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BB: [DeAndre] Levy is really their – he's a really productive guy for them. There's a little bit of a rotation with the other guys, but Levy is on the field pretty much every play. Fast, very instinctive. He does a great job of taking advantage of the penetration that their defensive line gets and fits on the ball well. He makes a lot of plays in the running game. He does an excellent job in pursuit. Plays to the perimeter, he can go sideline to sideline. He's got really good speed and range; very instinctive player. He does a great job of taking advantage of those plays. [Tahir] Whitehead is a solid guy. He shows up in the kicking game as well. You can see how well he runs. He's a hard guy to block, too, with his speed and his range. Levy is really impressive. |
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BB: A little bit of both. It looked like a good catch, but it was a really close play. And that’s what they said up in the booth, he’s probably in, but it’s really close. At that point it didn’t look like we’d be the one to stop the clock a lot in the rest of the game. It did slow things down a little bit, gave us a chance to talk about our red area defense. Obviously when (Dwayne) Allen went out of the game, then all of the matchups and everything that we had gone into the game with changed a little bit. So (Jack) Doyle and (Coby) Fleener and not Allen, so some of our things in our red area didn’t let us get a chance to get that right. We were not taking the time out there anyways. |
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BB: A lot of production. He’s on the field all the time. They don’t take him off. He’s around the ball a lot; really instinctive, does a real good job in the running game. He’s on the ball. His run keys are good, he’s got good speed, can make plays sideline-to-sideline, runs well, athletic player that’s smart, instinctive, very productive. He’s a good player. He does a good job for them. |
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BB: All the obvious things – schedule, field conditions, crowd noise on offense and when you handle the ball – punt team, field goal team, all those things. Those crowd noise situations are just in reverse when you play at home – field conditions and weather, schedule, routine – whatever. It's always a little bit easier when you're familiar with what the norm is. You're into a routine, the home routine. Going on the road, it's always a little bit different. Every team has the same number of home and away games in this league, so it all evens out. |
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BB: Back shoulder is tough because, especially with a guy like Nelson who has real good height and length and speed. As a defensive back, you never really want to let the receivers get on top of you and get behind you. At the same time, they're so good at that back shoulder throw that if you even start thinking about that and then Nelson runs by you, it's all over. I'd say it's a really tough play to defend because of the accuracy and timing with which Rodgers throws it and the length and ball skills of Nelson in particular. They all do it, as you mentioned, but Nelson is really, really good at it. Cobb is a tough matchup. He's usually inside in the slot. Good speed, good quickness, good playing strength, real good with the ball in his hands; he's an excellent ball after catch player, also a returner. Problems with him are his separation and ability to get open, but also then getting him on the ground after he has the ball because of his quickness and playing strength and elusiveness. And he's a smart player. He reads coverages and openings well and seems to have a very good rapport on the field with Rodgers. |
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BB: Believe it or not, we always try to avoid third-and-long. We never go into the game saying, ‘Let's see how many third-and-longs we can get into. Let's see how many of those we can convert.' We never try to do that. That's an emphasis point every week, just like turnovers. We always want to protect the ball; we always want to stay out of long-yardage. That's basic offensive football: don't give them the ball and move forward. |
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BB: Defensively, I think there's some carryover from previous years with Gunther Cunningham. But [Defensive Coordinator Teryl] Austin has come in and put his version of the Baltimore defense. He's obviously brought some things with him, certainly from a coverage standpoint. That's obvious, but there are some things that they do that I'd say have some carryover from what they've done previously when Gunther was the coordinator when Jim [Schwartz] was there, however you want to look at it. Offensively, they're still a combination of three receivers or two tight ends and two receivers, but that other tight end is kind of a receiver, too. There are a lot of elements of three real good pass catchers in the game, however you want to characterize the personnel, which is kind of what they were before. Obviously, with [Offensive Coordinator] Coach [Joe] Lombardi, they have a big element of the New Orleans attack and the vertical passing game, catch-and-run plays, Reggie Bush, the running back plays that are kind of trademarks of the New Orleans-type offense as well as Caldwell's, some of his stuff that we've seen from Indianapolis or even when he was in Baltimore. I think there's a little bit of a merger there. The kicking game, [Special Teams Coordinator John] Bonamego was there last year, so there's a lot of carryover from what they did in 2013 in the kicking game, but they're very aggressive there. [Jeremy] Ross has done a great job for them in the return game; he's a hard guy to handle. They're an aggressive team; they're a good coverage team. They have a good combination of speed and size out there on their coverage units. They're good in all three phases of the game. But I'd say Caldwell's certainly brought in his philosophy and some of the things that he wants. I'd say Austin from Baltimore and [Lombardi] from New Orleans have also had some influence on their respective sides of the ball. |
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BB: Earn what? He was on the practice squad. What are you talking about? He was in training camp and he was on the practice squad. So, how did he get off the practice squad? Is that that the question? |
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BB: Every game. You can go back to the Giants game, first game of the year. [He] scrambled out there, hit Johnson on a 60-yard touchdown. So, yeah, we've seen that before. He's very good. He's not the guy that's probably going to rush for 100 yards, but he certainly can keep plays alive, he scrambles on the third down in the red area and critical situations and he does a good job of avoiding the rush, sliding in the pocket, keeping his eyes downfield. He makes a lot of plays on extended plays after he gets a little more time, finds an open receiver. We're going to have to do a good job with obviously our pass rush, containing him, not letting him extend plays, but he adds another element to that, too. You have him covered and then he breaks loose and then they uncover and there's another big play. Yeah, it's all the above. |
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BB: Everybody is important. It's team defense. Everybody is important. The rush is important, the coverage is important, the guys in the deep part of the field – it's all important. |
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BB: Everything has some value, so in the end we'll just try to put it all together and figure out what's the best thing we have to do. I mean, if they did it in September or October, I'm sure they still have it. I doubt they eliminated some of those plays, especially the good ones. Yeah, we have to be ready for what they've shown and what they've done. I'm sure they'll have a couple new wrinkles for us that we won't have seen or prepared for, but that's the way it is every week. We'll do our normal preparation, but there isn't anything we want to leave behind here. If they've done it, we should know about it, we should be ready for it. |
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BB: Everything. He's a great player. He does a tremendous job, really at everything. He's got no weak points; makes every throw. [He] handles the team very well at the line: checks and adjustments, he certainly sees the defense well. [He] uses all his weapons, makes great throws from the short ones [to] intermediate, down the field, sidelines, back shoulders, deep routes and then he has a great ability to extend plays, either sliding in the pocket or at times scrambling outside the pocket. They've made a lot of plays this year on things like that where he either buys extra time or just flat-out gets away from the rush and lets the receivers uncover. He's a hard guy to tackle, hard guy to get and a very good thrower, very accurate thrower and has great vision. He's really good. |
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BB: Great at it. He's great at it. |
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BB: He [Rodgers] gets more than anybody and I'd say does more with it when he gets them. It's not the five yards; it's the 50 yards that he gets on the play, the free play. He's really good at it. We're going to have to be very disciplined and hopefully not get into that situation where we either get penalized or give them a free play. He does that in a lot of critical situations. He's very good at it. Again, as good as anybody that we'll play against. Not that we've played against him, but just watching him do it. He gets everybody. He gets them multiple times and he gets them in critical situations. Like I said, it's not the five yards – it is, but sometimes the big plays that come as a result of that. I've heard other teams talk about it and other players talk about it. We haven't experienced it, but we've certainly emphasized it and we know it's something – one of the many things that he does not well, but very well – probably better than anybody. Yeah, we've got to do a good job there. |
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BB: He is practice squad eligible. He is one of the exception players. Yeah, that would be a possibility. Again, there are other players that are in consideration based on our team and what other players are available. We've made a couple practice squad transactions – we've made them throughout the course of the year. Again, we'll try to manage it the best that we can. I'd say there are a lot of things that go into that. Part of it is what we have, part of it is guys who are available and part of it is what's available – I mean, what players are available. It's all part of it and it's probably going to be constantly in some type of transition throughout the course of the year like it usually is. |
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BB: He's a real athletic player; he can run. Obviously he has real good pass rush skills, so sometimes from that inside linebacker position he gets some opportunities against backs and a little different type of protection. But he plays hard, very aggressive, good speed, good athlete. |
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BB: He's good. Tate's a very good player. He's a good vertical player. He's fast and can get behind the defense. He's made a lot of big plays on catch-and-run plays with his good running skill. He's strong, he's a hard guy to bring down and he's fast. If he gets a little space, he can out-run guys, like in the New Orleans game. He took a 10-yard pass out in the flat and broke a couple tackles and went 75 yards. He's a very explosive guy, but he can beat you a lot of different ways. He can beat you on the catch-and-run plays, he runs good intermediate routes and he can take the top off the defense, too. He's a hard guy to defend. He's done a good job for them. |
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BB: He's got a good arm. I think he can pretty much get the ball where he needs to get it. I don't think that's a problem. He has good vision in the pocket, good feel in the pocket and then good vision downfield. When he's moving around in there, he gets his eyes downfield, finds open receivers. He does a good job. He knows where his people are, whether it's Bush or [Theo] Riddick or whoever on check-downs and those kind of things and getting the ball to them or finding Tate or Johnson or Ross or one of those guys down the field. |
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BB: He's hard to tackle. He's got good vision and he's hard to tackle; the guy breaks a lot of tackles. He's a strong runner, hard to get on the ground, whether they hand it to him or throw it to him. He had 120-some yards receiving against New Orleans, so it's the same issue when they hit him on check-downs or screen passes or plays like that. It's tackling. Those guys are all hard to tackle. Rodgers is hard to tackle, Lacy, [Jordy] Nelson, obviously [Randall] Cobb. They make a lot of plays on their own because it's hard to get them on the ground. |
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BB: He's obviously a very experienced guy. It looks like he's involved in a lot of the communication up front. It looks like [Mike] Adams is involved in a lot of the communication in the secondary and then they work together on different adjustments and calls and all that, because they do do a lot of things so there's some, I'd say, a decent amount of communication involved in getting all that coordinated. D'Qwell is a very instinctive player, he's around the ball a lot. He's got very good instincts in the passing game, I'd say better than most linebackers in terms of recognizing pattern combinations, having depth. Like the play he made against us last year, [with] Cleveland, he was like 20 yards deep when he intercepted that in-cut. You don't see that from a lot of linebackers. All those things are good in terms of coordinating, communicating, running the defense and being instinctive, being around the ball. He's a good player. |
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BB: He’s a really good player. He adds a lot to that defense because of his edge presence, to go with [Ndamukong] Suh and [Nick] Fairley. I know Fairley’s not in there now, but [C.J.] Mosley and those guys. He really balances it out. If you start to concentrate too much on the inside part of the defense, then you have edge problems. If you concentrate too much on the edge, it lightens the load inside. He really is a good complement and he’s a very disruptive player. He’s long, explosive, he’s got a good edge rush, but he’s also got power and inside pass rush ability. So, he’s a tough guy to handle. He does a good job. |
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BB: He’s really been productive. When [Stephen] Tulloch got hurt this year, he had a big role anyway, but it kind of thrust him into maybe a little bigger role. They’ve been in a lot of sub defense. He’s a key guy for them on that obviously. Yeah, he’s had production in the league. What’s this, his fourth year, fifth year [sixth year]? He’s had consistent production, but he’s had a lot of production. Obviously we’ve studied him a lot more this year than the last couple and he’s had a lot of production this year. |
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BB: How are we doing today? All shoveled out? Well, it's kind of been a long week, but the Colts are always a hard team to prepare for, so I'm glad we had the extra time. [We're] going to wrap things up today and head out there, be ready to go Sunday night. |
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BB: I don't know, but he does. Put him up there. |
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BB: I don't know. I think obviously when you're ahead and they're throwing at the end of the game, like they were last year, we've all been in that situation before. I'm sure that's not where they want to be or where we want to be or where any team wants to be. If we can put them in that situation again, that would be good for us. |
