The Detroit Lions open the NFC playoffs on Saturday night seeking to get one game farther than they did last season, when the San Francisco 49ers ended their season in the NFC Championship Game.
“The vibes are immaculate,” Detroit defensive back Brian Branch said during an appearance on NFL Network’s “The Insiders.” “I feel like everyone’s on the same page here, and we hungry more than ever. We’ve done been in this moment before, and this time we’re trying to finish it.”
The Lions have never played in the Super Bowl. Last season’s 34-31 loss to the 49ers came in Detroit’s first NFC Championship Game appearance since the 1991 season. The Lions’ most recent NFL championship game in 1957, nine years before the first Super Bowl.
But Detroit posted the best record in franchise history at 15-2 in the regular season in 2024 and, according to BetMGM, have the shortest odds to win Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9.
“We know it’s all rat poison,” Branch said. “We don’t really pay attention to the outside noise. We know what we’re capable of doing. We just want to prove it to ourselves that who we are, that’s who we are, and I feel like we don’t pay attention to the outside noise at all.”
The Lions play the Washington Commanders at 7 p.m. CST Saturday at Ford Field in Detroit. FOX will televise the game.
As with the Lions last year, Washington most recently played in the NFC Championship Game in the 1991 season. The Commanders hadn’t won a playoff game in 19 years until defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-20 on Sunday after a 12-5 regular-season showing.
Washington’s turnaround has been sparked by rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. He crossed paths with Branch in the SEC, when LSU edged Alabama 32-31 in overtime on Nov. 5, 2022.
Daniels completed 22-of-32 passes for 182 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions and ran 18 times for 95 yards and one touchdown. Daniels scored on a 25-yard run, then completed a 2-point conversion pass to win the game.
