Opening Statement: “(The bye week) came at the right time in my opinion. The fact that you get a chance to sit back and do a self-scout, I think some of those things are really underappreciated by coaches. I’ve tried to learn to really appreciate those things because a lot of time during the season, you can point fingers at different situations, at different areas that you might think, ‘Man this has been our issue this whole year.’ But, when you do a self-scout, a lot of times you’re going to find out that’s not the issue. The issue is a bigger problem, or it could be a smaller problem, and it really gives you a chance to really dig in and see the things that you’re really, really good at, and also see the things – ‘Oh, here’s what we’ve got to focus on.’ And during the season, you’re so tied into each game and each week that once you have these bye weeks, you get a chance to do a self-scout. You really get to hone in on, ‘Here are some things that we’ve got to get better at.’ And I thought it was good for me, it was good for our coaches, I thought it was good for our head coach to see exactly some of things that we’ve got to get better at and we look forward to continuing throughout this journey to fix those things and move forward.” On what he identified as areas of improvement during self-scouting over the bye week: “Actually, here’s what I do know, even some of our split safety where we’ve talked about before – it’s one of the major things that we do, and one of our split safety coverages has actually been our best run defense where we’ve given up 2.8 yards a carry. Some of the run defense that we’ve thought would be better was not as good. It actually goes into the philosophy of us as a defense and we want to play as much of this split safety defense as we can because it also helps us on the pass. And then in the passing game, the yards per catch is less in the split safety, when you think it would be less than the single-high stuff. And I think that has a lot to do with our guys just buying into what we’ve done during training camp until now. Another thing which I’ve talked about before is in the red zone. That’s a real thing for us. That’s a real thing. We’ve given up 25 touchdowns this year, 14 of the 25 have been from the five-in, 14. Think about that. Then from the 12 to the six, that’s how I look at – five-in, that’s the tight red zone for me, 12 to the six is the low red zone. From the 12 to the six, we’ve given up another four. We’ve been pretty good at that. We’ve only given up four touchdowns, 18 touchdowns out of 25 on the season. From the 26 to the 13, that’s the fringe, another four. I think our guys have done a pretty good job of not allowing explosive plays in that area of the field, another four, 22 of the 25 touchdowns have been given up between the fringe and to the red. So, there’s only been three touchdowns that we’ve given up outside of 26. So sometimes, I can yell and scream and think there is something when that’s not our issue. Our issue is, ‘How do we stop this and get better at this right now?’ And then look at tapes of what are they doing and I think we’ve done a really good job this bye week of identifying that and then with our players like, ‘Oh man, dang coach. I got it. I got it.’ And we as coaches have got to make sure we have something for them so they can be successful. So, those are the things that jumped out to me during this bye week.” On the challenge of game planning against Steelers RB Najee Harris: “This is just a challenging team in general because of who they are, because of the organization, because of the mentality, because of the culture of this team. Those are the things that we have to get ready to fight not just as a defense, but as an overall team. They’ve been in these situations for a long time and they understand how to win games. But, when you look at them as far as their personnel, Najee is a really good back. He’s a big back. Once he gets his shoulders turned down hill he’s hard to stop, so we’ve got to make sure we can get that guy going east to west as much as possible, and you see a lot in the red zone. Then, they’ve got a tight end (Pat Freiermuth) that they drafted out of Penn State, he is showing up. He’s shown he’s a good player. So, those are some things – are some guys that we’ve got to really try to focus on and not let those guys beat us and force somebody else to try to beat us. Again, the personnel is what it is. Ben (Roethlisberger) is a future Hall of Famer. I don’t take a look at what he can do and all, I just know what he’s done over his career. And the thing is this team is winning a lot of close games. That tells you something about how they operate.” LIONS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR ANTHONY LYNN QUOTE SHEET November 11, 2021 On if WR Josh Reynolds will be prepared to play on Sunday: “I don’t know. I just met him 30 minutes ago. He’ll come out here, work a little bit today and we’ll see how much he can pick up.” On if WR Josh Reynolds’ playing experience with QB Jared Goff at the Rams will help Goff run the offense: “I definitely think he can help. That’s why we acquired him, but Jared and him have a prior relationship in L.A., so they know each other very well. Jared spent some time with him this morning, so that can’t do nothing but help.” On if he has watched WR Josh Reynolds’ tape or if he will watch him at practice: “We’ll see what he can do when we get him out on the field, but his tape speaks for itself. He can make plays.” On how T Taylor Decker looked at practice yesterday: “I thought he looked good yesterday. I think today we’ll give him a little more work and see how he holds up. He hasn’t played football this year yet. I think that he can go in and maybe play all four quarters, maybe a little aggressive. I’m hoping that he can get on the football field this weekend and help us.” On what it would mean to the offense if T Taylor Decker plays on Sunday: “It would be awesome. I think he’s one of the best left tackles in the game if you ask me based on what I’ve seen so far. And to have him back on the field, that would help a lot.” On if T Taylor Decker allows the offense to become more comfortable in taking more shots downfield: “You can definitely – I do believe he’ll hold up in protection, gives you a little more confidence to throw the ball down the field a little bit, but Decker is just as good in the run game. He is a big game, powerful man. So, with him and Jonah (Jackson) on the left side, if he can go this week, that would be great.” On Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell becoming more involved in offensive game planning: “Let me say this, he is not lying about the collaboration because he is definitely more involved. He has been involved the whole time anyway. He’s called plays during games, as most offensive head coaches do. When I was in his shoes, I did that a lot. But yeah, he has definitely been more involved in meetings and more communication with the quarterback and I’m sure you’ll see that on Sunday.” On if it is beneficial to have Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell be more involved in the offense: “I think it’s really beneficial. He knows Xs and Os. He’s been in New Orleans with the very successful offense there under (Saints Head Coach) Sean Payton, so he brings a lot to the table.” On how Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell is more involved in offensive game planning: “Just involved in the meetings and game planning and things like that.” On if he feels Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell is stepping on his toes by getting more involved with the offense: “This is his football team. He is not stepping on my toes. This is his football team. My job is to coordinate this offense and support his vision the best I can.” |
