Jim Caldwell's quotes from Monday

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

Opening Statement: "One of the things probably that you'll note is that, I'm not certain I'm going to be able to tell you much different than what we saw from the film. After we had a chance to analyze it and what we're going to talk about today for the most part, I think the things are all pretty obvious. We weren't nearly as sharp as we'd like to be in some phases, particularly from an offensive standpoint. I just think we weren't clicking as well as we had been. From a defensive standpoint, I thought the guys did a very good job up front in terms of disrupting their run game. It's something that they hang their hat on, but I thought their interior guys and the guys on the edges out of our front seven, they disrupted their running game quite a bit. The game was not any different than what we anticipated it was going to be because we knew it was going to be a grind. We knew it was going to be one of those situations where the player is going to have to fight their way through a lot of stuff because of the fact that this is a team that plays very good defense. It wasn't surprising that it was a tight score there in the beginning of the game. I certainly didn't anticipate that we'd go almost a quarter and a half without any scores. I think it was seven minutes and something in the second quarter before they scored. I was surprised obviously, that we didn't get any points on the board, but we had opportunities. I think the overall theme is that we just left too many points on the board away from home and we turned the ball over. Those things are key and typically those things are going to certainly get you beat in this league. So, what we have to do is we have to come back and focus in on the things we know we can correct, which is mostly the things that occurred to us in that ball game. Secure the ball, just make certain that we take care of it like we've done previously and move on from there. I think we can build upon it. It's two weeks in a row that our guys up front have done a good job of stopping the run. We have to keep that going."

On the team's injuries and CB Nevin Lawson's condition: "The rest of them I will leave up to what we release on the injury report, but in terms of Nevin Lawson, I will talk about him a little bit because I think we all know he sustained a pretty significant injury on the field. He had a dislocation of his toes and the fortunate thing was, obviously the misfortune was the injury, but the best foot and ankle specialist in this part of the world was there at the game. He works for the Panthers, Bob Anderson, and he had a chance to look at him and also helped set the protocol for him. The great thing about it was he was able to take him right away to the hospital. He went with him along with Dean (Kleinschmidt) and got the surgery done. That particular surgery that he went through, from what I understand, is extremely important that if you can get it early. So many different things can happen. Compartment syndrome can set in, which is the thing that they try to avoid. They were able to avoid that and to get the surgery done quickly. I had a chance to speak with Nevin this morning. Dean tells this story when they were taking him to the hospital and he was asking about the procedure and what should be done. They were talking about that it had to be done at a reasonable time and he said, ‘Well, let's getting it going. Let's get it done right now.' But that's his attitude. He figures the quicker he could get it done, the quicker the healing process will take place. Valiant, that young man, and he came through it from what they tell me successfully. He's anxious to get back. Now, how long it's going to be, I'm not certain as of yet. The doctors said they'll look at him before they release him. He's still there. He'll be back in a day or so. They'll give us a prognosis on the injury. I would not anticipate that he'll be back this year, but hopefully he'll heal quickly."

On what happened in the play in which Lawson was injured: "The game is such where, it was on a return and there are a lot of things that happen out there. It was just one of those things that happens. There's a lot of bodies flying and a lot of collisions and things of that nature that occur in our game."

On the name of the hospital where Lawson is: "Mercy Hospital, I believe."

On if he's expecting to make a change to the roster from within or outside of the team: "We're looking at both, both options. We talked about Mo (Mohammed Seisay) last week, so he's in play and is certainly capable. We'll look at that and see what else we have to do."

On how CB Cassius Vaughn played on Sunday: "He did okay. I thought he was a guy that was in the right place at the right time. Nobody played perfectly, but he did okay. It's a good thing we got a chance to put him in position to actually get a little work, obviously, in terms of a backup role. He served us well."

On what he likes about CB Mohammed Seisay: "You know, I think with him he's got length because he's a guy that's got good size. He's got speed, he can run, and he's got a good nose for the ball as well. Obviously, he's youthful, has not had an opportunity to play as of yet, but I do think you'll see he'll make progress. What we saw from him in preseason and also his work during practice he's a very good candidate to come in and give us some quick help." 

On the play of CB Darius Slay: "What I see with Darius is that he's improving, every single week he's getting a little bit better. With the number of plays you see in a ball game, when you look at them obviously there's going to be some situations where maybe he's not perfect or where he should be or maybe he gets beat on a particular route or whatever it might be. No one plays a perfect game I don't believe unless nobody throws the ball at him or they run away from him all day long and that's certainly not the case. I do think he's improving. I think all along everyone's noted his speed, all of his measurables and he's a willing tackler. He'll come up and he'll put you down and obviously the other things that he has innately. I just see him continuing to get better and like I said it's a marathon not a sprint. I think you'll see this team just continue to get better as we move along week to week."

On how important it is for Slay to continue to improve: "I think anytime you can get consistency where injuries don't set you back a little bit and every week you have someone new at a spot I think it helps you. Particularly in a new system, a new way of doing things, the more reps they can get the better they'll become at it and I think it's just a matter of time. Overall I think at every position that's key for us."

On the chances T LaAdrian Waddle or SS James Ihedigbo will play this week: "You know, we'll have to see as the week goes on. In those cases we'll have to see as the week goes on and I can see where they are. They were both in today they both are improving and we'll see what happens come Wednesday whether or not they be able to practice or if it'll be later in the week or not at all."

