The following are post-game notes and quotes from the Detroit Lions’ 47-7 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Ford Field on Saturday, Dec. 26, 2020.
POST-GAME NOTES
LIONS SCORING PLAYS
- Third Quarter: RB/WR Jamal Agnew returned a punt 74 yards for a touchdown with 9:20 left in the quarter. K Matt Prater made the extra point.
TEAM NOTES
The Lions…- Became the second team in NFL history to have three different individuals serve as head coach in a single season (1978 New
England Patriots).
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
RB/WR JAMAL AGNEW- Returned two punts for 78 yards (39.0 avg.) and one touchdown.
- Recorded a 74-yard punt return touchdown in the third quarter, his first punt return touchdown of the season.
- Produced his fifth overall return touchdown since entering the NFL in 2017, passing Dolphins WR Jakeem Grant (four) for the most in the League in that span.
- Became the second player in franchise history to have four punt return touchdowns and one kickoff return touchdown (WR Eddie Drummond).
- Now has four-career punt return touchdowns, tying WR Eddie Drummond (four) for the second-most punt return touchdowns
in franchise history. - Since the 1970 merger, Agnew is the only player in franchise history with at least four punt return touchdowns of 60-or-more yards. DB Jack Christiansen has the team record with seven, but played from 1951-58.
- Agnew’s fifth-career return touchdown also marked his first return touchdown in a home game.
- Agnew’s punt return touchdown was the Lions’ first in a home game since WR Andre Roberts had a 55-yard punt return touchdown vs. Jacksonville on Nov. 20, 2016. Agnew produced the longest punt return touchdown by a Lion in a home game since RB/WR Mel Gray had a 78-yard punt return touchdown vs. Green Bay on Dec. 15, 1991.
- In his last two home games, Agnew has produced a return of 70-plus yards (71-yard kickoff return vs. Green Bay in Week 14; 74-yard punt return vs. Tampa Bay in Week 16).
P JACK FOX - Punted eight time for 382 yards (47.8 avg., 42.8 net), pinning five punts inside of the 20-yard line. His eight punts and 382 punting yards are both career highs.
- Landed five punts inside the 20-yard line. This ties for the second-most by a Lions player in a single game and only the fifth occurrence in franchise history where a punter had five punts inside of the 20-yard line. The most recent time this happened was when P Sam Martin landed five punts inside the 20-yard line vs. Tennessee on Sept. 18, 2016.
- Attempted his 50th -career punt, totaling the highest gross (49.4) and net average (45.1) a punter has had through his first 50 punts in NFL history.
DE EVERSON GRIFFEN - Reached 3.5 sacks with Detroit and 80.5 for his career. He now has 199-career quarterback hits.
- His 80.5 sacks since 2011 rank as the fifth-most by a defensive end in that span.
DE ROMEO OKWARA - Finished with two solo tackles, 1.0 sack and one forced fumble.
- Became the second player in franchise history to produce a season with at least 9.0 sacks, 10 tackles for loss and three forced fumbles (DE Ezekiel Ansah in 2015).
- Produced his 6th sack and third forced fumble on third-down plays this season. He is the first player in franchise history to produce 6.0 sacks and three forced fumbles on third-down plays in a single season. Of his 9.0 sacks, 66.7% of his production have come on third down.
- Ranks fourth among all NFL defensive ends with 73.0 sack yards this season.
LIONS WIDE RECEIVERS COACH ROBERT PRINCE POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)
Opening Statement: “First of all, I would like to thank the entire staff. Preparing this week [was] a little bit difficult, but I thought Evan (Rothstein) did a great job helping with the defense, and with Sean (Ryan) taking over, tremendous opportunity for those guys.
And also with Marquice (Williams) on special teams, it was a great effort by those guys and the rest of the guys.”
On what he attributes the poor performance to: “Well the issue was on offense we couldn’t stay on the field and on defense we couldn’t get off the field. And with the third downs, I think that our defense played hard and had an opportunity to get off the field early in that first drive. It got extended, so they ended up getting a few more plays. And then offensively, we need to stay on the field. We need to convert those third downs. That goes to the coaching and we’ve got to get them ready.”
