GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Thursday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On Jacksonville's Parker Washington, who returned a punt 96 yards for a TD last week:
He had some pretty good returns in the preseason and a big kickoff return against Kansas City in the preseason. So he's got tremendous speed. He's playing fearless right now. When you have a big return like that, it certainly builds a sense of confidence, not only in yourself but in your blockers, in the scheme to keep doing that. So it's a challenge for us. Certainly a challenge for Daniel (Whelan), where he puts the ball, how he handles the rush according to what he's going to do with the placement of the ball and the coverage. It's a big challenge, they've got a good return game.
On K Brandon McManus making a game-winner right away:
You've spent way too much time thinking about it. I think that was his 312th kick in the National Football League. It was a matter of those three guys working diligently over the week to get the sense of timing down that they did, and I thought they did a good job. I really wasn't thinking about the kick as much, I always think about the protection. Try to get back as far as I can to see the protection and assume that the rest of it is going to be done well.
On WR Jayden Reed fielding that punt too deep:
Don't catch it or score. The other guy had a 96-yarder and we got tackled on the 4. I think he kinda got lost where he was a little bit and we did have a wind issue in the game, but both those guys, in different ways, would like to have that play back.
On choosing whether to put Reed or Keisean Nixon back to return a punt:
It's just kind of where we are on the field. This is about how they're playing, both of them. What's going on on defense? Is it a three-and-out for Keisean? Did J-Reed just have a nine-play drive or a six-minute drive and then also we stopped a three-and-out and it's time he's got to go again? Things like that. Certainly both are capable. J-Reed coming out of college we thought was a dynamic returner and he still is. And Keisean, we've talked about the decision-making process all the time and here we are talking about it again today and I know he talked about it.
On Daniel Whelan's performance:
We thought he played tremendous, obviously. And some of the guys that don't get credit, the guys that play on the outside, Corey Ballentine and Bo Melton, they were both outstanding out there and Zayne (Anderson) inside in the coverage. He had a real good feel for the wind and what it was doing. The two big ones he had were into the wind and really changed the field position, so I thought he hit a really clean ball. His drop was cleaned up from a couple weeks ago and he played with really quiet feet and a lot of confidence back there. A tremendous game for him. He kept us in the game. He was one of our best defensive players.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley
On taking input from the players:
This is not about me. I'm the defensive coordinator. I call the defense. But it's way bigger than me. This is a players' game. We have a whole defensive staff. We have a whole support staff. I don't think I have all the answers, because I don't. I don't think I'm the smartest guy in the room, because I'm not. I've learned a lot from being a head coach and being a coordinator in the past. If a really good player like Kenny (Clark), if I go to him and say, 'Hey, we're going to run such-and-such game on third down, and I want you to do this and I want your aiming point to be this, and do you think you can succeed at a high level doing that? Let's practice it.' And if he says to me, 'No,' why would I run it? That doesn't make sense to me. Because if he feels comfortable, don't you think the success rate's going to be higher? I'll say, 'If there's anything that you guys don't feel comfortable with, tell me now,' and we'll either practice it more or I won't run it. What you're starting to see now, even in practice today, there's this confidence and this energy. Today was our best Thursday practice we've had, and that's not coach-speak. I'm not going to B.S. you guys. It was. The energy was there. The execution was there. Guys were taking ownership, because they're running stuff that they believe and they are good at, and they're getting confident in it. Now there's sometimes I have to say no because it's like, 'Whoa, that doesn't fit in with what we're doing and we might give up a big play,' so it's not just, 'Hey, what do we want to do? Go do it.' It's like me listening, observing and then making a final decision on what we can do best to win the football game.
On going with LB Eric Wilson when LB Quay Walker left the game:
What made us go with him is veteran guy, communication, green dot, loud crowd. He's been through games before. He's worn the green dot in the past so the experience of doing that. He's a guy in practice that when we put him in, I do communicate with when Quay's out. So, I felt comfortable doing that and he knows what he's doing. We can trust him. He's the ultimate guy that we trust. I thought he did an awesome job. Not easy. Really not easy. It's not just the production that he had – the leadership, the communication, getting guys lined up. It was really cool to see.
On S Xavier McKinney:
Have you seen a ball thrown anywhere near him? That's a huge impact. If you go back the last two games, have you seen the ball thrown down the field against us? No. I sent him a text the other night and said, 'Don't get bored,' and I mean that. Because he's affecting the game in so many other ways. In the run defense, he comes up and making tackles. I have him more involved in pressures. His coverage stuff has been outstanding, but he's affected the game because they're not throwing the ball deep anymore. That's affecting the game as much as anybody. I told him that's a sign of ultimate respect. When you've been around guys like (Darrelle) Revis and some really good players and the ball stops going to him, just don't get bored because it's going to go up again and you've got to be ready for it and he will be.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On Sean Rhyan getting more snaps than Jordan Morgan at RG:
Sean definitely is playing better than him right now. I think we're still obviously going to work Jordan in. So it'll kind of be a fluid situation as far as how many snaps he gets per game.
On QB Jordan Love's INTs:
One interception is too many. Anytime you're giving the ball to the defense, that's not good, that's not a winning formula. We've been able to overcome them, especially last game, but yeah, you never want to turn the ball over. So, we've just got to learn from those mistakes, learn from those decisions and just keep improving. The one thing I do like that Jordan's doing is he's not letting those plays turn into more bad plays, in terms of just affecting his decision-making. He's still aggressive, he's still reading defenses and doing a good job there, and he's making some pretty impressive throws. We've just got to keep learning and keep improving every week and hopefully those mistakes go away.
On whether the offense needs to get the ball to WR Christian Watson more:
Yeah. We do. It's as simple as that. Last game, it was kind of a weird game. We had 11 total possessions, five three-and-outs and the other two possessions we had two interceptions. So we didn't really get to do a whole lot. There were four drives basically where we had actual drives. So yeah, you definitely want Christian Watson touching the ball. He is a playmaker; he's shown to make some pretty big plays. It's just a matter of getting the plays for him in the game plan called. The one we threw the interception on, we were trying to get the ball to him on that one, it just didn't work out. It's just one of those games for him where we didn't get him the ball very much, but he is a guy that we certainly want him to touch the ball more, for sure.
On RB Josh Jacobs getting his first career receiving TD:
It was awesome. Yeah. It was great. We've been talking about it for a couple weeks, so it was a good thing to finally get that off our shoulders. I'm sure Josh felt some relief there. But that was a special time and a special moment. It was pretty cool to see.
On WR Romeo Doubs' production the last two games:
With Romeo, we've seen that with him all camp and I think part of the thing that led up to his frustration was just not getting those results on the field. Just being patient, trusting your abilities, trusting the offense, trusting Jordan, just trusting everybody. Just, we know it's going to come and then you obviously saw the last two weeks, his route-running ability, his strong hands, his playmaking, all that stuff. He's a very talented guy and I'm really glad that we've all put that behind us and we can move forward because as you saw, we're a lot better team with him than without him for sure.
