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 Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: hear from our studios at Lambeufield to talk Wes unfortunately
Speaker 1: about the Packers heading into their bye week with a
Speaker 1: home loss to the Detroit Lions. Twenty four to fourteen
Speaker 1: was the final score at Lambeufield. But that score almost
Speaker 1: doesn't even really mean anything in terms of how this
Speaker 1: game was played. There was one team on Sunday that
Speaker 1: made a bunch of mistakes, there was another team that didn't,
Speaker 1: and who won and who lost was pretty obvious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Detroit Lions. As Matt Lfuller talked about afterwards,
Speaker 2: this football team is very, very good and as a
Speaker 2: lot of the guys mentioned in the locker room, when
Speaker 2: you play a very talented team, a very complete team,
Speaker 2: you have to play your best game. Green Bay did
Speaker 2: not do that. When when we were talking about final
Speaker 2: thoughts last week and Packer's preview and Keys to Victory,
Speaker 2: my biggest thing was talking about how, hey, you got it.
Speaker 2: You have to win in the red zone Packers did
Speaker 2: that all right. You know, Lions went two for four
Speaker 2: in the red zone. They outyardaged them one fifty, you know,
Speaker 2: by one hundred and fifty yards. But when you have
Speaker 2: a swing and that's what I kind of isolated an
Speaker 2: insider inbox like they had at the end of the
Speaker 2: first half into the second half, Packers giving up a
Speaker 2: pick six offensively, the defense giving up a touchdown out
Speaker 2: of the break that ultimately was the deciding factor in
Speaker 2: this game, and a menagerie of penalties and drop passes
Speaker 2: and you know, kind of missed opportunities. This was the
Speaker 2: final result. I thought green Bay battled. I thought there
Speaker 2: were a lot of positives to draw from in terms
Speaker 2: of if you're going to play see them again next month,
Speaker 2: things you can build off of. But at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, Michael, the Detroit Lions, especially their offense,
Speaker 2: are just so freaking efficient that if you don't break
Speaker 2: their rhythm and then don't find some heavy punches on
Speaker 2: the other side of things, you're gonna have an outcome
Speaker 2: like this. It was twenty four to fourteen, but realistically
Speaker 2: it was more twenty four to six, twenty four to three. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and Green Bay just could not find that momentum to
Speaker 2: be able to knock off really the front runner right
Speaker 2: now in this conference.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I think I think the Lions have established
Speaker 1: themselves not only as the team to beat in the
Speaker 1: NFC North, but really as the team to beat in
Speaker 1: the entire NFC right now. And you mentioned sort of
Speaker 1: having you know, throwing some punches to get back at them.
Speaker 1: I thought the Packers did that in terms of getting
Speaker 1: some explosive plays and generating some momentum at certain times.
Speaker 1: But whether it was the penalties or the drop passes
Speaker 1: or the other miscues, they just missed the opportunities that
Speaker 1: they were creating for themselves. Because that the way that
Speaker 1: first half in particular went, the explosive plays the Packers got,
Speaker 1: and that was something I had talked about last week.
Speaker 1: It was, you know, when the explosive play equation limit
Speaker 1: the ones that Detroit got, which green Bay's defense I
Speaker 1: thought did pretty well for Yeah, a juggernaut that was
Speaker 1: averaging forty plus points a game over the past month,
Speaker 1: and the Packers were getting their share, but then they
Speaker 1: weren't cashing in on those and getting the points on
Speaker 1: the board the way the first half went for the
Speaker 1: Packers to only have three points, You're scratching your head, going,
Speaker 1: how in the world are there are only three points
Speaker 1: on the board with what the Packers were doing offensively,
Speaker 1: And it was really frustrating in that regard. You said it.
Speaker 1: The possessions that sandwiched halftime was really where this game swung.
Speaker 1: The Packers defense gets a key stop in the red
Speaker 1: zone laid in the first half, the Packers are using
Speaker 1: their timeouts to save time for one more possession before halftime.
