Lovie Smith Quotes (42 Quotes)

He managed the game well. He was in control of the game. He just led us. He made the right reads. He made good throws. He did what your quarterback is supposed to do, lead your team to a win.

We had a lot of guys step up today.

In time, all of them will contribute. As (it) happens, Cedric is behind Thomas Jones, who is having an outstanding year.

Chris should have gotten him out of bounds. You can't let them score the touchdown. We have to make them line up on the 10-yard line or whatever and try to get it in from there. That's why we have a free safety. We can't let that happen. That was one of the disappointing things we had against Detroit.

Charles has been through a lot this year. He had a tough spell early in the season. He came back after that. Good football players eventually play that way. That's just a huge play.

I like the big catch that Mark made yesterday Justin Gage did some good things, too.

There is nothing wrong with three runs and a punt. A team like ours can live with that because we think we're going to get a few turnovers and set that offense up in good position where we can get something done. Eventually we feel like our opponents will do something wrong before we will.

Last week, we won as a football team and everything went right for us. Today, it felt like the total opposite.

The cornerbacks get behind. They can go through a spell where they misjudge the ball. It's no more than that for Charles. We're not going to completely change his game. The next time we play, he'll be in a little bit better position.

We've seen him (Hutchinson) all through training camp, so we really want to get a look at the other guys.

The return game is an area that we talked about improving, and we did add a few guys, a couple players that can do that. You can make a case for every player that we have to bring us some type of help.

If someone makes us an offer you can't refuse, you have to listen, and that's what we're doing.

Just like we talk about the quarterbacks, some days you're going to have that. 'Peanut' had a great training camp. He hasn't played as well as he can the last couple (games). He'll come back. He's a good football player.

It's good to have our players. We know who they are. Third year, we're not wondering what position to put players in. We're just concentrating on improving each individual player and going a little bit farther this coming season.

Some players deserve an opportunity to play and Roberto is definitely one of those. He's a good football player. We consider him a starter.

I have no idea really of Thomas Jones' situation. I assume he'll be able to go this week. We'll know more a little bit later on. We don't know exactly how long he'll be out.

Give Carolina credit. They wanted it more than we did. We tried to keep Steve Smith contained. We were unable to do that. He made a couple of big plays.

Carolina wanted it more than we did. Twenty-one points, normally through the course of the year that would have been enough for us. Defensively going in, we talked about not giving up the big play. We were not able to do that.

We're talking a lot about Kyle, but I'm excited about what Jeff will be able to do for us too. We will play Jeff quite a bit in this game. He will get the majority of the reps for this game. He hasn't gotten as many reps as Kyle, so this is an important week for him.

There was nothing wrong with the system. The system we had last year is working in St. Louis and Kansas City. It just wasn't a good fit for us. Once you know it ... you've got to change it.

Once you get into company with Walter Payton, that's saying quite a bit.

He played well for his first start. It wasn't a perfect game by any means, but he had some big plays. I thought he blitzed well.

There were some tough situations for Cedric yesterday. We got behind and had to pass the ball a few times.

It looked a lot worse than it was.

The Vikings were better than us today with the group they had against our group. It was an outstanding football season by our team. What's important is that playoff game.

He's a quick healer, as he has let me know quite a few times. We don't want to rush him, but we would like to get him out there as soon as possible. We have a long injury list, but we're getting guys back.

We let one get away from us today. We have to find a way to finish the game.

We continue to talk about getting the ball to the tight end. And that's the plan each week. Some weeks are easier than others.

When you say the defense has carried us, that's what they're supposed to do. That's the strength of our team.

We didn't think the timing was right to play Benson. Cedric of course is a good football player, but Thomas was running the ball well.

That is what we are going to try to figure out this week. We had a safe coverage on both touchdowns. The second was man coverage, and the other was two-deep. That is about as safe as you can get. It still comes down to guys getting in the right positions to make plays. There is no magic cure.

Once you get in company with Walter Payton that's saying quite a bit. (It was) an outstanding year by Thomas and our offensive line to get that for him. I think we established that through the course of the regular season we are a good running football team and can run the football on just about anybody we play.

I've always liked him. I think he'll be a very good player in the league someday.

Personally, it hurt when you tell a player his dream has been stopped for a while, but we had to do what was best for our football team and we felt like this was what was best at this time and hopefully it will work out for Marc, too.

That's what we would like to think. I do think our core players are in place. They're established, and they're young. I don't think this is our best squad that we'll have. I think next year will be a better squad than we had this year. There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to make a stand for a long time.

Sometimes late in the week, injuries happen. It had no outcome on the game as far as we're concerned. I assume everybody's going by the rules, which I'm sure they were.

I thought he was in control of the game, managed it well, ... He led us. He made the right reads and made good throws. He did what quarterbacks are supposed to do.

We know who Cedric is, and you don't draft a guy there unless you have plans for him down the line. But you have to go on what is happening right now. You have a running back who has rushed for 100 yards two games in a row. You can't kick him out of the h

It was a tough loss for us today. Going into the game we thought we would be able to run the football against them and we weren't able to do that.

He has a strong leg. That's really what got my attention right away.

Cedric's time will come. All first-round draft choices don't get a chance to play right away. Each situation is different.

We thought we had better receivers going into the game today for us.