Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague Weston Hodkowitz. Were coming to you
Speaker 1: here from our studios at lambeau Field West. The regular
Speaker 1: season is over. The Packers finish at thirteen and four
Speaker 1: a thirty seven to thirty loss to the Detroit Lions
Speaker 1: on Sunday at Ford Field. Obviously a back and forth,
Speaker 1: up and down game. Starters played most of the first half.
Speaker 1: Packers used a lot of reserves, including at quarterback, and
Speaker 1: all of that in the second half. The biggest news
Speaker 1: out of this game, when you look at it from
Speaker 1: the Packers perspective, is that left tackle David Baktieri and
Speaker 1: center Josh Meyer's, the rookie second round pick out of
Speaker 1: Ohio State, both returned to the lineup and returned to
Speaker 1: the starting lineup, playing the bulk of the first half.
Speaker 1: And this is something now to keep an eye on. Obviously,
Speaker 1: with the Packers heading into the playoff bye week, getting
Speaker 1: ready for the divisional round game coming up here in
Speaker 1: you know, eleven or twelve days, whatever it is, Packers
Speaker 1: might be getting back to a lot closer to full
Speaker 1: strength on the offensive line than they've been in quite
Speaker 1: some time. It was a really interesting postgame zoom pressor
Speaker 1: because you were listening to David bat speaking at the
Speaker 1: podium to the reporters in Detroit. I was over on
Speaker 1: the other the side of things listening to Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: and Rogers mentioning that he actually was sort of I
Speaker 1: don't want to say coaxing Box to play into this,
Speaker 1: but he kind of was. He said on Wednesday, he
Speaker 1: kind of put it more in his ear of, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe to get some reps in this game, because honestly,
Speaker 1: it kind of sounded like, you know, when they've they've
Speaker 1: been through this process with him, you know. And Bok
Speaker 1: Terry said he he thought it was probably gonna a
Speaker 1: little bit earlier than he was gonna be coming back,
Speaker 1: wanting to make sure that he's ready for the playoffs.
Speaker 1: And it was Rogers point, and I thought it was
Speaker 1: a really good one. Is that, you know, all the
Speaker 1: talk was all about momentum, and it's all about building
Speaker 1: out what they've done, and certainly there's there's truth to
Speaker 1: all of that, but his number one reason to play
Speaker 1: in that game was because he wanted to get snaps
Speaker 1: with Josh Meyers at center, and he wanted to get
Speaker 1: box Tr back out there. And I think if you
Speaker 1: check it and just look at it from that perspective,
Speaker 1: Sunday was a success for David to play snaps. I
Speaker 1: think Josh Meyers ended up playing thirty two just a
Speaker 1: couple more, basically finished out that series for those guys
Speaker 1: missing as much time as they have. And it was
Speaker 1: important that Matt Lafleur pointed out to bak Tr has
Speaker 1: eight years of reps built up. Josh Meyers even though
Speaker 1: he actually has played this season, He's only played in
Speaker 1: four or five NFL games at this point. For both
Speaker 1: of those guys to get out there and the Packers
Speaker 1: to start figuring out what their best five is for
Speaker 1: the playoffs, what a benefit, What an opportunity after so
Speaker 1: much time has been spent this season of them trying
Speaker 1: to figure out, Okay, who are guys, who's healthy, who's available? Well,
Speaker 1: now you can start to build your best five. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and I think that's uh, that's what's worth watching here
Speaker 1: as um this next week and a half goes by.
Speaker 1: The Packers did decide with bok Tr at left tackle,
Speaker 1: and Myers at center, that Lucas Patrick, who had been
Speaker 1: playing center, moved over to right guard. He started at
Speaker 1: right guard in place of Royce Newman, and Matt lafleur
Speaker 1: Um made a comment on Monday with regard to Lucas
Speaker 1: Patrick that he is definitely one of the packers best
Speaker 1: five offensive linemen right now. So that tells you that
Speaker 1: if the coaches decide they feel comfortable and Josh Meyers
Speaker 1: is good to go for the playoffs, that Patrick's going
Speaker 1: to be starting at right guard, and then your next
Speaker 1: man up at this point on the interior, if anything
Speaker 1: were to happen at either of the guard spots, really
Speaker 1: then becomes the rookie Royce Newman, who obviously has a
Speaker 1: ton of games under his belt and everything at this point.