Speaker 1: The Lions have to kick a field goal, so the
Speaker 1: game is ten to three. But then Jordan Love tries
Speaker 1: to do a little bit too much and Kirby Joseph
Speaker 1: makes a great play, gets the pick six, and then,
Speaker 1: as you said, the Lions come out a halftime then
Speaker 1: getting the ball, they marched down the field for the
Speaker 1: second time in the game, get a touchdown on fourth
Speaker 1: down where they went forward on fourth down in the
Speaker 1: red zone, and suddenly that ten to three game with
Speaker 1: a minute to go in the first half is a
Speaker 1: twenty four to three game. The next time, Jordan Love
Speaker 1: and the offense get the ball back. So and that's
Speaker 1: where kind of the game plan gets thrown out the
Speaker 1: window you've got a hurry to score because you don't
Speaker 1: know if your defense is going to be able to
Speaker 1: just hold them at twenty four the rest of the game,
Speaker 1: which the Packers defense did. But you can't just sit
Speaker 1: there and take, you know, seven eight minutes off the
Speaker 1: clock to try to score points in the second half
Speaker 1: when you're down by twenty one. So the game plan
Speaker 1: was out the window and and things went from there.
Speaker 1: I do think this was a commendable effort by Green
Speaker 1: Bay's defense, actually missing two of your starters in the
Speaker 1: secondary j R. Alexander Evan Williams did not play. If
Speaker 1: you had told me before the game that the Detroit
Speaker 1: Lions were going to have two hundred and sixty one
Speaker 1: yards and seventeen points on offense, I would have said,
Speaker 1: the Packers are going to have a tremendous opportunity to
Speaker 1: win this game. And I think the Packers did have
Speaker 1: a tremendous opportunity to win this game. They just they
Speaker 1: couldn't get a get out of their own way with
Speaker 1: their own miscues.
Speaker 2: No, it was in Josh Jacobs touched on this after
Speaker 2: the game, and Xavier McKinney did as well. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's been recurring habits, bad habits that green Bay has had,
Speaker 2: and I felt like there's been times where they've gotten
Speaker 2: away with it because they're the better football team. They
Speaker 2: play better situationally, they make some clutch plays down the stretch,
Speaker 2: the defense makes a stop, Brandon McManus makes a game
Speaker 2: winning field goal. There's a reason why the Packers are
Speaker 2: sitting on six wins heading into their bye week. But
Speaker 2: at the same time, when you face a team like
Speaker 2: Detroit who was also sitting on six wins entering this game,
Speaker 2: there's so many things that the Lion do well. And defensively,
Speaker 2: I still think there's a lot of holes. Certainly, you know,
Speaker 2: they've reportedly added Zadarias Smith. That's going to help the
Speaker 2: edge rush a little bit, but you know there's still
Speaker 2: whatever the twentieth rank defense, they still there's yards to
Speaker 2: be had out there. I thought green Bay ran the
Speaker 2: ball really well against that front when they were able to,
Speaker 2: when that's what the game was dictating, right. But the
Speaker 2: challenge is is that Detroit. It almost felt like a
Speaker 2: high school football game where Detroit really locked in once
Speaker 2: you got farther down the field and they just were
Speaker 2: not green Bay was not able to cash in those
Speaker 2: opportunities you have. Brian Branch gets a huge penalty in
Speaker 2: game ejection after you feel like, Okay, this is going
Speaker 2: to be that moment where green Bay is going to
Speaker 2: be able to put some points on the board. They're
Speaker 2: gonna be able to get some touchdown swing momentum in their favor.
Speaker 2: They didn't. They didn't do it. Josh Jacobs breaks a
Speaker 2: thirty seven yard run on his first carry on a series,
Speaker 2: green Bay can't turn it into a touchdown. Those type
Speaker 2: of incidents are ultimately the lead in the yards on
Speaker 2: the field, leaving the points on the field, and he
Speaker 2: just can't do that against a team like the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 2: And I'll say this too, and this is not any
Speaker 2: disrespect at all that Jared Goff. They made the plays
Speaker 2: they needed to make, They caught the football passes, the
Speaker 2: footballs that they needed to do, the passes that they
Speaker 2: needed to do. But the way they ran the ball
Speaker 2: in how they avoid pre snap penalties and procedural penalties,
Speaker 2: Goff's mo becomes very simple in terms of what they
Speaker 2: want to accomplish and how they want to do it.
Speaker 2: I gained an appreciation for that watching because you look
Speaker 2: at a stat sheet. Mike and I don't get to
Speaker 2: watch these teams every week. You're like, how is Jared
Speaker 2: Goff completing twelve straight passes? How is he going these
Speaker 2: games where there's two or three incompletions for an entire game.
