Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to a Thanksgiving edition of Packers Unscripted
Speaker 1: from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by
Speaker 1: the one and only W. W. Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you here from our studios at lambeau Field, and certainly
Speaker 1: happy Thanksgiving to all of our viewers and listeners out there.
Speaker 1: Happy Thanksgiving to you Weston. Yeah, Happy Thanksgiving to you too, Mike.
Speaker 1: A lot to be thankful for this year. I wish
Speaker 1: circumstances are a little bit different. I wish you and
Speaker 1: I were it was the old days. You and I'm
Speaker 1: at a metal you know, table together, no masks, just
Speaker 1: frolicking around. But this is the world we live in.
Speaker 1: I'm happy to be here, happy to be healthy, and
Speaker 1: happy for some Packers football this Sunday against Chicago Bears. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: it will be Sunday Night Football primetime audience, the final
Speaker 1: game of the big Thanksgiving weekend of all of the
Speaker 1: football activity around the country lambou Field, seven pm Central
Speaker 1: Time on Sunday night. And as we talked about on
Speaker 1: our last show, There's Almo. You almost can't overstate the
Speaker 1: importance of this game because while the Packers can try
Speaker 1: to take a three game lead in the NFC North
Speaker 1: with five to play. The Bears are looking at trying
Speaker 1: to get within one game with five games to play,
Speaker 1: and the dynamic of this division race is going to
Speaker 1: completely change depending on the result of Sunday night's games.
Speaker 1: So as we get into this here, where does the
Speaker 1: path to victory start for the Green Bay Packers to
Speaker 1: get to eight and three? I mean, honestly, Mike, it's
Speaker 1: probably as simple as just trying to keep the Bears
Speaker 1: off the scoreboard. Uh. This season, the Chicago Bears, it's
Speaker 1: been a grind for them to put up points. And
Speaker 1: during their four game losing straight now I mean ten
Speaker 1: points three against the Saints, seventeen against the Titans, thirteen
Speaker 1: against Minnesota. Now, credit to them, their defense has kept
Speaker 1: them in a lot of these things, but they just
Speaker 1: haven't been able to produce points to come up with
Speaker 1: victories in this season, only one game with more than thirty,
Speaker 1: only two with more than twenty three. So for the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers, I really do believe this is it's
Speaker 1: as simple as it can be. It you put up points,
Speaker 1: you score early, you established momentum. No, it's not an
Speaker 1: easy defense to do that against but if you get production,
Speaker 1: it's ultimately going to be something that I don't think
Speaker 1: the Bears, with the way that they're situated right now,
Speaker 1: especially as the temperatures begin to dip here, they're not
Speaker 1: really built for a shootout. Yeah, that's definitely not the
Speaker 1: type of game that the Bears want to get into,
Speaker 1: and certainly it would behoof the Packers to get off
Speaker 1: to a strong start and put that Bears defense, Bears offense,
Speaker 1: excuse me, behind the eight ball, I think defensively for
Speaker 1: the Packers. I think this whole thing starts, and I
Speaker 1: hate to use cliches, but it all starts with stopping
Speaker 1: the run. And I have my reasons for for using
Speaker 1: that cliche. In this particular matchup. The Chicago Bears have
Speaker 1: lost four straight game aimes. They've had a chance to
Speaker 1: catch their breath on their bye week and reassess and
Speaker 1: look at everything and figure out how they're going to
Speaker 1: move forward offensively. Specifically, now, as you and I are
Speaker 1: taping this, we did cheat a little bit, taped it
Speaker 1: a little early, so we don't know at this particular
Speaker 1: moment whether the Bears are going with Mitch Dubiski or
Speaker 1: Nick Foles, or who is going to be the quarterback.
Speaker 1: But I think regardless of who the quarterback is for
Speaker 1: Chicago on Sunday night, the Bears are going to come
Speaker 1: into lambeau Field with a fierce commitment to run the
Speaker 1: football to help out that quarterback. And here's the things.
