LIONS HEAD COACH JIM SCHWARTZ

Opening statement:

"Well, that wasn’t pretty, but it was beautiful. We didn’t expect a pitcher’s duel today, but that’s what we ended up (with). Even though we had a couple times where it looked like we were going to let it slip away, missing a field goal, and turning the ball over in the red zone, we found a way, like we’ve been saying for most of the season, to make that one extra play, and it was Will Heller scoring on the tight end screen and the defense getting two stops at the end of that game. So a lot of the same things that have come up in our games this year, but we found a way to make that one play on offense and defense that won it. We rushed for 190 yards. We got contributions from a lot of different guys. Felton at the end of the game, Maurice Morris, Jahvid Best, Drew Stanton, Calvin Johnson; Stefan Logan rushed very well. So we knew we were going to have to do it with a lot of different guys. But that made a big difference, particularly early in the game when we were rushing the ball very well and Aaron Rodgers was still in the game. Our defense played very well, only giving up three points, but when Aaron Rodgers was in the game it was zero. So I was very proud of what they were able to do."

On if putting the pressure on the quarterback is now part of the Lions defense’s personality:

"Well, that’s the way we’re built and that’s what we need to do. We knew coming in that we worked real hard to address our defensive line. We’ve had a couple setbacks. Losing Kyle Vanden Bosch was a big setback for us. But we’ve seen other players step up. Turk McBride, Lawrence Jackson stepped up big today; Cliff Avril has stepped up even though he had to leave this game. We’ve had some guys step in in that secondary. You can’t overlook what those guys did. We brought Prince Miller in (on Wednesday); we brought Prince Miller in off of the Ravens practice squad and he played dime. He was going to be active. He would play some special teams, maybe play dime, maybe play three or four snaps in this game then Brandon McDonald broke his arm and Prince had to go out there and be our nickel. He had to go cover Donald Driver and Greg Jennings and all those guys. I think you can’t overlook the contributions that those guys made. Nathan Vasher stepped in and played well. Chris Houston…

"You’re 100-percent right, we’ll go as our D-line goes, but the pressure they were able to apply helped out our backend and I felt those guys made some plays for us."

On the Packers final offensive play and if he worried it might be a touchdown:

"I worried every play might get called a touchdown. It was fourth-and-1 and obviously you want to take away a short pass and you want to challenge guys and you want your corners to play with some confidence and challenge them and make a quarterback make a low percentage completion in that case. That’s a low percentage when you’re trying to throw a deep corner route against tight coverage. You have the potential to give up the big play but you also have the potential for it to be a long foul ball, and that’s what we saw."

On if his heart skipped a beat, worrying that there may be a flag on the fourth-and-1 play:

"No, I thought the guys covered him pretty well. I think the only time my heart skipped is at the end of the game when we threw the air ball and didn’t get it quite out of bounds. But the rest of the time, my heart was already racing, so skipping a beat might have been pretty good."

On the touchdown play, and the same play not working in the last game:

"That’s a play we’ve run very well the whole year. We’ve run it with Brandon Pettigrew. We’ve run it with (Tony Scheffler). Brandon has made a lot of those plays. Quite honestly, it was a play we had called last year when Brandon Pettigrew tore his ACL. We were trying to go in and score in a very similar situation. Will Heller was in the game and Will made a play. Jahvid was able to pick up a linebacker and give Drew some time. Drew put it on him and then we got blocks and Will just wasn’t going down. He’s a 275-pound guy that got that ball in the end zone. That was obviously the biggest play of the game."

On if the win against a team battling for first in the division proves the progress the Lions have made:

"It doesn’t matter who we play. We want to get a win. I think that the biggest thing is not who we play, its how we play and the things that we do. Like I said, there were some situations that came up that are going to come up in every single game. You’re going to miss a field goal. You might turn the ball over in the red zone. But you need to find a way to make another play. You can’t let one bad play turn into two. Our guys played resiliently today. That’s something that we haven’t done the whole season. There’s been some fourth quarters that we’ve let one bad play turn into another and seem like that crucial play and crucial time we haven’t made. In this game we found a way to make it. Drew started off the game and he wasn’t real hot. He was having difficulty throwing the ball. It’s probably the best corner tandem we’ve played all year. Those guys can rush.

"Before I get too far, I don’t think we can overlook the job that Corey Hilliard did on Clay Matthews. Clay Matthews is arguably the best pass rusher in the NFL and Corey played outstanding. They looked for that matchup. They matched it up against him most of the game. And Corey stepped in and did a great job. That was big in this game.

"Progress is winning the game. Like I said, we’ve played a lot of different situations. We’ve done a lot of different things. Two few times we’ve managed to make the play. Against the Redskins we did, we made a play; we sacked the quarterback and scored a touchdown late in the game. We sealed the Rams game with an interception and run-back for a touchdown. This one we got it in a lot of different ways. We got the contributions like… you could go a lot of different ways. We rushed the ball very well. We played good defense, (got turnovers), sacked the quarterback. A lot of different situations came up here."

