Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford, joined by the one and only
Speaker 1: Wes Hodkowitz, were coming to you here from our studios
Speaker 1: at lambeau Field, fresh off a dramatic three Green Bay
Speaker 1: Packers victory in the NFC Divisional playoff over the Seattle
Speaker 1: Seahawks West. There are any number of angles we could
Speaker 1: go about analyzing and discussing this game, but I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna start right here. When it was three at halftime,
Speaker 1: when it was ten in the middle of the third quarter,
Speaker 1: you still just knew it was gonna come down to
Speaker 1: the end, right, I mean you just you knew it.
Speaker 1: And that's exactly how it played out. So I thought
Speaker 1: this game on so many levels illustrated just the absolute
Speaker 1: brilliance of both Are Rogers and Russell Wilson. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: said that all week long last week, starting with Russell Wilson.
Speaker 1: Phenomenal performance by him. I know it wasn't picture perfect,
Speaker 1: but as I said to you from the beginning, Mike,
Speaker 1: with him, he can win, for lack of a better
Speaker 1: term here, term here dirty, not in that sense, but
Speaker 1: in terms of like he can do it ugly and
Speaker 1: Seattle said they wanted to run the both Marshawn Lynch.
Speaker 1: I somewhat felt all along that that was an ill
Speaker 1: advised plot. They did it, they did not, They tried.
Speaker 1: They tried, so they went back to their bread and butter,
Speaker 1: which is asking Russell Wilson to just do superhuman things.
Speaker 1: Evening at the improv at lambeau Field. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was just he was just making it up as he
Speaker 1: went along, which is what he's done all season to
Speaker 1: get the Seahawks as far as they got, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: being able to open up some big plays there for Seattle.
Speaker 1: He's the type of quarterback. He's what you need to
Speaker 1: win in this league. The game is never too far
Speaker 1: out of reach for him to come back and mount
Speaker 1: a big rally. Aaron Rodger years, I've been saying for
Speaker 1: so long now because people always think and it's just
Speaker 1: all because I worked for the team now and I'm
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com since the very beginning. People want to
Speaker 1: paint this thing of is Rogers passed his prime? Is
Speaker 1: he is he passed it or whatever? If you consistently
Speaker 1: beat that drum, you end up looking like a fool.
Speaker 1: Because the one thing I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't realize is in addition to Aaron Rodgers being a
Speaker 1: generational talent and making countless amounts of throws in this
Speaker 1: game that a very few number of humans on this
Speaker 1: planet can actually do, Aaron Rodgers still has that greatness
Speaker 1: in him in the most clutch situations. I said all
Speaker 1: last week I was expecting the best version of him,
Speaker 1: and that's what you saw in this They got the
Speaker 1: twenty three yard game from Aaron Jones early, but otherwise
Speaker 1: they couldn't really run the ball the way I thought
Speaker 1: that they might be able to against Seattle's struggle. So
Speaker 1: it had to be on Aaron Rodgers. It had to
Speaker 1: be Davante Adams and Rogers played I I felt like
Speaker 1: a fantastic football game. And the third down completions nine
Speaker 1: of four town nine fourteen on third down, three huge
Speaker 1: third down conversions by Jimmy Graham and Davante Adams has
Speaker 1: just an iconic performance. Eight receptions for hundred sixty yards
Speaker 1: and two touchdowns. The other thing too about that, I mean, Mike,
Speaker 1: how many of those catches were just like gotta have
Speaker 1: them grabs that were fully contested. He ran that forty
Speaker 1: yard we're talking about that post corner route, just a
Speaker 1: magnificent route adjustment gets in for the forty yard touchdown.
