The NFL can play out like a rollercoaster early in the season, when teams with new coaches and schemes and players are trying to figure out who they are, matched up with someone else trying to do the same thing.

So far this season, the Lions have shown both ends of the spectrum of what they can be. They had the 31-point home loss to the Jets to open the season, against a team that hasn't beaten anyone since.

Since that was the first game of the Matt Patricia era, some Lions fans jumped off the ledge. In a poll of more than 3,500 MLive readers, 63 percent said that the Lions are a much worse team than they expected for this season.

Detroit showed the other end of that spectrum this past Sunday, when it pulled off a wire-to-wire 26-10 win over the Patriots on Sunday Night Football.

On one hand, it's only one game, at home, against a team that has had some other struggles this season. New England's victory came over the winless Texans before it was blown out by Jacksonville, a team that then lost a game by a 9-6 score.

On the other, it was a game against the reigning AFC champions, and the Lions won in ways they haven't in recent years, by dominating a franchise quarterback and controlling the game with their rushing attack. They had their first 100-yard rusher in four years when Kerryon Johnson took 16 carries for 101 yards, and the offensive line they have tried so hard to fix had its best game in a long time.

In the context of their 1-2 start so far, how did Sunday night change your expectations for the Lions?