Detroit Lions' Dan Campbell doing his best to keep NFC title game like 'any other week'

Dan Campbell straightened his shirt and wiped his face, the energy coursing through his veins.

He tapped the lectern in front of him three times with his right hand, and if Sunday's NFC championship game between the Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers was right then and there, Campbell might have knocked down a wall.

Two days before the Lions play the biggest game in modern franchise history, Campbell left no doubt he and his team were ready for the stage. The winner of Sunday's game advances to Super Bowl 58 to play the Kansas City Chiefs-Baltimore Ravens winner Feb. 11 at Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium.

The Lions are one of four teams who have never been to a Super Bowl.

"I don’t want to pull them back," Campbell said when asked if he would do anything to harness his players' energy before Sunday. "We’re not pulling them back. No, we’re going. We’re going. They’ll adjust on the fly, but we’re going in and they’ll be ready."

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The Lions held their second straight day of practice Friday after a Wednesday walkthrough, and Campbell said little had changed about his team's preparation this week.

They kept things loose at the start of practice, playing "California Love" by Dr. Dre during stretching (ahead of their Saturday flight to San Francisco), and the offensive line went through its Friday ritual of running take-off routes for quarterbacks Jared Goff, Teddy Bridgewater and David Blough before diving into red zone plays.

"This is any other week," Campbell said. "Just like I said early in the week, the problem is all this (media attention) and so as long as we just stay — and our players know that and we made that point early, the football stuff is no different than like it was getting ready for Kansas City in Week 1. It’s identical, and so I feel like we’ve handled it well."

From a media standpoint, the week was much busier than the 20 or so before it. Campbell met with reporters Friday for a third straight day and the fourth time this week; typically, he talks Monday, Wednesday and Friday, by NFL rule.

Quarterback Jared Goff also spoke with reporters Friday for the second time this week, though the media crowd had thinned from the three dozen or so he addressed Wednesday to only about 25 after practice.

Goff is one of four Lions who have played in a Super Bowl, along with Josh Reynolds, Jake McQuaide and C.J. Gardner-Johnson — offensive tackle Dan Skipper also won a ring as part of the New England Patriots' practice squad — while the more experienced 49ers will play Sunday in their third straight NFC championship game.

Goff downplayed the 49ers' experience edge Wednesday, and said the Lions have been steeled for the moment by their success in big games.

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"I think back to last year when we played Green Bay at Green Bay," Goff said. "That’s the closest to a playoff game we had been to that point and the way those guys walked in there and handled that and knowing we got bounced (from the playoffs) 20 minutes prior to the game starting, and still going in there and handling business, you do that, you’re not worried about any young guys not being able to handle that stuff. They speak for themselves, and our guys will be ready."

Lions linebacker Alex Anzalone, who was with the New Orleans Saints team that lost to Goff's Los Angeles Rams in the NFC championship game five years ago, said he learned from that experience not to take this week for granted.

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Enjoy it, appreciate it, take it all in, but "treat it like it’s any other game."

"It’s wild because it was like five years ago," Anzalone said. "Your memory starts to fade a little bit, but I just remember how the environment — I remember how high the belief was that we were going to go to the Super Bowl and how heartbreaking it was when we lost.

"So I think we’re in a good spot of like where we are right now just as far as our attitude and everything like that. I just remember how critical every play felt and like this was going to be the play to win the game. That’s really the biggest lesson, advice I’d take from this game."

Campbell has been here before, too. He was an assistant on that Saints team that lost to the Rams in the 2018 playoffs, and he played in a Super Bowl in his second season as a player with the New York Giants.

He looked agitated at times Friday, anxious to get on the field. But he said he'll take his own advice when it comes to his pregame speech Sunday, not plan out anything elaborate and treat it like any other game.

"Listen, we’re right where we need to be and the minute you start trying to make this greater than it really is, which is another football game right in front of you and prepare the same way, you practice the same way, you put your socks on the same way, that’s when you, I think you run into problems," Campbell said. "It’s the next game, and they’ve done this all year, our guys have done it all year, we’ve done things right, we understand what it’s going to take, and we respect the opponent and know what they’re capable of, and we know exactly what we’re capable of. And you go into it."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How Detroit Lions' Dan Campbell keeps NFC title game a normal week