Speaker 1: Hi, everyone. Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford sitting next to my partner in crime,
Speaker 1: Wes hod Kouwitz. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone
Speaker 1: out there West. We are back from a late night
Speaker 1: return flight from Minneapolis and the Green Bay Packers are
Speaker 1: the NFC North champions. How does that grab you? It
Speaker 1: grabs me pretty good. Yeah. I want to just put
Speaker 1: this out there. You know, you always put together the
Speaker 1: like the description and the captioning and all that for
Speaker 1: our episode the following day when you post the podcast
Speaker 1: on the website, I'm gonna give you right now your
Speaker 1: headline for that. You're ready. Statement game there. It was
Speaker 1: a statement game. And last week I said this in
Speaker 1: Insider in backs, What a better way to make a
Speaker 1: statement and put yourself and solidify yourself in this NFC
Speaker 1: North race an NFC conference then being able to go
Speaker 1: out there and do exactly what they did to the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings. It did not come without adversity. Three first
Speaker 1: to turnovers is not the prototype blueprint for the success
Speaker 1: and it's Brian Balagas said afterwards to the fact that
Speaker 1: it was their three biggest ball players too, and that
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones and Davante Yeah, they were all.
Speaker 1: They were all guilty. They this It shows you, though,
Speaker 1: that guys need to raise their level of play and
Speaker 1: in sometimes things are gonna happen to you. It's how
Speaker 1: you respond to them. The defense gives up a hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty nine total yards, five sacks, three and a
Speaker 1: half of those belonging to it Darius Smith. A career
Speaker 1: day for Smith, a career day for Aaron Jones, who
Speaker 1: bounced back from his own fumble to have a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty four rushing yards. The Green Bay Packers went
Speaker 1: into that dome, that noise box in Minneapolis, and they
Speaker 1: put their foot in the ground and said, you know what.
Speaker 1: You can bring up all your videos, you can have
Speaker 1: all your fireworks, you can do all your claps, but
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it comes down to
Speaker 1: what happens between those hashes for sixty minutes, and for
Speaker 1: a good portion of that particularly in that second half,
Speaker 1: the Three Bay Packers were the better football team. Well,
Speaker 1: I tell you what you're you're allowed to call me
Speaker 1: a liar because I said the Packers would have to
Speaker 1: win the turnover battle to win this game. That didn't happen.
Speaker 1: I said the Packers would have to play their best
Speaker 1: game of the season to win this game. That didn't happen.
Speaker 1: I get to call you a liar because you said
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers would have to play at another level. That
Speaker 1: didn't exactly happen. But none of that happened. Yet the
Speaker 1: Packers still won this game, and that's just a credit
Speaker 1: to the team that they have. Now. I will say
Speaker 1: one thing to try to give myself a little bit
Speaker 1: of credit here. I did say after both of the
Speaker 1: losses to the Chargers in the forty nine I said,
Speaker 1: the Packers at some point this season, when they are
Speaker 1: on the road and they get off to a rough start,
Speaker 1: they're going to have to find a way to write
Speaker 1: the ship. They've done it at home games, they hadn't
Speaker 1: done it in a road game. They did it in
Speaker 1: this game. With the three first half turnovers, some drop passes,
Speaker 1: some off target throws, blown scoring opportunities, you only get
Speaker 1: three field goals in the first half, they righted the
Speaker 1: ship and got things squared away. A lot of credit
Speaker 1: to the defense, obviously, but also just the leadership of
Speaker 1: the team. You're talking about guys like Rodgers and Zadarius
Speaker 1: Smith and Matt Lafleur and other veteran leaders on this team.
Speaker 1: That in that environment with those kind of stakes, when
Speaker 1: you get off to quite frankly, a terrible start with
Speaker 1: a fumble on the opening possession and they take over
Speaker 1: on the ten yard line, the Packers got their act
Speaker 1: together and they did what they had to do to
Speaker 1: pull out to date, the biggest win of the season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it was that gut check that you wanted to
Speaker 1: see them make in US Bank Stadium because at some
Speaker 1: point the Greenman Packers were gonna need to win in
Speaker 1: that in that dome, and you and I are part
Speaker 1: of it. It's an open air press box. You feel
Speaker 1: that energy. Yeah, first time, first time in four tries.
