3 things Lions fans should remain cautious about

Man did the Detroit Lions do good on Monday or what? Here we are going into Week 3, and the Lions are 2-0 for the first time since 2011. I’m not sure anyone thought this would be the case when they saw the Lions schedule come out back in the summer.

I hate to be the guy to do this, but I’m going to be the guy to do this. Let’s all just calm down a little. I love the way the Lions are playing right now, but I also realize it’s just two games. I just need to see more of certain things before I can get hype and stay hype.

Here are the top three things that I need to see more of before I can get excited about them.

The run game worked on Monday

In case you didn’t notice it, the Lions won a game on Monday night with more rushing yards than passing yards. Yes, this is a part of the real world. No, you didn’t slip into a different dimension when you ate that bomb meatball sub the other day. You’re still on Earth.

Ameer Abdullah looked great on Monday against a really good Giants defense, and I can’t tell you how much the Lions need this to continue. The Lions can utilize the running game not only to balance the offense, but to run out the clock like they did on Monday.

I just can’t get too excited yet because the Lions haven’t done this consistently. In Week 1 they could not get the run game going, and they finished with just 82 total yards. I need to see more.

This defense is scary

In the past two weeks, the Lions have sacked the quarterback six times and forced five turnovers. The Lions defense is currently ranked at seventh in the league by both yards and points. Nobody thought this would happen over the summer. The defense was supposed to be the weakness here.

I wrote an article about the Lions defense being a surprise strength. I got lit up on social media after the Patriots lit up the Lions in the third preseason game. So while I still stand by my original point on the defense, I’m going to remain cautious. If the Lions defense is still this good in Week 10, I am just going to be unbearably annoying about this.

The Lions look like a complete team

This is the big one. This is where I wrap the first two reasons together into a neat little package.

The Lions look like a team that is great in all three phases. As I mentioned earlier, they’re seventh in the league in defense. The Lions are also sixth in the league in points per game on offense. They’ve also looked good on special teams. Don’t forget Matt Prater is a cyborg sent back from the future to kick field goals.

I want to believe the Lions are going to be this way all year, and believe me, I think they can be this way all season. But I just can’t commit to it just yet. I just can’t put my heart on the line again and get hurt.

But I will say this: If the Lions can beat the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday at Ford Field, I will go HAM on all my convictions and just give in to all my Lions desires. I’ll just come out and say Jim Caldwell is a saint and there should be a Bob Quinn statue built outside the stadium. I’ll then calmly collect myself and go back to being reserved about the Lions yet again.

The moral of the story here is to be cautiously optimistic. Things are looking really good for the Lions so far this year, but it’s only been two weeks. And it’s been against a quarterback that’s on the verge of getting benched for the rest of his career in Carson Palmer and an offense that’s been unable to score 20 points in the last eight straight games.

Let’s see more from the Lions before we go on NFL Shop and buy every Lions jersey available. Let’s see what they can do against the NFC Champions on Sunday.