Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: here from our studios at Lambeufield and Wes unfortunately to
Speaker 1: talk about another tough loss for the Green Bay Packers,
Speaker 1: this one thirty four to twenty against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: And we'll get into some of the specifics in a minute,
Speaker 1: but big picture, two weeks ago, the Packers were six
Speaker 1: and six and things were looking pretty good in terms
Speaker 1: of the teams that you had beaten, what was on
Speaker 1: your schedule, and the opportunity you were going to have
Speaker 1: to keep yourself in the middle of this playoff race.
Speaker 1: And not that the Packers are out of it, but
Speaker 1: these last two games, two huge missed opportunities that now
Speaker 1: have the Packers very much on the outside looking in well.
Speaker 2: And it's just such a difficult thing, Mike, because when
Speaker 2: you go into Detroit with in I understand the Lions,
Speaker 2: they weren't playing their best ball at that point, but
Speaker 2: you go into Detroit and you impose your will on
Speaker 2: the Lions the way you did and then you come
Speaker 2: home in a big Sunday night football matchup against Kansas
Speaker 2: City and you're six and six. I think the enthusiasm
Speaker 2: and the optimism is there because of what a lot
Speaker 2: of pundits called the easiest slate of games to finish
Speaker 2: out a season. Packers at that point their oposing team
Speaker 2: records were twenty and forty. A lot of that having
Speaker 2: to do with this upcoming opponent, the Carolina Panthers. But
Speaker 2: things didn't go well this season for the Giants. Tampa Bay,
Speaker 2: much like Green Bay, has been up and down, and
Speaker 2: for the Packers to kind of give back both of
Speaker 2: those victories that they had against Detroit and Kansas City disheartening.
Speaker 2: And then obviously to have the defensive performance that they
Speaker 2: had against the Bucks, not being able to get off
Speaker 2: the field too much production on third downs, Baker Mayfield
Speaker 2: having a maximum passer rating, and the Green Bay Packers
Speaker 2: ultimately losing what became a shootout. It's tough and it's
Speaker 2: tough to come shooting back down to earth after you
Speaker 2: felt like you're really starting to build towards something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's what this most recent game will be
Speaker 1: remembered for the defensive performance that just allowed Baker Mayfield
Speaker 1: to do whatever he wanted to do. You mentioned a one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty eight point three passer rating, three hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty one yards, four touchdowns. He came sixteen yard
Speaker 1: shy of his career high for yardage in a game,
Speaker 1: which is three ninety seven. And you know, Matt Lafleur,
Speaker 1: he deferred the question on Sunday night. He then answered
Speaker 1: the question on Monday. He's not making any coaching changes
Speaker 1: at this point. Obviously, all those kinds of things are
Speaker 1: going to be evaluated to a greater extent in due time.
Speaker 1: But this Packers' defense has got to figure something out West,
Speaker 1: because no, the Packers are not out of it yet.
Speaker 1: You still have three games left to go. You want
Speaker 1: to start playing better football. But the bottom line is
Speaker 1: for the last two seasons and there have been in reason, yes,
Speaker 1: and every team deals with injuries, but throughout twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two and twenty twenty three, I think the most maddening
Speaker 1: thing about this Packers defense is that it cannot get
Speaker 1: off the roller coaster. It plays good football and then
Speaker 1: it swings the other way. And the distance of the
Speaker 1: swings between what this team's top performances are, and then
Speaker 1: what this team's rock bottom performances are. We've seen it all,
Speaker 1: We've seen it all, and then they can't seem to
Speaker 1: smooth it out, and that just makes it really hard
Speaker 1: to know what you're going to get from that side
Speaker 1: of the ball every week when you take the field.
Speaker 1: That's the bottom line right now.
Speaker 2: And when you say we've seen it all, we saw
Speaker 2: it all. In the sixty minutes of that football game
Speaker 2: on Sunday, the green Bay Packers defense goes on the
Speaker 2: field after Green Bay turns over the ball at its
Speaker 2: own five yard line, and Kingsleyannigbari gets a strip sack
Speaker 2: ess the type of adversity response you want to see,
Speaker 2: taking advantage of that field position and allowing the Packers
Speaker 2: to score a touchdown right after that intake and early lead.
