When do the Detroit Lions play today?

Welcome to Week 5 of the 2024 NFL season, which began Thursday night with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons squaring off in an overtime NFC South Division matchup.

The Lions do not play on Sunday, enjoying the bye week after their 3-1 start to the season has them in second place in the NFC North behind the Minnesota Vikings.

REQUIRED READING: Sizing up Detroit Lions’ Super Bowl 2025 competition at quarter mark of NFL season

Here’s a quick look at the Lions in Week 5.

Do the Lions play today?

No. The Lions do not play today or this week for that matter. They are on a bye week, after winning at home in Week 4 on Monday night, 42-29, in an entertaining battle against the Seattle Seahawks. Jared Goff set a record by completing all 18 of his passes, though our film study showed there was still room for improvement. The Lions have a plus-22 point-differential with 104 points scored against 82 allowed.

The Lions join three other teams on a bye, along with the Los Angeles Chargers, Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans. This is the first week with byes this season. The latest bye week is Week 14, when six teams are off.

MITCH ALBOM: Jared Goff’s flawless night means anything is possible for Detroit Lions

Week 5 schedule NFL

Follow live NFL Week 5 scores at https://sportsdata.usatoday.com.

We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.

The Detroit Tigers flipped a switch and turned into the hottest team down the final stretch of the regular season that got them into the playoffs for the first time since 2014. They kept that momentum in the Wild Card round by sweeping the Houston Astros and ending their American League record of seven straight ALCS appearances.

But, when facing a Cleveland Guardians team who has been one of the best teams in the league all season long without their ace Tarik Skubal going in Game 1, there were some questions if they would be able to keep that magic going.

Since manager A.J. Hinch went with an opener to close out the Wild Card matchup, he had some options within his starting rotation to choose from, but he opted to go back to the reliever strategy to begin the game.

That completely backfired.

Tyler Holton was shelled for three runs on two hits, failing to record an out before getting pulled from his outing.

Hinch called upon starter Reese Olson to come out of the bullpen, and even though he gave up the three-run homer to Lance Thomas that made it 5-0 immediately when taking the mound, the right-hander settled in after that to throw five innings where he gave up just three hits and was credited with one earned run.

Should the Tigers skipper just have gone with Olson to start the game?

Perhaps.

It’s hard to argue with what Hinch has been doing since he’s pushed all the right buttons coming into this ALDS matchup, but after everything reset and there was time for Detroit to put together a strategy, throwing one of their two available starters might have been the better idea than going with yet another bullpen game.

Of course hindsight is 20/20, but it’s clear the Guardians were ready to jump all over Holton in this situation, and once Olson overcame the foreign role of coming out of the bullpen, he was able to pitch a relative gem that could have come from opening pitch.

Hinch was never going to shy away from doing things that has gotten his team to this point, but that mindset might have also hurt the Tigers in Game 1.

They now face an uphill battle as they look to advance to the Championship Series.