Speaker 1: But then to make that thirty two yard catch kind
Speaker 1: of over his shoulder with just a little bit of
Speaker 1: separation off a fade route that they put together at
Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage. It speaks to his greatness and
Speaker 1: it obviously is another testament to Aaron Rodgers and what
Speaker 1: has been just an incredible Hall of Fame career. Well,
Speaker 1: you you can say so much about Aaron Rodgers and
Speaker 1: Davante Adams from this game, just to start with the
Speaker 1: play at the end, the thirty two yard completion on
Speaker 1: third and eight when the Packers are on their own
Speaker 1: twenty two yard line there with just over two minutes
Speaker 1: to go. Rogers actually said after the game, Adams didn't
Speaker 1: just adjust the route. He was better than the check,
Speaker 1: like the check that's in the playbook. Adams actually did
Speaker 1: a different check and it was better. And Rogers was
Speaker 1: on the same page with Adams and the throw was
Speaker 1: absolutely perfect. And that was one of many throws. As
Speaker 1: you were just talking about that, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know how many times did I lean over to you
Speaker 1: in the press box and say, wow, what a throw.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was at least right. I mean, whether
Speaker 1: you're talking about the third down pass to Jimmy Graham
Speaker 1: in the third quarter, right before the forty yard touchdown
Speaker 1: to Davante Adams, the third and ten pass over the middle,
Speaker 1: the side arm one to Geronimo Allison that kept one
Speaker 1: drive alive there briefly in the fourth quarter. I just
Speaker 1: mentioned the one to Adams, the one to Graham at
Speaker 1: the end of the game where he has to stand
Speaker 1: in the pocket. He's got to hold it as long
Speaker 1: as he can to give Graham a chance to break
Speaker 1: free coming on the crossing route. He takes a shot,
Speaker 1: but puts the ball right on the money. And that's
Speaker 1: just that's only the start of the list of the
Speaker 1: throws that Rogers made in this game. I thought it
Speaker 1: was an absolutely tour to force performance by one of
Speaker 1: the best, by one of the best ever. And statistically
Speaker 1: I looked it up. I wrote about it. The hundred
Speaker 1: and thirteen point seven passer rating. That's only his sixth
Speaker 1: highest postseason passer rating for a single game. But when
Speaker 1: you look at those handful of five or six throws
Speaker 1: that were absolutely pinpoint spot on in difficult spots. I
Speaker 1: I thought it was just it was masterful work by him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's the reason why I will continue to say
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just a garbage argument when people put
Speaker 1: out this below average or average whatever you want to
Speaker 1: label him as, keep doing it, go ahead, it's fine.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is this is a human game
Speaker 1: played by real people that actually have, like you know,
Speaker 1: a brain and a personality and things they enjoy doing
Speaker 1: off the field instead of just playing football for sixty
Speaker 1: minutes and going back into a corner for the next
Speaker 1: seven days. And Aaron Rodgers, I think when you look
Speaker 1: at just what it requires to play this game at
Speaker 1: its highest level, I thought him and Russell Wilson just
Speaker 1: put on a clinic for what it takes to play
Speaker 1: quarterback in two thousand, nineteen and two thousand and twenty.
Speaker 1: They were just epitome of everything that is great about
Speaker 1: this sport. And why I think you can't make just
Speaker 1: asinine comments about you know, this being the end of this,
Speaker 1: or this being the end of that, or he isn't
Speaker 1: the player he once was. It can always change. And
Speaker 1: here's the beautiful thing, Mike, It's not just Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: Matt Ryan has up and down years. Philip Rivers has
Speaker 1: had up and down years. Guys have up and down years.
Speaker 1: Because spoiler alert, it's a pretty dang hard position to
Speaker 1: play in the NFL, and for Rogers to step up
Speaker 1: in that situation with the temperature being what it is,
Speaker 1: the stakes being as high as they were, Packers got
Speaker 1: off to the fast start they needed. They haven't these
Speaker 1: last few weeks. It's been really tough trying to get
Speaker 1: points on that opening drive. Seattle wins the toss to
Speaker 1: fur and the Packers march right down. They needed to
Speaker 1: set the tone in this game, and then when they
Speaker 1: needed to get their form in an offense going late,
Speaker 1: they were able to accomplish that again as well. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: certainly Davantae Adams took his place in the Packers record
Speaker 1: books here with this eight catch, hundred and sixty yard performance.
