Opening Statement: “Obviously, it was a disappointment last week. I’m just speaking defensively of how we played that game. It’s not what we pictured as far as the performance and that’s across the board. Every situation, every player, every coach, we’ve got to make sure we pick our game up this week because we’ve got a really good opponent coming in. This opponent is fighting for a lot of things as far as their division, playoff seeding and all of that stuff. So, we know we’re going to get their best, regardless of who they have and regardless of who we have also. Our job is to go out there and perform and that’s what we talk about in our defensive meeting room. So, we have to get back to what we’ve been doing as far as tackling, assignments and all of that to make sure we’re playing above board.” On losing CB Jerry Jacobs for the season because of a knee injury and adapting to his absence on defense: “It doesn’t have to be Jerry, it can be any player that we have. (Alex) Anzalone went down. We have other players that went down during the season. We’re always – it always bothers us with injuries, but we know it’s part of the game. I know it’s a cliché and everybody says it, but this League is really like it’s a next man up mentality. That’s how we’ve got to operate. Even with all of the issues that’s going on with the COVID related stuff, it’s still next man up. We make no excuses, everybody gets coached, everybody’s in the meeting room and we’ve just got to make sure that we play at a high level.” On how they will fill the open cornerback position on defense: “Play the next guy whoever that may be. If it’s somebody we just signed or (Parnell) Motley that’s been here for a while, we just try to figure it out and try to put a guy out there. The thing is, we have bodies. Just the fact that we’ve all got to make sure the communication and all of that comes together with the new guys there. That’s usually the issue when you do have new guys come in.” On if the defense is limited in play-calls because of the losses at cornerback due to COVID-19: “I would say this and this has been my motto, ‘Every player who’s in the meeting room that’s been there will have an injury. Everybody cashes a check, so I expect you to know what to do when you go on the field.’ And, that’s just what it is. In everything that we do, ‘If you’ve been here long enough to understand our system, then we expect you to go out there and operate the way we need you to operate.’” On if he remembers a situation that he has been a part of with a cornerback room as depleted as it is right now: “As far as I can remember, no I haven’t. But again – honestly and I’m being honest with you – I think about the next player, I think about the next opportunity for that player, but I think about moving on. It might be a harsh thing to say, but that’s how this League is because the NFL is not going to stop the game for you. You’ve got to go out there and play. So, I have to make sure that I get that next player ready. So, I have don’t have time to be soft. I don’t have time to sit back and think about what did happen with the injury. I don’t have time to do that. I have to spend a lot of my time on making sure the next guy is ready to go play and make sure defensively as a system that we try to put that guy in a position to be successful.” On when he felt the Broncos game started to slip away from the defense: “Just defensively speaking, we’ve had a number of opportunities in the red zone that we’ve could’ve stopped. We had third-and-6 and we didn’t cover a guy. Another third down we missed a tackle. We had a second-and-1 on the touchdown run where we missed another tackle. This game this past week was all about just the fundamentals of playing football, missing tackles probably the main thing. But, the guys knew what to do besides the busted touchdown. But other than that, it was just missed tackles and then just making sure we as coaches make sure we continue to hone on the things – how do we tackle? Make sure that we wrap up and all of that stuff.” On the importance of Cardinals RB James Conner to the Cardinals offense: “I would say that when you just look at that player and look at where his touchdowns come from, a lot of his touchdowns come from inside the five. It’s not like they’re just long runs, so that just goes to show you what type of power this guy has because he’s getting hit. It’s the fact that he’s not going down, so we have a lot of respect for that player, especially in short-yardage situations and goal line situations that we have to make sure we wrap up and not just wrap up, but wrap up and knock back because he is falling forward on damn near every play. So, we’ve got to do a good job in that. So yes, he’s a threat and we’ve got to understand exactly what he does well and make sure we try to stop that.” LIONS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR ANTHONY LYNN QUOTE SHEET December 16, 2021 On the emphasis on improving third-down situations: “It’s been an emphasis for the last few weeks. We coach it and we try to execute it in practice all week, but we’ve got to go out on Sundays, and we’ve got to get that down. We have to be better on third downs just to score more points and stay on the field.” On the efficiency of the Lions’ run game: “I feel like when we can run the football for four quarters, we can run the football on anyone. I felt that way from day one and we don’t always have our starters in. Our backups will come in and they’ve done a heck of a job. That’s just something that we have to do better as an offense to stay on the field, doing better on third downs so that we can get more opportunities.” On if players or the offensive scheme influence success in the run game: “I’m always going to take players over scheme, but I do think it’s both.” On the improvement of the wide receiver room over the last few weeks: “I’ll tell you what, those receivers, they work their tails off. They’re getting better and we’re in Week (15). We expect them to get better, but they are getting better and I think it’s going to show on the football field.” On WR Amon-Ra St. Brown’s biggest area of improvement this season: “I think his timing. He’s always had good routes savvy, but sometimes he was doing too much and throwing the timing off with Jared (Goff) and I think that timing has gotten a lot better.” On the play in the Broncos game where WR Amon-Ra St. Brown ran a wheel route and could not connect with QB Jared Goff: “That was a miscommunication right there, but for the most part, their timing has been pretty good.” On how his concepts in the run game have evolved since his time with the Buffalo Bills as an offensive coordinator and running backs coach: “The concepts to me is how you execute the concepts and then it’s the matchups. We’re looking for matchups, getting this guy on that guy. I’ve actually had to scale back. When I was in Buffalo, I had a mobile quarterback. Not to say that (Jared Goff) JG’s not a mobile guy, but we did a lot more things when I was in Buffalo. Here you’re lining up, you’re running your power game and you’re trying to bury them with your run-action game. Our guys are big, they’re athletic and if they can lean on you for four quarters, they can work you down.” On creating 1-on-1 matchups for the offensive line against an opponent’s defensive line: “We look for those matchups with Taylor Decker. With Penei (Sewell), we look for those same matchups.” On creating matchups for the linemen with linebackers and isolated blocking from the running backs: “Yes, and also the linemen know who to block and who we want to isolate the running back on. You can’t block them all, so that back, they have to win their 1-on-1’s. So, which guy do you want that to be?” On RB Craig Reynolds’ performance against the Broncos: “Craig Reynolds Sunday was the way he’s been practicing. He was not a surprise to anyone. That’s just who he is. (Assistant Head Coach/Running Backs) Duce Staley, his coach, calls him ‘Netflix’ because he was home watching Netflix one day and the next night, he was scoring touchdowns. That’s just Craig. We love him.” On if he would like linemen coming out of college to be proficient in gap and zone blocking schemes: “You’d like to be multiple, absolutely. But, if a guy is just absolutely dominant in doing something, then I really take that guy and change my scheme.” On how the offense can generate more points: “Like I said earlier, we do need to stay on the field more on third downs. The more opportunities you have, the more chances you’re going to have to score points. I mean, you look at Week 1, we went into our hurry up offense because we got down a little bit, but we had 92 reps and we scored our most points. We’ve just got to figure out a way to get more reps.” |
