Locker Room Buzz: Lions Defense Relentless in Slowing Ravens

The Detroit Lions were fired up after defeating the Baltimore Ravens in a primetime matchup on the road.

In the win, Detroit reminded fans across the NFL that they belong in the mix amongst the NFL's contenders. The Lions held serve and made all the right moves in the second half, slowing down Baltimore's All-Pro quarterback Lamar Jackson in the process.

Here is a collection of quotes from Lions players and coaches from Monday's win over the Ravens.

HC Dan Campbell

On multiple defensive players making big plays:

“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.”

QB Jared Goff

On the team's two 90-plus yard touchdown drives:

“It’s big, and they were all due to our offensive line. I don’t know how many times we ran it on the 98-yard one. It felt like we just kept running the ball, and then ‘D-Mo’ [David Montgomery] obviously had the long run on the other one. Those guys up front tonight were incredible. They were grinding. They were tired on some of those long drives, and the defensive line was more tired. It was good to see them keep pushing, keep going, and those were huge drives.”

RB David Montgomery

On what he saw on his 72-yard run:

"For real, I was just thinking of my read. Coach Choice has been on me this whole year about trusting my read and staying square. I'm pretty disappointed that I got hawked, my brother's gonna be on me about that. It's cool though."

On his crying celebration after scoring a touchdown:

"I've got an alter-self. I see myself as the Joker. In one of his movies, he's fake crying and he started to laugh after he was crying kind of like the joke's on the world. That's my go-to celebration for the whole year, you'll see it a lot."

RB Jahmyr Gibbs

On the option play with Amon-Ra St. Brown that resulted in his second touchdown:

“No, I didn’t know we were going to run that. We have been practicing that play for three years. We installed that my rookie year, and this was the first time we ran it.”

On out-rushing the Ravens by 100 yards:

“I mean, we expect to do that. We have a great offensive line, a great running back room, so it doesn’t really come as a surprise.”

OT Penei Sewell

On the impact of the offense scoring on two 90-plus yard drives:

"I think it was just us doing our job at the end of the day. That's all we're focused on, what we're doing, not so much of what the opponent has. At the end of the day, you're only as good as what you can do. So we just focus on ourselves and doing that, and everything else falls in line."

On if he was surprised the team went for it on fourth-down late in the game:

"No-brainer to me. I've known the man for quite some time now. I wasn't thinking about coming off, I was just thinking about the play call. At some point, you just know somebody so well."

WR Amon-Ra St. Brown

On if the matchup could be a Super Bowl preview:

"They're a good team. It's only Week 3, a lot of stuff changes. Teams get better, teams get worse. Trades, injuries, a lot of stuff changes between now and playoffs, whenever that is. I mean, they're AFC, we're NFC. We've got to get there first before anything. They're a good team. We came in here, glad we got this win, it was big for us, the momentum that we're gonna have. We're definitely gonna celebrate this a little for today, and then we've got a short week and we've got to get ready for a good team."

DE Aidan Hutchinson

On his 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.”

DE Al-Quadin Muhammad

On the team recording seven sacks on Lamar Jackson:

"It was just a team effort. It was everybody working together. Guys just going out there and hunting, making some big plays all together."

On what the key was to getting after Jackson:

"It started in practice earlier in the week. We knew how special Lamar is, we knew we had to go out there and be relentless. We all worked together and we got the job done."

LB Alex Anzalone

On what the team was able to do to slow down Lamar Jackson:

“I mean, like I said, ‘Shep’ [Kelvin Sheppard] does a good job of putting a good game plan together, so we were able to get those three guys after it, and you know, when we go against these mobile quarterbacks, we have to do something to contain them and slow them down. Obviously, we weren’t able to get home on every one, but we were able to get the pressure late toward the end of the game.”

LB Derrick Barnes

On what statement the team made in Monday's win:

"We can compete. It's just so funny, Week 1 everyone is like, 'Oh, the Lions are not who they used to be.' We don't listen to the outside noise, man. We go to work no matter the outcome. Win or lose, we go back to the drawing board and prepare for the next game. That's what we did. I think we did an incredible job preparing for a competition like that. They've got an incredible defense, incredible offense, a lot of weapons over there. I've got the high most respect for Lamar, Derrick Henry, all those guys over there. They did a great job, and when you prepare that way, that's the result that you get."