GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Thursday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On working with Matthew Golden as punt returner:
He's got a tremendous football IQ, it's just about the decision-making process that he has to go through back there. Watching the tape during the week of the direction of the punter, trying to get in a position where he can see the ball come off the punter's foot, understanding the different punts that they have. Will they have a flop? Or will they have a fat ball or whatever those things are and how to get yourself in position to do it. So he's certainly qualified to do it, it's just the tedious repetition of the simplest movements, right? It's just going to take time over and over and over again. He's working diligently at it in practice. The biggest thing back there is the decision-making process. When you fair catch, when you go get one, when you play out of bounds, those sort of things. So, he's a work in progress. I'm excited about the direction he's going in.
On the blocked FG:
It was the same look three times in a row. We did okay on it the first two. We had Tuck(er Kraft) in for the first time at the edge on the last one and he just kind of eyeballed 95 a little bit too hard and we didn't get our hands on the edge guy. I think he said he got his hand on it, so he probably did, and it changed the trajectory of the ball a little bit and we just gave up too much push inside. Now we've been on this side of it. We've been on the other side of that before, now we've been on the negative side of it. We're working diligently to correct it. You get bested sometimes in football and we got bested on that particular play.
On Savion Williams returning kickoffs, and getting to the 40 on the last one:
It was blocked better. The one before that we ended up getting a hold – we actually got two holds called by two different guys – and that cost us with the drive starting at the 18. I think Savion's in a position where he's doing something he hasn't done before, either, and hopefully it's just going to keep getting better and better and better. There's a lot of things going on with the dirty kicks. You look at what Carolina's doing on the kickoffs and you look at what the Rams are doing on the kickoffs and some of these kickers are getting really good at the line-drive ground balls that are difficult to field. So, we're working on all those things all the time. Hopefully it's a sign of things to come.
On the penalties:
We just have to do a better job fundamentally wherever we put out hands and the body position that we get in. It's kind of what we're going through with kickoff return. We've played a bunch of different personnel each week off the three weeks and we've put guys in different positions a little bit to match up with what other people are trying to do and we have to get our hands inside. It's something that has to be worked over and over and over again and it's a matter of getting the reps and doing them the right way. That penalty's more of a fundamental or technical penalty; it's not a selfish penalty, it's not a focus penalty. Those can be corrected.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley
On what Kenny Clark meant:
I'm forever grateful for Kenny. Coming from being a college head coach to back to the NFL to being a coordinator again, you never quite know what you're going to get. And he was the vet, and just having him around, being able to lean on him, being such an unbelievable pro, an unbelievable person and the buy-in, I just, I'll forever be grateful for that. He made it a very easy situation, and there's just not many guys out there like him. So I just appreciate everything that he did for me.
On Rashan Gary's strong start:
I think you've got to give credit to Rashan. I said it during training camp, I saw it during OTAs. I saw the way he worked in the offseason. He came back in great shape. Worked on his get off, worked on his pass rush. It's what he does every day. That's what we're hoping we're going to see, and we have. He's finishing on the quarterback. I think he's playing really good in the run game. He's playing more snaps because he's in better shape. He knows the defense. He has a better understanding of it. We just need to continue, because it's just a start, right?
On preparing for the Cowboys without CeeDee Lamb:
They've got other really good players. I mean, Pickens is a really good wide out. Their tight end has got a ton of catches. Their back is electric and they've got other really good receivers. Slot can roll. I mean, he is dynamic, and how fast he can run and Dak's throwing up the ball to a bunch of guys. So they have other weapons. Obviously, (Lamb) is a really good football player, and you watch him on film, and he definitely jumps out. But people don't just stay the same. They have new adjustments. They have new plays. They have new formations and personnel groupings, just like we do. And it's how fast you see it and how fast can you react. But you can't chase ghosts.
