WEBVTT - #914 Packers Unscripted: Dominant D takes down Big D 0:00:06.910 --> 0:00:11.190 Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers.com. 0:00:11.210 --> 0:00:14.410 I am Mike Spofford, joined, as always, by my trusted colleague, 0:00:14.430 --> 0:00:17.450 Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from the Pottawatomie 0:00:17.470 --> 0:00:23.230 Sportsbook studio inside the walls of Lambeau Field to review, Wes, 0:00:23.450 --> 0:00:26.850 a 23-13 Green Bay Packers Sunday night football victory over 0:00:26.890 --> 0:00:30.150 the Dallas Cowboys. And in the discussion of this game, 0:00:30.990 --> 0:00:36.659 it must start with Green Bay's defense because Jonathan Gannon's 0:00:36.780 --> 0:00:40.300 crew was nothing short of flying around out there. 0:00:40.380 --> 0:00:45.280 Flying around, hunting around, just persistent, tenacious, and it was 0:00:45.380 --> 0:00:47.979 from the first whistle of the game until the very end. 0:00:48.450 --> 0:00:51.650 I think, you know, I almost want to turn this 0:00:51.670 --> 0:00:54.070 question back to you because I talked about this in 0:00:54.090 --> 0:00:58.730 Insider Inbox for Tuesday's column. Dom Capers had some great 0:00:58.790 --> 0:01:01.130 defenses during my time here. I did not cover the 0:01:01.170 --> 0:01:05.210 Super Bowl 45 team. You did. Mike Pettin had a 0:01:05.650 --> 0:01:08.410 fair amount of success here. I think you look at 0:01:08.450 --> 0:01:13.970 what Jeff Halfley did the past two seasons, a very creative, flexible, 0:01:14.090 --> 0:01:18.680 versatile defense that adjusted. In my time, I have never 0:01:18.740 --> 0:01:21.140 seen this many free runners to a quarterback. And I'm 0:01:21.180 --> 0:01:24.200 talking untouched here. It's not just, okay, there was a 0:01:24.260 --> 0:01:27.120 running back to beat. There was a pass protector to beat. 0:01:27.140 --> 0:01:30.040 There was a chip to beat. The way that Jonathan 0:01:30.060 --> 0:01:32.539 Gannon has dialed this up, and it was when Edren 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:34.480 Cooper was available, and now as we've seen when Edren 0:01:34.500 --> 0:01:38.490 Cooper is not available, he's using his inside linebackers, his safeties, 0:01:39.190 --> 0:01:42.690 all these guys together to generate this amount of pressure. 0:01:43.380 --> 0:01:45.800 the thing I actually enjoyed the most is he has 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:50.520 these moments too, where he just spams blitzes. Yeah. In 0:01:50.540 --> 0:01:52.970 the fourth quarter, there was a, just like with Evan 0:01:52.980 --> 0:01:55.610 Williams a week earlier, there was a moment where he just, 0:01:55.890 --> 0:01:58.870 just kept sending Javon Bullard over and over again. Who cares? 0:01:58.910 --> 0:02:02.390 You know, like it is, he has stressed over and 0:02:02.430 --> 0:02:04.630 over again. It is about players, not about the plays, 0:02:04.710 --> 0:02:08.380 but his confidence and his players to fulfill his scheme 0:02:08.740 --> 0:02:10.820 and to, to get to the quarterback, to generate pressure 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:14.430 and ultimately generate takeaways is, I've just been blown away 0:02:14.470 --> 0:02:15.110 by this so far. 0:02:15.350 --> 0:02:19.200 Yeah, my thought as the game was unfolding, particularly in 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.799 the second half, and then after the game, you know, 0:02:22.220 --> 0:02:24.520 we have kind of that extended walk where we take 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:26.660 the elevator down from the press box. There's a long 0:02:26.700 --> 0:02:30.150 catwalk that all the media go along to get to 0:02:30.210 --> 0:02:32.870 another stairway that then goes down to the locker rooms 0:02:32.910 --> 0:02:35.010 in the press conference area for those who don't kind 0:02:35.030 --> 0:02:37.959 of understand what our postgame routine is. And I'm walking 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.930 along that catwalk after the game and trying to think 0:02:40.990 --> 0:02:44.109 to myself if I could think of any game that 0:02:44.190 --> 0:02:51.010 I had covered during which it felt that the Packers' 0:02:51.070 --> 0:02:55.230 defense was this aggressive from start to finish. And I 0:02:55.290 --> 0:02:59.840 couldn't think