GREEN BAY – The Packers' coordinators met with the media Thursday. Here's a sampling of their key comments.
Special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia
On reviewing film over the bye week:
We did. Obviously it's a good time to reflect and look back at every single play, every penalty, put them in a category – where did they fit? Why did they happen? Who committed them? How can we rectify that? And then some of the personnel things, where we're playing people and where we're going to play them going forward. I think was good for us to have that time. Very little schematically that would be adjusted, but it gave us a chance again to look back and see what we have done well. I think we've covered pretty well and we've done a good job in coverage – both punt and kickoff.
On the Bears allowing some long returns:
We'll see, they've given up a little bit more at home than they have on the road, but they've done some really good things. They've had a big kickoff return, a big punt return a week ago. They've blocked a punt. They've got some things to keep us awake at night as well.
They're aggressive. They're physical. They run well. They've made some plays. They've given up some plays. Kind of a lot like us or everybody else in the league. I think we're expecting a fast, physical matchup from this group. It's always been that way in the three years I've been here. When the Packers play the Bears, it's kind of a donnybrook to the end, you know?
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley
On what he sees from DL Arron Mosby and Brenton Cox Jr.:
Speed, athleticism. I think they're two really good young players that have showed up in practice. If our offense is having a tough time blocking certain guys or you get a guy who's all of a sudden making a ton of plays on the ball, you start really watching him and watching him, and both of those guys really started to jump out. There's a string of two practices where Cox, I just thought, he looked like he was ready to go. It's really cool to see when guys earn their opportunity and I think he's a really good example of that. And I am really, really excited for him along with Mosby. Mosby, obviously, got the playing time a little bit against Detroit, so we were trying to get him going and now he'll have a bigger role.
On what might change with the Bears' offense with a new coordinator:
I could sit here and speculate what they're going to do just like you. Do they run more quick game? Do they run more screens? Do they just check the ball down? I mean, I don't know. We've got to go out and play our defense and react and be aggressive. We've got to adjust right from the first series to the last, we've got to coach. But to be honest with you, every game's like that.
On S Xavier McKinney behind the scenes:
Really competitive. Just his study habits. So last night I get a text from him (at) probably 6:30 that says, 'Hey are you done with the third plan yet, can you send it to me?' And you send it to him, and then this morning he comes in before anybody else and he wants to sit down and meet, and he wants me to go over it with him. And then he goes over it with (coach Downard) and the DBs, and he does it in the walk-through and he does it on the field, because he wants to get it right, right away, and he gets angry when he doesn't, because that's what the great ones do. And he holds himself to such a high standard where he doesn't want to make mistakes, and it shows. That's what your really good players (believe), every play matters, just like it does to us. He's always wanting to be on top of his stuff. The details, the execution, the competitor. That's who he is.
On this week's practices:
They've gotten after it these last two days. I mean, they really have. It was physical yesterday. Today was really competitive. Our guys know how good they can be and they see we're getting better, and they're excited about that. There's a different energy that they came back with from the bye week, which is very encouraging, and it's a lot of fun to coach these guys.
Offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich
On the value of more competitive practice periods instead of scout-team reps:
It just gives fast looks. You never know what coverage you're going to get. It's kind of like a game where it's an unscouted look and you just have to react and play the play. It's really valuable for everybody. Sometimes when you're in carded periods or scouted periods you don't get as good of looks, so any time you can go against the defense and get fast looks, I think it's beneficial.
On improving in the red zone:
For us, I think it's just staying out of negative plays. You look at the drives where we don't have penalties or just negative plays in general and we're excellent in the red zone. If we do have negative plays, we've got to make sure we overcome those and that's been our Achilles heel this year as far as scoring, is having those negatives plays down there. They gets us behind the sticks and really forces us into field goal opportunities.
On WR Dontayvion Wicks and working through drops:
He's got some really good hands. For sure. You kind of go back and are like, 'All right, what's your weekly process with how you warm up, how you train your hands, what are you doing?' And you've just got to make tweaks, and we've done that. Hopefully we see the results from that moving forward. But I have a ton of confidence in Tay and I know whatever issues we have with the catching, we'll get those resolved and I'm excited about that.
