The Detroit Lions have turned the page on the 2024 NFL season. However, this does not mean that there is no bitterness about what transpired in the NFC championship game. Lions cornerback Kindle Vildor is the latest player to publicly express his disgust with what happened in the second half of the game.
Vildor told reporters at Lions minicamp that he became so frustrated watching the NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers on NFL Network this spring that he shut off the television. He did, however, watch long enough to witness Brandon Aiyuk’s 51-yard reception in the third quarter. That play clearly struck a nerve with the veteran cornerback.
“I was just watching, and I was like, ‘They got so damn lucky, man,'” Vildor stated on June 4, as reported by Dave Birkett of The Detroit Free Press. “I am like, Dang, man. This is ridiculous. I ended up visiting the business with my family.” Aiyuk’s 51-yard reception may have been a Vildor interception. The pass originally struck Vildor on the face mask. But off the ricochet, Aiyuk caught a pass inside the Lions’ 5-yard line.
Brandon Aiyuk’s 51-Yard Catch Turned the Tide in the NFC Championship
San Francisco had already kicked a 43-yard field goal and stopped the Lions on fourth-and-2 to start the third quarter. So the momentum was shifting. But Aiyuk’s catch changed the entire game. Three plays after his 51-yard reception, the 49ers were in the end zone, cutting the Lions’ lead to seven points.
49ers scored 27 consecutive points in the second half before the Lions responded. San Francisco tallied three touchdowns during that stretch, the first of which was set up by Aiyuk’s grab.
That grab could have very easily been an interception.
I couldn’t believe it because I was so far on top of him, so I’m like, ‘OK, it’s coming right to me,’ and then at the last minute, he kind of put his hand up, and now I kind of put my hand up, and I kind of just lost it, and it just hit me right in the face and ended up going right to him,” Vildor explained. “It was just so unlucky and then after that it’s just, it was just crazy, man.” San Francisco’s momentum was so strong following that play that Vildor described it as “God was on their side.”
