Green Bay Packers Media Conference
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Miami, Florida, USA
Matt LaFleur
Visitors Postgame Presser
Packers – 26
Dolphins – 20
MATT LaFLEUR: Man, a resilient win by our team. Super proud of the guys in the locker room sticking together, no flinch. It wasn’t pretty. I think when you kick a bunch of field goals, that’s usually just enough to get you beat. We got to be better in the red zone obviously. Got to give these guys better calls. But can’t say enough about our defense, especially the first half. Obviously was not up to our standard, but in the second half definitely made a few adjustments, and our guys really went out there and executed.
Any time you have four takeaways in a game, you should win that game. That’s a really good football team, the Dolphins. They got a lot of, lot of explosive play-makers, like we knew. They do a great job.
But just super of our guys’ effort today, their ability to go out there and find a way to win.
Q. (Question about defensive adjustments.)
MATT LaFLEUR: I just think it comes down to all 11 playing the call and doing the best they can. I think our guys, it seemed like we were getting a little bit more pressure up front onto them, making them move out of the pocket. We knew he’s a guy that’s going to anticipate, he’s going to let the ball go. But if you can read the quarterback the right way, that also gives you some opportunities defensively. Our guys did a great job of that.
Q. (No microphone.)
MATT LaFLEUR: I just think, again, in the first half there were a couple plays where we had some busted
coverages, and they got behind us. Those are two guys that are as electric as it comes in the National Football League. If you give them a sliver of light, they’re able to take a little 10-yard pass and make it a house call. I thought just collectively all 11 being on the same page, making sure we’re not giving them as much green grass out there. Our guys did a good job of reading the quarterback. I thought Joe did a really good job in the second half.
Q. You mentioned kicking too many field goals. You had to feel like you were giving them maybe one too
many chances.
MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, definitely. Especially there at the end. There were some discussions about if we could get into I think it was a fourth and three right there at the end. We were trying to get to, like, fourth and two or fourth and one, then go for it. Just made the decision. I’m glad we made that decision. It
ended up working out. It doesn’t always. I kind of thought the way our defense was playing in the second half, that we could keep them out of the end zone, at least.
Q. Do you have an option to decline that? They clearly did that on purpose.
MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, yeah. I knew they did that on purpose. There was discussion about whether or not we should decline it. Do you get the free set of downs? I know it was second-and-short. Those are ones that you just always, you know, maybe look back and second-guess, should you have taken it or not.
Q. You have some guys down with injuries. Can you talk about some of the guys who stepped up.
MATT LaFLEUR: Yeah, no doubt. We had a lot of guys. Certainly never want to see that happen. Losing Keisean, not only as a returner, was huge, but then defensively. Thump going into there, doing a great job. I thought Sav went in there. He’s been a pro throughout this whole deal where he’s not playing as much. He went out there and made a difference for us in the second half. Offensively, you got Royce Newman going in there at tackle. But that’s what it takes. Losing Christian Watson was a big
deal, as well. That’s unfortunate ’cause he is an explosive guy. You can see his speed. Shoot, he took that one slant like 20 yards. You can get Thumb explosive plays, a guy like that. Losing those guys…
But it was cool to see wherever you do lose somebody, who is going to step up, take the opportunity. I noticed Devonte Wyatt was out there a lot more than he has been. I thought he did an outstanding job just from what I could see. Now we got to go back and take a look at the tape to really detail it up and see how it really was. I just thought there was a lot of guys. It was a total, collective team effort. Did just enough to get the win. All right, guys. Thank you.
Aaron Rodgers
Visitors Postgame Presser
Packers – 26
Dolphins – 20
Q. How do you like this team’s playoff chances right now?
AARON RODGERS: Definitely better than three weeks ago or four because of the bye. What do you think? Pretty good. Getting better. A lot of things happened our way.
Q. What can a win like this do for you guys?
AARON RODGERS: Yeah, I mean, I don’t think we’ve struggled with confidence. But definitely haven’t had a lot of believers outside the locker room I think. So maybe this will give us a couple on the bandwagon.