of one. And I went back and looked 0:02:59.860 --> 0:03:02.080 at some of the film. The very first third down 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.720 of the game for the Dallas Cowboys, Gannon put seven 0:03:05.740 --> 0:03:07.870 guys up on the line of scrimmage. and he sent 0:03:07.950 --> 0:03:11.710 all seven at the quarterback. Now, he didn't do that 0:03:11.750 --> 0:03:14.550 the rest of the game, but that set the tone 0:03:14.690 --> 0:03:16.900 for what Dak Prescott and the Cowboys were going to 0:03:16.940 --> 0:03:19.620 have to be prepared for because then you look at 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.360 the vast majority of the second and third downs the 0:03:22.419 --> 0:03:24.820 rest of the game, the Packers had either seven or 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.579 eight guys up on the line of scrimmage, and sometimes 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:30.799 it was rushing four, sometimes it was rushing five. Sometimes 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.240 it was rushing six and there was another play where 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:34.970 he had seven on the line of scrimmage and he 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.450 sent all seven again. But the point was on the 0:03:37.490 --> 0:03:40.970 very first third down, he sent everything at Dak Prescott 0:03:41.030 --> 0:03:43.490 and then the Cowboys had to be ready for anything 0:03:43.530 --> 0:03:46.240 and everything for the rest of the game. And as 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:48.380 you said, then there are times where, you know, it's 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:50.640 like Gannon just keeps hitting the button of, okay, I'm 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:52.680 going to blitz this guy until they show that they're 0:03:52.700 --> 0:03:53.940 going to block him or that they're going to do 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:58.170 something about it. Um, the aggression defensively from start to 0:03:58.210 --> 0:04:02.790 finish is, is what blew me away. And this was, 0:04:02.810 --> 0:04:06.790 I mean, we talked about it all last week, CD lamb, 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:09.880 George Pickens, Jake Ferguson, you know, Dak Prescott and all 0:04:09.900 --> 0:04:14.800 of his accomplishments and 59 plus minutes into the game, 0:04:14.820 --> 0:04:17.800 they had seven points on the board. I mean, this was, 0:04:18.220 --> 0:04:23.409 this was the most impressive defensive performance of the season 0:04:23.470 --> 0:04:26.620 so far for the Packers. And, As I wrote an 0:04:26.660 --> 0:04:32.810 insider inbox on Monday morning, every game that we see 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.330 now seems to prove that the Thursday night defensive breakdown 0:04:37.390 --> 0:04:39.710 against the Atlanta Falcons in the home opener at Lambeau 0:04:39.750 --> 0:04:43.310 Field is the exception and not the rule with this defense. 0:04:43.370 --> 0:04:45.910 Because other than that one game, and then of course 0:04:45.950 --> 0:04:48.770 maybe the fourth quarter when the penalties and crazy stuff 0:04:48.790 --> 0:04:53.140 happened in Minnesota, other than a couple of those types 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.740 of blips on the radar... This defense has played really 0:04:56.779 --> 0:04:57.140 good football. 0:04:57.300 --> 0:04:59.460 Yeah, it almost makes it a shame what happened against 0:04:59.550 --> 0:05:02.210 Atlanta because I was looking this morning about statistics. I mean, 0:05:02.250 --> 0:05:05.409 Green Bay has clawed themselves back up to the middle 0:05:05.430 --> 0:05:08.550 of the pack and run defense despite that performance against B. 0:05:08.589 --> 0:05:11.370 John Robinson and Brian Robinson. That was over 200 rushing 0:05:11.390 --> 0:05:13.470 yards that they gave up that day. And yet, if 0:05:13.490 --> 0:05:16.299 you take that away, you can't, using the old Dom Capers-ism. 0:05:16.510 --> 0:05:17.340 Yeah, they all count. 0:05:17.740 --> 0:05:20.250 But the fact is that they rank so high in 0:05:20.260 --> 0:05:22.289 all these different categories. The only thing where Green Bay's 0:05:22.330 --> 0:05:24.750 defense is still trying to find its footing is situationally. 