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 West and hodkow it'z. We're coming
Speaker 1: to you hear from our studios at lambeau Field and
Speaker 1: Wes Unfortunately here to talk about a tough loss for
Speaker 1: the Packers twenty four to twenty two on Monday Night
Speaker 1: football against the New York Giants on the road. A
Speaker 1: walkoff field goal decided this one. But bottom line is
Speaker 1: this was a performance the Packers are not proud of
Speaker 1: the fact that they even had a chance to win
Speaker 1: the game at the end was kind of a miracle
Speaker 1: and it didn't go their way and it was a
Speaker 1: big opportunity missed as the Packers fall to six and seven.
Speaker 2: So I did our insider Inbox column for Wednesday morning,
Speaker 2: making sure I have my days correctly here and before
Speaker 2: we start breaking down this game, because there's certainly a
Speaker 2: lot to go into. It's a conversation we've had a
Speaker 2: lot of times by I think it's so important to
Speaker 2: have because I'm not clairvoyant, I'm not a soothsayer, I
Speaker 2: have no psychic capabilities whatsoever, but so many times not
Speaker 2: so much teams. I don't think the Packers did this,
Speaker 2: but I definitely think in the media people just look
Speaker 2: at records and they say, well, this team is doing this,
Speaker 2: and this team is doing that, and then this team
Speaker 2: by proxy is going to win. There's a reason why
Speaker 2: Matt Lafleur always talks about why you have to do
Speaker 2: it on Sundays, why you have to go out there
Speaker 2: and perform at your highest level regardless of who the
Speaker 2: opponent is. Because, yeah, New York Giants, not a lot's
Speaker 2: gone right for them this year. They were four and
Speaker 2: five going in this matchup.
Speaker 1: But four and eight excuse me, Yeah, four.
Speaker 2: And five was the Saquon Barkley sat I had. They're
Speaker 2: actually now five and five with Barkley this season. But
Speaker 2: it comes down to how a team is playing and
Speaker 2: where you're building towards and in a lot of ways,
Speaker 2: for as much as people didn't want to give credit
Speaker 2: to the Giants, they were in the same boat as
Speaker 2: green By. Hey, green Bay's just a little flash here
Speaker 2: in terms of how they've definitely gotten better throughout the
Speaker 2: course of the season. So there's so many things that
Speaker 2: go into this thing. But My number one aspect of
Speaker 2: this was you have to respect every opponent. And much
Speaker 2: like how the Green Bay Packers won a lot of
Speaker 2: these games recently with complimentary football. Conversely, they lost it
Speaker 2: with complimentary football on Monday Night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's there's always a lot to be said for
Speaker 1: the adage of it's not whom you play, it's when
Speaker 1: you play them, and I think that has I think
Speaker 1: that has played out throughout the season here for the Packers,
Speaker 1: both in some of the wins, whether you're talking about
Speaker 1: quarterback injuries on the other side, or the fact that
Speaker 1: you know, the Lions and Chiefs haven't quite hit their
Speaker 1: stride and the Packers were playing really well in those
Speaker 1: moments and got those wins. And you know, the Giants
Speaker 1: were coming off of a two game winning streak, got
Speaker 1: their bye week to rest up, to gear up, and
Speaker 1: whether you know they're going to make a run in
Speaker 1: a playoff spot or not, they're looking to finish strong
Speaker 1: with Tommy DeVito as their quarterback and seeing where things
Speaker 1: are going. So that whole you know, whom you play
Speaker 1: when you play them thing definitely applies. We sat here.
Speaker 1: I guess I'm having a hard time keeping my day
Speaker 1: straight last Thursday on our show that led into the
Speaker 1: Monday night game, and I even said it on our
Speaker 1: final Thoughts video. To me, this game is all about
Speaker 1: stop the run and run the ball. And the final
Speaker 1: numbers were two, nine to one twenty three the wrong way.
