FORD FIELD
WEEK 8: SUNDAY, NOV. 1, 2020
The following are post-game notes and quotes from the Detroit Lions’ 41-21 loss to the Indianapolis Colts at Ford Field on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020.
POST-GAME NOTES
LIONS SCORING PLAYS
- First Quarter: WR Marvin Jones Jr. caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from QB Matthew Stafford to give Detroit a 7-0 lead with 5:42 left in the quarter. K Matt Prater made the extra point.
- Third Quarter: RB Kerryon Johnson caught a nine-yard touchdown pass from QB Matthew Stafford with 11:08 left in the quarter to cut the score to 20-14. K Matt Prater made the point-after attempt.
- Fourth Quarter: WR Marvin Jones Jr. caught a four-yard touchdown from QB Matthew Stafford to make the score 35-21 with 12:15 left. K Matt Prater made the extra point.
TEAM NOTES
The Lions… - Produced at least 21 points for the seventh-straight game. The only other times the Lions have produced at least 21 points in each of the first seven games of a season were in 1954 and 1951.
- Recorded their first blocked punt since Dec. 23, 2007.
- Have now scored points in 12 consecutive quarters dating back to Week 4 vs. New Orleans (fourth quarter of Week 4 through the first quarter of Week 8).
- Have not allowed an opening-drive score in five-straight games. They also have not allowed an opening-drive touchdown in 11-straight games.
- Produced a 100-yard receiver (WR Marvin Hall, 113 yards) for the third-straight game.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
LB JAMIE COLLINS SR. - Finished with 10 total tackles (seven solo) and two tackles for loss.
- Became the first Lions linebacker to produce 10 total tackles and two tackles for loss in a single game since LB Josh Bynes did so against the Bears on Oct. 18, 2015.
P JACK FOX - Punted five times for 262 yards (52.4 avg., 46.0 net), booming a long of 59 yards.
- His 52.4 punting average ties as the seventh-highest in franchise history when a punter had at least five attempts in a game.
WR MARVIN HALL - Caught four passes for 113 yards (28.3 avg.), hauling in a career-long pass of 73 yards.
- Produced his first-career 100-yard game. He becomes the 15th player to produce a 100-yard game with QB Matthew Stafford.
- Now has 26 career receptions for 639 yards (24.6 avg.). Among all NFL players with at least 25 career receptions, his 24.6 receiving average is the second highest in NFL history, and the highest of any player since the merger.
TE T.J. HOCKENSON - Produced a career-high seven receptions for 65 yards (9.3 average).
- Now has 688 receiving yards through 19 career games, trailing only TE Brandon Pettigrew (708) for the second-most yards a Lions tight end has had through 19 career games.
RB KERRYON JOHNSON - Logged two receptions for 15 yards (7.5 avg.) and one touchdown.
- Caught his first receiving touchdown of the season and third of his career. Became the third player in franchise history to produce at least seven rushing touchdowns and three receiving touchdowns within a player’s first 25 career games, joining RBs James Jones (1983-84) and Billy Sims (1980-81).
WR MARVIN JONES JR. - Registered three receptions for 39 yards (13.0 avg.) and two touchdowns.
- He now has 13 touchdowns over the course of his last 13 home games, the third-most receiving touchdowns in home games in the NFL since 2018.
- Produced his sixth multi-receiving touchdown game since 2017, tied with DeAndre Hopkins for the third-most in the NFL in that span.
- Now has 19 career receiving touchdowns in home games for Detroit, passing WRs Terry Barr and Gail Cogdill for the sixth-most in franchise history.
- Now has 30 receiving touchdowns as a Lion, passing WR Roy Williams (29) for the eighth-most in franchise history.
S MILES KILLEBREW - Finished with one solo special teams tackle and a punt block.
- Recorded the first blocked punt of his career. The last Lions player to record a blocked punt was Casey FitzSimmons vs. Kansas City on Dec. 23, 2007.
DE ROMEO OKWARA - Recorded six total tackles (five solo) 1.0 sack, one tackle for loss and one quarterback hit.
- Became the fifth player in team history to produce at least 5.0 sacks, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery through the first seven games of a season.
- Recorded a tackle for loss for the sixth-straight game, extending his career-best streak.
- Produced a sack for the second-straight game, his second sack-streak of the season.
