McCarthy: 'So far, so good' with Montgomery

Packers coach Mike McCarthy spoke to reporters on Thursday morning. Here are some highlights:

On Ty Montgomery:

Ty Montgomery has definitely cleared a hurdle. He’s practicing. So far, so good, we’ll see what he can do today.

On Richard Rodgers:

Be consistent in your route-running, take advantage of your opportunities. He’s had a lot of opportunities. We’ve asked a lot from him.

On extra day of practice on Tuesday:

It helps you in preparation for Dallas and gives you more time to work on fundamentals. That’s the plan. So far we’ve executed it.

On biggest challenge with moving parts on offensive line:

That group has to be in sync in everything that they do. The cadence, pre-snap communication. That’s a huge challenge.

On Dallas/Washington game…blitzed a lot:

We always spend a lot of time on the blitz. It’s a philosophy of ours. We prefer when people blitz us. We’ve gone back and dig up pressures from the past when you run into a coordinator who may not have shown much blitz until that point. It’s a big play opportunity. We think it’s a potential big play opportunity for us.

On tackles for loss on early downs:

I think the run defense as far as what we’re giving our players is being reflected in that statistic. Our anticipation of what the offense is trying to do to us is higher than in the past.

On third-and-1 situations:

It’s third-and-1. You have to get a yard. You have to cover them upfront. You can’t have mental mistakes, free hats and penetration. Good backs like we have will get you a yard.

On Sam Shields:

I think Sam is having an excellent year. He’s playing with confidence.