Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers Press Conference

Pete: (00:00) ... Matt said that that loss was shocking and embarrassing and [inaudible 00:00:02]. How do you feel after what happened? Aaron Rodgers: (00:03) I mean, I'll let him use those words and I'll use, it's just one game. We played bad. I played bad. Offensively, we didn't execute very well. One game, we got 16 to go. Pete: (00:21) Yeah. It was a long season, and all that. Can you just bury it and dismiss it or [inaudible 00:00:28]? Aaron Rodgers: (00:30) Pete, I don't know if we ever bury and dismiss, even when we'd like to. We'll evaluate the film, like we always do, and be critical and then move on. Speaker 3: (00:42) Aaron, what happened? You guys were in such a good rhythm all summer and in practice, when we saw it every day. I guess, I was pretty stunned that this was the way it went. Were you? Aaron Rodgers: (00:52) Yeah. When a team's going to play that much two shell, you got to be able to run the ball. We didn't run it that effectively. I think we came in thinking they're going to pressure us a bunch like they did last time, but last time we had Alan, MVS and Swerve. This time we had some different skill guys. Obviously, Davante being back. They really didn't pressure us a whole lot. It was a lot of two shell and I they kind of held up with their front four, front six. Speaker 4: (01:29) Aaron, what happened on the two interceptions? Aaron Rodgers: (01:32) Yeah, the second one was, we were backed up and I had Davante on a cut/split running a high corner. I felt like that was going to hold the safety. We had kind of set up that play for awhile, that combination where they're playing kind of a triangle coverage on the two receivers to the strong side. I just didn't get my eyes back to the safety. In my initial look, I thought I was holding him backside, and because Davante was inside, I figured he was going to hang back there a little bit more. Aaron Rodgers: (02:00) The first one was obviously the play of the game that kind of swung things big time. 17-3. We score there, it's 17-10. I probably should've just thrown it to Jonesy and moved on to third down. Pre-snap I was thinking about maybe given Davante a different route. Step up in the pocket, took a shot kind of right as I was throwing it and, yeah, wish I would've thrown that one away or just throwing it to Jonesy right away, because obviously that changed the game. It turned the game. Speaker 5: (02:34) With all the two shell that you mentioned today, it didn't look like there was a lot of guys open down field. It was hard to evaluate what the offensive line did. Aaron Rodgers: (02:42) I thought the line played good. I do. I thought they held up good. I thought Josh did a nice job with the variance of cadence that we did. I thought he played well. I'll wait and see what the film says, but I thought him and Royce did a nice job. Protection overall was really good. I gifted them a sack there on a keeper in the first half. Other than that, I thought the protection was really good. Speaker 6: (03:05) What are the challenges of playing a game, especially this time of year, when you have to [inaudible 00:03:09]? Aaron Rodgers: (03:10) Well, I felt like our energy was a little bit low. It felt a little bit San Diego-ish from a couple of years ago. We just kind of needed something to get going. It was the same type of thing, long drives on their side and us not executing. We'd had, I don't know, 10 plays-ish there and 17 nothing. We were in a two-minute mode on our third drive in the first half, so very disjointed possession-wise. We've been in games like that before where we've only had a couple of possessions. I think we had one against Minnesota maybe last year, where there's limited possessions in the first half, but I think we scored on all of our possessions, so that one felt obviously a lot better than this did. Speaker 7: (03:55) What do you make of the fact that the Saints [inaudible 00:03:58] based on your track record [inaudible 00:04:00] Aaron Rodgers: (04:04) Well, we say there's no coincidences in life, so I don't think I can slough it off as a coincidence. We traveled down here. It was hot, but not as hot as when we played here in, what was that? '16? Speaker 8: (04:19) [inaudible 00:04:19]. Aaron Rodgers: (04:19) Yeah, '16. '15? Speaker 9: (04:21) '15. Aaron Rodgers: (04:21) '15? Speaker 9: (04:21) '16. Aaron Rodgers: (04:22) '16. Yeah. It wasn't as hot as that day, so the heat shouldn't have been an issue for us. We just didn't didn't execute very well. Pete: (04:31) Any chance that you guys came out a little full of yourselves, just with all the high expectations and the good season last year and maybe just took it for granted you'd show up and win? Aaron Rodgers: (04:40) Yeah. I think so, Pete. I think there's probably some of that. We probably felt like we're going to go up and down the field on whoever they had out there, and that obviously wasn't the case today. I give Dennis Allen a lot of credit. I've always thought he's a really good defensive mind. But they had a good plan. It was to play a lot of two shell and try and slow us down with the front. They did a good job with that. Speaker 10: (05:03) You said in the past, or mentioned the Chargers games weren't [inaudible 00:05:07] because guys might've been [inaudible 00:05:08] themselves a little bit, but doesn't usually happen in the opener. Does that make it harder? Easier? No factor? Aaron Rodgers: (05:15) I think easier. We're coming off a couple NFC Championship games and obviously feeling good about the unit that we have on offense. That's what we talk about a lot, so this is a good kick in the you-know-where. Hopefully get us going in the right direction, going back home and playing a division opponent next week. Speaker 11: (05:42) How do you take away any positives from today's game? Aaron Rodgers: (05:43) I don't know if you do. I mean, there's not much you can say other than, they beat us, they played way better than us. We played bad. I played bad. Uncharacteristic of how we've practiced in training camp, obviously how I played over the years. This is hopefully an outlier moving forward. We'll find out next week. Speaker 12: (06:10) Aaron, first half, first team offense didn't play in the preseason, you scored three points [inaudible 00:06:15]. Is there a correlation in your mind? Aaron Rodgers: (06:18) I don't think so. Preseason football is what it is. It's not a lot of real football. It's more to see if guys, when the lights come on, can can play. I thought we practiced really good against New York those two days, but I don't think that's a correlation. We just played a good team. Didn't execute. Speaker 13: (06:46) [inaudible 00:06:46] 2020, Tampa Bay didn't run the football against the Saints. They were beaten 38-3. Today, I believe A.J. Dillon had 12 yards, Aaron Jones, six yards. Did the lack of running game pretty much destabilize the offense from being effective? Aaron Rodgers: (07:01) Yeah, I think so, because if you can play a lot of two shell and stop the run, there's not going to be a lot of guys running open. We've got to go back to the drawing board a little bit and figure out. I don't know if everybody's going to do this. Some coordinators like to run their stuff, but this will be the old blueprint starting the season on the Packers. Hopefully we see it a little bit more, because we'll have it figured out by next week. Speaker 13: (07:29) Even though everything's very vanilla schematically in the preseason, is there anything from the speed of the game element that they gets you ready? Because the Saints did play very fast. [inaudible 00:07:38] Aaron Rodgers: (07:39) Yeah. I mean it's different ways of doing it. I haven't played in the preseason in awhile and started decently the last couple of years. Speaker 14: (07:51) Aaron, on the fourth and one from the 22, were you going to go to 89 before you, I think you fell down on [inaudible 00:07:57]? Aaron Rodgers: (07:57) Yeah. The play was for him. Yeah, the play was for him.