Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my partner in crime, Wes Hodkins. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you hear from our studios at lambeau Field to discuss Wes.
Speaker 1: Yet another down to the wire victory by the Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers is the third one this season the Packers
Speaker 1: have won at the buzzer, so to speak, and this
Speaker 1: one a blocked field goal at Soldier Field to beat
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears twenty to nineteen. Everything on that final
Speaker 1: drive the Bears, you know, getting out of the third
Speaker 1: and nineteen, they convert on fourth and short, They get
Speaker 1: themselves in position and it's looking like, okay. The Packers
Speaker 1: have won a couple games on walkoff field goals. Now
Speaker 1: they're going to lose one on walk off field goal.
Speaker 1: But no, Carl Brooks gets the hand up there, gets
Speaker 1: the fingertip on the football and the Packers survive.
Speaker 2: The Cardiac pack two pointo is what I've been calling
Speaker 2: this to my father the past week. Wow, it just
Speaker 2: it seems like every way the Packers could win a
Speaker 2: football game this year, they've done it. And I am
Speaker 2: not above telling you exactly what was going through my
Speaker 2: head at the end of that game. Because the Cairo
Speaker 2: Santos is in a very accomplished kicker. It's been doing
Speaker 2: it for a long time now. In this league. People
Speaker 2: forget the issues that the Bears had trying to find
Speaker 2: a kicker after Robbie Gold. Santos is the one that
Speaker 2: ended that carousel for them, right and has held down
Speaker 2: that job for multiple years now. I hate to be
Speaker 2: a pessimist. I love being a half glass, half full guy.
Speaker 2: But I had a running game story to write. You
Speaker 2: were doing a final recap. I was getting ready for
Speaker 2: a Packers loss in terms of writing my stuff and
Speaker 2: getting stuff ready so we could get down to the
Speaker 2: locker room. I was ill prepared for handling a potential game.
Speaker 2: Missing a field goal is one thing, but then a
Speaker 2: game winning field goal block, the first one since your
Speaker 2: great grandfather was what traversing the halls of Washington.
Speaker 1: DC something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, nineteen thirty nine, the last time the Packers have
Speaker 2: won a football game off a field goal block on
Speaker 2: the last play of the game against the world renowned
Speaker 2: Cleveland Rams and they got the job done. Man, And
Speaker 2: how many times have I written this season, including in
Speaker 2: Tuesday's Inbox. It just doesn't matter. Just win the game.
Speaker 2: And this was probably the best, biggest example of it all.
Speaker 2: You do not apologize, You do not take any style
Speaker 2: points and try to add them into the victory or
Speaker 2: massage it any other way other than the sack. The
Speaker 2: Packers won the game, and they continued in unprecedented eleven
Speaker 2: straight victories over the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1: And that's the history oracle note I wanted to pivot
Speaker 1: to because this falls in the category of you can't
Speaker 1: make this stuff up. Twenty five years ago at lambeau Field,
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears came into Green Bay having lost ten
Speaker 1: in a row to the Packers, and they break the
Speaker 1: streak of ten straight losses to the Packers on Brian
Speaker 1: Robinson's block of Ryan Longwell's chip shot a twenty eight yarder.
Speaker 1: The Packers sat on the ball, twenty eight yarder. This
Speaker 1: is going to be a win, Brian Robinson, the hand
Speaker 1: of Walter Walter Payton had passed away earlier in the week.
Speaker 1: The hand of Walter blocks the field goal, and the
Speaker 1: Bears break their ten game losing streak in the rivalry.
Speaker 1: Fast forward to Sunday at Soldier Field, and the Packers
Speaker 1: have won ten straight, and the Bears are lining up
Speaker 1: for the field goal to break the ten game losing streak,
Speaker 1: and the Packers blocked the field goal to make it
Speaker 1: eleven in a row, the first time in the history
Speaker 1: of the NFL's oldest rivalry that one team has won
Speaker 1: eleven straight. But breaking this game down a little bit
Speaker 1: further offensively first, for Green Bay. I came out of
Speaker 1: this I came out of this game just with a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of mixed feelings about the offense. Because if
Speaker 1: you had told me we had talked all week last
Speaker 1: week and I was the one stressing it, the Bears
Speaker 1: were the number one red zone defense, the Packers were
Speaker 1: the number twenty nine red zone offense. That was the
Speaker 1: situational matchup that would probably decide the game. If you
Speaker 1: had told me before the game started that the Packers
Speaker 1: were going to get in the red zone five times
Speaker 1: against the Bears and score three touchdowns, I would have
Speaker 1: said Packers are going to have a heck of a
Speaker 1: chance to win the game. But if you had also
Speaker 1: told me that twice when the Packers get in the
Speaker 1: red zone, they're going to get zero points on two
Speaker 1: red zone opportunities in this case actually two opportunities that
Speaker 1: got all the way the five yard line and the
Speaker 1: Packers got no points. I would have said, well, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have a hard time winning that football game. So
Speaker 1: that's where I say, like, I have my mixed feelings.