On his philosophy of guys practicing and not practicing and being available for the game: "Case by case, you know what I mean? I mean, it just depends. A younger guy we wouldn't be so apt to say he can play without practicing. Someone off the street we wouldn't be so apt to say they can play without practicing. Someone who's been here a while, has a good understanding of what we're doing, has gone through the spring has a real good focus that's a little different story. A veteran that's maybe been in the system, that's a different story, so that's why I say everyone's a kind of a case by case basis to be honest with you."

On RB Joique Bell sitting a series after fumbling and accountability with fumbles: "I don't think that there's any place in the game for them. Fumbles are things that hurt you and they hurt you badly. I think they are things that you can control as well. Obviously, we think that ball security is extremely important and if a guy is going to carry the ball he's got to secure that ball. That's the way we look at it."

On making a decision on a kicker: "You know we're still discussing, talking, looking at different options. I still believe that this young man (K Nate Freese) is going to be a fine kicker in this league. I don't think there's any question about that and we'll see how it goes here, but I still believe. You look at him, he had three kicks of 50 yards plus in the preseason so you know he can get it out there. Sometimes the guys have a bad day, but we'll look at that. In terms of whether or not we're going to bring kickers in, we never talk about who we're going to bring in. We never discuss that so I'm not going to set a precedent today as well."

On Freese's struggles: "We do and we don't analyze it any differently than we do any other position where you have some mistakes and problems and issues that you have to get corrected. We try to look at those from a technical standpoint. We try to look at all the variables and just to make sure we narrow it down and see if we can solve the problem. Take a look at what the problem was, what caused the problem, how do we go about correcting it."

On the team having difficulty tackling: "Obviously I think that you see the week before we tackled pretty well. I think this was one of those games we just did not tackle as well as we able capable of. We missed some, missed more than we are accustomed to missing and I think you'll continue to see that improve. This is one of those games where you better be able to tackle and tackle well in order to keep these guys at bay. Overall it's difficult to keep a good running team from getting some decent gains on you but I think our guys were able to kind of bottle them up there a bit. I thought we had a number of tackles that were in the back field, that were disruptive, at the line of scrimmage that were disruptive so it was kind of like even flow. But like I said we didn't tackle perfectly that's for sure. You miss one tackle that's too many." 

On what his plans are for CB Mohammed Seisay: "We have some flexibility with him, he's an active guy. One of the things that with younger guys is that you don't want to overload them. We have to determine what is best for him in terms of within this scheme against this team that we're playing this week. The one that we just finished is done, we can't do anything about that one and we have to look ahead. We have a big challenge ahead of us as well, so we'll try to put him in the best position for him to function for us. Like I said, we don't want to overload a young guy."

On the amount of touches between RB Joique Bell and RB Reggie Bush: "Just as it's listed on the depth chart. I think that's pretty straight forward and obvious how it's lined up. It just kind of depends, each game you see will be a little different. I think the game before Reggie had about fifteen touches or so, somewhere in there. He was targeted a few times this time around but probably didn't get the number of touches in the run game that we'd like, maybe one or two short here and there. But that's what you're going to see from that spot for the most part. You're going to see some balance. There's never a perfect scenario where you go in and say, "We're going to make sure this guy gets twenty-some odd caries and this guy gets this amount of carries." Everything changes; field changes, score changes, all of those things. There has to be some flexibility in there."

On his impression of RB Reggie Bush's play: "I think when he's gotten the opportunity he's found seams and holes. I think he did a pretty good job down in the red zone where we scored there on the one yard line. He's catching the ball well, we just have to find ways to get it to him a couple more times with a little more space."

On his thoughts about the Panthers deactivating DE Greg Hardy and the recent NFL issues: "My personal opinion has no place in a situation where a team declares whether or not a player is going to play for them. That's up to them and that's their issues, we have our own issues. In terms of the overall perception of the league, there has been a lot of talk about that, but I do think that when you look at this league as a whole and the men that play this league, we have more great stories than bad stories. The ones that get highlighted are the ones that have been issues lately, and they are an issue and a concern. But, I think overall this league is built of men that have character and integrity, that are family men and do a tremendous job carrying out their daily routine."

On how to keep a straight line morale heading into this next week: "Well I think it's important that, and one of the things that is great about our business, is the fact that we do get a lot of publicity and a lot of focus. Every television show this morning will talk about the games over the weekend and who did what and who looks good as well as who doesn't. I think they'll have a lot of coverage on that whether it's in print or on the Internet. What you have to make certain of is that everybody needs to understand that this is only counts as one game. This team is not 0-12, or anything of that nature, so there's some balance to it. What we do is try to address the game the exact same way. We try to talk to them about where we need to improve and how we need to improve upon it. You won't see a lot of guys, just like last week there weren't a bunch of guys hollering about the win, they were level-headed and I believe they will handle the loss the exact same way. We will be level-headed, get our corrections made, focus on our next opponent and move forward."

On if it is easier to correct turnovers rather than being physically handled by an opposing team: "I really don't think there's any issue that you have that's insurmountable, I really don't believe that. I haven't been faced with that and I've been coaching football for a long time. I haven't been faced with a situation that you cannot correct, maybe something from a schematic standpoint, but this is not one of those that I'm talking about. Maybe in previous years that there was some situation that you had to adjust according to a personnel that you just kind of got a feel for them. Those things are dramatic and the things that we are dealing with are not. These are things that we can correct and we can get a handle on them. Everything that happened in the game is correctable, but the big thing is and the thing that we have the most concern about is the fact that we don't beat ourselves, we don't give good teams opportunities either to slow us down or score points. We did that and we just left too many points on the table."