K, I'll start with the injuries. Patrick Lee had a knee sprain. It will be a challenge for him to be ready this week. Atari Bigby has a chronic ankle. Nick Collins, knee contusion. Tory Humphrey, ankle sprain. Brandon Jackson, ankle sprain. Johnny Jolly, foot and ankle sprain. Aaron Rouse also had an ankle sprain, and Mark Tauscher had a hamstring strain. With that I'll take your questions.
(What's the early outlook for Tauscher?)
Mark is going to have an MRI today and we'll have more information as far as his specific situation.
(How did Tony Moll fare?)
I thought Tony played well. Tony is a tough guy, went in there and competed. Had the one mistake there, I think on the first or second series. Other than that, I thought he did well.
(After looking at the film, what were the common breakdowns in the secondary?)
As far as our defense's performance, it was definitely not a strength last night. As far as their passing game versus our defense, it's the combination of pass rush and defensive coverage. We weren't intact. We did not get the pressure on the quarterback that we prepared and planned to do, and he had a lot of time back there to throw. They won the individual matchups against our coverage, particularly in the first half with their ability to score as fast and as frequent as they did. We made some adjustments in the second half, but it was not a good day for our defense.
(Where was the pass rush last night?)
I've already answered the question. The pass rush was not good enough last night.
(How do you get the defense to recover from this and move forward?)
Well, we have to move forward. It's Tuesday. We have a short week. We'll spend a short period of time Wednesday morning, excuse me, noon, we're going to bring the team in later. We'll spend a short time going through the corrections of New Orleans. But we need to jump on Carolina. It's a big game at home this week.
(This isn't the first time you haven't had an up-to-par pass rush. Is the skill level of the quarterback the rest of the equation?)
Frankly, I don't think I do a good enough job sometimes of giving the opponent credit. I think you have to give some credit to Drew Brees. He played at an extremely high level last night and has all year. I think his statistics speak for itself. We knew that going into the game. We had a particular plan to challenge him a certain way, and we didn't accomplish our plan. We didn't play at the level that we wanted to play. A hot quarterback, they did a lot of things against us with their offense.
(Is that more because of the execution of the players or the scheme going into the game from the coaching staff?)
It's always execution. The ability to prepare and perform is something we strive every week. The disappointment or frustrating that I stand here with as a coach is the way we've been preparing and the way we've been practicing and coming off a very solid, strong performance against Chicago, and the ability to take another step forward, and we didn't do that. There were segments throughout the game that we did a lot of positive things in the three areas, and then obviously there were segments in the game, particularly their offense versus defense, that we didn't do very well. So we'll correct that and move on. It's part of the National Football League. It's a tough environment to play in. I'm not making any excuses. We went down there well-prepared, had an excellent week, like I've already stated, and I anticipated us playing better, and we did not.
(Are you perplexed by the inconsistencies of your team this year?)
Well, I don't share the same opinion as you as far as the inconsistencies up until this point. I thought clearly in the New Orleans game that based on the score, when you lose by three scores, that's a sound defeat. But I don't think I've ever stood here after a game and felt that way. I think for the most part, our level of execution, there has been some consistency. We didn't play well enough. Our record reflects that at 5-6. I'm not going to stand up here and tell you how good we played. That's not my point. But I think for the most part as a football team, we've been consistent in the games that we've been in. We've had opportunities to win almost I'd say every football game until this point against New Orleans.
(What's happening on kickoff return?)
I'll tell you, I thought Will Blackmon did a very good job as far as his second and third efforts. I have not seen the film of the special teams yet, but just from the game on the field, I thought we could have done a better job of staying on our blocks. It didn't seem like we were as coordinated as we have been. But I thought he did a very good job of trying to keep the thing going.
(Did you have a chance to look at the offensive tape and dissect Aaron's interceptions?)
Turnovers were a big part of the second half point swing, no doubt. As far as what went wrong and who did what, frankly I'm not going to get into all of that today. I thought he played very well in the first half. I thought the offense as a whole, that was the plan to go in was to control the clock, control the time of possession. We were able to accomplish that with the long drives, and then the turnovers were big factors in the momentum swing as far as their crowd. The first interception was a 17-point swing and then it went to a three-score. They definitely factored in their football team pulling away from ours.
(Would you say those turnovers are as much to blame as the defensive breakdowns?)
It's a football team. There's things we did well and there's things we didn't do well. We don't believe in turning the football over. We turned it over three times. That definitely factors into a game.
(Are you looking at any punters this week?)
We didn't punt very well last night, no doubt about it. That is twice now indoors that we didn't have a good performance. We need to continue to just try to improve from within. That's something we have done very well here throughout our football team. I thought Derrick had a very good week of work, especially in the Hutson Center going down to an indoor environment. Like a couple other of our segments, we need to carry what we do during the course of the week to the game.
(So there's nobody out there? You had no problem cutting the last guy, and the new guy has been terribly inconsistent if not moreso than the last guy.)
As I've been asked before up here, player acquisition and as far as what we do, I don't discuss that here.
(If he can't punt indoors, how is he going to tilt the field outdoors with three games left here at Lambeau?)
I thought he punted very well against Chicago. That was outdoors.
(That's one game ...)
Gentlemen, I understand the point you are making. It's been heard. It's been well-received. We're going to continue to work this week and get ready for Carolina.
(You said before there was not one game where you walked off the field and felt your team didn't play well. What was the feeling walking off the field last night?)
I felt like their team beat our football team. I think the scoreboard reflected that, and that happens in this league. We're not the first team this year to be beaten by three scores. The most important thing is for us to be real honest with what happened and correct it and move forward and apply it to Carolina. That's our plan.
(As bad as everything seems, you have give games left and you're not out of anything ...)
Five games left to play and we're not out of anything. It's right in front of us. We need to win football games. We know that; that's our focus. We don't want to be in a position where we're watching other scores and so forth, and we still have that opportunity. That's part of the big-picture focus for our football team, and our tight focus will be on the Carolina Panthers. Obviously with their record you know they are a good football team. They challenge you schematically a number of different ways, and we need to get ready and prepared to win that game on Sunday.
(How did Aaron come out with the shoulder? He had the big hit on the interception return and the TD dive.)
My understanding, he came out fine. I don't have anything on him as far as the medical report.
(Are you OK with the hit he gave on that interception return?)
Well, I'm sure there was some frustration involved in that. I didn't see it live as clear as I'm sure everybody else did. I didn't pay much attention to it when I watched it on the film.
(Does the holiday alter your schedule this week?)
We'll make adjustments in our Thursday schedule. We've actually just moved everything up. It's important for everybody, players, coaches, support staff, everybody involved to be with their family on Thanksgiving. Keeping everything in perspective, so we have adjusted our schedule. We'll start earlier so that everybody can be done between 12:00-1:00.