Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am like Spofford, he is Wes Hodkowitz.
Speaker 1: We're coming to you here from our studios at Lambe
Speaker 1: Field West. The Packers coming off of a twenty four
Speaker 1: to twenty two victory on Christmas Day over the Cleveland Browns,
Speaker 1: once again too close for comfort, as we've talked about
Speaker 1: um several weeks here, and we'll get to how this
Speaker 1: game got so close and how the Packers did pull
Speaker 1: it out. But we have to start with number four,
Speaker 1: forty three, Aaron Rodgers breaks Brett Farves franchise record four
Speaker 1: touchdown passes in the regular season, and it goes to
Speaker 1: number thirteen, Al Lazard. So we're all back on zoom. Now.
Speaker 1: You were over in the head coach Zoom. I was
Speaker 1: in the Aaron Rodgers Alan Lazard zoom post game. We're
Speaker 1: talking post game. And the thing that hit me the
Speaker 1: most as I'm watching this and in thinking about it
Speaker 1: is Aaron Rodgers at thirty eight years old, in reflecting
Speaker 1: upon the first round pick from two thousand five when
Speaker 1: I was a senior in high school, and the as
Speaker 1: I think Rogers even said a couple of times, like
Speaker 1: his NFL career is almost an adult at this point.
Speaker 1: And you know, our video department did a fantastic job
Speaker 1: with the video montage of his touchdown passes out of
Speaker 1: the message from Brett Farve. But I even wrote about
Speaker 1: his path to four or forty three, But it wasn't
Speaker 1: until it actually happened that it kind of hits you, like, man,
Speaker 1: like there's still some you know, Kobe Bryant had that
Speaker 1: great line and I think it was two thousand and
Speaker 1: ten about how you know we've won, we're gonna win
Speaker 1: some more, and let's play until We're gonna play until June.
Speaker 1: Let's keep going. It's still like that with Rogers, but
Speaker 1: it starts to when you think of all the memories
Speaker 1: and all the accomplishments and in the things that he's
Speaker 1: done at just an incredible level for seventeen years. The
Speaker 1: hitting four forty three just hits different. And for al
Speaker 1: Lazar to to lay out the way he did, you
Speaker 1: can tell he wanted that one, man. I mean, he
Speaker 1: said it wasn't a big deal. They weren't talking about it,
Speaker 1: but once that ball was in his hands, he had
Speaker 1: just a heat seeker for that pylon, and Rogers joked
Speaker 1: about how he had to wait a second because he
Speaker 1: wasn't sure if it was one of those things where
Speaker 1: they just rolled it a touchdown so they could review
Speaker 1: it and then and then make a decision for there.
Speaker 1: But you know, Lucas Patrick gives him this massive bear hug.
Speaker 1: The offensive lineman just mal um in history has made
Speaker 1: so an incredible accomplishment and certainly one that has Rogers
Speaker 1: even said, kind of brought a few tears to his eyes. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And Rogers ends up finishing this game with four and
Speaker 1: forty five touchdown passes. He ends up throwing two more,
Speaker 1: both of those going to Davante Adams. And I have
Speaker 1: to say this was there. There are some things in
Speaker 1: the statistical realm, both with Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams
Speaker 1: that start that start to blow your mind a little bit.
Speaker 1: And Rogers even used, I believe he used the phrase
Speaker 1: mind blowing when it comes to the stuff that Davantae
Speaker 1: Adams is good doing. He ends up with ten catches
Speaker 1: for a hundred and fourteen yards and two touchdowns for starters.
Speaker 1: That is the eighth time in his career that Davante
Speaker 1: Adams has had double digit receptions, a hundred plus yards
Speaker 1: and multiple touchdowns in a game, and that is an
Speaker 1: NFL record. Nobody in the history of this great league
Speaker 1: has done that. But the other stuff that really starts
Speaker 1: to get interesting. Adams now has a hundred six catches
Speaker 1: d and sixty two yards and ten touchdowns on the season.
Speaker 1: It's the fifth time in his career he's he's had
Speaker 1: double digit touchdowns on the year. But with the hundred
Speaker 1: and six catches and sixty two yards, he is really
Speaker 1: closing in on the franchise records for a single season.