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BB: I don't know. We just try to do what we think we need to do to win, that's all. I don't know about any other team or league trends or anything. We're just trying to win a game. |
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BB: I don't know. We practiced once last week, we've been out here for four days this week. We're doing the best we can to get ready. Hopefully we'll be ready to go. |
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BB: I don't think he changes their scheme a lot. I don't think it's a situation where when he's there, like they have a whole bunch of different defenses and then when he's not there they have, you know. It's not that. They do what they do. He's a good player. He's very active. He's got great quickness and explosion. He's got good playing strength. He's a productive player for them and it's just another guy in the rotation. But they've gotten good production out of all those guys: [Jason] Jones, inside [Caraun] Reid, [C.J.] Mosley. They've used multiple guys in there. He would just be another good one. But, again, until any of those guys are definitely out then we have to be ready for them. |
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BB: I don’t know. |
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BB: I don’t know. I don’t think, we try to score every time we go out there. If we score first, great. There’s going to be a lot of possessions after that. There’s a lot of football left. That’s not enough to win a game or not win a game, but it certainly helps. You always want to try and score first and play from ahead. No question about that. We always try to do that. |
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BB: I don’t know. I mean, pretty much everybody in the league has been playing at this time of year, with some exceptions. But, yeah, I don’t know. We know the player; we have a history with him. I think that was the biggest part of it. |
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BB: I mean look, every team has good players, so wherever they are, they're there. You have to deal with them. |
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BB: I mean look, they're going to get the ball, we're going to get it. I don't think that's as important as what you do with it when they have or we have it or when it's being kicked. It's going to be the execution more than – if we have the wind, they're going to have it in the second quarter or vice-versa, whatever it is. I'm really more focused on what our execution level is and being able to put ourselves, from a coaching standpoint, strategically in a decent position so that we can be competitive and not be in some bad, bad play that that would just totally get out-schemed on. Hopefully we can do that – give the players a chance to play and play well. |
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BB: I mean, he's a big threat. He has 13 career blocked field goals, so that in itself is an issue. He's very athletic. He's long. He's got great timing, so kicking the ball is an issue and then blocking him with the same issues. He plays on the end of the line, he matches up against a lot of tight ends as well as tackles, so there are times when you don't always have an offensive lineman on him like when he played in a four-man line. In previous years, most of the time he was one of the four down linemen, so you almost always have a lineman on him. There are going to be situations where we're going to have tight ends on him. So again, he's a tough matchup. He's big. He's athletic. He's got good playing strength. He's obviously got a lot of experience, so it's a tough matchup for whoever is on him – whether it's the field goal team or a tackle or a tight end or whatever run or pass play you have called there. His length and his athleticism and his quickness – he's usually got something on somebody. If he's playing against bigger guys, he' got quickness. Playing against smaller guys he's got length and strength. It's hard to find a guy that's not somewhat at a disadvantage playing against him. Plus again he has a lot of experience. He's a smart player and he makes a lot of instinctive plays. I wouldn't say he guesses – I think he just recognizes and reacts quickly and kind of gets a half-a-step advantage and it's hard to make that up with a guy like him. |
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BB: I mean, I just told you what the decision is based on. That's what it's based on. Every player has value. Some players have more than others. We have to decide which ones we feel like have the most value for the team at that particular point in time or that point in the season. So that's what we'll do. I think the player definitely has value. I think there are a lot of players on our team that do have value. They can't all be on the team. We have to pick the ones that we think have the most value for the team for that point in time. And it changes over the course of the year, just like it does for every other team. |
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BB: I mean, it is what it is. Whatever hasn't happened hasn't happened. I'm not really worried about it. |
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BB: I mean, Matt's improved a lot, like any player would over that period of time. But we drafted him as a special teams player. I'd say it was a decent pick for a guy with what his skills are, kind of a little bit ahead of [Nate] Ebner, but similar to Ebner, that type of role. We made a decent investment in him. I think we thought he'd be pretty good. But he's everything and more you could ever have hoped for, I'll say that. His personality, his intelligence, his toughness, his character – both on and off the field – his leadership is all exemplary. You couldn't really find anything any better. |
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BB: I mean, yeah. He definitely made a good play on the ball and he hit the ball well. We obviously like to have a good, clean operation, but this is the National Football League and players at the positions, really at every position in this league, are highly skilled. We work on bad snaps every week. We work on those kinds of things. Sometimes as a punter, something that's a little bit off the norm, a high snap or a low snap or something like that sometimes helps you really focus and make it a really good play, a really good punt. Sometimes the timing can throw some players off, but also sometimes it's more of a quick signal that you've really got to do this right from now on because maybe the first part of the timing the play went off. Look, it was a good play. I'm not trying to take anything away. It was good ball handling, good punt, good field position play, but again that's just part of the whole complementary game. Without good defense behind it, the whole thing could get erased in a hurry. Defense needs to take advantage of those kind of field position situations, the offense needs to take advantage of the return opportunity like we had on the kickoff return. Those things are all tied in together. One good play can help lead to another, but if you don't follow it up with other good plays then it doesn't have as much significance. It was all good complementary football. It was certainly a good play by Ryan, but again, this is the National Football League. It's the kind of play these guys are all capable of making or they wouldn't be in this league. |
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BB: I think Aaron's a great quarterback. He does everything well: is very smart, does a great job with his team in situations and seeing things at the line of scrimmage, putting them in good plays and [a] very accurate passer, very good with his feet, hard to sack, hard guy to bring down, has real good awareness. I think pretty much everything with his game is excellent to outstanding. |
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BB: I think Alan’s definitely making progress. Just in terms of, he missed most of the – well he was in training camp, but then he missed a big part of the start of the season. In terms of his conditioning and recognizing block reactions and schemes and so forth, I think all those things have gotten better each day in the last few weeks that’s been here, three weeks, whatever’s it been. He’s a smart guy. He obviously has a lot of experience. I don’t think there’s really anything that we’re doing that he hasn’t done before. It’s just fitting it in with our communication and the guys he’s playing with up front and so forth. But I thought he gave us some good plays in the game and we had a little production from there both in the pass rush and in the running game. We’ll keep working on it going forward. The last two games had their own uniqueness to them with what the Broncos did and what Indianapolis did. As we see different teams, different opponents, our situation might change a little bit different. I don’t know. But if it does, that might open up different opportunities for him or somebody else. I’m not sure, but like I said, these two kind of had their own elements to them. |
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BB: I think basically we've tried to keep it about the same. Again, we have different levels of competitiveness in practice. There are some drills that are as competitive as we can make them. There are other drills that are competitive to a point. Obviously we don't want a defensive back blowing up a receiver to break up a pass and things like that. Then there are other drills that aren't that competitive. We're trying to provide a look and we're trying to not make it a physical type of competition, but you know, more of repetition, execution type of drill. Based on those various stages, we try to…I think the most important thing is that everybody is practicing at the same tempo. You don't have one guy playing at one level and another guy playing at another level. We're all playing at the same level, whatever that is. I think those are your most productive practices. We have drills like one-on-one pass rush or one-on-one coverage or drills like that that are as competitive as you make them. You're out there trying to beat the other guy; he's trying to beat you. Then there are other drills that are tempo a little bit below that. It's competitive to a certain point. Then there are other drills, like I said, that are really not intended to be competitive. They're intended more to be teaching and identification, recognition and execution rather than the competition part of it. Based on what we're doing, what the drill is, what day of the week it is, what point in the season it is, what point in training camp, it could be any combination of those. |
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BB: I think Dom is rooted in the Pittsburgh system, which is what he did at Carolina, which is also what he did at Houston, now at Green Bay. There's always some modifications and adjustments, but I'd say a lot of it is pretty much the same things we saw at Pittsburgh, just substitute players for guys that we saw in those other organizations. A lot of the defenses are the same. Of course they have their own style of doing things with their players. They have adapted some modifications to their personnel and so forth, as you would expect. Fundamentally it's a similar system to what Dom has used, I'd say, most of his career as a defensive coach or head coach. |
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BB: I think field position is part of it, but so is everything else: time, timeouts, how you match up in that situation. I think it's all part of it. I think there are a lot of factors in that, in what you call and what happens in the sequence of plays that you call. Each one is different. Obviously, there are some common threads, but I think each situation each week is different based on the matchups and based on whatever the specific situation is: time, timeouts, field position, playing conditions, etcetera. |
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BB: I think he's along – I mean look, it's a day-by-day process. There's no leap frog where you jump like four or five steps in the process. Each day, if it's based on what the medical department says, if he goes out there and does little bit more than he did the day before and if he feels good and there are no setbacks, then we bump it up to the next level. And if he doesn't, then we either stay the same or maybe we back it down for a day and then try it again. Look, that's just normal rehab for every player. The rehab is different, but the process is really the same. We just take it day by day by day by day. I know you guys don't want to hear that, but that's what it is. I'm not going to sit here and make something up. Each day, we go out there and the player does what he can do, we evaluate it, either step it up. If he can't, keep it the same if that's what's called for or back it down if we need to back it down. So we'll do the same thing with him that we do with every other player in that situation. Chandler's worked hard. He does what he can do. We evaluate him each day and make the decision for the next day based on what he did they previous day and what it looks like that morning when we come in and evaluate him. |
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BB: I think it starts there. Danny's got good ball skills. He's got quickness, acceleration, speed and he does a very good job with setting up his blockers. It's hard to block guys in the open field when there's so much space and distance that blockers have to try to sustain in the open field for an extended period of time. So a lot of that is done by the returner where he can help those defenders go to a certain spot and put them in a position so the blockers have good leverage and are able to make their blocks. Understanding the blocking scheme, understanding the return, but obviously ball handling and running skills and quickness, ability to break tackles, make guys miss, those are prerequisites that he certainly has. But I think his running vision, ability to set up blocks and understanding blocking schemes as they relate to the kicking game is very good. |
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BB: I think the most important thing for this team, players and coaches, is winning. We all have a job to do. That job and that role changes sometimes from week to week. It always changes from week to week, but sometimes it changes more than others. Our commitment is to winning, it's not to a bunch of stats and stuff like that, which I know is important to a lot of other people, but that's not really very high on my list. I don't think it's really high on the team's list. I think winning is more important to the team than all those other things that you brought up. Like I said, [it's] really important to you and some other people out there, but that's not really a big deal for us. [We're] just trying to win. We'll try to do our job, try to play better and coach better than our opponents and try to win every week. That's what we're trying to do. |
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BB: I thought LG ran good. Yeah, I thought he ran good. He had a good week; worked hard to get ready this week. I thought he did a good job for us. |
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BB: I thought our guys did a good job today, being ready to go. Any time you keep a team out of the end zone like Detroit, that's good. We were able to put some points on the board, make plays in all three phases of the game. The players played well; played very competitively throughout the game, made enough plays to win. I'm proud of the way we played. We have, obviously, a big week coming up. But it's good to get this one, good to get contributions from so many people, so many phases of our game. I thought our special teams really… again, we had a lot of penalties out there today, but made a lot of plays. We'll just keep trying to clean that part of it up. |
