The two best records in the NFL belong to the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions. The Chiefs are the only undefeated team remaining, with a perfect 9-0 record. The Lions are 8-1, with a seven-game winning streak since their lone loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sep. 15. With many points to argue why either team should be considered the best in the NFL, staff writer Sam Calhoun and campus correspondent Patrick Minnerly take each side in this edition of Point-Counterpoint.
Sam Calhoun: Chiefs
As mentioned above, the Kansas City Chiefs own the best record in the NFL with a perfect 9-0 record. There is only one real argument I must make: they are the back-to-back defending Super Bowl champions. That is also why the UConn men’s basketball team is the team to beat in college basketball. If the Lions want to be the best, they must beat the best. While some may scratch their heads at this take when the Chiefs barely beat the Denver Broncos, they have wins that have me convinced they are the superior team in the NFL.
Kansas City has come on top of some of the better teams in the league. They beat the Baltimore Ravens during Week 1, a team with a 7-3 record and has reigning MVP Lamar Jackson at quarterback leading the way. While the NFC South is weak, the Chiefs went into Atlanta and beat the Falcons two weeks later. In the Super Bowl rematch in mid-October, the Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers by two scores.
Now, let’s get into the stats. First off, quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been the statistically better quarterback when you compare him to Lions quarterback Jared Goff. Mahomes has passed for 2,208 yards and 12 touchdowns on a 69.5% completion percentage. While you may argue that Goff has a higher completion percentage and more passing touchdowns, Mahomes’s ability as a dual-threat trumps that. Goff does not use his legs to help his team, rushing for 18 yards this season. Mahomes, on the other hand, has rushed for 167 yards and a touchdown this season.
Defensively, the Chiefs have stepped up in a huge way this season. They allow just 289.9 total yards per game, which is fourth in the NFL. This is due to the Lions’ lack of a pass defense and the Chiefs’ excellent rushing defense, allowing just 83.2 total yards per game, third in the NFL. It also helps that the Chiefs have a legendary tight end in Travis Kelce and just added three-time All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. Rookie Xavier Worthy also looks promising. Overall, while I agree that the Lions are the best team in the NFC, I do not see them as the best team in the entire NFL.
Patrick Minnerly: Lions
The Lions preserved the best record in the NFC with a come-from-behind win over the Houston Texans on Sunday to improve to 8-1 on the season, storming back in the second half and claiming victory via a game-winning field goal from Jake Bates. After the game, Detroit Head Coach Dan Campbell said of his team, “Our guys wouldn’t go away. They just wouldn’t go away.” It is this mentality, coupled with utter domination of lesser teams, that makes the Lions a more complete unit than the Chiefs.
Right now, the Chiefs are the only undefeated team in the NFL, but they have achieved those wins in increasingly shaky and unsustainable ways. On Sep. 15, the Chiefs faced off against the Cincinnati Bengals, who were fresh off a bad loss to the Jacoby Brissett-led Patriots, and needed a helpful pass interference call and a last-second field goal to win 26-25. In that game, Mahomes had two touchdowns but an equal number of interceptions, beginning a troubling trend for the star quarterback – this season, he has just 12 touchdowns to nine interceptions. In Week 9, the Chiefs had to go into overtime to beat the Buccaneers, and they would have lost to the Broncos if not for a blocked field goal. Through ten weeks, the Kansas City offense has reached 30 points just once, and their largest margin of victory is a 26-13 win over the Saints, who later lost to the lowly Carolina Panthers and then promptly fired their head coach. In essence, the Chiefs are a paper tiger, too far from dominant to declare as the best team in the NFL.
Compare this to the Lions, who have one blemish on their record with a four-point loss to the Bucs but otherwise have been excellent. Jared Goff has done his job well for the Lions this year, throwing for over 2,000 yards and 16 touchdowns so far. And yet, he hasn’t needed to be the only piece in the puzzle; runningbacks Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery have combined their explosivity and toughness for 1,634 yards and 16 touchdowns from scrimmage. Detroit has put up more than 30 points four times this season. On the other side of the ball, Detroit has been finding its stride even with primary edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson sidelined with an injury; the defense was superb versus Houston, picking off C.J Stroud twice and shutting down the Texans offense in the second half.
Overall, the Lions have put together a better season so far than the Chiefs. It’s time to give Detroit their flowers and acknowledge them as the best team in the NFL.
We’ll see about that.
How can you say Patrick Mahomes statistically is outperforming Jared Goff? Goff leads Mahomes in TDs, Passing YDs, Passer rating, completion %, tied for INTs. Rushing for 130 more yards doesn’t make him the better QB THIS year. Take off the rose color lenses and give Goff his just due.