Speaker 2: And then you watch what they did in this game,
Speaker 2: the way he's protected, in the way they're able to
Speaker 2: set up their offense with favorable down and distance. I'm
Speaker 2: telling you, man, this will be Ben Johnson's last year
Speaker 2: with Jared Goff. That guy is going to be one
Speaker 2: of the most highly sought after head coaching candidates I
Speaker 2: can think of in the recent twenty first century at
Speaker 2: the end of the season because of just how a
Speaker 2: fish they've been and how well they execute their offense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and here's the thing. The way this game went
Speaker 1: the Detroit Lions, I mean the fourth and goal after
Speaker 1: the off side another big mistake by the Packers. The
Speaker 1: off side puts the ball in the two and a
Speaker 1: half yard line instead of on the five, so they
Speaker 1: go for it on fourth and goal. That was a
Speaker 1: heck of a throw and catch Jared Goff, Aman Ross
Speaker 1: Saint Brown. That's what those guys do. Fourth and one
Speaker 1: in the third quarter from the fifteen yard line, Jeff
Speaker 1: Hafley goes aggressive calls for the blitz. Unfortunately, two blitzing guys,
Speaker 1: Cooper and McKinney, both blitz the same gap. Jamior Gibbs
Speaker 1: takes the handoff and cuts to the one gap that
Speaker 1: there was no blitzer, and he basically waltz into the
Speaker 1: end zone for a touchdown. But the Detroit because of
Speaker 1: the mistakes the Packers were making. The Packers didn't make
Speaker 1: the Lions make any great plays in order to win
Speaker 1: this game. Right the way the game was going, the lineons,
Speaker 1: you could feel it that the Lions were like, Okay,
Speaker 1: these guys keep screwing up. They keep making mistakes. They're
Speaker 1: they're you know, they're false starting, they're dropping passes, all
Speaker 1: this kind of stuff. If we don't we don't have
Speaker 1: to do anything great to win here today. We're going
Speaker 1: to play our game. We're going to be mistake for you,
Speaker 1: which they were, I mean, aside from aside from you know,
Speaker 1: maybe the one, uh, the one mistake where Pinay Sewell
Speaker 1: trips on his yeah, on his lineman's foot and so
Speaker 1: Aaron Moseby gets a sack, and then I think they
Speaker 1: had maybe one illegal shift on offense as far as
Speaker 1: a pre snat penper right, but they were like, hey,
Speaker 1: if we don't make any mistakes, uh, we're going to
Speaker 1: win this game, because you know, the other guys are
Speaker 1: the ones who are making the mistakes and the game
Speaker 1: just the game unfolded that way. You have to make
Speaker 1: when you come into a game like this against a
Speaker 1: team that's been playing as well as the Lions, you
Speaker 1: have to make that team make some great plays to
Speaker 1: beat you. And uh and and the Packers didn't do that.
Speaker 1: The Packers had to summon their best game of the
Speaker 1: season to date in order to beat the best team
Speaker 1: that they were playing to date, and quite frankly, they
Speaker 1: didn't come close. And that's something they have to think
Speaker 1: about now for two weeks over the bye. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: a good thing. Maybe this one, you know, Matt Lafleuir
Speaker 1: talked about, you know, a loss like this, as you know,
Speaker 1: you sit and stew about it, and it's gonna stick
Speaker 1: with you longer because of the bye week. Maybe that'll
Speaker 1: be a good thing for this even the long run.
Speaker 1: We'll see, you know, there's already discussion from lafleur about
Speaker 1: maybe changing some things up in practice because the drop
Speaker 1: passes and the pre snap penalties and stuff like that
Speaker 1: is it's something that's it's been an ongoing thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it goes away for maybe a game or game and
Speaker 1: a half, but it's cropping up in every single game
Speaker 1: that the Packers play. So it's got to it's got
Speaker 1: to get corrected or at least get limited. Nobody's gonna
Speaker 1: play perfect football, right, but it has to get limited
Speaker 1: if you're going to beat these teams like the Lions
Speaker 1: and the Vikings and the forty nine ers that are
Speaker 1: on your second half schedule when you come back from
Speaker 1: the buy, if you're gonna beat those teams, you've got
Speaker 1: to play cleaner football. And that's what the Packers have
Speaker 1: to aim.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's gonna be the challenge for them, and also
Speaker 2: just owning these elements. I mean, this was a game
Speaker 2: that you know, unfortunately it was rainy, it was cold.
