KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Detroit Lions lost their first primetime game since late in the 2023 season against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
They lost 30-17, with missed opportunities, badly-timed penalties and a postgame scuffle adding to the ugly night. Detroit falls to 4-2 on the season, and its schedule ahead doesn’t get any easier.
The Lions will host the 5-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football heading into the bye week. After that, they face the Minnesota Vikings, Washington Commanders and Philadelphia Eagles, so buckle up, because this is as tough as it gets.
#### **Here are some notable quotes from the Lions and Chiefs players and coaches on Sunday:**
**Lions HC Dan Campbell, on Amon-Ra St. Brown dropping a fourth-down target:** “Look, Saint has made a ton of plays for us, and really, what frustrates you more than anything is that, OK, then after that point, what’s the next play we got to make to get ourselves back in? Where’s it going to come from? (Are) we going to get the takeaway on defense or special teams, or offense when we get time to answer back and we go down and do something with it, you know. Yeah, we didn’t convert. It was fourth down. It was a big play. But there was a number of plays And I really felt like. Speaking of the, you know, the first half there was three plays in there. We make any one of them and the game is really a lot different in the first half. So, you know, we didn’t do it.”
**Campbell, on his feeling after the loss:** “I’m disappointed because, you know, it’s been a long time since you’re watching somebody kneel it three times in front of you and it’s not even close. You know, you’re down two scores. I mean, we got worked pretty good. So. Yeah, it’s disappointing. It’s really disappointing.”
**NFL referee Craig Wrolstad, on why Jared Goff’s touchdown catch was overturned:** “There were a lot of moving parts on that play. We had a quarterback go up to the line of scrimmage. He paused momentarily in the quarterback position, didn’t get under center, but he walked up and stopped like he was the quarterback. Then, he went in motion, and they threw the ball to him for a touchdown. If the quarterback assumes the quarterback position and then goes in motion, he has to then stop for a second before they snap the ball. Because he gets out of the view of some of the officials, we had to piece it together as a crew as to whether he stopped initially and then whether he stopped when he went in motion. It was determined after a lengthy discussion that he stopped at the quarterback position and then went in motion.”
**Goff, on the overturned touchdown:** “I don’t know. It’s essentially an illegal formation that they are calling from the booth. I have never heard of that, but it’s not the difference in the game. It was a cool play that would have been fun to get a score on, and it would have been nice to get a touchdown there, but I don’t think that by any means, it would’ve flipped the game. There were a ton of other plays that they made, and we didn’t.”
**Chiefs coach Andy Reid, on the Goff TD that got nullified:** “The official told me right away what went on. Yeah, but it was weird. You don’t see that very often. It was a different kind of play, too. They’re very creative in what they do. That one, they didn’t get set, so that was a problem.”
**Chiefs LB Nick Bolton, on the momentum shifting after Goff’s TD was taken away:** “Our crowd kind of went dead there for a little bit after they scored and then got a field goal on that drive. Offense was out there and scores and our crowd was into it and we kind of just rode the wave after that.”
**Lions DL DJ Reader, on Campbell saying maybe they needed this:** “I don’t think that ever, you know, but, you know, it happens. It happens ... the sky’s not falling out there.”
**Lions S Kerby Joseph, on continuing to play through knee issues:** “It’s all gas, no brakes, man. Not trying to slow down for nobody. And I don’t like to be left out.”
**Joseph, on if he needs a week or two off like the Lions have given Taylor Decker: "**Well, I don’t know, man. I like playing, so I don’t like not playing."
**Campbell, on the postgame fight initiated by Brian Branch:** “I love Brian Branch. But what he did was inexcusable. It’s not going to be accepted here. It’s not what we do. It’s not what we’re about. I apologize to coach (Andy) Reid and the Chiefs and Schuster. That’s not OK. That’s not what we do here, and it’s not going to be OK. He knows it. Our team knows it. That’s not what we do.”
**Chiefs WR JuJu Smith-Schuster, on the postgame scuffle with Branch:** “I know he’s a better player than that, a better person. He’ll learn from his mistakes. He’s a great player, right? He’s huge for the team. I think after the game, I expect to shake his hand and say, ‘Good game’ and move Pat’s way. But he threw a punch, and at the end of the day, it’s a team sport, right? We came out here. We did our job. We won. And that’s all that matters.”
**Branch, with his side of the altercation:** “In-between the play and refs don’t catch it, they were trying to bully me out there. I got blocked in the back illegally, and it was in front of the ref. But the ref didn’t do anything — just stuff like that. I could have got hurt off of that. But it’s still -- I still should have not done that.”
**Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, on physicality throughout the game leading to the scuffle:** “You’re playing football, I mean, you’re being chippy. That’s a physical football team and they have a mentality that they come in to play with and we’re going to match that mentality. We’re not afraid to go up against anybody. That’s the mentality coach Reid brings every single day. And we’re going to match the intensity of whoever steps on that football field.”
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