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Below is a look at what Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz had to say after Sunday's training camp practice. (Quotes provided by the Lions.)
On his opinion on the secondary's pass defense: "When you get done with the game, you're happy because you won the game. The old saying is, it's never as good as you think it was and it's never as bad as you think it was. I think this was definitely one of those cases where it wasn't as good as we thought it was. Couple of plays that you saw we had bad leverage and missed some tackles in the secondary. That's critical. You can't do that. We had a couple plays on third down where they made plays into the strength of our defense. We didn't play physical enough at our corner position when it came to man-to-man coverage. There were a lot of things that we can improve on. You never want to take away from a win, but I think that in this case there's a lot of improvement that's left for us as we move forward."
On if he thinks the speed of the game caught up to CB Bill Bentley: "I don't know if it was the speed of it. We didn't play our best. There's definitely room for improvement. We need to come out and correct some of those mistakes. Some of that's leverage stuff. The leverage stuff was the tackling. Guys on the wrong side hip. You don't want to excuse it. It was the first time live for a lot of those guys. The real tale of the tape is going to see the improvement from Friday to this week's game. I thought the players did a really good job coming out today. Off day yesterday, came out today and really worked. It's still training camp and they work like that. I think a lot of that comes from watching the tape this morning and knowing how much improvement they still need to make."
On how much performance in a game affects a players stock: "It certainly can help and it certainly can hurt. The game is what matters. You want to see guys that make plays in practice and have that carry over to games. That's the important thing. That's what we're all measured by is final result in games. We're going to take into consideration their entire body of work, but it'll certainly be heavily weighted towards preseason games."
On the signing of CB Myron Lewis: "We liked him in the draft a few years ago. He's got great size and great speed. Chance to add a corner. We have had some injury situations there and it was a good fit for us."
On if a change of scenery will help Lewis: "That's going to depend on him. Change of scenery by itself doesn't do a whole lot of good. I think that we found a good fit. He's a tall guy with great length. He can run. If he can do the things we need in the defense, it will certainly be a good fit for him. He's also played some special teams and has done a good job there also."
On the new field at Ford Field having an impact on the players: "Maybe a little bit. That's just something that they have to get used to. They're all appreciative of having a new field, but it is a little bit different than the one we played on the last few years. Because it's new it's not packed as tight. We didn't get a chance to go down there for a practice with the concert schedule so it was the first time a lot of those guys had been on that. Every week, wherever we play, outdoors or indoors, there's going to be different kinds of turf, grass, and conditions. We have to adapt to all of them."
On guys trying to improve their stock: "That's what it's all about. It's all about making plays when it counts. You see a lot of things in practice that gives you hope and make you open your eyes. It has to translate to games. Even though they're just preseason games, lights are on and it's time to make plays. Competition is up. They'll have plenty of opportunities in the preseason. That's what it's all about."
On if the personnel on defense is more conducive to blitzing: "I think you take it week by week. I think blitz, in a lot of ways, definitely is depending on your corners, and how well they can cover, and also how well they can tackle. If you're not a very good tackling secondary, if your safeties can't tackle a wide receiver when the nickel blitz is off the corner, or a linebacker blitzes and he's got to be able to make the play on the tight end, you can hurt yourself. So I think that how much we can blitz, how effective it'll be, will depend on how much progress we can make in the secondary, and how confident we feel - number one in getting the guys covered, but number two in making tackles. Because there's a lot of times when you're blitzing them to force short throws and you got to tackle and get off the field, again, it doesn't do a whole lot of good if somebody misses and goes get a first down or worse."
On if the competition between veteran K David Akers and rookie K Håvard Rugland will be a tough call if both continue to make field goals: "It's still way too early for stuff like that. I think we're happy with both guys' performance. Both guys went out and made their field goals. When you're judging those guys, that's the number one thing you're going to judge them by. So it's way too early to even get into those kind of scenarios. We want good completion at every single position, and we also want hard decisions. If everybody's competing hard, and we get into some situations where we're going to have to let guys go to play for somebody else, that's good for us. That's good for the player also."
On rookie G Larry Warford's playing in 53 offensive snaps in the first preseason game: "Yeah, we put him back in for a series at the end, and I thought that was good for him, just going through. He's a young guy that doesn't have very much experience, and the way the game went, we were able to get him maybe just a little bit more than some of the other guys. Again, you want to see guys in preseason games, but there may be other opportunities for him against different competition and stuff like that. As many times as you can get him out there against different competition, he's here and he's battling our defensive tackles, goes [against] Jets battles theirs. Different scheme, different week, I think all those are important in evaluating a young player."
On the S Louis Delmas participating in pregame warmups but not playing in the first preseason game: "Well, that was the plan. We weren't going to play him, but also needed to get a little work. I think that we did that with a couple other guys too - Israel Idonije, (Ryan) Broyles we did the same thing too. We didn't scratch him based on the way he worked out, it was planned to go into...we've done that before. We'll see this week. We'll see where they end up, we'll try to have a good plan for getting those guys through and getting them...what makes sense in the game, but it's too soon to categorize anything that they're doing."
On if it matters if Delmas does not play in the preseason: "Last year, he didn't. The first game he was Week 5, or whatever it was, against Philly. He played well in that game. But, it's not an ideal situation. We certainly want every player getting some hitting in, getting some game experience in, even though Lou doesn't need it from a learning the schemes standpoint. It's important for everybody that players are out there, but again we'll just take it as it comes."
On which skills WR Matt Willis brings to the receiver competition and if his acrobatic catches in the first preseason game can help him make the final roster: "They don't hurt. They were big plays for us, two big plays, pretty much back-to-back that got touches. That's sort of what I meant with, when the lights come on, somebody's going to go make plays, and I think that we had a couple wide receivers that did, including Matt. Matt also, you guys noticed those catches, he's also played a lot of special teams for us, did a nice job there. There's still a lot of improvement for every player, but that certainly went a long way to putting some pluses on his ledger sheet."
On the importance of WR Nate Burleson's leadership in the locker room: "A lot. I think we well documented how much we missed him last year when he got hurt. Unlike other guys that maybe hurt an ankle, break a bone, or do something like that....his rehab and everything, he couldn't even be around, he couldn't even walk around for a long time. So we not only missed him on the field, but we also missed him in the locker room, in the training room, in the meeting rooms, things like that. It means an awful lot to us, and it's not just because he's a good guy and he's a good leader, cause he's still a good player."