Speaker 1: Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 2: I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my partner
Speaker 2: in crime, Weston Hodkwitz. We're coming to you hear from
Speaker 2: our studios at lambeau Field to preview the Week two matchup.
Speaker 2: It will be the home opener for the Green Bay
Speaker 2: Packers Green Bay against Indianapolis Sunday noon Central time, kickoff
Speaker 2: at lambeau Field. And what's when you look at this
Speaker 2: Colts team that's coming in here, coming off a tough
Speaker 2: loss of their own in Week one, twenty nine to
Speaker 2: twenty seven to division rival in their case, the Houston Texans.
Speaker 2: The biggest difference of course being that they don't have
Speaker 2: a quarterback injury to deal with like like the Packers have.
Speaker 2: But Anthony Richardson, a young quarterback, a first round pick
Speaker 2: last year by the Colts, showing a lot of promise
Speaker 2: and finding his way, and this is going to be
Speaker 2: a challenging matchup for certain for the Packers.
Speaker 3: Well, if you look at what happened last week and
Speaker 3: the matchup that they had against the Philadelphia Eagles, in
Speaker 3: some ways this is such a reflection of that with
Speaker 3: what you're getting in the Indianapolis Colts because you have
Speaker 3: home run hitters on the outside of Michael Pittman. Junior
Speaker 3: Alec Pierce went off last week and certainly you know
Speaker 3: Anthony Richardson nine completions for over two hundred yards in
Speaker 3: addition to being their leading rusher in that game against Houston.
Speaker 3: It just shows you how dynamic he is. And before
Speaker 3: the injury last year, I thought he was a guy
Speaker 3: that had gotten off to a really strong start and
Speaker 3: it had flashed in all the ways that you wanted
Speaker 3: to see him flash out of the gates. Ultimately, it
Speaker 3: wasn't enough to win. Ultimately, they weren't able to get
Speaker 3: Jonathan Taylor going. But many of the same threats that
Speaker 3: the pass had to be leary of with the Philadelphia
Speaker 3: Eagles are also present now with the Colts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Richardson, It's interesting because he just has five NFL
Speaker 2: starts under his belt at this point. But a couple
Speaker 2: of things to point out with regard to that in
Speaker 2: four of those five starts, he has at least one
Speaker 2: rushing touchdown as a quarterback. So that is definitely something
Speaker 2: you have to be aware of, and it's certainly something
Speaker 2: the Packers prepared for as you mentioned with Jalen Hurts
Speaker 2: and the Philadelphia Eagles last week. So you have to
Speaker 2: believe some of those same concepts, if from the game plan,
Speaker 2: are going to carry over from week one to week two.
Speaker 2: I pointed this out. You already hinted at it. I
Speaker 2: pointed it out in our three Things video that we
Speaker 2: shot with Larry on Wednesday after practice. Two hundred and
Speaker 2: twelve passing yards for Richardson against the Texans, one hundred
Speaker 2: and seventy one of them on three completions. He hit
Speaker 2: Alec Pearce twice for fifty plus yards, one of those
Speaker 2: was a sixty plus y touchdown, and then Ashton Doolan
Speaker 2: also had a fifty plus yard touchdown.
Speaker 1: In that game.
Speaker 2: So you have to be wary of the big play
Speaker 2: against against the Colts because Richardson has shown even though
Speaker 2: he is a guy, you have to be concerned where
Speaker 2: he's going to tuck and run. Maybe there'll even be
Speaker 2: some design runs for him that kind of thing. He
Speaker 2: will also step back and let it rip. I mean
Speaker 2: he will let it fly and try to try to
Speaker 2: gash you deep down the field. And then if nothing's
Speaker 2: working with Anthony Richardson, Oh, yeah, they have a guy
Speaker 2: named Jonathan Taylor they can turn to in the backfield.
Speaker 2: He as you said, he wasn't really able to get
Speaker 2: going against the Texans last week, but we have certainly
Speaker 2: seen games over the course of his career when he
Speaker 2: gets going. He is a tough guy to slow down.
Speaker 2: He's one of the running backs in this league that
Speaker 2: can control a game and control tempo from start to finish.
Speaker 2: If that Colts offensive line is winning the line of scrim.
