LIONS TAKE DOWN RAMS IN OVERTIME ❕❗ Recapping the WILD Week 1 finish 🏈 | SC with SVP

Best Thing I Saw Today good evening welcome to sports center from the nation's capital I'm Scott vanel at the first Sunday of the National Football League season in the books we got off field news before the games began rookie quarterbacks making debuts veteran quarterbacks in new places Tim hasselbeck's here in studio to break down some of the key moments from the day we begin as we do nightly best thing I saw today how about a tip of the cap to some defense Monsters of the Midway style the Bears were down 17 nothing they get a block punt scoop and score and they get a Tyreek Stevenson pick six cataclysmic decision from will Levis there and Chicago comes roaring back Soldier Field going wild L just trying to get rid of it couldn't get enough mustard on it to get out of bounds Stevenson's first pick of the season is a pick six and the number one pick was able to cheer it on from the sidelines that of course is Caleb Williams will'll show you how his day went didn't do a lot but his defense did plenty Chicago gets the victory over the Titans Rams vs. Lions recap as for the Sunday nighter the Rams and the Lions the Rams battled last year in the playoffs but the Lions came through by one of course we know the history of Matthew Stafford there former number one pick in Detroit we're tied at threes puka Nua makes the catch goes down and would eventually after he came back onto the field briefly for a series be carded off had a knee injury during training camp that is potentially awful news J Jameson Williams what a game this guy had the Speed St out of Alabama from Jared gof and the lions are on the Move jir Gibbs hit spins around initially ruled down the ball came out they reviewed it to see I guess if the ball came out and upon further review no part of the body was down before the ball crosses the line it's 10-3 Lions lead Matthew Stafford into the Red Zone floats one up and it's picked Kirby Joseph Rams did not have a single Red Zone turnover last year Matthew Stafford brilliant at protecting the football but here that is a costly pick as it stays 103 low scoring at the half it's still 10-3 gof has time it was a double move the flag was on the Rams and that is Williams what I'd say as double moves they work every time the Lions pushing this out to a two-score lead at 1713 Cooper cup he and Stafford have been a magical combination and they hooked up over and over and over again tonight that's a gain of 21 and it sets up Kiren Williams Willams he Bulls his way to the end zone and the Rams are within seven it's a 17713 game in the fourth Goff looking for alond Ross Brown instead is picked by John Johnson the third they had to take a look at this one as his hand is just underneath the football that's a pick here come the Rams and Stafford their left tackle was out they had to get clever and figures out way to get protection roll the pocket and cup got it the tow drag you see those Pebbles kick up an incredible grab and cup wasn't done he's in motion all night here he catches it and gets to the end zone and the Rams have fought back from down 173 they've got a 20-7 lead two minutes to go Goff across the middle that's Sam leapa off his incredible rookie year tack on 15 for that helmet to helmet contact Cameron kitchen's called for the penalty there the rookie adds 15 and now the lions are on the drive looking for the score to win this game again it's St Brown who is the intended target he actually does a great job sort of playing Defender after he fell to the turf to knock it away Lions maintained possession Jake Bates who done some kicking in the in this building in the spring league and here he ties it up from 32 yds and we head to overtime in overtime Lions get possession and they March right down the field what a luxury to have jir Gibbs and David Montgomery the battering ram that is Montgomery with a gain of 21 now you change it up with Gibbs out of the backfield so dangerous and he picks up 10 Lions defense looked just gassed they could do excuse me the Rams defense was gassed they could do nothing to stop the Lions it's Montgomery plowing towards the end zone M Bay actually took a timeout to try to let his guys get their win get their legs back under him nothing you're going to do Honolulu blew to the end zone it's Montgomery who did the heavy lifting on that drive finishing off a 17 carry 91 yd night that touchdown makes the Lions Sixpoint winners 26- 20 the final score as the Lions grabbed a victory in their home opener for the first time under Dan Campbell of course last year they won their first game on the road in Arrowhead to start their season which ended with a hard-fought NFC Championship game loss against San Francisco Detroit has now won nine of its last 10 at home when you add in [Music] the playoffs had La won you and i' been Hasselbeck joins talking about the magic trick that uh Stafford and the Rams were able to pull out of the out of their they don't have their left tackle he's injured puka goes down it's basically the Stafford and cup show and all credit to them for getting this game to overtime but in the end the Lions do as Mike Taro was saying on the NBC call and I agree you're supposed to be one of the bullies in the block you're supposed to win your home games and they figured out a way to do it guess the place to start is what happen in overtime and that that's an interesting luxury they have isn't it you can go Gibbs with some finesse or you can go Montgomery that's battering or am he's who won them the game what' you see there well the backs for sure they have the complement of backs different skill sets but they're just willingness to say yeah we're going to even though we have all this speed on the perimeter we're going to bully you we're we're going to play Smashmouth football and