Joe Lombardi and Teryl Austin's quotes from Thursday

Below is a look at what Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin had to say on Thursday. (Quotes provided by the Lions.)

LIONS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JOE LOMBARDI QUOTE SHEET
On getting enough out of the running game: "I think like we said last week in the Giants game it was slow and then kind of helped us in the end there. Looking back at that game, our touchdown drive we had some good runs and when we got the ball back I think we went three and out. But then that next drive we threw it, got a first down then went two run plays for a first down. I think it started coming together, in retrospect I kind of wish I would have stuck with it a little bit more. Pretty soon all of a sudden we were kind of in throw mode. I think it's one of those things you have to be patient with and I'm confident that we're going to get it going."

On protecting well enough while in ‘Throw Mode': "That's when they kind of got their sacks last week and I think against that defensive line it's a challenge. We were holding up until then pretty well actually. When you get in desperation mode those things can happen, so I think the key is to stay out of desperation mode football and we'll be fine. Other than that the protection has been excellent."

On needing more out of T Garret Reynolds: "Listen, that's a tough job for anybody and I think he did very well until all of a sudden he was just put on an island and everyone knew what was happening. Again as long as we can do a better job early on offense I think that the way he performed was excellent."

On mixing it up between Reynolds and T Cornelius Lucas: "I think they're both comfortable. I think the rest of the guys are comfortable with both those guys. It's just getting the young guy some reps and some looks and seeing where he's at and I think it was a smart thing to do.

On evaluating QB Matthew Stafford's decision making: "I think the pick was more of a throw, it was the right throw. If you look at it, Calvin (Johnson) is kind of splitting the bracket and getting behind them which is really what we were hoping for when we called that. It had a chance, he just under threw it a little bit which will happen. Other than that it wasn't perfect but for the most part it was good."

On the use of TE Eric Ebron: "It was good, he caught the one flat route that he turned up and I was right there on the sideline and it was pretty impressive watching him run. You get a little flash of what he can do and then the corner route that he ran he caught in the red zone got tipped and you can see him concentrate and catch it. It was good to see him get some touches and you can see some of the potential that we're excited about with him."

On what Ebron has to do to earn a bigger role: "I don't know if he's got to do anything. I think like we said before every game will be a little bit different as far as who looks like they're being targeted. A lot of it sometimes is by design and some of it is just the flow of the game. I think we're happy with him. His problem is we have Joe (Joseph) Fauria who's a really good tight end that he's got certain roles. Obviously, Brandon (Pettigrew) has a lot of skins on the wall in this league. I said earlier I knew this would happen, it's going to be those weeks where we got so many good players it's hard to get them all enough touches to make everyone satisfied."

On if the Lombardi name was involved in the game plan for the Green Bay Packers: "It's funny, I didn't really even think about it. You get so caught up in the details of what you're doing that those big picture things don't really enter your mind. When we won the Super Bowl I really didn't even think about it until after the game and they started passing around the trophy and they were like, ‘Hey Joe,' and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I forgot about that'. So focused in on what you're doing."

On seeing the play ‘Lombardi' on Broadway: "I didn't see it on Broadway. When I was in New Orleans last year it came by a local small theatre."

On if he liked the Broadway play Lombardi: "Yeah, I did."

On any feelings that are had when driving to Lambeau Field: "It's definitely not me it's my grandfather, I don't want that comparison. It's cool and I think I went to Lambeau first as a fan before I ever went there in a coaching mode. You're probably a little bit more aware of it when you're not focusing on the game at hand."

On being envious of how smooth Green Bay's offense runs: "Not envious, but listen, we're working on getting there. We certainly have a goal to be a highly efficient, high scoring offense."

On where the offense is after two games: "Well, the first game you felt alright and this last game you don't feel as good. I think every week you feel an urgency that, ‘Hey, we got a lot of work to do'. Seven years into it in New Orleans we always felt like that. You're never there I think that's the key and that was a good defense last week and we had some chances, but obviously it wasn't good enough. It's a new week, get your nose back to the grindstone and move ahead."

