Q. Did you like being on the sideline?
MATT CANADA: We won the game. That's all that matters.
Q. Did you call plays when you were a head coach for Maryland?
MATT CANADA: When I was interim at Maryland, that's the only time I did it, yes.
Q. Anything you remember from that, or did you find it --
MATT CANADA: There's pluses and minuses to all of it. There's upstairs you see things, on the field you see more face to face. We made a decision to play better, and obviously the result worked out Thursday night, so it was great.
Q. Players seemed to like it --
MATT CANADA: And that's all that matters.
Q. Did you get a vibe that way?
MATT CANADA: Yeah, obviously we played well. The results are what it is. I don't know how much that had to do with it. We're happy with the result and will continue to do it.
Q. Planning on staying there?
MATT CANADA: Yeah. Run game, went out and executed, guys played well, we blocked them, backs hit the holes. Nothing magical.
Q. Did you run out of the shotgun a little bit more than normal? You seemed to have a lot of success running --
MATT CANADA: We ran the ball more than normal. I mean, obviously every game you go in and have a plan. Probably more I think it might have just been more because we stayed on the field more. We had longer drives. I don't know if it would have -- other games if we'd have been more successful. It might have been the same.
Q. Why were you better? As you look back at the film, what --
MATT CANADA: Obviously it always comes down to execution. Again, I know everybody wants to -- there's no great this particular thing. I think the guys went out and executed well. We continued to build off of plays. We moved the pocket a little bit, some complementary football, run to pass, all those things clicked, and we managed to have a couple of sustaining drives, which when he do that it allows to you get into more parts of your offense, and the guys executed it very well.
Q. Do some quarterbacks have an innate ability to rise up in the fourth quarter and make plays, or is there nothing mystical about it?
MATT CANADA: Our work here is about winning, right? We're the Pittsburgh Steelers. We want to find a way to win. However we get it done is what we do. Kenny has played well in the fourth quarter and we've got those things done. Certainly we started a little bit better last week, but we'll continue to try to find ways to play better all four quarters.
Q. Is that something that you guys have seen throughout Kenny's career?
MATT CANADA: Kenny has always been a winner and a competitor. Obviously in the games, obviously winning drives is something you see, but I couldn't remember that far back. It's been a while.
Q. (Indiscernible).
MATT CANADA: Schematically that was part of the plan, but again, a little bit questionable form. It was more because that's what kind of went that way.
Q. Tennessee schematically --
MATT CANADA: Yeah, you go into a game, you think this thing works. Some weeks they work, some weeks they don't. If it's successful you keep doing it. We've done those things other weeks.
We had more runs, which I think probably made it be a higher volume to see those plays.
Q. (Indiscernible).
MATT CANADA: I thought he played well. I thought he played well. I thought he did a good job, kind of came in with energy. Obviously, again, it's kind of 11 men doing their jobs, so it's not all Qadree. He came in and did a good job. I was happy for him.
Q. Being able to sit down with Kenny, go over things between drives, what kind of benefit is that for him and the offense?
MATT CANADA: No real difference.
Q. When we talk about Kenny in the fourth quarter, a lot of times there's like intangibles. Are there tangible things in the fourth quarter that are different in terms of either the way you guys are doing things or translating into coverages that you're seeing?
MATT CANADA: I mean, obviously at certain points in the game, we're trying to find a way to win the game and do whatever we can to see things more, have a little more familiarity with your plan the longer the game goes on. Again, we want to play better early. We want to start faster and do all those things every quarter, but ultimately all that matters when it's over with, we win.
I think that's certainly what we're all trying to do as an organization. That's what we're trying to do.
When we get to the fourth quarter, are things heightened? I don't know. We just don't want to be in that position to have to come back and win, but we're going to do whatever we can to win.
Q. Looking back, what did you see from 77? What did he do well in his first start?
MATT CANADA: I thought he stepped up to the challenge. He's played both sides. We had him on the left. I think that's a real compliment to him that he jumped in there and played on the right side in a short week. He plays with high energy, high emotion, and I thought that was a real positive with what he did. He played physical.
A lot of things to correct, but there always are.
Q. I think it was all but one drive, one 1st down that was a scoring drive. Is there something about this offense specifically --
MATT CANADA: I think the first 1st down is always big. I think that's probably true in all offenses. I think that's something you've got to try to do and go out and get. We've had games that we've not done as well at that.
The first drive was a good drive, and we had some opportunities on some other drives that we didn't quite click on and get what we wanted. We were almost there, and as you mentioned we had three other scoring drives and got down there and got to find ways to score touchdowns when we get down there.