0:05:24.810 --> 0:05:27.730 Red zone, third downs, that sort of thing. But for 0:05:27.750 --> 0:05:29.930 the most part, what they did in this game to 0:05:30.290 --> 0:05:35.140 keep Dak Prescott uncomfortable, Javante Williams, I think that was 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:41.400 a double-edged sort of proposition there. I think Dallas actually 0:05:41.540 --> 0:05:44.560 started to do some good things with Williams midway through 0:05:44.580 --> 0:05:46.990 that game. And then they completely abandoned the run at 0:05:47.050 --> 0:05:49.549 that exact time. He scores the touchdown. I saw that statistic. 0:05:50.250 --> 0:05:52.930 I think they threw 35 of the next 36 plays 0:05:53.450 --> 0:05:56.690 after he had his rushing touchdown. So there's that to 0:05:56.750 --> 0:05:59.190 factor into as well. But the fact is, is that 0:05:59.270 --> 0:06:01.690 despite it only ever being really a two score game 0:06:01.710 --> 0:06:05.070 from start to finish, it felt so much more spaced 0:06:05.250 --> 0:06:07.580 than that. Yeah. And then you were talking about when 0:06:07.620 --> 0:06:10.420 you're walking down, thinking about the game, how aggressive they were. 0:06:10.860 --> 0:06:13.100 I was walking down thinking to myself, I've never seen 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:15.979 a safety, let alone an all-pro safety like Xavier McKinney 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.820 in a three-point stance operating out of a three-tech before. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.990 I mean, it was just the looks and things that 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:26.490 they threw at the Dallas Cowboys front. When you engage 0:06:26.529 --> 0:06:30.529 that many people individually early on, by the time you 0:06:30.570 --> 0:06:32.810 got to the second, third, fourth quarter, you didn't know 0:06:32.890 --> 0:06:34.229 where the pressure was coming from. 0:06:34.370 --> 0:06:38.380 Yeah, and From a statistical standpoint, so the Packers get 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.780 two interceptions in this game, one from Evan Williams where 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:43.980 he's kind of mugged up as a blitzer, and then 0:06:44.020 --> 0:06:46.740 he drops and Prescott never sees him, and Williams makes 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:48.700 a great break on the ball in the red zone, 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:51.600 gets the pick that keeps some points off the board there. 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:56.580 The other interception, rookie Brandon Cisse gets his first NFL interception. 0:06:56.670 --> 0:06:59.650 CeeDee Lamp slips on his route, and Cisse makes the 0:06:59.690 --> 0:07:03.010 catch on the slant pass. Dallas ends up 5 out 0:07:03.050 --> 0:07:08.010 of 13 on third downs. And the Packers also stopped, 0:07:08.060 --> 0:07:11.420 I believe it was two fourth-down plays in the game 0:07:11.460 --> 0:07:14.120 as well. But the biggest thing, really, when you go 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:16.460 back to what we were talking about last week, was 0:07:16.540 --> 0:07:21.180 minimizing the explosive plays. The Dallas Cowboys, for all of 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:26.640 the high-poweredness of that offense, they had one completion in 0:07:26.680 --> 0:07:28.400 the game longer than 17 yards. 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:29.180 Nuts. 0:07:29.260 --> 0:07:32.940 Crazy. Which is crazy when you think about what Prescott 0:07:32.980 --> 0:07:36.730 and company– normally do throughout the course of a contest. 0:07:36.770 --> 0:07:40.450 And I'm with you. It was never more than a two-score, 0:07:40.910 --> 0:07:44.230 technically never more than a two-possession lead for the Packers. 0:07:44.230 --> 0:07:48.210 16 points was the biggest lead. But it felt way 0:07:48.250 --> 0:07:50.790 more comfortable than that because it just didn't seem like 0:07:50.830 --> 0:07:52.950 Dallas was ever really going to get anything going. 0:07:52.990 --> 0:07:55.360 Yeah, and I mean, when you look at this thing, Michael, 0:07:55.380 --> 0:07:58.840 look at this. CeeDee Lamb was targeted 18 times. He 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:00.740 had nine catches for 70 yards. 