ALLEN PARK >> Golden Tate took time to reflect Monday on his message after the 42-17 loss that he didn’t think the fans did their part on Sunday.
“After getting some responses, it put it in perspective. I appreciate some of the response I got, some was nasty. I understand where our fan base is coming from as far as their patience with the organization. … It was good to interact and hear some things,” the Detroit Lions wide receiver said after Monday’s walk-through.
He said he went back and did research on the franchise’s history. Perhaps he noticed the 10-year stretch without a winning season (2001-2010) or the fact the last playoff win was after the 1991 season.
“I’ve only been here for two years, they’re been One Pride fans for 55 years, 60 years. That was kind of when it was put in perspective they’ve been waiting for a long time,” Tate said. “That’s one thing I will step back and put that in perspective I do understand.
“Again I still appreciate the heck out of our fans, and do love our fans to death and wouldn’t choose anybody over us. We’re going to get this together I’m excited to get back out there on Sunday. We’re going to play some ball,” Tate said.
If you missed his comments in the heat of the moment after the game, instead of apologizing to fans, he was disappointed that they booed and didn’t back them until the end.
“Today I felt like at times our fan base kind of turned their back on us. But we have a lot of confidence in our fan base and we can’t do this without our fan base,” Tate said on Sunday. We expect them to be with us a little bit better next week. we got a chance to still be special. We have two more at home games, we’re expecting our fan base to be there and support us. I know we’re not playing the type of football we want to play right now but we need our fans,” he added.”
He doesn’t not think the team gave up in the loss to the Cardinals but they need to find the passion.
“We have to find that fire. That’s part of my role to bring that fire to this offense and that’s what I’m going to do. It’s going to start in practice, I’ll be leading by example in practice,” Tate said.
He does not agree with speculation that coach Jim Caldwell has lost the team.
“I think coach Caldwell is far from losing us. I know he still has my attention and the respect that we give him,” Tate said. “In the meeting today, last week, the week before and all year we trust in coach Caldwell we know we’re going to get out of this slump. It’s just tough right now, it’s tough on us, it’s tough on the city, it’s tough on this organization.”
No sweeping changes expected
After Sunday’s 42-17 loss that coach Jim Caldwell called embarrassing and disappointing, don’t expect to see wholesale changes on the field for the Lions.
Caldwell reiterated on Monday that he evaluates everything but will not make coaching changes this week.
The major things are turnovers that’s one of the areas you can see a tremendous difference in terms of how many times we’ve turned the ball over,” Caldwell said.
They had six turnovers – four interceptions and two fumbles in the loss. Also add in nine penalties.
“I think you cut that down, reduce your penalties which we had far too many of, that it’s a little bit different game,” Caldwell said. “Turnovers, penalties, they skew everything and obviously makes winning a lot tougher.”
Matthew Stafford was benched after his third interception. Ameer Abdullah sat after his second fumble.
Several of the holding penalties were picked up on special teams play. Here’s the scorecard: Josh Bynes (offensive holding), Corey Fuller (illegal use of hands), James Ihedigbo (face mask), Golden Tate (chop block), Manny Ramirez (false start), Brandon Copeland (offensive holding), Riley Reiff (offensive holding), Cornelius Lucas (false start) and Don Carey (offensive holding).
Abdullah’s fumble issue
Ameer Abdullah had a history of fumbles in college at Nebraska – he had 24 overall, but worked on it and got it down to four in his senior year.
Caldwell benched him on Sunday, but hasn’t given up on him.
“I think when you look at his career, he had some (fumbles) early as a young guy and as he moved forward, I think his senior year he might have had three or so,” Caldwell said. “So he looked to be certainly improving in that area and the same kind of improvement that he showed then, I think is going to show that improvement with us as well.”
Of his two fumbles on Sunday, only one was lost. The second one came on a kickoff return. He clearly fumbled it but the Cardinals touched the ball out of bounds so the Lions retained possession.
That was Abdullah’s last play.
He had a fumble in the opener at San Diego, but was able to recover the ball.
Van Noy on track
Lost in the wretched loss, was the fact that Kyle Van Noy was a healthy scratch on Sunday.
The linebacker, a second-round pick in 2014, has played mostly on special teams this season.
Caldwell said last week and reiterated on Monday that he is not concerned with Van Noy’s progress.
With DeAndre Levy back, they had to sit a linebacker and Van Noy was the one while Brandon Copeland was active.
“He’s still a valuable part of our team, in terms of his role on special teams some other guys had a more prominent role,” Caldwell said of Van Noy. “… I think he’s still on track.”
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