What They're Saying: Lions Rookies Battle Emotions in Debuts

The Detroit Lions struggled out of the gate in their preseason opener.

With five turnovers setting the tone for an ugly showing, the Lions were never able to get into a groove in a 34-7 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in the Hall of Fame Game Thursday in Canton, Ohio.

Here is a collection of quotes from Lions players following Thursday's game.

Dan Campbell

His impressions of Isaac TeSlaa and Dominic Lovett in their NFL debuts:

“TeSlaa made some plays, look they both did. Lovett’s two negative plays, he’s gonna learn from those. College, you’re making those plays, you’re snatching them, you continue to go. Well this one, a guy’s coming down to knock it out of your hands, and the other one you’ve got it, and he just takes it from you. Just squeezing the ball, get it tucked as fast as possible. It’s just one of those emphasis deals. He’s gonna be better for this. You hate that you have to learn it the hard way, but he will be better. We wanted to get TeSlaa and Lovett the ball, we wanted to get these some receivers some throws. I wish we could’ve gotten all those guys some throws. But it was good to see, I thought those two guys showed up.” 

Grant Stuard

On his fumble on the opening kickoff:

"I think it's one of those things where you work hard all week, all offseason and in that moment, it's all about that moment. It's all about maintaining control of the football. That's something that we've harped on, talked about, something that coach told me before I even went out there. It's something that I can continue to just work on and improve, and get more reps on taking contact with the ball in my hands and being tackled. Just hopefully get another opportunity, and continue to capitalize when I do get those opportunities."

Hendon Hooker

On if his performance in Thursday's game makes him hungry for the next game:

"It makes me hungry just to get back to work. I wish we had practice tomorrow. I'm just very disappointed in myself as far as just leading the troops down the field and making more plays."

On if he's surprised by his performance after a strong start to camp:

"Very, very. Me and Kyle hold ourselves to a very high standard, especially him having played at a very high level as well as me. Just competing with each other and pushing each other daily, this is something that you would think we would come out on a game day setting and really show out. Our expectations weren't met as a team, or as individuals, me and him."

Isaac TeSlaa

How it felt to have two big catches early in the game:

"Definitely a lot of emotion on that first one. Felt good to drop my shoulder a little bit into that DB, definitely pretty hyped up about that one. I don't know, football's definitely an emotional game but you've got to be able to tame those emotions so when you're making plays, don't let the highs be too high, don't let the lows be too low."

Ahmed Hassanein

On what he felt he did well in his NFL debut:

"I really liked how I stopped the run, and just attacked my gap and did my job. Just want to keep growing. The quarterback wasn't taken down much, I almost got my first sack but he slipped away from me, and almost got there again in the backfield, but the pass was just so fast. The one thing I'm proud of (is) I'm playing free. I'm not afraid to make mistakes. I just want to grow, I want to learn, I want a game-to-game experience. I was talking to Aidan, I was like, 'Hey bro, what do you see? What do you know? What do you want me to do here?' Coach, too. 'Hey coach, what do you want me to do here?' Also, I want to do my role on special teams. I really want to grow on that. I played a lot of special teams today, at Boise I never played special teams. Here, I want to learn special teams because I want to help the team as much as I can. So that was also a learning curve for me, because I've never played special teams. In meetings, I'm like, 'Wait, kickoff? Kick return?' I'm just learning. It's studying where I'm at on the depth chart, know where I'm at, that's a big thing for coach to know where you're at at all times."