Speaker 1: So right there, your chances of winning the game aren't
Speaker 1: going to be very good when it was obvious what
Speaker 1: the keys to the game were and the Giants won
Speaker 1: that battle decisively. But I like the fact that you
Speaker 1: referenced what Matt Lafleur said because I'm going to reference
Speaker 1: something that he said as well, and he said it
Speaker 1: many times throughout the course of his five seasons here,
Speaker 1: and that is that this league can humble you quickly.
Speaker 1: And that doesn't just apply to a team. It can
Speaker 1: also apply to individuals. And there are a lot of them,
Speaker 1: a lot of them you can point to in this game,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to point to a couple of them
Speaker 1: because they are guys who have had a are a
Speaker 1: big reason the Packers turn their season around. But then
Speaker 1: things didn't go so well Monday Night. Keishawn Nixon was
Speaker 1: the hero against the Kansas City Chiefs. He was the
Speaker 1: one guy who got an interception against Patrick Mahomes with
Speaker 1: five minutes left in the fourth quarter. That was played
Speaker 1: a huge part in a huge victory for Green Bay.
Speaker 1: But he has two really really rough plays against the Giants.
Speaker 1: The muff punt that sets up the Giants for a touchdown,
Speaker 1: he gets beat for the pass that puts the Giants
Speaker 1: in field goal range. At the end, this league can
Speaker 1: humble everybody. Jordan Love was riding high. The offense was
Speaker 1: in a rhythm, right, I mean, everything's going right. There
Speaker 1: was no rhythm to the Packers offense on Monday night.
Speaker 1: Jordan Love started the game with some off target throws.
Speaker 1: Things weren't going well. He did, you know, he turns
Speaker 1: the ball over twice in the second quarter. He does
Speaker 1: settle down play much better down the stretch and did
Speaker 1: give the Packers a chance, But even then, it just
Speaker 1: felt like there was never any rhythm offense. The offense
Speaker 1: did not look anything like what it had recently, and
Speaker 1: obviously the absence of Christian Watson certainly had something to
Speaker 1: do with that. But again, you know, this game was
Speaker 1: all about the things that the Packers had been doing
Speaker 1: you weren't able to do. You know, against Kansas City,
Speaker 1: you take a sack and it pushed the field goal
Speaker 1: back ten yards. But the kick is made this game.
Speaker 1: You take a sack, it pushes the field goal back
Speaker 1: ten yards and then the kick has missed. You know,
Speaker 1: the punting the field position. The way the Packers were
Speaker 1: winning that battle over the recent weeks, you know that
Speaker 1: that wasn't going well. And the other thing that stood
Speaker 1: out to me, you look at these games the Packers
Speaker 1: have won. They handled Aaron Donald up front, they handled
Speaker 1: Aiden Hutchinson, they handled Chris Jones. They didn't handle Kevon Thibodeaux.
Speaker 1: He was He was all over the place in this
Speaker 1: game and had an impact everywhere. And as much as
Speaker 1: it was a collective effort to handle those other big
Speaker 1: time defensive front you know, pass guys for those other teams,
Speaker 1: it was a collective effort that Keveon Thibodeau had the
Speaker 1: impact he did. There. You can go down the line.
Speaker 1: There are all kinds of things that the Packers were
Speaker 1: doing to get their wins, and all of those things
Speaker 1: seemed to escape them in one really bad Monday night
Speaker 1: in New Jersey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, cave On Thibodeau, to be fair to everybody, is
Speaker 2: a former fifth overall pick and Saquon Barkley is a
Speaker 2: two time Pro Bowl running.
Speaker 1: Back and a number two overall pick, Number two overall pick.
Speaker 2: Excuse me. They've done so many good things throughout the
Speaker 2: course of the year against some of these premier players.
Speaker 2: Right then you get the Tommy DeVito experience, and that
Speaker 2: was probably the most disheartening aspect of this for me,
Speaker 2: because Mike, I'll tell you what, if you would have
Speaker 2: told me in the middle last week, hey, Green Bay Packers,
Speaker 2: point five over under for the mon of sacks, they're
Speaker 2: going to get on to Vito, I would have easily
Speaker 2: taken that sure point five over under sacks they are
Speaker 2: and get on to Vito even after the first quarter.
