What They're Saying: Lions Outplayed In Blowout Loss
Here is a collection of comments made by the Detroit Lions after being soundly defeated by the Baltimore Ravens, 38-6.
On not getting run game going early in the game: “You know, the run game always helps us. That’s something that we always want to hang our hat on. It’s kind of where everything starts for us. I’ll be the first to say, when you go three-and-out your first two series, and then they gain 14 points in their first two series, that’s a hard recipe there early in the game. You feel like you get put in a pretty tough spot in both areas. I thought we would be able to overcome it. I thought we’d come out in the second half and be able to overcome that and get some momentum back. We thought, but we couldn’t get it turned over. We couldn’t quite get going. It’s frustrating. Ultimately, things happen for a reason. The good lord that never gives us anything we can’t handle, and so we probably needed it.”
On how a blowout affects the team mentality: “It doesn’t. You just have to take that one on the chin. They just kicked our (butt). It is what it is, but it’s not going to change what we’re about. Obviously, we’ve got a lot to clean up. We’ll see what the film says, ultimately, but that’s not going to change the mentality of this team. It’s a 17-game season. It’s one game. You hate to have those games, but even coach (Dan Campbell) said, at some point, it was going to be inevitable that we were going to stumble. We could’ve stumbled in a win, but we stumbled in a loss, which is embarrassing.”
On if Ravens defense forced the offense out of rhythm: “No. We can play fast, too, and that’s what we started doing. And in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter we started to play fast, we started picking up yards when we drove down the field. So, I don’t think it was a tempo thing. I just feel like we didn’t execute.”
Reaction to his first NFL touchdown: “I've worked very hard to get here and the touchdown showed the commitment I've made to this game.”
What he tells his teammates after a blowout loss: “We’ve been through a whole lot worse than this. This was a tough game, and we got our butts kicked, but this group has had a lot of adversity. And this is kind of our first taste of getting kicked in the teeth this year. We need to respond the right way and show up, whatever it is, on Wednesday, whenever we come back, and make sure we are ready to go.”
What was the difference in this game: "I think they got us on a couple plays today, but you know, maybe it was just a lack of execution on our part. You know, just staying disciplined with some of the plays, some of the different kinds of plays they were running, like the late (Mark) Andrews pass and the late little running back pass. You’ve just got to execute and focus on the details a little more.”
On how tough it was to stop the Ravens offense: “We just got outplayed, and we know that we have to bounce back next week. The Ravens did a hell of a job today, and you know we are not taking anything away from them. We know the type of team that we are, and we just got to get through to next week.”
Difficulty defending Lamar Jackson: “It's tough; you have to be able to push the pocket to keep him in there. You want to force him to be a pocket passer and today he did a good job. Like I said, we are a great team. We have these ups and downs in the league, but next week we are going to respond. We are going to watch film, and we are going to get better.”
On how the game went: “It was tough. There were just certain plays that we hadn't really seen. It’s just hard. It’s hard to execute against a team like that. When you have a player like that (Lamar Jackson), it makes it really hard, and that’s what happens when you don’t execute. And not on top of all your P’s and Q’s, they put up 500 yards and that many points."
