LIONS HEAD COACH MATT PATRICIA
Opening Statement: MATT PATRICIA: Well obviously not the result we wanted from that standpoint. We needed to make a few more plays, needed to obviously not give up a couple plays. That’s really the big thing for me right now coming out of the game was probably penalties. I think that was probably the thing that hurt us the most in this game, either getting us in backed-up situations or getting us off track on offense or giving extra chances to their offense. I think that was kind of the biggest issues for us with the game. We got to do a better job with that.
I think our guys played hard. I think they worked really hard today. I’m proud of them for that. I know that these games aren’t easy. The Bears, that’s a very dangerous team, they got a lot of great players. They played better than we did in a lot of situations and, obviously, we didn’t get enough done to get the win.
I appreciate our guys, I appreciate how hard they fight, I appreciate how tough they are. If we can get a couple more plays to go our way maybe the results will be a little bit different. I think that’s the biggest thing for us right now is we got to start making some of those plays that we’re not making and not have those things that cause us to lose or hurt us.
Q. Your impressions of how Jeff Driskel came in and played for you. Obviously, tough situation. What you thought of his game?
We’ll look at it, obviously, from that standpoint. But I think he’s been a guy in practice that’s really improved over the last four weeks, you noticed some of the throws he can make. You, obviously, understand his athleticism that he brings. So, I’ve seen him just kind of continually get better. I think he went out and played hard. We’ll see what it looks like from that standpoint. Some things in there that obviously we got to clean up and take care of. He has a little bit of a different element to him and I thought he was put in a really hard situation and I think he played really tough. Obviously, the mistakes, but the rest of that poised, went in, did everything he could to try to help the team win.
Q. Seemed like you guys were optimistic that Matthew Stafford could play. Was there a setback or what happened to hold him back?
Yeah, really wasn’t until exactly what we said it was. It was limited all week and he was doing what he could in practice, and we thought we could get to the end of the week and it would be a situation where we’d be okay. We obviously weren’t from that deal and had some things that we looked at and consulted with the doctors. I think, again, look, he’s one of the toughest guys I know. He wants to play no matter what. It got to the point where, I guess, for me to make the decision here today before the game was it wasn’t safe for him to play. From my standpoint I’m not going to put him in that situation. I love football, I love the game, I’m probably the most competitive guy you’ve ever met, I want to win more than anybody, but I’m not going to put somebody in harm’s way when it’s not a good decision by myself and the medical staff.
Q. Broken bones don’t usually heal in a week. What’s your concern going forward?
I don’t want to get into the specifics of what that is, but there’s always different levels of kind of maybe some of that stuff when you look at it. We take it week by week or day by day from that standpoint.
Q. Did Driskel get the number two reps all week? Didn’t get the full load?
Yeah, we’ve really split reps for a while. It was just something that I think even when I got here last year it was something that we did a little bit. It’s important to do that. It’s important to make sure that guys get reps during the course of the week because you never know. So, we went along the plan as planned and we got to the game-time decision and it was what it was. But those guys do a great job. We have different, obviously, there’s practice, there’s walkthroughs, there’s meetings, there’s just so many different things that we do. We only have a limited amount of time on the field. There’s a lot of other ways that we go about trying to get guys ready to go even if they’re not necessarily out there with the first group.
Q. How tough was that stretch there at the end of the half, obviously, they didn’t score, get the ball, score, the interception, and the score. How did that change things?
Yeah, obviously, two bad series, but I’d say, you know, the series before the half, that’s probably the toughest one. They got us with a good personnel group, they were running some good tempo, had a couple plays that we could have made, and then obviously, got us. I think it was on the third down play where they scored. We lost leverage on the play. We should have been in position for that route. But they scored there, came in, wanted to go start fast in the second half, which I know just getting out of the game, but I think we stopped them out of there. So, we were kind of starting it the way we wanted to. Obviously, the turnover is kind of a separate deal. You turn the ball over, we got to make sure we don’t give up point, especially on a short field and that was probably disappointing from that aspect of it.