Speaker 2: I would have gladly taken that because of the way
Speaker 2: they were pressuring him for one reason or another, and
Speaker 2: I wasn't able to really put my finger on it.
Speaker 2: The kid just proved elusive to that defensive front. Guys
Speaker 2: got out of their rush lanes, they sometimes over pursued,
Speaker 2: and when he got to the second level there was
Speaker 2: a lot of green grass there for him to execute
Speaker 2: with the wildcat formation that haunted them last year in
Speaker 2: London pop back up, although this time it wasn't Saquon
Speaker 2: Barkley running it. It was Saquon Barkley handing it off in
Speaker 2: Robinson being the guy that was doing the damage with it.
Speaker 2: Wandel Robinson, a guy five to eight, was former teammates
Speaker 2: with Carrington Valentine at Kentucky. Guy looked dynamic in this game.
Speaker 2: One hundred and fifteen total yards in Green May didn't
Speaker 2: have an answer for it so well. The dexter Lawrences
Speaker 2: and the Thibodeaus and the Barkleys, you expect them to
Speaker 2: get theirs. It's how the Giants were able to produce
Speaker 2: with the guys that maybe aren't necessarily until now you
Speaker 2: know the household names. And the big line I had
Speaker 2: in our Insider Inbox column was in a game of follies,
Speaker 2: the Giants had fewer than the Packers did they got
Speaker 2: the win.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and even when you look at the turnover battle
Speaker 1: in this game, which we talk about all the time.
Speaker 1: Of course, the Packers had three giveaways. Jordan Love had
Speaker 1: the fumble and the interception. As I mentioned, Nixon had
Speaker 1: the muff punt. The Packers got two takeaways, but they
Speaker 1: weren't really takeaways. They were balls that the Giants literally gate.
Speaker 1: The Packers didn't do anything to cause those turnovers. There
Speaker 1: was the punt that hit the unsuspecting guy whatever, and
Speaker 1: then you know, and then the Packers get the recovery.
Speaker 1: And then there's the play by Barkley where he runs
Speaker 1: for thirty four yards on a run with what less
Speaker 1: than four minutes on the clock, and it's looking like
Speaker 1: the play that essentially is going to salt the game away.
Speaker 1: Packers may not even get the ball backer if they do,
Speaker 1: they're going to be down by too many points to
Speaker 1: be able to do anything about it. But he fumbles
Speaker 1: the ball completely on his own, and not only do
Speaker 1: the Packers get the ball back because but because everybody's
Speaker 1: standing around on the field, Carrington Valentine gets a fifty
Speaker 1: yard return to set up the Packers in tremendous field
Speaker 1: position to get a touchdown to take the lead. My
Speaker 1: point is the turnovers were three to two in this game,
Speaker 1: but in terms of make you know, in terms of
Speaker 1: making those making the plays to get the turnovers, it
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It was definitely worse than a minus one,
Speaker 1: I guess is what it is what it felt like
Speaker 1: to me. And it was.
Speaker 2: Barkley's third career lost fumble, too, by the way, just
Speaker 2: his third third, sixth in his career. Third one he's lost. Wow,
Speaker 2: and no one even for I don't even know, how
Speaker 2: do you rule that as far as a force is
Speaker 2: the guy recovered, it just gets credit for them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the guy gets there. I don't think there is
Speaker 1: a forced fumble. I think it's just I think it's
Speaker 1: just credit for credit for the recovery. I mean, one
Speaker 1: of the most bizarre plays, and I guess that's the
Speaker 1: That's the one thing that other than just the overall
Speaker 1: and overall poor performance by the Packers, I think the
Speaker 1: biggest thing you regret coming out of this game, just
Speaker 1: because this league is so crazy and so nuts and
Speaker 1: you never know what's going to happen. To get a
Speaker 1: lucky break like that, that really is like the luckiest
Speaker 1: of lucky breaks you could possibly ask for. In a
Speaker 1: game where you're down by seven points or down by
Speaker 1: five points at the time, I guess, excuse me, down
Speaker 1: by five points and the other team is literally on
Speaker 1: the verge of completely salting away the game, and they
Speaker 1: just hand you the football with a chance to take
Speaker 1: the lead. I mean, the Packers cashed in on it,
Speaker 1: but then the defense doesn't hold up at the end
Speaker 1: and you lose on the walk off. But to get
Speaker 1: to get a break of that magnitude and then to
Speaker 1: not be able to win the game, the Packers wouldn't
Speaker 1: have deserved to win the game based on how they played.