Speaker 1: There was a ton to like about what the Packers
Speaker 1: did on offense with very limited opportunities. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: the reasons for those limited opportunities when we get to
Speaker 1: the defense. There was a lot to like about what
Speaker 1: the Packers did on offense, but to only come out
Speaker 1: with twenty points in that game was extremely frustrating because again,
Speaker 1: as we've said so many times this year, there was
Speaker 1: so much more out there for this team to put
Speaker 1: on the scoreboard.
Speaker 2: As the great Dom Capers once said in the Packers
Speaker 2: media auditorium, let me start with the positives. Okay, first
Speaker 2: and foremost, it looks like knock on wood, Jordan Love
Speaker 2: has put the groin injury behind him. He was scrambling more,
Speaker 2: he was working under center more, absolutely, and the Packers
Speaker 2: wanted to run more in this game, more conventional and
Speaker 2: they were able to do that. And for all the
Speaker 2: things people have Monday Morning quarterback about this game. The
Speaker 2: game plan I think was rock solid. There were so
Speaker 2: many things that you and I discussed last week. You
Speaker 2: had to run the football. They probably didn't run it
Speaker 2: as well as they wanted to, but you had to
Speaker 2: do it because if you getting third and long, you're
Speaker 2: setting You're setting the bear trap. There no pun intended
Speaker 2: for Chicago be able to get a takeaway, which is
Speaker 2: ultimately what happened in the red zone on one of
Speaker 2: those plays when they had to go third and long
Speaker 2: and they're still darting towards the end zone. Christian Watson
Speaker 2: was unbelievable in this game. The downfield stuff that him
Speaker 2: and Jordan Love had been trying to find their chemistry,
Speaker 2: trying to find that get on the same page with
Speaker 2: They did it in this game. A few moments of
Speaker 2: results over process, the long pass, the forty eight yarder
Speaker 2: when it also looked like you had Tucker Craft available underneath.
Speaker 2: It is what it is. But what I loved about
Speaker 2: that play too. I'm sure you saw it in You're
Speaker 2: What you might have missed series. Tucker's running right towards
Speaker 2: Christian to celebrate with them. As soon as the play
Speaker 2: Happens was extremely happy for him. Watson's a guy that
Speaker 2: has very much. He has absolutely earned all of those opportunities.
Speaker 2: The sixty yard catch and run won the Packers the
Speaker 2: game pretty much, and they did those types of explosive plays.
Speaker 2: And when you look at how the Packers won this game,
Speaker 2: independent of Carl Brooks's block, they won it with explosive plays.
Speaker 2: The Chicago Bears played cleaner, the Packers played better, and
Speaker 2: that's how they won the game. The disappointing thing was
Speaker 2: much like I was talking about with the run game.
Speaker 2: Everybody knew the Packers had to produce inside the red
Speaker 2: zone to be able to really pull away in this one,
Speaker 2: and they failed to do that. Part of that. You
Speaker 2: give credit to the Bears. They're the number one ranked
Speaker 2: red zone defense for a reason. But unfortunately some of
Speaker 2: the things that have plagued the Packers showed up in
Speaker 2: the red zone. The penalty that initially pushed him back
Speaker 2: on the illegal man downfield, those are the type of
Speaker 2: things you still want to clean up while buying large.
Speaker 2: They did in the penalty front, but it showed itself
Speaker 2: in the red area and then certainly just a missed
Speaker 2: opportunity Jordan Love played a pretty solid game overall, but
Speaker 2: then as Matt Lafleur was saying, the ball kind of
Speaker 2: sales on him on that third down pass to Tucker
Speaker 2: Craft a moment where the Packers are just maybe trying
Speaker 2: to use that catch and run that yack to potentially
Speaker 2: getting to the end zone, and it doesn't work out there,
Speaker 2: it ends up being an interception, Chicago's offense starts rolling
Speaker 2: the other way. A lot of words I've just spoken,
Speaker 2: but basically it comes down to the fact that Packers
Speaker 2: still have things to work on, but they're one of
Speaker 2: the most explosive offenses in the league right now, and
Speaker 2: that's ultimately what bailed them out.
Speaker 1: That's that's what I keep, you know, hanging the hat on,
Speaker 1: so to speak, with regard to this Packers offense for
Speaker 1: the frustrations and the points that are left out there,
Speaker 1: and the scoreboard you know hasn't in so many games,
Speaker 1: hasn't reflected what, you know, maximizing those opportunities would be
Speaker 1: this team, no matter what defense it has gone against,
Speaker 1: they can generate explosive plays and that is something that
Speaker 1: that is something that this offense can definitely hang its
Speaker 1: hat on moving forward. I'm one hundred percent with you
Speaker 1: on Christian Watson was that was a tremendous game for him.
Speaker 1: All four of his catches, all four of his receptions,
Speaker 1: were explosive plays, and they were all critical. They were
Speaker 1: all big time plays at big moments in the game.