Speaker 1: He had the hundred and fifteen receptions last year, which
Speaker 1: he did in fourteen games, of course, and then he's
Speaker 1: so he's only ten catches away from breaking his own
Speaker 1: mark there and then Jordy Nelson had one thousand, five
Speaker 1: hundred nineteen receiving yard. Adams needs just a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty eight over these last two games to break that mark,
Speaker 1: and he would actually break that in sixteen games, as
Speaker 1: Nelson said it, because um Adams did miss a game
Speaker 1: earlier this year. You you look, you look at these numbers,
Speaker 1: and what Davante Adams is doing prefacing this all is
Speaker 1: to preface of course, that Aaron Rodgers actually went on
Speaker 1: record and said Davante Adams is the best football player
Speaker 1: he's ever played with. And that's saying something, saying a lot.
Speaker 1: You know, when you look at even he reflected on it,
Speaker 1: you know, Brett Farve, Charles Woodson, the guy that he
Speaker 1: credited a long time is being the best guy. Jordy Nelson.
Speaker 1: He doesn't say that lightly, and he it was one
Speaker 1: of those things. He wasn't just trying to say it
Speaker 1: to say it. He mentioned he already told Davante yes.
Speaker 1: And there's a part of it that's poetic. Rogers has
Speaker 1: been talking about it being a lot of romanticism about
Speaker 1: football this year. All these incredible receivers that Rodgers has
Speaker 1: played with, starting his career with Don Driver, the franchise
Speaker 1: is all time leading receiver, Jordy Nelson, Greg Jennings, James Jones,
Speaker 1: Randall Cobb. And then here comes this kid from Fresno
Speaker 1: that had really prolific numbers in college, but yet was
Speaker 1: still a second round pick like a lot of his
Speaker 1: predecessors in Green Bay. And this might be the one
Speaker 1: that ends up being the Hall of Famer. And this
Speaker 1: is where you start to think about these things because
Speaker 1: there's a long road to go here, and Davante I
Speaker 1: think understands he he knows what he has to accomplish
Speaker 1: here in the next three, four or five six seasons
Speaker 1: to be considered in that it's exclusive company. It's tough
Speaker 1: to get in the hall as a receiver, especially in
Speaker 1: this day and age. But I think it would be
Speaker 1: apropos for Rogers in what will be an undisputed unanimous
Speaker 1: first ballots selection into Canton someday to actually have a
Speaker 1: receiver that goes on that journey with him as good
Speaker 1: as Jordy, as good as Jennings, as good as all
Speaker 1: these guys were. This is the guy that was the
Speaker 1: one that was a cut above. And what I love
Speaker 1: about it the most is Davante is basically a sum
Speaker 1: of all the parts. He can make the circus catches
Speaker 1: like Jordi does he he you know, his roads are precise.
Speaker 1: You know you see some of the stop route concepts.
Speaker 1: You see shades of James Jones and that being able
Speaker 1: to work across the middle like Greg Jennings and Randall
Speaker 1: Cobb did. And I feel like the more you watch
Speaker 1: him play, the more you gain an appreciation for what
Speaker 1: makes him great, the fact that he had another ten
Speaker 1: catch game. Mike, remember the one of the first times
Speaker 1: he did it. You and I kind of were like, oh, wow,
Speaker 1: he has ten catches. Twelve catches, that's interesting. Now the
Speaker 1: guy just does it like its old hat. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's a special special and he does it without having
Speaker 1: twenty passes thrown his way. Now, not every cent to
Speaker 1: Davante Adams is completed, but when you look at the
Speaker 1: ratio of the targets to the receptions, it's it's pretty
Speaker 1: darn impressive. Getting back to this game, in particular to
Speaker 1: twenty two over the Browns, I don't know how you
Speaker 1: can describe this game any other way than to say,
Speaker 1: both on the offensive and dfensive side of the ball
Speaker 1: for the Packers, it was. It was a jekylin Hide
Speaker 1: type of performance. You look at the offense, there's a
Speaker 1: stretch there where the Packers capitalizing on the turnovers the
Speaker 1: defense was getting. The Packers scored three touchdowns and a
Speaker 1: field goal in a span of five possessions. Points in
Speaker 1: a span of five possessions. That's pretty good. You're at
Speaker 1: twenty four points midway through the third quarter, you're right
Speaker 1: where you want to be. Then suddenly the offense goes
Speaker 1: three possessions and gets one total first down, going three
Speaker 1: and out twice and then getting one first down before
Speaker 1: having to give the ball up. Similarly, on the defensive side,
Speaker 1: you have a defense that gets four interceptions in five sacks,
Speaker 1: all kinds of big plays, the types of things that
Speaker 1: you're looking for. But at the same time, two eighteen
Speaker 1: rushing yards allowed over four hundred total yards allowed. The
Speaker 1: Browns were seven out of twelve on third down, and
Speaker 1: four of those seven conversions were when they needed six
Speaker 1: plus yards in order to conver, which is where the
Speaker 1: defense should have the advantage. There there was there was
Speaker 1: this Jekyll and Hide component to both sides of the
Speaker 1: ball for the Packers in this game. The bottom line
Speaker 1: is they came out with the win Versul Douglas with
Speaker 1: the big interception. Obviously with forty three seconds left in regulation,
Speaker 1: when the Browns were whatever, they were fifteen or twenty
Speaker 1: yards from a realistic field goal for a possible steal
Speaker 1: it at Lambeau Um type of scenario. The Packers won
Speaker 1: the game. But there's there's just a lot of uneven
Speaker 1: unevenness in the team's play right now before we go
Speaker 1: into the unevenness, because there's some unevenness to sort out.
