DETROIT LIONS
Head Coach Jim Caldwell
(on his team's overall sloppiness) "Anytime you have penalties that hurt you, that take points off the board, we're certainly concerned about it. I don't like it, and we have to take a look at that. We just cannot put ourselves in the position that we put ourselves in tonight with penalties and personal fouls."
(is there a concern that they haven't improved from last week) "Well, these were different types of penalties from different guys across the board. Not everybody when they go to church gets saved. We've got a few guys who need a revival. Some of those penalties were from guys that typically don't have penalties, but, nevertheless [Baltimore] played well. They played well, they played efficiently, and we didn't play as well as we were capable."
(on positives from tonight's game) "If you look at Ameer [Abdullah], I think he ran the ball well in there. I think the running game was respectable. He had a couple of really good runs and had a great run for a touchdown that was called back. I think [Zach] Zenner had a couple of good runs. [Theo] Riddick did what he does. There were a lot of good things that you could look at, but, overall, there were things that marred that. Anytime you have excessive penalties that stop drives when you're in scoring territory twice, that's not good."
(does this offensive performance in any way represent your team?) "You know, we have to look at some things. There's a problem there, and we have to be able to solve it. Do I think we can? Absolutely. I think we'll get that thing [ball] in the end zone. I'd rather get stopped than us stopping ourselves."
(to what does he attribute the red zone inefficiencies?) "It's a myriad of things. It's not just exactly one thing, the penalties took us out of it. The holding penalty, a couple of other things that were just uncalled for."
(on DeAndre Levy's first appearance) "I thought he moved around well. He knocked some rust off, and I thought he came out of it pretty well. We'll see how it goes from here."
(on Tavon Wilson's first action) "He's going to hit people. That's for sure. Often times, you can see things after watching film that you can't notice right away. So, we'll take a look at the film, but I think he did okay."
(on rotating kick returners) "Obviously, we're trying to put ourselves in position to win games, but evaluation is huge. So, we look at a number of different aspects, and we wanted to make sure we had a chance to look at a couple of different guys, not just returners but all over the field."
(was it a bad snap on the missed field goal) "I'm not sure exactly, but we'll have to take a look at it. Obviously, the snap was low, but Sam [Martin] is good at picking them up. We'll see what happens."
(on the long snapper's performance) "I think he did okay. I wouldn't say he did great, but he did okay, and that's the fact of the matter."
(on the 60-yard field goal) "I feel good about both our punter and our kicker. Both guys are valuable guys, and they're certainly going to help us with field position. With [Matt] Prater, it's not a new thing with him. I think he's hit more 50-yard field goals than anyone in the league over the last few years or close to it. So, he's not a new phenomenon. He is what he is. He's a diligent worker. That's not what I'm concerned about, you know. I'm not concerned about kicking field goals. I'm concerned about getting touchdowns."
(on anything from today's game cause you to change your plan for next week) "We didn't necessarily follow the plan tonight. There were some guys who didn't play as long, and some guys played longer than we had planned. You don't know the plan, but that's not necessarily what we had planned. We'll wait and see. We'll look at the film and see if we need to adjust anything."
(on if an injury like Tony Romo's give you any pause when you go into an exhibition game) "No. None whatsoever. You start coaching scared? Playing scared? Then you have a problem. I have never even thought twice about it to be honest with you."
QB Matthew Stafford
(on how the Lions played on offense) "We missed some opportunities. I think everyone knows that. Penalties at bad times really hurt us. We couldn't make plays down the field when we had the chances, then when we made plays and we hurt ourselves with penalties."
(on his concern with the team having trouble getting in the end zone) "Anytime you play, you want to put the ball in the end zone. It doesn't matter if its preseason or regular season. The earnest is on us to make sure we get touchdowns when we get close. For the most part we stopped ourselves tonight. It isn't any one thing. It is the little things here and there. For instance, I missed Marvin [Jones Jr.] on a fade route. If I'd given him a chance to make a play he might have scored."
