POSTGAME QUOTES
GREEN BAY PACKERS vs. DETROIT LIONS, Nov. 6, 2017, at Green Bay, Wis.
KICKER MASON CROSBY:
(on what the team’s confidence level is on getting season turned around) “Obviously we showed sparks of really good things, so just have to put a full game together and I think we have the pieces that we need. We just have to find ways to do it throughout a whole game. So, from all phases here, we can all do a little bit better and I know we’re going to work hard this week. Quick turnaround and make sure we get ready for Chicago.”
(on long snapper Derek Hart coming in this week but having preseason experience) “Yeah, I mean that was a while ago. I think, obviously, he’s familiar with the protection…with Taybor (Pepper) getting hurt on Wednesday, it was quick. We got enough reps I felt like, and he had a great pregame. We’ll just evaluate that one (blocked field goal) because the rest of his snaps were good. We just have to look at that first one and that we just eliminate, just continue to eliminate those ones.”
QUARTERBACK BRETT HUNDLEY
(on getting him to use his legs more) “That’s always something in our game plan to get me moving, get me comfortable.”
(on moving the ball well in the fourth quarter) “We were just in no-huddle personnel. That’s just a fast-paced tempo, just taking what the defense gives us. They were sticking to their defense, quarters, and weren’t too aggressive. (They were) coming out playing man sometimes but you’ve just got to take what the defense gives you, and in that kind of situation with that kind of offense and knowing the personnel, that’s how you move the ball.”
(on how he would assess his play) “I’ve got to look at the film. My only goal I care about is winning, so I didn’t get that done. I’ve got to go back and look at the film, see what I can do better first off and go from there.”
(on the long pass to Davante Adams) “That’s a tough one. Davante (ran a) heck of a route and just missed it. I didn’t get a good look at it. I know it touched his fingers or something like that, but I think it was a little bit on his fingertips so I’ll probably put some more air under it next time.”
(on being really close to some explosive plays) “Explosive plays are huge in this game, in the NFL. That (big plays), field position and turnovers. It’s a big part of this game, so we’ve got to get ourselves rolling and execute. We left a lot on the field tonight and I think everybody knows that.”
(on if it’s familiarity or timing that is causing the lack of big plays) “It’s a multitude of things – being on the same page with your receivers. It’s this close, the catch to Davante (Adams), stuff like that, and it’s just that small window of opportunity, and we’ve got to close that gap.”
(on if there’s an emphasis on short passes or if he had freedom to go for big plays) “We called shots. It was a great called game, but the way they played their defense they weren’t giving up the shots. You have to look at the defense, what they’re doing, how they’re playing us, how they’re scheming things and, this game, they were giving up the underneath stuff, so if they’re giving it up, you’ve got to take it. You take it and then hit one, just like we did with (Randall) Cobb, and you take your shots when they sort of come up a little bit. But you’ve got to take what’s given and they’re sort of sitting off a little bit and (you) just take what’s underneath.”
(on how comfortable he is throwing downfield given his lack of playing time in recent years) “I felt really comfortable tonight, to be completely honest. I felt really comfortable. Obviously, like I said, I didn’t play well enough to win, so that’s my only concern and that’s my only goal, but I felt comfortable and hopefully it just keeps getting better from there.”
(on how long he thinks about losses) “It hurts and I’ve got my faith up high. There’s a reason for everything. We just have to keep pushing on. Our focus is on Chicago. It’s a quick turnaround for us being a Monday night game and we’ll just go from there.”
(on if he’s frustrated that he hasn’t played to a certain level) “Everybody wants to score five touchdowns, have a perfect quarterback rating and win. This game was a step in the right direction. I think I did some good things. Obviously, it wasn’t enough of them, but (the) first start for sure wasn’t the breakout game everybody wants, but in this game you have to understand what it comes with. There’s ups and downs in everything. You can’t be perfect all the time. Like I said, I felt comfortable today. There were some good things done and we’ve just got to make those big plays and keep it going from there.”