Speaker 1: It's not as though the Giants necessarily deserve to win
Speaker 1: the game either, But it's a huge opportunity that. I mean,
Speaker 1: a break like that comes along once every what five
Speaker 1: or six or seven years or something like that, and
Speaker 1: to not win the game is a big opportunity you
Speaker 1: let get away well.
Speaker 2: And as you even said when you and I were
Speaker 2: kind of breaking down the game yesterday, you know, Tommy
Speaker 2: DeVito made the throw and he needed to make it
Speaker 2: in the end zone.
Speaker 1: He made one dynamite throw in this game, and it
Speaker 1: was on a third down in the red zone and
Speaker 1: a rifle shot to the pylon. Receiver makes a great
Speaker 1: catch and they get a touchdown instead of a field goal,
Speaker 1: and that four points was monumental.
Speaker 2: The other thing, I will give a lot of credit
Speaker 2: to wink Markindale's crew too, in addition to the fact
Speaker 2: that I like the looks that they give. Matt Lafleur
Speaker 2: touched on it. I mean, they're going to pressure, but
Speaker 2: they're also the illusion of pressure is important there too.
Speaker 2: They kind of had their inside backers working up, sometimes
Speaker 2: one dropping back, one going different things that Jordan Love
Speaker 2: was having to account for was very well disguised but defensively.
Speaker 2: One stat that I didn't write about and I didn't
Speaker 2: really realize until afterwards. I think you have to kind
Speaker 2: of look at what this matchup is. The Giants had
Speaker 2: thirty thirty seven solo tackles and thirty assistant tackles green
Speaker 2: Bay I think it was, Yeah, it was forty one solo,
Speaker 2: eleven assisted. The Giants flew to the ball, they tackled
Speaker 2: to the ball, multiple hats to the tacklers, and for
Speaker 2: green Bay, stampoint just some of that whatever happened there.
Speaker 2: Two hundred and nine rushing yards. And again you can
Speaker 2: bottle up Saquon as well as you do for three
Speaker 2: quarters and even when he has the big run get
Speaker 2: the fumble. But if DeVito's going for seventy one, if
Speaker 2: Robinson's going for thirty six, that all kind of fits
Speaker 2: in as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That that the tackle statistics statistics you mentioned are
Speaker 1: really interesting because because one of the things that stood
Speaker 1: out when you when you look at this game, and
Speaker 1: I went over a lot of the film yesterday, was
Speaker 1: you know, really for the second straight game, the Packers
Speaker 1: had a poor tackling game. They weren't a sound tackling team.
Speaker 1: And mistackles really hurt you when you don't have enough
Speaker 1: hats to the football, right, and that the statistic you
Speaker 1: just you just mentioned with the disparity between the two
Speaker 1: teams in terms of in terms of the solo and
Speaker 1: assisted tackles and how that how that matched up, It
Speaker 1: makes sense that the Packers got burned on so many
Speaker 1: mistackles because they never it was too many one on
Speaker 1: one tackles and they miss them, and then you don't
Speaker 1: have another hat there to the to the ball to
Speaker 1: be able to to compensate for it. So just very frustrating.