Speaker 2: Kenny Clark gets the six yard sack, pushing and stopping
Speaker 2: the Tampa Bay drive and making them settle for a
Speaker 2: field goal. That's the way Green Bay has been playing
Speaker 2: when they've played well this season, but when they've played poorly.
Speaker 2: It was another manifestation of really those last three quarters
Speaker 2: of that game against Tampa Bay. Too much production in
Speaker 2: the middle of the field a week after giving up
Speaker 2: the rushing yards to Tommy Devido. Some of the trickeration
Speaker 2: that the Giants played in this one, it was Chris Godwin,
Speaker 2: it was Baker from Mayfield, kind of dicing things up
Speaker 2: a little bit. Green Bay got home five times to
Speaker 2: have a season high five sacks and have such a
Speaker 2: drastic swing where if it's gonna be kind of all
Speaker 2: or nothing, well, Mike, you only have five defensive plays
Speaker 2: that result in sacks. There's a lot more defensive plays
Speaker 2: that resulted in production. And for the green Bay Packers,
Speaker 2: by the time it got into that third quarter, in
Speaker 2: that fourth quarter, it just did not feel like they
Speaker 2: were going to be able to find a way to
Speaker 2: get the brakes on the thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you look at the five sacks you mentioned,
Speaker 1: the first two had a huge impact on the game.
Speaker 1: The first sack forces the Buccaneers to kick a field goal,
Speaker 1: and the second one becomes a turnover near the goal
Speaker 1: line that the Packers turn into a touchdown. The other
Speaker 1: three sacks had absolutely no effect on the Buccaneers offense
Speaker 1: quite frankly. I mean, the Packers had him in second
Speaker 1: and twenty nine and they still managed to get a
Speaker 1: field goal before half. They had him in a second
Speaker 1: second and eighteen. At one point the Buccaneers didn't even
Speaker 1: need third down to move the chains. There was a
Speaker 1: third and twelve. They throw a basic wide receiver screen,
Speaker 1: which quite frankly in some ways look like they're going
Speaker 1: to get whatever yards they can and kick the field
Speaker 1: goal rather than take a big risk on third and
Speaker 1: twelve shooting it down the field. Well, the third and
Speaker 1: twelve wide receiver screen turns into sixteen yards in a
Speaker 1: first down and they get a touchdown. You mentioned the
Speaker 1: game kind of became a shootout, because yes, the Buccaneers
Speaker 1: they scored touchdowns on with long drives. I believe it
Speaker 1: was sixty six, seventy five and seventy five yards on
Speaker 1: the on their first three drives of the second half.
Speaker 1: And while the Packers they missed an opportunity going three
Speaker 1: and out to start the second half, and then early
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter they had to settle for a
Speaker 1: field goal. But you know, you get a touchdown in
Speaker 1: the third quarter on a great throw and catch Jordan
Speaker 1: Love to Jaden Reid on a third and long to
Speaker 1: get within twenty seventeen. But then the next time your
Speaker 1: offense gets the ball, you're down twenty seven to seventeen.
Speaker 1: Then you drive, put together another nice drive, but you
Speaker 1: stall out, you kick a field goal, so you're within
Speaker 1: twenty seven to twenty. There's still ten minutes on the clock,
Speaker 1: plenty of ballgame left. But then the next time your
Speaker 1: offense gets the ball back, it's thirty four to twenty
Speaker 1: and the game is for all intents and purposes over.
Speaker 1: You're in desperation mode at that point. It just became
Speaker 1: to the It got to the point where the Packers
Speaker 1: offense was under too much pressure to be perfect because
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers offense was just unrelenting in the Packer's defense
Speaker 1: was unable to do anything about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I think they
Speaker 2: kind of came as advertised, to be honest with you, Mike.
Speaker 2: Specifically on the defensive side of the ball, Jordan Love
Speaker 2: had a fine day. His statistics bared out well. One
Speaker 2: hundred and eleven passer writing whatever. It was a lot
Speaker 2: of times that's going to be good enough to win games.
