Lions Head Coach Jim Caldwell on Green Bay and Lions Injuries
Detroit (1-1) embarks on a two-game road stand beginning with a Week 3 trip to Green Bay (1-1) to face the Packers. Sunday’s matchup marks the 172nd all-time meeting between the NFC North rivals, as Green Bay leads the all-time series, 96-68-7. The Lions and Packers have split the season series each year since 2013, with the Packers winning the most recent contest, 27-23 at Ford Field in 2016 (12/3). The team’s win at Green Bay last season (11/15) snapped a 23-game regular season losing streak on the road against the Packers.
The following players have been listed on the Detroit Lions’ Practice Report today: DE Ezekiel Ansah (ankle), DE Wallace Gilberry (abdomen), TE Eric Ebron (back), LB DeAndre Levy (quad), T Riley Reiff (ankle), LB Kyle Van Noy (calf), DT Tyrunn Walker (calf) and LB Antwione Williams (hamstring) did not practice. CB Adairius Barnes (ankle) was limited in practice. TE Cole Wick (shoulder) participated in full practice.
The Green Bay Packers’ Practice Report was not available as of 4:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.
The Detroit Lions have signed free agent WR Aaron Dobson and placed RB Ameer Abdullah (foot) on Reserve/Injured. Detroit also signed LB Zaviar Gooden and RB George Winn to the practice squad; and released G Chase Farris and WR Isaac Fruechte from the practice squad.
LIONS HEAD COACH JIM CALDWELL
On how the team makes up for losing RB Ameer Abdullah: “Guys have to step up and play. Somebody has to take a few more carries than they would have ordinarily and obviously I think we have a number of guys that can do that for us.”
On how opponents attack a team with injuries at specific positions: “It depends on the team. It depends on how they view it. There’s been times I think our first year here we had a situation where we had a number of our nickels go down in successive weeks. You probably recall that. Last year Crezdon Butler is signed on Saturday morning and comes out and plays for us on Sunday, so we’ve had situations where we’ve had some issues that we had to deal with, but that’s part of the game. Everybody has injuries all across the board. It’s just whether or not you want to make it an excuse and we’re not going to make it an excuse. We’re going to find a way to get better.”
On what gives him confidence RB Dwayne Washington can make an impact: “Probably look at the numbers, look at his production. When he touches the ball he’s generally pretty productive, but he’s young. But I think you’ll see him improve and keep getting better week by week. “
On if there will continue to be a running-back-by-committee approach on offense: “You’re going to see from game to game, we go about it different ways for different reasons. Sometimes there’s a set or a series of plays that we think will function a little bit better against the opposition against others, so sometimes it’s hard to necessarily tell you that. Obviously, Theo (Riddick) is the veteran guy back there, the most productive guy that we’ve got back there at this particular point in time. So yeah, he’s the lead guy, but the fact of the matter is it’ll be some other guys carrying the ball as well. It just depends on how much depending upon exactly what type of attack we decide to use.”
On if Washington’s skillset alters the offensive scheme: “What we try to do week in and week out is utilize a guy’s talents and ability. We have plays that we can adapt to that or that we utilize. They might not be used exactly the same way we used Ameer (Abdullah), obviously with some of the things that they do and in some cases they can do the same plays. They just might not look the same to you because they’re a little bit different style of runner. But I think you’ll see we’re not changing our offense.”
On if the versatility in the running back group relaxes him: “No, I don’t think you’ll ever find a team in this league that’ll just completely collapse when that situation happens because you’ll go out and you’ll find guys that can come and do the job for you. They may not be able to do it exactly the same way, but they can do it. For us, we have guys that can play, I think, and have been productive and have proven to be productive. It’s just a matter of how many times they touch it. We feel good about the guys that we have in that spot.”
On if there’s any hope of getting Abdullah back this season: “We’ll see.”
On if Abdullah had surgery: “He did.”
On if Abdullah has pins in his foot: “Yeah, you know, I’m certainly not going to go into all the details, but he did have surgery and we’ll see what happens. He’s always proven to be a pretty quick healer.”
