Detroit Lions haven't won a playoff game since Jan. 5, 1992: A look back at that day

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Detroit Lions haven't won a playoff game since Jan. 5, 1992: A look back at that day

Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press · Detroit Free Press

Sat, Jan 13, 2024 ·

14 min read

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Last week marks the 32nd anniversary of the Detroit Lions' last playoff win . The 38-6 win over the Dallas Cowboys is not only a snapshot of one of the last great moments in Lions history, but serves as a constant reminder of what could have been with the team in the 1990s.

Back in 2016, Dave Birkett spoke with several principles from that game to get a feel of what that Sunday afternoon at the Pontiac Silverdome was like, and what it still means to thousands of Lions fans. Here is that story:

Wayne Fontes gathered his players inside the locker room at the Silverdome minutes before they took the field for what remains the most recent playoff victory in Lions history. A game official had just come by to remind Fontes how much time there was until kickoff, and the coach, not one for dramatic speeches, wanted to thank his team for all it had done. The Lions went 12-4 in 1991 and proved incredibly resilient on their way to the most wins in franchise history. Right guard Mike Utley was paralyzed in a Week 12 win over the Los Angeles Rams . Starters Rodney Peete, Jerry Ball and Mike Cofer suffered other season-ending injuries. And the Lions had reversed a decade of futility and seven straight losing seasons to win the NFC Central by one game over the Chicago Bears and secure a first-round bye. After a team prayer, Fontes asked his players to hold hands, look at the men next to him and tell them: I am not going to let you down.

[ From May 2019: Lions haven't won a playoff game in exactly 10,000 days ]

"It was kind of our battle cry," Fontes said this past week. "They looked dead to the guy to the left, dead to the guy on the right, and said, 'Hey, look, I'm not going to let you down.' And I was the last guy, and I said, 'I'm going to do the best I can and I'm not going to let you down.' So, they believed that and they went out there not to let each other down."

The Lions, playing in front of a crowd of 78,290 that felt like twice that size, responded with their best game of the season, a performance that still resonates with a generation of fans today.

Erik Kramer passed for 341 yards and three touchdowns, Barry Sanders had one of the most iconic touchdown runs of his Hall of Fame career, and the Lions destroyed the Dallas Cowboys, 38-6, to advance to their only NFC championship game, where they lost to Washington the following week.

Here, in the words of the players from that 1991 team — many of whom will be on hand for a ceremony commemorating the team at halftime of today's game against the Rams — is an oral history of the Lions' most recent playoff win 25 seasons ago.

In their own words

DE Marc Spindler:"We came out of that tunnel, and I think there had to be over 85,000 at that game. I don't know what the record would state, but you couldn't hear yourself think. That had to be the loudest game I'd ever played in. And you knew it was a big atmosphere, you just knew it was a big game."

K Eddie Murray:"I remember going out there for warm-ups and being like, 'Oh, my God, this place is almost packed now, and here we are an hour and a half before kickoff.' People wanted to get there early, wanted to absorb everything that was going to happen that day, and it really helped out."

From July 2019: 20 years ago, Barry Sanders retired and 'all hell broke loose'

WR Herman Moore:"It was absolutely loud, the loudest I've ever heard it, and it felt powerful. I can definitely say I know what it feels like to say you feel like a championship team, like you're the team to beat. And that's what we felt like."

OT Lomas Brown:"To be honest with you, once the whistle started, I never felt threatened by Dallas in that game at any point because it seemed like Erik could do no wrong. I mean, what, he missed maybe (nine) passes the whole day? I mean, three touchdowns. We were on fire, and sometimes it's like, you know how you hear players and they get hot? Well, as an offense, we used to get like that. We would get like that as an offense and everything we would run would be clicking. And that particular day, it was like that."

The Silverdome crowd minutes before the Lions' playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys in Pontiac, MI on Jan. 5, 1992.

The Cowboys won the toss, elected to receive and promptly went three-and-out on their first drive. The Lions started their first possession at the Dallas 32-yard line and marched down the field in five plays to take a 7-0 lead on a 31-yard pass from Kramer to wide receiver Willie Green.

Fontes:"During the first half, we were throwing the ball a lot because they came into the 'Dome and they were going to try and take Barry Sanders out of the game. They said, we're going to play this defense, stop Barry Sanders and force them to try to win throwing the ball to the outside. And they gave us the outside. It was amazing that it was there on every down, so we just kept taking advantage of it and throwing the ball outside, outside, outside."

Green:"The first couple of plays of that (first) offensive series we just kept going the same two plays going down the field and scored. Wayne was like, 'Hell, if it's working, don't stop.' We went 60 Out Switch, 61 Out Switch, 60 Out Switch, 61 Out Switch."

