LIONS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR BEN JOHNSON QUOTE SHEET

November 30, 2023

Opening Statement: “It was good to have a few days off and kind of hit that reset button and take a look at why the last two games have gone the way they have for us on offense and really, when you look at it, we’ve been able to move the ball, but clearly the turnovers are the issue, so our guys know it, we’re addressing it and we clean that area up, we’ll feel good about going into the next six games of the season. Been around a coach in the past that used to say the season really starts after Thanksgiving, so kind of feels that way here this year. It’s a good thing.”

On how much of the offensive line’s performance against the Packers he considers an anomaly: “I know our guys, they’re going to respond really well. It was not the best game upfront that we’ve had, really in the last year and a half it’d be on the bottom end of that. They know that. And really, it showed up I think more on critical situations, some of those fourth downs (Lions QB) Jared (Goff)’s getting hit, third downs, Jared’s getting hit and clearly, we don’t want any of that, so we’re going to clean that up upfront. You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Green Bay. They had a great plan on a short week and they had a high intensity going into the game as well that we never really found our footing and got on a roll. So, credit goes to them on that and listen, great learning opportunity for us. We’ve got to have our best stuff each and every week.”

On if there is a benefit to having a tough game like the one against the Packers on Thanksgiving before the season begins to ramp up: “Yeah, I mean we’ve had – we’ve kind of gotten hit in the teeth a couple times this year, really since (Lions Head) Coach (Dan) Campbell took over. Even last year, we got hit in the teeth and our guys come back and they respond. End of the year last year, Carolina kind of took it to us and we ended up cleaning it up and Baltimore got after us a little bit and then we cleaned that up and then hopefully we can learn from the Green Bay experience and play cleaner football. I think that’s really what it comes down to. The guys are, for the most part, we’re handling the scheme and we’re playing fast, it’s just some of the little things, the execution part of it, the technique, has fallen off and that’s what we’ve got to get back on.”

On how much they will lock into playing their best football with the season ramping up going into December: “I think our guys understand we are in a unique opportunity. For the guys that have been here, or at least my time here, this is my fifth season, we haven’t had a record quite like this and an opportunity to seize whatever we want to seize here the second half of the season. And so, I think just keeping big perspective and where we’re headed and what we can potentially accomplish still this year. Had a setback the last few weeks with the Baltimore game and obviously Green Bay, but still big picture, we’re 8-3 and we can improve really quickly and play some good football here at the end.”

On how exciting it was to see Lions QB Hendon Hooker practice for the first time yesterday: “Yeah, he did great yesterday. He is – you can tell he’s fired up and he threw about a million passes, it seemed like, out there and ball’s coming off his hand, he’s spinning it. (Lions Quarterbacks) Coach (Mark) Brunell and (Lions Assistant Quarterbacks Coach) J.T. Barrett have done a heck of a job keeping him up-to-speed. It’s hard, particularly for younger players, to stay engaged when it’s just all mental work for as long as it’s been for him, but now that we can combine the physical to it and get him as many game-like reps as possible will really accelerate his learning from there.”

On how much of a benefit it is to have Lions Defensive Coordinator Aaron Glenn on staff with the knowledge he has of the Saints defense from the time he spent on their defensive staff: “Yeah, and no question, he’s got some insight. We might see some things on tape and ask him, ‘Hey, what exactly is going on here?’ Because they have a lot of scheme. They play a lot of coverages, very good players in the front and on the backend, they’re about as aggressive as a backend as we’ve seen. They’re going to get up, they’re going to challenge us. Our receivers have got to – they’re going to have to buckle up and be ready to go this week, probably more so than what we’ve seen so far this year. So, AG’s been really good in kind of creating a little clarity for us and then when AG first got here, very similar schematics and so the guys that were here that first year, and some of last year, kind of – they really know, they really know what that style of defense is about. So, I do think the veteran guys in the group, they won’t be surprised by the physical style of play that this defense has.”