Speaker 1: It is the most receiving yards in a single postseason
Speaker 1: game in franchise history, one more than the hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty nine that ja Michael Finley had in the two
Speaker 1: thousand nine wild card overtime shootout against the Arizona Cardinals.
Speaker 1: But you think about it was Davanta Adams is at
Speaker 1: the top of a list that includes Max McGee from
Speaker 1: Super Bowl one, Jordy Nelson from Super Bowl forty five,
Speaker 1: Antonio Freeman from Super Bowl thirty one, John Jefferson from
Speaker 1: the big postseason game that he had in the early eighties.
Speaker 1: I mean, Davantae Adams hundred and sixty yards is at
Speaker 1: the top of that list. And he and there were
Speaker 1: times in the game where he absolutely looked dominant doing it.
Speaker 1: I mean there was the one, the one drive in
Speaker 1: the first half where Rogers just on different routes against
Speaker 1: different coverages, it was just bing, bing bing seventeen seventeen seventeen,
Speaker 1: just kept hitting him every time for a first down,
Speaker 1: Packers marching right down the field. A couple of the
Speaker 1: fans who were chiming in while I was live blogging
Speaker 1: kept using the word surgical the way Rogers and Adams
Speaker 1: were connecting and moving the ball in the first half.
Speaker 1: I thought that was a very apt description. And uh,
Speaker 1: Rogers talked after the game about how his his connection,
Speaker 1: that that chemistry, that telepathy, whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 1: with Adams is just on another level now. And Rogers
Speaker 1: actually brought up that it's it's getting like it was
Speaker 1: with Jordy Nelson, and that is not a comparison that
Speaker 1: he would make lightly. I mean, he's he's never said
Speaker 1: it in that way before about Adams, but in this game,
Speaker 1: that's how it felt and that's how it looked, because
Speaker 1: it's not just the gold standard for Rogers in a receiver,
Speaker 1: that's the gold standard for any receiver in quarterback scenario.
Speaker 1: When him and Nelson had and being able to be
Speaker 1: on that second level ten years together, Yeah, it's an
Speaker 1: incredible run. And now you see Davante Adams now in
Speaker 1: year five of this thing, you're six of this thing
Speaker 1: now being able to develop that relationship now with Rogers
Speaker 1: and obviously be able to have that telepathy in their communication,
Speaker 1: how they deal with each other. It was interesting to
Speaker 1: talking to Geronimo Allison the locker room after the game.
Speaker 1: He said, you know, all week long, you know, Tavante
Speaker 1: just had this look in his eye like it was
Speaker 1: just like he was kind of in on a secret,
Speaker 1: like he just he knew he was going to play
Speaker 1: well in this game. And Davante was asked about that
Speaker 1: after Alison made those comments, and his thought was two things. One,
Speaker 1: he played really well against Seattle, last year ten catches
Speaker 1: a hundred and sixty six yards and the last time,
Speaker 1: this is what I really enjoyed the last time the
Speaker 1: Packers came off of a by five years ago. Also
Speaker 1: in the in the PLAYFFS, he also played really well
Speaker 1: against Elis. Those are things that actually bolstered his confidence
Speaker 1: going into this, and he said it's because of like anything,
Speaker 1: if I go up against a cornerback who has success
Speaker 1: the same cornerback, the same team, the same circumstances a
Speaker 1: year later, that's going to be in the back of
Speaker 1: his mind. So he's like, I can't see how that
Speaker 1: wasn't something Seattle was thinking about in despite you know,
Speaker 1: the extra tension they gave him. He I thought, put
Speaker 1: on just a clinic when it came to his footwork,
Speaker 1: in his fundamentals and what was asking at that receiver position.