Speaker 1: Who is the indoor team in this game? I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: they turned the Lions to turn that on its head.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Green Bay from their standpoint, this is where
Speaker 2: it's going to be a challenge for them because as
Speaker 2: I was saying, and I've written about it and we're
Speaker 2: talking with guys about in the locker room afterwards. I mean,
Speaker 2: the weather's only going to get worse, and there's gonna
Speaker 2: be challenges with holding onto the football, snapping the football,
Speaker 2: catching the football, running with the football, keeping your balance,
Speaker 2: keeping your feet, and green Bay needs to be able
Speaker 2: to handle all that. And then also the other aspect
Speaker 2: of this that I'm just very interested to see when
Speaker 2: we come out of the bye week is exactly where
Speaker 2: Jordan Love is at. Because you know, we're nine weeks
Speaker 2: into this, we still have not seen the best version
Speaker 2: of Jordan Love. And if we can finally start to
Speaker 2: see the penalties get correct, if you see Love, you know,
Speaker 2: looking more like he did during the second half of
Speaker 2: last season, and guys catching passes and lifting each other up,
Speaker 2: I still think the sky's the limit for this team
Speaker 2: compared to where they were at last year at this time,
Speaker 2: when Rasul Douglas gets traded and you're not sure which
Speaker 2: direction this whole thing is going to go the second
Speaker 2: half the season and the Packers just catch absolute fire.
Speaker 2: Because the one difference between green Bay the way I
Speaker 2: look at it and where Detroit is at is it's
Speaker 2: almost like green Bay is a year behind Detroit in
Speaker 2: terms of just how they've built their football team. Detroit
Speaker 2: is on this third fourth year. Now if this reclamation
Speaker 2: with Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes and now you've got
Speaker 2: guys that have come up together, have lost together, have
Speaker 2: started to win together, made an NFC Championship game together,
Speaker 2: and now feel like, hey, we're trying to make that
Speaker 2: last step. We're trying to make this thing, you know,
Speaker 2: be it at the top level here, whereas green Bay
Speaker 2: had to go through their own process here with the
Speaker 2: transition to Jordan Love and going very young two straight seasons.
Speaker 2: Kind of fighting those battles and learning from that adversity,
Speaker 2: that's the challenge. Now, can green Bay close that gap?
Speaker 2: You cannot worry about the Detroit Lions again. For another,
Speaker 2: you have to worry about the Chicago Bears in front
Speaker 2: of you. But they saw it was right in front
Speaker 2: of him, it was on their home turf. Exactly what
Speaker 2: the standard right now is in this conference.
Speaker 1: I think that's an excellent, excellent analysis of the two
Speaker 1: teams and where they are, and I like the way
Speaker 1: you put that. I want to say this about Jordan
Speaker 1: Love because there's obviously a lot of discussion out there.
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur has been taking the questions. Jordan himself's been
Speaker 1: taking the questions about the interceptions. There's ten of them now.
Speaker 1: Jordan Love has played six and a half games and
Speaker 1: he's thrown ten interceptions. He leads the league in that category.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows he needs to protect the ball better. You know.
Speaker 1: It's finding that balance between the playmaking and protecting all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And there's plenty of truth in
Speaker 1: all that. This is what I want to say about
Speaker 1: Jordan Love. I'm hoping that after the bye week and
Speaker 1: for the rest of the season, that Jordan Love gets
Speaker 1: to focus on his game and less on his health. Yep,
Speaker 1: because he dealt with the knee injury right at the
Speaker 1: end of Week one. He missed. This is two games.
Speaker 1: There was a process to come back and to be
Speaker 1: able to play with the knee injury for a week
Speaker 1: or two before he really started feeling and looking like
Speaker 1: his old self again. And then all of a sudden
Speaker 1: in Jacksonville, the groin injury hits, and so then you
Speaker 1: come into the following week. I meant, Matt Lafleur told
Speaker 1: everyone from the podium after the game on Sunday. Jordan
Speaker 1: Love didn't take any eleven on eleven snaps Wednesday or
Speaker 1: Thursday of last week. They were obviously focused on his
Speaker 1: health to get him available and ready to play, and
Speaker 1: I understand why they were why they were focused on that.
