Post-Game Quotes: Browns and Lions - Sun, Nov 22 2009 at 7:29 pm
BROWNS HEAD COACH ERIC MANGINI
Opening statement: “I told the team I’m just disappointed, sick with the way this thing ended. I thought that they fought throughout the game, knew the game was going to go back and forth, knew they could score points, knew what we had to do defensively. We got up big, they came back, we fought back, and then to have it come down to the final play with a pass interference…sick from that. We had plenty of opportunities, and at the end we just couldn’t close it out. I’m disappointed for them and just sick about the outcome.”On calling the timeout before the final play: “It was more a function of wanting to make sure we had the right personnel and we wanted to take a look at what they were going to do. We had the timeout so at that point I thought it was a good idea to use it, look at it, and get the guys in spots we thought they needed to be in.”
On the Lions’ offense: “Watching them play against Seattle where they scored quickly… the ability to get big plays to Calvin Johnson was one of the things we talked about extensively. We knew that was going to be a key to the game and we couldn’t slow him down. We couldn’t slow him down defensively and it’s disappointing. We put a lot of points on the board, something we haven’t been able to do, and we weren’t able to slow them down like we should have defensively.”
On throwing the ball on 3rd-and-5: “Yep, thought about that. I thought we had a chance to win the game with that play, thought that they were going to blitz it and we’ve get off coverage and we’d be able to hit the receiver in off-coverage. At that point, we’d be able to take the knee. One of the things we wanted to do that wasn’t there was take the sack so we could get the time off the clock, but it was a function of wanting to control the game at that point and we had hit the first down earlier doing that and figured that they’ve got to have it, they’d come and we’d get the off-coverage that we wanted.”
On the Lions’ last two plays: “Looking at it with 0:09 left, you’re really thinking they’re going to get two shots to throw to the end zone. A play takes about six seconds, even with that going a little longer, so if we went longer maybe 0:08 because they would take two shots or take the first play, try to get a chunk then make it a closer play on the last play.”
On QB Brady Quinn: “I thought that he played well throughout the course of the game. If he hits that pass we win the game and he had gotten us the third conversion prior to that. I felt good about how he’d been throwing the ball throughout the whole game, I felt good about how the offense was playing throughout the whole game.”
On the fake field goal at the end of the first half: “What we were looking to do was to make sure we took the last shot. We wanted to be able to use up the time and make sure that we had the last shot and not give him the ball back with time to have a 2-minute drive of their own. We hit the hideout play there, thought that was going to go for a touchdown, he came over late and got it and we were able to take the time off there, but we really thought that the goal of that drive was to go down, eat up the clock and get points without giving them the ball back. We weren’t being very effective at that point defensively, so that’s what we were trying to do.”
On the pass interference call: “I didn’t see what happened down in the end zone. Usually that’s a scrum, the guy was out of the pocket multiple times. The quarterback was out of the pocket multiple times, a bunch of guys running around down there, and to decide the game like that is disappointing.”
On the loss: “I think we had opportunities today, I think we made some of our own breaks today. I think that we didn’t play well defensively. We didn’t play nearly as well as we could have on special teams. There have been a lot of times where we haven’t played well offensively. It’s just having it finish the way it did, I’m sick for our guys.”
On the Browns’ play in the second half: “We went back to some of the same concepts that worked very effectively in the first half, some that was there, some that wasn’t there. I thought we ran the ball pretty well in the second half, but when they’re scoring the way they’re scoring, you’ve got to try to play complementary football and the offense did a nice job of going down and scoring when they did and then getting the two point conversion.”
BROWNS QB BRADY QUINN
On connecting for deep touchdown passes: “Again, I think going into every week, we’re going to try and do what we think we can accomplish and execute there on the field. I knew that they like to load the box sometimes and shots down field might work. It ended up working pretty effectively.”
On what was going through your mind on the Lions final drive: “I was praying and hoping that our defense can get a stop right there.”
On falling short: “We didn’t win, so you’re never happy when you don’t get a win.”
On the touchdown pass to Mohammed Massaquoi: “We tried running the ball and had a hard play action fake, and Mohammed was able to find a crease and I found him for a touchdown.”
On the touchdown pass to Chassi Stuckey: “(Chassi) Stuckey ran a great route. He was able to beat his man. The line protected well and gave me enough time to throw the touchdown.”