On if he rotated runners more than in other games:

"There were some situations. Some plays were designed for particular players. Stefan Logan came in with some of those. We used him as a decoy on some and some we gave him the ball. Stefan has been an outstanding player for us this year. Not only his kick coverage, not only his kick returns and his punt returns, but his contributions on offense. We went another step in his contributions just handing him the football. He’s not tall, but he’s also not small. He’s short but he’s strong and he’s played a lot of running back. He played running back in high school, he played running back in college and played running back in the CFL. That’s something that he can do. He gets in behind those guys and he’s hard to see and he’s strong and he runs for extra yards."

On most of the plays not being made by the stars of the team:

"Guys have to find a way to contribute. We talked a little bit about Prince Miller. He wasn’t with us in training camp, he wasn’t with us last week, but he stepped up and made a couple big plays in the game. I think that there’s been some situations that have come up that would be easy to go south with, to take the wrong turn. I think the character of this team is that they haven’t done that. They’ve battled every single week regardless of what the situation is. We don’t get any points and we don’t get any medals for battling; we get medals for winning games. That’s what we were able to do today."

On LB Landon Johnson:

"Landon had some movement in all his extremities. He’s at the hospital right now. We’ll say a prayer for him and hope he can bounce back. But when he left the field he had feeling in everything and he’s going through a lot of tests and things like that. But I think we’ll be guardedly optimistic."

LIONS QB DREW STANTON

On the win not being pretty, but being a win all the same:

"Definitely. We came in here and we said we’ve got four games left, it’s the fourth quarter and we want to put a stamp on the season and come out effective. You have to take your hat off to the defense. They played unbelievable. They answered the bell, every single time. Offensively, it starts with me not making plays and doing stuff and starting off slow. But we had the right play call on when we needed it and Will did a heck of a job executing it and we got in the end zone. That’s why this is the ultimate team game."

On what made the difference in the fourth quarter:

"I think it’s just being resilient, just continuing to battle and fighting through adversity. We’ve been in this situation before and haven’t been able to come out on top. We would have liked to end it a different way, but ultimately we got the win and that’s all that really matters on Sunday is coming out with wins and losses.

"You look at the numbers, I’m sure they’re not pretty, whatever they are, third-down, total yards, whatever it was. We ran the ball effectively. I’m really glad because that was our major goal going in, that we wanted to do that. We took some shots when we needed to, got some. We just kept fighting through so I couldn’t be happier with the way that those guys were able to battle through it."

On how his feet opened some options today:

"I think we knew they were going to give us a lot of man and do different stuff like that. Having the ability to scramble and do some stuff, and design quarterback runs is efficient. I’ve got to be careful of that because sometimes that gets me in trouble too, like taking that sack when trying to get out and do some stupid stuff. Obviously that first interception, I thought I had him and just didn’t put enough on it. So there’s a give and take with all of that. Some of the designed runs give us a better chance. Like I said last week about not being able to convert on second and first down, we were able to do that a couple times with my feet and the designed runs."

On if the touchdown was called in the huddle:

"Yeah, definitely. Scott (Linehan) had a good call on there. We knew getting in there, they were very similar to the Redskins where they were getting the pressure and doing a lot of stuff on the field but get very vanilla when you get in the red zone. It’s hard to attack a team like that. We had a similar call on the week before against the Bears, going down there, we got that turnover and didn’t get a good ball and weren’t effective with it, but Will did an amazing job, battling through. Everybody did their responsibility on that play and you see the end result."

On not having to hear so much about the streaks anymore:

"It’s nice. It eases your mind. If we want to be where we want to get to eventually in the future around here, we have to start winning division games, especially at home. It’s a must. When you start preparing for these guys, you know them in and out. You know the guys that are going to be out there. You just have to go out there and execute and do some stuff. We were able to go out there and make a few more plays."

On his personal performance:

"Everybody was there watching that. It was a struggle at first. It was a struggle for me to find my rhythm. As part of a quarterback you just have to keep grinding and keep working through it and find ways. At times I think I might have gotten a little greedy doing stuff and trying to do other things. But I had to reel it back in and play within myself and play to my strengths and try to rely on those as opposed to being somebody that I’m not."

On if he takes solace in the fact that quarterbacks are measured in wins, not statistics:

"Yeah, I think it’s a lot better to play ugly and win than it is to play good and lose. I’ll take that any day of the week because, I touched on that before; this football game that we play is so hard. You have to go out there and 11 people have to execute on a given play. My position especially has to know what’s going on, be aware, and make those plays. This was the ultimate team effort by our defense. Those guys up front played an amazing game. I don’t know the stats offhand about what we rushed the football for but I’m guessing it was probably our highest of the year."

