For more post-game quotes, visit DetroitLions.com.
- Opening Statement:
- "I just got done doing radio and I took a lot of questions on where we think the team is and what kind of training camp we had, what kind of preseason we had and the only answer that I have is: none of that matters. The only thing that matters is how we go forward from this point. Preseason don’t count; how we did in training camp doesn’t count; it’s how we respond during the season – 16 regular season games and on after that. Try to put preseason where it is; let’s not read too much into in and let’s go to work next week for Chicago."
- On how difficult it will be to narrow the roster down:
- "I thought particularly in the fourth quarter – when knew it would – we had some guys really fighting hard for jobs. I said before, you want to see guys win jobs. I think guys that ended up making our roster, they will have won jobs in the fourth quarter of this game. Defense played a lot of snaps; we were really shorthanded. We were putting people in a couple of positions that they don’t play, but I thought they soldiered through and did a really nice job there. We’ll have some difficult decisions."
On what he did at MLB with LB Landon Johnson and LB Rocky Boiman playing as well:
"Vinny (Ciurciu) played in there also. I thought that early on- again it’s hard to see – Landon (Johnson) showed up in the game. Landon did a nice job with the huddle; we didn’t have any missed assignments, we didn’t have a fire drill, so to speak, where we were messing a lot of things up. Both of those guys are veteran players; both of them played inside and outside linebacker and had pretty good long careers. So we expected them to go out and be able execute our defense."
On S Louis Delmas not playing:
" That was another one; he wasn’t 100 percent and it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to put somebody out there when we got the Chicago game coming up and I wanted guys 100-percent going into the Chicago game. So, anybody that was nursing something, we just decided it was better not to even have them out there."
On if he is concerned that Delmas may not play against Chicago:
"I don’t think so. I think we’re pretty confident that he’ll be back out there."
On QB Matthew Stafford’s work tonight:
"He had the one play – sort of put him in a bad position. The NFL sort of tweaked the no huddle rule and that interception was a little bit on me because I commanded the offense to go no huddle there. It’s something we didn’t really prepare this week; didn’t do anything. It really took them by surprise, but I wanted them to get used to the new sort of procedure. We just got a memo this week on how they were going to change their mechanics on no huddle and stuff like that and I didn’t want potential the first time that we would do it in the regular season. So I wanted just to have Matt go through it and it backfired on us. That was more of the Head Coach’s fault than the quarterback’s fault."
On what the change was:
"They’re just trying to get out of there quicker and they’re looking at one of the linesman for the signal to be able to snap. I thought our tempo was good with it. But again, it’s something that we hadn’t practiced; it was a play that we hadn’t practiced and more me trying to get something out of a preseason game and trying to do something rather than in a bad play by the quarterback or the wide receiver."
