Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers Press Conference Transcript on Win Over Chicago Bears

Speaker 1: (00:00) Aaron, do you feel a sense of ownership in this rivalry? Aaron Rodgers: (00:08) Well, we've won a few in a row now. I love this rivalry. It's been a lot of fun over the years. That's what I told Justin on the field. I said, "Enjoy this, this special rivalry. Unlike any other in our game. And we played a complete game today. Needed a drive late in the fourth and came out on top. Speaker 3: (00:31) What prompted that after your touchdown? Aaron Rodgers: (00:35) Sometimes you black out on the field. In a good way. I've definitely blacked out from a concussion, which isn't a good way. But I looked up in the stands, and in the front row all I saw was a woman giving me the double bird. I'm not sure exactly what came out of my mouth next. Speaker 3: (00:55) How did your teammates react when they heard it, or did they even hear it? Aaron Rodgers: (00:58) I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure. There were some people around me for sure. I love playing Soldier Field. I said this week, I have a lot of respect for the fans. I'm sure there's a little bit of respect coming back my way. Not a lot of love, I'm sure. But I've had a lot of great moments on this field, a lot of great battles, and today was much like those other ones. Starts off slow. Sometimes I get rolling. Defense had some timely stops. We put a drive together, kind of withstood the first wave of energy, and I'm proud of the way that we finished the last three quarters. Speaker 4: (01:36) What can you say about the offensive line play today, especially with Myers going down? Aaron Rodgers: (01:41) Yeah, I'm really proud of Lucas. We sat down a couple Thursdays ago, had a real heart to heart, and I love the kid. I have a lot of trust in him, a lot of respect for the way he goes about his business. He's a pro's pro. Battled through getting rolled up on. And not much else you can say. I thought he handled things really well. I thought we did a nice job. We screwed up two protections that were easy ones. They gave him a couple sacks. Good front. Obviously Robert's playing really well, and Khalil is still in the lead or best top three defensive players in the league. So I like the way that we [inaudible 00:02:24] up front. I think Matt did a nice job of adjusting there in the second quarter and more downhill runs and quick passes. Kind of get those linemen a little more settled, and then we took a few shots down the field eventually. Speaker 4: (02:35) Was there any sense of finality that prompted you yelling at the woman with the double bird, like this is maybe the last time you might see her in this end zone? Do you think that prompted it at all? Aaron Rodgers: (02:47) Not really. Not in the moment. I thought about that a lot pre-game for sure. Played a lot of games over here. Just talking to Mace, 18 times I've been in this locker room, 17 regular seasons, and obviously the NFC Championship game. Had a lot of fun. I love playing on this field, even though it's always the longest grass in the NFL. But I enjoy this rivalry so much, and I've been so thankful to be a part of it. I still feel like I can move around a little bit. Pete... I don't know if Pete's in here, but he inspired me with my running. I don't think this is my last one, but I have enjoyed every single one of them. Speaker 5: (03:29) Aaron, in the first quarter, Mario Edward had pressure on you. It looked like you grabbed his face mask, and he responded and got the penalty. Is there an art to getting the advantage in that situation, or was that just good fortune? Aaron Rodgers: (03:41) Well, look, they usually get the second guy. I don't think my grabbing of his face mask was that physical. It was a strange tackle from behind, one of those weird ones where you kind of go knee first. And he got up talking a lot of trash. So I wasn't trying to grab his face mask necessarily, but that's where my hand kind of stuck. The taunting I don't think was to me. I think it was more to some of the other guys who were coming to my defense, but again, it wasn't any forceful contact on my part. But whatever it was got him a little heated. Speaker 6: (04:18) [inaudible 00:04:18] ...touchdown when you saw him do the flip back or the dive across the goal line and almost [inaudible 00:04:25], did it kind of take your breath away a little bit? Aaron Rodgers: (04:27) I mean, I could see it going off. He made the first guy miss, and I could see Big Dog was in the position. And all I saw was him kind of ease up, and here comes Robert chasing him. A little unlike Jonesy. He always kind of finishes those