QB MATHEW STAFFORD - Finished 24-of-42 passing (57.1%) for 336 yards, three touchdowns and one interception for a 96.9 passer rating.
- Threw for a touchdown for the 10th
-consecutive game, the fourth-longest streak of his career. - Produced his 84th
-career multi-touchdown game, the sixth-most in the NFL since he entered the League in 2009. - Produced his 39th
-career three-touchdown game, tying Hall of Fame QB Johnny Unitas for the 14th
-most in NFL history. - Completed a 73-yard pass, his longest since throwing a 73-yarder in 2016.
- Produced his 45th
-career game with 300 yards and a touchdown, tying Hall of Fame QB Warren Moon for the 15th most in NFL history.
- Recorded his 48th 300-yard game, the 15th
-most in NFL history. - Threw for 300 yards and a touchdown in consecutive games for the seventh time of his career.
Pool Reporter Paula Pasche Interview with NFL Referee Clay Martin
Indianapolis Colts at Detroit Lions
Sunday, November 1, 2020
Question: Can you explain the unnecessary roughness call on Detroit’s Danny Shelton after his sack in the second quarter?
Martin: “I had blown the play dead for forward progress where I thought the quarterback was stopped. And then I felt that number 71 (Shelton) unnecessarily continued on with him. And at about the time I’m processing that, the scrum starts. So, my attention went immediately to breaking up the chaos, if you will, and I threw my flag late. But the flag was for number 71, unnecessary roughness after my whistle for forward progress.”
Question: So, Shelton just continued with the play when he should have stopped?
Martin: “That was my ruling, yes.”
LIONS HEAD COACH MATT PATRICIA POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)
Opening Statement: “Obviously, not a very good game by us today, but give Indianapolis credit. They played well in all three phases, they were able to capitalize on some of the mistakes we made and certainly took control of the game and just kept that all the way through the second half. We have to keep working, keep grinding here to get better. We have a big game this week and (inaudible) we have to work from the mistakes today, understand what Indianapolis did well against us and get that fixed and go forward from there.”
On Indianapolis controlling the clock today: “I think certainly in the first half I thought we had some opportunities there that we really missed, you know, where we had a chance to settle things down we didn’t do that. We went in at halftime understanding we have to play 60 minutes and we’d have another 30 minutes of football and we needed to reset and go out and play better. I thought we started to turn it a little that way, but again, give Indianapolis credit, they were able to sustain it and push it all the way through to the end. So it is certainly difficult, in those situations, you want to try and do the best to stay balanced all the way through the game. When that’s not happening it gets a little bit away from you in those situations.
On the flag on DT Danny Shelton that negated a sack: “We obviously can’t get a penalty in that situation. Really, I think it was more of the act during the play I think, it just, I don’t know, they threw it later that’s what it looked like. We can’t have those situations those are – certainly not in that situation where it’s critical to get them stopped. Obviously, we gave
them a second chance, we gave Philip Rivers a second chance and they got points out of it. We have to play better, we have to play smarter in those situations.”
On if this game was a setback for the team: “Obviously, I mean I think we understand every single week the teams we play get better. As the season goes on in the NFL you have to improve, no one stays the same. Everyone gets better and competition gets harder. From that aspect of it, we have a lot of work to do. We have to go back to work and just kind of keep grinding it out here. You know, we have to play better. We have to coach better and we have to play better. That’s the bottom line. Like I said, give Indianapolis credit. They coached and played better than we did today and we have to get back to work.”
On consistency being hard to find: “I think for us, certainly today was not a very consistent game for us. That’s something we can look at and say we have to improve at, we have to get better. It’s always hard, it’s the NFL. Things are competitive every single week, there’s great players on both sides of the ball. Like I said, Indianapolis, they’re a great team. They’re really good in all three phases. They play very good complementary football and they did that today.”
On why the team struggles so much at home: “I mean obviously just kind of focus on today. We just didn’t play well enough today. Like I said, give Indianapolis credit, they out played us, they out coached us. We have to get back to work.”
On the team losing seven straight home games: “Like I said, just let’s give Indianapolis credit for today. They did a great job. We didn’t play well.”
On his concern about WR Kenny Golladay’s injury: “I think we had a couple of things today that we have to sort through and find out (inaudible).”
