DETROIT LIONS at MINNESOTA VIKINGS
U.S. BANK FIELD
WEEK 5: SUNDAY, OCT. 10, 2021
The following are post-game notes and quotes from the Detroit Lions’ 19-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank
Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021.
POST-GAME NOTES
LIONS SCORING PLAYS
- First Quarter: K Austin Seibert kicked a 39-yard field goal to give Detroit a 3-0 lead with 10:34 remaining in the quarter.
- Second Quarter: K Austin Seibert connected on a 52-yard field goal to cut the score to 13-6 with 41 seconds left in the
half. - Fourth Quarter: K Austin Seibert made a 40-yard field goal to lessen the deficit to 16-9 with 2:34 left to play in the game.
- Fourth Quarter: RB D’Andre Swift rushed for a seven-yard touchdown to bring the score to 16-16 with 41 seconds left in the game. QB Jared Goff connected with WR KhaDarel Hodge on a two-point conversion to take the 17-16 lead.
TEAM NOTES
The Lions… - Made a two-point conversion for the third time this season, the most in a single season since recording four in 2000. It marks the most two-point conversions made through five games of a season in franchise history.
- Held the Vikings to only one touchdown in a game for the first time since Week 4 of 2017, and zero rushing touchdowns for the first time since Week 16 of 2018.
- Forced two Minnesota turnovers for the first time since Week 9 of 2018.
- Recorded at least 2.0 sacks and an interception against the Vikings for the first time since Week 15 of 2014.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
RB D’ANDRE SWIFT - Produced his 11th-straight game with at least 40 yards from scrimmage.
- Became the third running back in franchise history to open a season with 30 receiving yards in five-straight games.
- Registered 70 scrimmage yards for the fourth game this season, becoming the first Lions running back to do so through five games of the season since Jahvid Best did so five times in 2011.
- Became the first Lions player since Calvin Johnson in 2011 to record at least three games with 70 scrimmage yards and a touchdown through five games of the season.
- Became the sixth Lions running back to record three games of 40-plus rushing yards and 50-plus receiving yards through their first two seasons.
- Joins Derrick Moore (1993), Horace King (1977) and Kevin Jones (2006) as the only Lions to have at least three games with at least six receptions and 11 rushing attempts in a single season.
WR AMON-RA ST. BROWN - Tallied seven receptions for 65 yards (9.3 avg.)
- Became the first Lions rookie to record at least six receptions in consecutive games since RB Derrick Moore in 1993. He
became the first Lions rookie receiver to ever do so. - Recorded at least 60 receiving yards in consecutive games and became the first rookie receiver for the Lions to do so since Titus Young in Weeks 12-13 of 2011.
- Became the first Lions player since the merger to have two games with at least six receptions and 60 receiving yards through their first five-career games.
RB JAMAAL WILLIAMS - Rushed 13 times for 57 yards (4.4 avg.).
- Registered 50 rushing yards for the third time this season, doing so for the first time in his career through five games.
QB JARED GOFF - Completed 21-of-35 passes for 203 yards.
CB A.J. PARKER - Tallied a single-game career high seven tackles (six solo) and a tackle for loss.
- First undrafted rookie cornerback in the NFL to log a tackle for loss this season.
OLB TREY FLOWERS - Produced 1.0 sack, upping his career total to 31.5 and 10.5 with Detroit.
OLB CHARLES HARRIS - Registered a sack in four-straight games, tied for the longest streak in franchise history.
- Joins OLB Romeo Okwara (2018) as the only players to have a four-game sack streak in their first season with Detroit. He is the only free agent to do so for Detroit.
- His 43 sack yards rank the second-most through the first five weeks of a season in Lions history, behind only Devon Kennard who totaled 53 in 2018.
LB ALEX ANZALONE - Produced his second-career interception and the first since Week 9 of the 2018.
LB JALEN REEVES-MAYBIN - Notched his first forced fumble and fumble recovery since Week 4 of 2019.
P JACK FOX - Tied his career long with a 67-yard punt, the third time he’s kicked a 67-yard punt. He is the only player in franchise history to log three punts of at least 67 yards.
