GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Thursday. Here's a sampling of their key comments:
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On facing the Seahawks:
The biggest challenge for us is Jay Harbaugh's new, it's his first time in the NFL. He's been in college for a long time, so we've gone back through a bunch of college tape to see some of the things that he's done. And he's got a good group. There's always been a really good culture there in Seattle, on special teams the way they play. They've got a heck of a kicker. The punter's a really a good player. I can remember working him out at Texas coming out. He does a lot of different things with the ball. He can place it on the boundary and go across the field. He gets the ball out of his hand quickly and they have a lot of guys playing at a high level right now. I know they've had some blunders, but we all have, that's part of the kicking game, but they've also hit a kickoff return for a touch, and blocked a punt, and blocked a field goal and some of those things. So going up there and that noise at night, it'd be a great atmosphere for football, and it'll be good challenge for us.
On K Brandon McManus:
Since he's been here, he's very particular, which has actually been really good, not only for our holder, for Daniel Whelan, but for me to know someone that exact, knows exactly what he wants. That's easy for Daniel to get it done that way. It's easy for me to be able to coach the other two guys to get it that way. So I think he's still getting himself in better physical condition. He was out for a little bit. I think he's becoming a better teammate every day. He's been in and won a Super Bowl, so I think he has things to say in different ways to our players, his own style of leadership. So I'm really glad he's here, and I think on a daily basis, I'm still learning from him as well. He's making us all better all the time, and I believe he's got a lot of football left to him.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley
On the pass defense:
I think we have some really good moments, and then just like everything else right now, it needs to be more consistent. If you look at last week, he threw the ball 30, 40-plus times and a couple times the ball got behind us in some zones and a couple times we kept it in front and made some really good plays. I just think it's consistency. That ties together with a rush, the different things we're able to do each week in coverage, who we have out there, who they have out there and what our best matchups are and how we're going to play it. But ultimately we don't want to give up the home runs because this (Seattle) group, if you watch them on tape, they've got guys who can stretch the field and this group will try to throw it over your head, kinda like Miami's been doing against everybody. They'll take some shots early. I think the quarterback's playing at a really high level and they do want to throw the ball.
On S Zayne Anderson stepping in at Detroit:
We lost Evan Williams and we lost Javon Bullard, right? I thought Zayne did a really good job. I don't say that so enthusiastically just to talk. I really think he did a good job. He's been a special-teams guy who's done a really good job on special teams. He's a tough kid. He plays hard. He studies it. You could tell the first drive he was in – and this isn't a knock on him, this is just me being honest. The first drive he was in, you could tell he was a little uneasy and he was a little anxious but as the game went on, he played the game fast and he was physical and he had a couple really good hits. Some of the communication and some the stuff we're asking him to do in that game is not easy and he did a really good job with it. Xavier McKinney is not used to playing next to him, so I think together – did we play a great game? No. I mean obviously we lost, but speaking of him, I think he did a really nice job and I'm happy for him and I'm proud of him.
On the run defense of late:
I am really proud of the run defense. I do think it's improved. I think the consistency of the guys playing in the scheme, the familiarity, they're comfortable with it. I just see our D – like Kenny Clark. I thought Kenny played a great game. T.J. Slaton, I thought Slaton played a great game and some of those younger D-linemen are really starting to come on and you can just see. Because that's a really good (Detroit) O-line. To stop that run game's not easy. You do some things schematically but the way our front played, the way they got off blocks, the way they stayed square and the way they penetrated and tackled. And then the backers, truthfully, Quay Walker and Isaiah McDuffie, I thought they tackled really well and I thought we were physical. The other thing is our safeties were coming downhill fast and they played hard, like really hard. That's a total team effort but it does start up front. Obviously, you talk about some of those balls over the middle. Sometimes when teams run the ball that much and you are that aggressive and all of a sudden you dive down and you see the ball go behind them, those are some of the things we do need to work on. But I give the guys a lot of credit because the last couple teams we played can really run the football. If we're going to continue to improve and get better and win games, we've got to be able to stop the run.
On defending screens:
I think we played the screens better than we did against Miami the week before, and if you watch around the league right now, they're (everywhere). So we tried to get better at them going from Miami to Detroit. Was it good enough? No, so I'll tell you it wasn't good enough, but I thought it was better than it was against Miami. So then we looked at them again in the time that we had, and we tweaked some calls, and there's some new things we're going to try to do to continue to improve on them. When you get good players in space, you get those linemen out there so quickly, and it's tough. We need more guys there. That's definitely not easy, but we need to coach it better, and I think we have a better plan this week, and we need to execute it better.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On the O-line's performance in Detroit:
I thought we started slow, especially in the pass game. There were a few instances where we leaky in our protections, they got to the quarterback a few times early. But I did think as the game went on we settled in and rallied and did a better job. But yeah, we definitely needed to start faster to just be more productive at the beginning of the game, which hurt us in the long run.
On QB Jordan Love playing better now that he's healthy:
There's no doubt. Like he does some pretty incredible things in the pocket and he's made some really good throws and just escaped some trouble this year and done a really nice job, but yeah, when he's feeling good and he can move around and he's feeling confident pushing the ball down the field, it's pretty impressive.
On Seattle's D-line:
Leonard Williams, they move him around. He'll play inside, he'll play defensive end. They do a good job with their load fronts and their twists. They're aggressive with their blitz package, so they have a lot of different things that they do that we have to get ready for and obviously the crowd noise is going to be hard communicating, so we've got to do a good job with that, with our calls. They force the backs to block a lot, so our backs have to do a nice job in protection and then I think their DBs are really good, too, so any time you're able to do a good job in coverage, it just allows that rush to get on the quarterback. So we've got to make sure when we get our 1-on-1 opportunities at wide receiver, we do a good job winning those to get open quick.
On how RB Josh Jacobs practices:
How he prepares, he's a guy you have to manage in terms of taking him off the field because he wants every rep, he wants to be out there, he wants the ball, so you've got to sometimes be like, 'Hey dude, come stand by me for a couple plays' just to make sure he doesn't work too hard in practice so that he's fresh on game day. He just has a mindset -- a worker, a grinder. I think it's that mentality that's going to allow him to have as long a career as his body allows just because of that mindset that he has as a competitor.
