McCarthy: Cobb just needs to keep being Cobb

Packers coach Mike McCarthy spoke to the media on Thursday morning. Here are some highlights from his news conference:

On Ty Montgomery's ankle:

Went through the rehab phase, he's going to try to do more today. I talked to Ty before the team meeting this morning, so they're going to increase his workload.

On Clay Matthews:

Clay looked good, so did everything that was asked for him. So far, so good. Went through the rehab phase and will try to do more today. Will try to get more of a read on him.

On protection:

It's like anything on both sides of the ball, it starts with the run. That carries over to making protection better. You don't run the football, your total plays are down and you're eliminating a lot of your action passes. I think offensively, (we need) to get through more of our concepts. Protection as a whole, it's a general question. We're a good production unit.

On getting to his call sheet:

History will tell you if you're low in total plays, it's harder to get what you want to get to.

On if Randall Cobb is pushing too hard:

I think that's a very good point. I think Randall Cobb, he pours his heart and soul in the game of football. He's that type of teammate, also. Yes, I don't want, I'm not looking for guys to come out of themselves and try to be something else. Randall just needs to keep being Randall. The best thing about Randall, he feels good, he's healthy. Frankly, I thought he played pretty good in the Denver game. He's like the rest of our prime-time players, he just needs more opportunities.

On this week:

Well, Number 1, every offense has an approach, an identity and it's just really getting back to playing to that. It's nothing really scientific, I mean it's playing faster. Tempo is something we can do a better job of. At the end of the day, I don't have a list of three things -- I wouldn't even tell you if I did -- that this is what we're going to do that's going to fix it. This is the game of football. This is how it goes, that's part of the 16-game challenge, and that's the facts. I think you guys are doing an incredible job trying to distract our football team from Carolina by talking about the last game, but we really are -- we're focused on Carolina. There's a lot to focus on. This is an excellent football team. Their offense is going to challenge our defense schematically. They've got excellent football players defensively, they're top notch. They've been a good defense now for a number of years, they're going to challenge us schematically now too in special teams. So they're very well balanced, and that's what we're focused on.

On running against a loaded box in a sub package:

I think any time you let the opponent, whether you're on offense or you're on defense, you let the other side of the ball dictate to you what you can or cannot do, then your plan is not sound. The fact that they were in base defense, whether we were in sub offense, I mean there's still ways to get that done.