For nearly a century, the Detroit Lions making the playoffs was a huge achievement.
Now, it’s becoming a regular expectation.
After winning their last NFL championship in 1957, the Lions only played in 13 playoff games in the next 75 years. They won just one of those games — a 38-6 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in 1991.
That changed last season. The Lions beat the Rams 24-23 on January 14 and then defeated Tampa Bay 31-23 the following week. They were leading the NFC championship game 24-7 at halftime, but the San Francisco 49ers came back to win 34-31.
This year, the Lions are doing even better. After a Thanksgiving win over the Chicago Bears, the Lions defeated Green Bay 34-31 to improve to 12-1 and secure a second straight playoff appearance — the first time they’ve done that since 1995.
Coach Dan Campbell didn’t even realize his team had earned a playoff spot after the win against Green Bay.
“I just found that out — I didn’t even realize,” he said after the game. “It’s good. It’s good, but it’s like, man, we’ve got four (games) left and we want to get in a different way. We want to go in on our terms and find a way to get this one seed. That’s the priority.”
Campbell was so unaware of the achievement that he didn’t mention it to the team after the game, even though they probably saw “Playoffs Clinched” displayed on the scoreboards.
“I wish I had told the team, but I had no idea,” he said. “Honestly, I think they know. They feel like I feel. We can do the old golf clap, but we know what we want to do.”
Jared Goff, who followed Campbell into the interview room, agreed with his coach.
“I just heard that,” he said. “It’s pretty cool, but it is certainly not what our ultimate goal is. We want to win this division, and we’ve still got some work to do.”
