In the dressing room: Lions kicker takes the call at the first opportunity under high pressure

DETROIT — It wasn’t one of those 55-yard runs that Jake Bates made his name with last year, from the Michigan Panthers to the Detroit Lions. But Bates answered his call and made the late field goal that sent the Lions into overtime, where they eventually beat the Los Angeles Rams 26-20 in Week 1.

Bates sank both his field goal attempts and both of his extra point attempts, starting off on the right foot after an up-and-down month as the team’s only kicker. The Lions continued to preach their belief in Bates’ potential and continued growth, despite his setbacks along the way. That belief means something to the young kicker, who played for the Michigan Panthers in this stadium this calendar year.

He said it was “a great honor for me and I did not take it lightly” that the team recognized the potential in his game and allowed him to grow.

“It was a lot of fun, the atmosphere was obviously unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, so that was really cool to see,” Bates said after the game. “The final kick was really just, ‘Do my job.’ I know Hogan (Hatten) and Jack (Fox) are going to do their job and do it at a really high level to make it as easy as possible for me. And that’s the way it is. I’m really strong in my faith. I believe God puts you in places at certain times for certain reasons and I’m so happy to be a Lion now.

“I’m really excited about whatever I can do to help this team win and hopefully we can keep working on it and make two out of one.”

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Bates said he feels the pressure because he’s human, but joked that these moments and kicks age his mother more than him. The word of the week for the young kicker was “gratitude” and he hopes this is just the beginning of moments like this.

For more locker room glimpses after Detroit’s season-opening win over the Rams, see below:

Opening speech by Lions head coach Dan Campbell: “All right, let’s start here. Man, I give this team a lot of credit for what Sean (McVay) did with this team, getting them here. I thought they had a great plan, they adapted well to some of the things we put in front of them, and they just kept going, they fought and fought. I respect that, I really do. That quarterback, Stafford, I thought played outstandingly and played hard, and he just got up and made unbelievable throws, battling after battling. I just give them a lot of credit. They fought, now. But we’re hard to break down, so we did what we had to do.”

Rams head coach Sean McVay on Matthew Stafford’s performance: “Yeah, he’s a great guy, he kept us in the game, he did a great job and you could just see his resilience. There were a lot of reasons to think, ‘Man, this is really going to be an uphill battle,’ to overcome some of the different things, you know, players that we were missing and that limited us, if you will, in terms of what we could really do. They did some things, you have to give (Lions defensive coordinator) (Aaron) Glenn a lot of credit, they decided to go out and face us at a certain personnel level on early attempts that they basically dared you to say, ‘All right, you’re going to throw to beat us,’ and so I was proud of Matthew (Stafford). We had our chances and there are certainly some things, you know, I’ll always look at myself first, okay, what are some of the different decisions, better positions I could put guys in and our players will do the same if there are some opportunities, but there were a lot of positives to take away as well. I thought Matthew was great.”

Lions QB Jared Goff on the quiet evening at Amon-Ra St. Brown: “Yeah, I don’t know if they did anything special. I think the theme of tonight was that we kept shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit, at least offensively. We had some plays there that we could have made, and I need to be more mindful of our guys’ cadence and be a little more smooth on the operational stuff, and that alone would solve a lot of the problems we had tonight. But it just wasn’t our smoothest game, but a win is a win. We have to be happy about that.”

Stafford on the narrow defeat in Detroit: “Yeah, I think it kind of boils down to the last time we were here, similar circumstances and the fact that we didn’t score enough points in the red zone. Obviously, right before halftime, I had a really nice drive but I lost the ball. I don’t hate the call, but I just don’t like the ball I threw. Higher and harder probably gets us a touchdown and better position, but that was a tough call. We’re not coming away with any points. Had another chance, tried fourth down, didn’t come away with any points and then we were at 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 chances but couldn’t capitalize on them and yet at the end of the game when I can get the ball to Cooper (Kupp), we just had a little bit of a difference of opinion on where we wanted to go and we completely understood what he was doing. It’s part of the game. It’s a football game. It’s humbling, but it’s fun to be a part of.”

Stafford on the fans’ reaction to his and Goff’s return: “Yes, I am. That’s fine with me.”

Lions WR Jameson Williams on his connection to his team: “That was real for me. I think for the team as well and for Goff, you know, we built a really great bond over the spring and summer. We threw a couple times in practice, we threw a couple times in LA. So that just carried over and the hard work is finally showing. Now we’re getting together with the whole team. That was a tough game to win. The Rams were a good team and the defense helped a lot, the special teams, everyone stuck together. We just played until the last second of the game. So I would say it feels good to know the hard work is paying off, but we still have a long way to go.”

Campbell’s comments on the one-two punch of Jahmyr Gibbs and Montgomery: “Yeah, I mean, that’s going to help, and I really believe in two different running backs being a one-two punch. But I just said it after we did the conditioning test, and whenever that was, July 26th, I think. The day before our first practice, he was just, man, that’s a guy that was in outstanding shape. That was all of our guys, but this guy just looked, I mean, he looked like he didn’t push himself on this thing, and then he didn’t look exhausted the first couple days of practice. And so he’s in incredible shape, he’s worked extremely hard, and he’s just reliable. He’s reliable. He runs hard, he’s tough, he’s physical, he’s getting into a rhythm, and I think he’s a catalyst for us. He’s starting to carry it, and he’s getting better and better, and I think the line feeds off of him, and he feeds off of them, and we get what we get. The guy is a stud, he is a stud.”