Speaker 2: This game it was not. But defensively, Tampa Bay played
Speaker 2: up to their billing. They gave up some yards, they
Speaker 2: battened down the hatches in the red zone. They forced
Speaker 2: green Bay into a turnover late that kind of stimied everything,
Speaker 2: That kind of closed the door on any hopes of
Speaker 2: a comeback, and ultimately they just did not blink when
Speaker 2: green Bay did first offensively. And we'll talk about this
Speaker 2: in a second, but I mean there were positives. You're
Speaker 2: seeing guys like Tucker Craft and Dontavian Wicks, you got
Speaker 2: Aaron Jones back in this thing. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: positives to draw from offensively, but in a season in
Speaker 2: which it's been difficult for green Bay to find the
Speaker 2: perfect complimentary pieces to win these type of games, you know,
Speaker 2: the defense came up short and this was the end result.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think I think that's you know, these
Speaker 1: back to back losses are obviously very damaging to green
Speaker 1: Bay season, but very very different losses. We were sitting
Speaker 1: here a week ago, I guess it would have been
Speaker 1: six days ago, coming off of the Monday night game
Speaker 1: against the Giants, talking about a three phase failure. The
Speaker 1: Packers failed pretty miserably, quite frankly, in all three phases
Speaker 1: against the Giants. This one was primarily about one phase,
Speaker 1: not saying the special teams were perfect, but there was
Speaker 1: kind of no harm done there. The offense certainly missed
Speaker 1: a couple of opportunities, but Tampa Bay's got a pretty
Speaker 1: good defense. You're not gonna be able to cash in
Speaker 1: every single time and to have twenty points on the
Speaker 1: board with ten minutes left in the game against a
Speaker 1: good defense. You'll take your chances there. This one was
Speaker 1: about the defense not really giving the Packers a chance
Speaker 1: to be able to win a really, really important home
Speaker 1: game in December. I do want to talk about if
Speaker 1: I could just quickly, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: The fact that Baker Mayfield threw four different touchdowns of
Speaker 2: four different players right, The fact that it was one
Speaker 2: hundred and forty yards I think of two touchdowns on
Speaker 2: third downs. The fact that they did this against Green
Speaker 2: Bay at Lambeufield in December. It points to the fact
Speaker 2: it wasn't one specific player. It wasn't falling on one
Speaker 2: guy's plate. It was the collective hole from the coaching
Speaker 2: staff to the players. It wasn't where it needed to be.
Speaker 1: Twelve plays solutions for twelve plays by the Buccaneers, an
Speaker 1: even dozen of eighteen plus yards a dozen, that's three
Speaker 1: per quarter. You like to maybe get through you know
Speaker 1: a game like three per half or you know even
Speaker 1: you know, three every few quarters. Three per quarter is
Speaker 1: essentially what the average was of plays of eighteen plus
Speaker 1: yards in this game. And that's just not going to
Speaker 1: cut it. I do want to talk about, though, what
Speaker 1: you hinted at before, which is what we are seeing
Speaker 1: happening with the Packers offense, particularly two players, Tucker Craft
Speaker 1: and Doantavian Wicks, rookie rookie draft picks who have seen
Speaker 1: their opportunities and their reps increase because of injuries. Luke
Speaker 1: Musgrave has been out for a little while now and
Speaker 1: Christian Watson has missed the last couple of games. So
Speaker 1: both Craft and Wicks are playing more snaps, getting the
Speaker 1: ball thrown their way a lot more often. And I
Speaker 1: tell you what these these young players have produced, Wes.
Speaker 1: And when you talk about craft man, it's it's not
Speaker 1: just that he can, you know, get an explosive play
Speaker 1: down the field, or that he can be a threat
Speaker 1: in the red zone. His blocking, you know, from a
Speaker 1: guy coming from South Dakota State where you're making a
Speaker 1: bigger leap than a lot of other players to the NFL.
Speaker 1: In terms of the guy who's lined up across from you.
Speaker 1: Tucker Craft is becoming an all around tight end in
Speaker 1: front of our eyes in a fairly short amount of time.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting too, because he talked about coming to
Speaker 2: the Green Bay Packers. One of the things that got
Speaker 2: him draft after the third round was his yards after catch.
