GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Tuesday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Cam Achord
On Matthew Golden as punt returner:
I thought he did a really good job. Stepped in there, a 17-yard return. You can see his development. He took pride in it. Went to him on the sideline, you can tell in his eyes he was ready to go. So that's a great testament to him, what he's done at practice. Going back there, catching the ball, being ready to go. Because you never know. I thought he made good decisions. He was confident going back there, feeling the ball in the air, feeling off the bounce, getting vertical. There was no hesitation to go back there and put him in the game.
On Trey Smack bouncing back:
You got to trust the process. The good thing about the bad situation is it happened in a nice win, right? It was good to have a bad game when you're winning. So it's something we can build off of. We talked about it, wasn't always going to be perfect. Whether you're a kicker or another position, you're a rookie. There's going to be a bump in the road, and he's got the right mental makeup to trust the process, trust what we're doing in practice, trust what he did the first four weeks. I think he's going to be fine. I have no fear about that.
On the long kickoff return allowed and the tackle by Nick Niemann:
It was an amazing play by not only Neimann, but Trey, he goes underestimated. I know he didn't make the tackle, but he slowed the guy down, and made the guy cut back. And just because he makes the guy cut back, Nick and Duff (Isaiah McDuffie) and Brandon (Cisse), they're all running their tails off. Obviously our defense did a great job, you know. Stopped the touchdown after that, but it was a bad call. I'll call it what it was. It was a bad call. That was on me. I didn't really make the right call, and then Chicago made a great scheme fit, and that's kind of what happened. So I got to do a better job right there.
On Dallas returner KaVontae Turpin:
Turpin's one of the best in the National Football League, does a great job with the ball in his hands. He's got the speed to get to the field, and he's got the vision to get it vertical, and he's tough to tackle. He's small, but darn, is he quick and he's elusive. So you see it every time he's got the ball. You watch it, and you're like, hold on, you know. So it's going to be a great challenge.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon
On Xavier McKinney's interceptions:
X is obviously a high-profile, high-performing player, right? He's been really good throughout his whole career since he's been in the NFL, but the great ones still want to get challenged and they still want to improve and I think that the DB coaches have done a good job with him of saying hey, let's do a couple of these things and work on it and X, and all of our players, took it to heart. As far as here's some fundamentals or here's some coaching points that you can work on to make yourself a better player. All players really want is how can you help me? And they set forth a good plan and give credit to X. He's taken that and he works on it. He works on that part of his game a lot and it's good to see it show up.
On Zaire Franklin's presence:
He's a very serious person, so you better be on top of it. Not just players. Coaches. When he has questions, you better have answers or he will expose you, so it's good. It's a challenge. When we put up something, he's going to ask the why and I believe in those guys knowing the why. He's all about ball. He's like that on the field and in the meeting room.
On Dani Dennis-Sutton's impact:
He's doing a good job. He's continued to work on things. Cov's (position coach DeMarcus Covington) doing a good job with him and all those guys. The daily improvement, the process of getting better every day, it's not just the field. It's the meeting rooms. It's what you do when you're outside of this building is a huge piece to that. You really got to put the work in to ascend as an NFL player. Like, it's not 8 to 5, and he's a guy that – like all of our rookies – he spends time on task and he's in here all the time. There's no days off, and it was good to see him go out and make some plays but I expect that from him.
On Devonte Wyatt:
Heavy D's putting a lot into himself, working on a couple things, but he is coming off a major injury. Whatever their level is before they get an injury, it's not going to look like that right away. I do believe that. It's not just going to be like, 'Oh I'm back,' even when it's return to play and he's ready to go and he's getting snaps. Any of our guys, it takes a little bit of time to find their new norm after that type of an injury and that could a hamstring, knee, ankle, anything. So I'm very pleased with where he's at and I think he's ascending right now.
On Keisean Nixon and Brandon Cisse at corner:
You see both of them are smart. I thought CV with the snaps he played too, he looked good. You guys see how we play, there are a lot of times they're on an island with no help and they do a good job of winning at a high level. They also understand the whole scheme where we put a lot on their plate. It's not just go cover that guy, there's some things that we ask them to do with their eyes and their leverages and their techniques. So I'm very pleased with where they're at. We got a big-time challenge coming in here. This is two of the top guys that you're going to see all year.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On the status of the O-line and pending decisions at guard:
I like where we're at for the most part. I don't want to change just to change. I think Travis (Glover) has done a nice job going in there and playing. Obviously Laken's (Tomlinson) done a good job at left guard, kind of stabilizing it. Our pocket's been good as far as the push for the most part. There's been some dirty ones at times, but I think consistently we've been a lot better. Definitely don't want to change just to change, but at the same time we're going to put the best five out there, so we'll take the week and evaluate it like we normally do, but I think those guys have done a really nice job.
On the run game:
We're inconsistent. There's been some good ones. I think we still need to just be more consistent. We've had some negative runs put us behind the sticks in every game, so we just got to make sure we're finding yards in those plays and not losing yards, and I think once we do that, we'll be able to get more runs called, we'll be able to be more consistent and just be better as an offense.
On MarShawn Lloyd running over a defender at the goal line:
That was awesome. That was in my opinion the best game he's played so far, and you can just see it every week. He just keeps getting a little bit better, a little bit better. That was very encouraging.
It's the situation there. You're down low, you're close to the goal line, there's a time to juke a guy and a time to run over a guy. That was really good to see from him where he just ran, hit it, whoever was in his way, he was going to run over to score a touchdown. He's a really explosive guy so he can trust his power, for sure.
On the Dallas defense:
Well, they're a little bit different than what we saw. They're going to play more shell, they're going to keep everything contained, they're going to rely on their players up front. They've got a really talented group with Quinnen Williams, Kenny Clark, Rashan (Gary). They've got a bunch of good guys up front that can get after you. We've got to make sure up front we're doing a nice job handling those guys. We just have to be as balanced as we can be just to run our offense, establish a run game. That's going to be very big this week.
On Anthony Belton:
He's done a nice job. He's firmed the pocket up. That was the biggest thing the first couple weeks was just the push that we were feeling in the pocket. So, I think him and Laken have done a really nice job just firming that up, allowing Jordan (Love) to see and not have that pocket pushed in his face. There were a couple reps in the game that, obviously, we got to clean up with him but, for the most part, he's out there competing and doing a nice job.
On Mark Redman:
You definitely need guys like him to run our offense. He's a versatile player. He's intelligent. You can move him around. He's physical. He's kind of messed up in the head. So, it's good. He's a physical player, and he loves that part of the game, which is awesome. He's one of my favorite guys I see every day. He's got a smile on his face. He's excited. He's ready to go. It's been really fun to have him.
