DETROIT LIONS HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL TALKS NFC WILDCARD
The Detroit Lions travel to Seattle as the No. 6 seed to take on the No. 3 seed NFC West Champion Seahawks (10-5-1) in an NFC Wild Card matchup that features the teams’ first postseason meeting in series history.
Opening statement: “I’d tell you that you guys probably recognized it and realized, those who were there at game, that it was probably one of the most electrifying atmospheres that I’ve certainly ever seen. I thought our fans were tremendous in terms of coming out and being a factor of the game. There were four false starts and delay of games, so they were a factor. But just the enthusiasm and excitement that they created during the course of that ball game was absolutely outstanding. So just have to give them a little bit more to cheer for.”
On how this team flips the switch for the playoffs: “I think that one, the switch is not as dramatic I think whether it happens in-season. I think early on our first quarter of the season there was a bit of a turnaround and we ended up winning the last nine or eight of nine I guess it was. And going into this phase I think it’s kind of natural for it to reset much like the preseason and the regular season. The regular season to the playoffs, it’s just a quantum shift mentally and they’ve got to move forward.”
On how the 2012 Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl when he was the offensive coordinator after that team lost four of its last five games of the regular season: “There’s no team that’s exactly the same, you know, the dynamics are different. That was a different unit, different people, but the result was what you want really. Really what we’re focused on is the exact same thing to where we got it turned around this year. The guys have done it. They’ve been through it. They know what it takes and that’s what we’ll count on. They have some experience there.”
On the difference in the Seahawks secondary without S Earl Thomas: “It’s still an outstanding unit back there. They’ve got guys that can run and cover. They still do a tremendous job. Oftentimes people just look at the coverage unit and that’s it. We talk about how well they cover, but it’s a combination of rush and coverage. They can put pressure on you. They make you get the ball out faster than you’d like and those guys that are playing back there understand that. They work in harmony with one another, so I still think that (Richard) Sherman and the rest of that crew back there do an excellent job. So we’ll have to prepare for that.”
On the Seahawks running game without former RB Marshawn Lynch: “I think philosophically they still want to do the same things. And I think on offense and defense and in their kicking game they have a system that they have in place that’s won a lot of football games for them over the years, and I don’t think they’ve deviated much from that. I think it just kind of goes game by game what they feel they can do, but they still are explosive. They still can run the ball and they certainly can play defense.”
On how the team can prepare for the mobility of Seahawks QB Russell Wilson after dealing with Packers QB Aaron Rodgers last night: “You know, obviously we just have to do a better job. There are a certain couple situations where he got outside of us. You know, oftentimes he will slip up and then out, you know, that’s not too bad. You’re keeping him close to the line of scrimmage, but still you’ve got to have some people that can run him down once in a while too. But he is unusual in that sense and I think the guy we’re facing this week is unusual in that sense. The last time we played them he was all over the field. I think we might have gotten a few sacks in that ball game too. Guys were running and moving well, but you’re not going to stop those guys completely. It would be foolhardy of me to even think that we can keep guys like that from getting out, particularly if they throw the ball extremely well. Your ends are going to get up the field some and they’re going to be able to pop through and squeeze through. We just need to make certain that it just doesn’t break our backs. Last night he (Aaron Rodgers) rushed for one drive in particular that certainly made a huge difference in that game.”
On if he can draw anything from how the team won eight of nine games earlier this season after a 1-3 start: “That’s sort of what I alluded to. I think Kyle asked me a similar question just a little while ago and that’s what I told him. He asked me what about Baltimore, what can you draw up on that situation where you got on a run? I said, ‘Well, I’m going to draw up on the same things that we went through the first quarter of the season when we were 1-3.’ How we got turned around, how we focused and revamped and got on a run. So they’ve had some experience with it is kind of what I mentioned a little bit earlier, so that’s what we’ll try to do.”
On what has to be different about a pass rush when facing mobile quarterbacks such as Rodgers and Wilson: “It’s a delicate balancing act and particularly with (Aaron) Rodgers and Russell (Wilson) both because what you don’t want to do is rush cautiously. You rush cautiously, they’ll stand back there and they’ll wait until guys run to get open and they’ll release the ball and throw to open guys because you can’t cover forever. If you get reckless and really get up the field and rush, that’s when they duck underneath and create some problems, so it’s a delicate balancing act. You have to adjust it and play a little bit of a cat and mouse game with them, but understand that they’re going to get out sometimes. But obviously you just can’t let them get those big long runs that keep those drives alive.”
On how much Wilson is limited currently in Seattle’s running game: “Trust me, it’s just like when everybody was talking about (Aaron) Rodgers and he’s not the same and all that kind of stuff. This guy (Wilson) is still deadly.”
