GREEN BAY, Wis. -- After the Green Bay Packers' coaching staff reviewed the film of their 38-20 win over the Washington Redskins in Week 2 of the 2013 season, the team's three coordinators discussed the biggest topics from the game.
Here are three question-and-answer highlights from each coordinator:
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR DOM CAPERS
1. When you were winning 31-0, did you have to change your defensive strategy? And, if so, did that contribute to Washington scoring 20 second-half points?
CAPERS: You're going to play a different style, no question, and I think that's a good question. You're going to play a little different style, you're probably not quite as aggressive as you have been. Although, I think you have to evaluate that if your pressure play has been good for you, then you certainly don't want to get away from it. Quite frankly, the biggest difference is you saw the first eight series we make plays on third down. We had disruptive pressure, we had tight coverage, and in those last three series, they converted the third downs. And they were close, they were all contested. I think every one of them was contested, but they hit a couple bigger plays on us, they got a little momentum going. That's something that always concerns you when you get into those two-minute situations when you're up, people playing free, they know they've got to throw the ball to get back into the game. There were a couple runs against our base defense that we had to get cleaned up, just fundamental leverage and technique things. I think they had 108 yards rushing, but 64 of it came on two plays, and obviously we weren't happy about that because other than that I thought our run defense did a pretty good job. You still had the possibility of RG3 running the zone-read stuff. They did run it a couple times, but I thought our guys responded well to it. I thought if we played it early that it would get away from them. Of course, the course of the game the way it went with us getting up 31-0, they weren't going to spend a lot of time running the quarterback. They do a nice job of throwing the tear screens and the bubble screens on the outside. You saw they hit a big one on us on that. It was well blocked, but Sam Shields made a nice play running the guy down and we were able to get off the field.
2. Only allowing Robert Griffin III to rush for one yard a week after Colin Kaepernick had just 22 rushing yards, have you gotten closer to solving the QB-running aspect of read-option style offenses?
CAPERS: I don't know if you ever feel like you solve anything in this league. We knew we were going to open up with two very athletic quarterbacks and they both have the ability that if you don't have good rush lanes, good pressure in their face, keep people to where you don't have seams that they can pull down and run the ball and they can turn one of those scrambles into a 20-, 30-yard play in a hurry. So yes, again, going in we knew we could potentially see a lot of zone-read stuff in the first two games. I like the way our guys have responded to that. They ran it two or three times (Sunday) and I thought our guys did a nice job on it, and then you don't see it. You're normally going to see what you don't defend and like I say, they hit the screen on us, the long screen, and that very same series, they came back with two more screens, and Clay got in the throwing lane on one and the other one they threw it out to the right out of an empty set and M.D. Jennings did a nice job holding outside leverage, Tramon came inside and Nick Perry came inside out, so then we didn't see as much of it after that.
3. Did you like what Chris Banjo did in his increased snaps at safety in this game?
CAPERS: I think you could see more and more of Chris Banjo. I thought he did well. He had one missed tackle on one of those long runs, but other than that I thought he did a nice job. He's been a physical guy for us there through the preseason. Obviously, he's impressed us enough that he made the team coming in late. I think he's another guy who is kind of a bright guy. He had more practice time last week and he certainly played more in the game. He gives us the ability to move Jerron up in dime and play him backup at the dime position. We're going to have to work all those combinations this week because I'm not sure what the status of our three injured guys is going to be.
SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR SHAWN SLOCUM
1. How has Davon House been as a special-teams gunner through two games so far?
SLOCUM: I thought he was really good. That's two games in a row. He's had five tackles and he's doing a good job. ... He's growing as a player and he's doing things the right way. Been pleased with his production.
2. With so many young players on special teams, is that a big part of the struggles in the blocking of the return units?
SLOCUM: With more play time, more experience, you'd like to think that you'd have less poor-impact plays. I think it's a result of little continuity with the units working together. But I don't think that's an excuse. We've always had to play with a young guy here or there. They have to get the job done.
3. When did you tell Tim Masthay that he'd be competing for the leading role on kickoffs?
SLOCUM: Last offseason, after the season when the guys came back, I told him, 'I want you to compete to kickoff.' He's worked kickoffs since he's been here. He's always been behind Mason. I feel good about both guys. Mason would have hit several touchbacks yesterday, as well, I think.
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR TOM CLEMENTS
1. What did you think of Aaron Rodgers' record-setting performance?
CLEMENTS: It was OK. (smiles) No, it was outstanding. He's fun to watch in general, and when he has a day like he had (Sunday), it's a lot of fun. He's very accurate, he changes a lot of plays to get us in good plays. He does that in the run game, as well. He was sharp mentally and physically and was able to get us going and keep us going.
2. What happened on the four sacks that were given up so early in the game?
CLEMENTS: Well, yeah, we had four sacks, but really two of them were because of missed assignments. We had two early against good rushers. If four (sacks) looks like a big number, it is a big number. It reflects negatively on the line when it shouldn't, because half of them wasn't because of them. You have to think when you run a play everybody is going to do what they're supposed to do. So you're going to continue to call plays that allow you to take a shot down the field. If they don‘t do what they're supposed to do then obviously you have a good chance of being unsuccessful.
3. Mike McCarthy was frustrated with fourth-quarter performance. Is that an area of emphasis for the offense?
CLEMENTS: Well, I think the last 7 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter we played pretty well. It was a good way to end that game. But as a team, that's something we're going to focus on. An earlier drive in the fourth quarter, we went three plays and out, so that's not good. But we're moving in the right direction. That'll be a focus of the entire team -- the fourth quarter. You're generally in a game that's tight and you're going to have to either play well to preserve a lead or play well to take the lead. So that's a focus of ours.
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