Aidan Hutchinson: Week 1 Is Always Hard to Prepare For

Aidan Hutchinson discusses challenges of playing season opener.

Detroit Lions Aidan Hutchinson (97) / Eric Seals / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Detroit Lions have expressed the Los Angeles Rams are a better football team than they were just eight months ago, when Dan Campbell's squad was able to knock them off and advance in the playoffs.

With the Rams adding to their offensive and defensive lines and skill players improving, winning on Sunday Night Football is not going to be easy in the season opener.

Aidan Hutchinson expressed Week 1 games are challenging, because teams run vanilla schemes during the preseason and many key starters do not even suit up.

"It wil be interesting. You wonder if they kind of change what they want to do. But you never really know. These Week 1 games are always a little hard to prepare for because you don't really have any film to work on," Hutchinson said. "Maybe they want to change their mentality with this or that. At the end of the day, if we just stay true to our rules and what we have going on on defense, that is all we can control."

This year, the Rams could be without two starters along the offensive line, as Alaric Jackson was suspended and Rob Havenstein could miss the opener dealing with an ankle injury.

“I think it’s one of those things that, I think it helps that we played them last year. So you already have a good grip on their O-line, some of their core guys that they have," Hutchinson said. "As far as injuries and the dude that just got suspended, I’m just gonna be out there (against) whoever they put in front of me. I don’t really care. That’s always been the mentality and that will be the mentality on Sunday.” 

Dan Campbell expressed during his weekly radio interview on 97.1 The Ticket that the team will continue to focus on what they excel at.

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“I think what you do, first of all you’re gonna take what you do well and what you feel like you’ve mastered through training camp," Campbell said. "You’re gonna trust the players that have been the most consistent for you over a period of time as well as training camp and you’re gonna trust them to make plays.

“When it comes to the opponent, honestly I feel like most of the work has been done through training camp. You’d like to believe that," Campbell explained further. "And what I mean by that is you’ve tested each other enough, the coordinators and coaches and players, you’re constantly trying to manipulate each other. You’re trying to nitpick and find any weakness you can find in what they do. I think it forces you to have to adapt, which is really good.”

The Rams will feature running backs Kyren Williams and a familiar face the former No. 2 overall pick used to battle while playing for the Michigan Wolverines. Blake Corum was selected by the Rams in the third-round of this year's draft.

“Blake, he was tough to go against in practice at Michigan. It’s always funny getting to play against your old teammates," said Hutchinson. "He’s a Michigan all-time legend. He’s a great player and I’m looking forward to it. I think all those backs have a similar build, similar play style. I wish him the best, but not Week 1.”