Speaker 1: My point is, from Jordan Love's perspective and everybody talking
Speaker 1: about his statistics and where things are at, he has
Speaker 1: spent the better part of these nine games concerned about
Speaker 1: his health and trying to just get his body ready
Speaker 1: to be able to play football. If he can get
Speaker 1: healthy and he can practice, take all the reps every
Speaker 1: week and not have all the extra time I'm in
Speaker 1: the training room and everything, and he can focus on
Speaker 1: his game, I have every confidence in the world that
Speaker 1: we can see the Jordan Love that we saw in
Speaker 1: the second half of last year, and I think in
Speaker 1: some respects that goes for the team in general. You
Speaker 1: and I see it every week West the number of
Speaker 1: guys who are on the injury report, and it's not
Speaker 1: just it's not just the fact that yet JayR Alexander
Speaker 1: has missed games this season and that's been tough. The
Speaker 1: Packers have missed some key guys for some key games
Speaker 1: throughout the course of this season so far. But when
Speaker 1: you look at that list every week and so and
Speaker 1: so is missing this practice or missing that practice or
Speaker 1: limited practice reps, not being a full participant in practice,
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff is going to add up over
Speaker 1: time in terms of your sharpness, in terms of being
Speaker 1: able to reach your peak level. And I think this
Speaker 1: game against Detroit was an example of the Packers needing
Speaker 1: to reach their peak level against a team like this,
Speaker 1: and they simply weren't able to do it. And I
Speaker 1: think the overall health of the team and all limited
Speaker 1: practice and the missed practice and whether it's Jordan Love
Speaker 1: and other guys and everything else, my point is there's
Speaker 1: a cumulative effect to that. And I think we saw
Speaker 1: we saw the cumulative result in that performance when the
Speaker 1: Packers couldn't summon their best against the best team that
Speaker 1: they were playing. I think that's I think it's a
Speaker 1: big it's it's a big picture look at things in
Speaker 1: terms of Okay, now, where do you go from prior?
Speaker 1: And I think it starts with using this bye week
Speaker 1: to get healthy. Yes, maybe Matt Lafleur changes some things
Speaker 1: with regard to practice and whatnot, but this is like,
Speaker 1: this is a chance to take a deep breath and
Speaker 1: reset and at the end of the day. Last year,
Speaker 1: at this time of year three and six, this year,
Speaker 1: you're six and three. Get healthy, get everybody practicing. This
Speaker 1: is still a young team that needs to practice and
Speaker 1: play together to reach its peak. So let's see if
Speaker 1: they can do that over the last two months of
Speaker 1: the regular season.
Speaker 2: It was nice to finally see that by fall in
Speaker 2: the middle of the season for Green Bay because for
Speaker 2: so long two years it was in December. Last year,
Speaker 2: it was early. I think it was the earliest last
Speaker 2: year if I remember correctly. This year finally falls in
Speaker 2: week ten and you can kind of catch your breath here.
Speaker 2: And obviously you will have to go eight games there
Speaker 2: to make a playoff push. There's gonna be a lot
Speaker 2: of football to be played there in the second half
Speaker 2: of the season still, but I just feel like seeing
Speaker 2: the names. Yeah, you're right about the injur report, the
Speaker 2: length of it. A lot of teams deal with lengthy
Speaker 2: injury reports though, and you but when you see Jordan
Speaker 2: Love of jyr Alexander, Evan Williams, and Evan Williams doing
Speaker 2: what he's doing right now, you know how he's looked
Speaker 2: the first half of the season. You know, Josh Myers
Speaker 2: is not able to play in this game because of
Speaker 2: a wrist injury, so and Elton has to move to center.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Elton Jenkins has not actually practiced a full
Speaker 1: week for several weeks now because of things that's that
Speaker 1: he's dealing with. And I understand you want your players
Speaker 1: to be in the best physical condition you know possible
Speaker 1: to be able to play because this game is so
Speaker 1: demanding and having your body right and being healthy to
Speaker 1: be able to play the game is important. But there
Speaker 1: is accumulative effect to missing practice, and not only for
Speaker 1: that individual, but for the group.
