Speaker 1: Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 2: I am Mike Spofford, joined by my partner in crime,
Speaker 2: Weston Hodcoats. We're coming to you hear from our studios
Speaker 2: at lambeau Field to continue previewing as we did on
Speaker 2: our last show, the NFC Wildcard Playoff.
Speaker 1: It'll be coming up Sunday.
Speaker 2: It's a three point thirty Central time kickoff from Lincoln
Speaker 2: Financial Field in Philadelphia, Packers against the Eagles. Probably the
Speaker 2: best place to start here, Wes is the injury update
Speaker 2: with both teams. Because Jalen Hurts, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback,
Speaker 2: is back in practice on a limited basis, but all
Speaker 2: reports are he is on his way to getting out
Speaker 2: of cushion protocol. The Eagles even released one of their
Speaker 2: backup quarterbacks, both Ian Book, the former Notre Dame quarterback,
Speaker 2: which is obviously a sign that they expect everything to
Speaker 2: everything to go to full clearance for Jalen Hurts by
Speaker 2: the time Sunday's game rolls around. On the Packer's side
Speaker 2: of things, Jordan loved practicing, but on a limited basis.
Speaker 2: His elbow is still sore from that injury. On Sunday
Speaker 2: against the Bears. He has the feeling back in his
Speaker 2: hand and all that. It's not about gripping the football
Speaker 2: as it was, but the initial injury that led to
Speaker 2: all the numbness in the hand, the banging of the elbow.
Speaker 2: The elbow is sore. So he's still trying to work
Speaker 2: through that, and obviously the Packers are hoping that maybe
Speaker 2: by the end of the week he could be a
Speaker 2: full participant in practice and getting closer to full health.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the other thing was too. I mean,
Speaker 3: we only saw the stretching at the time in wits
Speaker 3: for shooting this. We haven't seen him throw. I will
Speaker 3: have that privilege of going out to practice and see
Speaker 3: what the throws look like. I'm sure I will take
Speaker 3: a video and we'll have the NFL Network news desk
Speaker 3: sending me a DM asking me if they can use it,
Speaker 3: because everybody's going to be concentrated on how he's throwing
Speaker 3: the football. But yeah, the fact of the matter is
Speaker 3: that you know, we're talking with Bull Melton number of
Speaker 3: guys in the locker room on Wednesday, and as both said,
Speaker 3: he's like, listen, he's going to be out there. We've
Speaker 3: taken so many reps with them, We've taken all these
Speaker 3: things that the main thing is just how Jordan feels
Speaker 3: going into game day. The pieces around him will be
Speaker 3: ready for this thing. So but but certainly this is
Speaker 3: the way this thing works. I mean, Edgrin Cooper talked
Speaker 3: about it to it his locker. You're not gonna find
Speaker 3: even guys that aren't on the injury report. You're not
Speaker 3: going to find anybody that's feeling great on January ninth.
Speaker 3: I mean, these guys have been through some battles here
Speaker 3: for the last four four and a half months. So
Speaker 3: for Jordan and his sake, you know, we got to
Speaker 3: see what the downfield passing game looks like, what the
Speaker 3: the accuracy looks like. But I mean, he's a gamer,
Speaker 3: and he's tough, and he'll be out there on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, He's certainly done his share of playing through injuries
Speaker 2: so far. This seaon not something he necessarily had to
Speaker 2: deal with last year in his first year as a starter.
Speaker 2: Was that funny the knee injury. The knee injury from
Speaker 2: Week one, which he missed a couple of games, But
Speaker 2: then you know, wasn't really all the way back when
Speaker 2: he was back on the field, and then the groin injury,
Speaker 2: which then he also had to try to play through,
Speaker 2: and then he never really got healthy until after the
Speaker 2: bye week when we saw his season start to take
Speaker 2: off and start to resemble the Jordan love we saw
Speaker 2: at the end of last season.
Speaker 3: I got to go back and make Lauren Stone now
Speaker 3: Lauren Anderson, our wonderful colleague out there. She was the
Speaker 3: one I think I put on that, or maybe it
Speaker 3: was Nicole Tim. I did that project last year looking
Speaker 3: at all the starting quarterbacks in the league that started
Speaker 3: all seventeen games that were not on the injury report,
Speaker 3: and there was only four of them. One of them
Speaker 3: was Dak Prescott. We know how his season went. And
Speaker 3: then obviously Jordan was another one of them. And fortunately
Speaker 3: he's been out there all year, but he's had a
Speaker 3: battle through some things as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well on the defensive side. As far as injuries go,
Speaker 2: the Packers getting a little bit of good news. Kway
Speaker 2: Walker Evan Williams Walker with the anchor Williams with the
Speaker 2: quad injury. Both of those guys have missed the last
Speaker 2: three games of the regular season. They were back on
Speaker 2: the practice field for the first time since those injuries,
Speaker 2: both on a limited basis, but trending toward potentially being
Speaker 2: available on Sunday. And those are two guys, you know,
Speaker 2: basically full time starters. Williams wasn't a full time starter
Speaker 2: at the beginning of the season, but essentially as the
Speaker 2: season went along, both of those guys full time starters,
Speaker 2: and the Packers would obviously love to have them back.
Speaker 3: Well, and you're gonna need all your inside linebackers for
Speaker 3: this one. You would imagine the Packers will probably play
Speaker 3: a fair amount of base just because of the threat
Speaker 3: not only of Barclay but also with Jalen Hurts and
Speaker 3: being able to contain their running game and some of
Speaker 3: the short yarded stuff. So yeah, quay Walker is a
Speaker 3: huge part of this. I think ISAIAMH McDuffie has a
Speaker 3: big role to play. Eric Wilson potentially could as well.
Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, Mike, you and
Speaker 3: I everybody wants to see kway Walker and Eddrian Cooper
Speaker 3: on the field together. That type of speed, that type
Speaker 3: of athleticism, being able to cover those fifty three yards
Speaker 3: sideline to sideline. There aren't a lot of teams that
Speaker 3: can do that, and for one reason or another injuries wise,
Speaker 3: they haven't been able to see that combination a lot
Speaker 3: this season. Also the inexperience of Cooper early on. But
Speaker 3: where Cooper's at right now in the progression he's made, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, the more fifty six is on the field,
Speaker 3: the more sevens on the field, I think the Packers'
Speaker 3: defense in terms of especially the speed of it definitely increases.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: And Zane Anderson, the safety, he is still he has
Speaker 2: not yet returned to practice.
Speaker 1: He is still in concussion protocol.
