Getty Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jared Goff sent a message on Detroit Lions fans after the NFC divisional playoff matchup.
Preparation for the NFC divisional round included a little trash talk from Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield. But after the Detroit Lions won the playoff matchup, 31-23, Mayfield delivered nothing but respect for his opponent.
In particular, Mayfield raved about the Lions fans at Ford Field.
“Yeah, this is a great atmosphere,” Mayfield told reporters after the game. “You can tell this city has had a lot of pent-up emotion and been waiting a long time for this. I can’t say that I exactly went through it in Cleveland when we went and made our playoff run because it was the Covid year. But this place, they’ve earned that. Dan Campbell’s done a hell of a job turning this thing around.
“I’m happy for Jared (Goff), and they have a lot of good players, so they play hard. You can tell, this city they play for each other, and so it was a great atmosphere. They got the best of us.”
The Ford Field crowd was electric for the second week in a row during the NFC divisional round. While the Buccaneers only committed 1 offensive penalty, Tampa Bay made several mistakes in blocking assignments, which led to 4 Lions sacks.
The loud noise could have contributed to those missed blocking assignments.
Lions Fans Chant QB Jared Goff’s Name Again
Mayfield wasn’t the only one who found the crowd incredible at Ford Field.
“They’re the best. Look around right now,” Lions quarterback Jared Goff said to NBC’s Melissa Stark on the field after the game. “They’re not going to leave here for quite some time. This is our last one in front of them, and they were special tonight as they were last week.
“They deserve this. They deserve to enjoy this. Hope to give them a lot more going forward.”
As they did during the wild-card round, Lions fans at Ford Field chanted Goff’s name throughout the matchup against the Buccaneers. NBC’s Cris Collinsworth said during the telecast that the first Goff chant occurred hours before kickoff on January 21.
Goff shared that the chanting gave him confidence during each of the first two playoff rounds.
“It’s awesome. It really is cool for me,” Goff told reporters in his postgame press conference. “I said it last week, it’s probably something I’ll never experience again, and kind of experienced it again today.
“Those fans are special, near and dear to my heart and mean a ton to me. The support and not just for me, though, but for our whole team. And yeah, experiencing that is cool.”
Lions Now Searching for Road Playoff Victory
The Lions have accomplished a lot of things during 2023 that they hadn’t in decades. With the victory against the Buccaneers, the Lions will play in just their second ever NFC championship game and their first one since January 1992.
For the Lions to reach their first Super Bowl, they will have to win their first road playoff game since 1957.
Ironically, that win came against the San Francisco 49ers, who is Detroit’s next playoff opponent.
Since then, though, the Lions have lost 11 straight road playoff games. One of those defeats came in San Francisco in January 1983.
The Lions are 2-12 all time on the road in the NFL postseason.