DETROIT LIONS POST-GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Jim Caldwell
(on QB Matthew Stafford) "He had an x-ray, and they said it was a pretty nasty bruise, but it looked normal. There's no break there at this point."
(on T Rick Wagner) "No update for you. We'll have to look at him and see what's going on."
(on what happened today) "It wasn't pretty. I didn't do a very good job. We just didn't do a very good job – starting with missed field goals. A couple drops here and miscues in scoring territory. We fought our way back in it. The third quarter was a pretty hot quarter for us. Our defense was stopping people. Our offense was moving the ball. We get within one score, and then the bottom falls out. I just have to do a better job."
(on why this keeps happening) "Football's a funny thing. It just happens. It's tough to explain sometimes, but one of the things, you know what the issues are. The issues are [that] you're not playing well. We're not playing well enough, and I need to do a better job coaching."
(on having nine men on the field for the second straight week) "Can't tell you anything, other than the fact that that's wrong, and that should never happen. That's my fault. Plain and simple, that's my fault. That's just it. I've got to do a better job."
(on whether the team is good enough to be a playoff contender) "We've got to play better than we played today, that's for certain. That's all I'm concerned about, is how we play. We've got to put together some consistent football, and we have not done that consistently. We may come back, got wins in certain places here and there, but not consistent enough."
(on if the inconsistency is on coaching) "It's all coaching. You've never heard me say anything different. I'll tell you the exact same thing today, tomorrow. We've got to do better. It's our job to get it better."
(on changes to the staff) "No, it's my fault. It's me, not them. I've got to do a better job."
(on his thoughts on challenging the third down incompletion and fumble) "Sure, but it was a bang-bang play, and they're not going to overturn that."
(on if it reminds him of the 2010 season) "It's the exact same record, exact same situation. It's just a matter of how you come out of it. That's the key – how we play this next game. The only thing we're focused on is the next one and see if we can string together some good football, which we haven't been able to do."
(on the two misses for K Matt Prater) "No, he's a guy who's won a lot of football games for us around here. He's excellent at what he does. It was just one of those days."
(on offensive line changes) "It's our job to get guys in there and keep rolling. There's a lot of things that happen to you during the course of a game. You have to be able to adjust and find a way to win, and we didn't do that today."
(on RB Tion Green) "He ran pretty well, and he had some pretty good runs. He made some tough runs. The touchdown run was a very good run, and he had a pretty nice game there coming off the left side. He did some nice things, got his shoulders square. I thought he did well. We'll look at it further, but I thought he did well."
(on what happened defensively in today's game) "[Ravens WR Mike] Wallace got loose on the one, which, obviously, he's one of those guys that can take the top off your defense if you're not in position to make plays. He's going to catch it and give you some problems. We didn't do a good job of covering the deep portion of the field. That's something that we just have to get better at."
(on usage of CB Quandre Diggs at safety) "He's smart. He adjusts and can solve any problems for you. Obviously, he can thump. He's a guy that gets himself in position to make plays. That's why we put him in that spot."
QB Matthew Stafford
(on his hand injury) "I got stepped on. It happens sometimes during games."
(on his interception) "That's on me. I have to get the ball out of my hands sooner. Golden Tate was open, the Ravens showed a different look that I expected, but I didn't read it well. I need to do a better job of getting the ball away."
(on the Lions' slow starts) "We just need to execute better. We work on it in practice all the time. We were down 20-0 at the end of the half and fought tooth and nail to get back into this game. I thought we were in a position to win it, but we didn't get it done."
(on his 20 straight completions) "I had no idea that I had completed that many in a row. I knew that I had completed a lot of them, but with 20 I wasn't even thinking about a streak. That's a really good defense we played today. They are very tough."
(on his two long completions to WR Marvin Jones) "It's not easy to make those kind of plays, but I have a lot of confidence in him. He does a great job going up and getting the ball and he's great at fighting for it. He even caught one pass on a pass interference penalty, which is tough to do."
(on RB Tion Green) "He ran really well today. On that one pick-up we had great blocking for him. I think he was 25 yards up field before anyone even touched him."
DT A'Shawn Robinson
(on the loss) "We didn't play too well. That's all I have to say."
(on the run defense) "We didn't play too well. That's all I've really got."
(on preparing for next week) "We have to fix the things we messed up on. That's it."
LB Jarrad Davis
(on the loss) "Honestly, I can't put it into words. We didn't come out with a win."
(on if the loss was self-inflicted) "You play a good team, and they come out and do what they have to do, then at the end of the day, you get frustrated. It's almost like when you lose, you start beating yourself up in a lot of areas. We were just burning the candle at both ends and put ourselves in bad situations today. We didn't execute the way we needed to."