On the defense giving up the game winning touchdown: “You always have to have faith in your defense. Our guys have done a great job all year for us. I really though we left some stuff out there on offense, but we have all the faith in the world in them.”
On passing on the 3rd and 5: “We were spreading them out, looking to pass for a first down and hopefully the game is over at that point.”
On what happen on that particular play: “They brought pressure, a little more than we could handle. I tried to throw it out quick to Mohammed (Massaquoi) and I just didn’t convert.”
On the effectiveness the Browns offense had: “It’s funny because we talk about it week to week. We have different game plans every week. I think we felt we could utilize some more things against this team and we went out and executed.”
BROWNS CB ERIC WRIGHT
On the pass interference on the Hail Mary play: “I didn’t see the play, I was on the other side so I don’t really know what happened. I wasn’t on the side of the call so I don’t know exactly what happened. I was just guarding my man on the other side of the field. At the end of the game like that when it’s a jump-ball situation, especially when a quarterback is scrambling it’s fighting for positioning. Like I said, I was on the other side, so I don’t know exactly what was happening but it’s definitely part of the game. It was the last play of the game and there is always a little bit of contact…If the quarterback is scrambling outside of the pocket, from what we understand, you are allowed to push the receiver out of bounds as long as the ball is not in the air.”
On how tough of a loss this game was: “We work hard every week trying to get a win and we worked extremely hard in practice and we spent a lot of time afterwards too so it’s always devastating to lose but to lose this way definitely hurts a lot more.”
On whether he thought the defense did everything it could: “Not really. I felt like the offense played well enough to where we should have come out of here with a win. On the defensive side of the ball we didn’t really play up to our potential. We gave (the Lions) a lot of easy stuff which has been sort of uncharacteristic of us in the past couple of games. We can’t take a step backwards like this.”
BROWNS LB KAMERION WIMBLEY
On if he’s ever been part of a game that ended on an untimed down: “Right after this game nothing really pops out right off the top of my head. It was an exciting game down to the end. The offenses were out there battling, putting up big numbers for Detroit and for our team as well. It was tough, it came down to the last play, they were able to execute and come up with the win.”
On if playing with a lead changed the defense’s approach: “I don’t think so. Our offense did well today. They went out and did what they were asked to do. They put us in a position to be able to win and we came up short.”
LIONS HEAD COACH JIM SCHWARTZ
Opening Statement: “We’ve had a lot of games that we’ve lost in a lot of different manners. A lot of people have tried to sort of point to other things other than the win or the loss and say well, ‘You’ve made progress and this was exciting or whatever.’ Our philosophy has been that a win is a win and a loss is a loss. We’ll take this win. I’m sort of at a loss of words which you guys know doesn’t really happen a whole lot. We can even go to (Charles Dickens) with ‘the best of times and worst of times.’ That game had so many ebbs and flows, particularly being down 21 points in the first quarter. Like I said, I don’t want to say a lot of things because it’s a win and it’s a game that you either win or you lose but the fact that we were able to hang in and we had an offense that scored touchdowns and not have to kick field goals – a lot of that had to do with our quarterback today – that was how we were able to get back into the game.”
On Stafford’s injury: “He still has more tests but some tests have come back. (His shoulder) was x-rayed and the initial x-ray looks okay. That’s the one thing, there’s a lot more that needs to be done. The first thing you want to eliminate is a broken collarbone. I’m not going to comment any (more) than that. That’s the only thing I know right now – that we x-rayed it and that came back negative. It’s his left shoulder and there are a lot of other things to go on.”
On Stafford’s toughness: “He made a great play to finish the game but probably his best play was eluding four team doctors on the sideline that were all trying (to stop him) (laughter). I mean, he was lying on his back when Cleveland took that timeout to set their defense and when he found out it was a timeout he popped up and all the team doctors said, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’ I said, ‘What does he have?’ They said they didn’t even know yet. He made a nice scramble on the previous play but he did a nice job eluding (the doctors). It’s a good thing our team doctors didn’t play on varsity because Matt had to work his way back onto the field.”
On what Stafford said to get back on the field: “He just said I’m ready. I said, ‘Okay, go.’ I mean, he could walk and he was ready.”
On whether he changed the play call once Stafford went back in: “No, we had the same play called. He wouldn’t have made it back in without the timeout but I’ve been there before; they didn’t know he was going to come back in. They wanted to set their defense.”
On WR Calvin Johnson’s injury status and whether that was the reason for him not being on the field for the last play: “Yeah, but that was a personnel package. He had to leave the game at different time with stuff – Calvin is a tough guy.”
