BALTIMORE — Maybe, just maybe, the Detroit Lions are still an NFL powerhouse.

That did not seem likely when both of their coveted coordinators exited in the offseason following a gut punch of a playoff loss. It did not appear possible when the Lions began the season with a decidedly underwhelming loss to the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.

But Monday night at M&T Bank Stadium, the Lions of 2025 did a convincing impersonation of the Lions of 2024. There was offensive ingenuity. Coach Dan Campbell provided fourth-down bravado. The defense did its part. And the Lions bested a would-be Super Bowl contender on the road by outlasting the Baltimore Ravens, 38-30.

“That’s a good win for us, you know,” Campbell said. “I don’t know [about] statement, all this and that. But it just feels good to know against a type of team like that, you play a different type of game and you’re able to find a way to win.”

In improving to 2-1, the Lions produced touchdown drives of 98 and 96 yards. They converted all three of their fourth-down attempts. They crafted a go-ahead touchdown on the opening play of the fourth quarter when, on fourth and one from the Baltimore 4-yard line, quarterback Jared Goff handed the ball to wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, who pitched it to tailback Jahmyr Gibbs for a dash to the corner of the end zone. Earlier, there was a completion by Goff after he pitched the ball to tailback David Montgomery, then Montgomery threw a cross-field lateral back to Goff.

And with the game on the line with two minutes to play, Campbell dialed up more fourth-down daring. With a seven-point lead on fourth and two, the Lions could have punted from their 49-yard line and hoped their defense could close out the victory. Instead, Campbell leaned on his offense. Goff lofted a pass to St. Brown for a 20-yard completion, and Montgomery’s 31-yard touchdown sprint with 1:42 left put an exclamation point on the outcome.

“I know they trust me,” Goff said. “And I trust St. Brown. So put the game in our hands, and we’ll make it work. We’ve done it before.”

More important, they’re still doing it now.

“I’ve got a tremendous amount of trust in those guys,” Campbell said. “And that’s been built up now [for] five years. … It’s a thing of beauty, man.”

The Lions ran for 224 yards and four touchdowns. They didn’t commit a turnover, and Goff wasn’t sacked. He was barely touched in the pocket. Meanwhile, Detroit sacked Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson seven times and forced a fumble by tailback Derrick Henry.

Jackson threw three touchdown passes, and Henry provided a rushing score. But it wasn’t enough for the Ravens to keep pace as their record dropped to 1-2 ahead of a road game Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Lions will spend the entire season trying to prove they did not allow their best chance to secure the franchise’s first Super Bowl berth slip away last season. They had the swagger and confidence that came from Campbell’s aggressive coaching. They had two of the league’s top coordinators, with Ben Johnson’s creativity on offense and Aaron Glenn’s problem-solving on defense. The offense, as drawn up by Johnson and implemented by Goff, was unstoppable at times. Pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson was a defensive player of the year candidate.

But it never was quite the same after Hutchinson’s season was ended by a broken leg. Injuries accumulated on defense to the point that merely patching together a lineup was challenging. The Lions beat the Minnesota Vikings in the final game of the NFL regular season to secure the NFC’s No. 1 playoff seed with a 15-2 record, but their run ended with a stunning divisional-round defeat at home to the Washington Commanders.

Campbell’s top coaching lieutenants departed for head coaching jobs, Johnson with the Chicago Bears and Glenn with the New York Jets. Campbell rebuilt his coaching staff, promoting linebackers coach Kelvin Sheppard to succeed Glenn and bringing back former offensive assistant John Morton to replace Johnson.

“We’re running some different scheme slightly,” Goff said. “And being able to win down the field on certain routes that are new to us and win in certain run-game stuff that’s new to us, I think it’s great.”

The Lions opened the season with a 14-point loss at Green Bay but then put up 52 points on Johnson and the Bears in a Week 2 triumph. They remained on a roll Monday.

“I knew we were a good team,” Hutchinson said. “And I know people were doubting us after that Green Bay game. … Every week, we’ve got to bring our ‘A’ game. We brought it today, and it paid off.”

The Lions did so many good things in the first half. They had touchdown drives of 11 and 18 plays, the second of which gobbled up nearly 11 minutes. They had possession of the ball for nearly 20 minutes of the first half. And yet the score was tied at 14 at halftime.

The Ravens moved in front with Jackson’s third-quarter touchdown pass to tight end Mark Andrews. But the Lions scored the next 14 points via Goff’s touchdown pass to St. Brown and Gibbs’s gadget-play touchdown run.

“That was a play that we’ve practiced for a few years now,” Goff said. “And I don’t know if we’ve ever called it. But it was good timing for it, and it worked perfectly.”

The Lions never trailed thereafter.

“We know what we’ve got here,” Campbell said. “We don’t need anybody telling us what we do or don’t have. … We feel good about it. And, look, it takes everybody doing their job. And our guys did that.”