SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The dichotomy between winner and loser, there on the field as the events of the night concluded, was a sight to behold. For one team, pure elation. A season continued. A trip to Las Vegas booked, and the Lombardi Trophy within reach. But for the game’s loser, it was as if time froze, right then and there. The finality of it all had not yet registered. It might not for some time. The perfect encapsulation of the beauty this game offers, and the numbness it leaves behind.
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The Detroit Lions — yes, those Detroit Lions — came oh-so-close to their first Super Bowl appearance. But this wasn’t their night. And it won’t be their season.
“When you lose that way, it’s hard,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said, face red at the lectern, answering questions after his team’s 34-31 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game. “You feel like you get your heart ripped out. … You wish you could keep going together, but that’s not the reality.”
The reality these Lions are left with is not one they expected, even if others didn’t expect them to make it this far. They touched down in the Bay Area looking to extend what had been a magical season, reaching new heights and exorcising demons along the way. It started in the offseason. The Lions believed they were ready to contend with the NFL’s elite. In many ways, this season — and even this game — proved that.
The Lions were there, and in a game that wasn’t supposed to be theirs. They were playing their brand of football and winning with it. They were gashing the 49ers on the ground, to the tune of 182 rushing yards. They were capitalizing in the red zone and controlling the clock. They were getting off the field on defense. They were leading 24-7 at the half. And they were 30 minutes from the Super Bowl.
But the 49ers are the NFC’s gold standard for a reason. They’ve played in the conference championship game four of the last five seasons, and three years in a row. They entered the season with a Super Bowl or bust mentality, with a veteran roster hoping to finally break through after years of coming up short on this stage. They’re everything these Lions hope to be, but just aren’t yet. That showed on a night like this.
“We definitely had the momentum,” left tackle Taylor Decker said, “but we knew San Francisco’s the type of team that’s not going to go away. They are very much a physical and confident team. We knew we were going to get their best shot and we were able to throw a couple of haymakers early, but they came right back at us.”
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The 49ers, as expected, came roaring back. It started with a field goal to make it a 24-10 game. On the ensuing Lions possession, they had a drive that could’ve ended in a 46-yard field-goal attempt to make it a three-possession game. But Campbell, as he’s done all year, opted to keep his offense on the field for a fourth-and-2 try.
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A successful conversion would have kept the offense on the field with 7 points in mind. At the very least, it would have gotten the Lions a closer field-goal attempt and extra time off the clock to limit an explosive 49ers offense. But the ball fell incomplete, in and out of the outstretched arms of wide receiver Josh Reynolds.
Campbell’s aggressive nature comes with the territory. It’s well-documented at this point. The Lions do not have a kicker they trust to connect with regularity from a certain distance. Entering Sunday, the Lions had gone for it on fourth-and-3 or less 25 times, playoffs included. On those 25 attempts, they picked up a first down or a touchdown 20 times, per TruMedia. That’s an 80 percent conversion rate. Michael Badgley owns a career rate of 71 percent on outdoor kicks from 40 to 49 yards. He has not attempted an outdoor kick since the 2022 season.
For Campbell to put the ball in the hands of his best unit, expecting it to make a play as it has so often, should not have come as a surprise to anyone who has watched this team. But the execution wasn’t there. It wasn’t there for much that followed, either. It proved costly.
“It’s easy in hindsight,” Campbell said about the scrutiny he has faced about the decision. “But I don’t regret those decisions.”
“That’s one of the reasons why they were here,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said after the game. “You win a lot of games making some of those decisions and then you make some decisions and you lose them. (It) doesn’t surprise me because he’s made a lot of those decisions throughout the year that won them a lot of games also.”
A series of unfortunate events followed. A potential interception bounced off the facemask of Lions cornerback Kindle Vildor, somehow falling into the hands of 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk for a gain of 50 yards. An awful time for a turnover, leading to a quick 7 points. The Lions couldn’t afford costly mistakes like that, in a game like this.
