Media Day jumped the shark years ago in terms of producing actually interesting quotes. But, here were a few that stood out to me from Packers guys after way too much time spent listening and reading to the 2011 version:

PACKERS TE ANDREW QUARLESS
(on the game plan for Sunday) "There are a couple of things we can take advantage of in their secondary. It starts with that front seven and they have a great front seven. If [QB] Aaron Rodgers has that time, he can pick them apart."

PACKERS CB SAM SHIELDS
(on covering Mike Wallace step-by-step) "I'm a fast guy and he's a fast guy. It's going to be a big challenge and I can't wait."

PACKERS LT CHAD CLIFTON
(on Pittsburgh Steelers LB James Harrison) "I will be blocking Harrison for the majority of the game. My film study has been on him for the most part. He is a phenomenal player. He is like a pit bull out there. You have to really admire the way he plays the game and the passion he plays with. He is going to give it 100 percent on every play."

PACKERS RECEIVER JORDY NELSON
(On the Packers' receiving corps) "We're just all different. I think Greg (Jennings) is extremely underrated for what he can do. He can run any route in the book. (Donald) Driver in the slot, he's done it for years. He's very knowledgeable about what the quarterback wants from hot reads. With James (Jones) and myself, we just come in where we're needed. I think with the four, we're able to rotate in and out, we can do anything that needs to get done."

PACKERS RECEIVER DONALD DRIVER
(On how does he prepare for a guy like Ike Taylor) "I think Ike is a good corner. I've seen him play and I've played against him over my career. He's one of those guys that'll come down and try to put his hands on you. He feels like if he can get his hands on you he's going to stop you. But we love to bump and run, we love the man-to-man coverage. One thing that we always say is that we don't run away from anyone. I think that Ike is a great player I don't take anything for granted but you still got to go out there and play the game and we know that it's going to be a great matchup between all of us. They've got great corners, we've got great receivers. So we've got to all play."

PACKERS DE RYAN PICKETT
(on game in the trenches in reference to Steelers running attack) "We love it. They are going to challenge us by running the ball and we welcome that. We feel that it plays in our favor. We love the challenge. It's exciting. It's Super Bowl football. If they want to run the ball, we feel that we are a physical team as well."

(on the possibility of Pouncey not playing in the Super Bowl) "I don't know if it's an advantage. We watched tape on the other guy. He is a strapping fellow. He gets in there and goes hard through the whistle. Honestly, we haven't even talked about if Pouncey is going to play. B.J. is going to be the one facing the center most of the plays. I don't think he cares whether it's Pouncey or the other one. We don't put much thought into it."

(on matching up with Flozell) "I'm mostly going to be on Flozell and he is a big guy. It's not the first time. I faced him last year so I've got a couple of plays on him. Last year he was hurt when we played Dallas. So, I haven't played Flozell as a defensive end, but I have played against him throughout my career. His size, his arm length, his experience, he is just a good all around tackle. He can play, so it will be a challenge for me."

PACKERS HEAD COACH MIKE MCCARTHY
(on whether he remembers all of the Steelers' Super Bowl wins) "I remember all of the Super Bowls. Growing up in Pittsburgh it seemed like it was a little bit of an old hat. You had the four Super Bowls and the two Pirates. The Pirates won the World Series in '71 and '79. The University of Pittsburgh won the National Championship in '76. The biggest thing I remember about the first Super Bowl was the city's reaction to it. It had been 40 years and Mr. Rooney — what he meant to the city and for the city to have that success. I was a Steelers fan and Jack Lambert was my favorite player."

(on Dom Capers being detailed oriented) "It goes back to the first meeting I had with Dom. I picked Dom up at the airport and it was 25-30 below zero. We were coming out of baggage claim and he had a suitcase like all of the other candidates, but he also had a humongous bag of books. We loaded it into the back of my vehicle and we went on and had dinner. The next day we set down for the interview and he had his original notes from when he installed the defense in Pittsburgh in the early 90's. He's old school in that way where he still likes to write everything out. In the age of computers he still has a procedure that he likes to write everything out. He uses more highlighters than anybody. I thought I used a lot of highlighters, but it doesn't even compare to Dom. Dom's technique and the preparation he puts into preparing his sheets is very impressive. He's good. He is truly the most detailed individual I have ever been around. You may be as detailed as Dom, but I have never seen anybody with more detail in their presentation on a daily basis."

PACKERS OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JOE PHILBIN
(on Packers offense in postseason) "We had that one game in Atlanta where we were lights out for awhile. The other two games, from an offensive standpoint have been pretty similar to how we've played for the vast majority of the season. Down in Atlanta, we were opportunistic and we had that one stretch where we scored on five straight possessions, and that doesn't happen often in the NFL. We followed up the Atlanta game with a very good first half against Chicago. We think a lot of their defense. I think we had 17 first downs and 250 yards of offense in the first half, but obviously they made some good adjustments in the second half and we didn't make as many good plays in the second half. It is safe to say we are going to have to put a 60-minute game together against the Steelers."

(on whether the Packers offense plays better on turf) "I haven't really thought about it. I've seen some of those numbers that have been thrown up there. I half-kiddingly would say that if we protect our quarterback, if our receivers run good routes, if we have some balance in our attack, we'll probably have good success. I don't know that it is necessarily dome- or turf related. The worst game we've probably played in my four years as coordinator was in Detroit."

(on whether you can beat the Steelers just by passing) "I think our philosophy offensively has never been that since the average NFL game has 65 plays, we need to have 33 runs and 32 passes. I think a team would play into the hands of the opposition if you throw every down. Your quarterback will be in one spot and you would be asking your offensive linemen to block all day against every blitz and every defensive line game. I don't know that you can do that. We use some one-back and multiple receiver formations every week."

PACKERS DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR DOM CAPERS
(on facing Pittsburgh Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau) "Well, Dick and I are very good friends. When we first went to Pittsburgh, we roomed together initially. We're both from the same part of the country, both small-town Ohio guys. I have a great amount of admiration for Dick. When you think about what he's done, I don't think anybody else has done it, in terms of being a player who was just inducted into the Hall of Fame and now a coach. This guy has done it for over 50 years, and he's done it on a high level, so there's nothing but respect from me for Dick."

Posted in Ike Taylor, Pittsburgh Pirates, Pittsburgh Steelers

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