Lions quotes: Jim Schwartz comments on win over Packers

Below is a look at what Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz had to say after Thursday's win over the Green Bay Packers. (Quotes provided by the Lions.)

On bouncing back after the three turnovers: "I don't know that there was ever really a turning it around moment. We just kept on playing. Even at the end of the half we had a great couple of defensive stops, got the ball back for our offense, scored a touchdown to take the lead and then stopped them again. Used our timeouts well. We missed a short field goal and it seemed like that had potential to take the air out of the building kind of saying, but our guys went in at halftime. It was long halftime, take a nap and came back out. We got defensive stops, we scored and look, you're not going to play a perfect game. You're not going to have a game with no turnovers and do everything right in a game. There is always going to be something that happens in a game that you have to do better and that you have to overcome or so to speak. I thought our guys did a good job. There could have been a lot more points on the board, but we got enough to win. That's the only thing we're really worried about."

On RB Reggie Bush's comeback today: "We took a Twitter poll to find out if we should give him the ball and the Twitter audience said to stick with him, so we did. Like I said, you can't play scared. A lot of people made fun of me a couple of weeks ago for saying that we don't play scared and we don't coach scared. I think that's another sign of that. We weren't scared to give him the ball. Matt Stafford wasn't scared to go back downfield even after he had thrown an interception. We weren't scared to drop back and pass even though we had a sack and strip that was a touchdown. We weren't afraid to lineup for a field goal after we had missed one. I think that's just this team's personality and it's going to serve us well over the long run."

On winning on Thanksgiving: "Obviously, it's an important game for us. The tradition that's involved, short week and everything that goes in to it, it's big. It's big for us and for this city. You got some comments from a couple of guys that haven't been around this game before and just waking up this morning and seeing so many people downtown and that snow coming down, it was just sort of a magical-type seen. The Christmas tree was up in the square down there and people appreciate Detroit and the tradition that goes into it and we haven't played well enough in Thanksgiving recently. I think this goes a long way in to putting us on the right track."

On if the defensive linemen took Packers G Josh Sitton's comments personally: "We didn't even really talk about it. We made fun of it a little bit last night in the meeting and it was just light-hearted. A lot worse has been said about us, you know. If that motivated our guys, then I'm glad it happened. I think I said yesterday when I did some radio, this game was going to be won by actions on the field. It wasn't going to be won by talk and our team was the team that played well and actions speak louder than words."

On CB Darius Slay starting: "That was another one we asked Twitter and they said we should bench him and we shouldn't go back to him. Darius has worked really hard and he had the opportunity today and he played well. I mean, I feel a little bad for him on that last play. I thought he was going to make an interception and they took some shots and that's a high power. Even though they don't have (Aaron) Rodgers, that was a team that was down 16 last week with the same cast of characters and they came storming back on Minnesota. We wanted to make sure that didn't happen. I thought Rashean Mathis, I thought Darius Slay, I thought Bill Bentley, all three of those guys played tight coverage. They covered some really good wide receivers. Jordy Nelson, James Jones, you know, and more than anything we stopped their run and we put some heat on the passer."

On the team gaining maturity: "I do think there is a good point. A couple years ago, we were easily sidetracked. I think there were some teams that sort of baited us in to some fouls and things like that and we didn't always respond in the best way. I think we have grown as a team. I think that maybe it was the players-only meeting we had this week or we didn't have or whatever. That stuff gets more attention, but what really happened in our building is that our players knew the reasons we lost the past couple of games. They're a prideful group. They work hard. They came out and they had a good short week of preparation. They were focused and there were some things we accomplished in the game plan and we accomplished most of them."

On LB DeAndre Levy being a more instinctual player: "No. I think he has always had good instincts. He is very smart. All of our linebackers, along with Matt Burke, do a very good job of preparing for games. They take the game plan very seriously. That's not just our starters, the backups also. We do some stuff where we have this thing called quiz show and the guys stand up in front of the group and have to ask questions and stuff like that. Our backup linebackers go up there and get them all right and they knock them out of the park. They haven't been asked to play this year because we've been relatively healthy, but we have confidence in those guys too. I think that's probably been the difference with DeAndre. He's just gaining more and more experience as he plays and he's in the right place at the right time. We talked before about (Ndamukong) Suh having a lot of assists and that assist goes to (Nick) Fairley. Fairley's bearing down on them and the quarterback just sort of threw it up there and we were able to come back with that one."

On blitzing: "I thought whether we were blitzing or four-man pass rush we were putting pretty good pressure on the quarterback. We were making him throw from a tunnel. He couldn't see very well and I thought that was a difference for our coverage."

On his confidence in K David Akers: "I told him after halftime that if we need a game winner, we're going to put him right back out. We're not going to be going for it on fourth down. I think he just tried to baby that one a little bit. You watch his next extra point and he stepped up and he drilled it. He bounced back. What's the difference between that and Reggie fumbling or Matt throwing an interception? Those kinds of things happen in a game and you have to be able to bounce back from them. We have a lot of confidence that David bounced back."

On the frustration on missed opportunities: "You can't be frustrated by it. It's a long game. You have to be able to play all the way through. Like I said, no game is ever perfect. There is always something that happens in a game that you need to be able to do a little bit better. In this game, there were a couple of those things. That doesn't take away from the fact that I think our guys responded well and they played well. On the sideline, it's easy when you lose a couple of games in a row, particularly in the fashion that we lost them, for people to say, ‘Here we go again.' I'm sure there were some people that were saying that, but they weren't on our sideline."