On if this game was hopeless considering the coaching situation and QB Matthew Stafford exiting with an injury: “I wouldn’t say hopeless. That was a very good football team, obviously, that we’re playing. But anytime you take the field, you have an opportunity, and we just didn’t get it done today.”
On Stafford’s injury: “I’m not exactly sure of the exact injury, but it was a lower body injury, and he was deemed out by halftime.”
On if he will be available next week: “I have no idea.”
On his first week taking on a head coaching responsibilities: “Well really, Bev (Darrell Bevell) was still very involved with everything, and really it was during practice when I really ran the team and then also during the game basically. So, a different challenge than what Coach Bev had, where Coach Bev had to take everything over. Bev was still heavily involved during the week, and like I said, I ran the practice and then I ran the game.”
On his message to the players before the game today: “Basically, it’s that, it’s the players game. And that Bev (Darrell Bevell) is not throwing one pass and Cory (Undlin) is not making one tackle or covering anybody. It is our opportunity to try to put guys in position and for them to make the plays come to life, and obviously we came up extremely short today.”
On if he has ever been involved in a similar loss: “Yes. Yes, in my career. I think probably a lot of people have experienced at least one loss like this, and I have.”
On when it became clear they were in trouble defensively: “I would say, I would not just blame the defense by any means. It is a team game, and obviously it was great to get that score, by the special teams to come through, but offensively, we have to stay on the field. If we’re not on the field very long for our offense and the defense has to stay on, obviously it’s going to be tough for them and they’re going to get worn out. So, it was a team loss and it started with me.”
On his previous experience with a loss like this: “I can’t remember if it was my first year, 2004 maybe 2005 or something, maybe Kansas City, playing down there, they got after us pretty good and we tried to get something to go right right before half and I think we ended up throwing a pick-six. I can’t remember the final score, but it was something pretty similar to this one.”
On if he blames this loss on the COVID-19 situation surrounding the team this week: “We’re not going to make any excuses. We had our team, they had their team, and they outperformed us today.”
On how he will describe in the future what the Lions went through this week: “Well obviously, not good enough today from us and it was a little bit of a challenge, obviously, with what was happening. But I guess no excuses. We had our team, they had their team and we weren’t good enough today. I thank the organization for trusting that I would be able to handle this task, and gave me this opportunity, but unfortunately we came up extremely short today.”
On what this unprecedented week was like for him personally: “It started off with just our normal game planning, and then with what was happening with protocol, some things were talked about and discussed, and said hey, we might have an issue with the coaching staff as far as the contact tracing. And just a little bit later in the week it was determined that some of the coaches weren’t going to be there, and it was made the decision that I was going to be the head coach and Sean (Ryan) was going to call the plays, as a coordinator, and Evan (Rothstein) was going to be on defense calling the plays. And everyone gave tremendous effort, but
unfortunately it was just short.”
On the frustration surrounding the defensive performance from an offensive mindset: “Well it is all about trying to win the game. So, it doesn’t matter if we win 50-49 or if we win 2-0, so whatever needs to be done, that’s what we want to happen. So, if we need to kick a field goal to win a game 3-0 then great. If we need to win 50-49 then that’s great. We need to take care of our business, and that’s how we look at it.”
LIONS RB/WR JAMAL AGNEW POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)
On his kickoff return today and frustration at lack of similar opportunities this season: “I mean, it’s just been frustrating all year
not getting the opportunities. For some reason the last month or so, we’ve been getting more and more opportunities. I keep telling my teammates, ‘You know, let’s block, let’s block it up.’ They work their butts off because you never know when we’re going to get the opportunity and it came. I mean, unfortunately, we were down 40 to nothing, but we’re still trying to make an impact, make plays on special teams. I’m just happy I got to make that play for the team and give us a little bit of juice.”
On how important it was to avoid the punter’s tackle: “Oh, two weeks in a row I got tackled by the kicker, so I couldn’t let it happen a third time in a row. I would have fired myself, to be honest.”
On what he attributes the team’s performance to today: “I mean, we just have to give all of the respect and credit to Tampa Bay. They came out from the jump and got on us right away and we couldn’t figure out a way to get back in the game. So, I think we have to give all of the credit to them. Short-staffed and everything, we still had a solid game plan that we really believed in and we just didn’t go out there and execute like we had envisioned. So, hats off to Tampa Bay for playing their butts off.”
