BALTIMORE, Md. — The Detroit Lions went into Baltimore and beat the Ravens 38-30 in an instant classic Monday Night Football game.
It was back and forth all night long, until the Lions delivered a knockout haymaker on fourth-and-2 coming out of the two-minute warning. They put their trust in Jared Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown’s hands, and it worked just as they thought it would.
The defense sacked Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson seven times, forced a late fumble from running back Derrick Henry and Lions running back David Montgomery ran all over Baltimore’s defense.
Here are some notable quotes from the Lions and Ravens players and coaches on Monday:
Lions HC Dan Campbell, on Aidan Hutchinson’s late forced fumble: “Our hardest workers are our best players. It’s not lip service; it’s not fake – our best players are our hardest workers. Go out and watch them practice. It’s like that every day. So, that’s the standard. That’s the standard. If you’re not up to that standard with the effort matching, what our best players do, then you’re not going to be around here very long. That makes the rest of your guys just fall in line, anybody that comes in or we acquire, the young guys, all of it, and that’s the way we play. That’s what we do.”
Campbell, on his team’s two scoring drives of more than 95 yards: “That’s not easy to do when you’re backed up like that. Normally, the goal is three first downs. That way, if you get three first downs, you are able to flip field position. But, to go above and beyond that and travel the distance against that opponent, with the crowd noise – the whole thing – that was impressive. Our guys had to dig now. They had to dig. Those are long drives. They did it, man. They did it.”
Lions RB David Montgomery, on his crying touchdown celebration: “I got like an alter self. I see myself as the Joker, and in one of his movies, he was fake crying, and he started to laugh after he was crying. It was kind of like a joke on the world. That’s my go-to ‘celly’ for the whole year. You’ll see that a lot.”
Lions QB Jared Goff, on finally beating the Ravens: “They are so dang good. I don’t know what Lamar (Jackson)’s record is against NFC teams (24-3 after tonight). I think he’s lost twice. They are so dang good, and he’s so dang good, and their defense is always good. That’s why they are hard to beat, and yes, they have given me trouble a few times, and I was able to get one tonight.”
Ravens QB Lamar Jackson, on getting sacked seven times: “(The Lions) were doing stunts, and they had a spy. Sometimes the spy was grabbing my leg, and that’s just what it was. They were dropping into coverage, (and) they had three safeties back there, and I’m just not going to throw a Hail-Mary ball. I’m going to read the coverage out, and then try to make something happen.”
Ravens HC John Harbaugh, on Jackson facing that much pressure: “I don’t think you could just put it in one category. We threw the ball pretty well, and Lamar made some extended plays. He made some on time throws, tried to move around in the pocket and make some plays. They got us on some sacks when you’re trying to throw the ball like that at the end of the game, too. So, I’m not sure what your question is, really, but they played good defense, and we were competing on offense. We didn’t run the ball as well as we wanted to, either. That had a lot to do with it. I think I’d like to see us run the ball better.”
Lions EDGE Aidan Hutchinson, on his clutch forced fumble on Ravens RB Derrick Henry: “We had a play where I kind of went upfield, and I was tracking back, and I saw that ball cradling a little bit, and I put my head down and just threw the biggest hook I could. And then I got up, and everybody started running at the end zone. At that moment, I knew that ball came out. So, that was a fun moment. I’ve never actually done that before, where I got a clean punch out on a ball carrier. So, that was a lot of fun, actually. That was really, really cool.”
Hutchinson, on practicing for that moment: “We put a big emphasis on it. And that’s a big nod to ‘Shep’ (Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard). But we’ve been doing this. I really just learned that from (Lions cornerback) Amik (Robertson). Watching him last year against Tennessee, coming from behind, boom, left hook, ball out. So, shoutout to Amik for showing me the way.”
Harbaugh, on not being surprised by the fourth-and-2 pass by Lions: “I don’t think they caught us by surprise, but we can certainly play that. It’s a good play call. It’s not surprising call at all. We were talking about it in the huddle. I think they executed well on it. We can certainly play it better, and that’s kind of what we have to do. We have to learn from those things, get better at them and carry it forward.”
Campbell, on his fourth-and-2 decision: “I’ve got a tremendous amount of trust in those guys. That’s been built up now in five years, right? That helps. That offensive line, the way they were playing, we felt like that was the right call. It’s those guys, it’s the players. They’re the ones who make this stuff come to life. They’ve earned that trust, you know? Once again, they step up and make huge plays at critical times. It’s unbelievable, it really is. It’s a thing of beauty.”
Goff, on his fourth-and-2 pass to St. Brown: “That’s one that we wanted. Throughout that game, I was waiting for it to get called, and it was the perfect moment for it. He’s open, and put it on him.”