LIONS HEAD COACH MATT PATRICIA QUOTE SHEET
Opening statement: Well, obviously disappointed with the outcome. Tough game. Tough place. Give Minnesota credit. That’s a really good team. They played hard. They controlled the game. But first half gave up some big plays that kind of swung some things for us there and didn’t make enough plays on offense to help us. And so there was a lot of adjustments, a lot of corrections there at halftime that we needed to make. I do think the guys went out and played hard in the second half. I thought we tried to get some of those things fixed. We knew it was going to be a tough game, tried to decrease the penalties. But still had some of those in some critical situations. But again for us it’s hard. We want to win. Trying to do all the things we can do to win. But right now I think the one thing for us is we just keep pushing together, we keep sticking together and keep trying to get better. And we all understand that. We know that’s where we’re at right now in the season. Got a limited amount of opportunities left. And we’re trying to go out make the most of the opportunities every chance we can. Give Minnesota credit. They played well. They’ve got great players over there, and they outplayed us today.
Q. The last two and a half minutes of the first half, you’ve got third-and-2, a chance to make a little bit of a stand there. How important was that swing?
A: We talk about that all the time, right before the half. And certainly it’s not really at all what we want to go on with that. So not good enough in those situations. We talked about their players and those guys that could make those plays, and we’ve got to come up with some plays in those situations and play a little bit more aware from that standpoint. But
certainly I thought that was something that wasn’t very good before the half. Came in, we talked about it at halftime, how much we were all disappointed about that and make sure it doesn’t happen here in the second half.
Q. With how tough that defense is and a slow start with your offense with incompletions to start the game, why do you think you started so slowly?
A: We’ll take a look at it. There was certainly some things out there, I felt there were some miscues, some things out there with not everybody on the same page, miscommunication. It’s a loud building. It’s a hostile environment to play in, which obviously is good for them and good for them on defense. I think they did some different things to give us a different look. A little bit impressed with some of the stuff they did, which obviously worked well for them with our situation. And they just capitalized on it.
Q. At this stage, 6-9-1, six straight losses, I’m not asking this to be antagonistic; I’m just asking you for your opinion. How do you convince people you can get this turned around? This regime and you guys now for two years, 9-19-1. How do you influence people that you can get this turned around?
A: Again, for me right now, we know we’re in the middle of a process. We know we are trying to get better. I think if you look at our team, where we’re at, we’re not winning. We understand that; that’s pretty much the obvious. But for us it’s about trying to improve and get better. I think we have a tough team. I think we have a team that works hard. We understand we’ll have to build on top of that in order to get us over the hump on some of those things that we’re not doing well enough, and we’re in tight ball games. And we’re right there all the way through. The hard thing for us and what I appreciate about this team is we don’t look at our record and say this is what we are. I think we look at our record and say that’s not what we are and we gotta do better, and we try to figure out how to get the record to match up with what we. And that’s kind of where we’re struggling right now. I think that’s the best part.
Q. Do you understand the scrutiny about your job because it’s a bottom-line business?
A: Yeah, I’m in the NFL. I’ve been in the NFL a long time. I know what the NFL is about. I do understand that, but I also understand what we’re trying to do. I know there’s been a lot of coaches that have taken over programs and really tried to start and build something and work from the bottom and try to grow on it and build it. And I know what those records look like, too, when those guys have all started out. So, for me, I try not to look at that stuff; I just try to look at each week. Right now, for us, it’s about next week. That’s the biggest thing for us.
Q. Is that process on schedule or is it any more difficult or are there any more difficult times coming?
A: I think you never really know what you’re getting into from that standpoint, so from that I can’t really tell you schedule standpoint. But certainly is one of those things where we’re grinding through it and we’re trying to make it better every week. And that’s really all we can do.