On if the flea flicker in the game against the Packers was not successful because they had less time to prepare for intricate plays like that one during a short week: “Yeah, we all love flea flickers, right? That’s right, no, listen, we saw something on tape that made us believe that we could take advantage of potentially getting a flea flicker. It’s a rare opportunity that you would ever see something like that. You listen to the TV copy, the entire defense is yelling draw, draw, draw and so we were getting the sell that we were looking for. But no, the execution was not what we want and just like you said, that is the danger on a short week not ever getting anything full speed of the execution being a little bit off and when you are as multiple as we are, that’s why the full-speed reps in practice are so critical because – and it really happened the first time we played Green Bay that first Thursday night game. Short week again and we had a couple plays that we were just a little bit off and I remember us as a coaching staff saying, ‘Golly, if we would have gotten a full speed, we maybe would’ve been able to clean it up and they would’ve been good plays for us.’ And so you’re always trying to do that balancing act on a short week of, hey we’ve got to have enough to attack them, but at the same time, we’ve still got to execute at a high level. So, that one we fell short.”

On if Lions WR Jameson Williams’s performance against the Packers is another step up for him in improving his game: “He’s getting better every week. You see it and because of that, the way he’s practicing, the way he’s preparing and the way he’s playing, because of that, his reps are going up. And so, he continues to get out there and the ball’s going to just start gravitating to him just a little bit more than it already has. But he’s doing a really nice job and he just needs to continue to put in the work like he’s doing right now and good things will happen.”

On how much Saints RB Jamaal Williams meant to the offense when he was in Detroit the last two seasons: “Yeah, each year’s a little bit different in terms of the vocal leaders on the team. Last year, he was certainly more on that side of things. I’m sure he’s doing that for them down in New Orleans. He’s a heck of a guy, heck of a player and what happens is when – the nature of the business is we move on year-to-year, the team never stays the same and so he leaves, someone else will step up and so we’ve got some young guys, like (Lions T) Penei Sewell’s becoming a more vocal leader for us here on offense. And we’ve got guys along in each position group that are really trying to take charge in that way.”

On how he personally thinks Lions QB Jared Goff has been taking his turnovers the last two games: “It’s really everything for him because he touches the ball every play, so he knows he has to take care of it. It’s one of the first things we do every springtime with him is we go through the uncomfortable act of watching the turnover, the bad play cut up, sacks, fumbles, interceptions, why did they happen? How can we learn from it so it doesn’t happen again? And listen, the ones that we’ve had over the last two weeks are not entirely his fault. Some of those interceptions, that’s the cost of doing business. We’re trying to throw a slant route and (Lions TE Sam) LaPorta gets knocked off his route and this corner’s there to make the play, so those are ones that we can live with and we can handle. And our defense has done a heck of a job. We put them in some tough spots the last two weeks and they’ve really played good football considering the sudden change, as many of them as they’ve been put in. But the ones that we can clean up, and I think (Lions Head) Coach (Dan Campbell) already talked about it, is we’re crossing the line of scrimmage, that ball’s got to be tucked away. We’re not thinking about holding onto it or throwing it anymore, so we’ve got to tuck it away. Jared knows that, we’ll clean that up and we’ll be good to go from there. There are a couple plays last week where he’s holding onto the ball longer than we wanted to. And that’s – they had a good defense compared to our call as well, so that’s on me also trying to help him, so that number one gets open a little more him and so it all plays a part. We all have a hand in it, but he’s certainly taken ownership of it and we’ll see some dividends paid here soon.”

On how difficult it is for a play caller when turnovers happen on third and fourth down when they have a script they wanted to complete: “I mean, it’s – it doesn’t allow us to get in a rhythm. There’s some things we want to establish early in games, and that varies week-to-week that last couple weeks, we really haven’t been able to do and so it’s taken us a little while to get going. Fortunately, last week, our guys responded in a big way out of halftime, that was our best series coming out of halftime all year, and so hopefully we can continue that trend as well. But establishing that rhythm is really important to what we do on offense.”

On what they can learn from their first drive coming out of halftime against the Packers: “Yeah, it helps starting with two explosive plays. No, I don’t think there’s any magic in the plays, but our guys, they weren’t happy with how that first half went and so they came out with some good intensity there in the second half and got us going. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to withstand that for the course of the half and come away with the win.”