| Opening statement: “Good afternoon everybody. Obviously, Tuesday here, we’re flying through the week obviously trying to get ready for the Bears. A big divisional opponent coming up, a team that we know is very dangerous. A team that we know that has a lot of really great players that we’re going to have to contend with this week, and obviously going out into a hostile environment, out to their stadium to play in front of their fanbase. We have a lot of work cut out for us here. We’re trying to do everything we can to prepare to get ready to go to give ourselves a chance to win on Sunday. So, what do we have?” On how important a defensive identity is and what their defensive identity is: “You know what I think for us, we’re just trying to go out and play well every single week. I don’t think you can categorize things into identities or non-identities. We try to do whatever we do each week to win, we try to do what we can to stop the opponents that we play. Obviously, there are a lot of good teams in this league and a lot of good players, so for us we’re trying to do whatever we can that particular week to go out and give ourselves a chance to win.” On how the injury to Bears DT Akiem Hicks has impacted their defense: “It’s a good observation. I think in the middle of the defense it’s really important to be strong, and certainly they have a lot of great players. I mean you’re never going to talk about the defense without mentioning Khalil Mack. Akiem Hicks is someone that I know very well. I had the opportunity to coach him and spend time with him, and just someone that I think is so disruptive and really so dominating in the middle the way that he plays. His ability to get off the ball in the run game, knock the line of scrimmage back, and then also put pressure on the quarterback. They’ll line him up in a lot of different positions and (he is) just a really dynamic player inside. He’s aggressive, plays at a high level, but I think that Eddie Goldman does a great job in there. You’ll see him, he’s a stout player, someone that I think has just gotten better over and over. I know he got a little bit dinged up in the game, so we’ll see how they handle that. But certainly, from that standpoint I think Hicks is a great player and has been a great player for them – productive. I think Goldman is playing at a high level, so they have a lot of really good players, and we know how dangerous they can be and how dangerous they are, both in the pass rush and disruptive in the front.” On CB Darius Slay’s comments about the defense and if he needs to make sure they don’t affect the defense’s mentality: “I think some of that is not really accurate as far as how the comments were taken and what he said. I talked to Darius afterwards and we have a great relationship with that and where we are defensively, it’s like what I said yesterday – I think what he said, some of that is true. There are plays that we see every week that have hurt us, and plays that through a copycat league, there are going to be things in there that come up that we have to do a great job of trying to stop. But I’ve talked about that since Day 1 in football in September, in the preseason, building trust and slowing some of those things down is critically important for us. That’s what we’re trying to do. Certainly, they don’t come up every single week from a consecutive standpoint, it might be every other or every third. But we’ll try to continually improve those every single week. I think for us as a defense, again, we are all on the same page. We understand what the game plan is every single week and what we have to do to try to win. We have a lot of great players and a lot of great scheme, and sometimes we make good plays and sometimes we don’t. For us, it’s about time to put some consistency together to do that every single play. It’s not an easy task, but it’s something we have to do. I think everybody in that room understands that and certainly from a team perspective we’re doing everything we can each week to win. Nothing really to add to that.” On if the defensive line injuries have affected the ability to be multiple on defense: “I think for us, we’re trying to obviously do the best we can with whoever is out there playing that week and trying to be as multiple as we can with whoever is out there. I think certainly there is something to be said for continuity. There is something to be said for guys that have played together for a while, especially in the front, and have that rhythm, that ability to play off of each other in certain situations. Some of that we’re still working on, which obviously at this point of the year, we wish we had that at a better level than what it is right now. But it is what it is and each week we’re trying to get better at all of it. For me, I just have to keep coaching it and make sure everybody understands what we’re trying to do. Continuity is always important, but that stuff happens and whoever has to step in has to step in. Everybody deals with it through the course of the year.” On why they decided to take WR Marvin Jones Jr. and WR Kenny Golladay off the field on the final play of the game at Oakland: “I mean obviously we’re moving onto the Bears here, I’ll answer this to the best of my ability – I think I answered it yesterday too with a question. For us in that moment, in that situation there were a lot of things that were going on and a lot of things that we were processing as far as what gave us the best chance to try to score when the ball is in there so close. A lot of that has to do with some of the things that previously happened in the game, some of the things that we thought were productive or not productive earlier in the game, and some of the things that we thought could really influence the defense that they had on the field, and give us a couple of options on the play. In that situation, that was just kind of the call that we thought was best and certainly the play didn’t go the way we wanted it to. So, unfortunately for us