What is the farthest the Detroit Lions have ever gone in the NFL Playoffs?

A lot of the usual suspects are playing in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs with one notable exception. The Detroit Lions won their first playoff game since 1992 last week and now have a shot to advance to the NFC Championship Game with a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Ford Field on Sunday.

There are few NFL franchises outside of Cleveland that have tortured their fan bases more than the Lions, who have seen the basement of their division far more often than playoff success. This postseason run has a chance to be the greatest in franchise history, which isn't a high bar to clear.

Have the Detroit Lions ever won the Super Bowl?

Although the Lions do have four NFL Championships on their mantle, that success didn't really last past the 1970 merger. Detroit is one of just four NFL franchises that have failed to even reach the Super Bowl, with the others being the Browns and two recent expansion teams (Houston and Jacksonville).

There haven't been a lot of opportunities for Detroit to make a Super Bowl run as they have made the postseason only 12 times since the merger. As a frame of reference, the Green Bay Packers (one of Detroit's biggest divisional rivals) have made 25 postseason appearances in that same time span.

Farthest the Detroit Lions have gone in the NFL Playoffs

When you remove the pre-merger championships from the ledger, the furthest the Lions have advanced in the postseason was actually from the same 1991 season we referenced earlier. Detroit's 38-6 home win over Dallas in the Divisional Round in 1992 sent the Lions to the NFC Championship Game, where they lost 41-10 at Washington to finish one game shy of a Super Bowl appearance.

That season has been the high-water mark for Detroit to this point although this year's Lions team has a chance to match it with a win on Sunday.