Kramer:"They never really got out of their base defense, which was kind of strange. So, we just kept throwing the same two or three routes all game."

Brown:"What I remember most is the route that Willie ran (on his touchdown), 'cause I think it was a corner route that he ran and Erik just laid it up there. And again, we were just in a zone. It was just like a zone. I don't think Erik took a sack that day. We were on fire that day. Nothing could go wrong that day."

Green:"You had myself on one side at X and then you Herman Moore at the Z, and you had Aubrey Matthews or Brett Perriman at the slot. 60 Out Switch was the single receiver side, which if it was trips on my side, Herman would have the out. 60 was the pass protection, the out route was a 10- to 12-yard out route, and a switch route back side was the X outside guy. ... We would in a sense go in and switch up with the slot guy and we would run an up-the-seam route and a corner route, and the other guy would run sort of a flat route. So, it was a switch route, which confused the defense. And we just kept running that same play down the field. And I scored on it the first time where it was like an over-the-shoulder catch."

The Cowboys settled for a field goal at the end of the first quarter after Bennie Blades broke up a Steve Beuerlein pass to Michael Irvin in the end zone. Melvin Jenkins picked off a Beuerlein pass to Alvin Harper on Dallas' next series and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown to swing momentum the Lions' way.

Jenkins:"I knew it was an out route 'cause we had played them early in the season, I remember the play. And they ran the same play, and I just said, 'Oh, my gosh, it actually happened again.' So, I just got a good read on it, and then I jumped it and the rest was history. Man, it was a good feeling."

Blades:"That turned the momentum of the whole game. They were moving the ball on us, but when that happened it was like we knew then and after that point right there, there was no way they were going to beat us. You ever hear guys who play basketball, they say the rim is four times the size and so every time they throw something up it would just go in? That's how it felt after that interception. We were like rabid dogs. Every time they run, a guy would be there. If he missed, there's four or five other guys there to make the tackle. It was just crazy."

DE Dan Owens :"If you remember that game, Beuerlein was the starter, Troy Aikman had gotten hurt sometime during the season and Beuerlein was playing quarterback, and they weren't doing very well and they brought back basically an injured Troy Aikman to try to revive them (late in the) second quarter."

Blades:"Coming into the playoffs, Beuerlein was playing well. But, like I said, we just knew that we were destined that game. I don't think that day right there, for whatever reason, you could have taken any Hall of Fame quarterback there was and we were just playing lights-out."

The Lions led, 17-6, at halftime after a Murray field goal with 27 seconds left in the second quarter, then scored two touchdowns in a 1:05 span late in the third quarter to pull away. Kramer threw TD passes of 9 yards to Green and 7 yards to Moore. Sanders, who had only 8 yards rushing on four carries in the first half, capped the scoring with an amazing 47-yard run in the fourth quarter.

Fontes:"At the halftime, we went into the locker room, and my administrative assistant Dave Levy said, 'You know, Coach, Barry's only touched the ball (four) times.' I said, 'Well, let me go talk to him.' So, I went over there, and Barry was sitting by his locker, and before we went out for the second half I said, 'Barry, how you doing?' He said, 'Great.' I said, 'You only touched the ball (four) times, you must be well rested.' He kind of laughed, he said, 'Coach, as long as we're winning, it doesn't matter how many times I carry the football.' He was that type of person."

OG Scott Conover:"I just remember the offense being in a great rhythm. Everything was working. We didn't really have to rely on Barry until towards the end of the game. Erik Kramer was on."

OG Ken Dallafior:"Everybody was in the zone. Even when we had a penalty that called back a play, it was like there was no doubt in the huddle. There was this aura in the huddle, everybody was in the zone, ready to roll and knew there was nothing that was going to stop us."

Spindler:"We ran a lot of stunts and a lot of games (on defense). I just remember that it was so loud that the quarterback, the get-off on the ball from the defensive linemen was like we were moving before the offensive line was moving. It was just — the crowd just played such an intricate role in the domination, in my opinion."

C Kevin Glover:"You could stand there on the sidelines and yell at the top of your lungs and not be able to hear the person beside you. It was that loud. And they did a good job for a good part of the game containing Barry, but then we had other great receivers and Kramer was on fire that game."

Fontes:"When we went into our individual meetings (at halftime), I remember talking to my offensive coordinator and talking about, 'They've got to get out of the box, they've got to start playing a little bit more pass defense,' and we were prepared for it. But we knew that, God, if they did that, we were going to give the ball to Barry. We had three good receivers, and if they wanted to not start covering, that would open up the running game for Barry. But they never changed."

