In the grand scheme of things, the 2023 Detroit Lions had a successful season, despite blowing a 24-7 halftime lead and losing the NFC Championship game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Jared Goff, the Lions quarterback, still has a bad taste in his mouth because, as he recently told Greg Bishop of Sports Illustrated, “we didn’t win” the season’s final game.
“Last year, what bothered me, at times, was people had this notion that we were happy to be there, and we certainly weren’t [that],” Goff told the audience. “And it’s like, ‘No, we’re just damn good.'”
Last September, the Lions created history by entering the season as the betting favourites to win the NFC North title for the first time since the division was formed in 2002. Detroit accomplished that goal by posting a 12-5 record, and the Lions then won their first playoff game since January 1992.
This offseason, the Lions rewarded Goff with a four-year contract extension worth up to $212 million, including $170 million guaranteed. While he has a million reasons to be happier now than he was a year ago, the former Cal quarterback admitted it still hurts that a team that “certainly” had the ingredients to win Super Bowl LVIII fell just short of making the game.
Campbell acknowledged earlier this summer that he began thinking about the prospect of returning to the NFC Championship game “the minute the clock went to zero in San Francisco” in January. He also understands that the Lions are now “with the target on our back” since it is no secret that Detroit is, as Goff put it, “damn good.”
As of late Friday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Lions ranked second behind only the 49ers (+250) as the betting favourites with +550 odds to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LIX. Detroit will aim to make a statement when it visits the Los Angeles Rams, Goff’s previous team and the squad that lost to the Lions in the wild-card stage of the playoffs in January, for a Week 1 “Sunday Night Football” matchup on September 8.
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