ALLEN PARK Riley Reiff missed only one practice before rejoining the Detroit Lions. And even when he missed practice he was seen working on the side with a trainer.
During a typical week there would be little reason to doubt his availability for the game. But Reiff wasn't dealing with an ordinary week.
And the left tackle just couldn't get ready on short rest for the Thanksgiving game against the Chicago Bears.
There may be a situation where there's a guy who is ready to go but yet it takes him a week to get ready. And short weeks sometimes that hurts a guy because you don't have that amount of time to recuperate coach Jim Caldwell said Friday morning on 97.1 FM in Detroit.
That was kind of Riley's case. Probably maybe I'm not sure about this but there was a chance probably he'd be a little better shape come Sunday as opposed to a Thursday game.
The good news is Reiff has 10 more days to recuperate before the Lions retake the field next week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And if he was that close to playing against Chicago then he should have little issue seeing the field against Tampa.
Even without its starting left tackle Detroit crushed Chicago 34 17. Rookie Cornelius Lucas started in Reiff's place and played well in his matchup with Jared Allen. He allowed just one QB hurry no sacks and was the Lions' fourth best offensive player according to ProFootballFocus.
The Lions got a victory and got their rookie some valuable reps at that important left tackle position. That's a win win.
Caldwell had less to say about the injuries to tailback Reggie Bush defensive tackle Nick Fairley and right guard Larry Warford.
(Warford and Fairley) are healing Caldwell said during the interview. Both guys are getting restoration and not sure when we'll get them back. But doctors will let us know.
Caldwell won't hold his usual game wrap up news conference until next week because of the Thanksgiving holiday. In lieu of those updates here are some more of his remarks from his interview with 97.1 FM
On whether we can expect to see more of the quick tempo Every game is a little different. That's the thing is oftentimes you get kind of lulled into thinking you can do the exact same thing every game. But you can't because No. 1 you face different issues. You have different problems with who plays for ya with injury. And we have to be able to manage those problems. Sometimes they require a little different approach.
On whether he got to celebrate Thanksgiving Yeah I did. It was one of those unusual Thanksgivings for me. Typically it just hasn't been conducive to getting together location and things of that nature. So typically I was usually for the last 14 years I've been at work and my wife has been in North Carolina with the kids and family wherever we were at in Baltimore and Indy. So this was an opportunity. Everyone was there my mom and dad the whole bit. It was a lot of fun.
On whether he likes short weeks You know what I do. I think probably because we've had a lot of success.
On what stands out about the offense against Chicago All in all the difference was we executed a lot better just in terms of our fundamentals and technique. We blocked better we pass protected better we got the ball out on time we caught the ball well we ran after the catch. We did the little things right and those things add up.
On if he knows what clicked for Matthew Stafford No I don't. I couldn't tell you that. He's had games with real fine stretches in them. This was a pretty complete game didn't start out real great but other than that I couldn't really tell ya. He has the ability to really play well and I think he did that yesterday.
On what was different on offense against Chicago We're not preaching anything different than what we've been talking about. Just some games it comes together. We're fortunate that this one indeed did.
On if teams are abandoning their run game against Detroit's defense I think some of them come in with that approach. The fewer attempts you have in the run game the more you put it in the air the more chances for turnovers increases sacks things of that nature. So that's one of the things. Time of possession is an issue as well unless you get hot and complete a great majority of them. But I do get a sense there are some teams that certainly view us that way and say 'Hey we can't run the ball very well against these guys. Let's throw it a bit more.'
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