Speaker 1: But if everybody feels good about box tr and Myers
Speaker 1: and and all of this going forward, it looks like
Speaker 1: the Packers are going to have really other than other
Speaker 1: than John Runyon, the Packers are going to have quite
Speaker 1: a bit a quite a bit of playoff experience um
Speaker 1: in their offensive line. And that's even whether it's Dennis
Speaker 1: Kelly or Billy Turner at right tackle, because Billy Turner
Speaker 1: potentially could return to practice at some point this week
Speaker 1: or next heading into that playoff. Yeah, and and that's
Speaker 1: the important key I think for Green Bay here, and
Speaker 1: as Matt said, it isn't just gonna be the offensive line.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have to figure this out at a number
Speaker 1: of different positions at this point in the season. Was
Speaker 1: this thing moving on me or was it just me?
Speaker 1: I think it's it's a little loose. It's like a
Speaker 1: little loose. I have to do some next time that
Speaker 1: Marv's doing the shot strictly on you. I gotta do
Speaker 1: some some work on this thing. So one man banned
Speaker 1: operation here. I thought the thing was following down. No,
Speaker 1: but they're gonna have figure this out at cornerback. They're
Speaker 1: gonna have to figure this out. If Sadarius Smith comes
Speaker 1: back an outside linebacker. They've certainly had to figure this
Speaker 1: out with their receiving corps guys have gotten back, figuring
Speaker 1: out where to incorporate guys to put the best eleven
Speaker 1: on the field. An offensive line is one of the
Speaker 1: very interesting spots where there really isn't much changeover once
Speaker 1: you get your five out there, those are the five
Speaker 1: guys you're running with and I think with Patrick specifically,
Speaker 1: I think one thing a lot of people forget is
Speaker 1: this is the second longest tenured guy on this offensive line.
Speaker 1: He's also like the fifth longest tenure guy in the
Speaker 1: entire roster. Lucas Patrick has a lot of experience built
Speaker 1: up and served very amicably these last ten games to
Speaker 1: start at center to be able to stem this tide
Speaker 1: to get back to Myers. You tip your cap to him,
Speaker 1: and I think he's definitely played himself into that conversation.
Speaker 1: Royce Newman is the future, just like you know John
Speaker 1: Runyon was the future last year, but yet it was
Speaker 1: in more of a reserve capacity. The guys who have
Speaker 1: had to step up have stepped up. The one I
Speaker 1: got to just give one bit of credit to though,
Speaker 1: before we move on as Dennis Kelly, because this is
Speaker 1: a guy Mike that didn't play a single offensive snap
Speaker 1: for like three and a half months since the regular
Speaker 1: or the pre season open against Houston, Because then you
Speaker 1: forget that he kind of had an injury at the
Speaker 1: end of camp too, when he finally had to go
Speaker 1: in for Billy Turner in mid December. The guy didn't
Speaker 1: play on offense. He missed a month with his own injury.
Speaker 1: I think it was a hip or something like that.
Speaker 1: And he has not even I don't know if anybody's
Speaker 1: even talked about the left side defensive end the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks. The guy has just been a stud.
Speaker 1: And again, it just makes all these questions here as
Speaker 1: Billy Turner comes back, as Box Try gets back comfortable,
Speaker 1: what is going to be your best five? A much
Speaker 1: different scenario than what Green Bay was faced with a
Speaker 1: year ago at this time. Yeah, absolutely, and I totally
Speaker 1: agree with you with regard to Dennis Kelly. It's it's
Speaker 1: just it's interesting looking at looking at the film. You
Speaker 1: maybe I don't know if it's a noticeable on TV
Speaker 1: or not, but but Dennis Kelly is just such a
Speaker 1: big guy, like huge, and and now this last game
Speaker 1: when you had Dennis Kelly at right tackle and then
Speaker 1: you have Box Try back there at left tackle, with
Speaker 1: you know, with his wide stance and the big kickstep
Speaker 1: that he takes, you know, with regard to pass protection
Speaker 1: and everything. You see those two guys on the edges
Speaker 1: and it's like, you know, holy cow, it that's taken
Speaker 1: nothing away from Billy Turner. If Turner steps back in
Speaker 1: there at at right tackle. He's got the you know,
Speaker 1: that wide kickstep to the other side. I mean, these
Speaker 1: guys are these guys are such are such big bodies.