- Booted his 75th-career punt in the third quarter. He owns the NFL records for the highest gross average (49.4) and net average (45.1) through a player’s first 75-career punts in NFL history.
K AUSTIN SEIBERT - Connected on 3-of-3 field goal attempts including a 52-yarder, the second-longest of his career.
Sunday, October 10, 2021
Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell
It was heartbreaking. I was proud of the way our guys fought. Man, that’s the first thing I told them. It’s tough to
be 0-5. It’s tough to lose like that again. But I was proud of them, man. I’ll tell you, you don’t find a way to get
yourself back in the game and get to where we were at if you don’t believe and give all that you have of it. So we
just once again made one more miss than they did and it cost us.
Q. Did you feel any different losing this game and what’s the emotion behind it?
A. It’s tough, it’s tough. Look, you want it for yourself, as an organization, and for all of us. But you want it for those
players. I mean, they’re out there busting their ass. And, you know, it’s tough.
Q. You look a little emotional about this loss. How difficult is this coming week being that you worked so hard for
it?
A. No, you just — when you see your players give all that they have and you lose that way, it’s tough. You know, you don’t want that for them. But we’ll be better for it. But, again, credit to Minnesota. But, you know, we made the one mistake that cost us, you know? And so, ultimately, you know, it — we didn’t do enough to win. But I was proud of them. And I love the fight that they have in them. And I love the grit, I do.And when your defense plays that way, you got a chance to win every game. I thought our defense played lights out today. I really did.
Q. What was going through your mind during the kick?
A. He was going to miss it, that’s what I thought was going to happen. And he didn’t. So, you know — so then when it
happens, you’re surprised because you’re expecting him to miss it.
Q. What did you say to your team in the locker room?
A. The same thing, I was proud of them. Proud of the way they fought. I like the guys we got on this team. I like what
they’re about. I like how they come to work. I like how they haven’t given up. They just go. They just go, you know, and it will pay dividends.
Q. (Question concerning Jalen Reeves-Maybin defensive turnover.)
A. It’s outstanding, you know? And I said this — you saw this last week and I’ve seen it the week before. The guy goes
after the football. It’s what he — this is not by accident or coincidence, he goes after the football. He makes a conscious
effort to punch the ball out. And that becomes contagious, when you get more than a few guys doing that. And he earned that. He earned it for us. It was big, it was huge when we needed it most.
Q. You mentioned the one mistake a couple of times. Are you talking specifically about —
A. Well, what you — I think we all know there’s a couple mistakes in there that cost us.
Q. Well, the one that —
A. Well, one, when you turn it over in the plus territory, I mean, that could be the difference in the game offensively. Once again, we shoot ourselves in the foot. And it hurt us, it hurt us.
Q. Can you talk us through the decision to go for two points there at the end and your faith in Jared?
A. Yeah, just — there again, I wanted to win that game and I wanted to finish it out. And I felt the best way to win that
game was to go for it, go for the two-point and be done with it. I trusted our guys. We worked this week. And I trusted
Goff, I trusted our O-line, our receivers, our backs. Yeah, so I didn’t — that was not — that, to me, was an easy decision for me to make.
Q. Without watching the film, do you have any steps of what was wrong in the operation of the final drive?
A. You’re talking about at the end?
Q. Yeah, Minnesota being able to drive 46 yards there.
A. I mean, look, there’s — you’re going to have some windows in there. Certainly, we don’t want to give up as much as we did. But, you know, they made a couple plays and got down there. Until I can get my eyes wrapped on it and really digest it, you know, unfortunately — or fortunately, however you want to look at it, at the end of the day, that still wasn’t an easy kick. That’s not like that was a chip shot, you know? And so, they made it, they got in position, two time-outs helped them with that much, you know — with that much time with two time-outs, you really have a lot more time than you think you do.
And on the flip side, it’s easy to say, Hey, run the clock, but score a touchdown. But that’s not as easy, so anyway.
