By Nick Collins On Packers Super Bowl Defense: ‘We are going to be the hunters.’
September 1, 2011 – 8:15 am by Steven Cuce
Ted Thompson was criticized for taking Nick Collins, a defensive back out of little-known Bethune-Cookman College with the 51st pick of the 2005 draft. But no one seems to be questioning the Green Bay Packers general manager now. Collins was an integral part of the Packers’ Super Bowl run a year ago, and heading into his seventh season has established himself as a leader and mainstay on the team’s defense. Collins’s huge interception of Ben Roethlisberger that he returned for a touchdown in the first half of Super Bowl XLV was a pivotal play that the Steelers couldn’t quite recover from. Ted Thompson claimed he saw the next LeRoy Butler in Nick Collins when he drafted the young man back in 2005, and it’s hard to argue with the bold statement now.
Nick Collins joined ESPN Milwaukee with Homer to discuss how he and the Packers are approaching this season as the defending Super Bowl Champions, having Dom Capers turn him loose so he could rush the quarterback more often and get sacks, Capers being a mad scientist with all the great defensive schemes he puts the Packers defense in, a play-by-play recollection of how he intercepted Ben Roethlisberger in Super Bowl XLV and Ted Thompson taking a big chance on him by taking him so early in the 2005 NFL Draft.
How do you approach the season as Super Bowl Champions? I’m sure you thought it could happen, but now you are living it?
“Our main focus is not go out there and be the hunted. We are going to be the hunters and go out there and just play like it is our last game every week and that’s our mindset. I think if we approach it that way we should be successful this year.”
I’m trying to help you out and I look and I see 21 interceptions, but only a single sack. Do you have to go to the mad scientist, Dom Capers, and say Dom let me go and free me up?
“I have been trying to, but I’m a team player and whatever the team needs me to do that’s what I am going to do. All the sacks and interceptions and all that don’t mean nothing if we win the game. That’s the main focus.”
Is Dom Capers the mad scientist? Is it about the schemes he puts you in versus the talent that you have?
“Oh man Dom is a mastermind. He has been running this defense for a long time and so we got great players that understand how to approach the game and we have been having a lot of success by doing it. I’m just glad that I am with a great coach like Dom Capers.”
I don’t know if you have any interest doing play-by-play, but Ben Roethlisberger drops back in the first quarter of Super Bowl XLV and then what happened from there?
“From there? Our front line got great pressure on Big Ben and I think Howard Green hit his arm and I was just breaking on the ball and reading Big Ben’s eyes and was able to get up and underneath the ball and make the catch and make a couple of moves to get into the end zone. That’s a moment I will never forget.”
When they picked you in the second round at pick fifty-one I said that was way too early for a player like you? What did Ted Thompson see that other people didn’t see?
“He saw a young guy that was hungry and knew a lot about football or about football. A player who had a lot of speed and just look at me I was able to play cornerback and safety while I was in college, so he was pretty much getting a bargain deal because I could play two positions, so that’s what he was looking at. Ted Thompson looked at me and said that’s the next LeRoy Butler and we had a lot of success and I’m glad the organziation and Ted Thompson took a chance on me. You never know what you are going to get in the draft from any player. It’s a chance they take and you hope you can live up to that chance.
Listen to Nick Collins on 540 ESPN Milwaukee here
Tags: 540 ESPN Milwaukee, Green Bay Packers, Homer, NFL, Nick Collins
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Sep 18, 2011: Nick Collins On Packers Super Bowl Defense: ‘We are going to be the hunters.’ – Sports Radio Interviews | Daily Articles Trends and News
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