The National Football League (NFL) is a competition driven by statistics. Every player’s action is recorded in minute detail, as are the teams.
Some team records are impressive, such as the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers winning a joint-record six Super Bowl titles. Others, like four teams having never played in a Super Bowl, are unwanted. The Detroit Lions fall into the second camp.
The Detroit Lions formed in 1930, almost 100 years ago. However, they are one of four teams that have never reached the Super Bowl and are the only franchise to have been around since the start of the Super Bowl era to have not played in the NFL’s most prestigious fixture.
The 1991 season was the closest the Detroit Lions have come to navigating their way to the Super Bowl, but they lost to the then-Washington Redskins in the NFC Championship.
Skip forward to today, and the Detroit Lions are one game away from playing in the Super Bowl for the first time in their history.
They face the San Francisco 49ers on January 28, knowing if they are victorious, they will head to Las Vegas, Nevada, on February 11 and be one of the two teams vying for Super Bowl LVIII glory.
Defeating the 49ers is a tall order, reflected in the latest odds at the best online bookies, which price the Lions as fourth favorites to win the Super Bowl from the four remaining teams.
A Remarkable Season That Lions Fans Don’t Want to End
The Detroit Lions finished the regular season with a 12-5 record, which is impressive in its own right but even more so when one realizes the Lions have only ever won at least ten games during a regular season six times before.
The last time they won 12 games was in 1991, and we already stated how that campaign ended.Often the underdogs in games, the Detroit Lions headed to reigning champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, for the opening game of the 2022-23 season.
The Lions hadn’t won at the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium since 1988, so Lions fans did not hold out too much hope. However, those Lions fans who made the trip to the Chiefs saw their team come away with a 21-10 victory.
An overtime defeat at home to the Pittsburgh Steelers was a bitter pill to swallow. However, four consecutive wins over the Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, Carolina Panthers, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers put the Lions at 5-1 through the first six weeks.
A heavy 6-38 loss on the road to a resurgent Baltimore Ravens dampened Lions spirits, but three straight wins followed that defeat, leaving the Lions 8-2 for the first time since 1962.
On Christmas Eve, Week 16 of the regular season, the Lions played the Minnesota Vikings on the road, knowing victory would lock in a home playoff game, the Lions’ first since 1993.
They came away with a 30-24 victory, much to the delight of their long-suffering supporters. The win also clinched their first division title since 1993 and their first as a member of the NFC North following the league’s divisional reallignment in 2002.
Hard-Fought Playoff Games
The Detroit Lions went into the playoffs as the third seed, with a home advantage over the Los Angeles Rams. Some 66,367 fans poured into the Ford Field stadium in Detroit, Michigan, in a game billed as the battle of the quarterbacks.
Lions’ Jared Goff once played for the Rams and helped them reach the 2018 Super Bowl. Conversely, the Rams pulled out all the stops to sign former Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, who then guided the Rams to Super Bowl glory in his first season.
Goff had the last laugh as the Lons emerged with a 24-23 win, setting up an NFC Divisional Playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a rematch of Week 6 that ended 20-6 in the Lions’ favor. This time, the Lions won 31-23 and advanced to the NFC Championship game for only the second time in franchise history.
The Super Bowl favorites, the San Francisco 49ers, stand between the Detroit Lions making their Super Bowl debut and falling at the final hurdle.
History is not on the Lions’ side; they have lost 11 of the previous 12 meetings between the two teams. However, those 12 games stretch back to 1996, with September 2021 being the last time they faced each other.
Redemption For Jared Goff?
Every NFL player dreams of playing in the Super Bowl, but reaching this year’s grand finale could mean more to the Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff. The Los Angeles Rams selected Goff as the first overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft and wasted no time putting him on the team.
Unfortunately, the Rams were dreadful in 2016, finishing 4-12, with Goff losing all seven games he started.
The following season, Sean McVay was appointed head coach of the Rams, and the change at the helm worked. Goff held the new-look Rams finish 11-4, although they fell during the wildcard playoff round.
Everything came together in 2018, with the Rams going 13-3 and eventually reaching the Super Bowl. Goff recorded career-best passing yards, yards per attempt, touchdowns, and passer rating, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a 3-13 loss to the New England Patriots at Super Bowl LIII.
Goff spent two more seasons with the Rams before McVay decided Goff was not the man to guide his team to glory.
McVay pulled out all the stops to sign Matt Stafford from the Detroit Lions, offering them Goff, first-round picks in 2022 and 2023, and a 2021 third-round pick. The Lions’ management agreed to the deal, and Goff’s five-year stay in Los Angeles ended.
The Lions have improved in each of the three seasons Goff has been their starting quarterback.
It would be quite fitting for the man once deemed surplus to requirements at the Rams and not good enough to win the Super Bowl to take an underdog team to their first Super Bowl and come away with a championship ring.
Conclusion
The odds are stacked against the Detroit Lions becoming Super Bowl LVII champions, but stranger things have happened.
Everyone loves an underdog story and a redemption arc, which the Lions have. If, and it is a substantial if, the Lions can navigate past the 49ers on January 28, they could become champions of the NFL. One thing is certain: the neutral fans will support the Lions from here on out.