LIONS HEAD COACH ROD MARINELLI, POLLARD, JONES AND KITNA ALL SPEAK

LIONS HEAD COACH ROD MARINELLI FOLLOWING MORNING WORKOUT
On the injury status of WR Eddie Drummond, G Barry Stokes and G Damien Woody: "[Damien] Woody is going to get the hand fixed; It's looking like two weeks for Woody. Eddie [Drummond] was just holding down a little bit. He's got some groin pulls; just some tightness. [Barry] Stokes [hamstring] is pretty good. They thought maybe a week, but it might be sooner when he's back. Kevin Jones is going to be fine; he just had a bruise. We're just trying to be more conscious about all of them. Fernando [Bryant] was out there too. Those guys on the outside [defensive backs] have to have the bolts in their legs so they can take off and go."

On which players will be held out of the team's scrimmage at Ford Field: "I've got to talk to [trainer] Al [Bellamy] again, but possibly Eddie. We have to wait and see. I want to see how they warm up too and some of those things. I want this still to be an important event for them. This is practice right now. We're still pushing and we're still in the process of pushing them and I want to make tonight a work night. So they've got to understand that this is a work night and this is practice for us. The best thing about it is that it puts our practice in a different environment and we're going to have a lot of different situations where coaches are going to have to react tonight to personnel. That means that if the coach has to react, the player has to react. It should be good in terms of all of it - I'm looking for a great tempo. We're going to do what we do, but there's no tackling the quarterback; no going diving for balls or anything like. Same teamwork tempo and I want to come out a better team tonight. The one thing they've done is that they just keep working on the fundamentals and skills."

On if they've earned a much deserved day off tomorrow: "Oh yeah. Everything they're getting - they've earned."

On if he has their off days planned, or if he goes day-by-day: "I kind of go day-by-day - feeling it. When you plan things out in advance, sometimes that's not always the best. I can feel, 'Man, they're humming right now; they've earned this; they're tired; they've earned that.' You can feel it and I just like how they've done things. I think it's good when you don't know when something is coming. You just keep pounding the rock. Just keep pounding."

On rookie RB Brian Calhoun: "He does a lot of little things: he can catch the ball; you move him outside and he catches the ball; he runs with it; he's good. We just have to get guys into preseason games and see how they react."

On if there is any need to use Calhoun right away or if he will be more of a developmental player: "I want to see how far he is. Let's see how he performs in games and see what he does under pressure; how well he picks up blitzes. All those things - protection schemes - that's important. Anytime a guy is up there, you hold somebody else's career in your hands with protections and all those things. So we've got to prove that we can take care of all of those details."

On if he's been to Ford Field before as an opposing coach: "Yeah, just one time: 2002. That was the year we [Tampa Bay Buccaneers] won the Super Bowl and we had to fight to get out of here."

On the advantage of playing indoors: "When you become a speed defense, and I think you can see the speed we're getting on the field right now - we're fast; we're getting fast - now your rush is faster. Then you get an offense with good speed, you start to get leads, and now your defense wreaks havoc up the field. Its good footing; good turf and the noise. When you get your defense to start jumping snap counts - you're awesome. You're taking off now. It's tough on the offense at that point because everything starts getting loud. The cadence, snap counts, all those things. It really feels rushed for opponents. Great defenses know you win in those domes with speed. It's special."

On how most 'dome teams' are usually known for their offense and not their defense: "Indianapolis had good speed [on defense] last year. When Coach Dungy was with the Minnesota Vikings at that time, boy the speed he had with players like John Randle - he was very on top of it because that turf was fast. When Mike Martz was with the Rams and Lovie [Smith] was there, they had a fast, fast defense."

On if Ford Field's turf is as fast as Tampa Bay's stadium: "Oh yeah, it's fast and built for speed. It's good for us with our speed."
LIONS HEAD COACH ROD MARINELL FOLLOWING BLACK AND BLUE SCRIMMAGE
On the Black and Blue Scrimmage: "So I came in to get some good work tonight - Like I was telling you this morning. You could see all of the situations we had, all the personnel changes. The players and the staff all did a good job. We wanted to make it hard on everybody, especially the staff - with all the changes and all of the situations. All we did was have down and distance, nothing scripted, so everybody was on the run all night tonight - all the different kicking situations. That was goal number one, and still make it a nice, crisp, physical practice in terms of tempo."

On it being refreshing to practice here in front of fans: "My biggest thing to our team is that the environment changes, and we can't. We just have to go through our worries as a work day, come in to a great environment and all of those things - but you can't let the environment affect what we're doing."

On the reception from the fans: "It's great - it's a football town, an awesome football town, and awesome sports town. It's tremendous - we just have to go and do what we do and that's the bottom line."

On being at Ford Field for the first time: "It was awesome getting on the field, but then all of a sudden - all of the situations we had - we taxed ourselves today as much as we could. We want to make sure we're on top of the screws as we're going, as soon as you start, you forget where you're at and you're just looking at your paper at that point and make sure you players are in position to see all of the different situations."

LIONS RB KEVIN JONES
On tonight's Black and Blue Scrimmage: "It's just a practice for us. We're just out here trying to give the fans a good look to see what we've got for the upcoming season."

LIONS TE MARCUS POLLARD
On catching a touchdown pass at the Black and Blue Scrimmage: "I got some opportunities today. Mike's (Martz) got a great offense and he's giving me opportunities to make some plays and today he had enough confidence in the quarterback and myself. He called my number and I fortunately got open and made some plays today."

LIONS WR ROY WILLIAMS
On tonight's Black and Blue Scrimmage: "We're glad the fans could come out and watch us. We wish they could come out to Allen Park, they'd make [training camp] go a little faster. It's just fun to entertain and try to get things done."

On some of his highlight type catches at scrimmage: "They were pretty good catches. I should have had more, but Dre (Bly) sticks his hand in there and knocks them out of there. That's why we like to compete against each other because we compete against each other in everything. I think it's just two good players going at it."

LIONS QB JON KITNA
On tonight's Black and Blue Scrimmage: "We didn't do anything new tonight. They saw all the stuff that we tried to do tonight. It was good for us to be in this environment. We didn't change anything. This is just a normal practice for us. But it was good to be out here and get all of the jitters out of the way of playing in front of the fans."
Courtesy of the Lions