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BB: Good morning. We're just doing
work on third down like we usually do on Thursday. I thought the Packers really had a good third down day against Minnesota last week. They had not
only all of the third down conversions, but they had a lot of big plays on
third down – 20-, 30-, 40-yarders. The one to [Greg] Jennings that he lateraled back to [Donald] Driver. That was about a 45-yarder.
Third-and-goal on the five and they hit it for a touchdown. They've made a
lot of big plays. That was a big part of their win last week against the Vikings. It's an area obviously we need to do a better job at, both sides of
the ball. That's where we are today.
Q: Does it help having a common
opponent with the Packers in Minnesota?
BB: Maybe a little bit because at least we know the Vikings a little bit.
Some of the matchups. We know how some of their players play and how they
match up against some of Green Bay's. Yes, I think as we kind go through
the season in that division with a couple more of those games coming up, you
start seeing more of those teams against each other and get a little better
feel for those opponents. I think the first one is the hardest one to
prepare for. Yes, it does. It helps you.
Q: Your third down defense the last couple of weeks, is it something that
teams are doing or something that you guys aren't doing?
BB: We've played against some good skill players. We're playing against
them again this week. [Marvin] Harrison and [Reggie] Wayne, [Peyton] Manning, Dallas Clark, [Jerricho] Cotchery and [Laveranues] Coles, [Chris] Baker and [Chad] Pennington – we
[have been] playing against good people. Driver, Jennings, [David] Martin, Bubba [Franks], [Brett] Farve – it's good
competition. We have to make plays on third down to get off the field
defensively. It's certainly challenging because we're going up against
good teams, good offenses with good schemes that are complementary and give
you four or five things to worry about. You just can't zero in on one guy or
one play or one pattern. You have multiple things to defend and we just have
to find a way to get it stopped.
Q: You talked about their safeties being good. What's going on with their
passing game? They're ranked 32nd overall against the pass.
BB: They've given up some big plays. There's no doubt about that. I'm
sure they would tell you that. When you watch them down after down, their
coverage is pretty good. Every once in a while, something happens and
there's a longer play in there. Like what happened last week against Minnesota. What happened to Minnesota. Minnesota blew the coverage and they
hit Driver on a 3-yard slant and it ends up being an 82-yard touchdown.
They've had a couple of those defensively too. They gave up a couple of
go-routes, gave up a couple of short catch-and-run plays. In each game where
something has gone wrong, I don't know what it was – communication or
somebody fell down. When you're playing man-to-man coverage, sometimes that
happens. I can tell you on a down after down basis, you don't see [Charles] Woodson or Al Harris or [Nick] Collins or [Nick] Barnett or [A.J.] Hawk, you
don't see them very far away from the guy they're covering. It's hard to
count on somebody making a mistake. It would be nice if they did, but it's
hard to count on it.
Q: I know their plan was to play Woodson some at safety. Did that ever
materialize?
BB: He played a little bit at safety a couple of games ago. Who was it
against? I forget who it was against, but he's had some snaps at safety,
yes. Most of his plays come at corner and then he moves inside in sub most
of the time. But they do a lot of matching up. They've put Harrison and Woodson on certain receivers and they just stay with them the whole game.
Sometimes you can include him in sub. Most of the time Woodson has been in
the slot when they've had three corners on the field, but not always.
Q: Is that just more of a matchup thing?
BB: Well, they play so much man coverage, they match to the receivers and
they just cover them.
Q: How has Hawk played?
BB: I think he's done a good job for them. He's a very athletic guy. They
play him on the weak side. He gets a chance to use his athleticism over
there. He's in coverage a lot. If they're in man coverage with the corners,
they're in man coverage with the linebackers. So they're in a lot of
man-to-man coverage. He's athletic. He can run. He blitzes. He has a bunch
of sacks. I don't know how many he has, but he's probably got about four or
five. I don't know. He's done a good job for them. Their linebackers are
very athletic. I think Barnett is a very athletic Mike linebacker inside. It's
different but it's similar to the Miami defense when Dave Wannstedt was down
there and they had Zach Thomas playing Mike and they had all of those fast
linebackers in man-to-man coverage. They had [Jason] Taylor and [Brendon
Ayanbadejo]. The Packers have [Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila] and [Aaron] Kampman.
They drafted another one. Unfortunately for him he got hurt. They've lost a
couple of guys. I think they're trying to have a defensive style similar to
the old Dolphin's style with linebackers good in man-to-man coverage, press
man-to-man type of corners, physical safeties, that style of play.
