver’s seat in the NFC, but they’re nowhere near satisfied.
“Each game is its own battle and its own journey, and I think we’ve gotten really good at flushing it away. Even if it’s a loss,” Goff said. “Flushing it away quickly and turning over to the next game.
“So now it will be this winning and then having to flush this one tomorrow and move on to Houston. Sunday night, at their place,” he continued. “It’s going to be rowdy. Our fourth road game out of the last five. We’ve kind of proven that we’re built for it.”