On if the players’ effort is still there at this point in the season: “Oh, no doubt, the effort is definitely there. I just don’t think the execution was there, to be honest. We didn’t make the plays in the certain situations that we needed to. Obviously, that first drive, we had that big offsides kill a little bit of momentum. It’s just those type of plays that we have to lock in and execute. We can’t blame it on scheme or anything.”
LIONS QB DAVID BLOUGH POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)
On how QB Matthew Stafford is doing: “Yeah man, obviously not feeling great, but he’s going to get that stuff looked at and it’s a bummer. You come out and you never expect for that stuff to happen, especially as early on as it did, and I feel bad for him. That’s why Chase and I are here, to go out there and play. I wish Matthew the best of luck and I hope it comes back great and we’ll see where he’s at as the week goes on, I guess.”
On what he thinks QB Matthew Stafford’s injury is: “Man, I got no idea.”
On what it was like watching the team struggle for the first three quarters: “Yeah, obviously it’s tough man, we have to go out there and try and execute the best we can. As an offense we expect better than what we showed out there today. I think all across the board, no one feels sorry for us, nobody cares that we’re down coaches or whatever. It’s the situation we’re in. We’re supposed to go out there and produce so it’s frustrating, the performance we put on display, but we keep working, you go back to work, and you keep learning. That’s all you can do in this game and in this league.”
On what preparations were like this week with the unclear coaching situation: “Yeah, obviously different than what we’ve experienced really so far, with your head coach out and having to do things virtually for him and then other guys who were thrown into the role we thought did a great job at preparing as best we could and trying to put us in a position to be successful. That’s what this year has been, that’s what it’s been for us, it’s been for everybody around this country and we’re not going to make an excuse that we weren’t ready to go. We just, we have to go out there and put a better product on display. It’s the situation that we were
dealt, and you have to play the cards.”
On the last time he experienced a loss like this: “Honestly, for me, I had a game in college where we got our butts kicked like this. It’s no fun man, everybody’s giving everything you can and, you know, you have to try and go out there and make plays and try to put the best performance out there. It’s frustrating when something like today happens.”
On which college game he is referring to: “Yeah, I remember. It was the last game of my senior year, we played Auburn in the Music City Bowl and they beat us 63-14.”
On why these losses were similar: It’s a hard game to walk out there and it’s hard when you end up losing by 40 or whatever it was. Our only score on offense is (Jamal) Agnew, and we have to go out there and put a better performance on tape. It’s frustrating.”
On the offense’s struggles on third downs today: “Yeah, I mean obviously we have to try and find a way to stay on the field. I think
it’s about being good on first and second down, giving ourselves a manageable third down situation and putting us in a position to be successful and guys obviously shorter yardage plays. If you can’t stay on the field, you make it tough on your defense. That’s what we did. If you can’t stay on the field, it makes it obviously tough to score points especially not getting many explosives. In this league, if you don’t convert on third downs it’s going to be a long day, like today.”
LIONS QB CHASE DANIEL POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)
On the biggest offensive problems today: “I just think that we weren’t good enough, starting with me. I didn’t really do my job as a backup should do – come in and move the ball down the field. I think that converting one-of-10 third downs, that’s probably one of them, not staying on the field. I thought we were in some third-and-manageables, too. That’s a good defense up front. They were bringing some pressure packages. We just weren’t on our A game at all.”
On the point in the game in which the point deficit becomes the challenge: “We feel on offense like we have to go out, and we need to score every drive. That’s always been the case, every offense I’ve ever been on, right? So, when you don’t, you put your defense in a bad spot, especially against Tom Brady on offense, and then we’re just still trying to run our offense out there. We’re trying to protect the football, trying not to turn the ball over, sustain drives – and I think the biggest thing today was not sustaining drives. When you’re one-of-10 on third down, you’re nine series in and you’re nine punts, it’s not good.”
On Quarterbacks Coach Sean Ryan as an offensive play caller: “I thought he was really good. I thought he was high energy all week.
