(Did you wind up holding Aaron back from throwing today?)
The decision to hold Aaron Rodgers from throwing today was a medical decision. Dr. McKenzie in his evaluation this morning felt it was best for Aaron not to throw today, so that's why his practice reps were limited, and he'll be ready to go Sunday.
(Do you throw him on Sunday, another pre-game workout?)
I think we'll be fine.
(What happened to Pat Lee?)
Pat Lee just had some back spasms, yesterday's practice. The indication from the medical staff was they felt he needed some work today to settle them down. I'm hopeful he will still go on Sunday.
(Did Rodgers get enough work to be prepared?)
As far as Aaron Rodgers' preparation, we did the best we can as far as having him rep at practice. He's a very conscientious individual, and I'm confident he'll be prepared to play in the game Sunday.
(How did Chad get through the week?)
He went through OK. His rehab Wednesday was a lot tougher than we had hoped. He was able to go limited today, so hopefully we can get that thing settled down by Sunday.
(Do you think Pickett will go?)
I'm hopeful Pickett will go. Ryan Pickett, with the tendinitis in his knees, he's just sore. I'm hopeful that he'll go also Sunday.
(Rouse will start?)
Find out Sunday. That's why we play the game isn't it? I don't want to give away all my secrets. Heck, I even talked about tendinitis for goodness sakes. I thought you guys would clap for that one.
(You talked about the noise at Qwest Field. How much of a distraction is that and what can you do to limit the distraction?)
Crowd noise is really a big part of playing on the road as far as your emphasis for cadence. Really working on it during the week like we have since training camp, and I think we've done a really good job the last two years of emphasizing that early. It really becomes part of your focus and cadence. If you talk to some players, some players believe it even makes you focus more, and your tendency for pre-snap penalties goes down. But the edge really comes for the defensive side of the ball to get the jump. It's clearly one of the louder opponent fields that we'll play on, there's no doubt about it. But it's really just part of the makeup of playing on the road.
(How does Hawk seem to be moving?)
I thought he looked good today. I thought A.J. definitely progressed through the week, so we'll see how he feels tomorrow. I plan on all those guys going, it's just really how they feel, A, at the beginning of the game, and the way they fight through it.
(How's Jeremy Thompson looking after some game action and another week of practice?)
He had a good week of practice. I think it helps the younger guys particularly when they're able to have more quality reps as far as where exactly they're going to play. Anytime you're in a backup position, and that goes for everybody, you're catching reps, catch as catch can, because you don't usually just back up one position. So you get rotated into the mix. Jeremy in particular having the ability to rotate into spots where we feel that he'll play, I think it will definitely help him in his preparation.
(When you make the long trips to the West Coast, does it affect the team at all?)
As far as scheduling, everybody has their way of doing it. We try to keep the football team on a clock. We do the same thing every Friday as far as the time frame that we work, as far as getting our players up early. Same thing Saturday. I think it's important particularly when you have a young football team to get them out of bed early and get their day started. So we'll leave at the same time. It's a little longer flight going out, but we still have a good block of time between our arrival to the hotel and our night meetings. I'll be quicker in the night meetings, because I'm conscientious that 9 o'clock team meeting is really 11 o'clock our time. So you're conscientious of those things. I don't think it's a factor when you come from the middle part of the country. Having the opportunity to coach on the West Coast, that's tough duty. When you're leaving every Friday and getting back Sunday, really Monday morning, six out of eight weeks, it's definitely a challenge. I don't find it as big a challenge clearly coming from the middle part of the country.
(When you stopped practice today early on there, what was that about and how did it go after?)
I thought today's practice was a good practice. I thought Wednesday's and Thursday's were the way they were supposed to be, and frankly when we called everybody up after the jog-through and that early segment of the last eight plays of the game, it was frankly just a reminder. I think it's human nature anytime you compliment your football team, which I did this morning in the team meeting, on the type of week that they were having, maybe they lose their edge a little bit. So I was just reminding them to get their edge back, and I thought we had a quality practice today.
