GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Tuesday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Cam Achord
On K Trey Smack's missed PAT:
Just pushed the ball to the right. Just got to finish down through the ball right there. It's obviously one he wants back but, like we've talked about, it's really good to see the kid respond. We knew one was going to come eventually – unfortunately, it was Week 1 – but it was great to see the guy respond and get back out there. You can just see the confidence in the next kick and keeping each kick its own kick.
On Minnesota's long kickoff return and whether there might've been penalties:
Just got out of place. Again, it starts with me, though – putting guys in the right spot. The guys are trying to do what I'm asking them to do and so it comes back to me, putting the guys that need to be in the spot to make the plays and getting the right coverage lanes.
I tell our guys don't anticipate calls to ever be called in the game. At the end of the day, we've got to get the guys on the ground, whether that's at the 25, the 30. We've got to get off blocks and we have to do everything we can to get off blocks.
On the Vikings kicking to Bo Melton instead of Skyy Moore:
Credit Minnesota moving the ball around, trying to make sure Skyy didn't get his hands on the football. So, obviously, each week the more and more game film you have, the more tendencies people develop, you'll be able to move guys around. He's pretty special with the ball in his hands, but Bo, to his credit, anytime you rip one off like that, teams are going to be like, 'Do we really want to kick to him or do we want to kick it to other side now, too?' There's a couple different things hopefully we'll be able to do and give him some more opportunities.
On P Daniel Whelan's mis-hit:
Just didn't make good contact. And that's not Daniel. It's Week 1. Whether it's that play or another play, let's just put it for what it is, it's one play and we know what he can be and what we expect him to be, who he can be. He takes so much pride in it. I think he's going to be OK going forward.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon
On LB Edgerrin Cooper's play:
Yeah, I thought he was lights out. He's all over the place, deployed him a couple different ways, made a lot of plays for us, so he definitely impacted the game in a positive way. He's a big man. He has a lot of length. He can run. He's fast and he's violent. When you look at skillset for a linebacker -- he can tackle, he can cover, he can blitz, he sees things extremely quickly and I just think his explosiveness to get off the spot once the ball declares -- I always say, the job of a linebacker, hit the ball.
On the penalties:
I try to group it with our guys three ways and it's education, technique, decision making. So we look at all of them. We look at different plays that weren't called, to show your guys situations, things come up that they're looking for. How can we improve? And you learn from it and you move on.
On CB Keisean Nixon:
I thought he played extremely well. I mean he impacted the run game, the pass game, his point of attack was very good. And he had some tough downs in there, which I thought he did a really good job, was very proud of Keisean and how he played.
On CB Brandon Cisse's play and bouncing back from the Justin Jefferson TD:
Same as (Nixon). I thought he did some really good things. It was cool because – not to get too schematic – but we had to make some adjustments throughout the week and when you (do that) you want to see if your guys can take that to the grass. It could be as simple as where his alignment is or where his eyes are. That's different than kind of standard operating procedures and I thought our DB coaches did a really good job of getting our guys prepped with how we wanted to play. (On the TD) I just told him how he can find the ball and locate the ball a little bit better there … just by body position. I talked to him that night and then yesterday. He's wired the right way.
On facing Jets OC Frank Reich:
He hired me. I worked for him for three years. He's one of the best football coaches, one of the best men I know in the NFL. I owe a lot to him. He's been awesome to me and my family. But it's been really cool to see, now that he's back in the scene, how he has adapted. There are some staples that I smile as we're watching the tape. I'm like, 'Oh, there it is.' But then there are some other things where, 'Whoa, where did that come from?' that I'm not used to seeing. The guy studies. He puts time on task. He's smart. A big-time challenge to go up against him, especially early in the year.
On the overall defensive performance:
Every week we've got to reset. Every week's a different challenge with a new set of circumstances, right? Because you're playing a different opponent. So we might not look like what we looked on Week 1 because of the opponent. As far as a communication standpoint, that was the first thing I looked at – did we bust any coverages – we can always play coverages a little bit better at certain times, but we didn't bust any coverages. Did we have a ton of mental errors? We didn't really have a lot of mental errors. Were we all on the same page? Then you go to each individual player, each guy has a couple of things that they need to work on – first step, pad level, eye discipline, whatever it is – but I thought that from an alignment assignment, a key where they're looking at, a technique standpoint, it was pretty good Week 1. But as always, a lot to improve on.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On the pass protection breakdowns:
It was just miscommunication up front. Backs and O-line not on the same page. That's one of the hard things about obviously playing in that environment. We all have to do a really, really good job communicating. There was a lot of really good pickups, and then a couple that weren't. And when you cut guys loose like that, obviously, it could turn into bad things for the offense. So we've got to make sure we don't do that again.
I said it last week in my press conference that this was going to be probably the toughest environment that we were going to play in — mixed with all the pressures and different communication things we're going to have to face. You've just got to be ready right away. And again, I thought we did a nice job on some things, but then when you have one or two plays where things break down and you're not on the same page, that's what we've got to make sure that can't happen again.
On starting Donovan Jennings over Jager Burton:
Just going through practice and kind of evaluating the last few weeks, we felt that Donovan was doing a better job in practice. They both played pretty well in the preseason, and I think just the accumulation of what happened over the last few weeks in practice, we just felt at this time more comfortable with Donovan playing.
On potentially seeing more blitzes based on what the Vikings did:
Yeah, until you stop them, absolutely. Yeah, there's no doubt. Like, they see that stuff, and we've got to just make sure we're making people pay.
On how RT Zach Bako-Bewele played:
I thought coming back, dealing what he's been dealing with, it was a plus from what I just wanted. He hadn't gotten a lot of reps in practice. He made it through the game. He battled. Was it his best game? No, but I think there's a lot he can build on, and I expect him, as the season rolls through, for him to be playing some pretty high-level ball pretty soon.
On LT Jordan Morgan:
I think he could be better, and he will be. There were some plays I think he would like to have back, but again, it's the first game of the year, and we've just got to make sure we're improving with our technique and everything like that.
On QB Jordan Love completing passes under pressure:
Yeah, that's one of the things that makes him so impressive is his ability to get the ball out accurately with pressure in his face. Obviously up front we've got to make sure we keep him out of those situations as much as possible. But as you know in the NFL, the quarterback's gotta be able to make plays no matter what. Yeah, he's done that for a while now and it's pretty impressive.
It's just experience. He just has confidence in himself and a lot of guys you can see kind of get scared in the pocket when pressure gets on him, and he doesn't have that. He doesn't really flinch. That's a pretty good quality to have with your quarterback.
On TE Tucker Kraft's 45 snaps:
I saw exactly what I thought I was going to see. He did a great job blocking, made plays down the field, he looked exactly how I expected.
On facing the Jets next:
Just make sure we're focused. We can't let one loss turn into two. We've got to be focused, we've got to improve, and go out and just play our brand of football for four quarters. We've shown we can be one of the best offenses in the NFL, but we've got to put an entire game together. So I think that's the biggest thing for us is just making sure we go out there and finish.
