New England - 29, Detroit - 0
(The live stream started late via the Detroit Lion's Twitter channel.)
DC: So he can come home. So that's good news. You know, certainly we didn't play good football there. It was not good. It was the worst of the season overall as a team. And, you know, that falls on me. You can't play that way and -- unless your head coach doesn't have them ready. So that's 100 percent on me.
Questions?
Q. Your offense, pretty much all year. What was it today? I know you have to see the film. What did you see or not see from them that was struggling?
DC: Yeah, nothing really. I mean, we felt like -- I mean, they did a couple things. But nothing that we haven't -- weren't prepared for or hadn't seen. We could just really never get Goff in rhythm.
So we were doing things that we wanted to do in the run game. It was going very much like we kind of thought it would and hoped it would. We just -- when it came time to throw it, we just -- we could never get him quite comfortable.
You know, and then we end up getting behind and the numbers things there. But, so, yeah, for different reasons, you know, it was never always one person or one thing. It's protection. Well, you know, it's just the little stuff. And the little stuff has continued to get us, which is on me.
Q. (No microphone.)
DC: I have not talked to him yet. I have not.
Q. (No microphone.)
DC: Yeah, I had a yard marker I knew that we needed to get inside of to feel good about it, you know, to swing away. Otherwise, take your chances with the offense.
Q. (No microphone.)
DC: We had an ME. Yeah, we had -- somebody was supposed to be blocked on the end. So we had a mental error there. So that's why we lost the yardage. Yeah, the play was a good call. It was a real good call. We had exactly what we wanted.
Q. (No microphone.)
DC: Yeah, I mean, it hurts. Because that's, really, a part of third down, right? Yeah, if you don't convert on third down, you better do it on fourth. And so, we weren't good enough. That scenario, we've been pretty good. And -- I mean, our -- that whole -- you know, when you're not able to convert those, you know, you're going to struggle offensively, you know? So too many of them. We weren't efficient enough on first down.
Now, I do think we got some manageable downs. We just couldn't convert them. You know, it was one of those days. Our offense has been pretty steady, you know, played pretty well. And this was a day we didn't do well. And, you know, we really never got into true rhythm and we couldn't convert. So we couldn't stay on the field.
Q. (No microphone.)
DC: Yeah, I mean, look, you just be honest with them. You tell them exactly what it is. Like, you know, to me, it's about as bad as it gets. I mean, this is worse.
You know, this is where we're at. And sometimes it's going to get bad before it gets better. And, you know, I believe we hit rock bottom. So now the only place to go is back up.
And, you know, look, we're going to get some guys back. I got to look at everything top to bottom, which I have time to do for the bye. And look, I've seen it too many times.
I've been in this league too long as a player and a coach and I've seen teams that have started out rocky and it's doom and gloom, and all of a sudden they win one and then they win the next one and then they win the next one. And that's what I told them, you just got to win the first one.
We just -- when we come back, everybody's got to look in the mirror over the break. How do you get better individually? Just like I'm going to do. And we find a way to win the next won.
Just win the next won out of the bye and then take the next one as it comes. That's all you can, that's all you can do.
Q. (Question concerning the statement of rock bottom.)
DC: Yeah, you don't anticipate that. You don't see that. But I also know -- I mean, as bad as it looks, I also know what we're capable of. And, look, we -- it's hard to say that when you look at the score today, but we got better defensively. I mean, we were -- we played better today than we've played.
Now, is it good enough? No. But we did play better. And offensively, we're better than what we just put out there on tape. So, yeah, it's bad.
But as a total team here, it's just 29-nothing. So to this point in the season, it's as bad as it's gotten.
But I also know, man, as long as you hold on to hope and you believe in things that we're doing -- and I'm going to -- man, I'm going to change some things up. I mean, I'm going to look at everything; at the way we practice, the way we go about it. You know, do we need to practice longer? Do we need to practice less? Do we put on pads? Do we not put -- you know, and those are all things that I'll be looking at over the next week.
