Detroit Lions Inside Slant 9-13-11
Lions brought down to the earth Monday
The players knew it was coming. They may have won the season-opener in Tampa on Sunday, but they didn't win any favors from the coaching staff.
"We got cussed out," left guard Rob Sims said. "We expected that. That's part of growing and part of what we need. When I first got here we were just kind of stuck in those losing ways. Some stuff we did because that's what losing teams do. Some of that stuff is still part of us and we are trying to break away from that.
"This was good. He's a great coach and him coming at us and checking us after a win like that is big. It's going to help us down the road."
Coach Jim Schwartz didn't mince his words on Sunday, saying his team was "lucky to win," and he didn't pull back much on Monday.
"We did some great things in the game but we also did some bone-headed things that almost caused us to lose the game," he said. "Special teams? We're a much better special teams group than we showed. We did a lot of uncharacteristic things on offense. We played poorly in the red zone. We played poorly on third down. We had a turnover that ended up being a touchdown. We have up a long kickoff return.
"There's plenty of room for all groups to get better."
What chafed him the most were the mental mistakes, specifically a personal foul penalty against right tackle Gosder Cherilus late in the game that set up a potential game-tying final drive for the Buccaneers. Right guard Stephen Peterman also had an unnecessary personal foul penalty in the first half.
"We didn't show our best," he said. "Coaches learn to live with physical mistakes. But some of the things we did didn't show us in the best of light and it's my job to make sure it doesn't happen again."
The players took their medicine.
"Nobody is walking around here talking about good we are or how great this team is," said defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch. "We got a huge win and we feel like we need to get better. If we continue making the mistakes we made on Sunday, it's going to get us beat."
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