Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy

Opening statement:: “Good victory tonight. I was really proud of the football team. We had a tough start, but the thing that stuck out to me was the way that they kept fighting, kept battling. I thought as the game went on that we got stronger at the line of scrimmage. It’s a real credit to our defense and offensive lineman. Going into the game with four defensive linemen and having different combinations on the offensive line. Offensively, we went no huddle probably two-and-half quarters, almost three quarters, and I thought Aaron did a very good job of keeping us in clean plays. Then we started into a stuttered huddle, trying to run a different combination of running backs in there. We were able to get some production out of that. Defensively, the ability [to create] takeaways was huge. Mike Daniels’ play was the momentum shift for us that we needed in the game. Special teams, I thought we were solid. Mason, with his protection, kicking into the wind, handling the field position, and the way the wind changed and so forth. It was a fun game to play in, a great showing at Lambeau Field tonight with the snow, big division win, and now we put ourselves in position to win the division next week in Chicago.”
On DE Mike Daniels' touchdown being the biggest play of the season:: “Well, I hope it wasn’t , but it will definitely be one of the top plays of the season. The first [rookie] defensive lineman [to return a fumble for a touchdown] since 1941... Anytime you can say that it’s the first time something happened since 1941 for a Green Bay Packer, that’s a pretty big accomplishment. That was a big play. Not only the ability to scoop it, but to avoid the tackle and score. That’s the second time Mike has done a good job of that. Clearly that was a big momentum swing for us. I was really impressed with our sideline, the guys didn’t blink. Halftime was fine. It didn’t start the way we wanted it to. Statistically, the game was out of balance in times of possession and things like that. Our guys just keep playing, keep punching, and the impressive part about our football team is that it isn’t just a couple guys making a play. We had a lot of different guys making plays tonight. That speaks volumes about the depth and the young guys and everybody contributing.”
On how he feels his team is situated at this point in the season:: “I’m focused on going to Chicago and winning the division. Hopefully, we’ll be healthy tomorrow. After a Sunday night game, our preparation will be cut back a little bit. That’s part of playing on Sunday Night Football. We’ve put ourselves in position to get to 10 wins. We really don’t look around until we get to 10 wins because double digit wins is when things really start to fall in place for you as a football team. Ten wins will give us the division championship and that's what we’re focused on.”
On what he likes about RB DuJuan Harris:: “I like a lot about him. I like the way he’s worked since he’s arrived here. He’s done a good job. He has a unique skill set. It’s very evident that not everybody has seen him in live action, but we had another opportunity to put him into a regular game. My goal was to try and get him in last week, but it didn’t work out. That’s why I ran him the first play of offense tonight because I wanted to make sure he got in there and try to get him going. I thought Alex Green did a good job of doing the heavy lifting for the running backs, but it was good to get DuJuan and Ryan Grant in there. I know Ryan Grant just had the one carry, but it was good to have those guys back. It’s a little tougher when you’re in the no huddle, but we have some packages and a number of things we didn’t get to tonight. I feel very good about those three guys.”
On QB Aaron Rodgers’ touchdown run:: “Impressive. I thought Aaron made a number of big plays with his feet. Aaron’s touchdown run was a two-minute situation. For him to score from that distance speaks volumes about his athletic ability. But he’s steady…he’s our guy, he’s our ace. It’s built around him and he played well again tonight.”

Packers QB Aaron Rodgers

On whether his TD run makes up for ending his TD pass at home streak:: “Yeah I guess I’ll just have to start a new streak there. The run was fun. I’m a little embarrassed about the leap, I was pretty tired. It took me most of the next possession when we were on defense to catch my breath.”
On how they feel about where they’re sitting:: “I feel really good. I kind of did some foreshadowing in the last couple weeks about this is how some of these games are going to go. It’s going to be ugly at times, but the main thing is the wins. We’re 9-4 right now, we’re in first in the division by a game (and) putting ourselves in good position, not only for the division, but potentially a first-round bye. Division’s the first goal and getting to 10 wins, we can start talking about the “P” word. We can wrap things up next week, (but it’s a) tough opponent, tough place to play, a lot on the line.”
On the scoring drive comprised of all running plays:: “A couple passes in there would have been nice. Nah, it’s fun. We had three different backs carry the ball on that drive. Alex (Green) did a good job on that third down getting the first down on the draw play. We came back with RG (Ryan Grant), his first carry. The crowd was excited, he busts off an explosive gain and finished it off with DuJuan (Harris) with a very well-blocked play. It’s fun, those three guys offer different things to the run game.”
On getting contributions from unlikely sources:: “You wouldn’t quite expect those guys, but ‘Scrappy’ (Mike Daniels) with the big play there on that fumble recovery … he looked pretty athletic on that play. Then DuJuan (Harris), we’ve kind of been talking about a lot in practice. We wanted to get him some carries last week, but Alex (Green) and James (Starks) ran the ball really well, so we started off the game, gave him the ball (and) he had a big-time run, explosive run for us, ran a guy over and (we) gave him a couple of opportunities. He made the most of them.”
On what he likes about Harris:: “He just has unique agility I think. He’s able to make those jump cuts which I can only dream about. It’s pretty impressive to watch him in practice.”
On the 21-game home win streak against Detroit:: “It was actually on my mind when it was 14-0. I was thinking this would be a waste of a beautiful day to end that streak, playing in the snow with a great crowd. We’ve, for whatever reason, been able to come on the right side of the meetings with the Lions the last 21 times (at home), and hopefully we can keep that going as long as I’m playing here.”
On what the run game does for the offense:: “I think we’re just kind of waiting for some one-high coverages. We’ve seen so many two-high coverages this season, teams daring us to run the football. We haven’t run it very well until the last couple weeks, and hopefully this will give us an opportunity to be a more balanced offense going into the playoffs and get some more of those one-on-one matchups, especially when we get Jordy (Nelson) back. We can have all cylinders firing at the same time and then a run game to boot.”
On them getting healthy at the right time:: “We want to be playing the right way at the right time these last few weeks, and I think if we can get healthy as well, I think that’s kind of the recipe – the type of football you’re playing in December and the health of your football team. We’re obviously not there yet. We need to get Charles (Woodson), Clay (Matthews) and Jordy (Nelson) back, and some other guys. And then we’re getting some young guys some good experience right now, so everything’s lining up the way we want it. We’ve just got to take care of business here the last three weeks.”