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On the next drive, with a chance to stop the bleeding, another self-inflicted wound. Jahmyr Gibbs, who scored a touchdown to propel the Lions to a 24-7 lead, fumbled on a run that would eventually lead to a tie game.
As the Lions watched their lead evaporate and the 49ers gained one of their own, players and coaches believed they were still in it. That they were only a few plays away from turning things around. But those plays were never made. A pair of drops on an early fourth-quarter possession put the Lions in another bind — fourth-and-3 from the San Francisco 30. A 48-yard field-goal attempt or a chance to gain 3 yards and take a lead, down 27-24.
The Lions again went for it. And the Lions again came up short.
That’s how this game went. The 49ers made every play they needed to make down the stretch with so much on the line. Perhaps it’s their experience, having been here time and time again. That’s a valuable thing to fall back on, and something the Lions simply don’t have. In many ways, the moment looked too bright for them. There were uncharacteristic drops, missed tackles and assignments and lost momentum they never were able to rediscover.
It’s why the 49ers were standing after a heavyweight fight. As the confetti fell onto the field and NFC Championship shirts were passed out, Lions players slowly walked back to the tunnel, unable to process in the moment that their dream season was over.
“I think that feeling that we all had walking off of that field, I don’t think any one of us want to feel that again if we can,” wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said. “I think the feeling that we have is enough to motivate us for next year. We had a good year as a whole, but it’s all for nothing if you don’t win the whole thing. Everyone’s goal to start the year is to win the Super Bowl and if you don’t, you kind of fail the season. Whether you lose here in the NFC Championship or don’t make the playoffs, it’s all the same.”
That’s one way to look at this season. It’s how players view their shortcomings immediately after coming up short. It’s tough to win in the NFL, and even tougher to win it all. That the Lions made it here and fell short is a regret they’ll feel until they eventually get over the hump. There’s no telling when that might happen — if at all. Some 32 years ago, an upstart Lions group had aspirations of advancing to the Super Bowl, ultimately falling short. They’d never win another playoff game together as a group.
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For the current group, things will be different next year. The Lions could lose their star offensive coordinator Ben Johnson to a head coach job elsewhere. The NFC North could be stronger. There are internal free agents who may play elsewhere next season, and contract extensions to give out. When you come so close to an opportunity of a lifetime, and fail, your mind will always think of what could’ve been, because you don’t know if or when you’ll be back here.
But this Lions team — in its first postseason together, under this regime — accomplished more than any of its predecessors in recent memory. It won a division title for the first time since 1993. It won a playoff game for the first time since 1991, against Matthew Stafford, its former star quarterback. It then won another one to make it to this game — doubling its playoff win total from 1957 to 2022 (one).
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Thousands of fans packed into Ford Field for a watch party on Sunday, with the team on the road, just to feel like they were right there with them. “JARED GOFF” and “LET’S GO LIONS” chants broke out across the state leading up to Sunday’s contest. This team provided memories for Lions fans young and old. You hear stories of folks in Michigan, watching this team, wishing loved ones lost were here to witness this run with them. They made the city proud, even in heartbreak. It’s the beauty and pain this sport simultaneously exudes, and why we keep coming back to it. This year, this season, this team delivered so many firsts, for so many of its most loyal supporters. There will never be another one like it.
This team will leave Santa Clara with much-needed experience, together, as the Lions look to make it back to the NFC title game next year and beyond. They have one of the NFL’s youngest rosters. They have the necessary cap space to keep adding to a roster that’s close, while retaining key players both now and in the future.
It’s all you can ask for: a chance to be back here. Best believe that’s the goal from here on out.
“We changed the narrative on this organization,” Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone said. “It’s disappointing … it’s a heartbreaking loss. Our mindset was Super Bowl or bust. That’s been our standard all season and that’s going to be our standard.”
They’ve earned the right to be in the conversation going forward.
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(Top photo of Sam LaPorta: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