On whether he was surprised that the officials called defensive pass interference on the Hail Mary play: “I haven’t really seen the play. I was watching Matt doing his best Fran Tarkenton impression. I saw the ball go up and then it looked like we got dragged down from behind but until I see it – you guys probably saw it better than I did. Yeah, a lot of times officials will eat their flags but if they see something, they have to call it. You can’t just let it go because it’s the last play of the game.”
On Stafford’s scrambling ability on the Hail Mary play: “We didn’t draft him for his elusiveness, we didn’t draft him to run and those kinds of things but that’s part of his (ability) – having field awareness and savvy. During that play, I screamed, ‘Throw the ball!’ about six times and he just kept on making somebody else miss and that bought him some time. He took a wicked hit but he hung in there. He did that same thing last week. We were down in the game and it was a third down play trying to get a first down and he put his head down and went. It says a lot about a rookie quarterback – or any quarterback – that is willing to do that for his team.”
On Stafford’s QB sneak on fourth-and-one: “Yeah, that was a called play right there. We’ve got to be able to get six inches on a quarterback sneak. He made a great second effort because it was initially stuffed. They have 400-lb players, no disrespect – there are big guys in there. It was the second effort that got it. When he spun-out, the line judge that went in and said he saw the spin-out and marked the ball for a first down. That was a good play.”
On almost drawing a celebration penalty after the touchdown for having coaches and players on the field: “Yeah, we had a few guys run, coaches included. We need to kick that extra point. If that had been the game-winner, let’s go throw down and celebrate but there’s no gimmies with that (defensive) crowd rushing. They have the all-time field goal block leader in the history of the NFL on the other side (Shaun Rogers) and they got great penetration the entire day so that wasn’t automatic. Don Muhlbach did a great job in there holding his own. We needed that (extra point) to win the game.”
On whether he considered calling a run instead of a pass on the last play due to Stafford’s injury: “No, the play was the play but you could tell the look in his eyes. Like I said, nobody was going to stop him from getting on that field. There was a determination and if he was injured, if that had been his throwing shoulder or if that had been a different situation then we could have kept him on the sideline but his right arm was good and he’d come way too far in that game to not finish it.”
On falling down by 21 points in the first quarter: “Oh, it was serious miscommunication. All of those plays – even the one we got beat sort of physically on the double move – were a result of a miscommunication on a blitz and we hung the corner out to dry. The quarterback shouldn’t have time to double-move anybody. We did a poor job with communication. The only thing that helped is that when we got down and it was 24-3, our guys were able to at least point to something and say, ‘Hey look – this is what we have to stop.’ It wasn’t like there was a player that physically we couldn’t stop or schematically we were at a loss. You could point to it and say, ‘Hey, this missed assignment, we’ve got to put that fire out.’ We had a lot of fires to put out but we were able to get by that and stop that bleeding. Like I said, when the offense starts scoring touchdowns, not field goals you can get back into it.”
On the game plan against Browns WR/KR Josh Cribbs: “I tell you what; I respect a lot of players in the National Football League but none more than him. When you can return kicks, return punts, be a gunner, be a kickoff cover guy, be a wide receiver, be a wildcat quarterback – there are not many people that have those skills, that kind of toughness, that versatility. I guarantee if you gave him an offseason he could start at safety in the National Football League. He’s a special guy and we were just determined not to let him be the difference in the game. He made a lot of big plays including our preseason game including a few that he took back (for touchdowns). I just told the defensive staff, ‘Hey look, we may have bad field position at times but it’s not going to be because of #16 (Cribbs).’ He still made some plays in the game but we were trying to make sure that he wasn’t the guy that had the ball in his hands.”
On RB Kevin Smith’s play as a receiver out of the backfield: “Well, Kevin is a good receiver and he’s done a good job this year as a wide receiver. They were doing some stuff in the passing game to try to take Calvin Johnson out of the game and when they did, they were more susceptible to the underneath stuff. If you want to play over the top on Calvin, you’re going to give up some short stuff. Kevin did a good job, including the very first play of the game and was able to make a big play on that.”
On TE Brandon Pettigrew’s play: “I think we saw him today play the way that we expected when we drafted him. Big target in the redzone – there was no hesitation on Scott’s part to call (the game’s final) play. It was a play we worked on, it was a play that we liked against their defense. We liked the guy that was going to get the ball. He made a lot of first down catches for us, some good runs after the catch. That was all part of the reason that we drafted him.”
