GREEN BAY, Wis. -- With another NFC North championship in the books and a first-round postseason bye secured, the Green Bay Packers' coordinators broke down how the team was able to pick up the critical Week 17 win over Detroit.
Here are three question-and-answer highlights with each Packers coordinator:
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR DOM CAPERS
1. What has gotten the defense trending upward since the Week 9 bye?
CAPERS: "Well, I think we've come together a little bit in terms of we've stayed pretty consistent in the personnel groups that we're playing. I think guys have gotten more comfortable with it. I think we've tried to utilize all of our personnel, evening out their repetitions as much as possible. I think, again, it always starts with your ability to stop the run and try to get in favorable down-and-distance situations for yourself where you can do more things in terms of pressuring the quarterback. I think we've been able to get more consistent pressure out of a four-man rush. I like the way we've played the run recently. I know against Tampa Bay we played it about as well as you're going to play it. Yesterday, I think of our losses on the run game, five of them came in one series. We made a couple adjustments there and they were going to big people to run the ball against us. We were going to three-safety defense, and then we went to some four-down defense against their bigger people."
2. How valuable is this first-round bye?
CAPERS: "I think that, No. 1, it enables you to get your guys hopefully rested and healthy. And No. 2, if there is anything, we're always critiquing and evaluating. You saw coming out of the bye week, we made some significant changes. So we go back, take this time and we'll kind of look at things and try to get a real good feel for what's been good for us, what hasn't been so good and then you evaluate that. Obviously when you get to this point, the margin of error becomes less and less so you want to make sure that you're as precise as you can be. Guys understand what you want to do. It just gives you a little bit of added time to where, had it been different, then we'd be in here going double-time today. So you try to utilize that time to your advantage."
3. Did you notice Aaron Rodgers' return to the game give a spark to the defense at all?
CAPERS: "Yeah. You saw the first series; I thought we were going to be playing the second half without (Rodgers). You're sitting there and you're challenging the defense. We have to go out and win a defensive game. Everybody knows when Aaron is on the field it's uplifting to everybody. When he's not out there, you say it doesn't affect you but it does psychologically."
SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR SHAWN SLOCUM
1A. What went right on Micah Hyde's 55-yard punt return touchdown?
SLOCUM: "Well, Micah did a good job running vertically and our guys did a good job blocking."
1B. It was as simple as that?
SLOCUM: "It is. It really is that simple when you get down to it."
2. What broke down on the blocked field-goal attempt?
SLOCUM: "Our left wing needs to do a better job there. It's disappointing. We've spent a lot of time, because we've had some problems this season in our placement protection. We've devoted the necessary time in practice. We were very good in the previous game, we were good inside in that ball game. That was a critical play in the game and our accountability needs to pick up there."
3. How high is your frustration level with the protection units?
SLOCUM: "Extremely high."
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR TOM CLEMENTS
1. What did you think of Rodgers' performance?
CLEMENTS: "I don't think you can say enough about his performance. To operate with that injury and then to play as well as he did, it just speaks volumes about the type of player he is and how competitive he is."
2. When Rodgers was carted to the locker room, did you at all expect him to possibly return?
CLEMENTS: "I thought he was done for the game."
3. What have you thought about Richard Rodgers' improvement and how he played in this game?
CLEMENTS: "I've been asked about Richard periodically throughout the year and I've said he's gotten better as the year's gone along. When he gets his opportunities, he makes the most of them. He's done a great job blocking, and yesterday he had five catches on five targets. So he's playing well."
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