October 28, 2011 | www.greenbaypressgazette.com
Packers linebacker Desmond Bishop had plans to travel to New York for the bye week – see a couple shows, the Statue of Liberty and the normal tourist attractions since he’d never been. Bishop discussed the first half of the season before he left.
“I mean, 7-0 is hard to come by. It’s hard to win. So to be 7-0 is great, but from the defensive side of the ball, we’re never satisfied. We don’t think we’ve played to the best of our capabilities. So, we’re going to relax over this bye week, but we’re going to comeback for the next how ever many games it takes to get it right.”
Giving up big plays has been the Achilles heel of the defense, how much of a priority is that?
“I don’t really have the answer to why, but it is something to think about – not giving up the big plays. Because we all know when you give up the big plays, it leads to scores. I think it’s just something we have to really stay focused on mentally, more than anything. Try to do a little bit better.”
Possible to be too hard on yourself considering the team is 7-0?
“That’s a good question. It felt kind of weird around here (Monday). Man, we’re 7-0, but it didn’t quite feel like that. It’ll never be right. We can be 16-0 and if we don’t play up to our capabilities, we’re never satisfied. So, it’ll still be some negativity. Not negativity in a bad way, just we want to get things corrected. We’re working on it. It’s something that coming off this bye week, going into next week refreshed, I think it’s something we’re going to tackle head on.”
“We were tougher on ourselves than the coaches could ever be. That’s just the kind of character of guys we have on this defense. It is what it is.”
Got to be good to be 7-0 with room to grow?
“That’s the best thing about it, to be 7-0 and still haven’t even came close to reaching our peak and really reaching our full potential. It’s a good thing. It’s just something we’ve got to work on. When we do reach that potential fulfillment, it’s going to be scary.”
How much room is there?
“Just being dominant, especially from a defensive side of the ball. Not giving up big plays and getting off the field on third down. Then when we do that, we give the offense more touches and more time with the ball. That’s going to be even more scary. There’s a lot of room to grow.”
Does Rodgers really need the ball even more?
“He doesn’t really need it, but if he had I’m sure he’d do some good things with it and make us even harder to beat.”