Q. How badly did you want that first one?
A. Well, I mean, look, it’s — of course, but it’s — there again, when you fight the way that you — when you put everything out there on the line like they did and like they do, you want it for them and you want it for everybody, you know? I mean, everybody gives themselves a lot of time, a lot of effort. Hey, it’s what we do. And you just — you know, you want it. You want it for everybody, man. And you want to earn one. And we’re this close. We haven’t done it. So we’re still — we’re not quite there. We haven’t quite gotten over the hump. But I do think in the long run this is going to pay dividends for us. As ugly as it is right now and hard to swallow, I do think we’re building something special here that’s going to serve us well in the long term.
Q. On rushing3 at the end of the game?
A. Well, I think sometimes when you do that, you expose your outside — you know, you expose your secondary more
when you rush four. And so, there’s — if you rush four and then that happens, and you got a shot play, maybe we should have been a little more conservative. So I think there’s — man, there’s a give and take there. There’s a risk/reward by both. You know, well, you had success pressuring and — so I think you got to weigh the options as what they’re going to do and then who you feel like you kind of need take care of.
Q. On the turnovers by Jared Goff?
A. Yeah, that will certainly be something we look at? Because it has, it’s killed us a couple weeks in a row. Whether we
got to — you know, it could be as simple as, you know, trimming the calls back a little bit to where it’s a little bit more
mainstream and to the point, quick, easy. I see it in my head, we get lined up, it — you know, just a little less moving parts, if you will. Maybe that’s where we can help a little bit. So we’ll look at everything with it. But, you know, it hurts us.
Q. Is it hard for you to believe that you’re standing here twice in one season, five games in your coaching career,
basically, describing the exact same scenario, exact same score? Is that hard to fathom?
A. I mean — no, look, anything can happen in this league. Here’s what I always — I try to just keep picturing in my head,
because I know it’s coming. We’re going to be on the winning side of these before long. Hopefully sooner than later. But it’s coming. I just don’t know when, but it’s coming. When you play that way and fight that way and clean up a couple of these little mishaps that have shot us in the foot, our days of being on the winning side of that are coming.
Q. On the Cephus injury…
A. Yeah, it looks like it’s in the shoulder front area. It could be his clavicle, could be his shoulder. But it doesn’t look good.
Q. On his aggressive coaching style?
A. Yeah, I don’t know. You know, it’s a good question. It really is. It’s a good question. There again, I just think you have to make a decision with what you think is best, versus pressure, versus coverage, versus who needs help. You know, for
example, when you see them and they’re in a double tight empty wing and they’re going to pound the edges, the pressure does you real good and you just bought yourself time to push the ball down the field, you know? So some of those showed up, not a ton, but there are a couple. And you don’t know when those are coming up. And so, you play the odds. You got to be careful even if you want to rush four/five and they’re going to somewhat max protect, or at least pound it and get out of the flats, you know, bang the edges. And, you know, you expose yourself and then you’ll be kicking yourself that you weren’t more in a rush three. Maybe you’re playing coverage over the top or kind of a double-double, you know?
And there again, you’re playing for chunks. Look, it didn’t work out. It sure didn’t. But we’re going to be — we’ll look at it. We’re going to look at everything.
Sunday, October 10, 2021
Lions Quarterback Jared Goff
Q. (Question concerning the emotional state of Dan Campbell.)
A. I think we all kind of feel the same way he does. It’s hard. It’s hard to give everything you got every week and to have moments of feeling like you’ve won the game and have it snatched from you. It’s tough. It’s tough. It’s as hard as it gets in this league, to do stuff like that and try to bounce back from it. I’ve said it every week, but we’ve got a resilient bunch that will bounce back. And Dan’s our leader.
Q. (Question concerning Jared Goff’s turnovers.)
A. You know, it’s, obviously, stuff you don’t want to happen. But I’m going to keep letting it fly. I think, you know, the
fumble was just a lack of ball security by me. And I thought they made a great play on the interception. He (Eric
Kendricks) made a one-handed catched. Not ideal, obviously, in the plus territory. But things like that are going to happen. You know, our defense was able to force some turnovers of their own and it makes the game pretty close there. But, you know, I can’t play afraid to make a mistake.
