The large prizes for the Detroit Lions stay on the horizon, with the group looking for a division title, the highest seed within the NFC playoffs and the franchise’s first Tremendous Bowl journey.
With nearly nothing at stake in a rematch of final season’s NFC title sport that Detroit misplaced to San Francisco, coach Dan Campbell and the Lions approached it with the identical type of ferocity that has outlined his tenure.
Jared Goff threw three landing passes and the Lions tuned up for his or her Week 18 division showdown in opposition to Minnesota by beating the 49ers 40-34 on Monday evening.
“That’s the one means we all know. It’s simply go and discover a technique to win,” Goff mentioned. “That is what ended our season final yr. There’s a variety of guys on this group that had been there final yr that wished to get one again on them regardless that in a variety of methods it was meaningless for them and it was meaningless for us.”
The stakes for this sport had been miniscule in comparison with the final assembly between the groups when a berth within the Tremendous Bowl was on the road final January.
San Francisco was eradicated from playoff rivalry final week and Detroit performs Minnesota within the regular-season finale subsequent week, with the winner incomes the NFC North title and high seed within the NFC playoffs, and the loser relegated to being the primary 14-win wild-card group in NFL historical past.
“That is simply fairytale stuff,” Campbell mentioned.
Had the Vikings misplaced on Sunday, Detroit may have clinched the division and No 1 seed on Monday evening. However now the win in opposition to the 49ers would solely matter if Detroit and Minnesota tie in Week 18, with the Lions now set to earn the No 1 seed in that unlikely situation.
Campbell mentioned he thought-about resting some starters however determined it will be unfair to the backups who hadn’t ready and the starters who nonetheless would have needed to play. All of it labored out, with the Lions getting the win and popping out wholesome.
“I ended up selecting the proper factor to do was enjoying these guys,” he mentioned. “We owed it to the group. … That was robust. I feel the largest factor is there was issues we wished to do higher than we did final week, and we did.”
Goff threw a go-ahead landing go to Amon-Ra St Brown within the ultimate minute of the third quarter following the primary of Kerby Joseph’s two second-half interceptions in opposition to Brock Purdy.
That proved to be sufficient for the Lions (14-2) to finish an ideal common season away from house, beat the 49ers (6-10) on the highway for the primary time since 1975 and get a small little bit of revenge for final season’s playoff loss.
“I nonetheless had that chip on my shoulder from final yr,” Joseph mentioned. “We had been so shut and we simply got here up quick.”
Jahymr Gibbs put the sport away with a 30-yard landing run with lower than three minutes left following Purdy’s second interception, giving him 117 yards on the evening.
The offenses dominated for a lot of the evening, with the groups scoring touchdowns on the primary 5 possessions and Purdy and Goff combining to finish the primary 17 passes of the sport – together with a wonderfully executed hook-and-ladder play that led to a 42-yard TD for Goff.
He threw a brief go to St Brown, who instantly pitched the ball to Jameson Williams, who streaked down the sideline for the ultimate 41 yards and his second TD of the primary half.
The one stops of the half got here when Renardo Inexperienced broke up a go in the long run zone from Goff to Sam LaPorta and when Jake Moody missed a 51-yard subject objective within the closing seconds for San Francisco.
Purdy threw a 5-yard pop go for a TD on San Francisco’s opening drive of the second half earlier than Detroit’s protection lastly managed a cease when Joseph intercepted an overthrown go by Purdy.
Goff turned that right into a 4-yard TD go to St. Brown on fourth-and-goal to provide the Lions their first lead at 31-28 late within the third quarter.
Moody missed a 58-yard subject objective that might have tied the sport early within the fourth quarter for his ninth missed subject objective of the season. Moody additionally missed an additional level after Joshua Dobbs scored on a TD run within the ultimate minute.
“We weren’t in a position to gradual them down sufficient on protection,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned. “That’s an actual good offense, however we nonetheless should gradual them down just a little bit extra. That was the distinction within the sport. We needed to win in it in a shootout. I assumed the distinction was our two turnovers.”
