The Detroit Lions managed to pull off a win in Week 1 against the St. Louis Rams, yet were trending downward in the weekly power rankings around the Internet. Naturally, with a loss in Week 2 to the San Francisco 49ers, they find themselves trending in the opposite direction. This is because Detroit struggled mightily with a Rams team that was already ranked very low, but played a competitive matchup against the 49ers, a team that most have at the top of their rankings.
Joel Thorman's rankings over at SB Nation will get us started. The Lions were ranked 14 following Week 1 but are now No. 12, moving up two spots:
12. Detroit Lions (LW: 14, 1-1): Can't fault them for losing to the No. 1 team last week. Playing the Titans next week looks like a "get right" game.
ESPN, on the other hand, keeps the Lions where they had them last week, at No. 13, citing a strong 49ers defense as a reason that Detroit shouldn't be worried about their offense. Other sites that didn't have the Lions go up include CBS Sports, which has them the lowest all the way down at No. 17 (down two spots) and NFL.com, which dropped them two spots to No. 13.
Brian Billick over at FOX Sports had his own rankings, and he was among those who ended up giving the Lions a boost, bumping them up from No. 15 to No. 11.
The Lions looked better in a Week 2 loss than they did in a Week 1 win. They moved Megatron inside to the slot to continue to find ways to get him open, and that creativity will pay dividends in the long run. When you have a player that draws that much attention, you must be willing to move him around to find ways to get him the ball. Kudos to the Lions for that.
Once again, the reasoning is that the Lions looked much better in a losing effort than they did in a winning effort. Billick also has the 49ers as the top team in his rankings, so there's that. At this rate, the Lions will be ranked as the worst team in the NFL and playing in the Super Bowl. Check out this video from SB Nation Studios on their power rankings.
For more on the Detroit Lions, check out Pride of Detroit. You can also get all of your professional football news over at SB Nation's NFL hub.