| Opening statement: “Good afternoon. Back at it today, obviously we had a chance to step away for a couple of days, which I think was good for the team to spend some time with their families. I was really pleased at everybody’s attentiveness today. (They were) focused, kind of locked in, getting ready for going through the game, get some corrections and then obviously turn the page and get ready for Minnesota. From that standpoint we’re kind of back into a normal week. Obviously, some things to clean up from the game that we have to get fixed, but a big challenge in front of us here with Minnesota this week. They play tonight so hopefully we can get a head start here and take that preparation advantage into the week to get ready to go. A divisional game on the road, always difficult, always a big challenge for us to play up there, never easy. Obviously trying to go up and play a good game, complementary game, three phases working together and hopefully improve. That’ll be a big task for us this week. “As far as the roster, we made a move over the weekend – we put Jeff Driskel on IR. I think Jeff did a great job for us, really worked extremely hard while he was out there and did everything he could to try to help us win. The injury, obviously last week on a short week, we thought he could be ready in an emergency role for us during the game. It was close for us from a standpoint of not really sure which way we were going to go. We were trying to hopefully hold out to see if it would turn the corner. Looking at it this weekend with our doctors after the game, it’ll probably be a little bit longer from that standpoint, so we thought it would be the best thing for us to do that for him. The other player I want to talk about is T.J. Hockenson – we will put him on IR today or sometime this week with his ankle injury. It’s something that he’s not going to be able to finish the season with. Both extremely tough players, both guys that come to work every single day and work really hard to improve and get better. I appreciate everything that they’ve done so far for us this year, and I know both of them will work hard to get ready for next year. We’ll go from there as far as that’s concerned. “We did sign a quarterback, Kyle Sloter from Arizona’s practice squad. He was actually up in Minnesota, someone that we looked at extensively towards the end of training camp when we were kind of trying to look at our quarterback situation. (He’s) someone that we’ve seen on tape for a couple of years now, kind of within the division in some of those situations – a guy that we liked. We obviously were excited about our opportunity to trade for David Blough, so we did that when the moves kind of appropriately happened. He’s definitely somebody that we’ve had our eye on as far as having the chance to take a look at to compete, so, a good opportunity for us to do that now. I think that’s really it as far as the roster is concerned, changes or anything that would be coming up this week. For us, everything else as far as (Matthew) Stafford is concerned, still kind of working in a week-by-week manner with him from that standpoint in conjunction with our medical staff to monitor that situation. (We’re) always trying to give every opportunity we can to just kind of see how it goes with him as far as that’s concerned, understanding his continual competitiveness and wanting to be out there to play football. So that’s just kind of where we are right now with that situation, too.” On why they would play QB Matthew Stafford: “Well you know, we’re obviously going to keep that door open and see what happens here with all of the stuff that we’re doing with the doctors and everything from that standpoint. Out of respect for Matthew and his competitiveness and what he means to this team and what he brings every single week, we’re just going to kind of take it week-by-week and see what happens from that standpoint.” On if they have to make an organizational decision on QB Matthew Stafford and his status the rest of the season: “I think we’ll just try to make the best decision we can whenever that timeline – if it does come up, whenever it comes up, we’ll make that decision when appropriate.” On TE T.J. Hockenson’s rookie season: “Probably hard to summarize an entire year right now in the current moment. We’ll look at it as an entirety, but certainly I think a guy that was consistent from Day 1, someone that kind of worked really hard. I think he improved as the spring, training camp and season went on. I think he worked really hard at his task and understanding the differences between the college game and the pro game, and some of the different looks that he was going to see. Especially after early in the season when obviously (he had) a lot of production, a lot of stats early in the year, we knew things were going to change for him from that standpoint. I think he did a good job of changing some of his role a little bit, kind of had a couple of different roles form the tight end position with some of those situations there – something to hopefully build on. We know how difficult it is to make the jump from Year One to Year Two, but for us and for him right now, it’s day-by-day just trying to work through the injury situation and trying to get better.” On if TE T.J. Hockenson needs surgery on his ankle: “Again, I don’t have any specifics as far as what he needs from that standpoint. It’ll be just working trying to get better by the day.” On how Defensive Coordinator Paul Pasqualoni has performed this season: “Again, I think for us right now we’re just focused on trying to do everything we can to get ready for Minnesota. Certainly, all of it from that standpoint, the coaching part of it is always going to start with me and then we’ll go from there. But right now, it’s about Minnesota.” On if consistently playing in close games is discouraging or encouraging: “Obviously, you can go glass half-full, half-empty, however you want – I think for us there are positives in all of it and negatives in all of it. We try to make sure we understand all of those and explain them and teach it and learn from it from that standpoint. You’d certainly rather be in close games than not close games, that’s for sure. Obviously, playing in every single game where you have a chance to win, that’s obviously important from that standpoint. You just want to go out there and win. I think you can look at it from both ways.” On if there has been a fundamental issue preventing them from winning close games: “You know, I think for all of it it’s been different situations all the way through. I think if it was one exact, specific, one thing, I think we would do everything possible to fix that one thing. I