After opening the season with a tie in Arizona, the Detroit Lions are looking to rebound in their home opener.
"You just start watching tape on the other team," quarterback Matthew Stafford said Wednesday, when asked how he gets over a tough tie. "You can't dwell on it, whether it was a great win and great performance, or a blowout loss and a terrible performance.
"If you do this a long time you understand that. If you don't understand that you probably don't do this for a long time. It's part of what is ingrained in us. We move forward. You have to. You watch the tape, the other team grabs your attention, and you just get lost in trying to prepare for that team."
Stafford and the Lions' new offense performed well last week despite the tie, but they may look to get the ground game going more this week.
"We want to be big play backs," Johnson said. "It opens up a lot of things for Stafford. It slows down the defensive linemen, it slows down the linebackers, everything is all tied together."
CHARGERS SECURE THE WIN
This week's opponent, the Los Angeles Chargers, also found themselves in overtime last week.
Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers drove the offense down the field on their first possession to secure the win.
"I thought it was similar to some of the wins we had last year," Rivers told reporters after the game. "I know how we say seasons are separate, and they are. We're a new team, a different team. Some of the adversity, some of the close games -- maybe they helped us today."
The Chargers will have to battle more adversity this week as they'll be without a few starters for the game, including star running back Melvin Gordon, who continues his holdout. Austin Ekeler stepped up as the No. 1 back last week, recording a career-high 151 yards from scrimmage with three touchdowns.
"He has this thing that nobody can see unless you're out there with him, but there's just nothing too big for him," Rivers said of Ekeler. "You can see it in his face and in his eyes and in his communication. It's just like we're out there in the backyard. I saw that when he was a young player, and that's continued to be the case."
For Mike O'Hara's full scouting report on the Chargers, click here.
SEASON LAUNCH WEEK
The Lions hosted several events this week as part of Season Launch Week presented by Rocket Mortgage. Check out the highlights below:
OTHER NOTEWORTHY ITEMS
- Click here for the full Lions-Chargers injury report with game designations for Sunday's contest.
- What do the Lions need to clean up in order to get a win? Tim Twentyman covers that and more in his latest 10 Questions column.
- Catch up on all the news from Darrell Bevell and Paul Pasqualoni's Tuesday media sessions.
