Some of you were wondering what's wrong with the defense. Could it be that our coordinator is better suited for the Oprah Winfrey show then the sideline of an NFL game????
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Staying cool in the face of heavy fire
Sanders not one to blast defense for being torched
Posted: Oct. 10, 2008
Green Bay - Beleaguered though he might be, the coordinator of the Green Bay Packers' flagging defense has stayed true to form this week and isn't browbeating his players.
Bobb Sanders walked into the defensive meeting room on Monday, 24 hours after a distressing 27-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, and surprised some players with his non-confrontational approach.
“One of the first things he said when he got up there was that there wasn’t going to be yelling and screaming,” defensive end Jason Hunter said Friday. “He said, ‘Let’s see what we got to do, let’s get it corrected and go from there.’ ”
The Packers had just been cold-cocked in most distasteful fashion, beaten by a rookie quarterback (Matt Ryan) and unable to stop the run at the end even with 10 defenders in the box.
As disgusted as Sanders and coach Mike McCarthy must have been, they remained professional in assessing the situation.
“They were cool-headed,” defensive tackle Ryan Pickett said. “They said, ‘This is not time to panic.’ They believe in positive reinforcement.”
Pickett, for one, thinks the internal show of faith by Sanders in the face of external criticism will pay off.
“No matter how bad it seems to other people, he’ll bet everything on his defense,” Pickett said. “He believes in us so much.
“We wanted to beat ourselves up so bad after we lost. But for him to come in and still believe in us the way he did, and say, ‘We’re not going to change, this is what we’re going to do, y’all, we can do it,’ that’s inspirational when someone has so much confidence in you.
“Everybody is ready to turn this thing around.”
Sanders, 54, coordinated defenses that ranked 12th in yards and tied for 25th in points in 2006 and 11th in yards and tied for sixth in points in ’07.
This year, the Packers have crashed to 26th in yards and 23rd in points.
Despite his high-profile position, most fans know little about Sanders. He doesn’t try to stand out on the sideline and isn’t quoted that much because what he has to say sometimes isn’t informative.
Clearly, there is an intensity burning within Sanders that comes forth behind closed doors.
“He gets real worked up in the meetings,” said Tracy White, a veteran linebacker cut by Green Bay on Tuesday. “Sometimes he gets so excited, he stops the film and, like, you can tell he’s ready to go play. Leave from that defensive room and go on the field right there. He’s got a passion for it.”
However, several players said Sanders, a deeply religious man, had never used profanity around them.
“He doesn’t cuss,” linebacker Brandon Chillar said. “But that’s just the kind of person he is. Decent guy. He’s got a lot of character.”
Chillar said combustible Jim Haslett, the St. Louis Rams’ head coach who served as Chillar’s defensive coordinator in 2006 and ’07, was the direct opposite of Sanders in terms of using salty language and raising his voice.
“It can go one of two ways,” Chillar said. “You can have coaches that yell or coaches that stay positive. (Sanders) is one of the positive guys, I guess. I appreciate it.”
So does cornerback Will Blackmon, who also likes the fact that Sanders isn’t afraid to tell players when he erred in preparation or in his calls.
“If we’re going to do that,” said Blackmon, referring to coaching calling out players, “we might as well just give up the season.”
Each week, the video department puts together tape of so-called “explosive” plays against the defense. Sanders handles the narration in front of his 25 players, but even in that setting he elects not to name names.
“Like on Monday he said, ‘A defensive end read boot instead of playing the run,’ ” said the defensive end in question, Aaron Kampman, who guessed wrong and then watched Michael Turner break a 22-yard run. “It’s up on the screen. We’re not dumb. You don’t have to embarrass a man.”
Linebacker Nick Barnett said Sanders did go off on players, but it’s usually done one-on-one either in the facility or the practice field.
What does trip Sanders’ trigger?
“When we make the same mistake over and over,” Pickett said. “If somebody beats you, he’s not going to get mad. But if you make a bad judgment or missed assignments, stuff like that makes him mad.”
Sanders is all business almost all the time, although there’s nothing he enjoys more than packing up wife Kathie and the couple’s children for a week or two of vacation with old friends along the ocean in his native North Carolina.
Sanders might have an easy sense of humor in social settings but, according to Pickett, he would be the last man to begin cracking jokes or acting funny.
“There’s no reason to dislike him,” cornerback Tramon Williams said. “He’s got pretty good personality. He’s a pretty good coach.”
Said Pickett: “Players like Sanders. I haven’t heard anybody complain about anybody on our coaching staff. The whole coaching staff is different than coaches I’ve been around. In a good way, a goooooood way.”
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty. - Thomas Jefferson