Speaker 1: Is there ever a game that epitomizes the importance of
Speaker 1: protecting the football that this, Oh my goodness, Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: throws four interceptions for the first time in his career.
Speaker 1: First time Packers have four interceptions, I believe, since two
Speaker 1: thousands sixteen against Russell Wilson. It was a fun game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the five the five interceptions against Wilson at lambeau Field.
Speaker 1: First time three inners options in the first half since
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven against Oakland slash Vegas then Oakland. Yea.
Speaker 1: The Packers generates off those turnovers. They only score twenty
Speaker 1: four points in the game. It is such a great
Speaker 1: reminder of at the end of the day, you can pass,
Speaker 1: you can run, you can do all these things. Great,
Speaker 1: if you turn over the football, it's gonna come back
Speaker 1: to haunt you. Yeah. I don't know what I was
Speaker 1: gonna say is because you know, we we we get fed,
Speaker 1: and Packer Nation as a whole, if you follow things
Speaker 1: on Packers dot com, the Dope She and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, we get fed a lot of really
Speaker 1: interesting statistics from Tom Fanning, natela Cassio, and the communications
Speaker 1: department they have they have like a hotline to the
Speaker 1: Allia Sports Bureau. I'd like to say we don't have
Speaker 1: that necessarily, but when they want to check on something,
Speaker 1: figure out where it fits historically. Right, here's the question.
Speaker 1: I want to know, how often? How often is the
Speaker 1: team's turnover margin in the game larger in the margin
Speaker 1: of victor four oh in turnovers, but you win the
Speaker 1: game by two points. As I wrote about on Saturday
Speaker 1: night after the game in my postgame editorial, that's not
Speaker 1: how this is supposed to work. You go four oh
Speaker 1: in turnovers, you're supposed to be in much greater command
Speaker 1: of the football game. But this one almost got away
Speaker 1: from Yeah. Unfortunately for green Bay, they didn't give the
Speaker 1: ball up at any in opportune times. Nick Chubb, Miike,
Speaker 1: you can, Marv can play back all of our clips
Speaker 1: from last week. We talked about how dangerous this guy is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how many times did we say the key to the
Speaker 1: game was to was to contain Nick Chubb? And and
Speaker 1: uh yeah he was. He was a monster. And you
Speaker 1: want to talk about, you know, the four oh I
Speaker 1: would love to see the splits with what Cleveland did
Speaker 1: inside their own fifty as opposed to what it looked
Speaker 1: like once they got into Packers territory, because for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: the closer they got to the end zone, the more
Speaker 1: they got away from Chubb. Chubb was really got them
Speaker 1: going on a lot of series, still only carried the
Speaker 1: ball what five time in the first half. It was
Speaker 1: almost like Cleveland was operating the entire game like it
Speaker 1: was in a two minute offense situation and didn't want
Speaker 1: to commit to Chubb. The second half was really interesting
Speaker 1: because the Packers started shifting more to their dime package.
Speaker 1: They started going to more of their sub personnel. Cleveland
Speaker 1: had a really good, you know, opportunity to run against it.
