My 1991 Detroit Lions History Lesson
School is out, but that didn’t stop me from assigning myself some homework to keep the old synapses firing. My topic: the 1991 Detroit Lions, owners of the only playoff victory in the modern era of the franchise.
With no live sports taking place, firing up some of the classics from yesteryear has become the next best thing. The best part is, we can cherry-pick the games that make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Unless you are a real masochist, you can skip over all the losing and heartbreak and go straight to the good times. As a 35-year-old Detroit Lions fan, there really haven’t been many (any) good times for me. So I decided to go back to 1991 (technically January 5th, 1992) and watch, for the first time in its entirety, the Lions’ 38-6 mop job of the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round of the playoffs.
Despite growing up in Detroit and dad being a season-ticket holder, my 7-year-old self was more familiar with the Tecmo Super Bowl version of the 1991 Detroit Lions than the real one.
My fandom began closer to ’93, so I wasn’t able to experience the fun of ’91 in real-time. This was the “one playoff win since 1957” that has since turned into a glorified punchline. I’ve obviously always been aware of this game. I knew the final score. I could name 10 players from this squad in 15 seconds. But would going back and watching this game in its entirety actually do anything for me? Would it give me the feels like I was one of 80,000 sardines packed inside the Silverdome? Hell, would it make me bitter that I just missed out on the fun and haven’t experienced any of my own with this team?
Let me tell you, I had a shit-eating grin on my face the whole time. It was the most fun I’ve had watching professional football in a long time. Here are my takeaways from that game and the 1991 season as a whole. I did some digging for added context, since anyone can say “Barry was awesome” and just call it a day. If you are in my age group or younger and this team was just a bit before your time, consider this your ’91 Lions cliff notes. If you were around for the fun maybe some of these details have been lost over time and this can help refresh your memory.
ICYMI – Don’t forget to check out the Best and Worst of Lions Free Agency 2020, as well as The Warm Take’s take on the Darius Slay trade.
The Detroit Lions…overachievers?
The words “Detroit Lions” and “underachieving” are synonymous. But in 1991 the opposite was true. The Lions went 12-4 during the regular season – the most wins in a season in franchise history – and won double-digit games for the first time since the 16-game schedule expansion of 1978. Their previous playoff appearance was eight years earlier back in 1983, and between those appearances, the Lions averaged five wins per season and a minus-76 point differential.
In my mind, the Sanders-era Lions were known for their explosive offenses. After all, the narrative is that Barry never had any help, right? But after digging through the numbers, the defense was just as responsible – if not more – for the 1991 season, and the eye test agrees after watching the Dallas beatdown. The Lions allowed 118 fewer points than they did the previous season, an absolutely seismic shift in performance, despite largely returning the same cast of characters from ’90. Yeah, you’re gonna win a few more games when you allow one fewer touchdown per game than the previous year.
Despite the number of talented players on this squad, there is no denying that this team snuck up on people. This was not a 12-4 roster. Their quarterbacks – Rodney Peete and Erik Kramer – had more turnovers than touchdowns in 1991, for crying out loud (Jameis Winston’s ears are ringing somewhere). But this team made the most of what they had, and can safely be labeled as overachievers, at least for one year. That is refreshing to say.
Barry Sanders…touchdown machine?
Another one of my personal software updates came when I saw that Barry Sanders had 17 total touchdowns in just 15 games in the ’91 season. Despite being without question the greatest running back of all time (everyone knows that), my memories of his career told me Barry didn’t have the breakaway speed or goal-line opportunities to rack up as many scores as he should have. His highlight reels are filled with 70-yard scampers that end with him getting chased down at the five. Remember fullback “Touchdown” Tommy Vardell? Of course you do. He poached 12(!) of Barry’s potential goal-line TDs from 1997-1998 alone. This led to Sanders finishing his career with a very unsatisfying total of 99 rushing TDs in 153 games, a number that doesn’t properly reflect his greatness.
What I didn’t realize was that Barry was a touchdown machine early in his career. He racked up nearly half (47) of his career scores in his first three seasons, despite putting up his most dominant rushing totals in the back half of his career. No other running back logged a rushing touchdown for the Detroit Lions from 1989-1992.
Clutch kitties?
The Lions are no strangers to handing away the division title in the final week of the season. They’ve done it twice in the past six years alone (2016, 2014). But an epic run to finish the season to WIN the division title? That is something I have not experienced before.
A 6-0 finish to the regular season, culminating in wins at Green Bay (where they wouldn’t win again for 24 years) and at Buffalo (the reigning and eventual AFC Champions) saw them take the NFC Central crown from Chicago in the final week.
It’s sad when a division title seems like an impossible dream. Odds are you should win one every four years. I’d settle for one every couple of decades. In case you haven’t heard this oldie-but-goodie: Tampa Bay has won the NFC Central/North more recently than the Lions, even though they haven’t been in the division since 2001. Facepalm emoji.