Speaker 3: It's weird that, like the thunder and lightning combination that
Speaker 3: they've kind of built there with two very big he
Speaker 3: han beings relative to their position. Richardson, you have a
Speaker 3: guy that's over six three, two hundred and forty pounds
Speaker 3: that can run a four to four and then an
Speaker 3: Jonathan Taylor guy that really packs upunch at two hundred
Speaker 3: and twenty six pounds, and you know, we saw it
Speaker 3: a number of years ago with him. There was a
Speaker 3: reason why there you know, there's a little bit of
Speaker 3: that holdout last year, but why they were so it
Speaker 3: was so important for them to keep him locked down
Speaker 3: for the long term. In this day and age where
Speaker 3: maybe running backs aren't getting those huge contracts anymore because
Speaker 3: he really was the guy that fired that offense for
Speaker 3: so long, and yeah, they weren't able to get it
Speaker 3: going against Houston, and credit to the Texans and everything
Speaker 3: that they've been able to do there and the way
Speaker 3: they've rebuilt that thing in one year's time. It's not
Speaker 3: an easy front to run against. But all that being said,
Speaker 3: with Taylor's ability to run between the tackles and Richardson's
Speaker 3: ability to make things happen with his feet, that there's
Speaker 3: just always that big play waiting to happen. And for
Speaker 3: Green Bay and Matt Lafuller talked about it this week,
Speaker 3: there were so many things they did well in terms
Speaker 3: bottling up Jalen Hurts and even to some extent, containing
Speaker 3: Saquon Barkley. But when those guys, specifically Barkley on the ground,
Speaker 3: found the open lane, found the opportunity, he was able
Speaker 3: to really capitalize that and make the Packers really pay
Speaker 3: for their mistakes. That's what you have to avoid with
Speaker 3: Jonathan Taylor, because, yeah, three yards and a cloud of
Speaker 3: dust looks really good coming off of the performance against Houston,
Speaker 3: But if your linebackers aren't where they need to be,
Speaker 3: if your gaps aren't being filled that you're not in
Speaker 3: the alignment that you really need to be able to
Speaker 3: execute with unless you're gonna make some open field tackles.
Speaker 3: It makes your job difficult and a guy like Jonathan
Speaker 3: Taylor doesn't make that any easier.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you look at the Packers' performance against the
Speaker 2: run last week, and specifically against Barkley, twenty four for
Speaker 2: one oh nine, that's a that's a big game for
Speaker 2: a running back. One of those runs was a thirty
Speaker 2: four yarder, right, and again they all count, you know,
Speaker 2: that's why the average is the average. But I think
Speaker 2: the other, the other part part of it is that
Speaker 2: thirty four yard run by Barkley came in the second half.
Speaker 2: It's one thing if you, you know, if you kind
Speaker 2: of slip up in the run defense early and a
Speaker 2: guy gets an explosive, aya are right, you settle down,
Speaker 2: you know, you work on bottling him up. When a
Speaker 2: guy busts a big one in the second half like that,
Speaker 2: it kind of starts to ruin everything you've done up
Speaker 2: to that point, right, And certainly on that final drive
Speaker 2: for the Eagles, they were they were having their way
Speaker 2: and controlling the ball, but speaking.
Speaker 1: Of the running game.