Speaker 1: And the Packers, the Packers are fortunate to have this
Speaker 1: much experience that they can choose from here heading in,
Speaker 1: heading into the postseason. Yeah, Box tr and Myers. Obviously
Speaker 1: they have to get their game conditioning back. They have
Speaker 1: to be ready to play fifty sixty you know, maybe
Speaker 1: even seventy snaps depending on how things go. And that's
Speaker 1: really the tricky part here, because whether you're talking about
Speaker 1: Randall Cobb coming back year, Alexander coming back, maybe za
Speaker 1: Darius Smith coming back, those guys can be worked in
Speaker 1: um to you know, to certain packages. You can substitute
Speaker 1: them in, have a few plays here, and then you
Speaker 1: know they You don't necessarily have to ask those guys
Speaker 1: to go play sixty snaps right away on the offensive line.
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily want to be shuffling things around series
Speaker 1: to series, quarter to quarter or a half to half whatever.
Speaker 1: It was fine to do that against the Detroit Lions
Speaker 1: when the Packers didn't need to win the game, but
Speaker 1: the conditioning of those guys will be will be the
Speaker 1: key as to whether they are ready to go for
Speaker 1: the playoffs. And could you tell just how much that
Speaker 1: game meant to David Baktr and and just the fact
Speaker 1: that he was able to get back out there. Evan
Speaker 1: Siegel had a great shot at him during the I
Speaker 1: think it was a national anthem or some point during warmups.
Speaker 1: A very emotional, very reflective David baktr looking back on that.
Speaker 1: Our team at Packers dot com or video department and
Speaker 1: David put together a fantastic, kind of funny, humorous video
Speaker 1: of his big comeback that I know they've been working
Speaker 1: on was that was fantastic. But when it comes down
Speaker 1: to it, this is a guy that has put and
Speaker 1: dedicated so much time to his craft. Is as humorous
Speaker 1: and as funny as he likes to be. It was
Speaker 1: a very serious moment for him to be back out there,
Speaker 1: and as Aaron Rodgers said, extremely proud of him that
Speaker 1: he was able to get those snaps under his belt.
Speaker 1: And you would hope whenever that divisional playoff game comes
Speaker 1: around here in a week and a half, that bacteria
Speaker 1: will be able to lean back on those experiences and
Speaker 1: feel confident again in that knee and where he's at
Speaker 1: well on Sunday. The Troit Lions were a to win
Speaker 1: football team with nothing to lose, and as I said
Speaker 1: during the game, as I said an insider inbox, they
Speaker 1: absolutely played like it. They try to fake punt early
Speaker 1: in the game. Packers were able to defend that. They
Speaker 1: tried a couple of trick plays, both of which worked
Speaker 1: for long touchdowns. Packers had their ups and downs offensively.
Speaker 1: You would have liked to have seen when the first
Speaker 1: unit was in there with Rogers. You'd like to see
Speaker 1: them capitalize off of the fake punt and get some
Speaker 1: points there. That didn't happen. Rogers still was able to
Speaker 1: throw two touchdown passes to Alan Lazard before halftime. UM
Speaker 1: second half, Jordan's Love up and down lead some lad
Speaker 1: some scoring drives, got the big screen pass four a touchdown.
Speaker 1: I believe the Packers scored seventeen points if I'm not
Speaker 1: mistaken with with Love at quarterback, two touchdowns in a
Speaker 1: field goal. But then in the two minutes situations at
Speaker 1: the end of the game, UM, things didn't work out defensively. UM.
Speaker 1: Defensively again, a lot of a lot of ups and downs.
Speaker 1: The trick plays seemed to kind of put the Packers
Speaker 1: on their heels um defensively, and uh and and Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur not happy with with the defensive performance. This is
Speaker 1: not what he wanted to see out of his defense
Speaker 1: heading into the playoffs. And yes, in the second half
Speaker 1: there were a lot of substitutions and a lot of
Speaker 1: guys you know, running in and out. But there were
Speaker 1: some there were some moments there in the first half
Speaker 1: where Matt Lafleur wanted to see his defense really step
Speaker 1: up and that didn't and that didn't happen, and he
Speaker 1: wasn't he wasn't happy about that. Yeah, the most regrettable
Speaker 1: part of this thing, I think where the trick plays,
Speaker 1: because that's where a lot of the explosives kind of
Speaker 1: came off of for Detroit. You can understand why Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur be a little frustrated about that, because ultimately, whoever
Speaker 1: ends up being their divisional round opponent, they're gonna go
Speaker 1: back and look at that be like, Okay, is there
Speaker 1: something that we're gonna be able to take advantage of
Speaker 1: here on the guys now, I would offer into evidence
Speaker 1: and and as an insider inbox reader put this better
Speaker 1: than I ever could we talked the entire season about
Speaker 1: what Devandre Campbell has meant to this defense, how whort
Speaker 1: and he has been as a quarterback, as a guy
Speaker 1: that has a hundred fifty tackles and fifteen games or
Speaker 1: whatever it ended up being. When you take him out
Speaker 1: of the equation, the defense changes. You'd be remiss not
Speaker 1: to admit that. That being said, in the adverse situations
Speaker 1: and the explosives and the adversity moments Green they didn't
Speaker 1: respond well enough to that. That's gonna be where they
Speaker 1: need to find, you know, a little bit more um consistency.
