Sports Radio Interviews

Al Harris: “We’re at a point now where we pretty much gotta run the table.”

The Packers are quite a confusing team in the NFL.  You never really know which Green Bay team is going to show up.  The Packers could easily go out and put up 30 points on offense and have the defense nearly post a shutout, but at the same time, they could just as easily go out and lose to one of the worst teams in the NFL like they did this past week.  Tampa Bay is one of the worst teams in the league and for a team that had playoff aspirations at the beginning of the season to go out and lose to the Buccaneers, is completely baffling.  I have no idea what it is, but I don’t think it’s the talent on the team.  Green Bay has one of the better young quarterbacks in the league right now with Aaron Rodgers, they have two excellent receivers, they have a running back that went over 1200 yards a season ago and they have a pretty good defense as well.  Now despite have major issues on the offensive line, I can’t grasp how Green Bay lost to Tampa Bay.  I’m really not sure what the Packers problems are, but this season they have been an enigmatic team and they better figure it out quickly or before they know it, they will be fighting for the Lions for last place in the NFC North.

Al Harris joined WSSP in Milwaukee with the Big Show and Former Packer Gilbert Brown to talk about the loss against Tampa Bay this past weekend, the issues on the defensive side of the ball and how they plan on turning things around.

On who the leader of the defense is right now:

“We got so many different guys.  We really try to lead by example.  When you were playing, you were vocal and you would lead by example.  Now we got Kamp (Aaron Kampman), we got Wood (Charles Woodson), we got Nick Barnett and Nick Collins.  We lead by example, but I really don’t think it’s the leadership part of it.  We just gotta win games.  We definitely gotta win the games that were supposed to win.  Teams that you’re supposed to beat, you gotta beat.  It’s not the coaching.  Mike (McCarthy) does a great job of keeping us rested and getting guys ready to play.  We gotta protect the quarterback, we gotta assault their quarterback, and we can’t play on a short field.  It’s a combination of offense, defense and special teams.  A game like that yesterday, not to say anything bad about the Bucs because they did a great job and they executed their plan, but we should’ve won that game.”  

On the issues that they are having defensively:

“We just gotta evaluate it and see.  Everybody has the same questions because we are looking at teams like Pittsburgh and Denver and teams like that that run similar style defenses and you see the quarterback hassled a lot.  It’s a new defense for us, everyone has bought into it, everybody is in support of Dom (Capers), we just really gotta use guys to where they’re going to be effective and they can get the job done.  That’s really what it basically comes down to.”

On whether they may move things back to the 4-3 at times defensively:

“I really don’t know.  Maybe, because Denver definitely does that.  From time to time they will run some 4-3 type stuff.  Right now, everybody is just in awe that we let another game slip away and in this league you can’t let games slip away.  I’m pretty sure that Mike will get all the coaches together and say ‘hey we need to do this or we need to do that.’  Dom’s gonna get his guys together and say ‘we need to do this or we need to do that.’  We’re at a point now where we pretty much gotta to run the table.  We gotta get home; we gotta create turnovers for the back-end.  I truly believe we have one of the most, if not the most talented back-ends or defensive backfields in the game today.” 

On what the guys say after the game after loss like they had against Tampa Bay:

“One thing that I’ve learned over the years is you really don’t talk about it on the plane ride back after the loss because everybody has got the answers.  Man, we shoulda did this, or I shoulda did this or I shoulda did that.  It ends up with a lot of finger pointing.  So you wait till the next day when you watch the film and you look at yourself more than you look at the scheme or anything else.  You say what could I have done to make things better.  As a whole unit, you start to look around and say ‘alright, okay, maybe we need to do this and hold each other accountable.’  We do that for the most part, but the more you hold each other accountable, the more the guys will get the job done.  For the most part, I can speak for the secondary because we’ve been together for awhile, we hold each other accountable.  We pretty much coach each other up and we always hold each other accountable, but we probably need to, as a unit, start holding everyone accountable for our jobs.  It will bring us closer as a defense and it will bring us closer as a team.  We don’t really have a lot of rah, rah guys.  Like when Gilbert (Brown) was playing, we knew if it was in crunch time, the big man was going to be like ‘look we gotta do this, we gotta do that.’  Every team has a guy like that.  Kamp will do that, Nick Barnett will do that, but we just gotta pull together and win the games.  There’s no magic formula to it, we just gotta win the games.  No matter what it takes, the good teams find a way to win the games.”

Listen to Al Harris on WSSP in Milwaukee with the Big Show and Gilbert Brown

Tags: Al Harris, Green Bay Packers, Mike McCarthy, NFC North, NFL, WSSP