Speaker 1: And then oh, by the way, when you tie all
Speaker 1: that together, he's a pretty remarkable athlete too. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it was that that was a that was a
Speaker 1: remarkable performance, and certainly the Packers want to see Adams
Speaker 1: and Rogers on that same page again next week out
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. But real quickly here was select cousin
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Speaker 1: We believe in better defensive side of the ball. Here
Speaker 1: for the Packers, tale of who has curly um. The
Speaker 1: Packers were bottling up the run game, bottling up Russell Wilson,
Speaker 1: frustrating him, you know, not letting him scramble. He's trying
Speaker 1: to get off some passes just as he reaches the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage, you know, trying to fool the Packers
Speaker 1: into committing to run or pass on on those scrambles.
Speaker 1: And green Bay holds him to just three points in
Speaker 1: the first half, one field goal, one missed field goal.
Speaker 1: They stood up tall enough at the end of the
Speaker 1: first half to render um uh hail mary as the
Speaker 1: only chance there at the end of the second quarter,
Speaker 1: which fell incomplete. But then in the second half it
Speaker 1: was a totally different story. Russell Wilson was doing his
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson things, his his improv his making it up,
Speaker 1: his incredible elusiveness. I mean, the Packers sacked him five
Speaker 1: times in this game. Weston. It was like they could
Speaker 1: have sacked him fifteen I mean, there were there were
Speaker 1: so many times. But you know, Green Bay is not
Speaker 1: the first defense that Russell Wilson has has done this to.
Speaker 1: This is just the way this guy plays. He for
Speaker 1: all the times that he does get sacked, he is
Speaker 1: He is incredibly hard to corral and he's very difficult
Speaker 1: to bring down. And really it came down to finally,
Speaker 1: third and six, fourth quarter, right around three minutes to go,
Speaker 1: Preston Smith comes blowing around the right tackle and gets
Speaker 1: a clean shot on him and drops him. Seattle punts
Speaker 1: the ball and then doesn't get it back because the
Speaker 1: Packers get the two big third down conversions, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know that's that's how you close out. That's how
Speaker 1: you close out the Seattle Seahawks is you make the
Speaker 1: big stop on third down and then you don't give
Speaker 1: him the one last chance that you were looking for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought it was apropos when you look at just
Speaker 1: the entire defensive performance the first half. It was Zadarius
Speaker 1: Smith getting the two sacks, Kenny Clark knife through got
Speaker 1: another one. I thought Kenny had a really good start.
Speaker 1: He had to chase Wilson down was like he had
Speaker 1: him and then he got away, and then he ran
Speaker 1: him down and then got him before he got back
Speaker 1: to the line of scrimmage to get that sad. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's fun because it's like, that's kind of what
Speaker 1: it's like when you're playing Russell Wilson. It's like these
Speaker 1: shoes string tackles every once in a while and you'll
Speaker 1: take him. But the second half it shows you again
Speaker 1: why Brian goodykinstant just stopped with Zadarius Smith. He went
Speaker 1: and signed Preston Smith too, because I thought Smith, especially
Speaker 1: in that fourth quarter, was just exceptional, you know, exceptional.
Speaker 1: What was what was his line after the game, defending
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson is like chasing a chicken in a field
Speaker 1: with no fence. I think that was the I think
Speaker 1: that that fantastic description and uh and absolutely spot on
Speaker 1: the way that game was unfolding. But again it goes
Speaker 1: back to the mental toughness of that defense because the
Speaker 1: third quarter was rough. I mean, Seattle marches down the
Speaker 1: field both times, puts up fourteen points and now suddenly
Speaker 1: the complexion of the game changes after very dominant first half,
Speaker 1: but they needed to not only find a stop late
Speaker 1: in the game. They needed to do that because now
Speaker 1: the game was only five points in Seattle had a
Speaker 1: chance to march down the field to pull ahead in
Speaker 1: the waning moments of this game, and they stepped up
Speaker 1: towards that they got a critical stop and being able
Speaker 1: to then execute the four minute offense. This defense, Mike,
Speaker 1: I mean, when all the Chips are down, they always
Speaker 1: find a way to persevere, and it is it's really
Speaker 1: interesting now that they will get an opportunity to see
Speaker 1: if they can get that redemption against you know, Jimmy
Speaker 1: Garoppolo and the San Francisco defense or offense. But we'll
Speaker 1: we'll get more time for that later this week. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Well,
Speaker 1: we've seen it time and time again, Wes. And this
Speaker 1: is what I focused my entire game recap story on
Speaker 1: that I wrote last night. This Packers team, they make
Speaker 1: the plays in the fourth quarter when they have to
Speaker 1: have them. And as you said, it was like the
Speaker 1: Chips were down, Seattle seemingly had all the momentum in
Speaker 1: the world, and then you look at the sack by
Speaker 1: Preston Smith and then the two third down conversions on offense.
