| November 9, 2020 Opening Statement: “Good afternoon, hope everyone is doing well. Just one quick roster announcement here: Tony McRae, we’re going to put him on season-ending IR, and Jarrad Davis will go back on to the roster. So one roster move there. Other than that obviously, not a good game for us yesterday. We’re in with the team right now reviewing the film. One of the things I would say in the game that definitely – I know we could’ve done a better job (on) was our fundamentals. I thought there was just inconsistent fundamentals all the way through the game. We certainly know that we have to coach the game better, and we have to play the game better out on the field. We know how dangerous Minnesota could be and certainly they got off to a fast start. We put ourselves kind of behind the game there to get going. Obviously a lot of things to clean up from this game, a lot of things we know we could do better than, some things that carried over from week-to-week that have been good. We’ll build on those and obviously fix the things that have not been good. Get ready for another big week here against Washington – certainly we’re at the halfway point of the season. We take a look at each quarter, and we have to have a good quarter of the season coming up here right now, and start with having a good week of preparation, getting ready to play against Washington. We’ll just open it up to questions from there.” On where he has seen the team improve in the second quarter of the season: “I think we do try to look at them by the quarters of the season, and with the halfway point, I thought there were definitely some things in the second quarter that got better. I thought the – just in each phase – the kickoff coverage unit was one that got better and consistent, I thought, through that second quarter. Maybe here at the end of the second quarter, we kind of got a little bit something going with our punt rush team too, which we’d like to carry that over into the second half of the season. We’ll try to build on those. Obviously staying consistent with our specialists. I think Jack (Fox has) done a great job punting the ball, really has been able to flip field position for us there, so we know those are strengths for us. Certainly offensively, I think for us we know how important it is to take care of the ball. We have to do a good job of that, but trying to really do a good job here game-planning every single week, putting players in positions to make plays, and had a couple injuries that I think the guys have responded well to and been able to kind of adjust in to different positions, which is always positive from that standpoint. We’ll continue to just work on our run game. I thought that was better yesterday. I thought we were able to move the line of scrimmage a little bit compared to the previous week, hopefully back on track there as far as that’s concerned. We’ll keep improving – third downs been better for us, I would say, in the second quarter of the season, which is really good. Offensively, we need to keep that going. “Defensively, I think for us in the second quarter – we were able to get some of the run stuff settled down. Obviously that did not work yesterday, and we have to get back to that and get that back to where we need it to be. Yesterday, third down was better than what it has been which is good, but certainly the red-(zone) area is an area where we have to improve on a lot. Kind of some stuff that’s carried over through the second quarter, some stuff we’ll hopefully build on through the third quarter, some things there that we have to fix that we know we’re going to be challenged as we go forward.” On why the team hasn’t been as successful during his tenure: “I think for us, we look at each year individually. Right now, we’re focused on where we are right now. We just got done with the first half of our football season of 2020. It’s been an interesting one by all means. We know the second half is critical for us. So from that standpoint, we’re going to take a good look at what we did for the first eight games, and obviously we need to improve on the second eight as we go forward, and that’s what we’ll do. We have a lot of coaching to do today and to clean up some of the stuff from yesterday to make sure that we get that fixed, and go forward, get ready for Washington.” On his frustrations with the defense’s inconsistency to stop the run: “We know Minnesota, and we know what they do really well, and they run the ball really well. No surprise there. I think there’s certainly things that we have to fix to get that better. We had one really big, explosive play that obviously flipped things in a really bad direction, from that standpoint. But we know we can coach it better, and we can play it better, and that’s what we have to try and do this week.” On his level of concern with K Matt Prater: “I have the highest amount of confidence in Matt Prater. He is one of the mentally toughest guys I know. He’s physically tough. He works extremely hard. He’s a true perfectionist. He wants everything to be perfect all the time. He’s outstanding at what he does, and that’s why there’s no really concern from that standpoint. I think we have to put him in better situations and try to get him out there when we can when, you know, those are better kicks, and not put him on some of those difficult situations. But complete confidence in Matt Prater.” On why the team hasn’t gotten better during his tenure: “Again, I think for us, I think it’s about 2020 right now. That’s where we are. We’re just trying to – obviously we have a lot to get better on this week coming off of yesterday’s game, but I think from where we started this season, we made improvements. We just have to make them a little bit quicker here because the season’s moving pretty fast and get ready for this week. From that standpoint, we have a lot to work on this week, there’s no doubt about it. Yesterday wasn’t good enough. We all know that from a coaching and playing (standpoint), but we’ll continue to work and get ready for Washington.” On if the staffer who tested positive for COVID-19 is back in the building and if there are other positive cases: “I think from that standpoint, I’m definitely not going to comment on anybody’s health status from those situations. We’ll report as we’re following all the policies and guidelines from that standpoint. I totally respect the questions, and I appreciate that, but just trying to do the best I can to follow all the guidelines, and certainly when we talk about people’s health, and just the team in general, I try to do a good job of respecting all that.” On what the Lions calling card would be: “I think something we always try to push for with our team in general is being able to do a good job of in those phases of playing the run game, both offensively and defensively, and doing a good job on special teams of making sure that we cover kicks really well. From that aspect of it, we’ve had some inconsistencies there – some days it’s been consistent, some days it’s not. But those are things we look at that we really value.” On if it’s alarming that the team has fallen short of the calling cards he mentioned: “Obviously we didn’t play a very good game yesterday, so we understand that. But there are things that have improved in all those areas – some that have been consistent and some that have gotten better, but some that we definitely need to improve on. But I think that’s where it starts. We just have to keep working at it and hope that the second half is much better than where we’ve been in the first.” |
