Down goes Dallas! Lions to host second-round playoff game if they beat L.A.

DETROIT — Ball don’t lie.

The Detroit Lions would have been guaranteed a second-round home playoff game had the officials not boned that 2-point play in Dallas. In the end, they’re still guaranteed a home second-round playoff game — all thanks to the second-seeded Cowboys’ epic collapse in a 48-32 loss against the seventh-seed Green Bay Packers — a score that was greeted with enormous cheers when shown on the video boards at Ford Field.

With Dallas out of the picture, the third-seeded Lions are set to host a divisional game next weekend if they’re able to get past the Los Angeles Rams in a wild-card game on Sunday Night Football. If they advance, they will host the winner of Monday’s game between No. 4 Philadelphia and No. 5 Tampa Bay.

They already plowed Tampa 20-6 back in October, despite finishing that game without either of their top two running backs. The defense enjoyed one of its best games of the season, holding Baker Mayfield to his worst passer rating of the year (56.8) while yielding just 46 yards on the ground. Tampa didn’t score a touchdown for the only time this season.

Offensively, quarterback Jared Goff completed 30 of 44 passes for 353 yards and hooked up with Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jameson Williams for touchdowns. St. Brown finished with 12 catches for 124 yards overall, buoying the offense in a game that Jahmyr Gibbs didn’t play, and David Montgomery left with an injury.

Detroit didn’t face Philadelphia this season, although the idea of Eagles defensive playcaller Matt Patricia making his return to Ford Field — just one week after Matthew Stafford did the same — is a delicious storyline to consider. Patricia ran Detroit into the ground while serving as head coach from 2018-20, and was last seen at Ford Field getting booed out of the building in a lopsided Thanksgiving loss against a Texans team that had fired its coach.

Hours later, the Lions did the same to Patricia — the first domino to fall in a three-year rebuild that has catapaulted the Lions into their first home playoff game in 30 years. Now take care of business in that game against L.A., and they’ll be back in their house next week — with a trip to the NFC championship game at stake.

Detroit Lions fans show their ‘All Grit’ pride at first home playoff game in 30 years