Schwartz: Players Are Being Coached Well On Special Teams
DETROIT (97.1 The Ticket) The Lions lost this weekend to the Minnesota Vikings without allowing an offensive touchdown. Usually that should give an NFL team a victory, but that wasn't the case since the Lions gave up a kick return for a TD as well as a punt return for a TD.
That was the second time in as many weeks the Lions allowed both special teams' TDs. Lions Head Coach Jim Schwartz joined Karsch and Anderson this morning to talk about the game against the Vikings.
"I don't know if there is one area -- There (are) inconsistencies in all areas," Schwartz said about areas where the team needs improvements. "The week before we played the Titans and ran the ball very effectively. Came back this week and didn't run well at all, and that affected the pass game. Last week against the Vikings we gave up six points and limited the big plays. It's not so much one area, we need to improve a total consistency -- That's offense, defense and special teams. There's things we can do better in all of them and we have the talent to do it."
So should Special Teams Coordinator Danny Crossman be fired after the performance in back-to-back weeks? Schwartz doesn't think so.
"He's not the one missing tackles or end up fitting them wrong," the coach said. "The players are being coached well, they need to be able to respond to be able to be in the right spots. Obviously a special teams touchdown or a special teams score in a game is a huge play much less two in a week. We're not getting out schemed or punts blocked. They returned that second punt for a touchdown and I think we missed four tackles on it. Players were in positions.
"We will work through a lot of things; we can put them in a little better positions but we can move players around a little bit to get them in different spots. I think the guys who are on the field that need to play better. we have some young players that need to play better, we have some veterans that need to play better. I think that's probably the main thing with our special teams right now."
The Lions are on a bye this week and will take on the Philadelphia Eagles on October 14th at 1PM. You can hear all the action on 97.1 The Ticket beginning at noon.
