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Plagued by injuries, Lions stay dominant to capture NFC's No. 1 seed: 'We've got a special group'

By / / Sports

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DETROIT — A little past 3 a.m. in Downtown Detroit, hours after the conclusion of a regular season this city won’t soon forget, the message continues to flash on the Ford Field video board, there for all remaining to see.

“Back-to-back NFC North Champions,” it reads. “Champions.”

Those words, for this team, used to be foreign. These days? It’s their standard. Sunday night was the culmination of what the Detroit Lions envisioned when they laid out their goals for the 2024 regular season. It’s what Dan Campbell hoped would become the norm when he took the job.

Another NFC North title. The No. 1 seed. Home-field advantage and a first-round bye.

That they got it done in this fashion, in a year like this, says everything about the people behind it.

“All I can think about is, man, we’ve been forged in this stuff now,” Campbell told his players after the Lions’ 31-9 victory over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, pacing around the locker room with their undivided attention. “This has been three years in the making. …That just doesn’t happen. You gotta work through it, grind through it and go through the downs to get to the ups of where we’re at. That was unbelievable, man.”

Even though these Detroit Lions expected this, it’s hard to believe sometimes. Most teams in their situation would inevitably trip up, walking a mile in Detroit’s shoes. The number of injuries they’ve faced (21 players on IR at one point). The pressure of needing 15 wins to secure the division in the final week of the season, with no help along the way.

It would’ve been so easy for this team to wallow in self-pity over the hand it was dealt. To use it as an excuse. To point fingers and lose sight of what got them here in the first place.

But here? In Detroit? That doesn’t happen.

The guys in that locker room won’t let it.

“The core of this group has been doing it for four years now,” Campbell said, “And we’ve added to that, and those guys have just continued to add to it and help us along the way and enhance us. And they did it again now. Our guys did it again.”

The Lions welcomed a 14-2 Vikings team to Detroit with everything on the line. Minnesota had won nine in a row. They were hot at the right time. The organization spent $2 million on tickets to sell to Vikings season ticket holders at a discount and, hopefully, witness the team clinch the NFC North and home-field advantage on Detroit’s turf.

Instead, the Lions sent them packing their bags and sunscreen for a trip to Los Angeles, wondering what happened on their way out.

If you’re asking how the Lions continue to win games like this when conventional wisdom tells you they shouldn’t, look at the players they’ve assembled. Many have been here from the beginning — a 3-13-1 season in 2021. It’s not often you go from that to this with so many core players still in place. Usually, you’re moving on from those players. But the Lions rely on those who remember what those days were like. Linebacker Alex Anzalone is one of them.

Brought over from New Orleans with Campbell and Aaron Glenn, Anzalone, a multiyear team captain, provides a stabilizing presence in the locker room and on the field. But the Lions lost him for a time this season. On injured reserve with a broken forearm since mid-November, Detroit’s defense hadn’t been the same without him and so many others missing from the lineup. However, Anzalone returned to practice this week, just in time for the biggest game of the season. He was far from 100 percent and told reporters as much a few days ago. Even this week, he was weighing the pros and cons of playing or resting for the playoffs.

But Anzalone saw folks writing off the defense he leads and stating it wasn’t good enough to make a postseason run. He called it “B.S.” earlier this week. He wanted to remind a national audience what this group can look like when it’s right. In his return Sunday evening, Detroit’s defense felt whole again.

“Tonight was a statement,” Anzalone said. “I think that it was an opportunity to change the narrative against a really good offense, against great weapons, great running back, quarterback that’s really hot right now and it was an opportunity for us to affect that narrative that everyone else is talking about.”

“It was huge,” Campbell said of Anzalone’s return. “Look, I’ve said it before, he’s really our quarterback on defense. He’s our quarterback on defense. …There’s a lot of confidence he brings, a lot of energy. He can calm the storms.”

Then there’s the old guard, as Campbell refers to them. The pillars from a previous regime survived a change in leadership and lived to tell the story of what once was. They’re able to describe just how different things are. They’ve experienced the losing seasons most associate with the Detroit Lions.

They never want to go back. Not if they have anything to say about it.

“How do you describe it?” center Frank Ragnow said. “I mean, think about five years ago, six years ago. It was dark times, you know? We were not even thinking about the playoffs. And now it’s to be here, back-to-back division champs, the 1-seed. Just incredibly grateful for all these guys here, this whole staff, everything’s just so special. I’m so blessed to be a part of it.”