0:08:00.820 --> 0:08:03.780 Lamb, Lamb and Pickens were targeted. I believe it was 0:08:03.780 --> 0:08:07.930 29 of the 29 of the 54 passes. 29 of 0:08:07.950 --> 0:08:10.430 them were to those two guys and they didn't, they, 0:08:10.490 --> 0:08:13.130 they had one catch longer than 17 yards. 0:08:13.190 --> 0:08:16.010 Yeah. And, and I made this point inside our inbox 0:08:16.070 --> 0:08:18.230 as well. Uh, you know, when you think about, okay, 0:08:18.250 --> 0:08:20.580 you don't have Edger and Cooper, you still are without, uh, 0:08:20.620 --> 0:08:22.540 Micah Parsons, whom we learned this is not going to 0:08:22.580 --> 0:08:24.300 practice this week either. And then we're on the short 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.720 week next week with Carolina. So you never know what 0:08:26.740 --> 0:08:27.200 happens there. 0:08:27.220 --> 0:08:27.620 Right. 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:30.200 But they've had to do this without some of their 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.359 name brand pass rushers, but yet they're still finding a way. 0:08:33.380 --> 0:08:36.630 You saw Isaiah McDuffie on blitzes. You saw Xavier McKinney, 0:08:36.650 --> 0:08:41.030 as I talked about. Evan Williams, Javon Bullard, they're sending cornerbacks. 0:08:41.850 --> 0:08:44.410 And then you also have moments like Cissé' s, which I 0:08:44.450 --> 0:08:47.120 thought was really important for that guy at this point 0:08:47.150 --> 0:08:50.240 of his career because, I mean, he's a strong-headed kid. 0:08:50.950 --> 0:08:54.130 you know, he's mature beyond his years, but for him 0:08:54.170 --> 0:08:56.089 to just do the right thing and be where you're 0:08:56.110 --> 0:08:57.650 supposed to be and have the ball end up in 0:08:57.690 --> 0:09:00.250 your hands and you make the play, that's what playing 0:09:00.309 --> 0:09:02.429 cornerback is like in the National Football League. You're not 0:09:02.450 --> 0:09:04.240 just going to get guys throwing things up to you. 0:09:04.270 --> 0:09:06.600 Sometimes it's going to be a CD lamb falling down 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:08.920 and the ball being right in front of you. And 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:11.040 Green Bay, to their credit, the one thing I think 0:09:11.059 --> 0:09:14.000 the Packers have done extremely well from week one to 0:09:14.059 --> 0:09:17.479 today is when they've gotten takeaways, more often than not, 0:09:17.500 --> 0:09:20.160 they've converted them into points. Not always touchdowns, but they've 0:09:20.179 --> 0:09:22.930 converted them into points. That was the difference in the 0:09:22.970 --> 0:09:25.190 first half, and having a 17-0 lead right out of 0:09:25.210 --> 0:09:27.859 the gate, it made this game feel like it was 34-0. 0:09:28.030 --> 0:09:30.830 Yeah, if there was a turning point, so to speak, 0:09:30.870 --> 0:09:34.359 in this game, it was right after Jordan Love throws 0:09:34.420 --> 0:09:38.819 the interception. Fortunately, Matthew Golden touched the Winters, the linebacker, 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:42.300 down there after he got up and ran it back 0:09:42.540 --> 0:09:45.230 for a touchdown, but he was ruled down And then 0:09:45.250 --> 0:09:47.620 it was just a handful of snaps later that Evan 0:09:47.650 --> 0:09:50.300 Williams gets the interception to keep the Cowboys off the board. 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.980 The game is still 7-0 at that point. And then 0:09:54.020 --> 0:09:59.070 when the Packers turn William's interception into a field goal 0:09:59.090 --> 0:10:02.670 to make it 10-0, it was a two-possession game the 0:10:02.740 --> 0:10:04.800 rest of the way. The Cowboys never had the ball 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:08.380 back again, only down by one score from that point on. 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.100 On the offensive side of the ball, lots of good 0:10:12.140 --> 0:10:12.840 and bad here. 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:15.080 Not much in the middle. 