Q. What is your assessment of David Blough and the offense?
A: Certainly want to go back and look at all this stuff. But let’s give Minnesota credit. I think they did some really good things there to kind of put us in some difficult situations offensively. I would say just together I think that group, I think there were some decisions out there and we have to do a better job executing some of those situations. And David [Blough] is — he’s an extremely competitive guy. He’s a tough guy. I love his energy, what he brings every single day to practice, to the games. He’s competitive. So from that standpoint he’s trying. He’s trying to get it all right. And for me, again, offensively and defensively, special teams-wise, it’s a team game. It’s all 11 guys on the field at that time. All 11 guys have to be working together with the coaches to make sure we have a chance to be successful. So it’s not going to be one guy from that standpoint. It’s got to be everybody.
Q. (Indiscernible) how do you measure that? What have you seen? What improvements have you seen?
A: Sure. I’m not really going to digest the entire season right now but I would say for us it’s the stuff we’ve been talking about. It’s the toughness of what I think this team is about, the work ethic what this team is about, the competitiveness of what this team is about. We’re an extremely competitive group. We have to obviously perform on Sundays a little bit better than what we’re doing. But I think those guys are trying to do everything they can to get better and work hard. So I think they’re laying that foundation. Understanding that we have to have a foundation before you can build anything on top of it. And that’s where we’re starting. And from there we’re trying to build some pieces that will help us maybe get over the hump from that aspect of it. But we’ve certainly got a lot of guys out there that are playing, playing really hard. We’ve got a lot of new guys out there every single week, it seems like. They’re stepping up and diving into their role, trying to do the best they can with it. I think that’s great to see. I think that’s important in the NFL because it’s a league where the lineups change every single week. And when the guy can — or you can have depth like that where they can step in and play, certainly we’re gaining some experience that we need with some of those younger players. So that as we push forward those guys will be able to step into those roles perform at a high level with experience on top of it.
Q. The losses, this one really didn’t feel like it was one or two plays. Really felt like the tempo was controlled start to finish on this one. What’s the message going forward to the team to keep it from spiraling out?
A: I mean, I would say that I thought Minnesota did a really good job in the first half getting up and certainly I think there were some things out there that we did that didn’t help us from that standpoint so we’ve got to learn from those and make sure that doesn’t happen again. And we can be in that sort of continually competitive game that we’re used to being in every single week. So we kind of put ourselves behind a little bit of a difficult task playing on the road in an environment like this which is obviously great for their team but we don’t want to do that. It just makes it too hard from that aspect of it. Though, again, like I said before, I think our guys came out and they tried to fight really hard to go out in the second half and compete and try to get things right, which was good to see.
Q. There’s been a lot of injuries this season and last season. Do you think there’s — probably you guys might be snake bit in the area, or is there more with the training or do you think it’s make players less susceptible to injury?
A: We kind of evaluate all that stuff. We look at specifically the types of injuries we’re getting to see what are those, are those soft tissue injuries, are they things that have to do with joints. Does it have to do with playing surface versus different types of services things like that. We’ll evaluate all those and go forward. We’re certainly doing things continually with the strength and conditioning and the training that we do to make sure that we’re monitoring all that stuff and keeping track. So we do look at all that. I don’t have anything solid for you right now. But we do analyze that stuff.
Question regarding Kirk Cousins’ completion to Stefon Diggs at the end of the first half:
A: Absolutely. Obviously they’ve got a great player [Stefon Diggs] over there on their side of the ball. He’s going to go deep and it’s a situation where we’ve got to get us in a better situation there so that we don’t give that up.
Q. The league fined you for Matthew Stafford’s injury update protocol, do you have any response to that?
A: Yeah, no. We’ve talked about that enough.
Q. Do you feel that —
A: I’m not going to make a comment on that.
Q. You mentioned how tough this defense is and obviously David’s first road start. What does this defense do that made it such a challenge for him?
A: Minnesota’s defense?
Q. Yes.
A: Obviously they came out of the gate with couple different looks, brought some pressure. You saw [Harrison] Smith on the line of scrimmage right away. And you saw the linebackers walk up in the A gaps like they do. And some of those — they have a lot of packages, a lot of different looks and flexibility and variability in their defense. They used it a lot of it early. Gave us some looks in some of the different problems we had to solve out on the field and they had executed at a high level, very well especially at home. Those were some of the things early on that were troublesome.
