DETROIT LIONS vs. CINCINNATI BENGALS
FORD FIELD
WEEK 6: SUNDAY, OCT. 17, 2021
The following are post-game notes and quotes from the Detroit Lions’ 34-11 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at Ford
Field on Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021.
POST-GAME NOTES
LIONS SCORING PLAYS
- Fourth Quarter: K Austin Seibert kicked a 35-yard field goal to make the score 27-3 with 8:35 left in the game.
- Fourth Quarter: RB D’Andre Swift rushed for a one-yard touchdown with 2:15 remaining. QB Jared Goff
completed the two-point conversion on a pass to WR Amon-Ra St. Brown to cut the score to 34-11.
TEAM NOTES
The Lions… - Reached 25,000 points scored as a franchise on K Austin Seibert’s field goal in the fourth quarter, becoming only
the sixth NFL team to do so. - Had a pair of brothers each produce sacks in the same season for the first time in franchise history (OLBs Julian
and Romeo Okwara). Julian Okwara recorded his first-career sack today vs. Cincinnati. - Had two outside linebackers produce 1.0 sacks each (Julian Okwara and Austin Bryant). Lions’ outside
linebackers have now contributed 9.5 of the team’s 14.0 sacks on the season (73.1%). - Have produced a sack in nine-straight games dating back to the 2020 season.
- Have produced a sack and an interception in four of the team’s first six games of a season for the first time since
2014.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
P JACK FOX - Punted six times for 333 yards (55.5 avg., 47.8 net), pinning one inside the 20-yard line and booming a long of 64
yards. - Produced three punts of 60-or-more yards, upping his career total to seven punts of 60-or-more yards.
- Registered his fourth-career game with a gross punting average of 55.0-or-more, the most in franchise history.
- Tied for the fourth-best net average in a game in franchise history when a Lions punter has had five-or-more
attempts.
QB JARED GOFF - Completed 28-of-42 passes (66.7%) for 202 yards and an interception.
- Now ranks second in franchise history for the most completions (159) through the first six games of a season. His
completion percentage of 66.8 is the fourth-highest through six games.
TE T.J. HOCKENSON - Logged eight receptions for 74 yards (9.3 avg.), hauling in a season-long 33-yard gain.
- Produced his third game on the season with at least eight receptions, tied for the most such games by a tight end in
a season in franchise history. - Now has 32 receptions through six games, the third-most a Lions tight end has produced through the first six games
of a season.
WR TOM KENNEDY - Recorded his first NFL reception for 15 yards and had four kickoff returns for 89 yards (22.3 avg.) to finish with104
all-purpose yards on the day.
OLB JULIAN OKWARA - Finished with three solo tackles, two quarterback hits, one tackle for loss and 1.0 sack.
- Notched his first-career sack.
CB AMANI ORUWARIYE - Tallied two tackles (one solo), one pass defense and one interception, his third of the season.
- Became the eighth player in franchise history to log six interceptions through 31-career games and the first to do so
since S Devon Mitchell (1986-88).
RB D’ANDRE SWIFT - Recorded 13 rushes for 24 yards (1.8 avg.) and a touchdown, and had five receptions for 43 yards (9.3 avg.),
producing 67 yards from scrimmage on the day. - Produced his 12th-straight game with at least 40 yards from scrimmage.
- Tallied a touchdown in his fourth-straight home game, the first Lions running back to do so since Mikel Leshoure in
2012. - With 30 receiving yards, became the second running back in franchise history to open a season with six-straight
games with at least 30 receiving yards. - Ranks third in franchise history for the most touchdowns through 19-career games with 14 (11 rushing, three
receiving).
LIONS HEAD COACH DAN CAMPBELL POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET
Opening Statement: “Alright so, state the obvious here—we got whipped. That was brutal. We took it and they got after us. Credit Cincinnati, they were ready to go and we didn’t do anything right. Thought we played a little defense early in that game first half, other than that shot play that we gave up. But we ran it and just we couldn’t sustain. And offensively, we had no rhythm. We had no tempo. We couldn’t execute on third down, missed opportunities and that’s the story of the game. That was a beat down.”
On why the effort was not there today like it has been so far this season: “You know what, more importantly, the
focus wasn’t there. I’ve said this—I told the team this, I’m going to look at everything, that’s my job. But when you get
whipped like that, that’s on me. That’s on me—there’s no other way around that. Of course we’ll look at everything but
that’s—that’s a reflection on me. That’s a reflection on me. You don’t play like that. We don’t have a team that’s—that
team is not 30-something points better than us. There’s no way. They did, they played well over there. But we didn’t
execute, we didn’t—we talked about tempo, we come out, we go penalty, penalty, we go MA (missed assignment) on
offense. I mean, what the heck? So, we shot ourselves in the foot. We could not execute. We had some plays that were
there to make, we didn’t make them. So it’s brutal. It’s on me.”
