ETF Summary

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Poor Detroit.

It’s one thing to lose a game, even a championship tilt that had so much promise.

What a gigantic tease and … epic collapse.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Instead, the 49ers stormed back to match the biggest comeback victory in NFC championship game history and claimed a berth in Super Bowl 58 for a Super rematch against the Kansas City Chiefs. Whew.

Grit, meanwhile, took a serious punch to the gut.

‘You feel like you got your heart ripped out,’ Lions coach Dan Campbell lamented.

Campbell knows. As much as the top-seeded 49ers demonstrated tremendous resilience to finally claim a Super Bowl berth after losing in the previous two NFC title games — and a week after barely surviving against the Green Bay Packers in the NFC divisional playoffs — this one felt more like a big, fat, ugly Lions loss.

I mean, how does a team rush for 148 yards in the first half — more than the Kyle Shanahan-coached 49ers have allowed in an entire game — and still lose?

How does a team with all of those weapons get shut out for all but the final minute of the second half when a Super Bowl berth is at stake?

In many ways, it was so Detroit. For all that has changed with the culture under Campbell, the Lions reverted back to the disappointing team that longtime followers had hoped was a thing of the past.

Campbell insisted otherwise.

‘That’s not like us,’ he said. ‘We had plays to be made that we just didn’t make (like) we normally do.’

Anatomy of Lions’ meltdown

Now, they’ll have an entire offseason to process the anatomy of a meltdown that included:

— 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s acrobatic 51-yard catch early in the third quarter, with shades of Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl legend Lynn Swann. It was an omen. The ball ricocheted off Kindle Vildor as Aiyuk fell to the turf, advancing the football to the 6-yard line. Three plays later, Brock Purdy stepped up in the pocket and fired a 6-yard TD pass to Aiyuk.

— On the first play of the ensuing drive, Lions rookie running back Jahmyr Gibbs fumbled. Arik Armstead recovered for the 49ers at Detroit’s 24-yard line. It set up the 1-yard TD run from Christian McCaffrey that tied the game at 24.

— Some serious second-guessing of Campbell. Twice in the second half, Campbell went for it on fourth-and-short rather than attempting field goals. Midway through the third quarter on a fourth-and-2 from the 49ers’ 28, the Lions passed up a 46-yard field-goal try for a Jared Goff pass to Josh Reynolds that fell incomplete. A trey would have pushed the lead back to 17 points and made it a three-possession game.

In the fourth quarter, trailing by three, Campbell passed on a 48-yard try that might have tied the game. Instead, they went for it on fourth-and-3 from the 30. Goff was flushed from the pocket, mustering a throw to Amon-Ra St. Brown that fell in the dirt … way short.

‘I wanted to get the upper hand back,’ Campbell said of the latter case. ‘It’s easy hindsight, and I get it. But I don’t regret those decisions. And that’s hard. That’s hard because we didn’t come through.

‘I understand the scrutiny I’ll get. That’s part of the gig, man.’

The reversal of fortune was so pronounced. The tough catches the Lions made in the first half, they mishandled in the second half. Case in point: Reynolds dropped a third-and-9 throw from Goff late in the third quarter. On the punt that followed — a 74-yarder from John Fox — Chase Lucas barely stepped in the end zone while trying to down the ball inside the 1-yard line. Touchback.

Those were the breaks.

By that time, school was out. The momentum had shifted. After Campbell passed up the field goal for a second time, the 49ers took possession and marched 70 yards on a drive capped by a 3-yard touchdown from Elijah Mitchell, and it was pretty much ballgame. The 49ers were up by 10.

The 49ers are headed to Las Vegas, with a quarterback, Purdy, who entered the NFL last season as Mr. Irrelevant, leading a historic comeback.

But the flip side of this is just as compelling. The Lions finally had it in their hands — the first Super Bowl berth in franchise history — and let it slip away.

‘That feeling that we all had walking off of that field, I don’t think any one of us want to feel that again,’ St. Brown said.

In his postgame message, Campbell told his players that may have been their only shot. He could be right.

‘Do I think that? No,’ he said. ‘Do I believe that? No. But I know how hard it is to get here. I’m well-aware, and it’s going to be twice as hard to get back to this point next year. That’s the reality.’

And it’s a reality check that’s tougher to swallow for the way it went down. 

The NHL is down to a little more than a handful of games before it begins its All-Star break on Thursday.

The season will resume the following week for the stretch drive toward the playoffs.

Among the six games are one that could change the Western Conference wild-card standings and a rematch of a game that had a scary moment and got nasty.

Here is the Stanley Cup playoff bracket as it stands on the morning of Jan. 29, plus key games for the shortened week and the All-Star weekend schedule at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.

This file will be updated during the season (full standings here).