On if he’s seen any changes in Packers QB Aaron Rodgers’ game due to his early season struggles: “Those are your words, just remember that, not mine, because of the fact that this guy is as talented of a guy there is in our league. He can make every throw, he can run, he’s an outstanding leader, he’s won tons of games, extremely capable individual. I don’t know what struggling means in that regard, not with a guy like that. He’s like lightning in a bottle and to me he’s very, very difficult to handle and defend.”
On what the Lions are getting in signing free agent WR Aaron Dobson: “Big, a guy who’s got speed. Obviously, you can see by his length and those kinds of things, he’s a capable guy. He can get down the field as well, can cover some ground and we’re happy to have him. He’s maybe a little bit different than some of the guys we have at this stage, but I think he’ll do a good job for us.”
On if the Packers’ early sacks on defense is due to the back end of their defense: “Yeah, I think that’s right. It is a combination of both because when you look at them I think (Julius) Peppers has more sacks than anybody else at this time. I think he has two. I think (Clay) Matthews is one and a half, (Mike) Daniels is one and a half, I believe, somewhere around there. A couple other guys have a sack, so they spread it around quite a bit and they do it a number of different ways. They do it from a schematic standpoint, they give you overloads, they do it by just beating a guy one-on-one, so it’s their front in a number of cases, but also their back end is really solid. Their linebackers, they do a good job of kind of disguising things on you, giving you pressure, making you get rid of the ball a little bit faster than you’d like and if you don’t, obviously you’re going to have some problems. They’ve always had a real unique system, so I think it’s a combination of both.”
On how he feels about the depth at the linebacker position: “We’ll have guys that’ll be able to play and play well.”
On if LB DeAndre Levy will play at Green Bay: “We’ll see.”
On if strategies against Green Bay carry over year-to-year: “Yeah, it’s a lot less than probably what the normal person would think, but that’s last year. That’s so far back on the radar it’s unbelievable. There’s been a lot going on between that time.”
On DE Brandon Copeland being able to play linebacker: “He’s unique in that sense because of the fact that there’s a lot of linebackers in our league that will play linebacker and then down in four-down they’ll slide to an end. It’s not something that’s uncommon. He’s just one of those guys that’s had familiarity with both spots well enough where we can adapt and use him in both situations, which you saw over the weekend. Anticipate that he has a possibility of doing both.”
On the run blocking performance so far this season: “You usually look for somewhat of a productive running game, we’ve been effective in that regard. Typically when that happens you’re doing some good things pretty well upfront, but don’t get me wrong when I tell you that we are young. We’ve got a long way to go. Every week’s a new challenge. Let’s see what kind of running game we have this week, that’s my concern at this point in time. Those last two games we were certainly functional in that area, this game we have to be better.”
On what the offensive line has done this season compared to last season to be more effective in run blocking: “I think some of them have matured. There’s some guys that are brand new like Deck (Taylor Decker), he’s new, but he’s learning and he’s adapting well. I just think overall, they’re getting a little bit better sense of the system. Every week, and I say this over and over again and I’ll keep saying it, it’s a little different challenge. What people do, now they have an opportunity to have two game film that they’ve looked at and they’ve studied. These guys are experts at what they do, so they know the vulnerable spots. They’ll make you do something a little bit differently, your linemen have to adapt and adjust on the run. Like I said, the more they work together at some point in time, some of those things won’t bother them as much, but I would anticipate we’ll have some stop-and-go situations that we may stall out some, but then other times we’ll find some creases. I think all-in-all these guys just keep battling. The way they practice, the way they work, the way they communicate with one another, they’re just going to keep getting better the more reps they get. We’re counting on them being effective this week.”
On what Green Bay has done upfront to make them effective in the run game this season: “Dom (Capers) has been around a long time, he’s one of the best just in terms of scheming up different systems. There’s nothing that he hasn’t seen, so they have some pretty good ways to handle different situations that stall people out and certainly get the count in their favor. I think also, obviously they have really good personnel. The guys can play. I think the combination of those things really creates some problems.”
On how the Lions will generate a pass rush if DE Ezekiel Ansah cannot play: “I’m not going to talk about injuries and all that kind of stuff. All I’ll say to you is he wasn’t in the game last week, much of the ball game after the first couple, and Devin Taylor didn’t do too badly, nor did Kerry Hyder, so we’ll see how it goes.”
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