Speaker 2: When you look at Indianapolis's defense, this is a unit
Speaker 2: that gave up two hundred plus rushing yards to the
Speaker 2: Houston Texans, the bulk of those coming from Joe Mixon.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's not going to be as simple as, oh, okay, well,
Speaker 2: the Packers should be able to line up and run
Speaker 2: the ball against these guys, et cetera, et cetera. Because A,
Speaker 2: if the Colts have a bad game like that against
Speaker 2: the run, they're going to spend all week working on
Speaker 2: the corrections and working on getting it fixed. And then b,
Speaker 2: of course, with the Packers most likely turning things over
Speaker 2: to Malik Willis, the Colts game plan will be, you know,
Speaker 2: defensively will be based on defending Malik Willis and perhaps
Speaker 2: trying to say, okay, we're not going to let Josh
Speaker 2: Jacobs and Emmanuel Wilson do what they did against the
Speaker 2: Eagles and put the ball more in Malik Willis's hands. So,
Speaker 2: but the way the Packers ran the ball the last
Speaker 2: three quarters against the Eagles, the way the Colts did
Speaker 2: struggle to defend the run against the Texans, I think
Speaker 2: that is something to watch very very closely in this
Speaker 2: matchup on Sunday a lambo.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because Joe Mixon being able to get one hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty nine rushing yards in his longest carry in
Speaker 3: that game was thirteen yards, just speaks to how you're
Speaker 3: right about the second half the Packers gave up that
Speaker 3: big gash to Berkley. It can be really demoralized though,
Speaker 3: on the other aspect of that, when a running back
Speaker 3: just continually in an offensive line man handles you the
Speaker 3: way that they did to be able to have that
Speaker 3: type of production, to average over five yards of carry
Speaker 3: and not have that explosive play, that is sort of
Speaker 3: booing all those statistics.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a ground and pound type of performance
Speaker 2: by Joe Mixon. And we saw him do that in
Speaker 2: Cincinnati at times too, but he started this twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four season doing that for Houston, getting a big win
Speaker 2: over the Colt Yeah.
Speaker 3: And when you look at Indianapolis's defense and Matt le
Speaker 3: Fleur was given a ton of credit to Gus Bradley. Certainly,
Speaker 3: that tree, that quarterback excuse me, that defensive coordinator tree
Speaker 3: that sprouted from Seattle, the different types of alignments that
Speaker 3: they had before this Robert Sala defense kind of took
Speaker 3: things over in the league that the Seattle Seahawks were
Speaker 3: the bell of the ball and they were the team
Speaker 3: that was kind of putting all these guys out there.
Speaker 3: Gus Bradley became a head coach in this league because
Speaker 3: of that. This front is interesting in that you have
Speaker 3: DeForest Buckner who's been doing it at a high level
Speaker 3: for so long. He's a face of that defense. They
Speaker 3: put a lot of resources into acquiring him. You'd imagine
Speaker 3: the mindset in trying to turn that boat around this
Speaker 3: week is going to be again what probably guides not
Speaker 3: only their game planning but also their correction and to
Speaker 3: the Green Bay Packers standpoint, and it is probably veering
Speaker 3: a little bit too much into the keys to victory
Speaker 3: of it. But with Josh Jacobs, hopefully everything works out.
Speaker 3: I believe that was the back injury. That was a
Speaker 3: back issue that made up limited in practice on Wednesday.
Speaker 3: But with Josh Jacobs and the motions and the sweeps
Speaker 3: that the options you have with Jaden Reid, the Packers
Speaker 3: showed a lot of promising things on the ground against Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: All things considered, against Vic Fangio and that defense, you
Speaker 3: have to be able to continue to build upon that
Speaker 3: with potentially not having the downfield threat of Jordan Love
Speaker 3: or at least the consistent threat of Jordan Love in
Speaker 3: the backfield as far as the signal calling goes. So
Speaker 3: Josh Jacobs could be the Packer's best friend in this game.
Speaker 3: And if I'm Green Bay, I see what Mixon did
Speaker 3: last week. We have our own franchise back here too.
Speaker 3: If he's available and can take that full allotment of reps,
Speaker 3: that would be my number one counter to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you just wonder how much of the cold
Speaker 2: struggles against the run against Mixon against the Texans, how.
Speaker 1: Much of that was was.
Speaker 2: Ex execution and how much was potentially schematic because they
Speaker 2: were more worried about c. J. Stroud and and and
Speaker 2: those Houston receivers beating them downfield, and they gave up
Speaker 2: a little bit too much against the run. And you
Speaker 2: know how this can go in games, Wes, once something
Speaker 2: like that gets going. Yes, you try to make adjustments,
Speaker 2: but making adjustments can be is easier said than done, right.
Speaker 2: I mean, a team, a team gets, you know, Houston
Speaker 2: gets that running game going with Mixon and they feel like, Okay,
Speaker 2: we can really lean on this we can really pound
Speaker 2: away with this guy to set up everything else we
Speaker 2: want to do offensively, and it can be tough to stop.
Speaker 2: So were the Colts issues more execution, were they more schematic?