Speaker 1: Packers were owing three in that building. And it's not
Speaker 1: easy to to put yourselves in a situation and where
Speaker 1: you give them those turnovers because then that energizes a
Speaker 1: fan base. But to see Vikings fans mass exiting in
Speaker 1: the last five minutes of that game after the Packers
Speaker 1: were able to shut the door on it, you know,
Speaker 1: with Aaron Jones fifty six yard run, the fact that
Speaker 1: the defense would not give up they would not give
Speaker 1: any ground. They gave up ten points in this game,
Speaker 1: and they all were after being put in adverse field position.
Speaker 1: One of the things I put in my sidebar for
Speaker 1: the game is that they were if you look at
Speaker 1: just the plays where the Vikings had to stay in
Speaker 1: their own start, in their own territory, eight punts, two
Speaker 1: turnovers on downs, and the Kevin King interception, they gave
Speaker 1: up no ground whatsoever. And Kenny Clark talked about that afterwards.
Speaker 1: They've played good quarters, they've played good halves. This particular performance,
Speaker 1: it was about as complete as you could ask for
Speaker 1: from the defense, and then, by the way, offensively able
Speaker 1: to rally themselves after halftime only down one point because
Speaker 1: of what the defense had done and Aaron Jones and
Speaker 1: the running game gets going, and the Minnesota Vikings had
Speaker 1: no answer for Art, especially with Eric Kendricks not being
Speaker 1: on the field. Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Vikings certainly missed Eric Kendricks on the
Speaker 1: field in the second half. Defensively, they certainly missed Dalvin
Speaker 1: Cook being on the field. Offensively, for the entire game,
Speaker 1: the Vikings could not get any running game going, which
Speaker 1: made the play action pretty much useless in terms of
Speaker 1: the missdirection and the deception part of it. And quite frankly, Wes,
Speaker 1: the Packers just won the line of scrimmage on both
Speaker 1: sides of the ball. Here, the Packers defensive line and
Speaker 1: the Packers offensive line were the two best units on
Speaker 1: the field in this game. We saw Zadarius Smith. I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, may I think you commented last
Speaker 1: weekend Insider inbox, and I did it again this morning
Speaker 1: after that performance last night. You have a performance like
Speaker 1: Smith did, three and a half sacks, five tackles for loss.
Speaker 1: He dominated at one point or another. He whipped every
Speaker 1: single guy on the Vikings offensive line because he was
Speaker 1: lining up everywhere and he could win anywhere he lined up.
Speaker 1: I think the guy needs to be in the conversation
Speaker 1: for defensive player of the year. He's to thirteen and
Speaker 1: a half sacks right now. He's on a team. He's
Speaker 1: on a defense that that has certainly shown a lot
Speaker 1: of improvement here down the stretch late in the season,
Speaker 1: kind of rediscovering where they were in September, after you know,
Speaker 1: some lulls there in the mid season. He's got thirteen
Speaker 1: and a half sacks right now. I mean, I know there,
Speaker 1: you know, you can talk about Chandler Jones and t J. Watton,
Speaker 1: Nick Bosa and these other guys who are going to
Speaker 1: be in there, and I'm and I'm not saying, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that anybody should just hand the trophy does
Speaker 1: a Darius Smith. But if he's not at least being
Speaker 1: talked about for this, for this award this year, I
Speaker 1: think there's something wrong because I think he's just had
Speaker 1: a phenomenal season. The Defensive Player of the Year award
Speaker 1: needs to be the best defensive player. Chandler Jones is
Speaker 1: an amazing pass rusher, Nick and t J. Watt has
Speaker 1: had a good season, and certainly Joey Bosa, what can
Speaker 1: you say about him? But Bosa? Actually, I said Nick
Speaker 1: from say their cousins at Jake Coumarro fair enough. No,
Speaker 1: Zadarius Smith to me is the best defensive player in
Speaker 1: the NFL right now. I'm going to actually say that
Speaker 1: because if you look at the way that these dominoes
Speaker 1: play out, with the variations and ways that Mike Petton
Speaker 1: uses him, there's no one doing what he's doing right now.
Speaker 1: And I always sense that, right but it was that
Speaker 1: Bill Callahan quote earlier this month and Bill Kalan sixty three,
Speaker 1: sixty four years old, however long he's been coaching football,
Speaker 1: saying that he had never really seen a guy like
Speaker 1: him before in terms of he can play rover. I
Speaker 1: wrote about this on on Saturday morning. Our schedules got
Speaker 1: kind of mixed up, so we weren't able to discuss
Speaker 1: this that much. But he plays rover like Clay Matthews did.