Speaker 2: As a whole. One hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to talk about I'll take care of
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Speaker 1: little bit about where things are in the NFC. North
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Speaker 1: subs fifty plus years of better all Right, NFC North,
Speaker 1: the Lions are seven and one, the Vikings are six
Speaker 1: and two, the Packers are six and three. Certainly a
Speaker 1: lot of football left to be played and nothing's been
Speaker 1: decided yet. But when you look at things from as
Speaker 1: far as how the schedule is laid out and who
Speaker 1: has done what, the Detroit Lions have won games at
Speaker 1: Minnesota and at Green Bay. So the rematch is that
Speaker 1: both of those teams will get against the Lions will
Speaker 1: both be at Ford Field. I don't like to jump
Speaker 1: to too many conclusions, but I'm gonna say this right now.
Speaker 1: If the Vikings and the Packers, I think the Vikings
Speaker 1: and the Packers both have to go into Ford Field
Speaker 1: and win for the Lions to not win the division. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I I you know, I think it's going
Speaker 1: to I think it's going to come down to that now.
Speaker 1: I mean, anything can change from an injury perspective, this
Speaker 1: and that, you know whatever. But but my point is
Speaker 1: the Lions are absolutely in the catbird seat in the
Speaker 1: NFC North right now with winning those two division road games,
Speaker 1: and the Packers are in a tough spot having lost
Speaker 1: two division home games to the Vikings in line.
Speaker 2: Did you have you looked at a Lions schedule at
Speaker 2: all yet?
Speaker 1: I glanced at it. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So they finish out the AFC South on three consecutive weeks, now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they Yeah, they have three straight. They have three
Speaker 1: straight AFC South games and then probably gonna get They're
Speaker 1: probably gonna get Houston without Digs or Collins at one receiver, right,
Speaker 1: so they're gonna they're you know, the Packers caught a
Speaker 1: break without Nico Collins being in that game for Houston.
Speaker 1: The Lions are now going to play them where C. J.
Speaker 1: Stroud doesn't have either of his two best receiver.
Speaker 2: And the fact that then they have to still face
Speaker 2: Chicago twice. Uh, obviously Green Bay again, Buffalo, San Francisco,
Speaker 2: and then they close against Minnesota. It's pretty interesting schedule
Speaker 2: how it lined up for Detroit considering they were Buffalo
Speaker 2: and San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Will be no picnic for sure, Lions by any stretch.
Speaker 1: But the Packers also have to play San Francisco and
Speaker 1: and I think the forty nine ers they you know,
Speaker 1: they might be a team that's gonna that's gonna start
Speaker 1: to hit their stride here as they potentially get healthy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the tough thing is now where you look
Speaker 2: at it and how it sits is yeah, the NFC.
Speaker 2: I said this last week when you and I were
Speaker 2: going through some of our analysis. Yes, certainly you want
Speaker 2: to win the division, and you got to do that,
Speaker 2: but when you're looking at tiebreakers and potential positioning for
Speaker 2: a playoff run like NFC wins are so critical. Division
Speaker 2: is critical because you want to win the division, you
Speaker 2: want to make a run potentially at a number one
Speaker 2: seed in a bye, but you have to win those
Speaker 2: conference games. The Packers got into the playoffs last year
Speaker 2: because of commonality and conference wins and things of that nature.
Speaker 2: So it's just so pivotal to be able to pick
Speaker 2: those off, and certainly they'll have their opportunity to do
Speaker 2: that against Chicago. The frustrating thing for me, though, watching
Speaker 2: how this unfolded with Minnesota in particular, was Indianapolis had
Speaker 2: several opportunities to win that game. They went with what
Speaker 2: I still think was a pretty rash decision to go
Speaker 2: with Joe Flacco, not because they're losing, only because I
Speaker 2: think it's pretty obvious that that Anthony Richardson is the
Speaker 2: future of that team. I don't think by any means
Speaker 2: this is that bryce know, young situation where it's wavering
Speaker 2: confidence and a young player. I just I don't really
Speaker 2: understand the analysis because so much times, so many times
Speaker 2: teams will make a move and they'll go the veteran
Speaker 2: because it feels good and they won a game or
Speaker 2: two and they feel like they have momentum, and then
Speaker 2: you get a couple weeks down the road and then
Speaker 2: you have a performance like Flacco did against Minnesota, and
Speaker 2: now you're kind of back to wondering where you're at
Speaker 2: with this thing. And again that division is up for
Speaker 2: anybody's grabs right now. But still I mean Green Bay
Speaker 2: as it's worked cut out for it and just seeing
Speaker 2: all the rest of these things align. Chicago, we talked
Speaker 2: about the you know, kind of the hangover after the hail.