think for us it’s been the inconsistency of the different things throughout the course of the season that have caused us in those situations not to be able to win. We’re all trying to fix those the best that we can, and obviously put ourselves in a situation where we can win those games. Like I said, the one thing about this team that is really impressive to me is the way that they fight, the way that they compete and the way that they are trying to grind through every single game. From that standpoint, we have a chance.” On if they can narrow down what they need to do to win because the games are close: “I mean, I think in most situations whether it’s business or football or whatever it is, I think that last inch is always the hardest, right. I think that’s what they usually say. There are probably a lot of things in those situations that come up that you need to kind of be able to break through and push through. We’re close, but we’re not there, so we have to fix all of it, no matter what the situation is. Again, like I said, I don’t think it’s been one specific thing in every game. It’s been different in different games. I certainly do think the one thing that we talk a lot about as a team that doesn’t help us is the penalty situation. I think that’s the one thing for us right now that we have to improve on, and we have to get it better. Otherwise, it just puts us in such a hard situation to try to overcome those sorts of mistakes that happen in the game. That’ll be a big focus for us.” On how the coaching staff has executed in-game adjustments this season: “I think the in-game adjustments are something that’s critical for us. I think there are games where those have been done at a high level and probably some games that we go back and we look at and say, ‘Of course we should have done this or maybe made this change.’ I think when you play really close games, and I think when everybody is involved with that stuff, players and coaches, and you see the emotional attachment, I would say, that you see in our locker room after a game to how much everybody cares about the fact that we weren’t able to win. I think everybody takes ownership for that all the way across the board. I think everyone walks out of there going, ‘Well, I should have – we could have made this call. We could have made this adjustment. We should have called this situation here. I could have made this play, or I should have made this situation better,’ or whatever it is. I think that’s a positive from that standpoint.” On if the defensive performance is surprising based on the quarterbacks they have played: “I think for us, again, it’s game-by-game, those situations. I think those guys are still NFL quarterbacks. David Blough went in there and did pretty well too against a pretty good defense. I think week-by-week it’s different. I think week-by-week it’s you’re trying to defend whatever they do offensively, and you have to step up to that task and when you don’t, there’s a lot of room for questions and things like that. Those are areas that we have to be able to handle. Doesn’t really matter who the quarterback is, it’s a team game from that standpoint. Certainly, there are going to be aspects of it that we need to do better, and we understand that there are situations where we had opportunities that maybe we didn’t capitalize in some of those situations too. I think that’s really where we stay focused from a defense.” On his emotions when the defense performs poorly: “I think, really, honestly whether we – this is going to sound nuts, but whether we lose to Chicago, whether we lose to Kansas City, whether we lose to Green Bay, it doesn’t matter to me. We lost. The emotion is the same no matter what. Those are NFL football players on the other side of the field. We know that at any given Sunday anyone is capable of beating anybody, and that’s the truth. I think that happened probably again yesterday, probably with a team that no one thought was going to win, and they did. When those situations happen, you as a coach try to look at all the reasons why and try to fix those from that standpoint and know that any of those games – there are games when they’re close like that, you want to win them, and you want to figure out what the difference is. It is an emotional game against Chicago, which is great. That’s why we love it, that’s why we’re passionate about it, and we’re trying to win.” On QB David Blough’s performance and what he liked most: “I think one of the things about Blough that’s really, I would say, impressive from Day 1 is just kind of his confidence is – I would say, almost fearlessness of being able to go out in that situation. Similar to Jeff (Driskel) when he kind of had the late nod in that situation, kind of step in and go. From a backup quarterback standpoint, that’s really, I guess what you need to have in those situations because you’re preparing like you’re going to play, but really probably thinking you’re not going to play, and then all of a sudden you are playing, and you have to step in and handle that situation in its entirety. I thought he did a really good job of that. There are a lot of details in there that we’re trying to clean up today and some things that I think could have helped us from that standpoint. But I think the team, like I said, tried to rally around him, and I think he tried to do everything he could to help the team win from that aspect too. I thought all that was really positive. I thought his energy, and I thought his desire to try to do the best he could to help this team is really the most important part for us. I think we could all see that.” LIONS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR DARRELL BEVELL QUOTE SHEETOn what RB Bo Scarbrough brings to the offense and sustaining his success: “We really like what we see from him. I think the first thing is the physical presence that he brings. He’s a downhill runner. You can see him breaking tackles at the first level, breaking tackles at the second level. He can finish the run and kind of have that punishing style. I think he’s just kind of brought a little bit of the mentality that we’re looking for, the blue-collar guy. The physical, punishing style that you’d like to play in this division.” On how RB Bo Scarbrough got picked up by the Lions so late in the season: “I know he’s had a couple stops, but right now I just give credit to our scouting department for bringing him and giving us a chance to look at him. We worked him out, then we’re able to bring him back in here and kind of stick him on the practice squad and see how it worked. We have a couple guys we’ve been working with, but I just think – I don’t know. This one time, it’s fitting right now.” On TE