Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford sitting next to the one and
Speaker 1: only West Hodgowitz. Were coming to you here from our
Speaker 1: studios at lambeau Field West or another day closer to
Speaker 1: the NFC Divisional Playoff. It will be Sunday five ford
Speaker 1: pm Central Time at lambeau Field Packers versus Seahawks. And
Speaker 1: as we had the first really big I guess you'd say,
Speaker 1: media session in the locker room after Wednesday's practice. It
Speaker 1: was interesting because you and I sat here three years ago,
Speaker 1: same exact chairs, same exact chairs talk. As the Packers
Speaker 1: entered the playoffs after regular season. It was the eight
Speaker 1: straight playoff appearance for the Green Bay Packer Is at
Speaker 1: that time, and there wasn't really a whole lot of
Speaker 1: discussion because the Packers have been in the playoffs eight
Speaker 1: years in a row about you know, oh, well, these
Speaker 1: guys don't have playoff experience. They're new to this whole thing.
Speaker 1: You go two years outside of the playoffs, the Packers
Speaker 1: don't get their roster turnover, is what it is. Packers
Speaker 1: obviously changed coaching staffs as well as changing a lot
Speaker 1: of players, and there's a significant portion of this roster.
Speaker 1: Now it's a little bit different narrative with this Packers
Speaker 1: team headed into the postseason. There are more than half
Speaker 1: of the fifty three man roster has not experienced an
Speaker 1: NFL postseason game, and it's an interesting dynamic, a different
Speaker 1: one for Green Bay heading into this. I kind of
Speaker 1: like it too, to be honest with you, because it
Speaker 1: goes back to a conversation that we were having with
Speaker 1: Kevin King in the locker room on Thursday, and King
Speaker 1: is one of the more excuse me on when when
Speaker 1: one of the more introspective players you're going to find.
Speaker 1: When he really thinks into a question, he comes up
Speaker 1: with some pretty tremendous stuff. And you know, he was asked,
Speaker 1: it was by Ryan What initially about his approach to
Speaker 1: this first time being in a game. Other reporters had
Speaker 1: asked him about, you know, what's the most biggest game
Speaker 1: you ever played in? And he didn't really have an
Speaker 1: answer at first, and then finally I think it was
Speaker 1: Bill Hubert that remind him. He's like, well, you played
Speaker 1: in a National semifinal game at Washington. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess I did. And going back to what he
Speaker 1: had told Ryan, and his answer was that it's all
Speaker 1: the same. He's like and he used this analogy that
Speaker 1: if I throw you a ball, catch it, Okay, thank you,
Speaker 1: you catch the ball, tell you to catch it. If
Speaker 1: I throw it to you again and tell you to
Speaker 1: catch it, and if you drop it, you only a
Speaker 1: thousand dollars, nothing changes. It's still me throwing you ball.
Speaker 1: I'm not throwing any harder, any faster. Go ah, okay,
Speaker 1: good ah. It's all mental. And that's the same approach
Speaker 1: he takes to this game. Now it's the other side
Speaker 1: of this. The reason I say I really like it
Speaker 1: is you've got a guy like Aaron Jones, who played
Speaker 1: in one Bowl game at you Tap, had one winning season,
Speaker 1: has not made it to the playoffs in his first
Speaker 1: two NFL seasons. There's a guy champing at the bid here, yeah,
Speaker 1: to make a run. And I think you see this
Speaker 1: hunger Billy Turner. I wrote about him earlier this week.
Speaker 1: Billy Turner has never been to a playoff game either.
Speaker 1: He got drafting the league in fourteen. I think everyone's appreciative,
Speaker 1: whether it's a veteran a young player, everyone's appreciative. This opportunity.
