After the Detroit Lions beat the Los Angeles Rams in last year's Wild Card round for the franchise's first playoff win since 1991, head coach Dan Campbell encapsulated the entire circumstance around the game perfectly when he gave a game ball to quarterback Jared Goff.
"I'll just say it like this: you’re good enough for f-cking Detroit, Jared Goff,” Campbell said.
Lions fans started the "Jared Goff" chant thing before kickoff of that game. Rams head coach Sean McVay has openly acknowledged how he mishandled Goff's departure from the Rams when the deal was done to bring Matthew Stafford to Los Angeles. That's the root of Campbell's "good enough for Detroit" thing after the Lions beat the Rams.
Sean McVay pays Lions' fans huge compliment for playoff game atmosphere at Ford Field
However controversial the result was, the Rams beat the New Orleans Saints on the road in the NFC Championship Game to reach Super Bowl LIII. The Superdome in New Orleans is a notoriously loud building, and on a recent episode of the "Pardon My Take" podcast McVay talked about that and how loud Ford Field was for that Wild Card game.
“It was the loudest—I’m telling you. I thought the loudest place I’d ever been a part of, coaching wise, NFC Championship Game 2018 (vs.) New Orleans. We’re getting ready to go out, we test it, we had been there earlier in the season, it was rockin’. And I remember it was so loud you couldn’t even hear anything. (Jared) Goff’s mic went out right before, he’s got the backup helmet on. You’re like, ‘What the hell is going on?"
McVay went into a story about Rams wide receiver Robert Woods being interviewed during the week before that game in New Orleans and dismissing the noise as a factor, which fueled the fire of Saints' fans to be extra loud.
"I remember. They showed—Robert Woods had been interviewed during the week, and they said, ‘Do you think the noise is going to be a factor?’ and Robert’s kinda on my shoulder and he answers it exactly like what you would want him to. He’s like, ‘No. We’re going to handle it with poise. It’s not gonna be a factor.’ Well, they showed this sh*t (on the jumbotron) during a TV timeout, and the fans just start screaming. I’m like, ‘Oh, why the hell did you say that?"
The Rams' head coach finished by saying Detroit easily surpassed the loudness of New Orleans.
“But that was the loudest, by far. In Detroit, it was way louder. It was sick. It was a sick atmosphere. Credit to Detroit, and I’m telling you, my dad loved it. They were already out on the field. I came out like 60 minutes before kickoff, the stands are full. My dad said, ‘I heard these guys, these people booing their ass off at somebody. I watched you walking out.’ He was laughing, it was so funny. Everyone is booing, talking to me. It was great. I loved it.”
The game against the Rams set the noise level record for Ford Field (133.6 decibels), which was then reset the following week during the Divisional Round game against the Buccaneers (134.3)
McVay starts talking about the playoff game against the Lions at around the 1 hour, 10-11minute point of the video below.