Speaker 1: The other guy, I will point out that I thought
Speaker 1: played a really, really good game, and it seems like
Speaker 1: I talk about him every week as Josh Jacobs. He
Speaker 1: was grinding away on the ground. He also had an
Speaker 1: impact in the passing game, rushing and receiving one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty four yards from scrimmage. For Jacobs, the receiving
Speaker 1: was a combination of a couple of design passes, but
Speaker 1: also a couple of checkdowns, which then also gets me
Speaker 1: to the game that Jordan Love played. And quite honestly,
Speaker 1: yes there's a lot of focus on the interception, is
Speaker 1: a throw that got away from him. Was the right
Speaker 1: decision where the ball was supposed to go on the play,
Speaker 1: It was just a bad throw. The Bears happened to
Speaker 1: have somebody in the right spot where the overthrow went
Speaker 1: to get the interception, But honestly, that was the only
Speaker 1: bad pass Jordan Love threw. The entire game. Quite frankly,
Speaker 1: he ends up thirteen out of seventeen. He scrambled and
Speaker 1: took off. He made the Bears pay a little bit
Speaker 1: with his legs. He did take checkdowns to the running backs,
Speaker 1: whether it was to Chris Brooks or to Josh Jacobs
Speaker 1: here and there. Other than that one bad pass, he
Speaker 1: did not put the ball in harm's way. I thought
Speaker 1: Jordan Love played a really, really good game. I think
Speaker 1: him being fully healthy, having the bye week to rest up,
Speaker 1: take all the practice reps, all that stuff we talked
Speaker 1: about last week certainly played into it. Jordan Love was
Speaker 1: this close, this close because of that one bad pass
Speaker 1: to playing the type of game that we would be
Speaker 1: praising him for. Everybody would be praising him for up
Speaker 1: and down. I think that's a huge sign for this
Speaker 1: Packers offense moving forward. And in his defense a little bit,
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur fell on the sword with regard to the interception,
Speaker 1: not because of the play itself, but because that third
Speaker 1: and long was set up because Lafleur criticized himself for
Speaker 1: not just running Jacobs on second and one from the
Speaker 1: five yard line. Called the pass play. That's what leads
Speaker 1: to the illegal man downfield. You don't get illegal man
Speaker 1: downfield if you run the ball, so that back the
Speaker 1: Packers up. Then they tried the end around with Jayden
Speaker 1: Reid that lost a few more yards of put Love
Speaker 1: in a bad spot with third and long, and Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur was really upset himself for not just calling a
Speaker 1: running play on second and one. You get a first
Speaker 1: and goal inside the five yard line. You pounded in there,
Speaker 1: and very likely the game is fourteen to three and
Speaker 1: we're not talking about a black blocked field goal at
Speaker 1: the end for the win. But back to my original point,
Speaker 1: I thought Jordan Love played probably his best overall game
Speaker 1: of the season. There's only one bad pass, one play
Speaker 1: like that that we're talking about as far as as
Speaker 1: far as what went wrong, and hopefully that bodes well
Speaker 1: for this offense moving forward.
Speaker 2: Do you know what I like the most? Mike Packers
Speaker 2: had a huge momentum flip right around halftime. A bulk
Speaker 2: of the Chicago Bears points came between that mark of
Speaker 2: at the end of the first half. In the beginning
Speaker 2: of the second, Love kept his composure as we know
Speaker 2: he does, but he led them out a huge drive
Speaker 2: there to start the third quarter, capitalized by Josh Jacobs
Speaker 2: getting that seven yard rushing touchdown, the fiftieth of his
Speaker 2: NFL career in the regular season, and then when they
Speaker 2: needed drives late, he made plays and he put his
Speaker 2: players in positions to make plays. The past the Christian
Speaker 2: Watson not the most perfect textbook pass. Watson had to
Speaker 2: lay out for that thing and make a play. But
Speaker 2: the thing I love about what.
Speaker 1: Jordan and Love had a guy in his face on
Speaker 1: that absolutely number ninety nine had had just slipped by
Speaker 1: Josh Myers. The pocket had held up really well. Josh
Speaker 1: Jacobs had picked up the blitzer TJ Edwards ninety nine
Speaker 1: had started to slip by Josh Myers and got a
Speaker 1: pretty good hit on Love as he let that ball go.
Speaker 1: But fortunately Watson was able to make the diving cat.
Speaker 2: As Lafloor said, staring down the barrel. Sometimes YEA to
Speaker 2: make those plays I do. But Watson made it right.
Speaker 2: And and that's where getting on the same page is
Speaker 2: so critical and being able to capitalize on these opportunities.
Speaker 2: Jordan Love man, people are going to perseverate on the interception,
Speaker 2: and that's going to be something the rest of the season.
Speaker 2: He's already thrown eleven. We have nine more games in
Speaker 2: the regular season? Is that? Or no, eight more? How
Speaker 2: many games we have left? Or they're seven? Seven? Thank you?
Speaker 1: Hopefully the Packers have nine or ten games left, but
Speaker 1: seven in the regular.
Speaker 2: NFL is adding games every three minutes. I can't figure
Speaker 2: out exactly how many they are left anymore. Seven games
Speaker 2: left in the regular season. He's sitting on eleven interceptions.
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you a little bit of a secret.