Speaker 1: They came out a halftime, I actually thought they played
Speaker 1: pretty well. Got a couple you know, consecutive three and
Speaker 1: outs that they earned. Yeah, that was that was where
Speaker 1: it felt like the you know, the defense, the defense
Speaker 1: was stepping up and potentially changing things. But then after that,
Speaker 1: you know, the Packers kind of pulled out some of
Speaker 1: their pulled out some of their main guys and and
Speaker 1: and went with went with the backups. And then and
Speaker 1: then in the fourth quarter of the Lions were able
Speaker 1: to put together that seventy five yard touchdown drive that
Speaker 1: that gave him the lead for good and This is
Speaker 1: where I agree with Aaron Rodgers, because you can create
Speaker 1: whatever narrative you want out of this going into the
Speaker 1: Divisional round game, and if they win a super Bowl,
Speaker 1: you can say, well, they took the right up approach.
Speaker 1: The way I look at it, though, I think this
Speaker 1: game actually gave Green Bay everything that they needed. You know,
Speaker 1: you had a good start, you got the fast start
Speaker 1: offensively right thirteen place, seventy four yards. They've had a
Speaker 1: hard time on that first scoring drive. They got that
Speaker 1: taken care of. They had some drives there that were regrettable.
Speaker 1: Then the offense finishes on a high note with that
Speaker 1: scoring drive right before halftime. Defensively, they got kicked in
Speaker 1: the teeth a little bit. I think that's something that
Speaker 1: can kind of be sort of a wake up call
Speaker 1: for them understanding what the standard is and understanding what
Speaker 1: they have to accomplish in this first playoff game. That
Speaker 1: being said, the only thing I will say about what
Speaker 1: Detroit did is to me, it seemed like you were
Speaker 1: kind of playing your little brother and Madden, and the
Speaker 1: little brother was just like, all right, I'm gonna pull
Speaker 1: out every trick in the book. I have nothing to lose.
Speaker 1: There is no tomorrow, and you know you got you
Speaker 1: got hit on a couple of things. If the Detroit
Speaker 1: Lions were playing to get in the playoffs, I think
Speaker 1: you see a little bit different offensive game plan for
Speaker 1: what they tried to do. Now, I will admit and
Speaker 1: I will submit into evidence. The fake punts are nothing
Speaker 1: new for Dan camp. Well, this is the way he
Speaker 1: runs this thing. But you do kind of drive the
Speaker 1: car a little bit differently if you don't care about
Speaker 1: what the car is gonna look like at the end
Speaker 1: of the season. So that's the only thing I would offer,
Speaker 1: not saying that teams in the playoffs here can't try
Speaker 1: some of that trickeration on Green Bay, but the stakes
Speaker 1: are much much higher than they were in week than
Speaker 1: what Detroit had in Week eighteen. Yeah, I I totally
Speaker 1: agree with you. There. A little shout out to our
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Speaker 1: subs we believe in. I'm gonna close on this because
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're gonna transition away from the game. Uh.
Speaker 1: I would be also remiss if I didn't talk about
Speaker 1: aman Ross st. Brown really quick. The Packers just don't
Speaker 1: you know, There's been some a lot of upheavil with
Speaker 1: the head coaching positions, certainly different quarterbacks that have gone through,
Speaker 1: and they never seems to catch a break in terms
Speaker 1: of the receiver position in this division. I mean you
Speaker 1: look at all the guys that you know, whether it
Speaker 1: was Kenny Galladay for years, Megatron was a constant problem,
Speaker 1: and then he got aman Ross and Brown coming through town.