LIONS QB DAVID BLOUGH QUOTE SHEET
Q. David, can you talk about the first three and out passes line of scrimmage. How tough did that make it?
A: Yeah. That makes it tough, I think, on any offense trying to get started fast in a game. It’s something we talk about, and obviously something we didn’t do today. Give Minnesota credit. They made good plays. They batted the ball down those first two plays. Makes it tough when you’re backed up against a good defense with a kind of exotic blitz package that we were seeing. So they do a good job on that first drive, and it was yeah, obviously frustrating to start slow. It’s something we harp on, and it can’t happen for us. Can’t happen for me. Gotta find a way to get those to our play makers because we had guys where they were supposed to be. They just made good plays.
Q. That sequence there at the end of the half, got the sack and then they come back and have a big play. Kind of swings it. Was that a defensive killer there?
A: Yeah. I think — I can’t put us in the position of taking those sacks. I can’t leave those linemen out to dry on some of those. And five is five too many. And I can’t be — I can’t hold the ball too long, take us out of field goal range, obviously. We talk about that halftime swing a lot. Didn’t help our chances with a position we could have gotten points at a crucial time in the game.
Q. How tough is the Minnesota defense? Can you get a full grasp for it on film or is it one you kind of have to see to adjust to?
A: I think I was prepared. Coaches did a great job preparing me to go out there and have a plan for everything that they were going to do. And you know, yeah, it’s probably a little different when you get out there and see it for the first time. But we had guys in the right spots and guys making the right decisions. It’s just we couldn’t execute to the best of our capability. Obviously that’s not the standard we hold our offense to. And we got to be better.
Q. On the road in this environment how different does it feel for you?
A: Yeah. I think the level of communication has to be better. You have to be decisive and make sure everything is sharp and crystal clear, and obviously we weren’t, and credit Minnesota. It’s a good defense. It’s a tough place to play. But it’s frustrating we didn’t put our best foot forward on offense.
Q. What sort of things can you take out of today? Obviously it was pretty tough all day offensively. Is there something to build on?
A: Yeah. I know you guys know what you’re going to get out of this team. We’re going to fight. It’s how we’re coached. We’re going to go back tomorrow and work hard and try to get better. And I think there were things at the end of the game that we did well. Obviously can’t turn the ball over, but things we did well at the end of the game piecing those drives together, and you learn and you grow and you come back, and the more reps you have, the better you get at it. And so it’s frustrating, but we’ll go back to work. It’s what we do, and be ready to go next week.
LIONS CB DARIUS SLAY QUOTE SHEET
Q: The Vikings took control from the beginning and this is the sixth loss in a row. How do you rebound?
A: No. We actually made some adjustments and played better as a defense in the second half. We were trying to make plays for our offense to get them in a better position, but we did not do that. We let the Vikings get down the field too much which made the offense have long drives. We are just trying to avoid making them drive the ball so long.
Q: What is driving you guys through each game when the playoffs are out of the question?
A: We got guys in here that are leaders and that other people look up to. I am an example of one of them. We have got to play hard. Like I always tell my guys, your tape is your resume. No matter what the score is, what is on the film is your resume. You always want to have a good resume.
Q: What do you think about all the scrutiny of the coaching staff?
A: I do not know anything about it. It is not my problem. That is up to Miss [Martha] Ford or whoever deals with that, but I do not pay any attention to it.
Q: Do you feel like the defense played better today?
A: Yeah, we played better. However, there were a couple plays here and there that could’ve been better. Like that deep ball that I gave up. It should have been a pass interference call, but they did not call it. Other than that, we just have to make more plays on defense. And we did in the second half. We came out swinging and ended up with four three-and- outs. We came out better, but we have to start that way from the beginning.
Q: Could you elaborate further on that 44-yard catch by [Stefon] Diggs?
A: That was a great catch, but he got away with a little push off. It’s alright though, he’s a decent receiver.
Q: Do you feel like you as a defense have improved from the beginning of the year to now?
A: We are just chipping way. We are finding ways to get better and that is what we are going to continue to do.
Q: How difficult is it to keep fighting out there?