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Second-best team of 1991?
The Detroit Lions have never won a Super Bowl. They’ve never even been to one. They haven’t won their own division since 1993. And, of course, they have only won one measly playoff game since 1957. These are all cold, hard, depressing facts that highlight the futility of this franchise, and they are largely common knowledge among even the most casual NFL followers.
Since the 1991 squad was the closest Detroit has come to even sniffing a modern-era championship, I will attempt to reframe the story of this team. Build up the mystique, if you will. Put an extra rounded tablespoon of sugar in the Kool-Aid.
Were the Detroit Lions actually the second-best team in the NFL in 1991? Could they have won Super Bowl XXVI had they somehow gotten past Washington in the NFC Championship game? There’s a case to be made. Time to take some hacks…
Let’s be clear: Washington was the best team that year by a landslide. The Lions’ season was bookended by blowout losses to the Redskins by a combined 76 points. Washington had the highest-scoring offense and allowed the second-fewest points in the NFL. You could double their points allowed and they still would have outscored their opponents by 37 on the season.
But the Lions accomplished some things in ’91 that put them right in that next tier of teams behind Washington. Consider this:
Detroit went 3-0 against Dallas and Buffalo in 1991. Those two teams combined for seven Super Bowl appearances from 1990-1995. They won in convincing fashion too. The combined score of the Lions’ wins over the Cowboys was 72-16, and the Lions were +8 in the turnover battle in those two games as well.
As for the win over the Bills, it was the “when” and “where” that was more impressive than the “how”. Detroit won at Buffalo (17-14 in OT) in the season finale with the division title and a first-round playoff bye on the line. Why is the “where” so important? Because the Lions were dominant at home and indoors in 1991. Out in the elements…not so much. Take a look at this graphic shown during the playoff game against Dallas.
Somehow the Lions found a way to knock off the defending AFC Champions at their place in 35-degree weather and 22 MPH winds. If we magically insert them into the Super Bowl in a rematch with the Bills, they would be taking on a team they had just beaten on the road five weeks prior. On top of that, Super Bowl XXVI was played at the Metrodome in Minnesota. The Lions were undefeated indoors and won a game in that very same stadium earlier in the season. I would have liked their chances.
Yes, I just said I would have liked the Lions’ chances had they gotten to the Super Bowl. This may be a veiled cry for help. Someone needs to come check on me.
Sadly, this is all just a hypothetical scenario. But it was fun to imagine what could have been. What can I say, I’m a dreamer.
You’re still the one…playoff win since 1957
It’s time for the main course. If you’re only going to win one playoff game every 60 years or so, you may as well make it count. Here are some quick-hitting takeaways from one glorious Sunday afternoon in Pontiac, Michigan.
How the hell did the Lions’ gameplan not backfire?
Detroit opened this game by throwing the ball nine consecutive times. No, Barry wasn’t hurt. Their play distribution in the first half was Pass=23 / Rush=4. Insanity. The quarterback to whom they entrusted these duties was Erik Kramer, a guy who went undrafted in 1989 when the NFL draft was 12 rounds long and subsequently spent three years in the Canadian Football League working on his resume. He surgically dissected the Cowboys to the tune of 29-38, 341 yards and 3 TDs. He set a new career-high in passing yards midway through the third quarter. Bananas.
Jump to the 9:30 mark in the game clip above to see Kramer drop a 31-yard dime to Willie Green for a TD to cap off an all-passing drive on their first possession of the game.
Team defensive effort
As I touched on earlier, it was the Lions’ defense pulling a 180 from 1990 that was arguably the biggest reason for the success of ’91. Chris Spielman and Jerry Ball (who missed the playoffs) made the leap to 1st Team All-Pro, while Bennie Blades was laying fools out en route to his first (and only) Pro-Bowl. Don’t just take it from me, a direct quote from Pat Summerall during the broadcast was “the two safetymen will…uh…put some helmets on ya”. Well said.
Against the Cowboys, everyone got in on the act. Get this: Seven different Lions recorded either a sack, an interception, or a fumble recovery in this game. Pretty much every play this defense made was an impact play. And it was beautiful to watch. How do you keep a team that featured Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin, who combined for over 3300 scrimmage yards and 21 TDs in 1991, out of the endzone?
My favorite defensive highlight from this game has to be Melvin Jenkins’ 41-yard pick-six in the second quarter. Scratch that…this was my favorite highlight of any kind. Jump to 38:45 to relive the magic.
Oh, and do yourself a favor and pop in some headphones or fire up Youtube on your TV and crank up the volume. Summerall and John Madden mentioned how loud and crazy the Silverdome was many times, and this was the apex. Goosebumps.
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Willie Green. The color of money.
