The Detroit Lions season is officially over. They lost to the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 on Sunday night in the NFC Championship, ending the team's best season in decades.
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It was a tale of two halves for Detroit. After going up 24-7 at halftime, the Lions gave up 27 unanswered points in the second half and the offense sputtered behind dropped passes and a turnover.
The 49ers will now face the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl in two weeks.
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It was a perfect start for the Lions, who ran only four plays after getting the ball to start the game for a touchdown. Jameson Williams made Lions fans erupt on an end-around that went for a 42-yard touchdown run, and Detroit jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead.
San Fransisco took over and started driving down the field, but their 12-play, 45-yard drive ended when Jake Moody missed a 48-yard field goal wide right.
The Lions capitalized on the missed field goal with good field position and drove 62 yards on 11 plays that ended with a one-yard touchdown run by David Montgomery to give Detroit a 14-0 lead.
The 49ers took over late in the first quarter and started driving down the field. They went eight plays for 75 yards and ended with a Christian McCaffrey touchdown for two yards cutting the lead to 14-17.
Detroit couldn't recover and punted the ball, but on the 49ers ensuing drive, Brock Purdy threw an interception to Malcolm Rodriguez. The Lions offense then took advantage and went five plays for 46 yards and a 15-yard Jahmyr Gibbs touchdown run to go up 21-7.
The Lions then stopped the 49ers on a 3-and-out, and then drove down the field near the end of the half. On fourth down, they kicked a 21-yard field goal to go up 24-7 and it stayed that way at halftime.
Detroit's third quarter was disastrous. They gave up a field goal on the 49ers first drive, then instead of kicking a 45-yard field goal, a fourth-down pass to Josh Reynolds was dropped and the Lions turned it over on downs.
San Francisco quickly capitalized thanks to a 51-yard pass from Purdy to Brandon Aiyuk. The catch was crazy as it bounced off Kindle Vildor's facemask and was caught by Aiyuk. That drive ended with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Aiyuk.
Gibbs fumbled the ball on the Lions first play, and then the 49ers were able to tie the game on four plays. It was 24-24 with three minutes left in the third quarter.
Reynolds had another huge drop on what would have been a first down, and the Lions had to punt it away. Jack Fox had an incredible punt that was nearly downed at the one-yard line, but it was instead downed in the end zone.
Detroit went three-and-out and then gave the ball back to the 49ers late in the third quarter. They drove 65 yards on 11 plays but couldn't get in the endzone and had to settle for another field goal, this time for 33 yards. San Francisco took its first lead of the game, 27-24, with 9:52 left in the fourth quarter.
The Lions took over and started driving down the field, and were unable to convert on 4th and 3 from the 30-yard line, giving the ball back to the 49ers.
On the 49ers drive, Detroit's defense was unable to stop their offense, and two runs – one for 21 yards from Purdy and another 25-yard run from McCaffrey, set San Francisco up at the 3. It ended with a touchdown run from Elijah Mitchell and San Francisco went up 34-24 with three minutes left.
Detroit finally got on the board with less than a minute left in the game, a 3-yard touchdown pass from Goff to Williams, cutting the lead to 34-31.
They needed an onside kick to have a chance at winning the game, but George Kittle recovered the ball and ended the game.