Speaker 2: So if the Packers can get Evan Williams back, we
Speaker 2: know Green Bay doesn't have jay R Alexander, but if
Speaker 2: you get Williams back, you at least get back to
Speaker 2: that nickel secondary that is the preferred group when you
Speaker 2: don't have Alexander, which would be McKinney and Williams in
Speaker 2: the back end, Javon Bullard playing the slot, and then
Speaker 2: Nixon and Valentine playing the outside cornerbacks, and then you
Speaker 2: have guys like whether it's Corey Ballentine or Eric Stokes.
Speaker 1: Guys like that.
Speaker 2: If you want to go to six defensive backs at
Speaker 2: some point, that may not be something we see. As
Speaker 2: you just mentioned because the Packers may be playing more
Speaker 2: base defense with regard to the running threat of both
Speaker 2: Saquon Barkley and quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 1: We broke down a.
Speaker 2: Lot of different aspects of the Philadelphia Eagles on our
Speaker 2: last show. Was there anything you felt that we missed
Speaker 2: or that you think is worth pointing out here before
Speaker 2: we get into the Keys to victory for Green Bay?
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be a little self serving here. Obviously. I
Speaker 3: wrote a story this morning on hackers Dualt Palm about
Speaker 3: to use an old catchment phrase, uh looking at Christian
Speaker 3: Watson's injury yea, and in the follout from that, the
Speaker 3: emotional impact of that, the on field impact of that,
Speaker 3: and it was great. I mean, a lot of guys
Speaker 3: talking about this in the locker room afterwards on Wednesday.
Speaker 3: Had a long conversation with bau Melton about it, and
Speaker 3: I really like something both said at the end of it.
Speaker 3: And obviously, these guys are playing for Christian and certainly
Speaker 3: they want to be able to step up in his absence,
Speaker 3: and you know, leadership wise, performance wise, they've been in
Speaker 3: the spot before they want to do it again. But
Speaker 3: I thought it was really interesting what Bo said in
Speaker 3: a question I'd asked him later on in the interview
Speaker 3: about you know, everybody talks about how deep they are,
Speaker 3: but just how tight knit that group is. And as
Speaker 3: he said, I mean, you got to remember when Dobbs
Speaker 3: and Watson were drafted and then they added Reid and
Speaker 3: Wix the following year. For two and a half years,
Speaker 3: they heard about how young they are, how inexperienced they are,
Speaker 3: how you know, these guys they're not going to be
Speaker 3: able to do it, and they've continually had that chip
Speaker 3: on their shoulder and overcome those types of things. Certainly
Speaker 3: they've gone through some different stuff this year as well.
Speaker 3: There were drops. There was the issue there early in
Speaker 3: the season with Romeo Dobbs and then him not being available.
Speaker 3: You know, certainly you look at Christian Watson and his injury.
Speaker 3: It is a huge, huge hit to take right on
Speaker 3: the cusp of the playoffs. But this this room, by
Speaker 3: and large, how close it is and how battle tested
Speaker 3: it is, they feel like this is a great opportunity
Speaker 3: for them. Now they have everybody from Jayden Reid at
Speaker 3: the top to the guys right at you know, they're
Speaker 3: gonna be filling in these spots with some of the
Speaker 3: opportunities lower on the depth chart. Each guy, to a
Speaker 3: man feels like they owe something to Watson, they owe
Speaker 3: something to this offense to step up their game. And
Speaker 3: I'll tell you this too. It didn't make its way
Speaker 3: into the story because there's only so many words that
Speaker 3: can be written, but Jaden Reid is very hungry to
Speaker 3: kind of change the narrative with himself as well. Great start,
Speaker 3: fantastic start against Philadelphia. Came up big for green Bay
Speaker 3: during the first half of the season. It's been a
Speaker 3: little bit more of a slog in the second half.
Speaker 3: He understands his role to play in this as well.
Speaker 3: And I just they're going up against the number one
Speaker 3: ranked pass defense the National Football Leaguey're going up against
Speaker 3: the number one ranked defense by what twenty yards per game?
Speaker 3: Twenty five yards per game. This is a significant test.
Speaker 3: But green Bay is not backing down for this. And
Speaker 3: I will close this point by something that Maliki said,
Speaker 3: And it doesn't matter who's on the field for green Bay,
Speaker 3: who's ever lined up in front of them, you are
Speaker 3: not going to be able to stand in front of us.
Speaker 3: They feel like they have the explosivity within this offense
Speaker 3: to still make those plays even without number nine available.
Speaker 2: I tell you you can't say enough about the culture
Speaker 2: that has been built in the wide receiver room in
Speaker 2: Green Bay, because it is a bunch of guys that
Speaker 2: are competing for playing time, completing, competing for snaps and
Speaker 2: opportunities and targets and everything like that. But quite frankly,
Speaker 2: you know, the the culture in the culture in that
Speaker 2: room is so impressive, and I think it goes back to,
Speaker 2: you know, even my early days with Packers dot Com.
Speaker 2: And I'm talking about back in like two thousand and eight,
Speaker 2: nine and ten, when the group is you know, Donald
Speaker 2: Driver and Greg Jennings and James Jones, and then and
Speaker 2: Jordy Nelson joins the group, and then a few years
Speaker 2: later Randall Cobb joins the group, and then a couple
Speaker 2: of years after that, DeVante Adams joins the group. And
Speaker 2: the culture in that room and the coaches right now,
Speaker 2: Jason Rabel, Ryan Mahafey, they deserve a lot of credit.
Speaker 2: But it's also about was what was built in that
Speaker 2: room over the years and has been passed along and
Speaker 2: doesn't really seem to have ever been disrupted, even as
Speaker 2: the as the personnel has changed, It's just the torch
Speaker 2: continues to be passed in terms of the standard that's
Speaker 2: being set how everybody interacts with one another. They understand
Speaker 2: everybody wants to get their catches in theirs and their
Speaker 2: touchdowns and their paychecks, but those individual numbers is not
Speaker 2: what it's all about. And that wide receiver room in
Speaker 2: green Bay, I think is you can't ask for anything
Speaker 2: better in terms of the culture.
Speaker 3: No In Romeo and Christian have good heads on their shoulders.
Speaker 3: I mean, if they would have come in without any
Speaker 3: of that knowledge whatsoever, I think Green Bay would have
Speaker 3: been fine. But I go back to twenty twenty two
Speaker 3: and so much about that season was lost. But having
Speaker 3: the opportunity to work with Randall Cobb and Alan Lazard
Speaker 3: that year, I mean I remember rome even talking about
Speaker 3: his interactions with Sammy Watkins, who was only here for
Speaker 3: a short time, right, but a guy that was a
Speaker 3: former number four overall pick, that had done it at
Speaker 3: a high level, was on the tail end of his career.
