If the Detroit Lions make the NFC Championship game, they’ll have a road trip to San Francisco on the docket.
All roads nearly went through Detroit.
The Green Bay Packers came close to upsetting the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday night, giving Detroit Lions fans serious hope that they’d be in line to host the NFC Championship team as the highest remaining seed in the conference. Unfortunately, though, the 49ers took the lead with just over a minute left in the game and held on to win.
With the win, the one-seeded 49ers have punched their ticket to the conference championship game, which they will now host at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, January 28 at 6:30 p.m. ET
In order to join them, the Lions must hold their own home-field advantage. They are currently six-point favorites over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for Sunday’s divisional championship game. This is the first time in franchise history the Lions will be hosting back-to-back playoff games after defeating the Los Angeles Rams 24-23 last week in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
Earlier this year, the Lions defeated the Buccaneers in Tampa by a 20-6 score. However, the Buccaneers are playing better than they were all the way back during that Week 6 matchup.
If Detroit prevails, they’ll play the 49ers for the first time since the very first game of the Dan Campbell era. In that game, the 49ers jumped out a huge lead, but the Lions crawled back and nearly made a game of it, eventually losing 41-33.
Can Detroit make it to just their second NFC Conference Championship of all time? The Lions and Bucs will decide at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday.