This has been the most successful season the Detroit Lions have had in seemingly forever, and they will look to take it to the next step when they visit the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday.
Detroit is making its first trip to the conference title game since the 1991 campaign, and in doing so, they have seemingly become “America’s Team,” especially since the Dallas Cowboys, the team that usually embraces that moniker, collapsed so spectacularly in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
Quarterback Jared Goff has had another excellent season and is more experienced than 49ers signal-caller Brock Purdy, but David Lombardi, who covers the Niners for The Athletic, pointed out that Goff hasn’t had any success versus San Francisco ever since San Francisco became a winning team.
All of Jared Goff’s 3 wins against the 49ers came in 2017 and 2018, when SF was not yet a winning team. The 49ers beat Goff’s Rams 2x in 2019 and 2x in 2020. Then they beat Goff’s Lions to open the 2021 season
— David Lombardi (@LombardiHimself) January 26, 2024
Goff, the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft, spent his first five seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, the Niners’ longtime NFC West rivals, and there, he had some early success against the Red and Gold.
But in the third year of head coach Kyle Shanahan’s regime, the Niners became the mighty force the football world has been familiar with ever since, and since then, Goff, whether he has been with the Rams or Lions, hasn’t beaten the Niners.
The last time Goff’s Lions played San Francisco, San Francisco got out to a 38-10 lead early in the third quarter and cruised to a 41-33 victory at Ford Field.
Wide receiver Deebo Samuel, who will return on Sunday after missing much of the divisional round against the Green Bay Packers, caught nine catches for 189 yards and a touchdown in that game, and he could be the biggest key for San Francisco on Sunday.
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