Speaker 3: But kind of showing those young guys how this thing
Speaker 3: works and how to carry yourself as a professional, that's
Speaker 3: a huge, huge thing. And green Bay we've talked so
Speaker 3: much about the depth all season long and guys not
Speaker 3: getting their opportunities, guys like Bull Milt and Malik Keith
Speaker 3: having to be patient just to get on the field,
Speaker 3: let alone get a target. Well, now this is the chance.
Speaker 3: And Bo did it last year in Minnesota, he did
Speaker 3: it in Dallas. You look at you know, these guys
Speaker 3: who have stepped up when they haven't had Christian Watson
Speaker 3: in the past. Green Bay needs all of it because
Speaker 3: as much as this game, in my opinion, as we
Speaker 3: slide into Keys to Victory, is about running the football,
Speaker 3: well you have to be able to keep them honest
Speaker 3: with the passing game, and all four or five guys
Speaker 3: that'll be up in this one are going to have
Speaker 3: a hand in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, one other thought, just in terms of something I
Speaker 2: heard in the locker room on Wednesday after practice that
Speaker 2: I really liked, and hearing it from Jordan Love, who
Speaker 2: is answering all these questions about his elbow and how
Speaker 2: does he feel and you know, are you cutting it
Speaker 2: loose or not? You know, et cetera, et cetera. But
Speaker 2: he's asked about the playoff experience of last year, not
Speaker 2: only for himself but for you know, for a lot
Speaker 2: of these guys who were in the playoffs for the
Speaker 2: first time last year, just like he was. And I
Speaker 2: thought what I heard from Jordan Love was was to
Speaker 2: me the right the right mental balance, I guess for
Speaker 2: lack of a better phrase, and that, yes, what these
Speaker 2: guys did in the playoffs last year provides a bit
Speaker 2: of confidence that you can you know that that you've
Speaker 2: been in this situation, you know how to perform, you
Speaker 2: can get it done. The moment's not too big for you, right.
Speaker 2: But in the same breath, Jordan Love says, but we
Speaker 2: can't live on what we did last year against the
Speaker 2: Dallas Cowboys. This is about going out there and having
Speaker 2: to do it again, you know. And I just I
Speaker 2: felt like it feels like mentally, for everything that's going
Speaker 2: on with regard to the you know, the injuries with
Speaker 2: the quarterback and with Christian Watson and JayR Alexander being
Speaker 2: out now and all of that stuff that is swirling
Speaker 2: around this team, and the huge challenge that you're facing
Speaker 2: in the Eagles with the number one ranked defense, the
Speaker 2: number one running back, all of all of this stuff,
Speaker 2: it feels to me like, mentally, whatever happens on Sunday.
Speaker 2: I think mentally, this Packers team is in the right place. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and it was just it was good to hear that.
Speaker 2: I think that I think that stems from the way
Speaker 2: Matt Lafleur leads this team, but also the way the
Speaker 2: locker room leaders lead this team. When you're talking about
Speaker 2: guys like Jordan Love and Elton Jenkins and Xavier McKinney
Speaker 2: and Josh Jacobs and those types of guys. I don't
Speaker 2: know what's going to happen on Sunday, Wes, and we'll
Speaker 2: talk about what the Packers need to do to win
Speaker 2: the game. But the Packers are not going out there intimidated.
Speaker 2: But they're also not going out there and you know,
Speaker 2: in any sort of overconfident way because oh, yeah, well
Speaker 2: we were the seventh seed last year and we walked
Speaker 2: off the two seed and blew them out of their
Speaker 2: own building. Like nobody's living off of that. Yes, it's
Speaker 2: part of their history and it gives some confidence, but
Speaker 2: they know that it doesn't matter once the ball gets
Speaker 2: kicked off on Sunday.
Speaker 3: You played baseball at the collegiate level, I did. Did
Speaker 3: you ever have a game? Thinking back? And I don't
Speaker 3: know how good Lawrence was back then, but we.
Speaker 1: Weren't very good.
Speaker 3: Did you ever get off to a big lead, you know,
Speaker 3: five to six run first inning? Sure, like what I
Speaker 3: was thinking about. I wasn't a part of the love
Speaker 3: press or scrum, but I was in some of the
Speaker 3: other stuff. And in these topics come up about Dallas. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think the lasting takeaway from that game, and honestly
Speaker 3: probably carried a little bit into the season, was when
Speaker 3: you talk about the importance of a fast start. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's about building five six runs, or it's about scoring
Speaker 3: twenty seven points against Dallas to get up. You know,
Speaker 3: Dallas doesn't score in that game until literally the clock
Speaker 3: hit zero in the first half. Right, Yes, it's important
Speaker 3: to have that fast start, but it's also the momentum
Speaker 3: that's derived from that, it's the confidence that's derived from that,
Speaker 3: and it's the way you can take the air out
Speaker 3: of the balloon. In a road venue. This is going
Speaker 3: to be a much more hostile vironment than at and
Speaker 3: T Stadium. Credit to the Cowboys. It's a good place.
Speaker 3: It's an unbelievable venue for football. But Philly is different.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3: It's walking into the ECW Arena, you know, with those fans,
Speaker 3: you know, cheering and shouting at you. That same type
Speaker 3: of vibe is going to be at the link and
Speaker 3: for green Bay, I feel like the lasting takeaway. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you can't take anything from that. Nothing that you did
Speaker 3: in Dallas last year is going to help you on
Speaker 3: Sunday in terms of point that you put up on
Speaker 3: the board. Yeah, but the reminder of how you have
Speaker 3: to jump out on teams in the momentum you have
Speaker 3: to build in that first quarter. Packers have talked about
Speaker 3: it every single week of the season fast starts, how
Speaker 3: critical it is in every game, but especially for this
Speaker 3: football team, regardless of whether or not you take the
Speaker 3: football first, regardless of whether or not you get the
Speaker 3: ball first. That is I think one of the big
Speaker 3: lessons that Green Bay learned from that game over Dallas,
Speaker 3: and it is going to be absolutely critical to being
Speaker 3: able to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I want, I do want to get to
Speaker 2: our keys to victory, but I will take care of
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Speaker 2: Wes Keys to victory, there are a lot of them.
Speaker 2: You've got to do a lot of things right to
Speaker 2: beat a fourteen and three football team in their own
Speaker 2: building in the playoffs. What's at the top of the
Speaker 2: list for you?