you know people can talk about the grit in Detroit but when it shows up you start to feed off of it I mean Scott it's very rare in the National Football League that you see a team late in a football game just run the ball down your throat so much so that the head coach of the team that's on defense says hey I have to call a timeout just to see if we can hold on takes the timeout and then basically every man scores with the guy he's blocking into the end zone I mean that I think you know we know how Dan Campbell is the the sometimes teams can take on the identity of their head coach right like we saw it a little bit last year like what we just saw means there should be no reason to think that it shouldn't continue to happen I think it is interesting and it and it speaks to the luxury of options that they have leaport and St Brown had only seven catches in this game but now and you never know with the chatter you hear in training camp like oo look out for Williams like he's he's going to be the guy well he has 121 in that double move touchdown if they like Miami that if the Lions start adding multiple options it only makes them more dangerous and it appears that the chatter was real here doesn't it it does and then when you think about you've got a play caller who's done a very good job and then a quarterback who's not yet 30 years old that's been to a Super Bowl who's who's been in big games who makes great decisions like I I think there's an element there too when we talk about the grit and we talk about some of the other players how about the job Jared G has continued to do with some of these weapons that been put around them and and we fight the urge to week one to not overstate so I'm not going to make this into a mountain necessarily unless you say actually it's really important two years ago they beat Green Bay to end the year they don't go to the playoffs but that's a step in the right direction then they probably should have been in the Super Bowl they lose a game at San Francisco where they they had a big lead it Slips Away that now they were a bullseye all of a sudden how important to win this game to start the year in the correct fashion given that two of the next three are on the road I think how they won it's important right the identity of the team the buyin of look when you watched those two teams Scott and and you said okay which team do you think had a harder training camp which team do you think had a tougher training camp right like you would say Detroit like the way they finished that game and so I think when the players start to believe what the coaches kind of preaching of how to win like I think it was the manner of which it happened I think it was so probably important for the Lions they got after the opposing team quarterback and they ran the football and they get the 2620 overtime Victory first Sunday in the books man I Dan Campbell and Sean McVay comments give that team a ton of credit you know what sea did uh with that team getting them in here and and uh man I thought they had a heck of a plan they adjusted um to some things that we threw at him well and they just kept coming man they fought and they fought um and it was um you know man it was you know it was a lot of I respect it I do I respect it and that quarterback man Stafford I thought played lights out man and and played tough and hit after hit get just kept getting up and making unbelievable throws so um I just give them a lot of credit they did they fought now um but but we're hard to break so we did what we had to do and uh you know our defense held there uh before that fox makes a heck of a punt and uh defense holds offense we get it back and uh you know get it in overtime we win the toss and and we don't look look back so we eventually found our Rhythm we did what we had to do and I said it early in the week the team that makes the most mistakes is the one who usually loses these early games and uh we made one less mistake and and uh so now we just got to improve from there Sean McVey getting a lot of credit from Dan Campbell tough loss his thoughts after the Rams Fallen OT with the look that we had wanted and we just didn't make it but uh we came in here with an aggressive mindset and mentality uh didn't feel like you could settle for field goals that's why we came up short the last time and then ultimately a couple of those situations is inevitably what ended up leading to us probably not finishing it out tonight U the penalty was big one to bring the touchdown back and then having a turnover and then that one that you alluded to but all those are growth opportunities for us but um we came here to to be aggressive and and I wouldn't take that decision back yep well they were big you know we got the looks that we wanted and we got the look that we wanted on the third down as well um and and you know what this is that's part of it there was a lot of great individual plays there was a lot of guys that stepped up you know I was proud of Warren McLendon without AJ Airi coming in I mean you Flex him up from the practice squad no boom goes down he plays the whole second half he's going against one of the Premier rushers in this league uh for the majority of the game and I thought our guys did a good job of being able to help and lend some presence um but he should be proud of the way that he handled himself tonight so they lose the game and the question is have they lost puka nakua for some period of time had the knee injury in Camp was playing well and was targeted often early went down on a catch did not actually return for part of a series and then left on a cart no update yet if we get one we will let you know we hear not a shock that in the absence of Thea Cooper cup was targeted 21 times triple the amount of any other Rams receiver he had 14 catches [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]