NFL International Series Giants vs Packers

Sunday, 9 October 2022

Green Bay Packers

Preston Smith

Postgame Press Conference


New York Giants 27

Green Bay Packers 22

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Preston.

Q. Were you scratching your heads when they were staying on the field as much as they were?

PRESTON SMITH: Can you re-ask the question.

Q. Were you scratching your heads how often they stayed on the field in the second half considering how good you had been on third downs so far this year?

PRESTON SMITH: Yeah, they executed off a lot of our mistakes. They had opportunities to get first downs when we could have executed a lot better.

I know they had a lot of QB scrambles in the second half, more than the first half. We just got to watch the film, get better, move forward, make sure we don't allow those same mistakes to happen again.

Q. How do you feel about this team at 3-2 after five games?

PRESTON SMITH: I really feel like we still got a lot of potential. We still have a lot left in front of us. We don't feel like we've played a complete game as a team yet. There's a lot of things we can work on to get better, move forward, to get to that caliber team we're known for being, to play at a high level and make sure that we don't make a lot of mistakes where other teams can capitalize off of, we make guys earn it.

New York is a great team. They earned it today. Capitalized on a lot of mistakes, made some big plays for their team.

Q. Do you think the travel had any sort of effect on the performance today?

PRESTON SMITH: I felt pretty good out there. I don't think the travel had nothing to do with the performance. I know the first day, probably the first day, guys' legs were a little heavy, stiff from the flight. I think we got that worked out in the first couple days.

Guys, like they were feeling good out there today.

Q. What did you think of the atmosphere?

PRESTON SMITH: It was pretty close to a home game as possible. We appreciate all the Packer fans that traveled here to watch us play, some in the UK, London, whatever. We appreciate them for traveling here to see us play.

It really felt like a home game for us. We just needed to capitalize a little more to get more amped up out of the fans that were here.

Q. As one of the leaders in the locker room, what is it going to take to get the defense fired up?

PRESTON SMITH: We just got to be critical when we watch the film on this flight, this week. We got to see what mistakes we made, make sure we fix 'em, make sure they don't get repeated for this next upcoming game against the Jets.

We're a team that's resilient. We come together pretty well on defense. We know how good we can be and how great we need to play in order to look like who we are. We feel like tonight we didn't play up to our potential.

There's a lot of mistakes we made, a lot of things we could have did better, a lot of plays we wish we had back. The result is the result. We just got to make sure we're critical of ourselves when we watch the film, critical of the mistakes we made, fix those mistakes, move forward with a positive attitude and an attitude that we're going to attack next week and make sure we don't make those mistakes again, give up any big plays.

Q. What changed from training camp? Seems like now that the season has started... You weren't making those mistakes in training camp.

PRESTON SMITH: I have no idea what happened. I feel like we was playing pretty well overall. We allowing too many -- we're making too many mistakes that a lot of teams are capitalizing off of.

We're going to settle down. It's a long season. We got 12 more games left, as crazy as that sounds, after five. We got a lot of things we can fix going forward, a lot of things we can work on to get back to that defense we were in training camp or the defense we're known for being.

Q. What did you see on your sack? What was the key to the start you got off to?

PRESTON SMITH: I mean, we started out pretty well in the first half. We played pretty sound in every phase. I just think we needed to finish the second half. They came back to a lot of plays they probably saw in the first half that could have been open, held them out.

On my sack, I just seen the quarterback was still holding the ball. I needed to capitalize. Jaire was there with a great rush. The sack could have went either way. Guys were just rushing really well, guys were covering really well. I just happened to be the one that came up with the sack.

Q. Most teams when they come here have a bye right after. You're going straight back and playing again. Now that you're coming off a loss, is that almost a positive thing, you can force yourself to forget this game quick?

PRESTON SMITH: Yeah, we just not going to let this feeling linger around because we know what's coming up next week. We're playing against the Jets. They're not going to feel sorry for us. We shouldn't feel sorry for ourselves. We just got to be critical of the mistakes, move forward, make sure that when we play against the Jets, give them a different team to what y'all saw tonight.

Q. Did you guys anticipate Jones getting as mobile as he was with the ankle?

PRESTON SMITH: We may have thought he was going to be a little bit more limited. A lot of times when the game is on the line or it's a lot of big plays to still be made, those guys who are hurt, they're going to try to find a way to make that play.

He had a lot of scrambles. It seemed like they got back to some of the game plans with a lot of their plays QB draws, keeping the ball in his hands, making him get positive yards for their offense.

I mean, we knew coming in he was going probably to be limited, but at some point he was going to be known for who he's known for being, a mobile quarterback, hurt people with his legs.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
125673-1-1004 2022-10-09 17:45:00 GMT

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