Speaker 1: And and and Matt Lafleur, you know, went over a
Speaker 1: lot of the frustrations in his press conference on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: talking about, you know, the final drive, after the first
Speaker 1: couple of plays you go to you go to man coverage,
Speaker 1: man de man coverage calls and uh and you get
Speaker 1: burned on two Manda man coverage calls that end up
Speaker 1: covering forty one yards and get to get the Giants
Speaker 1: into field goal range where where the defenders in a
Speaker 1: man coverage call are just they're not up on their
Speaker 1: guys the way the way they're supposed to be. And
Speaker 1: and you know those are those are mental lapses that
Speaker 1: turn into physical lapses that you know that cost you
Speaker 1: and and uh, that's how the Giants get in position
Speaker 1: to win.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it turns into points and yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: Joe Berry, like you said last week, a lot of
Speaker 2: times when you look at defenses, it's that final number
Speaker 2: of what's on the board, both for and again is
Speaker 2: how you judge these things. And for Green Bay, unfortunately,
Speaker 2: it was kind of a it was it was. It
Speaker 2: was a difficult way to lose it because of the
Speaker 2: poeticism of how it ended in terms of you had
Speaker 2: Balik Heath that you know, they drive down, Jordan Love
Speaker 2: has his best drive of the game. Malik Heath gets
Speaker 2: a chance for the touchdown, can't get that third foot down,
Speaker 2: you know, and established possession before the ball gets batted
Speaker 2: out of his hands, right, they dial up a play
Speaker 2: for him. On the next play, he runs it perfectly
Speaker 2: to the pylon, gets the touchdown, but a minute thirty
Speaker 2: three left and the Giants had the two timeouts and
Speaker 2: that was the end of it.
Speaker 1: You know, It's funny one thing I didn't realize in
Speaker 1: live time, as you know, things are kind of frantic
Speaker 1: with you know, the replay and is Heath going to
Speaker 1: get the touchdown there? But then no, the call stands
Speaker 1: that it's incomplete, So then the Packers have third down
Speaker 1: there inside the ten yard line. The Giants sent like
Speaker 1: eight guys yea on that third downplay. I mean that
Speaker 1: was Wink Martindale going all It's like, this is it.
Speaker 1: This is the money, this is the money play of
Speaker 1: the game right here, going all out for and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and Heath was one on one there at
Speaker 1: the pile on the ball, was in a good spot,
Speaker 1: really really good catch. Unfortunately, then you know what it's
Speaker 1: it's all the it's all the little things that add up, right.
Speaker 1: You miss field goals and you miss two point conversions
Speaker 1: and eventually those are going to cost you. And I
Speaker 1: know the Giants missed a field goal earlier in the
Speaker 1: game as well, so that kind of ended up you know,
Speaker 1: one a piece in that respect. But obviously, if after
Speaker 1: the touchdown, if you can get the two point conversion
Speaker 1: and you go up by three, then you know that
Speaker 1: final drive plays out very differently potentially, you know, you
Speaker 1: never know then how aggressive are the Giants going to
Speaker 1: be to maybe get a touchdown, which then who knows
Speaker 1: then if they if they make a mistake, or if
Speaker 1: the Packers play things differently with a three point lead
Speaker 1: instead of a one point lead. I don't know. But anytime, anytime,
Speaker 1: those opportunities for points are are missed, you know. And
Speaker 1: and on top of that, you know, going back even
Speaker 1: to the two turnovers in the first half, the Packers
Speaker 1: had very very good if they were in good position
Speaker 1: on the field, and turning the ball over there certainly
Speaker 1: cost potential points as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's where it gets difficult because they adversity
Speaker 2: defense early on was fantastic. Yes, that you lose back
Speaker 2: to back possessions of the ball, and I don't even
Speaker 2: know how much time came off the clock between all that,
Speaker 2: between stopping them on fourth and one and then also
Speaker 2: getting the ball back. It was pretty wild how it
Speaker 2: worked out. But again, situationally, if you add them all up, Mike,