(on experiencing the same pattern of play in recent games) "Stopping the run was a big thing for us coming into the game. We kind of did that to start off, but then they got on us in the second half. We've got to continue to get a grasp on that."
(on stopping slow starts as a team) "I don't know. You just have to come out and play 60 minutes of football right from the start all the way to the end. You have to give everything you've got. I can't think of anything to say about that right now."
(on the feeling of needing to make plays to win) "At the end of the day, no matter what the offense does, we're just as important on this team, too. We have to go out, make stops and put them in a good situation, too. They're going to make mistakes, and we're going to make mistakes. We expect them to back us up when we make mistakes, just like they expect us to back them up when they make mistakes. It's a team game. No matter what they do, we have to go out and do what we do, and if we don't do that, things like today will happen."
RB Theo Riddick
(on the game) "I think the biggest emphasis today was protecting the football. [The Ravens] are a really good defense. They thrive on takeovers. We just didn't play our best ball today."
(on the slow starts) "We're really not worried about all that. We just want to win. Unfortunately, we didn't do that today."
(on what went wrong on the third-and-1 play) "I'm not sure. [The Ravens] just made a really good play."
(on his touchdown) "The offensive line did a great job blocking everyone. They gave me a lane that I saw, and I fortunately turned it into a score."
(on QB Matthew Stafford's injury) "He's a really tough guy. He's a warrior. He's our team captain, and we believe in him. He's our team leader, and we go wherever he goes."
(on all the injuries) "It's just next man up. I'm not saying we plan on it, but we prepare for things like that. We're always ready."
(on being shut out in the first half) "They're a really good defense. Our hat goes off to them today. They made a lot of adjustments. You've got to give them credit, also."
(on the quick start in the second half) "It's just the flow of the game. It's just kind of how it happened. You've just got to feel it out and do the best you can. We've just got to go out there and play, and play our brand of football."
WR Golden Tate
(on the slow start) "It seems as if it's self-inflicted. Against good teams like this, good defenses, you just don't have room to make those mistakes. If one guy makes a mistake, we can't have that. We've got to figure something out."
(on ways to correct the losing) "I don't know. This is something that I haven't felt since I've been here. Typically, over the years, we've done well late in the season. We had been playing with a lot of confidence and finding ways to get wins, but we don't have that feeling this year. It's clearly not happening for us right now. We've got to keep working, keep grinding. It sucks. During the week, I think we execute decently. There's things that we could clean up, but it is what it is. We've got to find a way to come out and start quickly. We have what it takes to be a really, really good team and beat teams week-in and week-out, but we just don't right now. It's frustrating."
(on QB Matthew Stafford's injury) "My heart goes out to him. There's no better competitor than him. He's a great leader. When your quarterback's on the ground week-in and week-out, crossing your fingers only can get you so far. He's tough, and he's going to do whatever he can to be on the field and help us. But, we've got to protect him."
(on RB Tion Green) "I'm very impressed with him. He's been a guy working his tail off every day. He got his opportunity, and I think he made the best of it. Hopefully, he keeps building off of this."
(on his thoughts going forward) "We've got to get this together. We've still got games and a lot can happen. There's been crazier things that have happened, but we've got to get this thing popping."
S Glover Quin
(on the season) "We've got to figure it out. Time is running out."
(on the loss) "I mean, if I knew the answer, it probably wouldn't keep happening."
(on the coaches taking responsibility for the losses) "We're the ones on the field. We've got to be ready to go."
(on QB Matthew Stafford's injury) "It's tough. Seeing him go down and coming out, it had to be something serious. He's a tough guy, does a lot for us. Hopefully, it's not too bad."
(on the play when nine men were on the field) "That's something we have to do better at. When subbing or not subbing, there's different personnel and groups, so whatever's going on, we have to be on top of it. If we don't have time to sub, we can't sub. We've got to figure it out. There seems to be one or two plays like that every week where something happens, so we've got to figure it out."
(on the problems over the last few games) "We've got to score. We've got to get wins. We've just got to execute. We've got to do the things that we're supposed to do. We've just got to play better football."
TE Michael Roberts
(on the game) "As an offense, I know we've got to start fast, and that was the goal all week. But, we didn't start fast, so we beat ourselves today. Each loss we've had, I feel as if we've beat ourselves. I can't really say why this happened. The process just has to get better. I just take it play by play. The big picture to me just kind of makes everything jumbled. I'm just trying to get ready for that play, that moment."
(on if the Lions are a playoff team) "This team is definitely a playoff team. We talk about it every week. It's just handling our business. Obviously, we need to do great from here on out to give ourselves a chance. We'll be working."
(on his play) "I should've scored. I'm a little mad about that one. But, anything that can help my team to set up a score."
