Sir Purr
Well-known member
- Mar 16, 2019
- 1,969
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HEAD COACH MATT RHULE
RE: Opening Statement
Obviously disappointed in the loss. Really disappointed in the way we played early in the game. Thought once we settled down on defense halfway through the second quarter, I thought [defensive coordinator] Phil [Snow] did a good job with his staff and settled the defense down. To hold that unit scoreless for that long showed some promise. Offensively had some opportunities to work on some more points. Didn't quite make the plays, hurt ourselves. The at the goal line obviously was a killer. Penalties on the last drive obviously killer. So disappointed. Credit to them. They're an 11-win team for a reason and we had a chance to see it and see where we have to get to.
RE: Update on Brian Burns' health
He finished the game, so I don't know exactly. He was kind of hobbling here. He was able to keep playing. Its usually one of those deals where you'll have to see him in tomorrow and see where he's at. I don't know much than other than that. I'm sorry.
RE: Promise defense showed tonight
I think the biggest thing we said to our guys is we weren't playing football at first. Like they were throwing the ball out on the perimeter and catching screens. They were running the ball through us and we were not tackling. I think our pride kind of kicked in and we played better after that. I thought we had a good feel for what they were going to do on our three-down package. I thought we covered well. We got off the field on third-down. I think they were four-of-six on third down in the first half and then obviously getting pressure, getting sacks. Derrick [Brown] getting sacks, Brian [Burns] getting sacks were all huge things. I think Phil [Snow] did a great job of saying, 'hey, this is what they are doing, let me go to this.' But at the same time, I thought our players, as I said to them, you hate these losses but if there is a message it's like, when we just do what we are supposed to do, we are a pretty good team. Our defense just kind of settled down and started tackling. I'm being long-winded here I thought one of the key things was our corners. Troy [Pride] went down, Rasul [Douglas] went in the game and I thought our corners stepped up and tackled in the run game. They were cracking our safeties and that was a huge difference. I think we just kind of started to play better.
RE: Goal-line fumble by Teddy Bridgewater and comment to Melissa Stark about never reaching the ball over the goal line
It's not Teddy, it's just our team. We don't reach the ball over the goal line until fourth down. It's just kind of a principal. We don't do it. We never do it. Teddy talked to the team and he admitted, he said 'I shouldn't have done that.' You get to the moment and you can't do new things. You know, you are at Lambeau in December playing a good team. You just have to trust yourself. I'm not talking about just Teddy, but the whole team. That play was emblematic. You talk about dramatic shift. Had he done that on fourth down, I can live with it, just not on first down, especially when I think we ran the ball well when we did run it tonight. That's just a principle of our team. We don't reach the ball across the goal line until fourth down.
RE: If that was the play call
No, and Teddy never, unless we give him some latitude. Last week I thought the problem was on us. We gave him too much latitude. We had the ball down at the 6-inch line and [offensive coordinator] Joe [Brady], we run the tempo on fourth-and-1, tried to call a tempo call and get us into a quarterback sneak to get into the endzone. We felt like that was one of the good things we were going to do. Instead of running the sneak like we do in practice, he jumped over the top. Again, that's something I think you do on fourth down. You don't do that on first down.
RE: If he would have wanted to run a different play than the quarterback sneak
No sir. No, Joe [Brady] called it. Joe calls the plays for us. He called quarterback sneak. That's just not how we execute it. I'm anticipating when we run quarterback sneak, we wedge in and push it. Quarterback sneaks in the NFL right now are like 90%. You usually score on them. You usually get the yard and score. It was first down. Quarterback sneak to try and catch them. The referees held us because some of our guys tried to run on the field and had to run back off when Joe went tempo. So, the referees held us. But we should execute that play. I have no problem with the play call. It's first down. You run the sneak, you don't get in, you are at the 6-inch line. Next play we hand it off. I was not going to kick a field goal there. We had four downs. My issue is really never about the play calls, it's the execution of the call. I expect every play can work if we do it right. We don't reach the ball over the goal line. I hate to beat him up on just that one play because there were a lot of things today that weren't up to our standard across the board. But that play just can't happen.
RE: Troy Pride injury update
That's it. They said he was down and never came back, said he was back up. I don't know the extent of that. We just turned to Rasul [Douglas] and went from there.
RE: Decision to kick field goal when down 11 near the end of the game
If you don't do that, then you have to win on the onside kick. If you are down 11 and you score either a touchdown or a field goal, but specifically the field goal, then with one timeout you can also use the 2-point. So I knew that we'd have a minute left, I said, hey we got to get a three and out. I felt a three and out would be better for us than an onside kick. I think you win an onside kick in the NFL like five to seven percent. That's how we said we would do it. We wanted to do that. It worked out perfectly. DJ [Moore] hit that big run. Because if he wouldn't have done that, we wouldn't have been able to do it. Luckily for us, the other part is Joey [Slye] has to kick be able to the ball through the endzone. Then you have to get the three and out so. That was our strategy. It worked out. We wanted to have the ball. We had the ball at the 50-yard line with a chance, with a minute left or whatever. Unfortunately, holding call and then a grounding call put us back under duress.
RE: Pass rush and five sacks indicating the promise of the future of the defense
Yeah, I think Aaron Rodgers right now he's scoring offensively in the passing game. I think for us to get sacks and that's really the first time we got sacks with the four-man rush. We got some pressure. We got some four-man rush sacks at a few times, knocked them out of field goal range. We got one at the end of the game. Got one at the end of the half. We got it from the inside as well. As disappointed as we are when we lose, there are a lot of positives. Those players have to continue to grow, continue to play better. Was happy to see them make some plays.