Lions try to simulate field conditions in practice Friday

Lions coach Jim Schwartz has told the media time and time again that he doesn’t believe in simulating game conditions in practice.

Schwartz doesn’t pump in sound to prepare for road games or anything like that.

After taking the team outdoors for their last practice of the week Friday before heading to Green Bay, Schwartz said afterward it had nothing to do with the weather conditions, rather the field conditions.

“You know, we saw a lot of players slipping around when Chicago played up there last week and we wanted to go out and work that kind of timing and things like that, but the temperature was really irrelevant,” he said.

“We weren’t trying to simulate cold and everything else, but there is something to that timing. I think that that was probably the biggest thing. It had nothing to do with the cold.”

The forecast for Sunday in Green Bay calls for temperatures in the lower 30’s with flurries and winds at 24 miles per hour.

Lions would like to put an end to one more nasty losing streak at Lambeau Field

Coach Jim Schwartz and the Lions can be proud of the fact that they’ve ended some rather nasty losing streaks over the last couple years.

There was the 19-game consecutive losing streak they ended in 2009.

There was the 26-game consecutive road losing streak they snapped in 2010.

Then there was the 19-game losing streak to division opponents that fell by the wayside last season.

But there’s still one streak that looms large over the franchise.

The Lions haven’t won in the state of Wisconsin since a 21-17 victory over the Packers in 1991.

“We’ve ended a lot of losing streaks and I think it’s important to us to knock this one out,” said Lions center Dominic Raiola.

The Lions have a chance to “knock it out” on Sunday when they close the regular season at Lambeau Field, needing a victory to secure the No. 5 seed in the NFC playoffs.

“Yeah we’ve snapped a lot of streaks over the last couple years and it will be a nice one to get off our resume, but you know, whether it’s the Green Bay Packers or whoever — it’s the next game on our schedule and that’s the most important thing,” coach Jim Schwartz said Thursday.

“It’s hard to hold Matt Stafford accountable for something that happened in 1992, 93, 94, 95, and so on. That doesn’t mean a whole lot, it’s more important what we’re doing this week, what we do in practice yesterday, today, tomorrow, and how we play on Sunday — not what happened 20 years ago. But it would be nice to get it off our resume so to speak.”

Houston not worried about cast; Johnson sits with Achilles injury

Right at the end of the portion of Lions practice open the media, corner Chris Houston walked onto the practice field in shorts and his No. 23 jersey sporting a hard cast on his left hand to protect an injured pinkie finger.

But there’s no need to worry, according to Houston. He says he’s fine.

“They’ll probably take this off (soon),” he said as he lifted it up and wiggled his fingers. “I’m able to move it.”

Houston said he hurt the pinkie when he fell on it wrong after returning an interception 43-yards in the fourth quarter against the Chargers on Saturday.

Houston even had a good laugh about it when a media member told him he must not have many friends because he had no signatures on his cast.

“I just got it this morning,” he laughed. “I’m sure it’ll be signed in a minute.”

Houston is still trying to move on from a sprained knee he suffered against the Packers on Thanksgiving that forced him to miss two games and remove himself from another.

“It wasn’t all the way back and it still isn’t 100 percent yet, but it will be,” Houston said Wednesday of the knee.

Houston did not practice Wednesday.

Neither did safety Louis Delmas, who’s been dealing with a sprained right knee for more than a month now. Delmas hasn’t played since hurting the knee against the Packers on Thanksgiving and likely won’t play against the Packers on Sunday.

Delmas had arthroscopic surgery on the knee Dec. 17.

Also missing practice was receiver Calvin Johnson, who was listed on the injury report with an Achilles injury.

“I had some things bothering me at the end of the game there, but like I said I’m just trying to be a fresh as possible going into the game,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I don’t feel too bad. I can’t complain too much.”

Defensive tackle Corey Williams (hip) and defensive end Willie Young (ankle) also missed practice.

Corner Aaron Berry, who’s recovering from a separated right shoulder suffered against the Vikings Dec. 11, looked much better in the early portion of practice than he did last week but is still listed as limited on the injury report.

Defensive end Cliff Avril (back) and defensive tackle Nick Fairley (foot) were also listed as limited.

New running back Joique Bell (No. 35) participated in practice.

Suh: “It’s definitely exciting to be heading into this last game knowing we’re in the playoffs.”

“It was definitely a great team that we beat. There’s a lot of Pro Bowlers on that team. Obviously a Pro Bowl quarterback in Philip Rivers, as you saw with the rosters coming out last night. Being able to limit him to things that he didn’t want to do, and limiting them to a pretty small amount of yards as a total offense was good.

“Obviously our offense did a tremendous job of helping us on the defensive side. We were hardly on the field in the first half and the same thing in the second half. As a defensive player that’s good, but you do get a little bored.

“It’s always a big thing for us to want to stop the run. The Chargers weren’t a big, big running team, although they had a lot of good running backs back there, and a good friend in Ryan Matthews – stopping him is always exciting, and getting the trash talking rights. It’s always good to be able to have a good run defense against a good team like that.

“I think Green Bay has been pretty consistent with staying with their game plan and keeping their quarterback the same way, running the offense in the same exact way. Obviously you can see that (Aaron) Rodgers is aware of some weak links, or not necessarily weak links, but mismatches where he might need to move his feet a little bit more. I remember watching the game against Chicago, he moved his feet quite a bit in comparison to the beginning of the year where he wasn’t. You notice things of that sort.

“They moved the ball pretty well against us last game, but the one thing that we did was hold them to a pretty good third down percentage. Basically we have to beat them and slow them down on first and second down and then third down we know we always take care of business, we’ve been known for that. But its’ a matter of getting to that third down position. First and second down is very important to us and that’s something that we definitely need to work on and is something that we’ve been working on all season.

“For me, it’s definitely exciting to be heading into this last game knowing we’re in the playoffs. It’s always exciting being in the playoffs in the pros and I don’t expect this to be the last time that we do this. It’s a great way to start my sophomore year in the NFL and it’s a good way to really ‘start’ the end of the season.

“I’ve played in rain, I’ve played in snow, I’ve played in the bitter cold, I went to Nebraska with an outdoor field. The weather in Green Bay is definitely not an issue to me. I saw that it was 20 degrees when Chicago was playing them. I look forward to it, still being in no sleeves.”