News

HEAD COACH JIM SCHWARTZ

Opening Statement

“You’re not going to win games playing the way we played, particularly in the first half. Missing field goals, hitting poor punts, fumbling punts, false starts, missed assignments, penalties. We put ourselves in the hole. We were lucky to come out of the half only being down 17. Until we get that stuff behind us, we won’t win.”

On whether he was happier with the effort in the second half

“I think we said from the very beginning that (playing better) is not our goal. Was it better than last week? Yeah, but that bar was set very low last week. It wouldn’t have taken a whole lot – we could have jogged out to the field this week and that would have been a better effort (than last week) so let’s not pat ourselves on the back for that. That’s our job as football players – to go out and compete and play. What we need to do is play smart and I said that a long time ago. The effort and the toughness and all that stuff, that’s got to be a given. Last week it wasn’t. This week that was all there but you’re not going to win games not playing smart football and we can’t overcome stuff like that. We were lucky to be in some of the positions we were in during the second half and almost were able to overcome (the deficit) but we didn’t get it done.”

On whether QB Drew Stanton played well enough to earn more playing time

“I don’t want to cop out but let me look at the tape. Let me say this: Daunte (Culpepper) didn’t drop punts, Daunte didn’t miss field goals, Daunte didn’t jump offsides; but we also haven’t scored in about a month and we needed to (make a change). Regardless of anything else: fair, unfair, anything else, the quarterback is judged with points and where they moved the team. We weren’t getting that done. And again, Daunte wasn’t jumping offsides, Daunte wasn’t not blocking to get sacked and things like that. Everybody who has played quarterback knows that (scoring) is part of the responsibility of this thing. We decided in the second half to go with Drew and that’s where it is.”

On benching RT Gosder Cherilus and LG Manny Ramirez

“If we had more offensive linemen active, we may have benched more. My patience was worn out with false starts and this like that, missed assignments. Did it make a difference? I don’t know.”

On what the offensive line was doing poorly

“That’s seven-year old football: snap count on one or on two and you need to be able to concentrate. The NFL – it’s not that basic because there are a lot of things that go on the line: audibles, changing plays and doing different things to try to affect the count .You guys know me, that’s the thing that drives me the craziest, things that happen before the whistle and after the whistle. That put us in bad positions and was one of the reasons that we weren’t able to keep drives alive in the first half. We put our defense in some terrible positions. (The Cardinals) were given the ball inside the 10-yard line, given the ball at midfield. Even at the end of the game, we go and tie it up and we let the ball out to midfield. That is unacceptable. You’re not going to win putting your defense in positions like that against a team like this that has weapons, has firepower. They can run the ball, they can pass the ball.”

On his mental state

“Disappointed. I don’t know if the way I felt on the sideline looks like disappointed, maybe I need some acting school or something like that. It’s urgency, it’s I don’t even know (what words to use). There is stuff that obviously we still need. We’re still not where we need to be. Like I said, it’s penalties, missed assignments. It’s things like that and that’s what gets me upset. I understand if a guy misses a tackle. I don’t like it when he misses it as a result of being in a bad position, not understanding where his leverage is – things like that. I understand if a guy gets beat in one-on-one pass protection as long as he knows where his leverage is, he knows where his help is. Physical errors are part of a game, the other stuff is not and that’s where we still have a long way to go.”

On the value of big plays

“(Delmas’ INT for a touchdown) got us back in the game. There’s no other way to put it. Particularly after throwing the interception, putting our defense in that position they took a shot at the endzone to try to make a big play, sort of put the daggar in the heart and it backfired. There’s a reason that we drafted (Delmas) where we drafted him. I know there was a lot of criticism and a lot of questioning about that pick but those are the reasons that we drafted Delmas. He’s going to make more (big plays). Big plays equal scoring in this league. Maurice (Morris) made a long run; Delmas intercepts the ball and goes 100 yards for a touchdown and all of the sudden we’re right back in the game. It didn’t look like we were going to be back in and that’s the value of big plays. I want to make a point on Maurice’s long touchdown. Maurice made a good play and had a couple of good blocks in front of him. Felton and Loper made their blocks and Maurice made a good run but that play was because of Calvin Johnson. Not just a block that he made down the field, but because of the coverage that they played, they were doubling him over the top and they did everything they could to try to take Calvin out of this game. Because of that, when Maurice broke the line of scrimmage he was gone. Calvin made a good block down the field but it’s things like that and I’ve talked about that since the beginning. If you want to make plays top Calvin we better be able to run the football, if we want to run the ball then Calvin has to make big plays. They go hand-in-hand. That was one of the first time we saw that this year.”

QB DREW STANTON

On how it felt to get in the game

“It was exciting, obviously, to get in there and play. That’s why you put all the preparation and hard work in for Sundays. There’s a saying that you don’t get paid to pay on Sundays – it’s for the week. That couldn’t be more true.”

On how it felt to hear the roar of the crowd when he entered the game

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t nice. Obviously it’s extra special just because you get a chance to go out there in front of your hometown and a lot of people know who I am – I’m fortunate from that standpoint. At the end of the day I didn’t come out with a victory and that’s ultimately what we’re judged on.”

On the interception and the touchdown

“The interception … it was just a bad throw. I knew what the coverage was and I thought he was going to do one thing and ended up just putting it out there. I should have just tried to take a check-down and I’m probably going to watch it tomorrow on film and be pretty upset. It’s one that you’d like to have back.