NHL TRACKER: News and analysis on the latest transactions

Eastern Conference playoff bracket

If the season ended on Jan. 28, here’s how the Eastern Conference playoff matchups would align (based on points):

Boston Bruins (A1) vs. Detroit Red Wings (WC2)

Florida Panthers (A2) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (A3)

New York Rangers (M1) vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (WC1)

Carolina Hurricanes (M2) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (M3)

The winners of the top two series would face each other in the second round, as would the winners of the bottom two series.

Western Conference playoff bracket

If the season ended on Jan. 28, here’s how the Western Conference playoff matchups would align (based on points):

Vancouver Canucks (P1) vs. St. Louis Blues (WC2)

Vegas Golden Knights (P2) vs. Edmonton Oilers (P3)

Colorado Avalanche (C1) vs. Los Angeles Kings (WC1)

Dallas Stars (C2) vs. Winnipeg Jets (C3)

The winners of the top two series would face each other in the second round, as would the winners of the bottom two series.

Key: A-Atlantic Division. C-Central. M-Metropolitan. P-Pacific. WC-wild card

Key games this week

All times p.m. ET

MONDAY

WEDNESDAY

Ottawa Senators at Detroit Red Wings, 7: Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin was knocked unconscious when he was hit by Ottawa’s Mathieu Joseph and fell into the Senators’ Parker Kelly. When David Perron saw his teammate lying on the ice, he cross-checked Senators defenseman Artem Zub and landed a six-game suspension. Larkin returned nine days later and is on an 11-game point streak.

Los Angeles Kings at Nashville Predators, 7:30: The slumping Kings have only two wins in their last 16 games but opened the week holding the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The Predators, who are in the mix, have lost three of their last four games.

,ALL-STAR WEEKEND

Thursday, 6 (ESPN): All-Star captains Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, plus co-captains Jack Hughes and brother Quinn will draft their 11-player teams.

Friday, 7 (ESPN): NHL All-Star skills competition. There will be 12 participants in this year’s events under a revamped format.

Saturday, 3 (ABC): NHL All-Star Game

When do the Stanley Cup playoffs begin?

They’re scheduled to begin on April 22. The last possible day of the Stanley Cup Final is June 24.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Detroit Lions passed on two long field goals for fourth down attempts they failed to convert in Sunday’s 34-31 NFC championship game loss to the San Francisco 49ers, but Lions coach Dan Campbell said he doesn’t regret either of those decisions.

‘It’s easy hindsight and I get it,’ Campbell said. ‘I get that. But I don’t regret those decisions and that’s hard. That’s hard, because they didn’t — we didn’t come through, it wasn’t able to work out, but I don’t. I don’t. And I understand the scrutiny I’ll get, that’s part of the gig. But we just — it just didn’t work out.’

The Lions raced to a 24-7 halftime lead and appeared to be on their way to their first ever Super Bowl before the 49ers rallied for 27 straight points in the second half.

The 49ers opened the third quarter with a long field goal drive, then scored two touchdowns in a 2-minute, 15-second span later in the period after the Lions failed to convert a fourth-and-2 from the San Francisco 28-yard line.

Nick Bosa beat Taylor Decker to pressure Jared Goff on the play, and Goff threw incomplete to Josh Reynolds after he stepped up in the pocket to avoid a sack.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

‘We didn’t connect,’ Goff said. ‘I’ll throw a better ball next time.’

You can watch Campbell’s answer below:

The 49ers led, 27-24, midway through the fourth quarter when Campbell again eschewed a long field goal, this one from 48 yards, to try and convert on fourth-and-3.

Goff was flushed from the pocket by pressure up the middle by Arik Armstead and fluttered an incompletion to Amon-Ra St. Brown as he rolled to his right.

The 49ers followed with a seven-play, 70-yard touchdown drive to clinch the game.

Goff said he doesn’t believe the Lions’ failed conversion attempts flipped momentum San Francisco’s way — ‘I loved them. We got to convert,’ he said — and he defended Campbell’s aggressive approach Sunday.

‘He believes in us,’ Goff said. ‘I don’t know what the numbers are but we had a lot of big-time conversions this year that changed games and I don’t know what we were today. I know we had the two we didn’t convert (and were 1-for-3 overall). It can change a game if you convert them and we didn’t. And that’s part of the reason why we lost.’

Campbell has been one of the NFL’s most aggressive coaches in fourth-down situations since he took over as Lions coach in 2021, and those decisions helped fuel the Lions’ rise to contention and this year’s run to the NFC title game.

The Lions set an NFL record for fourth down attempts (41) in 2021 and are 65 of 123 overall (52.8%) in Campbell’s three seasons as coach. They converted a fake punt that keyed an early-season win over the Kansas City Chiefs and went 3 for 5 on fourth downs in this year’s playoffs.

Campbell said he passed on the would-be game-tying field goal on his second conversion attempt Sunday to try and get momentum back on the Lions’ side.

‘I just felt really good about us converting and getting our momentum and not letting them play long ball,’ he said. ‘They were bleeding the clock out, that’s what they do and I wanted to get the upper hand back.’

Instead, the Lions failed, and they’re headed home for the season.