Speaker 2: Mary did not play well against Washington, struggled to do
Speaker 2: anything in terms of, you know, threatening the end zone,
Speaker 2: and now they're sitting at four and four after all
Speaker 2: that hype early on. So you just got to you
Speaker 2: gotta ride those waves, man. You have to find wins
Speaker 2: when you can get them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting. We had talked last week, How would
Speaker 1: the Bears respond to the to the Hail Mary loss
Speaker 1: when they were on the verge of beating the leaders
Speaker 1: in the NFC East in Washington, and then that gets
Speaker 1: away on the Hail Mary. Then they go out west
Speaker 1: to Arizona and you know, single digit points, and and
Speaker 1: you know Kyler Murray and that Cardinals offense put up
Speaker 1: twenty eight on them. And yeah, as you said, the
Speaker 1: Bears are four and for and the Vikings, yeah they
Speaker 1: won a game. They're six and two, but they won
Speaker 1: a game with their quarterback turning the ball over three times.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of questions in Minnesota as to
Speaker 1: just where they are because, quite frankly, the quarterback changed
Speaker 1: to Flacco, and then what Minnesota's defense was able to
Speaker 1: do to frustrate Flacco and to frustrate that Colts offense.
Speaker 1: Minnesota's defense really won that game for them on Sunday night.
Speaker 2: If you'd have told me that Darnold is going to
Speaker 2: turn over the ball three times, Aaron Jones is gonna
Speaker 2: be held to three yards per carry and They're still
Speaker 2: going to find a way to win that game, I
Speaker 2: would have been surprised, just based on what the recipe
Speaker 2: has been this year for them trying to eat those out. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but they did it. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: that's all that matters, is what's on the scoreboard. And now,
Speaker 2: you know, seeing where Minnesota goes with this thing is
Speaker 2: going to be very interesting as well, because they're a
Speaker 2: team that's still making moves. They still are trying to
Speaker 2: potentially make a run this season despite all the setbacks
Speaker 2: that they've had, and yeah, Green Bay will see them
Speaker 2: again of course at the end of the season.
Speaker 1: Well, big picture in the the NFC, if I counted
Speaker 1: it right, I believe there are ten ten of the
Speaker 1: sixteen teams in the NFC are at five hundred or above. Correct,
Speaker 1: And it was actually eleven until the Buccaneers lost in
Speaker 1: overtime on Monday night to the undefeated these still undefeated
Speaker 1: Kansas City Chiefs. Ten of sixteen teams at five hundred
Speaker 1: or above. And as as you know, there are only
Speaker 1: there are only seven playoff spots, So these last two
Speaker 1: months of the regular season, there's going to be a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of jockeying for position. And you know,
Speaker 1: the conference as a whole, I think is so strong
Speaker 1: that you don't I don't think you look at anybody's
Speaker 1: schedule and you say, oh, yeah, you know, pencil pencil
Speaker 1: rights guys in for eleven or twelve wins. It just
Speaker 1: doesn't it. It doesn't feel that way. It does feel
Speaker 1: in some ways though, that that eleven wins maybe is
Speaker 1: the target to feel to feel safe with a playoff spot.
Speaker 1: There could be a there could be a ten win
Speaker 1: team or two in the NFC that maybe doesn't get
Speaker 1: in depending on how this fall.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and where teams are at. There's a clear line
Speaker 2: of demarcation right now where Green Bay is technically the
Speaker 2: seventh seed at six and three, and then Chicago's the
Speaker 2: eight seed at four and four. Where those teams that
Speaker 2: are sitting at five hundred, the three of them Chicago,
Speaker 2: La Rams in the San Francisco. You know they're gonna
Speaker 2: have to pick up some wins there to threaten that again.
Speaker 2: So Green Bay does has built up a little bit
Speaker 2: of a base and a little bit of a bubble
Speaker 2: there in front of that group. But again, they're playing Chicago,
Speaker 2: They're going to play San Francisco. Yeah, you're gonna have
Speaker 2: to fend those challenges off. It's interesting because I thought
Speaker 2: what you opened with was a good point when you
Speaker 2: look at where Detroit stands in this conference, and I
Speaker 2: don't know, man, like I have total respect for Washington.