Speaker 2: Probably a combination of the two as usual. But again
Speaker 2: that's that's definitely something to watch. I do want to
Speaker 2: get to our keys to victory here. Oh, one other
Speaker 2: thing you mentioned, you mentioned to Forrest Buckner on this
Speaker 2: this Colts defensive line. I believe they had was it,
Speaker 2: four sacks against the Houston and Texans. Yeah, and those
Speaker 2: four sacks that didn't even include a handful of pressures
Speaker 2: by their rookie first round pick in that pass rush
Speaker 2: lie it to Latu from UCLA. I believe he played,
Speaker 2: you know, thirty some snaps and and according to uh
Speaker 2: some of the statistical metrics, was credited with five pressures. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like thirty snaps. Now he didn't get he didn't get
Speaker 2: any sacks, he didn't get anything else on the on.
Speaker 3: The bizarre, bizarre game. Five pressures, no stats though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he had nothing in the he had
Speaker 2: nothing in the traditional statistics that go into the UH
Speaker 2: UH into the game book. But but five pressures and
Speaker 2: thirty snaps while his teammates were also racking up four sacks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a this is.
Speaker 2: A defensive front that U that can get some things done.
Speaker 2: So but yeah, let's get to some keys to victory
Speaker 2: here in a minute. But I'll take care of some
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Speaker 2: All right, looking at the Packers and the keys to victory,
Speaker 2: what's it going to take to pull this game out?
Speaker 2: Assuming that Malik Willis is the starting quarterback, Matt Laflair
Speaker 2: has not officially ruled out Jordan Love. He says the
Speaker 2: door remains open for him to potentially play at the
Speaker 2: time that we are taping this episode. We will see
Speaker 2: what happens by the time we get to the end
Speaker 2: of the week. But if it is Malik Willis, I
Speaker 2: think you know, it's stating the obvious right that it
Speaker 2: puts that much more of a burden on the Packers
Speaker 2: running game. On Josh Jacobs on Emmanuel Wilson, you mentioned
Speaker 2: the changeups the end to round stuff with Jaden Reed.
Speaker 2: The other changeup you potentially throw in here is designing
Speaker 2: some runs for Malik Willis, you know, which is not
Speaker 2: something you would do on a regular basis with Jordan Love,
Speaker 2: but it might be something that's a little bit more
Speaker 2: of a staple of the game plan with a quarterback
Speaker 2: lake Willis.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 2: I think getting and it's you know, I mentioned last
Speaker 2: week getting that running game going for the play action
Speaker 2: game and all of that. I think the I think
Speaker 2: it's not even so much just about the play action
Speaker 2: game in this matchup. It's about it's about getting the
Speaker 2: running game going and having that to really be able
Speaker 2: to lean on throughout the course of the game, the
Speaker 2: way the Houston Texans leaned on their running game against
Speaker 2: the Colts last week.
Speaker 3: So first and foremost, I do want to show respect
Speaker 3: to the Colts defensive front because, as you said, Buckner,
Speaker 3: I thought got off to a good start last week.
Speaker 3: Quity Pay is a guy that could have really disrupt
Speaker 3: a football game if you let him do that. Now,
Speaker 3: I think the Packers have to feel okay on that
Speaker 3: side of things because the guy he'd be lined up
Speaker 3: against Zach tom who is probably one of the top
Speaker 3: performing right tackles in the league. Last week, when you
Speaker 3: look at some of the metrics and some of the
Speaker 3: stats that have come out about that, I felt really
Speaker 3: good about Zach in how he showed out in Brazil.
Speaker 3: But I mean I've been even more impressed watching some
Speaker 3: of the film and Pro Football Focus and some of
Speaker 3: these other NFL next Gen stats talking about how he
Speaker 3: performed in one on one pass coverage. The guy's a
Speaker 3: hit like, he's solid, So you hope that you can
Speaker 3: go tit for tat with them in the pass game.
Speaker 3: The run game is where this game is going to
Speaker 3: be one though. If you go back to the stats
Speaker 3: last week, Mike, there were three players with double digit
Speaker 3: tackles for the Indianapolis Colts in that game. All three
Speaker 3: of them were defensive becks. If you are able to
Speaker 3: generate that much statistics against the defense, it shows you
Speaker 3: you're doing something well because it means you're beating the
Speaker 3: defensive front. It means you're beating the linebackers and you're
Speaker 3: forcing them to make tackles at the second and third
Speaker 3: level at the defense. That's where Green Bay needs to
Speaker 3: get to. And when they struggled early in that game
Speaker 3: against the Eagles, it was because they weren't able to
Speaker 3: get a hat on a hat with a lot of
Speaker 3: those backers and things were getting washed out in the front.
