WATCH: Lions' C.J. Gardner-Johnson gets first laugh, intercepts Buccaneers' Baker Mayfield

Detroit — Maybe C.J. Gardner-Johnson has been watching film, after all.

After the Detroit Lions safety got into a war of words with Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield earlier in the week, Gardner-Johnson in Sunday's divisional-round game intercepted Tampa's second pass attempt of the day. Gardner-Johnson then returned the interception 12 yards and flipped the ball to Mayfield after finishing his return.

Gardner-Johnson's return helped set up the Lions for an early field goal to go up, 3-0.

Prior to it being known that Detroit would be playing Tampa Bay in the playoffs, Gardner-Johnson made an off-hand public comment leading up to the wild-card round about the Bucs quarterback while trying to explain that the Los Angeles Rams group is "probably one of the better groups we done faced all year, besides that Tampa group," Gardner-Johnson said.

"If you give that Tampa group a good quarterback, that's a great group," Gardner-Johnson continued. "(Mike) Evans, (Chris) Godwin, (Russell) Gage, that's a great group."

Once it was known that Detroit would be facing Tampa in this week's divisional round, the comments resurfaced and made their way back to Mayfield, who pointed out that Gage hasn't played all season.

"I don't think he's really watched film because he mentioned Russell Gage," Mayfield said. "We love Russell, but Russell hasn't played a snap all year for us."

We'll have to wait until the end of the game to know if Gardner-Johnson got the last laugh.

nbianchi@detroitnews.com

@nolanbianchi