LIONS DAILY UPDATE AND TRANSCRIPT OF ROD MARINELLI

DETROIT LIONS UPDATE NEWS The Lions completed their 16th day of training camp today. The team practiced in the afternoon on the outdoor fields in helmets and

DETROIT LIONS UPDATE NEWS

• The Lions completed their 16th day of training camp today. The team practiced in the afternoon on the outdoor fields in helmets and shorts at their headquarters and training facility in Allen Park.
• WR Devale Ellis, RB Kevin Jones and DT Shaun Rogers remain on the PUP list and did not practice today. 
• The Detroit Lions continue the 2007 preseason next weekend at Cleveland Browns Stadium when they face the Browns at 7:00 p.m. EDT. Next Saturday's game will be the 39th meeting in what has been dubbed the Great Lakes Classic between the two teams. The Lions enter the 'Dawg Pound' looking to build off their preseason opening 27-26 victory against the Bengals. Cleveland opens their preseason tonight at home against the Kansas City Chiefs. Next week's game will be televised live in Metro Detroit on WKBD-TV UPN Channel 50 with Frank Beckmann handling play-by-play, former Lions QB Erik Kramer adding color commentary and local sportscaster Steve Courtney reporting from the sidelines.

LIONS HEAD COACH ROD MARINELLI
Opening statement: "Injury wise, Kalimba (Edwards) is day-by-day a little bit, but I think we're fine there. Aveion (Cason) - he's fine with the concussion. Before I start though, I want to make sure (I say) - I said it after the game - how much I appreciate the fans. They were tremendous. They've been great coming to our camp and the energy at camp has made it special. The energy at the end of that game was very special; I take my hat off to them. The noise and the energy probably helped create a false start in that two-minute drive, so I want to thank them very much for that.

"I want to address the report about Kevin Jones, make sure I hit that. It's not correct; no decision has been made on Kevin, nor should there be. We still have three-and-a-half weeks; we've got time. Our policy's been, each week we meet, I meet, the front office meets, the coaches meet, the trainers meet and doctors meet and we get an update weekly on where we're at - good days, bad days. Then we'll give a week, how the workouts went, how that ankle feels, how Shaun (Rogers) is doing, how Devale Ellis is doing. We do that very detailed every week, there's no reason to say we're going to do anything different other than week-to-week. I just want to make sure that's out there and that's from me. If there is a different opinion, talk to the doctor or talk to the trainer. We're all on the same page.

"After reviewing the tape, as a team - first of all talking as a team - the positives that came out was our energy. We really hustled. The hitting, the tackling I thought was good; the special teams effort, that offensive effort - I thought that was good. But what's special to me is, really, at the end of the game you have a bunch of starters standing behind you and just rooting and wanting to win. The first step toward winning is believing you can, (hoping) that you can and wanting to. Everything is important and I said that before the game. That made it a special night I thought. The thing that we're trying to teach all the time is 'one snap at a time' and that came across. There were some bad plays in that game and nobody went in the tank. They just lined up and kept playing; line up, keep playing. That's what I'm trying to teach here and that's what we're going to do.

"Defensively, the positives I thought the run-fits were pretty sharp for the most part. We had one pop-out run early in the game. It was a ram belly - a reverse belly - versus a seven-man front pirate. We didn't get a great read on it, but we still had a chance to keep it to about a 5-yard run. We missed the tackle but the leverage was there for them; if we would have shot and missed it inside it probably would have been an 8- yard run. But a missed tackle on it and it ended up as a 20(-yard run). Other than that it was a 3 yards per carry average on the run game which is good.

"I thought we were good in the red zone; that was excellent. Third downs were very good, 25-percent on third downs, so that's what we're looking for. We played a lot of our base stuff. We wandered three deep, but we're working on disguising it. We played some (cover) 2. We had a couple explosion plays on cover 2; one went down the pipe and all we had to do was go back and look at the ball. They were looking at the receiver instead of the ball. The guy was in great position to make a play but it's just vision, eyes, doing the little things and we'll be in better shape there. We played a 4- and a 3-deep. Gave some underneath routes and that's the package right now. That's where we're at and then we'll develop it. But I don't want to watch that part of it.

