While the Lions seem set to be one of the best teams in the NFC in the near future after years of misery, there are no guarantees in the NFL. (Just ask the Giants, who after ending a playoff drought and winning a wild-card game last season, crashed back to reality with a 6-11 campaign in 2023).
And though Dan Campbell believes he will have another chance at bringing the franchise to its first Super Bowl, he handed his team a harsh dose of reality after their crushing loss to the 49ers in Sunday’s NFC Championship game.
“I told those guys, this may have been our only shot,” Campbell said he told his players after the 34-31 loss, in which Detroit led 24-7 at halftime.
“Do I think that? No. Do I believe that? No. However, I know how hard it is to get here. I’m well aware. It’s gonna be twice as hard to get back to this point next year than it was this year. That’s the reality. And if we don’t have the same hunger and the same work — which is a whole ‘nother thing once we get to the offseason — then we got no shot of getting back here. I don’t care how much better we get or what we add or what we draft. It’s irrelevant.”
One reason it will be tougher for the Lions next year is they aren’t sneaking up on the rest of the NFL anymore after a 12-5 campaign, division title and championship game appearance.
“It’s gonna be tough,” Campbell said. “Everybody in our division is gonna be loaded back up, and you’re not hiding from anybody anymore.
“Everybody’s gonna want a piece of you, which is fine. So it’s hard. You want to make the most of every opportunity, and we had an opportunity and we just couldn’t close it out.”
Though Campbell has turned the Lions from also-rans to a team with championship expectations, he also had a major hand in dooming Detroit on Sunday.
He made several questionable decisions that backfired, starting with forgoing a 46-yard field-goal attempt up 24-10 with 7:03 left in the third quarter to go for it on fourth-and-2.
The 49ers stopped the Lions and, thanks to a miraculous 51-yard Brandon Aiyuk catch off of Lions corner Kindle Vildor’s facemask, scored a touchdown on a five-play, 72-yard driving that took just 1:41 to get back within a touchdown.
Campbell gambled again after the 49ers pulled ahead 27-24, passing up a 48-yard field-goal attempt to go for it on fourth-and-3 with 7:32 left in the fourth, only for the Lions to fail to convert again.
And on the Lions’ final drive, Campbell passed up another field-goal opportunity in the 49ers red zone as the clock ticked under 90 seconds left, which would have brought Detroit within a touchdown and possessing all of its timeouts.
Instead, the Lions went for the touchdown and were forced to burn a timeout with one minute left after Campbell went with a running play on third-and-goal at the 1-yard line that was stopped short.
Despite scoring a touchdown on the next play, the 49ers were able to run out the clock after recovering the onside kick.