Speaker 2: It was some of the things he did in the
Speaker 2: big plays two years ago that kind of give you
Speaker 2: that idea that a guy with this size and this
Speaker 2: type of skill set could really do some damage in
Speaker 2: the NFL. The area, as you mentioned, that was kind
Speaker 2: of unproven was the blocking aspect of it. How he
Speaker 2: was going to be able to hold up on that
Speaker 2: end against now football's absolute elite. Coincidentally enough, I actually
Speaker 2: feel like that was one area that sort of was
Speaker 2: come together earlier in the season for him, and he's
Speaker 2: been able to improve upon it throughout the year. Now
Speaker 2: we're starting to see some of the yards after catch
Speaker 2: stuff happen too. And he's a gritty, hard nosed football player, man.
Speaker 2: I mean you saw in that thirty six yard catch
Speaker 2: and run. He explained it afterwards. He wasn't just trying
Speaker 2: to showboat when he elevated when he jumped to try
Speaker 2: to get to the defender. His mind was defensive backs,
Speaker 2: especially when they're going up against a guy that could
Speaker 2: be conceivably sixty pounds heavier than them, they have a
Speaker 2: tendency to go for the legs. In that particular case,
Speaker 2: they did not. They went right into his torso and
Speaker 2: unfortunate for him, right into the nether regions exactly to
Speaker 2: go out a couple of plays. But thirty six yard
Speaker 2: pick up there. You also had that little tiny it
Speaker 2: was basically like a tight end screen on the touchdown pass.
Speaker 2: Four catches, fifty seven yards a touchdown. I tweeted it
Speaker 2: during the game, Mike, I cannot wait. You will see
Speaker 2: if it happens this year. But getting this version of
Speaker 2: Tucker Kraft now on the field with Luke Musgrave, I mean,
Speaker 2: the possibilities. This is what the Packers wanted when they
Speaker 2: invested as much draft capital of the as they've put
Speaker 2: into the tight end position since the seventy merger. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're starting to see exactly why they took these two
Speaker 2: particular players and how they can kind of work off
Speaker 2: of one another.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely. And when you talk about don Tavian Wicks,
Speaker 1: I tell you I've mentioned before how We've seen him
Speaker 1: bounce back from his rough moments. He had the drop
Speaker 1: of the slant pass by the goal line against the Vikings.
Speaker 1: He lost the football on his own trying to fight
Speaker 1: for the first down or you know, try to get
Speaker 1: to the first down marker against the Rams, where the
Speaker 1: ball popped out when it hit the ground ends up
Speaker 1: being a turnover. He's rebounded from that, but not only
Speaker 1: just making catches and moving the chains and getting yards.
Speaker 1: This guy is fighting for every yard there is to get.
Speaker 1: The one thing I didn't do when I went through
Speaker 1: the offensive film yesterday that I wish I would have done.
Speaker 1: I wish I would have just charted it and counted
Speaker 1: up what wicks yards after the catch were in this game.
Speaker 1: He ended with a career high to this point of
Speaker 1: ninety seven yards on his six receptions. But man, a
Speaker 1: bunch of those yards were after the catch, and he's
Speaker 1: fighting for every yard he can get. He's protecting the
Speaker 1: ball while he's doing that, And I tell you what
Speaker 1: that's You see that kind of play from a young man,
Speaker 1: from a rookie out there with a team that's fighting
Speaker 1: for a playoff spot and everything. I'll take that guy
Speaker 1: on my team any day.
Speaker 2: And here's the other aspect of this. You mentioned some
Speaker 2: of the things you know this season, times in which
Speaker 2: you know plays you can improve upon, you can learn from.
Speaker 2: I'm a big pound for pound guy. This is a
Speaker 2: rookie fifth round receiver. You do not get this type
Speaker 2: of production that often from these type of players because
Speaker 2: he's not just catching passes. Mike. That last touchdown scoring
Speaker 2: drive that Green Bay put together, that was Dontavian Wicks. Yea.
