For the first time since the 1991 season, the Detroit Lions are going to be one win away from the Super Bowl.
I’m going to repeat part of that sentence, and I hope it really hits home how astonishing it is: the Detroit Lions are going to be one win away from the Super Bowl.
Detroit advanced to their first NFC Championship Game in over 32 years after defeating the stout Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23 at Ford Field. With the Lions advancing to the conference championship, there are now only two NFC teams to have never played in this game during the 21st Century: the Washington franchise, and the Dallas Cowboys.
Tampa, fresh off a blowout win over the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card round, proved to be as tough as advertised. The Bucs managed to tie the game at 10-10 right before half, and kept it a sluggish defensive affair for most of the third quarter. The Lions engineered a 10-play, 64 yard touchdown drive to take a 17-10 lead, but Tampa immediately responded with a seven-play, 75 yard drive to knot it all up at 17-17 heading into the fourth.
But Detroit’s high-octane offense couldn’t be stopped forever. The Lions quickly had back-to-back touchdown drives to take a commanding 31-17 lead late in the fourth. However, the Bucs were not done yet. Baker Mayfield threw his third touchdown pass of the game to cut the lead to 31-23 with a failed two-point conversion. There was just under five minutes left in the game.
Tampa’s defense managed to get the stop, but Mayfield’s heroic comeback drive ended two plays later when he threw an interception to Derrick Barnes – his first career interception, and a clincher.
Derrick Barnes people! The pick that sealed the deal in Detroit sending the Lions to just their second NFC Championship in team history! pic.twitter.com/6OMffv9ghY
— StaceyDales (@StaceyDales) January 21, 2024
Now the Lions will head to Santa Clara to take on the loathsome San Francisco 49ers. It will not require Robert Langdon, Batman, Scooby-Doo or any other high profile investigator to figure out who the 12th Man will be rooting for next week.
Also, not that it matters much now, but there were only two teams to beat the Lions in Detroit this year: the Packers, makes sense since they are division rivals… and the Seattle Seahawks.
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