Speaker 1: But the young players, which make up over half this roster,
Speaker 1: now they're excited to get this first taste of postseason play. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and when we're talking about the young players on this roster,
Speaker 1: we're not just talking about you know, bit players or
Speaker 1: role players necessarily, as much as guys buying into roles
Speaker 1: and all that has been a part of this. But
Speaker 1: you're talking about a duo like Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams,
Speaker 1: a duo like Kevin King and JayR Alexander. You're talking
Speaker 1: about some key lineman like and Elton Jenkins on one
Speaker 1: side of Tyler Lancaster on the other. You're talking about
Speaker 1: guys that do play significant roles on this team that
Speaker 1: are entering the NFL playoffs for the first time. And
Speaker 1: it's interesting because in talking to some of the veteran
Speaker 1: guys are Rogers, Davante Adams, Brian Balagha, guys like that
Speaker 1: who have been through these playoff battles, it was interesting
Speaker 1: because yeah, they're like, yeah, there are messages to deliver,
Speaker 1: but at the same time they're trying to strike the
Speaker 1: right tone with these guys to basically say, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: the playoffs are different be ready for it. But yet
Speaker 1: you know, and this was the threat of my story
Speaker 1: that I wrote on Wednesday evening. The playoffs may be different,
Speaker 1: but don't play the game any differently. It's still the
Speaker 1: same game. It's it's not about going out to be
Speaker 1: the hero. It's not about heading out there too to
Speaker 1: make all the headlines. And Rogers you know himself. He
Speaker 1: pointed out his very first snap in a playoff game
Speaker 1: as an NFL quarterback, he threw an interception in Arizona,
Speaker 1: and he admitted, like my mind was kind of in
Speaker 1: the wrong place. I'm thinking, I gotta make a big
Speaker 1: splash play early. You know, established this or that whatever,
Speaker 1: that's not the right mentality to take. And by the
Speaker 1: same token, while Rodgers can deliver that message to those
Speaker 1: that at about it and to those that he talks to,
Speaker 1: he can also he also has the experience right from
Speaker 1: that same game of having learned that lesson that he
Speaker 1: bounced back from that early interception went on to throw
Speaker 1: four hundred plus yards four touchdowns. Obviously, it was a
Speaker 1: heartbreaking overtime loss in Arizona a decade ago, but that
Speaker 1: was one of the greatest postseason individual performances in Packers history,
Speaker 1: and he did that starting the game with an interception.
Speaker 1: Or you think about Ryan Grant who started his first
Speaker 1: playoff game with two fumbles in the snow against Seattle
Speaker 1: and then rushed for two hundred yards and three touchdowns.
Speaker 1: So it's it's about having your emotions and your mentality
Speaker 1: and everything in the right place at the start. But
Speaker 1: then if things don't go well, to just settle down
Speaker 1: and stay after it, because you still could be the
Speaker 1: hero even if you're not necessarily trying to. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's a great point. You're raised. I actually think it's
Speaker 1: so good we probably could just end the show right now.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be able to do much better than that.
Speaker 1: But it goes back to something I mentioned I think
Speaker 1: last month, to where it isn't just about Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: having that mindset either, right he was a young guy
Speaker 1: then or an older gentleman now. It's about you know,
Speaker 1: you look at maybe in a Marquez Veldes scantling maybe uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Robert Tonyan or Jay Sternberger. Jeff Janis didn't
Speaker 1: walk onto the field at University of Phoenix Stadium back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and fifteen and say today I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have a hundred and sixty receiving yards and catch a
Speaker 1: hail Mary right at the end of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: That's just the way the game played. No one could
Speaker 1: have anticipated Randall Cobb falling on his back on a
Speaker 1: deep grab and having the mic that he was miked
Speaker 1: up with, end up injuring yeah, end up bruising his
Speaker 1: lung and sending him to the hospital. So everybody has
Speaker 1: to have that mentality. And when you have that approach
Speaker 1: from the top down, that's what tells the young guys
Speaker 1: on this roster, Okay, this is the way, because until
Speaker 1: you're in that environment, this is a pressure cooker. Mike,
Speaker 1: You've seen it. You've covered these teams over the past
Speaker 1: decade every single week. Should the Packers win on Sunday,
Speaker 1: there's going to be more pressure for an NFC title game.
Speaker 1: Should they win that, they'll be more pressure for a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. There's more eyes, there's more visibility. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, it's also the beauty of the game.