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BB: I would say it’s evolved a lot, yeah. The roster size, again, it’s all relative. You’re playing some of your starters on special teams. You have six linebackers on the roster, four running backs, four receivers – well that’s what they had too. Now, you have a lot more specialization. You have a lot of teams that have a core group of players in the kicking game – five, six guys that are pretty much on every team. Then you have your specialists and then you have maybe a couple other guys that may play on one or two teams depending on what the needs of that team are. Obviously you can play more smaller guys on punt return and kickoff coverage than on the punt team because you only have two guys split out there right. So, depending on which team you’re talking about, I think there’s one maybe two-phase players and then those four-phase players are usually four, five, six, seven guys on your roster, depending on how it’s comprised in addition to the specialists. Definitely the players on the smaller roster, they were true backup players. They were one play away from playing middle linebacker or tight end or running back or corner or whatever. Now, you see teams going into games with five safeties, five corners, five running backs. You know, heavier positions because there’s depth there in the kicking game for those guys. Then schematically I’d say it’s changed a lot, just in terms of punt formation. That’s changed, been a huge change. The kickoffs have changed because of the ability of the kickers and the rules, where now it’s a touchback game. So, that’s changed things a little bit. The same thing on the field goals, it’s hard to block field goals now because of the rules. Fifteen, 20 years ago, you have a lot of options. You could overload, you could load up certain spots in the protection. Now it’s hard to do that. You can’t hit the snapper, can’t jump, can’t push, can’t pull. Yeah, it’s changed. |
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BB: I wouldn't - I mean, maybe it has, I don't know. That's a question you probably should ask them. But I'd say, by having [Dwayne] Allen as part of it this year, and Moncrief, that's probably given them the ability to extend to more receivers, more tight ends. [Trent] Richardson and [Ahmad] Bradshaw give them two good backs, so they've had the opportunity to expand it in both directions to get bigger, to get faster, with depth in their backfield. They've used all those. |
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BB: I'd say Patrick's always been a pretty good coverage player. I think that's been one of his strengths. There were times when we actually used him as the nickel back, instead of a third corner. I know Pat works hard at that. He has a lot of different matchups. Sometimes he's on receivers, tight ends, different types of tight ends based on their skill set, sometimes backs, sometimes combination coverages – two-on-one, three-on-two, four-on-three, things like that. So, there are a lot of different elements to the position that he plays and the coverages that he's involved with. But I think he does a good job on that. I think it's really always been a strong part of his game. |
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BB: I'm not sure I really know the answer to all those questions. That's probably something they could talk about a lot better than I could. We don't play there very often so our experience in that stadium is obviously very limited. Yeah, no question, there's a great tradition there and their record is great there and so that transcends a lot of teams and a lot of players and a lot of opponents. I think the thing that we have to focus on is just really our matchup this week, is going in there this time of year with the potential elements and the conditions that we're going to have to play in against a very good football team and the way they play and how we can try to gain some advantages with our matchups and our execution, overall game plan. I think that's really more important to us at this point than Paul Hornung and Jerry Kramer and Don Hutson and all the other guys that have played there. Not to minimize what they've done, but [there's] nothing we can really do about any of that. We have to try to find a way to try to be competitive in their home stadium where they've played exceptionally well in recent weeks, just extraordinary. It's going to be a huge, huge challenge for us. |
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BB: It's been really impressive to watch the Lions this week. They're really a good football team, do a good job in all three phases of the game. They're good in the kicking game, really explosive on offense, they've got great skill players and I think they're statistical accomplishments on defense kind of speak for themselves. They're really at the top of the league in everything: points, yards, run defense, feeds over into time of possession, turnovers, red area, third down, pass defense, you name it. So, very dominant and disruptive there, so we're going to need to play a good complementary game all the way across the board. There's no real weak points; a lot of things we're going to have to deal with. It's a team we don't obviously know very well, so we're going to have to really work hard this week to get on top of them, get familiar with them. They present a lot of problems. They've been in a lot of close games, been in a lot of tough situations. I think they're a mentally tough, resilient team. They've show that. That will be a big challenge for us to match that toughness and competitiveness, too. It's a good football team coming in here. |
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BB: It's just, he's great. He's quick, he's big, he throws the ball very accurately, has great vision down the field. He finds guys that there's not a lot of space, but he finds them and he hits them. He's really good. I'm not taking anything away from anybody else, but this guy is a really good player. |
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BB: I’d say good. They’re pretty good at everything – their record reflects that. Defensively, a real experienced team, strong up front. A lot of experience in the secondary: [Rashean] Mathis and [James] Ihedigbo, Glover Quin, guys like that. They have experience at linebacker, too, with [DeAndre] Levy and [Ashlee] Palmer, [Tahir] Whitehead and a bunch of guys that play in there. [They’re] hard to block up front, very disruptive. A lot of good skill players on offense: quarterback, running backs, tight ends, receivers can score from anywhere; very explosive and solid in the kicking game; good return game. They’ve got the same guys that we talked about on defense that can run. They’ve played in a lot of close games, made a lot of critical plays at critical times to win in all different areas. They’ve been very good when they had to be, made the plays they have to make to win, they’ve won. |
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BB: I’d say that’s definitely been an evaluation that we’ve had of some players throughout the years. Yeah, absolutely. There are some guys, you get to a certain point and think, ‘This is probably, we’ll have to wait to next year or maybe sign him in the offseason as a future.’ You just don’t have enough time or practice. Based on what you’re able to do in practice at this time of year and how much there is. It’s not what we’re doing in training camp. It’s that plus another dozen weeks of volume of what we’ve done plus whatever team we’re playing, it’s their volume too. They didn’t stay the same either. All the different things that you see from your opponent, regardless of who the opponent is, it starts to exponentially ratchet up pretty fast. So, yeah, that definitely is a conversation that we’ve had, I would say, with multiple players. Depending on what point in time you’re talking about it and who the player is and how much experience they have and what you think you’d be asking them to do. |
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BB: I’m just saying you had more options. Back in the ‘70s, you had the jumpers, you had the Matt Blairs and the guys like that that would have five, six, seven blocks a year. That was eliminated. Now you can’t hit the center so the center is probably the weakest by far protector on any team’s field goal unit, but you’re not allowed to hit him. You can’t line up on him so that’s another opportunity you don’t have. You can’t overload so you can only put six guys to a side, so that’s another – you don’t have that extra guy to create that extra gap so you can’t do that. You can’t push anybody from behind. Is it easier? I’d say it’s a lot harder because you have a lot less options. And on top of that, the kickers are better. The surfaces are much, much better. You don’t have some of the bad fields where it was hard just to kick the ball period – the baseball stadiums and the infield that got sodded and all that. You’re not dealing with those kind of situations. Kicking off the dirt, you don’t see that anymore. The kickers have gotten better and the conditions have gotten much better and you’re kind of not allowed to do a lot of things that you would normally do to try to block a kick. So, yeah, it’s gotten harder. |
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BB: Julian is a tough kid. We knew that right from the beginning. He’s always been a very willing blocker. Technique and angles and really understanding where the running play is intended to go based on what happens on the play can definitely affect the blocking and certainly we get a lot of different looks from the defense relative to different run-force combinations and alignments and so forth. We have to all be on the same page on those to try to, A: get a hat on a hat, but, B: to get the most dangerous guy. I’d say that’s key part of the blocking for the receivers is getting a guy, of course that’s part of it, but it’s getting the most dangerous guy. Who in the overall blocking scheme is being accounted for? Sometimes we have a back or a puller assigned to a secondary player. Even though when the receiver looks in there and sees, ‘OK, here are the guys that are available,’ which guy is it actually that belongs to him and which guy belongs to the running back or the fullback or pulling lineman? That’s something that sounds a lot easier than what it really is. I would say that’s probably the biggest thing for Julian, just in terms of somebody who hasn’t played the position of learning all those – it’s not just going in there and blocking the guy and setting up a one-on-one drill. It’s getting the right guy when there are two or three of them there. I’d say that’s probably been the hardest adjustment for him in terms of experience. |
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BB: Just like what we saw at Notre Dame. He’s just a smart, hard-working kid. He’s got good power. He runs hard. His game is what we saw tonight. That’s what it was in college, and we talked to Coach Kelly and some of the other players at Notre Dame that we had on our team or that were familiar with Jonas and they all kind of said the same thing. That’s just what we saw. But he works hard every day. It’s not any one thing or one great epiphany. It’s just something that he comes to work every day, does his thing and gets better. Things he needs to work on, things the coach thinks he needs to improve on, splits his pickoff, his assignments in the passing game, his reads in the running game, and he’s gotten a lot better at those. |
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BB: Last week doesn't mean anything, so I don't really care about that. That has no impact on the game. What we have to do is figure out how to play against Detroit and it's hard. They're good at everything. They're good against the run, they're good against the pass, they turn the ball over. Like I said, they're good on third down, they're good in the red area, they create a lot of negative plays so whatever we do, we're going to have to do a good job of it and everybody is going to have to do a good job. You can't just pick out one guy or one thing – we're going to have to do a good job all the way across the board. They've played against a lot of good offenses. [They're the] best team in the league: points, yards, you name it. However you want to look at it, they do a good job; no big plays or fewer big plays than any other team has given up this season in the league. They're doing a lot of things well. |
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BB: Look, everybody here earns their spot. That's what it is. Everybody gets an opportunity to compete and the guys that earn it, earn it; the guys that don't lose out to somebody who has earned it. There's no magic to it. |
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BB: Look, I'm happy when any of our players and all of our players play good. That's what they're all here for. They're all here to work hard, to get better, to help the team and to perform well when they get an opportunity. That's all 46 players that are active, all 53 players on the roster, all players that are on the practice squad. That's what we're here [for]. We're here to help everybody. We're here to help everybody perform at their best. They're here to work hard and do their best. It's great when that happens. We feel good about that for everybody, whoever the person is. They all deserve it. That's what we're here for. |
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BB: Looking at the Packers, obviously a real good football team. I think it starts at the top. Coach [Mike] McCarthy has done a great job with that program; certainly has them playing well this year. [They] have a good staff there with Coach [Dom] Capers, Coach [Tom] Clements, Coach [Shawn] Slocum – all three phases of the game. [They're] playing very well; they have a lot of good players. They have a good scheme; play hard, play smart, don't give you much, you really have to work for everything you [get]. [We're] going to have to have a great week of preparation, we're going to have to really do a lot of things well because they challenge you in every area. Looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity, but they're good. Coach McCarthy does a real good job and [I] have a lot of respect for him and the way they do things there; how well they do them. |
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BB: Matt does a lot of things for us. Obviously, he's a really good player on the field; very professional, works hard, does a great job with all the players – younger players, but also his peers. He's very well respected in the locker room, not just by the players, but I'd say by the entire organization, just by the way he goes about his job, how committed he is to the team, how dependable he is, his work ethic, his attitude, his toughness. He's really pretty much a model player. I'd love to have 53 guys like him. |
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BB: No, I think they're a little different. |
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BB: No, it's not the first time he's done it. You know, we're in a lot of multiple looks on defense and I'm sure we need to work on all of them. We changed it up a little bit and had some production and some of those different looks, but there's still a lot of things we need to work on. |
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BB: No. |
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BB: Not like him. Yeah, not like him. |
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BB: Not to get ahead of ourselves here, but in all honesty we've been putting a lot of time in study and concentration into Detroit. We're kind of finishing that up today, so, obviously, we saw them move Matthews inside last week, but I wouldn't say we're really into the depth of study that we will be in the next couple days on the Packers. I would say the majority of my focus and knowledge really at this point is the Detroit Lions and what we just got through with a week of preparation for them. [I'll] probably handle those questions for you a little bit better in a day or two. |