Q. Driskel, how did you think he did being kind of thrown in there, although you said he was getting reps during the week? Just kind of the feel of watching it without really looking at the tape, I thought the biggest thing with him is he’s very poised, he’s very calm, he’s been in NFL games before, he started before. So, none of that really affected him, I would say, from that standpoint. I think he tried to do a good job with the operation, getting the plays in and out and getting the guys lined up. We had a couple different things in play here. We had a couple plays where we went fast at the line of scrimmage, we had some different protections in, obviously, because of how great their front is. So, there was a lot on the plate to digest and I think he did a good job with it. We’ll certainly take a look at the execution from that standpoint and see if there are some things that maybe we missed. I think everybody is in a that same boat. There’s probably plays we all could have made better out there in the game. But from that standpoint I thought he stepped in and did the best job that he could and there was no panic at all.
Q. You guys put a lot of the game planning in early in the week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I guess. At that point who were you expecting to be your starting quarterback?
Yeah, again we went as normal. This was truly a limited/questionable decision all the way through the week and a game- time decision for us. So, game plan was the same.
Q. What does that mean exactly? Did you prepare for both, then?
Yeah, I think for us the game plan is the game plan. We have a lot of different things in our packages that fit all the guys that we have. We just went as normal with the game plan.
Q. You suffered a ton of injuries on both sides of the ball. How limiting was that for you and, I guess, are any of the injuries long-term? How does that affect you?
Obviously, the injury situation is always hard. It’s hard with the ones we had before the game because then we get in the game if there’s anything that happens, your kind of really thin as far as what you can do in some of those situations. So, again, we had, Rick with his situation today. Crosby went in and did a good job from that standpoint. We understand its next man up. It is what it is. We got to go out and we got to perform and do got to do better, and we just got to try to find a way to win. The biggest thing for us is there’s just some plays out there that if we just make either way, it changes everything. We’re in there, we’re tough, we’re battling, we’re fighting all the way through. It’s a competitive game and for us we just got to start making some of those plays.
Q. You lost a starting quarterback and then lost the game today. 3-5-1, makes it kind of dire the rest of the season. How big of a blow is everything that happened today?
Yeah, I think its really kind of easy for us. We kind of just really shut everything else out. All the talk that’s going to go on outside of our building doesn’t really matter to us. All that matters to us is just coming in and working hard to try to get better. I think that’s the biggest thing for us. I think if you start to dive into all that other stuff, it’s just a lot of negativity right now for us that — I want to look at our team and say, wow, we really came out and fought really hard. With everything else that’s going on and everything else that everyone’s going to try to pile on with the situation, those guys just played really hard for 60 minutes. They really tried to do everything they could to win. We didn’t execute maybe well enough in that situation but I’m proud of how tough that team is, I’m proud of how much they come in every single day and work and go out and try to win. We just got to make some more plays.
Q. Did Stafford have more tests Friday or Saturday that let you know it was more serious?
We had some things scheduled out during the course of the week just to make sure we were doing everything from a protocol standpoint that we thought was best to evaluate it. I’m not going to get into too many specifics but the biggest thing for me was he truly was limited, he truly participated, truly limited and went through the week. We were hoping by the time we got to today he would be able to do it. Unfortunately, like I said, it just wasn’t safe to put him in that situation. So, the information that we got talking with the doctors, just it wasn’t the right thing to do. I’m more concerned about him than I am anything else. He’s got a great family, he’s a great guy. For us, that was a decision we made, and we move forward and the team, they moved move forward with the decision. They understand. And I think a lot of those guys were trying to fight and do everything they could because they know how tough he is and they know how much it means to him, and I think we were trying to do everything we could for him. So that is really, that’s it.
Q. If it wasn’t safe to put him in that situation on Sunday, why was he listed as questionable on Friday? I think today was the day we decided it wasn’t safe.
Q. What changed? What made you decide that?
Just meeting with the doctors and having that kind of consultation with them one more time and just deciding, hey, it’s not a good thing to do. Because he wanted to play.
Q. When it comes to back and spinal injuries, what level of concern is there that this could be a season-ending injury? For us right now I’m not getting into the specifics of what it is exactly. It’s day by day, week by week. We’ll see how it goes from that aspect of it and see how everything just progresses, I guess.