Speaker 3: Being able to build on some of the successes they
Speaker 3: had in the second half is going to be inner
Speaker 3: to this victory. The other aspect of it, I think
Speaker 3: is going to be the motion. It's going to be
Speaker 3: the pre snap stuff. It's going to be working end around,
Speaker 3: it's going to be building pass combinations off of those
Speaker 3: end of rounds. They probably could have gotten more of
Speaker 3: that in Brazil, But as I was talking about an
Speaker 3: insider inbox Calm, if you watch the game, there was
Speaker 3: a lot that they developed off of that early Jaden
Speaker 3: Reid play and there was a lot of pass concepts
Speaker 3: that were built off that. And Tucker Craft was mentioning
Speaker 3: this at is Locker this week and that you are
Speaker 3: going to have opportunities to get open in the passing game,
Speaker 3: but you got to earn those with what you do
Speaker 3: in the run game early, and that's what Green Bay
Speaker 3: is going to have to do in this game to
Speaker 3: come up with a victory against the Colts.
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned Kraft. When you look at the one
Speaker 2: downfield reception he had that broke for a nice, big
Speaker 2: explosive play for the Packers. That's all set up not
Speaker 2: only by the run and being in the same formation
Speaker 2: and then running it as a play action pass, but
Speaker 2: Tucker Craft is coming off the line of scrimmage and
Speaker 2: selling that he's blocking the linebacker right, He's got his
Speaker 2: head down, he's put you know, he's about to put
Speaker 2: his arms up like he's gonna block, and then like, oh,
Speaker 2: here I go, you know, bang, and then the ball
Speaker 2: is on him. He makes the catch, and that's all
Speaker 2: set up because of what you're doing running the ball,
Speaker 2: and all of those little things play into getting the
Speaker 2: execution there on the defensive side of the ball. Just
Speaker 2: looking at what the Colts did in Week one against
Speaker 2: the Texans, and certainly with you know mentioning Saquon Barkley
Speaker 2: busting a thirty four yard run against the Packers, AJ
Speaker 2: Brown with the sixty seven yard touchdown on the opening
Speaker 2: possession of the second half. Packers defense has got to
Speaker 2: limit the big plays. You can't let Anthony Richardson throw
Speaker 2: the ball over top of you in this game. And
Speaker 2: and I think, I think defensively. I think defensively, if
Speaker 2: the Packers limit those big plays and they give themselves
Speaker 2: more chances to get off the field, they won't get into,
Speaker 2: you know this, this real negative time of possession area
Speaker 2: that they got into against the Eagles.
Speaker 1: Over the long run, you have.
Speaker 3: To make Anthony Richardson pay for the incompletions. I'm not
Speaker 3: saying you have to pick off every ball, but he
Speaker 3: was nine to nineteen in that game with an interception.
Speaker 3: If he's allowed to get into a rhythm in a
Speaker 3: lot of ways. It is what exactly what happened with
Speaker 3: Jalen Hurts last week where he got off to a
Speaker 3: rough start. Second pass of the game got intercepted by
Speaker 3: Xavier McKinney. Packers are rolling. He got to be able
Speaker 3: to not allow him to get into that type of pattern. Now,
Speaker 3: Hurtz is a different type of quarterback and that he
Speaker 3: is more of a possession based quarterback. He could throw
Speaker 3: the ball and not that Richardson can't. But Richardson, this
Speaker 3: was sort of his mo last year too. He's a
Speaker 3: guy that you know potentially is going to be like
Speaker 3: a fifty four to fifty five percent completion percentage quarterback.
