What They're Saying: Jared Goff Trusts Jameson Williams
Here is a collection of notable postgame quotes from Lions players and coaches following a 42-17 win over the Denver Broncos
On if this team has the qualities to win in December and the postseason: "We have traits. We have the traits to be able to play a number of different ways. We've got an offensive line, we've got a quarterback, we've got a defense that I think plays disruptive, can play disruptive. The only thing that's missing for us right now is getting these turnovers in bunches, and it's coming. I believe it, it's coming. We got one today. We held onto the football and that's the formula. So we've got some backs, I feel like we've got a little bit of everything. This game is about matchups, it's about matchups. The next matchup is out at Minnesota. We've got to find a way to find those just like they're gonna try to do against us, and come out of there with a W. But that's what this time of year is about, December and certainly playoffs, it's about the matchups."
On Jameson Williams' development: “He’s coming on, he really is. Again, it’s the work in practice, it’s all the extra hours and everything he’s doing to deserve it. I trust him. He’s where he needs to be, he’s catching the ball in tough locations and I think it’s only keep gonna go up for him. The sky’s the limit, he’s a hell of a player, he’s a hell of a kid and he’s working hard right now.
On his first quarter strip-sack: "Yeah, it's a lot of fun obviously. It's crazy because that play I had the strip-sack, we ran it in practice every day to the same play. They ran the exact same play. He turned left because he's a righty and he rolls back and he doesn't see me. We ran it the same way in practice every day and it was the same result."
On his reaction to Isaiah Buggs' fumble return: "I was trying to get him to pitch it back and he didn't hear me so I was like, let me just try to get a block. The tight end was coming to his left side, I tried to chip him a little bit. It was a good play, I'm gonna joke with him that he should've pitched it back cause I would've scored. But no, it was a good play by him. He was fast out there too, he almost made it all the way down there, I was surprised. But it was a good play."
On playing within a game plan that calls for plenty of blitzes: "Yeah, it's fun. For me, I love pressuring. When you pressure, you have to win your one-on-ones and a lot of times we were able to do that."
How the team was able to rebound this week: "I think it's more of not listening to the outside noise. We know who we are, we know what we can be and it just comes down to executing and doing your job and flying around, having fun. That was really the big emphasis this week, just flying around, executing your job with a smile on your face."
On the level of fun the offense was having: "It was really fun when stuff started clicking because everyone was getting the ball and everybody was scoring. We were just having fun out there."
On whether this game carried extra weight for Dan Campbell and if he knew Campbell said the Broncos would try to embarrass the Lions: "I didn't know he said that. But yeah, Dan was fired up about this game, you could tell before the game and after. It was just different, it was different than any other game, I felt like."
How he assessed Jared Goff's five-touchdown performance: "I think it starts with Jared, certainly starts with the head coach and obviously all the leaders on the team. If you could've seen us at practice this week, we were really flying around. I don't know how many teams in the league -- obviously I haven't been around the league very long -- but it's week 15 and we were getting after it, like we flying around the field. So we've just gotta keep building on these wins and see where we can go."
How the offense corrected its mistakes from past weeks: "I think for us it was just getting back to what we do. We've got a bunch of playmakers on this team, from the running backs to the tight ends, receivers, quarterback, whatever it is. We can make plays and so, maybe, going back to what we were doing earlier in the year. Nothing too complicated. Go win your one-on-ones as receivers, O-line block it up, gotta block in the run game. We've got backs that can make guys miss. So just playing hard, playing gritty and kind of how we established this team is the toughness that we have, especially on offense. So being that tough offense that we are, being able to run it, play-action off it, just doing things like that."
On the importance of having a fully healthy offensive line: “Just having cohesiveness and some continuity’s nice, especially when you’re used to playing next to certain guys. I mean, unfortunately we’ve had to shuffle around a lot of guys this year. That’s the nature of the NFL, you see teams all the time having to shuffle offensive lines. I don’t know what the stats are, if we had to do it more than others, but that’s just ball. I mean, that’s what it is. Other guys are gonna have to come in and play. Very talented group.”
On the Lions' strong week of practice this week: "I can definitely say the players set the tone. The players are the ones that make this thing go. The coaches are there to put us in a situation to be successful but the players are the ones that gotta go out and execute. It's a business, man, if you don't go out and execute they'll find someone else to do it. So we've just gotta continue to execute week in and week out."
