Jim Caldwell Remains Mum On Hail Mary Defense
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
In what could easily be a scene out of the movie Groundhog Day, where the same day happens over and over again, Lions head coach Jim Caldwell refused point-blank to answer questions about last week's game on Monday.
After Detroit lost to Seattle earlier this season, when the officials declared that Calvin Johnson had fumbled on the goal line, nullifying the Lions' touchdown, Caldwell enacted the same strategy. No questions about the game. Forward thinking only.
And here we go again: A few days after the Packers tossed a game-winning Hail Mary touchdown at Ford Field, Caldwell refused to answer questions about the team's strategy on the final play.
The Lions have been criticized for several pieces of the final formation: Ezekiel Ansah (second in the NFL in sacks) didn't line up to rush, Calvin Johnson wasn't in on the final play, and the Lions only rushed three against Aaron Rodgers.
But Caldwell won't explain his reasoning behind any of those decisions.
"You can look at it 1,000 different ways," he said. "It's when it doesn't work, obviously, you just pick the opposite side and say, 'Hey, they should've done this, they should've done that,' which, you know, that's for you to say and for us to agonize over."
Caldwell said during his postgame press conference Thursday that he was expecting the Packers to run a lateral play rather than allow Rodgers to throw the Hail Mary. That assumption could easily have changed the personnel group the Lions used.
On Monday, Caldwell was asked several questions about the game, including why Ansah didn't rush the quarterback, and how he plans on defending future Hail Mary plays. But each time, he refused to give details.
"I'll answer any other questions you might have besides going backwards," he said.
He also wouldn't give his opinion on whether the NFL should make every play reviewable – an idea that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, for example, has been a vocal supporter of.
"I spend very little time worrying about things I can't control and talking about and complaining – I think that's poor leadership," Caldwell said. "I don't ever hear any of our great leaders in this country stand up and whine about incidents that occurred and what you hope happened or, 'What if this happened?' You better get focused on what you can control. What we can control is how we play and that's the most important thing."
The Lions, at 4-8, will take on the Rams in St. Louis on Sunday.
