Montgomery: Running back complicated but doable
Green Bay Packers wide receiver Ty Montgomery co-hosted Monday's Clubhouse Live, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin’s live weekly football show.
Among the topics he touched on were Sunday's tough loss to Dallas, converting to running back and being booed at home. 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:
WATCH:Clubhouse Live with Ty Montgomery
Q: You finished with 10 catches for 98 yards - both career-highs - in Sunday's 30-16 setback to the Cowboys. Were you able to relish that performance given the outcome? Or, can you look back and feel pretty good about what you were able to accomplish with your opportunity?
Montgomery: I'm grateful, but at the same time, I put the ball on the ground in a crucial situation, and that's not acceptable whatsoever. Protect the football, protect the quarterback and explosive plays are what we talk about, and I didn't protect the football on that play. So, I'm correcting that to try to maybe even have a better performance if it happens again Thursday (against the Bears).
RELATED:Turnovers taking Packers' offense to new low
RELATED:McCarthy wants to rely more on run game
Q: You're getting touches out of the backfield as another running back while the Packers deal with injuries at that position. What are the challenges you face with that role? Is it like learning a new position?
Montgomery: I had to learn basically a new playbook in like two or three weeks when stuff started happening. I didn't know what was going to happen, and I just started trying to prepare just in case for the emergency, and it ended up needing to happen. Go from learning the playbook as a receiver where you only know the route concepts and what the quarterback's doing, to now I've got to know the fronts and the 'backers and the protections and the blitz pickups. And then I've got to know my aiming points on the runs. It gets complicated, but it's doable.
Q: What's your reaction to the fans' boos during Sunday's game? Some of your teammates felt it was deserved, and others seemed bothered by it. Was the crowd reaction too harsh?
Montgomery: I think the mixture of reactions stems from the fact that they're all true. It is discouraging, and at the end of the day, we do expect you all to have our backs, no matter what. But at the end of the day, sometimes it was deserved. But also, you all have the right to boo. It's not necessarily something we want to hear, I can tell you that much.
Brett Christopherson: 920-993-7117, or brett.christopherson@gannett.com; on Twitter @PCBrettC