Speaker 1: In that circumstance, you still want to be able to
Speaker 1: defend against the run when you have six dvs on
Speaker 1: the field. But the Packers are having trouble with it.
Speaker 1: But every single time it seemed like when Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: dropped back to pass in the middle of the field,
Speaker 1: bad things were happening. So I'm sure Stefanski and and
Speaker 1: Alex van Pelt are going to go back and look
Speaker 1: at that film and be really disappointed in how this
Speaker 1: game played out retrospective to what the Ernest Johnson and also,
Speaker 1: as we talked about Chubb, we're producing. But that that's
Speaker 1: for Green Bay. I think this is probably has to
Speaker 1: just be a massive wake up call for them because
Speaker 1: it's a reminder of what can happen when you face
Speaker 1: an elite running back, and it could happen this Sunday
Speaker 1: with with Minnesota if Dalvin Cook is back, because teams
Speaker 1: are gonna look at this now and be like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: if we protect the football and can run the way
Speaker 1: that Cleveland ran, we can give this team some problems. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean that that's that's what That's what teams are
Speaker 1: going to if if you have the type of running
Speaker 1: tech that you can rely on. That's uh, that's how
Speaker 1: teams are gonna digest this game. When they're looking at
Speaker 1: the film of the Browns playing at thirty six passes
Speaker 1: for Baker Mayfield, one runs for Chubb and Johnson in
Speaker 1: that game. That's hard. That's hard to do. That's how
Speaker 1: you explain. Yeah, that's hard to explain the thing. The
Speaker 1: way this game unfolded, though, it was interesting because because
Speaker 1: there were there were so many little moments, maybe they
Speaker 1: didn't seem like they were huge at the time per se.
Speaker 1: But right off the bat the Browns miss an extra
Speaker 1: point right so then on their second touchdown they go
Speaker 1: for two trying to chase that point, and they don't
Speaker 1: get it. So that's two p e t s that
Speaker 1: were blown, and of course then the final margin of
Speaker 1: the game is two points. The drive um early, I
Speaker 1: believe it was early in the fourth quarter at least
Speaker 1: to carry it over into the fourth quarter. The Browns
Speaker 1: are down by nine. They are in Green Bay territory,
Speaker 1: closing in on scoring territory. But then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: a false start puts them in a tough down and
Speaker 1: distant situation. And then bang bang, back to back sacks
Speaker 1: Preston Smith Dean Lowry. They get back to back sacks,
Speaker 1: and the Browns go from your looking at at least
Speaker 1: trying a field goal to make it a one score
Speaker 1: game with plenty of fourth quarter time still on the clock. Too,
Speaker 1: then they're out of field goal range and they end
Speaker 1: up they end up punting the football. They get nothing
Speaker 1: out of that possession, and it remains at nine points.
Speaker 1: It remains a two score game until well into uh
Speaker 1: into the fourth quarter before the Browns then do make
Speaker 1: it a one score game with a with a touchdown
Speaker 1: later out in the fourth. So there were some there
Speaker 1: were some moments that don't necessarily make the make the
Speaker 1: final highlight reel a play like Rusul Douglas forty three
Speaker 1: seconds left, But there were there were moments where there
Speaker 1: were moments where this game really kind of turned. And
Speaker 1: there there were some some key happenings that that played
Speaker 1: into the Packers hands well. And then the other aspect
Speaker 1: of it too that I look at is Preston Smith.
Speaker 1: There's so many times in NAH Football League Mike Smith
Speaker 1: you want to get him go and talk about sacks
Speaker 1: right in the factors outside linebackers coach doesn't want to
Speaker 1: talk about sacks. What I love about what Preston Smith
Speaker 1: has done this year, though, is he has eight sacks
Speaker 1: on the season. I would argue all eight of them
Speaker 1: are well earned and came at critical points. I understand
Speaker 1: there was one that could be labeled as garbage time
Speaker 1: I think against Chicago, but the guy played exceptional for
Speaker 1: the first three and a half quarters that ended up
Speaker 1: leading to a fourth quarter sack. But the guy, every
Speaker 1: single time he makes a play and gets to the quarterback.
Speaker 1: It seems to affect the game. And it happened again
Speaker 1: here because yes, you get the false start, but as
Speaker 1: we saw early on in the game, Cleveland was able
Speaker 1: to convert the third and fifteen. I believe it was
Speaker 1: they were able to find their way back from it.