Speaker 1: He plays three tech nose tackle like Julius Peppers did.
Speaker 1: He is a Swiss Army knife of pass rushing. And
Speaker 1: then by the way you line him up against the guard,
Speaker 1: you line him up against the center, line him against
Speaker 1: the tackle. You can even put some help out there
Speaker 1: for him. It doesn't matter. He still wins one on once.
Speaker 1: You need two people to block him at all times,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that's not enough. And the guy can stop
Speaker 1: the too. He's not just a pass rusher, he's he's
Speaker 1: a complete defensive player. This But but to the original point,
Speaker 1: this is no longer about the Pro Bowl. Who cares
Speaker 1: about the Pro Bowl? I think if the AP voters,
Speaker 1: which I know they do their dull diligence on this,
Speaker 1: I can see him being an actual first or second
Speaker 1: team All Pro agree, And to your original point, he
Speaker 1: absolutely deserves to be in that conversation for Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Year because people are having no count form
Speaker 1: and he's making the entire defense better. Now Mike Kenny
Speaker 1: Clark has another sack here in the month of December,
Speaker 1: Preston Smith was getting in on it the secondary. You
Speaker 1: saw this defense come together and really, Gell and one
Speaker 1: of the things I asked a lot of guys in
Speaker 1: the locker room boat was did you feel this kind
Speaker 1: of coming on like this, this performance being there? And
Speaker 1: to the man, they basically said yes, it was just
Speaker 1: a matter of doing it for an entire game and
Speaker 1: in the most hostile environment possible. It was quite quite
Speaker 1: the game. Yeah, seven first downs, a hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: nine total yards for the Vikings. As you said, pretty
Speaker 1: much defensive dominance by the Packers. He catch a couple
Speaker 1: of aches in that the Vikings tried the trick play,
Speaker 1: they didn't execute it, just Fon Diggs misses on the
Speaker 1: throw down the sideline to Kirk cousins Um and I
Speaker 1: know the Viking fans were all upset in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter on the holding penalty that wiped out the touchdown.
Speaker 1: But take a look at that one, folks, that was
Speaker 1: a legitimate holding penalty. Kyler Facral is going to get
Speaker 1: to Kirk Cousins there if he doesn't get held so
Speaker 1: for for as few flags as Bill Vinovitch's crew through
Speaker 1: in that game. But yeah, and and his and his crew,
Speaker 1: the stats bear it out his crew, I believe for
Speaker 1: the second year in a row now they are the
Speaker 1: uh the crew with the least number of flags UM
Speaker 1: at least for sure for this year. And I know
Speaker 1: they were close to being UM the crew with the
Speaker 1: fewest amount of flags last year. But that one, that
Speaker 1: one did did have to be thrown. As I said,
Speaker 1: it really was about the line of scrimmage here, because
Speaker 1: the Packers defensive front whipped the Vikings offensive line, and
Speaker 1: as the game wore on in the second half, the
Speaker 1: Packers offensive line was clear winning the day for green Bay.
Speaker 1: A couple of things when you look at what green
Speaker 1: Bay's defense was doing in the first half with limiting
Speaker 1: those opportunities for Minnesota after the turnovers, and then the
Speaker 1: Packers offense, even though the unit wasn't scoring touchdowns in
Speaker 1: the first half and they were only kicking field goals,
Speaker 1: the ball control, the time of possession, all that all
Speaker 1: that added up to a second half where the Packers
Speaker 1: offensive line took over. Aaron Jones ends up with two
Speaker 1: rushing touchdowns in the second half, the twelve yard or
Speaker 1: to put the Packers in the lead, the fifty six
Speaker 1: yard or that's the backbreaker. He had a hundred and
Speaker 1: nine yards in the second half on the ground, right,
Speaker 1: I mean he went over a hundred yards just in
Speaker 1: the last two quarters to finish with a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty four Aaron Jones uh and taking over the true
Speaker 1: bell cow roll with Jamal Williams leaving the game in
Speaker 1: the second half with a shoulder injury. Um, this uh
Speaker 1: what the Packers did on the ground. I mean, as
Speaker 1: I said, you look at the turn over differentially, look