Speaker 1: There's eight teams left, there's twenty four that are sitting
Speaker 1: at home. You want to keep this run going in
Speaker 1: the best way to approach that is by keeping that
Speaker 1: same approach you've had walking in the building every single
Speaker 1: day dating back to April. Yeah. I thought Davante Adams
Speaker 1: had an interesting message too, because I had asked him
Speaker 1: specifically about his playoff debuteen Divisional round against the Dallas Cowboys,
Speaker 1: and he went out there as a rookie, seven catches,
Speaker 1: hundred seventeen yards a touchdown. He was one of the
Speaker 1: stars of the game as the Packers moved on and advanced,
Speaker 1: and even he said he doesn't really remember so much
Speaker 1: about the week leading up to the game, but he
Speaker 1: remembers taking the field and not really realizing how much
Speaker 1: the intensity level was going to ratchet up. Now, he
Speaker 1: still performed, had a tremendous game, but he admitted he
Speaker 1: wasn't even necessarily quite ready for that intensity level. So
Speaker 1: what he's trying to pass along to these other receivers,
Speaker 1: because he's the only receiver who's playing regular for the
Speaker 1: package who's been in the postseason. He's talking to Vold
Speaker 1: this scantling and to Jake Kumero and to Alan Lazard
Speaker 1: about you've got to be ready for that intensity level
Speaker 1: to wratch it up. But if you've had his messages,
Speaker 1: if you've had that focus and attention to detail all
Speaker 1: along through the regular season. That's just what you need
Speaker 1: to keep going. It's not about, as I said before,
Speaker 1: it's not about trying to be a hero. It's not
Speaker 1: about trying to do something spectacular other worldly. It's about
Speaker 1: doing what you're doing, but just being ready and have
Speaker 1: the knowledge of what it might feel like and obviously
Speaker 1: what's at stake. And the best part about this, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about this, I'm sure on tomorrow's show too. If
Speaker 1: you're following the forecast right now for this game, it's
Speaker 1: going to be a quintessential lambeau Field January football game. Now,
Speaker 1: it looks like most of the snow and I've seen
Speaker 1: those numbers range anywhere from six to ten inches now
Speaker 1: at this point, most of that snow is gonna land beforehand,
Speaker 1: but it's gonna be chilly. I think the current forecast
Speaker 1: is under twenty degrees. These are all the things that
Speaker 1: when the Packers talked about having a home field advantage,
Speaker 1: this is what they were talking about. They weren't talking
Speaker 1: about forty two degree day in lambeau Field on January twelve.
Speaker 1: They were talking about fifteen degrees, flurries, those type of conditions,
Speaker 1: And if you think about it, Mike, with them having
Speaker 1: the cold early in October, these guys are there. They're
Speaker 1: forged for that now. And I just that shifting mentality
Speaker 1: of how these guys approach it both in the locker
Speaker 1: room on the field. I've said it all along. I
Speaker 1: just feel like this team has built itself up for
Speaker 1: this moment and here we are now days away from it,
Speaker 1: them trying to get their first playoff victory now in
Speaker 1: three years. Yeah, it is going to be interesting to
Speaker 1: see as the forecast the temperature has kind of dropped
Speaker 1: a little bit in terms of what they're projecting. You're
Speaker 1: talking about the snow that's going to be coming in
Speaker 1: at some point over the weekend. So we will see
Speaker 1: how much the weather ultimately has an impact. And as
Speaker 1: we're sitting here on Thursday taping this, I mean by
Speaker 1: the time Saturday afternoon rules around, the whole forecast could
Speaker 1: be different too, So we'll we'll just have to see.
Speaker 1: In that respect, I want to get back to your conversation.
Speaker 1: Along with some other reporters. You were at Kevin King's
Speaker 1: locker for quite a while on Wednesday after practice. He
Speaker 1: was he was holding court a bit. As you said,
Speaker 1: he can be very both entertaining and introspective, and his
Speaker 1: his thoughts not only on him entering up, you know,
Speaker 1: the playoffs for the first time and all that, but
Speaker 1: he had a he had a good perspective on kind
Speaker 1: of what has helped this Green Bay secondary, which, aside
Speaker 1: from Tremont Williams, is full of all kinds of young guys. Um,
Speaker 1: but this is uh, this is a group that has
Speaker 1: that has held itself together and is you know, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: playing some pretty good football. And I sat down after
Speaker 1: I finished my night, I wrote in box and I'm
Speaker 1: working on this story about the defensive backs, and I'm
Speaker 1: reflecting on two thousand fourteen, and there's a lot of
Speaker 1: negatives that people remember about four team. But I was
Speaker 1: looking at the roster construction and it's fascinating to me
Speaker 1: that the Packers in that year started the season with
Speaker 1: the same ten defensive backs that they finished the season
Speaker 1: with actually end up being eleven because then Chris Banjo
Speaker 1: was added to the roster as well after starting the
Speaker 1: year on the practice squad. All eleven of those same
Speaker 1: guys played until the end of the year. Now, there
Speaker 1: were some injuries in between, but they finished the year
Speaker 1: with that unity. This year's team is a little bit
Speaker 1: tiny different because Tony Brown was released two weeks ago
Speaker 1: and Raven Green is on i R, although he has
Speaker 1: the potential to potentially be activated for this game on Sunday.
