Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK Recapping the Lions coordinator press conferences with insight into the DBs’ penalty problem, the importance of Frank Ragnow this week, and a mistake Dave Fipp owned up to As always, the Detroit Lions coordinators met with the media on Thursday. As they prepare for a big NFC game against the Dallas Cowboys, all three coaches gave some interesting insight into the matchup this week and other ongoing topics with the team. Here are the seven most important quotes you need to know. Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn Glenn has been really impressed by Detroit’s safety duo: Brian Branch and Kerby Joseph: “Our two safeties are doing a really good job. I think our coaches are doing a really good job of understanding exactly how we want to operate with those guys, the different positions that (Brian Branch) BB’s playing, the way Kerby has improved, and (DBs coach) Deshea (Townsend) and (safeties coach) Jim O’Neil have done a good job of understanding exactly how I want those guys to play and making sure they coach those guys up that way.” This certainly passes the eye test, as Joseph has expanded his game beyond just a reliable rangey deep safety into a defender capable of playing in the box, as well. And after a bumpy start, Branch has looked the part at safety after moving from the nickel spot this offseason. 2. On avoiding penalties in the secondary: “That is a double-edged sword, also, because, along with that, I think we’re like second or third in the league as far as pass breakups, so that’s something that we’ve emphasized and I’ve wanted here for a long time. And I know a lot of times that can be back and forth because now, when you’re not challenging, then you’re playing too soft, when you are challenging, you’re getting those. So, the thing is, I’m going to ride with the fact that our guys are out there challenging and we’re going to continue to do what we do.” I thought this was a very interesting perspective from Glenn. He clearly wants his defensive backs to be physical and aggressive, and he doesn’t want the penalties to deter his cornerbacks from playing that way. So how do you find that middle ground? “We still do one-on-ones in practice, receivers and DBs, D-line and O-line, linebackers, tight ends and running backs. And when you’re in those situations, and you’re in a tussle match, where are your hands at? There’s a lot of things that we have to (work on). And a lot of that comes from guys in college, because you’re able to do that when you’re in college, so that’s one of the things that (Terrion Arnold) TA is doing a really good job of, of trying to work on those things.” 3. On pumping the brakes on Trevor Nowaske “We don’t want to put him in the Lawrence Taylor role just yet. That was just one game. The thing is, yes, he does open our eyes on some things that he can do, but we’ve been knowing Nowaske since he’s been here. We know what he brings to the table. We hated to lose him the first time, but we’re glad we got him back. So, we’re going to continue to try to up his role and try to help him be the player that we know that he can be. But again, we want to make sure we take that slowly and not try to just put him in that role I was just talking about, as far as Lawrence Taylor’s concerned.” Nowaske has been identified by many as a possible replacement for Derrick Barnes in the SAM linebacker role. This week, Dan Campbell even pointed out how that’s the ideal fit for Nowaske in this defense. But Glenn is notorious for telling the media to not get too high on a player too early. He makes it pretty clear they do not plan on pushing Nowaske into a full-time starter role yet. He’s far too young and inexperienced for that. Special teams coordinator Dave Fipp 4. On making a mistake on who should be back to return a potential long FG attempt vs. Seahawks: “I actually tried to get (Lions WR Kalif Raymond) Leaf, and I didn’t see him right next to me. Then at that point, it’s like, ‘OK well we’re not going to push him up five yards with a penalty or something like that, so let’s just go out there with that group.’ The truth is, yeah, we should have had someone better back there. I could have done better with that for sure. It can be Leaf, it can be Jamo, it can be (Lions RB Jahmyr) Gibbs, any one of those guys would be a good option.” Fipp was asked why Jameson Williams wasn’t back there for the Seahawks’ long field goal attempt that was returned by Khalil Dorsey at the end of the first half. It was interesting that Fipp fully admitted he messed up by not having Williams, Kalif Raymond, or Jahmyr Gibbs back there. To be clear, Fipp also expressed confidence in Dorsey, but said they had better options that should have been utilized. He also mentioned that they had good blocking on that play, but weren’t able to direct Dorsey in the right direction. 5. On kicker Jake Bates’ improvement: “I’ve seen improvement already from his charting preseason stuff and then since the season began and the direction that charting’s going has been steady improvement. The biggest challenge with that is you just can’t kick a guy a million reps because it wears the leg out or it will injure him.” Bates has only attempted five field goals this season, and while he’s made all five, it’s hard to judge his growth given that each attempt was under 40 yards. However, Fipp offered some optimism via his data from practice. Fipp has often said that he believes over a long period of time, what you see in practice is what you’re going to see on the field in game day, so hopefully that means continued accuracy from the Lions’ new kicker. Offensive coordinator Ben Johnson 6. On other ways they self-scout considering the team’s early bye: “Every four weeks or so we try to get other parties involved. Analytics, our advance scouts do a number of things just in terms of the other team, but also, they can give us the same data on ourselves, and so we’ve got a lot of people in the building that are working continuously to give us that type of information. And then we try to do our own on a weekly basis, just last four games or so, just where we stand. Run, pass and general tendencies.” Both Johnson and Glenn mentioned the disadvantage of the early bye week in that the sample sizes are too small to really dig into their own tendencies. However, it was interesting to hear from Johnson on ways they continue to track those things during the season, even without the benefit of the bye. 7. On impact of getting Frank Ragnow back against a familiar Mike Zimmer defense: “He knows what issues that particular scheme can bring up. It’s interesting, year one for them in this scheme, how much is going to dive back into his Minnesota years, but that’s where we have a little bit of familiarity with him, particularly with Frank because he’s been able to see all of this. And so, he knows exactly what we want to do.” Johnson talked about how Zimmer is so good at anticipating what the opposing offense wants to do on third down, and finding a way to get an unblocked defender to the quarterback. But Ragnow is so good a pre-snap reads and has years of experience against Zimmer when he coached the Vikings that he’ll be an essential asset this week.