News

(The injury to Poppinga…?)
Brady Poppinga had a knee injury. I have not seen Brady yet in the training room, but he did not return. That’s the only injury that I have for you.

(What was your interpretation on the penalty over the center?)
The penalty over the snapper, the communication was Robert Francois was lined up with his head up on the snapper. Robert was lined up a yard and a half from the snapper. The intent of the rule is to protect the snapper and why and how that was called at that critical point in the game, it obviously was a big play in the game for Miami. But the picture everybody saw on the scoreboard, the communication on the sideline, the officiating crew took plenty of time to discuss it between the series change on whether to throw the late flag. We tried to communicate to them that he was a yard off the ball, a yard and a half off the ball. But they felt they couldn’t, the communication that was given, they could not change that back. So, they felt that he was head up on the snapper, that’s the communication I was given.

(Your thoughts on icing kickers, do you not believe in that at the end? Any thoughts on doing that?)
I think there is a point for that, but I think it was far enough off. I mean, we could play tennis if you want to. Wish by icing, then he misses it. I think there is a time and a place for it.

(On Aaron’s quarterback sneak for the touchdown was that designed?)
It’s a concept that we have in place. We have what we refer to as tempo plays. They’re taught off opportunities and it was an excellent recognition of the front and so forth by Aaron.

(Back-to-back overtime losses, how frustrating are these?)
Well, it’s hard. It’s hard to lose, period. It’s hard to lose home games. To lose overtime games, particularly disappointed in the offense, in our production there with the series. I thought our defense stepped up and gave us an opportunity there and for us on second and third down, play and execution we really didn’t give ourselves a chance. Then with the poor punt, we gave Miami field position, so… Adversity calls, it’s a situation that we prepare for and so forth.  Just like the other situation, third down.  Third down we’re not cutting it on offense. It’s pretty clear-cut and dry how they’re playing us on third down and we need to do a better job against it. So, we did not do a very good job, particularly on offense and with the punt during the overtime.

(What are they doing to you on third down?)
We’re seeing a lot of two-man, playing us underneath and helping over the top. See a lot of it. They’re doing a better job of the rush lanes, keeping the quarterback in the pocket. He was not able to get out of the pocket a few times today.

(Do you think this is just a case on offense of being out of rhythm and you need to get back to that? Or do you know what the problem is?)
Well, a big part of being successful on offense is when you are in rhythm. I would not say we are in rhythm on offense right now. I thought our performance in the second quarter was poor. I thought we had a number of favorable third downs and we had opportunities where our defense was on the field, I thought they were hanging in there, bend do not break, keep them out of the endzone. And we had opportunities to get out in front of that game.  And third down has been an issue two weeks in a row. So, we need to do a better job on third down on offense.

(What did you think of Aaron today, especially coming off of the concussion?)
I thought he was prepared. I thought he seemed normal out there. I thought he threw the ball well. I thought he managed the offense. But third-down production is a big part of how we have been successful in the past. We’ve been a good third-down team. We’re all part of that. We’re not doing a good enough job there.

(Did you guys make an adjustment on Marshall in the second half? He was pretty good in the first half.)
Not really. I think Dom called a very straightforward game and I thought our guys did a great job keeping him in front of them.

(Lack of pressure on the quarterback this week without Clay Matthews. How do you get to the quarterback?)
Well, you’ve got to look at how they played, too. They used a lot of seven-man protection. Pressure was not a big part of our plan, because of the way, … it’s always in our plan, but more on how they played, too. They relied on the run game and they were successful running the football. That was reflected in time of possession. But I thought our defense played well enough for us to win that game based on the position they were in.

(Where do you think you guys are? You have a pretty tough three game-stretch before the bye week. Where do you guys think you are?)
3-3. I think it’s clear-cut. We’re a 3-3 football team for many different reasons. We’ve got three losses, they’ve all been tight games. They’ve all come down to a critical point in the football game. And we’re not getting it done at that particular point. So, we’ll emphasize it, we’ll work on it, and we’ll improve. We’re a 3-3 football team that hasn’t won the three close games and they’ve attributed to the losses.

(How’d the defensive line look?)
I really didn’t sit and watch the defensive line. I thought they battled. If you want to look at the numbers of the way they ran the ball, they ran the ball successfully, so…I’ll know more about it once I watch the film.

(Did you guys work Clay out before the game?)
Yes we did. We worked both Clay Matthews and Ryan Pickett out before the game.

(How close were they?)
Not close enough.

(Any other injuries besides Brady Poppinga?)
Brady Poppinga is the only injury I have for you.

(Do you expect Pickett and Matthews to at some point be able to practice next week?)
Too early to tell. That’s probably something…I would say they’d both probably practice later in the week if I had to guess.