On the lack of turnovers:
My belief is that they're coming. I mean, we're swinging at the ball more than we did last year. Honestly, that's the truth, because we're even charting that. I mean, we're to the point where we're charting how many opportunities did we have to go after the football. For every play we feel we had an opportunity, and how many we didn't take, and guys are taking them, and they're going to come. It's like you just keep sharpening and sharpening and sharpening and swinging at that tree, and eventually it's going to fall down, and eventually we're going to get the takeaways.
On Micah Parsons and the attention he draws:
If he's going to get double-teamed and triple-teamed, we're going to have a lot of guys with a lot of sacks and a lot of pressures, and we're going to start drawing up some fun stuff that's going to force them either not to double him, or we're going to have someone free, like we did a couple times in that game. So him getting doubled helps us out an unbelievable amount. Now when you watch him get doubled, he still gets close to the quarterback, I mean, which is incredible. The motor that he has, how hard he plays, how low he gets. But there's some other guys out there now, you start paying too much attention to him, you got the other guy leading the NFL in sacks right now in Rashan Gary, and you have Lukas Van Ness, his pressures are going up. You have Devonte Wyatt inside, and his pressures are going up, right? And you got all those other guys who you're going to have to worry about. And then you have Edgerrin Cooper, who might be popping out and wrapping this way, and Quay Walker, who might be coming off the edge this way. So go double him. He might still get you. And then the other guys are going to get you too.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On getting the run game going and whether Josh Jacobs can or needs to do more:
If you ask Josh, he's always going to say, 'Yeah, I've got to do this better or that better.' I think it's everybody just going out there and executing. I see a lot of really good play-style clips of how we're doing things the right way, but again, it's just being consistent, eliminating those pre-snap penalties to put yourselves in favorable positions and not being behind the sticks, things like that. Once we get over the hump with that stuff, then we'll put ourselves in better position to make plays.
On trying to get the ball to Tucker Kraft more:
Yeah, any of those guys but especially a guy like Tucker, if we're going to be the best that we can be, we've got to get him the ball. For sure. There's no doubt about that. He does great things when he has the ball. At the end of the game, we got the ball to him and he did a great job getting an explosive play, to put us in field-goal range. He's just one of those guys that makes plays when he has the ball in his hands, for sure.
On coaching through the false starts:
You emphasize it and you just keep working on it and it clicks eventually, you know what I mean? It's not like we're not talking about it, we're not emphasizing it. We use a lot of cadences. You can pull back and take that versatility away but now you're allowing defenses to tee off on you. I'm going to trust our process and trust our guys. Again, I'm just really excited to see how we're going to go out there and respond on Sunday because that's what it's going to be all about.
On the QB using a wristband for play calls:
There's a lot of different benefits. From a playcaller's standpoint you can just say, hey, wristband whatever (number) it is. Then they don't have to hear a long call, the play clock's running, process it and then OK go talk. They can just look here and now they're reading it and saying it at the same time so it saves seconds, and then also longer play calls things like that where the verbiage can get kinda wordy, that's another reason why you use it, just so he doesn't mess up hearing it and then communicating that in the huddle.
On Elgton Jenkins ripping on his own play:
He's being critical of himself. He's taking ownership and all that stuff. I would say he had a bad game; he didn't play great for his standards against the Browns. But it's Game 3 of a 17-game season plus hopefully we earn the right to make the playoffs. It is what it is. If he can take that negative and make it a positive for the rest of the season, then let's go and do that. I'm not going to get too high or too low on any of this stuff. I just want to see how they go out there on Sunday and play.
On WR Dontayvion Wicks:
You can see, he's out there every day, he's playing with confidence, he's running great routes, he's blocking, he's doing everything we ask, being a good leader, so I'm excited just to see as the season unfolds, the plays that he's going to make. We got him the ball in some crucial situations last week and he came through down in the red zone. Made a guy miss and almost scored a touchdown. So he's a guy that has shown that he's stepped up and done a great job.