Moore:"I was over on the right side of the end zone (on my touchdown), and Erik Kramer looked over, saw I was one-on-one against a defensive back (Kenneth) Gant. And there was no way I was going to let this shorter defensive back — he had no chance. No chance. I was the high-jump guy, they used to call me Fresh Legs because I could jump. And I remember he was over there, he just tossed it up over the top and I caught it, and I remember catching it and kind of shaking my head like, 'This is too easy. This is too easy,' because I knew I should have been doing this all along. It was a special moment. My very first NFL touchdown."

WR Mike Farr:"We knew that we could throw the football against the Cowboys. We knew that their coverage was going to be soft, we knew that the linebackers were going to be up kind of keying on Barry. And it was going to open it up for us. And when that opens up for us — and we only had two running plays, draw right and draw left, and we give it to Barry because they start playing the pass, and next thing you know it's soft for him."

Glover:"We always knew that with Barry's style of running and ability he had, if you keep feeding him the ball, eventually it's going to break, and that's exactly what happened that game."

Brown:"He was like a walking time bomb. We just knew it was a matter of time before, 'Bam,' and low and behold it happened, and look how spectacular it was."

Fontes:"We're up 30 or whatever it was. And I went up to Dave Levy, I said, 'Look, let's just give the ball to Barry.' And he said, 'They got nine to 10 guys up front. We can throw the ball all day long.' I said just give it to him anyway. And I remember giving him the ball, and he must have made 11 guys miss. I mean, it was amazing. And he went right, he went left, he went right, he went middle, he went back and forth. And finally he went whatever it was, (47) yards for a touchdown."

Murray:"I was fortunate to see Barry make runs like that at practice, and he would just nonchalantly throw the ball back to the ballboy, and we would go 'What the heck was that?' And that's kind of what that play was. It was like, 'Oh, my God, how the heck did he get out of that pile?' And everybody like froze. It was just one of those things, it was a Barry moment, and you just come away shaking your head and appreciate and respect just how good of a player Barry was. He really didn't do much until then, but that one play just solidified the iconic player that he ended up becoming for the Lion."

Fontes:"I remember him coming back to the sideline — I said, 'Barry, that's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.' And all he did was smile like that's what he's supposed to do. He was amazing."

The Lions lost to Washington, the eventual Super Bowl champions, in the NFC title game, 41-7, and haven't won a playoff game since. But on Jan. 5, 1992, as they took their locker-room celebration into homes and establishments across the metro Detroit area, they felt like they were on top of the world.

Murray:"You could see people being pretty emotional about what was going on and they were excited about what was happening, and them realizing the same thing as we realized on the sidelines, 'OK, we've got this in the bag.' "

Fontes:"I remember Mr. Ford coming down to the tunnel, and the PR, Bill Keenist, brought him down to the tunnel, and he wouldn't come on the field. And I remember asking the PR guy, Bill Keenist, I said, 'Go over and get Mr. Ford and have him come on the field.' And he didn't want to do that. He was a special type owner, and I eventually got him to come on the field. Then he stood behind us. Then I said, 'Mr. Ford, stand right here. This is your team.' And he moved up there, and he felt so good about it. I think that was a very special moment for him."

Spindler:"I just remember Wayne, I can just remember the look on his face and the big smile that he had and really in one sense, you're trying to celebrate and you're trying to have this awesome feeling, and then I think for some of us, you're reflecting going, 'Boy.' You're thinking about Mike Utley and what transpired, so you got a different flood of emotions that are going through you."

DT Jerry Ball:"I was on the sideline, and before the game was out, I had started making my way to the tunnel and the whole way the crowd was just fanatical. And then you had the players was starting to celebrate and Wayne would say, 'Hey, we're going to finish this.' In other words, stay focused. So, I remember that. But more importantly, it was a great thing for us, man, 'cause honestly during that time we felt that we were turning the corner and we were going to win a championship."

Brown:"I think it was me, and I think it was Toby Caston. Me and him, I think it was us two that dumped the Gatorade on Wayne. We were back there plotting to get Wayne and stuff with the Gatorade."

Fontes:"It hit me right away. It was freezing cold, but it was like, 'My God, we just won one of the biggest games the Lions have won in a long time.' "

DT Kelvin Pritchett:"It was a party in the locker room."

Brown:"Who I remember the most was Bill Bonds. Remember Bill Bonds? Oh, he was so drunk. But I remember him, I think (Robert) Ficano was in the locker room. I think L. Brooks (Patterson) was in there. But Bill Bonds was tore up walking around, 'Congratulations.' … It was just an unbelievable scene."

Jenkins:"The locker room, anytime you get to that point it gets crazy. Wayne Fontes and his big cigar. He just put it in. He always just put it in and profiled it."

Fontes:"(That cigar tasted) very good. It was like I got it right from Castro. It was a big, long, thick cigar. It was gratifying."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Read more on the Detroit Lions and sign up for our Lions newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions haven't won a playoff game since 1992: A look back

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