GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Thursday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On stopping the fake punt in Detroit:
Well, they've had two successful fake punts this year, so I think if you remember the Kansas City game (in Week 1), they had one almost in the same territory. So, we talked about it before the game, they're a really good unit. We were in a good front I thought if they were going to run something at that particular spot and we ended up making a good play. It wasn't anything that we just kind of sniffed out, or knew or anything, but when you go into a game like that and the game is close, teams are looking to try steal a possession some way if they can. They tried there and I've been on both ends of those, when you stop 'em, and I've been on the other end when you don't, when they make a good play. So it was good for our team.
On Daniel Whelan pinning the Lions deep multiple times:
Yeah, I think it was what, the 9, the 9 and the 2. It was a great play by Scooter (Robert Rochell) over there and I think he (Whelan) is getting better. We go back to the Atlanta game and we were on the 38 and he kicked a ball in the end zone, right, and everybody was upset about it and it was a learning experience. We're going to go through it with both (kickers). We talked about it. I think the calming force for us has been Matt (Matt Orzech), to some degree. He's played a lot of football, but they're both, we think, on the uptick and I just think they have to keep working.
On Anders Carlson's demeanor:
If we go back to when we first got him, one of the things we liked the most about him is his mental makeup, his ability to move on after a good kick, his ability to move on after a bad kick, and that's where we're all looking for is growth, how these guys handle mental toughness. In our opinion, mental toughness is being the best regardless of the circumstance, so I think whatever you did before, you have to learn from it, adjust and then move forward and we think he's been pretty good at that. Hopefully it'll stay that way. He's our kicker. We talked about it at the beginning. We have a lot of confidence that he can keep improving. We have a lot of confidence that the battery can keep improving as time goes on and let's see if we can play -- they always remember December in the National Football League, so we'll see what it looks like here for the next month and a half or so.
Defensive coordinator Joe Barry
On preparing for Patrick Mahomes:
I think what makes Patrick so good, other than he's got insane arm talent – he's seen (everything), he's played a ton of football, you're not going to fool him – it's the things that he can do when everything breaks down. It's hard to create that on a practice field. You try. We try to create scramble opportunities when our guys don't know when it's happening. But it's hard.
On defending Travis Kelce:
I don't want to say it's easier to double or take away someone on the outside, it's just a little bit different the closer you get to the core. You can work through all those things but it's really amazing to watch just the connection that those two have. I'm talking about 87 and 15. It's really is amazing how in sync they are and it doesn't matter if they're playing zone coverage, if they're trying to play man on Kelce or if they even had doubles on him, it's amazing the connection the two of those guys have. It's frustrating to watch, there's no doubt.
On Jaire Alexander's possible return:
You're talking about a guy that is highly competitive and arguably the best at his craft at his position. He wants to be out there. It's been great. He's had two pretty good days, yesterday and today. We want him out there and he wants to be out there.
On Jonathan Owens:
When you actually have logged game experience, it's crucial. Jonathan, he's been a stud the whole time since he's been here. Just one of those guys, just embracing whatever his role is. When he truly was a starter in waiting, he did a great job on special teams for us and then every position that we've asked him to play or every role that we've asked him to do, he's done it full speed.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On Zach Tom and whether his future is at RT:
He's a steady guy. I'm sure if you ever talk to him, you're not going to get many words out of him. He's a pretty even-keeled dude but he loves football. He goes out on the field, he straps his helmet on, and you can tell that he loves being out there. He's a physical guy. It's fun to coach him and fun to watch him play. He's doing a great job.
You look at what he's doing at right tackle and it's hard to say it's not. He's performing out there. It's very hard to find tackles that are productive. Anywhere. I think he's one of those special guys that you could put him anywhere and he would be a good player. Right now, I'm just going to worry about him playing right tackle and we'll worry about that in the future.
On how much control QB Jordan Love has with the line calls in protection:
Yeah, it's his butt on the line out there, so he's got to be the one to make sure everything's what he wants. You can tell him from an offensive line coach perspective, here are the different adjustments that the quarterback can make. It's not just one, but there's multiple, so we have to be ready for all of these and this is how we handle them to any look because it's all dependent on pass concept, down and distance, all of that where Jordan will say, 'Hey I want to do this just because I know I've got a short throw or we've got to protect longer because I want to go downtown.' Whatever it is, we just have to be ready up front for all the different adjustments that go into it.
On the receivers' adjustments vs. the blitz:
Get open fast. Yeah. Yeah. That's the biggest thing is you can't take your time back there trying to get open. It's get open quick because those guys are coming after the quarterback and we've got to get the ball out for sure.
On the LT rotation:
I think it's working right now, but yeah, you definitely want someone to grab hold of that starting position and be the guy, for sure. I will say both of them are doing a good job, so it's just one of those competition things that we're just going to keep working on and move forward with it and then just see how it goes game by game.
On making the players understand there will still be more growing pains:
You always talk about with the guys whether times are good or times are bad, you just have to stay even-keeled, you have to be honest about what's happening out there. You just talk about trusting the process, evaluating the film, talking about corrections, correcting errors no matter if you win or lose. It's great, obviously we've won the last two games, but we've got the Chiefs coming into town on Sunday Night Football, defending Super Bowl champs. You can't really look back. You always have to look forward and whether we would've lost the last game or won the last game doesn't matter.
