GREEN BAY, Wis. -- After the Green Bay Packers lost their
second consecutive game and fell to ninth place in the NFC standings, the
team’s three coordinators discussed some of the current problems.
Here are three question-and-answer highlights from each coordinator:
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR DOM CAPERS
1. What has gone wrong with your defense this season in the
fourth quarter?
CAPERS: “We’ve certainly tried to address it. I can just
tell you this: In the last two weeks, we’ve had third-down situations -- third-and-9
a week ago and third-and-8 (Sunday) -- and we missed tackles on both those
situations. You come down, you’ve got to make those plays. If you’ve got
legitimate shots to get a guy on the ground, you’ve got to get him on the
ground. And we haven’t done it. You let them lined up again, get three or four
more shots, that’s a lot of time off the clock.”
2. It all comes back to you as defensive coordinator when
there aren’t a lot of turnovers forced, but shouldn’t Tramon Williams have had
at least one -- or maybe two -- interceptions?
CAPERS: “You guys have asked me a lot about taking the ball
away, and my feeling is, you’ve just got to keep having guys in position and
sooner or later we’ll start making those plays. It’s not like -- I’ve certainly
been through it before -- where we’ve had balls in our hands and dropped them
and that type of thing. And as I studied the Eagles, the teams that had beaten
the Eagles had normally come away with three or more takeaways. When you look
at us there late in the game when Mike Daniels and Tramon came through and
sacked the quarterback, got the ball out and got the ball at the 13-yard line.
Those are the kind of plays you want to make. Those are game-changing plays. We
certainly had an opportunity on the first-down pass. The ball was batted in the
air and unfortunately they came down with it, and then the one that you
mentioned. If we make those, we have the three takeaways and it has a big
impact on the game. We just have to keep working. I think we’re getting decent
pressure on the quarterback. We had three sacks (Sunday). I think you saw
Datone Jones come up with his first two. I thought Datone took a step in the
right direction. We had a lot of moving parts. Obviously, Casey (Hayward) went
down during the course of the game. As you’re moving people around, hopefully
you can get a little rhythm and those plays will start going your way. That’s
what my hopes are.”
3. Where’s the disconnect between the skill of the players in the secondary and the production of the players in the secondary?
CAPERS: “Well, every week is a new and different week. The
quarterback last week, he played very well. We had a lot of respect for (Nick)
Foles going in. The guy had thrown for seven touchdowns the week before, so we
knew watching the tape what he was capable of. You just have to keep working.
Again, it has to be a combination of pressure and coverage and I thought the
first sacks were really coverage sacks because he didn’t have any place to go
with the ball and he had to hold the ball, so we were able to sack him with
good coverage there. Again, it comes down to technique and making sure you have
plenty of depth and you can break forward on things and keep vision on the
ball.”
SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR SHAWN SLOCUM
1, a. What happened on the punt in which it initially
appeared to be a Packers touchdown but was called back to the 16-yard line with
the Eagles getting the ball?
SLOCUM: “The one thing I might want to consider is calling
that something other than an ‘illegal touch’ because we have the option to
touch the ball and down it. The ball hit Micah (Hyde) in the right upper arm
and continued down the field. Micah made a play to keep it off the goal line at
the 1, he knocked it back. Once we touch the ball as the covering team, it’s
still considered a live kick as though it had not been touched at all and the
return team has the option to go try to advance the ball. Then they get to
either take the result of that advance or take it from where it was first
touched, and that’s the way the rule is. That’s why the ball ultimately came
back to the 16-yard line.”
1, b. So then the worst-case scenario for Philadelphia on
that play was getting the ball at the 16-yard line?
SLOCUM: “It becomes the option of the return team to either
take the result of the play -- the ultimate result -- or take it where it was
first touched. So, obviously, they’re not going to take the result of the play
-- because that would be a touchdown -- so they take it where it was first
touched, so it’s now at the 16-yard line.”
2. What happened on Mason Crosby’s two missed field goals?
SLOCUM: “The 53-yarder, I thought he put a poor swing on it.
The 42-yarder, he put a good swing on it and just misjudged the wind. The rest
of his kicks were good.”
3. Why did you change back to Crosby on kickoffs after Tim Masthay started the season in that role?
SLOCUM: “Tim’s still ready to go. I thought over the last
three weeks that Mason’s ability to place the ball on the kickoffs is something
we needed. I think he’s done a great job of it and that’s the way we’ve gone
with it.”
OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR TOM CLEMENTS
1. What are the hurdles and challenges of preparing Scott Tolzien this week to be the starter?
CLEMENTS: “I don’t think there’s a major hurdle. He’s a
diligent guy. Getting the reps, I hope to see improvement in the performance,
although, as I said, he performed well under the circumstances. Not just his
first time playing, but we had our starting center go out and T.J., who hadn’t
practiced all week, had to play a different position and Marshall (Newhouse)
went in. Donnie (Barclay) moved to a different position. The line adjusted
well. Everyone is to be commended for what they did under the circumstances.”
2. How did Aaron Rodgers help Tolzien during the game?
CLEMENTS: “He was just helping Scott out on what he saw out
there. Over on the sideline, you talk about specific plays and maybe what to
look for and what to do, technique. Like I said, this is the first time Scott
has run these (plays) himself. He’s seen them run and watched them on film.
Maybe he thought about it in his mind but he hadn’t actually done it. Aaron was
helpful in that regard.”
3. Are you concerned about Eddie Lacy’s workload with so many carries?
CLEMENTS: “He’s handled it well. I think his highest has
been 29 carries. The last couple games he’s been low-to-mid 20’s. That’s what
we said going into it. We’d like to keep him around that level. So we’ll assess
his carries as the year goes on and if we need to adjust, we will.”
