Detroit Lions: The Long Wait Is Over; It's Now Safe to Jump on the Bandwagon

If you've seen the rampage of these Detroit Lions during the past two weeks in the NFL—if you saw them take down Tampa Bay and then beat the Kansas City Chiefs like a small college team—you might ask those same Lions:

What took you so long?

For the Detroit faithful, who suffered the brain damage that comes with 0-16 seasons, this is a wind of change, a breath of fresh air in a city that needs it in so many ways.

What took you so long?

What took the Ford family so long to finally figure out that Matt Millen will go down in history as one of the worst GMs ever? And notice there's an "ever" there, which encompasses a lot and is a long period of time, but Millen, the Fred Flintstone of NFL administrators, was, for lack of a better word, clueless.

They're finally producing good-looking automobiles in Detroit and, to go along with it, there's now a good-looking football team.

Detroit has always been synonymous with the Big Three—as in automotive companies. Well, there's a new Big Three in town now and that's easily Matthew Stafford and his pal Megatron, the receiver (a.k.a. Calvin Johnson), and this big cat on the defensive line with a great name and who's a man-beast, Ndamukong Suh.

The Lions have a lot of substance, but those three are a good start.

Speaking of good starts, the Boys in Blue are 2-0 and heading for NFC North opponent Minnesota, a team that is surely shell-shocked by the comeback that Tampa Bay made this past Sunday.

Trailing 17-0 at the half and making Donovan McNabb look like Tom Brady, the Bucs found some second-half swagger. With just about 31 seconds left to go, LeGarrette Blount crashed his way into the Viking end zone to put the cap on a 24-20 comeback that was nearly impossible to believe unless you saw it.

Those same Bucs were humiliated in their opener by this Detroit gang and the Lions made it look easy.

Which begs the question:

Are these 2011 Lions the surprise team that Tampa Bay was last year?

The Buccaneers were a team most envisioned to have perhaps four-to-six wins and they ended up with 10.

Are these Lions double-digit-win darlings this season?

OK, figure Minnesota is ripe for another loss next week.

That leaves the lofty Lions going to Dallas in Week 4 and home against the Bears in Week 5. Then they have the Falcons (again at Ford Field) in Week 7 followed by a foray to Denver in Week 8.

It's certainly not out of the question that these upstart Lions could be 6-2 going into their bye week.

Where things get really tough is the last half of the season—NFC North tough.

Week 10: at Chicago

Week 11: Carolina

Week 12: Green Bay

Week 13: at New Orleans

Week 14: Minnesota

Week 15  at Oakland

Week 16: San Diego

Week 17: at Green Bay

You see the Pack twice, New Orleans, the Bears and San Diego (even the most optimistic Lion fan has to be sweating that run, just a little).

The key figure in all of these expectations—all this anticipation—is Stafford.

So far, he's looking like the guy the organization put the hat on with the No. 1 pick.

Now it's a matter of keeping him healthy and upright.

Out of a possible 32 starts the last two seasons, he was out for 19. This year, he's certainly looking stronger. With the work he's done on his body, we'll get to see what he can really do.

These Lions are now on a six-game winning streak dating to the close of last season. A seventh is waiting for them in Minnesota if they don't botch it up.

After that, who knows?

Somewhere they may already be whispering the "P" word in Detroit.

"We're good," is how veteran kicker Jason Hanson put it.

Yes, the Lions are good.

The only question that remains is: How good?