Speaker 1: at Aaron Rodgers only having a sixty eight something passerrating.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't think that's a formula for the Green Bay
Speaker 1: Packers to win, certainly not win on the road and
Speaker 1: win a big game on the road. But they did,
Speaker 1: and they distill did it convincing? Yeah? And you go
Speaker 1: back to what Rogers said after the opener against Chicago,
Speaker 1: saying that we got a defense if West Howitz was
Speaker 1: walking out the field and there was any cameras on me,
Speaker 1: I'd be saying, we got a football team. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just the number of ways. And this was probably
Speaker 1: the last check they had to kind of check off
Speaker 1: on the box with being able to actually get down
Speaker 1: early on the road in a hostile environment, finding a
Speaker 1: way to win and not and win handily. Ultimately, this offensively,
Speaker 1: I thought was a really telling performance because, yeah, it
Speaker 1: didn't all go right. There were a lot of things
Speaker 1: working against them early on. Aaron Jones had a phenomenal game,
Speaker 1: and he fumbled the ball on the third play and
Speaker 1: he fought through it. You look at dropped the pass
Speaker 1: on third down. That wasn't the greatest throw, but a
Speaker 1: pass he could have caught and still moved the chains,
Speaker 1: and that didn't go right ear as well. But the
Speaker 1: hallmarks of this offense that have been there all year
Speaker 1: were again in play here. The receivers blocked their butts
Speaker 1: off down field. That's what it has allowed them to
Speaker 1: spring some of those big gains. This offensive line with
Speaker 1: Elton Jenkins in there, what the what they're able to
Speaker 1: do between the tackles and opening up holes. It was
Speaker 1: there when they needed to do the stretch play. Mark
Speaker 1: uisveld Is Scantling is the one sealing off the edge there,
Speaker 1: allowing Aaron Jones to get up the sideline. Alan Lazard
Speaker 1: has three catches on third down. Davante Adams fights through
Speaker 1: his own MISQ but ends up having thirteen catches, the
Speaker 1: second Packer all time to have at least thirteen catches
Speaker 1: in a game, tying Don Hudson. It's not just Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers anymore. And that is what has allowed the Packers
Speaker 1: to be in a position that they're in right now
Speaker 1: at twelve and three, to have a thirty chance of
Speaker 1: going into Detroit and being the number one seed when
Speaker 1: they leave because of these type of things. And I
Speaker 1: just got to give a shout out to to for
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones to be able to find that second gear
Speaker 1: late in that game twenty three carries that tied the
Speaker 1: season high. I mean, there was no Jamal Williams to
Speaker 1: work off of it. It It had to be Aaron Jones,
Speaker 1: and he stepped up to that opportunity. And I want
Speaker 1: to get back to UH to where things sit right
Speaker 1: now with the playoff scenarios, but I do need to
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Speaker 1: in better. Okay. So the Packers are twelve and three.
Speaker 1: They have clinched the NFC North Championship first division title
Speaker 1: since two thousand and sixteen. The Packers still in control
Speaker 1: to get a first round by. If they beat the
Speaker 1: Detroit Lions, the Packers will have a first round by
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. They are also still in play for
Speaker 1: the number one overall seed because of the results that
Speaker 1: happened over the weekend, namely Seattle getting beat by at
Speaker 1: home by the Arizona Cardinals. The Packers can get the
Speaker 1: number one overall seed in the NFC with a win,
Speaker 1: and if San Francisco loses to Seattle, which then would
Speaker 1: give the NFC West title to Seattle, San Francisco would
Speaker 1: drop to the five seed as a wild card, and
Speaker 1: the Packers would have the number one seed. For those wondering,
Speaker 1: can the Packers still get a first dround by if
Speaker 1: they lose to the Detroit Lions. The answer is yes,
Speaker 1: but the Packers would also need the New Orleans Saints
Speaker 1: to lose to the Carolina Panthers in order to still
Speaker 1: get a buy with a loss. The most important thing
Speaker 1: is the Packers are gonna control of getting that by
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Vikings now are locked into the sixth seed
Speaker 1: in the NFC. They will be going on the road.
