Lions center Dominic Raiola (No. 51) was one of many players who took the blame for Detroit's overtime loss to the Titans on Sunday. (US Presswire) |
For some NFL teams, it’s difficult to find players who are willing to accept blame and accountability when errors translate to losses.
For the Lions, the problem isn’t finding someone willing to shoulder responsibility for the botched final play that resulted in their loss to the Titans -- it’s finding someone who hasn’t yet apologized for their mistakes.
Center Dominic Raiola added his mea culpa Monday to those already offered by quarterback Shaun Hill and coach Jim Schwartz. Raiola said he misunderstood Hill’s play call when Detroit approached the line of scrimmage on the play that saw Tennessee stop Hill on a fourth-and-one to seal the Titans’ win.
“We try to get up on the ball and run a play that wasn’t supposed to be snapped,” he said. “I totally read [Hill’s] lips the wrong way. I ran a fullback dive and you can see when I came off the ball I just -- just a missed execution on my part.”
Raiola said nothing like his miscommunication with Hill had ever happened during his 12-year career, and that he is willing to accept any rebuke he might face over his mistake.
“I know a lot of people say that’s not the play that lost the game, but that’s so cliché,” he said. “I take my job pretty serious and to end the game like that sucks. There’s nothing I can do about it now. I’d have asked Shaun [Hill] three times [what the play was] if I knew that was going to happen."
Raiola declined interview requests following the game Sunday, and he admitted that talking about the play was still difficult a day after the fact.
“It still hurts,” he said. “It’s still fresh. I just let everybody down.”
QB Matthew Stafford’s Week 4 status still uncertain: Jim Schwartz declined to comment on the availability of Stafford for Sunday’s game against Minnesota at Ford Field. Stafford was set to undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the leg injury that saw him leave Detroit’s Week 3 loss to Tennessee late in the fourth quarter. “We’ll see how the week goes, and then Friday we’ll make a determination what [Stafford’s] availability is,” Schwartz said. “Same as every team does.”
Follow Lions reporter John Kreger on Twitter at @CBSLions and @JohnKreger.