History of the Detroit Lions that feat was Buddy Parker, in 1952–53 during his second and third seasons at the helm. In 1997, Barry Sanders ran for 2,053 rushing yards. At the time, his career total rushing 15,269 yards was second only to Walter Payton's 16,726 yards and he joined Jim Brown as the only players among the NFL's 50 all-time rushing leaders to average 5 yards a carry, but he retired abruptly after the 1998 season. Emmitt Smith has since broken Payton's record, accumulating 18,355 career rushing yards, which bumped down Sanders to the #3 spot on the list of total career rushing yards.
Dennis Brown (quarterback) accumulated 338 yards of total offense, breaking the single game conference record set by Bob Griese with 317 yards in 1966. He was also involved in 61 plays to surpass the conference record set by Paul Giel with 53 plays in 1953. Three weeks later against Wisconsin, Brown completed 12 of 17 passes for 232 yards. He threw touchdown passes of 60 yards to Jim Berline and 31 yards to Ron Johnson and scrambled 44 yards for a rushing touchdown. He totaled 274 yards of total offense before leaving the game in the fourth quarter after he had the wind