Lions prepare for Sunday night rematch with Matthew Stafford and the Rams

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Lions know they have to put the 2023 season behind them and focus on 2024.

That won't be easy.

Detroit opens the season on Sunday night against the Los Angeles Rams in a rematch of their wild-card game in January — won by the Lions for the franchise's first playoff victory in 40 years.

It's another night game on national TV and another encounter with the symbol of the pre-Dan Campbell Lions — Matthew Stafford. Booed on every play, Stafford dominated his former team, passing for 367 yards and two touchdowns, but Detroit escaped with a 24-23 win.

The Lions went on to beat Tampa Bay before blowing a big lead against San Francisco in the NFC championship.

Eight months later, it is the Rams again.

“It doesn't get any better than this — it really doesn't,” Campbell said Monday. “The hardest thing is that we've still got seven days to go, but I'm excited, the staff is excited and so are the players, and I know our fans are ready to roll.”

Last time, a lot of fans talked about their respect for Stafford — the best quarterback in franchise history — and insisted they were only booing him because of the magnitude of the situation. The idea was the Rams would come to Detroit for a regular-season game and he would get the kind of response former Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander gets when he comes back to Comerica Park.

That's probably not going to happen on Sunday night in Week 1; he's still the player they have to stop.

Rams coach Sean McVay "altered a little bit of how they traditionally played last year — they have a little bit more of a downhill approach,” said Campbell, who is beginning his fourth season as Lions coach. “That got some hits off Stafford and let him do what he does best, which is a winning recipe. We absolutely need to be beefed up and ready to go up front.”

The good news for the Lions is the Rams don't have a Hall of Famer in the middle of their defense anymore. Aaron Donald's retirement at 32 ends a lot of sleepless nights for offensive coordinators.

“You always needed to account for him, you needed to know where he was at all times,” Campbell said. "You were shifting and motioning just for him, and you are damn near doing it every play, plus you are trying to chip on one side so the tackle could help the guard so the guard could help the center with Donald.

“It's nice not to have to worry about him.”

The Lions have never played in the Super Bowl — their last appearance in an NFL title game was in 1957 — but Campbell is up front about Sunday being the next step in achieving that goal.

“Talking about it doesn't matter now,” he said. "The first step is winning the division, and once you do that, it is about seeding. You want to be the three seed or the two or even the one seed? You have to start winning the head-to-head games, and this is an NFC opponent who could win the West.

“That's a long way down the road, but this is when you start setting it up.”

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Dave Hogg, The Associated Press