On Sunday, the Lions will host the Buccaneers for the second playoff game ever held at Ford Field in Detroit. In order to get some information about the volume in the venue, Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield spoke to some of his former Rams teammates, who play ever year in the very loud stadium in Seattle.
“They said it was the loudest thing they’ve ever heard,” Mayfield said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “We’ve got to be completely ready for that. It just comes down to everybody knowing exactly what our game plan is — 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.
“Just everybody 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.”
That’s not great for the Bucs. As noted by Stroud, MLive.com measured the sound for Rams-Lions at 133.6 decibels, both a record for Ford Field and the equivalent of an engine on a 747 at takeoff. It could be even louder on Sunday, as the Lions try to secure their first berth in the NFC Championship since 1991.
They’ll also know whether the next game would be played at home. If the Packers upset the 49ers on Saturday, the winner of the Bucs-Lions game will host the game that determines the conference’s representative in Super Bowl LVIII.