On what stands out about Packers WR Jordy Nelson: "I think the thing that stands out for me is seeing all these back shoulder catches, body control, great hands, good route runner, and competitor."

On needing more out of the other receivers: "I think that whenever they've been called on to make a play they have been. Maybe I need to do a better job of getting them involved, but I've been satisfied with those guys."

On balancing spreading the ball around: "That's the challenge. I think the quarterback understands that there's certain plays where he's primary or in this look we want to go to him and just understand when it's not good and make sure that those other guys are in good positions to make plays when the coverage dictates we're not throwing it to Calvin (Johnson)."

On having to outscore the Green Bay Packers: "My mindset is always we want to score every drive, so no I don't feel any added pressure, but there's always pressure to do well." 

On adjusting to what secondaries are doing to defend the offense: "I think that's pretty standard fair in the NFL. Most people don't sit there in one coverage and just let you target them other than the Seahawks and that's still hard to score points against them. People mix it and you just try to have plays that have answers to different looks. A lot of times you call a play hoping to get a coverage and have answers for the quarterback if it's not what you want."

On if Tate's route running became predictable as the game went on: "I didn't notice that, but I'll go back and study it to see if he did."

On what stands out about the Green Bay Packer defense: "They've got two premier rushers in (Clay) Matthews and (Julius) Peppers. Very active at the defensive tackles and linebackers. (AJ) Hawk has been around a while, first-round pick. So both linebackers are good, both corners and it's just solid guys all around. The varied looks, the fronts change and how you identify them change and that takes some work. Luckily these guys, the offensive line and the offensive line coaches have been around and played them for a few years, so they got a good beat on it. Just a lot of multiple looks with good players."

On the Green Bay Packers CB's: "They're experienced, they're smart and good ball skills. They're good players that have been doing it well for a long time." 

LIONS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR TERYL AUSTIN QUOTE SHEET
On his early impressions of Packers WR Jordy Nelson: "He's an outstanding player. You have to know where he is. Last year, when we were in Baltimore, they had those three guys (Nelson, WR Randall Cobb and WR James Jones) and we had to know where he was, and he hit us for a big play. So, we know about him and we know why he gets targeted. He catches the ball, he has run after catch ability and he can take a small one and make it a big one."

On if there's any one thing that works to slow down Packers QB Aaron Rodgers: "I don't think you can line up and say, ‘Hey, this is what we're going to do,' and be able to do it successfully all day. I think what you have to do is be able to mix coverages, mix looks and give them different things. If you just line up in the same thing and think you have him, he's going to have you."

On how much the missed tackles in the second half at Carolina bothered him: "Missed tackles are something that we're obviously not proud of. We'll work to fix that and correct it this week. We have to have a better tackling game if we want to have an opportunity to win. The back (Lacy), he's a really good back. He's a big back, he can run through arm tackles and he's also nimble enough to make a guy miss. So, he presents a challenge and we're going to have to get more than one guy hitting him and holding him. Not just trying to pull the ball out and doing all of that. We're going to hit, tackle and take him to the ground. We have to do a better job of that."

On how impressed he is with how smooth the Green Bay offense is: "They have a system in place and obviously they have a guy that's been running the same system, and so they just move right along. And it does, it does run smoothly. They go no-huddle, they do all of the things that they do and they can make everything seamless. They do a great job there. It's impressive."

On what he's seen from DT Nick Fairley so far this season: "I thought Nick did a great job. He played well and he played through some pain last week and didn't come out. He had to come out a few times, but he was really disruptive and he did some good things in there. I'm really proud of where he is and we've just got to keep him going."

