‘Not About Me’ as Drayton Coaches with Heavy Heart
GREEN BAY, Wis. – After losing two “very close” family members, Green Bay special teams coordinator Maurice Drayton decided to say with his Packers family for Sunday night’s game against the San Francisco 49ers.
“At the end of the day, it’s the family atmosphere here. We have a task at hand,” Drayton said on Wednesday. “I kind of live by a mantra of you have to close ranks and keep marching. That’s not to make light of anything that’s going on at the time. But that mentality has always helped us to go forward. It’s not about me. It’s about us and we.”
Drayton said a grandmother and cousin “transitioned from mortality to immortality.” Nonetheless, Drayton stuck with the team for its 30-28 victory over the 49ers, a triumph made possible by Mason Crosby’s 51-yard field goal as time expired.
Drayton’s units made mostly positive contributions to the outcome. Crosby made three field goals to win his eighth NFC Special Teams Player of the Week Award. Corey Bojorquez battled NFC Special Teams Player of the Month Mitch Wishnowsky to a draw in a battle of top punters.
The only blemish – and it was a big one – was the 68-yard kickoff return by Trenton Cannon late in the first half that lit the 49ers’ fuse to rally from a 17-0 deficit. Ty Summers was blocked inside and Kylin Hill was blocked outside to form a huge alley. The other five kickoffs resulted in three touchbacks and the Niners taking possession at their 17 and 19.
“Kickoff is like riding a motorcycle without a helmet,” Drayton said. “You make one mistake, it can be pretty bad for you. Literally, we had a guy get a little too far to the right and another guy that didn't get far enough to his right. Next thing you know, they’re up on Mason. Good thing Mason – we talked two weeks ago about Mason making tackles – so we got him on the ground. They wound up scoring, which is not good. I promise you, we’re going to get it right.”
Hill made one understated play that helped the Packers win the game. And that play wasn’t made on Sunday. Rather, it was made last Monday. His 41-yard return against the Detroit Lions in Week 2 was stuck in the mind of 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and his special teams coordinator, Richard Hightower, on the final kickoff of the game. The 49ers could have kicked the ball to Hill in hope of burning off some of the remaining seconds on his return. Instead, they kicked the ball out of the end zone, setting up Green Bay at the 25 with the full 37 seconds to go.
“We have a lot of respect for Hill,” Hightower told 49ers beat reporters on Wednesday. “He had a big, explosive return the week before where he got those guys to like the 50-yard line or something like that, (so) it was half a field [Green Bay Packers QB] Aaron [Rodgers] had to work with, and they went down there and scored. So, the thought process on that is basically we’ve got a lot of respect for the guy and make them go longer than they have to there.”
After the long kickoff return, receiver Allen Lazard signed up for special-teams duty and played four snaps. And when linebacker Krys Barnes exited with a concussion, every-down linebacker De’Vondre Campbell volunteered to replace him and got his first two snaps of special-teams action this season.
“Anytime you have people who are so selfless, man, that’s awesome,” Drayton said. “That’s what you look for, what you’re trying to breed in a team.”
It was selfless play, much like that demonstrated by their coordinator who was leading with a heavy heart.
“We were able to deal with it because of this organization, because of the family atmosphere that we have in the locker room,” Drayton said. “At the end of the day, it’s not about me. It’s always about us and we and, because of that, we’re able to put one foot in front of the other. When guys ask me all the time, ‘How are you doing?’ Putting one foot in front of the other, right, left. As long we we’re doing that, we’re going forward. So, we’re going to be fine.”
