Being in a difficult game with Aaron Rodgers as your quarterback is not a bad place to be. He told us why, and more after Sunday's 24-17 victory against the Titans in Nashville.
On going from being a good team to being a great team: "Now great teams, when you're up, 14-10, and you block a punt [by Irv Charles, which led to a field goal], you score a touchdown to go up two scores. We're not quite there yet, but good teams can close out games in tough environments."
The meaning of his first (second?) win in a Jets uniform: "Technically, my second [counting last season's opener vs. Buffalo]. Somehow that first one counts. ... It feels great. Been a long time coming. I was telling Evan [Washburn of CBS Sports] postgame on the field: 'I haven't had that in a long time.' Being able to have that energy on the field after the game means you won. It means you played halfway decent. It's good to get a win. These are kind of the games you look back on late in the season and be thankful that you won these. Because if we want to be a great team, we got to win in these types of environments [away from MetLife Stadium] against teams like that."
On being a calming influence in the huddle and elsewhere: "A lot of times people freak out. You have to be the calming force in there, you can see it in their eyes sometimes. I feel like all game, we were frustrated at times, but never got down on each other."
That relax mantra: "It's not just on gamedays, it's every day. It's how do we stay loose and then be able to lock in when it is time to lock in. There's been sometimes, I think last year, where there were some negative vibes going at times, where it felt like 'here we go again' or 'we're not going to win this one.' I just don't want us to ever get in that spot. I think there's ways of doing that, some of it is through humor, some of it is through stoicism, some of it is through just taking charge. You just put your pulse on the team, on the energy, and try to do the right thing as a leader."
The importance of early-season wins: "These are really important games late in the season when you are trying to get in the playoffs looking back. It was a hot day, short week, very good defense, started off really slow, but finding a way to win, that's what really good teams do."
On heeding suggestions/observations, like from Breece Hall before his TD reception: "I'll tell you exactly how it evolved. I screwed up the clock, and we called a timeout, and Breece comes over and goes: 'Hey, throw me a go ball if there's a backer out there.' I said, 'OK.' So, he split out there, they walked a backer out there, and I drop back and looked inside for a second. By the time I looked to him he was 3 or 4 yards past him, and I didn't throw him the best ball but he made a nice catch."
On his back and forth with the Titans' Jeffery Simmons: "He started that. He was calling me some mean names out there. He called me a 'crybaby.' I called him a crybaby back after he had the roughing call. Then we had a couple of laughs after the game. All is well."
On his third-and-1, fourth quarter 26-yard completion to Garrett Wilson, leading to Braelon Allen's game-winning rush TD: " '5' [Wilson] is really good. He was kind of freestyling out there and based on the angle of [L'Jarius] Sneed it felt like the only opportunity to complete it was to actually throw it back inside. I knew because it was zero [coverage] there was no safety issues pre-snap. But G, he was grumpy out there. I just kind of threw it inside and hoped he would turn that way. He's so talented, and that was probably an easy play for him when for most people that's a highlight reel play."
The two-minute warning in the first half gave the QB time to talk with OC Nathaniel Hackett; on the next play Allen took a screen pass into the end zone: "I pointed to Hack. We were talking about that personnel group on Thursday. He said: 'I like it, I don't know if I like it this week, but what would you want?' I said: 'Maybe a bubble or something like that.' He said: 'That works.' And then sure enough, right before, we had a timeout, or the two-minute warning, there was something, it was a two-minute warning. And I came over and we had two plays we were mulling over, and that was one of them. And I said, 'Oh yeah let's do it!' It's fun when you get on the same page, and he calls it and it works out."
From his experience last season, he offered advice for edge Jermaine Johnson, who sustained an Achilles tendon injury: "I knew he was hurt and carted off, so I was worried about him. I saw actually on the Jumbotron it said, 'Achilles.' So, my heart kind of dropped a little bit. Good news is he's a very young player that is going to have a very long career. There's a lot of great people out there to take care of him. I'm a bit biased with Dr. [Neal] ElAttrache [who performed the operation on Rodgers last year]. We briefly talked, I just told him I love him and told him I was sorry. He is handling it a lot better than I did so far. It's going to be a big loss for us."