Speaker 3: I made an excellent point and insider inbox you always do.
Speaker 3: I don't know about that, yeah, But going back to
Speaker 3: the Saquon Barkley games the end of the twenty three season,
Speaker 3: which honestly, if you think back on it, that loss
Speaker 3: to the Giants, probably you're gonna go down as one
Speaker 3: of the worst ones we've had in the laflor Era.
Speaker 1: But that's bad.
Speaker 3: But the lessons that were learned that day, I mean,
Speaker 3: I think that was kind of in some ways the
Speaker 3: beginning of the run for Green Bay when they finally
Speaker 3: were able to start stringing the victories again at the
Speaker 3: end of the season. But you go back to that game,
Speaker 3: green Bay defended Saquon Barkley so well. You go back
Speaker 3: to this opener in Brazil, they defended Saquon Barkley so well.
Speaker 3: And the point I was making with the insider inbox
Speaker 3: Barb was that forty nine rushing yards on eighteen first
Speaker 3: half carries in those two games, two point seven yards
Speaker 3: per carry. In the second half of those two games,
Speaker 3: one hundred and forty rushing yards on twenty six attempts,
Speaker 3: five point four yards per carry. It's not even that
Speaker 3: the Packers defense, oh they stopped defending the run. Well, No,
Speaker 3: this is the problem that Saquon Barkley presents. He is
Speaker 3: going to keep hammering on you until that door finally bashes.
Speaker 3: In Green Bay, to the best of its ability, cannot
Speaker 3: allow that door to fall. You have to be able
Speaker 3: to keep up that wave of momentum. Certainly, you don't
Speaker 3: want them to get off to a fast start, but
Speaker 3: even if you get to halftime and he has ten
Speaker 3: rushing yards, you have to treat it like he has
Speaker 3: one hundred and forty. You have to treat it like
Speaker 3: you have to be able to stop this guy on
Speaker 3: every single down he touches the ball. Because you're talking
Speaker 3: about all these different things that have to happen in
Speaker 3: this game for the Green Bay Packers to win. Number
Speaker 3: One is Saquon Barkley not running through this defense that
Speaker 3: has been historically solid against the run.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is the type of challenge when it's when
Speaker 2: it's a running back like Barkley, that is, it becomes
Speaker 2: a different stop the run challenge because when an offense
Speaker 2: has the best running back in the league and a
Speaker 2: guy who I believe this year he had four touchdown
Speaker 2: runs of sixty five plus yard yep. The thing is,
Speaker 2: no matter how much the Packers stop him, the Eagles
Speaker 2: are going to keep feeding him the ball because he
Speaker 2: is as much a big play home run threat as
Speaker 2: anything that Jalen Hurts can do with AJ Brown or
Speaker 2: DeVante Smith or anybody else out there. So you can
Speaker 2: stop him for two and a half, three even three
Speaker 2: and a half quarters all you want, He's going to
Speaker 2: keep getting the football and they will make you stop
Speaker 2: him for all four quarters. You know, thinking back to
Speaker 2: the Dallas game last year, if the Packers are able
Speaker 2: to say, the Packers are able to jump out top
Speaker 2: and build a lead, so maybe it's thirteen nothing, seventeen nothing,
Speaker 2: something like that, and you're getting close to the end
Speaker 2: of the first half, steikwon. Barkley is going to keep
Speaker 2: getting the football even if the score is seventeen to nothing,
Speaker 2: even if the score is twenty to nothing, because he
Speaker 2: can bust a seventy yard touchdown run. He can take
Speaker 2: it to the house at any time. So the Eagles
Speaker 2: are going to keep pounding away like that. So the
Speaker 2: four quarter challenge that he presents in terms of stopping
Speaker 2: the run is really unlike anything I think the Packers
Speaker 2: have faced all year, since since Week one in Brazil,
Speaker 2: when Barkley kept pounding away, you know, all the way
Speaker 2: along to the very last possession.
Speaker 3: And that was one of the few games where Green
Speaker 3: Bay allowed to carry more than thirty yards this entire season.
Speaker 3: They still have not allowed to care forty yards this season,
Speaker 3: which they have to be able to continue to come
Speaker 3: up with this victory. But I just it's funny, man,
Speaker 3: Like two years ago, people were ready I'm going into
Speaker 3: the twenty two season, people were ready to sell the
Speaker 3: ship and sell the farm on Barkley. Too many injuries.
Speaker 3: They felt like, Okay, maybe this is sort of a
Speaker 3: flash of the pan. What he did earlier in his career.
Speaker 3: He put the injuries beside behind him, he willed the
Speaker 3: Giants to the playoffs and it didn't happen for them
Speaker 3: again in the second year. But this guy has always
Speaker 3: been the guy he has been since he entered the league.
Speaker 3: It's him, It's Josh Jacobs. It's been Derrick Henry for
Speaker 3: almost a decade now. I mean, like, it's just crazy
Speaker 3: that we even got to this point that people are
Speaker 3: talking about devaluing running backs and things like this. But
Speaker 3: the Philadelphia Eagles have nine hundred more rushing yards than
Speaker 3: they did last season. I don't even think they've carried
Speaker 3: it that many more times. Yeah, but that's the Barkley effect.
Speaker 3: I mean, Jalen Hurts. His stats as far as running
Speaker 3: concerned are almost identical to last season. The difference is
Speaker 3: their lead back had twice as many rushing yards. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you have to be able to stop him.
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned the name Josh Jacobs, and I think
Speaker 2: that's a big one here for Green Bay as well,
Speaker 2: because regardless of what Jordan Loves, health is going to be,
Speaker 2: you know, his elbow and obviously the the Packers are
Speaker 2: going to need to stay balanced on offense. One way
Speaker 2: to do that, of course, is to is to not
Speaker 2: fall behind by multiple scores. Don't let the other team
Speaker 2: make you get into a one dimensional type of game,
Speaker 2: because that's what Philadelphia will be wanting to do. And
Speaker 2: then they'll want that crazy crowd at the Link to
Speaker 2: be cranking it up, you know, on third downs, knowing
Speaker 2: the Packers have to throw all the time, et cetera,
Speaker 2: et cetera. Josh Jacobs is a huge key to that
Speaker 2: in terms of keeping the offense balanced, keeping the keeping
Speaker 2: the Eagles defense honest, and as you said, Wes, the
Speaker 2: keeping the keeping the defense honest, things sort of cuts
Speaker 2: both ways, right You. The Packers can't just completely lean
Speaker 2: on Josh Jacob. They're going to have to throw the ball.