Speaker 2: He's probably going to throw another one at some point. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you will. So when people come up with the well
Speaker 2: he threw another pick, and now it's eleven, Well he
Speaker 2: might throw on this week, it might be twelve. You
Speaker 2: can't worry about what's happened. Even last year. I thought,
Speaker 2: I don't know if you caught this, but Alex Smith
Speaker 2: had a tremendous analysis of Jordan Love in the lead
Speaker 2: up to Sunday's game, where he was talking about Jordan's
Speaker 2: numbers in the first half of last year are pretty
Speaker 2: similar to what they are right now. But then he
Speaker 2: got on that run. Nobody was talking about the eleven
Speaker 2: interceptions the last season. They're talking about the four thousand
Speaker 2: passing yards the thirty two touchdowns, and that's where they
Speaker 2: need Jordan to get to now. So I thought that
Speaker 2: was a major step in the right direction offensively.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, not to get hung up on the
Speaker 1: interceptions for too long. But the reason that the bad
Speaker 1: decision interceptions really hurt you is because you're going to
Speaker 1: have interceptions where a throw just gets away from you,
Speaker 1: where something happens or a guy drops go or ball
Speaker 1: gets deflected or whatever, a guy doesn't catch it. So's
Speaker 1: and that's where the bad decision ones hurt you. You
Speaker 1: have to eliminate those. And if Jordan Love eliminates the
Speaker 1: bad decision interceptions, yeah, once in a while a throw
Speaker 1: is going to get away. It might get picked off.
Speaker 1: You can live with that at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: The frustrating thing not just the two drives that reach
Speaker 1: the five yard line, but ultimately the Packers come away
Speaker 1: with no points. But as well as the Packers were
Speaker 1: moving the ball steadily consistently on offense, they only got
Speaker 1: six possessions in this game, not including the one play
Speaker 1: neel down at the end of the first half. Six
Speaker 1: possessions in this game, and that's because the Packers defense
Speaker 1: had a really really rough day. The defense could not
Speaker 1: get off the field, could not get the ball back
Speaker 1: to Jordan Love and the offense enough. The Bears end
Speaker 1: up with thirty six and a half minutes of time
Speaker 1: of possession. They end up with on their seven drives.
Speaker 1: They didn't have a single drive with fewer than seven plays,
Speaker 1: and five of their seven drives were double digit plays
Speaker 1: ten or more. Combining third and fourth downs, the Bears
Speaker 1: were twelve out of seventeen. Ye The Packers' defense just
Speaker 1: they put themselves in enough situations to get off the field,
Speaker 1: but then they couldn't do it. And the Bears had
Speaker 1: switched offensive coordinators, like we talked about, I think the
Speaker 1: new offensive coordinator whispered something in Caleb Williams's ear, so
Speaker 1: to speak of like, hey, you can take off and run.
Speaker 1: Your legs are a good weapon, go ahead and use them.
Speaker 1: Don't forget about them kind of thing. And they mixed
Speaker 1: in the zone read stuff where it was you know
Speaker 1: where he gets the decision to hand off or keep,
Speaker 1: and he hurt the pa between the scrambles and the
Speaker 1: zone read seventy rushing yards from the quarterback. That was
Speaker 1: a big game from Caleb Williams, and I thought the
Speaker 1: way he used his legs built his confidence in the
Speaker 1: passing game and the throws that he was able to make,
Speaker 1: and it just felt like it felt to me like
Speaker 1: the way the way Caleb Williams used his legs to
Speaker 1: hurt the Packers, it just kept the Packers defense on
Speaker 1: its heels. Yeah, a whole game. The Packers were not
Speaker 1: in attack mode on defense because they got kind of
Speaker 1: thrown off kilter by all the running around that Caleb
Speaker 1: Williams was doing. And credit to the Bears it it
Speaker 1: should have been enough for them to win the game,
Speaker 1: and it almost was if they don't get the kick blocked.
Speaker 2: And kind of like Malik Willis when he was filling
Speaker 2: in for Jordan Love with what he can do with
Speaker 2: his legs, what Williams did is it helped set up
Speaker 2: DeAndre Swift. Swift had a really hard time getting going.
Speaker 2: Rashaan Johnson had a hard time getting going when he
Speaker 2: started scrambling. Then they started working the read option. That's
Speaker 2: then when he broke off the thirty nine yard touch Yeah.
Speaker 2: Then he gets the touchdown on the top on the sweep. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And that's where you're starting to see things happen. Now again,
Speaker 2: I'll mention the positives here quickly. With the Packers defense,
Speaker 2: they didn't rupture. That's the thing. Green Baby had thirty
Speaker 2: fewer possessions or whatever it was, but they still had
Speaker 2: more explosive plays than yea, the Bears did.
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, there's only nineteen
Speaker 1: points on the board. So you can't you know, you
Speaker 1: can't be too overly critical. But it was the way
Speaker 1: the game unfolded and the way the possessions were limited
Speaker 1: that the Packers offense just didn't get the chances that
Speaker 1: you would like it to get when they're moving the
Speaker 1: ball so.
