Chicago Bears TE GREG OLSEN - Ingles

Thursday, January 20, 2011

On if this game feels like the “game of the century”

“It’s exciting. These are the games that you dream about. These are the games that as a player you hope and look forward to playing in. I know personally this is a game that’s been long awaited. Just getting to the playoffs was nice, but you’re one game away from the biggest game in sports. So it’s something that we all appreciate and definitely are going to take advantage of hopefully.”

On having a big game last week personally

“It’s a game of momentum. You get that confidence and that going forward definitely comes week to week. I don’t expect the game plan just like it wasn’t really different for the most part last week. Each week guys have different opportunities to make plays. Each week we don’t go in saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to try to focus on getting the ball to him or whoever.’ Last week it happened to be me that got some chances to make some big plays. I would welcome those chances again, but you never know who it’s going to be. Everyone on our offense is ready to be that guy, and throughout the course of the year as has been evident those guys have stepped and made those plays when their day has come. That’s kind of the mentality that we all take and we’ll see how it plays out.”

On if he is treating this like a regular game

“I think it will help. I think the mentality around here is just to approach it like we have these last 17 games. That’s what’s helped get us here is the consistency and not getting too up or too down and kind of riding that roller coaster that sometimes an NFL season can feel like. I think that mentality around starting from the top kind of keeps us even-keeled and when you get to the game once the National Anthem and the fireworks and all that goes off, it’s a normal game. The intensity level, we feel we play at a high level every week and we’re going to continue to play hard and it comes down to who executes and who plays better. It doesn’t matter about the pre-game, the hype and all that. Once the whistle blows, it’s all about football.”

On what makes it tough facing the Packers defense

“Because they’re not always just lining up in that 3-4. They play a lot of multiple fronts, moving guys around. Clay Matthews can be a defensive end, he can be a linebacker, he can be off the ball on coverage. Same thing with a lot of their guys. Hawk moves around. They blitz those guys a lot. They’re very multiple. They have good secondary guys, so that allows them to kind of blitz a little bit and trust those guys on the back end to hold up in coverage. They’re very talented. Their coordinator does a great job with their scheme. We’ve played against them twice, so we have a pretty good feel for them. I’m sure there will be some new things for us this week as there will be from our end. We have to settle in and get a feel for what they’re going to do to attack us both similarly to the beginning of the season and what’s going to be new.”

On if the blitz pickup is more important on the edge where he lines up

“The mental aspect of it is probably the hardest part. With the guys that they have moving around and standing up, it’s a lot of film study in our meetings going over this is how we’re going to treat him. It’s not always going to be just four guys with their hands on the ground. OK, those are linemen. They’re multiple looks like I said. Where they bring guys from, Woodson off the slot, moving Matthews around and Hawk around. With the talent that they have and the athleticism they do a good job moving them around, so guys have to be really dialed into whatever their protection responsibilities for that particular play are and really focus in and that’s where the week of preparation and the practices and film study really come into play.”

On his reaction when the Packers put Charles Woodson on him man-to-man

“I guess that was what they felt was in their best interest. They beat us both times last year. I think those are games we look back and have learned from. We know we probably didn’t play well. I know it was a different offense and whatnot, but a lot of the same players. That was kind of their game plan. They did a little bit of it as well this year. So we’ll see. With our receivers, we feel like you can’t guard everybody. So we have a lot of faith. If they want to make certain decisions and take certain guys away, that’s where the whole realm of the offense comes in. The other guys are just as important to step up and make those plays and the route concepts, it’s never just, ‘All right, we’ve got one guy. If he’s not open, we’re done.’ The whole scheme of the play is what makes this offense go and everybody’s a live target. I think that’s to our benefit.”

On Charles Woodson

“Charles Woodson’s one of the best to do it. He’s I would imagine going to be a Hall of Fame player. He’s done it for a long time. What can you say? He can play corner, he can play nickel, almost like a linebacker at times. He blitzes. He can play man coverage. He pretty much can do whatever you would ask a defensive back to do, he can do it. You can’t say enough about what he brings to the game and what he’s done in his career and even this long into his career, he’s still doing it at a high level. He’s one year removed from player of the year. He’s a guy we have to account for as are a number of their players.”

On the impact of Devin Hester’s returns for the offense

“It’s huge. Our average field position for our offense—I don’t know exactly what we are—but we’ve got to be up there. We get a lot of good field position, we get a lot of short fields and we’re not going to apologize for that. That’s our special teams. Devin is obviously a big part of that. Just does a tremendous job both when he gets the ball in his hands and just when they kick it out of bounds and they maybe only net 30 yards. That’s an advantage to us. With our defense getting all the three-and-outs that they do—always up at the top of the league—very few times can teams flip that field position on us. All those hidden yards are things that are huge, sometimes go overlooked, but we don’t overlook it. We appreciate that. We know those guys put a lot of work into setting up the offense and also setting up the defense with Brad pinning guys deep so much. When all three phases get rolling as kind of was seen last week, we feel like we could be pretty good.”

