Lions Finally Catch Packers With Agonizing Loss to 49ers in NFC Championship

The Detroit Lions on Sunday blew their chance of reaching their first Super Bowl. It’s a pain the Green Bay Packers have endured for years.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For years – decades, really – the Detroit Lions have been chasing the Green Bay Packers.

On Sunday, they finally caught them.

Detroit’s 34-31 loss at the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game was peak Packers. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong, as the Lions managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Lions led 24-7 at halftime. It was a massacre. Total domination.

And then, the Lions channeled their inner Packers.

- The 49ers drove to a field goal on the opening possession of the third quarter to cut the margin to 24-10. No big deal. On fourth-and-2 from the 49ers’ 28 on the ensuing drive, Jared Goff’s pass to Josh Reynolds was a bit off-target and dropped.

- Moments later, Brock Purdy’s bomb to Brandon Aiyuk bounced off cornerback Kindle Vildor’s hands and face and right into the hands of Aiyuk to set up a touchdown that sliced the margin to 24-17.

- On the first play after the kickoff, Goff and running back Jahmyr Gibbs botched the handoff and Gibbs had the ball stripped for a fumble that set up the Niners just outside the red zone. Four plays later, the game was tied.

- On the ensuing possession, star tight end Sam LaPorta had the ball jarred loose for an incompletion on second-and-9 and a wide-open Reynolds dropped an easy pass on third-and-9. Punter Jack Fox’s absolute bomb of a punt could have been downed inside the 5; instead, it was a touchback. The 49ers drove to the go-ahead field goal.

- Two explosive plays got the Lions a chance to kick the tying field goal. Instead, they turned it down and Goff missed St. Amon-Ra Brown on fourth-and-3.

- The 49ers raced right down the field for another touchdown, and that was that.

“I just felt really good about us converting and getting our momentum and not letting them play long ball,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said of the fourth-down failures. “They were bleeding the clock out – that’s what they do – and I wanted to get the upper hand back.

“It's easy hindsight, and I get it. But I don't regret those decisions, and that's hard. It's hard because we didn't come through and it wasn't able to work out. I understand the scrutiny I'll get. That's part of the gig, man. It just didn't work out.”

The Packers have been there, done that. They’ve seen the movie, the sequel, the trilogy and the prequel. They don’t know exactly how it’s going to end – just that it’s going to end in frustration and sadness, anger and expletives. Officiating, coaching, offense, defense, special teams. If there’s a way to lose a playoff game, to waste a chance to win a Super Bowl, the Packers have done it. Multiple times. They might get an F for execution in their big-game losses but they get an unquestioned A-plus for creativity from the East German judge.

- In 2009, Aaron Rodgers led the Packers back from a 31-10 deficit in a wild-card game at Arizona. His touchdown pass to Spencer Havner, of all people, sent the game to overtime at 45. On third-and-6, Rodgers was sacked and fumbled, with officials missing a facemask penalty and Karlos Dansby returning the loose ball for the game-ending touchdown.

- In 2011, the defending Super Bowl champions rolled through a 15-1 regular season. In the fallout of the tragic death of offensive coordinator Joe Philbin’s son, the Packers trailed the Giants 13-10 late in the first half of their divisional-round game at Lambeau Field but gave up a Hail Mary touchdown to Hakeem Nicks. They lost 37-20.

- In a 2013 wild-card game at Lambeau Field, the Packers had a chance to avenge the 2012 blowout loss at San Francisco. Trailing 20-17 midway through the fourth quarter, the Packers had a first-and-goal at the 9 but settled for a chip-shot field goal. Colin Kaepernick converted third-and-10 and third-and-8 to lead the Niners to a walk-off field goal.

- In 2014, the Packers forced four turnovers in the first half and led the Seahawks 16-0 at halftime of the NFC Championship Game. And then, well, you know what happened. The Packers gave up a touchdown on a fake field goal, wasted Morgan Burnett’s fourth-quarter interception, botched an onside kick, gave up a touchdown, salvaged overtime and lost on a walk-off touchdown. It was perhaps the worst gut-punch loss in NFL history.

- In a divisional game at Arizona in 2015, the Packers unbelievably forced overtime on 101 yards of Hail Marys to Jeff Janis, only to give up a 75-yard catch-and-run to Larry Fitzgerald on the first play of the fifth quarter.

- In the 2020 NFC Championship at Lambeau Field, the Packers trailed the Buccaneers 14-10 with 8 seconds left before halftime when disaster struck. First, Tom Brady hit Scotty Miller for a 39-yard touchdown against Kevin King. Then, on the third play of the second half, Aaron Jones fumbled. Just like that, it was 28-10. The Packers had a chance to win, anyway, but they wasted the second and third of Brady’s interceptions, kicked a field goal when they need a touchdown and gave up a fatal first down when King got into a tug-of-war with Bucs receiver Tyler Johnson’s undershirt on third-and-4.

- In the 2021 divisional round against the 49ers at Lambeau Field, the most predictable thing happened when the worst special teams in the galaxy gave up a blocked field and a blocked punt, which the Niners recovered for the tying touchdown. The Rodgers-led offense had a hapless three-and-out and the defense gave up the game-winning drive.

- Last week, of course, Packers had the 49ers beat, just like the Lions did in Sunday’s title game. A wayward pass was deflected for an interception. Jordan Love missed Jones on third-and-2. Anders Carlson missed a field goal. Joe Barry’s defense rolled into a ball. Love threw a bad interception.

Maybe the Football Gods are angry that the Packers went from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love. Or, maybe it’s the other way around and the Football Gods gifted the Packers Love for all the Super Bowls that turned out to be a mirage.

Whatever it is, from the officials turning a blind eye to Scott McGarrahan’s strip of Jerry Rice before the legendary Terrell Owens touchdown that stunned the Packers in the 1998 wild-card game to the pantheon of late-game failures that ruined the Rodgers era, the hearts of Packers fans have been broken so many times that you’d need a ShopVac to clean up all the chunks of aorta and the puddles of tears.

This year, the long-suffering Lions finally got a taste of the success the Packers have enjoyed for years. On Sunday, they also got a taste of the pain, anguish and misery the Packers have endured.

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