There's some growth there, we've just got to keep going.
Q. Is it once you get those 1st downs something you've seen that's changing these guys or maybe they're doing better or differently?
MATT CANADA: I think it's probably if you analytically looked, you get the first 1st down, defense is on the field longer, there's a lot of things that go into that. I don't know if that's just for us, but certainly for us we're trying to be -- if you get a 1st down, it's good, you keep going. More plays you have, the better things are.
Q. Is there anything you can do schematically to help George out with the double teams or help him get open?
MATT CANADA: Yeah, I think there are. It's kind of a combination of both. Obviously GP is an unbelievable talent, has had some great games this year and has drawn a lot of attention. If you look at the attention he's drawn the last couple weeks, especially on Thursday, what happened; the run game opened up. Why? Because there's two guys on George almost every play. Diontae, again, had another big night because there's two guys on George.
We can't let him just be minimized completely. That's a balance there. We understand both sides of that.
Again, ultimately all we care about is winning, but we certainly want to maximize all our guys' potential, so there's opportunities to do those things, and there's also opportunities to make sure if they're putting two guys on and we're making them pay enough, to a previous question, all those drives are scoring drives. At some point then they shouldn't be able to do that.
Our run game increases, Tae increases, other guys increase to where they can't do that. So a little bit of both.
Q. In the context of a receiver like George, is that balance somewhere between forcing him the ball and letting him make a play?
MATT CANADA: Yeah, it's a little bit of both. You're not going to ask Kenny to just go out there and throw it in there if he's in double coverage. There's certainly a balance of what that is, and we can certainly schematically work to help him to do that, and there's also a balance of if they're going to put that many guys on him, we'd better be successful in other areas of the football.
Q. Does George ever take his frustrations or disappointment to you in game?
MATT CANADA: Me and George get along great. I think George loves football. He loves to play. He wants to win.
We talked -- me being on the sideline, I talked to George after every series. George was happy we were playing well, wanting to win.
Obviously he wants to -- he's a super talent. He wants the ball. Everybody who plays football at a skill position wants the ball, and they want the ball more. I don't think you'd find anybody anywhere that doesn't. We're in a great spot with that. We'll continue to go, continue to find ways to win.
Q. Does it help with the balance that you have two different styles of running backs?
MATT CANADA: We've talked about that. They are a little bit different. But I think they complement each other, and I think they both can do everything that we do. So I think we're very fortunate to have both those guys. Naj goes in and does a great job. Jaylen obviously gives us a spark at times and does things, great protection.
I think it's just another bonus for us to have good players. We just have to keep putting them in good positions to make plays, continue to block for them and do those things well and take advantage of what the defense gives us.
The defense, they can stop -- to the GP question, if they want to put two guys on him, it's going to be hard. They want to pack the box, it's hard to run. We've got to be good enough to do what they decide they want to -- not allow you to do but the area of the offense that they want to see if you can execute, and for us to grow we've got to be able to do them all, whichever one they give us.
Q. When you're on the sideline, is somebody there relaying what they're seeing to you?
MATT CANADA: Yeah, we've got guys upstairs that are there, and obviously it's really just at that point down and distance. That's about the only -- just you can't see sometimes where it goes on the spot if it's away from you. But that's about it. Obviously we're just talking like we always do.
Q. Maryland is the only time you've ever --
MATT CANADA: Calling plays. I was on the sideline my first year here as a quarterback coach, but I was not calling the plays.
Q. How did that come about? Was it your idea to go down there?
MATT CANADA: Just happened.
Q. Did you have any hesitancy to do that just because of how you've operated for most of your career?
MATT CANADA: Again, all we're trying to do is win, and we're always hunting different things and different deals with that. Obviously when I was upstairs or am upstairs talking to Kenny is no different. He gets in, he can talk, the ability to talk to other guys to make sure we were together we felt was a bonus for us to do.
Again, we're going to look at every single track or whatever we can do to make things better, continue to find ways to win. We've won some, lost a couple we want to win. We've got to win this week.
It was just another avenue to see if we could play a little bit better.
Q. Any unique defining characteristics about Green Bay's defense that stand out to you?
MATT CANADA: Obviously really good coming off the edge. They're another really sound defense. We've got to do a good job, take care of the football. Nothing I want to overly talk about here. They're a good defense. If you look at where they're ranked, they've done a really good job. We've got to take care of the ball and make plays when they're given to us.
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