Speaker 1: They are a wild card team and they are the
Speaker 1: six even with this upcoming game against the Bears. They
Speaker 1: cannot help themselves. So it would be an interesting decision
Speaker 1: with by Mike Zimmer how how much he really plays
Speaker 1: his guys when they could in effect give themselves a
Speaker 1: little bit of a bye week and rest up in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. But that's a tough deci in coming off
Speaker 1: of the game they just played where they did not
Speaker 1: play well on either side of the ball. Frankly, they
Speaker 1: do have some guys banged up that they definitely want
Speaker 1: to get healthy for the playoffs. But I'll be curious
Speaker 1: to see here exactly what the Vikings decide um because
Speaker 1: they cannot improve their playoff position with one game to go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, they're Kirk Cousin is gonna need a tune
Speaker 1: up fight here. I mean, if they're really wanting to
Speaker 1: do anything in the post season, they're gonna need to
Speaker 1: be able to get some mouthwatch for that performance. So
Speaker 1: I would be very interested to see exactly how they
Speaker 1: go with it. I wouldn't anticipate, you know, if you
Speaker 1: want to keep cooked down or even Madison, I get that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, and depending on Kendricks and you know, guys
Speaker 1: like that that they they need to heal up and
Speaker 1: get healthy for the playoffs. I wouldn't expect those guys
Speaker 1: to play, but how he plays it with the rest
Speaker 1: of the guys, when you know you're you're not in
Speaker 1: a you're not in a position to to help yourself
Speaker 1: in any way as far as the playoff positioning goes,
Speaker 1: it will be an interesting decision. Yeah, And for green
Speaker 1: bas perspective, this goes back to something I've been saying
Speaker 1: for the last month. Mike, it's just win the game.
Speaker 1: He needed to win against New York while Washington in
Speaker 1: Chicago to make this a very relevant game. And they
Speaker 1: did that. Yeah, and we Yeah, I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: we've seen from the moment, and I remember sitting in
Speaker 1: the media auditorium after after one of the Packers victories,
Speaker 1: waiting for Matt la Floor to come in for his
Speaker 1: postgame press conference, and we watched the San Francisco forty
Speaker 1: Niners on the television kick the last second field goal
Speaker 1: to beat the New Orleans Saints. From that, at that moment,
Speaker 1: the Packers were in control of getting a first round
Speaker 1: by if they could win out. And that's what they've done.
Speaker 1: As you say, they've kept winning and now they're down
Speaker 1: to one more game, or if they get that win,
Speaker 1: they have a first round by. The Packers would be
Speaker 1: at home in the divisional round for the first time
Speaker 1: since And uh, that's uh that, that's what's on the
Speaker 1: table here on a short week with the holiday mixed
Speaker 1: in and everything like that, the Packers still have some
Speaker 1: preparation to do, but they're going to go to Detroit
Speaker 1: with plenty to play for. And that's what's kind of
Speaker 1: cool about this year's team two thousand nineteen. How wherever
Speaker 1: this season takes Green Bay. I mean, that's what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna remember this unit four. Is that getting back to
Speaker 1: my point about it's not just Aaron Rodgers, they just
Speaker 1: they play well situationally. Mason Crosby makes a pretty darn
Speaker 1: good kick for forty two yards to get them on
Speaker 1: the board early on in this one. You need that.
Speaker 1: Tyler Irvin has been a really good upgrade for them
Speaker 1: on punt returns. He ate muffed that one, but otherwise
Speaker 1: he's been exceptional. And by the way, when he did,
Speaker 1: he jumped right back on and he didn't let it
Speaker 1: get away from him. You look at Kyler Fackral. I
Speaker 1: thought had a sneaky good game. I tweeted this. I
Speaker 1: mean the pressures he was able to generate, even if
Speaker 1: it doesn't translate into the stack column or into the sacks.
Speaker 1: He was a big part of this performance. Yeah, Dean
Speaker 1: Lowry had a sneaky good game to Dean Lowry. Kenny
Speaker 1: Clark coming on again another four and a half sack
Speaker 1: month in December, just like he did in two thousand seven.
Speaker 1: Clark with another December sack. He just keeps, just keeps
Speaker 1: making those tally marks in the snow, right. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: the question I when I was doing the Packers pregame
Speaker 1: radio show beforehand, you know, I was asked by Dennis Crouzy,
Speaker 1: do you feel like the way the defense is playing
Speaker 1: this can this is a team that can win a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl in the answer is absolutely because as Ryan
Speaker 1: Hartwig and Duke Bob and everybody put up our graphics afterwards,
Speaker 1: you look at the stars now on that that those
Speaker 1: faces that they have on these defenses and on offense,
Speaker 1: and you compare that to where they were at three
Speaker 1: and sixty five days ago. Yeah, there's there, there's some holes,
Speaker 1: there's areas that packers need to improve. They're by no
Speaker 1: means a complete product yet, but just the talent difference.