"Offensively, obviously the positive, you throw for 497 yards; it's tough to throw for that many yards on air. They did a nice job. The thing that was important was they had one sack in 47 attempts and that's big. That's getting better there. There's still some pressure. J.T. (O'Sullivan) did a nice job coming in. He's got good mobility and he had some rare throws in the game. He did some really nice things. First offense had about 11 plays; didn't get really into a great - I think it (was) 12 plays - good enough rhythm. Again, the running game, we want to make sure we're on top of that. You see our practices; you see how physical we are in our run game everyday. We work on it a lot. We're putting in 25-30 snaps a day in pads on our run game. It's something that we've just got to keep working at. We got Tatum (Bell) loose early with a counter play. Now it's just about the details; staying on it, blocking right, fundamentals, footwork. Just stay on it and keep believing we've got to get that done; it's going to help us.

"Dan (Orlovsky) did a nice job also - both quarterbacks I thought did a very good job so I'm pleased with that. The running game is the issue still, so we want to hammer that. The special teams, I talked to everybody after the game and that was good; (the) effort was good. I thought (Special Teams Coach) Stan (Kwan) did really a very good job. It's just the coordination of it all; the substitutions, that's a hard deal in a game like that. Our effort in coverage was good, so that was pleasing.

"But the most important thing, I felt - I feel good about - is how this team keeps coming together. To win in this league, you've got to be resilient. And again, we had 10 games come down to the two-minute drill last year. First game out of the shoot is a two-minute drill; that's what this league is about. We still weren't good enough. We won, but it wasn't good enough. We had 1:51 (remaining), no timeouts, you've got to keep the guy running in bounds and we let him out of bounds twice; that can't happen. We messed up a blitz, and that's one of the hardest times to blitz with the no huddle offense going, you've got to hand signal it all. Everybody's got to communicate, the crowd's loud - those types of things.

"But if we're on the screws right, what we want to do is make that other team self destruct - make them self destruct. And they were; they had a false start, had a 10-second run down - the difference in the game right at the end of the game. There's a lot to learn, when we practice today we'll practice that situation again. We practice two-minute (drills) a ton. We'll go through that entire situation again, keeping people in bounds. Situations that came up - we were very fortunate to have the onsides (kick), to have a two-minute drill, all those different situations."

On the importance of role players: "Corey (Smith) was good last year. We brought him in and that's what he was. He is a tremendous special teams player. He is a core player. You don't find many defensive ends in this league that can do that; be a core player. Then he's a rusher. He's always had a way about him; he's a free agent out of North Carolina State, made our team down in Tampa (Bay) just on toughness and grit. He's just getting better and better as a rusher. He does things right and he finishes well. That was a beautiful sack fumble he had, we just need to get the ball when it's on the ground. Langston (Moore) is coming along. He's been good from day one out of the shoot. He's been very explosive; at practice he shows it and he showed up in the game doing that."

On whether DE Corey Smith has enough physical stature to play every down: "Yeah, because in a one-gap system you can. You can do that. Flozell (Adams), he played on him at Dallas the whole game (last year). You get up field and you just need to lock the gap with that. When the power is coming you don't get as many people greeting the tight end on the other side, most of the time. Then that power comes in and you need to double, that's tougher, but then we have ways to help them with over-fronts and things like that. (We) keep them in the six-technique on the tight end. Size has never been an issue in this system, it's the energy and the discipline and then you need to rush."

On LB Johnny Baldwin: "His running ability and hitting ability; he's special. We just need to get him going in the right direction right now. There's a lot on him because he's calling the signals; these guys are tired and they need to look at the huddle and get the entire call. We made a couple calls where they only got half of them. That's the part we need to stay on top of. He's like (Anthony) Cannon and Ernie (Sims) last year; just run and hit, explosion.

On the performance of the other rookies: "Five-O (DE Ikaika Alama-Francis) did a pretty good job. He kept making (mistakes), and I was on him. When you throw in a timing offense, the ball is coming out pretty quick. You need to get them off the field and come inside on him. Then in the two-minute drill you need to be smart; if you want to come inside you want to wrap the game around. The quarterback got outside us and got out of bounds on that one (play) to stop the (clock)."

On teaching the team to finish the game how they started: "It's always a work in progress. We're always constantly teaching. Today, we have a great opportunity to go out and teach today. Take that same exact situation, that two-minute drill; and it's not just for the guys that were out there, the starters on the sideline need to look at the situation (also). Keep the guy in bounds, they have no timeouts; they need a field goal. Sometimes on a field goal you have to blitz. If they're going for a touchdown you don't blitz; you just play to work the clock, keep it on their side, tackle and then they'll panic. Then when you blitz in a two-minute drill, it's not like you huddle up and everyone hears the call 'ready break.' You're like here and I'm down the field calling 'may day, may day' (and) making a signal. Everybody needs to see the signal and then you need to figure out where the close call is coming from. We had one and not everybody hit it. You have to do that. The best way to do it is at the end of practice where their tongues are wagging a little bit and they're tired. That's when we want to have a two-minute drill. We'll work on it, we're detailing it. Usually, if you keep emphasizing something you have a chance to make it better."