(on return of Ameer Abdullah) "It was great to have him back. I thought he ran the ball really well. He had a really good run on the touchdown that was called back. I don't know what happened on that penalty because I didn't see it."
RB Ameer Abdullah
(on the offense) "We are just too inconsistent at times. We had a lot of good plays but we shot ourselves in the foot. Anytime you're doing that you can't expect a good outcome. So we have to hone in and focus more because we can't win games in the National Football League doing that."
(on if there was any disappointment in the offense for the third preseason game) "We definitely can take some good things from it. I'll start caring about winning when they keep score. But at the same time we're not going to beat ourselves up over it. A lot of this stuff was self-inflicted. It was not like they were coming in and imposing their will. There were a lot of penalties and that's what killed us."
(on his play in the offense) "I'm feeling good. I have to keep grinding and commit to what's going on. I feel like a guy who has to make plays for this team."
WR TJ Jones
(on the offense's play) "We would have some good drives and then negate them. With either penalties or mistakes on our behalf I think it's a good point for us to have some positives and some critiques that we can learn from going into the last pre-season game."
(on having the offense click) "I think it's always disappointing when you shoot yourself in the foot. You never want to have as many penalties or mistakes as we did. I think when you do it, you're always going to be disappointed in yourself, because we don't prepare all week to go out and not give our best effort."
(on his play) "I think it was ok. I think it was just like anyone else's in our offense. There was some good, there was some bad. There will be plays to critique. So, I'll be right in there with the offense as a whole. There's going to be the rollercoaster of good, bad and like I said, critiques."
LB Tahir Whitehead
(on the defensive play) "We suffered a bunch of self-inflicted errors. Penalties were a big factor in today's game. And they [Baltimore Ravens] came out and played good."
(on correcting the mistakes) "It's just a matter of the guys continually getting used to the way each other operates – communication and stuff like that. You just have to keep coming along in that fashion. That's what the preseason is for. You make corrections. You watch the film, and you see what works and what doesn't, and you work from there."
S Tavon Wilson
(on defensive play tonight) "We've got to work on everything because we didn't get the win."
(on defensive effort in the preseason) "It's been okay. Obviously, we want to play better. We've just got to continue to keep our heads down and keep pushing to get wins."
(on the fourth and final preseason game) "It will mean a lot. Every time you've got the opportunity to go out, practice, and get better, it means a lot for our season. We still need to look at it as training camp, preparing for the whole season."
DT Haloti Ngata
(on tonight's defensive line play) "We definitely have to find a way to pressure the quarterback more. Do a little better job on run defense. We'll watch the film and see what we can adjust."
(on tonight's defensive unit play) "There are adjustments to make. Make sure we get off the field and not let their offense tighten the field. We'll need to watch the film."
(on the meaning of the fourth preseason game) "Everybody has got to play as hard as they can. This week is an important week for those guys who could get cut or stay."
(on the fans' ovation for his return to Baltimore) "It was pretty awesome. I was here for nine years and won a Super Bowl with them [Ravens]. It was pretty cool. I think, definitely, want to be back when I'm done with the Lions."
WR Anquan Boldin
(on tonight's offensive performance) "We moved the ball up and down the field pretty nicely. But, when we got in the red zone, we started moving backwards, and that's something we cannot do."
(on feeling good about red zone offense despite preseason performance) "In the preseason, we don't do a lot of game planning. We just go out and run plays, call plays up off the top of the hat, but when you get in the regular season, it's more game planning. You see what coverages people play in the red zone and call plays according to that. I'm not real concerned about scoring points in the red zone at this point."
(on coming back to Baltimore) "It's always cool coming back. I always get love every time I come back here to Baltimore. It's a place where I spent three years of my life. It seems like it's been longer than that, but helping to bring a championship here. So, everyone is always appreciative of that."
(on the fourth preseason game) "We need to continue to build. I think the preseason is just for that, to get guys acclimated to football, get guys in the groove. You get to watch film and see things that you need to correct so that, by the first regular season game, you are hitting on all cylinders."
