The Los Angeles Rams will begin the 2024 season right where they ended the last one, taking on the Detroit Lions on the road on Sunday Night Football.
The Rams lost to the Lions in heartbreaking fashion in the playoffs last year, putting an end to what was a memorable season.
Since then, the Rams have had a long offseason to think about what went wrong and how they can fix it to beat the Lions in Week 1 and start off the 2024 season on a high note.
Quentin Lake, in particular, is looking forward to the chance at redemption after Amon-Ra St. Brown caught the game-sealing pass on him last time around, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN:
“It puts a fuel on my fire because I feel like I could have done something to at least maybe, just maybe, help the team maybe get to a third down,” Lake said. “Or done something where the last play wasn’t on me because obviously they took a knee after that.
“I think about that all the time. Because we had the team. If we got past the Lions, I think we were going to go to the Super Bowl. Really, honestly, truthfully, I fully full-heartedly believe that. It is what it is though. We have another chance this season to do great things. I think we are going to do great things.”
Lake, who was recently voted as one of the Rams’ captains, gave a good message to his teammates ahead of the rematch in Detroit:
“Anybody that has something to prove, anybody that didn’t get a chance to do what they did in that last game, we have every opportunity to do what we want to in [Week 1],” Lake said.
Kyren Williams is also excited for Sunday after breaking his hand late in the playoff loss to the Lions:
“I felt like I was just getting hot,” Williams said. “As an offense, we were just getting hot, especially in the run game. We were able to open it up in the fourth quarter and so we were really starting to roll.
“And I wasn’t able to finish that game. So for me it’s just a little bit of all the mixed emotions. I’m excited to get back to be able to prove to them what I can do, but also what we weren’t able to do last year — that’s to come out on top like we felt like we were supposed to last year.”
Williams and Lake are two of the bright young stars on the Rams roster, and they will have a chance to begin their seasons on a high note Sunday in Detroit.
Rams place Darious Williams on IR
Unfortunately, the Rams will be without their top cornerback the first four weeks of the season as Darious Williams suffered a setback and was placed on injured reserve due to a hamstring issue. That will put more pressure on Lake and other young guys in the secondary to step up in Williams’ absence.