LIONS QB MATTHEW STAFFORD
On how he talked his way back into the game: “I heard timeout over the loudspeaker and knew that was probably my only chance to get back in. It was my left shoulder and don’t really need it to throw. So they helped me up and they weren’t going to help me up. Then I really told him to help me up and he helped me up and I ran out there.”
On if he was concerned about that: “Yeah, a little.”
On if his shoulder came out: “I don’t know.”
On if he can take them through the scramble play that ended in the pass interference call: “Just trying to buy some time. It wasn’t going to be a timing throw. Just try to look around. I knew when I was scrambling left I wouldn’t be able to get it off because that dude was bearing down pretty good so I kind of ducked around. Then I think Kevin Smith came back and cut somebody down that was chasing me. Then I saw Calvin – he was the only guy I saw – in the back of the endzone. It looked like he was tired as hell, running back this way and I just threw it up and then got planted and was content to lay there for awhile. And then Dom grabbed me telling me that pass interference (was called) and I was like, ‘Really? Come on. I need to figure out which ref called it because he’s a good man.’”
On if he could describe the pain he was in: “Yeah. Wasn’t good. I don’t know – I can’t. It hurts.”
On if he knows who hit him: “I don’t. I heard a couple different (guys). Somebody said it was Shaun Rogers, but I don’t know if it was (No.) 69, maybe? He was big whoever he was.”
On if he literally had to talk his way back on the field: “Yeah, it was something like that. I just went up to Linehan and said, ‘I can throw.’ I got out of the way of all the doctors. Once one of them helped me up, they weren’t going to stop me.”
On if anything in his head said it wasn’t smart: “No. I knew it was one play, I was going to get it off, Pettigrew ran a great route and made a great catch. It wasn’t a pretty throw.”
On if he had ever been a part of a game like that: “Not a 0:00, one final no-time play – I’ve never been a part of that. I’ve been a part of some close ones at the end, obviously, but that was wild.”
On if it means more since the team only had one win coming in: “Yeah, it’s big. Any win is big in the NFL. Obviously when you have one win, you want to try and get some more. Any way we can get them. It doesn’t have to be pretty. Guys battled throughout the whole game. I threw a bad pick about four minutes left – the defense did a great job of getting us the ball back and guys were scrambling on that two-minute drive just making things happen. It was a great team win.”
On if he can play Thursday: “(Laughs) That’s a great question.”
On what his pain is on a scale of 1-10: “This ice is numbing it up pretty good.”
On how much pain he was in walking up to the line of scrimmage: “I was in some good pain, but the play goes on. It didn’t feel good, but I didn’t care. It was one play. I knew I didn’t have to play too much. Just one snap and try to throw the TD.”
LIONS TE BRANDON PETTIGREW
On if the Lions have practiced that final play a lot: “We actually just put that in. We’ve got it in the open field, but we actually just put it in this week. But we worked on it every day in practice this week.”
On making big plays as a rookie: “I’m trying to fill that role, I’m trying to be more consistent in my play, really just do my job. At times I shined today, sometimes I didn’t make the play, but in the end I made the best play.”
On what he felt when his number was called for the last play: “You better make that play or a bunch of people are going t o be looking at you sideways. It’s all or nothing. They called my number, I had to catch it.”
On QB Matthew Stafford coming back for the last play after being injured: “That made it so much bigger. It shows how much heart he has. He’s the guy. That’s the type of player he is. He’s going to step in hurt at the end of the game and he’s the guy who’s going to do it.”
On what it means as teammates to see Stafford come in after getting hurt: “You see he’s getting up after taking a shot like that, and he gets back up, it’s just like, ‘OK, he’s going to stay in, let’s go.’ That’s the kind of attitude you’ve got to have.”
On how important the win is going into Thanksgiving week: “We’re building off of that, and it’s a quick turnaround, but that’s just the way it is. We’re going to turn it around tomorrow and get right back on it.”
On not giving up after going down by 21 points: “No, we didn’t give up. That’s not the mindset and attitude of this team. We won’t give up. We’ve got some good veteran players on this team to guide us younger guys that have a great attitude.”
LIONS WR CALVIN JOHNSON
On coming back from a 21-point deficit: “It’s a four quarter game. In the first quarter, we were down but we had plenty of time to fight back. We knew they had come out strong in most of their games this season, so we knew that we could get back in this game if we just take our time, don’t get ahead of ourselves and just fight back. That’s what we did.”