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BB: Practice is just preparation. It's a necessary part of getting ready for the game. It's part of preparation. It's not punishment. It's preparation. Whatever you can do to get your team prepared, whatever a player can do to prepare to play, you know. Now full speed contact on every single play, every day of the week, at some point it is diminishing returns. It's counterproductive. I don't think anybody is in favor of that. But it's preparation, so you do the best you can as a coach to prepare your team. You do the best you can as a player to prepare yourself or prepare your teammates if you're working with them and you're giving them a look at what they're doing. You're the scout team, then you're helping them prepare, just like they help you prepare. That's the way I see all of that. It's not about - it's about preparation. That's what practice is. |
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BB: Probably helps the overall communication and operation there. If you've played center and then you go play guard, you definitely know what the center is doing, maybe a little more so than if you're only a guard and you've never played center or you haven't played center very much and you don't quite have the understanding of that position from having not played it as extensively as Dan [Connolly] and Wendy [Ryan Wendell] have. I think there's something to be said for that. You definitely have to have at least two guys going into the game that can snap the ball. You can't go in with only one guy that can handle the snapping part of it, forget about the blocking, but the actual snapping part of it. You have to take two guys to the game for that, which is what we normally have done. In this case and this year, having three guys there gives you a little more depth at that position, which is never something to be underestimated because there's nothing more important than the ball handling and moving the ball from one person to another, the center and the quarterback and the quarterback and whoever he ends up giving it to. Yeah, I think there's definitely some benefit in terms of communication and experience and understanding and so forth in those positions when you have three guys like that. I'd say the flip side to that is less experience working with the tackles on stunts and tackle-guard combination blocks, which are a lot of double team blocks or reach blocks and things like that. Like usual, when you do something like that, you can maybe help yourself in one area, but then there's a little bit of a gap going in the other direction. I'd say that's the long and short of it. |
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BB: Revis is really good at his focus, concentration, technique, playing the ball, with his back to the ball or his back not to the ball. He has a real good sense of timing and does a good job of keeping his hands off the receivers even though he's really very close to them. When he's making a play on the ball, he does a good job of not getting very many penalties because he's good with that off-hand and doesn't use it to grab or pull or tug on the receiver. He's very disciplined, he's very focused, he has great concentration. |
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BB: Right, but we're playing Green Bay in Green Bay. That's where they've been very dominant really in terms of getting ahead and playing from ahead, first quarter. The numbers are staggering: 128 to 9 in the first half and [opponents] get outscored by 110 points in four games. It's got to be of historical type proportions, but we have to find some way to do that. Like I said, the games got so far away from Chicago and Philadelphia that no matter what you have, what kind of game plan, whatever you're trying to do, the game got out of hand so fast, they had no chance really to be able to do it. |
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BB: Right. Well, the explanation was that it was still the impetus. I understand what you’re saying. I asked the same question, but the explanation was that the impetus of the kick was still eventually what drove the ball into the end zone. |
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BB: Rob's a tough Croatian, tough Croatian kid. He's strong; he's really strong for his size, been durable. He's athletic, play on his feet, runs well. He's able to definitely take care of himself out there and play in a lot of different situations. He's strong enough to play against bigger people and athletic enough to play in some space and coverage situations, whatever the requirements are. There are a lot of things that he can do. We were a little light at end yesterday without [Dominique] Easley. I don't know how much that would have affected Rob's playing time yesterday, but we were definitely light at the position going in there. Rob gives us a consistent level of play and gives us a lot of toughness and a lot of versatility. I don't think anybody is looking to take him off the field. |
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BB: Sorry, running a little late this morning. Alright, how are we doing? |
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BB: Sure was, [yes]. Sure was. Big field position play, yup. Yeah, I thought we had good coverage today. We had good kicking. Yup, he did a good job. |
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BB: That was a good win for our team today. I was really proud of our offensive line and the running game. I thought those guys did a really good job at controlling the line of scrimmage and really helped the game get under control, but overall a good solid team effort. Two weeks gave us a little more time to prepare for this one as well as the Colts did. I thought our guys really worked hard in their preparation and really came out here and we limited a couple of mistakes that we made, when we did make those, I felt that we did a really good job at trying to play the game the way that we wanted to play it, so hats off to the offensive line and the tight ends, (James) Develin, Jonas (Gray), those guys blocked well, ran well. Rob (Gronkowski) had a great run there, Julian (Edelman) had a great block and we did a good job at our run defense, those guys up front, the defensive linebackers did a nice job too making it more of a dimensional game. A lot of things the Colts are able to do here this year, fortunately they weren’t able to do them tonight so what our guys did, players played hard and I think they deserved the win. |
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BB: That whole group has kind of been in flux a little bit, but [he has] good receiving skills, big target, runs well, excellent in the passing game. [Joseph] Fauria is another dangerous guy there, [Brandon] Pettigrew really can do it all, play all the spots. They use him more as the ‘Y', a little bit more as the blocker with those other guys, but he's very capable, too. They have great talent at tight end, receiver, running back and quarterback. All the skill positions, offensively, are good and they have good depth. |
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BB: That will be up to him. Just like everybody else. When he gets an opportunity, how much he can take advantage of it, how much he can be productive, what he can do with those opportunities will determine how many more there are and how [big] it becomes. It’s totally up to him. He knows that. We’ve talked about that. He knows that’s the way it is and I think he’s excited about it. |
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BB: That's a real interesting question. Linsley is a guy that we were all over too at Ohio State. Obviously after we took Stork there in the fourth round, we weren't really planning on coming right back and taking another guy at the same position, but he was a guy that we spent a lot of time on and had a lot of interest in too. He's done a good job for the Packers; started all year and playing behind two very experienced players at guard, similar to Bryan's situation here. There is a lot to that position, especially the learning curve and being a rookie. It's on a lot of levels, starting with things like the cadence. A guy like Aaron Rodgers or Tom [Brady] that use a lot of different cadences to try to draw the defense offside or to try to get some type of an indication of what the defense is going to be in, all the different no-huddle communication that makes everything happen just so much quicker. It's one thing to have 40 seconds to hear the play and think about your assignment and go out there and do it. It's another thing to cut those times in half or maybe even a third where you still have the same job to do, you just don't have that much experience of hearing and doing all those things. The communication, the snap counts, the decision-making on the fronts and how to treat different personnel groupings that we see on defense – nickel, dime and multiple defensive end packages and guys that are standing up and guys that are down and so forth and so on – those are all decisions that really run through the center and the quarterback and then are communicated to the rest of the line. Yeah, it's a tremendous amount of responsibility. It's a lot of preparation time and then a lot of recognition and decision-making that happens very quickly on the field, especially when they start stemming fronts or walking guys up in and out of the line of scrimmage. Things like that really spins the wheel a lot faster. Like I said, that's all just in addition to basic plays or snap counts. Snap count with the center is so, so critical to the quarterback and the timing of it, the security that the quarterback has of the ball being in his hands in a certain rhythm and tempo, whether that's in the shotgun or under center. Yup, there's a lot, there's a lot going on there. |
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BB: That's an interesting comment because the only team I've ever seen practice is us. I don't know how other teams - we've worked against Philadelphia and Washington. That's preseason. But like on a daily basis, I really couldn't tell you how any other team in the league practices. It would all come from something like that, another player or possibly coach - we have a couple coaches on our staff that have been with different organizations in recent years. [They] might comment on how another team practices or does a certain thing in a drill or whatever it is relative to the way we do it. That's really kind of the perspective that you need because I would have no idea how any other team practices. For a player or a coach who has actually been in those to say, ‘Well, it's like this here and it's like this there,' then that's a valid comment from them. I really couldn't make that because I haven't seen it. |
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BB: That's the obvious, yeah. If you have to score - to get in position to kick a field goal or score a touchdown to win or tie the game, then that's a totally different situation than at the half when if you don't score at the end of the half, you haven't lost the game. Like, do you want to score? Yeah, sure. You want to score every time you have the ball. That's why you put the offense out there. If you don't want to score, you just send the punt team out there. But that's, we're always trying to score. But it's just different at the end of the half. You try to take what you can get and not put yourself at more risk than you have to. At the end of the game, you have to do whatever you have to do to move the ball and get in position to win the game. So, you have to take chances. You have to do things you may not want to do in order to have an opportunity to make plays you need to make then you're willing to do that. That's dictated by the situation. |
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BB: That’s definitely a part of it. It’s part of the job. A big part of the job is getting open and catching the ball at that position, too, so you don’t want to overstate it, but I do think it’s important. Those guys do a good job of it and it helps our team win. So, it is critical in the big picture, but at the same time, they’ve got to be able to do their job as receivers first and get open and catch the ball. I couldn’t put it ahead of those qualities, but it’s still an important quality to have. As I said, it helps our football team. The better we run the ball, the more it opens up the passing game. I think everybody understands that. They try to do their part in it to make that successful. |
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BB: That’s extensive. It depends on a lot of things. Really, it depends on the type of punt you’re talking about. There are some punts where the balls have a tendency to bounce forward, which you definitely want to let those go more than catch them. There are other punts that have a backspin on them, the end over end kicks that are designed to not bounce into the end zone. You can let those go all you want, but the chances of them bouncing into the end zone probably aren’t real high if that’s the type of kick. The hang-time on the ball, where the coverage is, if the coverage has already gone behind you and you’re standing there on the eight, nine-yard line and you’re just going to let it go and you’ve already got a couple guys standing behind you on the goal line, then that could put your team in a worse situation. Instead of having the ball on the eight or nine, now you have it on the two. It’s all those things. The most important thing at the end of the play on a punt return is that we have the ball. That is above and beyond all else. It means not committing a penalty that would turn the ball over like an offside or some roughing the kicker or the type of play that would give them the ball back. That’s number one. Ball security by the returner, making good judgment and handling the ball cleanly so there’s no question that we’re going to end up with it at the end of the play. That would be No. 1 and 1A. Then creating the best possible field position we can. That’s the returner’s judgment on handling those balls relative to, again, the type of kick, hang-time, field conditions, score and situation. Yeah, you have to factor all those in there. Again, that’s what those guys are getting paid for. That’s why they’re back there doing and [why] they’re called specialists. That’s one of their primary jobs. You have to factor all that in and as the ball is coming down, they have a second or two to figure all those things out, whether they’re going to try to draw the coverage and let it go in the end zone, whether they’re going to try to catch it, whether they’re going to fair catch it, whether they can handle that thing cleanly. It could be a risky catch and again it’s something we don’t want. Then they have to execute it with guys standing around them and dealing with the wind or the lights or whatever the conditions are. But they have to make those judgments. That’s the job. It’s not easy. |
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BB: The impetus of the kick is what put it into the end zone. |
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BB: They both wear No. 12. |
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BB: They've been consistent. They've won a lot of games. They've done a good job in all three phases of the game: made a lot of plays in the kicking game, they've made plays on offense, made plays on defense. They're a well-rounded, well balanced team. They have a lot of different…very explosive team in terms of turning the ball over or making plays in the kicking game or obviously scoring offensively from pretty much anywhere on the field. So, you really can't afford to relax at any time. The surprise onside kicks, the fakes, the explosive offensive plays, the pressures on defense. If you just let your guard down, they can hit you. They can hit home in a hurry. You have to [be] alert, have to be ready for 60 minutes of good football in all three phases of the game. |
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BB: They've obviously done a real good job on third down. They give you a lot of different looks. They mix in their coverages, they mix in the pressures. They've done a good job of creating some good matchups and they've gotten pressure and they've covered well. In the end, it's execution. |
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BB: We did what we feel like was best for the football team. I don't disagree with anything you said. I think he has had production but in the end we're going to do what we think is best for the team. |
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BB: We do what we think is best. That's what we did today. |
