I didn’t like how Detroit Lions ran up the score on the Broncos. Now I've changed my mind.

The Detroit Lions were leading the Denver Broncos, 35-17, with 2:26 left in Saturday’s game. That’s three scores.

They faced fourth-and-2 from the Denver 10-yard line. They called a timeout and then decided to keep the offense on the field.

I turned to my colleague, Dave Birkett, sitting next to me in the press box and asked him incredulously, “What are they doing? Are they trying to run up the score?”

Dave didn’t have a problem with it: “They can end the game.”

In case Dave was watching while he was busy writing a game story, a notebook, grades, giving out game balls and probably getting some early work done on next year’s draft, the game had been over for quite a while.

But he was right. Denver was out of timeouts. If the Lions ran for 2 yards, they could run out of the clock. Maybe it was a fake to try to get the Broncos to jump offside, then kick a chip-shot field goal and go up by three touchdowns.

The Lions had run seven plays on the drive, with six on the ground. This is what teams do to run out the clock. Then coach Dan Campbell chose to do something teams only do when they want to embarrass another team and run up the score.

The Lions passed. On fourth-and-2. Into the end zone. Leading by 18 points. To go up 25 points. With 2:21 left — that’s 141 seconds.

Sam LaPorta caught the ball and the Lions won, 42-17.

I couldn’t believe it.

Campbell and Broncos coach Sean Payton are close friends. Even so, I watched the postgame handshake just in case we were about to get another Jim Schwartz-Jim Harbaugh moment.

Of course, with Campbell built like a 6-foot-5 piece of granite and Payton built like a geriatric accountant, I wasn’t too worried. Tennessee’s Mike Vrabel is the only other NFL coach who would even dare to consider a physical altercation with Campbell.

Payton told reporters afterward he didn’t have a problem with the TD pass.

“Listen, that’s football,” he said. “… When you load the box like we were doing, that wasn’t running up the score at all. That was really playing the right scheme versus a heavy front.”

Mm-hmm. The right scheme.

First, I’ll give Campbell credit. I don’t think he would have approved a pass to run up the score unless he knew Payton would be OK with it.

Oh, there are some Lions historians out there who I’m sure might point to Payton running it up on the Lions in a 2012 playoff game in which the New Orleans Saints won, 45-28. First, that was a 10-point game with 4 minutes left, well within reach. Second, Campbell was the Miami Dolphins' tight ends coach then. Third, I’m pretty sure William Clay Ford Sr. didn’t order the code red after a séance with Campbell.

Maybe it was a student-mentor situation. Like the first time a kid beats his dad in one-on-one and pours it on. But this was really pouring it on. Like Luke Skywalker chopping off his dad’s hands levels of pouring it on.

“Any time, whenever you have somebody you respect like I do him,” Campbell said, “and you’ve learned everything from and it’s, in essence, you’re doing the same things that he does with your own team.

“It feels good, but it’s also the ability for our team to win against somebody of his stature, Super Bowl-winning coach, does it right. Yeah, that’s good, that’s a good win, man, because I know what he’s about.”

Campbell was asked what was said between him and Payton after the game. He got a little emotional.

“We love each other, man,” he said. “That’s my guy and I love him. Always will.”

Boy, if Campbell does this to people he loves, you don’t want to get on his bad side.

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But the more I thought about it and talked to players in the locker room postgame, I was convinced of something else. I came to see and believe the Lions, even at 10 wins and a virtual playoff lock for some time, needed this kind of offensive performance.

It feels weird to say that about the NFL’s third-ranked offense. And yet if you watched the previous four games, you had your doubts about the offense’s potency and consistency: Needing a big fourth-quarter comeback against the Bears in November, scoring 22 points in a Thanksgiving loss, stalling after building a quick 21-point lead in New Orleans, mustering just 13 points at Chicago.

Contained within the act of piling it on, and especially the willingness to do it to a beloved friend, Campbell and the Lions announced to the NFL in prime time they not only had the potency but also the willingness to drive anyone into the canvas and not let them up.

It’s a side of this team we haven’t seen. It’s a side that needs to exist if it wants to win deep into the playoffs.

At first, I didn’t like that Campbell and the Lions ran up the score. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed with the decision that has cast them as dangerous bullies. It’s something we haven’t seen around Detroit for a very long time and, honestly, it kind of looks good on them.

Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him @cmonarrez.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: I didn't like Lions running up score on Broncos. I've changed my mind.