Detroit Lions advance to NFC Championship for the first time in over 30 years with 31-23 Divisional round victory over Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Game was close throughout, but the Lions never trailed the Buccaneers at home Detroit will face No 1 seed San Francisco next with the Super Bowl on the line DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news 

Before this season, the Detroit Lions hadn’t won a playoff game since early January 1992. Now, they’ve won two in the last seven days.

The Detroit Lions defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-23 on Sunday in the Divisional round to advance to the NFC Championship.

Detroit had not one multiple games in the same postseason in the Super Bowl era, last doing so in 1957.

The Lions will go on the road for the first time this postseason with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line against the San Francisco 49ers. The game will start ay 6:30 Eastern.

Detroit never trailed in the game, with its two touchdowns to start the fourth quarter putting the game to rest.

The Detroit Lions are headed to the NFC Championship game for the first time since 1992

Dan Campbell has led an incredible turnaround in Detroit in his third season at the helm

The Buccaneers tied the game at 3, 10, and 17, but couldn’t get the defensive stops necessary to pull the Ford Field upset.

With under two minutes remaining, Tampa Bay had the ball down 8, but quarterback Baker Mayfield threw the game-deciding interception.

The Lions being one of the last four teams standing further cements the team’s turnaround under head coach Dan Campbell.

After only three wins in 2021, Detroit improved to 9-8 last season.  Now, including the playoffs, the Lions won their 14th game of the season.

Detroit is absolutely relishing in its first playoff success in more than three decades

Lions quarterback Jared Goff was again exceptional, throwing for 287 yards and two touchdowns.

‘They’re the best. Look around right now,’ Goff said after the game of the home crowd. ‘They’re not going to leave here for quite some time. This is our last one in front of them. They were special tonight as they were last week.’

‘They deserve it. They deserve this. They deserve to enjoy this and hopefully [we’re] giving them a lot more coming forward,’ Goff added.

In hindsight, the Lions shocking the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on the opening night of the season wasn’t so jarring after all.

The last time Detroit played in a conference championship game, it lost 41-10 to the then-Washington Redskins.