McCarthy: Bakhtiari expected to practice Saturday
Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy spoke with the media Friday morning for the final time before his team travels to Washington for its NFC wild-card game Sunday afternoon. Here are some highlights.
On David Bakhtiari’s status: David Bakhtiari, tomorrow he’s expected to do some work. So we’ll see tomorrow.
On Damarious Randall's status: Just being cautious, not only with where we are not only in the season but the week. I think anytime you have something with one of your players on Thursday, you have to be cautious.
On Sam Shields' status: Sam was in the training room, and nothing has changed.
On whether Shields will travel: I can’t answer that right now.
On whether Shields had a setback: I think when you’re talking about a concussion, it’s obviously different than other injuries. You don’t just get to 70, 80, 90 percent. Until he comes through the protocol, that’s where we are.
On the increase in John Kuhn's snaps late this season: It’s more scheme. It’s more game plan. Certain things that are available. John Kuhn is an excellent football player. It’s just really about rotating through concepts.
On B.J. Raji's bounce-back season: Anytime a player goes through 16 games, I think that’s a threshold for all your players. I think he’s had a very good year, and we’re definitely going to need him and all our big guys to play well Sunday.
On urgency in playoffs: It’s playoff football. We’re going about our business like we normally do, but obviously the urgency is playoff urgency. We all understand what these games mean. We’re excited about our opportunity. Those are the things we focus on. We’re not focused on flipping a switch. we’re focused on taking care of the things we need to do.
On whether past success can help offense: Not only is each season so specific, but each time of year is so specific. It’s as specific as what this week in front of you looks like. Today, I’m not thinking about what went on in the past at all. Even if you’re still playing at a high level, you’re still trying to improve.
On turnovers: I talked to the team about it. You can’t win football games with our giveaways the past few weeks. It’s clearly an anomaly looking at the way we have played over the past 10 years and the way we train. Everyone understands the importance of taking care of the football.
On Washington’s ability to take away football: Definitely. We showed the tape to the offense. They’re very good at taking the football away. Not only taking it away, but when they take it away. They take it away in the red zone and on third down. They’re defense is very good.
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