It has been four days since the Detroit Lions lost to the Green Bay Packers on a final Hail Mary play. Since then, countless analysts have broken down the play and identified all of the Lions' errors in defending the pass. Monday, reporters finally had their chance to get clarifications on what happened and why certain decisions were made. But Jim Caldwell was not in the giving mood.
Caldwell led off the press conference by saying he would not go back and address Thursday's game, emphasizing the need to move forward. That didn't stop some of the Detroit media from asking anyway, but Caldwell stood firm in his resolve.
On Thursday, in his post-game press conference, Caldwell addressed why Calvin Johnson wasn't on the field for the final play. Because of the distance from the endzone, Caldwell was "looking for more of that pass back and forth kind of thing." In other words, he expected a lateral play. However, he maintained that the Lions had the personnel to make a play on the ball, they just failed to do so. "We had plenty of guys back there, we had plenty of guys. We just didn’t make the play, they did," Caldwell said on Thursday night.
But after dissecting the play there were more questions to be answered. Why was Ezekiel Ansah in shallow coverage? Why didn't the Lions keep Aaron Rodger's in contain? One of the most burning questions left was which coach was to blame? Did defensive coordinator Teryl Austin make the call or was Caldwell himself in charge at the moment? Again, the head coach did not bite when asked:
Caldwell said everything that happens comes through him, but won't say whether he or Teryl Austin called the defense for Hail Mary.
— Josh Katzenstein (@jkatzenstein) December 7, 2015
Caldwell is obviously under no obligation to answer these questions, and I'm sure he's in no hurry to throw himself or his fellow coaching staff under the bus. But with the seat underneath him warming exponentially as the mistakes continue to mount, his lack of answers is not helping his case.