Q. (Question concerning the interception.)
A. I thought I could fit it by him.
Q. When you go 27, 28 minutes without putting up points in the second half, you know, we’ve seen some of these
drives before. What gave you the confidence that you could get it together to close it out?
A. Yeah, obviously, I think the play made there at the end is kind of, you know, unbelievable. They were able to force a
turnover there when they’re trying to run out the clock. And, you know, when they got the ball in the situation, it gave us a little bit of life and we were able to run the ball in there with (D’Andre) Swift and then the two-point conversion was a play that we needed to make and we made it. That’s kind of the bottom line. Anything can happen throughout the game. And at the end of the game, you want to be able to be there to make those plays and we did. But, ultimately, they were able to finish with a field goal. It’s never one play, never one thing that loses or wins the game. It’s a culmination of execution, effort, and being smart.
Q. You talked about the aggression, right, fourth down, but this is a different level. You go for the two-point
conversion, a win, loss. I know we keep asking it. What does it mean in those moments with your coach?
A. Yeah, it means a lot. And I think he knows — you know, it means a lot to us, as well. I know had we had not got that,
you guys would be killing him right now. And rightfully so, but we did get it. And ultimately it didn’t finish the game off. He’s got a lot of faith in us down there in the tight red. And we’ve — you know, I think proved him right more than not. But, you know, it was a good chance for us to prove him right again today.
Q. Did you know he was going to go for it?
A. Yep, yep.
Q. How?
A. He told me before the drive.
Q. What did he say?
A. He said, When we score, we’re going to go for two.
Q. How’s that like?
A. Yeah, I mean, we’re on the 12-yard line. We better score, right? We’ve got quite a bit of time and able to tell the
offense, you know, after we score, get ready, we’re going to go for two again here. And, yeah, I kind of expected it. You
know, the way that game was going, if we get a chance to take the lead, you better take it. Kind of expected it. Was able to connect there. And, again, ultimately, not enough.
Q. Dan said you guys have had a lot of battles against the defense. 50-50 both ways.
A. A lot. Well. And, you know, it speaks to our guys. Again, it’s a good little tidbit is, I don’t know KhaDarel Hodge ran that route ever. I think it was (Quintez) Cephus the whole time. And then Cephus goes down, and KhaDarel steps in. Being a smart player, knowing what he’s supposed to do, gets himself open. So that kind of indicates the type of guys we have, which is encouraging there.
Q. (Question concerning the turnovers.)
A. Yeah, I think each one of them, you have to look at individually, right? I think, you know, if I’m making poor decisions, I think that’s one thing. If it’s lack of ball security, that’s another thing. If it’s, you know, they’re making plays on defense, it’s another thing. I think you have to look at them all individually. Obviously, we need to limit them. They need to go away, right? But I need to keep playing aggressively like I always have and not allow, you know, things that may happen my way or their way, whatever it may be affect the way that I play each play.
Q. (Follow-up question concerning the turnovers.)
A. Yeah, I mean, I can’t think of — I can’t think back that far to all of them. But today was, like I mentioned, ball security on one and I thought Eric Kendricks made a great play.
Q. This is a defensive question. After you made that two-point conversion, do you think you had the game won or
do you go, This is the NFL.
A. Of course. You know it’s the NFL and they got some dudes that can make plays. Of course, you’re optimistic that today is the day we get the win. But, yeah, they made it happen.
Q. How do you move forward?
A. Yeah, it’s the hard part, right, is keeping guys in the right frame of mind. And I think — I’ve kind of said it over and over again, we have the right type of guys and right leadership here that these things don’t have as big of a negative toll on us as one may think from the outside. We got the right guys. But for me personally, how can I show up every day as the guy, show up every day as the beacon of positivity or the energy guy that can kind of pull guys along? I think that’s me with along with a bunch of guys on our team that have this experience, have the ability to do that. And it’s a responsibility we have as leaders and captains. But it starts up top with Dan and it kind of trickles through us.
