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Below is a look at what Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz had to say after Sunday's loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. (Quotes provided by the Lions.)
On the decision-making process at the end of the game: "We had two timeouts, so if we can get a first down right there, we can go put ourselves in position to go hit the game-winner rather than give up the game-winner. So we wanted to stay aggressive right there. Unfortunately, we didn't do a good enough job of executing at the end of the game. It wasn't just getting pressure, throwing the incomplete pass. We didn't get a very good punt after that, and then they made the plays at the end. They kicked a long field goal and that's something in the first half that was a big turnaround. We got one blocked and they ended up scoring a touchdown. So you're talking about a 10-point turnaround on that. They made the plays to win the game, we didn't. It was a tough, hard-fought game. We have to learn from it. We can play better than we did today in a lot of different areas."
On if there were personnel changes on the blocked field goal unit because of injury issues on the offensive line: "I'm not sure where we were at that point, but yes, a couple different guys had to go in and play some different positions. But there's no excuse, that didn't cause the blocked kick. We didn't execute well enough in there. We had a bad technique on one, may have sort of jumped the snap count and they made a good play on it. We didn't execute. But that was a big turnaround in this game. We were able to overcome it, get the game back to tied and then we had a couple chances to be able to go get a score that could take the lead in the fourth quarter. We didn't execute well enough to do that."
On if he was frustrated more by the defense's coverage or not pressuring Bengals QB Andy Dalton: "I don't think we did a very good job in coverage. We didn't want to give up big plays to No. 18 (A.J. Green). He goes and makes a huge play early in the game and it was something that was a big point of emphasis all week. All his double-moves and things like that, stuff we worked on all week and we didn't execute well enough in that. They're going to make some plays, they're a good offense, they have good players, just like any offense, but we gave up too many big ones. We did a decent job against the run, but there were too many big pass plays in the game, some of which you're not going to get a very good pass rush. They're keeping a lot of guys in to protect. You have to prevent those with coverage."
On if CB Chris Houston was replaced in the game because of his performance: "We had a lot of different injury situations in the backend. Rashean (Mathis) wasn't able to finish the game, even though he was able to get up and play. We were trying a lot of different combinations to get our fires put out and to get it stopped. (Darius) Slay and Houston managed to finish the game, but we didn't play well enough. We made a couple plays, but we have to come down with a big turnover. You look at us defensively, when we get turnovers, good things happen. We didn't get them. We jumped offside on one of the early third downs. Now that might have caused a sack and the strip, the fact that our guys did jump the snap count. So it's hard to say that you negated a play because you might not have made that play if we weren't offside. You need a play like that in this game. They made that play. They blocked a kick and took it back for a long gain and then were able to put a touchdown on the board after that."
On if he is concerned that T Corey Hilliard's injury might be long-term: "Yeah, I don't know yet. Him and (Riley) Reiff both went out of the game. L.A. (LaAdrian Waddle) had to come in, played some left (tackle), played some right tackle. Reiff was limited when he came back in, but he was able to go out and finish the game. There's some injury situations that we're going to have a close eye on this week, including that one."
On the Lions' last offensive play of the game: "No, they blitzed in that situation. The blitzer was a free-runner, jammed us up in coverage. We weren't able to get free and Matt (Stafford) didn't have anywhere to really go with the ball. Matt had done a really nice job this game of making some of those guys miss and keep some of those plays alive and put us in position on a lot of those plays. Unfortunately we weren't able to make that one."
On how he assessed T LaAdrian Waddle's first time playing this season: "Yeah, it's hard to say. In the feel of the game, we were calling all the same plays. It wasn't like we were changing the way we had to play because he was out there. We had a lot of confidence in him. He had a good preseason. He's continued to work hard. He's a young player, but he's on our 53 (roster) and he's been on our 46 quite a bit this year. You don't put a guy on the 46 if he's not ready to play and we had confidence that he was."
On what he said to P Sam Martin after his final punt of the game: "The same thing you say to the whole team. It's a tough loss, it's a bitter loss, but we have to learn from it and we have to be able to do better the next time we're in that situation. You had two very good teams here, one of the best teams in the AFC coming in. It was a toe-to-toe battle. They made plays, we made plays, but in the end they made one more than we made. I think that when you play quality opponents like that, there's an emphasis that every single play is important, except a blocked kick or a poor punt at the end or a big play allowed on defense or a breakdown in protection. Whatever it is, one play will be the difference when you have two good teams playing each other."
On if he learned anything about his team from this game in which they played a good team: "We don't want to measure ourselves by anything other than what we can do and what we can be. I do think we showed some toughness today, but there's no consolation in a loss. We have to find a way to make that play. There's going to be situations that come up in every game, whether it's injuries or adversity, we've done a good job, particularly in the fourth quarter, of coming out ahead in some of those situations. We didn't do a good enough job today and we didn't come out with the win."
On if WR Calvin Johnson ever ceases to amaze him with his catches: "I don't know, that really wasn't a Hail Mary. We had schemed that up. Matt (Stafford) had to buy a little time in the pocket. We saw that guy bearing down on him and didn't know if he was going to get that ball off. Calvin can make a lot of plays. I did probably see the first time ever that he made a catch on the sideline that he ended up not getting the feet down. Usually, there's plays that look like there's no way he got two feet down and he really did, but that touchdown was a big play. It gave us some momentum. We had the ball back, the defense got a couple stops in there. We had a chance to make a couple plays and were never able to get that next score. That next score would have been the difference in this game."