Speaker 1: And I gotta be honest with you, Mike, I don't
Speaker 1: want to take this down the road that I'm sure
Speaker 1: you weren't expecting this to go too, But we want
Speaker 1: to talk about za Darius Smith for Defensive Player of
Speaker 1: the Year. I know there was a fun thing about
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones as the m v P or Matt laflour is.
Speaker 1: The coach Brian Goodkins has to be a serious contender
Speaker 1: for Executive the Year for them to be able to
Speaker 1: have this overhaul of talent, you know, and then he
Speaker 1: hires Milt Hendrickson from Baltimore, and then they go and
Speaker 1: get sa Darius Smith. They go and get Preston Smith.
Speaker 1: That was a busy forty eight hours for them, Adrian
Speaker 1: Amos holding things down in the secondary. Billy Turner has
Speaker 1: brought a lot to that right guard position, settled down
Speaker 1: a spot that had really been an upheal for the
Speaker 1: better part of two years since t. J. Lang left.
Speaker 1: And there are just so many different things about this
Speaker 1: team that it's very special for them to be in
Speaker 1: a position now to get a first round by compared
Speaker 1: to where they were at last year at this time.
Speaker 1: Man Brian Good, it comes to be the last guy
Speaker 1: that wants to take a bow, but it's pretty incredible
Speaker 1: with him in his front office what they achieved these
Speaker 1: last you know, six seven, eight months now, Yeah, the
Speaker 1: personnel overhaul in one off season for this team was significant,
Speaker 1: and they all right, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1: The fact that it paid such huge dividends right away
Speaker 1: says something about about the guys that they targeted, the
Speaker 1: courage of their convictions to say, yes, it was a
Speaker 1: lot of money, but this team needs it and these
Speaker 1: guys are worth it, and you can't argue with I mean,
Speaker 1: to sign for free agents, you know, when the opening
Speaker 1: bell of free agency goes off, I mean who does that?
Speaker 1: I mean, who who has the cap space to do
Speaker 1: it first of all, which the Packers did have the
Speaker 1: cap space to do that, but it's it's a gutsy
Speaker 1: play because you are you are overhauling a significant amount
Speaker 1: of starting personnel in one off season, and you cannot
Speaker 1: argue at all with any one of those signings right now. Well,
Speaker 1: this is the beautiful thing about it, too, Mike, is
Speaker 1: that the Packers two thousand fourteen class, two thousand thirteen
Speaker 1: draft class. I thought those were exceptional years for them.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna hit on everybody, but they found superstars
Speaker 1: in both of those draftlas found major major players. Two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen is turning out to be a great year
Speaker 1: for them as well, with Kenny Clark, Blake Martinez is
Speaker 1: being a stalwart at middle linebacker, Dean Lowry, Kyler Facral.
Speaker 1: That two thousand fifteen was the year where they just
Speaker 1: didn't get enough from it. It was just the to
Speaker 1: The two thousand fifteen draft is the free agency class.
Speaker 1: Because all the Adrian Amos, Preston Smith's, that Arius Smith,
Speaker 1: they were all drafted in now they're Packers, they just
Speaker 1: weren't drafted by Green Bay. So if you tie that
Speaker 1: together and you look at fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and the
Speaker 1: talent that came out of those draft classes in the
Speaker 1: NFL and what they were acquire onto this roster. That's
Speaker 1: a big reason why they are where they are today
Speaker 1: and and for them to now go into this game
Speaker 1: against Detroit. I know there are a lot of guys
Speaker 1: that are excited because they're getting Christmas off now, but
Speaker 1: they'll get back on Thursday. They'll reset after they leave
Speaker 1: the building on Tuesday. And now you cannot look past it.
Speaker 1: Adrian Amus was the first one to point this out
Speaker 1: in the locker room. You've got to keep ascending. You
Speaker 1: have to use this as a springboard in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: not as a letdown. It's not a break, but this
Speaker 1: is we're back to winnable games here for the Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers to get themselves set up and potentially getting
Speaker 1: that by on a team that's already remarkably healthy. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: Packers at twelve and three, one more to go with
Speaker 1: with a lot in their sights here. Moving forward with that,
Speaker 1: we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team.
Speaker 1: Will still have lots of content even during the holidays
Speaker 1: on packers dot com. You can subscribe to us, like
Speaker 1: us on iTunes and other podcast services, and check out
Speaker 1: the Packers YouTube channel. Do have a very merry Christmas everyone.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in. We will see you next time.
Speaker 1: H m hm