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because they never played the same defense against us," Mitchell said. "The best I ever saw was (Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator) Fritz Shurmur because, in the playoff game (in 1994), he played everyone a gap wider and told them not to overpursue. They kept Barry inside."

By fanning out their defense and waiting for Sanders to come to them, instead of chasing him, the Packers held Sanders to minus-one yard rushing on 13 carries. The Packers won that game because sore-arm Detroit quarterback Dave Krieg couldn't capitalize.

Green Bay's strategy worked that time but, when it was tried by a few teams a year later, Mitchell and all the Lions receivers had career seasons because the passing game tore apart opponents using that strategy.

Defensive coordinators had a no-win proposition. Either focus all your efforts and resources to stop Sanders - and be at the mercy of the Lions quarterback - or be at the mercy of Sanders.

It wasn't a tough choice.

One of the players who benefited most was Erik Kramer, the last Lions quarterback to win a playoff game. It was 1991 and then-Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dave Wannstedt committed everyone to stopping the running game. It worked, as Sanders was held to just 22 rushing yards in the first three quarters.

Kramer, meanwhile, torched the Cowboys' undermanned secondary for 337 passing yards and three touchdowns in the 38-6 win - the only Lions playoff victory in the last 47 years. Ironically, even against a stacked defense, Sanders bolted for a 47-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to cap the blowout.

"With Barry, you always knew you were going to get a lot of vanilla looks out of the secondary," Kramer said. "Dallas was completely set up to stop Barry. They thought 'We'll stop the Hall-of-Fame guy and let somebody else beat us.' They never changed their defense."

Kramer made the Cowboys pay for that strategy, but he fully understands why the Dallas coaches were so adamant about not changing.

"What made Barry so special was that he could make (Chicago Bears middle linebacker and Hall of Famer) Mike Singletary miss - if they were both standing in a phone booth," Kramer said. "I'm not kidding. I remember a game against the Bears and there was a very small hole between guard and center and it was just Singletary and Barry. Not only did Singletary not tackle him, he never touched him. Barry went on for a 10-yard run or something and Singletary was on knees, tackling air.

"Barry was certainly the best runner I've ever seen."

Style counts big in the NFL if it did not why don't we talk about all the great kickers in history. They put up huge numbers in terms of points. Yea I know somehow kicking does not have that WOW effect that the best backs have. Do people say "Lets go to the game, I want to see the kickers"? No I don't think so, they will come to see a guy like Barry play. He was the main reason I went to all the Lions games. Even if they lost he was worth the price of admission. I can't say that about too many other backs.

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