September 18, 2023
Opening Statement: “Injury, (Lions LB James) Houston, he had a fibula, so he’ll be out for a while obviously. (Lions G Halapoulivaati Vaitai) Big V could be out for a little bit. We’ll know a lot more really in the next couple of days here, but. (Lions RB David Montgomery) D-Mo, he’s kind of in that – I guess a little bit of the bode of day-to-day. And those are really the three right now.”
On if Reserve/Injured is a possibility for Lions G Halapoulivaati Vaitai: “I don’t think so. I don’t think so, but we’re just going to have to see how it responds.”
On if there is an update on Lions T Taylor Decker’s injury status: “No, I mean he’s improving, but there again, we’ll know a lot more over the next couple of days. He’s gotten better and better every day. It’s just a matter of man, can he get back in time for this one? And then we’re going into a short week after that with Green Bay, but he’s improving which is encouraging.”
On if the number of players injured during the Seattle game could be due to the new turf: “I don’t believe that. But look, I don’t – you guys know, injuries – I mean, you can go and everything’s good, you get out pretty healthy and then all of a sudden, man, they come on and you get the bug and we just, we got a rash of them yesterday. So, that’s kind of the ebbs and flows of a season.”
On the physicality of the game against Seattle: “Yeah, it was physical, and we knew that. That’s a physical team. We knew that. And yeah, they did – I mean they were – they came out and man, they played hard, they played physical, they had a good game plan, and we got some injuries out of it.”
On if he would have done anything differently on the decision to go for it on fourth-and-2 earlier in the game and not go for it at the end of the game: “Well, I still feel good about – I mean look, I don’t feel good because we lost, but I don’t – man, I go back, I knew I wanted to play that game a certain way early and – but also knew, ‘Look, if it doesn’t quite work out that way, then we go the long road and you’ve got to win it at the end,’ and we weren’t able to do that, so. But I don’t feel like I should’ve done it different necessarily, so. That was my mindset going into the game. I’m good with the way we functioned at the end. I’d like to get that first down at the very end of the game and you call timeout and you’ve got plenty of time to continue to function. It didn’t work out, so – but at the end of the day we got an opportunity again to take it into overtime and we just couldn’t get it done.”
On if something needs to change within the pass rush to result in more quarterback hits beyond just adding pressure: “Well, I think there’s a number of things that come up in there and I know this, there’s a lot of things I felt like just from transition into rush, some of this play-pass, now we’re from reading the run into pass. Man, we’ve got to transition much quicker. Our urgency has to go up there and our violence has to go up to shed those blockers. That’ll go a long way. And then just there again, man, the discipline to just do your job and trust the guy next to you is going to do his. And perimeter, we can’t rush high. We’ve got to close this in on the quarterback. We rush high and we don’t have somebody that can cover, we’re going to be in trouble. So, there’s just a number of those things that showed up and – or then you get one guy who’s doing it right and a couple of guys and the next guy’s not and we give them a void, so we’ve got to get back to the discipline and just doing your job, transition off of rush – and the other is, there’s a number of these that came up and a guy’s got a one-on-one, he’s got to win. We’re getting chipped on this side, you may be getting chipped, you’re getting doubled, a center, guard, this guy’s got to win and we’re not winning our one-on-ones and you could really say some of that on the backend too. The guys that have their one-on-ones, we’ve got to win those. And the other thing I think just defensively is man, we need our most reliable players to be reliable. That was a big thing that came out of that game and – but look, it certainly looks and tastes a lot worse when you lose that game, but ultimately you could argue we spotted them 14 points on offense, and that’s hard. That’s hard on your defense.”
On if he felt some of his reliable players were not reliable in the Seattle game: “I just expect more. I expect more reliability out of those guys. They know who they are, and we just hold them to high standards.”
On if he learned anything from the loss to Seattle: “No, look – here’s the one thing I did know was when we got down 10 points after throwing a pick-6, man there was no – nobody was frantic, nobody was, ‘The sky is falling.’ Everybody just business as usual. We ran right back down there, scored a touchdown, our defense went three-and-out, we get the ball back and we take it into overtime. So, that was a – look, that’s encouraging. We know what we’re capable of. We know that we can get ourselves back in any game with a chance to win it and that’s important, but man, we’ve got to close that out. We’ve got to close that out.”
On Lions RB Jahmyr Gibbs’ performance and if he will see more action if Lions RB David Montgomery cannot play: “Man, Montgomery – listen, take away the fumble and golly, I thought he played outstanding. He really – he is such a versatile back. He’s explosive and he’s – talk about being reliable, he’s very reliable, but it’s just that fumble leaves a bad taste in your mouth which we’ll get cleaned up. He will too. He takes that stuff personal. But he’s been big for us. I mean he’s a big piece of what we are and what we have offensively. He really is. And so yeah, with that, I still see it being by committee if D-Mo can’t go, but certainly Gibbs is going to get more opportunities. And there again, the more – he got a little bit more, and there’s some plays he made and there’s a lot he left out. And some of that is part of being a rookie. He’ll get better from those with the more exposure he gets. And we need him to grow, and he will.”
