Read More: Calvin Johnson (WR – DET), Kevin Smith (RB – DET), New Orleans Saints, Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions had their first official practice of the week on Wednesday as they begin to prepare for their playoff game this weekend with the New Orleans Saints. The offense was a bit light according to the official injury report, however, as Calvin Johnson sat out completely while starting running back Kevin Smith was limited.

Johnson sat out Wednesday and Thursday last week, too, but ended up playing quite well despite the Achilles injury. The Detroit Free Press’s Dave Birkett expects the same to happen this weekend.

Wide receiver Calvin Johnson today sat out his second straight practice with an Achilles tendon injury, but there’s little doubt he’ll play in the Detroit Lions’ playoff opener Saturday against the New Orleans Saints.

Johnson worked on the side with trainers during the open portion of Lions practice, and receiver Titus Young returned to the field after sitting out Tuesday.

Johnson was the only player to miss practice on Wednesday, but quite a few were limited — mostly on the defensive end. The entire report for Wednesday is available here.

For more on the Detroit Lions, check out Pride of Detroit. You can also head over to SB Nation’s main NFL hub at SBNation.com/NFL.

The Detroit Lions are making their first playoff appearance since 1999, and the Saints are making their third straight trip to the postseason. That would presumably give the “experience” edge to the Saints, but Lions Coach Jim Schwartz offered a different perspective Tuesday.

“Obviously, players that have played here for a long time don’t have (playoff experience). But you might even argue if you lived through 0-16 (in 2008) and 10 years of no playoff games, maybe you relish the opportunity even more,” Schwartz said. “Maybe there is more urgency to take advantage of it. I think it plays both ways. There is something to the newness of it and embracing that. There is probably something to the experience of having done it before also.”

Several key members of the Saints, including Coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees, remember what it was like to reach the playoffs for the first time in a groundbreaking 2006 season.

Both suggested that neither the Saints nor the Lions will have any real advantage based on experience or lack thereof.

“Both teams have played in a lot of big games, especially this year, and I don’t think that one side necessarily has the advantage over the other in either regard,” Brees said. “Both sides have some big-time players that have played in some big-time games. It’s the most important game of the season. It doesn’t get any bigger than this Saturday night, because we all have the same hope, dream and aspiration of continuing on. And that’s what makes the playoffs so great to watch.”

Schwartz later used the same word that Payton has used several times to describe the playoffs — “finality.”

“Obviously there is finality to playoff games. If you lose, there aren’t any more, which is different from the regular season,” Schwartz said. “It’s not about what your record was in the regular season. It’s not about what your stats are. It’s not about your injury report. It’s about who plays the best for 60 minutes and comes out on that leaderboard. There is nothing else to look forward to.”

Schwartz was also asked about the popular notion that “nobody wants to face the Saints right now” while they’ve been playing at such a high level during their eight-game win streak.

“We’d like to play ‘em. We’d like to play ‘em Saturday,” Schwartz said. “We are very glad to be in the situation that we are in. It’s the first time since 1999 that this franchise has been in the playoffs. We are certainly ready for that. It’s been a long time coming for this organization.”

INGRAM, HERRING ON INJURED RESERVE: As expected, Saints tailback Mark Ingram was placed on injured reserve Tuesday.

Payton confirmed Ingram will have surgery to repair the turf toe injury that has sidelined him for the past month. Linebacker Will Herring also was placed on injured reserve after suffering a sprained medial collateral ligament last Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.

Payton said Ingram didn’t suffer any more significant injury beyond the turf toe last week when he had a setback in practice. But Payton said it became clear Ingram wouldn’t be healthy enough to play again this season.

“He would not have really had any chance to come back in the postseason,” Payton said. “He’ll have the surgery this upcoming week and then begin the rehab.”

The Saints filled the roster spots by activating rookie linebacker Nate Bussey from their practice squad and by signing guard Eric Olsen from the Washington Redskins’ practice squad. They also added former LSU linebacker Darry Beckwith to the practice squad to replace Bussey.

NO INJURY REPORTS: Neither the Saints nor the Lions had to give an injury report Tuesday. The first one will come today.

One of the injury question marks for the Saints this week will be receiver Robert Meachem, who bruised a knee during Sunday’s game. But he said Tuesday that he intends to play.

There were no updates available on other injury situations, like that of linebackers Jonathan Vilma and Jonathan Casillas, safety Malcolm Jenkins, receiver Lance Moore and tight end John Gilmore.

‘STATMAN’: Backup quarterback Chase Daniel played an essential role on the night that Brees broke Dan Marino’s passing yardage record for a season. Daniel was the go-to guy on the sideline for teammates who wanted to know how close Brees was to the record.

