Detroit Lions Players Comment on Win Over Saints
By Zac Snyder
Several Detroit Lions players met with the media following their win over the New Orleans Saints, here is what they had to say, as provided by the Detroit Lions.
Oct 19, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) looks to pass during the second quarter against the New Orleans Saints at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports
Matthew Stafford
On the offense’s struggles up until the final two drives: “Obviously, we didn’t play our best football, especially in the first half. I had the one turnover and then in the second half we were moving the ball pretty well a couple of times and weren’t able to convert. We had another turnover there, that was unfortunate, but our defense did a great job of getting us the ball back. We fight, we never gave up, obviously had to have some things go our way, made some plays and won the game.”
On WR Golden Tate’s production with WR Calvin Johnson out the last two weeks: “He’s been great, he’s obviously stepped up. That play he made on that long touchdown is as good of a play as I’ve seen in a long time. The catch in to the stand still, I basically threw him a ball up. He was hot and calling for it, wanted it and gave him a chance on a ball. He came back and caught it, he did the rest. It was pretty impressive and then our defense stepped up, made a play for us and got us the ball. Just a total team effort when you look at it top to bottom. Special teams was on point, defense made some big plays when we really needed it and offense the same way.”
On if the offense was trying to eat time off the clock while also trying to score on the last drive: “Absolutely, the No. 9 on that team is a pretty darn good player. They’ve got a bunch of years in that offense. You’ve seen them do it a million times, go right down the field. So, we were trying to limit their time as much as we could, but we couldn’t not score ourselves. It’s a tough situation to be in in football. Obviously, made some plays, had the one fourth-down penalty. That helped us out and we were able to punch it in. Our defense came out and did a great job stepping up and stopping them again.”
On what he saw on the touchdown pass to WR Corey Fuller: “He’s ‘1A.’ Golden (Tate) is in there too but they doubled Golden. He had done such a great job all game, they were putting a little double team on him down there, a little bracket. Corey had to go outside and beat a corner. He was just kind of trailing on the baseline, saw the double team on Golden and put a ball where I thought Corey could go up and get it and get both feet down. It was a great catch. What a first touchdown catch if you’re him. It’s pretty awesome, I was really happy for him.”
On what he said to Fuller after the play: “I just told him I was proud of him. I told him I was happy for him. It’s a big situation, he played great all day. He had some great catches, had some tough ones where he got hit. That third-and-extra-long, fourth-and-extra-long, whatever it was, he backed up, he caught that dig coming across the middle. He had a guy draped all over him. A low ball, went down and got it, so I was really proud of him.”