Delmas: ‘You can never take for granted these preseason games.’

“I think the game went as planned. One thing, just speaking on the defensive side, our coach did a good job of this week not trying to coach as far as scheme or personnel, but coach as a team. Therefore, we went in with the mentality of let’s try to dominate in all three phases of the game: defense, offense, special teams, and I think we accomplished that.

“It felt good to be out there longer. Its always good to get out there with the team and show what you’ve been working on from before. I think our defense, offense and our special teams all did a good job in these last three games, putting good things on film. Every win isn’t as good as it seems, just like every loss isn’t as bad as it seems. We still have a lot of key things to work on and we need to get them done to take the next step forward.

“You can never take for granted these preseason games, they’re games, and our coaches do a good job of preparing us like it’s a regular season game, not a preseason game. We never had the mentality that we’re just going in for a preseason game. Every game was a real game for us, it’s just that we got pulled out earlier than usual.

“(But) let me say something, I’ve been ready for the regular season since the first preseason game. Playing preseason games is kind of like reeling a fish up on a hook and as soon as it gets to the boat, it falls off. You almost got it in, but you’re not there yet. It’s the same thing with the season, you want to get the preseason games out of the way so you can see where you’re at, and when the regular season comes you can make adjustments.

“Every game is different. Our first game we were just getting our feet wet. The second game we were cleaning up techniques so we could go into our third game like a regular season game, and we did that. Now this game right here is just to tighten up on all the other things. We’re trying to see if we can put all three games into a fourth game, and if we can do that we’ll be able to play well throughout the season.”

Delmas: ‘My mindset is to prepare for it as if it’s the first game of the season.’

“I think as a whole unit, defensively we played okay (at Cleveland). As a leader of the defense, I’m pretty sure that the other leaders of the defense feel the same way, but we felt like we can go out there and play much better than we did. There’s a lot of room for improvement.

“We’re very proud with the way that we played because we didn’t hold back at all, we just know that we can work on a lot more to make each other better. At the end of the day we were very satisfied.

“My mindset this week – being that it’s our third preseason game, its’ the game that most people focus on as a ‘real’ game – my mindset is to prepare for it as if it’s the first game of the season. Go in there and try to be on top of my game mentally and physically, go in there and make plays and lead my troops into victory. At the end of the day this game is just like a real game and the wins and losses matter.

“First and foremost, New England’s offense is controlled by a very smart, very healthy quarterback. He might not be the fastest or have the strongest arm, but he makes up for that with ability to think right after the snap of the ball. He has weapons out there that he can throw the ball to: (Deion) Branch, Wes Welker, Chad Ochocinco and don’t forget about the two backs. They have a very strong back who’s down there running and then they have a third-down scat-back. They have multiple weapons that we need to take seriously and if we don’t, that scoreboard can get really bad quickly. We have to go in there and focus.

“No defense ever wants to give up 21 points in the first half. Obviously that’s what happened to us last week and I’m not going to say we slipped up and I’m not going to say we weren’t prepared. We approach every game as if it’s our last. With that being said, we still have a lot to work on and like I said, no team wants to go into halftime down 21 points. We have a lot of improvement to do and we’re going to learn from that game and hopefully it won’t happen again.”

Delmas: ‘This game was the fastest I’ve ever played’

“The first preseason game… I can say that from being out of football for so long, it was very, very, very exciting. For the first time after playing in the NFL for two years straight, and being in my third season, I’d say this game was the fastest I’ve ever played – not from my speed standpoint, but as far as how the game went – it was fast. I think both offense and defense did a fairly good job, but we still have a lot to work on. A lot.

“I think we need to be a bit more consistent, defensively, because the offense did a good job of not having to punt much, they drove the ball down and basically scored every time they were in the red zone. But on the defensive side of the ball, we need to do a better job of being consistent as far as stopping the run and not giving up big plays because we’ll stop the run two times and then on third-down they’ll run it for seven. If we’re going to be known as one of the top defenses in the NFL, we need to be consistent with our run-stopping.

“It felt great (getting two picks) and being that I wasn’t one of the ones that got a pick, it still feels good because that’s something that the secondary strives for everyday. We approach each and every practice with the mindset that we have to get three picks that day and that will carry on into the season. Chris Houston and Ricardo Silva did a great job of getting those interceptions and that came from practice.

“It’s very different this week heading into the next game. Now we’ve gotten a little taste and we want all of it because like I said, we’ve been out so long and the majority of us couldn’t wait to get back into football. I’m not talking about camp; I’m not sure any players love camp, but even camp gave us a little tease of the preseason. The starters only played one series of the first game and that’s something of a teaser. We are looking forward to the next game at Cleveland.”