(on what Aaron Rodgers said to him after the game) “Aaron’s a good help, he’s a brother of mine, and he said ‘Keep your head up. Keep pushing.’ We’ve got to focus week by week. We can’t let this loss or the last loss define us as a team, and it won’t. We’ll shake this off. It’s going to hurt. It hurts talking to you guys after a loss. I want to stand up here with a W, but tomorrow we’re going to wake up. God’s blessed us with another day and we’ve got to go to work.”
LINEBACKER BLAKE MARTINEZ:
(on how to get better on third down) “Yeah, like I said, I’m going to just keep going back to it, it’s just little mistakes. You saw a penalty on the third down, you saw another offsides penalty. Those types of things are going to kind of crush you throughout. And then on all the other third downs we had chances, you just have to kind of make a play and just step up. Someone on every single play has a chance, whether it’s thrown to you, whether you’re in a rush, whether you’re disguising, whether you’re doing anything; you have a chance.”
(on if he took the helmet headset once Morgan Burnett was out of the game) “Yeah, so I took the headset once he was out. I ended up calling the plays the rest of the game. I would kind of make the signals and checks regardless, so it wasn’t really that big of an adjustment for me. I was basically getting the call and letting everyone else know.”
(on if he wore the headset much last year) “Yeah, so I wore that until I got injured last year. So I’ve been used to it and that type of thing. Last year, we didn’t have only just a headset signal. We had multiple kind of signals to make sure everybody got it. This year, we’re just kind of (using a) single person; you’ve got to make everyone gets the call.”
(on getting the season turned around) “Yeah, I mean, it’s just one of those things. Like I said, at some point we kind of have to dive into the details. And I think every single play you have that chance, a chance to make a play. I think the past two weeks we’ve had great practices, great checks, great kind of attention to detail. It kind of just has to step up when you’re in the flow of things, because when you’re out there on the field it’s not practice, it’s live bullets. And there are obviously great players out there and you kind of just have to step up your game that much more.”
WIDE RECEIVER DAVANTE ADAMS:
(on how hard it is to judge the ball being thrown from a different quarterback) “I mean, we get practice with it, so I wouldn’t say it’s hard, but it takes a little adjustment period.”
(on the margin of error being a little bit smaller with a different quarterback) “Absolutely. I mean, it’s…yeah, pretty much. I mean, you hit the nail on the head with that. We’ve just got to, I don’t know. The margin of error is definitely smaller, which definitely makes everything get blown out of proportion a little. I wouldn’t say out of proportion, because we’ve got to win the games. Yeah, it definitely gets magnified.”
(on if the shorter passes tonight was a game plan or discretion of the quarterback) “He’s (Hundley) doing what he’s coached to do. If we’re going with the quick timing, it depends. Part of it is him seeing the defense and figuring out where he wants to go with the ball and part of it is him doing what he’s told to do.”
(more)
(on how the team puts this behind them from a morale standpoint) “You’ve got to have a short memory, in terms of the negative. So you’ve just got to get back in here and watch film and figure it out.”
(on how much frustration there is being 4-4 at the midway point of the season) “A lot.”
(how come) “Because we’re a better team than what we’re putting on film, and regardless if No. 12 (Rodgers) is in there or not, we feel we’ve still got a lot of players in this locker room that, we’ve got enough talent in here to where we should be winning these type of games. They played a hell of a game. I mean, the Lions, they did a good job on offense and defense. They figured it out, they caught the ball well and they made the plays that, a couple of them that we let go. And that’s the difference in the game.”
CORNERBACK DAVON HOUSE:
(on the frustration level on the team right now) “Yeah, it’s frustrating. It sucks. I mean, the list goes on and on. We’ve just got to find a way to get better, man. It sucks losing, especially here.”