Or as Brees often calls him, he was “Statman.”

During the season, Daniel said he always kept up with the various records that Brees and the team were chasing, because he’s so active on Twitter and follows various media reports.

“Then he’ll always come up to me and say, ‘Do you want to know what record you just set,’” Brees said, chiding Daniel from the next locker.

Daniel said he found out how many yards Brees needed during halftime of the Saints’ Week 16 game against the Atlanta Falcons, then he kept the running tally in his head after that. He said teammates kept coming up to him to find out the target number.

Brees singled out Daniel as the team’s mathematician during pregame interviews last week with Fox, which then revealed the details during last week’s broadcast.

BREES MEMENTOS: Brees’ uniform and cleats from Week 16 were put on display at the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday to commemorate the night he broke Marino’s record. Brees said he was happy to oblige when the Hall of Fame made the request, but he kept some mementos for himself.

Brees said he gave the ball that actually broke the record to someone, though he kept that personal. He said he then kept some balls from last week’s game, which helped him raise the new mark to 5,476 yards. He’ll have two of them painted up for his sons Bowen and Baylen.

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Mike Triplett can be reached at mtriplett@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3405.

ALLEN PARK, MICH. — Matthew Stafford’s golden right arm is an obvious asset, allowing the Detroit Lions quarterback to thread passes into tight spots across the middle or connect with Calvin Johnson in stride deep down the sideline.

Behind the scenes, Stafford’s teammates believe he’s just as impressive.

Offensive guard Rob Sims marvels at Stafford’s ability to tell the other 10 players on offence exactly what he wants them to do on various plays when they gather the night before each game.

Receiver Nate Burleson still can’t believe Stafford told him to be ready for a pass on a long crossing pattern when Detroit was facing a third-and-19 against San Diego in Week 16.

“He told me in the huddle, ‘Stay alive, I’m coming to you,’” Burleson recalled. “He anticipated the coverage they were going to be in before he even got to the line. Sure enough, I was open and he stepped up in the pocket to make the throw.”

Stafford’s record-breaking season lifted the Lions to the playoffs for the first time since the 1999 season.

He threw for 5,038 yards and 41 touchdowns, smashing Scott Mitchell’s single-season team records

But Stafford is more interested in helping the franchise match its number of playoff victories since winning the 1957 NFL title when they play Saturday night at New Orleans.

“That’s the biggest thing,” Stafford said.

Stafford can’t do it all as his 520-yard, five-TD performance proved Sunday in a 45-41 shootout loss at Green Bay. It looks as if help is on the way for the Lions.

Starting safety Louis Delmas practised Tuesday, moving a big step closer to playing for the first time since injuring his right knee on Thanksgiving. The Lions were healthy enough to put their top six defensive backs on the field to prepare for the Drew Brees-led passing attack.

Johnson and rookie Titus Young were limited to watching the workout.

Johnson said he was just resting an Achilles tendon ailment, declining to say which one was hurting, and Young insisted he was simply giving his entire body a break.

In hindsight, the Lions got a break when they became the NFL’s first — and still only — team to go 0-16 because they used the No. 1 pick overall in 2009 to select Stafford and end their decades-long search for a franchise quarterback.

After being limited to just 10 games as a rookie and three last season because of injuries, he bounced back to play in every game during this past regular season to become a candidate for NFL Comeback Player of the Year honours.

His refuse-to-lose moxie helped the Lions become the first team in league history to win four games in a season after losing by at least 13 points, giving them 10 wins for the first time since 1995.

The 23-year-old Stafford, Brees and Hall of Famer Dan Marino are the only ones in league history to throw for 5,000 yards and 40 TDs in a season.

“I really didn’t know that so few people had done it,” Stafford said. “But it was a total team effort.”

No one, though, had to force Stafford to spend hours each week watching video of opponents and come up with plays to pick them apart.

Stafford’s father said he’s been doing it for years.

His coach, Randy Allen, at Highland Park High School in Texas, used poker chips to represent players on offence and defence, then move them to test his promising pupil.

“Before Randy could take his hand off a chip, Matthew was moving his chips around,” John Stafford said Tuesday in a telephone interview.

During a recruiting trip to Texas, the future Georgia Bulldog sat in a dark room with then-Longhorns offensive co-ordinator Greg Davis and coach Mack Brown to study the program’s offence.

“Once Davis paused the video and asked Matthew what he’d do,” Stafford’s father recalled. “Without hesitation, Matthew told him the progression and used their terminology. Davis told him he could start right now because he didn’t have a quarterback at the time who could do what he just did.