Speaker 1: He gets that sack, they're thinking, okay, well maybe we
Speaker 1: can potentially make a run at this thing again. Here
Speaker 1: comes Dean Lowery in their face. Now it's fourth and
Speaker 1: twenty two. They're thinking, hey, maybe we'll still go for it.
Speaker 1: And then they get yet another penalty and they're like,
Speaker 1: you know, well, we'll go with the punt four and
Speaker 1: we'll punt it. We don't have the fourth and twenty seven.
Speaker 1: Play draw fourth and twenty two. It only gets us three.
Speaker 1: We gotta punt in this situation. But lightheartedness aside. Fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: every single second counted there as it played out. Yes,
Speaker 1: the Packers got the ball back and went three and out.
Speaker 1: There were some injuries there with yosh Niman, but those
Speaker 1: are the type of drive eating, time eating plays that
Speaker 1: I think ultimately ended up kind of swinging this thing
Speaker 1: in Green Bay's favor. Yeah, On on the offensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball. Obviously, it was frustrating. You know, Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers clearly set it after the game. Matta floor too.
Speaker 1: They've got to figure out a way to close out,
Speaker 1: to close out games offensively, because there was the costly
Speaker 1: three and out in Baltimore the previous week when when
Speaker 1: the Packers had, you know, the drive that was between
Speaker 1: Baltimore's two touchdowns there late in the game. This time
Speaker 1: it was it was back to back three and ounce. Now, Okay,
Speaker 1: the first one you try and end around, it doesn't work.
Speaker 1: You lose a bunch of yards. You're getting bad down
Speaker 1: and distance. Okay, the second one was the second one
Speaker 1: was unsettling in a sense. Now this is where Ben
Speaker 1: Braden had stepped in at left tackle. Yosh Niman was
Speaker 1: getting looked at temporarily briefly there in the medical tent.
Speaker 1: But you got seven yards on first down on a
Speaker 1: first down run by Aaron Jones. You're in second and three.
Speaker 1: Now that's not to say that this drive was was
Speaker 1: going to you know, go all the way down the
Speaker 1: field and the Packers were gonna you know, score the
Speaker 1: clinching points. But to end up going three and out
Speaker 1: there when you were in second and three third and two. Um,
Speaker 1: they ran the ball again twice with Jones on second
Speaker 1: and three and weren't able to get it. And then
Speaker 1: on the following possession, after they did get one first down,
Speaker 1: then Davante Adams is wide open on third and six
Speaker 1: down the Packers sideline, but he loses the ball in
Speaker 1: the lights. Um. I mean we'm dropped that. You and
Speaker 1: I are looking at each other in the press box going,
Speaker 1: we haven't seen a drop like that since what six
Speaker 1: years ago? You know? And then he he said after
Speaker 1: the almost reluctantly, he almost reluctantly admitted that he lost
Speaker 1: the ball in the lights because he didn't want it
Speaker 1: to come off like an excuse. But he's just being honest.
Speaker 1: And Davante DeVante is as honest as there is um
Speaker 1: with the media, and he's and and he says, I
Speaker 1: still gotta make that play. I make that play ten
Speaker 1: times out of nine. I loved that line. Um, But
Speaker 1: he lost the ball in the lights. And so for
Speaker 1: my my point here is that for all of the
Speaker 1: for all of the angst and everything about how the
Speaker 1: offense wasn't able to close this thing out, they weren't
Speaker 1: really that far away from being able to do it,
Speaker 1: is what I'm saying. You had a second and three,
Speaker 1: you were right there in position to get a first
Speaker 1: down there and to move the chains, and you had
Speaker 1: Davante Adams wide open on a third down, and just
Speaker 1: luck of the draw the ball got you know, the
Speaker 1: ball went into the line of the lights and he
Speaker 1: couldn't quite haul it in. This offense is not that
Speaker 1: far away from being able to do what it needs
Speaker 1: to do down the stretching game. And it wasn't just
Speaker 1: that they went second and through that Aaron Jones carry.
