Opening Remarks: "Alright, that last ballgame we were disappointed we didn't win the game. Certainly we had our opportunities and they played well. It was more about us that ballgame. We're going into this game, we've got a great opportunity; great challenge. Detroit's defense, their front kind of anchors that defense; very, very good, highly talented. So we have our work cut out for us. We've got a great challenge there up front. We'll open it up to questions."
On getting RB LeSean McCoy involved early on in the game: "Yeah, we'll use all of our eligible runners and receivers and he's one of them. He's very good. I thought he played well that last ballgame."
On whether he's happy with McCoy off the screen plays: "Yup. He did well, he played well. He can play even better. That's like all positions after that last game. We all can play a little bit better. Made some mistakes there, off and on, and it just disrupted us, so we've got to be a little bit more consistent."
On how he's going to handle the fullback situation on Sunday: "I'd rather not talk about that. We have Owen Schmitt in and he's our fullback. He's had a good practice yesterday, a good walkthrough yesterday, a good practice yesterday, a good walkthrough just now, so great confidence in him. He's been in this terminology before, so he's pretty sharp. He's a big, physical guy."
On the impact of Lions DT Ndamukong Suh: "Well, he stopped one of the goal-line plays down there, simply by penetration. He's a very strong man and so, like I said, we'll have our work cut out for us. They stopped the one play down there to make them kick a field goal and then later in the game, they stopped them four straight plays; three runs and one pass. He was a big part of that."
On whether their front four is different from the past: "Well, the personnel, top to bottom, is much different. Yeah, it's just a whole different squad there. On defense, I believe they have as many as 17 different players and I believe it's eight that are starting. And they have a quality guys. They've got a five-time Pro Bowler in (LB Julian Peterson) and they've got an excellent front. He's a five-time Pro Bowler, so they've got some excellent players on the defensive side of the ball."
On the loss of C Jamaal Jackson and the confidence he has in G/C Mike McGlynn:"Great confidence in Mike McGlynn. That's too bad about Jamaal Jackson. He's been through a couple of long rehabs with two major surgeries and this is a third one. I've been through this before, sometimes several things happen and then they stay healthy for five, or eight, or ten years even. I think that's a little cyclic for him and he'll come back from this, Jamaal will. Great confidence in Mike McGlynn, and the good thing is, he got an awful lot of reps in training camp and in the preseason."
On the importance of chemistry that McGlynn has built since taking snaps at center: "Yeah, that will be important. That's important. It was important work, that was my point, yeah."
On whether the offense stays the same or if he plans on tweaking some things, given FB Leonard Weaver's injury:"Yeah, just a little bit. Early here and then once Owen gets a real good feel, a little bit more, a little bit more. Normal management with a new player. He's so new, he got here just days ago. Expect him to play at a high level. He's a smart guy and his preparation is very, very good up to date."
On whether QB Kevin Kolb's mistakes were based off of decision-making: "Look, I do know now that we've got to get the quarterback help; that's first. Then second, there's a couple of things there that I would have liked to see him do the right thing on, do a better job there. It's very difficult to get an evaluation in such a short number of plays there. He'll be fine, yeah."
On whether it's hard to give an evaluation of QB Michael Vick, given that he only played one half: "Well, he had more plays. He had a bunch of plays. I think we ended up with 60, a low 60 amount of plays and then we just had very, very few in the first half and that was our responsibility to continue drives."
On whether Kolb getting hit early in the game could influence the decision-making:"Oh yeah, every quarterback in this league no matter how tough you are, if you continue to hit the quarterback – that's why those pass rushers are so important. It distorts the decision-making just a little bit. There are some quarterbacks in this league, you've got to do it early and often and all the way through the game to have any effect at all. Others you can get to pretty quickly."
On whether that's the unknown with Kolb:"Kevin's a tough guy now. Kevin's a tough, tough guy, so I wouldn't expect that at all, no."
On WR DeSean Jackson and balancing the act of getting the ball in his hands without forcing it:"Yeah, we've been through that before. It's cyclic just a little bit. There will be games where he catches a bunch of balls. I would suggest, I would think there will be others where other guys are catching the ball. Certainly tried to get it to him down the field several times. Got it in underneath several times to him. That's a real fine line there. Look, when we don't have it down the field to him, we've got to complete the ball and gain yards."
On how important it is to get Jackson more involved:"Well, I always like to get DeSean involved, yeah. I like to get (TE) Brent (Celek) involved, I like to get our halfback involved, I like to get (WR Jeremy) Maclin involved, I like to get them all involved."
On how G Reggie Wells is fitting in: "Oh, outstanding. He's been here a short period of time and he's another real smart guy. His preparation has been excellent. Sort of a natural player, so things come easy to him that way. He's done well."
On whether he expects Detroit to keep Vick in the pocket and how he plans on countering that:"Well, there's several different ways and schemes that people will quite possibly use on Michael. Spies, mush rush, contain; five man rush to try to free up the lane, the running lane – those type of things. All of those are possibilities from, virtually, any team and certainly there are counters to that."
On whether he's going to set up his gameplan around Vick's skillset: "There's two ways – Mike does that naturally and then schematically, you can get into a whole host of things. Those are always possibilities there."
On the experience he took away from his time in Detroit as a head coach:"Oh, I learned an awful lot and, you know, the roster has changed quite a bit. I believe there are two men left there. That first draft that I was heavily involved in, we got (DT) Shaun Rodgers who's now not there and then their starting left tackle and starting center. Trying to build that thing inside out. Those two guys are winners and they've been through some tough, tough years; just tough, tough years. They're much better talent-wise. They've done a pretty good job here in recent past history on building that talent. Now, they had a bunch of high picks in every round, so they've done a pretty good job there. Listen, that was a great experience. The old saying, you learn more when – then you find out about people when things aren't good. You know? I thought the one thing that I was proud of is that all those players, man, they stayed together and they fought. Then you go back and look at the thing, we had 10 straight single-digit losses – or 10 straight single-digit games and won one. They stayed together and they fought. I was proud of that. We were outmanned virtually every game, now they're getting to where they're matching up pretty good against people. Well, they certainly did against Chicago last week."
On whether the Lions are a little bigger on the line:"Yeah, they're a little bigger. And I'll tell you what, across the board they've got a couple backups that we'll play. 93 (Kyle Vanden Bosch) is a heck of a player and he plays the game the way it should be played; high motor, he's making plays 20 yards down the field from the opposite side. 92 (Cliff Avril), on the other side, is a heck of an end. They're very big and very physical inside starting with Suh, we talked about him on goal-line. Their front is just excellent and this will really be a good challenge for us."
On whether it makes it more difficult to gauge Suh, considering that he's just a rookie: "Well, that's right. You only have so many plays on a man. Our guys are used to watching literally hundreds of plays on their opponent that's going to be lined up more near them. Just hundreds and hundreds of plays, so we have a select few there for him. I think it's enough to get a pretty good feel on how he goes about his business and then they learn something every week, new players do, and they usually add something to their repertoire. Did I say that right? And then you have talent like he does, and that's a good challenge for us."
On whether it's hard to get the running backs carries with Vick at quarterback: "Well, it's a little different last week because we were trying to race back. We just had to do that. Mike is very effective in the running game as you saw. I believe it was the third preseason game, he goes in and he hands the ball off. Taking care of the backside, the safeties might just be a touch later, expecting Michael to end up with the football. So, no, I think that could end up being a positive for (RB) LeSean McCoy and (RB) Mike Bell and the rest of our backs."