A: It’s not difficult for me. I cannot speak for everyone, but it is never difficult for me. Like I said, my film is my resume. I tell my guys that your film is your resume, so if you want a bad resume then just go out there and do nothing. I have got a name on my back that I represent. My kids watch me, so I have to show them leadership. I have never been a quitter and I never will be one. I am going to play my hardest and that’s it. It’s all about my resume.
Q: It seems like the “keep fighting” mentality is something that a lot of guys did today? Do you agree?
A: That is one thing that we are always going to do. We are always going to fight, and we are always going to compete. That is one thing as a defense and as a whole. We just need to find a way to start faster. In this game, we came out striking in the second half, just like we wanted to. We made some adjustments, started playing ball and now we need to start like that all the time.
Q: Is it hard when the offense is not making conversions and you find yourself back on the field quickly?
A: It is part of the game. We were ready for it. As a defense, we have not been playing to the standards that we wanted to, but we always want to pressure. We always want to compete. We go out on that field and do whatever we need to do to give back the ball to the offense.
LIONS DE TREY FLOWERS QUOTE SHEET
Q: Did everyone on the team know the message going into today’s game?
A: Everybody understands the message. We work to win. We understand what it takes to win. We just need to do it and do it consistently.
Q: What changed defensively in the second half?
A: We eliminated mistakes as far as being out of position. I wasn’t reviewing the film, but it seemed like we were able to make a few more plays and settle the run down a little more than normal.
LIONS T TAYLOR DECKER QUOTE SHEET
Q: Are you guys angry or frustrated about the 6 straight loses?
A: Of course, I mean you play to win. The big thing is to just go back to work. Everybody can only control what they can control and do their own job and just rely on the guy next to you to do his job. We can’t make any excuses.
Q: How does the validity of the message from Matt Patricia change week after week with you guys continuing to lose?
A: The messages may be the same week after week, but that doesn’t mean it’s not valid, so I don’t think it’s lost any validity in that aspect. There is a lot of stuff that we do out there to really shoot ourselves in the foot. That comes down to our execution, preparation, and our overall individual performances.
Q: How do you explain the offensive struggles early?
A: You really just can’t get behind on the sticks. If an offense is doing well they will stay ahead of the sticks. So against a defense like that, who has a lot of exotic packages and blitzes, and on top of that they have a lot of elite players doing it. This shows you can’t afford to get behind early and you just have to start the game fast on both sides of the ball.
Q: How does having a rookie quarterback make the different looks they are giving you difficult?
A: You know playing here and playing that defense is super challenging because not only are you getting exotic looks and blitzes, but also you can barely hear yourself talk. So there is going to be a lot of non-verbal and trust within the system. Overall, it was a very tough environment to play in.
LIONS DB TRACY WALKER QUOTE SHEET
Q: Why do you think the team has lost six straight games?
A: I cannot really understand it. We put in time and effort each and every week. I cannot come up with a specific reason why. I just feel like we start off slow. It is what it is. We are starting off slow, putting ourselves in these predicaments that we try to fight ourselves out of. Honestly, we just need to stop beating ourselves. That is what’s happening, we are beating ourselves.
Q: Is there any point in trying to fix things now this late in the season?
A: For sure. We are always going to continue to push and try to get better. We are not settling for what is going on right now. We are going to go out there and fix what we have been doing, and we have to continue to compete.
Q: Coach Patricia’s message every week seems to be the same of keep working and working. Does that get tough to hear every week when your results are what they are?
A: No, because at the end of the day he is telling us the right thing. We just keep beating ourselves. Like I said, we got to continue to go out there and work to fix these same problems because if you do not fix them, they are going to continue to keep happening.
Q: Could you share your thoughts on the adjustments on defense going into the second half?
A: We just went out there with the mindset to shut them out and help the offense. Like I stated before, we started off slow and we went into the second half with the approach that we were not going to let them get anything.
Q: How tough is it right now after losing six in a row and knowing you just have to go out there and keep battling?
A: It’s very tough, but I am just thankful that I get to give my all out there. You win some, you lose some and, in our case, we have just been losing. In the end, we are still going to fight. We are going to prepare for Tampa Bay, go there and hopefully win that game next week. We are going to put this game behind us after we watch the film and then move on.