Speaker 2: I even tweeted it during the game. He willed them
Speaker 2: down the field on that drive. It wasn't the most
Speaker 2: in rhythm, in sync drive you've ever seen. No, it
Speaker 2: was Dontavian Wicks making incredible football plays. Ninety seven receiving yards. Yeah, however,
Speaker 2: much of that was built under the Yact. But the
Speaker 2: green Bay Packers found something here, man. They found something
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen with Marquezveldez. Scantling fifth round has been
Speaker 2: very productive for them as a whole. When you think about,
Speaker 2: you know, an all Pro like Corey Linsley in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: Dantavian Wicks man in a year in which the Packers
Speaker 2: expected to build so much around Christian Watson and Romeo
Speaker 2: Dobbs and Jayden Reid and also Samori too y being
Speaker 2: in that conversation, here's Wis jumping right into the fold,
Speaker 2: becoming that next man up, and when he's been given
Speaker 2: the opportunities, here's what he's doing with them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and a couple other things I want to say
Speaker 1: about the offense, because because something something getting a little
Speaker 1: bit lost because of all the attention on the defense
Speaker 1: and everything that went wrong there. And I understand all that,
Speaker 1: but a couple of things. Jordan Love, for one, bounced
Speaker 1: back from one of his one of his rougher games,
Speaker 1: probably his roughest game of the second half of the season.
Speaker 1: After you know, he kind of hit his stride and
Speaker 1: everything and then a lot went wrong against the Giants.
Speaker 1: Wasn't a good performance. He bounced back and quite frankly, Wes,
Speaker 1: I think maybe maybe you have another one in mind.
Speaker 1: I think that third and fourteen from the seventeen yard line,
Speaker 1: the improvise the breakdown play, sorry broken down play, and
Speaker 1: then he hits Jayden Reid for the touchdown with the
Speaker 1: with the toe tap, the tow drag. I thought that
Speaker 1: was the most impressive throw Jordan Love's made all season long,
Speaker 1: and kind of it's kind of gotten lost because the
Speaker 1: Packers didn't win the game, and with everything that was
Speaker 1: going wrong on the defensive side of the ball, was
Speaker 1: an absolutely tremendous third and fourteen from the seventeen yard
Speaker 1: line and the play breaks down and he beats you.
Speaker 1: We've seen it happen at lambeau Field with the previous
Speaker 1: quarterbacks that have that have played in the Green and Gold.
Speaker 1: That was a heck of a moment, and I just
Speaker 1: don't want it to get too lost in what was
Speaker 1: a very disappointing defeat.
Speaker 2: I have a take on this. I have some opinions
Speaker 2: on this to expository, explain, expound, expound, Thank you sure,
Speaker 2: But before I do that, I have a question for you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: how many twenty five year old quarterbacks, and they're first
Speaker 2: either twenty five years old or is a first year
Speaker 2: as a starter, how many of the quarterbacks throw that
Speaker 2: pass to Jaden Reied and how many pull it down
Speaker 2: and try to scramble for a first down.
Speaker 1: The majority are going to pull it down to try
Speaker 1: to scramble and see here and here's the thing. And
Speaker 1: I we saw earlier in the season in that same situation.
Speaker 1: It was it was a third and long yardage and
Speaker 1: Love did take off to scramble, but there were way
Speaker 1: too many yards to have to gain for the first down.
Speaker 1: He's gotten chance in his field, and as soon as
Speaker 1: he crosses the line of scrimmage, he's a dead duck.
Speaker 1: He's not going to be able to get the first down.
Speaker 1: We saw against the Giants a very similar play that
Speaker 1: had broken down. He steps up in the pocket, he escapes,
Speaker 1: and he missed the throw to Samari Toure along the
Speaker 1: boundary in the end zone. That could have been a
Speaker 1: very much a game changing play against the Giants. He
Speaker 1: comes back the very next week and makes that play.
Speaker 1: I thought it was really really.