On if the reason the defense is getting sacks is because of Fairley and DT Ndamukong Suh's presence: "They present a unique challenge, when you have big guys inside that have the ability to rush. So, in terms of the center and sliding the line one way and saying, ‘Hey, we can take care of one of these inside guys with one guy.' You can't do it. So, that opens up opportunities for everybody else and that's what we're hoping and that's what we hope to continue to get."

On the play of his outside corners and if their success has led to the strong pass rush: "Yes, absolutely. I think the thing we're doing a good job of secondary wise, I think, is we're giving up some plays in front of us. We don't want the ball to go over our head and if the ball doesn't go over our head, we have a chance to rally, tackle and then go play good defense. And then hold them out of the end zone and that's really what our charge is. As long as we don't give up big play touchdowns, we should have an opportunity to win."

On what he sees from the Packers' offensive line: "They may have a rookie center, but their guard (Josh Sitton) is outstanding. They have good players inside, so that helps a young guy. When you have two veteran guards, it can kind of help a guy and they can say, ‘Hey listen, we need to do this. Maybe turn a protection one way or the other.' That'll help him tremendously. I don't think it'll be a huge advantage one way or the other. I just think we'll have to play a good game, a strong game inside and when we do have our opportunities to get one on one with them, win them."

On how much CB Danny Gorrer can help the defense this weekend: "Well, we didn't sign him to stand by me, so we anticipate him giving us some help somewhere this week. How much? I don't know."

On how much time it will take Gorrer to catch up in the defensive scheme: "It'll take a few days, it'll probably take more than a few days, but he'll have a general understanding of what we're trying to do and how we're trying to do it. I think that helps his learning curve."

On if finishing tackles is a point of emphasis this week: "Yeah, that's one of the things. I know on one of the screen passes (at Carolina) it looked like we had (RB Jonathan Stewart) bottled up and all of the sudden, he popped out. We'll continue that emphasis and the big thing is, just making sure as we wrap them, we get them to the ground. Before we try to get the ball out, let's get them to the ground. Our guys, I think they'll respond."

On if the team focuses in more on a receiver like Nelson, who is highly targeted, over the other receivers: "I think the thing is, you don't want him to have a game-wrecking play. You know you're not going to stop him and if you shift all of your coverage to one guy, what's going to happen is, they have enough good players that the other guys will hurt you.  So, we'll do our things and at times we may do something to try to slow him down, but we won't shift everything to him because we know Aaron (Rodgers) is smart enough to take it to another place. ‘Hey, if they're doing all of this, they've got to be weak somewhere else,' and I'm sure he'll probably figure that out."

On if the referees' points of emphasis calls have changed at all during the regular season: "I think there's an adjustment from the defenders. Just what the NFL said and what we've said is we'll have to teach our guys to play within the rules. That's what you see. You see a lot less hand fighting going on down the field, a lot less grabbing and swinging because it's getting called. I think it's probably getting what the NFL wanted."

On if CB Cassius Vaughn is now the nickel cornerback and his adjustment to that position: "I think he's played it at some other places and Cassius is a good professional. He studies and so he understands. What you find out with these guys that have been in the league is, they all understand and once somebody gets hurt, I might have to go a different position. So, once they learn their position, they always start looking at other positions. I'm sure he had been looking at nickel for some time once he knew the ins and outs of corners, which most of them do. It's just getting reps in there, seeing it because it works differently when you're inside than when you're outside and that's really the biggest thing with him. Just making sure he gets the right amount of reps and helping him come along."

On if he likes to match up physical skill sets with his cornerbacks like CB Rashean Mathis on Panthers WR Kelvin Benjamin: "We didn't match. (Benjamin) just happened to go to Rashean, he happened to be that side. We won't match our corners, we keep our guys left and right and allow them to play. They get used to playing on a side and doing things that way."

On if preparing for a great quarterback/wide receiver duo is like preparing for QB Matthew Stafford and WR Calvin Johnson for opposing defensive coordinators: "Absolutely, but Calvin's kind of in a league of his own."