Leshoure on his surgery: ‘Everything went well’

Hear directly from Mikel Leshoure regarding surgery performed after an Achilles injury suffered on Monday.

Mikel Leshoure’s blog on Sportsbuzz

Delmas: ‘There haven’t been any setbacks and really the first two weeks have been a breeze’

“To be honest, the first two weeks of training camp have been going great as far as the secondary – and the whole defense – compared to last year. Last year we didn’t have a lot of guys who were familiar with the defense.

“This year we added a couple of defensive backs to the defense who are very smart and gel very well with our scheme. There haven’t been any setbacks and really the first two weeks have been a breeze.

“Amari (Spievey), I’m very impressed with him. He’s now becoming a man, becoming a professional athlete. He’s not a child anymore, he’s not what they call a puppy. He’s accepting responsibility and taking control out there. He’s being a general. His play speaks for itself, he’s out there making a lot of plays and living up to the hype of what everyone wants him to be.

“It’s always good to have veteran players to look up to. Erik Coleman has been in there for a minute now and anytime I have a question, that I can’t ask my coach, I can go up to him, a player who has been through that situation, and I can ask him. It’s always good to have a guy like that on your team.

“The competition is difficult out there. Not just among younger guys. Erik, I call him granddaddy because he’s 75 years old… But he can still run like a 19-year old. That’s part of being a professional athlete, being very competitive and this defense is one of the most competitive teams I’ve been on from this year, to last year, to the year before. I’m very excited. We drive each other very hard and I think that’s going to benefit us in the long-run.

“Tomorrow, man, I’m looking forward to hitting someone else that’s not my teammate. I’m tired hitting these guys, I’ve been hitting them for two weeks and I’m just ready to give the fans what they’ve been waiting for – a winning season.”

Delmas looking for love for the defense

“Let me tell you. Hearing the fans on the practice field makes you think that it’s game time. It’s nothing but fun, a lot of enthusiasm coming out of them. It’s a lot of energy. We feed off their energy. Just hearing them out here is very exciting. You have no choice but to think about games.

“But you know what … don’t let me get started on the fans cheering so loud for the offense. I mean, I very much appreciate all of their cheering, but everything has to be about the offense.

“If we get a pass deflection … I know it doesn’t look as good, but it’s a point on our side. So at that point, cheer for it. But at the end of the day, I know the defense is all dogs. So at the end of the day, we get treated like a dog, we play like a dog.

“If you look at guys like Kyle, me and maybe Levy, you have no choice but to think that this defense is full of hard-headed dogs who won’t listen to anybody. Just want to get to the ball.”

Leshoure: ‘Today was definitely pretty tough for me, but it will get easier from here.’

“My first practice was definitely a little tough for me, especially because I had to do my conditioning test this morning instead of last night, so it kind of lingered over into practice a little bit. My legs were a little tired and the speed is a lot faster (than college), so today was definitely pretty tough for me, but it will get easier from here.

“I definitely think missing the rookie mini-camps put us (rookies) at a disadvantage from the previous years because we weren’t able to get into the playbook and get a feel for the game speed and all of those things before camp.

“It’s kind of all hit us at once, which is definitely a bit of a disadvantage, but this team specifically, has a lot of veterans and a lot of people who know the system, so it’s only the rookies that need to learn the system. As rookies, we have to get on our job a little bit more and get after it.

“I’m learning the playbook. I’ve always been a quick learner, so I don’t think it will take too long for me to feel comfortable in the offense, but it’s definitely a learning process.

“As far as the running backs, everyone is cool. Everyone is helpful. There are no selfish guys in our group; it really seems like everyone is looking forward to working with each other.

“Having a former player, Sam Gash, as my position coach is good because you feel like what he’s preaching, he’s been through it. It’s not like he’s just a guy that’s never played football before. It definitely feels good that he’s an ex-player and knows what we’re going through so that he can handle us a certain way.

“Before coming to Detroit I was training, traveling, visiting family and friends. I’ve never really had a break like that before because in college we would be going through spring ball, summer workouts and stuff like that.

“Basically I’ve just been relaxing, enjoying some time off and staying in shape, so that I’m ready to roll. I’m very, very, very excited for the preseason. I can’t wait.”

Penalties Hurting Detroit, But Offense Moving the Ball

The Lions did not help themselves in the first half, committing nine penalties for 77 yards and two turnovers.

The Green Bay offense capitalized on both Detroit turnovers, finding the endzone after each.

