Tate On His Two Catches Against Arizona: 'I Just Kind Of Wish I Had More Opportunities'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
ALLEN PARK (CBS DETROIT) - Detroit Lions wide receiver Golden Tate, whose 950 receiving yards rank sixth in the NFL, saw only two passes come his way during Detroit's loss to Arizona. The Lions failed to score a single touchdown in the game.
Tate did not come right out Thursday and say he should have gotten the ball more, but he felt he might have been able to help the team more if he had gotten more chances.
"I'll say this - when we're winning and I get two targets, two catches, there's no problem at all," Tate said. "We won - that's what I came here [for] first and foremost. When we're losing like last week, there's obviously things as a competitor I wish I could have done to help us win or give us a better chance, so I just kind of wish I had more opportunities, but it is what it is."
Tate, quarterback Matthew Stafford and head coach Jim Caldwell said the progressions of plays simply did not allow for more balls going to Tate.
"Arizona was a really, really good team, and there were just some looks that I thought the ball was going to come to me but the coverage dictated otherwise," Tate said. "I've been working on running better routes and getting open quicker and better to give Matt more options."
Offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi indicated that he too would have liked for Tate to be more involved.
"I think it's always a priority, and I think at the end of the game you were kind of disappointed," Lombardi said. "When he gets 11 catches, it's not like you called 11 plays for Golden. Sometimes the ball goes to guys, but I should've been more aware during that second half. You can call plays that make it more likely that he'll get the ball. So, that's certainly something after the game that I was aware of."
Before being targeted just twice against the Cardinals, Tate had received double-digit targets in each of the previous four games - 13 times against Miami, 14 times against Atlanta, 13 times against New Orleans and 12 times against Minnesota.
