The calendar has officially hit November and the Detroit Lions still have NOT played an outdoor game this year. However, that's going to change on Sunday when they face the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.
So how rare is it for a team to go the first eight weeks of the season without playing outdoors? The CBS Sports Research team decided to do some digging and it turns out that it's pretty rare.
Lions have been indoor cats
Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, there have only been three teams that have made it through the first eight weeks of the season without playing an outdoor game: The 1998 Saints, the 2019 Falcons and this year's Lions. That's three teams in 54 years.
The Saints had a bye in Week 3 back in 1998, so they only played seven games before heading outdoors for the first time. As for the Falcons, they actually hold the record for most indoor games to start the season. Back in 2019, the Falcons didn't play an outdoor game until Nov. 17 (Week 11). The Falcons had a Week 9 bye that year, so they played nine games before their first trip outdoors. On the Lions' end, they've played seven games, which is tied with New Orleans for the second-longest streak.
If you're wondering whether this provides any sort of advantage, it's a toss up so far. The Saints finished 6-10 that year, but they did beat their preseason win total of 5.5. They also went 4-3 straight up and 5-2 against the spread during their seven-game indoor stretch to start the season with two of their three losses coming by one score.
With the Falcons, they want an ugly 1-7 during their opening stretch of indoor games before finishing 7-9. As for the Lions, they're 6-1 in their seven indoor games and that one loss was a shocker. In that 20-16 loss to the Buccaneers, the Lions became just the second team since the 1970 merger to lose a game despite outgaining their opponent by 200 yards or more (463-216) with at least five more sacks than the other team.
Why indoor games are good for the Lions
One big reason why the Lions are 6-1 in their seven indoor games is because Jared Goff has been a much better quarterback when playing indoors than he has been outdoors since being traded to Detroit.
Goff's completion percentage is more than five points higher indoors (68.9% to 63.6%). The Lions QB has also averaged nearly a full yard more per passing attempt indoors than he has outdoors (8.0 to 7.1). Most importantly, Goff has averaged 2.1 TD passes per game when playing indoors, but just 1.0 TD passes per game when playing outdoors. His interception rate is slightly better outdoors (He throws .41 interceptions per game outdoors while throwing .62 per game indoors). But the bottom line here is that he's an indoor cat.
Lions schedule is good news for Goff
Goff was actually my preseason MVP pick this year and a big reason was because of their schedule: The Lions will be playing 14 of their 17 games indoors. If Goff starts every single one of those games, he'll be come the first QB in NFL history to get 14 indoor starts during the regular season (Matt Ryan currently has the record with 13 indoor starts in a single season).
If there's one team that could benefit from home-field advantage in the playoffs, it's definitely the Lions.
The forecast for Sunday in Green Bay is mid-50s with rain, which could be trouble for the Lions, because they might not even remember what rain looks like after playing indoors for so long. We took a closer look at how Goff might do against the Packers this week and you can check that out here.