Speaker 2: Well, and a lot of those explosive plays the Bears
Speaker 2: got ended up being during the final stretch of that game. Yeah, now,
Speaker 2: I'll bring it back around for a second. The Packers
Speaker 2: end up turning over the ball and Bears get it
Speaker 2: at the two yard line. This is where I sometimes
Speaker 2: and Connor Lewis knows these statistics a lot better than
Speaker 2: me the idea and Matt kind of touched on this
Speaker 2: a little bit too. When a team is starting at
Speaker 2: the minus two, if you don't rupture, even if you
Speaker 2: give up a couple first downs and the Bears are
Speaker 2: playing the way they have to play, they consistently have
Speaker 2: to keep getting first downs. That helped green Bay get
Speaker 2: through that situation to get the ball back to eventually
Speaker 2: have the one where they finally did go ahead with
Speaker 2: the scoring drive. They responded in that instance that the
Speaker 2: tough thing for green Bay though, was, and I've gone
Speaker 2: back and forth with fans about this, but you finally
Speaker 2: get some pressure on the quarterback, you get the TJ.
Speaker 2: Slayton sack, which is then followed by the Rashan Gary sack.
Speaker 2: And Rashan might have had his best game of the
Speaker 2: season against Chicago with what he was able to do.
Speaker 2: When you look at the pressure numbers, when you look
Speaker 2: at the quarterback he had, some of the tackles he had,
Speaker 2: Rashan was getting after it. He gets a sack from
Speaker 2: minus eight or nine yards third and nineteen. You're sitting
Speaker 2: in I know everybody wants the Packers to move up
Speaker 2: and play pressman coverage and be physical and everything, and
Speaker 2: you just cannot do that. But it's what that third
Speaker 2: downplay was a good illustration of, is the extremely minute
Speaker 2: narrow margin for error. Kings Lingbari leaves his feet on
Speaker 2: the pass rush. He's trying to make a play yep.
Speaker 2: But then Williams again with the feet, gets in the
Speaker 2: open field, extends and then Romadunze makes two fantastic catches
Speaker 2: back to back plays. To be able to move the
Speaker 2: ball down field, you have to get off the field
Speaker 2: on third downs eight conversions and beyond that three fourth
Speaker 2: down conversions. On the five instances where they didn't convert
Speaker 2: on third down, Chicago was just way too efficient. Green
Speaker 2: Bay has to break that. That being said, they made
Speaker 2: it right, and that's what complimentary football is. If you're
Speaker 2: not getting everything from the defense, but they're still keeping
Speaker 2: points off the board, there's still finding ways to keep
Speaker 2: you in it. That's where the special teams has to
Speaker 2: pick them up. And obviously that's where the explosive plays
Speaker 2: came into a factor for Green Bay as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought I thought the defense, the defense had,
Speaker 1: the defense had a chance to sort of cure a
Speaker 1: lot of ills on the day when you know the
Speaker 1: game's on the line, final possession, the Packers have the
Speaker 1: lead by one point, you get the back to back sacks,
Speaker 1: you put them in third and nineteen. You and I
Speaker 1: were talking because I think at that point it was
Speaker 1: the two minute warnings. So there's a little bit of
Speaker 1: a break up the clock. You and I were talking,
Speaker 1: and I think you and I were in agreement where
Speaker 1: it's like, Okay, you don't get too aggressive on third
Speaker 1: and nineteen. You make them take the check down, you know,
Speaker 1: you you sit back and cover, you make them take
Speaker 1: the checkdown. You come up, get a tackle, maybe they
Speaker 1: get seven or eight yards, and you've got them in
Speaker 1: like fourth and twelve, and then the game's on the line.
Speaker 1: On fourth and twelve. What happened. The play got extended,
Speaker 1: and that's where that's where your plan defensively gets foiled,
Speaker 1: because the play gets extended and it becomes a you know,
Speaker 1: a quote unquote plaster situation because the quarterback avoids the sack,
Speaker 1: gets out of the pocket, and then the receivers are
Speaker 1: are further downfield and they're able to hit the sixteen
Speaker 1: yard or so. Then instead of a instead of a
Speaker 1: fourth and long or a fourth and medium, you're in
Speaker 1: a much more fourth and manageable, you know, fourth and three.
Speaker 1: And then and then on that play, the fourth down play,
Speaker 1: I just I tipped my hat to Caleb Williams and
Speaker 1: roma death. That was a that was a back shoulder
Speaker 1: throwing catch down the sideline. I don't know what you
Speaker 1: can really do to defend that, and it's and it's
Speaker 1: such a quick, you know, three step drop and release.
Speaker 1: There's nothing the pass rush can really do there. That's
Speaker 1: just a great play by those guys. You would have
Speaker 1: liked to have seen them, you know, seen it not
Speaker 1: be fourth and three, because then the defense is in
Speaker 1: a little bit different different situation.
Speaker 2: But the rush call changes completely.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, every the way the way you play it,
Speaker 1: the way you play it changes. So unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 1: that opportunity for the defense to kind of cure the
Speaker 1: ills and maybe get the the same type of stop
Speaker 1: that the defense got to win the Rams game when
Speaker 1: the Rams were kind of, you know, trying to rally
Speaker 1: at the end. The defense had a chance to do
Speaker 1: that and didn't do that. And so that's that's concerning
Speaker 1: from that standpoint. Unfortunately, the Packers had lost jyr Alexander.
