Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff took a knee. A glorious, wonderful — can you believe this? — knee.

Fireworks went off in Ford Field, streamers rained down from the rafters, and most fans stayed in their seats for every second of it, watching and savoring, after the Lions’ 31-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

They screamed and danced and screamed some more — yes, this was personal. Yes, Detroit, this is a team to be proud of.

A team just like the 313.

On the rise.

After being knocked down for years.

“Here, man, it’s harsh winters, auto industry, blue collar, things aren’t always here,” said Lions coach Dan Campbell, whose team will play at San Francisco on Sunday in the NFC championship game. “I just think, that’s what we’re about. You want something the city can be proud of. You can look at those guys and say, ‘Man, I can back that guy. I can back that team. I can resonate with those group of guys. They’re kind of salty. They don’t quit. They play hard.’ And so, I feel like we’ve done that.”

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Indeed.

There is a tendency, after a game like this, to focus on one drive or one play.

But this victory, this tremendous accomplishment — advancing to the NFC championship game for the first time since the 1991 season and winning back-to-back playoff games for the first time since 1957 — was the epitome of something much bigger, where all these individuals came together and made history.

This was a team and a city coming together as one. Kind of salty. Refusing to give up. Shaking off winter and doing something magical.

Some of it happened over a period of years. It started with owner Sheila Hamp, who brought in Chris Spielman; then, they hired Brad Holmes and Campbell.

“This team was built a certain way for a reason,” offensive tackle Taylor Decker said, standing in the locker room. “And everybody that's in this locker room was hand-selected to be here.”

Hand-selected. What a wonderful way to say it.

Think of it this way:

Jahmyr Gibbs, a first-round pick in 2023, led the team on Sunday with 74 yards rushing and a touchdown — at times, he runs like a ghost. Impossible to grab. All you see is a vapor trail.

Sam LaPorta, a second-round pick in 2023, lead the team with nine catches — playing on a gimpy knee, he consistently made huge play after huge play.

And Brian Branch, another second-round pick in 2023, tied for the team lead with nine tackles — flat out, he’s a game-wrecker.

Three rookies. One draft class that tipped the balance in this game.

But if you focus only on the draft, you miss half the story.

This team is also about development.

It’s a guy like Derrick Barnes, the other fourth-round pick in 2021 (one pick after wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown) who made the game-clinching interception. But the story behind that interception is more telling than the play itself.

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“I’m proud of Derrick,” Campbell said. “He’s one of our guys that we drafted in the first year here and he was a later bloom, later-bloomer guy. It took him a little bit and then he really came on this season and he’s playing at a high level and just to see him — one of the biggest areas he’s grown at, not only just being able to up his level of play on defense, but his psyche. Something bad happens, something doesn’t quite go the way you want it to, man, he’s able to bounce back in a big way and it doesn’t affect him negatively. Man, he just — he keeps going. That’s where I feel the most growth and it’s why he’s playing at a high level. But that was a — what a huge play.”

You hear that? It’s not just teaching technique.

It’s teaching something far bigger.

Long after the game, in a joy-filled locker room, Barnes did interview after interview wearing nothing but a towel.

If nothing else, my man is confident. He's unfazed by the moment.

And he was asked: what did the defense prove today?

“That we’ve got dogs on our side of the ball, too,” Barnes said. “I think a lot of people sleep on what we have. We have great core players, great DBs, great linebackers, great defensive line. We let all the outside noise be the outside noise. We know who we are, we know what we can do.”

So many people deserve credit after this win.

Guys that epitomize toughness, like Frank Ragnow, who was basically playing on one leg.

“I'm telling you, man, (Ragnow) is a warrior,” Graham Glasgow said at his locker. “He can go out there and play no matter what. He's a beast.”

Sitting at his locker, St. Brown put on a pair of superhero shorts.

I mean, of course he did, right?

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Sure, St. Brown was kicking himself about a missed play — that’s just how he’s wired.

But he did plenty of superhero stuff, catching eight passes for a team-high 77 yards and a marvelous touchdown.

“I go back to when I was a rookie,” he said. “When I got here, a lot of the same guys on this this team, a lot of the same coaches. To look back and see what we started to where we are now, it's cool. If you told me my rookie year that we'd be in the NFC championship in two years, I don't know if I would believe you, but we're here now. It's right in front of us. We got a chance to do something special, we gotta keep going.”

Along the same row of lockers, Alex Anzalone sat with his shirt off, rocking back and forth to some Motown music.

“This is huge,” he smiled. “We're in the tournament and we're in the final four. We didn't play the cleanest at times. We have a lot to clean up.”

Yes, they have things to clean up — they gave up too many chunk plays.

The defense wasn’t perfect, but it was perfect when it had to be.

“I've been to an NFC championship one other time,” Anzalone said. “So it's the biggest game of my life. I'm excited.”

Yes, the leaders of this team have been here before — Campbell, Goff and Anzalone.

They have been in moments like this.

And nothing scares them.

Which seems fitting. That’s how Detroit is wired, too.

Nothing scares anybody from the 313.

This team and this city and this moment were made for each other.

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Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.

To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

Next up: 49ers

Matchup: Lions (14-5) at San Francisco (14-5), NFC championship game.

Kickoff: 6:30 p.m. Sunday; Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, California.

TV/radio: Fox; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Line: 49ers by 6½.

At stake: Sunday’s winner will face the winner of Sunday’s AFC title game between the Ravens and Chiefs in Super Bowl 58 on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions perfectly represent city: Tough, skilled, never scared