Speaker 1: I mean, that guy, he's gonna be somebody to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on here in these years to come. I
Speaker 1: just want to I wanted to make sure I mentioned
Speaker 1: that before we got out of that game. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: sure looks like he's the next go to receiver for
Speaker 1: for the Detroit. It's gonna catch a hundred passes a
Speaker 1: year once he figures everything. Holy cow. Yeah, that he's
Speaker 1: um um. He is a he is a young he's
Speaker 1: a young talent to watch while the Detroit Lions are
Speaker 1: looking to build something here with with Dan Campbell. They
Speaker 1: certainly they certainly have the have the fire in the attitude.
Speaker 1: We talked about it all season long, how the Lions
Speaker 1: played hard, and yeah they lost a lot of close games,
Speaker 1: and yeah they lost a couple of blowouts too. They
Speaker 1: weren't necessarily in every game, but Dan Campbell had those
Speaker 1: guys playing really hard. The Lions are looking to build
Speaker 1: something well. The Bears and the Vikings, both in the
Speaker 1: NFC North, looking to completely start over and only moving
Speaker 1: on from their head coaches, but they're their gms as well.
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur is suddenly the longest tenured head coach in
Speaker 1: UH in the NFC North, just as he finishes his
Speaker 1: h his third season here. I want to take a
Speaker 1: look at the playoff picture, and we'll get into more
Speaker 1: specifics about some of these matchups, especially in the NFC,
Speaker 1: on our next show later this week. But I have
Speaker 1: to get your thoughts even before I go to the
Speaker 1: NFC about that Raiders Chargers game on Sunday night, which,
Speaker 1: as I'm sure y'all know, this setup was that the
Speaker 1: winner was going to go to the playoffs, the loser
Speaker 1: was going to be out, but because the Colts had
Speaker 1: lost to the two win coming in Jaguars and essentially
Speaker 1: blew their playoff spot with what should have been a
Speaker 1: as easy a win to get in game as you
Speaker 1: could ask for in a league like the NFL. The
Speaker 1: scenario is available in which if the Raiders and Chargers
Speaker 1: tied played to an overtime tie, they would both get
Speaker 1: in and that would keep the Pittsburgh Steelers out. The
Speaker 1: Steelers looking to steal the last spot that the that
Speaker 1: the Colts had let get away and lo and behold.
Speaker 1: It almost did play to an overtime tie. What what
Speaker 1: were you thinking watching that? You know? It wasn't even
Speaker 1: so much what I was thinking when I was watching it.
Speaker 1: It was everything that happened afterwards. Like I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've seen that clip, but that clip of Austin
Speaker 1: Ekeler talking to I don't even know which member that
Speaker 1: was of the last in Las Vegas Raiders where you
Speaker 1: can kind of, you know, do some lip reading there
Speaker 1: and then literally like the guy tells me, we were,
Speaker 1: you know, basically gonna kneel, and then l A calls
Speaker 1: the time out. You've said it a number of different
Speaker 1: times and we even you know, looked at the NFL
Speaker 1: and analyze things. These are all decisions that have to
Speaker 1: get made in the split second, in an instant, but
Speaker 1: sometimes coaches overthink these things. And for Brandon Staley, who
Speaker 1: by the way, is one of the brightest defensive minds
Speaker 1: in the game today, has an incredible history probably in
Speaker 1: terms of you looking like an indoctoration into defense, has
Speaker 1: gotten the best education of maybe anyone in NFL recent
Speaker 1: NFL history. And he called time out there when it
Speaker 1: looks like Raiders are just going to be content to
Speaker 1: run this thing, because I think no one I don't
Speaker 1: think really has been talking about is the Raiders had
Speaker 1: a lot to lose there too. If you make a mistake,
Speaker 1: if there's an interception, if there's if there's a fumble return,
Speaker 1: even lining up for a field goal, I mean there
Speaker 1: was a blocked field goal that gets taken the other way.
Speaker 1: You know there there's there's risk there. There there was
Speaker 1: way more risk to the Raiders lining up for that
Speaker 1: field goal than there was to just to just take
Speaker 1: a knee, And I think there was I think there
Speaker 1: was a sense. I think there was a sense. Now
Speaker 1: the Raiders still just handed the ball off on third
Speaker 1: and four. They didn't necessarily change exactly what they were
Speaker 1: going to do. I'm still not sure if they would
Speaker 1: have necessarily taken a knee before the time out was called.
