I'll start with the injuries. Will Blackmon had a quad - he did return. Jason Hunter had a hamstring injury, did not return. Aaron Rodgers had a shoulder bruise. We're looking at him right now, don't know the extent of that. (Cullen) Jenkins had a shoulder - he did not return. Aaron Rouse had a knee - he did not return, and Nick Collins reinjured his lower back. He did not return.
(What about Hawk?)
I don't have anything on (A.J.) Hawk.
(How big of a concern is Aaron's injury? Will he not be back next week?)
I have no idea; it's too early to tell. He was able to go back in and play the one series, so I think tomorrow morning, like a lot of cases, will have a lot to do with it. (Dr.) Pat McKenzie really hasn't had a chance to put him through a thorough examination.
(On the series you held him out, was he just too sore?)
I think they were still checking him out. It was clearly a medical decision to hold him that one series, and then it was okay to go back in. Then they thought it wasn't okay for him to go back in after the interception.
(On what went wrong)
I couldn't tell you specifically exactly the breakdowns. I'll just go through it. Offensively we were poor today. (We) didn't run the ball very well. I thought they got after us up front with the running back and the run-blocking unit not in sync. We need to get that corrected. That's two weeks in a row. We need to do a better job there. Pass protection as a whole, the down-and distance, particularly in the second quarter, we were playing uphill with the field position and the penalties. We just made a number of the same mistakes that we made the first three weeks - that's four weeks now. When you have penalties, turnovers, it's very difficult to win a football game like that. You're playing a good football team, a very good defense in a tough environment. I just felt offensively we clearly didn't do enough to win the game. I thought our defense played outstanding time-and-time again and gave us a number of opportunities to win this football game, and we didn't take advantage of it.
(How did the run defense do?)
I thought the tackling was something we probably could have done a better job of in spurts. As it looked on the field, I mean the film will ultimately tell, but the gap control looked like it was better than it was a week ago, but I thought we could have done a better job in spots as far as our tackling.
(How confident are you in Matt Flynn at this point if you had to put him in there?)
I'm confident. We have plenty of ammunition as far as play selection, as far as things that we felt comfortable with and as far as what Matt Flynn and Tom Clements the quarterback coach felt comfortable with. We had opportunities to win, excellent field position there at the end. It's disappointing that once again our defense gave us the opportunities on offense and we didn't take advantage of it.
(Does the sloppiness bother you?)
We're making the same mistakes, which is what really bothers me. Mistakes are going to happen - I'm not naïve to that. The fundamentals of football are the things you practice every single day, and then when they don't show up on Sunday, I definitely have a problem with that. It starts with me - I need to get it out of them. That's exactly what I told the football team. It's unacceptable for us to do the fundamental things wrong week-in and week-out. We need to get it fixed.
(You went for it on fourth down on the first drive, must have felt confident in the run game?)
Well, we actually quarterback sneaked it. It was fourth-and-inches. Like I stated earlier, we wanted to start fast. It was important to try and get up on this team, so going into the game, I guess to answer your question, yes I was confident we were going to be able to run the ball on the defense.
(What did you think of Aaron pre-injury?)
Pre-injury? The first interception is on a check down. That's a dropped pass. The second one thrown across, he had some pressure there on the pacer route. I'll have to look at that on film, didn't have a clear cut at that. The last interception is inexcusable. He shouldn't be over there. So before the injury I thought it was okay, I guess to answer your question.
(The last interception - was that protection?)
No it was a blitz. He was hot, it was a hot situation.
(Is the tight end supposed to pick him up?)
We can talk about that. There was plenty of bad football to go around, so we weren't doing what we were supposed to be doing on that particular play.
{sportsad300}(Was the heat a factor at all?)
I didn't think so. I thought it was nice. I thought we caught a relatively mild day coming down here this time of year. You guys are in Green Bay - it was in the 80s earlier in the week, so I don't think the heat was a factor at all today. We just didn't play very well.
(You said that you were worried about injuries how worried are you now?)
I never said I was worried about them. You have to deal with them. Injuries are part of the game. When we get back, tomorrow will be really the key when the guys come back in just like we are every Monday. We'll evaluate them. We had five guys who were inactive today because of injuries. Injuries had nothing to do with today's performance.
(Was Hawk not playing by coaches' decision?)
I don't have that information for you.
(Last year you struggled early to run the ball - do you have to make some changes?)
Last year - just I'm thinking back, thinking out loud here - we weren't very in-sync last year to start the year and eventually it turned. We'll have to look at today's problems and see exactly what they are and then we'll move forward to correct them.