Speaker 2: I love what, you know, everything Daniels has done this year,
Speaker 2: but they're sort of the upstart. Yeah, Atlanta is a
Speaker 2: team that has not had a lot of success recently.
Speaker 2: There they stand. It's just it's these teams that you're
Speaker 2: you're unfamiliar with being at the top of the conference,
Speaker 2: and it just it creates a lot of usion in
Speaker 2: terms of Okay, who's going to last and who's going
Speaker 2: to fade? You noted what you're getting in Detroit every
Speaker 2: single week, but seeing how teams like Washington, Atlanta, if
Speaker 2: Arizona is a much different team than the one that
Speaker 2: the Packers face, that it's it's gonna be an interesting
Speaker 2: second half for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fun to take a look at the big
Speaker 1: picture when you know you're on the bye week and
Speaker 1: and you know we'll get a weekend here to just
Speaker 1: see how results shake out and what the records look like.
Speaker 1: You know, come next week when the Packers are preparing
Speaker 1: to play the Chicago Bears, and we will turn our
Speaker 1: attention more from the big picture to the Chicago Bears
Speaker 1: next week. Just a quick programming note. Because this is
Speaker 1: the bye week, this will be our only show this week.
Speaker 1: We won't have a second show this week, but then
Speaker 1: we'll be back with our usual two shows next week
Speaker 1: leading into the the road trip to Chicago. What you
Speaker 1: got planned?
Speaker 2: Not too much, man. I do want to, you know,
Speaker 2: get some stuff done around the house. Like I'm not
Speaker 2: going any big trips. I texted my buddy Dave to
Speaker 2: see if he be down in Milwaukee. He's hunting this
Speaker 2: week out on the western side of the state. So
Speaker 2: I will not be doing that bow hunter. Yeah, oh okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: I was gonna see he married a wonderful season yet
Speaker 2: but he married a wonderful woman, Kelsey, whom whose family
Speaker 2: has you know, land on the western side of the state.
Speaker 2: So he goes and does that. I've never shot a bow.
Speaker 2: I have no desire to shoot a bow, but that's
Speaker 2: something that he's big into. But I'll probably be just
Speaker 2: hanging out, maybe finish watching Peaky Blinders. I'm not the
Speaker 2: Netflix guy like you are, but I've been trying to
Speaker 2: get through Peaky Blinders and find with little windows to
Speaker 2: watch that. I'm into season three right now. But yeah, otherwise,
Speaker 2: rest up and recover and get ready for next week.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a fun one.
Speaker 1: Definitely some work to do around the house. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: hit be making the trip I am making. It's not
Speaker 1: all that far, but it's just back home my old
Speaker 1: high school. I'm actually speaking at a career your day. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: to talk to a bunch of kids.
Speaker 2: Roll out the Platfeld carpet.
Speaker 1: I'll let them. I'll let them pepper me with the
Speaker 1: questions about the packers and working here and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So it's been a long time since
Speaker 1: I've set foot in my old high school. Really you that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't even two weeks ago. I'm sure during my
Speaker 1: college years when I was back home in the summers
Speaker 1: and whatnot, like I you know, I would stop in there,
Speaker 1: you know, go catch a basketball game or something like that.
Speaker 1: I don't think since, you know, since my college years,
Speaker 1: that I've actually set foot in my old high school.
Speaker 2: So, mister Spofford, mister Stafford, what.
Speaker 1: I definitely I will definitely be telling them to call
Speaker 1: me Mike, not.
Speaker 2: Mister Spofford, but dude like that. Please, Michael, You're.
Speaker 1: One of the only people in this world as all out.
Speaker 1: Oh me, Michael.
Speaker 2: Actually, you know what else is coming up? The twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five NFL Draft. It is brought to you by
Speaker 2: the green Bay Packers.
Speaker 1: The countdown to the twenty twenty five NFL Draft has begun.
Speaker 1: Green Bay is hosting this year and you won't want
Speaker 1: to miss it. Mark your calendars for April twenty four
Speaker 1: through April twenty six of twenty twenty five, and visit
Speaker 1: green Bay dot com slash Draft twenty five for more information.
Speaker 1: With that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition
Speaker 1: of Packers Unscripted, and be sure to follow all of
Speaker 1: our coverage of the team on Packers dot com and
Speaker 1: we will be back next week. Thank you for tuning,
Speaker 1: everybody to see you next time.