On if it is even harder to contain a quarterback such as Wilson when the defensive line tries to get up field so fast: “Well, you know, we’re always going to attack. I mean that’s kind of what we do, but sometimes you’ve got to take a little bit more of the man, rather than rush edges, things of that nature and you change it up a little bit. You be mindful of what stunts you use against them and those kinds of things, trying to get them to flush to one side as opposed to another. You do a lot of different things of that nature, but like I said, we don’t think we’re going to stop them completely. So it’s got to sometimes be the coverage that creates a problem, not just the rush.”
On what they will do differently at Seattle in order to prevent a flat start: “Yeah, I know oftentimes that everybody’s looking for a reason why, you know, certain things happen and if you take a look at the film you’ll see missed tackles, you’ll see just in terms of an assignment being blown, things of that nature where we have to be sharper and it’s really a game of fundamentals I think. And that’s where you’ll see some drives get extended because of some of those things and those things you can correct, we can get straightened out and we’ll get them back to the point where we’re playing well as a unit. They’re capable of doing it and we’re certainly going to have to do it here coming up this weekend.”
On what gives him hope that they can advance and beat Seattle: “Well, hope is not a strategy, you know. What we do is we look at what we can do best against these guys and put it together and go after it. Anytime that you have an opportunity to play in the playoffs, just look at the history, there’s teams that you can rattle off – Giants, you can rattle off a number of different teams that have gone in and perhaps not had the best regular season that they’d like, but ended up getting themselves in position to really be a factor in the playoffs, so we’re not limited to it. It’s just a mindset for the most part and what we want to do is you’ve got to shake this thing off rather quickly and you’ve got to go after it. That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to preach to the guys. It’s a huge quantum shift mentally and, you know, we’ve got to play like we’re capable of playing.”
On if there is a certain characteristic of teams that are able to shake off losses and advance in the playoffs: “Yeah, they look just like the team that won nine games this year for us. Looks just like that. Didn’t turn the ball over, didn’t penalize yourself out of the box. Did all the little things right there at the end, found a way to win.”
On minimizing RB Zach Zenner’s special teams snaps to conserve his energy for the offense: “Every game is different. Every game is different, there’s some times where you feel that you can push him to the max. There’s other times, obviously that you may have to make some adjustments. We make those according to oftentimes how a guy is feeling with his workload, things of that nature.”
On what went into the decision to play Zenner on all but two offensive snaps against Green Bay: “Every game is different. We make a decision based on what we see, what’s happening, those kinds of things. Every game is different, that’s the decision that we made. Certainly that’s the way in which we went in that particular case.”
On Offensive Coordinator Jim Bob Cooter saying prior to Week 17 vs. Green Bay that it may not be a successful strategy to play a running back on every offensive snap: “Yeah, I say every game is different.”
On what went into the decision to place RB Theo Riddick on Reserve/Injured and what the offense misses without his ability: “Yeah, you know, obviously he’s a guy that is very capable. He’s done a lot of great things for us, all you do is look at the stats and the numbers. You can see what he’s been able to do over time and obviously we make those decisions based upon our medical. We have a plan, we put it together and we have timelines we work with. So we hit our timeline, we made adjustments.”
On the challenge of traveling to the west coast on a short week: “Yeah, you know, we’ve played short weeks several times obviously here in the last couple weeks. We also do every year at Thanksgiving, so our guys are accustomed to it. We just have to make some adjustments in terms of how we practice and those kinds of things. But now, you’ve got a Monday, Tuesday that you’re dealing with where there’s some recovery involved. It’s really just kind of one day, but if those guys are anything like me you get kind of wound up during the game. Afterward, takes you a little while to get wound down and you end up going to sleep about 2:15 in the morning. I’ve got to be back up at a pretty early hour, so I’m assuming that they probably are running on the same type of schedule. We have to be mindful of what we think we can get out of them during the course of practice, yet we need the preparation to get ready for this game. So, we’ll make some adjustments and like we do every week on a short week. We think that will be more than adequate.”
On when the team plans on leaving for Seattle: “Always the day before.”
On if Riddick had surgery: “You know we don’t talk about injuries and things of that nature.”
On how he stays mentally sharp in situations when he is losing hours of sleep: “I’m accustomed to it. Forty years of it now, you get accustomed to it. Not quite as young as I used to be, but you know.”
On if he has any strategies that he has developed over the years to stay mentally alert: “I’ve never needed much sleep. All my life I’ve always kind of been one of those guys, we get a little bit from time to time.”
On his sense of the players being ready to turn the page to Seattle: “I haven’t seen many of the guys yet. They come in and out of the training room and those kinds of things, we’re busy preparing for Seattle. I know this team, they can put things behind them and they’ll be fine.”