Q. You talked about benching Amani. And also you said you changed some things up on defense. But before, were you happy with how you changed -- (no microphone.)
DC: Yeah, well, there again, I need to look their -- look at the tape. But, look, we wanted to give Will a try out there. And the only reason Amani was down, he doesn't do a lot on special teams. Otherwise, he would have been here and probably would have played some. But that's where you, you know, you get in a pickle with special teams.
But yeah, look, we -- you just try and build a little bit of trust in that back-end. And we get AJ back up. And that's one thing we know about AJ, at a minimum, he's an excellent communicator, he's smart, and he's got football intelligence.
And I know that there's a lot of trust back there with him at nickel, you know? And then we wanted to give Saivion a shot, our third safety. So we were just mixing some things up to see if we could breathe some life back into our defense.
And now, Will ended up getting hurt, but I thought he was playing pretty good up until that point. And look, I told Amani this last week. I said, Man, this doesn't mean this is done. I mean, you could very much be back up. But it was -- that's what we needed to do, you know?
Q. (No microphone.)
DC: You know, listen, he -- he's -- I mean, we all know what he's about. I mean, he's -- he's been wanting to play. And he gave us what he had.
And I'll say this: He did some real good things but he was not 100 percent, you know? And we all appreciate the way he's made and what he's about. And, you know, he went in there and mixed it up.
Q. (No microphone.)
DC: Oh, I don't know. And I'd rather not answer that. That's between he and I. We just needed to change some things up.
Q. Dan, you guys have a couple of good tackles, Matthew Judon was able to make a pretty good impact today. What did you see out of that matchup?
DC: Yeah, look, Judon's a good player. We knew coming into there. We did a significant amount of chipping and nudging to his side. But I didn't necessarily feel like he wrecked the game.
You know, there's -- there again, when things don't go well in your protections, there's a number of reasons. And it's all-encompassing between protection, it's between the backs and the quarterback. And so -- but he's a good player.
You know, I don't feel like he had a -- he wore our tackles out or anything like that. But he certainly was -- you know, he's a good player. We knew it coming in.
Q. Coach, back to Saivion, can you tell us a little bit about who had joined him in the ambulance? And also can you tell us anything about the reaction from the team after you let them know that he has his motor skills and he gets to come back with you guys?
DC: Yeah, that was -- it was his father. And I believe his uncle. And the team was -- of course they were happy to hear that. You know, everybody was concerned about Saivion. So, yeah, I mean, there was a sigh of relief.
Q. (Question concerning Saivion Smith.)
DC: I don't think so. I don't believe that. Just because, I mean, they see it, too. Even though it's not their teammate, there's a stop in the game. They're all looking at it.
I think it's -- I don't think it affects either side, in my opinion. I mean, it's certainly not -- it's nothing you want to see. I mean, you don't. That's the worst. But I don't think it affected us like that.
Q. (Question concerning the Patriots' starting quarterback.)
DC: Listen, yeah, I get that. You know, I would say this: They had a good game plan for him, which we knew they would. They didn't do anything too exotic. And, you know, they were able to stay ahead of the sticks. You know, they were very efficient.
They gave him some easy throws and some things where they could block it up and let him see it and run away from coverage. And you know what, he made those plays. He made those plays.
So I thought we would have been a little bit better in that regard. But the kid played good, too. He played good. I mean, that's a credit to him. That's a credit to them putting that game plan together. You know, they did well.
Q. (No microphone.)
DC: Yeah, I mean, it's -- I mean, there's no other way to say it. It's -- you know, you just can't allow it. If you're going to run like that, then you better just tuck it. And, you know -- or just have a little bit better feel of where it's coming from, you know?
But yeah, I mean, it's -- you know, it -- I'll tell you what, I've never seen anything like that. It's like we turn the ball over, we give up seven when it happens. And so -- but it certainly hurts us. So, you just got to protect it. You got to protect it.
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