Green Bay – Some sports psychologists will tell you a little bit of adversity is good. It can be a rallying cry. A focal point. It can develop coping skills.
But too much, and too much of it at once, can be too much to overcome.
Are the Packers facing that right now?
Consider what Matt Flynn was up against when he came in the third quarter at quarterback.
It wasn’t just that he is the fourth quarterback to play for the Packers since Aaron Rodgers got hurt, after Seneca Wallace and Scott Tolzien.
It was that he was totally new to the new Packers.
How many snaps did he get this week in practice?
“I think I got four snaps with the regular offense calling the plays,” said Flynn.
Now, left tackle David Bakhtiari – a rookie – dealt with this at Colorado.
“In college, I had like three quarterbacks in one game,” he said.
So he knew what he had to do as soon as Flynn was called in to action. And it wasn’t a question about a big touchdown throw to win the game.
“As soon as I heard he was going in, I said ‘hey, let me hear your cadence,’” said Bakhtiari. “’Because everyone talks differently. Let me just hear you talk.’ Because when I’m out there, away and even home, I pretty much hear the least. I mean, the wide receivers can’t hear anything. But as an offensive lineman, I can only pick up a few sounds. I had to make sure I knew we were on the same page.”
That’s why Flynn took some of the responsibility for the false start penalties on the offensive line at what seemed to be the worst possible time.
“My operation in the no huddle needs to get better,” said Flynn. “Its kind of tough on those offensive linemen, we’re in a two-minute mode, no huddle and they’re listening to me call the snap count. It’s something I’ve got to work on because I’m not going to sit here and say all those false starts are on them. It’s a tough situation when they’re hearing a completely new snap count.”
Flynn said he was still confident, and he felt the Packers were in him, too.
“I was fired up to go in, I was ready. I told Mike (McCarthy), ‘here’s the plays I’m comfortable with and let’s go at it,’” said Flynn. “I was proud of the guys for fighting. I don’t know how many we were down when I came in but the looks from people’s faces in the huddle, I don’t think there was any doubt that we would win.”
Added Clay Matthews when asked about the comeback led by Flynn: “I’m not going to call it hope, but there’s something to look forward to right there, that our offense can put points on the board.”
And A.J. Hawk: “People talk about it all the time – he’s a gamer. He knows how to win. I think of a guy like Eddie Lacy that comes from those huge college programs that know how to win, they’re good, smart football players. And there’s something to that.”
"We overcame adversity, we showed a lot of heart out there to come back, on offense and defense, to force overtime,” said Lacy.
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