Sunday, October 10, 2021
Lions OLB Trey Flowers
Q: Dan (Campbell) was pretty choked up. How does that emotion from your head coach resonate in the locker
room?
A: Obviously that hurts pretty bad. Listen, coach was a player at one point so that passion is still there. He puts a lot into it just like everybody else in this locker room. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. It doesn’t matter if they feel sorry for us we got to go to work. Emotionally we put a lot into it.
Q: Once you get past the emotions how do you look at the strides that may be made with this contest.
A: We will watch film, we will take time to get those emotions out. We will watch film and see what you can build on, see what you can correct. That’s just being human beings.
Q: Was there a lot of emotions in the locker room?
A: A lot of guys put in a lot of energy, time and effort into this and to lose like that on a few occasions this year it’s tough. Like I said no one can feel sorry for us and we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We will break down film and build on what we did well and correct what we can correct.
Q: The resiliency you’ve shown till this point of the season has been impressive, what gives you confidence that
you’re not at that breaking point?
A: This game you got to expect to fight every second. You got to respect the game. We are going to continue to fight. Were not going to sulk on this one. Were going to fight and respect the game every single day we’re out there, every opportunity we’re out there. We came up a little short we’re not happy but, eventually it’s going to work. I know that.
Q: Is there a feeling of deja vu?
A: It hurts. It hurts and like I said it hurts and we just got to breakthrough. It’s right there, we got to breakthrough.
Q: What were you fighting through and was was it like coming out in the second half and getting that sack?
A: Just being in it. We put our bodies through a lot. I’m fighting something every week. You get right for game time and play through it and tough it out.
Q: What are your thoughts when they lined up for that last kick?
A: I honestly believed he was going to miss it. That was my mind set. I’m not a psychic though. He obviously it made and the Vikings played good enough to win. We didn’t play well enough and a lot of self-inflicted mistakes. They called his name and he made the kick.
Q: What did you say about Jalen’s (Reeves-Maybin) play to rip that ball out?
A: That was big time obviously. Like I said we wanted to fight to the very end till there’s nothing left. So we are out there thinking turnover and getting the ball back to our offense and we needed it at that point. That was a big play awareness by him. Once he saw it he ripped at the ball. That was great awareness and great execution.
Q: You said that was emphasized on the sideline?
A: Yes, yes it was. We knew we had to have it.
Sunday, October 10, 2021
Lions Safety Tracy Walker
Q: How do you get past this one?
A: It’s another tough loss. Right now, we have to use this motivation to continue to bounce back and striving to be better.
Q: You gave up a couple of big plays at the end. What did you think about the defensive performance?
A: I think we played good in total, but at the end, we have to do better.
Q: What should you do in situations like those?
A: Execution. We just have to execute better and hold on to the end.
Q: On the interception, you got a hand on the ball. Can you explain what you saw pre-snap and how that play
developed?
A: Executing my job. I was just doing what I was supposed to do, going where I need to be, playing my technique, and
following the ball. He threw it and I was just trying to go make a play. It ended up working out great for us.
Q: How much does this feel like deja vu from last week?
A: To me personally, it sucks even worse. I have to look at the positives of it and grow from the negatives.
Q: Why does it suck worse?
A: We are 0-5 and we were 0-3, if that’s what you’re asking. We’re going to use this and continue to grind and work.
Q: What does it mean that Dan Campbell was so emotional at the podium here?
A: I just want to change the culture around here. I’ve been here four years and I’ve experienced a lot of losses. As a player, that’s what I want to change. I want to go out there, get the ball, and try to help my men. Get my men to help change the game and the outcomes. That’s how I look at it. That’s my approach. I have to do what I can do to get better each and every day and control what I can control.
Q: Do you see Dan Campbell’s emotions as being very real?
A: He’s going to be who he is. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. Obviously, we have to play better. That’s what it all
comes down too. We have to execute better. There’s a lot of things that we left on the field, and could do better on offense, defense, and special teams. At the end of the day, we just have to use this as motivation, grow from it, and continue to work.