it’s one of those plays that we can look at, and obviously always take a look at from a different perspective. In that moment there were some things going on there (that) we had to make some quick decisions on, that we thought that would be a good play for us. Especially with some of the plays previously that we had in that area that close that maybe not had worked previously in the game – we thought it would be best to go in that direction. Obviously, it just didn’t work out the right way.” On if LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin could see more consistent playing time on defense: “Jalen is a guy that we have defensively in the game plan from a standpoint, we know that he’s going to be in the game, we know he has a great skill set that we can utilize in certain situations if they come up, and certainly he is always ready to go on defense. I think he did a great job in the preseason and he’s done a great job on special teams. I think from a linebacker standpoint, some of the games that we’ve been in have had some multiple linebacker looks, some single linebacker looks in those situations based on what we’ve seen. I know Jalen continues to improve and continues to try to broaden his defensive knowledge, and I think he’s doing a great job with that. I have a lot of confidence in them in those situations that he has to go in and play. For us, it’s just kind of where we are in the season right now and some of the guys that are out there. But certainly, I know that we need him, and we can call on him where we have packages that if needs to go in there, he’s going to do them to the best of his ability.” On the decision to extend LB Christian Jones’ contract and what they like about what he brings to the defense: “I think obviously we’re very excited to have Christian around and be able to continue to coach him. I think he is a guy that just continually gets better with coaching. He understands more of what we’re trying to do every single day. He cares, he’s the same guy, he loves football, he loves to work. He’s a big guy, he’s a big linebacker, he can do a couple of different things really well. He can play behind the ball, he can play on the ball and there are just certain situations where if he has to set the edge of the defense, he can do that, if he has to go downhill or inside, he can do that. If he has to drop out into space and read the quarterback, he can do that pretty well, and he’s just a guy that eats up a lot of space in those situations. He’s big, he’s long, he’s strong. Lastly, I think he just gives the offense another guy they have to deal with from that aspect of it. He’s a guy that we can put in multiple different situations and he handles that at a high level week in, week out. I’m excited for Christian, I’m excited for us from that aspect of it and (I’m) just looking forward to continually trying to coach him and do the best I can to help him be a better player each day.” LIONS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR DARRELL BEVELL CONFERENCE CALL QUOTE SHEETOn getting RB J.D. McKissic more involved in the game after his most recent performance: “J.D. had a great game for us. He’s really a dynamic and explosive player. Thought he carried the ball well in his run opportunities and did a nice job of coming out of the backfield. We have a number of play makers on our team, and I think you were able to see the ball spread around from most of those during the game. Of course, we’re trying to find opportunities for all those guys and, he’s definitely one of them.” On his reasoning for the final fourth-down play call at Oakland and if he would call the same play again: “Well to answer the last part, I mean, I want to call plays that score touchdowns, so it didn’t score a touchdown. But we were on the one-yard line, so we ended up going with a goal-line package which we practice all the time. We have a number of personnel groups, we have a number of formations that we line up in. I think as you could see during the game, it felt like we, from the one (-yard line), we’re running the ball well enough during the game to be able to go with a little bit of a play-action. Thought we had good matchups, we had good size. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to execute it exactly the way we wanted to.” On the level of concern with the injured players on the final fourth-down play call at Oakland: “During a game, there’s all kinds of adjustments that have to go on, whether it’s different looks that the defense is presenting to you, whether they’re lining up exactly the way you wanted, whether you have injuries during the game. There can’t be any excuses. You have to continue to move. You have to be able to make quick decisions. All that is being taking in in the time that you have.” On why he took WR Marvin Jones Jr. and WR Kenny Golladay off the field for the final fourth-down play call at Oakland: “Like I said, we were on the one-yard line. We went with a goal line package which with those guys, (they) are not involved in that package. Like I said, during the game, there are all kinds of packages, there are things that we did earlier in the game that we were down inside the five (-yard line) that we used as well. That was the one in that moment that we decided to go with.” On the Bears defense and the loss of injured Bears DT Akiem Hicks: “Hicks is an outstanding player. He really does a great job there in the interior. But to be honest with you, this Bears defense is loaded. Their whole front, their linebackers, their backend – about as impressive as a group as you’ll find. It’s a huge challenge to block Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd. Their second-most sack leader is (Nick) Williams on the inside and Eddie Goldman is playing outstanding. They have people that have been able to pick up the slack. I think just from the front all the way working through to the back, they have linebackers that can run, they have corners that can cover. It’s a really, really great