On what they saw leading to his 75-yard touchdown catch: “We just wanted to get the safety moving; (I) hit him with a double-move and he bit on it. We definitely took advantage of it.”
On the play of QB Matthew Stafford: “He was on point today, a tight spiral-the kid has a tremendous upside. Yeah, he’s a rookie, he’s going to make mistakes, but his upside is so large in the future he’s going to be a heck of a player.”
On TE Brandon Pettigrew: “Brandon’s coming along real well. He’s getting his mind right and when he does that and he has a good week of practice, he understands that he needs to prepare well during the week to have a good Sunday. He’s going to be a heck of tight end. I can’t wait to continue to see those two guys grow.”
On winning the game leading into Thanksgiving week: “It’s big for us. We play again on Thursday, so we had a short time between games, but at the same time its better that we won the game. We’ll be on our own little high going into the game.”
On the defensive pass interference call against the Browns that led to the touchdown: “I thought it was the end of the game at first. I didn’t know until I saw guys rallying on the sideline, so when I saw the flags down I knew that ball was coming all the way down so we were going to have one shot. We definitely took advantage of it.”
On if he thought the flag would be thrown before he saw it: “The only thing on my mind was just getting the ball, and I didn’t get the ball so that’s all I was thinking about. I wasn’t thinking about that. Fortunately, it was an interference call and it was rightly called.”
LIONS C DOMINIC RAIOLA
On QB Matthew Stafford showing poise and the offense stepping up: “I know for a fact that he is tough. He took a pretty bad hit and he came back in to finish to game. He overcame the interceptions to throw five touchdowns. It was a tough couple of weeks. We just have to keep getting better as a group and as an offense. When we were down 24-3 nobody panicked. That was one of the turning points as an offense. I think as an offense, we knew we could go down and score when we wanted to. It was just a matter of doing it.”
On falling behind early but overcoming it at the end: “I think the Browns are better than what their record is. I know for a fact from watching film on them through their first nine games that they have a good defense. They might be the best in the league up the middle, so I thought we fought hard. It wasn’t pretty but we got the win, and we scored when it counted.”
On what this win does going into the Thanksgiving Day game: “It’s great for us going into a short week like this. It’s great for this locker room. It’s great for this city. Maybe we might sell the game out now, who knows?
On the feeling after Stafford threw the fourth quarter interception: “I knew we were going to get the ball back. There was a lot of time left on the clock. It’s a credit to the coaching staff for putting us through those situations, starting in training camp, and we do it every Thursday. It wasn’t like we weren’t there before. We’ve had long drives before. It didn’t matter what they do. We had to score because if we scored we win and that’s what happened.”
LIONS LB LARRY FOOTE
On coming back from a 21-point deficit in the first quarter: “People like to look at records and stuff, but players know it’s a dogfight out there no matter what your record is. That’s why this league is so great because you can lose any Sunday, it don’t matter what your record is. We got talent. It’s about executing and going out there and competing. It shows that we didn’t quit and we finally finished our game, and we took every second of the game to win but we needed that type of game. Our two wins this year have been dogfights. It let’s these young guys know that nothing comes easy in this league and it isn’t over till it’s over.”
On what adjustments were made after the first quarter: “It was just mental breakdowns. It was just corrections and a lack of communication. It wasn’t necessarily just the communication. A guy didn’t get this, a guy didn’t get that and they exploited it. Every time we messed up, their offense was finding it. They’re throwing the ball 70 yards on the money and we weren’t getting any plays from that standpoint. The offense had a great game.”
On what the a win like this does for a team: “You see us fighting and you know how happy we are to get that win. We’ll take it any way we can get it. As far as Matt (Stafford), he has many more of those games in his career and hopefully I’ll be around to enjoy some of them, but Pettigrew too – just the confidence he showed was through the roof.”
On QB Matthew Stafford’s play today: “He’s a smooth guy. He plays with a lot of poise. He did a good job today.”
On the defense coming back after getting beat for long touchdowns: “We were trying to settle down. We didn’t quit. We have an offense that responds. Good teams have an offense that responds and a defense that gets off the field and gives the ball back to the offense somehow, someway. We did that today. It was definitely a complete game; a complete total game. Our special teams did a great job with (Joshua) Cribbs. As good as he is, they had a good plan for him.”