Speaker 1: The past two Adams over the top and then the
Speaker 1: crosser to Jimmy Graham. When you look at it in
Speaker 1: you know, the play by play because of the time
Speaker 1: outs being used in the two minute warning, those were
Speaker 1: three really really big clutch plays that happened within like
Speaker 1: ninety seconds of game clock. And if any one of
Speaker 1: those three plays within that ninety seconds of game clock
Speaker 1: isn't going the Packers way, if the Packers don't do
Speaker 1: what they have to in those moments, we might be
Speaker 1: talking about a different ending here. I mean it was
Speaker 1: there were there were big time moments, and as the
Speaker 1: Packers have done far more often than not this season,
Speaker 1: they came through when they had to come through. They
Speaker 1: really did. And it's funny too because if you look
Speaker 1: at this whole game, uh, you know, Jared Valdeer ends
Speaker 1: up playing and you know, having to start. We haven't
Speaker 1: even we haven't even talked about that yet, but wow,
Speaker 1: what a what a performance by him, And well, you
Speaker 1: know they'll talk for you know, decades to come. Here
Speaker 1: in Packer fans circles about Davante Adams and the performance
Speaker 1: he had and Rogers leading them past Russell Wilson getting
Speaker 1: some playoff revenge against Seattle. But then there's a guy
Speaker 1: like Jared Valdier that I think only like the true
Speaker 1: die hards are going to remember this game. But Brian Blaga,
Speaker 1: who successfully cleared the concussion for WoT A call earlier
Speaker 1: in the week, is so he's able to take all
Speaker 1: the first team reps at right tackle. The plan is
Speaker 1: for him to be there. Even won the Stand Up
Speaker 1: Guy Award on Friday. Everybody's feeling really good about this thing.
Speaker 1: And then the day of the game, that dreaded bug,
Speaker 1: that flu bug that's been circling around the locker room,
Speaker 1: it gets Brian Bulaga, and Bilaga, to his credit, was
Speaker 1: active for this game. They did have him up. But
Speaker 1: whatever happened, you know, in those hours in between there
Speaker 1: and eventually we'll get a chance to talk to him.
Speaker 1: They ended up having to make a decision basically half
Speaker 1: an hour before the start of the game that they're
Speaker 1: gonna go with Jared Valdere and outside has he even
Speaker 1: said it outside and maybe one rush against Jadeveon Clowney
Speaker 1: where he was able to get inside of him. The
Speaker 1: guy pitched a shut out. This is a guy that
Speaker 1: was retired two months ago at this time, a guy
Speaker 1: that had stepped away from the game, had already played
Speaker 1: in over a hundred regular season contests, had started thinks
Speaker 1: maybe somewhere around a hundred and nineteen he was done.
Speaker 1: And then here he is in a very critical late
Speaker 1: season and the acquisition by Brendan Brian Goodkunst play and
Speaker 1: one of the most important downs of football the Packers
Speaker 1: have seen. Yeah, well, Rogers said after the game actually
Speaker 1: that he saw Bolag a kind of tap himself out
Speaker 1: during warmups where you know, they during warmups, they line
Speaker 1: up with the full offense, but it's kind of on air.
Speaker 1: You know, there's really no defense on the other side,
Speaker 1: and they're just they're just running through certain formations and plays.
