KFAN – Jared Goff passed for 287 yards and two touchdowns and the Detroit Lions advanced to the NFC Championship Game with a 31-23 victory over the visiting Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seeking their first Super Bowl berth, the Lions will travel to California to face the San Francisco 49ers next Sunday. Detroit will be playing in the conference title game for the first time since the 1991 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jahmyr Gibbs rushed for 74 yards, including the go-ahead 31-yard score in the fourth quarter. Amon-Ra St. Brown caught eight passes for 77 yards and a touchdown, while Sam LaPorta had nine receptions for 65 yards for Detroit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lions\u2019 second playoff win in as many weeks came three years to the day after Dan Campbell was introduced as the downtrodden franchise\u2019s new head coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI envisioned that we would have a chance to compete with the big boys, and that\u2019s where we\u2019re at,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cAll you\u2019ve got to do is get in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the second week running, Lions fans chanted Goff\u2019s name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is our last one in front of them and they were special (Sunday), as they were last week,\u201d Goff said. \u201cThey deserve it. They deserve this, they deserve to enjoy this and hope to give them a lot more coming forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Baker Mayfield passed for 349 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions for the Bucs. Mike Evans caught eight passes for 147 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Derrick Barnes\u2019 interception of Mayfield with 1:33 remaining clinched Detroit\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Buccaneers exceeded expectations in 2023 by winning the NFC South and a wild-card game, but now they head into the offseason with pending free-agent decisions to make about Mayfield and Evans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI love this group,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cI\u2019ve said that all year, and it\u2019s authentic, I mean that. It would mean a lot for me to bring back a lot of key pieces to get this back together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The game was tied at 10 at halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Detroit struck first on Michael Badgley\u2019s 23-yard field goal. Tampa Bay answered with Chase McLaughlin\u2019s 43-yard field goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lions regained the lead early in the second quarter on Goff\u2019s 9-yard scoring pass to Josh Reynolds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McLaughlin banged a 50-yard field-goal attempt off the left upright with 2:24 remaining in the first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Bucs tied it with 15 seconds left on a 92-yard drive that took just 1:13. Evans\u2019 diving 29-yard reception set up Mayfield\u2019s 2-yard scoring pass to Cade Otton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Detroit regained the lead with 3:48 left in the third quarter. Craig Reynolds scored on a 1-yard plunge on fourth-and-goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tampa Bay answered again, as Rachaad White scored on a 12-yard screen pass from Mayfield with 10 seconds left in the third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lions struck back quickly, as Gibbs burst through a hole and scored from 31 yards out with 13:13 left in the game to make it 24-17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Detroit forced a punt, its offense drove 89 yards to increase the lead. Goff hooked up with St. Brown on a 9-yard passing play to make it 31-17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mayfield completed a 16-yard touchdown pass to Evans with 4:37 left. Evans had a 24-yard reception on fourth-and-14 earlier in the drive. The Bucs attempted a two-point conversion, but the pass was broken up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KFAN – Jared Goff passed for 287 yards and two touchdowns and the Detroit Lions advanced to the NFC Championship Game with a 31-23 victory over the visiting Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday afternoon. Seeking their first Super Bowl berth, the Lions will travel to California to face the San […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":279456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=279455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279457,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279455\/revisions\/279457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/279456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=279455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=279455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=279455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}