Power Rankings: 'Crippled' Secondary Forces Lions to Dip in Polls

CBS Sports

Power ranking: 5th
Last ranking: 1st

The secondary being crippled by injuries showed up in the loss to the Chiefs. Now they face a tough Tampa Bay offense led by Baker Mayfield.

The Ringer

Power ranking: 2nd
Last ranking: 1st

Getting dominated in prime time isn’t great, but there’s no shame in being on the wrong end of that type of vintage Chiefs performance. Detroit had a few uncharacteristic miscues on third and fourth downs on Sunday night, but it was largely able to move the ball with ease throughout the game.

As their banged-up defense gets healthy, I expect the Lions to get back to controlling games and beating lesser opponents. What’s harder to predict right now is whether Detroit’s two losses to legitimate contenders are blips or something that will come up for this team in January.

Sporting News

Power ranking: 7th
Last ranking: 2nd

The Lions took their second outdoor setback of the season in Kansas City, the first since getting beat up in Green Bay. They will be happy to be home and go back into shootout mode with the Buccaneers in prime time.

USA Today

Power ranking: 11th
Last ranking: 1st

This is an appropriate place to take a pause − and ask if it's appropriate to drop a team from first overall to 11th merely because a dominant four-game winning streak was snapped? Maybe not? But 1) the Lions, after feasting on lesser competition, were unequivocally handled in their losses by the best teams they've faced so far (Packers, Chiefs) and 2) the apparent upper echelon of the league is so tightly packed, with 14 teams sporting a winning percentage of .667 or better (plus three more that are 3-2), that it's tough to distinguish those currently clustered together – as next Monday's matchup with the Bucs will likely attest. DB Brian Branch's self-inflicted suspension hardly helps, either.

Bleacher Report

Power ranking: 7th
Last ranking: 1st

The Detroit Lions don't need to regroup after a double-digit loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Jared Goff's illegal motion penalty cost them four points, and Amon-Ra St. Brown's drop resulted in a turnover on downs and gave the Chiefs a short field on a touchdown drive.

The Lions will bounce back, but their offense needs a signature performance against a quality opponent or defense. Detroit looked like world beaters after blowing out the Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, who are without quarterback Joe Burrow, but it lost by two possessions to the Green Bay Packers and Chiefs in the team's worst offensive outings.