Speaker 1: They did it the next series with a j Dillon
Speaker 1: to Dylan gets seven yards on his first carry, gets
Speaker 1: six after that. That's what ended up leading into the
Speaker 1: play that that ended up being the third down missed
Speaker 1: to Davante. Here's the thing, and I made this point
Speaker 1: on a local radio show I did with a renowned personality,
Speaker 1: Mark Daniels on Monday. What I love about this incarnation
Speaker 1: of the Packers, the two thousand eleven pack the two
Speaker 1: thousand one Packers, two thousand eleven, My goodness, I'm back
Speaker 1: in ridiculous, uh, is the fact that this team, Mike
Speaker 1: knows how to win in the fourth quarter as a team.
Speaker 1: It hasn't always been that way. It's not always easy
Speaker 1: to do that. So as disappointing as it was for
Speaker 1: them to not get that past the DeVante DeVante to
Speaker 1: get lost in lights and drop that ball, here comes
Speaker 1: the defense, a defense that had been going through a
Speaker 1: lot of issues there in the second half, had been
Speaker 1: giving up a lot of yards, and Russell Douglas is
Speaker 1: the one to step up. I loved what Douglas said
Speaker 1: after the game because he was basically asked, Hey, you guys,
Speaker 1: are you're reeling a little bit? Davante drops that, what's
Speaker 1: your mindset is? You're going back on the field with
Speaker 1: Now Cleveland has a chance to read to take this lead.
Speaker 1: They have a chance for a two minute drive to
Speaker 1: to pull ahead because as you mentioned, they're only down
Speaker 1: too in Russell Douglas like, this is what we're here for.
Speaker 1: This is our moment, and he comes up with his
Speaker 1: second pick of the game. Sometimes it's going to be
Speaker 1: Davante Adams making that catch and A. J. Dillon running
Speaker 1: it out with a four minute offense. Sometimes it's gonna
Speaker 1: be the defense stepping up this team, Mike. In a
Speaker 1: season where there has been so many close games, down
Speaker 1: the stretch. The Packers, with the exception of one game
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis, know how to win those games. I think
Speaker 1: that's gonna be pivotal going into the playoffs. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: this this team, both both from a scheduled perspective the
Speaker 1: teams that they have played, and from the way these
Speaker 1: games have unfolded. This team is going to be as
Speaker 1: battle tested as you could ask for come playoff time.
Speaker 1: I totally agree with that. I need to take care
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Speaker 1: Big picture here, the Packers are twelve and three with
Speaker 1: two games to go. They have a one game lead
Speaker 1: on the Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Ramps,
Speaker 1: who are all eleven and four. The one everyone's watching
Speaker 1: the closest, of course, is the Dallas Cowboys because they
Speaker 1: would have the tiebreaker on the Packers because of their
Speaker 1: NFC record. The Cowboys have only lost one game to
Speaker 1: an NFC opponent all season, and that was way back
Speaker 1: in Week one to the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1: That was right down to the wire. That was it
Speaker 1: was That was a that was a down to the
Speaker 1: final possession game as well. So the scenario is this
Speaker 1: the Packers obviously, as we've been saying for a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, now, if the Packers win out, they get
Speaker 1: the number one seed. If the Packers get to fourteen wins,
Speaker 1: nobody else in the NFC can get to fourteen wins.
Speaker 1: If the Packers can do that, they will have the
Speaker 1: number one seed the first drawn by in the home
Speaker 1: field advantage. The other thing that will be interesting to
Speaker 1: watch though here is this week with the Packers playing
Speaker 1: on Sunday night against the Minnesota Vikings. Three Sunday afternoon
Speaker 1: is the Dallas Cowboys against the Arizona Cardinals. Now, the
Speaker 1: Cardinals are reeling a little bit. Three weeks ago they
Speaker 1: were the number one they were in the number one
Speaker 1: spot in the NFC, but they have now lost three
Speaker 1: games in a row. To fall to ten and five,
Speaker 1: but they will be taking on the Cowboys. If the
Speaker 1: Cardinals can snap their losing streak and hand the Cowboys
Speaker 1: a fifth loss, the Packers would then take the field
Speaker 1: Sunday night at Lambeau knowing that a win locks up
Speaker 1: the number one seed with with a week left to go.
Speaker 1: So those are the that's this scenario where things stand
Speaker 1: right now, Professor Spofford. Professor Spofford, because here's where I've
Speaker 1: struggled with this, and I want you to to help
Speaker 1: me with this. I know I'm putting you on the spot.
