Bakhtiari: Packers' defense is 'unbelievable'
Green Bay Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari co-hosted Monday's Clubhouse Live, Gannett Wisconsin Media's live weekly football show. Packers running back Eddie Lacy was Bakhtiari's guest.
Among the topics they touched on were blocking for Aaron Rodgers, the play of the defense and the Packers' 4-0 start. The show can be seen live at The Clubhouse Sports Pub & Grill in downtown Appleton or at clubhouselive.com.
Here are select and edited answers from the interview:
REPLAY: Clubhouse Live with David Bakhtiari and Eddie Lacy
Q: When you check out the film of that nine-yard touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers to Richard Rodgers during Sunday's victory against San Francisco, is a bit surreal to watch what's going on as far as Rodgers' scrambling ability? Obviously, you have very little idea of how the play is developing because you're doing everything you can to execute your block.
Bakhtiari: It's an awesome play. It's an extended play. Aaron's keeping the play alive running like a madman within the pocket. He has amazing pocket presence and eyes downfield. And then for him to throw the ball last-second and be able to score a touchdown — it's a hell of a feeling. Especially when, as an offensive lineman, we can keep our guy contained and blocked for that period of time. The ball is supposed to be out on an average of 2.5 seconds. ... If the offensive line can even give Aaron a quarter of a second to almost a half-second more — with a man like that, it is so dangerous.
Q: What's your message to the armchair quarterbacks who complained about the offense's production against San Francisco? While you didn't punch it into the end zone as much as you would have liked, you still did a solid job of controlling the football and ended up winning by two touchdowns. It's not easy winning games in the NFL, right?
Bakhtiari: One-hundred percent. The beautiful thing about football is there are three phases to the game: offense, defense and special teams. And the ability to see our defense go out there and absolutely take over the game and have the defense carry us, basically, to the win — that's huge. That's big, not only for the team but for the season as you stretch it out. Because we know at the end of the day what our offense is and what we're capable of. Like anyone, there's going to be hiccups in the road. ... But our defense has been unbelievable in pass rush and unbelievable in the run stop. ... The old saying, 'Offense wins games and defense wins championships,' that gives me chills thinking what our defense is doing and how they'll continue to do down the stretch.
Q: You've won your first four games. Is this as complete a team as you've been a part of during your three seasons in Green Bay?
Lacy: Our offense, we're definitely off to a fast start, and we're going to continue to keep this start. And I definitely think we have the players to do it. What I like most about our offense is, we had a couple of guys go down, and the players that stepped up made plays at those positions. It definitely helps us out a lot and gives us more confidence knowing we're able to move forward even though we lost some guys that were key players. And our defense is playing great. They're holding teams to a certain amount of points and allowing us to continue to drive the ball down the field and score. So I think this is definitely the best team I've been a part of in my three years here.
Brett Christopherson: 920-993-7117, or brett.christopherson@gannettwisconsin.com; on Twitter @PCBrettC