Schwartz Exercises Early Challenge
--Coach Jim Schwartz had a sheepish look on his face when he threw his challenge flag Friday. "I'm not wild about challenges in preseason games," he said. But he didn't want to see a great play by wide receiver Nate Burleson go unrewarded. Quarterback Matthew Stafford, on fourth-and-1, feathered a 7-yard fade pass to him in the back of the end zone. The officials ruled him out of bounds, but the replay clearly showed he dragged both feet inbounds. Schwartz defended both the decision to go for it on the second offensive possession of the game, and the challenge. "I didn't need to see Jason Hanson kick a short field goal there," Schwartz said. "I wanted to see the guys execute the fourth-and-1. Nate made an unbelievable catch ... I felt that deserved to be challenged just because Nate made such a great catch."
--Quarterback Shaun Hill takes a lot of abuse for his lumbering, laboring running style, but more often than not, when he tucks and runs, good things happen. He capped off a nifty 77-yard drive against the Bengals by running in the final seven yards himself, making an acrobatic tumble into the end zone. "That was a nice flip," Stafford said. Hill pointed to the heavens after the score, a salute to his father, who died suddenly last January.
--Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh said he would try to avoid the roughing the quarterback penalties this season, but he can't help himself. One exhibition game in, one roughing the quarterback call. Suh got his hands on Bengals rookie quarterback Andy Dalton in the first quarter Friday and by the time the play was over, the ball had been released and Dalton, with his helmet spinning on the turf, was on the ground - spun violently down by Suh. "He's just so strong, when he's going to take you to the ground, it's going to look bad," coach Jim Schwartz said. "You can't coach it any other way. He's trying his best. But that's one of those situations where you have to know that the ball is gone. We kept a couple of drives alive with penalties and we have to do a better job of that, but we don't want to slow the guy down."
--CB Eric Wright took a lot of heat in Cleveland last season, but when the Lions' coaches reviewed the film, they felt he graded out fairly well. "What happens in this league, like in any professional sport, is that one guy says the wrong thing (to a player) and he loses confidence," defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham said. "Maybe that's what happened." Cunningham, who graded Wright extremely high coming out of college, said he believes he's the same extraordinary talent that he saw back then. "When I saw him on tape (last season), he played as good as any corner in the NFL," Cunningham said. "I've always liked him. He's very fast. He's the perfect size (5-10, 190), he has great athletic skills - and whatever is in his mind, I am going to make sure I exorcise it."
--Former Titans coach Jeff Fisher, a mentor to Lions coach Jim Schwartz, was in camp two days last week visiting his son Brandon, who is an assistant to the defensive coaches. He came away impressed by what he'd seen. Especially compared to the last time he spent any time studying the Lions, which was before his Titans destroyed them 47-10 on Thanksgiving Day, 2008. "Things can change quickly," said Fisher. "You can have an attitude change, a personality change, a commitment and a re-commitment. Things can turn. There is a great deal of excitement here. These guys like to come to work. It's great to see. Obviously Jim took over a challenging situation. To see them come on like they did last year despite the injuries was quite impressive. Clearly he's got his stamp on this team. He's got a great relationship with the front office and they are doing a great job building this team. There are high expectations (from the inside), but there are high expectations around the league."
--The Lions moved quickly to diffuse any possible talk of tampering charges last week after former Dolphins now Ravens RB Ricky Williams told reporters in Florida that Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan told him after a game last season, "if you need a home, we'd love to have you on our team." Said Schwartz, "It's pretty much ridiculous that somebody would even consider that as any more than well-wishing." Linehan, who coached Williams in 2005, offered a different rendition of the post-game chat. "I have a great regard for Ricky as a person and a player, but my recollection of our exchange is not what was reported," Linehan said. "Like most coaches do after games, I briefly talked to one of my former players and wished him well. It was no different than what goes on after every NFL game between coaches and former players."
QUOTE TO NOTE
"It's the reason people play football; aggression is the name of the sport. It means being violent and being very aggressive and getting after the quarterback. That's what you are known for. That's what you do. If you didn't do that then I don't think you'd be playing football in the NFL. There's always a fine line between dirtiness and aggressiveness. I know to this point, in my own heart, I haven't crossed that line by any means." -- DT Ndamukong Suh on charges that he's a dirty player.
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