things. So good reminder for him, but there was a theme of jumping in the end zone today for whatever reason. Speaker 7: (04:50) Aaron, was this game at all similar with how AJ and Aaron Jones were... how many touches they got, to the Pittsburgh and I think it was the Cleveland game? And if so, in what ways? Aaron Rodgers: (05:02) I think that's kind of how we've been winning the last few weeks with as banged up as we've been up front and really on defense. It's been a little more ball control and a little less... not a lot of tempo, and just not a lot of down the field shots. We've been trying to control the line of scrimmage, get those guys kind of comfortable up front. It's nice having both those guys. I felt like the scheme this week in the run game was really solid with Steno and J.O. and Matt and Hack and those guys putting their heads together. We ran some more gap schemes, which we haven't. We're usually a lot of zone blocking scheme, but we had some gap schemes this week, which I felt like worked really good. The big 30-plus yard run that Dylan had was on a power, and we haven't run a lot of power around here over the years. Aaron Rodgers: (05:48) So I got to say, the way that Marcedes has played for us gives us a lot of flexibility, because he does enough in the passing game, and he's just such a stout run block at the point of attack. If we have to win like this, it's great. We got to get healthy though. I mean, Dave's coming back this week to practice, hopefully. Obviously with Jaire being hurt, and Preston got hurt today, and Kevin King being hurt, we're just a little banged up. So it's nice to be five and one and be banged up, and then won five in a row, but we got to get healthy as we move forward. It's an important stretch coming up. Speaker 8: (06:25) Was the Lazard touchdown drawn up this week with a little extra red zone time? Aaron Rodgers: (06:29) Yeah, that was. I think that was a Steno creation as well. Steno's really getting into the forward pass creativity. The funny thing about that was in practice, [inaudible 00:06:42] who plays edge rusher for us on the look team, did the exact same look that that Robert did. As I went to fake it to Jonesy, he just ran right at me. And so I was laughing with him on the sidelines after that, because he really kind of came right over to me and I said, "Hey, that was a great look. That's exactly what happened in practice." Speaker 9: (07:02) [crosstalk 00:07:02] ...places where maybe you lose a bunch of games. I think it's kind of a stigma. But this is kind of the opposite for you coming to a stadium where you've won a ton of games. You get to wear your own uniforms. Is there actually a psychological aspect to the whole thing? Aaron Rodgers: (07:21) I'm not sure if it permeates the entire team, but I do feel like there's a confidence that I take into this place because of the wins that we've had. I mean, I've outlasted most of the guys around here, so I've played here, so many times. I've started here, and I do feel very confident with what we've accomplished her over the years. Some big wins. Some big games, but it's always the same kind of game. It always kind of starts a little slow and very physical, and it just comes down to a couple plays. I felt like two of the most important plays of the game were obviously on that last drive that we had to put it away. I thought Matt had a nice go on second and 10 with the pass to Lazard who made a nice catch in traffic. And then third down, the slight adjustment Davante and I made to set us up in the red zone was really important. Speaker 10: (08:12) Aaron, on that 41 yard rip to Davante, what did you see that allowed that to come open on the play [inaudible 00:08:13]? Aaron Rodgers: (08:13) Yeah, just conversation on the sideline about certain things. I told him in the locker room, the thing that I will miss 20 years down the line is moments where you make a subtle adjustment. You look over at the guy and it's a stud like 17, and he just went like this. My whole body started tingling. I just knew it was going to be one of those special plays. And the guys gave me enough time, and he ran a nice route and almost scored other than stepping out there, barely. Speaker 11: (08:43) Aaron, Justin Fields threw an interception when he... It looked like he thought he had a free play. That's something you're very good at, the free play part of it anyway. When you do that, do you make sure that there's a flag on the play, or is there some teaching point for a young quarterback in that situation? Aaron Rodgers: (09:00) Yeah, I mean, that was a weird looking play. It looked like it was almost a false start as well. A lot of times in those situations