Speaker 3: It's just the way he plays the position. It's a
Speaker 3: lot of the downfield stuff. He's going to try limit
Speaker 3: the explosive plays. It starts with stopping the run, but
Speaker 3: limiting the downfield explosives. You cannot let them beat you
Speaker 3: that way. And I would take notice of what Alec
Speaker 3: Pierce did. Man. I mean, this guy had a lot
Speaker 3: of buzz coming out of Cincinnati a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3: People were very excited about him. A guy that rose
Speaker 3: throughout the draft process ends up going in the second
Speaker 3: round to the Colts. And if you think about dynamic
Speaker 3: play from quarterbacks like Richardson in the National Football League,
Speaker 3: it's what they're able to do with their receivers across
Speaker 3: the middle. Pierce having that type of that background, that
Speaker 3: is going to be something Green Bay has to be
Speaker 3: leary of, whether that's gonna be on Keishaw Nixon or
Speaker 3: you know, Jabon Bullard. The Packers making sure that they
Speaker 3: don't hurt you in the same way that Houston got
Speaker 3: hurt in that matchup.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's all that attention on Michael Pittman, and rightly
Speaker 2: so he gets the big contract and all that, you know,
Speaker 2: now becoming a big money, highly paid receiver. But who
Speaker 2: are the guys that made the big plays for Richards
Speaker 2: in a Week one? It was Pearson Doolin, you know,
Speaker 2: the essentially the number two, number three guys. However you
Speaker 2: want to however you want to order them. The other
Speaker 2: thing I'll say, when I look at this game, and
Speaker 2: obviously you know a lot of a lot of what
Speaker 2: we talk about here, you're trying to fix. You're trying
Speaker 2: to change things from what happened in Week one. The
Speaker 2: Packers weren't a good team in Week one in the
Speaker 2: sub and change instances because you know, early in the game,
Speaker 2: you know, the Packers get the two turnovers, they're in,
Speaker 2: they're in the red zone. They aren't able to capitalize those.
Speaker 2: They end up settling for field goals on the flip side.
Speaker 2: The one time the Packers turned the ball over, the
Speaker 2: Green Bay defense didn't respond, and when the Eagles had
Speaker 2: a short field twenty twenty five yards whatever it was,
Speaker 2: four or five plays they were in the end zones,
Speaker 2: had a touchdown, and you know so again when you
Speaker 2: when you win the turnover battle three to one and
Speaker 2: be a plus two, but the points off takeaways is
Speaker 2: just nine to seven, also plus two, that's not going
Speaker 2: to get it done. And that that's where being a
Speaker 2: better team in the sudden change, both when the sudden
Speaker 2: changes are positive for you or the sudden change is
Speaker 2: a negative for you, you have to be able to
Speaker 2: respond better in those situations. And I thought, I thought
Speaker 2: those situations alone played a huge factor in how the
Speaker 2: Week one game against Philly turned out for the Packer.
Speaker 3: That was a football game. I mean, it's that same,
Speaker 3: It really was. There was a lot of things that
Speaker 3: the Packers and Eagles kind of erased one another on
Speaker 3: in terms of both the explosive plays and also the
Speaker 3: regrettable ones. It isn't also like a game like where
Speaker 3: the Packers had so many more penalties than the Eagles.
Speaker 3: Dead sure, certainly they ended up winning that side of it.
Speaker 3: They had more of them, but it wasn't like astronomical.
Speaker 3: Everything was relatively even. The total offense in this game
Speaker 3: was within four yards of each other, with green Bay
Speaker 3: coming out on the better half of it. It came down,
Speaker 3: as you said, the sudden change, the adversity defense offense
Speaker 3: taking advantage of that punching things in. That's where you
Speaker 3: have to make sure that you are able to respond
Speaker 3: the right way. And I think that's also why Xavier
Speaker 3: McKinney had kind of the message that he did after
Speaker 3: the game and kind of reiterated this week at his
Speaker 3: locker as well, and that there's still a lot of
Speaker 3: confidence the Packers defense needs to still remember who it
Speaker 3: is and still carry itself with that swagger. As I
Speaker 3: even wrote in the off season program, everybody's got a plan,
Speaker 3: the Mike Tyson thing. Everybody's got a plan until you
Speaker 3: get punched in them out. Packers took a couple on
Speaker 3: the chin in Brazil. It's can you not allow that
Speaker 3: to a affect you and take this next matchup for
Speaker 3: what it is and having that short memory.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, it's a big It's a big week, a
Speaker 2: big moment for a for a bounce back performance from
Speaker 2: Green Bay's defense, especially considering what's going on on the
Speaker 2: offensive side with Jordan Love most likely missing this game.
