Here’s what Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said to the Wisconsin media Thursday:
On being held accountable: "There's nobody that holds me more accountable than myself. I mean, I'm always checking myself on my preparation habits and my practice habits and my mindset, but there's always been a great deal of accountability under (coach) Mike (McCarthy's) program for the last 13 years. There's consequences for actions that are outside of what's in the best interest of the team, and there's never been – I used to always tell him, I said, 'Hey, if you need to call on somebody in the meeting to let everybody know we're all on equal playing field, call on me first. Call me out.' Just so everybody knows nobody is off limits, we're holding everybody to the same standard. And I feel that's the way it always was."
On interim coach Joe Philbin: "Just the little things. Signals I might give over to the sideline, whether I need the play again or just looks from time to time during the game where this mean, 'Hey, I need to play again,' or this mean, 'I got it.' just get on the same page in our body language with the two of us. And then spending some time talking about the plan, which I'm sure we'll do the next couple days."
On changing plays and audibles: "I don't think so. That's always been part of the offense. There's check with me's, there's audibles within plays. And then the stuff outside those when there's a look that we talked about this play into this play, but those are always stuff that we talk about during the week, and you're really never going to make stuff up out there. it's conversations that you've had so the guys are expecting those checks when they come up."
On what will be different with Philbin calling the plays: "I don't think a whole lot. I mean, he's been putting the plans together and installing them and doing the scripts and all that. So I don't think that's really going to change. He's always down around our meeting room. We're always having conversations, the walkthroughs or Fridays after the second walkthrough, he'll talk through some things and ... calls we might need scripted for Saturday, or stuff we need to see another rep of, stuff we don't like, so it's always been a good indication of that during a week of preparation."
On the tempo of the play calling: "I don't know, I don't think you scrap the whole thing. I just think you really need to be better in situational offense if you want to win games, so we're going to pay a little more attention, even more attention, to that the next couple weeks, because we've got to fix that if we want to win games. But it does - it's hard when you put me in a corner there about execution, because that's to me the biggest problem that we've had all season."
On finding three or four things to work: "I think that's always the goal. You have to find what those are. So I think we're going through the process, the normal planning today which is first, second and third down. There's a lot of stuff that we've been doing, there's a couple wrinkles, it's kind of a business-as-usual preparation week, and see what the red zone and screens things look like tomorrow. But it does come down to execution. I'm sure there will be a bunch of little wrinkles like we do every week. We've just got to do them a little bit better looking forward."
On the importance of finishing out the season strongly: "I always say it's hard to carry momentum over from year to year, but I think that there is – like I said last week – there's a lot of pride in the performance. That's first of all. But I think doing things the right way and playing for Joe and giving him the best opportunity moving forward is important to a lot of us. In 2006, we were 4-8 and finishing out the season winning our last four, (that) kind (of) felt good … all offseason and moving into training camp. Then (we) went 13-3 the next season and obviously were one play away from the Super Bowl."
On Philbin's motivational tactics: "A lot of dry humor. Joe is, every time he talks, he reminds us about how simple this game is. It's not easy, but it sometimes gets over complicated. It comes down to the little things and he's always reminding us and harping on those things. Hopefully, I'd like to say that we're going to have a better attention to detail this week because like I said earlier with the Tuesday participation, you kind of get what you emphasize, and he emphasized the first three days of the week how important it is to do the little things, maybe that carries over to the Sunday execution, hopefully."
On Philbin getting the job permanently: "I mean, again, that's a decision that is not going to be made with my expert opinion. It'd be great to play great for him and give him an opportunity. Like I said, that's important. We all love Joe, especially those of us who have been here for a long time and know what he went through in '11 and then all of us were excited to have him back. It'd be nice to give him an opportunity."
On the play of wide receiver Davante Adams: "Yeah for sure. He's had a fantastic season. He deserves to be in the Pro Bowl. He deserves to be mentioned among the top-three receivers in the NFL, in my opinion. He has a unique skill set, he's been phenomenal in the locker room, he's been a great leader for us."
On Winston Moss getting fired: "I've got nothing to do with the decision."
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