But the Lions were able to move the ball offensively, controlling the clock with 19:28 time of possession compared to the Packers’ 10:32. Quarterback Shaun Hill looked solid, completing 21-of-26 for 237 yards including two touchdowns – both to wide receiver Calvin Johnson – and one interception, which came when Hill’s intended receiver fell down.

Both Johnson and tight end Brandon Pettigrew lead Detroit in receiving yards with 72; Pettigrew with seven catches and Johnson with five and two touchdowns.

Suh: ‘… we’re going (to Lambeau) to take care of business.’

“I did watch the Monday Night game. It was a pretty good game – very close. There’s things that you can see from both watching film and watching the game in real time. With TV copy you can hear snap counts and different things if you’re actually trying to listen through to the commentary.

“It’s also good to watch a game all the way through just to get a feel for what they’re trying to do. Not saying you can’t do that when you’re actually breaking down film, but then you can obviously rewind, go back and look for certain things.

“Aaron Rodgers is a good quarterback. Obviously one that has a strong arm and is very accurate. Definitely likes to use his wide receivers and tight ends to spread the field. The running game is down a little bit due to losing their starting running back so, in my personal opinion, I think they’ve put a little more weight on Aaron Rodgers’ shoulders. I think he’s, for the most part, living up to it and embracing it.

“From what I notice, he definitely is feeling the rush a lot better than he did last year and is moving around the pocket. He’s also getting rid of the ball a lot quicker. They don’t really have a lot of seven-step drops, which takes up quite a bit of time to get back there, wanting receivers to get downfield. So it looks to me that they’re more into the three- and five-step drops – more or less five-step drops – to get those deep balls.

“I’m definitely looking forward to playing at Lambeau Field. I hear it’s an exciting place. I’ve never been to Lambeau before … I’ve never been to Wisconsin at all. It’s an opportunity to see what the atmosphere’s like there but, first and foremost, we’re going there to take care of business.”

Suh: ‘If we do make mistakes, they need to be minimal mistakes’

“The atmosphere at Ford Field is amazing. I was definitely excited to see that and I definitely think that the defense fed off of it. It was definitely a good atmosphere; I hope they keep it that way throughout the year and don’t take this loss too hard, because I don’t foresee any more losses at home.

“I can only speak for the defense and, as a whole, our performance was average. I think we played 85-90-percent of that game pretty well, but when we did make mistakes, they were big mistakes. Those then turned into big plays, which turned into points and touchdowns. Those are the things that we can’t allow. If we do make mistakes they need to be minimal mistakes and they need to be at the most maybe a 10-yard run, a 20-yard pass at the very most. And those 10-yard runs became 50-yard touchdowns and things of that sort.

“We had a tough time with cutbacks yesterday. The running back did a very good job – he’s a shifty running back. But we knew that coming in and we knew that were going to have to watch that he liked to cut the ball back. He wasn’t really a guy that liked to hit the hole. A lot of the time if the hole is wide open he’s going to go through it. If it’s not, he’s going to try to create it and cut it back or bounce it outside. I would put that on us, without a doubt.

“As far as Michael Vick’s performance, we definitely give credit where credit is due. At the same time, the one thing we didn’t want him to do was extend plays, which we allowed him to do. When we had our shots, most of the times we took them, but some of them we didn’t take and he extended those plays. Then instead of him running, he threw it, which hurt us even more. We can’t allow those things to happen no matter who the quarterback is. We’re about to get ready to go against a guy that likes to extend plays and really likes to find plays far down the field. So that’s something we have to get correct very quickly in practice.

“It’s a passing league, so sacks mean more than stopping the run and I am definitely looking forward to getting a sack on Brett Favre. At the same time, I definitely want to get after Adrian Peterson. I know him personally, so I want to be able to talk some trash to him when I see him outside of the field.

“I’ll only talk to him after the game – I’m not the guy that likes to talk before the game. Maybe before the actual game, warm-ups or something like that, but other than that I’ll talk to him on the field while I’m hitting him.

“I actually met him for the first time during the Super Bowl through a Nike event. We’re both Nike, obviously. I talked to him, went to another Nike event with him and talked to him. So, he’s a good dude. I’ve played against him – we played against each other my true freshman year in college – but I didn’t play that game, I was hurt.

“He’s a powerful runner, but he’s also got speed. I think his biggest thing is he likes to try and to run over a lot of guys. He was prone to fumbling last year, so hopefully we can create those again. In the two games that I’ve watched so far, he hasn’t really fumbled it, that I’ve noticed. We definitely want to be able to put that in the back of his head. Hopefully we can get an early one, and continue to do that throughout the game. He’s definitely a guy that’s dynamic that wants to try to break tackles and run over people, so we have to be ready for both. You have to be ready for both. You need to make sure you wrap up.”