“Matthew has always loved the chess match part of the game.”

Even from afar, other coaches see Stafford has more than just a powerful and accurate arm.

Saints coach Sean Payton answered an open-ended question by starting off saying Stafford has progressed quickly to be one of the better quarterbacks in the league thanks in part to his stature and arm strength and ended by talking about the mental aspect of his repertoire.

“Just as importantly, he has that anticipation you look for in the position,” Payton said. “He does a real good job at the line of scrimmage with his checks and audibles.

“What you see is someone playing with a lot of confidence.”

The Associated Press

Detroit Lions Head Coach Jim Schwartz

Conference Call with New Orleans media

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

What is so daunting about facing the Saints on the road?

“A good team is a good team under any conditions. It’s not like they went 8-0 at home and 0-8 on the road. They are a good team regardless. They have a good quarterback, good skill players, good offensive line and a good defense. The thing that gets lost in this whole offensive explosion they have had is that the most points the defense has given up in the last six weeks has been 20 points. That has been a big part of them getting as hot as they have played. Obviously any place is going to be tough on the road. Saints fans have always been loud and we experienced that on Sunday night when we played down there and we expect the environment to be the same.”

What’s the biggest thing you take from having played this team a month ago?

“Just the experience. Earlier this year we hosted a Monday night game for the first time in a decade. Obviously that was new for our players and we responded with a big win over the Bears. We played a Sunday night game on the road and it was the first time in my tenure here that we had done that.

“Every step along the way is a learning experience. I think there were some things in that game that we didn’t respond well to. We need to do a better job the next time which happens to be on Saturday. There are other things that we can take from it. We were down early 17-0 and pulled it within seven points in the fourth quarter. We got a couple defensive stops and gave our offense a chance to tie it up. We weren’t able to get that done. The defense gave up a touchdown and we weren’t able to pull us in at the end.”

What are the challenges will your team face on Saturday evening without having much postseason experience?

“We have a lot of players that have played in the postseason. We were tallying them up today while we were going through stretch at practice. Obviously, players that have played here for a long time don’t have it but you might even argue if you lived through 0-16 and 10 years of no playoff games maybe you relish the opportunity even more. Maybe there is more urgency to take advantage of it. I think it plays both ways. There is something to the newness of it and embracing that. There is probably something to the experience of having done it before also.

“Obviously there is finality to playoff games. If you lose, there aren’t anymore, which is different from the regular season. If you win, you advance. It’s not about what your record was in the regular season. It’s not about what your stats are. It’s not about your injury report. It’s about who plays the best for 60 minutes and comes out on that leaderboard. There is nothing else to look forward to. Having played in (playoff games), the Saints are obviously a seasoned team when it comes to things like that.”

How much did the penalties hurt you guys last time you played the Saints?

“I think the game obviously would have been closer if we didn’t have those but you never really know how games are going to work out. You can’t play that game. There were some things in there, particularly related to scoring. We got in field range at the end of the first half but it was blocked. We had a penalty that took us out of a redzone opportunity that was a chance for us to punch a ball in.

“We had some offensive pass interference calls that took a couple plays away from us. You can never just subtract or add those plays. They are all part of the game. Some of them we overcame and some of them we didn’t. There are obviously no weak teams in the playoffs. Everybody earned their way in. There are good players on both sides of the ball and good players on both sides of the field. The one thing you don’t want to do in a game like that is give away anything for free. In a playoff game you want to earn it. You want your opponent to have to earn it. That’s one thing we need to do better Saturday than we did the last Sunday night game.”

Is it safe to say that Matthew Stafford had one of the quietest 5,000 yard passing seasons in NFL history?

“Well it wasn’t quiet around here. Maybe when you compare it to perennial Pro Bowl players like Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. All those guys have Super Bowl rings and a lot of experience. Matthew maybe wasn’t as familiar to the rest of the league but obviously we like him a lot. We drafted him No. 1. He hadn’t been on the field enough his first two years but this year he played 16 games for us and played very well. We came back from some historic deficits. You can only do that if you have a good quarterback. He adds some firepower on offense. We are very happy with Matt. It’s only a matter of time before him being under the radar is over with because of his talent and some of the other talent we have on offense. The more games we will play like this where he is exposed to national attention, his familiarity to the nation and NFL fans is just going to increase.”

Did you guys sign RB Joique Bell off the Saints practice squad just because you needed a running back or did you see him being a possible source of information in case you ended up facing the Saints in the playoffs?

