Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy declared the Detroit Lions’ Super Bowl window closed Friday after Buffalo beat Detroit 41-31 on Thursday night, saying few NFL teams have risen and fallen so quickly.
“Has any window shut faster and more completly than the Lions? They sucked for 100 years Good for 1.5 years and now absolutely suck again. Feel bad for Lions fans,” Portnoy wrote.
The post drew more than 14,000 likes and more than 1 million views within hours, capturing a familiar mix of gallows humor and fatigue around a franchise that spent decades as a punchline before two dazzling seasons made Detroit a contender.
The Lions are 1-1 after an overtime escape against New Orleans last Sunday and a lopsided loss at Buffalo’s new Highmark Stadium. Josh Allen accounted for five touchdowns as the Bills scored on six of their first eight possessions and finished with 446 yards and 34 first downs.
Detroit’s defense has allowed 71 points through two games and ranks among the league’s worst in yards allowed. Jared Goff still threw for 327 yards and four touchdowns Thursday, and Amon-Ra St. Brown had 142 receiving yards and two scores, but the Lions never recovered from a 21-0 deficit.
Portnoy’s “1.5 years” tracks the team’s peak. Detroit went 12-5 in 2023 and reached the NFC championship game, then posted a 15-2 record and the NFC’s No. 1 seed in 2024 before losing in the divisional round. Those were the Lions’ first back-to-back playoff appearances in decades.
The decline followed the departure of offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who left after the 2024 season to become head coach of the Chicago Bears. Detroit finished 9-8 in 2025 and missed the playoffs. Johnson’s Bears won the NFC North last season at 11-6 and already sit 1-0 in 2026.
Campbell rejected the idea that two weeks define the season.
“It’s early. We’re in Week 2. We’ve got a long season and the most important thing is that we get better,” he said after the Bills game. “We just need to get better than we were today in all three phases.”
He was harsher at halftime, when Detroit trailed 27-10.
“Cut out the penalties, ’cause they’re killing us. The little s— is killing us,” Campbell told a sideline reporter.
The historical backdrop makes the panic land harder. The Lions last won an NFL championship in 1957 and have never reached a Super Bowl. They went 0-16 in 2008 and spent most of the 2000s and 2010s near the bottom of the standings before Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes rebuilt the roster.
Detroit hosts the New York Jets on Sept. 27. A bounce-back win would quiet some of the noise. Another sloppy night would feed the same old narrative Portnoy distilled in one post: a franchise that waited a century for a window, enjoyed it briefly, and now wonders if it already slammed shut.
The Lions still have talent on offense and 15 games remaining. Whether that is enough is the argument Portnoy just put in front of more than a million readers.
