Lions

Lions OC John Morton said he “failed” WR Jameson Williams, as he’s not been able to get the ball in his hands more often.

“I looked at everything, as far as that. I’m going to do a better job with that. But there has been opportunities where it just didn’t happen,” Morton said, via ESPN. “It’s not like we aren’t going to try to target him. So that was the biggest thing. “So I looked at everything, and I failed him. That’s what I told him,” Morton added. “I have to do a better job with that. But it’s a two-way street. We definitely looked at that.”

Williams said that Morton came to him apologetically for him not being a bigger part of the game plan but said that he’s most focused on winning games.

“He came to me and expressed to me how he felt, but with me, I really wasn’t taking it too far into thinking about it,” Williams said. “We was winning games and things like that, so I can never get myself too worked up with me getting the ball or me getting targeted or things like that. I know it’s gonna come. It’s a long season.”

Lions QB Jared Goff agreed that the team needed to get the ball into Williams’ hands more often, but reiterated that the most important thing is continuing to win games.

“We want to win the game, we want to score points, and I think that’s the primary for everybody,” Goff said. “But of course, yeah, we’d love to get him involved more, get him to rock in a million different ways. And he’s explosive. I know defenses are worried about him at all times, and we need to find ways to continue to keep him involved.”

Packers

Packers HC Matt LaFleur said he regretted not taking the points late in the game against the Panthers and instead went for a touchdown.

“Matt made a decision on that one,” Packers QB Jordan Love said, via The Athletic. “He wanted to try and put up a touchdown, and obviously it didn’t work out. They were playing their soft defense and were able to be underneath it. Started scrambling around and, at that point, you’re trying to find a way to make a play and you’re going to take a shot, throw it to the end zone and hope that somebody come up and make a play. Me and (Romeo Doubs), right there, weren’t on the same page. I don’t know if he was pushed out of bounds, too, or not, but just weren’t on the same page. Just got to find a way to try and put one in the end zone or past the sticks and make a play on that.”

Love said that the offense has been inconsistent and they need to play better down the stretch.

“I think it’s inconsistent,” Love said of his big-picture offensive assessment. “I think we’ve had games where we’ve played very well, put up a lot of points, and we’ve had games where we have not put up enough points. Those are the games that you lose. It’s just inconsistent. We’ve got to find ways to keep just building on it, keep growing on the things we’re doing well and clean up a lot of the mistakes, but turnovers, penalties, all those things that are just negative are what’s hurting us in some of these games where we’re not playing at the level we’ve played at in other games.”

• Packers rookie WR Matthew Golden is more day-to-day than week-to-week, according to LaFleur. (Matt Schneidman)
• LaFleur says it’s possible OLB Lukas Van Ness (foot) and WR Dontayvion Wicks (calf) return this week. (Ryan Wood)

Panthers

Panthers HC Dave Canales said Sunday’s win over the Packers could help catapult the team for the remainder of the season.

“It’s huge. … To get into this type of environment, this is a special place. The fans are unbelievable, and this is a really good team,” he said, via The Athletic. “We understood what it was gonna take for us to win this game was doing right longer. That’s our mentality and that’s also the thing we have to capture. Can we capture this style of football? It didn’t show up for last week. It showed up for us today.”

Panthers RB Rico Dowdle has emerged as the team’s best option in the backfield during recent weeks and has helped propel the team’s offense.

“That’s the player he is. That’s the guy he is,” Panthers QB Bryce Young said. “Everyone sees Sunday. But how hard he works, the intensity he has, the intentionality he has during practice, you see him being more and more comfortable. He’s been really vocal about what he wants.”

Dowdle explained how Young has taken more ownership of the offense and has grown as a leader. Young made a pre-snap adjustment that made it seem as if Dowdle was checking into protection, but instead ripped off a 19-yard gain on the ground.

“He was acting like he was putting me in protection, just to kind of play mind games with the defense. But he was just telling me, ‘It’s still the same play,’” Dowdle said. “I think things like that definitely make a huge difference because you never know what the defense is thinking. So they’ve definitely gotta adjust.”