Speaker 1: Maybe they would have. But there was a sense that
Speaker 1: because the time out was called with thirty eight seconds left,
Speaker 1: that the Raiders had to be like, all right, we
Speaker 1: we can't we can't just kneel on it because maybe
Speaker 1: they want the ball back, and then they're gonna try
Speaker 1: to throw pass and kick a field goal, so they're
Speaker 1: gonna make us punt. Yeah, so yeah, so so it's like,
Speaker 1: have you have to you have to still try to
Speaker 1: play to win and uh. And then the Chargers Brandon
Speaker 1: Staley says after the game, he calls the time out
Speaker 1: because he wants to get his best run defense on
Speaker 1: the field, knowing that the Raiders were going to run
Speaker 1: the ball. Well, your best run defense gave up a
Speaker 1: ten yard run that turned a fifty seven yard field
Speaker 1: goal into a forty seven yard one and uh and
Speaker 1: now you're going home in your season. It was an
Speaker 1: absolutely unprecedented situation, never seen anything like it before. An
Speaker 1: unbelievable comeback by Justin Herbert. The Chargers quarterback. They survived
Speaker 1: six fourth downs, two us in the span of multiple
Speaker 1: possessions to keep that game alive, five of them with
Speaker 1: past completions, one with the defensive penalty. Surviving six fourth downs,
Speaker 1: any one of those would have essentially ended the game
Speaker 1: and ended their season, and they stayed alive all the
Speaker 1: way until the final snap when that kick went through
Speaker 1: the uprights. It was it was. It was absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1: So what I said to you a couple of weeks ago, Mike,
Speaker 1: you got to get Justin Herbert now, because in five
Speaker 1: ten years, this kid is going to be something else.
Speaker 1: I said it like I said it last week the Raiders.
Speaker 1: As it turned out, the Raiders did the rest of
Speaker 1: the a f C playoff field a favor in my opinion,
Speaker 1: by getting Justin Herbert out of the because because he's
Speaker 1: a quarterback who could who could get hot and go
Speaker 1: on to run wherever you asked the Chargers to play,
Speaker 1: and without being disrespectful to the Raiders, I think it
Speaker 1: says a lot about the job that you know that
Speaker 1: that coaching staff that's been left over there is done.
Speaker 1: You know, certainly Edgar Bennett, who has been there now
Speaker 1: for a number of years, But I don't know if
Speaker 1: anyone's fearing facing Vegas with Austin Ike. They're back from
Speaker 1: the COVID list. With Justin Herbert playing the way that
Speaker 1: he's playing right now. Man, that is a dangerous football team.
Speaker 1: And because of how everything shuffled out, they are not
Speaker 1: going to be in the party this year. So I
Speaker 1: think there's probably a lot of teams in the FC
Speaker 1: that are happy about that. Yeah. Well, on the NFC side,
Speaker 1: the way things shook down, the San Francisco forty Niners
Speaker 1: did beat in another very dramatic game. They beat the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Rams, coming back from seventeen nothing down, then
Speaker 1: having to come back from seven points down in the
Speaker 1: final two minutes to get the game to overtime. The
Speaker 1: Niners win in overtime to get into the playoffs as
Speaker 1: a wild card. So here it is. The seventh seeded
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Eagles will be at the two seeded Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: San Francisco is the six. They will play at the
Speaker 1: three seed Dallas and then Arizona and the Rams, meeting
Speaker 1: number three of the NFC West rivals will be the
Speaker 1: five versus the four. As far as the as far
Speaker 1: as the NFC wild Card game, And from the Packers perspective,
Speaker 1: it's really kind of simple from a from a timeline perspective,
Speaker 1: the way the way the game's lined up in the schedule,
Speaker 1: because the Eagles and Buccaneers are first. If the Eagles win,
Speaker 1: they're coming to lambeau Field. If the Buccaneers win, then
Speaker 1: you turn your attention to San Francisco and Dallas. If
Speaker 1: San Francisco wins, the Niners are coming to lambeau Field.
Speaker 1: If they don't, and if Dallas wins, then it all
Speaker 1: comes down to that Monday Night the Cardinals and Rams,
Speaker 1: and the winner of that Monday night wild card game
Speaker 1: between Arizona and l A would be the team coming
Speaker 1: to lambeau Field. So there's sort of a sequence to
Speaker 1: it if you're if you're a Packer fan in terms
Speaker 1: of how you follow this very different from last year.