defense.” On WR Marvin Jones Jr.’s and WR Kenny Golladay’s individual deep-ball receiver skills: “Both of those guys are doing a great job for us. They do have different skill sets, but both of them have the ability to be big time play makers down the field. Obviously, the first thing that jumps out at you is their size, so you can end up creating some size matchups on more undersized DB’s. They both have the ability to go up and play the ball well in the air. I mean, the play that Marvin made down on the – think it was around the five-yard line, just a phenomenal catch, acrobatic play to just be able to adjust his body and make that catch. They really play the ball well in the air, they see it well, and they’re making just great plays for us right now.” On why the team is struggling to score during second halves of games: “It’s something that we concentrate on as well. We do want to start fast. I thought we started pretty well. Our first four drives, we really had opportunities to score on all four of them, but we had a fumble exchange and then we threw the interception as well. The other two we scored touchdowns. Then we came out of half, and we were able to take it down the field and score points on that one. I think the last couple weeks we’ve really kind of got it going better and rolling better, but we have to – our mentality is that we want to score points every single time we touch the ball. We’re working toward that and trying to make that happen every week.” LIONS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR PAUL PASQUALONI CONFERENCE CALL QUOTE SHEETOn if he feels like the defense has an identity and what he would want it to be: “Well, I think that we’d like it to be based on consistency. There were times on Sunday that we played well. There were times in the game that we were consistent, and there were times where we were not consistent. Ultimately, in this league, with the margin of error being so small, being so slim, you have to play consistent defense. You’d like to be consistent. You’d like to be known for being a tough, consistent, young defense.” On why there has been inconsistencies in the defense: “I think when you consider the talent that we’re playing against, I don’t know if it’s completely fair to say we’ve been inconsistent the whole year. We played one of the best backs in this league with the Giants (Saquon Barkley) a week ago, we were pretty consistent there. So, I just think that I certainly can do better, the players can certainly do better. Every week, everybody tries to get better every day. Everybody here tries to get better. So, every week’s a new week. We’re moving on to this one-week season. I’ve always considered – whether it was in college or pro ball – every week was a one-week season. To be honest with you, I don’t look much past beyond that. I think it’s the best way to handle the game. We’re into this – we’re in our division, Chicago Bears, great tradition, excellent team. So, we’re getting ready to play them.” On what the Bears offense does well: “Well, we struggled with them a year ago. A lot of the same players, and they’ve added to that. They’ve added some talent to it. I think (Mitchell) Trubisky can really hurt you throwing the ball (and) running the ball. He’s an outstanding athlete, he’s physical – very, very mobile. He gets the ball out on time, it’s very, very accurate. They were running the ball a week ago, two weeks ago against the Chargers. I think they ran it 38 times for – I don’t know – 138 yards. They really did an impressive job there. (Tarik) Cohen is an excellent, excellent back in the backfield. They have excellent wide receivers. (Trey) Burton is an outstanding athlete at the tight end position. They’re explosive, they can make big plays. We’re going to focus on what we feel we need to do to stop them and have a consistent day defensively.” On Bears RB Tarik Cohen and Bears RB David Montgomery: “He’s (Montgomery) a very strong, physical, downhill runner – very, very good. I just think that they’re using Cohen more – he’s in the backfield. He’s running the ball. Not using him quite as much, but they are using him quite a bit from a passing-game standpoint. Sometimes he’s in the role of actually being like a wide receiver, and other times he comes back and is in the backfield. That wrinkle really presents some issues in regard to how you’re going to handle all that.” On Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky and if they are preparing to play against two different quarterbacks: “Well, we’re preparing for the starter with Trubisky. We know (Chase) Daniel, we know Chase, Southlake Carroll (High School), right? We played against him last year, he started a game for (them) beat us. So, we have good memories. We don’t forget that stuff. So, we kind of know both. We played against both last year, so we kind of know both. But we’re going to prepare for Trubisky to be the starter and play in this game.” On if he prepares for Bears QB Chase Daniel just in case: “Well, I think that, again, they’re going to run their offense. They’re certainly going to run their offense and both quarterbacks are going to – it’s not like it’s two different offenses. They’re practicing one offense. If Chase has to go in the game, he’s going to run the plays that are on the call-sheet just like (Mitchell) Trubisky would. So, certainly, he’s a different style of athlete and so forth. I just feel confident that we’ll be prepared for whatever happens in the game and if we have to adjust, we will adjust.” On LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin and his future contribution: “Well, obviously we love him. He’s a great young man. Comes to work (and) he’s the same guy every single day and making a heck of a contribution to the team (in) special teams. He’s ready if we need to put him in the game – if he has to go in the game, we have great confidence in him. We love him, and he’s ready to go and I’m sure when that opportunity comes, he’ll go in and do a great job.” |