I had a fondness for this guy from my Tecmo Super Bowl days. I was always a spread the wealth kind of guy, trying to get all my players on the season leaderboards rather than just giving it to Barry every time. But I had no idea that Willie Green dominated the most important real-life game in modern franchise history the way he did.
Green notched an 8-115 line with 2 TDs against Dallas, which was his rookie season no less. His seven touchdown receptions led the team in 1991, a receiving corps that included Lions legend Herman Moore and another stud in Brett Perriman. He also recorded the only Detroit touchdown in the loss to Washington in the NFC Championship game. Rookie, 8th round draft picks aren’t supposed to score double-digit touchdowns (incl. playoffs).
Jump to the 1:21:10 mark to see Green’s second TD, which really opened this game up.
Barry was fashionably late
Largely by design, Barry Sanders was little more than a decoy for the vast majority of this game. He had 8 rushing yards at the half. After three quarters he had 16 yards. Midway through the fourth, he was sitting on 22 yards. This is in a game that Detroit led wire-to-wire, the ultimate running game script. The Lions were doing whatever they wanted without Barry’s greatness, but it still didn’t sit right. I knew it was only a matter of time before he broke one, as I’m sure I would’ve picked up that piece of trivia over the years if the G.O.A.T. went M.I.A. in his only playoff win.
Then Barry went Barry. Jump to 1:42:35 to see him put the final nail in the coffin. Here it is in GIF form…
On his final carry of the game, Sanders broke a vintage 47-yarder for a TD to seal the deal. Just like that, he bumped himself up to 5.75 YPC for the game and normalcy was restored to the universe. All things considered, given the magnitude of the game, it may have been his greatest highlight in a career that was one giant highlight.
The best part, besides all the missed tackles and shattered ankles on the play, was the signature Sanders touchdown celebration: Acting like you’ve been there before. Yes, even though he hadn’t won a playoff game before (and never would again), Barry Sanders refused to ever let the moment change his mentality.
Pat Summerall said that Sanders told him “I feel it, I just don’t show it”. I felt it too, and it felt damn good.
I heart that man.
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6 COMMENTS
I still feel like they should have started Kramer over Rodney Peete in the following years.
Tough to argue otherwise. In the 3 years they shared in Detroit (’91-’93)…
Kramer- 23TD 19INT
Peete- 20TD 32INT
Crazy to think Peete somehow turned those numbers into a 15-year career.
Great article – really enjoyable read! A few things I’d like to add, though.
1. There should be a mention of poor Mike Utley somewhere. His hideous injury galvanised not just the team, but the entire city: and supplied the emotion inspiring that amazing late 7-0 run.
2. Detroit only won in Buffalo because the Bills rested most of their starters! And even then, we almost screwed it up: Eddie Murray missed two pretty easy FGs before finally nailing the last one. And yet… I’m with you about what would’ve happened in the Metrodome. I think Buffalo would’ve been under crushing levels of pressure (“after what they went through last year, surely they can’t lose a Super Bowl to Detroit – can they?”, and the Lions’ indoor brilliance would probably have done the rest.
3. My only real issue with the piece is you’ve not looked at WHY the defense was so much better. The answer is because the run-and-shoot was completely revamped, with a tight end brought in. That made us much more versatile offensively… and crucially, also gave the defense far more time to catch their breath off the field.
The nadir of the previous season was a disastrous late collapse against Washington from three scores ahead. The reason was simple: we either scored too fast (yes, seriously) or kept going three-and-out on laughably wayward passes. Time of possession often doesn’t tell the whole story – but it completely did with us during that era. In ’91, the only team other than the extraordinarily complete Washington to dominate us were the 49ers: unquestionably the second best team in the league, and the unluckiest team to miss the playoffs there’s ever been. They completely swamped us, and the TOP was absurd: part of a perfectly executed gameplan to keep Barry off the field throughout.
4. Finally, could that Detroit team have won it all? It could, yes – but only if the following had occurred. Washington, as you say, towered over the rest of the league – but just as we gave Dallas fits, so they also did to Joe Gibbs’ men. Both games between them that year were desperately close; and had Dallas faced Washington in the divisional round, there’s no telling what might’ve happéned.
As it was, their last ditch win v Atlanta in Week 17 put paid to that, as did the Falcons winning in New Orleans the following week. That’s how close it was. Only Dallas could beat that Washington team – but whereas everything else went for us that year (winning all the close games, including thrillers v Miami, Minnesota and in Buffalo; Montana and Cunningham both injured, gutting their teams’ chances: Philly’s D was literally the greatest of all time, for Christ’s sake, yet they didn’t even make the playoffs; nor did San Fran, after losing to the Dirty Birds on a one-in-a-million Hail Mary; Parcells moving on from New York, leaving the G-men in shambles; a brilliant Dallas still a year away from greatness; Chicago effectively losing the division in a complete freak of a game v the Dolphins; the Super Bowl being held indoors in a year we went 11-0 indoors; the Bills resting their starters for the game which clinched us the #2 seed), that was the last bit of the shoe which wouldn’t drop. Washington avoiding Dallas.
