Jim Caldwell's quotes from Tuesday

Below is a look at what Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell had to say on Tuesday. (Quotes provided by the Lions.)

On how dangerous Bears RB Matt Forte is: "He's pretty accomplished in both areas actually. I think he's averaging over four yards a carry. He's one of those guys who's got patience, power, he's got vision, he's got hands, he can do it all, impressive. Not just one game or one season but it's year after year. He's quite a back."

On how Bears DE Willie Young has done for the Bears this season: "Willie looks like he's a very effective pass rusher. They use him both inside and out. They'll use him with some things that he's very efficient at, but also you can see where he's athletic enough to drop into space and cover. He's been good for them."

On if they are trying to do anything differently on offense this upcoming game: "It's under constant scrutiny in all phases. That's one of the things you just have to do, keep trying to improve. There are a lot of areas that we're not satisfied with, a lot of areas that we obviously have to make a couple of adjustments here in terms of what we want to do against different teams. The most important one is what we want to do against the Bears and things that we can execute and do. So, we're looking at that closely."

On what he sees as their shortfalls: "We have no comfort zone. We have no area in which we are comfortable with at this point in time in our offense."

On how much the ankle is bothering WR Calvin Johnson: "I think that the biggest thing is that you can just take a look at is, does he still run by people? The answer to that would be yes. Is he still able to lay out and catch the ball, things that he normally does? Yes. I think that's what matters."

On if he's considered shortening the rotations to keep similar sets on the field: "We consider everything. You name it, we take a look at it. Then, we make a determination on what best suits us for a particular game. So, it'll adjust accordingly."

On Johnson being limited in his production: "Every week's a little different. Last week was one of those weeks too, they double covered him quite a bit. If you take a look at the film obviously you'd see they rolled the coverage back to his side, gave him a couple different looks, dropped guys underneath his window and things of that nature. Sometimes that'll happen."

On the Bears having a lot of firepower on offense: "You can't underestimate these guys, they have a lot of firepower. Bennett (Michael) does a great job on the inside. You couple that with the fact that both the wide outs on the outside are big guys that can catch the ball and make circus catches and Bennett sort of ties you up in the middle to isolate your linebackers. Forte, obviously with 72 catches, you know he's certainly a factor. The other guys are all somewhere around the upper 30's I think, Bennett and the other two guys on the outside, Marshall (Brandon) is obviously one of those guys. They do a nice job of mixing it up on you. The other thing, just like anything else, you look at it and you just listen to the pundits and you'd think that Cutler (Jay) wasn't having a real fine year. But, you look at the numbers and you'd probably see just the opposite. His numbers indicate that he is having a fine year. 66.8 completion percentage, 22 touchdowns I think, 12 interceptions, somewhere around there I believe. But, obviously that spot is sometimes tough to satisfy."

On the Bears being able to spread the ball around offensively: "They've been able to spread it around a little bit and obviously won the last two games by the exact same margin of victory. Their defense is playing well."

On if Johnson's body is breaking down: "I wouldn't say so."

On if he expects RB Reggie Bush to play on Thursday: "We'll see. We'll see how practice goes the next couple of days and we'll see where he is."

On LT Riley Reiff and LB Ashlee Palmer: "I don't have anything other than what you'll see in the injury report."

On Bears CB Kyle Fuller's play as a rookie: "Coming out of college, very effective defender. He can run, smart, and they have a pretty unique family. Three of the four have played in the National Football League. The oldest one is finished now, middle guys are playing and they say the younger one is just as good as the rest maybe even the best one out of the bunch. Great family support, competitive atmosphere, and he kind of falls in line. You can see even in evaluation he jumps off the screen at you. He's a talented guy who's going to play well."

On how important it is to snap the two-game losing streak: "It's imperative. It's very important and that's the thing you want to make certain that you don't have. I mean you can go back and forth, win, lose, win, lose, and end up with an 8-8 season. What you want to do, you have to be able to string wins back to back, which we've done, and we haven't lost many back to back which is the thing you obviously try to avoid. There are things that are in our control and we got to go out and practice and get ourselves ready and try to defeat a real tough Bears team."

On why the team has struggled to find a comfort zone offensively: "The reason why I'm not comfortable is because we haven't scored enough points more so than anything else. Often times it doesn't matter how you score as long as you get them on the board. Right now we just have not been consistent enough to get that done in so many different areas."