I thought he took every advantage of his opportunity. Us as an offense, we didn’t help him out at all. It’s hard to call – sort of stay with a base defense when you’re down quite a bit. No excuses from anybody. It’s a grown-man’s league, and we have to handle our business week-in and week-out, and we just didn’t do it today.”
On what the week was like leading up to the game and how much help the players contributed to the new coaching changes: “It
took all of us, but those dudes have been around for a long time. Sean (Ryan) has won a couple rings, or one ring at least with the (New York) Giants. I mean, he’s been around. ‘RP’ (Robert Prince, wide receivers coach) is a legend in his own right. I think both those guys handled their jobs seriously, but also had a little fun with it. Unfortunately, we just got down so much today. We got our butts kicked today, and it’s no fun, and I feel for them a little bit. I wish we could’ve, offensively at least, come out and helped them out a little bit, but we weren’t able to.”
On how not having the full coaching staff influences the balance of the game: “There’s not at all, right? You sort of have to pivot and keep rolling, and we didn’t do that today.”
On what it was like on the sideline: “I thought the guys on the sideline – there’s never any quit. Our guys really didn’t quit. We kept playing. Unfortunately, it wasn’t our day. Really two phases – I know ‘Ag’ (Jamal Agnew) was happy to get him a punt return (touchdown), that was awesome, guys were jacked up for him on the sideline. It’s never a good day when you get beat like this.”
On QB Matthew Stafford’s injury update and if he will start next week: “Both of those, you know as much as I do. I just play here,
and I do what they tell me. I literally know nothing about those two things. I just know ‘Staff’ was like, ‘Hey man, I can’t go,’ and I was like, ‘All right man, let’s go.’ So as simple (of) a conversation as that.”
On the feeling of going through a game like this one: “I’ve been beaten like this before, very few in between and it’s never a fun feeling. It’s what we do for a living. It’s a game, but it’s what we do for a living. I think it’s our pride on the line. We got our pride crushed today. We have to find out what we’re made of and a quote unquote ‘meaningless game’ as far as playoffs go, next week against Minnesota, and just see what we’re made of. It’s going to give guys some great opportunities to get out there, play hard, play fast against a really good defense, against a really good offense, run game. So, we’re looking forward to that opportunity.”
On if it’s possible that this loss could provide more motivation for the final game as opposed to a typical season: “No. No, not at all. I don’t think so. I just think that everybody processes these sort of beat downs differently, some take a few days, some take a few hours. We’re just trying to get this one over, watch the film, watch the tape, correct our mistakes, more importantly, and try not to make them again.”
On how he’ll process the loss: “For me, I’ll watch the game right when I get home. Take tonight and then tomorrow we’ll be on to Minnesota.”
On if Interim Head Coach Darrell Bevell was able to address the team virtually before and after the game: “He talked to us last
night virtually and just said, ‘Hey let loose, have fun. There’s no excuses, guys. It’s been an honor to be your guy, and I’ll be back next week.’ It wasn’t anything crazy. It wasn’t anything like that, but it was what ‘Bev’ does, and it resonated with guys. Unfortunately, it didn’t show up today on the field.”
On if Interim Head Coach Darrell Bevell was able to address the team virtually before and after the game: “No.”
LIONS DEFENSIVE END EVERSON GRIFFEN POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)
On what the mood in the locker room was like after a loss like this: “A loss like this is terrible. They came out, they played well, they have weapons, Tom Brady played great. Hats off to him. We’ve just got to keep on fighting like we did.”
On if the early offside penalty that negated the early stop created a downward spiral: “Yeah, it was. My penalty did start that. I’ve got to be smarter and watch the ball and listen to the cadence. I thought I was pretty good though. I thought I was pretty good, but I guess I jumped offside. So yeah, if we were able to get 3-and-out, maybe we could have had a different type of game, but they came out firing.”
On if he felt like the Lions fought until the end today: “Yeah, I feel like they did. A lot of guys stepped up and they fought until the very end, and that’s all you can ask for. This is a hard game. You play good teams every week, and I think that it’s up to each and every one of us to take ownership in your job and go out there and compete every down. And even though we lost today, I feel like we still fought and that’s all we can do.”
