DETROIT — Detroit Lions players have an often-shared experience. A rite of passage indeed. You’re told you won’t win anything. This team has a reputation for failure. Players know this very well and hear it often.
“‘Gee, you guys are no good. You can’t do anything. Everybody on this team, I’m sure somebody told them that,” wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown said Sunday night. “‘You’re on the Lions. You can’t do anything.”
In layman’s terms, just leave it to St. Brown—he has more receipts during tax season than your accountant. This is his experience. Three years ago, he joined a roster that had been stripped of its core and ready to face another rebuild. General opinion? Why should this be any different? After all, they are the Lions. They won’t win anyone over at their introductory press conference. In order to change the perception of the city’s football team, St. Brown and the many others it has acquired over the years must win when it matters most – in January.
“We know how people feel about the Detroit Lions,” St. Brown said Sunday, three years after the Lions beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23 to advance to the NFC Championship Game. “But we feel like we have an opportunity to change things — not just this year, but for years to come.”
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three years ago. That’s when it started. That’s when Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes were hired. When St. Brown, Jared Goff, Penny Sewell and many other players landed in Detroit, they told themselves that as long as they wore the jersey of a team famous for losing, they would never Will win anything of substance.
Many players have to go through the same failures as their predecessors, the same failures they were told were good for them. But it was a necessary step for this team to get to where it is now. In order to change the perceptions of others, Lions must know whether their perceptions of themselves are true.
“When you’re 0-10-1, you get to know people,” Campbell said last week. “You get to know the players, the coaches, the people in the organization. So that’s why you have the best understanding of who these guys are, how they grew up, what drives them and what they’re willing to do for the people around them. . It’s a better perspective and way of looking at people than if everything was going well and we had 12 wins.”
That’s where the Lions’ trust in what they do comes from — that first season together.Left tackle Tyler Decker quoted a scene From HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” which airs pre-season in 2022. The Lions just finished a 3-13-1 season. One morning in training camp, the team was fully geared up and the coaches stepped up their training intensity to prepare for the upcoming season. They work hard because they are being tested.
Perhaps noticing the eye-rolls and equivocations about the intensity level, Campbell addressed his players.
Like everything else along the way, they remember this.
“He said, ‘Guys, trust me, I’m doing everything I can to put you in the best position possible,'” Decker recalled after Sunday’s game. “‘I’m not crazy, just trust me and follow the plan.’ That’s what we do, we trust each other. We trust our coach, and that’s become really cool.”
The trust between players and coaches is why the Lions are here. Over time, these votes of confidence have accumulated, and fans of this franchise once could only dream about it, but now get to witness it instantly. We saw this in Week 1 when the Lions traveled to Kansas City and defeated the Chiefs on flag night. We saw this in the wild-card round when Goff defeated his former team and the quarterback he was traded for to earn Detroit’s first playoff win in 32 years. The Lions fully believe they can play any team in the league and win on a given Sunday. This is the team they were meant to be.
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It all leads up to Sunday. The Buccaneers are in town and the winner will go on to a trip to the Super Bowl. What you saw on Sunday was exactly what the Lions expected. Goff (30 for 43, 287 yards, two touchdowns), St. Brown (eight catches, 77 yards, one touchdown), Aidan Hutchinson (one sack, three fours) Stars such as Shooting Guard Hits) realized their potential in the game. A playoff game. Detroit’s rookie class was criticized at the time of the draft but is still thriving. That was the vision that was originally put forward as the force behind building this thing.
“I envision we’re going to have a chance to compete with the big guys, and that’s where we are,” Campbell said.
It’s not just about the stars, though. Look at this roster, look at Sunday’s stats, and you’ll see unheralded players the Lions identified as their own to add to a roster built to win. Brock Wright, an undrafted free agent from three years ago, has struggled as Detroit’s No. 2 tight end. He doesn’t get much media attention – thanks to rookie Sam Laporta. As a result, his contributions don’t always make the headlines. But in this game, when the Lions needed a big play, he caught a pass and burst through Tampa Bay’s defense to score 29 points in a tight 10-10 win.
Running back Craig Reynolds, a Kutztown University product, also arrived in 2021. His RB3 ranking is two stars. His opportunities to contribute offensively are few and far between, but this team has a knack for picking spots. The last time these teams played in Week 6, Reynolds was forced into the game and Jameer Gibbs and David Montgomery were both injured. He provided perhaps the best block of the year, paving the way for St. Brown’s scoring drive in a 20-6 victory over the Buccaneers.
The Lions got Reynolds back on Sunday for his first rushing attempt since Halloween, and he finished in the end zone on fourth down. Touchdown, Lions.
The fourth goal? The Lions are working on it.
📺： #TBvsDET on nbc
📱: Live broadcast #NFLPlus https://t.co/frRD38ClOq pic.twitter.com/x9nVpCrGhP— NFL (@NFL) January 21, 2024
In the end, it comes down to the Lions’ defense as they look to close out the game with one final drive. A team that has been questioned, doubted and criticized all season needs a game. It comes from Derrick Barnes, a fourth-round linebacker who took three years to become a starter on this defense. It was his first career interception, helping the Lions punch their ticket to the NFC Championship Game.
Defend the nest @derrickbarnes21 | #AllGrit pic.twitter.com/hGhOJ3lFXn
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 21, 2024
“They all have a vision, and so do we,” Barnes said in the locker room. “That’s why you push yourself every week, every day. Because we know the potential we have, we won’t settle for anything less.”
“We’re going to the NFC Championship Game with this group of guys,” Campbell said. “They love football, they play football and that’s what they respect, they respect their teammates more than anything else. When you are able to care more about the people around you than… yourself, you can do some very The special thing, that’s where we are as a team.”
This is how these lions are composed. They were unlike any Lions team before them, and they proved it when it mattered most. They keep winning because of what they’ve been through together. They keep moving forward, they have a proof of concept and are now looking to prove to others that they are real. They will travel to San Francisco for a chance to play in the franchise’s first Super Bowl.
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After the game, as the confusion surrounding St. Brown cleared with his comments about changing perceptions, I stayed to ask him if he felt that perception had changed with what the Lions had done. His answer was telling and gave us a glimpse into the inner thoughts of the players chosen to play for the team. These Detroit Lions.
“Kind of,” he said. “Not really. I mean, we’ll see. Next week, we’ll get game picks. They’ll probably let San Francisco win. I feel like you’ve got to keep winning. If we win next week, we’ll be lucky to be in it Super Bowl game. I think winning heals everything. I think that’s the most important thing.”
Look what it’s already done for this series.
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(Photo by Amon-La Saint-Brown: Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
