The Lions Blow A 17 Point Second Half Lead And Lose The NFC Championship To The 49ers In Absolutely DEVASTATING Fashion

It was magic. It was perfect. It felt tonight’s game was about to be a coronation for an organization and a fan base that had been waiting forever for a Super Bowl appearance. I had a whole blog written at the end of the first half. It was euphoric. It was the blog I’d never thought I’d write. And now it remains unwritten. There will be no Super Bowl for Detroit. This magic, fun, energetic team saw their clock strike midnight in the blink of an eye. There’s literally nothing I can say that’s going to make any Detroit fan feel better. Go ahead and break something. That punch you just put through your drywall is completely justified. This team was different all year…until they weren’t. 

There will be a lot of things people point to. You could write a novel about the amount of things that went wrong in the second half, but one of the easy things to point to is that Dan Campbell’s remarkable aggressiveness came back to bite him. The two decisions to go for it on fourth down in the second half when they had the ball in Niners territory are moves that fans will question until the end of time. Personally, the second one bothered me more than the first one, but who gives a shit? They lost. And it’s a loss that will sting permanently. Perhaps football in the state of Michigan just had too much of a good thing U-M winning the Natty. It will be dissected forever as the ultimate moment of Lions letdown. 

I could sit here and wax poetic about how this is just the beginning for the Lions and they’ll find their way back again in the future, but no, you never truly know how many chances you’re going to have. This is beyond devastating. This is as heartbreaking a loss as any Detroit team has ever experienced, and that’s really saying something. Yes, this team's future is incredibly bright, and at some point in the future, we’ll be able to acknowledge that, but not this time. The mourning period is real. I can’t believe they lost this game. 

The fire that eternally burns inside Dan Campbell’s gut just had gasoline poured on it. As bright as the future is, there will be holes to fill. Ben Johnson, the OC, is about to take a head coaching gig. It’s hard to win in this league. We know this because we’re Lions fans. No matter what happens, the ceiling is now the roof. Playoff victories now need to be an expectation. Remember this feeling, it’ll make the future all the more sweeter. Detroit will have its day.