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BB: We kind of got into a little bit of that situation in the Pittsburgh [game], in the AFC Championship Game in ’04. Where we had the big storm come in here and it was headed for Pittsburgh so we left a day early. We kind of scrambled on that. So, it was like Thursday and we were like, ‘OK fellas, this storm is coming, we have to get out of here.’ We were going to leave on Saturday, or whatever, I forget, maybe it was a Saturday game. I can’t remember the exact schedule, but I remember we very quickly pulled that together like, ‘We have to get up there or we might be trapped here and have to bus and all that to the game.’ So, we just jumped up there, got up there early, spent an extra night in a lovely Pittsburgh hotel. There was a lot of snow. It was ’04 I think – yeah, you guys remember – I’m sure it screwed up your schedule too. Look, whatever it is, we all know there’s nothing more important than the safety of the fans and the whole situation. So, whatever needs to be done, needs to be done. Both teams have to adjust to a degree. That’s one that I remember really where it changed our travel plans, like within a day. We went from going one day to moving it up and going a day early. |
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BB: We really looked at everything. We try to look at everything in that period of time. The offense, the defense, special teams, running game, passing game, all the situations. We tried to look over everything and make it better. We got rid of some things that weren’t as productive as we thought they would have been when we put them in and moved on to emphasize some things that we thought we feel were better for us and will be better for us in this game, hopefully in the second half of the season and see how it goes. Once again, I think the coaches did a good job and the players, during that Wednesday practice and Tuesday meeting really embraced what it’s like to play us and what we do well and what we don’t do well, what we need to do better for a team to play us and hopefully improved on some of those things. |
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BB: We've seen him covered a lot of different ways. They move him around; he's not always in the same place so you have to be cognizant of that. It's not like you can just call a defense and be sure where he's going to be. He's obviously, like a lot of good receivers, he's dealt with double coverage. Just because you have some combination of two guys on him doesn't mean that he's not a problem because he knows there are two guys and he can figure out how to just attack one guy and beat him. He does a good job of that, too. |
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BB: Well it’s working and you can’t keep working those runs when you’re only getting a yard so if you’re handing the ball off and making yards then we will keep calling them. If you’re not, same thing throwing the ball and you’re hitting them and gaining yards then you keep throwing it, but we aren’t just going to run it, just to run it and gain nothing. We had a lot of good plays today; I thought Cam did a good job, (Michael) Hoomanawanui, Cam, and Rob (Gronkowski) played tight end on the edge along with those inside guys, (Nate) Solder and (Dan) Connolly, (Ryan) Wendell, Sebastian (Vollmer), those guys did a good job. James Develin did a great job at a lot of those lead blocks with power plays and some of those edge plays. It’s a good team effort and you have to block them all. It’s not only one guy so it was good execution from our entire team and the coaching staff did a great job at putting a good plan together, plays complemented each other and we were able to keep them off balance. |
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BB: Well, I don't know. That's probably a better question to ask the play callers at Green Bay. It's hard to tell when you see a play on tape if the offense is changing the play or whether they're staying with the play that they called but they're making an adjustment to it somehow, a protection adjustment or maybe a route adjustment. There are some plays that are called in the 'check with me' family. They're probably obvious either-or plays. Depending on a defensive look, it's either this or that. So those plays could be checked if the look dictates it. If the look doesn't, then you let them go. Again, that's part of the quarterback's responsibility, but when you're seeing it from the other side, you don't know whether it's a play that could have been checked or whether that's something they just had called or like I said, plays that are called that are run anyway but just if you have, as I was just talking about in the whole center position, you could have three, four, five different looks on defense. You're still running the same play, but as a team offensively, you need to be on the same page as to what you're doing and how you're handling your protection or your assignments and making sure you have everything handled properly based on what you're seeing. Sometimes those aren't really checks, they're just part of the communication of getting the play right. Like I said, when you're calling your own plays, you know what's what. When somebody else is, when you're watching somebody else call plays, it's hard to tell what exactly is going on. It could be a number of things. But in any case, he certainly has a lot of command at the line of scrimmage. The bottom line is, they run a lot of good plays so he's getting them into the right thing or getting them out of a bad play and making the proper adjustments that I'm sure they want him to make because you can see from the execution of the plays how efficient everything is. That's all part of it. |
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BB: Well, I mean, first of all, they use all the personnel groups. They use a lot of three tight ends, one receiver, two receivers, three receivers. Last week against the Giants they used some four receivers. So, you have to be ready for the whole gamut of, like I said, three tight ends, which sometimes that plays like two backs and two tight ends, sometimes it plays like…they can spread out, they can keep them in tight and then they have all the personnel groups in between up to the four receivers last week where they started both [Donte] Moncrief, [Hakeem] Nicks, [Reggie] Wayne and [T.Y.] Hilton. Plus, their backs are good receivers. It's really, you have all those personnel groups; you have a lot of different formations and then their plays. They have a good amount of volume, a lot of things you have to prepare for. You're not just preparing for a team that just lines up in one personnel group and does a lot of things out of that. It gets you all the way across the board with the different people, the different formations and plays that complement each other that show you one thing and you're thinking about that and then they have a complementary play that goes with it out of those same groups and same looks. They just shuffle them around the next week and the next week so after four or five games, you have a big volume of stuff that they've shown. You don't get all that in one game, but we're five, six, seven weeks, however far you go back, then it just keeps expanding. |
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BB: Well, I think I'd go back to Coach [Bobby] Knight's comment of, 'Winning favors the team that makes the fewest mistakes.' I'd start with that. I'd rather play well and make fewer mistakes and play anywhere than not play well and make a lot of mistakes, put it wherever you want to put it – at home, neutral field. I'll go with Coach Knight on that one. |
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BB: Well, I think that Rob has always been obviously a great player and does a lot of things well, but I think he has the determination when he has the ball in his hands that he’s going to have to make guys work harder at tackling. He’s not going to go down easy, he’s not going to go out of bounds and he’s going to make them put more on the ground. He’s taken a real aggressive attitude toward that and he’s been a hard guy to tackle. |
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BB: Well, I'd say that the Pittsburgh system, the [Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Dick] Lebeau system and the Capers, the way it challenges you is that they bring everybody. It's not one, this guy or that guy. You have to block the Sam, the Mike, the Will. You have to block the strong safety. You have to block corners eventually. Sometimes they bring one guy and drop a defensive lineman, so it's a seven-man coverage. But, I'd say most of the time they bring two guys and drop one, so it's a six-man coverage. So, three under, three deep or occasionally four under, two deep, which is also kind of matched. They do not always drop back and stand there in spots. They take certain guys who can actually play sort of like a man-to-man. But I'd say the challenge with them is you have a lot of different guys coming. It's hard to say it's him or it's them or it's them. You're going to get them all. You're going to get two up the middle or two strong or two weak. You're going to get secondary pressure from both sides and I think that when you come out of the game, you'll say, 'OK, they did this one a couple times, they did that one once, this one once, that one once, that on once and another one a couple times.' It's not like, 'OK, it's going to be these two guys coming all day.' That's not really what they do. It's a challenge. Every protection you have, every play you have, potentially, if you hit the wrong thing, you're going to be out-numbered. You could hit it right and have a favorable advantage but if you hit it wrong, then you kind of, it's a tough play against that call. So if you're trying to put together and 10, 12-play drive, they have good field position, you don't need too many of those plays, you know what I mean? You could give a couple little six-yard gains, but then you get a negative two and maybe that's enough to stop the drive. I think that's kind of the challenge of playing that type of a system is avoiding negative plays, avoiding long yardage. Even though you could get two or three first downs, if you get one of those bad plays in there, now they have you in second and long or third and long and then you're in trouble. So, I think that's kind of the overall philosophy. |
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BB: Well, I'm sure there's a lot of frustration there from Raiola. That's obvious. They've never beaten us. [He] had a tough day in there dealing with [Vince] Wilfork and [Dont'a] Hightower and those guys. I'd say that was probably frustration. We saw a lot of that at the end of the game: [Tahir] Whitehead on [LeGarrette] Blount's touchdown and [C.J.] Mosley on the personal foul on the field goal. |
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BB: Well, in the last couple weeks, I mean I don't think it's any big state secret – they've played him at inside linebacker with [A.J.] Hawk in their base defense and in their nickel defense. And then in passing situations or third down if you will, most of the time then he has gone to defensive end. There have been times, I know it was a couple weeks ago when he was out on third down – maybe it was because of his groin or whatever, I don't know. Then they've also at times, replaced Hawk with [Brad] Jones on some of their dime, again third-down defense. How much of that's game plan, how much of it's the injury, how much of it's managing the player… I'm not really sure. Maybe it's a combination of all those things, but he's basically played inside and then outside on third down passing situations, two-minute, stuff like that. But, I'm sure that they could put him back outside whenever they feel like it. If they want to play Jones and Hawk inside, they could play them. We have to be ready for all that. |
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BB: Well, Julius is an exceptional athlete. He's got rare, rare skills: size, athleticism, speed, ability to, I mean, he's really long, long player. His length as well as his athleticism and huge strengths of his, in addition to a lot of experience. He's seen everything, experienced it and I don't think there are too many things on the football field that would surprise him anymore. He does all those things. He can run and get around the edge, he's got power, he's got inside moves. They move all their players around a lot, so you get him in some different spots. He's a very, very disruptive guy. He's in pass rush a lot more than he's in coverage, but when he is in coverage you have to be aware of his length and the size that he presents. He's certainly a lot bigger than almost anybody else that you would see in coverage that a quarterback has to deal with. A lot of guys that a quarterback is throwing against are maybe in the six-foot range, or that type of thing. Occasionally you get a real big linebacker that you have to deal with, a 6-4, 6-5 guy, but when those guys come along, as a quarterback you've got to really pay attention to that and just recognize how much more space a player like that can take up than somebody who is four or five inches shorter with a lot shorter arms. Peppers presents a problem on all those things. |
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BB: Well, nobody is happier than I am when we win, but right now all that doesn't really mean anything going into Green Bay. [They're a] great football team, very well coached. I think Coach [Mike] McCarthy does as good a job as anybody we play against, anybody in this league. They have a great quarterback; they have a real good football team. This will be a huge challenge for us this week and [it's] not really on how relevant the last week or some week is to this game. This is just going to be all about us being able to prepare and play well in Green Bay against a great football team that's certainly great in that stadium. [They're] very well coached and they're always tough, but they're playing real good football right now. |
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BB: Well, obviously we had two turnovers in the first half and that’s not being productive at all there. Maybe have fewer penalties with fewer turnovers that had penalties on them. Punt returns, we had two turnovers. We need to do a better job of that. |
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BB: Well, the two-minute at the end of the half is a lot different than the two-minute at the end of the game. They're two really completely different situations. I know everybody talks about them like they're the same, but to me, they're not anything the same. You don't have to score at the end of the half. If you have to score at the end of the game to win the game, then that's a totally different situation. Therefore, I see it differently. |
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BB: Well, turnovers are huge. Not only do they not turn the ball over and get turnovers, but they're also the best in the league at converting turnovers into touchdowns. They're a very opportunistic team. They play good complementary football. They're an explosive team. They can get the ball away from you. They can pretty much score from anywhere and they're explosive in the kicking game. They have an excellent return game and [they're] solid on special teams. Those are all problems. Obviously, the whole getting ahead thing, you know, they've been so far ahead of some of these teams that they've played early in the game it's like they're almost running out the clock in the middle of the second quarter. We've got to try to find some way to stay competitive in the game to at least turn it into a game and not be trying to play from 28, 31 points behind in the first half. |
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BB: Well, we’re winding it down here. |
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BB: Well, when we do, you’ll be the first to know. We’ll whip it right over there to you and make sure there won’t be any delays in our announcements when anything in his situation, his status, changes. |