On if this is the first loss that has made him disappointed and angry: “Yes, yes it is. That was brutal. We weren’t
even in that fight. We weren’t even in it. Everything that we did there—you look at our stats offensively, that was because they were in some prevent Cover 2. We should make those plays. It’s not good enough. And defense—if that’s the game, if that’s the way it’s going, our defense can’t allow us—they can’t allow the opponent to score then. So be it. That’s life. If you’re the ones who are playing best, then you have to hold them and keep us in the game then. Keep it to where we can score maybe one score and find a way to win the game. But that—it’s not good, it’s not good.”
On if he considered making a quarterback change and what other potential changes could be made to give the
offense some energy: “Well, we’re going to look at everything. I need to go look at the tape tonight. It’s easy to get upset with what we’re doing or certain players at certain times. But we’ll look at everything. I’ve got about a million ideas just floating around up here right now as to what I want to do. How do we create tempo for our offense? More importantly— that’s where I feel like we’re struggling right now. We have no momentum, no rhythm, no tempo offensively and it’s killing us right now and it’s killing us on third down. Until we can begin to complement and help each other out, offense, defense—we need special teams to make a play. We can’t have a block in the back that puts us down inside the 20. Those just crush us. Shoot man, Amani (Oruwariye) comes up with the ball again. He’s got a great interception. What do we do offensively? We end up—we can’t make the catch and it’s an interception right back to them. We’re going to look at everything though.”
On what he feels like he personally did not do right during preparations this week: “Well, I probably should have
been a little bit more forceful on Wednesday is probably what I should have done. We didn’t go pads, maybe we should have gone pads. I’m going to think about all of this. I know this—I’ll be looking directly at myself tonight first before anything else because that’s the bottom line. You don’t get whipped like that unless your freaking—your head coach has a hand in that. That’s the truth.”
On the message he delivered to the team after the game: “Everything I just told you.”
On what the offense did during practice this week: “No, it was just—there again, it was a little bit like what we’d done
the week before except we didn’t go pads. It was more of a teaching-type deal to get our bodies back a little bit. Maybe we were just a little too lax. Maybe it wasn’t just quite honed in the way it needed to be. And so that’s where it’s got to begin. It’s always got to be. It doesn’t matter if you’re 0-5 or 0-6. If you’re not coming back to work, refocus, ready to go, listen— you’ve got a job to do. We have a job to do. If you’ve got any pride about you, you come back to work.”
On the slow starts on offense and QB Jared Goff’s role in the slow starts the last four games: “It has nothing to do
with Jared (Goff). That’s not true. That’s not true. But what I’m saying is I don’t put this all on Jared Goff. This is a
collective. This is collective offensively for everything from, how can we help schematically to—man, are we MA-ing at the improper time? Are our guys getting open? Is he making the throw he should? Is he making the right read? So this is a collective. Believe me. This is a collective effort offensively that we’re digging ourselves into a ditch with offensively. So this is all of it.”
On if the lack of focus is something he will worry about long term or if he trusts the team to have more energy
moving forward: “Yeah, I trust our players, I do. There again, we’re young. I know I like the captains on this team and I
know what they’re about. And I still like these players. This is the first time I feel like we just—we weren’t in it. So I believe that we’ll refocus. I think that these guys will come back to work. There again man, we have to go. There has to be a point of emphasis to it and you have to have some pride about you. We have to—we have to as coaches put a good game plan together for them, give them the best opportunity to have success. That’s our job.”
On if he considered taking out QB Jared Goff today: “No. Nope, did not.”
On if a quarterback change is something that he will look at moving forward: “No. No. Now that doesn’t mean that
something won’t ever come up. I’m going to look at everything. But—to me, this was not—this was a collective effort
offensively. This was not—you can’t blame one person there. Just like—I know maybe you think maybe it’s easy to just
throw it out and for me to blame it on myself. Look, I gave plenty of—they heard plenty from me in there. But the bottom line is—it’s just the truth is that I didn’t help them, I didn’t help them prepare for this game properly or help our coaches help them prepare properly. So yeah, they have a hand in it and we’ll be evaluating them. But everybody’s going to be evaluated as well. Everybody.”
