Opening Statement: “To start off, it’s kind of been the big talk of what happened with the shooting, I would say that it’s – before you can ask, it’s hard for me, for anybody, to have a direct opinion on this incident because the first thing I think about is that I have three kids and my kids are – one’s working in Houston, he’s 27. I have two daughters in college, but the fact that they were in school and you would think that’s the safest place that they would be for things like this to happen. The one thing I do have is empathy for the people that were a part of it. But man, it’s hard to have a true opinion or feeling on those situations because you think that school is probably the safest place for your children to be at. And, for something like this to happen, it’s terrible. It’s terrible. That’s been my stance on it. It’s a tough situation, just for the parents to have kids as a part of that. Because I am a parent, it’s hard to think about. It’s hard to deal with. That’s my thoughts on that. Defensively as a team, again, I thought this was one of our better performances. Did we get the win? No, we didn’t. Did we have a chance to get this win? Just like every week, we always have a chance, but we didn’t get it. And, that’s one thing that we as a defense – and I’m just speaking defensively – we’ve got to continue to understand, ‘How do we keep the points down?’ Because that is our job. Regardless of what the situation is, I don’t care if our offense scores three points, I don’t care if they score 30 points, our job is to keep the points down. And, I’m proud of our guys. I’m going back since the bye week that we talked that each week they’re continuing to improve in those areas that we talked about. We’ve just got to continue to improve in those areas and continue to try to be the best defense that we can be and try to get the most out of the players that we have.” On how he decides defensive play-calls in tight game situations: “I would say this, for the most part, at any time during the game, I think players, not plays. That’s just how I operate and try to make sure I can put each player in the best position that they can be to be successful. It can be a tight game, can be in the beginning of the game, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m always thinking players first. So, every play that you see me call, I’m trying to make sure that if I can get a corner matched up on a guy, I’m going to call a play to be able to do that. If I can get Amani (Oruwariye) in a situation where he can be 1-on-1, I know the ball is going to him because I know he can get a chance to get his hands on the ball. I’m going to call a play to do that. So, each time, that’s what I’m thinking. We all as coaches and as players have to understand how to execute every time we go out and have these plays.” On if there is a bad taste in the defense’s mouth after the Bears’ last drive that took eight-and-a-half minutes: “A bad taste comes with a loss in general. To me, I look at playing this game in general just like you play the position of corner. You can have 59 great plays and that one bad play and you ultimately looked at that bad play, and that’s just what it is. That’s just defensive football. So, I looked at that last drive, as good as we played, after the game I looked at that last drive as a black eye for us because we looked at it together as a defensive staff and there were like three plays we could’ve gotten off the field. We had the quarterback sacked, we had a chance to get the ball and we didn’t make those plays and that comes from just youth and experience and understanding, ‘How do you finish?’ And, that’s always been something that we’ve talked about is, ‘How do you finish?’ And, I think the best teams in this League, they understand how to finish. It’s going to take us time, not just because we are a new regime, but because we have a lot of young guys. I don’t know for a fact, but I think we’re one of the youngest teams in this League and then we have a lot of guys just – they just came out of college and they played a certain way in college. So now, they have to understand how the League works. So, we have to make sure we continue to teach. As coaches, continue to teach and keep learning ourselves, ‘How do we win these games?’ And I tell our guys, ‘Listen, we’re in this thing together. It’s not coaches on this side and players on this side. We’re all in this thing together.’ When things happen with those guys, I feel bad about certain things or if I have a bad call, I expect them to get me out of it just like I expect to put them in positions to make plays. That’s just how this League is.” On what happened on the Bears’ last drive that led to the back-to-back timeout penalty and the defensive play-calls on those two plays: “Let’s go back to the timeouts. First off, obviously we all knew that you can’t call two timeouts. If you look at that sequence of plays, the one thing we all have to understand, those guys get coached, too. And, I think one of those guys said, ‘If they don’t catch the ball, they’re going to go down anyway. They won’t even try to score.’ That situation, if they would’ve caught the ball, they had ample to get to the first down and fall down. Then, they would’ve tried to run the clock out at that point. So, our situation was, ‘Man, listen, we don’t want to give them an inch to be able to have that type of situation on us.’ So, obviously we called a timeout to get the next play. We called a pressure our next play. Now, I wish I would’ve told Will Harris to challenge in that situation. I should have told him that. But, we called a pressure and he was just playing off. Again, that was just his seventh time playing nickel the whole game. Sometimes, we put so much blame on players and listen, that guy is just now learning. So, I told him, ‘That wasn’t your fault. That’s my fault because I put you in that situation as a new player playing that position.’ So, I’ve got to make sure I help that player as far as how to operate in those situations.” On the team learning how to win in the NFL: “We’re always learning. I’ve said this to every one of our players, ‘If your ego gets to the point where you’re not learning, then you are done in this League.’ I think the same way as coaches also because it’s always evolving. You look at a lot of the college concepts that are coming to our League, so we better learn them. We better understand. We better meet with those college guys and understand them because – especially quarterbacks, they come from a system in college and you better make sure that you can put them in those situations that he was doing well in college. So, we have to learn those things. You take Lamar Jackson, he comes in – I mean, shoot, we’re just now learning how to stop that guy because of some of the things he did in college. You always want to evolve as a player and as a coach and I have no ego to continue to learn in that aspect.” On if it is easier for the defense to game plan after facing Vikings RB Alexander Mattison earlier in the season: “I don’t think they changed much as far as the run game. They do what they do. Obviously, from (Gary) Kubiak that was first there, he’s been pretty successful as far as running the ball. I don’t think they want to change up and he’s been successful with just some no name backs back in the day, but you have a guy like Mattison that’s a really good player. I mean, he’s in a great situation as far as this run game is concerned. I don’t see them changing it up at all. The thing we’ve got to do is just go out there and be stout and just play as good as we did the first time that we played them because I think we’ve showed that we can go out there and compete with those guys.” LIONS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR ANTHONY LYNN QUOTE SHEET December 2, 2021 Opening Statement: “I never open up with anything because I like just having conversations with you guys just talking ball. But, today I do kind of want to open up with something, something that’s been heavy on my heart. I found out – I didn’t know about the school shootings until Wednesday evening. Sometimes, we’re locked in this building, we don’t watch TV, we don’t listen to talk radio. I’ve got to tell you that it hit me like a ton of bricks because I was a player in ’99 with the Broncos, that was after that Columbine shooting. To this day, we’re still having these school shootings. It’s something that I was hoping that was something we can get past. Are we doing enough? I don’t know. I don’t have any answers. But, my condolences go out to anybody that was affected by those school shootings. I just pray that God will give those families comfort somehow, someway. It’s sad. I’m in a meeting this morning and one of my coaches had to leave the meeting because his 14-year-old is afraid to go to school. That’s the world we live in today. That’s sad. God, I hope we can do something about that. I’m tired of talking about it. We need to do something. I don’t know what it is, but we’ve got to do something.” On what it was like being in Colorado after the Columbine High School shootings: “I will never grow numb to this. That’s why I’m sad today because I don’t care how many times it happens. But, that was a first for me. That was – I mean, we shut down for a week. It was in the offseason, but we shut down the workouts and everything for a whole week, just sent people home to go be with their families. I just remember that and it was all over TV every single day, every hour. I still feel that to this day. It’s just sad that it’s still going on.” On if his kids were in high school during the Columbine High School shootings: “My kids were very young at the time.” On if he had any conversations with his kids about going to school after the Columbine High School shootings: “I had to sit my kids down and talk to them. We had to talk about home schooling. We brought it up then, certain schools to go to. I don’t think there’s any school that is safe to be honest with you. I think if something like this is going to down, it’s going to go down. It’s sad when, as a parent, when you send your child to school and they may not come home. That’s sad.” On what he said to the coach that left a meeting to go home to his family: “I told him, ‘Go take as much time as he needed. Go spend that time with his daughter,’ because that’s real.” On if he can disclose which coach went home this morning to be with their family: “I’d rather not.” On what RB Godwin Igwebuike needs to do to get more touches on offense: “Godwin just has to keep making plays like he’s doing. This young man was a safety on this team last year and we moved him over in training camp and he’s one of the most improved players on the football team in my opinion. I think he’s doing a heck of a job just moving over from safety to running back.” On RB Jamaal Williams potentially stepping in for RB D’Andre Swift if he has to miss Sunday’s game: “It’s great to have Jamaal back and it’s not just about skills, it’s his mentality, his leadership. When he’s out, we miss that.” On how the transition was initiated for RB Godwin Igwebuike to move from safety to running back: “He was going through a special teams drill and everybody is involved and the young man made a move and I just said, ‘That’s not normal for a DB.’ And, (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) and I talked about it and Dan made the bold move. He called me on vacation, ‘Hey, what do you think about moving Godwin to running back like you suggested?’ And, I said, ‘Man, let’s do it.’ Spent some time with him after practice just working with him and he’s playing with more confidence now. You can see his real abilities on the football field.” On how often he transitions players from defensive positions to the offense: “I made a living flipping linebackers into fullbacks. That works for me, so I’m always looking for those guys that can cross-train and Godwin just kind of caught my eye. But, you know what? He agreed to do it and he went to work and he’s one of the hardest working guys on the team. I’m just so happy for him that he’s progressing the way he is.” On the depth at the running back position: “I like the depth of our backfield and (Jason) Cabinda, I think he’s a ‘tweener. He’s a guy that you can hand the ball off to and he can play fullback and he catches the ball well. This young man was a linebacker a year ago. So, he’s made the switch. I think it’s a really deep group with Godwin coming on the way he has. And, (Jermar) Jefferson if he stays healthy and stays on the field, I like what he can do.” On if teams overlook FB Jason Cabinda’s ability to run the ball when they game plan for the Lions’ offense: “I think sometimes, yeah. You can run right by some linebackers because they’re expecting him to lead. But, when you give him the ball, those little quick hitters, and with his vision and instincts, it makes a big difference.” |
