Juicy subplots don’t matter in Lions-Rams clash
Campbell: ‘Win or go home’ is motivation enough for team
Dan Campbell understands why people are “fascinated” by his team’s wild-card matchup with the Los Angeles Rams, but given the winor-go-home nature of the NFL’s postseason tournament, he doesn’t have time to get caught up in the subplots of the game.
“I guess I can appreciate (it) if I’m sitting where other people are,” Campbell said Monday. “I understand it’s one of these stories.”
Eventually, this week will be about football and what happens between the white lines when the Detroit Lions host their playoff opener Sunday at Ford Field. How to block Aaron Donald. How to stop Matthew Stafford and the Rams’ potent offense. How to attack a defense that’s given up more than three touchdowns just once since Halloween.
For now, though, the storylines are the story, and the biggest ones center around the quarterbacks on both teams.
Stafford is facing the team he once dreamed of hoisting a title with but never led to any postseason success.
The Lions took Stafford first overall in the 2009 draft, made him the face of their franchise for 12 seasons and only occasionally put a supporting cast around him viable enough to make the playoffs. He went winless in three postseason games in Detroit and never lead the organization to a division title.
Sunday will mark Stafford’s first trip to Ford Field since he asked for a trade after the 2020 season.
The Lions, with a new general manager (Brad Holmes) and head coach (Campbell), accommodated that request, and Holmes found an eager taker in the team he spent 18 years working for, the Rams.
The Rams and head coach Sean McVay were anxious to part ways with their own former No. 1 overall pick quarterback and traded Jared Goff and three draft picks to the Lions to bring Stafford aboard.
Stafford led the Rams to the Super Bowl in his first season with the team, while Goff, three years after being left for dead in L.A., has revived his career in Detroit. He finished second
in the NFL in passing yards and fourth in touchdowns this season while leading the Lions to 12 wins for the second time in franchise history.
A victory Sunday would do wonders for Goff’s legacy, while a loss could open old wounds.
“Goff knows this, but we win as a team,” Campbell said. “This is about the Lions vs. the Rams, and we win with three phases here and he’s a huge part of that and all he’s got to do is do his part and he knows that. So, just do what you’ve been doing all year.”
That’s easier said than done in the playoffs, though the teams that have most postseason success have mastered that fine art.
Campbell said after Sunday’s win over the
Minnesota Vikings it is imperative the Lions stay true to the formula they’ve won with all season, and he reiterated Monday how important it is to maintain normalcy while embracing the magnitude of the stage.
“You don’t change who you are and what you’ve been doing,” he said. “You treat it like any other week. You’ve got to go do your job, and they’ll understand, once they get in the game, the ones who’ve been here, they’ll know, but the ones who haven’t, they’ll figure out real quick that the intensity level will go up and you’ll just naturally fall right in line.”
There are other storylines that will captivate imaginations this week before football does.
Holmes, the longtime former Rams executive, built one of the best rosters in the NFL after apprenticing under Rams GM Les Snead. McVay and Campbell are two of the best coaches in the league, and Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson may be McVay’s equal when it comes to offensive genius. And then there’s the simple dreaminess of being here.
As the Lions get ready for their first home playoff game in three decades, three wins from their first ever Super Bowl, Campbell said he won’t use any of the week’s juicy subplots to motivate his team.
“Look, I don’t think I need to say anything about that,” he said. “I think everybody understands what that is, and we certainly we have a lot of guys that have familiarity with that other there . ... Look, we want to win this and, look, they’re going to want to win it for other reasons, but ultimately, it’s win or go home.”