The Detroit Lions upset the Kansas City Chiefs, 21-20, on Thursday night to open the 2023 regular season. And while most around the football world were stunned, Lions head coach Dan Campbell was not.
After the game, the always-confident Campbell offered up another bold, headline-stealing declaration.
“I didn’t learn anything. I got verification of what I already knew,” Campbell said, via Sports Illustrated. “And this is a resilient team. It already was a resilient team, and we added pieces to that resilient team. We’re built to handle some stuff, and we did that today against a very good opponent.”
Campbell is no doubt a believer in himself and his team, and that’s infectious. His players are now fully bought in and any remaining stragglers were converted on Thursday night.
“I told the team we were built for this,” Campbell added.
It wasn’t just that the Lions were able to upend Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, it’s that they were able to rally from deficits at both halftime and after the third quarter.
Campbell and the Lions will carry their well-deserved confidence into a Week 2 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, Sept. 17.