Taylor Decker: 'Penalties Were Killing Us Today'

Lions offensive tackle Taylor Decker discusses the loss to the Bears and what it was like hearing a different voice running the offense

When a quarterback suits up for 136 consecutive games, a certain level of comfort is shared by the QB's teammates, coaches and fans. 

Lions left tackle Taylor Decker was asked in the postgame about hearing a different voice calling plays for the first time in his playing career. 

“We found out yesterday. It was kind of a surprise," Decker said. "For him (Stafford) to not be out there, we know it’s a really serious situation. As much as we want him out there, he wants to be out there with us probably even more. I think it was like 140 starts. The coaches did a really good job. Jeff did a really good job stepping in there on short notice and battling.”

Decker also conveyed his thoughts about the Lions yet again taking too many costly penalties. 

In fact, the Lions were penalized eight times for 76 yards on Sunday.

"A big thing we need to clean up to avoid is going backwards and hurting ourselves," Decker commented. "Penalties were killing us today. If we can clean those up -- I’m sure there was a mental error here or there -- those are the things we can control." 

He added, "If you get beat one-on-one or have great coverage, that’s going to happen. The things we can control -- the penalties that come from technique and just studying -- is just killing us. We got to get that cleaned up." 

Patricia also discussed the penalties in his postgame press conference. 

In his opening remarks, Patricia stated, "That’s really the big thing for me -- right now coming out of the game -- was probably penalties. I think that was probably the thing that hurt us the most in this game, either getting us in backed-up situations or getting us off track on offense or giving extra chances to their offense. I think that was kind of the biggest issues for us with the game. We got to do a better job with that."

Additionally, Decker explained that the team was heartbroken for Stafford having to end his consecutive games streak. 

“Us, his teammates, (we're) heartbroken for the guy," Decker said. "He wants to be out there as much as we want him out there. It might not sound like a good answer, but you got to go forward with business as usual. You still have a game to go out there and compete (in)."