Head Coach Jim Schwartz opened his Monday press conference with, “After the way I left it yesterday, I think I’ll just open for questions.”
Schwartz, who was visibly upset after yesterday’s 48-3 loss at Baltimore, was calmer after having nearly 24 hours to review the game film.
He was asked questions about cutting players “to send a message” and what would change on the depth chart moving forward.
Schwartz said he didn’t believe in making roster moves just for the sake of making them and that his method would be the same as it has been each and every week: the players who will give the team the best opportunity to win on Sunday will play.
“We’ve held the players accountable the whole year, from a playing-time standpoint and a roster-change standpoint,” he said.
“Every time that we’ve thought that we could make an acquisition that could improve our team, we’ve done it this year. That stays consistent to what we’ve said from the very beginning, there aren’t going to be any 16-game scholarships on this team.”
That being said, Schwartz knows the reality of the NFL; once the season starts, there isn’t much that can be done in terms of roster changes.
“There does reach a point that you need to have 53 guys on your roster,” he said. “It reaches a point that there are other guys out there that can improve the team but there’s accountability on a weekly basis – on a going-forward basis. We’re all accountable for the way we’ve played.”
Since Schwartz’s demeanor was different than it had been in Baltimore following the game, he was asked whether or not he was backing away from his previous statement that players would be held accountable for performances.
“No, I’m not backing away from that at all,” he replied. “I spoke those words and I still feel the same way. There is accountability that goes beyond playing time but, again, there’s only so many things that you can do on a weekly basis, particularly at this point of the season.”
INCONSISTENCY
The Lions have been plagued by inconsistency throughout the year. Some of that inconsistency has been within their control while the rest of it has not been.
Injuries have played a big role in Detroit’s inconsistency, but so has up-and-down play. There are players who have a strong game one week and follow it up with a not-so-strong game. It’s something that simply has to be corrected on the practice field.
Injury-wise, the Lions are looking at even more losses with the injury to running back 
“I don’t want to speak for doctors until they go in and they can analyze all those different things because I’ve seen situations where it’s been worse than expected or even better than expected,” said Schwartz.
“But, it will be a season ending injury for him and then where it goes from there will depend on what happens when the doctors get in there and really see what’s at stake and all. I think anybody who saw it knows that it’s a severe knee injury.”
There is also the strong possibility that quarterback
“If he’s the same as he was last week, then he won’t play again,” said Schwartz. “If he improves, then that door is open. But it’s probably too early to really definitively say anything there.”
Safety
Schwartz says preliminary tests were encouraging.
“Ankles can be funny things and sometimes we’ve had players that have tried to go back to practice and felt they were good and ended up missing some weeks,” said Schwartz. “We’ve had other guys that have been able to come back. The initial tests were encouraging.”
CHANGES MOVING FORWARD
Schwartz hasn’t ruled out the possibility of making changes to the starting lineup, but was adamant on Monday that he is taking the same approach he has all season.
“I think the point that I want to make is: that hasn’t changed since Week 1,” he said. “That’s been our M.O. since then and that’s been disappointing because we haven’t had a consistent 22. We haven’t had consistency at a lot of positions and it’s been a performance-based thing.”
The thing the team has struggled with, he says, is the lack of consistency amidst the team’s starting lineup.
“Particularly when we’re healthy, (our performance) probably should be just about the same every week, but it hasn’t been for us,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of moves as we’ve tried to find consistency and tried to reward guys that were performing, whether in practice or in games.”