Speaker 2: you put them all in a row. The Giants took
Speaker 2: down more of those jars than Green Bay did, and
Speaker 2: the result was what it was now, as you wrote
Speaker 2: in the Monday inbox or the Tuesday in box, See,
Speaker 2: I did end up messing up one of my days,
Speaker 2: you know. Now it's what the response is, and the
Speaker 2: Packers have to respond.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we'll look at the bigger picture here after
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Speaker 1: in a bowl. Cousin subbs fifty years of better. All right,
Speaker 1: big picture, the Packers are certainly very much alive in
Speaker 1: the playoff spot even despite this loss. A huge opportunity
Speaker 1: was missed, however, because, as I had mentioned last Thursday,
Speaker 1: these four teams in the wild card picture that were
Speaker 1: six and six, the Vikings, the Rams, the Seahawks, and
Speaker 1: the Packers, all of them were on the road and
Speaker 1: heading into Monday night, the Rams and the Seahawks had
Speaker 1: already lost the Vikings had squeaked out a three to
Speaker 1: nothing victory in Vegas, so the Packers could have put
Speaker 1: themselves as one of only two teams in that mix
Speaker 1: that would be seven and six along with Minnesota. They
Speaker 1: failed in that regard, So right now, the Vikings are
Speaker 1: in the number six playoff spot in the NFC, and
Speaker 1: as far as the seventh spot is concerned, you have
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of teams now at six seven, Packers, Rams, Seahawks, Falcons, Saints,
Speaker 1: and Buccaneers. Out of the Falcon, Saints and Buccaneers, one
Speaker 1: of them will win the NFC South, So there's really
Speaker 1: only two of those teams competing for a wild card.
Speaker 1: But in effect, you don't know right now which two
Speaker 1: of those are going to be because they're all tied
Speaker 1: at the moment. And don't look now, but the Chicago
Speaker 1: Bears and the New York Giants are five and eight,
Speaker 1: which actually puts them only one game back of all
Speaker 1: of these teams at six and seven that are fighting
Speaker 1: for a spot and with still four games left to go.
Speaker 1: I know that's a ton of teams in the mix,
Speaker 1: but right now, right now, if you have a chance
Speaker 1: at nine wins, which a team that is five and
Speaker 1: eight mathematically has a chance to get to nine wins.
Speaker 1: If you have a chance to get to nine wins
Speaker 1: in the NFC, you have a legitimate chance to make
Speaker 1: the playoffs. That's really where it sits right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Giants, they still have their work cutout for
Speaker 2: them because they got those matchups as Philly, they have
Speaker 2: a matchup with the ram I mean, their schedule is
Speaker 2: pretty daunting here coming up Chicago, isn't Chicago's interesting because
Speaker 2: Chicago they have Cleveland with Joe Flacco coming up. Then
Speaker 2: they got Arizona Atlanta, who you never know where you're
Speaker 2: going to get, and then maybe a potential consequential game
Speaker 2: at the end of the season against the Packers. Here's
Speaker 2: the part I wanted to kind of talk about, because
Speaker 2: we just spent all this time discussing, Hey, here's everything
Speaker 2: that went wrong against the Giants, and the update is
Speaker 2: nothing's changed. It's all the same right now. Because green
Speaker 2: Bay's strength of victory here is as good as anyone
Speaker 2: in the conference. I think they're only behind the number
Speaker 2: one seated forty nine Ers right now. It's just like
Speaker 2: green Bay's lost too many of these games too.
Speaker 1: Again, the strength of victory is where it is because
Speaker 1: of beating the Lions and the Chiefs at this point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you look at it conversely on the
Speaker 2: other aspect of it. You got a team like the
Speaker 2: Saints where it's like, you gotta win the division because
Speaker 2: right now I think their strength of victory is like
Speaker 2: twenty eight percent. I mean, it's not good in terms
Speaker 2: of how things line up. So everybody is kind of
Speaker 2: josting right now for this PiZZ psitioning with this playoff field.
Speaker 2: I think the South is pretty much concentrated on somebody
Speaker 2: needs to win that and that's going to be the
Speaker 2: key to that door.