Speaker 1: But there are a lot of parallels when you look
Speaker 1: at how the depth has worked out for them. They
Speaker 1: have a lot of depth to begin with, and then
Speaker 1: the fact that those guys have been able to stay
Speaker 1: on the field. If you look at the dime defense,
Speaker 1: four of the six starting defensive backs in that formation
Speaker 1: have played in all sixteen games. Darnell Savage missed two,
Speaker 1: Kevin King sat out against Washington and came back. And
Speaker 1: I think having King, you know, kind of be able
Speaker 1: to shake off these injuries, not just play through them,
Speaker 1: but shake them off. He hasn't been on the injury
Speaker 1: report here the last few weeks. Has been so critical
Speaker 1: to his success because we've seen since a very beginning
Speaker 1: how talented he is. Packers didn't draft him for no
Speaker 1: reason at number thirty three almost three years ago. Now.
Speaker 1: They drafted him because they saw six ft three, you know,
Speaker 1: quarterback that can run a four four and when he's
Speaker 1: at the top of his game at this defense is
Speaker 1: playing at an optimal level. And this game, if you
Speaker 1: look at it on paper, DK metcalf is standing out
Speaker 1: there at six ft four pounds or whatever he is,
Speaker 1: Kevin King looks like a really good asset to defend that. Now,
Speaker 1: he wasn't getting into that conversation, but I think talking
Speaker 1: to King and where his mindset is at and how
Speaker 1: he's been able to kind of free himself of all
Speaker 1: the things that have happened in the past, I just
Speaker 1: think he is just the epitome of this entire secondary
Speaker 1: and how they've been able to really ramp this thing
Speaker 1: up during the second half of the season month of
Speaker 1: December sixty one nine passer rating for opponents, four touchdowns,
Speaker 1: eight interceptions during that span, completion percentage and more than
Speaker 1: anything else, only two or eight yards per game allowed
Speaker 1: through the air. The Packers have cut down on those
Speaker 1: explore some plays and that's what has allowed this defense
Speaker 1: to really settle in. That's what I was going to say,
Speaker 1: is to me, and and yes, the interceptions certainly helped
Speaker 1: turnovers our big plays. To me, the most impressive thing
Speaker 1: that this secondary has done over the course of the
Speaker 1: season as we've seen this defense go through some ups
Speaker 1: and downs. Is the cutting down on the explosives. I
Speaker 1: think that's I think that's what's really changed the look
Speaker 1: of this Packers defense down the stretch through the month
Speaker 1: of December, and Mike Petton has mentioned it at the
Speaker 1: podium multiple times that really the whole key to that
Speaker 1: in cutting down on those big explosive place has been
Speaker 1: the communication that, you know, the Packers are becoming a
Speaker 1: noisy defense. Pre snap, guys are yelling and barking back
Speaker 1: and forth at each other because guys guys who are assertive,
Speaker 1: guys who are noisy, they know what they're doing and
Speaker 1: they're confident in what the call is. They're confident in
Speaker 1: communicating that to their teammates. And that's what's getting everybody
Speaker 1: on the same page. Because through the middle portion of
Speaker 1: the season, when the Packers were giving up a lot
Speaker 1: of those explosive plays, the coaching staff, the players, they
Speaker 1: went back and looked at it, and more often than not,
Speaker 1: it was some level of miscommunication where somebody's doing one
Speaker 1: thing when everybody else is doing something else. And that's
Speaker 1: the thing about defense, That's the thing about this game
Speaker 1: of football. If ten guys are doing one thing, but
Speaker 1: one guy is doing something else, it can wreck the
Speaker 1: whole plan. And so getting that communication squared away. And
Speaker 1: as Patton said, a noisy defense is a confident defense,
Speaker 1: and noisy defense is a good defense. He likes hearing
Speaker 1: all the barking and the yelling and everything pre snap
Speaker 1: that goes on out there, and it's worked for this team.
Speaker 1: It's worked for this unit to turn things around from
Speaker 1: where they were in the middle portion of the season
Speaker 1: when those big plays were happening all too often. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Savage even said too, I believe it was Savage
Speaker 1: that you know, guys could be barking stuff around, you
Speaker 1: might even know what the call is, but there's still
Speaker 1: a benefit to being able to have that kind of communication.
Speaker 1: And Yeah, Petton has even said it's about over communicating.
Speaker 1: There's there's no there's no demerit points for over communicating.
Speaker 1: It's it's hey, you know, even if everybody knows it's
Speaker 1: say it again anyway, you know that that's the approach
Speaker 1: that and this is an outspoken secondary too. If you
Speaker 1: go flashback to where in two thousand fifteen to where
Speaker 1: they are now, I mean, you have a lot of
Speaker 1: extroverted type of personalities. Now they're different types of extroverts.