Speaker 2: They're going to have to you know, work the ball
Speaker 2: horizontally as well as vertically. Make the Eagles defend, you know,
Speaker 2: absolutely as much physical territory as possible and.
Speaker 1: See what you can get done.
Speaker 2: And when I think back to Week one and that
Speaker 2: game game in Brazil that we watched on that Friday night,
Speaker 2: what the Packers absolutely cannot afford to do, which which
Speaker 2: really cost him the game back in Week one, is
Speaker 2: to is to stall out in the red zone. You've
Speaker 2: got to be able to finish drives because the Packers
Speaker 2: did enough offensively in terms of moving the football and
Speaker 2: getting opportunities. They did enough to win that game offensively,
Speaker 2: but they didn't put the points up that they should
Speaker 2: have because they didn't finish enough drives. And that's going
Speaker 2: to be it's going to be that much harder to
Speaker 2: do in a true road game against this defense to
Speaker 2: be playing at the link as opposed to be playing
Speaker 2: at a you know, quote unquote neutral field. But finishing
Speaker 2: drives is the other thing that's at the top of
Speaker 2: my list here, because if the Packers are settling for
Speaker 2: field goals, you just it's going to be very hard
Speaker 2: to put up enough points to outlast the Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: And you also have to go even think of like
Speaker 3: last week, you know, without Jalen Hurts, they still beat
Speaker 3: the Giants twenty to thirteen, but you'd have to go
Speaker 3: all the way back to Week four for the last
Speaker 3: time they scored fewer than twenty points.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is one of the.
Speaker 3: Most high octane, high efficient offenses in the National Football League,
Speaker 3: And now you have Vic Fangio's defense complimenting that. You have, guys,
Speaker 3: you know, when you look at Quinjon Mitchell coming in.
Speaker 3: When you look at obviously Cooper dejen what he has
Speaker 3: added as sort of a versatile piece in that secondary.
Speaker 3: The areas that it seemed like Philadelphia came up short
Speaker 3: last season what sort of led to their fall during
Speaker 3: that final stretch of the year. They filled those holes
Speaker 3: on both sides of the ball, and it has allowed
Speaker 3: them to be a much more complete football team this season.
Speaker 3: The Green Bay Packers have to understand that, yeah, we
Speaker 3: are still the youngest team in the NFL. We were
Speaker 3: the youngest team in the NFL for the first time
Speaker 3: in back to back years, but we also are much
Speaker 3: more experienced than we are last year. You have that
Speaker 3: experience now of going down to Brazil, playing on that surface,
Speaker 3: playing that far away from home, against an opponent of
Speaker 3: that caliber, and coming up short, but understanding where you
Speaker 3: came up short. Protecting the football, situational offense and defense.
Speaker 3: These are the keys not only to winning in the
Speaker 3: National Football League, but lasting in the playoffs. You don't
Speaker 3: do those two things, You're going home.
Speaker 2: Yeah and this and this game isn't going to be
Speaker 2: isn't going to be won with any kind of you know,
Speaker 2: psychological tricks or anything like that because what I'm sensing
Speaker 2: in a granted I'm not there, but paying attention to
Speaker 2: kind of what's out there in the media and the
Speaker 2: comments that are coming from Philadelphia. What I sense is
Speaker 2: that the Philadelphia Eagles, they are perfectly content with the
Speaker 2: fact that all the attention in the NFC for the
Speaker 2: last couple of weeks was on the Vikings and the
Speaker 2: Lions and who was going to get the number one. Absolutely,
Speaker 2: they knew their quarterback was in concussion protocol and there
Speaker 2: were certainly some concerns there. But now you head into
Speaker 2: this week and they're they're absolutely fine with all the
Speaker 2: analysts talking about what the Packers did last year as
Speaker 2: a number seven seed and went down to Dallas, the
Speaker 2: NFC East champs and blew them out of their building
Speaker 2: and all that. The Philadelphia Eagles just strike me as
Speaker 2: a team that is they they are, they are lying
Speaker 2: in wait. They know everybody knows how they completely collapsed
Speaker 2: at the end of last season, and there were all
Speaker 2: kinds of questions about where the franchise was headed. They've
Speaker 2: answered a lot of those questions. But this is a
Speaker 2: team that strikes me as one that is that is
Speaker 2: ready to answer a lot more and uh and the
Speaker 2: as I said before, I think the Packers mentally are
Speaker 2: in a really good space, uh going out there to
Speaker 2: uh to take on this challenge. But man, you have
Speaker 2: to you have to be able to match every ounce
Speaker 2: of intensity that the Eagles are going to bring into
Speaker 2: this game, because this is a team that's out to
Speaker 2: prove something.
Speaker 3: They're intense, they're physical. But I'll tell you something else though, Mike,
Speaker 3: You're right, they've answered a lot of those questions, but
Speaker 3: the real answer doesn't really matter until now.
Speaker 1: That's right. You're right.
Speaker 3: There was a thing that happened with Marty Schottenheimer for
Speaker 3: a lot of years, especially during his run with the Chargers,
Speaker 3: where they'd have these really good regular seasons and then
Speaker 3: they didn't get it done. Now, credit to the Eagles,
Speaker 3: they've made a super Bowl, they've taken that next steps,
Speaker 3: more steps than a lot of teams make, but they
Speaker 3: still haven't brought back that Lombardi Trophy since the Nick
Speaker 3: Foles year. So that part of it makes me think, Yeah,
Speaker 3: you should be confident your fourteen win team. You answered
Speaker 3: the skeptics, You survived what was going to be a
Speaker 3: really tenuous first month of the season. If you don't
Speaker 3: start fast. Yeah, and you're at this point, but yet
Speaker 3: you still need to win. And that's why I made
Speaker 3: the comment and insider inbox, I'm like, the pressure is
Speaker 3: still all with them. Green Bay can take as much
Speaker 3: pressure and they want to put that on their shoulders.
Speaker 3: That's fine, But realistically they're in the same spot as
Speaker 3: last year as far as playing with house money. And
Speaker 3: that's why I'm really interested to watch this first half
Speaker 3: on Sunday afternoon. If you get off to a fast start,
Speaker 3: how do the Eagles respond? How does that fan base respond?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: But you got to earn it, yeah, to be able
Speaker 3: to see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt about one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: Well, I do want to talk about the rest of
Speaker 2: wild Card weekend here in the NFL. Will start in
Speaker 2: the NFC. The other two games, both of which will
Speaker 2: actually take place after the Packers play. Washington is at
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay in the Sunday night game, and then Minnesota
Speaker 2: is at the La Rams in the Monday night game.