Speaker 2: So here's my take on the throw. The other thing
Speaker 2: you'll see from a lot of young quarterbacks in this
Speaker 2: league is what I always refer to as as Madden
Speaker 2: scramble drills. Yeah, because it's what I always used to
Speaker 2: do during Madden, which is you just try to evade
Speaker 2: the pocket as quickly as possible. And it's usually not
Speaker 2: taking a direct line. You're not pursuing the right eggs
Speaker 2: at angle. It's just kind of running around the defensive
Speaker 2: end and getting over into the open field on the
Speaker 2: right side and trying to find somebody. What impressed me
Speaker 2: about Jordan Love on that play was he saw through
Speaker 2: the smoke there's a lot going on around him. His
Speaker 2: eggs at hole was probably what the size of a guard,
Speaker 2: and he kind of got his way through there. The
Speaker 2: reason why I mentioned the piece about how many quarterbacks
Speaker 2: tucket and go there is because they wouldn't be able
Speaker 2: to keep their eyes down field when they're trying to
Speaker 2: get through that clutter. Jordan did that, stayed true to
Speaker 2: his fundamentals and his footwork, and then put an absolute
Speaker 2: dime on Jayden Reid and Jaden Reid Mike. For a
Speaker 2: guy that is now one catch away from tying Sterling
Speaker 2: Sharp single season receptions record by a rookie, it's as
Speaker 2: extraordinary as of a catch as you're going to see
Speaker 2: from a rookie football player. His ability to get both
Speaker 2: feet down there and drag them there was not an
Speaker 2: inch to waste on that play, and he made the
Speaker 2: play regardless.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'll be honest. I mean I said it
Speaker 1: in the live blog at the time. When I saw
Speaker 1: it live, I thought, there's no way Reid got his
Speaker 1: feet in. There's no way that that's a reception like
Speaker 1: replay is gonna reverse it. And sure enough he kept
Speaker 1: his toes on the ground, you know, dragged it just
Speaker 1: right with a defender right on him there. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to mention that as well. Jayden Reid now
Speaker 1: with fifty four receptions, he leads the Packers. The Packers
Speaker 1: rookie record in this franchise's illustrious history for receptions by
Speaker 1: a rookie is fifty five by Sterling Sharp. That was
Speaker 1: thirty five years ago Wes nineteen eighty eight. That rookie
Speaker 1: record has stood for a long time, and Jaden Reid
Speaker 1: is just one catch from tying it and two from
Speaker 1: breaking it.
Speaker 2: I don't have the officials yards after catch for don
Speaker 2: Tavian Wicks. It's twenty twenty three. I'm not paying for
Speaker 2: that anymore. But for the season, now this one goes.
Speaker 2: I'll give credit here to this is player profile dot Com.
Speaker 2: They have him down for one hundred and thirty nine
Speaker 2: yards after catch on the season out of his four
Speaker 2: hundred and ninety one, so just about a quarter of
Speaker 2: his receiving yards.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a little more, a little more than a quest Yeah,
Speaker 1: so pretty impressive.
Speaker 2: What the guy's done, right, out of the gate.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, a little bit of sponsor business here west.
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Speaker 1: of better. All right, Taking a look at where things
Speaker 1: are in the playoff picture, lots of lots of moving
Speaker 1: and shifting going on. You know. The Minnesota Vikings blow
Speaker 1: a fourth quarter lead in Cincinnati on Saturday, they drop
Speaker 1: to seven and seven. The Seattle Seahawks pull one out
Speaker 1: on Monday night, driving ninety two yards against the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: Eagles for the go ahead touchdown in the final two minutes,
Speaker 1: and the Seahawks break their lose streak and get to
Speaker 1: seven and seven. In the NFC South, you have the
Speaker 1: Buccaneers and the Saints both at seven and seven. They
Speaker 1: are going to face each other in week seventeen, not
Speaker 1: this week, but the week after, so that division title
Speaker 1: in some respects could be on the line and at
Speaker 1: the top of the NFC. We talked last week about
Speaker 1: how suddenly there was a three way tie for the
Speaker 1: number one seed. Well, the Dallas Cowboys lose, the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: Eagles lose, the San Francisco forty nine Ers keep on winning,
Speaker 1: and the Niners, who already have a head to head
Speaker 1: tiebreaker over both of those clubs, now have a one
Speaker 1: game lead with just three to play in the race
Speaker 1: for the number one seed and the only playoff buy
Speaker 1: that comes with it in the NFC.
Speaker 2: Yeah, forty nine Ers did what they needed to do
Speaker 2: against the Cardinals. Cardinals put up some points in the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter, but for the most part that game was
Speaker 2: out of hand pretty early. On the one that impresses
Speaker 2: me the most of the Rams, because here's the thing,
Speaker 2: you and I talked about it.
Speaker 1: They got to seven and seven as well.
