Amon-Ra St. Brown and the Detroit Lions won their NFL home playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and are just one win away from reaching the Super Bowl for the first time.
At 31:23 on Sunday evening (January 21, 2024), St. Brown contributed the Lions’ fourth touchdown and thus secured the preliminary decision six and a half minutes before the end. Detroit will face the San Francisco 49ers in the National Football Conference final next weekend in Santa Clara.
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Even first half between Lions and Bucs
In a first quarter without any major highlights, there were field goals for both teams and little else to see on offense. The Lions defenders quickly rushed to Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield again and again and pulled him to the ground, but on the other hand the Lions couldn’t get into their rhythm.
After the score was 10:10 at halftime, that changed after the break. The hosts had the game better and better under control. The touchdowns from Jahmyr Gibbs and St. Brown in the final quarter increased the lead to more than seven points for the first time and created an exuberant atmosphere at Ford Field in Detroit.
An unusually large number of passes from quarterback Jared Goff towards St. Brown initially did not reach their destination. With eight passes caught, 77 yards and a touchdown, the 24-year-old son of a Leverkusen mother and a former US bodybuilder was once again a crucial factor for his team. A bad pass from Mayfield with 93 seconds left sealed the Lions’ victory.
San Francisco opponent of the Lions
In pouring rain on the west coast of the USA, the 49ers won their home game in the US professional football league against the Green Bay Packers with 24:21 on Saturday evening (January 20, 2024 / local time).
Quarterback Brock Purdy played below his level, but led the best NFC team in the main round to the winning touchdown 67 seconds before the end by Christian McCaffrey. “We put together an attack when the season was on the line. We got it done,” said Purdy: “The way I started, that had to be better.”
Jordan Love, the Packers’ playmaker, had his part in the entertainment value of the game with three touchdowns within five minutes in the third quarter, but in the end he threw one bad pass too many and deprived his team of any chance of victory.
Ravens easily against Texans
The Baltimore Ravens had much less trouble beating the Houston Texans 34:10 and are in the final of the American Football Conference (AFC). There it’s against the Kansas City Chiefs or the Buffalo Bills. Lamar Jackson was directly involved in all four touchdowns for his team – twice he threw the ball into the end zone and twice he carried the football there himself. NBA superstar LeBron James wrote on “X”, formerly “Twitter”: “Man, I love Lamar Jackson.”