Speaker 2: As far as Washington Tampa Bay, it's fascinating. I know
Speaker 2: I was having conversations with you about this and then
Speaker 2: I did a little bit more research and posted it
Speaker 2: in my road to the Super Bowl story that went
Speaker 2: up on the website on Tuesday afternoon. Washington enters the
Speaker 2: playoffs as a twelve and five team. Literally half of
Speaker 2: their wins, six of them have come in either the
Speaker 2: last five seconds or literally the last play of the game.
Speaker 2: Six of their twelve when you look at their season,
Speaker 2: including for like four in a row here down the
Speaker 2: stretch to get to twelve and five, which got them
Speaker 2: the sixth seed, and the trip to Tampa Bay absolutely
Speaker 2: fascinating in that regard, like, you know what that team
Speaker 2: has done in all these down to the wire games
Speaker 2: and then Tampa Bay. Baker Mayfield is as hot a
Speaker 2: quarterback as any in the league right now. Over his
Speaker 2: last I believe four games, he's got one hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty plus passer raatee essentially over the last month. Tampa
Speaker 2: Bay is a team that, yeah, they don't have a
Speaker 2: great record, they won a crappy division, but that's a
Speaker 2: team that's confident they can go out win games right now.
Speaker 3: Too. The way that that draft class is rallied too,
Speaker 3: has just been incredible. I mean, Darnold obviously is in
Speaker 3: this playoff right with Minnesota, but right Baker Mayfield man
Speaker 3: when he is hot. There is nobody that strikes the
Speaker 3: match hotter than he does. I mean when he catches fire,
Speaker 3: that guy is just an inferno. Yeah, and he's doing
Speaker 3: it again. I'm really interested to see him at up
Speaker 3: with Dan Quinn's defense and how they counter that. Quinn's
Speaker 3: defense have been up and down at various points of
Speaker 3: the season. It does seem like they've sort of peaked
Speaker 3: towards the end of the year, though, And certainly when
Speaker 3: you talk about Giden Daniels, you're talking about the NFL
Speaker 3: offensive rookie of the Year. I know it's going to
Speaker 3: be probably a couple days before we hear any of that,
Speaker 3: but that is it has to be what happened. Oh yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 3: this guy has been electrifying, but he's also been incredibly
Speaker 3: clutch as a rookie player in his first NFL season.
Speaker 3: You just that aspect of it you can't say enough
Speaker 3: about because at the end of the day, you can
Speaker 3: have fancy stats and you can do this and that,
Speaker 3: do you win football games? He wins football games? Did
Speaker 3: you I got to kick out of this? Did you
Speaker 3: see that stat? Not that this is anything to do
Speaker 3: with the games you lined up for me, but this
Speaker 3: is the eighth playoff trip for the Houston Texans and
Speaker 3: they've never not been in the three thirty time slot
Speaker 3: on set.
Speaker 1: Yeah I did. I did hear.
Speaker 2: Every single time every Houston Houston Texans Wild Card AFC
Speaker 2: Wildcard game is at the three thirty Central on Saturday afternoon,
Speaker 2: they had They've been in the same time slot every time.
Speaker 3: The Houston Texans are like the ginger ale and like
Speaker 3: the combination box with like the cherry soda and the
Speaker 3: orange and what ends up being left at the very end,
Speaker 3: and they just they keep throwing into that same spot,
Speaker 3: like all right, well, this is the playoff game. We'll
Speaker 3: get it out of the way and then we'll move
Speaker 3: on with the rest of the tournament. But also the
Speaker 3: fact that the three AFC games are all happening before
Speaker 3: the NFC game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. It's kind of interesting how that fell.
Speaker 3: Pittsburgh and Baltimore are playing for the third time in
Speaker 3: fifteen days or whatever it feels like at this point.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's third.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been like two months. But I mean, like
Speaker 3: it's still crazy, like those teams. It just seems like
Speaker 3: every time I turn on a television they're playing each other.
Speaker 2: Well, here, let me get your thoughts on the AFC
Speaker 2: games and then we'll go back to Minnesota and La.
Speaker 3: Can you tell the ones that I can watch?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm actually really yeah, the ones we're going to
Speaker 2: get to watch. So the Chargers are at the Texans,
Speaker 2: the Steelers are at the Ravens, and the Broncos are
Speaker 2: are at the Bills. The vast majority of the football
Speaker 2: analyst world is going to pick the Chargers, the Ravens,
Speaker 2: and the Bills to win those three games overwhelmingly. That
Speaker 2: will be the sentiment. Do you do you have one
Speaker 2: of those three games that you that you would say,
Speaker 2: not to say you're gonna predict the upset, but that
Speaker 2: you think would maybe have the best chance of going
Speaker 2: the other way.
Speaker 3: I wonder if CJ. Stroud can catch something here. Okay,
Speaker 3: it's weird to say a team that's a four seed
Speaker 3: and is hosting a game is like the underdog. But
Speaker 3: I mean, like, well, the way.
Speaker 2: The way they played against the Ravens when they had
Speaker 2: at home very recently, that was that was ugly.
Speaker 3: But is it that you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 2: No, I got I mean the guy was the NFL
Speaker 2: Offensive Rookie of the Year last year, and and yeah,
Speaker 2: this is a this is a guy who's capable of
Speaker 2: throwing for four hundred yards and four touchdowns at any time. Now,
Speaker 2: the Chargers defense is one of the best in the league.
Speaker 2: That's gonna be risingly big time challenge there. But but yeah,
Speaker 2: you can't whenever you have a playmaker, especially a young
Speaker 2: playmaker who's gone through the ups and downs and everything,
Speaker 2: you can never count a guy like that out.
