A win and you get the No. 1 seed, a much-needed bye week, and home-field advantage throughout the NFL playoffs. A loss and you’re the No. 5 seed and will have to go on the road in a wild-card matchup next weekend. The stakes could not be higher for a regular-season game, yet this was the scenario as the Minnesota Vikings squared off with the Lions in Detroit on Sunday night.
The result? A 31-9 Lions win to cap an incredible 15-2 regular season. It is the first time in franchise history that Detroit has earned a No. 1 seed in the playoffs, and the first time the Lions have won 15 games in a season.
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The surprisingly low-scoring contest broke open in the second half as Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs scored three straight touchdowns (and four total). Perhaps just as significant to Detroit’s triumph, however, was the return of linebacker and team captain Alex Anzalone from injury.
WELCOME BACK 🅰️🅰️@AlexAnzalone34 pic.twitter.com/rcQamj0i8z
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 6, 2025
Sunday’s showdown was Anzalone’s first since breaking his left forearm Nov. 17, and despite wearing a carbon-fiber cast, the defensive terror with his distinctive long, blonde locks picked up right where he left off. The 30-year-old recorded a team-high seven total tackles, as well as a pass deflection. Fueled by his return, Detroit’s defense held Minnesota without a touchdown and a season-low nine points.
“[Anzalone’s return] was huge,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said in his postgame press conference. “Look, I’ve said it before, he’s really our quarterback on defense. … There’s a lot of confidence he brings, a lot of energy. He can calm the storms. I thought it was going to take him a minute to work himself back in, and it didn’t take long at all. He was back to what he was before he got injured.”
In his own postgame press conference, Anzalone said Sunday night’s performance proved that Detroit’s oft-maligned defense was plenty good enough to win a Super Bowl.
“Tonight was a statement,” he said. “I think it was an opportunity to change the narrative against a really good offense — against great weapons, a great running back, a quarterback that’s really hot right now. There was an opportunity for us to affect that narrative that everyone else is talking about.”
Anzalone recognized the gift it was to play in the NFL when asked to reflect on his rehab from injury and the thunderous applause he received upon his return.
“Any time you get hurt or deal with adversity, mindset-wise it’s an opportunity to grow. I feel like I’ve grown in different ways. You get the game taken away from you, and when you come back, it’s a blessing to play again,” he said in the press conference.
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Anzalone, who wears thigh pads with a cross imprinted on them and writes “God First” in his Instagram and X bios, sought to approach his injury with faith in God right from the beginning.
“God is good,” he wrote in an Instagram post hours after learning that the severity of his forearm injury would sideline him for an extended time.
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Anzalone is in his eighth NFL season after being drafted out of Florida by the New Orleans Saints in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft. The best four seasons of his career have come in the last four after signing with Detroit in March 2021 to be a full-time starter. He recorded a career-best 129 combined tackles and three sacks a year ago, when he was named a Pro Bowl alternate for the first time in his career.
He shared about his faith when he joined the Sports Spectrum Podcast in June, and he was featured in the Fall 2024 edition of Sports Spectrum Magazine. Anzalone said he grew up in a Catholic family, but it wasn’t until his time with the Gators that he developed a personal relationship with his Heavenly Father. He began to desire to attend Bible studies and chapels and commune with God.
Also during his time at Florida, he met a young woman named Lindsey, who was on the women’s soccer team. The two became friends, began to date, and grew in faith together. They married in 2019 and now have two children, Cooper and Carter.
“You kind of understand the love that God had for us to send His Son,” Alex said on the podcast. “Without kids, it’s hard to really understand that and feel it. You feel it in your gut, that type of love, and it’s definitely something that’s indescribable.”
Last summer, Alex and Lindsey baptized their children.
“We want to make that outward declaration that we are going to raise our babies to believe in Jesus Christ,” Lindsey said in the magazine feature. “When we met in college, we were so young and really just starting on our journey in Christ on our own, out of our parents’ households. We were both raised in Christian homes, but our walk really grew as young adults together, which has been super special.”
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A strength that both Lindsey and Coach Campbell acknowledged about Anzalone is the calmness he imbues into others, whether it be at home or on the field. It stems from his relationship with God.
That steadfastness will be crucial as the Lions prepare for a deep playoff run, one they hope will end in New Orleans, the site of February’s Super Bowl. It would mark Detroit’s first-ever appearance in the big game.
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