On clarifying his understanding of the penalty on DT Danny Shelton and if the sack itself was penalized opposed to actions after the play: “Yeah, I think it was more the play itself.”
On the offensive line rotation: “I think for us, obviously we’re always going to try to do what we think is right to help us win. Certainly, in some of the practices and (inaudible) we had this week and where we were with Deck (T Taylor Decker) and some of the movement we had during (inaudible). I thought it was better if (inaudible) to win. We have six guys that have started for us and we have confidence in all of those guys.”
On critics pointing out not being able to beat teams with the better records: “I think again for us, every game is hard.
Every team is good and (inaudible). Next week is new and it will be harder than this week. But then we (inaudible) records. We can’t look at that all the time we just have to do the best we can do to win.”
On not finding success in the run game today: “Obviously, they have a very good run defense. They’ve been that way all year. I think they do a phenomenal job with the players up there. There was some movement up front that gave us some issues and I thought they did a good job with the pressure call too. They were able to and create some negative
plays for us. We have to handle all of that, we have to do a better job with it. We have to be able to run the ball (inaudible).”
On if the defense lined up with only 10 players against the Colts two-point conversion: “I think we had a badexecution in that situation. The communication has to be better there.”
LIONS QB MATTHEW STAFFORD POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)
On the inability to keep drives going in the first half: “Too many third-and-longs. Obviously, didn’t sustain drives well enough in the first half or the second half to be honest. Didn’t run the ball as well as we can, obviously and then just didn’t play well enough in the passing game to overcome that. So, it was obviously we scored early which was great, but we weren’t able to be consistent on drives and our defense was out there for a long period of time, which isn’t good.”
On his ability to see the trend of a poor running game and make changes as the game goes on: “I think it is something you’ve got to be consistent with. You’ve got to keep trying to do it. You know, that’s a defensive front that really loves to rush the passer. They’ve got a really talented front and you’ve got to keep them honest. We just didn’t do a good enough job making those runs count and make them really think about them. And that’s on all of us, myself included, to make sure we are getting in there the best runs and then we have to go out there and execute it. But just a tough physical defense that we didn’t play well enough to win.”
On the pick-six: “Yeah, just didn’t have good enough eyes on the nickel. I didn’t see him. Obviously, it was pretty evident when you watch it. I wish I had gone somewhere else, no question about it. Obviously, I wish I would have held on to the ball to when 53 (Colts LB Darius Leonard) got it from me. Two plays that I can’t make for us to have a chance to win,
especially in a game like that where we are going to have to score a bunch of points. And I wish I had those two plays back, no question obviously. Even if I get sacked on the one, (Matt) Prater makes that field goal, it just helps us with momentum and gets us points. Then obviously starting the next drive with a pick six was tough. I will give our guys credit, bounced back and scored quickly on the next drive to try to negate it. But it was just too many mistakes.”
On juggling the positive momentum from the past couple of wins with the emotions of this loss: “Yeah, I mean it is frustrating to lose. We’ve put a bunch of work into it, and when it doesn’t go the way you want it to go, it’s not fun. And this one’s no different. But at the same time we’ve got to learn from it. We’ll look at the tape, we will figure out where we can
do better and we have got a new opponent next week. We are going to have to get ready to go to them and play well.”
On struggling at home over the past year: “I mean there is nothing other than execution and trying to win a game. We just haven’t won enough. I don’t really, to be honest with you, pay too much attention to where we win the games. I just want to win them. We haven’t won enough in the past couple of years and we have got to get it going a little bit this year
too.”
On struggling with consistency since 2018: “I think this league is tough, you know what I mean? You look week in and week out, there’s wins and losses every week where you didn’t expect it, quote unquote, the experts. But you’ve got to make sure you are doing everything you can possible during the week to get ready to go play, and then you go out there
and play on Sunday and try to execute as best you can. And some weeks, you execute better than others, and you win the game, and other times you don’t. Obviously, it is disappointing and frustrating to not win them, but as far as consistency goes, it’s just everybody has got to do their job at a high level every time.”
On recovering from this loss: “You’ve got to prove yourself every week. Just because we won a couple weeks ago in Jacksonville doesn’t mean we were going to go down there and beat Atlanta. And just because we beat Atlanta, doesn’t mean you’re going to go out there and beat Indy, or lose to Indy. Each week, it’s a prove yourself league. You’ve got to go
out there and prove yourself on Sundays and we’ll have another opportunity to do that next week.”