Speaker 3: And in the other aspect, sometimes this stuff just doesn't
Speaker 3: make sense right, Like you will just be like, Okay,
Speaker 3: well the Chargers are rolling hardball's got these guys going well,
Speaker 3: and then just something happens where you remember, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: this is the National Football League. Any of these teams
Speaker 3: can beat each other at any time. You know, if
Speaker 3: the Chargers have all the pieces. They've gotten really banged
Speaker 3: up at receiver, but they have the pieces to be
Speaker 3: able to contest with that game. The other two. I
Speaker 3: can't sit here and honestly tell you the Pittsburgh Steelers
Speaker 3: on the losing streak that they're on going up against
Speaker 3: Lamar playing the way he's playing right now, the way
Speaker 3: that entire team is playing that they're going to have
Speaker 3: a chance, and then ultimately, I'd be silly to be
Speaker 3: sitting here talking about how good Buffalo is all season
Speaker 3: and say, oh yeah, bo Nix is going to go
Speaker 3: in there and knock them out of the playoffs. Now,
Speaker 3: that would be demoralizing. But I mean, when you look
Speaker 3: in terms of the overall consistency of a season, it's
Speaker 3: hard to find a team. Maybe no, I don't evenk
Speaker 3: you say de Troit because Buffalo beat him in their
Speaker 3: own place, But maybe it's Detroit. But Buffalo has just
Speaker 3: from beginning, middle and ends, has been the team that
Speaker 3: has just been the most consistent one throughout the course
Speaker 3: of this thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with you. There the one thing I
Speaker 2: will say and then we'll move on. But the one
Speaker 2: thing I will say about Pittsburgh and Baltimore and the
Speaker 2: reason it intrigues me, even though Pittsburgh is on this
Speaker 2: losing streak and they're not playing all that well, something
Speaker 2: about division games in the playoffs. Y, when it's the
Speaker 2: third meeting, and as you said, this is the third
Speaker 2: meeting in a very short period of time between these
Speaker 2: two teams. When when it's division opponents that meet and
Speaker 2: they know each other so well, and you know one
Speaker 2: team is obviously Baltimore's kind of had Pittsburgh's number here
Speaker 2: this year. It's one of those things that I know
Speaker 2: everybody is writing the Steelers off. And yes, if gambling
Speaker 2: weren't illegal at bookster, I would be putting money on
Speaker 2: the Baltimore Ravens to win this game. I absolutely, one
Speaker 2: hundred percent believe the Ravens will win in advance. I'm
Speaker 2: just very curious because it's a division matchup, it's a
Speaker 2: familiar opponent, it's the third time in a short period
Speaker 2: of time. Maybe just maybe that gives you know, Pittsburgh
Speaker 2: goal will will find something here and make it a
Speaker 2: better game than a lot of people think it's gonna be.
Speaker 3: And I'm sure Mike Tomlin is telling his guys, we
Speaker 3: beat these guys. You know, it was in our place,
Speaker 3: but we beat them. And Russell Wilson did not play
Speaker 3: well like but they still found a way.
Speaker 2: And that's the other That's the other thing too about
Speaker 2: this one that intrigues me because Mike Tomlin is he's
Speaker 2: one of the best coaches in the league. He's going
Speaker 2: to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, someday,
Speaker 2: and this is the guy who hasn't won a playoff
Speaker 2: game in quite a while. Yeah, I think you go
Speaker 2: back to you have to go back to twenty sixteen
Speaker 2: or twenty seventeen, something like that for Mike Tomlin's last
Speaker 2: playoff win. Good coaches, coaches that are that good, you know,
Speaker 2: they'll they'll find a way to end a drought like that.
Speaker 2: And uh and again, it's just it's it's the thing
Speaker 2: that intrigues me about about the Pittsburgh Baltimore matchup, and
Speaker 2: I'm really curious to see if if Tomlin can can
Speaker 2: change the narrative.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have to go back to I think it's
Speaker 3: it was twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1: Twenty sixteen. Yeah, I knew it'd been. It'd been a while.
Speaker 2: I think I think he's lost either six or like
Speaker 2: six playoff games in a rowers.
Speaker 3: One thing that's really unfair to him though, that I mean,
Speaker 3: it is what it is. You're no one's crying for
Speaker 3: you in the n NFL. But like there are some
Speaker 3: teams that he got there that probably shouldn't have been.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's that's that's you get dogged for that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's the thing. That's the beauty of Mike Tomlin is
Speaker 2: he get he gets teams to the playoffs that nobody
Speaker 2: that nobody thinks would would even have a chance to
Speaker 2: get there over the course of a long season, and
Speaker 2: and they get into the playoffs, and yeah, in recent
Speaker 2: years they have been able to win any games. But
Speaker 2: I just wonder if if he's going to be able
Speaker 2: to uh, to flip the script a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: got to get your thoughts though Minnesota at the RAMS,
Speaker 2: I made the comment and insider inbox, Uh, you know,
Speaker 2: we're talking a lot about the Packers' resiliency being tested. Obviously,
Speaker 2: a tough loss against Minnesota, a big division opponent there,
Speaker 2: then you don't play well at all the Bears and
Speaker 2: end up losing right at the end. Going into the
Speaker 2: playoffs on a two game losing streak, you got to
Speaker 2: hit the road. The Packers' resiliency is being tested big
Speaker 2: time here. I think Minnesota's resiliency is being tested just
Speaker 2: as much because of everything that went into I mean,
Speaker 2: such a high stakes Week eighteen game on the road.
Speaker 2: It's the difference between the one seed and the five seed,
Speaker 2: between getting a bye and playing at home in the
Speaker 2: divisional round to having to go on the road right away,
Speaker 2: and they're going up against a team that beat them
Speaker 2: early here in the season in that building and b
Speaker 2: a Rams team that where Sean McVay didn't care about
Speaker 2: the seed, He didn't care if he was the three
Speaker 2: or the four. He felt it was better for his
Speaker 2: team to rest his guys, get ready and try to
Speaker 2: have everybody as fresh as possible for whatever opponent would
Speaker 2: be coming into to Sofi Stadium. It's a this is
Speaker 2: this is a this is a big time challenge for
Speaker 2: Minnesota and.
Speaker 3: It was a big time gamble. It was a big
Speaker 3: time risk by McVeigh. Yep. We're going to figure out
Speaker 3: whether or not it pays off because there's a number
Speaker 3: of ways to look at this thing. The probably the
Speaker 3: biggest one is, well, okay, you're picking your poison as
Speaker 3: far as who you're gonna play, but do you just
Speaker 3: want to start to bite through that right at the
Speaker 3: beginning and start to get through that elephant you know
Speaker 3: from day one, and if you beat the Minnesota Vikings,
Speaker 3: you take on the world, right you just see where
Speaker 3: it takes you from there.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: So you had the half round by or whatever you
Speaker 3: want to call this with with sitting in all the
Speaker 3: guys they did. And the other thing too. You'd be
Speaker 3: remiss not to say the Rams have been banged up
Speaker 3: every way a team can be banged up but still
Speaker 3: be in the playoffs with its core players, Like it's insane,
Speaker 3: Like the fact that they got San Francisco never got
Speaker 3: everybody back right. The Rams somehow did like and they
Speaker 3: had bad injuries, especially at the receiver position, and.
