News

UPDATE: Pettigrew's knee will require season-ending surgery

The Detroit Lions were back in Allen Park Friday morning to review film from Thursday’s loss to Green Bay. The loss was a difficult one, coming off an exciting 38-37 victory over Cleveland the week before.

Entering Thursday’s game, the likelihood of both Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson playing were slim, but they were announced as the starters an hour and a half before game time.

Unfortunately, neither was able to repeat his performance from the previous week; Stafford completed 20-of-43 with one touchdown and four interceptions while Johnson had two catches for 10 yards, also on the receiving end of Stafford’s one-yard touchdown pass.

Despite the difficulty, however, Head Coach Jim Schwartz says Stafford’s injury didn’t affect his performance.

“He’s fine,” said Schwartz of whether Stafford re-aggravated the injury. “(I have had) no second thoughts (to starting him) at all. He started feeling better the day before and, like I said yesterday, he woke up, felt good, was able to throw the ball and was able to run. He had good range of motion in his shoulder. Him throwing the interceptions had nothing to do with his shoulder.”

One player who didn’t come out of Thursday’s game in as good of shape is tight end Brandon Pettigrew, who left with a knee injury during the first offensive series.

“That’s something that we’ll have to wait and see,” said Schwartz. “He had a 10 a.m. MRI appointment. There’s a chance that it might not be long term.

“Let me look at (the results before saying anything more) because I’m speaking blindly. The only thing I know is that he swelled up (after the game), but not too badly, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed on that one.”

Pettigrew is just another player to be added to what has seemed to be a rash of injuries for Detroit this season on both sides of the ball.

The team’s marquee offensive players – Stafford, Johnson, Kevin Smith and now Pettigrew – have all struggled with injuries and both the secondary and defensive line have been banged up as well.

Still, Schwartz isn’t looking to create any excuses.

“Injuries are a fact of life,” he said. “You’re going to have injuries in this game and I don’t know if you can really point to one thing that’s causing injuries. They’re all sort of all over the place.

“I think in 2004, I was on a defense where we lost nine of 11 defensive starters and finished the last five games with two guys we started the season with. It’s not unheard of, but it is unusual.”

One thing that injuries will do is affect a player’s performance in regards to durability and speed.

Johnson, who had gotten his speed back after a knee injury and, therefore, had a strong game against Cleveland, suffered another knee injury on the second-to-last play of that game. That set him back speed-wise against the Packers.

On the defensive side of the ball, the secondary has seen significant turnover due to injuries. To combat that, the Lions have activated players from their practice squad and claimed players off waivers.

“(Injuries) can force you to have to play certain players,” said Schwartz. “It may be a guy that you didn’t know a lot about. He makes your team, he’s a back-up player – maybe he’s even an inactive player – and you really don’t have a chance to see him in a role.

“What happens is, when somebody gets hurt and he has to play, you find out whether he can or can’t and whether you can count on him as you go forward.”

An abundance of injuries or not, Detroit has five games remaining in the regular season.

With two wins and nine losses in the books, Schwartz says he’s not looking to get anything specific out of this final stretch of games in regards to teaching tools or anything of the like. He is simply approaching each game with the goal to win – something he has stood by all year.

“We can’t look at anything other than winning that week’s game,” he said. “You talk about long-term improvement and those things; those are things you talk about during training camp and OTAs and the offseason program and the draft and things like that. That can’t be our focus.

“Our focus has to be, ‘What do we have to do to win this game?’ Every game is going to be a different set of circumstances, but that’s got to be our focus. It’s got to be wins and losses; we can’t point to anything other than that.”

After film sessions and position meetings on Friday, the players will have three days to rest before returning to Allen Park to begin preparation for the Cincinnati Bengals.

There is hope that some of Detroit’s banged-up players will have an opportunity to heal, but – regardless – Schwartz says it shouldn’t affect the way the team goes about its business.

“You’re dealing with a lot of things in this league: outside pressures, media, fans – there’s a million different things you have to deal with and injuries are one of them,” he said. “For us to be professional, it shouldn’t affect anybody’s morale.”