Speaker 1: If you remember when when when the the Rams as
Speaker 1: a as a road wild card had beaten Seattle. But
Speaker 1: then from the Packers perspective, we had to wait until
Speaker 1: the Bears, who were the seventh seed, and we're playing
Speaker 1: the next day. The Bears had to lose in order
Speaker 1: for the Rams to come to lambeau Field. If the
Speaker 1: Bears had won, it would have been the Bears coming
Speaker 1: to LAMBA. So there was there was the sequence was different.
Speaker 1: It was there, there was more uncertainty to it. This
Speaker 1: one's just gonna be one game at a time. Maybe
Speaker 1: you're gonna find out right here, maybe not, and then
Speaker 1: you go to the next game. And so the Packers
Speaker 1: might know their opponent um at some point on late
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon or early Sunday evening, or they might not
Speaker 1: know their opponent until very late in the evening on
Speaker 1: Monday night. If it takes that long to to decide this,
Speaker 1: it's it's an interesting situation. And obviously with a Monday
Speaker 1: night wild Card game for the first time ever, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a situation that hasn't really presented itself before.
Speaker 1: Just before I get into that, has a team that
Speaker 1: went to the playoffs a year ago ever seemed so
Speaker 1: far away removed from that playoff run than the Chicago
Speaker 1: Bears this year. I mean, I understand some things had
Speaker 1: to fall their way to get into the Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was that was an eight and eight Bears team that
Speaker 1: got the newly created seventh you know, to get in
Speaker 1: and then they weren't even they weren't even competitive in
Speaker 1: in their playoff game as the as then with a
Speaker 1: new quarterback and everything new quarterbacks, I guess I should
Speaker 1: say it still didn't work out in Chicago. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: talk about this thing. I'll be honest with you, Mike.
Speaker 1: We have a bye this week. We're still working quite
Speaker 1: a bit. We'll love some access this week, but the
Speaker 1: weekend is going to be kind of open to us.
Speaker 1: The weekend is our oyster in terms of how we
Speaker 1: want to do this right. You're you're the guru with
Speaker 1: the playoff stuff and all that. I'm telling you right now,
Speaker 1: I'm not watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Eagles game.
Speaker 1: I just won't be. There's a four year old running
Speaker 1: around that needs some attention. I'm gonna probably run some errands.
Speaker 1: I will be glued to the television for that three
Speaker 1: thirty matchup between San Francisco and Dallas, even if, even
Speaker 1: if Philly pulls the upset. I want to see that
Speaker 1: San Francisco team against a Dallas team that has looked
Speaker 1: like a world beater at parts of this season but
Speaker 1: also look fallible at other times. Where you get San
Speaker 1: Francisco was I've said over and over again because the
Speaker 1: most dangerous team in this entire field in terms of
Speaker 1: where they are relative to that. That's how I've felt
Speaker 1: the second half of the season, and and things are
Speaker 1: so tenuous because of this injury that Jimmy Garoppolo is
Speaker 1: dealing with. That that two minute drive with three absolutely
Speaker 1: incredible throws that Garoppolo made on that game tying drive
Speaker 1: against the Rams to get that game to overtime, that
Speaker 1: was phenomenal. You would not know for a second that
Speaker 1: Garoppolo is dealing with any kind of an injury when
Speaker 1: when you look at those throws. But again, this is football.
