I'll start with the injuries first. Donald Driver had his hand stepped on, he did return. Chad Clifton had a hamstring. He did not return. Mike Montgomery had an ankle injury, he did not return. I have not yet got a report on how Aaron Rodgers came out of the game.
i(You've got as many losses now as you had all of last season. Where do you go from here?)
Well, we're 2-3 right now. Where we go from here is we get them in here tomorrow and we need to demand more. We need to do a better job of demanding as a staff to get it done the right way from the players. I'm not happy with the way it's going as far as the fundamentals. We're making common mistakes, things you're stressing in practice and we need to clean it up. Our house is messy right now and nobody is happy about it. We'll continue to work, but we're 2-3 and we'll get it cleaned up tomorrow as we head into Seattle.
(You pretty much said the same thing about last week's game about the fundamentals and the mistakes. Why are they being repeated )
If I knew the answer to your question, as far as what makes them. I wouldn't be standing here at this podium. I'd be a rich man because I'd be selling it to every coach in professional sports. It's the game, it's why you compete. It's all fundamentals. They came in here to run the football, we knew that. There's fundamental things that are involved in run defense, no different than us trying to run the football against their defense. That's why you play the game. They played segments a little sharper than they did. I thought we had tremendous fight in the second half, but frankly the first quarter factored in the game. They started faster than we did. We had points taken off the board there early, and we just didn't overcome our mistakes.
(Can you assess the holding on the field goal that took points off the board?)
Can I assess it? That's a referee call, and based on what we saw and the communication we got we didn't agree with the call, but that's part of the game. It's another technique that they used that we knew going in. It was executed and we had a penalty called against us.
(The penalties in general, the pass interference, the holding on a kick return backed you up, the penalties were a problem. What do you do there?)
It's about field position. It's about field position and playing with a favorable down and distance. For as productive as we were on offense, we were backed up a number of times. I thought we played much better in the second half on offense than we did in the first half. Field position for the third week in a row continues to be a problem. I don't know what the outcome was or the hidden yardage, but it looked like they played with some better field position than we did.
(How did Aaron Rodgers arm seem to you?)
During the game? I thought he performed at a high level.
(Do you think it affected him at all? )
He definitely was affected. He didn't throw with the velocity that he's capable of throwing, but I thought he did a great job managing the game and he was just smart with the football today.
(He grabbed his arm and shoulder at times. Was he in enough pain that you ever thought about taking him out?)
Pain was an obstacle to start the game. I asked him if he was fine between series and he said, 'yes.' I didn't get more into than that, but I am sure he was in pain throughout the game.
(Was that a pretty valiant effort by him?)
Absolutely. Aaron Rodgers stepped up today. We talk about the health of our football team; we're going through a phase that every team goes through. That's what we're in right now and it's important for people to step up. He was an injured player that didn't practice all week and he stepped up large today.
(Given that, did you expect the rest of the team to step up more, with Aaron Rodgers stepping up and playing well?)
I expected our team to play to their standards, and frankly we need to play four quarters. If we would have played four quarters like we played the last two quarters in the other segments, the outcome might have been different. We need to do better, especially at home. It's disappointing to lose at home like that.
(How impressed were you with Matt Ryan's composure?)
I thought he had a good game. I thought they did a good job on first down, particularly in the play-action phase of it. They played with favorable down and distance for the most part and he managed the game well.
(At what point did you talk to Aaron and he said he was ready to go? Was that this morning?)
We had a workout this morning in the Hutson Center at 8:45. We went down there and he threw the route tree, just the progression of routes that are involved in the passing game. We talked about some of the calls in the game, how we would manage the game. After we worked out, him and I had a discussion and I was comfortable, so I decided to let him go.
(With nine penalties, is there a different approach you might take this week to clean that up?)
Well, we're going to talk about it as a staff because the approach of how we're addressing it and the way we're practicing it, it's not working. Anytime something happens five weeks in a row, that's a problem, and penalties have definitely been a problem throughout these first five games.
(You had a hard time stopping the run today, was there similar problems that you faced?)
Without looking at the tape, as far as gap control and so forth, the pushing the pile for two or three yards, that's the stuff that's disturbing. When they're falling forward and it's second and four, second and five, we've got to do a better job on that.
(Was that type of kick you wanted on the onside?)
It wasn't actually the type of kick we wanted, one. But also, there was miscommunication on when we were set and when we were ready to go. So that was poor execution both on the timing of the takeoff and the kick.
(This team looks like it's reeling, where do you go from here?)
Well, we're 2-3. Where we'll go from here is, we'll come in here tomorrow, we'll look at the film, we'll be brutally honest like we always are, and we'll go back to work as we get ready for Seattle.
(Are you happy with the play of the special teams?)
I'd say in the first half, the first punt was not very good, but other than that, the penalty on the return with the bad field position. There definitely were positives in there and there definitely were some negatives.
