1994 NFC Wild Card:
December 31, 1994
Detroit Lions at
Green Bay Packers
Lambeau Field, Green
Bay, WI
Weather: 31 °F (−1
°C), partly cloudy
This was the second straight
year that division foes, Green Bay and Detroit, played each other in the wild
card game. In 1993, the game had been played at the Silverdome in Pontiac,
Michigan, with the Packers winning the back-and-forth affair, 28-24, when
Packers’ quarterback, Brett Favre, hit receiver, Sterling Sharpe, with a
40-yard touchdown pass in the final minutes of the game. For the rematch, Green
Bay would be without Sharpe, who suffered what would eventually become a
career-ending neck injury on the final week of the regular season.
The NFC Central division, long
known as the black-and-blue division, would send four teams to the playoffs in
1994. The Minnesota Vikings won the division and would play the Chicago Bears
the following day. The Bears would upset the Vikings, 35-18.
This was the first playoff game
at Lambeau field since 1982 and only the second since the glory days of the
Packers in the 1960s. Aside from Favre leading the offense, the defense was
lead by the Minister of Defense, all-pro Reggie White, who had signed as a free
agent from the Philadelphia Eagles prior to the 1993 season. It would be the
Packers defense, led by White, that would make the biggest impact on this wild
card game.
The Lions were led, as they
pretty much were for the entire decade of the 90s, by running back Barry
Sanders. In 1994, Sanders won his second NFL rushing title with 1883 yards but
only scored seven touchdowns. Barry would play ten years in the NFL and never
finish with less than 1000 yards rushing in a season. His lowest total had come
in 1993 with 1115 yards after missing five games due to injury.
The Packers would get on the
scoreboard first when Favre engineered a 14-play, 76-yard drive that
culminated in a three-yard touchdown run by running back, Dorsey Levens. Kicker
Chris Jacke would add a field goal in the second quarter and the Packers took a
10-0 lead into halftime.
The teams traded field goals in
the fourth quarter before the Lions scored their first touchdown of the game
when quarterback, Dave Krieg, connected with receiver Brett Perriman for a
three yard pass to cut the Packer lead to three points at 13-10. Another Jacke
field goal made in 16-10.
The Lions embarked on a
potential game-winning drive and moved the ball to the Green Bay eleven-yard
line with time running out. After Sanders gained two yards and Krieg threw
incomplete, Packer linebacker, Bryce Paup, sacked the Detroit quarterback for
six yards, setting up a fourth-and-fourteen. Krieg threw a pass into the end
zone and appeared to have the winning score when receiver Herman Moore caught
the ball. However, Moore’s foot came down out-of-bounds and the result was an
incompletion, ending the drive and Detroit’s chance to win the game. Green Bay
conceded a safety on the final play of the game and the final score was 16-12.
The story of the game, though, was the job the Packer defense did on Barry
Sanders. The Detroit runner, the rushing leader for 1994, carried the ball only
13 times for minus-one yard, the lowest single-game total of his Hall-of-Fame
career. His longest run of the day was seven yards. On six of his carries, he
was stopped for negative yardage.
It was truly a remarkable
performance by the Pack on defense, as they picked up the struggling offense.
Without his best receiver, Favre still managed to complete 23 of 38 passes for
263 yards but couldn’t finish off drives throughout the day. Neither team
committed a turnover and the Packers out gained the Lions in yards, 336 to 171.
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