Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck

I’ve refrained from writing this column for as long as possible, but it’s time to acknowledge the facts:

The Detroit Lions are a good football team.

Some might say they’re really good.

Some might even say they’re elite.

The hype began last season when the Lions won eight of their last 10 games. Thanks to a Seahawks win over the Rams in Week 18, Detroit was eliminated from playoff contention, but it was clear the organization had turned a corner.

Missing out on the playoffs by the slimmest of margins felt like a gut punch — although to be fair, the Lions were playing with house money in the later parts of last season — but a win over Aaron Rodgers in his last-ever game as a Packer at Lambeau Field was enough to keep fans satisfied heading into the offseason.

Head coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes had proven enough in their two years on the job to generate perhaps the most hype-filled offseason in Lions history.

I’m not going to lie; heading into the season, I thought it was going to be just another typical Lions year. Sure, they looked good down the stretch in 2022, but I figured it was all a mirage — that they were more lucky than they were good.

With the Chiefs first up on the schedule to open 2023, I was certain Detroit would get throttled and embarrassed on national television. The hype train would quickly be derailed, and any hopes of a successful season would be crushed on Day 1 of the NFL season.

Instead, Jared Goff and the Lions walked into Arrowhead Stadium and won. Maybe it was because the tried and true Taylor Swift good luck charm wasn’t in effect yet, but I digress.

“Good for them,” I thought. “But this is setting up perfectly for a collapse.”

Beat the reigning Super Bowl champions, get fans’ hopes at an all-time high and then find a way to lose 10 of the next 16 games and finish 7-10.

And I was even more certain of my theory following the overtime loss to Seattle.

“How can you lose to Geno Smith and the team that single-handedly ended your playoff hopes last season? You couldn’t get up for a revenge game? That’s just classic Lions.”

But boy, was I wrong.

Four weeks later, not only has Detroit not choked away the season, but they’ve won four games in a row and are currently tied for the best record in the NFL. To take it even further, they’re a coin flip away from potentially being 6-0 (overtime rules still need to be changed).

Goff isn’t lighting up the stat sheet, but he doesn’t need to. He’s playing winning football and fits the Lions’ offense like a glove.

The funny thing is, the schedule only gets easier for the 5-1 Lions.

At the time of this writing, nine of the remaining 11 games for Detroit are against teams with a .500 record or worse.

The only two remaining games against teams with winning records are at the Ravens on Oct. 22 and at the Cowboys on Dec. 30, and both of those teams currently have worse records than the Lions.

I never thought I’d see the day I’d buy into the Lions’ hype, but I think that day has finally come.

This team is good. They’re going to win the NFC North.

I’m not ready to say they’ll make a deep playoff run yet — despite losses, the 49ers and Eagles still look like world beaters — but I’m confident in saying there will be a playoff game played at Ford Field for the first time in stadium history this year.