LIONS LB DEANDRE LEVY

On the defense’s communication:

"That’s one thing that I personally, and as a unit, always try to emphasize, communication. There’s times where it gets pretty loud out there. Sometimes you get the call in and sometimes you’re going to hurry up. So, I always tell guys, even though it’s my responsibility, to get the call. I need help from the front line to communicate it down. The safeties communicated all the way out to the backside corner when I can’t get there. I think that’s one thing that we definitely improved on from the last couple of weeks, in addition to finally finishing a game. This year, I think the defense has been out there maybe four or five times with a chance to either seal the game up or get it back for our offense so they could win it, but we just came up short. So, it feels good to come out on the opposite end of that."

On what he saw on his interception:

"We were in a blitz and I tried to check out of it with a matchup look, so I figured they were going to try to take a shot. I dropped out in the seam, Driver did a little stutter and go, I just got in the lane and it came to me and I caught it. I could’ve dropped it."

On if he realized at the time how big of a play his interception was:

"Yeah. They were about to go up two scores. So, it was one of those things where we were just hoping to make a play and fortunately I was able to make one."

LIONS TE WILL HELLER

On what happened on his fourth quarter touchdown:

"It was a long drive. Brandon (Pettigrew) made some big plays on the drive to get us in position. I was just going in to give him a blow. We called a tight end screen and it was a good situation for it. They were bringing pressure off the edge with Matthews. I got a hand on him and was able to release behind him. A lane opened up and the linemen made some big blocks."

On his number being called on his second play back in on the drive:

"I was a little surprised. I ended up in the end zone and was still registering what had happened, but it was fun. I t was good to help get a win for sure."

On the offense continuing to fight through adversity:

"It was an interesting game. It was back and forth all day. Our offense, we were moving the ball, but both teams just couldn’t get in the end zone. We knew by halftime that that was the way this thing was going to play out, and whoever could finally could get it in was going to have a good shot at winning. Like I said, it was a good play call for the situation. It was a good drive for us and we came out on top."

LIONS DE NDAMUKONG SUH

On the keys to the play of the defense:

"Really buckling down in certain situations and making plays happen. Creating plays and creating turnovers like (DeAndre) Levy did – an interception when we’re on our 9-yard line and he makes a play and we move the ball from there and we get it back to our offense."

On getting a win in a game that wasn’t pretty:

"Any way you can get a win, that’s all its’ about. Whether it’s a blowout, like we’ve done before, or it’s a tough dogfight like we just went through."

On what it means to beat a team that is fighting for a playoff spot:

"A lot of people forget that when we went to their house we only lost by two points. It came down to us on defense not really getting off the field with six minutes left to go, like we’ve encountered before and now we’ve been in a situation where we did get off the field and made a play and got the ball back to our offense and let them execute."

On if it was key that the Packers lost QB Aaron Rodgers:

"We’re going to see whatever quarterback we’re going to see. No matter who it is, we’re going to attack them the same exact way and obviously we did the same thing going against Flynn. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against, it’s just a matter of we just have to shut that guy down who’s trying to control their offense."

On if there were just a few plays that were key in this game:

"Yeah, definitely; creating turnovers, making plays. Like I said with Levy’s (interception), that’s a prominent one. Getting off the field is the biggest thing, and allowing our offense…giving them chances, and putting them in good situations to put points on the board."

LIONS S LOUIS DELMAS

On if this was one of their better efforts this year:

"You know what, that’s a compliment to the coaches as well as the players. We’re a hard-nosed football team and we know that once one player goes down we have to pick it up with another player. That’s what happened today."

On ability to finish in the fourth quarter today:

"I’m very happy, I’m very pleased with the performance of the defense and also the offense today. The defense didn’t allow them to drive down the field and score, and the offense scored when we needed them. They got the seven points on the board, even though it was a low scoring game, everything counts. Scoring the seven points gave us the lead."

On how if feels being able to talk about a win:

"I think you can just look at my face and see my smile. Determine it for yourself, but it feels great. It’s a big monkey off my shoulder, and also I don’t think we’ve beat Green Bay in five years, so just to accomplish that is very big for us, for this defense, offense and also special teams."

LIONS WR CALVIN JOHNSON

On getting the win today:

"This is my first time in four years being here that I’ve beat them, so it’s a great feeling to get that monkey off our back. There’s a lot of positive air in this locker room right now."

On being able to adjust and move the ball more in the second half:

"I think we just kept feeding off the defense today. The defense did a heck of a job out there. They held them down at three points, so you can’t say enough about what they did. Thanks to them we were able to pull it off."

On being able to get big plays when they needed them today:

"They knew they would have to respect the passing game, because we were able to do a little damage when we were up there earlier this season. We got our running game going and that led us to a touchdown."

On QB Drew Stanton being able to get the win today:

"Great, great for him. I love him in the huddle. He’s a great leader, he brings it every play. He’s just a fighter – on top of being my boy."

On what the win says about this team:

"We’re resilient. We’ve been knocked down, but we’re going to keep on getting back up."