We’ve been in a good rhythm, practice, energy, cohesion, and playing a little bit better complementary football. It wasn’t perfect, but that’s a good football team and they had a lot to play for. It’s a good win for us.
Q. How big was what the defense did in the second half?
AARON RODGERS: It was huge. I think we had some really key drives on offense, but we definitely left some points out there. Had some chances. Had Christian there on fourth down, just missed him. First drive of the game, obviously down inside the 10, you need to get seven there to start off the game the right way. Overall when we had to have drives in the second half, we made it happen. Big drives. Starting third quarter, there was about seven minutes, touchdown to pull us back even. Our defense clamped down, played excellent football. We had a drive there with, what, about six left on the clock I think it was in the fourth. We took it down there and got points. Obviously would have liked to get a touchdown, but
that was a good drive for us.
Q. Talk a little bit more about the drive in the third quarter. What was the conversation in the locker
room?
AARON RODGERS: It wasn’t super pretty, but we had a couple conversions. P.T. had a nice catch and run for us. We just did what we had to do there getting seven points. It was a good drive for us. We wanted to get back in the game, tie it up. Did that. The defense just clamped down, played excellent.
Q. How many times have you made that throw to Marcedes screwing around in practice?
AARON RODGERS: Yeah, never. I’m not even a big fan of that concept, to be honest with you (smiling).
But Rome had a two-way go to one side. He chose inside, where outside probably would have been a little bit better. As I came back, P.T. made a great block on the backer, gave me a little bit of time. I saw Big Dog heading down the sidelines, thought I’d lay one up for him. Made a great play.
Q. Do you know how many miles an hour you clocked on that?
AARON RODGERS: 20.
Q. 17?
AARON RODGERS: 17? Awesome.
Q. The side angle on that throw, with the defender there, hands up, what made you launch it at that angle?
AARON RODGERS: You drop it down a little bit, it’s easier to get the trajectory that you want sometimes, especially when your shoulders are square. I was just creating the angle to put it kind of in a spot. I mean, I can’t say that was a super confident throw. I was just hoping Big Dog would see it, that it was somewhere in the vicinity where I might get a catch or a PI, though we didn’t really get any PI calls today.
Q. (Question about No. 33.)
AARON RODGERS: Got to ask him. I’m not sure. I know he was dealing with some stuff last week. I heard he was dealing with some stuff this week too. Probably a decent amount. Hopefully Christian is not too serious. Not sure of his status. We had a lot of guys banged up, a lot of guys stepped up. Roy stepped up. Sav played a bunch. Innis was out there. 24 was out there. Who else? P.T. I said P.T. P.T. played really well. A lot of guys stepped up.
Q. Coming into this game, the Giants lost, Washington lost, Seattle lost, Detroit lost, you come out with a win, how do you like the position in the next two games?
AARON RODGERS: I’d like to be, what are we, 7-8, I’d like to be 10-5, 11-4 (smiling). But considering where we were a few weeks ago, a lot has happened in our favor. All the games that needed to go a
certain way went a certain way. Now there’s obviously much left. Again, we played meaningful games in December. We won all three of those. Now we’re playing meaningful games in January. We got to win those.
Q. The small conversation you had with Tua at the end of the game, what did you tell him?
AARON RODGERS: Some of the stuff I actually said this week. I just really appreciate the way that he handles his business, his professionalism, just the way he goes about, speaks about his teammates. I think he’s got a really good humility about him. He’s a good, humble kid. Very talented. I enjoyed watching him play in college. I like the way he goes about his business. I think he handles things the right way, with a lot of class, a lot of respect. I told him to take care of himself, too. He’s had some pretty vicious hits this year. He’s a good kid. Got a long career in the league to look forward to. There’s days like this, but he still threw for a hell of a lot of yards and they got a lot of great weapons and they’re still in the hunt, as well.
