GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media on Thursday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On Keisean Nixon's muffed punt:
He just made a bad play. Just like week before he made a helluva play for our defense, he made a bad play in the punt return game. We've all moved on.
It's a coaching point that he knows. I think what he would probably tell you is he made two mistakes. He muffed the punt, and he didn't stay on top of it. We all know Keisean is trying to make a play all the time, and I think there's a time and a place when you're supposed to do that, when we're entrusting you with the ball. There's a trust factor in the return game. The returner has to trust the blockers, the blockers have to trust the returner to make the right decision and put them in position to get their blocks done as well. It's unfortunate, it happened, it's over, and we're looking forward to Sunday afternoon's game.
On Anders Carlsons miss and subsequent make:
The first one he thought (the wind) was a little bit of an issue and he hit it where he thought it was going to go through, and it stayed straight as an arrow. And the next one he said, OK, the wind has died down, it's not the same, and I think if I'm not mistaken put the ball right through the middle. You have to be a self-corrector. Obviously we'd like to have been a little bit sooner. They've got to be self-correctors and be masters in their own craft.
On the penalties vs. Giants:
The first one on Anthony Johnson Jr. was not a penalty (for blindside block). The second one on Rudy Ford was a penalty. Now it was a bad punt, Rudy felt the guy coming at him. He tried to do what we call a come behind and run their guy into their guy, and their guy did a heck of a job and just missed, and their guy was right there on Rudy, so that was a penalty.
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry
On trying to find consistency vs. run:
There's periods of games, there's periods of weeks where it does go well and then we had a bad night. And it wasn't just one thing or one guy. It was one thing here, one thing there and that's the quest is just to find that week in and week out consistency, day in and day out, and when you're in a game, play in, play out to find that. Because when we consistently play as 11 guys as one, we've proven that we can play with anybody in this league. But when one guy's off here and then another guy's off there, that's where it ends up just costing you obviously.
On no sacks vs. Giants:
Especially the last three or four weeks, we had done such a great job with that and we fell short of that the other night. There's no doubt. That was frustrating because we felt pretty good with our group, the way they had been rushing, that I never would have thought that that would have been an issue.
On Buccaneers WR Mike Evans:
First-ballot Hall of Fame receiver. We got to be around him firsthand a couple years ago when we coached the Pro Bowl and he is all of 6-5.' Special player. The most impressive thing to me with him is the number of different quarterbacks that he's been successful with, been productive, had 1,000 yards with. Is Baker his fourth quarterback he's had 1,000-yard season with, I think? So just a do-it-all receiver, can do everything, can run intermediate routes, can obviously take the top off and hit the home run and also probably the trait that's most impressive with him is the physicality that he plays with on every snap.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On Buccaneers S Antoine Winfield:
He's really good in the run and pass. He's a very instinctual player, he covers well, and he's really physical in the run game. So I think he's a complete safety — one of the better ones we've seen this year. So, you've just got to make sure you account for him, wherever he's at. You have to have an awareness for him; they'll pressure (with) him a lot. So, yeah. He's a heck of a player.
On Jordan Love being self-critical:
That's one thing about him that you know in the long run he's going to be a pretty good player, is because he can self-coach. He's got intelligence. He's not one of those guys that's sensitive about being coached, or when he makes a mistake. He owns it. And I think all really good players are like that, where they have that awareness of their performance and they understand the things they have to do to improve. He knows the standard and he knows when he's playing well what it looks like.
On Tampa Bay's third-down and red-zone defense:
They're a physical defense and their linebackers have really good range. (Lavonte) David and (Devin) White are excellent players. So their front, they set the edge, they are big and physical inside and their DBs are really physical on the edge. So it kind of caps everything in there and those linebackers can really cover ground to make plays. They just have some really talented players and their scheme's tough, they do a lot of double coverage, so it's going to be a challenge for us. It's hard to run the ball on them down there (in the red zone). So again, that's another challenge that's going to be something we have to overcome to make sure we can score some touchdowns.
On TE Tucker Kraft:
Once Luke Musgrave came out, he became the focal point at that position. With him, as the year's progressed, he's just taken on a bigger and bigger role every game and then obviously when Luke went out, he's kind of ascended into this role and he's done a great job. Yeah, I'm fired up for him, because he's handled everything we've thrown at him and responded in a great way and he's got a very, very bright future for sure.