Speaker 1: If his hand hits somebody's helmet or you know, a
Speaker 1: pass rusher tries to reach out and knock the ball
Speaker 1: and his hand gets in an awkward position, this could
Speaker 1: all you know, it could all completely change in an
Speaker 1: instant for the forty nineers if any sort of aggravation
Speaker 1: to that injury with Garoppolo. That being said, this is
Speaker 1: a roster in San Francisco that is playoff experience, that
Speaker 1: is playoff tested, and coming back from seventeen down on
Speaker 1: the row against the division rival when your season is
Speaker 1: on the line. This is now a San Francisco team
Speaker 1: that that believes it can do anything. That that if
Speaker 1: if i'm if I'm Kyle Shanahan, I bel I'm believing
Speaker 1: my team is capable of anything. And this is a
Speaker 1: team that has a chip on its shoulder. Man. They
Speaker 1: made that Super Bowl run and then everybody they just
Speaker 1: had all these injuries, just injury after injury after injury,
Speaker 1: and and they've had to deal with that. I think that, hey,
Speaker 1: we're finally back to where we need to go. We
Speaker 1: need to be able to make a run here in
Speaker 1: order to do it. But I think that's a very
Speaker 1: dangerous team. And then also, I mean certainly you have
Speaker 1: the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills facing off for
Speaker 1: the fourteenth time this year. I think that's gonna be
Speaker 1: a really intriguing game to watch. And then it all
Speaker 1: comes down to Monday night. If if San Francisco doesn't
Speaker 1: pull the upset, if Philly doesn't pull the upset, then
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Packers will be sitting there for the
Speaker 1: first ever Monday night football playoff game, waiting to see
Speaker 1: who their opponent is going to be. Yeah, well, unlike you,
Speaker 1: I will be watching the Eagles and the Buccaneers because
Speaker 1: your kids are graduated well, partly, yes, but if the
Speaker 1: if the Eagles do pull off the upset, I have
Speaker 1: to be ready to write something very quickly to put
Speaker 1: on Packers doctor that the hells are coming to lambeau Field.
Speaker 1: So I gotta be watching. I gotta be ready. That's okay.
Speaker 1: I offered to help you need offer you did. I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm giving you a hard time. Spend spend Sunday
Speaker 1: with your with your four year old for as long
Speaker 1: as you can. Um, But I I it's it's an
Speaker 1: interesting it's an interesting slate of wild card games. I'll
Speaker 1: be honest with you. Um I, I really liked it.
Speaker 1: As much as I wasn't crazy about the seventh team
Speaker 1: being added to the playoffs. I really liked it last
Speaker 1: year when it was three games on Saturday and three
Speaker 1: on Sunday. There was there was a there was a
Speaker 1: rhythm and a symmetry to that. The fact that and
Speaker 1: especially because it could impact, you know, the Packers knowing
Speaker 1: their situation. The fact that there's now a wild Card
Speaker 1: game on Monday night just it just doesn't it just
Speaker 1: doesn't feel right to me. Um It's not really how
Speaker 1: this is there. There there's a reason. Uh, there's a
Speaker 1: reason playoff games in the NFL have always been played
Speaker 1: on Saturdays and Sundays. So, um, I'm not sure. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure if I'm going to be too keen on
Speaker 1: Monday Night football in the postseason. But but it's here,
Speaker 1: and I guess we have to deal with it. The
Speaker 1: biggest thing is I'm just holding out judgment on this,
Speaker 1: and and unfortunately only we only have purchased about another
Speaker 1: five minutes of time here in the studio before we
Speaker 1: have to get out. But uh, the reason I'm holding
Speaker 1: out judgment is I just want to see how they
Speaker 1: lay out the divisional round games. If it ends up
Speaker 1: being that the team's playing on Sunday are then playing
Speaker 1: on Saturday, and then the Monday night game is playing
Speaker 1: on Sunday, I'm I think I'll be okay with it,
Speaker 1: just from the standpoint of somebody's gonna end up getting
Speaker 1: the short end of the stick there. That being said,
Speaker 1: it just seems again I've warmed up. I even wrote
Speaker 1: this an inbox. I've warmed up to the fourteen team
Speaker 1: playoff field because I think it really does give a
Speaker 1: real advantage Now to the conference champion of the regular season.
Speaker 1: That makes sense to me. I actually am with that.
Speaker 1: But we just one thing is never good enough. We
Speaker 1: always got a kind of buds with it a little bit,
Speaker 1: and I feel like that Sunday night, if you could
Speaker 1: play the Monday game at noon on Monday, I think, okay,
Speaker 1: maybe it makes a little sense. But you play one
Speaker 1: team's playing at what freaking noon on Saturday and another's
Speaker 1: playing on Sunday. Well, the first game on Saturday is
Speaker 1: not till three thirty. But yeah, that's that's the one.
Speaker 1: That's the basically the noon Saturday wild Card game from
Speaker 1: last year has been shifted to Monday night, with with
Speaker 1: the other five windows time windows on Saturday and Sunday
Speaker 1: the same as they were a year ago. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: we're out, We're out of time. We got to get
Speaker 1: out of the studio because there's people waiting for us
Speaker 1: to leave. So we're going to call it a wrap
Speaker 1: on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow
Speaker 1: all of our coverage of the team. We've got it
Speaker 1: all for you on Packers dot com for Westim Mike.
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time.