Speaker 2: So before we go, Wes, we'll take a look around
Speaker 2: at some of the other Week two matchups. Thursday Night Football,
Speaker 2: Nothing like a big division matchup right away in Week
Speaker 2: two Buffalo against Miami, both of these teams pulling off
Speaker 2: come from behind victories in Week one, Buffalo traveling down
Speaker 2: to Miami. This is you know, quite honestly, this is
Speaker 2: kind of a fun one. Josh Allen against Tuataga Bai
Speaker 2: Looa in Week two on Thursday night football. It should
Speaker 2: be pretty entertaining.
Speaker 3: I mean, honestly, It's been one of the most fun,
Speaker 3: if not the most fun division in football the last
Speaker 3: couple of years, just based on everything that's happened. Certainly
Speaker 3: you don't have Tom Brady in there anymore, but just
Speaker 3: seeing how all these other teams have had these different
Speaker 3: storylines has helped it. Miami is just they're not the
Speaker 3: greatest show on turf. I don't want to start that
Speaker 3: whole thing, but I mean, just how exciting that the
Speaker 3: brand of football they play, it's it's it lends itself
Speaker 3: to prime Bacon matchups.
Speaker 2: Miami strikes me as this team and we'll see the
Speaker 2: Packers are going to play them obviously Thanksgiving night at Lambeufield.
Speaker 2: It's going to be it's gonna be coming up with
Speaker 2: that receiving corps. You know, Essentially the guys at the
Speaker 2: top of that receiving core, Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle
Speaker 2: and a quarterback like Toua. Miami just feels like a
Speaker 2: team that can play this rope adope game where you
Speaker 2: can you can bottle them up, you can hold them down,
Speaker 2: you can think you've got control of things, and the
Speaker 2: next thing you know, Tyreek Hill is catching a pass
Speaker 2: and running eighty yards for a touchdown and completely changing
Speaker 2: a game. I felt like the Jacksonville Jaguars felt pretty
Speaker 2: good about where they were in that game, and then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, Tua and Tyreek land a haymaker,
Speaker 2: and then things had had suddenly shifted and the Dolphins
Speaker 2: had the ability to do that against anybody on the
Speaker 2: other side. The Bills, you know, kind of a new
Speaker 2: receiving corps. They're trying to figure some things out. On offense.
Speaker 2: They still have Josh Allen obviously, but a lot of
Speaker 2: transition going on in Buffalo, and they fell behind early
Speaker 2: to Arizona and then just came roaring back.
Speaker 3: More than any of the year, I think this really
Speaker 3: is going to be on Josh Allen's plate. I mean,
Speaker 3: they've had some pretty big changes especially on the defensive
Speaker 3: side of the ball in Buffalo, and Josh Allen is
Speaker 3: the constant, that's the guy that they've been trying to
Speaker 3: make this jump, trying to make this leap, and in
Speaker 3: some ways it kind of felt like this year is
Speaker 3: a little bit of a reset for the Bills, trying
Speaker 3: to see if they can kind of regal, regather the
Speaker 3: troops to make a run here. But that's certainly going
Speaker 3: up into Miami is going to be a huge matchup
Speaker 3: right off the bat.
Speaker 1: For them on Sunday.
Speaker 3: Four.
Speaker 2: Very interesting here four matchups on Sunday that pit NFC
Speaker 2: versus NFC and where both teams are one to zer
Speaker 2: heading into week two, And I'll just rattle them off
Speaker 2: here for you and I'll let you comment on what
Speaker 2: you feel is Worthwhile New Orleans is at Dallas, Tampa
Speaker 2: Bay is at Detroit, San Francisco is at Minnesota, and
Speaker 2: Chicago is at Houston. Four matchups NFC versus NFC, all
Speaker 2: those teams are want to know, it's kind of interesting
Speaker 2: the way the way that all felt it did.