Speaker 2: They were able to outlast the Seattle Seahawks.
Speaker 1: It's had.
Speaker 2: The Seahawks had a very tough schedule down the stretch.
Speaker 2: They lost home games back to back to the Packers
Speaker 2: and the Vikings. That put the Rams in control. And
Speaker 2: the Rams snagged that division that got there and got
Speaker 2: their playoff spot. And then once they had it, Sean
Speaker 2: mcvage was like, all right, then, I don't care what
Speaker 2: seed we are. We're gonna rest up our guys and
Speaker 2: get ready to make a run.
Speaker 3: And for how bad that defense was at certain points
Speaker 3: this season, the way they finished out against the division,
Speaker 3: finished out against Geno Smith. You saw what Gino did
Speaker 3: in the finale. I mean, like that guy still he
Speaker 3: threw for a career high passing yards. This year, I
Speaker 3: think more touchdowns than he's ever had. I mean, like,
Speaker 3: the guy is a real threat that you have to
Speaker 3: find ways to get through the Rams. Did that, here's
Speaker 3: your reward, You get to face a fourteen win wild
Speaker 3: card team. But you know, seeing where this takes him
Speaker 3: is going to be really fascinating to watch, because as
Speaker 3: long as the Packers are alive, I want to see
Speaker 3: the fewest amount of NFC North teams available, you know,
Speaker 3: the rest of the way. Not because I don't think
Speaker 3: they can beat them, because you don't want to sit
Speaker 3: there and play you know division, you know, on cheer
Speaker 3: for your division, whatever. But there is also the aspect
Speaker 3: in the back of my head that's like Minnesota is
Speaker 3: such a strange team in the way in which they've
Speaker 3: done this thing this year. Nobody expected them to be here. No,
Speaker 3: I had them down for fourth place in the division.
Speaker 3: So I had them behind the Chicago Bears, and here
Speaker 3: they are Sam Darnald showing what he flashed with the
Speaker 3: forty nine ers was no fluke and this it's crazy, man.
Speaker 3: But this photon of youth that has emerged out in Carolina,
Speaker 3: where these guys go down there and they kind of
Speaker 3: flame out and then they go to another team and
Speaker 3: become Baker Mayfield again, and Donald becomes the player that
Speaker 3: he's become. I mean, it's it's it's been crazy to watch.
Speaker 3: I think we won't be able to probably enjoy that
Speaker 3: game at all, But I think that's probably I can
Speaker 3: see why that was the one that was put on
Speaker 3: Monday Night Football because it is a real juggernaut of
Speaker 3: a matchup in terms of the wild card round and
Speaker 3: how that is formulated.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is one hundred percent. And the whole Sean
Speaker 2: McVay Kevin O'Connell thing is interesting as well, obviously, as
Speaker 2: amongst the many coaching connections and all that that we
Speaker 2: talked about over the years with the I guess what
Speaker 2: you'd call the Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan tree.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the double tree.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 3: I want to mention this too when I say we
Speaker 3: can't really enjoy it Monday Night. And the reason I
Speaker 3: say that is for two reasons. One, if the Packers lose,
Speaker 3: I don't care about football anymore. And two, if the
Speaker 3: Packers win, correct me if I'm wrong here. You're playing
Speaker 3: on Saturday night, right, There's no situation in which Green
Speaker 3: Bay could even play the following Sunday.
Speaker 1: Correct, I that's that's the part I don't know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or because they because they haven't announced, they haven't
Speaker 2: announced what timeslot Detroit is in.
Speaker 3: So you could potentially have both of them on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, never been.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because well because see here's the thing, like the
Speaker 2: way I understand it, like they what what the NFL
Speaker 2: is not going to do is the NFL is not
Speaker 2: going to have the Monday night winner between the Rams
Speaker 2: and the Vikings play on Saturday. Right, Yes, so, but
Speaker 2: but you don't know which of which opponent, the Rams
Speaker 2: or the Vikings winner is going to get until all
Speaker 2: the other games, like you know, until all the other
Speaker 2: games play out, and then you know, and then you
Speaker 2: figure out who's going where. So there, so there's there's
Speaker 2: more to sort out, you know, because what they used
Speaker 2: to do when there were the two bys, when they
Speaker 2: were the two buys per conference, they would actually, like
Speaker 2: when the Packers would have a bye as one of
Speaker 2: the top two seeds, we would actually know right now
Speaker 2: during the during the playoff, by what timeslot the following
Speaker 2: weekend the Packers had. They had that all set up
Speaker 2: in advance.
Speaker 1: Now that they're.
Speaker 2: Playing a wild card game on a Monday night. They
Speaker 2: can't do that anymore because you can't have the Monday
Speaker 2: night winner play on Saturday. Like, that's just not that's
Speaker 2: just not fair at all. So so they have to
Speaker 2: wait for things to sort out before you know what
Speaker 2: the schedule is the following week.
Speaker 3: And this is where I was coming from is because
Speaker 3: in at least the best I know, there has never
Speaker 3: been a weekend where it's been the AFC both games
Speaker 3: on a Saturday, NFC both games on a Sunday. It's
Speaker 3: always NFC and AFC. So under that idea, let's say
Speaker 3: let's say that that is the truth, then the team
Speaker 3: whoever wins with the vikings in the rams conceivably would happen.
Speaker 2: Would play would play Sunday. Yeah, so I hear what
Speaker 2: you're saying. But these days, with the way the whole
Speaker 2: television part works, I honestly don't know.
Speaker 3: Let's put a pin in this and after the packers
Speaker 3: wait on Sunday we can discuss it all over a.
Speaker 2: Good We've gone quite a bit overtime. Apologies to our
Speaker 2: producer Zach and the regular listeners who count on us
Speaker 2: to be a little bit more short and concise. We
Speaker 2: weren't today, but I will finish with this. Folks, be
Speaker 2: among the thousands of football fans cheering on their team's
Speaker 2: NFL picks by joining us April twenty four through April
Speaker 2: twenty six of twenty twenty five for the NFL Draft.
Speaker 2: Visit green Bay dot com slash Draft twenty five for
Speaker 2: more information. And with that, we're going to call it
Speaker 2: a rap on this edition of Packers Unscript to'd be
Speaker 2: sure to follow all of our coverage of Sunday's NFC
Speaker 2: Wildcard playoff game from Philadelphia. Wes and I will both
Speaker 2: be there. We'll have it all for you on Packers
Speaker 2: dot com. For West, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning
Speaker 2: in everybody. We will see you next time.