McCarthy: Rodgers 'sore' after Sunday's game
In a shortened week, Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy spoke with media Tuesday afternoon. Typically, the Packers have Tuesdays off, but the team is preparing for its Thanksgiving night showdown against the Chicago Bears in two days. Here are some highlights from McCarthy’s five-minute discussion.
On today’s practice structure: Today’s a combination of Wednesday and Thursday, but it’s abbreviated.
On change in schedule with shortened week: I think the reality of it is, the other team has to adjust too. We’re all on the same plane as far as the challenge. We have some history with Thursday games, so we feel like we have a good schedule in place to follow. We’ve adjusted it, tweaked it every year. There’s things you can do to help your football team. I think once you get to Thursday, it’s exciting. But the preparation process is really a grind.
On importance of team meetings when there’s less preparation time: Definitely. I think the intensity of your mental preparation is at your forefront.
On how Aaron Rodgers’ right shoulder feels after Sunday’s game: Aaron’s good. He’s sore, just like everybody is. We had the STAA program yesterday and those massages can be brutal. I’m sure they’re really sore from that, too. But that’s all part of the process of getting their bodies back.
3 storylines: Packers vs. Bears
On Eddie Lacy: Frankly, just watching the first game against Chicago, and watching him against Minnesota, it’s different. You have more confidence. He’s definitely hitting the hole better now. He’s more decisive. More importantly, he had 22 carries. I thought he got in the groove.
On Andrew Quarless: I really don’t have anything to announce on Andrew quite yet.
On importance of sustaining drives: I don’t know if you can just capsulize that, say defenders do that. I think any time you get to about six plays in a drive, the energy has a tendency to tilt your ways. Defenses want to get off the field. I think definitely the longer you keep defenses on the field, the advantage goes to the offense.
On festivities Thursday night: We’re definitely, everybody’s aware of the number retirement of Favre. But it is a halftime show. We’re not really part of the details of that. We won’t be able to participate in it.
On whether Favre will speak to the team: Things like that, I would never announce those types of things.
On whether Jay Cutler is playing better than in opener: I think their football team is playing much better than they did earlier in the season. We need to play much better than we did earlier in the season. Frankly, that’s what I’m focused on. We’ve seen a lot of the Bears, both offense and defense and special teams. I would just say Jay, like the rest of the team, you can see their system is in place. Their coordinators are doing a heck of a job.
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