| Opening statement: “Good afternoon. I hope everybody got home safe and is enjoying some nice winter weather. Full speed ahead here on the Cowboys. (We) obviously have a lot of work to do and have a very good team coming in here. (They are) a very talented team and a team that’s playing at a high level, and we’re going to have a lot of work cut out for us. (They are) a team that we don’t know very well this year, (we’re) trying to study, learn and get ready to go for a good week of work. Obviously, we’ll go out and try to compete well on Sunday. What do you have?” On DT Mike Daniels’ injury status after he briefly left the game against Chicago: “You know what, I think he got stepped on pretty badly in that moment and that tends to hurt a lot. So, I think he’s OK. We went through all of the procedures there and checked him out again here today, and we’ll see how sore he is through the week. But that’s really what that was.” On how QB Matthew Stafford can be safe and also practice: “I think I talked about that situation at length yesterday and went through the details of everything that I do want to talk about. Certainly, from the medical side of it, I’m not going to get into any details as far as that’s concerned. We’re always trying to do everything possible to make sure that all of our players are in safe positions, and certainly in practice we obviously can control a lot more. Certainly, we do that all the time with the guys that are in concussion protocol that can go out and practice. Guys that are injured – whether it is lower body, upper body, whatever it may be – we try to control all of those scenarios when we know if there is something wrong.” On if he expects QB Matthew Stafford to practice this week: “Yeah, we’ll see as we go through the week. So, we’ll get to that here tomorrow and talk about all of that, and we’ll go from there. Right now, I’m grinding on the Cowboys here. I’m trying to really get into the team and make sure we understand all of the great players that they have on all three phases and how they’re using them, and make sure that we’re ready to go prepare as a team tomorrow.” On if they can develop a game plan to suit QB Jeff Driskel’s skill set if he starts against Dallas: “You know I think every week we go in and if we have an idea of guys that we think are going to play or not play in any phase, then we try to make sure that the game plan fits those guys that are out on the field. I do believe in making sure the players are in the proper position to play to their strengths, so that is important. We certainly try to do that to the best of our ability when we can. It’s not offense, defense or in special teams, I would say we’re not of the mode where we just kind of have one system in place, and it’s just kind of the same thing and we just stick people in there regardless of who’s playing. I do believe that we try to do our best to cater those different game plans to the guys that are on the field.” On the specific improvements that he has seen from the team: “Well, I think for me coming out of the game yesterday, there were some positive things on defense that we want to kind of build on. Hopefully, we can be consistent with that. I think our third down percentage was really good, I thought that was positive for us on Sunday. I thought that helped us out a lot in the game, hopefully we can build on that. It’s really hard to week in, week out, but that would be good. I thought (we had) good shots of us playing with good pad level, good technique in the front, both offensively and defensively with our lines, which was good. We need to build on that. Certainly, I think some of the operational things that we did from a substitution, a tempo – some of the different types of plays we had in there where we could go maybe in different speeds, both offensively and defensively – I thought those were improved also. So, there are certainly some things in there that were good from the game. Hopefully – the biggest challenge for us is to try to be consistent with that here again coming up this week. But we know the Cowboys are a different challenge and they have a lot of great players, and there will be some different factors in this game that we’re going to have to contend with, and we have to try to work hard to figure that out.” On how they build a game plan for the quarterback position and how early they have to decide who to build it around: “Again, I’m not going to get into to specifics of how we game plan because I think that’s important for us to keep that private. But I do think that we also try to make sure that we have players that are in the building that understand things that we do, and that does cross over. I don’t think that every single player we have is completely different from that aspect of it, and there are things that are core fundamental foundations to what we do and those don’t change. With that in mind then there are a couple of nuances that you can include in those things when you have different people in the lineup from that standpoint. That’s the same no matter what position we’re talking about.” On the Cowboys’ offense with Offensive Coordinator Kellen Moore at the helm: “Yeah, I think that’s a great question and a great observation. I think Kellen Moore is doing a good job with this offense, and I would say it’s very similar to things that they did last year. I think the philosophy behind what they do and with Jason Garrett, the head coach – I think a lot of that is going to stay consistent on offense. Certainly, running the ball will be the number one priority. Obviously, Ezekiel Elliott is a phenomenal player and the Cowboys have a great offensive line, but the pre-snap stuff is really important to what they do. There are a lot of shifts, motions, adjustments, personnel changes. I think one of the things that Kellen has done a great job of is the tempo in which they change their personnel in and out from the sidelines. They actually have almost a – maybe you call it a muddle huddle or sort of a mini-huddle that is by the ball, which allows