Speaker 1: I don't think Jay Alexander is the traditional extrovert, but
Speaker 1: within his within his group, and within his position, you
Speaker 1: can tell, you know the kind of the the court
Speaker 1: that he holds with that group, and it probably honestly
Speaker 1: starts a lot with Tremont Williams and in the kind
Speaker 1: of leadership that that he provides at that spot. But
Speaker 1: it's it's it's been very telling, I think when you've
Speaker 1: watched this team mature throughout the course of the year. Yes,
Speaker 1: they lost Raven Green, but then they got Ibraheim Campbell
Speaker 1: back that allowed adrianame Is to play deep safety again
Speaker 1: or play more into that strong safety role. Darnell Savage
Speaker 1: has a full season under his belt now, J Alexander,
Speaker 1: only the more that that group plays together, the stronger
Speaker 1: it's going to become. And you know this is totally
Speaker 1: true for the offensive line probably more than any other position.
Speaker 1: When that group plays together, there's a benefit to that.
Speaker 1: But I really think something that we don't really don't
Speaker 1: talk enough about is that when you can get us
Speaker 1: an entire secondary together playing as one, you talk about
Speaker 1: ten playing as a you know, one guy being off script,
Speaker 1: and what can happen when when you play that many
Speaker 1: snaps together, some of that stuff gets to be sort
Speaker 1: of you know, you know, ironed out. So it's gonna
Speaker 1: be fascinating to watch because this is a game where
Speaker 1: you look at how it it's structured, and we'll see
Speaker 1: exactly what this forecast ends up looking like Sunday. But
Speaker 1: the harder you make it for Russell Wilson to get
Speaker 1: the downfield passing game going, the more beneficial it's going
Speaker 1: to be to this entire defense and this team, because
Speaker 1: that's the one area right now I think with the
Speaker 1: Seahawks not having their traditional run game where they can
Speaker 1: really hurt you as if you allow them to get
Speaker 1: that going well, And this is the other thing I'll
Speaker 1: say too, as we wrap up this discussion about the secondary,
Speaker 1: I think we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about
Speaker 1: one of the key things I think that has that
Speaker 1: has benefited this group as they've ironed some things out
Speaker 1: is Mike Petton. Certainly, over over the back half of
Speaker 1: the season particularly, he has not had to rely on
Speaker 1: blitzes and sending extra rushers to get pressure on the quarterback.
Speaker 1: And if you can rush for the vast majority of
Speaker 1: the time, sometimes it's three and even dropping an eighth
Speaker 1: guy into coverage if you're covering with seven guys most
Speaker 1: of the time, and then that communication is on point.
Speaker 1: That makes things really difficult for quarterbacks, especially on third
Speaker 1: and eight and third and ten and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And you just look at you look at the numbers
Speaker 1: West and obviously the Packers this year, they didn't actually
Speaker 1: rack up a big, huge sack number compared to last year.
Speaker 1: The sack numbers are somewhat similar in terms of the
Speaker 1: total team number at the end of the regular season.
Speaker 1: But we all know from the eye test and when
Speaker 1: you look at other stats from Pro Football Focus about
Speaker 1: pressures and things like that, it that this defense is different.
Speaker 1: And I think one of the biggest differences is the
Speaker 1: ability to get sacks and then or I should say,
Speaker 1: to get pressures and then sometimes sacks without having to
Speaker 1: blitz and without having to put that secondary in a
Speaker 1: compromising position. Where Mike Pettness saying, we've got to speed
Speaker 1: up the quarterback. But if you don't, if you don't
Speaker 1: have to, uh, if you don't have to compromise the
Speaker 1: coverage in order to do that that makes your defense
Speaker 1: look a heck of a lot different whether you're sacking
Speaker 1: the quarterback or not. I guess is my point in
Speaker 1: the statistic I keep going back to because you're absolutely
Speaker 1: right about the sacks. The sacks are basically on par
Speaker 1: with what they were last year. But if you look
Speaker 1: a little bit deeper into that quarterback hits this year
Speaker 1: for the Packers defense, they had seventy four last year,
Speaker 1: and Kyler Faccrol for having ten and a half sacks,
Speaker 1: only had twelve quarterback hits in the quarterback. It's been
Speaker 1: a constant barrage of pressure that they've been able to
Speaker 1: throw against these things. And I know Aaron Nagler, friend
Speaker 1: of the show, you know, he always talks about the
Speaker 1: kind of the three man rush by in the bane
Speaker 1: of his egg existence, and in most cases he's right.
