Dan Campbell links winless 2008 Lions to 2023 playoff run - ESPN

DETROIT — There are two numbers Detroiters will never forget: 0 and 16.

They represent the Detroit Lions' 2008 season — the one in which they became the first team in NFL history to play a 16-game schedule without winning a game (though the 2017 Cleveland Browns eventually joined them).

The team set a record for most losses in a season, while allowing the third-most points, the fourth-most touchdowns and the second-most rushing touchdowns in league history. Those Lions were eliminated from playoff contention in Week 11, which was tied for the earliest a team's postseason hopes had been dashed since 1990.

Five different quarterbacks threw at least one pass for Detroit — Dan Orlovsky, Jon Kitna, Daunte Culpepper, Drew Stanton and Drew Henson — with one of them making the most emblematic play of that miserable season.

• The 0-16 Lions are happy for '23 crew
• How will Bills help Josh Allen?
• Will Broncos re-sign Jewell?
• Browns' ultimate goal hinges on Watson
• Identifying the Saints' biggest questions
• Potential Giants D-coordinators

In a Week 6 game at the Minnesota Vikings, Orlovsky took a shotgun snap from the Lions' 1-yard line. Feeling pressure from Vikings defensive end Jared Allen, he scrambled to his right and took about six steps out of the back of the end zone before realizing he had unwittingly handed Minnesota a safety.

It was a play that would live in infamy, as would the team. But there was a silver lining, though the Lions didn't know it at the time. When the current Lions visit the San Francisco 49ers for Sunday's NFC Championship Game (6:30 p.m. ET, Fox), Dan Campbell, a veteran tight end on that 2008 team, will lead them out. Over his three years as head coach in Detroit, Campbell has taken the team