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.440 Yeah, not much in the middle at all. Jordan Love 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:24.620 was on the verge of an absolutely monster night. But unfortunately, 0:10:26.179 --> 0:10:29.110 Matthew Golden had a couple of potential touchdowns go through 0:10:29.150 --> 0:10:32.670 his hands. Christian Watson had a potential touchdown go through 0:10:32.710 --> 0:10:36.990 his hands. But even all that said, the Packers were 0:10:37.150 --> 0:10:40.730 nine of their first ten on third down, which has 0:10:40.770 --> 0:10:44.430 been one of the sore spots offensively all season long, 0:10:44.470 --> 0:10:47.850 has been the low conversion rate on third downs. but 0:10:47.870 --> 0:10:51.450 they were converting on third downs. Dallas' defenses struggled. We 0:10:51.490 --> 0:10:55.830 talked about that. They were bottom of the league third 0:10:55.850 --> 0:10:58.930 down defense and giving up explosive plays and all that, 0:10:59.380 --> 0:11:01.720 and the Packers took advantage of that to a certain extent. 0:11:02.320 --> 0:11:04.699 Didn't take advantage of it as fully as they could 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:07.680 because of some of those plays that got away. 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:09.939 Yeah, so it was funny. Okay, so I got the 0:11:10.500 --> 0:11:13.429 Wes Hodkowitz glass half full type approach to life, and 0:11:13.490 --> 0:11:16.870 obviously sometimes in the way I cover things. Here's, okay, 0:11:17.110 --> 0:11:20.250 let's again start with the positives here. Matthew Golden, six 0:11:20.309 --> 0:11:23.470 catches for 104 yards and a touchdown, 17.3 yards per catch. 0:11:24.170 --> 0:11:25.849 Christian Watson, three catches for 64 yards, 21.3 yards per catch. 0:11:25.870 --> 0:11:33.689 Those two guys together, 168 yards. receiving yards of Jordan 0:11:33.710 --> 0:11:37.870 Love's 276 passing yards they were exceptional you have this 0:11:37.890 --> 0:11:40.270 stretch now where both of these guys together 25 plus 0:11:40.309 --> 0:11:43.310 catches 500 plus receiving yards each and I believe it's 0:11:43.350 --> 0:11:45.750 three plus receiving touchdowns each that's never been that's never 0:11:45.809 --> 0:11:50.050 happened before here And they could have had it even bigger, 0:11:50.450 --> 0:11:54.080 even better in this game, right? So the first thing 0:11:54.179 --> 0:11:56.020 is you have to get the drops corrected for sure. 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:58.359 And you have to get them corrected because this offense 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:00.980 is relying so heavily on Golden and Watson right now. 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.480 Jordan Love is relying so heavily on those two guys 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:05.520 right now to move the football, to create points, to 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:09.710 have big plays. But the way I also think about 0:12:09.750 --> 0:12:14.640 it is, These guys have been absolutely extraordinary despite the drops. 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.820 And my goodness, if you cut those by half right now, 0:12:18.380 --> 0:12:22.579 we are talking about two all-pro caliber receivers here straight 0:12:22.620 --> 0:12:25.319 out of the gate. Everything that we have had in 0:12:25.380 --> 0:12:27.500 terms of the narrative and what we've talked about in 0:12:27.740 --> 0:12:31.660 these podcasts, these stories, these yearbooks, all these type of things... 0:12:32.460 --> 0:12:36.190 It's now right before our eyes. What these guys are doing, 0:12:36.530 --> 0:12:41.050 how impactful they're being, and honestly, how well Christian Watson's 0:12:41.110 --> 0:12:43.709 skill set lines up with Matthew Golden's skill set. And 0:12:43.730 --> 0:12:45.969 when you don't have Jaden Reed, you needed those two 0:12:46.010 --> 0:12:48.630 guys to be the big bucks in the room. And 0:12:48.650 --> 0:12:49.290 they're doing it, man. 0:12:50.050 --> 0:12:51.810 Yeah, I want to say a couple of things with 0:12:51.870 --> 0:12:55.010 regard to the drops because I'm not one who likes 0:12:55.050 --> 0:12:59.170 to make excuses for professional football players. And certainly the 0:12:59.250 --> 0:13:02.449 first one to Matthew Golden, the deep ball over the shoulder, 0:13:02.870 --> 0:13:05.120 you know, it's right there. You know, Love puts it 