GREEN BAY – The Packers' three coordinators met with the media on Monday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On changing punt returners from Amari Rodgers to Keisean Nixon:
The reason for the change was a critical situation where we put the ball on the ground and changed momentum of the game, and I just thought it was time to put Keisean in the situation where he could hopefully do something to help us win it, and take a little bit off of that with Amari throughout the rest of the game. We're evaluating it as we go through here, short week obviously. But that's kind of what transpired to get Keisean back there in the game. Just can't put it on the ground too much more.
On the early field goal miss:
I just think we got ourselves out there a little bit too late, and I think Mason tried to hurry through it a little bit. That's on me. I think we made the decision a little too late, got him out there in a hurried situation, tried to get everybody lined up and snapped it with about one second on the clock, and I feel like we put Mason in a bad position that way.
On keeping Rudy Ford involved on special teams now that he's playing defense more:
We played them sporadically at different things. He ended up going in there. When Keisean went back (to return punts), he went back out to the corner and (Corey) Ballentine went to the other side. He'll be able to do some of those things. I'll get a feel for how we're playing – is he out there a long time? Are we playing a lot of whatever the packages are that he's in? So, we'll get a good feel. We didn't have to use him on kickoff in the game and I think we'll get a feel for what his packages are and also talk to him and what he feels like he can handle.
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry
On the defense holding Dallas at 28 after three quarters:
The guys, the whole fourth quarter and the whole overtime, they were great on the sidelines. The feeling that we had even when it was 28-14, we never felt we were out of it, so that was, at least for me to witness from our guys, that was really good to see and good to feel on the sidelines. Then obviously confidence builds even more when Aaron (Rodgers) gets rolling. We really feed off that. I never felt like our guys thought there was every any doubt that we were going to end up on the winning side.
On generating pressure without Rashan Gary:
I think we're still going to have to come up with creative plays to do that. Losing a Rashan Gary, as I told you last week, I used the word grit. What he brings to us just as a demeanor, as a leader, as a guy I tell all the young guys all the time, if you don't know how to act or what to do in any situation, watch Rashan Gary. So of course, you lose that but then what he brings to the table from a production standpoint, from a creating havoc standpoint, you can't replace the player. You can't. So moving forward we're going to have to continue to be creative to get that in his absence. So it's a huge loss.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On Christian Watson's emergence:
I think defenses, especially if he keeps stringing this together, will have to respect his speed and his downfield threat.
You can kind of see what we've been seeing for awhile now in practice, his talent. So it's nice to see all that come together. Obviously three touchdowns is a pretty great performance right there. But I just want to see consistency out of him. I want to see him on the field on a weekly basis. It's been an up-and-down ride this year, battling through some injuries. If we can just get him on the field hopefully some more great performances happen.
On Sammy Watkins contributing:
It was nice to see him go out there and make some really big plays for us. He's kind of been up-and-down the last few weeks, battling through some injuries and stuff like that, so it was good to see him get out there and make those plays. And hopefully he can just ride that momentum and keep doing a good job.
On Aaron Rodgers taking more snaps under center:
It just allows us multiple ways to attack defenses. It gives us more options. So yeah, it's a big part of what we want to be. It just gives you more options to attack defenses.