Speaker 1: I always felt like the most the only time you
Speaker 1: really could really count on it consistently is when you're
Speaker 1: in the red zone. You have more guys that defend
Speaker 1: less area of the field. But I'll say this about
Speaker 1: this year's defense, they've gotten as much pressure with a
Speaker 1: three man front is I can ever recall, at least
Speaker 1: during my time on the beat and that's a credit
Speaker 1: is that area Smith and and Kenny Clark standing at
Speaker 1: the front of that. And you're absolutely right because when
Speaker 1: you can get pressure with for not only are you right,
Speaker 1: does that give you more options in your secondary? I
Speaker 1: actually think it also is what makes the blitz is
Speaker 1: more effective. You've seen then, Okay, now when you said
Speaker 1: Adrian Amos or when you send a slot cornerback at
Speaker 1: the quarterback, now you're getting a little bit more exotic
Speaker 1: rather than all right, we gotta go five on five here,
Speaker 1: it's our only way to get home. That's been a
Speaker 1: big difference for this defense. Yeah, I think so too.
Speaker 1: I think I think that when you look at the
Speaker 1: bigger picture, everything in totality not you know, taking nothing
Speaker 1: away from you know, the twenty five plus sacks that
Speaker 1: the Smiths have combined for and everything, but there's there
Speaker 1: are so many goods things going on with this defense
Speaker 1: on the plays that sacks don't happen, and yeah, quarterbacks
Speaker 1: are gonna make plays. And Russell Wilson is by far,
Speaker 1: as we talk about how much this defense has really
Speaker 1: come on strong here the last month of the season,
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson is by far the best quarterback here that
Speaker 1: the Packers will have faced in a long time. So
Speaker 1: this is a whole new challenge here in the playoff
Speaker 1: game for this defense. But the momentum they've generated, the
Speaker 1: confidence they've generated, the communication things that they've ironed out,
Speaker 1: I think the unit is is ready for the challenge
Speaker 1: of Russell Wilson here in January. I think, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a great point. That's basically the underlying assumption. I kind
Speaker 1: of tried to lay out my stories this they're going
Speaker 1: to be able to give them their best shot. And
Speaker 1: there's been so many years, Mike where it was by Galli.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was great to run the table in sixteen,
Speaker 1: but here you are in the NFC Championship and you
Speaker 1: have God bless him, Ladarius Gunter going up against Julio Jones.
Speaker 1: It's not the way you script it going into a
Speaker 1: season and the quarterback is the m v P of
Speaker 1: that season in Matt Ryan, and I just I think
Speaker 1: that it's good when you can actually not only make
Speaker 1: a run, but actually be in position at that point
Speaker 1: to be like, all right, we're going to prove that
Speaker 1: we are the best team in football. We're gonna prove
Speaker 1: we can win this game and you have all those
Speaker 1: horses to mount that that rally with. And to be
Speaker 1: honest with you, Mike, just to close on this, the
Speaker 1: the fervor and excitement in Green Bay right now, whether
Speaker 1: I'm just watching television or just walking around, it hits
Speaker 1: a different level when there's a playoff game at home
Speaker 1: coming up. I think everybody was excited about Atlanta, in
Speaker 1: Dallas and in Washington and all these other places they've
Speaker 1: gone in recent years. But when there's a game at
Speaker 1: lambeau Field, it's it's a celebration, it's a holiday, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's something that I think everybody kind of just
Speaker 1: sets their sights to and and you know, kind of
Speaker 1: bookmarks that. And that's special because again, this is as
Speaker 1: Dean Lawry was the first one to kind of open
Speaker 1: my eyes to it. This is the first time in
Speaker 1: three years the Packers have hosted a home playoff game,
Speaker 1: I should say, yeah, and the first time in five
Speaker 1: years that this round, the divisional round, has been at
Speaker 1: lamb It's incredible. Yeah, it's incredible how that works out. Well,
Speaker 1: we've got one more show to go this week. We
Speaker 1: will get two keys to victory and all that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff on our Friday show, but for now we're
Speaker 1: going to call it a wrap on this edition of
Speaker 1: Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage
Speaker 1: of the team during this playoff week on Packers dot com.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe to us, like us on iTunes and
Speaker 1: other podcast services, and check out all the great video
Speaker 1: content on the Packers YouTube channel. For Wess, I'm Mike.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We'll see you next time.