0:13:05.250 --> 0:13:07.140 right in the bread basket, as they say, and it 0:13:07.179 --> 0:13:11.020 slips through his hands. That's a really tough one. But 0:13:11.660 --> 0:13:15.040 I also want to say that the back shoulder on 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:18.400 the near side end zone, That would have been an 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:24.500 absolutely spectacular catch. Now, he had it, and he actually 0:13:24.540 --> 0:13:27.780 was bringing it into his body so close, and then somehow, 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.400 I don't know if the skin of the ball was 0:13:30.420 --> 0:13:31.420 just a little slick or what. 0:13:31.460 --> 0:13:32.770 He knocked it out of his hands. He knocked it 0:13:32.780 --> 0:13:33.449 out of his own hands. 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:37.809 And it was, that would have been a, yes, it 0:13:37.850 --> 0:13:39.950 goes as a drop. I get that. But that would 0:13:39.990 --> 0:13:43.090 have been a spectacular catch. That was not a routine 0:13:43.290 --> 0:13:46.420 play by any means. And on the one to Christian 0:13:46.460 --> 0:13:49.170 Watson in the end zone over the middle, I never 0:13:49.210 --> 0:13:51.030 got a good look at the replay, but I had 0:13:51.390 --> 0:13:55.170 multiple people in the live blog telling me that it 0:13:55.210 --> 0:13:59.580 looked like there was just the slightest deflection by the 0:13:59.700 --> 0:14:02.600 Dallas Cowboy defender. I can't remember exactly who it was, 0:14:02.660 --> 0:14:04.620 but somebody who was right in front of Watson and 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.840 the ball might've, you know, grazed the fingertip. Now it didn't, 0:14:09.020 --> 0:14:12.030 it wasn't obvious. It didn't necessarily look that way, but 0:14:12.090 --> 0:14:15.030 I can tell you Wes, And Christian Watson is the 0:14:15.070 --> 0:14:17.590 last guy who's going to say, yeah, that ball was tipped. 0:14:17.630 --> 0:14:19.210 I couldn't catch it. I mean, he's still going to 0:14:19.250 --> 0:14:22.690 say he should catch it. But I don't care how 0:14:22.870 --> 0:14:25.330 close that ball gets to you. If there's any sort 0:14:25.370 --> 0:14:28.090 of deflection or change at all in the spin of 0:14:28.130 --> 0:14:31.230 the ball or anything, that becomes hard to catch. That 0:14:31.270 --> 0:14:34.770 is not easy. Now, we've seen them make those plays before. 0:14:35.010 --> 0:14:37.350 Like I say, and those guys are going to say 0:14:37.530 --> 0:14:41.250 they've got to make those plays. But to me, the 0:14:41.290 --> 0:14:43.690 last two that I'm talking about here, those are not, 0:14:43.930 --> 0:14:48.860 in my opinion, garden variety dropped passes. They're not. Um, so, 0:14:50.060 --> 0:14:52.640 and I think in a lot of ways that this 0:14:52.740 --> 0:14:59.770 is why there's, there's no reduction or questioning of the 0:14:59.870 --> 0:15:02.450 confidence in these two guys and what they can do 0:15:02.530 --> 0:15:04.950 just because of a pass here or there, you know, 0:15:04.990 --> 0:15:07.540 gets away from them. So I just wanted to clarify 0:15:07.580 --> 0:15:10.280 that because everybody's throwing out, you know, the Packers lead 0:15:10.300 --> 0:15:11.820 the league in drops and all this, and I'm not 0:15:11.860 --> 0:15:14.720 going to argue the statistics. I get it. But when 0:15:14.740 --> 0:15:18.240 you look at some of these individual plays, I mean, 0:15:18.260 --> 0:15:22.480 a garden variety receiver doesn't even come close to making 0:15:22.540 --> 0:15:25.460 that back shoulder catch that Matthew Golden almost made in 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:27.740 the end zone. So I just want to keep, I 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:29.710 just want people to keep that in perspective. 