Pettine on Fackrell: 'Consummate professional ... unselfish ... team guy'

[Cheesehead]

(on how things change in the cold)


Our guys know they’ll have to be ready to cover. We’ll try to have great direction and as much hang time as we can. But we’ll be ready to cover. The guys know that going in, the ball’s not going to travel as much.


(on the buy-in from the players)


Once you create that culture where guys care about special teams, they start running it themselves. When the players start running it themselves, then you’ve turned a corner. We’ve got a lot of young, core players, and I think the future is bright.


Defensive coordinator Mike Pettine


(on the defense finishing the season strong)


I think it was a combination of a lot of things. Continuing to grow in the system, being more confident in the calls and recognition of things, pre-snap. We had some communication issues, we overemphasized it and guys responded and found the overcommunicating part was a positive. It forced guys to buckle down. Guys dug a little deeper and the results were beneficial.


We looked at the explosives and there were some that were a tip of the hat, they made a good play, great throw, great catch. But there were a lot that were on us, had we communicated better, we’d have been in position to defend it.


(on Za'Darius Smith)


That was our guy when we evaluated the outside backers. He was the one we were most excited about, so we knew the moment we signed him from a football standpoint, he was going to bring what we saw on tape. There was some point in the spring, I can’t pinpoint it, you could feel the presence in the room and leadership, the infectious confidence and the personality. We didn’t realize that until we were around him, both him and Preston. That’s been a big boost to the room, not just from a playing standpoint, but all those things we’ve talked about, the intangibles.


(on pressure up front compared to last year)


We did a much better job affecting the quarterback, whether that’s completion percentage or just forcing the ball to come out quicker than they would have liked. Against us, quarterbacks don’t tend to hold it as long because they know it’s only a matter of time until someone’s breaking free. As far as moving the guy off the spot and affecting the ability to throw a completion, I think it’s been a world of difference this year.