“This might sound crazy to people, but to me, going out there tonight, it wasn’t, ‘Are we going to win?’ It’s, ‘by how much?’” said left tackle Taylor Decker, the longest-tenured player on the team. “That’s how we felt. We know there’s a lot of people that didn’t feel that way. F— ‘em.”

Players like Anzalone, Ragnow, Decker, Jared Goff and so many others were brought or kept here because of their temperament in moments like this. They’ve been to the abyss and back. They carry the torch that lights Campbell’s fire and share the flame with each newcomer who steps foot in their building.

They embrace being the ones capable of changing how this franchise is perceived. And they embrace doing it together.

“It doesn’t really matter where you get drafted,” linebacker Jack Campbell told The Athletic. “You gotta remember what gave you that edge to get you there. I feel like every guy in this organization has had to deal with some sort of adversity and overcome it. I feel like that’s built a blueprint that this team embodies day in and day out. It might not always be perfect, but overcome it.”

“I mean this from the bottom of my heart, man, I appreciate y’all, man,” cornerback Amik Robertson — signed as a free agent this offseason — told his teammates in the locker room, after being handed a game ball by Campbell. “Y’all gave me a chance to showcase what I could do when they tried to bury me, dog. But they can’t bury what comes from the f—ing dirt.”

This group plays for a coaching staff with some of the best minds in football, and sometime down the road, we could look back and count a number of head coaches that were here together this season, trying to accomplish something special.

Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn, a man who gets little praise when things go right and all the blame when they don’t, was masterful tonight. He pressured Sam Darnold all night long, daring him to beat them with a rushed internal clock. It led to errant throws and erratic plays — the perfect recipe for a game like this. The Vikings went 0-for-4 in the red zone. He did it all with a defense still missing half of its starters. He relied on guys who’ve been with him and guys added along the way, like Robertson and Za’Darius Smith, to come through in the biggest game of the season. And they did.

Cut from the same cloth as Campbell, Glenn gets better when the pressure is on. The Lions aren’t here without him. He made no excuses along the way. He expects performances like this no matter who’s lining up. He shines brightest in moments like this. And if he’s given the chance to lead his own franchise, expect his culture to look similar to what he’s built here in Detroit with Campbell.

“AG laid out the vision for it,” Campbell said. “The guys really showed up and performed, and man, it was great.”

Lions’ offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, arguably the most sought-after assistant in football, saw his offense muster up just 10 first-half points. It was an uncharacteristic start for a group that had recorded 34, 42, 34 and 40 points in its previous four games. Detroit’s offensive line wasn’t getting much push early. The chess match between Johnson and Vikings’ DC Brian Flores was as advertised. But then, the Lions took over in ways only they could.

In the third quarter, the Lions led the Vikings by one point. Then, they rattled off 21 unanswered to close the game. Johnson’s offense is like a microwave, capable of heating up in seconds. It’s why the Lions should have confidence in the postseason. Campbell’s fourth-down decisions and Johnson’s play-calling on such downs can demoralize a defense and force a head coach to try to beat Detroit at its own game. It can backfire if you aren’t built for it. His rushing attack, now led by the electrifying Jahmyr Gibbs (170 scrimmage yards), gets better as the game progresses. He has weapons at every corner, one of the league’s better offensive lines and a veteran quarterback who can get this offense out of bad looks and into good ones.

Four Gibbs touchdowns later, Johnson’s offense, once again, hit the 30-point mark — finishing with 31 and 391 yards. It looks postseason-ready.

And so, the Lions reminded the league what they do. Players arrived to talk about the regular season that was in their newly acquired NFC North Championship hats and t-shirts. Prior to the 2023 season, this franchise hadn’t won its division in 30 years. Now, back-to-back.

On Sunday, the Lions clinched their first No. 1 seed in team history. Home-field advantage in the NFC will run through Detroit. They’ll also have an extra week to rest. It couldn’t have come at a better time.

This franchise has never been to a Super Bowl, but the Lions entered 2024 with aspirations of winning one after falling short last January. For Campbell, the regular season was always about setting his team up to right those wrongs. What they accomplished Sunday evening gives them a shot.

It’s easy to question Campbell’s Lions, their approach and how they play the game. It’s…different. It’s not for everyone, certainly not for the faint of heart. But a night like this reinforces just how they got here. It’s a winning recipe because it’s their recipe — nobody else’s.

“What we’ve done is not easy,” Campbell said after the game. “It’s not easy. But I’m telling you what, man, we’ve said it all along — we’ve got a special group, man. This has been coming a long time.”

And there’s more to come.

 (Top photo: Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA Today)



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