Q: Does that mean a lot of blitzing?
BB: They probably blitz more than the Dolphins did, but they don't blitz
like Minnesota and Arizona and Washington and some of the teams that we've
seen earlier in the year. They don't blitz in those kinds of percentages.
They haven't, but they could. Anytime you're in man-to-man coverage and the
guy that you're covering blocks, then you always have a potential for that
guy to just come and get his guy, but it really looks kind of like a blitz.
Sometimes it's sort of hard to tell for the backs and the quarterback
whether the guy is blitzing or whether the guy that he is covering is
blocking, so he comes aggressively to fill into the pocket. You kind of
almost have to treat it the same. So there is an element of…we call those
hugs, or some people call them green dogs, or key blitzes or whatever.
There's an element of that in their defense and Hawk is a guy and Barnett is
another guy that have gotten some sacks on plays like that. Their guy
blocks, they come, the quarterback steps up and they grab him and that's it.
Q: When [Will] Blackmon was coming out, did you view him more as a
receiver or a corner?
BB: It's an interesting question because he did do both in college and
they switched him from corner to receiver when he returned. I think he has
possibilities of both. I think you'd have to really take a look at him. I
don't know, maybe he's one thing in one system and something else in another
system. I'm not sure. But we thought that he would have possibilities at
both spots. Probably would've started him at corner first.
Q: Did that make it hard to put a value on him?
BB: You're talking about a player that's fast and he's tough and he's
made some big plays in the return game, in the passing game and on defense.
He has some things going for him. He's only a rookie. He's only been there a
half a year. We'll see how that develops. Regardless of how he looks, it
would be way too early to probably definitively say this is the best it's
going to be. He's a hard working kid that will probably continue to get
better and we'll just see where that takes him.
Q: Is there something special about leading a team into Lambeau Field?
BB: Yes there is. I think that's a special place to play. It's one of the
old, even though it's been remodeled very nicely, there's so much tradition
in that stadium. You look up in their Ring of Fame, or Hall of Fame, whatever
you call up there up there above the mezzanine level, and you see all of
those names and it kind of brings a little chill down your spine. there are a
lot of guys that I had football cards of and watched growing up back when
the league was only, I don't know however many teams there were, maybe like
16. There weren't very many. there are a lot of familiar names there. It's a
very interesting team. Organizationally they're pretty much different from
every other team in the league. Their ownership. And it's such a small town.
Football, it's not really competing with much of anything up there in Green
Bay relative to other [cities] that have multiple pro sports and that type
of thing. It's kind of a unique situation and setting and a lot of
tradition, with a guy like Favre that's been one of the great quarterbacks
in this era and been there for a long time. That certainly helps keep it
going.
Q: Do you have a favorite Vince Lombardi quote?
BB: I've heard them, but not really, no. They're all good. It was a
little bit of a different game when he coached it. I think the big thing with Lombardi was that he was all about execution. It wasn't like they'd had a lot of
new or exotic plays or things like that. Pretty much everybody knew what
they were going to do, but they had a hard time stopping it. They had good
players and he was a very disciplined coach and they executed their plays
extremely well on a consistent basis. So whether it be [Bart] Starr and the
passing game, or [Paul] Hornung and [Jim] Taylor and the offensive line and
the running game, or with [Ray] Nitschke and [Willie] Davis and all those guys
on defense, they were just a solid, consistent, week after week...like the
[Don] Shula teams were, except I thought that the Shula teams had a lot
more variety, kind of a little bit of the Paul Brown-type of offense and
defense where it seemed like they were more innovative and creative. And I'm not
taking anything away from anybody, I'm just saying it was just a contrast in
styles.
Q: Vince said that only two
things matter in football – blocking and tackling. Does that still hold true
in today's game?
BB: I think they're very important. I
think that throwing and catching and covering have a lot more to do with it
now than they did 40 or 50 years ago. Without blocking and tackling you
can't block and you don't have much on offense; and if you can't tackle, you
don't have much on defense. So it has to start there, no question about it.
But I think that the skills that we see on a weekly basis in this league, as
it relates to the passing game, they're pretty important too.
Q: Anything standout to you from your very first trip to Lambeau?
