If you let ESPN tell it, the Detroit Lions had no shot at taking down the Baltimore Ravens in their Week 3 showdown on "Monday Night Football." By the time the game ended, that notion was proven false.
Throughout the day leading up to the game, ESPN's "Get Up," "NFL Live" and MNF pregame shows saw every panelist picked the Ravens to defeat the Lions, sending them to 1-2 on the season.
"I believe Baltimore wins a close game, and that in no way disparages who Detroit is," ESPN's Scott Van Pelt said on the MNF pregame show. "We all have the Ravens. The Lions social media is just like, ok, they got receipts. They're waiting."
Scott, you might be right.
Instead of them falling short, the Lions delivered, defeating the Ravens 38-30 to improve to 2-1 and avenge last season's 38-6 blowout loss in Week 7.
After the Lions' 27-13 Week 1 loss to the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, concerns surfaced about regression. Detroit looked rusty and out of sync, with offensive line communication issues leading to a rough day for Jared Goff and the backfield duo of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery.
Though the Lions bounced back with a 52-21 rout of the Chicago Bears, now coached by former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, national experts remained skeptical.
Monday's win over a Ravens team with Super Bowl aspirations showed Dan Campbell was right -- Week 1 struggles were fixable. It also suggests the experts might have been wrong, at least for now, about Detroit's decline.