Speaker 1: They thought they were going to get him back. He
Speaker 1: only plays a handful of snaps in the first half.
Speaker 1: The knee wasn't good enough. He ends up in street
Speaker 1: close for the second half and wasn't able to continue.
Speaker 1: You so that's an injury injury situation that we will
Speaker 1: uh that we will continue to watch. But UH, but
Speaker 1: you know, it felt like at the it's it's the
Speaker 1: word I used at the beginning of the show. It
Speaker 1: just felt like the Packers survived it. Yeah, and UH
Speaker 1: and you know, and now they're they're seven and three
Speaker 1: with UH with a lot to look forward to. As
Speaker 1: you said, seven regular season games left to go. There
Speaker 1: is a ton of football left in this season and
Speaker 1: uh and the Packers are in position to make something
Speaker 1: up and.
Speaker 2: Quickly to end on this this note before we start
Speaker 2: looking at the league. You know, you give I tipped
Speaker 2: my hat to Rich Bisaccia, you know, Byron Storer, everybody
Speaker 2: that's involved in that side of the face they did
Speaker 2: their research going into this game. They saw a potential
Speaker 2: opportunity there with the a gap and the field goal
Speaker 2: protection unit. As Matt Lafleur and Josh Jacobs both said,
Speaker 2: Bassachia brought it to the team and basically it brought
Speaker 2: it to his his phase, his wifense and said, I'll
Speaker 2: be highly disappointed if we don't come out with the
Speaker 2: block in this game. And I was talking with Javon
Speaker 2: Bullard afterwards and he's like, yeah, you know what we
Speaker 2: thought we'd get. Well, it just so happened to be
Speaker 2: the last one that they finally end up getting through on.
Speaker 2: And Carl Bradford gets his second block of his career.
Speaker 2: And I want to mention that books Carl Brooks, Carl Bradford,
Speaker 2: I did it again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the second time you does.
Speaker 2: I hope Carl's doing well out there. He's getting a
Speaker 2: lot of pub here on Packers Unscripted this season. Carl
Speaker 2: Brooks gets the job done the second block of his career.
Speaker 2: And I thought this was a tremendous statistic that Tom
Speaker 2: Fanning from the Packers' communication staff figured out. I don't
Speaker 2: know if it was in concert with Elias or not.
Speaker 2: It was probably just his own studying. Since twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: when Rich Pasaci was hired, the Green Bay Packers now
Speaker 2: have the second most blocked field goals in the National
Speaker 2: Football League to Pittsburgh. And if anybody, if you know
Speaker 2: anything about the Steelers special teams units, yeah, and just
Speaker 2: what they've accomplished, they have ten in that stretch. The
Speaker 2: Packers have six, two of those belonging to Brooks. Two
Speaker 2: of them belonging to Kolbe Wooden, and I think Josh
Speaker 2: Niman is in there as well. That the Packers have
Speaker 2: found ways to be able to do that. It just
Speaker 2: so happened in this case it ended up saving them
Speaker 2: a football game. The Packers now sitting at seven to three.
Speaker 2: Three of those games have come down to the and
Speaker 2: that final play has been special teams.
Speaker 1: And I'll just say this before I get onto sponsor
Speaker 1: business and we move on to other topics. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of people talking out there about the Bears head
Speaker 1: coach Matt Eberflu said he's sending the play into the
Speaker 1: league because contact with the long snapper. I'm just going
Speaker 1: to clarify this because I didn't actually clarify it very
Speaker 1: well in Monday's Insider Inbox column. I'm going to do
Speaker 1: so in Wednesday's column. Yes, the long snapper is protected
Speaker 1: from contact, but the rule is he's only protected from
Speaker 1: contact when his head is down down and he's not
Speaker 1: allowed to just keep his head down the entire time
Speaker 1: and prevent Basically, to prevent anybody from rushing the a gap,
Speaker 1: he has to snap the ball, get his head up
Speaker 1: in position, and when his head is up then he
Speaker 1: can be contacted. So you can't just snap the ball
Speaker 1: as a long snapper on a field goal and keep
Speaker 1: your head down and not allow anybody to rush in
Speaker 1: that spot. I mean, we know the Bears aren't going
Speaker 1: to get anywhere with sending this into the league. I
Speaker 1: guess I don't blame him in some respects for doing it.
Speaker 1: If I'm mat Eberfluse, I don't know if I would
Speaker 1: have made that public that I'm complaining about that.
Speaker 2: You know, Packerson stuff in the league every week.
Speaker 1: They don't announce it, and matt Lelafure never tells anybody,
Speaker 1: you know, unless he's unless he's directly asked about it,
Speaker 1: and he might say, yes, I'm sending into the league,
Speaker 1: and then he's not even going to comment on it.
Speaker 1: We've never heard anything of what the Packers get back
Speaker 1: from the league in those situations. So I just wanted
Speaker 1: to clarify what the rule actually is because a lot
Speaker 1: of people think the rule is the long snapper can't
Speaker 1: be touched.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I mean, yes, he can't be touched when his head
Speaker 1: is down, but he also can't keep his head down
Speaker 1: the entire time.
