This season marks the first time the Detroit Lions have been to the NFC championship game since 1991. But that doesn’t mean members of the team haven’t been to the conference title game before.
The two architects of the Lions’ rise over the past three seasons from the bottom of the NFL to the top have been to the NFC title game as recently as 2019 – but as opponents. Lions quarterback Jared Goff started under center for the Los Angeles Rams, while Dan Campbell stood on the opposing sideline as an assistant head coach and tight ends coach with the New Orleans Saints on Sean Payton’s staff.
The last time Dan Campbell and Jared Goff were in an NFC Championship Game was January 2019, when they were on opposing sidelines — Goff as the Rams’ quarterback, Campbell as the Saints’ assistant head coach/tight ends coach. Their last NFC Championship Game appearance ended with…
Who would have thought that just two years later, both would join forces in Detroit; and three years after that lead the Lions to the NFC championship game?
NFC Title Game Controversy
That Rams-Saints match in 2019 didn’t come without controversy, though.
The two sides battled back and forth all game, as New Orleans jumped out to a 10-point lead midway through the third quarter. Los Angeles tied the game up by the fourth quarter before the two teams traded field goals to force overtime.
The Rams won in extra time with a 57-yard field goal from kicker Greg Zuerlein. But overtime may not even have been on the table after a questionable no-call from the referees on the Saints’ final offensive position of regulation.
Officials didn’t call a pass interference penalty on Los Angeles cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman after he appeared to hit New Orleans wide receiver Tommylee Lewis with 1:45 left in the fourth quarter. The Saints kicked a field goal after the incomplete pass to pull ahead by only three points, only to see Goff lead the Rams down the field for a game-tying field goal.
January 20, 2019: Drew Brees pass intended for Tommylee Lewis sails incomplete. Nickell Robey-Coleman on the coverage. No flag.
The controversial no-call led to the one-year experiment of coaches challenging pass interference calls in 2020. The NFL scrapped the new rule after just one season.
Goff, who was only 24 years old at the time after being drafted No. 1 overall by the Rams three years earlier, became the youngest quarterback to win an NFC title. His postseason joy was short-lived, though. Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots limited Goff and the Rams to just three points and 260 offensive yards in the lowest-scoring Super Bowl ever.
Both Goff and Campbell made the playoffs for the Rams and Saints again the following season, but both lost in the divisional round. A year after that, both landed in Detroit.
NFL History on the Line for Lions
Goff could set another mark for a different franchise if he and the Lions can take down the San Francisco 49ers in the conference title game. Detroit has never hoisted the Lombardi Trophy in the Super Bowl era, though the team did win three NFL championships in the 1950s.
Even more, the Lions are 0-11 in road playoff games in more than 60 years, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Coincidentally, the Lions’ most recent road win in the postseason came against the 49ers in the divisional round in 1957.
Detroit won after scoring 24 second-half points to advance to the NFL championship game. There, the Lions beat Jim Brown and the Cleveland Browns.
This is a different Lions team than the one that failed in the previous season, though. Campbell helped curate an offense that fits perfectly with Goff’s skillset with a talented collection of skill position players. Running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, rookie tight end Sam LaPorta and All-Pro wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown have all become stars in their own right.
Thanks to this, Detroit finished with the fifth-best scoring offense, which has powered them to the conference championship game.
Goff and Campbell appear to have learned from their most recent playoff appearance as they prepare to build their own legacies in Detroit.
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Dan Campbell, Jared Goff Have Been to NFC Title Game Before – But as Opponents