The Detroit Lions are still aiming for big goals, including winning the division title, securing the top seed in the NFC playoffs, and making their first Super Bowl appearance.
Even though there was little at stake in a rematch of last season’s NFC Championship game, which Detroit lost to San Francisco, coach Dan Campbell and the Lions approached the game with the same intensity that has defined his leadership.
Jared Goff threw three touchdown passes, and the Lions prepared for their Week 18 division game against Minnesota by defeating the 49ers 40-34 on Monday night.
“That’s the only way we know. It’s just go and find a way to win,” Goff said. “This is what ended our season last year. There’s a lot of guys on this team that were there last year that wanted to get one back on them even though in a lot of ways it was meaningless for them and it was meaningless for us.”
The stakes were low for this game compared to their last meeting, where a Super Bowl berth was on the line in January.
San Francisco was eliminated from playoff contention last week, and Detroit will face Minnesota in the regular-season finale next week. The winner will claim the NFC North title and top seed in the NFC playoffs, while the loser will become the first 14-win wild-card team in NFL history.
“This is just fairytale stuff,” Campbell said.
Had the Vikings lost on Sunday, Detroit could have clinched the division and No. 1 seed on Monday night. However, now the win over the 49ers will only matter if Detroit and Minnesota tie in Week 18, giving the Lions the No. 1 seed in that unlikely scenario.
Campbell considered resting some starters but chose not to, feeling it would be unfair to the backups who hadn’t prepared and the starters who would still have had to play. In the end, the decision paid off, with the Lions securing the win and staying healthy.
“I ended up settling on the right thing to do was playing those guys,” he said. “We owed it to the team. … That was tough. I think the biggest thing is there was things we wanted to do better than we did last week, and we did.”
Goff threw a go-ahead touchdown to Amon-Ra St. Brown in the final minute of the third quarter, following the first of Kerby Joseph’s two second-half interceptions against Brock Purdy.
This gave the Lions (14-2) their first win in San Francisco since 1975, finished a perfect road season, and got a bit of revenge for last season’s playoff loss.
“I still had that chip on my shoulder from last year,” Joseph said. “We were so close and we just came up short.”
Jahymr Gibbs sealed the victory with a 30-yard touchdown run with less than three minutes left, following Purdy’s second interception. Gibbs ended the game with 117 yards.
Both offenses dominated most of the game, with the teams scoring touchdowns on their first five possessions. Purdy and Goff completed the first 17 passes of the game, including a perfectly executed hook-and-ladder play that led to a 42-yard touchdown for Goff.
He threw a short pass to St. Brown, who then pitched the ball to Jameson Williams, who ran down the sideline for 41 yards and his second touchdown of the first half.
The only stops in the first half came when Renardo Green broke up a pass from Goff to Sam LaPorta in the end zone and when Jake Moody missed a 51-yard field goal in the final seconds for San Francisco.
Purdy threw a 5-yard touchdown pass on San Francisco’s first drive of the second half, before Detroit’s defense finally made a stop when Joseph intercepted an overthrown pass from Purdy.
Goff turned that into a 4-yard touchdown pass to St. Brown on fourth-and-goal, giving the Lions a 31-28 lead late in the third quarter.
Moody missed a 58-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, his ninth miss of the season. He also missed an extra point after Joshua Dobbs scored a touchdown in the final minute.
“We weren’t able to slow them down enough on defense,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “That’s a real good offense, but we still have to slow them down a little bit more. That was the difference in the game. We had to win in it in a shootout. I thought the difference was our two turnovers.”