On “it just wasn’t our day” being a valuable reason for a team not performing well: “I think we didn’t execute well enough. When you look at it, myself included, if I play like that it’s going to be tough for us to win. I am sure that there a lot of guys in our locker room looking at themselves in the mirror saying if I play like that, it’s going to be tough for us to win. If you guys want to put it on somebody, put it on me. I can’t turn the ball over twice and we’ve got to get the ball in the
endzone more.”
LIONS WR MARVIN JONES JR. POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)
On what happens to the offense when WR Kenny Golladay is unable to play: “I don’t know what happened – it’s always next man up. You see what Marvin Hall did out there – that’s something that he does all day, in practice and stuff like that. It’s just next man up. That’s what the NFL is about.”
On critics saying the Lions only beat one-win teams and question how good the team truly is: “I mean, when you look at drives that we’re clicking, it’s like clockwork. It’s easy, you know. It’s consistency. That’s all it is. If we can do it consistent, we can really move the field and score on anybody. And I think we’ve showed that and obviously, we’ve
showed the opposite as well. The opposite is what’s hurting us. So, basically, we just have to be who we know that we are. We can score points at will and we just have to do that every quarter and have that mentality every snap of the game.”
On if he feels he has found his stride individually as a receiver these last few weeks: “I think I’ve had it. There’s nothing really to say on that topic. I just go out there, I do my job and just do what I do. The opportunities that come to me, obviously I always want to make them and stuff like that and help this team. That’s number one. All that other stuff, it
doesn’t matter.”
On how he deals with his name being involved in trade rumors: “You don’t deal with it. What do I have to worry about?”
On if he asks Lions Head Coach Matt Patricia and/or Executive Vice President and General Manager Bob Quinn for clarification regarding his roster status: “No, I don’t need clarification. I’ve been in here long enough, running good, feel good, whatever it is that’s what it is.”
LIONS OL FRANK RAGNOW POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)
On what stopped the running game from getting going today: “A lot of things, really come down to us, whether it’s starting fast, we never really got in a roll and there was some communication, just some things we got to get going. Like, we don’t know how many opportunities we’re going to get to get going. If we don’t get going, it’s hard to ever get that run
game going. It’s a lot of us up front. Hats off to them, very talented front as you guys saw, but a lot of things that we as an offensive line can improve on for sure.”
On how personal the offensive line takes only producing 29 rushing yards: “Very personally, starting with myself. I could have done a lot better communicating some things, some looks. We’ve got to start faster. We never really got in a rhythm. We never really got it rolling and just not good enough and we need to be better next week.”
On what it takes to get in a rhythm and if big runs early are needed: “Not necessarily, I mean, you just got to execute your job. I think we had a few plays, whether it was myself or someone else, doing the wrong thing and if we don’t have all guys up front doing the right thing, it’s hard to get it rolling.”
LIONS LB REGGIE RAGLAND POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)
On the offense taking responsibility for leaving the defense on the field too long and the challenge that presents: “It’s no excuse. We play defense for a reason. Offense is going to have off days, but we’ve got to go out there and play ball, simple as that.”
On the key third down penalties against DT Danny Shelton and the pass interference on CB Justin Coleman: “We can’t have penalties, simple as that. But some of this stuff getting ticky-tacky out here, man. It’s going to be pushing and shoving, man. But you don’t have to throw a flag all the time. If you watching, man, I’m over here trying to get everybody
right, but then (expletive), Philip (Rivers), come grab me like he crazy. But if I would’ve grabbed him it would have been a penalty. So, just because he’s a quarterback don’t mean nothing. Come on, now. But it is what it is. It’s an offensive league.”
On critics saying the last few wins have been against sub-par teams: “I’m going to go ahead and stop you now. Who cares what these critics have to say because they don’t play in this league. They don’t play football. This league is hard to win. I don’t care if it’s one-win teams, two-win teams. These critics don’t play in this league. They don’t understand.
Getting a win in this league is as hard as it is. I don’t care what no critic got to say. Damn them. That’s why they sit behind the desk and write on papers they don’t play this game, next question.”
