DETROIT LIONS DAILY UPDATE FOR MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2006

TODAY'S NEWS The team met today to review film from yesterday's game at Minnesota at their headquarters and training facility in Allen Park. The players will

TODAY'S NEWS

• The team met today to review film from yesterday's game at Minnesota at their headquarters and training facility in Allen Park. The players will return to the practice field Wednesday to begin preparing for this week's game against Buffalo at Ford Field.
• The Lions once again are proving to be one of the elite teams when it comes to blocking kicks on special teams. Detroit leads the NFL with three blocked kicks (2 FG, 1 PAT) in 2006.
• Detroit is the only team this year to block a field goal and an extra point and one of only two teams to record blocked kicks in two categories (New Orleans has blocked 1 FG and 1 punt).
• With a PAT block at Minnesota (10/8), DE Jared DeVries joins DT Shaun Rogers and DE James Hall as Lions who have recorded a blocked field goal and PAT during their careers.
• The Lions (0-5) will return home this week to face the Bills at Ford Field. Detroit will look to get their first win after a frustrating 17-26 loss at Minnesota and Buffalo will be trying to get back on the winning track after a 40-7 loss at Buffalo. The two teams clashed in the 2006 preseason finale and the Bills left Ford Field with a 20-13 victory.
• This week's game is scheduled to be televised live in Metro Detroit on WWJ-TV CBS Channel 62 with Gus Johnson handling play-by-play and Steve Tasker adding color commentary. The game will also be broadcast on the Lions Radio Network (WKRK 97.1 FM) with announcer Dan Miller handling play-by-play, Jim Brandstatter adding color commentary and Tony Ortiz reporting from the sideline.

LIONS HEAD COACH ROD MARINELLI WEEKLY PRESS CONFERENCE
Opening statement: "Just to start off with injury updates first. Roy Williams - stinger, pull in his upper back, he'll be day-to-day; (Damien) Woody - (mid-foot) sprain, his left foot is still being evaluated and we're going to know more on Wednesday; Shaun Cody, (has) a dislocated left toe - again they're doing more tests on that, so we're still waiting to see on those guys; (Barry) Stokes got an (ankle), more evaluation to be done; and, Kenoy Kennedy and (Alex) Lewis - (are) improving, we'll have to kind of wait until after Wednesday; Frank Davis should start to work back towards practice on Wednesday.

"After having a chance to view all the tape - a theme throughout our team - just by doing our job, (being) on top of our job, understanding our job, doing our job (and) doing what we're coached to do. That again reflects us too, as a staff, being a more disciplined football team. Boy, I mean, it's glaring to me still. On defense, you know, when you play a one-gap defense - and we played a lot of seven man front in this last game, we played a lot of over two, which at times you have to play a little two gap with your linebackers, but up front is still a one-gap system. One of things you see (is) guys getting out of their gaps; just spinning out of the gap, the discipline to stay in your gap and squeeze your gap, hold your gap, and with a back like this who is patient enough to push the line and guys were squeezing out of it - boy ,he'd find the seam. He hit us three or four times like that, but we had way too many losses of gaps. So, the integrity of the gap -we obviously got to get better at that. Something we've been doing a pretty good job of and we seem to loose that.

"The tackling was not good enough. We were getting them down, but we're not turning them around. We missed tackles early in the game, but we got to get the turnaround tackles. Offensively, things that jump out are the turnovers. We've talked about that before the game - ball security. Again, it's the same thing - the discipline, we had some mental errors just in terms of protection, protection sets. Something is effective. Some of the lack of continuity -I think we're hurting ourselves there a little bit - so that hurts the precision and the timing of the passing game and the running game, obviously. But, the men that step up in those roles, when they step up into that roll then they're being held accountable to produce also at that point. So, they've got to be able to do that. When we're coaching that man, he has an opportunity to step up (and) he's got to do it.

"Special teams, again, it was just some of the field position problems, like it's been. We've got to drop the ball inside the 20 when we get a chance. The penalty (on the 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown) - it was a good call on the penalty, it was a very good call, it was right on - we've got to eliminate those. We lost some key field positions. So, those are where were at with it right now. We just got to work with the men we have, keep working on the discipline of the systems - the one gap - understand it and move on, get started up with this week."

On the status of G Ross Verba and T Rex Tucker: "I still believe it's probably week-to-week. It may get day-to-day on Tucker pretty soon, but we'll have to wait and see. He's still getting checked again. So, we're going to check him again."

On if it's possible the Lions could be without three starting lineman this weekend: "It's a good possibility."

On how difficult it is to be competitive in this league with the amount of injuries this team has suffered in one position (the offensive line): "Oh, you know, it's challenging - it's challenging. But, you know, Jonathan Scott came in two weeks ago and he did well, and then he came in as a pinch hitter here and he played both sides - I was talking to you earlier in the week about (him) playing both sides - he had to go on left and right, and that's tough going to that left side. Now we got to be able to rotate him, work him in there, do those things with him and hopefully get him better."

On if that's part of the reason they gave up on the run in the second half of the game: "That and they were really packing it down inside too. You know, I think once (Roy Williams) went out the match-ups became in their favor, so they really packed it down inside, which makes it a little bit tougher to run."

On if some of the veterans of this team are feeling like they are programmed to lose and just can't get over the hump: "Well, you got to re-change the program. That's what's you're trying to do. I know that's how you do it. The best way you do it, it's all about discipline and discipline isn't just a light switch - ok, we're going to be disciplined now, you turn it on and oh we're disciplined, then oh now we're not - it just doesn't work that way. I think it takes a mind change, a willingness to change. The one thing that helps you is your systems. If you have a highly structured system and you can show the lack of discipline hurts us, like in a one-gap system, you've got to be disciplined - you've got to. To stop the run, it's not about being physical, I mean that's obviously part of the game, but it's about discipline under pressure. One thing that jumps out at you is in four of the games, (it) all comes down late in the fourth quarter - we've been out scored 47-13 in the fourth quarter. So, that's something right there that we can address with them today. That's when your discipline, if it takes hold - if it's really engrained - when you get discipline that's engrained, it becomes stronger than the excitement or the fear of the game, that's when it's got to kick in. We haven't come to that point yet where late in that fourth quarter we're doing everything exactly right."

On what the explanation is when the best players are penalized and make mistakes: "No question - there's no explanation really. Its discipline, you keep coming back to it, you show him, you teach, you work back (and) you keep demanding certain things. This is what we have to do and it's just a process where you just have to keep going at it. A great way, you take some of our - like that long one, the one that popped for 29 yards - you can sit there and just show when a guy has a gap and we have two guys in the other gap right inside of him and he decides - not intentionally - he's just going to go make that play. He comes here, puts his head (in) and now you have three guys in one gap, and that ball hits outside and there's a 29-yard run. It's not about being physical, it's not about those things - it's staying in my gap, trusting the defense, trusting the call and then that ball will come right to me and those are the things. That's kind of the discipline I'm talking about."

On when he talks about learning how to win and when he's teaching how to win, it's not some Vince Lombardi speech: "It's doing your job. Like I start out with, being able to do your job under all circumstances, understand your job and then execute and do your job. It's got to be the whole game. When you get off one here, one there - that's when a breakout happens, that's when you give up the sack, something like that will happen. So, it's just about that overall mindset of understanding discipline, the willingness to do it and I think there's a mindset - yes we'll do it, except for when this is all on the line - that's when you've got to do it."

On Vikings' DT Kevin Williams saying there was no communication on the Lions' offensive line after G Damien Woody left the game: "I don't know what he means by communication. In terms of …"

On it being making the appropriate line signal calls and picking up the appropriate guys: "Right. We missed some blitzes, some of those things, but you get - again, like I was saying - you start sometimes with a lack of continuity and that can affect all the other guys. All of a sudden you've got a guy in that continuity [and] the words are different. But we did - we made some errors under pressure. Under pressure is when your discipline - you count on it. But I just think you get guys shifting in and out of a game right now; one of our guards has been here seven days and he's playing in a ballgame. But those things happen."

Whether he sees any similarities between what the Lions' are going through and what Tampa Bay went through in 1996 with both teams beginning 0-5: "It was the same feeling because what it does - this system is so disciplined; you have to be. If you're off, when you're a little bit off on it, boy you really get exposed. And the one thing - one of the brighter spots for us - was we played Cover-2 pretty well and we played that much better. But anytime now when you play a lot of Cover-2, you're putting seven guys in the box, not eight. So now your gaps are really important. The gaps become a little bit tougher to defend. An eight-man is just everything is clean - they all hit it right now. A seven-man front you have to flow a little bit; that MIKE backer has got to think run-through first, then he has to come back up to play the run. So we've got to be able to get that going also and make sure we're playing the run defense in Cover-2 and then in our Cover-2 zones."

Whether the hit on WR Roy Williams was entirely within the rules: "As I watched, it was very physical. It was tough and the official was standing right on it. He was standing right there and he didn't throw anything on it."

Whether he got to look at it on tape: "Oh, I watched it on tape. That's his judgment. You see stuff like that flying all the time; guys going to the pile and that was his decision. But they were a very, very physical defense, I'll tell you that right now. They were very physical and - believe me - I compliment what they're doing. They were playing very fast, very tough, tackling extremely well and their runner ran very, very hard. We have to match that."

Whether he thinks his team is getting worn down in the fourth quarter or there are other factors leading to fourth-quarter problems: "What I was talking about a little bit earlier - and that's a great question - it can seem like if you're getting the ball run on you, it seems you're getting worn down, but really mentally sometimes, it's more mental wear-down playing your gap. Holding your gap, holding your responsibility and sometimes guys are trying to do too much, and 'I've got to make this play over here', 'I've got to do that.' Then when you do that, you get exposed in other areas of the defense. Especially with this back, he was a great cut-back runner. The guy could really cut back; bounce out and cut back. And, boy, if you leave a gap too quickly, boy he has a great ability with his vision to find those. So it's not - I don't believe we're worn down, it's just being on the details. Being disciplined all the way through the game - all the way through it. That's where we're at. The want is there - the willingness - but we just have to discipline, make sure everybody's doing things exactly right."

Whether there was a point that he looked at the hard hits from the Vikings' defense and said, 'That's what I want us to do': "No, I just admire what they're doing and I appreciate what they do. I just look at our team and try to coach our team."

On what he thought of the defensive line performance: "I thought we got some (good hits); we knew Brad [Johnson]'s going to get the ball out quick - that's his deal. We hit him well; we got some really good hits on him, but he's a guy that didn't back off the hits, you've got to get him on the ground. You've got to sack Brad to affect him. He's a big, strong, tough guy. We hit him pretty good, but we've got to get more. It's got to happen more. Then we've just got to discipline the run game so I'm never satisfied, obviously. So we've got to go back to work again and saddle it up and keep teaching."

On what he was thinking as everybody was going down with injury: "There's really not much you can do about it when they're going down and what you got to do is make sure the next guy; now you're kind of shuffling guys in and we had to move Cory Redding inside when Shaun Cody went down and we exposed him there a little bit. You try to have position flexibility but now you get back and you don't panic, you just got to go back in and get guys going. The offensive line, same thing, you have to adjust; receivers we have to adjust and to deal with what we have. But there's no excuses - we just have to line up and go. That's all part of the game. We got hit with a good rash of them this last couple weeks and you've just got to adjust; keep moving."

Courtesy of the Lions