Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon said Tuesday that he never adds to the Green Bay Packers game plan late in the week. “I always delete,” he said.
Green Bay (4-2) has allowed 34 points during its three-game winning streak. The Packers intercepted Dak Prescott twice in Sunday’s 23-13 win over the Dallas Cowboys and scored 10 points off the takeaways.
The Packers play Sunday at the Detroit Lions (3-2).
Jonathan Gannon says he never adds to a game plan late in the week
Each week’s plan changes with the opponent and with who is available, Gannon said. The limit is how much his players can carry.
“We want to, you know, the coaches and myself, we want to do different things, but how much mental stress is on them,” Gannon said. “And as soon as I see play style not on point, as soon as I see schematic execution not on point, that’s when in my brain I’m kind of like, eh, that’s probably a little too much.”
“And that could be like in the meeting room,” Gannon continued. “It could be after the Wednesday practice, the Thursday practice. They know, like, I never add late in the week. I always delete. And I do believe, like, we have really good players, and you don’t want to bog them down with this either because I always say, like, if this doesn’t work, this doesn’t work, right? And if they’re thinking too much, they don’t get to play fast and free.”
Players know which spots carry the load on each call.
“They know where the strength of the call is, and if their number is the strength of the call, like, you got to win, you know what I mean?” Gannon said. “Because other people are stressed out, you know, depending what the play is or whatever the case may be. So I think they take a little bit of pride in that.”
Jonathan Gannon defines the Packers’ play style as motor and violence
Gannon grades his defense on three things, and the first has nothing to do with the call sheet.
“Play style to me is not anything that has to do with schematics,” Gannon said. “It’s not at all. We define it as motor and violence. And what that’s talking about, we have designations for each of those two things that encompass play style where they’re held accountable for that. And it’s my job and the coach’s job and their job to uphold that standard.”
The second is schematic and technical execution. The third, which Gannon called “probably the most important thing,” is the ball and explosive plays.
“If you can do those kind of those three buckets pretty well or better than your opponent, you should give yourself a chance to win,” Gannon said.
Green Bay was penalized 11 times for 96 yards against Dallas, including three roughing-the-passer calls in the fourth quarter. Coach Matt LaFleur has addressed the calls.
“Yeah, I mean, we can’t foul, you know,” Gannon said. “So I always say, like, it’s continuing to educate, continuing to talk technique. And then decision-making, we’ve got to make sure that we’re making correct decisions in real time, which I know is not easy to do, but good defenses don’t beat themselves.”
Jonathan Gannon learned disguise from Mike Zimmer and Emmitt Thomas
Gannon’s first NFL season came in 2007 with Mike Zimmer as defensive coordinator and Hall of Famer Emmitt Thomas coaching the defensive backs. He later worked four years for Zimmer in Minnesota.
“Everyone talks about, you know, affecting the quarterback, but I think their brain goes to post-snap,” Gannon said. “Yes, you have to affect the quarterback post-snap. I think that you have to affect the quarterback pre-snap.”
“If the quarterback and the offense know what you’re in before the ball is snapped, you’re going to get fired,” Gannon continued. “So that’s always stuck with me that because, you know, offenses are too good, play callers are too good, like they have the answers.”
“There’s a strength and a stress to each call,” Gannon said. “You got to try to hide it as much as you can. And when you do that, you know, at times you’re going to align your people in certain places that it makes their job hard, right? But it’s for the overall good of the defense. Now, you can’t do that all the time. I don’t believe that. But you need to try to weave that in as much as you can. And our guys understand that.”
Detroit enters Sunday second in the NFL in scoring.
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