COACH TOM COUGHLINCoughlin: Good Morning. Beautiful morning, we're looking forward to practicing outside. As we begin this week, Domenik Hixon is not going to practice and if I say (Ahmad) Bradshaw's not, then he will…so, I'll say Bradshaw's not practicing. Everyone else is going to give it a go. The two that you're going to ask me about: Jacquian Williams and Kenny Phillips are going to do individual. Phillips may be able to do a little bit more, but it's going to be once we get them on the field and see exactly where we're at with regard to how much they can do after the individual section of practice. That's where we are in terms of our status going forward. We're excited about getting back together this morning. So far, this morning has been very good. They're excited; the meetings have been good. Let's get on with it.
**READ MORE >> **QB ELI MANNING
Q: Are you aware at all of your post-bye week numbers and how good they are?A: I'm not. No idea.
Q: You have 300 yards per game, 10 touchdowns, one pick and the last four games have been wins. Is there any routine you follow? The other day, you said you brought a laptop back.A: No. I think you just try and get rest and come back fresh. Obviously, I think having a week off just to get your mind off of football a little bit, then you come back and you're just excited, re-energized, have a great week of preparation. I thought we had a good practice today, guys were running around, guys are enthused. Hopefully, we'll come out there and play great football.
Q: You said you had no idea how good those numbers were? Does that surprise you at all?A: No. I haven't thought about it. It's not a stat that I look at most often.
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DE JUSTIN TUCK
Q: What did you guys do to Rodgers in the playoff game that you weren't able to do in the regular season game?A: I think we just tried to change up little things. I felt like we were playing better as a unit in the playoff game than when we played them out here. Our secondary was in tune with what the front was doing. Our looks were all together. It just kind of slowed him down in his reads, and that allowed us to get some pressure on him, hit him a little bit and our offense put up points. So, they were fighting from behind in that one. Out here, we didn't get the same amount of pressure, the same kind of time that we got in the playoff game.
Q: How relevant are those games? You're playing them for the third time in 12 months. They've got some changes in personnel and it is a few months ago, now.A: It's still relevant. You still kind of get a good feel of how they want to play against us. We've played against that o-line, or pieces of it. So, we know how they like to protect. If we're going to see the chips, or man-on-man and which way is the center going to slide? It's little things that we can get a feel for, going into the game. Like you said, there are a lot of differences about them, but there are differences about us, too. We'll see what happens.
Q: What is the number one reason why Aaron Rodgers is so good?A: I don't know what the number one reason is. A lot has to do with the fact that he can hit anybody, anywhere on that football field. So, you have to cover the whole field with him. He's able to move in the pocket, get down the field and hurt you with his legs. You kind of bide your time when you blitz him, because he can hurt you with his legs, and he did that against us up here, especially. It's a lot of things that make that guy a great quarterback.
LB CHASE BLACKBURN
Q: Do you have any sense that the defense is playing better?A: Yeah. We're continuing to work every day. That's why we practice, that's why we go through all these meetings and watch film and everything. We try to correct all the mistakes. I feel that we're getting a group of guys together that want to get it done. We're definitely giving it our best effort and hopefully the results will show from them.
Q: What have you seen from all that hard work? Where do you see the team getting better on defense?A: Just communication-wise as far as everyone just understanding that not even as so much as communication because they already know it. It's more of an understanding. You know that guys are going to be in the right spot and the trust is there more so than it has been.
Q: You made your return last season against the Packers. Talk about what it's been like since then.A: It was a completely different year for me than last year. It's been nice playing a full season. I guess not really a whole lot of different stuff. Just playing the same game I've been playing for a long time and enjoying every minute of it.
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