Speaker 2: So may I add one last thing? Sure, you know
Speaker 2: how an insider in box. Occasionally we'll get the people
Speaker 2: that write in there. It's like, Hey, I was a
Speaker 2: high school football coach or I officiated you know my
Speaker 2: middle school, you know basketball teams league. I have one
Speaker 2: of those moments here. One thing happened in that game
Speaker 2: against the Bears, because obviously there was that incident with
Speaker 2: Xavier McKinney at the start of the game. I found
Speaker 2: this funny Matt Aberflus pining for calls and everything like that.
Speaker 2: I think there's a line there where you obviously are
Speaker 2: working the officials. But it reminded me of my own
Speaker 2: city league basketball career, where there were times where we
Speaker 2: would play teams and we knew we were not as
Speaker 2: good as them, and we knew we needed every single
Speaker 2: thing to go right in order to even have a
Speaker 2: remote chance of beating them, and we would be on
Speaker 2: the officials of these making twenty five bucks or whatever
Speaker 2: for the game. That's what it reminded me of. It
Speaker 2: didn't remind me of a head coach working the referees.
Speaker 2: It reminded me of a guy that's pretty desperate for
Speaker 2: his team to win. And I mean before the McKinney flag,
Speaker 2: there was another incident on the sideline where his hands
Speaker 2: were up, his neck was back, and he's thrown himself
Speaker 2: around like a beanie baby, trying to, you know, make
Speaker 2: it known that he thinks there should be a penalty.
Speaker 2: It is what it is. You move on. But I
Speaker 2: love what Matt Lafleur said about this. You can't depend
Speaker 2: on that stuff. He wasn't talking about Eberflus, but he
Speaker 2: was just talking about it happens all the time. There
Speaker 2: are always penalties that you are going to disagree with,
Speaker 2: the things you didn't think got called. But your team
Speaker 2: still needs to win the football game and play beyond that.
Speaker 2: Yeah the Bears didn't do that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to protect your field goal kicker, and
Speaker 1: the Bears didn't do it. The Packers got the penetration
Speaker 1: that helped them win the game. Sponsor business Here West
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Speaker 1: a little bit late, so we'll get through this quickly
Speaker 1: and then sign off. The NFC North Detroit is nine
Speaker 1: and one, Minnesota is eight and two, Green Bay is
Speaker 1: seven and three. The weekend played out as we thought.
Speaker 1: The NFC North completed a fourteen to two near sweep
Speaker 1: of the AFC South, with the Jaguars losing to the
Speaker 1: Lions and the Titans losing to the Viking.
Speaker 2: I didn't get to tell you this during your pre
Speaker 2: production meeting. The Lions still have to play the Colts
Speaker 2: this week. Really, yeah, they do, so we're close. It's
Speaker 2: thirteen and two right now, thirteen and thirteen to two,
Speaker 2: die bad. I was gonna mention that too beforehand when
Speaker 2: I was looking at the schedule Lions Detroit.
Speaker 1: And missed THEUS oil. I missed that, then, I'm not
Speaker 1: thought that.
Speaker 2: I just want to make sure we got that right.
Speaker 1: So no, I appreciate that. I appreciate that I missed it.
Speaker 2: The Lion's going to be big underdogs, going in.
Speaker 1: By Lucas Oil occasionally is wrong, but that being said,
Speaker 1: so it is thirteen and two.
Speaker 2: You look at how Jared Goff bounced back a five
Speaker 2: interception game and he was perfect fifty eight point three.
Speaker 2: The Jacksonville Jaguars barely even got off the bus. Yeah, wow,
Speaker 2: fifty two to six. You do that to somebody in
Speaker 2: the National FOOTBA League. There was a couple of those
Speaker 2: games we covered in the McCarthy era. I think there
Speaker 2: was one with even early on, I think he before
Speaker 2: I started covering the team. There was a game against
Speaker 2: the Saints where I think they won like fifty five
Speaker 2: to three or something like that. But if you can
Speaker 2: do that with thirty two teams the best players in
Speaker 2: the world, you tip your cap to them. And then
Speaker 2: certainly Tennessee made it a little bit interesting, but just
Speaker 2: Minnesota too much. One, eight and two, seven and three.
Speaker 2: What a division.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to get your thoughts really quickly before
Speaker 1: we go, because we talked about all these big games
Speaker 1: featuring all these teams with seven plus wins going into
Speaker 1: the weekend. So Philadelphia defeats Washington, Buffalo defeats Kansas City
Speaker 1: and hands the Chiefs their first loss of the season,
Speaker 1: and Pittsburgh kicks a whole bunch of field goals and
Speaker 1: it's enough to beat the Baltimore Ravens. I can't say
Speaker 1: I'm surprised or shocked necessarily by any of those results.
Speaker 1: And I think all of those teams still have a
Speaker 1: lot in front of them, and some of those some
Speaker 1: of those games might quite frankly be playoff previews.
