(Mike you couldn't have asked for a better start from the starting offense could you?)
Well the point production with the number one offense, two drives, two touchdowns, that's what you're looking for, but I'm sure when we view the film tomorrow, there will be some things we need to correct and build off of. I thought as a whole for our football team, it was a good solid starting point. There were a lot of positives that come out of this game. And there are some negatives and we have to make sure we learn from that. The thing that I was most impressed with was the tempo that our team played with on both sides of the ball. I thought they did a really good job of pressing the line of scrimmage, getting the calls in from the boundary. I thought it was really a clean operation from that standpoint. Those are the things that you need to make sure their clean during the preseason. I thought we were off to a good start there.
(How do you evaluate your defense, zero points, the turnovers, sacks, etc. It was a good start.)
Just need it every game. That's a good start. There are a lot of things you try to accomplish in preseason games. Obviously you want to win the football game, especially at home, at Lambeau Field. But again, it's the first time the defensive staff and the defensive players had an opportunity to compete in a live environment. Once again, I thought the game management, the boundary operation, the ability to get the calls in...We saw no huddle tonight, that's great work for us. I thought our communication was pretty much clean. These guys played big with the opportunities that were presented to them. With the turnovers, and to keep them out of the end zone speaks volumes of your defense.
(Is it a validation at all, about your switching defense and what you want to see out of this defense?)
I don't see view it that way. The decision was made in January. I made it with a clean, conscious mind. I like what I've seen so far. I've said it before, time and time again as I stood up here: I like the way Dom Capers has come in here. He's pulled the defensive staff together. The players have responded. They've totally bought into the system, but we still have a lot of work to do, and that's the facts. So, we're excited about the way we started, but by no means are we ready to go for Chicago.
(Did you show much at all? From practice, it didn't look like much of the same?)
We pressured them. I don't know how the numbers come out. But I've said it before, we're going to work our base concepts every day. A number of our pressures were a lot of our base concepts and I thought our guys did a good job with that.
(Are you concerned with the penalties, especially in the first half?)
The penalties in the second quarter obviously took away better opportunity for point production. Those are things we'll work on, we'll continue to work on, every team works on. The pre-snap penalties, there are no excuses for it. We need to eliminate that from our play. Once again, it's the first preseason game, it's a starting point and we've got some things we have to clean up. Definitely penalties are one of them.
(Any injuries?)
Nothing significant. We'll know more in the morning. I am sure we have guys that are nicked, but nothing to report. That was a big factor, and a big victory, coming out of the game healthy.
(What did Sutton show you tonight?)
A very instinctive football player. He's shown it college, he's shown it in practice and he went out and did it again under the lights tonight. He's very sharp with his reads. He's got a very good feel, especially in the zone schemes. I like the way he ran the ball, I like the way he bounced it outside and generated positive yardage when it didn't look like there was anything there. He's a very instinctive football player and he's doing a heck of a job.
(It seemed like the running game on all levels did pretty decent tonight.)
We had production. I'd need to view the film to be more accurate with the conclusion of how we played tonight. That's always the case. Sometimes you feel better after a win like this because of the statistics look good, but the facts are on the film. We'll evaluate that in the morning and make sure we're ready to go and present it to our players.
(Could you assess the play of the backup quarterbacks? )
I thought Matt Flynn had some production. I thought Matt had some better opportunities presented to himself than Brian. Brian, the first play, it was a big play opportunity for us, that resulted in poor pass protection and ended up in an interception. I thought Matt did a nice job and made some plays with his feet. I think we have two young quarterbacks that are ascending and are going to continue to get better.
(Can you talk about the play of Desmond Bishop tonight?)
Desmond played the way he practices. He's been an excellent pressure player. He had the big interception. Without seeing the film I couldn't tell you much more than that, but he definitely made an impact when he was in there. He looked like he had good penetration when he was pressuring. He's instinctive, and Desmond is another one of our young players that's ready to take off.
(Would you have tried those long field goals if it was regular season?)
Yes I would. The first field goal was right on the line. I don't know if you watch the pre-game, but every pre-game, we measure the wind and it's a process that pretty much every football team goes through. We were right at the line at 42, 43 yards. He had the distance. He had plenty of leg in pre-game and that's why I attempted the first one.
{sportsad300}(I think there was only one punt. Is that going to be enough to evaluate the position?)
Those are good problems to have right now. I'm not going to try to punt to evaluate the position. Maybe I should let someone else call the plays if we're worried about our punter right now. But we need to get more information. I agree with that.
(Were you trying to get Heckendorf a touchdown there at the end?)
I call plays to win. If he was the 'Z' on that play, then yes, I was trying to get him the touchdown. We took a shot on third down and ran it on fourth down and frankly, we kneeled on the ball at the end just because I've had some bad luck in the past with last plays of the half, last plays of the games, losing players to injury. That's why we took the victory stance and ended the game.
(Did you see Raji work out yesterday?)
I did not personally see him workout. I had a chance to visit him after the workout. We feel that he's in pretty good shape and we'll know more as we move forward. He was up most of the night, he had two hours of sleep and traveled most of the morning so it wasn't the best time for anybody to be working out. We'll get more information tomorrow and Monday.
(Any plans in terms of testing (Brad) Jones and (Nick) Barnett this week?)
Jones, I definitely think has a chance. Nick is doing very well. He's champing at the bit so he may have a chance to do some limited things this week.
