Inside the Lions’ locker room: Lambeau feeling like Ford Field and the new standard

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Detroit Lions have had two road games at two of the most storied venues the NFL has to offer through four weeks. And through those two games, it’s been a sea of blue taking over to end the night.

Detroit’s fans made its presence felt in the season-opening win against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead. And they were right back at it for another helping of Thursday Night Football from Lambeau Field as the Lions won 34-20 over the Green Bay Packers to take early control of the NFC North.

Lions safety Tracy Walker said the fans had Lambeau feeling like Ford Field for most of the night. And head coach Dan Campbell was once again impressed with the support on the road in the home of such a large-sprawling fan base after the victory.

“It is pretty cool,” Lions head coach Dan Campbell said of the support on the road. “We have a fan base. You always think of playing and coaching, you go on the road, man, no matter where I have gone, the Steelers, you know the Raiders, all these teams that have, man, you are starting to notice it (here). It is like, OK, here we go, man. To your point, we go up to Arrowhead. That was a big fan base.

“You come out here, and we remember last year, but you look and you see them, and once again early in the fourth, late third (quarter), you start hearing them. They are overpowering the stadium. It is awesome. It is awesome. You feel like there is a little piece of home no matter where you go.”

And quarterback Jared Goff compared the support away from home “unlike any other when you’re walking off the field, and they’re cheering like that on the road.”

“They’re the best,” Goff said. “They showed out tonight like they did on that Sunday night game last year (in Green Bay).

“When you think about where we’ve come, it’s a pretty great feeling, and we’ve got to keep winning for them.”

Lions LT Taylor Decker on the fan support: “We want to take on the identity of the city we play in. And, for me, like I feel like I’ve become an actual adult in Detroit. So, it’s special to me. I don’t know, for me, it’s a place where like they’ve brought me here. So they were like ‘we want you. We’re investing in you.’ And I don’t take that responsibility lightly. So for like the fanbase. I mean, fans drive our game. They are everything for our game. Just to see like the excitement that a game can bring to them? I mean, that might be their escape for the week.

“They might be grinding every single day just to make it by. To be able to bring that joy to other people, that’s bigger than football. We’re doing it with football. But, I mean, it’s just special. It makes people happy. It’s cool for Lions fans to able to go to work at the water cooler and talk (expletive) to their friends about their team. Because you hear fans will say ‘us’ and ‘we’ and they believe that. They’re passionate about that. Just fun to be able to give them something to cheer for.”

Lions RB David Montgomery on Decker playing through his ankle injury: “Deck is an animal, a war dog — a war daddy, we call him. But for him to suit up, and him be hurting, and him perform the way he did, we showed the kind of team we are.”

Montgomery on playing through his own injury (thigh): “Just showing our level of grit. Detroit is a gritty place, and I come from that. I was born in that, and I’m used to that, so I know what that’s like.”

Packers HC Matt LaFleur on what happened to the offense in the first half: “I mean, you saw it. We got our ass kicked. If I knew, it wouldn’t have happened.”

LaFleur on Detroit’s ability to get pressure without blitzing a ton: “It wasn’t good enough. They whipped us. They manhandled us. Again, if I knew the answer to that, it wouldn’t have happened.”

Packers QB Jordan Love on the pressure and hits he faced all game: “It’s not not trusting the protection, but they’ve got a good D-line and we didn’t do good enough. It takes all 11 (players). It’s not just O-line, it’s me not getting the ball out quick enough on some plays. Reads were open, just it goes back to not executing. But it’s definitely not just on the O-line. That takes all 11, it’s all offensively as a whole, but we’ve just got to do better.”

Love on if he’s ever been through a half like that: “I’ve been a part of some tough games, but yeah, that was a very hard first half. Like you said, we just weren’t executing, we weren’t moving the ball, and we weren’t taking advantage of opportunities that the defense was giving us early. It’s something that we’ve just got to look at. I think that’s two weeks in a row that we started really slow on offense, just haven’t been able to get anything going, so we’ve got to find out what that is, and I think everybody just has to play better starting the game, me included. (We’ve) got to be able to come out, start fast and put up points so we’re not playing from behind and making it harder on the defense.”

Decker on the new standard in Detroit: “I think collectively as a team, yeah (the mindset has changed). I think as an individual, I’ve always looked at myself as a winner even when we haven’t been winning. And I think getting just like small victories every single day is what helps you start to build that. And we would have good days in camp. Then we have another good day. Then we have joint practices and have a good day. And like that, I think that stuff kind of snowballs. And I think guys really took it to hear that it didn’t matter how we finished last season. Like that was great.

“But we still have to show up. And we still have to win games. Everybody knows in this league that any team can beat any other team on a given week. It’s just special to have that collective mindset where, I don’t know guys aren’t taking it for granted.”

Lions CB Jerry Jacobs on beating the Packers four times in a row: Man, I just got in the league felt like two years ago. So to come here and beat these boys four times? Even when they had A-Rod (Aaron Rodgers)? That tells it all, man. I’m just happy that we pulled this one off. Start the division off strong. And we just going to keep it going.”

Campbell on why the Lions have performed well under the lights: “We always try to emphasize that you should really live in the moment. You should embrace it. You should enjoy it. It shouldn’t be a stressful situation. It should be one of those that one day you are going to look back and say man that was a special moment. To be able to play under the lights with my teammates, with these guys and get a big win and make some plays out there. So I just think it is something that we always talk about and look we are playing pretty good right now.”