Q. Lot of noise in the locker room. Is this the biggest celebration you guys have had after a game this year?
AARON RODGERS: Oh, I don’t know. I think they’re all pretty big. The defense tends to celebrate a little bit louder I think. They get a turnover, they run down to the end zone every time. Offense, we just celebrate in the end zone. They usually travel more distance to celebrate. When they came up with all those turnovers, there was a lot of celebrating for the defense. We were proud of ’em, too, so…
I think we’re all just enjoying the Christmas spirit.
Q. They had that encroachment, that was on purpose, right?
AARON RODGERS: Yes, I think so. I looked over at the coach, gave him a thumbs up. He was kind of gloating a little bit (laughter). No, it’s second and one. That’s a smart play to do. You get a first down, you’re basically wasting a timeout, 40 seconds.
S Adrian Amos
(They were saying that “OG” had some things to say to the secondary at halftime. What was
that message like?) – “Mostly was to keep the cap on them. We knew we who was beating us. We
had 17 (Jaylen Waddle) and 10 (Tyreek Hill) who had the two big plays and if everybody just stayed
where they were supposed to be those on those two plays, those plays wouldn’t have happened like
that. So we got to the second half and we fixed those.”
(To get four takeaways like you guys did tonight, how key is that for this defense and what does
that do for you guys coming out of this today?) – “That’s great. With takeaways, you keep giving
offense opportunities and we lessen their opportunities to get down the field, especially when you’re
playing a team with weapons like that, a team with speed like that. To hold them to 20 points and
scoreless the second half, it was almost like once we figured them out, we had them.”
(What was your perspective on Rasul’s pick and what kind of goes through your mind after you
realize you guys are going to be able to nail that thing out?) – “That was a great play by him. He
kind of baited them into that one. It was a great play by him. He baited them onto that throw. It was
a China-7, 7-route and he got it. And that’s game. It’s a relief. Game over. Big win.”
Kenny Clark
(No points scored on their half once you guys got to the break. Just how do you think you guys
finished?) – “This team is just so resilient. We just came out the second half and we knew they had
big plays and they had two big plays in the first half. We were just telling ourselves that we can’t give
up the big play and we did that for the most part in the second half.”
(When you take the field there on that last series what’s going through your mind?) – “We have
played in so many big games since I’ve been here. The biggest thing that I’ve been saying and I said
in the huddle is that ‘we been built for this.’ We’ve got a lot of guys that have played a lot of football
and that’s how we want it. We want it all on our shoulders.”
(What’s the key to handling adversity like that because you guys could have folded…?) – “It was
never no doubt with the guys. We just kept preaching, we limit the big plays and make them earn
everything. We’re going to be alright. The second half, they really had to drive and really had to not
get those chunk plays and really had to drive the ball down the field and we executed it and got the
turnovers.”
Rasul Douglas
Visitors Postgame Presser
Packers – 26
Dolphins – 20
Q. (No microphone.)
RASUL DOUGLAS: We was going over a play that we thought they would run if they needed a first down or get out of bounds. Coach went over it all week. Just made the play.
Q. What do you think of you did in the second half, no points? How do you think the defense responded?
RASUL DOUGLAS: Great. First half we gave up a couple of explosive plays. That’s what we didn’t want to do. We came here with the mindset of they don’t get as many explosive plays, we’ll be good.
Second half, (indiscernible) came in, cursed us out bad, we got to play better. I thought second half we played better.
Q. (No microphone.)
RASUL DOUGLAS: Just really going on field. I know the plays they like running. I’m going on field, trying to keep them in front of me, keep them in bounds. They use all they timeouts. Going on the field, if I feel I am going to get some, I’m going to try to end it. If I’m not, different situation.
Q. (No microphone.)
RASUL DOUGLAS: No, before the snap I told Quay he was going to get it. He dropped one early. Quay, you going to get it back, it’s going to come. When I turned around, it was coming right at me.
Q. What does a win against this team do for you guys going forward?
RASUL DOUGLAS: Keep building our confidence. I think that’s what we are right now, a confidence-based team.