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:31.520 Yeah. And then also keep this in perspective too. If 0:15:31.570 --> 0:15:33.620 the Packers right now, the pace that they're on, Jordan 0:15:33.660 --> 0:15:36.450 Love's going to throw 640 passes right now on the 0:15:36.490 --> 0:15:39.970 season with this trajectory, how often they've been throwing the ball. Again, 0:15:40.010 --> 0:15:42.070 when you get targeted 13 times, you're not going to 0:15:42.090 --> 0:15:43.990 catch every single one of them. I think what the 0:15:44.030 --> 0:15:46.730 important thing was, was the conversation I know you talked about, 0:15:46.770 --> 0:15:49.200 a lot of people have mentioned it, conversation that Love 0:15:49.270 --> 0:15:52.100 and Golden have, the confidence that they have between each other, 0:15:52.140 --> 0:15:54.560 keep feeding me, keep doing that. What did that remind 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:55.820 you of? I'll tell you what it reminded me of. 0:15:55.840 --> 0:15:59.020 Devontae Adams and the conversations he had with Aaron Rodgers 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.580 many years ago. Keep giving me those chances. And I'm 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:03.400 going to make it right. 0:16:03.900 --> 0:16:07.359 And eventually that relationship turned to Devontae Adams going to 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.150 Aaron Rodgers saying, give me a better ball next time. 0:16:10.170 --> 0:16:12.450 And I will make the catch because that's how their 0:16:12.510 --> 0:16:15.410 relationship developed. And that may be what happens here as well. 0:16:15.470 --> 0:16:18.170 But the one thing, and it was like, and I'm 0:16:18.250 --> 0:16:20.250 glad you brought up the golden, the touchdown play, because 0:16:20.670 --> 0:16:22.090 that was one where it was like, you just wanted 0:16:22.110 --> 0:16:23.870 to see him to make it because that was going 0:16:23.930 --> 0:16:26.760 to be played on ESPN. That was going to be 0:16:26.820 --> 0:16:28.380 played on our highlight films. 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:32.040 That was going to be such a phenomenal touchdown because- 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:35.460 He waited and waited and waited like you're supposed to 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:39.160 so that the defender, that's why it's called a back 0:16:39.180 --> 0:16:41.940 shoulder play, the defender doesn't know the ball is going 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.140 to be whizzing past him. And you have to wait 0:16:44.220 --> 0:16:47.100 until the last second to spin your body around and 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:48.780 get your hands on it and make the catch. And 0:16:48.820 --> 0:16:52.990 he did everything right and was so close. to securing 0:16:53.010 --> 0:16:54.690 that catch in the corner of the end zone, and 0:16:54.730 --> 0:16:55.740 then it just got away from you. 0:16:55.750 --> 0:16:57.710 Yeah, and those are the ones, again, that's going to 0:16:57.730 --> 0:16:59.750 be a high-level difficulty to make them, but if you 0:16:59.770 --> 0:17:01.950 can make them, that's what separates the really good receivers 0:17:01.970 --> 0:17:04.530 from the superstars. And I'll just throw in there, too, 0:17:04.550 --> 0:17:06.890 the ones you want to get back is the drop 0:17:06.950 --> 0:17:08.790 on the slant, the drop on the ones where it's 0:17:09.190 --> 0:17:11.330 in your hands, it's in the bucket. You have separation 0:17:11.369 --> 0:17:14.210 from the receiver. You've earned the right to catch that 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:16.800 football clean based on how you've run your route, based 0:17:16.820 --> 0:17:19.919 on the way that your God-given talents are associated. It's 0:17:19.940 --> 0:17:21.600 when you're making those more competitive catches you've got to 0:17:21.619 --> 0:17:23.710 look for. All that being said, I just want to 0:17:23.730 --> 0:17:26.330 close on this point. And I had some Bears fans 0:17:26.369 --> 0:17:28.770 for whatever reason, because they don't do anything else, I guess, 0:17:28.810 --> 0:17:30.869 in their free time other than just find reasons to 0:17:30.990 --> 0:17:33.790 talk about the Packers. But I had Bears fans in 0:17:33.810 --> 0:17:36.060 my mentions talking about, you guys will always find excuses 0:17:36.100 --> 0:17:39.359 for Jordan Love. Watch that game. Watch the condensed version 0:17:39.380 --> 0:17:41.940 of the game. Watch the performance that Jordan Love had 0:17:41.980 --> 0:17:44.040 in that. Do not do anything else. Do not look 0:17:44.060 --> 0:17:46.179 at a box score. And then when it's over and 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:49.870 you see a 74 passer rating... You will see why 0:17:49.900 --> 0:17:52.250 I said this game was, he was so much better 0:17:52.290 --> 0:17:55.970 in this game than the statistics would show. Wasn't perfect, 0:17:56.450 --> 0:17:57.630 but he was spectacular. 