This is an opinion piece from MLive.com reporter Kyle Meinke

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Matthew Stafford seemed kind of confused.

The Detroit Lions didn't ask him to lead some magnificent comeback. Didn't ask him to do much of anything, actually. He attempted just 22 passes. Yet the Lions (3-3) cruised past the Dolphins 32-21 on Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium.

They led from start to finish on the road against a first-place team. They scored on every possession except one. With Stafford playing little more than a supporting role.

When was the last time that sort of thing was even possible?

That's a rhetorical question, of course, because anyone paying any kind of attention knows he's been asked to do everything except pump air into the footballs in Detroit. But I asked Stafford anyway, because, hey, he was standing right there and I just couldn't stop thinking about it.

"I haven't been part of too many of those," Stafford said, shaking his head. "It was a whole lot of fun. I was happy."

You can understand the confusion, and certainly the excitement. Because, at last, it seems the Lions have finally built an offense that doesn't rely entirely on his right arm.

That arm is a gift from God. The sort of raw, physical talent that let him throw a baseball in the 90s when he was 15 years old. Made him the No. 1 football recruit in the country. Turned him into the fastest NFL quarterback to 20,000 yards, and 25,000 yards, and, well, you get the idea.

In 2016, he set an NFL record for most fourth-quarter comebacks in a season. Twice, he led Detroit to victory in games that had a 1 percent win probability. That seems, I don't know, improbable?

But for as much fun as it is to watch Stafford strap on his cape and do his thing against long odds, relying on him to do it so much was never a sustainable way to live. It's no way to build a consistent winner.

And make no mistake, six games into his 10th season, the Lions are still not a consistent winner.

But I'll be damned if they're not getting close. Seriously.

This team is already good. If Kerryon Johnson keeps going like this, they could become consistently good. And everything we've seen from the rookie wunderkind since the day he stepped foot in Allen Park suggests there is no abatement ahead.

Just consider what Johnson did Sunday afternoon. He ripped the Dolphins for 158 yards, the best rushing performance by any Lions running back in seven years. As a team, they had 248 rushing yards, something they hadn't done since Barry Sanders was still roaming the Pontiac Silverdome.

Johnson is now averaging 6.4 yards every time he runs the football. That's second best in the NFL. And anyone who has watched the Lions defense get chewed up on the ground over the years knows exactly how tough that makes Detroit to beat.

"When you see those guys just going downfield mauling the other defense, you love it," Lions safety Quandre Diggs said. "We've been in that situation where guys just mauled us. It's not a good feeling for a defensive player."

So they didn't have to pass. Stafford's 22 attempts were the fourth fewest of his career. And when he did drop back, he misfired just four times, one of which was a drop by Golden Tate. He had two touchdowns, no picks and was sacked just once.

His QB rating was 138.1, making it the fourth-most efficient game of his career.

Yeah, that's pretty good. And it's not hard to figure out why it was so easy for him.

"We kind of did it every which way," Stafford said. "We had some efficient runs. We had some massive runs. We had second-down (situations) and they got first-down runs. They did all of it."

While the running game certainly helped, the defense did its job too. Yeah, they lost containment on a 54-yard touchdown run, but otherwise allowed just 2.9 yards per carry. And that pass defense continues to find itself, sacking Brock Osweiler four times. They now have 21 sacks on the season, which is fourth most in the game, even though they've had top pass rusher Ezekiel Ansah on the field for just 19 snaps.

Put it all together, and you can understand why the Lions are suddenly one of the hottest teams in football.

Read that sentence again, and stop shaking your head. Because it's true.

Nobody's going to confuse these guys with the Chiefs or the Rams, I get it. But they've put that clumsy start behind them by winning three of their last four games.

They didn't just win, either. They forced Tom Brady into his worst game since December while pounding New England. They took a 24-0 lead against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. On Sunday, they never trailed on the road against a team that hadn't lost at home all season.

Detroit has thrashed the three best teams it faced by a combined 89-54. And it came within a play in Dallas of making it four straight wins.

Watching Sunday's game, it's easy to see why. When your running game averages 7.1 yards per carry, and your quarterback throws just four incomplete passes, you're almost unbeatable. And for the last month, that's exactly what the Lions have been. Almost unbeatable.

It seems only a matter of time before Detroit becomes a legitimate contender. And if Kerryon Johnson keeps running like this, continues to take the heat off Stafford, that time might have already arrived.