Blough: 'You Just Have to Lead, be Yourself, be Genuine, and the Guys Follow'
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David Blough is learning as he goes. His first start in the NFL went much smoother than his second.
Minnesota was able to exploit weaknesses in the Lions offense and stifled Blough consistently.
In fact, to start the game he had his first two passes batted down. He struggled with accuracy throughout the game and was unable to get rid of the football quick enough. Minnesota sacked Blough five times and made Blough look like a third string quarterback.
"Yeah, I think Minnesota is a great defense and it was a different atmosphere to play in for my first time on the road," Blough said Wednesday.
"They’re really good at home, and they’re a tough defense to play against. While the outcome was not what we desire and frustrating, there were definitely a lot of things that we can learn from and move forward from. So I think that’s a positive we can take going forward this week.”
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Settling in to the routine of being the starting quarterback is aiding in making Blough more comfortable with his new role on the team.
"I try to do the things Matthew did and Jeff did. You just have to lead, be yourself, be genuine, and the guys follow," Blough said. "It’s been great to have their support and them lifting me up and trusting me. I’m learning along the way.”
Blough understands that opposing teams will watch what Minnesota was able to do defensively and attempt to use it against him.
"They’ll definitely watch Minnesota and see what we struggled with, they’ll watch Chicago and see what I struggled with, and that’ll be it going forward," he said. "As a player, you can’t make the same mistake twice. You get better and you learn from it, and you move on, and I think that’s what I can work on going forward.”
Blough and the offense struggled to sustain drives. Several three and outs contributed to the Lions offensive struggles.
“The batted balls is a good example. We have to find completions and complete passes at a high level and be able to go and keep it in second-and-manageable, third-and-manageable," Blough explained.
"You look at last week, we had third-and-manageable quite a bit. We just, for whatever reason, couldn’t convert that well. That’s on us as an offense to get it right and execute. I think we’re confident over the last weeks really, we’ve improved on third down quite a bit, and going forward we’ll need to be sharp.”
Blough discussed the batted balls at the line of scrimmage to start the game and the importance of figuring out ways to find the throwing lanes.
"Sometimes it just happens. People get their hands up, and I have to do a better job of finding the lanes to throw through those windows not over them. They got their hands up and made good plays, and you just kind of live with it and go forward. Obviously, that’s not how you want to start a game. We kind of (have) to tighten this up a little bit.”
In a lighter moment, Blough expressed how he can learn from Matthew Stafford's submarine motion. “Yeah, either that or a pump fake, and like, ‘Sunshine’ from Remember the Titans. That was the instruction I got.”