Speaker 1: And it could and it could be a second straight
Speaker 1: year that the NFC South has a sub five hundred champion.
Speaker 1: I mean, eight and nine is entirely possible to win
Speaker 1: that division again for a second straight year after the
Speaker 1: Buccaneers did it with Tom Brady last year.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But to your point, just getting back that, this
Speaker 2: is why this one hurt, because I think it is
Speaker 2: a race to nine wins. I don't know how many
Speaker 2: wild card seeds are going to be determined by nine wins,
Speaker 2: but it is a race to nine wins and Green
Speaker 2: Bay missed out in an opportunity. Credit to the Vikings.
Speaker 2: We'll talk about some of these games here in a second,
Speaker 2: but the Vikings took care of business as ugly as
Speaker 2: the business could look, they took care of business. They
Speaker 2: got that seventh victory. Now they're going to be making
Speaker 2: the switch over to Nick Mullins at quarterback. But that's
Speaker 2: the race. It doesn't matter how much tape is on
Speaker 2: the leg, it doesn't matter how much the hamstring hurts.
Speaker 2: You're just trying to get to the finish line right now.
Speaker 2: And the Vikings have a leg up on everybody else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean it just goes to show how
Speaker 1: you know, things can change and you never know how
Speaker 1: anything is going to go in a given week in
Speaker 1: this league. You have you know, suddenly the Seahawks don't
Speaker 1: have Geno Smith, so then you know they They were
Speaker 1: in it with the Niners for a while, but end
Speaker 1: up losing by a couple of touchdowns. The Vikings can't
Speaker 1: figure anything out on offense, but their defense keep their
Speaker 1: defense keeps the Raiders shut out. They go to Mullins
Speaker 1: late in the game for a drive for a field
Speaker 1: goal that ends up being the only points in a
Speaker 1: three to nothing victory. And then you have both the Rams,
Speaker 1: the Rams and the Packers in very different fashions, but
Speaker 1: both of those teams end up losing on walk off scores.
Speaker 1: The Rams lose in overtime on a long punt return
Speaker 1: by the Baltimore Ravens, you know, heartbreaking loss for them.
Speaker 1: The Packers lose on a walk off field goal. You know,
Speaker 1: the margins are so slim. Every week can be so different.
Speaker 1: You mentioned now the Vikings, the Vikings, who are the
Speaker 1: team that is, you know, sitting the best in this
Speaker 1: wild card race at seven and six, but now they're
Speaker 1: changing quarterbacks. Yeah, you know, with with four games to go,
Speaker 1: so who knows? Who knows where that goes? And then
Speaker 1: at the top of the NFC, you suddenly have a
Speaker 1: three way tie for the number one seed with the
Speaker 1: Cowboys knocking off the Eagles and the Niners got their wins.
Speaker 1: So San Francisco, Philly, and Dallas are all ten and three.
Speaker 1: All three of them are tied for the number one seed,
Speaker 1: which is which obviously has the only buy playoff buy
Speaker 1: that comes with it. But one of those out of
Speaker 1: Philly or Dallas is going to drop all the way
Speaker 1: to the five if they don't, you know, get the one.
Speaker 1: You know, if they don't get the one, two, if
Speaker 1: they can't get the one or the two by being
Speaker 1: a division winner, the second place team in the East,
Speaker 1: regardless of what their record is, is going to drop
Speaker 1: all the way to the five seeds.