On QB Jared Goff missing open receivers today: “There’s some guys that MA-ed too and he’s trying to make a throw
with guys that are MA-ing, and so he can’t even trust where the hell they’re supposed to be at. So I’m with you. I don’t
mean to get upset. Look, he’s got to make some throws and then our receivers have to be where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there. We can’t mess around. But I know, I know.”
On why he is fired up today: “It’s just because—we weren’t in this. We weren’t even in this game. It’s demoralizing when there you are under two and they’re kneeling the ball and I had three timeouts. It’s just—kudos to them. They did a damn good job. They whipped our ass.”
On if he sensed today’s poor performance coming: “No. Nope. Nope, couldn’t.”
On if there was a missed defensive assignment on Cincinnati’s converted fourth-and-1 play: “So, really that was—
you’d like to think you’re going to be able to take the edge on that. That was a little bit more of an all-out play, the run. You’re kind of—at that point in the game, you’re kind of playing the odds, if you will. And so, not that we don’t have somebody for him [Joe Mixon], but you’re hoping your edge defender maybe at least nudges him, hits him, something. So, look, it was a good play call and you’re kind of going all out there to see if you can get a stop.”
On if he can evaluate QB Jared Goff with so many missing offensive pieces around him: “Yeah, look, I think—I will
say this, I still don’t feel like—I don’t feel like we can accurately judge him one way or another. I don’t feel that way yet.
Now, I will say this—I feel like he needs to step up more than he has. And I think he needs to help us just like everybody else. I think he’s going to need to put a little bit of weight on his shoulders here and it’s time to step up, make some throws and do some things. But he needs help. He needs help. And look, I told him out there, he knows this, but some of that stuff—we’re getting these holding calls, well it’s because he’s drifting back in the pocket 10 yards deep. That’s not fair to those guys either. If you hang on to the ball—it’s like I told you, this is a collective effort now. Everything goes hand-in hand. But I want to see him step up, I do, I do because I think he can do it.”
On if he was sending a message at the end of the game by calling a timeout while Cincinnati was taking a
knee: “Yeah, just—that was it. I’m not—it wasn’t over, and, ‘I’ve got timeouts, so let’s see if we can stop them here and go down and score again and then onside kick.’ And then, yeah, we probably don’t have enough time but that’s the whole point.”
LIONS LB ALEX ANZALONE POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET
On if he feels like the optimism is waning a little bit after this loss: “No, I think for me personally, I play for a bigger
purpose than wins or losses. I think a lot of guys have that mentality, no matter what, we’re going to do our best. We get paid to do a job. We have to play well, or else you won’t be here, and you won’t be on any other team. The League is different in that regard. So, I think there’s still optimism, and obviously, being winless is not fun. This is the first time in my career that I’ve experienced anything like this, but we suit up next week, we suit up Sunday, and we have to play well then. We have to watch the film, see what happened and evaluate in that regard first.”
On if benching players is a possible answer to the team’s struggles: “I mean, this is a cutthroat league. That
happens all throughout the League, no matter what. People get traded. People get cut. People get benched. That’s up to upstairs, (Lions Executive Vice President & General Manager) Brad (Holmes) and (Lions Head Coach) Dan (Campbell) to make those decisions. All you can do is just focus on yourself, what you can do, like I said, look in the mirror and get
better every day. As a team, we don’t listen to the outside noise. Whoever we go on the field with, it’s what we’re riding
with, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
On how he has swallowed these losses on a week-to-week basis after not experiencing anything similar in his
career: “Yeah, it’s tough. Like, I hate losing. This stuff sucks. But it’s like I mentioned, I’m playing for a bigger purpose
than wins and losses. So, it’s hard, it’s tough, when I go home right now, I’m going to be depressed, watching film and see what I can do to get better. It’s tough.”
LIONS QB JARED GOFF POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET
On what his thought process is after this loss: “You look at the film and see where you can get better. Look yourself in
the mirror and move on and get better from it. That’s all you can do is learn from it and try to get better.”
On what he can do to help this team to a win: “I think I can always do more. You’re never in a position where you feel
like your complacent. Of course, we’re nowhere near that, but I think I’ve got some experiences to rely on that I can relay to these guys and do my best to be the best leader I can be and continue to try to find the open guy and get him the ball, take care of the football, and do my job every day.”
On if it is difficult to relay his experiences to younger players: “No, it’s not difficult. No, and I think with a lot of these
guys I’m not telling them anything they don’t know and just continue to be the best leader I can be. Like I said, just do my job in every play and every day.”