BB: That whole division back then, it was Soldier Field and it was Metropolitan Stadium in Minnesota. When we played in Milwaukee, I actually
think we played there one year, Minnesota and Milwaukee were the baseball
fields where both benches were out there on the same side of the field, out
in center field. We don't see that anymore obviously. Fran Tarkenton. Again,
there was a lot of tradition then. It was a lot closer to the Vince Lombardi years and all of the championships of the 60s. They weren't as good then as
they had been a decade earlier. At that point in time it was really the Vikings and Bud Grant. I forget how many divisions in a row that they won,
but it was a lot. After the torch was passed from Green Bay to Minnesota, it
was Minnesota it seemed like it was year after year. We couldn't beat them.
Q: Mike Vrabel worked out some with Hawk. Can you see what a younger
player would take from Mike?
BB: Mike is great. Mike is a very smart football player, not just his own
position and technique and what he's doing, but he has a good understanding
of what all 11 players are doing, both on our side of the ball and on the
other side of the ball and in the kicking game. I think he's very astute.
He's attentive and he picks up things even when you're not talking to him.
He hears you say it to somebody else and he registers that and it sticks
with him. It's a coaching point that he'll remember and remind you of a year
or a half a year or a week later and it wasn't even said to him. He's that
kind of guy. He's a very good communicator on defense. He's probably one of
the best that I've ever coached in terms of communication on the field and
seeing formations and making calls and relaying calls and making sure that
the right person knows what to do. You have a lot of calls on defense, some
relate to coverage, some relate to run force, some relate to pass rush
lanes, some relate to run stunts and so forth, a lot of times when players
make a call they just call something, 'Silver, silver,' or, 'Trio, trio,' or
'Slam,' but it needs to go to a specific person. So just to call silver,
well, that might not mean anything to eight of the players on defense, but
there are three guys that really have to know that and the player might not
even really be making the call to those players. So that's just an
understanding of who is doing what and who needs to know what. Again, where
Mike is really good is understanding not only the defensive concepts and the
communication, but specifically, 'Oh, I have to get the call to this guy.
Three of us need to know how we're going to play this, not two out of three
because we are the ones that are really involved in this particular
adjustment.' His example to younger players and his, not only his
communication on the field, but communication with all players, not just
younger players. It's very positive and it's exemplary really. You'd like to
have all 11 guys on defense have that same kind of understanding and
communication skills that Mike displays.
Q: He said he wants to coach when he's done playing football. Can you see
some of the teaching skills that you need to be a good coach in Mike?
BB: Yes. I think that if Mike set his mind to do that, I think he'd be
great at it in a lot of different ways. I think he could coach individual
positions and techniques. I think he has a good understanding of the bigger
picture, whether it be defense or special teams. I think that he could, in
terms of training, in the weight room strength and conditioning, stretching
things like that. I think that he has a great working knowledge of that and
has done some of that back in Columbus. I think he understands the whole
picture of a football team from star players, to other role players, to the
young developing players, to the older veteran players, to the offense-
defense-special teams schemes. He has a really good understanding of the
game. I'm sure that, like I said, if he set his mind to it and that's what
he wanted to do, I think he'd have the potential to be a really good coach.
Q: You talked about young offensive linemen coming out of college and
some of them not being ready physically to start in the NFL. Did you take
note of the three young offensive linemen that the Packers have – [Daryn] Colledge, [Jason] Spitz and [Tony] Moll subbing for [Mark] Tauscher?
BB: I don't know if you ever project any rookies to start. You hope that
once they understand the system that they'll be able to play and contribute
whether that's starting or halfway through their rookie year or it could be
their third year. I don't think you really know what that time frame is
going to be. For an offensive lineman, playing strength is an issue. You can
be a smart player and you can have good feet and good balance all of that,
but if you're just not strong enough to play against the type of players
that you have to play against, then it takes some time to develop that. But
I think in particular cases – Spitz and Colledge, because I spent a
significant amount of time on both of those players. I know them better than Moll. They are strong. Colledge is a strong guy. Spitz is strong. He's
athletic. I think both have a good playing style. They're tough. They play
aggressively. We saw that in college. Colledge played tackle, so he is a
tackle that's kind of moved to guard. Spitz was a guard at Louisville and
still is a guard. Moll has shown the ability to play both. He really rotated
in there at guard with Spitz and Colledge earlier in the year. They kind of
had what looked like a three-way rotation and then they moved Colledge out
to left tackle when he replaced [Chad] Clifton. Now with Tauscher out in the Minnesota game, them Moll moved out there and replaced him. You can see all
those guys with not only a little bit of position flexibility, but also
athletically their skills to play more than one position and for a young guy
that's pretty impressive. They have a lot of good, young players on that
football team – their backs, the receivers, linemen,
defensive players, the
safeties are both young, good players. It's a good, young team. A talented
team.
