Lions prepare for Sunday night rematch with Matthew Stafford and the Rams

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Lions prepare for Sunday night rematch with Matthew Stafford and the Rams

2024-09-03 05:38 Last Updated At：05:41

DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit Lions know they have to put the 2023 season behind them and focus on 2024.

That won't be easy.

Detroit opens the season on Sunday night against the Los Angeles Rams in a rematch of their wild-card game in January — won by the Lions for the franchise's first playoff victory in 40 years.

It's another night game on national TV and another encounter with the symbol of the pre-Dan Campbell Lions — Matthew Stafford. Booed on every play, Stafford dominated his former team, passing for 367 yards and two touchdowns, but Detroit escaped with a 24-23 win.

The Lions went on to beat Tampa Bay before blowing a big lead against San Francisco in the NFC championship.

Eight months later, it is the Rams again.

“It doesn't get any better than this — it really doesn't,” Campbell said Monday. “The hardest thing is that we've still got seven days to go, but I'm excited, the staff is excited and so are the players, and I know our fans are ready to roll.”

Last time, a lot of fans talked about their respect for Stafford — the best quarterback in franchise history — and insisted they were only booing him because of the magnitude of the situation. The idea was the Rams would come to Detroit for a regular-season game and he would get the kind of response former Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander gets when he comes back to Comerica Park.

That's probably not going to happen on Sunday night in Week 1; he's still the player they have to stop.

Rams coach Sean McVay "altered a little bit of how they traditionally played last year — they have a little bit more of a downhill approach,” said Campbell, who is beginning his fourth season as Lions coach. “That got some hits off Stafford and let him do what he does best, which is a winning recipe. We absolutely need to be beefed up and ready to go up front.”

The good news for the Lions is the Rams don't have a Hall of Famer in the middle of their defense anymore. Aaron Donald's retirement at 32 ends a lot of sleepless nights for offensive coordinators.

“You always needed to account for him, you needed to know where he was at all times,” Campbell said. "You were shifting and motioning just for him, and you are damn near doing it every play, plus you are trying to chip on one side so the tackle could help the guard so the guard could help the center with Donald.

“It's nice not to have to worry about him.”

The Lions have never played in the Super Bowl — their last appearance in an NFL title game was in 1957 — but Campbell is up front about Sunday being the next step in achieving that goal.

“Talking about it doesn't matter now,” he said. "The first step is winning the division, and once you do that, it is about seeding. You want to be the three seed or the two or even the one seed? You have to start winning the head-to-head games, and this is an NFC opponent who could win the West.

“That's a long way down the road, but this is when you start setting it up.”

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Rising floodwaters trigger evacuations in Czech Republic and Poland

2024-09-15 18:37 Last Updated At：18:41

PRAGUE (AP) — Another night of torrential rains pounding Central Europe forced massive evacuations in the hardest hit areas in the Czech Republic, where floods reached extreme levels on Sunday.

Meteorologists have warned the situation still might get worse as waters in most rivers are rising, the flood wave made its way through the country and more heavy rains could return overnight.

Authorities declared the highest flood warnings in almost 90 places across the country and in two northeastern regions that recorded the biggest rainfall in recent days, including the Jeseniky mountains near the Polish border.

In the city of Opava, up to 10,000 people out of a population of some 56,000 have been asked to leave their homes for higher ground. Rescuers used boats to transport people to safety in a neighborhood flooded by the raging Opava River.

“There’s no reason to wait,” Mayor Tomáš Navrátil told the Czech public radio. He said the situation was worse than during the last devastating floods in 1997, known as the “flood of the century.”

“We have to focus on saving lives,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala told the Czech public television Sunday. His government was to possibly meet Monday to assess the damages.

Thousands of others also were evacuated in the towns of Krnov and Cesky Tesin. The Oder River that flows to Poland was expected to reach extreme levels in the city of Ostrava and later in Bohumin.

Towns and villages in the Jeseniky mountains, including the local center of Jesenik, were inundated and isolated by raging waters that turned roads into rivers. The military sent a helicopter to help with evacuations.

Four people who were swept away by waters were missing, police said.

About 260,000 households were without power Sunday morning in the entire country while traffic was halted on many roads, including the major D1 highway.

A firefighter died after “slipping on stairs” while pumping out a flooded basement in the town of Tulln, the head of the fire department of Lower Austria Dietmar Fahrafellner told reporters on Sunday.

Authorities declared the entire state of Lower Austria a disaster zone. The situation remains tense, especially at the water reservoir of Ottenstein, which is expected to reach its maximum capacity on Sunday.

In Poland, one person was presumed dead in floods in the southwest, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday.

Tusk said the situation was “dramatic” around the town of Klodzko, with some 25,000 residents, located in a valley in the Sudetes mountains near the border with the Czech Republic.

In Glucholazy, rising waters overflowed a river embankment and flooded streets and houses. Mayor Paweł Szymkowicz said, “we are drowning” and appealed to residents to evacuate to high ground.

Energy supplies and communications were cut off in some flooded areas and regions may resort to using the satellite-based Starlink service, Tusk said.

Several Central European nations have been hit by severe flooding, including Romania, where four people had died, as well as Austria, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary, as a result of a low-pressure system from northern Italy dumping heavy rainfall in the wide region.

The weather change arrived following a hot start to September in the region, including in Romania. Scientists have documented Earth’s hottest summer, breaking a record set just a year ago.

A hotter atmosphere, driven by human-caused climate change, can lead to more intense rainfall.

Associated Press writer Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland and video journalist Philipp-Moritz Jenne in Vienna contributed to this report.

Lions prepare for Sunday night rematch with Matthew Stafford and the Rams

Sport

Lions prepare for Sunday night rematch with Matthew Stafford and the Rams

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