GREEN BAY – The Packers' three coordinators met with the media on Thursday ahead of Green Bay's road trip to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Here's a sampling of their key comments:
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On punter Pat O'Donnell:
You look at Pat kind of like a golfer, he's got a lot of different clubs in his bag. So there's been different punts at different places we've been on the field in the two games that we've played, and that's what I mean about calling his pitches. If he wants to go left, right, down the middle, hit a big ball, hit a flop, whatever those things are, we work all those situations on the field during the week of practice. There's a lot involved in it. What's the front, what's the protection, are they overload, are they even, are they doubled on one side or doubled on the other, those things.
On running full-speed drills in practice:
We do it in a way in which it's conducive for them playing well on Sunday. We've always done it that way. We've always had a system of 11-play scripts, nine-play scripts, which you run on 3, 6, and 9, so were not full speed running for nine plays or 11 plays or anything like that. We have a thing called glide-stride practice where we're actually learning how to stride the field but it picks up as we go. But in our opinion, teams-wise, we have to run the field because that is what we do. And if we don't somehow get on our landmarks and get in our lanes and understand how to fan the field and work pad leverage, in our opinion, if we don't do that in practice, it's hard to play well in the game.
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry
On little to no blitzing so far:
When we do choose to rush four, the four guys we have rushing are pretty effective and pretty good. But by no means do I ever want to think that we're not a pressure team because we can, we will, we like to do that. It's just the way the two games have gone, we've defended quite a few runs in the first game and we've had the least amount of passes defended in the league, as far as right now. We'll get to the point where we do that. But I really do like our four-man rush. I think it's highly effective.
On the run defense's struggles vs. Chicago:
Bottom line, football is a contact tackle sport, and if you miss tackles you're going to give up runs. We did a lot of good things the other night against Chicago, but that was probably the one thing that I was most upset with when we came in after the game was specifically there, the opening drive and then that eighth drive of the game. We missed a total of nine tackles on two runs and they gained 55 yards, so I think that's obviously something that's got to improve. We've got to do a lot better job with that. How dramatic that drive ended with the great play by Quay (Walker) on the third-and-6 tackling Fields, which led to the fourth-and-1 and the great effort by our defense stopping them on the goal-line stand, it really should never have gotten to that. You give up 55 yards on two runs in a drive, that's not good. So I think tackling is the No. 1 thing we really emphasized it and preached it and talked about it yesterday and today.
On facing QB Tom Brady:
It's weird thinking back. I actually thought about this the other day. My very first year in the NFL – actually, my very first game in the NFL – I was quality control with the Niners and we played in the Hall of Fame Game. That was actually Brady's rookie year. I think back to how long ago that was for me as a coach and I'm like, 'This dude's still playing.' It's crazy. He's phenomenal, he really is. Doesn't matter where he's playing or who he's playing with, he's just one of those guys … you're not going to fool him. You have to at least try to affect him because you're really not going to trick him or fool him.
It's the constant cat and mouse of who's going to make the first mistake? It's something that Tom's been able to do for 20 straight years is that he's so good at everything he does. It's one of the things that we preach all the time. Just keep swinging. Just keep swinging. Keep chopping wood. The tree's going to eventually fall down.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On the Buccaneers' defense now compared to 2020:
It's very similar to the defense we faced in the 2020 season. Very aggressive. No holes from their front to their linebackers to their secondary. Really good personnel. Good and aggressive scheme. They test your rules. They test you physically. It'll be a fun matchup for us because they're a good defense.
On Yosh Nijman:
He's done a great job. Just a humble kid, hard-working kid, has all the tools to be a great O-lineman in the NFL. He's just gotten a little bit better every week, every time he goes out there. I've been really proud of him, the way he battles and how just how far he's come. He's up there definitely as far as the physical tools. Probably the most gifted guy I ever saw was Joe Staley as far as speed and strength. Yosh is up there with that.
On teaching linemen who aren't used to it to pull and get out in space:
You've got to have guys with the right mindset. You see guys pulling, if they have the right mindset to go kick somebody's butt when they're pulling, that's what it's all about. There's some really cool clips from last week's game of (Jon) Runyan and Josh Myers going around the edge and just knocking the crap out of people. It's fun to watch.
On different ways to get the RBs the ball:
You have to have tools for everything, and you always have to come up with new stuff, to be creative. Because if you're doing the same stuff week in and week out, these guys are smart, they're going to game plan you and stop you. So that's the big challenge with the offense is always being creative, trying to find explosive plays, trying to get the ball to your playmakers.
On Romeo Doubs' second-and-28 screen play:
That was one of the cooler plays of the game, just his natural catching the ball with ease, but then finding that seam and trusting his blockers and just hitting it. That was encouraging, because if you can find guys that are good at plays like that, you've got some playmakers, which is always fun.