Packers DE Mike Daniels

On his touchdown:: “The touchdown felt good. I was thinking “get the ball.” Then I was thinking “don’t let that guy touch me.” Then I was thinking “score.” I played a little bit of running back in high school. I kind of had to bring back those old skills.”
On where the touchdown ranks in the most exciting plays in his career:: “That’s one of them. That ranks pretty high. I’ve had some pretty great plays at all phases of the game, from little league up until now, but that’s definitely in my top-five. In my pro moments, I’d say that’s number one.”
On the significance of his touchdown:: “Everybody was telling me we needed that. That was a big play. I was just trying to catch my breath because I knew we had to get back on the field, but it was just good to be able to bring that extra juice to help turn things around at a pivotal point in the game.”

Packers RB Alex Green

On RB DuJuan Harris’ touchdown:: “That’s excellent. That’s what it’s all about, making the most of your opportunities. He just proved that tonight. Hopefully it leads to him getting more carries in the future.”
On the Packers’ running game tonight:: “That’s what we’ve been preaching since day one – get the running game going and open things up a little bit. That’s what happened tonight and we’ve got to keep that going.”
On coming back from a 14-0 deficit:: “We showed a lot of passion and a lot of heart. We were down 14-0 early on and showed a lot of heart to come back and keep fighting.”
On DE Mike Daniels’ touchdown:: “Any time the defense makes a big play and scores it’s always a good thing for us. Being down by 14, it was definitely a big play, and seeing Mike get the ball and run is quite entertaining. It was a good thing to watch, and see his Lambeau Leap as well.”

Packers WR Randall Cobb

On his personal performance:: “It was alright. I still made some mistakes and I still left some plays out there. If I could have made that catch on that free play it could have been a bigger game. We’re always looking to get better.”
On looking ahead to the final stretch of the regular season:: “We’ve got to make sure we take every game one step at a time. We’re looking forward to next week and being able to clinch the division and see where that takes us.”
On QB Aaron Rodgers’ touchdown run:: “He keeps surprising me with his speed. I knew his was fast, but I didn’t know he was that fast.”
On playing in the snowy conditions:: “I think the biggest thing was just extra focus. Whenever it’s snowing and coming down like that, the wind’s moving the ball a little bit, you’ve just got to focus a little bit harder and securing the ball.”

Packers CB Tramon Williams

On facing Lions’ WR Calvin Johnson:: “They do a great job with Calvin, moving him around to different spots, so it’s going to be hard to stop him from catching the ball. He’s going to get his catches, no doubt about it, but we didn’t let him kill us. We kept him in front of us and didn’t let him get big plays.”
On getting down 14-0:: “They just kind of took it to us. Instead of getting 2- and 3-yard carries, they were bleeding us for a little more yardage. We kind of settled down after that and just played ball.”
On getting CB Sam Shields back:: “Sam showed what he can do today and showed what he can bring to this team. I hope he continues playing like he did today.”

Packers RB Ryan Grant

On closing out the game running the ball:: “I think it sends a message physically. That you’re going to do whatever it takes to run the ball and finish a team the way you want to. It’s good to have those drives at the end of the game like we did. It’s definitely something, confidence-wise, that you can take into next week.”
On if he heard the ovation from the crowd when he entered the game:: “I did not. It wasn’t until after I ran off the field and I was standing on the side that Donald Driver told me how loud the crowd was. I didn’t actually hear it. I’m focused on the game, so I don’t usually hear the crowd too much.”