(on third down being an issue for the defense) “Yeah, if I had an answer, I’d give it to you guys. We’ve just got to do better as a whole. We’ve got to make more plays on the ball. We need to continue to get the quarterback off the spot, continue to stop the run, all of it. You’re talking about winning Super Bowls around here…we keep playing like this, it’s not going to be pretty. We’ve got to turn the corner. We’re 4-4, eight games left. We’ve got to pull together somehow, some way.”
HEAD COACH MIKE McCARTHY:
(opening statement) “Well, division games obviously are of the utmost importance. That was a tough loss. Give Detroit a lot of credit. I thought they played extremely well, particularly on offense the way they threw and caught the ball. Offensively, we need to score more points. I think really, the biggest thing for us to improve on is third down. And frankly, defensively, third down. They totally controlled the third down battle tonight. I thought that was a huge factor in the game and obviously led to the lopsided time of possession. We have work to do. That’s the fact of the matter, and we’ve got to do it fast, and that’s our plan. We got relatively healthy coming out of the bye. I thought we had a very good week of practice. We did not play as well as Detroit tonight and that’s stating the obvious.”
(on his reaction to the loss) “As far as how you win and how you lose in this league, you have to have consistency. I know what we need to do to play better. That’s the focus that I have. Offensively, we have to convert those third downs, keep the drives going. Your preparation shows up during the game. I thought the offense came out ready to play. Had the long drive, didn’t convert on the third down in the red area, didn’t have the field goal attempt completed, and defense comes out and we stop them on third and 14 and we have a bonehead penalty. As far as preparation going into the game, I thought our players did a heck of a job this week. I thought they were ready to play. But you know, (Detroit) played extremely well. We need to play better. So, react? There’s your reaction. I’m in tune with what happens, how it happened, and can focus on the details.”
(on what he saw on offense late that they can duplicate moving forward) “We talked about no-huddle at halftime. We came out there in the second half, and in the first series, had some things set up and the fourth and two, didn’t convert that. I thought Glover Quinn made a heck of a play. They rolled their safeties into cover one. I trust Randall Cobb in that situation and you’ve got to give the other guys credit too, sometimes. So, we didn’t convert that, went to the no-huddle there in the second series in the third quarter and it wasn’t as productive. I thought we got going there in the fourth quarter.”
(on his play calling with several short passes in the first half) “I think like anything with evaluation, it’s very fair and professional to put all the variables in play there. What were the coverages on those plays? Where was the play design? I get where you’re going. Brett Hundley played better today. I have great faith in Brett Hundley. Brett Hundley is not our issue right now. There’s some very lopsided statistics. Look close at those. They told the story tonight. Third down, they owned it. You can’t have that much variance and production on both sides on third down and think you’re going to win football games. They made big plays. Stafford, threw it, I thought he threw the heck out of the ball tonight and they caught it. Tough coverages, there were a lot of competitive catches. Once again, that’s what we’ll focus on. We need to be a step better a number of times tonight. We’ve got to get it turned fast and play Chicago.”
(on going with RB Ty Montgomery and RB Jamaal Williams early on after RB Aaron Jones looked like he missed a block in pass protection) “No one’s in the doghouse. We played multiple personnel groups tonight. I think that was obvious.”
(on what he saw on the blocked field goal) “Well, the snap was low. That’s all I really saw. Didn’t evaluate it, frankly, after the play. Didn’t look at it in pictures and frankly, didn’t discuss it. Just moved on.”
(on the defense’s pass rush) “I think third down is important on both sides of the ball. The fact of the matter, I don’t think we got Matthew Stafford off the spot very often so it wasn’t good enough.”
(on what’s causing the Packers offensive struggles on third downs) “We’ll break it down. I think the first thing you look at is the down and distances on third down. You look at the run opportunities, the pass protection. We’ll evaluate, is the ball going to the primary receiver? Is he running the route? Is the time clock or the foot work of the quarterback intact? That’s what the review is for. There’s usually a fine line between being successful and not successful. We were not successful tonight at the level we needed to be. ”