Speaker 2: So meet the champion from the NFC South. There's no
Speaker 2: other way to make it fair. But it's never cease
Speaker 2: to make me smile.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got I mean, it's crazy, It's it's crazy
Speaker 1: right now. You've got you've got three teams in the
Speaker 1: NFC tied for the number one seed. You have three
Speaker 1: teams tied for the NFC South lead, all of them
Speaker 1: below five hundred. And then you have this whole hodgepodge
Speaker 1: of other teams that are six and seven and jockeying
Speaker 1: with one another to try to get to try to
Speaker 1: get a wild card spot. And you know, I, as
Speaker 1: I said in one of my Insider Inbox answers, I
Speaker 1: like to say a lot at this time of year,
Speaker 1: buckle up here we go. I mean, you know, there's
Speaker 1: there is so much football left there. Every team has
Speaker 1: got four games left to go, which means every team
Speaker 1: could go four and oh or every team could go
Speaker 1: zero and four or anywhere in between, and so there's
Speaker 1: no telling. There's no telling how this is going to
Speaker 1: sort itself out. And and job one for the Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers is simply to get past this one, learn
Speaker 1: what you need to learn from it. Gear up for
Speaker 1: a Tampa Bay team that is feeling pretty good about
Speaker 1: itself with a chance to win a division in the
Speaker 1: NFC South. They're coming in here on Sunday to lambeau Field,
Speaker 1: and the Packers are going to be scratching and clon
Speaker 1: to get themselves back in the wind call.
Speaker 2: The Packers gave one back. That's what happened on Monday night.
Speaker 2: And I said, with that stretch of games against the Chargers,
Speaker 2: the Lions in Kansas City, they needed to go too
Speaker 2: and one. I thought for sure they definitely needed to
Speaker 2: go one and one with Detroit and Kansas City to
Speaker 2: put themselves up in a situation here to get on
Speaker 2: a big run late. They did that. They went three
Speaker 2: and oh, two and oh. But now you got that
Speaker 2: one finally crept up unexpectedly against the Giants. But no
Speaker 2: matter what way you slice it, it is going to
Speaker 2: be difficult to make a playoff run. If you don't
Speaker 2: take care of business at home against Tampa, you don't
Speaker 2: beat the Panthers on Christmas Eve, and you don't hold
Speaker 2: serve against Chicago in the finale, no matter which way
Speaker 2: you slice it. Yeah, that's what the green bait Packers
Speaker 2: have to do, not saying they're gonna win them all.
Speaker 2: And if you do it, if you don't, it becomes
Speaker 2: a lot harder though, and Green Bay is back at
Speaker 2: six and seven, and they need to have that feistiness,
Speaker 2: that fire of a six and seven team that's trying
Speaker 2: to prove that you know what, in this NFC picture,
Speaker 2: we are one of the top seven teams and we
Speaker 2: deserve a ticket to the dance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Packers have been fighting since Week three to get
Speaker 1: back above five hundred. They haven't been above five hundred
Speaker 1: since they were two and one. After the comeback victory
Speaker 1: over the Saints, you had a chance, you finally had
Speaker 1: a chance to get back above five hundred. You let
Speaker 1: it get away. The goal is still to get back
Speaker 1: above five hundred because you know what that would mean.
Speaker 1: But now you have to get back to five hundred
Speaker 1: first before you can get above five hundred. It's one
Speaker 1: step at a time Packers took a step backwards. Now
Speaker 1: you got to get moving forward once again.
Speaker 2: And that requires putting the best foot forward, which the
Speaker 2: Green Bay Packers will look to do this Sunday a
Speaker 2: Lambellfield nude Central start time on all your.
Speaker 1: Hey Fox noon Central start time. That means omelets after
Speaker 1: these back to back night games. That's like music to
Speaker 1: my ears.
Speaker 2: Your ears on has a birthday on Sunday, I could
Speaker 2: have used the night game.
Speaker 1: That's okay, though, celebrate on Saturday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's that's actually what we're gonna do, assuming
Speaker 2: no one else's signs smart work.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, with that, we'll call it a wrap
Speaker 1: on this edition of Packers Unscript, but be sure to
Speaker 1: follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers
Speaker 1: dot com. We'll be back with another show right away
Speaker 1: tomorrow to look ahead to the Tampa Bay game. Things
Speaker 1: obviously a little messed up this week with the Monday
Speaker 1: night road trip, but we get We're getting things back
Speaker 1: under control here, folks as best we can. So for Wes,
Speaker 1: I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody, and
Speaker 1: we will see you next time.