Speaker 2: Seven.
Speaker 1: I meant to mention them.
Speaker 2: And the only reason I bring them up. We've talked
Speaker 2: so much about the Packers just beating the teams you
Speaker 2: need to beat. The Rams have worked themselves back into
Speaker 2: this conversation for the playoffs by beating the teams they
Speaker 2: need to beat exactly under no pretenses, should you lose
Speaker 2: that game to Washington with the all the issues of
Speaker 2: Washington's had, you know, kind of breaking up their defensive line,
Speaker 2: Jack del Rio being fired. The Rams are a different
Speaker 2: team with Kiriyan Williams back in this lineup. I think
Speaker 2: I saw one thing about the yards over expectation. I mean,
Speaker 2: Williams is just he's in front of Christian McCaffrey. With
Speaker 2: what he's done so far this he's a different football
Speaker 2: team when he's out there. I tip my cap to
Speaker 2: Drew Lock obviously finished that game strong. It seemed like
Speaker 2: he didn't even know for sure he was going to
Speaker 2: be playing until hours before the game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that was almost that was. That was
Speaker 1: not just a last minute decision, but even after the
Speaker 1: inactives were turned in, both Geno Smith and Drew Locke
Speaker 1: were active, and then it was sort of like they
Speaker 1: were all going through pregame warmups and then they decided
Speaker 1: to give the ball to Lock.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Locke had come in before the season, but
Speaker 2: otherwise really hasn't played much before last week. I would
Speaker 2: be happy and content now if the Denver Broncos would
Speaker 2: dismiss themselves from this playoff contention just didn't even bother
Speaker 2: showing up against the Lions, which is fine, but one
Speaker 2: of the you know, it looked a lot more like
Speaker 2: the first month of the season Denver Broncos than what
Speaker 2: the Packers had seen and what a lot of these
Speaker 2: other teams had seen in the second half of the season.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be down to the wire, man, but you're
Speaker 2: seeing what the value of that victory is. And you know,
Speaker 2: Tampa now actually has, you know, in a position where
Speaker 2: they're kind of in control of their own destiny now
Speaker 2: by picking up that seventh win and seeing what they
Speaker 2: can do against the New Orleans Saints here in a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks and teams like Minnesota and the Rams
Speaker 2: in the Seahawks trying to hold those positions now that
Speaker 2: they got back to five hundred, green Bay has work
Speaker 2: to do. But as I said in our insider inbox
Speaker 2: call today, it almost kind of feels like they play
Speaker 2: better in these instances when they are playing from behind,
Speaker 2: when they are the B side kind of have that
Speaker 2: Connor McGregor quality to them and seeing if maybe now
Speaker 2: they can reel three off here to keep this thing interesting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, in the Atlanta Falcons took a damaging loss
Speaker 1: to the Carolina Panthers. The Falcons have now fallen off
Speaker 1: the pace in the NFC South and UH, and that
Speaker 1: Panthers team is the one the Packers will be facing
Speaker 1: this week, and we'll talk about them on our next show.
Speaker 1: But I want to make a couple of quick comments
Speaker 1: about the a f C because it kind of looks
Speaker 1: like right now if the NFC, or sorry, the a
Speaker 1: f C is is UH as you know, crowded and
Speaker 1: convoluted as the NFC, but just with UH, with a
Speaker 1: lot of the middling teams having a little bit better records.
Speaker 1: But when I look at the a f C right now, West,
Speaker 1: the three teams that stand out to me that I
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to have to mess with in January are Baltimore, Miami.
Speaker 2: And Buffalo and Indianapolis.
Speaker 1: You're putting Indianapolis in that category? Okay, okay, you just yeah,
Speaker 1: you love You're you're a big gardner. Hey, but here's
Speaker 1: but here's here's the here's the really interesting thing, because
Speaker 1: the the Buffalo Bills have gotten themselves back in this
Speaker 1: thing now with big wins over the Chiefs and a
Speaker 1: big road win over the Chiefs and then a convincing
Speaker 1: home win over the Dallas Cowboys. Buffalo's now eight and six.
