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Detroit Lions 'ready' for Matthew Stafford, Rams after tying franchise record for wins
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- Detroit Lions 'ready' for Matthew Stafford, Rams after tying franchise record for wins
The NFL couldn't have written a better script.
The Detroit Lions beat the Minnesota Vikings in their regular season finale Sunday, 30-20, to tie the franchise record for most wins in a season, and their reward in the playoffs will be a wild card game next week against old friend Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams at Ford Field.
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The Lions traded Stafford to the Rams to jumpstart their rebuild three years ago this month, weeks after they hired Dan Campbell as head coach and Brad Holmes (from the Rams front office) as general manager.
Stafford led the Rams to a Super Bowl in his first season in L.A., while his old team – the one he never led to playoff success – has flourished thanks in part to his replacement, ex-Rams QB Jared Goff , and the three draft picks they acquired in the deal.
Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs (26) celebrates his touchdown run with teammates during the Minnesota Vikings game at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024.
INJURY NEWS: Sam LaPorta injury: Why Detroit Lions aren't optimistic about status for playoff opener
It's not for all the marbles.
The Lions would need to win three straight playoff games, two of them likely coming on the road, to be in that spot.
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But it's the marquee game of the wild card round of the playoffs, and all eyes will be on Campbell, Goff, and a Lions team playing its first home postseason game in 30 years.
"I think we're ready, man," Goff said after the Lions' win over the Vikings. "I think Dan said it best at the end there like no one's been through the kind of adversity this group has been through the last couple of years. We're ready. Yeah, we're ready. It feels like we've been waiting for quite some time to get these opportunities and they're here now. Ford Field will be rocking, and it'll be fun."
Asked about the possibility of playing the Rams, who needed to win a late-afternoon game Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers to secure the matchup, Goff said, "It may be them, it may be somebody else. We'll see. A lot of buddies on that team and it'd be good to see them, but yeah, we'll see who it is."
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The Lions (12-5) played Goff and their starters their full complement of minutes Sunday in hopes of moving up from the three to the two seed and lost two key contributors to knee injuries in the process.
Tight end Sam LaPorta, the Lions' leading receiver, left late in the first half with a left knee injury that left Campbell pessimistic about his chances of playing in the first round of the playoffs, and punt returner Kalif Raymond suffered a similar injury in the fourth quarter.
The 49ers are the top seed in the NFC and have a first-round bye, despite their loss Sunday, and the Dallas Cowboys beat the Washington Commanders to secure the No. 2 seed.
The Cowboys host the Green Bay Packers in their playoff opener, while the NFC South champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers host the reeling Philadelphia Eagles .
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If the Lions beat the Rams next week, they would be in line for a divisional-round rematch with the Cowboys. The Cowboys beat the Lions last week, 20-19, after officials disallowed a disputed Lions two-point conversion. Stafford also lost a disputed playoff game to the Cowboys as Lions quarterback in the 2014 postseason, when officials picked up a fourth-quarter penalty flag for pass interference.
However the matchups shake out, Campbell said his players will be ready for everything that comes with playoff football.
"You're not going to have to worry about players getting up for the playoffs and the intensity level. It'll be there," Campbell said. "It's just staying true to the formula and what you do and the way you prepare. And as long as you handle that, it's when what happens is now all the horses are out there and you just want to break away and if you start doing something – you're dying to go make a play and you start pressing too much, then it puts strain on somebody else around you and that's when a lot of times when you get into these environments in the tournament that's what can cost you.
"So just one more time, you just worry about your responsibility, your plays will come. Play within the system, and the other thing is pressure. Pressure. People will crack under pressure. I feel like this team's been put under enormous amount of pressure and we've risen to the challenge. So I feel like they're ready for that."
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LIONS GRADES: Jared Goff, Dan Campbell help ace playoff tune-up
On Sunday, the Lions played loose and free in beating the Vikings (7-10) for the second time in three weeks.
LaPorta and Jahmyr Gibbs scored first-quarter touchdowns as the Lions raced to a 13-0 lead. Aidan Hutchinson had two sacks and the Lions intercepted two Nick Mullens passes in the fourth quarter to clinch the victory. Goff spent the final series of the game throwing short completions to Josh Reynolds to help the receiver hit a $250,000 escalator for hitting 600 yards receiving on the season.
Reynolds, who entered the game needing 36 yards to collect the check, finished with five catches for 44 yards; he caught four passes for 26 yards on the Lions' final four offensive plays.
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"That player does all the dirty work he does for us, all the stuff in the run game, all the blocking, all the unselfish play, then we're going to do whatever it takes to get him something that he's got," Campbell said. "That's the mindset, that's all."
Goff completed 23 of 32 passes for 320 yards, St. Brown caught seven passes for 144 yards and scored on a 70-yard catch and run, and David Montgomery had 10 carries for 40 yards to top 1,000 yards rushing for the second time in his career.
Detroit Lions running back David Montgomery runs the ball against the Minnesota Vikings at Ford Field in Detroit on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024.
Montgomery scored on a 1-yard run midway through the third quarter to give the Lions a 20-6 lead, and then Mullens threw late touchdown passes to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison to keep the outcome in doubt until C.J. Gardner-Johnson, playing for the first time since he tore his pectoral muscle in Week 2, intercepted his first pass of the season with 2:08 to play.
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Mullens finished 30 of 44 passing for 396 yards and Jefferson had 12 catches for 192 yards for the Vikings, who missed the playoffs one year after winning the NFC North.
"We wanted to go in and finish the year strong heading into the playoffs," St. Brown said. "I think it's going to spring-boost us into a tough tournament that some of us haven't been in, some of us have. So we finished the year off strong how we wanted. Now it's win or go home for now."
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com . Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Lions 'ready' for Matthew Stafford, Rams after Vikings win
