The 2023 season opener in Kansas City could wind up going down as one of the most important games in Detroit Lions history.
The Lions were offseason media darlings following a strong 8-2 finish down the stretch of the 2022 campaign, and the NFL bet a lot on them by slotting Detroit in for five primetime matchups not counting their annual Thanksgiving game.
The first of those was the NFL season opener on Thursday night against the Kansas City Chiefs. Definitely a bold move on the NFL’s part to have its big kickoff game be the defending Super Bowl champions against a team that had missed the playoffs the year prior.
For the Lions, whose most recent regular season game at that point was another huge road primetime victory over Green Bay in Week 18, it was the ultimate opportunity to announce to the NFL that they were for real. And they did.
Lions' 2023 battle against Chiefs coming full circle in Week 6
Detroit stunned the Chiefs 21-20 on their home field. Several current staples of the 2025 team were making their Lions debuts and showed what was to come. Brian Branch had a pick six on Patrick Mahomes in his first NFL game. David Montgomery scored the go-ahead touchdown. Jahmyr Gibbs and Sam LaPorta flashed their potential.
Other eventual Lions trademarks also showed up. Dan Campbell called a successful fake punt from his own 17-yard line on what became a 14-play, 91-yard touchdown drive that burned over eight minutes of clock. Amon-Ra St. Brown had a big game over the middle. The defense was physical and tireless.
For a team that went on to win the franchise’s first division title in 30 years, first playoff game in 32 years and make it all the way to the NFC title game, it was quite the statement: the Lions were here.
“I felt like that kind of kicked our season off,” Campbell said about the 2023 season opener this week. “Guys really believed we could go out there and win, and played their tails off.”
Granted, it wasn’t a perfect performance. The Lions had some big drops and a brutal fumble, and went cold throughout the third quarter as Kansas City took the lead. It was even more frustrating for the Chiefs, who were derailed by penalties and dropped passes, particularly from wideout Kadarius Toney.
“You go back and watch that game, you could tell it was the first game of the season,” Campbell said. “They would probably say the same thing, too. There was a lot of things that boy, you wish you would have done better, but at the end of the day, we hung in there and we really played great complementary football.”
While many of the core pieces for both of these teams remain ahead of their showdown in Arrowhead this Sunday night, their situations are both very different.
Detroit isn’t the plucky, upstart media darling anymore. They’ve got a better roster now than in 2023, and are bonafide Super Bowl contenders. The Chiefs still have the Lombardi trophy on their minds as well, but aren’t the defending champs anymore and are trying to get back to .500 this week after a 2-3 start to the season.
Struggles from the wide receiver position are arguably what cost Kansas City the game in 2023, and that theme has come around once again this year. Chiefs receivers have struggled to create separation and make plays, as the team has really felt the suspension of top receiver Rashee Rice to begin the year.
To make things even more frustrating for Kansas City, the run game has been nonexistent, with Mahomes still leading the team in rushing with 190 yards. They’ve had two close primetime losses against AFC foes in the Chargers and Jaguars, and also lost their Super Bowl revenge opportunity to Philadelphia 20-17.
It’s been a maddening start for Kansas City. Compare that to the red-hot Detroit, winners of four straight after a 27-13 kick in the teeth against Green Bay in Week 1, and it’s easy to see why this game has a similar intensity leading up to it as their 2023 season-opening showdown.
The Chiefs have had some very preventable losses in 2025. Their loss to Detroit in 2023 was arguably one of the most preventable of the Mahomes-Andy Reid era. With the memory of that game in mind, and the frustration that’s plagued their season thus far, they’ll come out angry and ready to play.
Ditto for the Lions, who have made playing with a chip on their shoulder their whole brand since Campbell took over. They have the opportunity to go in and prove that winning these types of games is what they do, just as Kansas City has a chance to beat arguably the NFL’s hottest team and remind everyone that they’re still the Chiefs.
It should be an intense one. And while the memory of that 2023 opener might loom large this week, a whole lot has changed with both of these teams since then. Campbell put it best:
"That was good, but that was also 2 years ago."
