I'll start with the injuries. Aaron Rouse left the game with a head injury. I haven't got the update yet on his status. Ryan Pickett left with an elbow injury, and he did not return. With that I'll take your questions.
(On whether the big hit on Rodgers sparked the team)
Yeah, I guess I would agree with the timing of it but I don't think we need to get our quarterback whacked before we start playing better. I'll just say this as a whole. I thought the win today was a smart win for our football team. I thought we played very well throughout the major situations; control the time of possession the way we were able to, to come into this stadium which is a tough place to play against a very well coached football team, just very pleased with the victory. The number of long drives the offense was able to sustain was obviously a big factor, and the field position, the defense playing at the level they played with the turnovers in the second half. I'm very pleased with the victory. I thought it was a smartly played game by our football team.
(On whether he thought Rodgers was hurt on the hit)
Well, I was standing right there. He jumped right up. He's a tough individual.
(On whether Rodgers' shoulder injury had an impact on the offense)
These are things that go into game planning. I don't show up Sunday and just start calling plays and start worrying about it. That's things that are decided in game planning on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. If there is something that happens during the course of the game with any of our players that makes us change directions, we do so. So based on our game planning and based on the communication of the condition of Aaron Rodgers and the rest of our team, that's why we call the plays and the defenses that we do.
(On ending the losing streak)
I mean shoot, losing is hard. We haven't won a game in a month. So it's something we talked about as a football team all week, the investment we've made in our preparation and have not been able to cash in on that investment. It was important for us to come up here - we knew it was going to be a big challenge because of the territory you're walking into here - and it was important to win this game, no doubt.
(On the running game)
Well, I think the first part of it is the attempts were where they needed to be. To have the ability to run the ball 30 times, that's definitely the first step. It wasn't as clean as we'd like based on the communication, some of the things we did with the run-blocking unit. I'm sure when we watch it tomorrow, those are things that we can correct and get better at, and I think it goes right back to the fundamentals we've been stressing here more than we have as far as the practice commitment and so forth in practice. To have the attempts up and play as balanced as we did, I was very pleased with that.
(On Rodgers performance)
Yeah, I thought he played excellent. I thought he was smart with his adjustments throughout the protection unit and also the decisions he made on the outside as far as what they were giving us coverage wise. I thought Aaron had a very fine performance today.
(On attacking and adjusting against an aggressive defense)
Well, I'll just say this: defenses, and I think it's something that's been going on really probably at least the last five years in this league, the wide-open defenses, the combination coverages and the tendencies that you have and formations, defenses are not scared. They're aggressive in taking away your pass concepts. It's important to have the corresponding concept to a base concept because the good defenses will definitely take it away from you.
(More on adjusting)
The corresponding concepts to your base concepts. You've got to have the answer for if you run a particular concept and they want to overload it and take it away, you've got to have the corresponding concept to take advantage of the leverage.
(On Seattle's defense)
Yeah, they do a very good job. That's a veteran defense. They've got some excellent football players, some Pro Bowl players, players I've got a lot of respect for. They're a quick defense, particularly up here. I was very pleased with the protection that we were able to give Aaron, and we did go a little seven protection in certain situations. They checked out of some coverages because of that, so we had a little bit of a chess match going back and forth. I thought it was a well played football game.
(On Jackson being inactive)
Brandon had an illness last night. He was up throughout the evening and then based on the doctors' recommendation, they felt he would not be able to go today.
(On the defense's overall game)
Excellent performance from the defense today. We'll take that every game. It was what we needed, what we needed as a team. We needed to come in here and play very well on defense, win the field position battle, the offense was able to generate the long drives because you know we do have some different combinations of personnel groups that we're using because of our medical situation, and I think it's a credit to the players for staying right on track here with the game plan. I give a lot of credit to our coaches. I thought our coaches, they got after the players in a positive manner throughout the week. Our practice structure and our practice performance finally carried over to the game.
(On Seattle changing quarterbacks)
Do you do anything different? Well, the thing about it, and I've seen Charlie play in this system before and it's something you take into consideration, but they pretty much run their offense. We thought that he would probably make so more plays with his feet. I think Matt Hasselbeck, and so does Seneca Wallace, make a lot of plays with their feet. So, that's something we were able to train during the course of the week as far as pass rush and lane discipline and everything. So a lot of our training was in order even when we discovered that Charlie Frye was going to go today.
{sportsad300}(On being tied for first place in the division)
We're 3-3. I don't get into the first place, second place thing right now. I think it's a little early for that. I'm more in tune with the path that our football team is on. It's important to navigate any particular season. Every team has things that happen to them, and you need to find a way to overcome the negatives and continue to build on the positives, and really that's where my focus is. I think it's great, I guess Chicago lost, not sure what Minnesota did, but hey, you can write about it. I'm looking forward to Indianapolis.
(On considering a 60-yard field goal early)
Well, Mason kicked the ball well in pregame. I was pretty confident that he could make that kick. Originally, we were going to go from 40-in, was the mark we were looking for and obviously it was backed up to the 42-yard line when that situation happened. Being a little aggressive; it was early in the game. I reconsidered it and played field position was the reason I changed my mind.
(On the younger players stepping up)
Absolutely. It doesn't just happen with one guy. I think our younger players are doing an excellent job. Obviously the performance on Sundays is the most important. You see Tramon Williams make another big play today. He's been as consistent as they come. I thought Will Blackmon from what I saw played much better today, A.J. (Hawk) looked healthier and had a good game. It's good to have Aaron Rouse back there, and Jeremy Thompson had his opportunity today. You just can't get enough of that. It's great experience for him, especially when you have that experience and win. We just need to get healthy and continue to work and improve. It's great experience for younger players, particularly in all the different personnel groups that we've been working. So we'll utilize that as we move forward.
