Wins and losses count again when the New Orleans Saints play at the Detroit Lions on Sunday in the 2026 season opener.
The Saints are coming off a 1-2 preseason and are expected to be much improved over their 6-11 finish from a year ago. Host Detroit was 2-1 in the preseason. The Lions finished 9-8 in 2025, their fourth straight winning record, but missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2022 campaign.
New Orleans and Detroit meet for the 29th overall time on Sunday. It's the first time they've clashed since the 2023 season and the first time the Saints have played in Detroit since 2020. Here's a look at the series history between these squads.
Saints vs. Lions series history
- Overall: 14-13-1
- Away: 4-7-1
- Last 10 matchups: 6-4
- Last 5 matchups: 2-3
- Longest winning streak: 4 (Saints; 2008-12)
- Last meeting (2023): Lions 33-28
- Last meeting in Detroit (2020): Saints 35-29
Between 2008 and 2017, the Saints and Lions played eight times in a 10-year span. New Orleans
won five of those matchups, including a 45-28 victory during a 2011 wild-card matchup in the Superdome. That has been the only postseason matchup between these teams. In the eight years between 2018 and 2025, New Orleans and Detroit would face just twice with each squad winning in the home stadium of the other.
New Orleans and Detroit have played each other seven times in September. The Saints own a 4-3 edge against the Lions in September matchups. Three of those were in Detroit. New Orleans won only one of those, a 22-14 victory in the Silverdome in 1988.
The Saints and Lions have opened their regular season against each other twice before this coming year. In 2000, Detroit came into the Superdome and emerged with a 14-10 victory. The Saints again hosted the Lions to begin their 2009 season, one that ended with a Super Bowl XLIV championship. This time, New Orleans came away with a resounding 45-27 win.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: A look back through the series history between the Saints and Lions
