Head Coach Pat Shurmur -- October 25, 2019
Opening Statement: We have two guys out, (Corey) Ballentine and (Sterling) Shepard. The rest of the guys are available and Saquon (Barkley) will play.
Q: Is Sterling continuing to make progress?
A: Yeah, he is. He’s had a really good week. He’s in the (concussion) protocol. Unfortunately, it’s just an element of time.
Q: I can’t help but notice a certain change in your injury disclosure this week. Why so much different than a week ago?
A: Well, last week he (Saquon) was coming back from injury. We were being cautious and smart about it all the way up until the game. We were just more deliberate about it. Now that he has played and we’ve seen how a week applies to a game, I’m pretty confident in saying he’s playing. I think it’s fair to say we’re always cautious with guys that are coming back from injury. I didn’t think it was that big a deal. But he is playing.
Q: How did Saquon respond this week coming off of soreness and all that?
A: I just said it. I think he had a good week of practice, and so he’s ready to go.
Q: You always say, like during training camp when you had to cut the roster down, you always say you hope your guys make it to another team, you want to see your guys on another roster. When you see guys that were with you that are doing well, whether it’s Romeo Okwara or, you didn’t actually have him but Devon Kennard was a free agent here when you first got here. Is there any hindsight of, ‘Oh, I wish we kept that guy’ kind of thing?
A: It is true. If a guy leaves our building, we want him to go have success somewhere else. The Lions are very fortunate. They have some ex-Giants that are really good football players. I think that happens all around the league. It just so happens we’re playing the Lions this week.
Q: You obviously know first-hand about Snacks (Damon Harrison) and what he can do in the front of a defense. What kind of challenges does that present you guys now that you have to go against him? Is there anything to be gained by having seen it on a daily basis?
A: I don’t know what you gain by knowing that he’s really good at stopping the run, other than he’s still doing it that way. He’s hard to move in there, as we all know. I think he’s played really well. He showed a lot of toughness last week. He was out of the game, I think, for like 16 plays, and then came back and finished. He’s playing really well for them. I’m certain he’s a very valued member of their front seven.
Q: Do you expect this to be the loudest, or second-loudest, place you guys have played at this year? I know Dallas was really loud, but as confined as it is there (at Ford Field), it’s smaller than Dallas.
A: I played there many times, and it is loud. It’s a loud venue. We always plan for noise when we go on the road. But you’re absolutely correct. This is a very loud place. They have great fans in Detroit. They love their team, and I’m sure they’ll be loud.
Q: How did Sam Beal look this week?
A: Good. He had a good week. He pushed through it. He had a lot of work because he did some, really all, scout team work. But he did the special teams. He did probably as much as he’s done since training camp, and it appears like he handled it pretty well.
Q: Physically, no limitations for him right now?
A: No. He was running around fine. Again, with him, it’s a matter of time and the rules with designated to come back, and so we’ll just see where that goes.
Q: Did you think about practicing inside with noise this week? I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear the question earlier if that’s what it was.
A: Because it was loud?
Q: Yeah and the planes.
A: The planes help with the noise, as we all know. We always have crowd noise. You could hear the… Well, unfortunately, you’re not here for practice. But when we play on the road, we crank the music up loud enough that it really is a distraction. That’s pretty standard operating procedure. When we go on the road, we crank the noise for the offense. Actually when we’re at home, we crank the noise when the defense practices so that they get the true picture of what it would sound like. Unfortunately, that’s a good question because you’re not out here to see all that. I try to stay outside. In terms of the dome or inside, I try to stay outside on the grass as much as possible. I’ve always felt it’s sort of better on their legs.
Q: You talked earlier in the week about getting (Deone) Bucannon up to speed so that he could be involved on Sunday. Do you anticipate that?
A: Yeah, he’ll be active. He’ll be involved. He did a good job this week. Again, there was some familiarity with our system and I think he handled his workload really well.