On his frustration when a Bengal runner got out of bounds on their final two-minute drive: "I coach that stuff so (hard); my whole background has been that. Its two-minute drills - we had 10 of them last year. You've just got to be so exact and then when it comes down to the last two-minutes (even more exact). You play 58 minutes all out, you cannot (let up).

"It was like that last game in Dallas when Tyoka (Jackson) missed a sack - shoot me in the head. But what happens is, (if you get the sack) you take a down away from them. As soon as you make that play, they've got to get up (to the line) and spike it. Now (if you miss the sack), they have two downs left. It's just so detailed and it's on us. We as a staff have got to emphasize it."

On what he wants to accomplish this week heading into their second preseason game: "Well, the one thing is we don't want to go backwards on anything we've done well. That's our hustle, our fits and how were throwing the ball. We want to make sure we keep progressing to our strengths. I want to get our run-game going; we've got to get that going. Defensively, we'll add a couple things this week and we'll delete a couple of things. I don't want to have a big menu; I want our menu fairly small. Then (we need to continue improving) our execution; going out there and trying to win this thing the right way; just follow our rotation and go out there and compete."

On whether DE Dwayne White or DT Shaun Rogers will be available in Cleveland: "I'm still waiting (on them); I feel they both have a chance (to play) in Indy. We'll have to wait and see. I think Dewayne (will be available) for sure and we'll see on Shaun."

On whether they'll change the rotation at quarterback: "I think we'll kind of let it play out the week and then at the end of the week we'll sit down and look at it."

On whether QB Jon Kitna will play more at Cleveland: "Oh yeah, our first group is going to get a little bit more time - both sides of the ball will get a little bit more."

On whether LB Teddy Lehman will be available to play in Cleveland: "I don't see him playing this week. He's still a little bit sore; it could change day-to-day but right now I would say probably not."

On how the young cornerbacks fared against Cincinnati: "I thought Keith (Smith) did some really good things. He had the penalty, but doggone he had some nice coverage - that was a great (interception) on a heck-of-a receiver. He played it perfect."

On younger defensive backs not liking to 'lose receivers:' "What happens is: you start biting on something and then the next thing you know you're grabbing because they get nervous. You've just got to believe and trust your technique and skill."

On how CB A.J. Davis and CB Ramzee Robinson performed: "(They're) just a work-in-progress right now; just getting them to re-route all of the time and doing those things in cover-2. I keep calling (the secondary) a no-name group; I just kind of feel good about them. I think they're just going to keep coming and get better each week. This system is going to help them. One thing that we'll do, when we're playing this right and we add a little bit more stuff to it, not too much, but as you get it going, you can put physical pressure on the quarterback with the blitz or you can put tremendous mental pressure on the quarterback with disguise. Mental pressure sometimes can crack the (quarterback) as much as anything - showing them something that's not there. That's the area where we did some things that weren't bad, but especially when you play a really good quarterback, you've really got to be on the screws in terms of your disguises. So we're hitting that very hard with the understanding of the package but again, I want to make sure we force (the opponent's) offense to self-destruct. We've got to make them be perfect and then when the opportunity is up for a sack, the sack-fumble, the interception, fumble, we've got to do that."

On how G Manuel Ramirez performed: "He was solid, you know, for his first time out of the shoot. He's physical and he's tough and he's hung in there. He stayed in and fought pretty well and pass-blocked pretty well."

On how comfortable WR Shaun McDonald looks in the offense: "He really does. Mike (Martz) is so adamant that the fourth receiver is big in this offense. You get that fourth receiver (in there), and boy you talk about matchups inside now, you get a little bit nervous putting a linebacker out there. You might go dime and nickel and some of those things. Again, now it helps you run the ball. You get linebackers out of the box or make DBs go in and play the running game. He adds a tremendous dimension to this offense. He is quick; (we've got) Mike Furrey and then the two big guys (Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson) so that's a nice looking group."

On why he didn't elect to attempt a two-point conversion after scoring their first touchdown in the fourth quarter: "I had my own reasons. It gave us a chance to look at some areas in terms of our game."