<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1sufhv_0vPWoggV00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1sufhv_0vPWoggV00" width="1280" height="853" ><figcaption>Detroit Lions vs. Los Angeles Rams</figcaption></figure>DETROIT -- It wasn’t one of those 60-plus yarders that Jake Bates made his name on through this last year from the Michigan Panthers to the Detroit Lions. But Bates answered the call, hitting the late field goal to send the Lions into overtime, where they eventually won 26-20 over the Los Angeles Rams in Week 1 action.Bates made both field-goal attempts and his two extra-point tries as well, starting off on the right foot after an up-and-down month as the team’s only kicker on the roster. The Lions <a href="https://www.mlive.com/lions/2024/08/lions-gm-feels-choice-to-stick-with-1-kicker-among-best-intrigue-in-unknown.html">have continued to preach their belief in Bates’ potential and continued growth</a> despite his hiccups along the way. That faith means something to the young kicker who was playing in this stadium for the Michigan Panthers this calendar year.He said the team seeing the potential in his game to let him grow has been “super humbling and something that I don’t take lightly.”“It was a lot of fun, obviously the atmosphere was nothing like I’ve ever really been in, so that was really cool to see,” Bates said after the game. “Really, that last kick was just, ‘do my job.’ I know Hogan (Hatten) and Jack (Fox) are going to do theirs and do it at a really high level to make it as easy on me as they can. And so, that’s what it is. I’m really strong in my faith. I think God puts you in places at certain times for certain reasons, and I’m so glad to be a Lion right now.“Anything I can do to help this team win, I’m super excited to do, and hopefully we can keep building this and turn one into two.”Bates said that he feels the pressure because he’s human but joked that these moments and kicks are aging his mother more than him. The word of the week for the young kicker has been “gratitude,” and he’s hoping this is just the start of moments like this one.See below for more from inside the locker room after Detroit’s season-opening win against the Rams:Lions head coach Dan Campbell’s opening statement: “All right, start here. Man, I give that team a ton of credit, what Sean (McVay) did with that team, getting them in here. I thought they had a heck of a plan, they adjusted to some things we threw at them well, and they just kept coming, they fought and they fought. I respect it, I do. That quarterback, Stafford, I thought played lights out, and played tough, and hit after hit just kept getting up and making unbelievable throws. I just give them a lot of credit. They did, they fought, now. But we’re hard to break, so we did what we had to do.”Rams head coach Sean McVay on Matthew Stafford’s showing: “Yeah, he’s a stud, he kept us in the game, he did a great job, and you could just see the resilience. There was a lot of reasons to think, ‘Man this is going to be, really, an uphill climb,’ to overcome some of the different things, you know players that we were missing, and what that regulated us, if you will, in terms of what we could really do. They did some things, you give (Lions defensive coordinator) (Aaron) Glenn a ton of credit, they decided to come out and match us in a certain personnel on early downs, that they were basically daring you to say, ‘All right, you’re going to throw it to beat us,’ and so, I was proud of Matthew (Stafford). We had our chances, and there’s certainly some things, you know, I’ll always look at myself first, alright what are some of the different decisions, better spots I could put guys in, and our players will do the same when there were some opportunities, but there was a lot of positives to take away as well. I thought Matthew was great.”Lions QB Jared Goff on Amon-Ra St. Brown’s quiet night: “Yeah, I don’t know if they were doing anything in particular. I think the theme of tonight kind of was we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit, certainly offensively. We had some plays there that we could have had and I have to be better with the cadence for our guys and be a little smoother on the operational stuff, and that alone would solve a lot of problems tonight that we had. But it just wasn’t our smoothest, but a win is a win. We got to be happy about it.”Stafford on losing another close game back in Detroit: “Yeah, I think it kind of boils down to the last time that we came here, similar circumstances, and the fact that we didn’t come away with enough points in the red zone. Obviously, right before the half, had a really nice drive, I turned the ball over. I don’t hate the decision, I just don’t like the ball that I threw. Higher and harder probably gets us a touchdown and a better spot, but that was a tough one. We don’t come away with points. Had another chance, went for it on fourth down, didn’t come away with points, and then we were on the one-yard line and settled for three points too. So that was kind of the name of the game for us. We had our opportunities but weren’t able to capitalize on them and still at the end of the game, if I can get that ball to Cooper (Kupp), we were just a little on different pages on where we were heading on that one and totally understand what he was doing. It’s part of the game. It’s a game of football. Humbling, but fun to compete.”Stafford on the fan response to his return and Goff’s: “I am, yeah. Fine with me.”Lions WR Jameson Williams on his connection with his team: “That was real to me. I think to the team too, and to Goff, you know, we got a real great connection over the spring and the summer. We threw a couple times in practice, we threw a couple times in LA. So, it just translated, and the hard work just finally showing. Now we just meet with the whole team. That was a hard game to win. The Rams were a good team, and the defense helped out a lot, special teams, everybody came together. We just played to the last second of the game. So, I would say it feels good knowing that the hard work is paying off, but we got a lot more to go.”Campbell’s comments on the one-two punch of Jahmyr Gibbs and Montgomery: “Yeah, I mean, look, that’s going to help, and I do believe in that, having that one-two punch of two different backs. But I just, look, I said it after we ran the conditioning test, and whatever that was, July 26, I guess. The day before we started our first practice and he was, he just, man, you talk about a guy who was in outstanding shape. Look, all of our guys were, but this guy just looked, I mean he looked like he didn’t break a sweat for this thing, and then the first few days of practice he doesn’t look fatigued. And so he’s in unbelievable shape, he’s worked extremely hard, and he’s just reliable. He’s reliable. He runs heavy, he’s tough, he’s physical, he gets in a rhythm, and I think he’s a catalyst for us. He starts carrying it, and he gets better and better, and I think the line feeds off of him, and he feeds off of them, and we get what we get. That guy’s a stud, he’s a stud.”</div></body>

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Inside the locker room: Lions kicker answers call in first high-pressure chance

DETROIT -- It wasn’t one of those 60-plus yarders that Jake Bates made his name on through this last year from the Michigan Panthers to the Detroit Lions. But Bates answered the call, hitting the late field goal to send the Lions into overtime, where they eventually won 26-20 over the Los Angeles Rams in Week 1 action.

Inside the locker room: Lions kicker answers call in first high-pressure chance

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