Lions Fail To Sellout
September 24th, 2009 at 5:31 pm by Jack Doles under Sports
The Lions failed to sellout out for Sundays game against the Washington Redskins. Unless they start winning again, we’ll be saying this a lot. Yes, they showed signs of life against Minnesota; but haven’t we been saying that after every close loss over the last seven or eight years.
Here’s what 1st year head coach, Jim Schwartz had to say after practice today.
On how much the Lions need to win
“Yeah everybody needs a win. Are you saying because of what happened last year?“I don’t think the guys on this team, the 53 guys on this team, need to bear the burden for what happened last year. I think that’s going to weigh too heavy on them. There are a lot of teams that are 0-2. Everybody needs a win that is 0-2. It’s hard to go 0-3. There are a lot of teams that feel that sense of urgency. Our guys feel that sense of urgency, but it’s unfair to our guys that burden is there. It’s there as an organization. It’s there as a city. We all feel that, but my emphasis is to try to keep that from the players. I know some of them were here last year. Some of them still feel it, but it’s too much to ask them to try to correct what happened last year this year. What they need to worry about is the Washington Redskins and that game. That game only, but yeah, getting a win. I look at it more as, ‘We’re 0-2, we need a win.’ Rather than, what happened last year, what happened the year before that.”
On whether the team can move forward and stop thinking and talking about the past if they win
“Honestly, that’s something that maybe you guys could stop talking about and maybe the fans would stop talking about. But from my standpoint, the coaching standpoint, our message to the team is ‘we don’t talk about that.’ We don’t talk about what happened last year, what happened the week before. Like I said, I think it’s unfair to those guys to put that on them, but a win changes (things).“We were in Tennessee a few years ago. We were 0-5 and we actually went to Washington and our bye-week was the next week and we won and we were 1-5 and then we had the bye-week. It was like we won two weeks in a row because that positive vibe kept going and we were able to turn it around and ended up finishing 8-8 that year. It’s the same thing. You have zero in the wins column you need to get that out from under. It changes a lot of attitudes, makes the day a little bit easier to get through.”
On whether he worries about the psyche of the guys who are second year players that have never won a NFL game
“Do I worry about their psyche? I don’t know what it’s like to have been in that situation. I know what it’s like for young players to go in to a situation where they haven’t consistently won. The only way you can turn that around is by winning. Talk doesn’t do anything, all those different things. There’s something that’s gained by actually winning and getting that behind them. Honestly, I worry about how they execute on the field, I worry about how they practice; I worry about how they train in the weight room, things like that. We’re not really worried about what their psyche is because of what happened over the last two years.”
On what Schwartz has liked about DE Jason Hunter
“Jason has done a really good job. He has really embraced, I think, what we do defensively (and it) fits his skill set. He’s really tough; he sort of knows what he is so to speak, and he accentuates those positives and had an impact on the game. We’ve seen a lot of players like that, that all they really need is a chance to play and a scheme that fits them and I think that you saw both of those.”
On what onus he feels for the game being blacked out this week
“I mean it is on us because it’s our job to win. It’s our job to get fans excited and to give them a reason to come to the game and when we do that we won’t have to worry about blackouts or sellouts or anything else. We’ll have to worry about how we’re going to get enough tickets for our friends and family that want to come to the games.”
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2 Comments
Jack-
Do you know where the closet place to Detroit is where we can watch the game. I know the NFL calls for a 75 mile radius, which eliminates Saginaw/Flint, Toledo. What about Canada, or some place in Ohio?
Come to Holland, I’ll have the game on. I maybe raking acorns by the 2nd qtr…