GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Tuesday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Cam Achord
On whether the blocked FG by Atlanta was an unscouted look:
Every week we practice different things. So anything that's been on film, not on film, we try to give guys different scenarios. It was something different, but I wouldn't say like it's unscouted or not been seen for the league or anything like that. You just try to give the guys multiple situations that could occur.
I know field goal protection looks like oh, just everybody stands there and gets big. It's obviously inside out as anything, but it's just the fundamental techniques of doing what we should do every single time.
On Minnesota returning a punt for TD vs. Tampa Bay:
You look at it and you see what happens, and you try to diagnose it, and obviously you try to replicate … anytime an explosive play happens against an opponent that you're playing, it's more so looking at where can we put our pieces to generate the positive play. I don't think you ever want to just go say, hey, that worked for that team. Let's do that. You have to fit it to what you have and the players you have and what schemes fit your guys.
On Daniel Whelan putting several inside the 20:
He's taken that step, wanting to be very, very prideful in that. He works that in practice, whether I have to take a little bit off, whether I can drive the ball, making sure we're not putting it into the end zone and then letting the gunners go play it. He's done a really good job adjusting in that and being able to place the ball different places too.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon
On the run defense vs. Atlanta after two good weeks:
I don't think it's like, go back to the drawing board, I just think we've got to coach and play better. I know that's cliché but it's the truth. Obviously give a lot of credit to Atlanta and what they did. I thought Bijan (Robinson) had a really good night. He made us miss some tackles. We had a lot of, I would call them cup violations. We've got to do a better job caging the ball. When the ball circles you, it's typically not good, and we had the ball circle us a couple times. But we've got the same challenge coming up between Bucky Irving and (Kenneth) Gainwell. I was with Gainwell in Philly for a little bit. If you give them your edge, they're going to take your edge, so we've got to do a good job, set edges, building a wall and tackling.
Obviously sometimes runs, by what you're in, you can have a couple hard downs but you've got to get the ball down for 10, they can't go for those huge explosives like we had in that game. That's where the yards and the points get out of hand when you're giving up explosive plays, in the run and pass game, truthfully, so I wasn't pleased with where we were at. Way too many explosives in that game. That's not a recipe to win games or to do our part to help us win games on defense.
On facing Tampa Bay QB Jalon Daniels:
You see a lot of mobile quarterbacks now it seems like, doesn't it? Where it used to not be like that. Now, it's like every week there's a mobile guy. You've got to do a good job of rushing together is how I would say it. Whatever the call is or whatever kind of call you're in or structure you're in, you've got to do a good job of rushing together. Just got to do a good job of detailing how we're going to rush this guy because he's definitely mobile. You saw that. When he gets out, he can generate explosives.
On the strength of the defense:
I think our playstyle has been on point. I will say that. I always think we can generate more takeaways, but we've shown that we can capitalize on some opps. Like I said, hard after that game where you say the run defense is pretty good. I think we have the appropriate amount of rush and cover, cover and rush, staples that are in. Then it's up to me to make sure that we keep putting our guys in proper positions to affect the game. I think some guys are playing pretty good ball right now. Collectively, we all got to be a little bit better.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On Laken Tomlinson:
Obviously he's a vet. He's got a lot of experience. He's been through a lot of this before as far as different defenses, different calls, things like that. He's familiar with this offense in a lot of aspects with the familiarity with San Francisco and the New York Jets when he was there. So I think he'll acclimate pretty quickly. We'll obviously see how it goes in practice and everything to see where he's at.
On the possibility of Tomlinson and Mekhi Becton Sr. starting Sunday:
Yeah, I think anything's a possibility, for sure, so we're going to do whatever we can to put the best guys out there. We've got to see where they're at and just where they're at with the playbook and the calls and everything like that, with the game plan. But yeah, everything's a possibility and we're going to try and explore all avenues.
On what the offense does well:
Not a whole lot. We have an explosive offense, we really do, but we just got to make sure we run our offense. That was the thing, we didn't do that Thursday. We've had a lot of hard conversations, some really productive conversations – I'll just leave it at that – but we just need to run our offense.
We just need to keep playing ball. We need to trust the system, we need to trust each other, we need to trust our technique and we'll come out of this.
On the pass protection and handling stunts:
We've got to do a better job covering guys up. The one thing I talked with the offensive line about is making sure we're more proactive in our sets, we're more aggressive, using our hands better, covering guys up. Some of the younger guys are playing a little passively. We've got to make sure we're playing more on the line of scrimmage and being more physical in the pass game.
On WR Christian Watson's strong start:
He's been huge for our offense. Anytime we need a big play -- he made a huge play on a third-and-long, where we really needed something to happen and he did a nice job there. And he's just kind of a guy that we've been able to rely on to come through in those big moments. Obviously down in the red zone he's doing a nice job scoring touchdowns. So he's come through big so far.
On what's different for him since coming back from his injury last year:
When you go through something like, you have a different perspective and a different hunger, you know what I mean? When you have to sit and watch and not play and watch your guys go out there and compete. That's a question that you're going to have to ask him, but he's always been pretty dialed in. He's always been a pretty motivated kid, so I think just as he gets more experience playing, he just keeps getting better and better.
On Tampa Bay's defense:
They're really good against the run. Really physical front. They play with a lot of guys in the box. Their safeties are very active. They challenge you in a lot of man coverage situations, so we've got to do a really nice job of getting open versus man coverage. Third down they're going to pressure. People are going to keep pressuring us until we show that we can stop it. So we've got to make sure we do a really good job handling that, and yeah, they're just a good, physical defense.