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BB: Well, yeah, I definitely put them up top, along with turnovers. You talk turnovers, third down and red area, those are big; big situations in the National Football League. They’re critical. We spend a lot of time on all situations, but particularly those. We try to do a good job in preparing our team for what in general to expect in those situations in the red area and third down based on the yardage, the personnel, sometimes the formation and then we obviously do it specifically for each team. If there’s particular, which there always are, but whatever the tendencies are. Again, all the things that go into it, whether it’s their protections, their coverages, their coverage adjustments and other subtle things that are part of all that. Yup, it’s something that we try to devote a lot of time to, starting right from the beginning. Right the start of, probably late in the second week in the offseason and then the second week of OTAs. We started on red area on the first day of training camp, so it’s a priority. |
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BB: Yeah absolutely, and he did that for us in preseason. He does it for us every day out there on the practice field and works hard. I thought he ran hard tonight, real hard. |
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BB: Yeah because he was productive in preseason. We talked about that long and hard. We really talked about bringing him up on the roster several weeks before. We did, even after the Buffalo game when he came up, but I had several conversations with him in previous weeks telling him, ‘You know that you’re close. We want to try and get you on the roster right now but we have a couple of other issues that we have to deal with.’ I think that we all felt as a coaching staff that he would be playing for us at some point this year at that final cut. Obviously we didn’t want to expose him, but we did what we felt was best. |
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BB: Yeah, absolutely. It's similar to last week. We've got to – you can't relax for a second. You just can't be out of position. Onside kicks, fake punts, fake field goals. They change up their kickoff coverage a lot, different looks on that. Teams have obviously had trouble with it. You have free guys running down there to the 15, 10-yard line unblocked because the return team can't get it blocked properly. You've got to be alert for those kind of plays, but at the same time, not let it take away from your aggressiveness in the kicking game. You just can't stand there and watch the game and hope nothing bad happens. You have to be aggressive and go make plays. But being alert for things like that that they do and they've shown throughout the course of the year. Yeah, it's definitely part of the preparation and part of the problem of playing them. |
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BB: Yeah, answered the field goal. We got good blocking. I thought Danny made a lot of yards on his own. It looked like he made a couple guys miss there around the 30-yard line or so and did a good job of waiting for the blockers, for Nate [Ebner] and I think there was another one there to catch up and get a couple extra blocks. That was a huge play obviously to answer their field goal. Then offensively we were able to finish it off. Yeah, that was a big, big play for us. |
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BB: Yeah, Christian really coming out of Colorado I thought was a little bit undersized, but a legitimate three-down tight end. Even though he was a little undersized, he had real good playing strength, he had good hand strength, he could lock on to guys. He didn’t get tossed around like some guys his size did. I thought he played bigger than maybe his weight size would indicate. He was a good receiving tight end. Not elite, but good. He was really an every-down player. When he was in his prime, he didn’t really have to come off the field. I don’t think you would have to take him off the field, you would do it situationally, but I don’t think you have to do it. His nephew really hasn’t had that kind of opportunity. They have [Brandon] Pettigrew and now they have [Eric] Ebron. They have a pretty good stable of tight ends there. He’s one of them. But they have pretty good depth at that position. Most of his opportunities have come more in the passing game. But I would say that just watching him on film, his blocking has improved. We played them last year in the preseason and he had a couple touchdowns against us. He killed us there. But I’d say he’s definitely improved as an overall player and I’d say his blocking has improved quite a bit from last year. |
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BB: Yeah, definitely. Didn't he miss like three or four games last year with an ankle [injury] in the middle of the year? I'd say overall, though, his play time is up. I think if he would have played the amount of time in those games that he missed, it would be closer than what it looks like between this year and last year, but yeah, he's out there a lot. [Cory] Redding is out there a lot. They rotate some of the other guys in the front, but those two guys are out there pretty much most of the time. He flip flops in their base defense and is usually on our left in passing situations, but not always, they move him around there, too. Sometimes he stands up. He's been in some different spots, but normally he's on the offensive left in their sub defense. But they're an over and under team, so he flips with the formation based on the offensive, where the tight end is and all that, so he could be on either side in regular. So a lot of different guys have to be ready for him. |
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BB: Yeah, he's done a good job for them. I think he and [Glover] Quin give them a good safety combination. Quin is kind of more in the free safety mold. Ihedigbo a little more in the strong safety mold. James is a very instinctive player. He's smart, he reads pass patterns well. He does a good job in the running game of fitting into the right spot. Obviously [he has] experience within the Baltimore system with Austin. We know he's a smart guy, so I'm sure he's a little bit of a quarterback back there in terms of adjustments and communication. Yeah, [he's a] smart, instinctive player in the passing game, guy who is a good run-force player; smart, smart football player; good size. He's done a good job for them. Both those safeties have played well. They use a lot of different combinations back there, too, but those two guys are usually on the field. Ihedigbo was hurt for three games or whatever it was, but once he came back, those two guys are usually out there. Sometimes they play three-safety packages. I'd say they move those guys around a little bit, too. |
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BB: Yeah, he's pretty dominant. He can do it all, and his effort, the plays he makes from behind in chase, like on screen plays and hustling downfield, backside plays, in addition to all his point of attack and pass rushes and disruptive plays. The guy gets double teamed, [but] he's still productive. He's really good. They move him around and make it a little bit difficult to know exactly where he's going to be. You have a pretty good idea, but they do enough other things with their front to give him opportunities to make plays and he takes advantage of them. He's really good. That's a very good front they have. He's the marquee guy, but they have a lot of good players on that front. They roll them all through, they all play, they rotate frequently and they're fresh and they're active; very disruptive. |
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BB: Yeah, he's really a hard guy to defend because of his size and his catching radius. He's always open, even when he's covered, there's always a place to put the ball where he can catch it. He's got a great skill set. Obviously, [he's] a great downfield receiver, big target on the intermediate routes and hard guy to tackle on the first level. He's got great production – tremendous, historical. Yeah, he's a big threat. |
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BB: Yeah, I don't know what Football Outsiders does. But, again, normally you're talking about a four-man rush; a five-man rush is an extra guy. So, I would say that's a form of pressure. Then six-man is, or sometimes five could be two linebackers and dropping a defensive lineman out so it's still five, but it's really two potential blitzers that aren't linemen. They do that. Then they bring six sometimes. Sometimes they bring seven and peel guys. If you release, they'll cover them. If you don't release, then they blitz. They have a lot of different combinations. I'd say the thing about the Colts is you see a lot of guys blitzing. You see the linebackers blitzing, you see the secondary players blitzing, the safeties or the nickel backs. They move it around with those guys. You can't just say it's going to this guy, because it's not. It can be sometimes one guy, sometimes it's two guys. Sometimes it's two guys with a defensive lineman dropping out. Those are all different forms of it. I would say yeah, they do a fair amount of it. I don't know about any other measurement, but in getting ready for them, yeah, they do a fair amount of it. You have to be ready for it and you have to be ready for a lot of different guys to come. It's not all the same guy. |
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BB: Yeah, I think the times when it is truly a competitive situation; yeah I think it's great. We saw that last year, the last year and a half with [Aqib] Talib, the same kind of thing. They're out there and you know as a quarterback that there probably aren't going to be a lot of big windows to throw on with Revis. You're going to have to make a really good throw. As a receiver, you're going to have to run a really good route. You're probably going to have to catch the ball away from your body or in a place that's a little bit more difficult because you may not be able to gain as much separation from him. I'm sure the defensive backs - Revis, [Brandon] Browner, [Patrick] Chung, [Devin] McCourty, whoever they are - know the quarterback's pretty accurate, being close isn't really good enough. You have to be right on top of the guy. You have to be able to defend the route 100 percent, not 90 percent. It's just not good enough. Like when Revis and [Rob] Gronkowski were able to work together early in camp. That was, again, kind of good for both guys to get that type of, again the competition kind of graduated up. But you know, still to be able to run routes on Revis, defend Gronkowski, just throw against - I think those are all good situations. Yeah, and I do think they get competitive. There's no question. When we say it's competitive, then it's competitive. They don't want to walk into the locker room and listen to the other guy, ‘Hey, I blew you up on those three or four plays.' They want to be saying that. It's definitely competitive. But I'm just saying, not every drill is set up that way. But yeah, the ones that are, yeah. Sometimes there's stuff riding on the final play, the final whatever, one-on-one play, the final pass rush play for the whole group. Whichever guy wins then there's some extra whatever involved. Then that increases the competitive level and not wanting to let your teammates down and bragging rights, if you will. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I think that's healthy. That's a part of it. |
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BB: Yeah, I thought they played competitively, I really did. I thought Brandon [Browner] had a big matchup on [Calvin] Johnson; [Darrelle] Revis on [Golden] Tate. Those guys really competed well, [Patrick] Chung on the tight ends, [Kyle] Arrington on both the third receivers there – [Corey] Fuller and [Jeremy] Ross. The backs, our linebackers were challenged by obviously [Theo] Riddick is a good back. Yeah, played good across the board. Devin [McCourty] did a real good job in the deep part of the field. I thought those guys played well. Again, any time you can keep a team like Detroit out of the end zone, you have to feel good about that. |
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BB: Yeah, I'd say all the above. It's a combination of all those. We go through that every week. I know what you're saying, it's probably highlighted a little bit based on that game and some of the comments that came out of that game. But we do the same thing every week. It's a combination of Dave [Schoenfeld] the equipment manager, looking at film, the coaches, the players and just all kind of getting on the same page. Certainly as a player, probably the equipment that's most important to him are his shoes because that's where his confidence comes from, his footing, being able to change directions and play. That's an important part of it, but there's also the experience level of coaches and equipment people and what's kind of the right thing to do there. So, that's all part of it. I think it can, not does, but it could vary from position to position, so what's right for one position or one player might not necessarily be right for another guy. I think that's always an important decision to make, for the player to feel comfortable in his footwear and his footing and that's every week. So you know, you'd be on the same field, the conditions could change, whether it's temperature or moisture, what have you. |
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BB: Yeah, I'd say it's pretty much the way it is every week. We look at who we have, who they have, where they line them up, what type of routes they run, who else is in the game, what are our matchups, what coverages do we want to run and try to put it all together. Obviously we have to do more than one thing, so you try to get a few things that fit off each other, that complement each other that maybe you can disguise and that type of thing. Each week it's different because it's a different offense and it's different people that we're matching up against. Sometimes it's two, three, four different scenarios that we work our way through until we decide which one it's going to be. Sometimes we use more than one. Sometimes it's obvious, like we all look at it and it takes about five minutes to all say, 'OK, this is how we want to play this game.' But sometimes that's not the case. These guys, they run a lot of guys on and off the field. Fuller and Ross played a lot and then the tight ends, we saw [Brandon] Pettigrew, we saw [Joseph] Fauria, we saw [Eric] Ebron. There were times when they had two backs in the game. It was a lot of different personnel groups in there and they line them up in different spots so it's a lot of moving parts. You just have to try to figure out how to handle it all. Or maybe there are some things you don't want to deal with and you find some other way to handle it. |
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BB: Yeah, it was the type of thing that – yeah, it obviously was a close call on the play, but yeah. But Ross is an aggressive guy. He'll take the ball, but that was a situation where he had an opportunity to do it, he did it and turned [it] into a big play. They ruled it differently, but he plays like that. You give him space or the ball is rolling around and you're not right on top of him and he'll pick it up and go. He's a strong runner, he breaks tackles and he's got good speed, but good size, strong runner, doesn't run out of bounds. He makes you tackle him and he breaks a lot of tackles. He's good, does a good job. |
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BB: Yeah, it's at a historical level. |
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BB: Yeah, I’d say their style of play is quite a bit different. |
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BB: Yeah, I’m sure he’ll have a regular number. Ask the equipment people about that. Maybe those jerseys got mixed up, I don’t know. |
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BB: Yeah, sure. And they do that anyway. We see that from week to week. Even when they don't have an extra week, they change up their looks a little bit from game to game so we have to be ready for that. With the extra time, I'm sure that they'll have a couple things that we're not working on this week; that we're not prepared for. We'll have to deal with those as they come. But that's part of playing the Colts. That will definitely be in play this week, no question. |
