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Below is a look at what Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz had to say after Wednesday's practice. (Quotes provided by the Lions.)
On his relationship with Bengals Head Coach Marvin Lewis: "He's been a friend for a long time. Nobody's friends on Sunday, you know the way that goes, but he's a good football coach. He's got a great family. My wife and I and our kids know their family really well, but none of that matters once you get to Sunday. He's done a nice job with the Bengals though, they've been consistent over time. Marvin's a real steady guy and I think you see that reflected in their team. Their team's very steady."
On how often he sees Lewis and what he learned from him when they worked together in Baltimore: "You see him at league stuff. You see him a couple times in the summer. It was Marvin's first job as a defensive coordinator, and I had moved over from scouting and into quality control. The quality control guy's sort of the right hand man of the coordinator. So I got a chance to learn every bit of the defense. Probably the biggest thing I learned was Marvin's consistency. Not a guy that gets high, not a guy that gets low. He's got a work ethic that's sort of part of that process. It's a little bit different than some of the coaches I've been around. I think you're seeing the results with the Bengals."
On Bengals DT Geno Atkins label of being a "game-wrecker:" "That's a new term. You have offensive weapon, you have game-wrecker. You can put that next to a lot of guys on defense now."
On why Atkins is capable of being a "game-wrecker:" "He's good. There's been a bunch of those defensive tackles. He's not the biggest guy in the world, but he's active. He has great balance. He's always on his feet, he's around the quarterback, he has really good instincts, he has really strong hands. But there's been a bunch of guys like that. John Randle I think was similar. There's a lot of those guys that can wreck the game. They have a very good defensive line. They have guys that can put pressure on the passer. They play their best when you get in third-down-and-long situations and they don't have to blitz to be able to generate pressure. But (Michael) Johnson and (Carlos) Dunlap and Atkins, they're all really good, solid players."
On the threat that Bengals WR A.J. Green poses: "He has great leaping ability, a little bit like Calvin (Johnson). He's not quite as big as Calvin, but there's some of the similar dynamic between him and the quarterback, where A.J. Green doesn't have to be open for the ball to get thrown to him. The quarterback trusts him to go up and highpoint the ball and take it away from defenders. They scheme a lot of shots over the top to him, a lot of double moves, a lot of nine routes. Teams that have taken that away have done a good job and teams that have given that up, it's come back to bite them. I think the similarity is he's a guy that doesn't have to be open to still be able to have the ball thrown to him, No. 1, and the quarterback has confidence to throw it, but also to be able to finish the play and make the catch."
On what TE Dorin Dickerson brings to the team: "A little different kind of tight end than what we have. A little bit shorter, little bit stockier, has some explosive speed. He's really, really fast. We'll try to get him up to speed and see what kind of roles we can use him in, but he's sort of a hybrid-type guy. He has been a wide receiver in the past, has some hybrid-type skills."
On the Bengals not getting as much notoriety as other teams similar to them: "There's something to be said for that. They have a primetime game this year. They beat the Steelers on a Sunday night or a Monday night. I can't remember which one it was, but it was primetime game. They were on "Hard Knocks." There are a lot of really good players on that team. You don't have to look very hard to find good players and every single position. They have a really experienced secondary. They have a really good front four. They have some heavy linebackers, some guys that can really blow you up, an experienced offensive line with two good tight ends and skilled wide receivers. It goes beyond A.J. Green. Marvin Jones and (Mohamed) Sanu. Those guys have made a lot of plays for them this year and those guys are strong. If we don't tackle well in the secondary, we won't be able to keep them off the score board."
On how satisfied he is with the 4-2 record: "I don't know that anybody thinks of it like that. The next opponent is the only thing you're really only thinking of. It's 16 games and there are a lot of things that can go on. It may be to stay, I use a lot of baseball analogies, if the Tigers were down 2-1 in a five game series, that's a completely different dynamic than being down 2-1 in a seven game series. Be up 4-2 in a 16 game series, which we wouldn't have a 16 game series, we would have a 17, you get sort of the thought process. At that point, you just have to go play. You can't really worry about, ‘Well, if we win this one then we got to win 11 more and then we win the series." You just have to go play. That's what we try to do. We try to work hard and correct our mistakes and move on to the next game and leave the power rankings, standings and statistics for everybody else. We just try to work hard that week and try to do our very best to come out with a win. It's tough to win. I do think your point with the four games on the road that was tough way to start the season. That's behind us. The only thing we can control is Cincinnati. They don't care if we played four games on the road. I think that some of that stuff can be a little bit more talk than actually affecting the team."
On if WR Kevin Ogletree is the type of player that can stretch the field vertically opposite of WR Calvin Johnson: "For sure. We wouldn't bring a guy in unless we thought he had good enough skill that could do those kind of things. He has gotten up to speed. He's gotten involved with the offense each week that he's been here. He can certainly take a step and be a weapon for us."
On scrutiny that DT Ndamukong Suh receives: "Scrutiny is a part of this game. Particularly for high players and he certainly fits the bill as a high profile player. I think with that and with the Green Bay-Baltimore thing, it just brought a lot of attention to how difficult it is on defensive players. There are a lot of things that happen within the games that are tough decisions. The game is played very, very quickly and those guys try to do the best they can. We just leave the officiating to the officials, we'll leave all the administrating to the administrators and we'll try to play our best. We want to avoid penalties. We don't want to put our team in a bad position. After that, there are a lot of things where they look one way when it's full speed and look another way when you slow them down."