Speaker 1: Miami has been riding the riding atop that AFC East
Speaker 1: all season long, and they are still there at ten
Speaker 1: and four, two games ahead of the Bills. This is
Speaker 1: what's interesting, though, Wes. Miami's next two games are against
Speaker 1: Dallas and Baltimore. Buffalo's next two games are against the
Speaker 1: Chargers and somebody else who's also sub five hundred, and
Speaker 1: the name escapes me right now.
Speaker 2: Hold on, I got you, brev Okay, it is the
Speaker 2: uh Patriots.
Speaker 1: The Patriots, so they have the Chargers and the Patriots.
Speaker 1: Nothing is a given in this league. What I'm saying
Speaker 1: is it's an entirely plausible scenario that Miami could lose
Speaker 1: its next to Buffalo could win its next to. Both
Speaker 1: of those teams would be ten and six and facing
Speaker 1: each other for the AFC East title head to head
Speaker 1: in Miami in Week eighteen. I just think that's one
Speaker 1: to watch because so many people had written off the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills with their struggles and everything, and they lost
Speaker 1: that absolute heartbreaker to the Philadelphia Eagles when Jake Elliott
Speaker 1: made a fifty nine yard field goal in the rain
Speaker 1: to get that game to overtime where they would have
Speaker 1: won that one. They bounce back from that to beat
Speaker 1: the Chiefs and the Cowboys. Nobody wants to mess with
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Bills.
Speaker 2: Right they don't, And I agree with you, But I
Speaker 2: will use my final two minutes here to just quickly
Speaker 2: talk on the Baltimore Ravens because Lamar Jackson is not
Speaker 2: the most boisterous quarterback in the league. I feel like
Speaker 2: that sometimes as to his detriment. The Ravens are playing
Speaker 2: as good a football as anybody right now.
Speaker 1: And I agree with you.
Speaker 2: Their defense, they're just so consistent, Mike, and you know it.
Speaker 1: Looks so complete, right is the way they unfortunately, the
Speaker 1: way they look as a football team.
Speaker 2: Their lost Mitchell, so I mean their running back situation.
Speaker 2: They've just been completely snake bitting at running back over
Speaker 2: the last few years. But Lamar Jackson, the way he's
Speaker 2: performing right now, he's steady as they goes. He's not
Speaker 2: a big quote, and I think that again, people don't
Speaker 2: really give him the national attension he deserves because of it.
Speaker 2: But when you talk about teams you don't want to
Speaker 2: face in the playoffs. I think it starts with a
Speaker 2: team like the Ravens because for the most part, you
Speaker 2: know what you're getting and they're going to give you
Speaker 2: that when you play them. There's going to be dangerous
Speaker 2: teams here, Mike, the Bills definitely one of them. You
Speaker 2: look at these squads that could find their way into
Speaker 2: the postseason and possibly make a run at this thing.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of names to keep track of right now,
Speaker 2: but what wins in the playoffs is consistency, and I
Speaker 2: feel like that's the one aspect of the Ravens as
Speaker 2: long as Lamar Jackson stays healthy, that is the one
Speaker 2: thing that they have over everybody else in that conference
Speaker 2: right now. Consistency.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they and they seem to have made a
Speaker 1: decent adjustment losing a big play tight end in Mark
Speaker 1: Andrews who has been such a big part of their offense.
Speaker 1: Well likely mart and Yeah, Lamar Jackson is making it
Speaker 1: work and Isaiah likely has definitely filled the shoes of
Speaker 1: Mark Andrews about as well as they could have hoped for.
Speaker 2: When you lose a superstar, you just don't see that
Speaker 2: type of stuff. It's one thing for Luke Musgrave to
Speaker 2: go down, and you got a transition to Tucker Craft.
Speaker 2: They're both rookies, they're both going through this thing together.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of teams. Where would the Kansas
Speaker 2: City Chiefs be if Travis Kelsey goes down?
Speaker 1: Right? Well, we saw it in Week one, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: They were playing at home as the defending Super Bowl
Speaker 1: champson and played an absolutely terrible football gametely, So with that,
Speaker 1: we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team on Packers dot com. We'll be back in a
Speaker 1: couple of days to talk about the next opponent, the
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers on the road for Christmas Eve. For Wes,
Speaker 1: I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We
Speaker 1: will see you next time.