“We coached Joique at the Senior Bowl a few years ago. He is also from Wayne State which is about five miles down the road. We are very familiar with him and had our eye on him during a couple different cut down dates. We never really had the roster spot to get him in. We had the roster spot. It had nothing to do with playing New Orleans. We had no idea we would be playing New Orleans. I think that stuff is overblown anyways. Everybody knows what plays the other team is going to run. There are no real secrets in the NFL. It’s a matter of when they are going to run them and what players they have that run them. He is a guy that we had an eye on for a little while and he is a good, strong runner. It was our experience with him from the Senior Bowl and plus the fact that he is a local kid. We would like to give him a chance to see if he can become a Lion for a long time.”

How much of a difference does it make to have DT Ndamukong Suh for this game?

“We will see on Saturday. Corey Williams played very well in the game and I thought Nick Fairley had a great game. In the first quarter he had a couple of tackles for loss and a sack. He was playing well against some really outstanding guard – Pro Bowl guards. Unfortunately, he tweaked his foot a little bit and was pretty much unavailable the rest of the game. So it wasn’t just Ndamukong Suh being out it was losing Fairley also. We are a team where we are at our best when we are rolling through our defensive linemen. We usually play about eight guys and try to keep them fresh. We were already down Lawrence Jackson at defensive end and Willie Young, one of our backup defensive ends had a pretty bad ankle sprain and didn’t play much in the game. It sort of took us out of what we really do. We are getting healthier and healthier. Obviously Ndamukong wasn’t an injury situation but he is back and had a sack last week. We obviously want to be at full strength and Ndamukong is a big part of that.

You say there are no secrets in the NFL so what is the game plan to beat New Orleans?

“They know what coverages we are going to run. They have seen them before. We have 16 games worth of tape and we played them. We know what they are going to run. It comes down to execution. It comes down to the players that you have on the field and them making plays. There are no tiebreakers based on what your record. Nobody is starting this game with a 3-0 lead or a 7-0 lead. Everything is wiped off. It almost feels like a division game. We just played the Packers for a second time. We played the Bears twice. We played Minnesota twice. You guys with Atlanta. You pretty much know what they are going to do and they know what you are going to do because we have played them so recently. It’s the third time we have played them in the last three years and coaching staffs have stayed the same. It feels more like a division game just from that standpoint.”

Is it fair to say last time you played the Saints your team was going through a rough patch and have since emerged as a better and wiser team?

“I think you are wiser in anything you gain experience doing. A 16-game season is a very short season but it is long enough that there are a lot of things you need to negotiate as a team. You are going to have hot spells. You are going to have highs and lows. Sometimes you struggle and you need to persevere through all those things. We went through a stretch during the middle of the year where we didn’t play our best football. You guys mentioned some of the penalties but a lot of penalties are just part of the game. You get a facemask but nobody is trying to get a facemask but particularly the way we got some penalties. We got some after-the-whistle penalties that weren’t typical for us. We need learn from it and persevere through it.

“I think you have seen recently some teams that have had some of those situations. Last year Green Bay lost a couple games, lost their quarterback and had some injuries earlier in the season but they earned the sixth seed by winning their last two games and getting a little bit of help. They started playing their best football. There is something to being battled tested and playing in a lot of games that are close and having to come back from being down. Maybe losing a heartbreaker and having an emotional win. I think you are a better team at the end of the season because of all that. It’s just life in the NFL. There has only been one team that has ever gone through and won them all.”

Were the penalties you guys received against the Saints last time something you felt the need to address to the team this week?

“I think we have pretty much moved on from that. There were obviously some lessons that were learned there. You look at how the Saints handled some of the situations that came up in the game and how we did. Obviously there were some things that we needed to do a little differently. There are a lot of things that we will look at hard from that game. It will be part of preparation and study of the Saints. There are a lot of situations that came up in that game that we will talk about again.”

Do you believe the Saints are the team most teams don’t want to face right now with their winning streak and how well they are playing?

“We would like to play them. We would like to play them Saturday at 7 pm. We are very glad to be in the situation that we are in. It’s the first time since 1999 that this franchise has been in the playoffs. We are certainly ready for that. It’s been a long time coming for this organization. The Saints have played outstanding football this year, particularly as of late. It hasn’t just been offense. Their defense since we have played them, 20 points is the most they have given up. I am guessing the average is about 16. That is very good with so many explosive offenses in the NFL. There special teams also. (Thomas) Morstead has had an unbelievable year and (Darren) Sproles with his returns. It is a very good team. It’s a 13-3 team. It’s a team that has a lot of different weapons. The team that is going to win on Saturday is the team that plays best on Saturday at 7 o’clock for 60 minutes. It is not going to be based on what happens eight weeks before or any stats. That is the great thing about playoff football.”