December 8, 2020
LIONS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR CORY UNDLIN CONFERENCE CALL QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)On if there’s extra energy in the meeting rooms when facing a strong offensive opponent: “There better be. You guys know what I’m going to say. This will be a good test for us here. I would expect nothing less than a bunch of juice coming out of this room, regardless of Sunday. Obviously (on) Sunday, and the way we ended up finishing out the game and playing at the end, is going to help that. We’re going to keep going forward here. Got our hands full. I don’t need to go and take you through that – you guys know.”
On the biggest difference between the team’s defensive performance in the first and second half against the Bears: “Pretty obvious – we did make some adjustments, some ones that you probably wouldn’t notice from just watching the game. Tweaked a couple things just to take some heat off some guys, and I think the biggest thing in talking to those guys when we were done – no matter what the call is, it just takes every guy doing his job. When we came out at halftime, there was no panic. Went in there and had a great conversation, showed the things we didn’t do well, didn’t tackle very well in the first half, didn’t really schematically get beat, just guys out of position. So came out of the tunnel at halftime, didn’t blink, and I think that obviously showed up in the second half. Moved some things around, some pieces, made some adjustments, again nothing major, but I think the credit goes to the players coming out of halftime, nobody’s head was down. We know that this game is not won or loss in the first half. It’s going to come down to the first quarter like most of them do. We did, and we ended up making some plays. Those guys went out there and played hard, gave everything they got, and I commend them, couldn’t be more happy for them and more proud of them for the way they came out in the second half.”
On how making big plays late in the game can be a motivational booster for the team: “The biggest thing is that we improve, if we don’t play a perfect half or a perfect series of defense, and we end up down in a game or – you could spin it either way. We’ve done that this year a few times, come out, played fast and then been in a good situation, then we couldn’t hold it at the end. Again, it all comes done to the end of the game. (Interim Head Coach Darrell Bevell) ‘Bev’ talked about it a few times last week – don’t worry about it. We’ll look at the scoreboard, we’ll look at the clock – let’s play 60 minutes, and when it’s over, we’ll take a peek at what’s up there, and that’s what it’s going to be. It’s like that almost every week. You guys know it. The guys didn’t blink, ended up getting some key stops there at the end of the game, and obviously made a couple huge plays. So, ended up getting the ball back to the offense when we needed to, and offense did the rest. Great game to be a part of you guys. To watch those guys – the entire team, not just the guys on defense, but the entire team – very fortunate to be around those guys.”
LIONS SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR BRAYDEN COOMBS CONFERENCE CALL QUOTE SHEET (VIA ZOOM)On K Matt Prater handling kickoffs last week: “It feels like any other position; it’s great to have more than one guy that you can count on to go out there and execute. No different than anything else. That gives us flexibility there with multiple guys and being able to count on both those guys. That’s definitely a plus.”
On if K Matt Prater handling kickoffs is a strategy to keep him in rhythm all game: “I don’t know that it necessarily will help him. I don’t know that there’s a huge correlation there with the field goals, but it was a discussion just he and I had. I think a lot of it, really, the reason why he wasn’t doing it went back to last year a little bit and some things that went on before I even got here. So, just talked it through with him and he was more than willing and open to do anything that I wanted him to do. I think after the game – you’d have to ask him this – but I think after the game he really kind of enjoyed being back out there and being in the huddle with our kickoff group, the guys that we have, and kind of the energy that they play with. Being part of that huddle, I think, was cool for him. I think he enjoyed it. I don’t know that it necessarily is going to correlate to anything one way or the other with the field goals – two separate plays – and I think he’s a pro to the extent that he’s going to be prepared to go kick field goals regardless of what else he’s doing in the game. I think big picture, I think he enjoyed doing it. To whatever degree that carries over to field goals is probably negligible.”
On how challenging it is to cover the special teams units this time of year as injuries pile up and players rotate to different positions on offense and defense: “There’s no doubt about it that the roster management stuff at this point in the season gets a little bit tougher. You end up playing with guys that are a little bit less experienced, or guys that already have more roles on offense and defense and now you’re trying to add more to their plates. So, that can be a little bit of a dilemma. The one thing that I feel very fortunate about here is we have a ton of depth. I think I said this back in training camp – I think the backend of our roster stacks up very, very well with most teams just in terms of sort of the role players and core special teams guys to where you never want to lose guys. You never want to have to shuffle around, but I feel really, really confident in some of the guys that we have just sort of waiting in the wings that when their opportunity comes, not only are they going to be able to fill in, but I think they’ll really surprise some people. We’re fortunate there, and I try to just always focus on the sort of excitement and opportunity of getting a new guy in the mix. I try to always stay one step ahead, having guys ready. My Assistant (Special Teams Coach) Marquice (Williams) does a great job working with our young guys, spending extra time with them so that when doors open, those guys are ready to go. It’s been two weeks, but so far we’ve had really, really good communication with Darrell (Bevell), myself and Cory (Undlin) early in the week, trying to see around corners and forecast a little bit who’s going to be up, where we’re going to have to move people around. All of that’s gone really well so far. Definitely part of the challenge of being a special teams coordinator in the NFL, but so far I think we’re all in sync and we’re handling it well and I’m excited for some of these young guys to get more opportunities.”