On his post-game statement about the team eating ‘humble pie’ after the loss against Seattle: “No, look, I don’t want to turn it into something more than it is. I just think that man, sometimes – nobody likes to lose. We don’t like to lose, but man, I do think it centers your focus, and it gets you back to what’s important and what’s important is nothing but what’s in front of you, the opponent in front of you, how you play your own game, your own execution and not worrying about anything else that doesn’t deal with that. And I think that’s what a loss does, man, it forces you to do that and you don’t want to have to go through a whole season where it’s like, ‘Oh, we’ve got to be refocused,’ so – but hey, we’ve got to get back to work. We’re going to have some guys down and next guy’s got to step up, and we expect them to do that, so.”
On what has led to Lions TE Sam LaPorta’s consistent performances: “He’s another one of those that just quietly gets better. You don’t always notice it in practice, but he works extremely hard, he takes it serious and I think there’s a lot of it that man, when he’s out there on gameday, there’s a lot less stress for him than he is when he’s out there with the coaches. He’s getting coached up pretty hard and I think if for – and the other thing is, I know this because he’s shown it after two weeks and he did it again yesterday, he is – critical moments he is highly competitive. That’s a guy that you can just tell. And he is not going to cower from those moments. He’s a guy who wants to make a play, he wants to make a block, he wants to – and that, man, you can win with those guys. Now, he’s still a rookie. He’s got to be better in the run game, but he is showing up. What you’re seeing is true.”
On how to generate more takeaways: “Yeah, to me, the takeaways come from – the picks will come. And look, everybody says, ‘You’ve got to catch the ones that come to you,’ but to me, it’s more about us forcing them. Man, the way we hit, we bite the ball, we’ve got to get strips. We have to make a conscious effort. And look, these are things we work in practice, but there again, man, if you want it, you’ve got to emphasize it. So, what we’re emphasizing, is not being emphasized. So, we’ve got to go back and there’s got to be a different way to do it. I’ve got to do that with the coaches, the coaches have to do it to the players, and it can’t just be a go through the motions, but that’s the easiest way. You have to force takeaways. The picks will come.”
On if he chalks the offensive performance up to one uncharacteristic game: “No, it’s – unfortunately, it’s a little bit like how we started last year. Man, it becomes contagious in the wrong way, and we’ve got to stop the bleeding and get back to where – man, everybody’s got to think of that – the football is, man, your life depends on it. You’ve got to think of it that way. Your teammate’s life depends on it. And it is the most important thing that we have on gameday. At all costs, you must protect the football, and there again, just saying it’s not going to do. And we have to emphasize it for those players and until we get that cleaned up, it’s going to be a hard road. But I know we will, I know we can, I know we will emphasize it, I know we can emphasize it a different way. And look, offensively, man, we did some really good things. We were honestly much more efficient, more productive than we were against Kansas City. God, we – there was so much good stuff on that tape, but those turnovers just – man, it just puts a bad taste in your mouth and it’s hard. It’s hard to win in this League.”
On if the defense’s performance took a step back in the Seattle game and if there is an acclimation period with new starters playing together for the first time: “Well, look, I think it’s – any time you lose, as a team you took a step back. And so, there was a number of things we did really well against Kansas City and a number of things we didn’t do well that didn’t bite us and this was a totally different opponent than Kansas City. Totally different style, totally different scheme and so, we didn’t handle that scheme well consistently. Now, we had a number of stops in there and really, I felt like – now it’s a huge part of it, but talk about starting fast and we didn’t do that. They drove the length of the field and they get a score, but you start with a score, you end with a score and that’s really the – man, those are the two that really – that’s the frustrating (part) because there was a lot of good stuff in between there that I thought we did pretty well, but look, we’ve got a ton of room for improvement. I say it all the time, ‘We’re in a race to improve.’ We’re in a race with everybody that we’re getting ready to play. We’re in a race with everybody in our division too. How fast can we improve?”
On if a young team needs to learn how to overcome a one-play difference game: “Yeah, look, I think it’s – every team is different and every year is different and we have a huge nucleus that we had from last year, but there again, we are new and we just started the season. That was our – we go on the road, first road game, now we’re at home, first home game and I think us collectively we’ve just got to – hey, man, we get in a moment like that and we make enough mistakes to where it’s going to be hard to win, you’ve still got to find a way to win that game. And I think that just there again, takes a little bit of – just a little bit more urgency in our department and everybody just buckling down and instead of being in this such a frenzy to, ‘I’m going to make a play on my own.’ Man, make a play inside the scheme, inside the system that we’ve given you because your teammate will do the same thing. He will play his keys, he will be disciplined, you be disciplined and let the plays come to you. They’ll be there, but we can’t play rat ball, we can’t go out on our own. And just trust what we’re doing, we’ll be fine.” |