Speaker 1: I hope you're smart enough. I know you are to
Speaker 1: be able to I've heard this a lot though, of
Speaker 1: why Green Bay is able to close it up. Why
Speaker 1: would that be that they could actually close it against Minnesota.
Speaker 1: Why would that last game against Detroit then become quote
Speaker 1: unquote irrelevant in terms of the playoff picture? Because because
Speaker 1: the Because the Cowboys would have five losses if they
Speaker 1: were to lose. If they were to lose, and if
Speaker 1: the Packers were to win, the worst the Packers would
Speaker 1: have would be four lossless, and the Buccaneers and Rams
Speaker 1: already have four losses. The best they can do is
Speaker 1: thirteen and four, and if they finished tied with Green Bay,
Speaker 1: the Packers have the tie breaker on both of those
Speaker 1: teams based on a better NFC conference record, and if
Speaker 1: it ends up a one to one tie with the Rams,
Speaker 1: the Packers would have the head to head the Rams.
Speaker 1: So that's why, because the Bucks four losses were against
Speaker 1: the NFC. Correct, that's why you're Mike Spofford, and I
Speaker 1: am very much not thank you very much for that,
Speaker 1: but yeah, but the bottom line, the bottom line is
Speaker 1: everybody in Packer Nation will be watching that Cowboys Cardinals
Speaker 1: game leading up to the primetime game against the Vikings
Speaker 1: because because if if the Cowboys lose, the Packers can
Speaker 1: clinch the number one seed with the victory over the Vikings.
Speaker 1: But if the Cowboys win, the shoe is on the
Speaker 1: other foot in a sense, because then Cowboy Nation is
Speaker 1: watching Packers Vikings, pulling for the Vikings because if the
Speaker 1: Packers were to lose, then the Cowboys jump into the
Speaker 1: catbird seat because of that conference record tiebreaker heading into
Speaker 1: Week eighteen. So if the Cowboys don't lose, the Packers
Speaker 1: need to win to maintain their position and to go
Speaker 1: into Detroit in Week eighteen still with the opportunity to
Speaker 1: lock it down themselves. We probably should review these games,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to get too ahead of ourselves,
Speaker 1: because you know thursdays for previewing the upcomponent. Have you
Speaker 1: ever thought of a scenario where there are such high
Speaker 1: stakes going into a weekend. What I mean by that
Speaker 1: isn't just Green Bay in Dallas, Arizona needs to pick
Speaker 1: itself up off the mat. I mean a team that
Speaker 1: was at one point seven and o now is at
Speaker 1: risk of falling to ten and six. I mean that
Speaker 1: is that's a tough way for that season to go
Speaker 1: for the cards, especially with the expectations levied upon them
Speaker 1: earlier this season. From from Green Bay's perspective, though, the
Speaker 1: way I look at this, Mike is to win. It
Speaker 1: was an old Mike McCarthy theory. If you're gonna win,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna get a buy in a different time,
Speaker 1: you have to win and you have to take care
Speaker 1: of business in your division. The green Bay Packers have
Speaker 1: two NFC North matchups against opponents that on paper, you
Speaker 1: should be I already know. I think the Packers are
Speaker 1: significant favorites over the Vikings in this matchup. Whatever those
Speaker 1: different scenarios are. It really does come down to you
Speaker 1: taking business and you're taking care of business within your division,
Speaker 1: and then you the conferences ultimate prize. Yeah absolutely, I mean, um,
Speaker 1: it's all out there for Green Bay and we'll talk
Speaker 1: more about about all the games the rest of the
Speaker 1: games on the slate in Week seventeen in the NFL.
Speaker 1: I'm still gonna have a hard time saying Week seventeen
Speaker 1: but not thinking it's the last I mean, yeah, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have a hard time. I'm struggling. I'm struggling
Speaker 1: with That's why I always have to think about what
Speaker 1: is the week number? Because now Week eighteen is the
Speaker 1: last one. But anyway, it's like I said, it's time
Speaker 1: to go. I joke with you before. Just be happy.
Speaker 1: You probably will be retired by the time week nineteen
Speaker 1: gets here, all right, I won't be with that. We're
Speaker 1: calling it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team.
Speaker 1: We've got it all for you on Packers dot com.
Speaker 1: For West, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll
Speaker 1: see you next time.