Speaker 1: And Rogers said, after one of the players Bolaga just
Speaker 1: kind of walked off to the sideline, you know, signaled
Speaker 1: for valder to go in and finish up, you know
Speaker 1: that round because we and that was and and then
Speaker 1: that was it. Bolaga basically took himself out and knew
Speaker 1: that he wasn't going to be able to go and
Speaker 1: that's essentially when the decision was made. And you know
Speaker 1: what val Deer did stepping in, obviously he was huge
Speaker 1: stepping in the fourth quarter in Detroit for the Packers
Speaker 1: to get the first round by when Bolaga got the concussion,
Speaker 1: and then he comes up big yesterday and Rogers was joking,
Speaker 1: you know, on the sideline with him saying, you know,
Speaker 1: isn't this amazing? You were retired like two months ago,
Speaker 1: and val Deer said, dude, I was in the stands
Speaker 1: that Soldier field watching you guys beat the Bears in
Speaker 1: Week one, I mean, his first week of football retirement.
Speaker 1: You know, he's in the crowd in Chicago watching the
Speaker 1: kickoff opener of the NFL season and lo and behold
Speaker 1: the team that he was watching get a victory. Is
Speaker 1: uh the team that he's starting for at right tackle
Speaker 1: in the NFC Divisional playoffs four months later. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's really, it's really a pretty remarkable story. You
Speaker 1: couldn't you can't make this stuff up. And you know
Speaker 1: better than anybody might cover in this team. As long
Speaker 1: as you have now. It is one thing to just
Speaker 1: stay in shape. It is another thing to actually be
Speaker 1: in a condition to play all, you know, meaningful snaps
Speaker 1: late in the season after you didn't have an off
Speaker 1: season programmer or training camp or anything like that, and
Speaker 1: to play a full game to not just filling in
Speaker 1: for a quarter like he did in Detroit, which was
Speaker 1: which was solid enough, but he had he had to
Speaker 1: go wire to wire against the Seattle Seahawks and a
Speaker 1: fair number of snaps against Mr Clowney. Yeah, and just
Speaker 1: the you know, that's an important acquisition. And it's funny.
Speaker 1: He actually said afterwards to this this public virus that's
Speaker 1: going around, he caught it too, uh And I think
Speaker 1: David Boctryo was talking with Rob Demovski about this too.
Speaker 1: He worked through it last week and Valdere said, I mean,
Speaker 1: it is it's bad. What he had was bad. And
Speaker 1: he's like, you know, he understands why Brian Blaga was
Speaker 1: in the position he was in and the fact that
Speaker 1: he would have done anything to be out there. But sometimes, man,
Speaker 1: if you get full blown influenza, it'll get you and
Speaker 1: there's no amount of fluids or anything that's gonna get
Speaker 1: you through that. So fortunately for the Packers, again, this
Speaker 1: is a this is a guy that they claimed off
Speaker 1: waivers from New England at the end of November, was
Speaker 1: activated what December nine or something like that, and here
Speaker 1: he is now having to play in three critical moments.
Speaker 1: You know, in in that first month with the team. Well,
Speaker 1: just quickly to recap everything else that happened on divisional weekend.
Speaker 1: As everyone knows, the Packers opponent in the NFC Championship
Speaker 1: game next week will be the San Francisco for the Uniters,
Speaker 1: so it is the one seed versus the two seed
Speaker 1: in the NFC. The game will be at Levi Stadium
Speaker 1: in Santa Clara, and obviously we'll be talking all week
Speaker 1: long about how the Packers, uh, you know, looking to
Speaker 1: avenge obviously what happened out there in November, which was
Speaker 1: really the low point of the season quite frankly. In
Speaker 1: the a f C, the Tennessee Titans go into Baltimore
Speaker 1: and knock off the top seeded Baltimore Ravens. So now
Speaker 1: the Titans keeping their playoff run going, they will travel
Speaker 1: to Kansas City for the a f C championship game.
