MIKE SMITH
Opening statement
“I’m very disappointing in the way that we played in the second half in the football game. You can’t make the mistakes that we made in the second half against a good football team, because when you do they are going to come back and haunt you and they did.”
On the second half
“We never got on track offensively in the second half. Things went so easy in the first half. We did not play nearly the type of football as we did in the first half. In turn, we didn’t win.”
On the final kicks
“That’s football. He missed it and there was a delay of game penalty. The clock was stopped so there was not going to be a 10-second runoff. If the clock was running, it would have been a 10-second runoff, the way it was explained to me.”
CORNERBACK DESMOND TRUFANT
On Theo Riddick’s TD catch
“That was good play by them. They had us going one way and I think Tate was on a reverse motion. They had us going one way and then they went the other way.”
TACKLE JAKE MATTHEWS
On the start
“Our plan was to execute and we’ve been talking about it all week and we did. In that first half, we did a really good job. The frustrating thing is that we couldn’t keep it going in the second half. In the second half, we got shut out and it was bad. We’ve got to be more consistent.”
On the second-half collapse
“We executed (in the first half). That was the thing that’s been holding us back all year. We had a great gameplan and went out and didn’t get it done. This first half we got it done. Then we kind of reverted back to our old ways in the second half.”
RIGHT GUARD JON ASAMOAH
On rebounding
“We are at the point where you just go to get down to the basics. You don’t look any farther than the next job. You give it everything that you’ve got. You’ve got to block out any negative thoughts.”
On Ryan Schraeder getting the start at right tackle
“Ryan is a great player. He’s going to continue to grow now that he has an opportunity. I have no worries about him.”
TIGHT END BEAR PASCOE
On his touchdown
“It happened pretty quick. We were expecting a look like that from the defensive front. Dirk (Koetter) made a good call and Matt (Ryan) put it in a great spot. It turned out just the way we wanted it. At least that play anyway.”
On moving forward
“That was a tough loss and we’ve kind of been down here lately. But we’ve got to dig deep and come together as a team. Watch this film and be very constructive on it. Put it behind us after Monday. We have the bye week coming up so guys are going to have a chance to heel up. We have dwell on it a little bit. I wouldn’t say harbor it by any means. Let it burn. Come back the following week ready to work and get better.”
WIDE RECEIVER HARRY DOUGLAS
On coming back from injury
“It was tough. It was a process. You just have to be patient and wait for it to get right enough so that you can go out there and play.”
On the loss
“Whenever you lose a game, it’s tough. Whenever you lose a game of this magnitude, the way we lost it, it’s tough.”
On rebounding
“We have to watch the film and correct our mistakes. We have to stay strong. We have to stay together. It’s not time to break apart. It’s time to stay together, regroup and come back stronger after our bye week.”
On the second-half collapse
“We just have to execute in all phases of the game. We were up 21-zip. You have to keep the pedal to the metal.”
On his health
“I’m OK. I’m a little sore, but this is football. I have a week to get right and I’ll come back strong the following week.”
RUNNING BACK DEVONTA FREEMAN
On the game
“This was one of those crazy games. We just have to finish. We came out sluggish and thought it was over. They came and continue to fight. We all lost together. There are no one-man teams.
LEFT GUARD JUSTIN BLALOCK
On the final kicks
“It was a great feeling to see the ball miss. But dead-ball penalties don’t run off, so they let their kicker get some aiming practice. If we go out and put any kind of points up in the entire second half, we never end up in that situation.’’
On the Lions’ front
“They have a very good front obviously, eventually they’re going to make plays. The way everything was working for us in the first half, I don’t want to say it felt like it was going to be easy, but we felt optimistic. We had at least to get field goals in the second half, and we really put ourselves in some really bad situations.’’
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