Q. (No microphone.)
RASUL DOUGLAS: Yeah, for sure. We kind of figured they came out and gave us everything they had. We was like, We got to settle in, just slow down, just relax, breathe, just play.
Q. You mentioned a conversation with Quay…
RASUL DOUGLAS: That’s how it is. You get one pick, more going to come. You keep catching those, you’re
going to keep getting them. Just glad we caught them.
Q. (Question about first fumble and takeaway.)
RASUL DOUGLAS: That was a big one for us because we needed that stop. I think offense, they didn’t get any points, turned the ball over. We knew we had to stop. He came out, talked to us before that drive. We got to get a turnover here, this is the biggest defensive series we’re going to have. Jaire came in, got the fumble. We needed that.
Q. Being able to go back to Lambeau, back-to-back games…
RASUL DOUGLAS: We just got to win. Not too forward, looking at everybody else. We know it’s all on us. We lose, no matter what everybody else do. We just got to keep winning one step at a time.
Q. (No microphone.)
RASUL DOUGLAS: No, no. You got to watch everybody face when he start yelling. Really got in trouble, so… He talk, but it’s more like football stuff. But he always like a calm, chill person. When he mad, stuff got to change, so…
Q. The 93-yard kickoff return, how does that ignite a team when you get that?
RASUL DOUGLAS: It didn’t ignite us because we tired of seeing Keisean. No. I’m playing (smiling).
We needed that. Any point in time we catch one, can go the whole field. We hoping sooner or later it ends up in the way we all wanted it to end up and hoping it would end up, in a touchdown. Losing him was big because he also plays nickel for us, as well. Guys came up in and stepped up, Darnell Savage
came in, did what he was supposed to do, communicating, on the same page most of the game. It was good.
Q. (No microphone.)
RASUL DOUGLAS: We just stepped up. We just started playing better. We all looked at each other, We got ’em. We can get ’em. C’mon. We just kept leaning on each other, everything we saw, we always communicated it, got it right.
RB Aaron Jones
(Yesterday, a lot of teams lost for you guys to jump back in the mix with a win here. Going into
the next two games, how do you like your position?) – “We like our position, but it starts one
game at a time with an NFC North opponent which is Minnesota. (We have to) handle that first.
Before we look past or look forward to anything, you have to handle what’s in front of you.”
(What was your reaction when you saw QB Tua Tagovailoa throwing those picks in the fourth
quarter?) – “Just our defense, they stepped up. We always believe in each other. We always have
faith. We told them, ‘Come on, we need a stop. We need a stop,’ and they went out there and got a
stop. So that’s what great defenses do.”
(How big was you guys punching it in for a field goal right before the half after DL Jarran Reed’s
fumble recovery? Then coming out after the break and going on the touchdown drive, how big
was that section of the game?) – “It was very big. We like to call that double dipping. If we could
have gotten the touchdown, we wanted the touchdown but we still got points on the board. That
sets you up for coming out at halftime knowing that you got the ball and can really change the flow
of the game and how it’s going and double dip. You can possibly get 14 points up there, and it’s a
huge momentum thing as well. I felt like we had momentum coming into the locker room. We’ve
seen it in here with the guys, communicating, smile on their face but knowing we had a lot more to
do out there.”
TE Marcedes Lewis
(QB Aaron Rodgers said earlier this week the wins against teams the last two weeks is one thing,
this would mean another. What does this do for you going into the final two games?) – “It means
that the work is working, just keep doing the things we’ve been doing and things like that will
happen. We just have to stay the course. You don’t really control wins and losses, but your attitude
and effort and preparation going into the games, you have complete control over that. Today, we
handled business.”
(The 31-yard catch, how did you see that come in? How big was that moment for you guys
offensively?) – “For me, that play – even at practice, ‘A-Rod’ (Aaron Rodgers) doesn’t really let it go
like that in practice to me. I feel like I had him beat. I saw the ball up there, and the rest was
fundamental after that. I’ve been doing that all my life. I was just very grateful to be accountable
when my number was called.”