On how difficult it is to establish consistency in the offense with so many missed assignments: “We all have our
issues. I mean, every team, every play, there are things that happen and whether that is or isn’t happening, it doesn’t
matter. Ultimately, we need to all get better and find a way to win a game.”
On the mood of Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell and the locker room after the game: “Usually, exactly how he
looks, very frustrated. I think this was the first one that we really got our butts kicked and we felt it.”
On if he lets himself get angry after a loss: “I think you have to have balance, but you’re not human if you’re not upset.
We put so much time and effort into all of this, so much energy and so much love for the game and passion, and to have a result like that and repeated results of losses is tough. It doesn’t kill our spirit or kill who we are, but for right now, we’re mad and frustrated.”
On his performance through six games: “Up and down. I mean, there’s been good, there’s been bad, there’s been stuff
to work on. It’s kind of always that way when you look at yourself and when you’re critical of yourself. Like I said,
everyone’s got their things that they’re working on and I’m no different.”
LIONS CB AMANI ORUWARIYE POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET
On if it is harder for younger players to show resiliency when losing: “There are definitely a lot of guys who lack
some experience, but we don’t care. We’ve got to win now with whoever we have and we just need guys to step up from all around the field. I’ll just piggyback off of what Dan (Campbell) said, I didn’t think we played well at all today. So, we all have just got to look ourselves in the mirror and find a way to get better.”
On what Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell’s message was to the team after the game: “I think all in all he was just
saying, ‘That wasn’t us.’ He felt like every week we’ve been on the incline and he didn’t feel like we’ve gotten better at all today through our offense, defense, and special teams, and he’s right. So, we’ll bounce back. We’re just going to be very critical of ourselves and then get ready for next week.”
On how much the defense can counteract poor play from the offense: “If the offense doesn’t score, it should be 0-0.
That’s the only way I can really put it. We’ve got to find a way to keep getting stops and help them out as much as we can, but they’ll be fine. I promise you they will be fine.”
On if he felt that the energy and effort was not there today compared to other games: “I don’t want to say that. I
don’t think – I wouldn’t say we’re numb to it at all. I think we’re still – we’re attacking every week just expecting to win. But we’ve just got to execute the game plan and we’ve got to tackle better. We’ve got to just play more intense. We’ve got to play like we’re not on our heels and just attack, be on the attack all of the time. We’ll get there.”
LIONS WR AMON-RA ST. BROWN POST-GAME QUOTE SHEET
On if the team could sense Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell’s frustration in the locker room: “Yeah, it was tough
for us as a team, definitely. Not scoring any points in that first half, it was tough as an offense. I think defense played
great. Going into that second half, we were kind of—defense could get us a stop coming out and then as an offense we were going to go out and score, but things just didn’t shake up that way. I think—like you said—yeah, we felt he was mad in that locker room after the game. I think as a team we felt like this was one of the first games that we let slip away from us completely. A lot of the other games we were so close to winning. This one was just from the start, I felt like it wasn’t our game.”
On if he thinks QB Jared Goff is still the leader the offense needs: “Definitely. He’s our guy. We’re rocking with him.
Most of the things that have to happen for things to keep picking up as an offense—it’s not just him, it’s not just the
receivers, it’s not just the O-line. It’s everyone as a whole whether that’s penalties or early on that’s putting us behind the chains. Or that’s missed assignments, whether that’s turnovers. I think that as an offense as a whole we just have to be better.”
On how the offense can find a rhythm: “That’s a tough question. If I had the answer to that, we’d probably be a much
better team. But no, I think—like I said—it’s a multitude of things. During the week, you’re out there practicing, trying to be the best, executing your plays. Penalties that we wish we could have had back, like I said earlier in the game. Missed assignments, obviously you never want those. That’s something that you can always correct and teach. Turnovers, you don’t want those either. That’s huge. But other than that, just I think staying on time, staying on pace when we’re driving the ball and I think we’ll be fine.”
On if QB Jared Goff can continue to lead the receivers and offense: “I think he definitely can lead the offense. He’s
been to the Super Bowl, he knows what it looks like. So when you have a guy with experience, it’s never—you know he’s capable of it because he’s been there before, he’s done it. As an offense we trust him and we’re going to do everything that we can as receivers, as I’m sure the running backs too, the tight ends, O-line—to help him execute. And obviously we want to execute too. We want to win games. We’re going to have to do our part too. But we feel like as an offense, we’re capable of it.
