Detroit Lions: Jim Caldwell Talks Pass Interference, Golden Tate, Matthew Stafford
By Zac Snyder
Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell met with the media today and talked about Nevin Lawson’s pass interference call, Golden Tate and Matthew Stafford.
Detroit Lions head coach Jim Caldwell met with the media early this afternoon. Here is a look at what he had to say.
On the NFL saying the pass interference against CB Nevin Lawson should not have been called at Green Bay in Week 3: “One, I’m not allowed to comment on any of those kind of things, information that we receive from the League in that regard. Two, we are able to teach from it, which is what we do, but we certainly aren’t able to comment on that, which I think you all know.”
On knowing when it is time to make scheme changes on defense: “It varies.”
On what he taught the team about the 66-yard pass interference call against Lawson: “The rules as they’re stated. I don’t want to go into it. It doesn’t make any sense, not for me. We teach them the rules, what the rules are, how they effectively handle them and what they do in every situation that it comes up.”
On him not thinking it was an accurate pass interference call: “You asked me a question on Sunday, did I think that should have been called, I told you no, right? I haven’t changed from that stance even today. I think that’s pretty clear.”
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On what he learned from last year’s defensive turnaround that he can use this season: “It’s all different. The circumstances are different. The cast of characters and a number are different. It’s not really a cookie cutter sort of a response to a problem that you have. You have to look at it according to the people that are actually performing, schematics of what we’re using, analyzation of whether it fits, how they work within it. Do we need to make adjustments accordingly? And that’s kind of a constant thing. Someone asked, ‘When do you pull the trigger?’ It just depends on who it is, depends on what the situation is.”
On if there are similarities between last season’s slow start: “I cannot sense any simply because of the fact, only in the results obviously. It’s not where we want them, that’s for certain and we’ve got to do better.”
On the importance of the Chicago game and avoiding a losing streak: “Must-win to me, every single opportunity that we go out and get we’ve got to take advantage of it. There’s no question about that. We only have 16 of them and they’re all important. They all carry the exact same weight, so yeah, they’re absolutely important. It’s the biggest one that we have because it’s the next one. The thing is you don’t ever want to get into a situation where you are certainly so far down you can’t dig yourself out of a hole. This is the first quarter. We’ll see how we end up this quarter. We usually look at it by quarter and make our assessments from there, so it’ll be certainly after this game.”
On why WR Golden Tate’s yards per catch average has been declining: “I think it’ll be much like the response from year to year. I think what happens is you look at production by players and what I tell you is that there’s going to be a time when you come in you’re going to ask me, ‘How come Marvin (Jones) only got two catches this week and Golden (Tate) had nine or (Eric) Ebron had 10 and Theo (Riddick) had two?’ You’re going to ask me how come this guy’s not getting more yardage or this guy’s not making more catches. I think it works sort of an ebb and flow to it depending upon what they do to you from a defensive standpoint and I think that’ll be the situation with Golden as well.”
On if he thinks defenses have started to key in on Tate: “I don’t think so. I think they study and they know who you are. He’s been in the League a long time. He’s the same guy that caught 99 balls for us. He’s still capable and I think you’ll still see that. It’ll take you a little while and I won’t come in and say that I pointed this out a couple weeks ago because he’s a very, very capable player. It just kind of depends. I think the last game you saw where a couple situations they doubled certain guys. They doubled Theo (Riddick) in and out, so you’re going to see different styles, different attacks and we have to adjust accordingly. Sometimes a guy’s going to get a hot hand because maybe he’s left alone, so we’ll see what happens.”
On how Tate has handled being the second option at wide receiver: “That’s your word, not mine and it’s not accurate, but nevertheless I think he’s a competitor. I think he’s a strong leader, but like anybody that’s playing the position on offense, they want that ball in their hands and I don’t mind that. Every good one that I’ve ever been around has always wanted the ball in crunch time, and in any other point of time in the game. But he’s handling it well and I think you’ll also see, like I said, just wait a little bit. He’ll do what he normally does.”
On how he defines his receivers: “I don’t, that’s why. I think they all are very worthy of playing well. They’re within our starting group. They do a heck of a job for us and the ball gets spread around accordingly, depending on how the progression works in that particular week.”
On if TE Eric Ebron has done something differently that has contributed to increased production this season: “It’s growth and development and it’s week after week. He’s had a couple really good games that he’s played pretty well. Let’s see how he does the next game. There’s a lot of people that have had very good ball games. They’ve had two games, they’ve had three games, they’ve had a good season, but can you back it up? Consistency is the key week in and week out, day in and day out, year in and year out.”
On if he is encouraged with the pass protection for QB Matthew Stafford: “You can look at a bunch of things and note trends. Let’s see how they go. I can tell you that one sack is too many, so we’ve had seven too many in my book and that’s something that we have to get corrected and improve upon.”
On if he has seen improvement in the consistency of Stafford’s pocket protection: “I just say, you look at the numbers, look at the effectiveness. In terms of sacks and that kind of thing, one is too many for me, so it’s seven too many and we’ve got to get better. It’s whoever is in the protection scheme. It could be a (running) back. It could be a tight end, could be a lineman. I know we like to assess blame sometimes, but there’s a lot of things that go into it, a receiver running the wrong route that he has to pull it down. Those kinds of things happen, so that’s kind of all part of it.”
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On if he’s considered placing DE Ezekiel Ansah or LB DeAndre Levy on the Reserve/Injured list: “Check the report.”
*Quotes provided by the Detroit Lions. Watch the press conference on DetroitLions.com.