Like him or not, T.J. Houshmandzadeh is a must listen on his interviews because you really never know what he’s going to say, but also because he is highly entertaining, often thoughtful and has a great perspective toward football and life.

Today was no different. He stopped in mid-answer of a question to look at a young radio reporter holding a mic and said, “Man, you look young, How old are you?”

The kid, mortified, stammered, “I’m 19.”

And then Housh went back to answering questions.

He certainly didn’t cut any corners when it came to keeping the win over Detroit in some perspective.

“I think we had that confidence, but don’t take anything away from Detroit. They weren’t very good last year, and I think that played a role in guys having the confidence that we had. We can’t spot teams that have better records those type of leads because I don’t know if the confidence would be there, where guys know we’re going to come back and win. But I felt when we were down 17-0, we were still going to win the game. That’s how I honestly felt on the sideline.”

So Housh isn’t afraid to remind people that Detroit is awful. And he did so a few more times.

“I thought we were going to win. It could be that we’re playing Detroit, and I think everybody had that confidence. Can we have that same confidence when we get down to a good team, that we’re still going to come back and win? But I felt like we were going to win. I was just like, ‘Wow,’ one of those [feelings], like, ‘Wow, are you serious?’ But I honestly felt like we were going to win the game.”

He didn’t give himself too much credit for the TD catch either.

“It was easy, man.  I think everybody here probably could’ve caught that. That’s like a system touchdown, man. Matt just threw the ball, I just fell down and caught the ball.”

Here’s some more quotes from some random players

Marcus Trufant …

(On if he was back at 100% this weekend…) “Well I am always trying to get better every week. In practice I am just trying to get better. This was my first time playing the full game. I am still trying to get better, I am never satisfied.”

(On how important the Arizona game is…) “It’s very important. Any time you’re going against a division opponent it’s always big. It’s just like every other game, you have to fight hard and play until the end.”

(On if this game felt different than last week…) “It felt a little better for me. Every play I play and every practice I do I get better and better. It felt good.”

Brandon Mebane

(On what was different today about the defensive line’s ability to get pressure on the Lions’ offense…) “Well, it wasn’t different. We just had to…get pressure on the young quarterback, so our backfield and everybody could make plays. We just got to cause pressure and it helps people make plays.”

(On how the defense was able to stay focused and come back…) “Really, we didn’t doubt ourselves. We were still in the game. We conduct ourselves as professionals, and we just hung in there, believed in each other. That’s what we’re starting to really do: believe in each other. And we just played hard for each other. That’s all we can do.”

Deon Grant

(On if we will see more of this…) “Oh definitely, we have to. If you don’t have a base core of a defense you really don’t have anything. You want to blitz and cover one and the whole thing. Teams are going to find a way to pick you apart. We need what we did today to be like that for the rest of the year.”

(On when he felt the momentum swing…) “When we first went out there. We just knew that we had to show up today. They had their first drive and they missed a field goal. When the offense turned the ball over we knew that we still had the game, we just gave them a touchdown. We knew where the defense was at, it was still a long day.”

(On his interception…) “I just did what the coaches taught me to do. I just read my keys and went back there and I caught the ball. I had missed so many balls in practice so I had to make sure that I caught this one.”

Cory Redding

(On the mindset headed into the game…) “We’ve been having adversity this whole year. We had a little discussion last night with Gus [Bradley] and he told us that when you’re down people throw dirt on you and you have to shake it off. No matter how bad it looks just keep fighting and that’s what we did today. Down seventeen points we could have given up, but we didn’t, we stuck in there and made more plays than they did.”

(On how mentally tough the team is…) “We stayed focused and poised and we believe in one another. Right now this is all we got. Our backs are against the fall and we have let a lot of games go away. We still have a ways to go. As long as we continue to stay focused and win, things should be looking good for us. Everybody needs to stay focused and poised and keep coming out week in and week out giving our hearts.”

(On if turnovers come in bunches…) “Hopefully. Turnovers, sacks and all that good stuff comes in bunches. I think today we took advantage of the young rookie quarterback and we tried to disguise a lot of things and show our hand a little bit. We tried to rattle him as best we could and I believe we made a lot of plays in the back because of that.”

David Hawthorne

(On what was working for him on his interceptions…) “Just knowing the looks. It’s pretty much the same looks that they gave us all week in practice. Then when it happened in the game, it was just that much easier because we’d worked it so much. I just had to step up and have a good finish.”

(On whether he could see the difference in the way the team stepped up to the challenge this week as opposed to previous weeks…) “Oh, yeah. Our backs are against the wall, so we had to come out swinging, you know? We made it a point of emphasis this week to come out and try to start fast, although we didn’t start as fast as we could’ve. But I mean, the tempo, everything about practice this week was a little bit different because we have that backs-against-the-wall kind of feeling.”

(On when he knew that the defense was starting to rattle Matthew Stafford…) “Probably when he threw his first couple interceptions. He’s a young quarterback, and our game plan was to try to distract him. He’s going to be a good quarterback in this league and I feel like he is a good quarterback, but I think our game plan worked today.”

(On what kinds of tips Lofa Tatupu gave him this week…) “Lofa, man, this week he was just telling me to be myself, go out there and be a leader and lead by example. He feels like my style of play is bringing people along more so than just all the talking and all of that stuff. This week, his focus was just letting me go, going out and lead by example.”