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Read Full BioDetroit Lions legend Barry Sanders remains optimistic about his former team.
The Lions suffered a heartbreaking end to their 2024 season after falling to the Washington Commanders in their first playoff game. Detroit had entered the playoffs as Super Bowl favorites after ending the regular season with a league-best 15-2 record.
However, they stumbled at home as their defense struggled to stop the Commanders, allowing 45 points and 481 total yards.
While the Lions obviously ended the season drastically short of expectations, Sanders says this can be a “lesson” used moving forward for the team as they continue to chase a Super Bowl.
He says the Lions need to learn how to “close the deal” after coming up short over the past two years in the playoffs.
“I think a lot of it was a lesson for us,” Sanders told Casino Beats in an exclusive interview. “The last two years, the playoffs were a big lesson. If you rewind to the Niners game (the playoff game during the 2023 season) in Santa Clara where we had the Niners on the ropes and weren’t able to finish that game off. For the young players that we have, I think that’s another lesson that we can take going forward. The next time we’re in that situation — and for the coaches as well — how to close the deal.”
Although the Lions have been tremendous over the past two seasons, they’re still new to playing postseason football. Detroit has the most wins (27) since the start of the 2023 season, but they blew a 17-point halftime lead against the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.
They unexpectedly stumbled against the wild card Commanders in the divisional round of this past year’s playoffs.
Sanders: Injuries ‘Big Part’ Of Playoff Misstep
The Lions dealt with an unusually high number of injuries, which decimated their defensive unit. Defensive Player of the Year candidate Aidan Hutchinson was sidelined due to a season-ending injury suffered in Week 6.
Prior to his injury, he had been leading the NFL in sacks (7.5). Detroit had an NFL-high 22 players on injured reserve in late December.
However, Sanders isn’t pinpointing the Lions’ playoff shortcoming as simply due to injuries — it’s a matter of them taking their “lumps” before taking that leap into winning a Super Bowl.
”The injuries were a big part of it,” says Sanders, “But I also believe that sometimes you have to go through some of those lumps and lessons. If you look at last season — I was observing each game — so many of those games seemed almost easy. I’m sure it wasn’t, but it appeared easy.”
Sanders: Miscues Hard To Overcome In Postseason
Sanders points towards the team’s win over the Houston Texans, 26-23, in Week 10 after Jared Goff threw five interceptions. The Lions trailed by 10 points entering the fourth quarter and became the first team since 2012 to win a game with their quarterback throwing at least five interceptions.
The Hall of Fame running back is arguing that the team had some lucky breaks during the regular season, but their miscues finally caught up to them during their playoff game against the Commanders.
“I don’t remember how many interceptions we threw and how many turnovers we had, but to beat a good Texans team at home with that many errors, it just seemed strange to me,” says Sanders. “To win that game was amazing. When you get to playoff football, you’re not going to get those kinds of breaks.”
The Lions still return essentially their entire nucleus, with the exception of former offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, who took the head coaching job with the Chicago Bears. However, they’ll return Goff, their main offensive weapons like Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs along with head coach Dan Campbell.
Although Detroit has suffered heartbreak over the past two years in the playoffs, it can be used as lessons learned as the franchise looks to hoist its first Vince Lombardi Trophy.
“That’s the deal, you have to close,” says Sanders. “Although last year was record-breaking in a lot of ways, obviously, when we got to the playoffs there’s still lessons that we needed to learn. And having the number of injuries to the key positions that we had, obviously that was a factor.”
Considering the Lions have proven to be the best team in the regular season over the past two years, they should be in the running again entering the 2025 season.
Sanders points towards how the Philadelphia Eagles were finally able to overcome their own playoff shortcomings by blowing out the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX. The Eagles had lost to the Chiefs in the Super Bowl two years prior and were blown out by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round at the end of the 2023 season.
The end of their 2023 season saw them lose six of their final seven games to end the year.
“If you look at what’s happened in the NFC over the last few years, the Lions are at the top of that list, right? They’re up there with the Eagles, they’re up there with the Niners, they’re up there with the Vikings,” says Sanders. “So I think it was a lesson. Hopefully it was another lesson that we can take with us going forward as we march toward trying to win a Super Bowl.”