them to sub without the officials technically having to stand over the ball. The way that they do it, the personnel comes on and off in a very difficult way to try to match or try to really realize what they’re doing. From that aspect of it, all of that work pre-snap is really important for us defensively to identify what they’re trying to do. Then they line up quick and for a lot of the plays they don’t necessarily snap the ball right away. They will use some motions or some identifiers to try to get a key to what the defense is doing, but they are out of the huddle very quickly, which puts a lot of stress on the defense.” LIONS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR DARRELL BEVELL CONFERENCE CALL QUOTE SHEET On what he has seen from practice squad players RB Wes Hills and RB Bo Scarbrough: “Both of those guys are bigger backs, so they bring good size, good power. They have good speed. We’ve seen Wes a little bit more than we’ve seen Bo. We had Bo all of last week, but we’ve like what we’ve seen so far. We’ll just have to see how that thing shakes out.” On QB Jeff Driskel’s first start for the Lions: “I thought Jeff handled himself pretty well. We functioned well on offense. We were able to get our tempo going. We were able to make some good plays. Obviously, we would like to have the turnover back that we had. I think that really put us in a bad situation, put our defense in a bad situation with field position. But, as far as what he was able to do, I think he functioned properly, he communicated well. We were able to get in and out of things that we needed to. He performed well for his first opportunity with us.” On pre-snap penalties at Chicago and how QB Jeff Driskel handled the function of the game: “The delay of games, just lost track of what was going on, the time. Just ended up not being aware enough, basically, on that situation. But, I can also help them and get plays in faster or whatever it is to be able to help them. Also, we were going really fast on the one and had a really good set up. We need to lock our feet in, but also the quarterback has the last trump to be able to make sure everybody is set. He just didn’t wait that last little tick to have us all set. There are other things that happened too. I thought we handled it pretty well in terms of cadence. When you go from one quarterback to another quarterback, inherently there are different nuances to their cadence. I thought we did a pretty good job there. We were able to sit in there – we didn’t have any false starts that way but a couple pre-snaps, but we’ll continue to clean those up.” On what has surprised him about WR Kenny Golladay’s skill set and having him as a player: “The biggest thing is, he does a great job of playing the ball in the air for us. Obviously, he has good size. He’s done a really nice job of making the big contested catch, the big play up in the air. I really did not know a lot about him when I got here, but I really like him that way. He’s strong, he’s physical, he’s big. He plays to that. He had a couple plays that, obviously, he wanted back in that last game, but he’s done a great job for us. He’s a built up speed, so when we get him going he runs really well. So, I like what he’s doing for us.” On the challenges of transitioning QB Jeff Driskel into the starting role: “There’s kind of a couple parts to that. You’re always preparing all your backup players. It’s our job to know all of our players and to be able to put those guys in position to be successful. Not only our backup quarterback, but what are we going to do in an emergency situation since we only have two quarterbacks up, things like that. The rotation at line if something happens where – just like what happened in the game where Rick (Wagner) goes down. Some of them are easy transitions, and some of them have more moving parts to them. When that happened, we already had a good baseline of the things that we would like to do with Jeff in the event. Then through the time that we still had left, we were able to see the things that we wanted to use, make the adjustments where we needed to, and then we were able to corner the game.” On the Cowboy’s defense: “The first thing I think that jumps out at me is their rush. Great rushers particularly on the edge with Robert Quinn. I’ve known him from his days with the Rams. DeMarcus Lawrence and then of course Michael Bennett, the new addition that they have. I think Maliek Collins on the inside is – he moves well, he puts good pressure on the quarterback, so the front – their tenacity, they’re running to the football, great speed. They have three great linebackers that have been playing for, a couple of them – Sean Lee has been playing for a long time. (Leighton) Vander Esch and Jaylon Smith, they just have really solid, solid players all across the board. Good corners. Then they’re led by Chris (Richard, Passing Game Coordinator/Defensive Backs Coach) and (Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line Coach) Rod Marinelli. Both those guys – fiery competitors. You see that in their defense. I think their defense doesn’t quit. They don’t stop. You’ll see their defensive lineman chasing the play down the field 15-yards, making plays. So, I think that speaks to how well they’re coached and the effort they’re willing to give.” On QB Jeff Driskel’s rushing ability: “He was able to make some plays with his feet for us. He has done a little bit of that in his background as well. We were able to just kind of tap into that just a little bit. As far as his scrambling, he had a couple really big scrambles for us. One for a critical third down in that game. That’s just a different element to his game that he has.” LIONS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR PAUL PASQUALONI CONFERENCE CALL QUOTE SHEET On his evaluation of the defense’s performance at Chicago: “Well, I thought we started fast. Those first four series – they had five series in the first held, the first four they were all punts. The fifth series we didn’t play constantly enough. We had an