It took until game 272 of the 2024 season, but the NFC's top seed has been decided.
The Lions won Sunday night's regular-season finale over the Minnesota Vikings, 31-9, behind a four-TD night from emerging star running back Jahmyr Gibbs, clinching their conference's No. 1 seed, a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs -- plus bragging rights as the NFC North champions to boot.
"To me, this has been in the making for a while," head coach Dan Campbell said postgame after clinching. "It takes a special group of guys, and I think you kind of had to go through what we've been through over the last four years, the core of this unit. And then everybody that comes in, they fall in line because that's what we're built around is our core. They really delivered for us today. Our playmakers made plays when we needed it."
It's the latest and greatest cherry on top of one of the most stellar campaigns in Detroit's history, as the 15-2 Lions enter the playoffs as the winningest regular-season team the franchise has ever seen and the first Detroit club to ever hold its conference's top seed.
The Lions have won three straight heading into the playoffs. A Week 15 game against the Buffalo Bills and a Week 2 matchup versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers mark their only defeats overall, both of which came by six points or fewer.
Detroit entered the final week of the regular season as an offensive powerhouse ranked first in scoring and second in yards gained, supplemented by a top-10 scoring defense.
Seemingly the only major hiccup, one that could still very well pose a postseason problem for the Lions, is injuries.
While the offense remains largely in tact outside running back David Montgomery's knee injury, the defense has dealt with a laundry list of big names sidelined that includes Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill and Carlton Davis.
That list grew even further on Sunday night when rookie cornerback Terrion Arnold suffered a foot injury and did not return.
Nonetheless, Detroit outlasted a division whose top three teams combined for 40 wins.
Campbell's hard-fighting squad can rest before hosting the lowest-seeded team to advance to the Divisional Round as a reward, while the rival Vikings must take to the road as an unfathomable 14-win fifth seed to play the host Los Angeles Rams.
"It's step one," quarterback Jared Goff said. "We're proud to be 15-2, NFC North division champs back-to-back, one seed, bye week, all that stuff. We're proud of it, but this is just tick number one. Check. And tick number two is next."
The Lions, still yet to have partaken in a Super Bowl, considerably upped their odds to reach New Orleans on Feb. 9 with Sunday's triumph.
They're now two home wins away from a trip to Super Bowl LIX.