0:17:57.710 --> 0:18:01.370 Yeah, yeah, no doubt about it. He was darn good. 0:18:02.510 --> 0:18:05.429 You mentioned the pace that Jordan Love is on in 0:18:05.490 --> 0:18:08.050 terms of how many pass attempts he could have here 0:18:08.090 --> 0:18:10.190 by the end of the season, and a lot of 0:18:10.210 --> 0:18:13.850 that is due to the continued struggles with the running game. 0:18:14.350 --> 0:18:17.540 We talked about And I wrote about, to a rather 0:18:17.580 --> 0:18:19.920 large extent, how this was supposed to be the game 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.580 the Packers get their running game right because the Cowboys 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.480 were coming in with the worst-ranked run defense in the league. 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:28.260 This is where you've got to establish something on the ground, 0:18:28.300 --> 0:18:31.510 get it going. It didn't happen. The struggles are still there. 0:18:31.530 --> 0:18:39.890 And whether it was Marshawn Lloyd or Caleb Johnson or whoever, 0:18:40.070 --> 0:18:42.889 it didn't matter. There was no consistency at all with 0:18:42.970 --> 0:18:46.220 regard to the running game. Will that change this week? 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:48.860 We shall see. Josh Jacobs is going to be back 0:18:48.900 --> 0:18:52.379 at practice on Wednesday. He's been removed from the commissioner's 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:57.070 exempt list. Matt LaFleur not making any promises that Josh 0:18:57.090 --> 0:18:59.410 Jacobs will be ready to play on Sunday in Detroit, 0:18:59.690 --> 0:19:02.369 but certainly not ruling out that one good week of 0:19:02.410 --> 0:19:05.850 practice that Jacobs could be ready to go and be 0:19:05.869 --> 0:19:09.680 getting the ball against the Lions right away. So we'll 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.670 see what unfolds there. And if the return of Josh 0:19:13.710 --> 0:19:16.830 Jacobs can provide a boost to a struggling ground game. 0:19:16.910 --> 0:19:19.430 Yeah, and the Packers certainly need it right now, right? 0:19:19.490 --> 0:19:21.330 I mean, when you go into this game, I said 0:19:21.369 --> 0:19:23.700 this too. I mean, Pierre Strong was the Packers' best 0:19:23.740 --> 0:19:26.199 hand in the backfield in this matchup. And he did 0:19:26.220 --> 0:19:29.640 some great things, pass catching, did have a drop too. But, 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:31.360 you know, as Green Bay has been trying to find 0:19:31.420 --> 0:19:33.280 ways to win on first and second down, they've had 0:19:33.300 --> 0:19:35.270 to resort to some of the short game stuff, to 0:19:35.290 --> 0:19:37.649 some of the flea flickers, some of the screens. And 0:19:37.690 --> 0:19:39.960 I thought Strong kind of helped out in that capacity. 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.419 But the overall yards per carry, finding explosive runs, winning 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:45.550 and getting four or five yards on first down, that 0:19:45.609 --> 0:19:49.070 hasn't been there yet this season. The one thing, and 0:19:49.310 --> 0:19:50.860 not to say I don't want to make any promises 0:19:50.900 --> 0:19:53.640 for Sunday and what's going to happen, but where Josh 0:19:53.660 --> 0:19:55.260 Jacobs is different from a lot of these other guys 0:19:55.300 --> 0:19:57.840 in these ramp-ups, right? Kevin Zeitler had to come in, 0:19:57.859 --> 0:19:59.440 he had to learn a playbook, and he's been doing 0:19:59.460 --> 0:20:01.040 that for the last three weeks, was not in a 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.990 training camp. Josh Jacobs was. He had a little bit 0:20:04.010 --> 0:20:06.350 of a groin issue, but then work through that was 0:20:06.410 --> 0:20:08.970 cleared by the end of it. He's had a month 0:20:08.990 --> 0:20:11.060 and a month and a half now to still being 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:12.780 able to work with the training staff, still able to 0:20:12.820 --> 0:20:14.680