We didn’t have a prayer against the eventual Champions. For 35-40 minutes of the NFC Championship Game, we played really, really well… yet still lost 41-10! Which says it all really. But ever since, and given we’re still a dome team even now, I’ve always taken the 1991 squad as the yardstick. To be true contenders, we have to go 8-0 at home. There’s no other way.
Thanks again for the great read – and here’s hoping we see the likes of ’91 again sometime before hell freezes over.
Thanks for the read and the kind words! Great added context as well. If I can get “hell freezes over” at even money I’d definitely bet on that happening before another playoff win.
Nice article, Jon! The day of that very playoff game was the day after my 21st birthday. I was hugging the porcelain god after I finally got up out of bed! But at least Dallas was getting buried so it wasn’t all that bad!
The Lions team that I really respect are the EIGHTY One version! The previous #20, Billy Sims, was at RB and may have ended up having not much less historical status than Barry Sanders had he not suffered that early, career-ending injury. I keep forgetting that they DIDN’T make the playoffs in ’81! They beat BOTH teams who played each other in the famous ‘Catch’ game – both games at home, that year’s Super Bowl would be in the Silverdome as well! Yes, SF was the season opener and they started slow before soon catching fire after that 1-2 start, ending up 13-3 SB champs. The win over Dallas was the controversial 12-men-on-the-field game.
Still, they were gritty and very respectable. Made some noise. Remember Eric Hipple? Floyd Peters’ ‘Silver Rush’ led by Al Baker and Doug English! They lost the finale at Pontiac to Tampa Bay in a battle between 8-7 teams – the de facto ‘NFC Central Championship Game’. I wanted them to win that game and make it. I think that ’81 team was better than the ’83 team that actually WON their division at 9-7 and came real, real close to beating SF at Candlestick thus almost making it to the NFC Championship Game eight years earlier. And it would have been against…Washington, who also beat them lopsided that regular season!
As for ’91…I really DID want to see them go to the Super Bowl when the playoffs began! They going 12-4/2nd-seed was refreshing and a bit surreal to me. Now Barry didn’t play in that opening day annihilation at RFK. Just the same, Washington proved they were out of Detroit’s league in that NFC Championship Game where Sanders did play. SF really stuck it to them as well during the regular season. You got to at least play the ‘big boys’ close. And as Shaun pointed out, that finale at Buffalo doesn’t count. However they did at least split with a good Ditka Bears team. And they had Dallas’s number that year – destroying them regular season and the very playoff game.
Had Saints simply beaten the Falcons as they were favored to actually do, Dallas would have had that “opportunity” to “knock off” Washington for you, Shaun. Now, of course, the Lions would have had to have taken care of business against those Saints first. That may have been quite a tougher task than Dallas. But either way, I think Washington still tops Dallas anyway.
Yes, Cowboys knew a thing or two about winning at RFK. They did so in ’91 itself, handing Washington their first loss, but rewind two years earlier…Dallas won their first and only game there that year! They also won there late in the previous, ’88, season as an eventual 3-13 team knocking Washington out of playoff-contention, Landry’s last season, rookie Michael Irvin’s “coming out” party – 3 TDs! Either way, NO ONE was stopping juggernaut Washington in ’91, or at least not once the playoffs began!
Lions weren’t a paper tiger. They slammed next year’s Super Bowl champion en route to the conference championship game – Washington destroyed all three of their playoff opponents, not just Detroit. The ’91 Lions may have been less than their record indicated but not by much, were overachievers but not by much They weren’t a fluke. After taking ’92 “off”, which was just as surprising as they going 12-4 within one game of the Super Bowl, they went on to make the playoffs five more times in the ’90s – three more times under Fontes, two more under Bobby Ross (remember, they made it in ’99 at 8-8). ’91 was the best ’90s Lions team, and not just because they went 12-4.
Yes, they in a DOME vs Buffalo for all the marbles…can’t say that they would have actually won considering all that talent the Bills had – and with Marv Levy as their coach – but it would have been an interesting matchup especially seeing BOTH starting lineups clashing. They clearly would have had a valid shot.
Thanks for the read! More great context that is welcomed and appreciated. Upon further review, we can probably put a little, itty-bitty asterisk next to the Buffalo win sans Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas. Though as a Lions fan I am reluctant to relinquish credit. The Lions are a backup QB’s best friend. After watching what Matt Flynn did to a 10-5 Lions team in the 2011 finale I see no reason why Frank Reich couldn’t have thrown 6 TDs.
So many scars, so little time.