DETROIT — One of the biggest compliments you can give this Detroit Lions organization is that it’s no longer graded on a curve.
Moral victories? A thing of the past. The coddling after crushing, closely contested defeats? That’s dead, too. Winning breeds expectations, pressure, new standards and a level of play you’re accustomed to and held to. It’s everything that comes with being the contender these Lions believe they are.
But one thing that’ll never go away? The feeling after a hard-fought win. Much like Sunday’s against the Los Angeles Rams in overtime.
A damn good win pic.twitter.com/FLQf8dHd9C
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 9, 2024
“A win is a win,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell told his team after Detroit’s 26-20 win over Los Angeles. “That team gave us everything they had, man. They did. They threw it at us, man. And give them some credit. … But the bottom line is, man, it’s hard to break us now. As a matter of fact, you ain’t gonna do it.”
Sequels are rarely better than the original. Considering what happened just eight months ago on this very field, you couldn’t expect a game like this to reach those levels — even ahead of arguably the most anticipated season in the history of this franchise.
That 24-23 playoff win over the Rams exorcized demons. It caused tears to stream down the faces of folks across the state of Michigan and beyond. It had people in this town wishing their departed loved ones were here to witness it with them. And most importantly, it breathed new life into this organization — putting the league on notice that the Lions had arrived.
What we saw on Sunday night was a continuation of January’s run, in different ways. The Lions were hosting a nationally televised prime-time game to start the season. A pregame segment on the broadcast featured Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson, narrating the year that was and the year ahead. It all feeds into what the Lions have become — a team with expectations of a contender. They’re not sneaking up on anybody anymore.
As such, there will be more scrutiny. More eyeballs. You’re going to get everyone’s best, week in and week out. And if you aren’t ready, people will question if you’re built for this or not.
The Lions got that from the Rams on Sunday. Detroit’s vaunted rushing attack was held in check early. An offensive line viewed as one of the best in football was shaky at times. Detroit’s two star pass-catchers — Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta — were held to a combined seven receptions for 58 yards. Jared Goff threw one interception and had another one dropped.
Over on defense, missed tackles, sloppy angles to the ball, dropped interceptions, costly penalties and a failure to rattle old friend Matthew Stafford nearly ruined the party that was Ford Field. Factor in the Rams playing without a starting cornerback, their top three offensive tackles, a starting guard and star wide receiver Puka Nacua for much of the game, and it’s fair to have criticisms about how this game was trending for the Lions.
“All right, start here,” Campbell said after the game. “Man, I give that team a ton of credit, what Sean (McVay) did with that team, getting them in here. I thought they had a heck of a plan, they adjusted to some things we threw at them well, and they just kept coming, they fought and they fought. I respect it, I do. That quarterback, Stafford, I thought played lights out and played tough and hit after hit just kept getting up and making unbelievable throws. I just give them a lot of credit.
“… But we’re hard to break. We did what we had to do.”
Indeed, Campbell’s Lions are. And what made this one all the more fascinating is that Detroit’s stars weren’t the ones leading the charge for much of this one. This team received major contributions from new faces and new contributors.
Marcus Davenport, a forgotten man in this league as injuries have taken a toll on his body, signed here to revive his career and be the missing piece. Lions DC Aaron Glenn coached Davenport in New Orleans and knows the type of player he can be when healthy. In many ways, he’s the blueprint for what the Lions want opposite of Aidan Hutchinson — a strong, powerful edge-setter with a bull rush that would make a matador tremble in fear. His fingerprints were all over this one, finishing with a half-sack, four QB hits and pressure throughout the night.
Former No. 12 overall pick Jameson Williams, still working to live up to the pedigree three years in, certainly looked like one tonight. With the offense stagnant for much of the night, it was Williams who kept them afloat. How many times could you say that throughout his young career? His 52-yard touchdown showed all the tools the Lions fell in love with two years ago — the speed, the separation, the swagger. He finished the night with a career-high 121 yards on five receptions, totaling 134 yards of offense. He received his first-ever game ball after the night. And he doesn’t plan on letting go of it anytime soon.
“It means a lot, you know?” Williams said. “I put in a lot of work, not just this year. It’s been continuous work ever since I got in the League, and it’s just time to show. It’s first game, it’s just the start though. We got 16 more in the regular season, playoffs, we got a lot more ball to play. It’s just a start.”
New prized possession pic.twitter.com/XRL4TPUTjB
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 9, 2024
Jake Bates, the UFL-turned-NFL kicker, made his regular-season debut. A rocky training camp led some to wonder how effective Bates would be on the sport’s biggest stage, playing a position that’s just as much mental as it is physical. But Bates is no stranger to this field. He made a name for himself making clutch kicks for the Michigan Panthers. He did the same for his new franchise, going 2-for-2 on extra points and 2-for-2 on field goals — including a 32-yarder that tied the game with 17 seconds left in regulation.
When the lights came on and it mattered most, you saw the real identity of this football team. An ice-cold Detroit offense that was held to just seven second-half points until the final minutes put together the drive it needed — setting up Bates to tie it at 20 apiece. On the ensuing Rams possession, with 17 seconds to go and all three timeouts in their arsenal, it was Hutchinson’s turn to make a play. He ended regulation with a sack, preventing a red-hot Stafford from piercing the hearts of Lions fans everywhere and playing spoiler in a building he knows all too well.
Aidan Hutchinson sends it to OT with the sack#LARvsDET | 📺 NBC pic.twitter.com/ZLEj4lO4jr
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 9, 2024
That set up what proved to be a thrilling finish. When the Lions won the coin toss in overtime and elected to receive, they went back to their roots and ran the damn ball.
A gain of 12. A rush for 21. A pickup of nine. The Rams could only watch as the Lions played bully ball, inching closer and closer to ending it.
Before the final play of the evening, with the ball on the LA 1-yard line, Goff turned to running back David Montgomery with a message.
“This is scoring,” Goff told Montgomery.
Let’s check the tape.
All Grit All Game.
Walk it off, @montgomerdavid 🙌 pic.twitter.com/kyOHTX0TtV
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) September 9, 2024
Montgomery’s 1-yard run gave the Lions a 26-20 walk-off win and a 1-0 start to the season. This one was sloppy, no question about it. Campbell chalked some of it up to rust. The film won’t be kind to many upon further review, and there’s much to clean up ahead of next Sunday’s meeting between another team the Lions faced in last year’s playoff run — the 1-0 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
If that win didn’t feel good to you, as a Lions fan, your expectations for this team have changed. In many ways, that means the Lions are right where they’re supposed to be. The fact that we can sit here and discuss a victory that looked like a loss, and probably would be a loss for so many Lions teams of the past, highlights the bottom line.
This team remains hard to break. Don’t underestimate the power of that in the long run.
(Photo of David Montgomery celebrating after scoring the game-winning touchdown: Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
