Baker Mayfield and the Bucs know what they're in for Sunday at Ford Field. Mayfield reached out this week to some of his ex-teammates on the Rams about the crowd noise in Detroit, where the Rams fell to the Lions 24-23 in the wild card round last weekend.
And "they said it was the loudest thing they’ve ever heard,” Mayfield told reporters Wednesday in Tampa. “We have to be completely ready for that. It just comes down to everybody knowing exactly what our game plan in and all the calls to and from, because there could be certain times where they can’t hear certain things. They might have to plug and play some of the words."
The fans at Ford Field broke the stadium's decibel record last week and made it shake like few NFL stadiums ever have. The decibels maxed out at 133.6 db, which is said to be the fourth loudest reading in recorded NFL history behind the Superdome in 2013, Lumen Field in 2013 and Arrowhead in 2014. All that noise when Detroit's defense was on the field forced the Rams into two timeouts early in the third quarter and ultimately helped the Lions seal the game.
Mayfield said the Bucs are "doing the mental work to get prepped for that. But it shouldn’t be a surprise for us. It’s going to be a great atmosphere.”
Jared Goff spoke this week to the power of the Lions' home-field advantage, saying "it makes things difficult in the huddle, at the line of scrimmage, it slows up communication and makes things hard" for the opposing offense.
"It’s fun to play at home, man," said Goff. "Whoever wants to come in here and feel this crowd, feel this raucous environment, and try to win a game in our place, good luck to ‘em. We’ll be ready to go."