Another dome team led by an acolyte of Sean Payton with a young, innovative play caller helming an explosive offense, a rehabilitated quarterback making the most of his second chance and a highly drafted rookie tailback are coalescing to alter the trajectory of a bottom-feeding franchise.
The writer’s strike is over and primetime television is back, but the omnipotent authors of our most prominent professional football league got lazy and just recycled the 2006 Saints storyline on these Detroit Lions. There hasn’t been a more galvanizing year for the fanbase since the 2006 New Orleans Saints. Aaron Brooks and Jim Haslett were instrumental in getting the paper bags off the heads of Aints faithful at the dawn of the millenium, but the 2006 Saints felt like the first time their franchise window was cracked open.
That aura felt different from afar. The tone for New Orleans’ storybook season was set by a cinematic win in their first home game in two years. Prior to the 2005 season, New Orleans had only won a single playoff game in their franchise’s history and accumulated the second- lowest winning percentage in the league since their inaugural season.
In the last 40 years, Detroit has won fewer regular-season games than any team in the league. Their 14 total wins ties for their most single season wins in franchise history. Drew Brees and company didn’t hoist the Lombardi Trophy for another four years, but the flame was lit in 2006. Dan Campbell’s Lions have done a 360 from the paper bag-over-the head fans that littered their stands for stretches this millennium. Brees’ career revival was much more dramatic than Goff’s renaissance, but the effect was all the same. After getting pushed out of San Diego to make way for Phillip Rivers, Brees and his reconstructed throwing shoulder landed in New Orleans and spearheaded the first of nine playoff appearances in 15 seasons.
Throughout the year, those Saints games felt like a glimpse into the heart of NOLA beating inside its chest. The glow emanating off of the Saints after Steve Gleason’s blocked punt on Monday Night Football during the reopening of the Superdome, gave you a hint that something special was brewing. Pre-2005, the Saints were just as much of a blight on the NFL scene as the pre-Campbell Lions.
These Lions kicked off their season with a victory over the defending champions during the NFL’s annual Thursday night opener. From the jump, we knew this wasn’t the Lion sof old. In their playoff opener, Detroit barely crept past the Los Angeles Rams for their franchise’s second postseason victory since the 1957 NFL title game, and then plowed through the Tampa Bay Bucs en route to their first NFC Championship Game in 32 years.
The Lions have had a few more bright historical spots than the Saints did at the dawn of the Payton era. Barry Sanders and the Matt Stafford-to-Calvin Johnson connection provided a brief respite from their respective rotations on the NFL’s porcelain throne, but all three had their potential squandered. Sanders retired on the brink of snatching the NFL’s career rushing crown from Walter Payton. Calvin Johnson and Matt Stafford rescued the Lions from an 0-16 hole, but never developed enough momentum to advance past the Wild-Card Round. Instead, those Lions teams felt like a limp franchise hitting the peaks of a dead-cat bounce before they fired Jim Caldwell to refine the Stafford and Megatron connection.
Reggie Bush was being touted as the Saints’ next franchise player for his ability to weave in and out tackles and burst into open space. Bush’s rookie year was instrumental in New Orleans turning the corner from their season spent adrift on the road while the city recovered. Bush’s impact came mostly as a receiver, where he was able to spin prospective tacklers through a blender. The defining moment of his rookie season, though, was a backflip into the end zone during the second half of the NFC Championship Game in Chicago.
If you squint hard enough, Bush and Gibbs have practically interchangeable skillsets. Jahmyr Gibbs was the rare backfield convertible taken in the top half of the first round for his dual skills as a runner and receiver. Their signature runs from their rookie campaign are similar, too. On Sunday, Gibbs put his full panoply of skills on display, breaking free on a 31-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to put the Lions ahead.
On the ensuing drive, Gibbs ran a wheel route out of the backfield, broke down a linebacker with a paralyzing stutter step, hauled in a catch on the run once he’d created separation and picked up 20 yards.
Of the NFL’s final four, Detroit was the least likely to be here, but of the remaining fanbases, Detroit’s appreciates this the most. Baltimore, Kansas City and San Francisco have a room full of Lombardi Trophies between them. Detroit has never played on Super Bowl Sunday and the closest they’ve come was the 31-point margin between them and the Washington Redskins in the 1991 NFC Championship Game.
The stage has been set for the Lions to write their own ending.
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