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BB: Yeah, sure. I mean, I think defensively Suh is a real disruptive guy. He definitely creates some opportunities for other guys in there, but that’s a good defense – [Ezekiel] Ansah and [Jason] Jones, [C.J.] Mosley has done a good job for [Nick] Fairley. They’ve really, all those guys are hard to handle – [George] Johnson – they roll them all through there and they do a good job with their pressure defenses, bringing linebackers and secondary guys. They do enough to keep you off-balance and they do enough where you can’t really, there’s enough movement up front that you can’t really count on everybody being quite where they are when the ball is snapped. Sometimes they are, but sometimes they’re not. As much as you try to double anybody, say Suh, sometimes you can’t because the guy you would have doubling him has to block a blitzer in pass protection. So, they create some single matchups like that. Yeah, Ross has done a good job for them on punts and kickoffs. They’re, again, another aggressive special teams unit that’s run fakes and has some other plays in the kicking game to keep you off-balance [that] you can’t go to sleep on. They’re aggressive. They’re not afraid to take calculated risks and make plays. |
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BB: Yeah, sure. Until they're out, you have to prepare for them. You bet, yeah. We went through that last week with [Gosder] Cherilus. It didn't look like he was going to play – didn't practice, didn't practice, questionable for the game, whatever it was and played the whole game. Sometimes it goes the other way. Again, being on the other side of that, there are guys that honestly we don't know if they're going to play until game time. So, how could they know [if] we don't even know and vice versa. So, yeah, if they're on the roster, if they're active, you have to be prepared for them. Just because the guy is not the starter, one play into the game, he could be playing. So, you have to know who all those players are too because one play, one sprained ankle, one equipment problem and the next guy is in there. You have to know who that is. We have to prepare for everybody that's on the active roster. We cross some guys off [the] day of the game once we get the inactive list. But then the guys that are left, we have to know all those players and all their potential roles and matchup situations. That's just part of the preparation. And honestly, where there's an obvious injury situation, we go through the practice squad players. They don't have to give us any notification on that. They can active those guys as late as four p.m. Saturday. So it's not like signing somebody from the outside and bringing them on the roster. That's a move that obviously you would see and they would need to do most likely a few days before the game in order to get the guy ready. But you could bring a guy up on the practice squad and play him. That's not really the kind of thing you want to be talking about 10 minutes before the game: ‘Who is this guy? What does he do? Is he fast? Is he this? Is he that?' That's part of, ‘They have a couple injuries at this position. OK, who is on the practice squad? Who could they bring up to play on offense or defense or who would they bring up to play in the kicking game?' Which a lot of times is where the practice squad guys factor in first, is on special teams. That's all part of it, too. We go through that every week of who do they have available, which includes even the practice squad players. Yeah, sure. We don't eliminate them until they're out. |
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BB: Yeah, there you go. |
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BB: Yeah, they have a lot of them. |
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BB: Yeah, very high motor. Yeah, he is. He plays with a lot of effort. He's athletic. He's got good quickness. He plays on his feet a lot. He's a hard guy to - he doesn't stay blocked. Sometimes you see guys get into him, but then he keeps working and has enough quickness and athleticism to eventually come free. He makes a lot of effort plays, plays where he's, again, initially not in the play, but eventually gets into it with his quickness and his effort. |
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BB: Yeah, we see it every week. Yeah, we see it every week. They got us early on Tate on a pick-wheel play. Put him in tight, pick-wheel him outside, cross him inside, pick him inside – we've seen it all year. I'm sure we'll see it again next week too and the weeks after that. Yeah, tight splits, we got a lot of that today. |
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BB: Yeah, we tried to give them a bunch of different looks. We were in some odd front, even front. We had some linebackers up inside trying to fake it some; just trying to keep them off balance. I thought the pass rush was, you know, it's hard to get to them. They get the ball out quick; they've got a lot of great receivers. He had to scramble a couple times and that's always a challenge because he's very athletic, but I thought our pass rush was competitive and our coverage was competitive. They made a few, we made a few, but I thought we hung in there with them and that's good. [They're] a good passing team with a lot of skill, a lot of talent at the skill positions. |
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BB: Yeah, we've seen everything they've done. |
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BB: Yeah, well, it's a lot easier to convert the shorter yardages ones than the longer yards. That will be key against these guys. These guys do a great job on first down. They create more negative runs than any other team in the league. They get teams in a lot of second and third-and-long situations. Those are usually not only very difficult, but that's also where they get some turnovers, too, strip-sacks and tipped balls and interceptions and stuff like that. So, it just makes it even harder to not only convert, but even at some point protect the ball. Yeah, we're going to have to do a good job of staying out of those long-yardage situations, but they create a lot of them so that will be a big challenge for us. |
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BB: You have to. That guy can ruin a game; does ruin it. You have to know where he is on every play. You have to try to put – look, you can't not block him. He's right there in the middle of the defense so somebody has to block him. You try to create the best angles, matchups, scheme that you can to try to help whatever it is he's doing, which he's very disruptive. He's a great football player; tough, tough guy to deal with. [You] definitely have to game plan for him, no question. |
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BB: You know, we tried to sign LeGarrette in the offseason. That didn’t work out which is the NFL, it’s the business part of the NFL. He was released, he was available and we were able to work it out for him to come back here. Glad to have him back. |
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BB: You know, we’ve done it. But again, it just comes down to each week. We make the decision prior to the game based on all the circumstances that go into the game, what we want to do. Each one is individually based. It’s what we think is best for that particular game based on all the factors that go into the game, so each one is an independent decision. So, that’s how we do it. |
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BB: You were at the preseason games. He ran well in the preseason. |
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Q: A lot of quarterbacks can keep plays alive with their feet, but it seems like the end of the Miami game, with different arm angles – |
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Q: Aaron Rodgers seems especially adept at changing cadences, getting free plays, drawing teams offsides – |
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Q: Andrew Luck has seven interceptions in two games against you. What do you think you've done to put him in positions where he makes mistakes? |
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Q: Another game where we saw Rob Ninkovich go wire-to-wire on the defensive line. He's not the biggest guy in the world. How impressive is his ability to stay on the field every snap and the consistency he brings to that front? |
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Q: Are there certain wide receivers where normal defensive protocols won't work against and is Calvin Johnson one of them? |
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Q: Are you going to make history with the first No. 60 running back? |
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Q: As a team that runs a lot of trick plays, does that just add to the workload that you guys have to do to prepare? |
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Q: Can you talk about LeGarrette Blount coming in and stepping right in? |
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Q: Can you talk about the decision to sign LeGarrette Blount and what that adds to your team? |
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Q: Can you talk about the way the secondary played today? |
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Q: Can you talk about what makes Julius Peppers so good as a pass rusher and also as a coverage guy? |
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Q: Clay Matthews has been an outside type player for the large part of his career, but we've seen him inside and he seems to create some havoc in there as well. What is your overall impression of him and how they're deploying him? |
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Q: Corey Linsley is a rookie; Bryan Stork is a rookie for you. How have both helped solidify the offensive line and play well? In Linsley's case, he was drafted in the fifth round and Bryan in the fourth round. Can you describe the burden on a center as a rookie and all the things he has to grasp and how important that role is to the overall function of the offense? |
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Q: Could you talk about your evolution and thinking regarding your decision almost unilaterally to defer on the opening coin toss? It seems to be a trend going forward, but what is your thinking on it and how it evolved to what you do now? |
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Q: Danny Amendola had a big kickoff return. |
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Q: Darrelle Revis talked about the competitiveness in practice since he's been here. Being around Tom Brady and some of the other guys on the team, he's noticed it's a pretty high level. How would you characterize the competitiveness in practice on a daily basis for you guys? |
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Q: Did you go into the bye week addressing the running game and make it a point of emphasis? |
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Q: Do the Colts disguise their blitzes a lot? When you're breaking down film, does your definition of a blitz differ from other teams or Football Outsiders' definition? |
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Q: Do you have any thoughts on the play at the end with Dominic Raiola when it looked like he lunged at Zach Moore's knees as they were kneeling on the ball? |
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Q: Do you put more stock in recent tape? |
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Q: Do you see any similarities between Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers and how they've elevated their games? |
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Q: Do you see him and Jonas Graybeing able to feed off each other? |
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Q: Do you think coaches have found a way to replace that physical element in practice? You've said that practice is different now than it was years ago. Do you think players and coaches have found a way to replace that competitive fire in practice? |
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Q: Does field position dictate more than anything at the end of the first half whether you want to go down and do everything you can to score, as opposed to not giving them a chance at the end of the first half? |
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Q: Does he have a lot of different arm angles that he throws from? |
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Q: Does he remind you of Rob Ninkovich at all? |
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Q: Does that put some pressure on you guys to avoid third-and-longs and typical third down situations? |
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Q: Eddie Lacy got a lot of carries this last week. What makes him such a good complementary power running game for Rodgers? |
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Q: Even though it was negated, did you think that Jeremy Ross play was as heads up as you could have on special teams? |
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Q: For a guy who picked up football relatively late, what are your thoughts on Ziggy Ansah and how productive he’s been able to be? |
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Q: Has he surprised you at all at just how good he is both on and off the field with what he brings every day? |
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Q: Has it evolved as Andrew Luck has developed? |
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Q: Has that been a particular strength of your team recently? |
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Q: Have you ever been in a situation like the Bills are in this week, where something totally out of your control causes you to hit the pause button and created so much concern? |
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Q: How about this year's group versus years past that you've coached here? Is the competitiveness level any different this year? |
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Q: How did you try to limit what Ndamukong Suh does defensively? |
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Q: How do the linebackers complement what their defensive line does? |
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Q: How do you seem him contributing and helping the team? |
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Q: How has D'Qwell Jackson changed their defense? |
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Q: How has Eric Ebron complemented their tight ends? |
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Q: How has Jim Caldwell put his stamp on the team? |
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Q: How have you seen Dom Capers leave his imprint on this defense? |
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Q: How important are the safeties over the top to muddy up the way things look for the quarterback? |
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Q: How much of a threat is Julius Peppers and what is it going to take to make sure he doesn't take control? |
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Q: How much of an art is that and how much does it help you to have one of the best at it as well in Tom Brady? |
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Q: I believe Sealver Siliga is eligible to begin practicing. Is there any update on him? Do you plan to start that 21-day clock on him sometime soon? |
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Q: I know you don't spend a lot of time looking backwards, but when the team was 2-2 there was a lot of outside scrutiny. How impressed are you with your team's mental toughness and ability to ignore the noise and go on a very impressive run in terms of results? |
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Q: I think there's a general consensus that it's tougher to win on the road in this league. Do you agree with that and if so, what are the primary reasons for that? |