Q: Have they been bringing their safeties up, similar to the Jets and Colts?
BB: No. They do bring them down, but probably not as much as those teams.
Although the Jets, they did a lot more on third down, not quite as much on
early downs. They did both. Again, I would say if you want to think of the Green Bay defense as a comparison, it would be similar to the Miami defense
when Wannstedt was there. Not identical, but they're a lot more similarities
to that than probably any other scheme that I could think of and that
obviously carries over from Jim Bates from last year and so forth.
Q: A couple of coaches got approval to wear suits on the sidelines. Any
chance you'll be trading in the gray sweatshirt for a coat and tie this
week?
BB: I didn't even know that was an option. The first I heard about it was
like five minutes ago. Somebody mentioned it, but I think that's great.
Really, I do. When you think back to the Paul Browns and the Vince
Lombardis and Tom Landry and guys like that, their busts in the Hall of Fame – George
Halas with that hat – you can practically see them. I think it was really a
signature for some of those coaches. In all my years as a head coach, I've
never one time in a league meeting or through the league or anything else
ever been consulted, asked or even had a conversation about sideline apparel
other than, 'This is what you have to do.' That's been the extent of the
conversation. I'm not saying those conversations don't exist, but I've never
been a part of one. I'm sure that the marketing and the apparel people or
whoever, I'm sure that they have spent plenty of time on it. That's not
anything that I've ever been, in any way, a part of, so I really don't know
what the story is on that. But, I don't see anything wrong with it at all. I
think it's good. The way it is now in the league now, everybody is wearing
the team shirts or whatever. It seems like teams change their logo every two
years anyhow. One year it's striped shirts. The next it's checkered shirts.
The next year it's whatever. Or jackets. That stuff changes every year or
two with a lot of teams anyway. I think there's something to be said if you
think about traditional NFL, if that's something that you're interested or
the league is interested in, but I think there's something to be said for
it. If they're not, then there isn't anything to be said for it and that's
the way it's been for, I'd say, I don't know, when the sideline rule came
into effect. '93, '94, I don't know. I can still see Ray Handley in Monday
Night game with the Giants wearing that…so whatever.
Q: Would you wear one?
BB: I don't know enough about it. You're telling me more than I know.
That's the truth. You're telling me more than I know. If I had an option to
wear one, would I wear one? I'd consider it, yeah. I would definitely
consider it.
Q: Do you own a Fedora?
BB: No, I don't. I'd have to rent one of those. Honest to God, I don't
even know that it's an option. I'm not saying that it isn't, but I don't
even…so was the approval just given to one or two coaches or does everybody
have it?
Q: I think [Mike] Nolan and [Jack] DelRio got permission.
BB: So does that mean that no one else can?
Q: You'd have to ask the experts. [Laughter]
BB: That's who I'm asking. You guys know more than I do.
Q: [Laughter] We'd miss the sweatshirts.
BB: Well, I'm not saying I'd never wear that again.
Q: Wouldn't it be uncomfortable though going up and down the sidelines in
leather shoes and suit and tie the way you coach?
BB: I don't know. You see other coaches do that. You see some college
coaches doing it. Obviously the NBA coaches, those guys, $3000 suits, with
new ones every night. Some of them look pretty good, really good. So I don't
know. Again, I don't know that that necessarily defines winning and losing.
I think it's obviously more of a question of style and a question of what,
in this case the league, since we as coaches don't really have any say in it
other than I guess if Mike made a request, then he made a request or
whatever. But those decisions are made by the league, I guess, and what they
want and what kind of tradition or style they want or what they're trying to
accomplish. In terms of talking to the experts, you'd have to talk to the
experts from the league about that because like I said, in all my years as a
head coach, never one time have I been part of any kind of conversation
about, 'Well, we want to do this. We'll consider that.' It's always been,
'This is the way it is,' and just do it. Where that comes from, who made
that decision or who makes those decisions and why they're that way, I have
no idea. Never been consulted on that. Not one time. Or had it explained to
me either. Not that they need to consult me to do anything, but it's never
been explained to me, 'Well this is the way it is and this is why it's that
way.' You get a memo or a letter or something and it says, 'This is the way
it is. This is what you have to do.' |
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