The following piece originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Motor City Sports Magazine.
I really thought they could do it.
Sure, I was a naïve 19-year-old at the time, but I honestly believed that they could pull it off. They had won their last seven games after starting out 0-3, they boasted the second-best offense in the NFL, they held the number 14 defense and, perhaps more important than all of that, they had Barry Sanders.
They were the 1995 Detroit Lions, and they should have been in the Super Bowl.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll likely say it plenty more times throughout my life, but I am convinced that 1995 was Detroit’s one real shot at a modern-day NFL championship.
When you talk about those Lions, you’re talking about a team whose only offensive weakness was its running game. Before you call me crazy, let me explain. That year, the Lions handed the ball off to their backs a total of 333 times. On those carries, the Lions gained 1,574 yards. Barry alone gained 1,500 yards on 314 carries. He was the ONLY real option out of that backfield. No offense to Ron Rivers or Cory Schlesinger, but when Sanders was out of the game, so was the running threat.
Then there was the passing game. Herman Moore led the NFL in receptions that season with a then-record 123, and he racked up an impressive 1,686 yards and 14 touchdowns. Their second option, Brett Perriman, grabbed 108 balls for 1,488 yards and nine scores of his own. Perriman’s 108 receptions would have been enough to lead the league in many seasons, but in 1995 it wasn’t even good enough to lead his own team. Throw in the contribution of the promising, young Johnnie Morton, and you have a dangerous receiving unit, to say the least. And say what you will about Scott Mitchell, but in 1995 he was good. Actually, he was very good. Mitchell threw for 4,338 yards and 32 scores, both team records. He completed nearly 60 percent of his passes, and threw just 12 interceptions.
Detroit’s defense did its part, too. They played a “bend, but don’t break” style of football up until week 14 against Chicago, when they allowed only seven points in a 27-7 win. They finished the last four games of the season by giving up just 34 points, allowing Detroit to outscore their opponents 112-34 over that span.
Stats don’t really tell the entire story, however. The truth is, this team was playing some of the best football in the NFL over the last five weeks of the season. It was one of the few teams that the others hoped they would not have to face during the playoffs. The problem was that the players started believing the hype.
Lomas Brown, the Lions’ Pro Bowl Tackle, publicly guaranteed a victory in the first round of the playoffs. Other players could be heard making comments about how the rest of the league was afraid of them. This was a city that hadn’t had much football success since the 1950s, save one playoff win in 1992. They let the seven-game win streak and Pro Bowl selections cloud their vision, and they stopped doing what they had done over the course of the season’s last few weeks – playing like a team.
We all know how the story ended. The Lions waltzed into Philadelphia and were smashed into a fine, blue and silver powder. Just like that, the season was over.
That season was the last time the Lions fielded a team that really had any kind of chance to make some noise. Yes, they’ve been back to the playoffs, but they never were a threat to anybody. That lone win in 1992 is still the team’s only playoff win since the 1950s. As I’ve watched numerous failed seasons play out since 1995, I often wonder what would have happened if that team had stayed focused. What could it have accomplished when operating as a single, determined unit? What if the players didn’t let their experience with success go to their heads? What if they would have kept their mouths shut and proven themselves on the field? What if they could have kept the winning streak alive and had gotten past the Eagles, taken out the Packers and defeated the Cowboys?
What if?
Play the “what if” game for a second, and think back on how things might have changed for the Lions with a berth in the Super Bowl.
How different do you think this organization would be today if the Lions could have made it to, or even won Super Bowl XXX that year? What if the Lions had made it to the big game while Sanders was still in his prime? Would he have walked away so abruptly? Even if they had come up short, would the promise of a bright future have been enough to keep him a Detroit Lion? What if some of the free agents that had passed Detroit by in recent years (Demarcus Wiley, Simeon Rice and Troy Brown, just to name a few) knew they could be playing for a winning organization with a recent trip to the Super Bowl under their belt? Would they have been more apt to sign on the dotted line? During the yearly off-season free agent hunting period the Lions were regularly turned down by players like Olandis Gary and they considered it a victory to sign the likes of Bill Schroeder. What if they had played in the Super Bowl that year? How much of that would have changed?
What if, instead of Marty Mornhinweg being their brightest coaching candidate, the Lions had the ability to pick and choose their next head coach? Dick Vermiel? Bill Parcells? Bill Belichick? Any of them could have been tempted to take the reigns of a team that recently found itself in a Super Bowl.
What if gone were the 2-14 and 3-13s, and in their place were 8-8s or 9-7s? And what if those 10-6’s and 9-7’s were considered “down years” for one of the most successful organizations of the late ‘90s and early 2000s?
What if?
How much really would have changed had the Lions made it to the Super Bowl that year? Of course, we’ll never know. The sad thing is that it appeared they actually had the talent to pull it off. The 1995 Lions were primed to make a playoff run. They had the talent, they had the drive and they hit their stride at seemingly just the right moment. But, as Lions fans have grown accustomed to over the years, the team with all that talent couldn’t keep it together. Instead, that wreck of a finish in 1995 sent the Lions on a downward spiral that left them as little more than a punch line for Jay Leno.
It’s amazing what kind of effect one game — one moment — can have on the future. If that team had finished its run, made a statement and staked its claim as an elite franchise back in 1995, we might be writing about a completely different organization today. Yet, 10 years later, we’re all still waiting for the day that we get to hear those wonderful words, “The Detroit Lions are headed to their first Super Bowl!” Until the day somebody finally does utter that sentence, we’re all left to keep wondering “what if?”