The truths are self-evident. The total package is one big mystery. It’s newsworthy when the Detroit Lions win this many games — six, matching their highest total since 2000 — and become a relevant team, even if it’s in the sidekick NFC. But the team’s colossal struggles in three road losses, each shocking in their own way, have many wondering if these Lions are merely of the paper variety, to steal a Plimpton-ism.

The Philadelphia Eagles hung 56 points on them, 44 in the first half. They collected 10 sacks in the game and notched 536 yards of offense.

The Washington Redskins, who themselves lost a game by 45 points this season, outgained the Lions by 222 yards and notched six sacks in a 34–3 blowout despite hardly ever blitzing. They rushed four defenders almost the entire game.

And last week, against the middling Cardinals in Arizona, the Lions fell behind 24–7 and rushed for — it still doesn’t sound or look right — minus-18 yards on eight carries, which is a 60-year mark for NFL futility.

In the Lions’ six wins, four of them at home, their average margin of victory has been nearly two touchdowns. They have beaten the reigning NFC-champion Bears twice — a team they had lost four straight to before this season. In Week 9, they scored 44 points against the Denver Broncos, the most Denver had allowed in four years.

What gives?

“It’s tough to win on the road,” quarterback Jon Kitna said. “When we have lost on the road, we haven’t played particularly well. When we lost we kind of played our worst. So I don’t know that there is huge disparity (between playing at home or on the road).”

For a team that has won 22 games the past five seasons, the Lions are a cocky bunch. Kitna famously predicted 10 wins this summer. After the Lions beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — the only team they have beaten with a winning record — wideout Mike Furrey shouted in the locker room: “The Lions are 4–2, media! Kiss my a—!”

The reference was directed at the sometimes-cold local scribes who had a hard time believing that the team was for real — the same team they had watched start out hot in 2005 (3–2) and 2004 (4–2) before fading each season. The fans have been supportive, but that other-shoe-dropping feeling hasn’t faded yet.

“We can’t worry about all that,” linebacker Boss Bailey said earlier this season. “Our biggest enemy can be (ourselves). We need to win that game first before we can beat anyone else.”

Despite the hot-and-cold season, head coach Rod Marinelli says his team is equipped to bounce back from the downward ebb. “One thing about this team that I like, and we’ve done this all year long, this team is showing and will continue to show great resolve,” he said.

The Lions are entering their toughest stretch, which doesn’t really let up until, well, next season. Up next are the 6–3 Giants, followed by the 8–1 Green Bay Packers four days later on Thanksgiving Day. After that, they face the Vikings in the Metrodome (where they haven’t won since 1997) and return home for the NFC-leading Dallas Cowboys. The regular season wraps up with games against AFC West contenders, the San Diego Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs (the only sub-.500 team left on their slate) in Arrowhead, and finishing with those high-flying Packers in Lambeau on December 30. The average temperature that time of year in Green Bay is akin to the Lions’ rushing output last week.

“I think once you look too far down the road, you are going to trip,” said Marinelli, “so I will go day to day to day to day…”

As the run game goes, apparently, so go the Lions. The team started out as a typical Mike Martz outfit: lots of throwing, little regard for the ground game. And it was hard to blame them, considering the wealth of passing targets that Kitna has. In addition to receiver Roy Williams, the 2006 NFC’s yardage leader, and Furrey, last year’s NFC receptions leader, Kitna and Martz added Calvin Johnson, the 6-foot-5-inch no. 2 pick from April’s draft who has been billed as one of the best receiving talents to emerge from the college game in years. Throw in slippery-quick slot guy Shaun McDonald, and you have about as good a foursome as any team can boast.

But things weren’t balanced early on. Despite a 2–1 record, the Lions were harrowed by the Eagles blowout and aware of the lack of symmetry on offense — they had called 154 pass plays to only 53 runs (including seven scrambles by Kitna) and were in danger of getting their quarterback killed at more than five sacks per game. It wasn’t until Week 7 that the Lions really got to a run-pass ratio that came anywhere close to even.

Kevin Jones, the team’s best back, has gotten up to speed since rehabbing his fractured Lisfranc all offseason. In the three games against the Bucs, Bears, and Broncos, Jones and the Lions ran the ball an average of 27 times a game for 132 yards. Life was good. The Lions were dangerous and far less predictable. Then last week happened.

“The (Arizona) game just got away from us,” Kitna said yesterday. “When the games get out of hand, I think that has been the biggest thing in terms of the running game not going. You are down by 21 or 17 points late in the second half, and you don’t have an opportunity to run the football as much.”

No question the Lions are an improved football team. Head coach Rod Marinelli will earn Coach of the Year sentiment for making this a tougher and smarter football team. They rank second in the NFL in penalty-yardage differential and are plus-8 in the turnover margin. Last season, those numbers were 21st and minus-9. Defensively, they are led by a fearsome defensive line — though one that might be without sacks leader Dewayne White on Sunday — and an opportunistic linebacking crew.

But in a league where 15 of the 32 teams are either 4–5 or 5–4, it’s easy to be skeptical about the Lions as a top-tier team, especially when they have had few convincing wins against the better competition.

Their chance starts this weekend. That’s when we might start to be able to answer the question of what kind of team the Lions really are. Inquiring minds want to know.

Mr. Edholm, a senior editor at Pro Football Weekly, can be reached at eedholm@pfwmedia.com.