Speaker 3: And Tampa Detroit is probably my game of the week
Speaker 3: because one of those teams, assuming there isn't a tie
Speaker 3: one of those teams going to two and oh is
Speaker 3: gonna be really big for their season, because when you
Speaker 3: look at the Buccaneers, there was a lot of people
Speaker 3: out there, like, hey, Kirk Cousins is in Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 3: They put a lot of resources in, they signed a
Speaker 3: lot of veterans that they're trying to make something happen
Speaker 3: this year. Whereas Tampa Bay, it's like, Okay, they're sticking
Speaker 3: with Baker, what can they do with them? And now
Speaker 3: they come out the gate looking great. Breaker Mayfield looked
Speaker 3: exceptional last week. I mean watching Mayfield play the way
Speaker 3: that he did in that game in contrast to everything
Speaker 3: that was happening in Cleveland. And again, one situation is
Speaker 3: not like the other, but just seeing how he's remade himself,
Speaker 3: going from a guy that was a plug and play
Speaker 3: starter with the Rams a couple of years ago to
Speaker 3: a dude that now led you know, Buccaneers of the
Speaker 3: playoffs and appears to be the the next guy in
Speaker 3: Tampa after the transition from Tom Brady. Now he's going
Speaker 3: to be going up against a challenging Detroit defense and
Speaker 3: on the other side of it, the Lions had to
Speaker 3: outlast you know that opener is seeing exactly what they
Speaker 3: have going up against Tampa Bay. I think that's a
Speaker 3: huge litmus test for both those teams. And then one
Speaker 3: of them gets to t and oh, I mean you
Speaker 3: talk about trying to prove what they did last year
Speaker 3: is no fluke. Well, they're off to a good start.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Tampa Bay going back to Detroit just eight
Speaker 2: months after they were there for a playoff game. That's
Speaker 2: a that's an NFC playoff rematching that one. San Francisco
Speaker 2: at Minnesota. It's easy to forget because of how everything
Speaker 2: kind of spiraled downhill for the Vikings last year after
Speaker 2: the Kirk Cousins injury. But the Minnesota Vikings beat the
Speaker 2: San Francisco forty nine Ers at us Bank Stadium in
Speaker 2: the early stages of last season, So you know, the
Speaker 2: forty nine ers certainly remember.
Speaker 1: That, and all dartarly curious.
Speaker 3: Sam Darnold's starting against thety that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's another interesting having been with the Niners last
Speaker 1: year as a backup.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, he was one of the reasons why
Speaker 3: they're Niners were kind of able to keep this thing going.
Speaker 3: Well brock Party was out, so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, credit to him.
Speaker 2: I'll be interested to see what the Bears now, you know,
Speaker 2: Caleb Williams going from Game one to Game two. Tough
Speaker 2: matchup for them going down to Houston. You know a
Speaker 2: lot of excitement about the Houston Texans with Stroud and
Speaker 2: that team, and they're coming off of a Week one
Speaker 2: division victory and they were, you know, the surprise team
Speaker 2: to make the playoffs in the AFC last year. So
Speaker 2: that'll be another fun one. I'll want to oh versus
Speaker 2: one and Oh. But the one that is squarely on
Speaker 2: our radar is two teams that are trying to avoid
Speaker 2: going to zero to two in the Colts and the Packers,
Speaker 2: And that will be a Sunday noon kickoff. You're ready
Speaker 2: for some noon football, Ready.
Speaker 3: For some noon football Lambeou Field. You know, a couple
Speaker 3: guys were asked about that's the traditional TV questions that
Speaker 3: get asked about. Hey, you can tell. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 3: they got the one preseason game at Lambeau, but they've
Speaker 3: been on the road quite a bit and now being
Speaker 3: able to actually get this feeling, get this start. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: looks like it potentially won't be Jordan Love running out
Speaker 3: of the tunnel first for the Packers. But still I
Speaker 3: just think any Sunday at Lambellfield, especially when you get
Speaker 3: those new kickoffs, you get the smell of brats in
Speaker 3: the air, you can't beat it in Green Day Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it should be a good day.
Speaker 2: Well, with that, we'll call it a wrap on this
Speaker 2: edition of Packers Unscripted and be sure to follow all
Speaker 2: of our coverage of the team and everything with regard
Speaker 2: to Sunday as home opener at Lambelefield. We'll have it
Speaker 2: all for you on Packers dot com for Wesi and Mike.
Speaker 2: Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you
Speaker 2: next time.