On Devin Hester seeming to make big plays in big games

“There’s no question this would be a typical Devin time to do it, right? It seems like in the bigger games when we really need him is when he makes those returns. For whatever reason, certain guys have that knack and he’s one of them. This would be a great time for Devin to take one back for sure.”

On the rivalry with Green Bay

“I think there’s a tremendous amount of respect both ways. I know from our standpoint we have a lot of respect for what they’ve done. They’ve been very consistent, have a lot of good players and they do a great job coaching them. I feel like their schemes are very good, offense/defense very well balanced. So I would say there’s a tremendous amount of respect, but at the same point we definitely look at this game as two games usually but now three as games that we really put a lot of priority into winning. We know our city takes a lot of pride in beating the Packers, as do we. So I think that kind of gets reflected through our team. We do have a lot of respect. It’s not a hatred, although some of our fans might. As a team, we don’t personally hate them as much as hey, we understand the significance to our city, to our fans of beating them. We recognize that and we hold this game in a high regard.”

On the challenges in blocking more in Martz’s offense and if it has made him a more complete tight end

“I take a tremendous amount of pride in it. We line up in a lot of different formations, motions, shifts, a lot of different responsibilities both in the passing game as route runners, also as protecting backs in the backfield, picking up blitzes, that sort of thing. In the run game they ask us to line up in the backfield and be lead blockers and I back stuff, also at the line of scrimmage in one back. There’s a lot of different things and I take a lot of pride in it, the challenge throughout the course of the week of absorbing it and kind of getting all the information and learning and working with coach Martz and D-Bo (Mike DeBord) and those guys, coach Tice, of learning what our responsibilities are. It’s a fun challenge. I know the whole tight end group really enjoys it. Brandon, Kellen has his part that he does. It’s been a fun here as far as that goes and each week it seems like there’s more and more that we’re asked to do and it makes playing the position fun.”

On if he thinks Bears fans hate the Packers

“I think our fans might have a little more hatred personally, but I think that’s what makes it fun. It means a lot to our fans to beat them and we realize that and we appreciate that and that ups our level … We want to win always, but it puts a little something extra special and there’s no doubt about it. When they’re your rival—everyone’s heard it, the oldest rivalry and all that. Our fans take a lot of pride. Now you throw in the NFC championship for a trip to the Super Bowl and it actually might even go up a level, which seems hard to believe. We know that Soldier Field is going to be rocking and we have a huge advantage anytime we play at home with our fan support that we have—and sometimes on the road. There’s no question that we realize and appreciate that.”

On when he arrived in 2007, if he felt like he missed out on the Super Bowl the year before

“No, I really didn’t. When you come in as a rookie you kind of come in and just kind of learn your role. The veterans, those are the guys that kind of set the tone and you fill in where the coaches and where you’re needed and do your part. As the years go on, your role and responsibilities become a lot bigger. But these last three years, not making the playoffs, I would have never guessed it. I know a lot of guys around this team wouldn’t have either coming off the Super Bowl. But I think we’ve learned a lot about ourselves. I think it’s made us a tough, pretty resilient bunch of guys. All that that happened in the past is part of what got us here presently. To disregard that and say those were letdown years is true, but at the same point you can’t help but say it helped us get to where we are today by learning from past things and becoming the group of guys that we are.”

On if Cutler is more motivated because people are talking about Rodgers more

“He doesn’t need any motivation. I don’t think we need any motivation. We know what Jay’s all about. We know the type of player he is. There are only a few guys in the league that can do the things that he can do. We know that. Games aren’t decided on pick-ems and analysis and all that stuff. At the end of the day, it’s fun, it’s good for the hype and the lead-up. But at the end of the day the best players and best teams are going to be the ones that win. So we’ll let it be decided on Sunday. As far as the comparisons, they’re inevitable. It’s part of playing quarterback. But we wouldn’t trade Jay for anybody.”

On if the Packers are peaking at the right time

“You can’t say enough about what they did. They went through that spurt. They were kind of middle-of-the-road midway through the season, losing some key guys and certain guys get injured. But they rallied. But at the same point that’s part of football. That was us last year. We went through spurts where it seemed like every week we lost a critical starter. Sometimes that’s just the nature of the game. But you have to tip your hats to them. They kept everything together and rallied the troops there and have made it to the NFC championship. They’ve played well as of late. They had to win the last couple games to even make the playoffs and now they’ve gone on the road twice. They’ve had a tough journey to get here, but as have we. We’ve played a lot of the same schedule, so it’s going to be two pretty even teams that are going to come out and really play for pretty much the whole season.”