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Q: I'm curious if with that, does it at all alter your thinking – should you win the toss or is that not the mindset you would take, almost playing into that? Because you could take the ball, three-and out and you're in the same spot. |
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Q: In general, when there are players that are injured for an opposing team, like Nick Fairley and Reggie Bush have been banged up, do you still have to prepare for those guys as if they're going to play? |
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Q: In terms of his mobility, you guys have faced mobile quarterbacks this last few weeks, but he seems a little different. |
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Q: In terms of receivers blocking, how much progress has Julian Edelmanmade as a blocker in his career? Second, how much did Danny Amendola and Brandon LaFell’s ability and willingness to block make them attractive to you? |
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Q: Is he what you remember in ’09 coming out of Wisconsin? |
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Q: Is it unique to have three guys on the interior of your line who have started at center? Does that benefit your team that they all have experience at center and making the calls? |
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Q: Is T.Y. Hilton a guy you can cover man-to-man or do you always need to think about Cover-2, extra protection coverages with him? |
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Q: Is that challenge exacerbated by a Pro-Bowl caliber pass rusher in Clay Matthews playing inside linebacker now on occasion? |
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Q: Is the roster size the biggest difference between coaching special teams now as opposed to back in ’76 and ’77 or is the game drastically different in that area too? |
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Q: Is there a confidence when you score first? |
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Q: Is there a rust factor coming back from the bye week? |
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Q: Is there a trend as to how they move Matthews around or the reasons they move him around? |
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Q: Is there anyone comparable to Ndamukong Suh in terms of his size and skill set and what he does? |
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Q: Is there anything football-wise that he wasn't doing that you need from someone else or that led to the decision? |
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Q: It looked like Chris Jones played a little bit at end. Is that the first time he's done that and how did you think that looked? |
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Q: It looked like even before last week and last week, Danny Amendola has been able to bring a spark to the role of kick returner. What are some of things that make him good at that spot, other than just the physical attributes? |
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Q: It looked like the Colts pushed it in. |
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Q: It looked like the punt from Ryan Allen set the tone early in the game. Was that a big play in the game? |
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Q: It seemed like they ran a lot of crossing patterns to try to pick or rub defenders. Is that something you guys were expecting? |
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Q: It seems like Bjoern Werner has a bigger role in their defense this year. |
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Q: It's a little unusual in that in Aaron Rodgers' career, he's never started a game against the Patriots. From your perspective, is that something you like - the idea that he hasn't seen a lot of what you do defensively? |
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Q: It's looked like Patrick Chunghas put together some real impressive performances in coverage the last few weeks. How have you seen him improve in that area, not just this season, but dating back to his first tour of duty with the team? |
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Q: It's sort of obvious, but how important is it to not have negative plays? Tom Brady was saying the other day you didn't really have any negative plays last week. |
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Q: James Ihedigbo has a pretty big role for them. How important has he been to the backend of that defense? |
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Q: Last week you ran for 250 yards. This week you threw the ball 53 times. Is that the type of versatility that a team really needs to be able to succeed in the NFL? |
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Q: Maybe the touchdown celebrations are the one part we can link them. |
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Q: One of the things in the Philadelphia game was that the players were having trouble with the footing, changing cleats, etc. How do you handle that situation in a place like Lambeau. Is that a coach's decision, is that the players or equipment staff to make sure they have the proper footing? |
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Q: Relative to today, was it easy to coach blocking field goals? |
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Q: Rob Gronkowski has always been a very physical player. The last couple of weeks has he got more physical or have the plays he’s got involved in been more physical? |
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Q: The challenge, how much was that maybe to just slow things down a little bit? |
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Q: The Colts defense is middle of the pack but on third down, it's the best in the league. What difference do you see on third down that they lock it down that's not there on first and second down? |
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Q: The Packers play well at home. Do you talk about the uniqueness of that stadium, the tradition in Green Bay and how much that enhances their comfort at home and their ability to succeed at home? |
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Q: The past two games one was a pass-heavy game and one was a run-heavy game with the Colts. Is there a challenge in trying to sell that to your staff and the players that it's what's best for the team? |
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Q: There's a report you agreed to an extension with him. Do you have anything on that? |
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Q: Was Christian more of a blocker? I know he caught the ball well, but… |
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Q: Was it especially gratifying to see a player like that who wasn't highly touted to have a breakout performance? |
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Q: Was the lack of usage for Jonas Gray discipline related? |
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Q: Were you trying to give Matthew Stafford different looks? |
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Q: What about Julian and his blocking? |
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Q: What about that scheme challenges the offense, the zone? |
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Q: What are some of the challenges you have to face on the road that are less so at home? |
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Q: What are the defining characteristics of Pep Hamilton's offense? |
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Q: What are your first impressions of the Lions? |
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Q: What are your initial impressions of Aaron Rodgers? I don't want to go too far into historical stuff, but is there anyone who has played that position so completely over the last 20 to 25 years? |
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Q: What are your thoughts on Clay Matthews? |
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Q: What did you see from him to earn it? |
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Q: What did you think of the performance of Alan Branch on Sunday night? He got in there a little bit more against the Colts and you guys played well against the run. |
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Q: What has Matthew Slater meant to the team since he's come here in '08 and the way his career has unfolded? |
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Q: What kind of challenges does Aaron Rodgers present? |
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Q: What makes him different? |
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Q: What makes Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb such tough matchups for defense? How difficult is that back shoulder pass to defend that Aaron Rodgers and his receivers have down so well? |
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Q: What stood out to you about Jonas Gray as you worked with him? |
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Q: What strikes you about the way Chuck Pagano has led the Colts? |
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Q: What was it about Jonas Gray this past summer that made you guys want to keep him around? |
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Q: What would you say are the keys to a really effective two-minute offense? You guys have been really good in the last two minutes of the first half this year. What are the most important things you go over with your team? |
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Q: What's made him effective in your eyes? It seems like he's a high motor guy. |
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Q: What’s the explanation on the kick? It seemed like the ball was going to die inside the five-yard line, the game was 28-10 at the point. |
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Q: When it comes to anticipation for a defensive back, where would you put Darrelle Revis? |
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Q: When it comes to punt returning, how do you coach returners when it comes to fielding punts inside the 10 versus letting them go? What are the coaching points there? |
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Q: When you face a defense that does so well on first down, do you strategize to change up what you do or do you just have to have faith in the system, especially coming off the week you just had in the running game? |
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Q: When you look at a team like the Packers that is operating at a higher level the past six weeks or so than they were early in the season, do you look at the more recent games or would you have done that anyway? |
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Q: When you look at Joseph Fauria, how much is he any part of Christian Fauria, who you know obviously very well? |
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Q: When you look at the tape, how much freedom does Aaron Rodgers have at the line of scrimmage to change and move guys around as he sees fit? |
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Q: When you look at them defensively, what do you see from DeAndre Levy? |
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Q: When you reviewed the game this morning, did Ryan Allen's punt impress you even more in terms of the impact it had on the game and his ability to handle the ball before even getting the punt off? |
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Q: When you see a guy in game shape, how much does that factor into the decision to bring him back? |
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Q: When you're trying to figure out the best way to approach a game defensively, you had some choices on who to match him up against. It seems like he's the type of guy who gives you options. Was it a tough choice and what factors were you weighing as you drew up your plans? |
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Q: When you’re making personnel decisions, is there a point in the season were you say, ‘It’s so late in the year now so it may not be worth it because he’ll just have so much to try to pick up?’ |
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Q: Where did that interception toward the end of the first half that was kind of an uncharacteristic throw by Tom Brady come from? |
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Q: Where does Rob Gronkowski rank on the ‘loves the game of football' list? |
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Q: With Fairley in particular, how does he affect what they do on the defensive line? |
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Q: With Revis coming in this year and Tom throwing against him, do you think that helps elevate their play on both sides? |
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Q: With so much attention given to Ndamukong Suh, does it set up plays for guys like Mathis or Levy? It seems to me they play very alertly defensively. Also, their special teams play is very good. That play by Jeremy Ross was amazing even though they called it back. Can you talk about those two factors? |
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Q: With that in mind, what are the differences besides the obvious, the urgency? |
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Q: Yes. |
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Q: Yesterday you were talking about Green Bay's ability to start fast and get out to a lead. Can you talk about that? Also, according to the Minnesota play-by-play guys, Green Bay is first in takeaway-give ratio, their ability to produce turnovers. Can you talk about that factor as well? |
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Q: You get to the end of camp, there’s always tough decisions to be made and you can only have 53 guys, how tough was it at the end of camp? You might lose him there. |
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Q: You guys ran the ball late last year, is that carrying over this year? |
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Q: You mention their receivers. Golden Tate has had a terrific year and when Calvin Johnson was out, it didn't seem like they missed too much when Tate stepped in as the number one receiver. |
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Q: You mentioned earlier this week that Dom Capers has a background with Pittsburgh and the zone blitz is kind of related to that system. |
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Q: You often keep us guessing with some personnel moves. Don Jones seemed productive for you with eight special teams tackles I think. What were the factors that led into the decision to release him? |
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Q: You really maximized your red zone opportunities on Sunday and converted about 75 percent of your third downs. How much weight do you put in those two statistics and what might be at the top of the checklist that any team would have to do to have success in those two areas? |
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Q: You said in the past when you worked with a guy on the 53-man roster who does have practice squad eligibility, you usually want to bring him back in that role. Is that something you want to do with Don Jones if you are able to? |
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Q: You've had Chandler Jones back at practice this week. Are you encouraged by the rehab progress that he's made? |
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Q: You've pointed out the statistic of how fast they've started games at Lambeau Field. |
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Q: You've said in the past that you've used the bye to look at yourselves. When you play a team that's coming off the bye, do you have to be ready for different things they may not have shown early in the year? |
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Q: You’re always talking about players making the most of opportunities they have. Jonas Gray seems to be grinding it out like he should be grinding it out? |