Speaker 1: As the Chiefs recover from a twenty four to nothing
Speaker 1: deficit and outscore the Houston Texans fifty one to seven
Speaker 1: over the final three quarters of the game. So some
Speaker 1: really interesting games in the a f C. But with
Speaker 1: the a f C and the forty Niners, I think
Speaker 1: if you look at the four NFC playoff games that
Speaker 1: have been played so far, the two wild card games,
Speaker 1: the two divisional games. Hands down, the most impressive performance
Speaker 1: impressive victory was Sam Francisco over Minnesota. It was dominant.
Speaker 1: The San Francisco's defense shut down Minnesota and the Vikings
Speaker 1: could not stop San Francisco's running game. And twenty seven
Speaker 1: to ten does not describe how dominant that victory was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it really doesn't. And the one thing that that stood
Speaker 1: out to me is that all the year long I
Speaker 1: talked about the Vikings are just a different team when
Speaker 1: Delvin Cook is out there. Credit where credits do? San
Speaker 1: Francisco took away Delvin Cook and the Vikings abandoned their
Speaker 1: running game altogether. That's how good that front is. That's
Speaker 1: how good those two nose tackles are for San Francisco.
Speaker 1: You and I were having a conversation with James Jones
Speaker 1: before a PEP rally on Saturday, and Jones great to
Speaker 1: see j j. He made a great point when he
Speaker 1: was talking with us about what you have to do.
Speaker 1: Hopefully I'm not taking away any of his fodder for
Speaker 1: this week on NFL Outwork, but when you're playing San Francisco,
Speaker 1: good luck. If you're trying to move the ball up
Speaker 1: the field between the hashes, you have to get the
Speaker 1: ball outside. It doesn't matter if it's the runner pass.
Speaker 1: You have to be able to produce outside and stretch
Speaker 1: them horizontally. That I think is gonna be one of
Speaker 1: the big adjustments the Packers are gonna have to make
Speaker 1: this week, because you know, Minnesota was who they were.
Speaker 1: They're a north south running team. That's where Cook's bread
Speaker 1: and butter is. But they just were not able to
Speaker 1: get the push in the lanes to open up. And
Speaker 1: if you're not able to get the run going, we've
Speaker 1: seen it so often that destroys the play action pass
Speaker 1: for Kirk Cousins, and it's it's kind of a self
Speaker 1: fulfilling prophecy from their San Francisco is a real problem.
Speaker 1: I mean, they're gonna be a challenge and the Packers
Speaker 1: are going to go there and try to reverse fortunes.
Speaker 1: I have to mention to Tennessee versus Kansas City. I
Speaker 1: actually can't think of any better storylines going into a
Speaker 1: conference championship in terms of both of those teams than
Speaker 1: Tennessee and Casey. From Casey's perspective, Andy Reid. How special
Speaker 1: would that be for him to lead another team to
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl still chasing that Lombardi Trophy. That would
Speaker 1: be an incredible achievement Tennessee. If they would actually make
Speaker 1: a run here, if they can find a way to
Speaker 1: turn back Kansas City at home. You have to beat
Speaker 1: Tom Brady and the Patriots, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens
Speaker 1: and Patrick Homes in Kansas City, all on the road,
Speaker 1: on the road to go to the Super Bowl, all
Speaker 1: on the road. That's a remarkable run that would be
Speaker 1: either way. That storyline is going to be great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Final four. I don't think it could possibly get any
Speaker 1: more compelling. Yeah, I'm this This is it's gonna be.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a great Sunday of football, and we
Speaker 1: got all week to talk about it. We're kind of
Speaker 1: up against the clock right here, so we're gonna call
Speaker 1: this one a rap. On Packers Unscripted, be sure to
Speaker 1: follow all of our coverage of the team all week
Speaker 1: long on NFC Championship Week here on Packers Unscripted. You
Speaker 1: can subscribe to us like us on iTunes and other
Speaker 1: podcast services, and check out all sorts of great video
Speaker 1: content on the Packers YouTube channel for WES. I'm Mike,
Speaker 1: thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We will see you
Speaker 1: next time.