T.J. Hockenson’s rookie season: “I think T.J. did a good job for us. There’s a lot to learn as a rookie coming in. I thought he fit in well, number one, with the room. The guys all got together pretty well in that room. I thought he picked up the offense well. He gave us some plays. I still think, as we talked about with him, just the consistency, the level that we know we can expect week-in and week-out from him. He’ll continue to get better and be an important part of what we’re doing.” On how TE T.J. Hockenson establishes consistency going into his second year: “Well, I mean, when you have opportunities you have to be able to make your plays. You have to hit your assignments, do the right things. That’s not to say that he wasn’t doing that, but on a consistent level being able to know what we’re going to get out of him. Then obviously, it’s my job to help get him involved and be able to get him the ball more and involved in the offense in terms of receiving. But then the tight ends do a lot of stuff. They’re in different spots. They’re part of the run game as well. He has to be able to do all that.” On how important it is for TE T.J. Hockenson to have a successful weight training program in the off season: “Yeah, I think it will be huge. It’s a different game when you come here to the NFL. I thought he handled it well. It was never too big for him. He was never bright eyed and surprised by anything. I thought he handled his rookie season well, but in terms of the development you can make from Year 1 to Year 2, I think he has an opportunity to make a big jump there.” On the difficulty to sustain early success through the fourth quarter: “I just think, we have to – this last game was a great example. We go on our first drive, and we score. We go on our second drive, and we score. Then the next two drives are three-and-outs, really kind of self-inflicted wounds. We get the first play, we get a false start out after scoring two touchdowns. Just making too many mistakes and things that are hurting ourselves. That’s one of the things that I hit with the guys this morning because it was the first time we had an opportunity to review that. There’s so many opportunities for us to be able to make plays and when we get those opportunities we have to make them. We just haven’t quite got over that hump yet. Between penalties and – we had seven penalties as an offense, we had four dropped footballs as an offense. There’s opportunities in there that we have to continue to get better at. We talk about finishing all the time and that’s something we’re not doing well.” LIONS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR PAUL PASQUALONI QUOTE SHEET On how the defense has been playing: “Well, I think that over the past three weeks or so, we’ve played pretty good against the run. We’ve kind of been able to get that to play better against the run. We’re a play or two away of being in position to hold those leads that we’ve had. We’ve been very fortunate, we’ve held a lead in a lot of games – probably all of them, maybe. We just have to make another play. We’re a couple of plays away. I think it’s important that we’re playing well against the run, which gives you a chance to at least have an idea they’re going to throw the ball, so you’re not always kind of in between what they are doing. I think the guys are playing really hard. I’m really pleased with how hard we play. I think we play really, really hard and I think we have a lot of guys that are going in and out of the game. We’re playing with some young guys who I think responded pretty well. We just have to take care of some little things and get a little bit better and just make a few more plays. It’s a game of inches, you know I’ve always said that this game is a game of inches and I really believe it is a game of inches.” On why the League has not shifted to stopping the pass first: “Well, because with the great backs we’re playing – we’re playing another great back this week, right? I mean it’s like every week you play a great back. I mean this guy last week (Bears RB David) Montgomery is a pretty good player. So if you don’t – I’ll go all the way back in my experience in this thing, and I coached on offense – when you have the luxury offensively of being able to hand the ball off and you’re able to give the quarterback a break, and let them take a big deep breath before he goes back there and gets his brains beat in one more time, I think that’s huge. That’s really, really big. The other thing it does when you can run the ball, and in this league, I would concur that this game has gone, especially at the college level, more pass. Balance in the NFL is like 60-40. You guys know that, 60 percent pass, 40 percent run, and that’s almost every week to be honest with you. It’s rare for that 60-40 to be 70-30 or 50-50 or 40-60. It’s usually every week 60-40, 60-40. It might be 62-48, but I mean it’s 60-40. In my opinion, if you don’t stop the run with the backs, and look at us, if you don’t stop the run with the caliber of back that is in this league, they are going to run the ball down your throat. They won’t have to throw it, they won’t have to put the quarterback in jeopardy. When they can run it and they can take these shots, great play-action fakes, that great fake and the linebackers are committed to running to the line of scrimmage to stop the run. You’re under-covered, your guys who are underneath in coverage are at the line of scrimmage, and these guys are coming on these deep over routes and they’re drilling the ball in there. You don’t have that if you go straight back to throw the ball, you don’t have those shots. This team we’re playing this week, Minnesota, they might be the master at that. They really might be, they do it as well as anybody, they really do. You have to somehow try to stop that.” On his role with calling defensive plays on game days: “Matt (Patricia, Head Coach) and I have a great relationship. We communicate a lot, all through the week. During the week, in preparation, building the game plan in practice, there’s plays that he calls, there’s plays that I call. That carries over to the game. He’s probably talked to you guys about it. To me, there’s things that he’s going to call, and there are things that I call.” On the percentage of defensive plays that he calls compared to Head Coach Matt Patricia: “There’s a lot of communication, a lot, a lot. In between downs, what the next series is going to be, when we’re off the field we’re going through what those play calls are going to be, the next third down, the next first-and-10, the next second and long for them to try and get back on schedule. So, just a great relationship between us, and we’re both involved.” |
