Going into the Week 6 matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Detroit Lions, Detroit actually looked like the favorite. But Patrick Mahomes led Kansas to a 30-17 win against Dan Campbell’s side, and Lions’ linebacker Derrick Barnes took some time out of his day to actually thank the Chiefs quarterback for the beatdown at such an early stage.

In an appearance on the Up & Adams Show with Kay Adams, Barnes admitted that the Detroit Lions needed that loss against the Chiefs.

“When you face a competitor like that (Mahomes), it’s all hands on deck. I like that, you know, we hit adversity early,” he said. “I think that last year, going 15 and two and going on the run, I feel like we didn’t face adversity soon enough. And I’m not saying that we should win every game. We want to win every game, but I think that (loss) was good for us, and I think that just turned us up a notch. I mean, we had to get that bad taste out of our mouth.”

Now, if we look at Barnes’ comment from the perspective of what happened with the Lions last season, this defeat against a championship contender team might actually do some good. The Lions were undoubtedly one of the best teams across the league last year as well. And maybe the difference between winning the Super Bowl and losing to the 49ers in that conference championship was not facing adversity early on in the season.

Winning all the time makes you complacent. While the Lions did not look complacent or ‘entitled’ for the most part of the later stages, they certainly did look lethargic out there against the Niners. A humbling loss early on can do wonders for a team. Just look at the Chiefs this season.

Kansas started the season at 0-2, got a few wins in, but still showed cracks. And now, they look like contenders again. There’s a sense of urgency induced in the team when they face humiliating losses. Winning 15 games in the regular season won’t make you feel that hunger.

And Derrick Barnes is an honest man for admitting that. He had a pretty honest approach in looking at the questionable refereeing in the Chiefs’ matchup.

Barnes on questionable officiating in the Chiefs game

The Chiefs-Lions matchup was a rare officiating phenomenon. Andy Reid’s side got called a total of zero penalties against them. That game marked the 12th time since 2019 a team went through an entire game without a single penalty called against them. Oh, and the Chiefs account for 25% of those games.

It’s difficult to argue that the referee got it right. On fourth down, Jared Goff lined up under center before sprinting out, letting David Montgomery take the snap. Montgomery then lobbed it back to Goff, who caught it and ran it in for a touchdown. Pretty good trick play, or so it seemed. After review, though, the refs hit Goff with an illegal shift penalty and wiped the score off the board. But Barnes isn’t pinning the loss on the referee’s mistakes.

“People can say the ‘refs this and that,’ but man, when you play at this level, it has to be no mental errors,” the 49ers’ LB said. “You can’t miss tackles, offense, defense, special teams; everybody has to play complementary football. And that’s a great team, man.”

Even if Goff’s TD wasn’t overturned, it wouldn’t have mattered too much. They were 13 points down and showed no signs of life. The pass rush, lapses in coverage, and the offense not finishing key drives led to the loss. All these factors were a lot more at fault than questionable refereeing.

Safe to say, it’s pretty much impossible to defend against Patrick Mahomes when he’s in his flow state. Mahomes went 22/30, racked up 257 yards, and found the end zone thrice. He ran for 32 yards, too. Mahomes at his best means 30-plus points. A banged-up Lions offense could only do so much.

And Week 7 against the Bucs might’ve shown us that the Chiefs’ loss really did serve as a wake-up call. Hopefully, they can keep turning it up a notch and keep building on it.