where we're trying to draw an offsides, in the first play of the game, you have to time it perfectly where the guy is offsides and the snap happens before the tackle or the guard to that side moved. It looked like that could have been blown dead possibly. But most times, including 12 on the field, I'll peek to the line judge to the side of the foul and just make sure that there's a flag coming out. Now I think there's been a couple times over the years where we think we've got him and we didn't, and maybe we didn't check. But because of those reasons, I usually like to check and make sure that flag's in the air. Speaker 12: (09:44) You and Davante talked this week about the need to be more aggressive in the red zone. How did you feel about that today? Three out of four and one to EQ could have gone either way. Aaron Rodgers: (09:51) Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'm glad you mentioned that. I'm really proud of EQ. We had a conversation at the end of training camp, and I just wanted to encourage him that I felt like this was a good place for him. And the way that he conducted himself the first weeks of the season, now I get an opportunity, I'm just... I'm really proud of the man. It didn't look like pass interference to me. I have to go back and look at it, but he ran a really nice route. I put the ball exactly where I wanted to. It was a high, difficult catch and he made it. Aaron Rodgers: (10:22) He also made a super heads-up play later in the game when I threw a ball out in the flat to Amari. And something that we never even talked about, a guy was trying to jump Amari in the flat there. And he just kind of body blocked him. And I came back and he was looking at me. I just pointed at my helmet. Just such a smart play. So I'm really, really happy for EQ. He's a great kid, and I'm bummed out he didn't get that touchdown. Speaker 12: (10:53) Did the aggressiveness, though, suit your fancy with what you did down there? Aaron Rodgers: (10:53) I mean, we scored three out of a four, so I felt like that was good for us. We ran the ball pretty well today, so I felt like what we called was good. We had a couple schematic stuff that we wanted to do, including the pass to Lazard that I'm glad got rolled off the sheet. But I think it was a good red zone day for us. Speaker 13: (11:11) Aaron, on the touchdown pass that [inaudible 00:11:15], it looked like you had some time. Were you trying to [inaudible 00:11:18] target in back of the end zone? Because it had like the sense, like the longer you could do the more that could open up that left side for Aaron. Aaron Rodgers: (11:24) Yeah. The play was not meant for him at all. It was meant for Lazard first, and then to Davante. I liked the pre-snap look to Lazard for sure. So it was just kind of a hard action, Lazard kind of running the skinny on the left side. Wasn't open. Came back to Davante. They kind of in and outed him. And I was just kind of looking for either Big Dog or Jonesy, and I just tried to dart it to him quickly because I felt like the guy was closing on him after he broke that tackle. He obviously did the rest with the block from from Marcedes. Speaker 14: (11:56) Two more for him. Speaker 15: (11:56) Aaron, I think that's the second time in his career Quinn has has done the belt after a sack on you. I know you say you don't need all this extra motivation, but when a guy does that standing right over you, does that do anything for you? Aaron Rodgers: (12:09) I didn't see it. And I actually like Robert. I have a lot of respect for him. So no problem with that at all. Speaker 16: (12:16) [crosstalk 00:12:16] Aaron, what did you think about five straight wins, and what's this doing for the team? Aaron Rodgers: (12:23) I'm really proud of the guys. I really, like I've said before, felt like the first week was an anomaly. We've backed it up the last five weeks. But the way that we've done it with the guys that we've done it with, with the kind of injuries that we've had... You look at our roster now, there's a lot of guys who weren't with us starting the season that are playing big minutes. Rasul out there playing a bunch of time for us. Proud of him. Jaylon was in there a little bit today, too. Jon Runyan playing left guard for us. Lucas coming in at center. Elton coming back from an injury. And EQ, who was released and now he's back and played a lot of time for us. I'm just really proud of the guys. These are character wins. These are wins that are really, really important. We got to get healthy. We got a lot of guys banged up. A lot of guys we could use moving forward. But I really like where we're at, two up in the division after six, and playing winning football.