Jim Caldwell's quotes from Friday

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

Opening Statement: "It's a Friday practice for us. I think Wednesday and Thursday both have been very good. I think the guys have certainly taken on what we have planned, just in terms of our game plan offensively, defensively and in our kicking game for a very difficult team to deal with. But nevertheless, I think our guys continue to get better. Today is an important practice for us. Speed and precision is extremely important and so we'll go out see if we can get it done and get it done properly. Hopefully, that will head us and keep us moving in the right direction in preparation to play the Jets."

On if the practices during the week before Week 2 vs. Carolina were as good as the practices in Week 1 and 3: "That practice was not as good. Last week I mentioned that because of the fact that we did have a really good week of practice. More often than not, you play like you practice. Sometimes you have great practices and you don't play as well as you'd like, but I still believe without question that the way you prepare, you train like you fight and you fight like you train. I think it's extremely important."

On what made last week's practices efficient: "Speed, precision, execution, fewer mistakes. We had fewer penalties, missed assignments, things of that nature."

On TE Joseph Fauria's physical condition: "Check the report, which will continue to reaffirm. I'm not going to discuss in detail anything that deals with any injuries."

On if Fauria's injury is season-ending: "I'm not going to do anything but direct you to our medical report."

On how Fauria's injury occurred: "I addressed that yesterday. Check those transcripts. I'm sure you can probably get my answer on that one."

On if he believes Fauria's injury occurred while he was home: "Obviously, I responded to what you asked me yesterday or whoever asked me the question. It stands on itself."

On if he's spoken with QB Matthew Stafford since the accident that occurred on Southfield Freeway this morning: "No, I haven't to be honest with you. We had a number of players that were sort of delayed a bit coming in, and coaches as well. Elton (Moore) who's in charge of security here happened to be not too many cars behind Matthew. Although they didn't let him go through underneath the bridge, he was able to get turned around and head back in the other direction. I think he actually took Elton's car to be honest with you. From what I understand, fortunately I had just gone by that same section maybe 15 or 20 minutes prior to that. Somewhere between 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. Myself and (Defensive Coordinator) Teryl Austin, he wasn't too far behind me. By the time we got to the facility, we had heard about it and found out that Matthew was right there at the front of the line that was stopped. He always gets in here really early as well, but no one had any injuries or anything of that nature. I'm not certain there were any, obviously it was pretty tragic. We had a chance to see it, the footage, and understand it could impede their progress back home as well. But thankfully nobody got hurt. If that happened at rush hour, that would've been really difficult, so thank the Lord that most people came away safely. I did hear about somebody getting transported to the hospital I think, but I'm not certain."

On why winning on the road is difficult in the NFL: "Well, I think one of the big things is that you're not in the confines of your own location. It's different for you. It's not a place that you play a significant number of times. The home team plays there eight times, so you're not familiar with it. Since it's a bit different there, the noise level is always one that you have to prepare to go in and deal with. Some places are louder than others. Our place is an extremely loud place for the opposition to come in and function. Our fans are knowledgeable and New York, obviously, is exactly the same way.
The other thing is just in dealing with the travel portion of it because I was going to get into that and I got into the story. I just think that the whole process is one that is a bit different for you. Hotels, things of that nature, you know, all of that kind of plays in. Here's a key, we kind of looked at a situation to a team that occurred here in this city. It was Cody High School I think is the name of it. For six years they did not have a home game, they played on the road every single week, and have an unbelievable record because of the fact that they didn't let circumstances stand in their way. I do believe that a lot of those are more mental than physical and the fact of the matter is that's what you have to be able to overcome as a team. You have to be able to focus, you have to be able to concentrate, you can't let the slightest little differences deter you, and you have to be able to adapt better than anyone to be able to win on the road."

On the toughest place he has had to coach: "In terms of hotel we really don't run into any issues at all in that regard. Our security guys do a tremendous job. Just in terms of stadiums that are difficult to play in, you know the louder they are the tougher it is to deal with. There's a few of them that come to mind, but I'll tell you the toughest place period throughout my entire coaching career was Syracuse. That was in college but you could not hear in that dome. Matter of fact I was in the press box and they had an open glass window, so you kind of hear all the noise coming in and the guy sitting next to me, I'm talking to him and we cannot hear one another. I mean literally you're just moving your mouth but that was the loudest place I've ever been. In terms of tough locations in the National Football League, they find a way to make all of them rather uncomfortable for you. I think every one of them has its own uniqueness."

On how the team prepares for a hostile environment on the road: "That's pretty much the extent of it but not in terms of procedural things. We do a lot of procedural things to kind of compensate for that or get us prepared for that. Whether it be a silent count or be it other issues that we're dealing with, snap count, signal and things of that nature that kind of help you on the road where you don't necessarily have to have verbal commands to be able to function."

On saying anything to WR Ryan Broyles to keep him encouraged even though he has yet to play: "We try to make certain that we talk to each and every guy who may be in the same situation. He's obviously had a very fine preseason, a guy that's come through an inordinate number of injuries, showed that he has perseverance, dedication and discipline. All the things you love in terms of those intangibles and at some point in time I just tell him, ‘Hey you know you know what? We don't know when it's going to happen,' but at some point in time he's going to be able to help us I think. He's one of those guys that's not deterred, he is accustomed to tough situations, and he's accustomed to beating the odds. He's one that does not need a lot of cheering up because he's a pretty determined individual."

On how concerned he is when it comes to WR Calvin Johnson's injuries: "Not concerned about deterioration, he's still a young man, but if you're talking about me that's going to be a little different story. This game is a physical game and it takes a toll on everyone, but he's one of those guys also physically, he's an unusual individual. He responds quickly to treatment and he bounces back pretty quickly for the most part. What would ordinarily take maybe some guys a little bit longer he seems to be able to fight his way through it. He has an extremely high pain tolerance as well and he prepares and takes care of his body, I mean every single day of the year. That's where his focus is and I think he benefits from that sort of regimen." 

On the risk of going into a game with just two tight ends and how to compensate for that: "Often times you may consider bringing another tight end up or finding another guy here or there if you need it. The other options are to utilize some other personnel groupings which do not require necessarily you use a tight end as much. The other options are to put a lineman or someone in that particular position to sort of take on some of the duties that would ordinarily be handled by a tight end. You could utilize maybe some other position to compensate for it, so there's a number of different things that you can do. Those are all the things that you often do during the course of preseason training, when you're looking at your different personnel packages and groupings, and then also looking at situations where this indeed may happen and you may have to make some adjustments during the course of the week. It'd be something that if you didn't at least have an idea of what you were doing, it could slow you down a little bit."

On game captains against the New York Jets: "Offensively, Brandon Pettigrew, defensively (Glover) Quin and special teams, LB Ashlee Palmer."