The Detroit Lions and Las Vegas Raiders faced in the final game of Week 8 of the 2023 season on Monday (Oct. 30). The Lions pulled off a victory at Ford Field in Detroit, enabling them to extend their lead over the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC North standings. In the highly anticipated primetime matchup, the Lions showcased their new, throwback uniforms.

Before the start of the season, the Lions revealed their alternate blue helmets, which prominently displayed the vintage Walking Lion logo utilized from 1946-62, along with grey face masks. The team officially declared that these helmets would be donned during their Week 8 clash against the Raiders, complementing their grey color rush uniforms.

So, did the look go over well? Not so much. Of course, you’ll always find someone to complain about uniform choices in sports. But, this look seemed to go down particularly poorly. The Lions simply got roasted for these throwback uniform choices.

The reason behind the team’s decision to not wear the new helmets with their Honolulu Blue home uniforms or white road uniforms is due to the NFL regulations, which stipulate that alternate helmets should only be worn in conjunction with alternate, retro or Color Rush uniforms. As Detroit’s alternate uniforms for this year are the all-grey ones, the team has opted to pair them with the new helmets instead of their throwbacks.

“I can’t decide if I like this Lions helmet, but I do know I hate that it is paired with the awful all gray uniforms,” said Helmet Addict on X.

@FB_Helmet_Guy commented a thumbs up for the facemask and helmet color, thumbs down for the helmet logo and poop emoji for the uniform.

@TFG_Football stated, “These Lions jerseys are just Memphis Tigers uniforms, no?”

Finally, @ChrisVannini of The Athletic said, “The Lions’ blue helmets are so good, and the gray uniforms are so bad.”

This isn’t the end of the vintage uniforms, either. The Lions will don this uniform combination in their season finale against the Vikings in Week 18, too.

In the end, the uniforms worked. The Detroit Lions beat the Las Vegas Raiders in a 26-14 win. Things got tight for a while, but by the end of the game, the Lions pulled ahead and showed substantial power on both the defense and offense.

First round pick Jahmyr Gibbs proved a great choice for Monday night’s game. Gibbs exhibited his best performance of the rookie season, including a 27-yard touchdown run, which led the Detroit Lions to a victory.

“You could tell he was feeling it,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said of Gibbs after the game. “Every week he’s just gotten a little bit better and a little bit better. I thought last week was his best game, and this week certainly surpassed that. I think the more he gains his own confidence in his own abilities in this league, he’s just going to continue to grow. And I think this was kind of the tip of the iceberg, if you will, for what he’s able to do and going to be able to do. Really proud of him.”