opportunity to get off of the field and that didn’t happen. They made some plays – credit to them. We didn’t play quite consistently enough on the first series of the second half, we would like to play more consistently there. We just have to do a better job of sudden change. Sudden change is part of it, it’s going to happen – you hope it doesn’t. You know, the offense hopes it doesn’t happen, but if it happens, the defense has to go out there, and they have to do their part and get the ball back. We closed out the game great. We forced five punts, we got the ball back five times. So, just (being) a little more consistent. It’s a little thing here, a little thing there. It’s a play here and a play there. We’ll work in – we talked about consistency last week on this call, well we’re working on that all the time.” On what they like about their three-safety package when LB Jarrad Davis is not on the field and how important S Tavon Wilson is to execute it: “Well, I’m not going to get into – you guys understand, I’m not going to start to talk about specifics of the game plan, certainly. Jarrad is playing really well, I thought he played really well in this game. He came downhill, he stayed inside-out on the ball, he attacked blockers at the line of scrimmage, he was physical, he was instinctive. Tavon played as instinctively, so we were happy – good to see those guys playing good football.” On if LB Jarrad Davis is still a starter: “Yeah, we love Jarrad. Jarrad is our signal caller, he’s our quarterback on defense. He has really, really, really good leadership – very, very good leadership and a great guy.” On why LB Jarrad Davis was not always the signal-caller against Chicago: “Well, you always have to have more than one signal-caller, obviously. You’re trying to keep everybody fresh and keep the game moving, so that’s part of it. (It’s) important because of the speed of the game – the no-huddle, the tempo, the muddle huddle, all of that stuff. (We were) just trying to utilize our personnel to the best that we can. We have a lot of good players, so we’re just trying to do what’s best for our team.” On who called the signals when both LB Jarrad Davis and LB Jahlani Tavai were on the field: “Well, I have to go back and check to see who had the (green) dot, but they’re both very capable of doing it. It really doesn’t matter.” On if they are focusing on LB Jarrad Davis’ overcommitment on running plays and his performance on Sunday: “Well, linebacker fundamentals are linebacker fundamentals. You have stance, you have start, you have your keys, you have your footwork and you have your approach and your angle to the ball. We work on those things every day – every Wednesday, every Thursday, every Friday, every time we’re in a drill. So, he’s playing technique, working on being as good as he can be at it, and I thought he did a really good job with it. He always does a good job, but I thought he really did a good job on Sunday.” On if they need to change something to force more turnovers: “Yeah, well we’re trying. We’re making a lot of attempts. I think the important thing is the awareness and the attempts that the guys on the field are making, and those don’t always show up. Not everybody always sees those. We see them when you go back, and you grade the film. We’re going to continue to try to attack the ball, have great ball awareness, and hopefully we’ll be able to come up with some turnovers.” On what stands out about Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott: “Well, I think that he has great balance. I think his pads – he’s always moving forward. He (is) very, very hard to keep him from (not) going forward, he does a great job with that. He runs hard, he has really, really good vision, and he has good instincts. He has all of those critical factors that running backs need to have. A lot of it is vision and balance and a feel for it, and he does a great job of making his cuts, staying square and moving downfield.” On what is missing from the defense: “Well, I think that we’re in the phase right now where we’re getting better. I felt we played very, very hard as we were talking earlier. I don’t know if there is anything missing, but I just keep talking about playing with consistency and wining them. So, we have to focus on what we need to do to win games and just being as consistent as we can be every snap because these games – the margin of error, as you guys know is not very, very big. That’s the National Football League, so just focusing and concentrating on what we have to do to win games.” On S C.J. Moore’s performance: “Yeah, good. We have guys hurt so the next guy – it’s kind of like the next man up philosophy. He’s there, and he’s the next guy up, and he’s a great guy. He is a high energy guy, he learns very well, so he’s gone in and done a good job for us going in the game. He’s a rookie – regardless of if he’s drafted or not drafted or whatever he is – he is a young guy, he’s a first-year guy, and he’s doing a good job of preparing and getting himself ready to go.” On the trio of Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, RB Ezekiel Elliott and WR Amari Cooper, and where they rank among trios that they have played this season: “Well, I don’t know if it’s fair to rank them, but they’re up there. We have seen some awesome guys so far this year and this group is just based statically – if you look at what they’ve done and what they’re doing – they are really, really good.” On the Cowboys’ substitution patterns and how they plan to handle it: “Yeah, I think this: I think that it’s the communication aspect of it. It’s getting lined up, it’s making the right adjustment calls because they’re trying to go fast, they’re trying to shift, they’re trying to use motion. So, we have to just do a great job of getting the subs on the field when we need to sub. When we need to sub, we need to get it done quickly. We need to communicate as they’re at the line of scrimmage, we need to make sure we’re aligned right and we’re making the correct call because those things help.” |
