GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media on Thursday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On the challenges vs. the Giants, starting with returner Gunner Olszewski:
No. 80's a real good player. He's a north-south guy, he's aggressive going to catch the football, he makes really good decisions in the red zone. I think they have a really good unit. They've obviously had some struggles, they've had some kicking issues as well, they've had Graham Gano on IR and used some different kickers. But other than that, the punter, I know he's got a great nickname, but he's a lefty. It's hard to catch the ball enough from a lefty, but he has the ability to run all kinds of different, we call them flops or fat balls or different type of kicks that make it difficult to judge and catch, and then in the wind up there in the Meadowlands, it's always problematic catching the ball, so we'll see what happens with that.
On LB Kristian Welch replacing Nick Niemann on the units:
He's been playing some similar positions. He's played the left wing for us on punt. We move him around as well on some of the kickoffs. So it's good to have him back up. He's been a good player for us and (Arron) Mosby's been doing well as well. He's been up the last few weeks. I think Isaiah (McDuffie)'s been playing really well. I'm excited about the way guys have been covering, both kickoff and punt. I'm excited about the way Daniel (Whelan)'s been punting the football. Just gotta keep improving. Keep getting better week in and week out.
On WR Savion Williams on kickoff returns:
Well, the first the thing is they've been kicking away from him, to some degree, so that tells you what other teams think of him. He's a good north-south, physical runner. The thing we like is the way he's been finishing some of the runs. He broke a tackle again last week on the opening kickoff return over to the boundary. The next step for him is to just keep finishing and make sure he can get to all of those dirty kicks. He works hard at it in practice.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley
On the run defense improving vs. Philly:
It came back to the detail and the strain and the fundamentals and technique, and I thought our staff had a really good plan and I give them a lot of credit. We put a lot of work into that. We knew how explosive and how talented that offense was and the amount of points that they've been able to score, and I just think we went out and executed the plan. I mean, I thought our line strained. Gosh, they did such a good job of staying square against those big offensive linemen, tearing off blocks, guys were in their right gaps. We had safeties running downhill. X(avier McKinney) and Evan (Williams) were as physical as they've been. We had corners on the edge tackling. It was inspiring football to watch how physical and violent we were. Quay (Walker) and (Edgerrin) Coop(er) just engaging and tearing off blocks, and that's how we have to play the run. We showed that earlier in the season and we kind of hit a little bumpy path and that's our expectation and that's our standard, 'cause if we can do that against that offensive line and that running back, then our expectation is we should be able to do that every week and it's not gonna be easy.
On Edgerrin Cooper's forced fumble:
Yeah, second man in. The second man in has got to go after the football. I think it was X on the tackle. X was right there and he wrapped him up and Coop kind of came in from the side, which is why you run to the football because good things happen and it was a textbook Peanut Punch. The elbow was above the wrist and he had a good follow through and then Keisean (Nixon) picked it up, and credit to their offensive lineman 'cause if he didn't run to the ball the way he did, Keisean was gone and we score, so I wish he wasn't there on that play. That was a game-changing play 'cause that was like a 17-play drive that we kind of bled down the field and that's what has to happen. That's four takeaways in the last four games, so I'm hoping that continues and we start to get maybe more than one in a game, but we'll continue to work it and trust our process there.
On feeling more pressure on defense when the offense is struggling to score:
I don't approach the game like that. It's every call, it's every yard, it's every drive, it's every third down. We have to find a way to get off the field, and you just keep playing until the game's done. I think what's helped me, I've been a head coach and I've been on both sides of it. I've been where I was in charge of the offense and the defense. This is a team game. For me, this will never be about the defense vs. the offense or wow, we have to hold them to this amount of points. There's games since I've been here, Matt (LaFleur) and the offense has put up 30-plus points and we've won 30-20-something. So, it's going to bounce back and forth. When the offense isn't playing well, it's our job to pick them up, and we have to. But our mentality going into every game is the same, whether our offense scores 40 points or they're not scoring a lot of points. I respect and appreciate that from my time being a head coach. Our players, they're going to keep working and getting better, and there's no distraction, there's nothing there and we're good to go.
On S Javon Bullard playing deep and in the slot:
He can do both. He's the type of guy that I'm confident playing back at safety, playing at nickel. He can kind of do it all. He can play in the half, he can play in the middle of the field, he can insert in the run game and he can blitz. There's times we do want to get him back there in certain situations, in certain personnel groupings that we feel are better, where there's some down-and-distances where we're comfortable with that. We just try to rotate him in, and it's also depending how much he's been at nickel and how many reps he's had. We need to get him involved in the game, because he's really a player you don't want to take off the field.
On DL Micah Parsons' run defense:
If you watch that tape against the run and Saquon, who I think is the premier back in the league, had 60-something yards rushing, right? Micah Parsons was in almost all those plays. Micah was setting edges as end, Micah was setting edges as a three-technique. Micah against run was straining and playing as good of run defense as I've seen. So if anybody wants to talk about Micah Parsons' run defense, I'd like to sit down and watch the tape with them. Because the effect that he had on that game — one, in the run defense and then two, I mean, we can talk about not getting sacks, but you guys saw the pressures that he put on the quarterback, how fast Jalen Hurts had to throw the ball in key situations, had to break the pocket, run and throw the ball away? Micah was outstanding in the game.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On the focus on pad level up front and why it can be so difficult:
It's just one of those things you always have to focus on is just keeping your pads under the defender. It's not a very natural position to be in, and it takes focus. Guys just need to always, as you're playing, keep constantly thinking about keeping my pads down, keeping a great base, keeping my hands inside, all those basic fundamentals. It's just like on defense. 'Oh, our tackling was poor. Why was our tackling poor? Because we had poor fundamentals.' It's the same thing on offense with pad level as well. You just really need to harp on it because it's not an easy thing to just go out there and do.
On where the running game is:
Well, I like how Josh (Jacobs) is running the ball, especially as of late. I think he's done a really nice job of breaking tackles and just running hard. You watch him down in the red zone, and he does an excellent job just willing his way into the end zone, fighting through defenders. You can just see the desire that he has to score, which is really cool. I think up front, we can always be better with our, again, pad level and our base and just the fundamentals with that, and we've just got to keep hammering that away. Wide receivers and tight ends, like, that's very underrated, but those guys are huge in creating explosive runs, so we've just got to make sure everyone's tight in our blocking assignments and our effort, and there's been some really good examples of that. But I think just being consistent with that stuff as we move forward is really going to be important.
Bottom line is, we just have to do a better job across the board. And you know, I have faith in our guys. That's the thing. Like I have faith we can do it. We're going to fight through this adversity and come out better on the other side.
