GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Thursday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On Jayden Reed's late fair-catch signal in Minnesota:
He has a right to fair catch it at any time, really. The thing that we've talked to him about is get your hand over the top of your head, and I'd like it to be a little bit sooner, make a little bit quicker decision than that. The first time we played Minnesota, he gave a fair catch and then ran with the ball. He's a young guy and I think he's trying to make a play all the time. He has a right to make a fair catch basically at any time. I'd like to see him get his hand a little bit higher to make it a little cleaner for the official and for him to be a little bit safer as well.
On Anders Carlson's ups and downs with the missed PATs:
We went into the season knowing we're going to ride him. Regardless of the percentage, he's improving, he's getting better. He's getting better every week on his kickoffs, and we've been pretty happy with some of the field goal opportunities we've had and what we've done with them. We'd like to clean that up (on PATs) and get a little bit higher percentage than that, but I think we're making progress every day with him.
He handles (the ups and downs) better than me. One of the reasons we liked him, again, going back to we've obviously known him for a while, was his mental makeup, his mental toughness. His ability to overcome a bad play and then have another good play, and then his ability to overcome a good play and hopefully have two good plays in a row. What we see in practice is a guy that's trying to get better all the time, and what we've seen in games is he's come back and hit some pretty significant field goals after missing a PAT. We'd like to think we're progressing toward getting better all the time.
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry
On handling Bears QB Justin Fields:
Incredible talent. It's been the age-old problem with mobile quarterbacks. You have the perfect rush or the perfect pressure or the perfect coverage and then guys are able to create things with their feet. Every time we've played against him, I'm shocked at how big in stature he is. Big athlete that can run around. It's something that you have to account for every single play. And then with them getting No. 2 (receiver DJ Moore) – obviously, we played against him the first week of the season but just to see how he's fit into that offense as the weeks and months of the season have gone on, had a huge game against Atlanta last week. He's a problem.
You just have to stay alive with this guy (Fields). Constantly. You've got to be conscious of your rush lane but feeling your buddy with his rush lane and playing off him at times. The play's never over with this guy. Literally. There's countless examples that we've seen where you're like, 'Oh, they sacked him. Oh, my gosh, they didn't sack him; he's still alive and running for 20 yards.' It's an element of his game that is something that you've got to be conscious of every single play, definitely every single time they drop back and throw the ball. But then equally, they do a great job with all the quarterback-designed runs where he actually is a running back.
On CB Corey Ballentine's performance vs. Vikings:
Just to have a guy like CB – same thing with the job that Eric Wilson had to come in and do – those guys, I really tip my hat to them just staying ready. They never know when their moment's going to get called upon. Obviously, CB knew that he was going to start and play a lot but the way he competed and the way he played, just a true professional. He was a stud for us on Sunday in Minnesota.
On LB Quay Walker's growth, particularly with his emotions:
He plays a full-tilt, full-speed, physical brand of football all the time. And it is very emotional. And I think within that a lot of players are right on the brink of crossing the line all the time, especially when some shenanigans happen. I definitely don't want to look in the rearview mirror and review the past from last year but I do think a young guy and Quay's still a young guy. I think he's growing and learning every single play that he plays in this league. But he learned a lot from last year, and I think in moments when he can cross the line he steps back and says, 'OK, let's just go back to the huddle and get my mind right.'
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On TE Tucker Krafts stiff-arming instead of hurdling for yards after catch:
That was nice. Lowered his shoulder, ran through some people, so yeah, I'd like to see more of that, for sure. He's a big-bodied guy. When he lowers his pads and gets his momentum going, you can tell that DBs don't really like to tackle him too much on the sideline, so he's been impressive. Hopefully we get a lot more of that.
On what's impressed him most about QB Jordan Love lately:
The biggest thing for young guys, and just with watching Jordan, it's been so impressive over the last half of the season is our success in situational football. He's been really good on third downs. He's been really good in two-minute situations, things like that. It takes some time. You need a lot of reps and you see a lot of different coverages on third down, a lot of looks, get a lot of pressures, how he handles all that stuff and makes plays in the face of pressure. Situationally, that's the biggest thing for him I think that I'm most impressed with.
He rips some throws (on third downs) to wideouts that aren't open yet. He anticipates well, so he's doing a good job with that and just handling pressure. There's going to be some dirty pockets and all that stuff and you've still got to make those throws and you've got to stay in there and make some plays. That's the big thing, is just having that poise to go play.
On LT Rasheed Walker:
He's just getting all this experience under his belt. He's doing a good job. I'm really impressed with how he goes about his business, how he competes. He's still got a ways to go. He's got a lot of room for improvement, but I'm impressed with how he works.