“The touchdown obviously felt great to cap the drive off like that. I thought Derrick (Williams) was in and luckily we were able to come back and tie the game up there.”

On if he believes he’s earned the starting job in San Francisco if QB Matthew Stafford is still hurt

“I learned a long time ago that a lot of stuff is out of my control. I’ll be ready to start in San Francisco; whether or not I’m called is another story. We’ll go from there.”

On if the confidence from his teammates is the biggest difference

“Yeah, I think that definitely helps. I take that role very seriously. As a quarterback, you’re going to have the ability to inspire everybody on your team and when you’re out there within the huddle with those 10 other guys and they look me in the eyes, they know how bad I want to win. I think that’s infectious and contagious and hopefully that was on display a little bit by the way we were able to come out and play as an offense. We came up short in some aspects, but I felt like we improved in some other areas.”

S LOUIS DELMAS

On showing his speed down the sidelines despite having a sprained ankle

“My coach did a great job of preparing me for that certain play. When I saw the one man go in motion I knew the deep pass was going to come on the back end. My coach did a great job of showing me how to disguise and threaten it so I could get a better look. That way I could perform in the game and that’s what I did. I read it in the quarterback’s eyes and as soon as I saw the ball, I saw the end zone after that, and I tried to run 100 miles an hour.”

On almost stepping out of bounds on the interception touchdown return

“I was just looking for the end zone and praying to God that nobody was going to come from behind. After I scored, I looked up at the jumbo screen and that’s when I finally realized that I kept it on the tight ropes.”

On his thoughts of doing some good things today, but still losing

“With all the good things we did today with creating turnovers and making some plays, it’s still a loss. Obviously we (the defense) had a bad drive on the last drive. It really put a dagger in our heart when they scored. We put our offense in a bad position seeing that they had to go out there and put together a long drive. We still felt it wasn’t over till the end.”

On how this team keeps fighting after being down 17 points coming off a tough loss in Baltimore

“That’s what the Lions are known for. We are going to keep fighting. We are never going to give up, no matter what the score is. As you saw in Baltimore we did the same thing. We didn’t come out good, but we kept fighting and finished off four quarters. That’s’ the same mindset we had in this game. We are going to go out there no matter what the score is and come in at halftime, make our adjustments, and go out and try and play four quarters as hard as we can.”

On if the Lions’ rookies making plays today gives you hope about the future

“Of course. Guys like me, Zach Follet, (Brandon) Pettigrew, (Matthew) Stafford, and (DeAndre) Levy are producing for this team, and are trying to help us get better. You have no choice, but to look forward to the future. We have a bright future ahead of us. The future also includes these last two games. You know us rookies and the vets got to come out in the last games with a bang, and try to play as hard as we can.”

RB MAURICE MORRIS

On what the key for him was in being able to run the ball

“The offensive line did a great job of blocking their guys and I had to just run. When I had opportunities to hit creases that’s what I tried to do.”

On him having opportunities in the passing game

“Coach tells us every week that the backs are going to be big in the check-downs as well as running the ball, so I just tried to do what I had to do to get open and give the quarterback an opportunity to check the ball down when the receivers downfield were not open.”

On how big of a boost he thought it was for this team to come back from 17 points down

“It just shows that our team can go out any Sunday and beat anybody, especially a great team like Arizona. We’re down 17-0, came back and fought, at the end didn’t finish, but we just put ourselves in a hole and it was situation we should of never been in from the get go.”

On his thoughts on how the team was still battling to the end with Arizona

“The confidence is still there, even though our record is not as good as some of the other teams, but we are still out there fighting, trying to get wins for the organization.”

T JON JANSEN

On playing with emotion

“You’ve got to be able to play with emotion, you’ve got to be able to feel with emotion, but you’ve also got to know when there’s too much emotion. We saw it out there with two personal fouls that Arizona took which gave us great field position, so those are all things that young players need to learn to deal with.”

On the interception return touchdown by S Louis Delmas

“It was a huge boost, I mean huge. We knew coming out that we were going to have to get a big play by our defense, and to be able to get a turnover like that and to be able to come out and score, it was a huge momentum change and everybody in the stadium could feel it.”

On the muffed punt by the Cardinals that was recovered by LB Zack Follett

“You could take our first half and their second half and they’re kind of mirror images; obviously we didn’t do enough to win the game, but all those things play into the total sum of a game. The more turnovers you can get, the more momentum you can get going your way, the better off you are. The defense has got to feed on offense—offense, defense, special teams, we’ve got to feed on each other, and that’s what he have to learn to do as we move forward.”

On S Louis Delmas

“He plays with passion, he’s an emotional guy, he’s an excitable guy, and you see it in his play and the way he plays. He plays hard all the time and you can’t ask for anything more. Like I said earlier, you’ve got to be able to know when to turn it on and when to turn it off and where to exhibit the emotion and young guys are learning that.”

On if this loss was harder than last week at Baltimore

“It’s tough because we know that we can play with a team like that. They were in the Super Bowl last year, and it looks like they’re going to be in the playoffs again, so we know we can play with playoff teams, but we can’t make the mistakes we did in the first half. We can’t make the same mistakes that we did at the end of the game and expect to beat good teams. We know we can play with them and in our hearts and our minds we know we can win, but we have to go out and do it.”