What They're Saying: Lions Expect to Perform, 'Handle Business'
Here is a collection of quotes from Detroit Lions players and coaches following their 42-24 win over the Carolina Panthers in Week 5.
On Jerry Jacobs' interception: "Listen, Jerry's doing a great job. He's another guy who's really come on the last three weeks. But I'll say this too, AG did a great job game planning once again this week and that was a heck of a call by him. That was a bit of a bait call. Baited him into something. It was the same look as what we've been giving a couple of times before and Jerry did a great job of making it look exactly like it was. He adjusted to the throw. It was great. It was a great call and it was great by Jerry, understanding what we're trying to get done."
On the team's trick play resulting in a touchdown pass to Sam LaPorta: "It's funny. (Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson) called it off that turnover and I smiled at him like, man, I love it. We're trying to bump them. It's good. We ran it against Green Bay, I can't remember if it was last year or two years ago, and it was the same thing just to Sam (LaPorta). It was wide open and it worked."
On the team's identity: "We're a good team. Offensively I think it's exactly that, we're very multiple and can do a little bit of everything."
On his rapport with QB Jared Goff: "We're just making plays, baby. That's that rapport we've had for a long time. It's awesome to be able to get to clicking on it for real. We're just gonna keep it rolling."
On the team's confidence going into every game: "Every game. You see a team that comes in at 0-4 and the fans might be like, 'Oh that's an easy win.' Certainly not, they came out and fought really hard today. Every game in this business is tough sledding and you really have to show up and execute. It's great that we're 4-1 right now and we're excited for next week."
On the offense's success without Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs: "We distribute the ball well. A lot of guys can pick up the slack. We want those guys to get back healthy as soon as they can, we can definitely use them. It's a feeling of confidence and security that we operate with any guy out there. Every guy here is ready to play and step in when they need to."
On the defense creating three takeaways leading to 21 points: "Yeah, that's what we were talking about a couple weeks ago. That complimentary football allows you to do a lot more and allows our offense better opportunities to score and make plays. It just goes hand in hand like that, it does."
On the performance of RB David Montgomery: "David is a bulldozer. I'm glad he's on our team, I can't lie to you. I don't have to play against him no more. He's a bulldozer and he runs that ball, he totes that ball. I tell him that every day. He totes that pill. He's a really good running back."
On the offense's creativity: "You've got to make it work or Ben won't call it again. Just being able to be creative and some of the cool things Ben has, I've never seen some of the things he calls and how he calls it, so it's fun. It's really fun. I'm excited to get some more things going too."
On whether the team has proven anything through five weeks: "Ain't nothing proven yet. It'll be proven once we do it all. I firmly believe that and I know we're capable of doing that, we just have to do it. So it's never been about proving anybody else wrong, it's always been about proving ourselves right. We're on a journey to do that this year."
On what it is like to lead the division through five games: “I mean I would just say we go out there and we expect to win week in and week out and handle our business. Then whatever happens with placements or whatever and stuff like that, none of that is going to matter if we don’t go out there and win every single week. If we laid an egg out there today, we’re going to be hanging our heads in the locker room, so I feel like we have a very ‘now’ mindset with this group of guys where we know the Panthers are looking for some success and they’re going to want to come in here and lay it on us. But we’re going to go out there every single week and we’re going to perform no matter who we’re playing against.”
