News

HEAD COACH JIM SCHWARTZ

Opening statement

"It's not us, it's not going to be us and there's going to be some accountability for this."

On the timeout he called in the third quarter

"Obviously it wasn't a strategic timeout. We didn't have too many guys on the field or not enough (guys on the field); or (it wasn't giving) me time to make a call. I didn't like the fact that the ball was getting run right down our throats and called the team over to let them know how upset I was going to be if they scored a touchdown there and tried to rally them to see if that would make a difference. Obviously it didn't."

On if there was anything he sensed prior to the game that was either good or bad

"Actually I thought that (things were good with) preparation yesterday and meetings; and today in pregame I thought the team was ready to play. Obviously I was way off mark right there, but there was nothing to the effect of coming out flat. I wasn't concerned about that. I was concerned about tackling No. 27 (Ray Rice) and obviously we didn't do a very good job of that."

On if this goes beyond a poor performance and if it is related to effort or energy

"I don't know. I'm going to take the coach's adage on that one because I'm going to look hard at this tape. I might watch this tape 10 times. I gave the players off tomorrow. Usually they're off on Tuesdays. I gave them off on Monday and Tuesday. They're required to come in and get treatments, they're required to come in and get a lift, but we're going to need some time to make sure that this doesn't happen to us again. I know there's issues, I know there's injuries, I know there's all those different things and everything else, but we have to make a stand and this is unacceptable."

On if he questions his team's heart or effort

"I question our team's results and that's my fault."

On RB Kevin Smith

"We'll have to do a bunch of tests, but it looks like it's a significant knee."

On S Louis Delmas and LS Don Muhlbach

"Delmas has an ankle that we'll have to look at and (Muhlbach) has a couple different things. He had a wrist and he also got hit in the head."

On anything that Ravens' RB Ray Rice showed him that he wasn't prepared for

"Just from running around us and running through us. I think we had one time where we had a missed assignment where we gave up something, but he's their leading rusher, he's their leading receiver. We know what number he wears. It wasn't a surprise that they were giving him the ball and we did a poor job of handling him."

On if something happened today that surprised him

"We have fought and we have been shorthanded at times. We have had issues, but we have fought and we have battled and we have had better performances."

On if this was the worst performance of the season

"Yeah, I don't think there's any doubt about that."

On if he sensed from the beginning that there was a problem or if it was just the second half

"It was the first half. I mean, we didn't start the game well. We couldn't make short-yardage plays. Our offense was moving the ball; they get to midfield and we couldn't gain a yard on third down-and-one. And, like I said, that's not going to be us. There are a lot of things that happened in this game that will end up being out of character for us."

On if he was surprised with the defense's performance since the defense had been making strides

"Yeah, it makes it not surprising, but concerning, sure."

On him sounding confident he can regroup this team with three games left

"Believe me, I'm not concerned about that, no. Like I said, we're going to need a couple days to get our heads together. There's a reason the players are off tomorrow and Tuesday because Wednesday we better have our minds right."

On if losing Smith a crushing thing

"Kevin's a tough player and was one of the few bright spots in this game and was playing his butt off. He wasn't quitting. He was trying to gain yards, he was trying to get first downs, he was trying to get in the endzone as that game was winding down."

RB KEVIN SMITH

On what happened in the play that he went down

"I was trying to catch the ball and cut back inside to hopefully make a big play out of a flat pass and my knee just buckled and I had extreme pain instantly."

On whether he has any idea of what the damage is

"No, I have no idea. I have to get tested tomorrow. It doesn't feel good."

On whether he can put into words what this is like for him

"Adversity. There's always going to be things in your way on your way to success. I'm tough enough to fight through whatever's going to happen and I'll find out what's going to happen and I'll get better real fast. Whatever happens, happens."

On the injury

"Like I said, I was just catching a flat pass and trying to come back in and somehow my leg got stuck in the ground and I just remember falling to the ground in extreme pain, it hurt very bad. I'll get tests tomorrow and find out what's going on."

