Bills - 26, Steelers - 7
Q. Any amount of time to get comfortable because of the wrist, and where was the disconnect tonight with the offense?
AARON RODGERS: Yeah, we just didn't have a lot of positive plays. I felt good enough to be out there, just not ready to take a snap and hopefully next week for that.
Disappointed in my performance. Disappointed in the offensive performance. We've got to flush this one. We're 6-6. We've got a game for the division lead this week.
Q. What lacked in the offensive performance? What caused what we saw tonight?
AARON RODGERS: I've got to look at the film, but just execution obviously. But I've got to look at the film.
Q. On third and nine, when you guys ran it to the right with Kenneth Gainwell, was that the called play, or was that what you checked into at the line of scrimmage?
AARON RODGERS: That was a called play.
Q. Is that just a cut on the nose, or is it broken?
AARON RODGERS: I hope it's not broken, but yeah. Just had to stop the bleeding. It was bleeding all over the place.
Q. As a quarterback when you guys are down and you're in that down and distance, what did you see on that play to run the ball there instead of trying to attack downfield? On the third and nine when you guys ran it.
AARON RODGERS: Come on, man. Do you want to start talking philosophical? Is that what you want? It's third and nine. They brought pressure off that side. So we checked. We had a run called, and we checked the blocking. They did it on the run, and we had a chance. We had a chance.
If that thing hits, nobody says a goddamn thing. If we block on the front side, on the perimeter -- I mean, literally everybody's blocked up, and we've got to hold and sustain those blocks on the outside. Kenny gets first down, and nobody says a damn thing.
Q. I know you hit Darnell a couple of times late up the middle there. Before that, there hasn't been much. It's been a while. Is the offense avoiding throwing across the middle of the field? Is that a thing, or is it just not happening?
AARON RODGERS: There's no avoiding it. There's plays called every single week. There's just not separation and not the coverage to dictate the ball going down the middle of the field.
That play, it did. It played two high. Darnell released, did a nice release. We wrapped around the seam running behind him and made a positive play.
Q. The inconsistencies that have been happening within this offense, does that stem from something that's not happening in the preparation? You talked about a lack of focus that happens sometimes during the week. Is that what the root of these problems are?
AARON RODGERS: We'll look at it. I'm not sure. I thought we had a better preparation week and a poorer practice week for whatever reason. I'm not sure if it was the cold weather, what it was, but it wasn't our best week of practice.
That doesn't always translate to a negative performance. There's been great practice weeks and bad performances and poor practice weeks and great performances over the 21 years of my career. But it wasn't the best practice week. So we've got to practice in the elements better. The execution, again, just wasn't where it was.
I can give you a better answer on Wednesday, but let me look at the film first.
Q. What happened in practice that tells you it was a poor practice week?
AARON RODGERS: It's a lot of things, kind of just the feeling. A lot of it's just the energy at practice and the tempo. We talked about it, and I thought Friday was better, but I thought Thursday wasn't a great tempo, execution practice for us on offense.
Q. To that end, Aaron, T.J. said he thought you guys were flat today. What T.J. said, do you agree?
AARON RODGERS: No, it's just there's momentum swings in the game. I didn't think we had a great performance in the first half. We were ahead. There's a lot of conversation at halftime about some different things. We came out, called a play. It was gloved. In the back, fumbled, 10-7. We just never really recovered from that.
I thought there was other parts of the game day experience that were flat as well.
Q. Do you see the flatness within the game and in practice as something that's not being done right from a coaching aspect or preparation aspect that's kind of framing you guys in the wrong way?
AARON RODGERS: I know what you're trying to ask, and I'm not going to go down that road at all. I believe in the coaching staff. I believe in Mike Tomlin. That's why I came here. Players need to take accountability, myself included, and I will. I will continue to. I've got to play better.
But there's 11 starters on offense, 11 on defense plus with the personnel groupings that we run. We've got Monday to Saturday, and we can be really proud of our best Monday to Saturday and go out and play our best game and take control of the division.
Q. As an offensive leader, what can you do to help that process?
AARON RODGERS: There are a lot of things. We had some extra film sessions this week. We had extra walk-through Saturday night. I thought the preparation, like I said, was better. But the practice wasn't as good as I thought it was.
That doesn't mean you have a bad performance, but the execution today just wasn't good enough.
Q. Did they show you anything different on film?
AARON RODGERS: No.
Q. So it was just more your execution?
AARON RODGERS: No, not really. They brought a couple corner pressures that we've seen, but no, it was playing their coverage. They did a good job stopping the run, and there wasn't a lot of guys with a lot of separation.
Q. You came here because of Mike Tomlin and the coaching staff. Did you hear the crowd's frustrations with those fire Tomlin chants in the fourth quarter? What goes through your mind when the entire crowd is that frustrated and that restless about the situation?
AARON RODGERS: That's part of it. They pay money for a ticket. So they have the right -- good, bad, or indifferent -- to say what they want. I totally understand the frustration. I've been booed on offense even at Green Bay over the years. That was a boo worthy performance, and I understand the frustration.
Q. Over the course of the game day experience, is there anything you can elaborate on for that?
AARON RODGERS: No.
Q. Is there anything that you see from a halftime perspective -- there's been a number of games where you all led at halftime, however going into the second half, you all lost those leads. Are you seeing anything from an adjustment standpoint that you all could do better in the second half?
AARON RODGERS: I think it's kind of a misnomer for the most part. 12 minutes for halftime. Part of that time is coming back in. Part of that time is going back out. There's not a whole lot that happens at halftime. There's conversations between myself and the linemen and conversations from position coaches, and coordinators talk, but there's not wholesale changes that need or should be made at halftime.
There's little adjustments that you talk about, things you like, openers for the second half. But players, we've got to take accountability for our performance. Mine wasn't good enough tonight. I'm sure there's other players as well that feel the same way.
Q. You talked about the accountability, of guys needing to hold themselves accountable. You've been on championship teams. You've seen your fair share of locker rooms. This late in the season, is that concerning that that's still an issue right now?
AARON RODGERS: Who said it was an issue?
Q. There are guys not holding themselves accountable.
AARON RODGERS: I didn't say that. I said we need to hold ourselves accountable.
Q. Do you feel like people are holding themselves accountable right now?
AARON RODGERS: I do. I didn't hear T.J., but I'm assuming that T.J. held himself accountable, and I'm talking about my performance from a critical standpoint. I expect the rest of the guys to do the same.
Q. After the way things have gone, recently you guys are still in a tight race in the AFC North. What do you think is going to be the key to maximize the opportunity down the stretch?
AARON RODGERS: We control our destiny. We've got to win. We've got three division games. Two of them are against Baltimore next week and the last week of the season.
It's a tough place to play. I've played there before during COVID season. They've got a great fan base. It will be loud and rocking. We've got to bring the right mindset.
Q. It seemed like you and some of the receivers were off on some of the routes. The go ball to Roman, the one to Jonnu. It seemed to settle down. There were some scramble drills that seemed a little out of sync. How do you guys build that connection this far into the year? How do you go through that with your pass catchers where you say, hey, maybe I saw this, you see this, iron those out over the last five games?
AARON RODGERS: When there's film sessions, everybody shows up. When I check to a route, you do the right route. Like Jonnu and I just weren't on the same page. I checked to his in breaker, and he ran out breaker. Jonnu is a true professional. I'm sure he's sick about that.
I threw a ball I thought was going to get hit by the wind, and it was four yards over Roman. So that's a shitty throw. I've got to make that throw.
We have our meetings every week. We have other opportunities outside of the facility. Look forward to seeing all the boys there.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports