The Uniquely Cruel Collapse of the Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions, until now the most likable team left in the NFL playoffs, subjected their fans to one of the worst days of their lives on Sunday. The Lions carried a 17-point lead into halftime in the NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers, then lost it in all of 12 minutes. They never recovered for more than a couple of plays at a time, and when it was over, the 49ers were in the Super Bowl on the strength of a 34–31 victory. Instead of the Lions getting a chance to cap a Cinderella story, America will watch second-year quarterback Brock Purdy take on Patrick Mahomes in Las Vegas.

It’s not the biggest blown lead in playoff history (32 points) or even the most high-profile in the past handful of years (the Atlanta Falcons’ squandering of a 25-point lead to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl), but it might have been the most stunning in how quickly it struck. The Lions had only open road in front of them, and they fell into a teamwide lapse of execution that would not have happened in 1,000 years. More teams will blow big leads in the playoffs, but nobody will do it exactly like the Lions did it on Sunday—by forgetting how to execute football plays, on a teamwide basis, at the exact same time.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell has gotten lots of opprobrium since the game ended for a spate of fourth-down decisions that did not work out. Some were mad that Campbell kicked a field goal on fourth-and-goal from the Niners’ 3-yard line on the last play of the first half, taking a 17-point lead when 21 was possible. Others blame him for two aggressive calls that didn’t pan out: a fourth-down pass in the second half that receiver Josh Reynolds dropped in lieu of a 46-yard field goal attempt, and another fourth-down incompletion when the field goal would’ve been from 48 yards. These critiques of Campbell are compelling but not convincing. The Lions were one of the league’s ballsiest fourth-down teams all season, making and attempting the second-most in the NFL. There was no reason to abandon their identity wholesale at the biggest moment, and Campbell’s kicker, Michael Badgley, has been much less than automatic during a career spent mostly in indoor stadiums. (Maybe more to the point, he’d been out of a kicking job until the Lions picked him up late in the season.)

The desire to make Campbell a boogeyman is natural, given the total inexplicability of the Lions’ meltdown. It would be simple to chalk it up to a coach who wasn’t ready for prime time and couldn’t properly weigh risk. But what really happened was grim and multifaceted. The Lions’ players blew it very badly in some of the most critical moments, when they were in positions to succeed and did not. That’s an occupational hazard in team sports, but the degree of Detroit’s execution failures was staggering.

Reynolds’ drop, when the Lions still led 24–10 early in the third quarter, was a canary in the coal mine. Reynolds was open on fourth-and-2, and Jared Goff put a pass just outside him, requiring a difficult but makeable catch that Reynolds has hauled in hundreds or thousands of times in his life. He didn’t catch this one, and the 49ers took over at their own 28. Two plays later, Purdy overthrew receiver Brandon Aiyuk on a deep ball, creating an interception opportunity for Detroit cornerback Kindle Vildor. The ball bounced off the defender’s face mask and into Aiyuk’s hands for a 51-yard completion. Three plays later, Aiyuk caught a touchdown pass from Purdy. Detroit’s superstar rookie running back Jahmyr Gibbs fumbled on the first goddamn play after that, and the 49ers tied the score four plays later.

Even by this point, the Lions had the ball and more than a quarter left to figure things out. But their next series ended when Reynolds had an even worse drop on a wide-open route on third-and-9. The 49ers drove for a field goal to take their first lead, and on the Lions’ counterpunch, second-year receiver Jameson Williams either got confused or gave up on his route to squander what could have been a 37-yard, go-ahead touchdown pass from Goff. The Lions failed on another fourth down on the same series, then let Purdy torch them to give the 49ers a 10-point lead that proved too much to overcome. The key play on that drive, which wound up being decisive, was a long Purdy scramble on third-and-4 at midfield. Detroit’s star defensive end Aidan Hutchinson had Purdy within arm’s reach for a sack, but the little guy eluded him and took off for 21 yards as Lions fans cursed him through their TV screens.

That all happened in less than an hour of real-life time, and it stood in stark opposition to how the Lions had played to that point. Before falling apart, they weren’t only winning but winning with style. The Lions ran the same run play three times in a row in the first half, bulldozing along with the knowledge that the Niners could not stop them. On their final drive of that first half, Goff converted on third downs of 12, 18, and 7 yards all in a row. The Lions had a schematic and psychological advantage, and to win, they didn’t even have to keep playing well. They just had to avoid a comprehensive slide into a crater—but they did not. The Lions would be playing in the Super Bowl in two weeks if their players hadn’t made just one or two of the many crippling errors they committed in the second half. That is the kind of realization that never stops lingering.

All in all, Detroit’s year was a smashing success. They taught a new generation of fans that the franchise is capable of delivering a lot of fun moments instead of an endless cascade of sadness. They won two playoff games, both at home, which amounted to the two best moments the team and its fans have had in decades. And they’re in an advantageous position going forward: They play in the NFC, the lesser conference for the foreseeable future because of the AFC’s glut of star quarterbacks. Their production this year came mostly from young players, who will be around for a while, and Goff played well enough that one doesn’t have to squint to imagine him one day winning the whole thing.

But it’s cold comfort, and the brutal reality of the Lions’ loss is that they very well may never get back. Absent Patrick Mahomes demanding a trade to Detroit, there is no way to guarantee conference championship appearances on a near-annual basis. Campbell told reporters after the game that he had told his team in the locker room, “This may have been our only shot.” He doesn’t think it will be, but few who lose a big game ever do. And still fewer have to contend with whatever dark forces are determined to never let the people who love the Detroit Lions have too many nice things.