On whether the doctors gave him any indication that this could be a season-ending injury

"No, they didn't tell me anything."

On whether he had any tests done after the game

"No, I have to get an MRI. I have to wait until I get to Allen Park tomorrow."

On whether he's ever felt that kind of pain

"Never in my life."

On the efficiency of the offense today

"It's disappointing. I think all of us, including myself - and I'm speaking for myself - have to do some gut-checking. Do some self-evaluating. This was a real NFL game against one of the top teams; a team that prides themselves on their defense and we have to start rising to the the challenge - everybody. We have to rise to the challenge. We have to play ball. We're not playing ball. It's obvious when we're beat whatever-to-three. All of us have to come to play ball together. Key word is together."

On whether a loss like could cost players their jobs

"As a football player in this leage you have to come out and do your job. You want everybody to be on the same page, but whatever guys (Schwartz) feels aren't doing their jobs ... that's management. That has nothing to do with me and I don't have anything to say about it. I'll let Coach Schwartz and the rest of the people upstairs handle that because that's their job not mine."

C DOMINIC RAIOLA

On coach Schwartz saying that this was the worst performance this season

"We'll find out. We'll find out. I know they're going to take a hard look. I know what kind of guy Jim is and he's going to hold a lot of people accountable. He'll let you know after the film."

On whether he feels like the team quit today

"All I can control is my group out there and I know that we went out we went 110-percent. We were still going - going hard - at the end of the game. I know it was out of hand but, like I told my group, all you can do is control what you can control and let the coaches decide who quit ... if anyone did quit."

On how deflating it is for a team to see the score run up the way it did

"It's deflating, but you still have to go out there. You still have a job to do no matter what the score is. Those are times where they're trying to get cheap sacks where they know we're going to throw the ball. I just told my guys, I said, 'Don't let them get any cheap ones. Just keep your guard up and don't give this coaching staff a reason to make you the problem.'"

On what happened on the third-and-short play

"I don't know. I know we have to convert third-and-short. Those are big downs and what we do on offense and first and second down is to get it to third-and-short and when we did get to third-and-short we didn't do anything with it."

WR DENNIS NORTHCUTT

On the Ravens outplaying the Lions in all aspects of the game

"They really did. At a time like this, you've really got to be able to stick together. Whenever you've got bad weather, in this sport that we play, it doesn't matter. You still have to come out and play the game. They came out and played during bad weather and it seemed like we didn't. It seemed like the Baltimore Ravens (wanted the game more). I thought we were well prepared, we had a good week and everything, but we didn't play like it today. We've got to go back and look at ourselves in the mirror and see if we really gave it our all. Obviously we didn't because we've played way better football than that this year and to come out and get beat (like we did), that speaks for itself."

On how they bounce back

"Individually, you've got to look yourself back in the mirror: 'what can you do better,' (and you can) watch more film. It may be something that you don't want to do but you've got to go back and look at this film and see: ‘How could I have helped the team better,' and just get ready for the next game. One thing's for sure: in 24 hours, you've got to let this one go. You've got to be able to look at this film, see what you can do to get better, try to fix it and get ready to practice on Wednesday."

On whether his individual success takes a backseat to the loss

"Absolutely. I have to do the same thing: ‘Is there anything that I could have done better to help this team win?' That's what you look at. You watch the film and it's not, ‘Well, the defense gave up that.' Well, offensively, we couldn't score any points. Everybody has to look to see how we can help this team win. There's a lot of room for improvement.

LB JULIAN PETERSON

On getting beat in all areas of the game

"The biggest thing was that we just didn't make enough plays. They played better than we did and that's what it came down to."

On the game being much closer if you take away the missed tackles

"Yeah it is, but we all had to step up to the plate and we didn't do it. They played a better game than we did."

On how the team can rebound from this loss

"We just have to go back to fundamentals: tackling, first downs, catching the ball, all that stuff."