The Barry Sanders Era, Season by Season

No player in Lions history made a stadium hold its breath like Barry Sanders. Every carry could be a loss of three or a 60-yard touchdown, and sometimes it was both on the same play. For 10 seasons, from 1989 to 1998, he was the reason to watch Detroit football.

Here's a season-by-season look at the Barry Sanders era, what the team around him accomplished, and why it ended the way it did.

The draft and a famous decision

Detroit took Sanders, a Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma State, with the third overall pick in 1989. He shared the rookie spotlight with quarterback Rodney Peete. The team went 7-9, but Sanders ran for 1,470 yards on 280 carries.

His rookie year also produced one of the first signs of the kind of player he was. He finished just 10 yards short of the rushing title, behind Christian Okoye. He could have gone back in late in the final game to chase it. With the Lions up 31-24 and less than a minute left, he passed. He won Offensive Rookie of the Year anyway, and the choice to sit became part of his legend: the stat mattered less to him than the game.

The first title and the best season

Detroit had a young core around him, including future Pro Bowlers Jerry Ball, Bennie Blades and Chris Spielman. The 1990 team still slipped to 6-10, though Sanders won the first of his four rushing titles with 1,304 yards, seven more than Buffalo's Thurman Thomas.

Then came 1991, the high point of the era. The season opened with a 45-0 loss to Washington on national TV. Detroit answered with five straight wins and finished 12-4, its first division title in eight years. Late in the year, guard Mike Utley suffered a paralyzing injury against the Rams. As he was carted off, he gave a thumbs up to the crowd and his teammates, and that gesture became the team's rallying cry.

In the divisional round, Detroit hosted its first playoff game since 1957 and beat Dallas 38-6. It was the franchise's first playoff win since that 1957 title. The run ended in the NFC Championship Game, where Washington won 41-10.

Close, but not close enough

The rest of the decade followed a frustrating pattern: good seasons and early playoff exits.

- 1992: 5-11, last in the division.
- 1993: 10-6 and a division title, then a 28-24 wild-card loss to Green Bay.
- 1994: 9-7, then another wild-card loss to the Packers, 16-12.
- 1995: 10-6 after an 0-3 start, then a 58-37 wild-card loss at Philadelphia.
- 1996: 5-11. Wayne Fontes was fired and Bobby Ross replaced him.

2,053 yards

In 1997, Sanders produced the season he's remembered for. He ran for 2,053 yards and became only the third running back in the 2,000-yard club. Detroit went 9-7, made the playoffs and lost to Tampa Bay 20-10 in the wild-card round.

The next season, the Lions dropped to 5-11 and finished fourth in the NFC Central. Then Sanders announced his retirement, walking away after a decade in which he won four rushing titles and carried an offense nearly every week.

Our Take

In 10 seasons, Sanders' teams made the playoffs five times and won exactly one postseason game. That is the hard truth of the era, and it's no knock on him. A single great runner can make an offense dangerous, but he can't fix a defense, a quarterback room or a roster that rises and falls year to year.

That's why today's Lions feel different. The lesson of the Sanders years was that you build the whole team, not around one superstar. Detroit spent a long time learning it.

One Pride.

Sources: [Wikipedia, History of the Detroit Lions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Detroit_Lions)