Speaker 2: Mike tom Litt'll be a Hall of Fame coach, He'll
Speaker 2: be in Canton someday. But my goodness, there's so many
Speaker 2: times I watch his team's play. I'm like, this guy
Speaker 2: would have been perfect in the sixties. He could have
Speaker 2: been a Lombardi, you know, just they just find ways
Speaker 2: to win. Who beats the Baltimore Ravens eighteen to sixteen
Speaker 2: with field goal? Nobody but Mike tob Tke tob a
Speaker 2: little fight the way Chris Boswell and in that in
Speaker 2: that team, uh.
Speaker 1: Well and and Justin Tucker missed some kicks there. Chris Boswell,
Speaker 1: h Boswell was the was the kicking star of the game,
Speaker 1: and uh and Justin Tucker's uh had had a bad
Speaker 1: game in what's a Hall of Fame career?
Speaker 2: What's for that guy? Been a bad season for him unfortunately. Yeah. Uh,
Speaker 2: Kansas City and Buffalo I just want to say this quickly.
Speaker 2: This was the outcome both of these teams needed. I
Speaker 2: didn't think there was any reason this chief should be undefeated.
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying like, oh, they don't deserve it.
Speaker 2: I'm saying they're a team that I think needed to
Speaker 2: eventually lose one. Buffalo desperately needed to beat Kansas City. Now, ultimately,
Speaker 2: I think that game will once again be decided at
Speaker 2: some point in the postseason. Just seemed like it's the
Speaker 2: way it's been working out. But I think there's a
Speaker 2: lot more to be gained from that for for the Chiefs,
Speaker 2: even though you want to win that game from a
Speaker 2: potential loss. I thought Patrick mahomes post game speech was terrific.
Speaker 2: Is his address of the media was. I loved.
Speaker 1: I absolutely loved, because I and I saw it on
Speaker 1: the plane live because we have our little TV screens
Speaker 1: there as we're doing our work and I'm keeping kind
Speaker 1: of a little bit of an eye in the game.
Speaker 1: Buffalo is up by two. They've got a fourth and
Speaker 1: two inside the thirty yard line, and Sean McDermott said, well,
Speaker 1: I could kick the field goal and go up five
Speaker 1: and watch Patrick Mahomes go down and score a touchdown
Speaker 1: and beat me, or I can put the ball in
Speaker 1: my quarterback's hands on fourth and two and we're going
Speaker 1: to try to go get a touchdown. And not only
Speaker 1: do they convert the fourth and two, but Josh Allen
Speaker 1: takes it all the way into the end zone, so
Speaker 1: they get the two score lead that Sean McDermott wanted.
Speaker 1: And the two score lead is what finally put Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes away.
Speaker 2: And you know what the real dirty secret is of
Speaker 2: this game. You obviously want to get the first round
Speaker 2: by but this doesn't matter. What they needed is they
Speaker 2: needed to beat Kansas City and they need to be
Speaker 2: aggressive because it's that type of mindset that's finally going
Speaker 2: to get you past them in the playoffs, and that's
Speaker 2: ultimately what the Bills are trying to do. I loved it.
Speaker 2: It was It was tremendous call. It was tremendous gutsiness.
Speaker 2: And it also when you have an established football team
Speaker 2: with an established coach and in a staff, in a
Speaker 2: franchise quarterback that people tried to, you know, kind of
Speaker 2: throw some shade at earlier this year, but I mean,
Speaker 2: Josh Allen is obviously one of the top three quarterbacks
Speaker 2: in the league, potentially the MVP this season. That's the
Speaker 2: type of stuff that you do. And obviously it worked
Speaker 2: out well for Buffalo.
Speaker 1: And I'll say real quickly before we go team to
Speaker 1: watch in the NFC right now, obviously the Packers, everything
Speaker 1: going on in the NFC North is worth watching. But
Speaker 1: the team to watch in the NFC right now is
Speaker 1: Washington because they had a big game on a Thursday night.
Speaker 1: They were right there against the Eagles, and they completely
Speaker 1: collapsed in the fourth quarter, just got railroaded in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter by a division rival. Now they get a
Speaker 1: little extra time because it was a Thursday night game.
Speaker 1: But how Washington now responds to that moving forward is
Speaker 1: going to be a big factor in the NFC playoff
Speaker 1: picture of the rest.
Speaker 2: When you talk about slumpbusters, when you're hosting the Dallas Cowboys,
Speaker 2: in this version of the Dallas Cowboys, you will have
Speaker 2: an up ertilly to bounce back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they will. They will, But I'm talking more long
Speaker 1: well for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I mean, like, talk about a gift from
Speaker 2: above after that loss, after this little streak.
Speaker 1: They right, they're not, They're not. They're not getting sent
Speaker 1: to Detroit. Yeah, play play their next game, right So
Speaker 1: all right, Well, with that, we got to talk about
Speaker 1: the draft because you should be among the thousands of
Speaker 1: football fans cheering on their team's NFL picks by joining
Speaker 1: us April twenty four through April twenty six of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty five for the NFL Draft. Visit green Bay dot
Speaker 1: com slash Draft twenty five for more information, and with
Speaker 1: that we'll 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 on Packers dot com. For Wes, I'm Mike.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in, everybody. We will see you
Speaker 1: next time.