On how much injuries play a part in the offensive struggles: "We make no excuses. I don't care who we have to play with, it doesn't matter. I don't care what the injuries look like, what they mount up to, our job is to win games, and win games period. The minute you start looking for excuses you're going to find that it's going to crop up all over the place and they'll use them with you. ‘Hey coach, you know the reason why we're not doing real well is because this guy is hurt.' It doesn't matter and doesn't make a difference. We got to find a way to win. That's my job, that's our job, so that's what we concentrate on."

On how much the inconsistent running game has hampered what the team wants to do offensively: "I don't think it's only that but I do think obviously the running game is important. I think I've mentioned to this particular group of folks that have been here covering us from the day one that a couple things you need to be able to do. You have to stop the run, run the ball, and those are two very important areas. We've been able to do one reasonably well in terms of stopping the run. We haven't been able to run the ball consistently. There's been games we've had spurts, but a consistent solid ground game we have not been able to produce as of yet. I do believe it's going to happen, we just have to keep working."

On why he believes the running game will improve: "It doesn't come easy. There is nothing that comes easy in this game. You just have to work at it. Often times I think you find in a number of different ventures it's that way. It's just in everything that you deal with in football. It's not necessarily an instant turnaround, it doesn't happen, there's no such thing as an overnight success, so it takes work. We're making certain we're building the foundation to get that done and at some point in time I think you're going to see it bare though."  

On how much having Bush back will help the offense: "Anytime that you have a guy that's explosive as he is, he's a playmaker, he helps in both the pass game and the running game. Obviously, he can be a great help to us."

On Reiff being compared to former Lions T Jeff Backus: "I wouldn't be able to get a comparative analysis between the two because of the fact that one I watched from afar and this one, obviously, I've had a chance, for at least a portion of the year, to get acquainted with and get a sense of. He's a tough guy, he's tough, he's durable, he has typically been able to battle through a lot. When you play that position, literally there's contact on every play. Those guys get accustomed to being uncomfortable to the point where it gets to be something that obviously is out of his control. I think he usually finds a way to battle through."

On if Reiff would be playing if this was a normal week: "I'm not certain. We'll have to see what the doctors tell us in terms of his injury."

On what it means to him to play in the Thanksgiving game: "I've had the great fortune of playing several times. We played in here with the Colts in 2004. We played Atlanta on Thanksgiving. We may have played one other or two, but it's quite an honor. In particular, growing up and having a chance to kind of watch this particular game. We would often times go out and guys in the neighborhood would have the ‘Cranberry Bowl'. That happened early in the morning before the games came on. Sometimes there would be snow on the ground. As little guys out there, mimicking our favorite heroes and all of that kind of stuff with our pads and helmets, if we had any. You remember those days and you always remember, obviously, the games and having to sit and watch them. It's quite an honor to be able to direct a team that's involved in this particular game."

On why they called it the Cranberry Bowl: "It was just kind of one of those things you always have, obviously, usually cranberries on Thanksgiving Day and that's probably all over the country. I think most people have one of those. I know there are two high schools that play out in Pennsylvania that have a real ‘Cranberry Bowl.' Ours was fictitious, made up."

On if he emulated former NFL RB Gale Sayers: "Probably, more than likely during those days."

On who he rooted for growing up as a Bears fan and if he rooted against the Lions: "I don't know if it matters. I was like any other kid. I had great interest in sports and I had my heroes. My biggest hero was in our household, my Dad, but outside of it, it was a little bit different. I had several heroes, but Sayers was one of them. (Dick) Butkus and all of those guys, those were my guys back in those days."

On if he hated any other team in the NFC North growing up: "Hate's a strong word."

On if the national focus changes anything with the way the team prepares for this game: "No sir, it really doesn't. Every game is this league is big, it really is. Regardless of when you're playing, there's only 16 of them. They're extremely important to you in terms of your season. You find out most people will even tell you when you go to the Super Bowl, they don't do much different there either. They try to make that as normal as possible, so why would this game be any different?"

On how the quick turnaround impacts the adjustments the team is able to make offensively: "It has an effect because you just played less than 48 hours ago, so you're limited in terms of what you can get done. It's not like you come out and play in full pads and bang them around and those kinds of things a couple of days before a game. That would certainly be disastrous, but you try to make the adjustments that you can. They'll be minimal in every phase just because of the time restraints. That can be a good thing sometimes."

On what caused the special teams breakdowns on Sunday: "Same thing, just in terms of our fundamentals and techniques. Just a breakdown and keeping our lanes and making tackles when we had the opportunity."