Speaker 1: This was the statistic I got off of Actually the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears website, they're my counterpart. Their senior writer at
Speaker 1: their website had his Tuesday afternoon chat. So I stalk
Speaker 1: your Wednesday afternoon chat. You guys have a battle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're we we bet we battle with our live chats
Speaker 1: day after day. But I I stalked it a little
Speaker 1: bit just to see what what Larry Meyer. Larry is
Speaker 1: a great guy. I talked to him at the Combine,
Speaker 1: you know, on an annual basis, and and see him
Speaker 1: when we are traveling. But he he had a statistic
Speaker 1: that really struck me. West and here it is. The
Speaker 1: first three games of the season, the Chicago Bears averaged
Speaker 1: a hundred and thirty eight rushing yards per game and
Speaker 1: they were three and oh. Since then, the Bears have
Speaker 1: averaged fifty two rushing yards per game and they are
Speaker 1: two and five now looking at the aggregate totals. That
Speaker 1: means in the first three games, the Bears rushed for
Speaker 1: over four hundred yards, and in their last seven games
Speaker 1: they haven't even hit the four hundred yard mark on
Speaker 1: the ground. I think if the Bears are looking to
Speaker 1: reset and reassess and figure out how to get this
Speaker 1: offense going, it goes back to being committed to running
Speaker 1: the ball. And I don't I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: going to be Cordurell Patterson, if David Montgomery will be healthy,
Speaker 1: if it's going to be the wide receivers taking handoffs,
Speaker 1: whatever the case might be. But I think the Packers
Speaker 1: have to be ready for the Bears to be strongly
Speaker 1: committed to the run and this game, and that's where
Speaker 1: it starts for the Packers. Yeah, and the right now,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's still a whole week to play out here,
Speaker 1: but it does look promising for Montgomery to potential to
Speaker 1: be back for this game. That's sort of the reports
Speaker 1: coming out of Chicago right now. But to get to
Speaker 1: your previous point, that's been the big issue. It's not
Speaker 1: that there's a difference between not having a running game
Speaker 1: and not having a running back, and that's where the
Speaker 1: Bears have been here since basically, well one, they lost
Speaker 1: Cohen right away at the beginning of the season. That
Speaker 1: was a big blow to their offense, and then not
Speaker 1: having Montgomery due to this concussion. As you said, Cordorill
Speaker 1: Patterson is handling a lot of the handoffs now, and
Speaker 1: as fast as he is. It's a different game when
Speaker 1: you're in the backfield and there's all those bodies as
Speaker 1: opposed to when you're in the open field and you
Speaker 1: can create we'll talk about keys to victory here. He's
Speaker 1: certainly among them, but he's just not a natural running back,
Speaker 1: although if you go back, he did hurt the Packers
Speaker 1: a little bit during his time out of the backfield
Speaker 1: in New England. So David Montgomery here, as you and
Speaker 1: I have said for basically the last two and a
Speaker 1: half years, this is the guy that they need to
Speaker 1: lean on. He needs to be the man. They made
Speaker 1: so many decisions, including last year with Mike Davis cutting
Speaker 1: him midseason, to commit to Montgomery. If he's back on
Speaker 1: the field, this game changes a lot because, as you
Speaker 1: pointed out with those statistics, it hasn't even been a
Speaker 1: situation where they can't run the ball. They just haven't
Speaker 1: really even seemed to have it in their d n
Speaker 1: A offensively without him on the field, still a lot
Speaker 1: of weapons to worry about, regardless of who the quarterback is.
Speaker 1: Allen Robinson is one of the most underrated receivers in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. He can hurt you. I think
Speaker 1: Cole Clement has had some big moments this year. He
Speaker 1: can hurt you. But that backfield, if Montgomery's back there,
Speaker 1: that's where my eyes are at for. Find Mike mc
Speaker 1: patton and this Packers defensive line. Yeah, and the Packers
Speaker 1: on on the run defense side of things. We've just seen.
Speaker 1: We've seen so much up and down with it. The
Speaker 1: first half against Jacksonville, James Robinson looks like he's running wild.
Speaker 1: Then the second half against Jacksonville, the Packers clamped down.
Speaker 1: Robinson doesn't get a whole lot. Jonathan Taylor doesn't get
Speaker 1: much at all the first half for the Colts this
Speaker 1: past Sunday. Then in the second half, the Colts run
Speaker 1: game gets cranked up and and the Packers are on
Speaker 1: their heels and suddenly can't stop the run again. It's
Speaker 1: it's been this up and down, this up and down thing,
Speaker 1: and you know the Bears. The Bears are looking at
Speaker 1: that film. They they're going they're going to try to
Speaker 1: figure out a way to get this ground game going
Speaker 1: and the and the Packers need to get some some
Speaker 1: measure of steadiness and consistency with their run defense. Because
Speaker 1: whoever the quarterback is for Chicago, I think it's probably
Speaker 1: going to be True Whisky, but we'll just have to
Speaker 1: see for sure. Whoever the quarterback is for Chicago, the
Speaker 1: Packers have to put the game in that person's hands.
Speaker 1: And if it is True Whisky, you have to be
Speaker 1: aware of the scrambling and the running around and whatnot
Speaker 1: more so than anybody else. But that's that's who the Packer.
Speaker 1: The Packers have to turn the Bears offense over to
Speaker 1: the quarterback and not let that running game control the tempo.
Speaker 1: You know, we always talked about in the past, you know,
Speaker 1: Aaron not Aaron Rodgers, but Brett Farve, if he would
Speaker 1: have just come a little bit earlier to Green Bay
Speaker 1: and if Sterling shar but it just lasted a little
Speaker 1: bit longer, you know what that could have been like together.
Speaker 1: Matt Nage never was able to cross paths with Matt Forte,
Speaker 1: but my goodness, what a combo that would have been
Speaker 1: when you think about the style of offense that Naggie
Speaker 1: wants to run, and there have been needed to be
Speaker 1: a lot of concessions for to kind of tailored to
Speaker 1: the personnel in Chicago. But that's really the back that's
Speaker 1: been missing from this team since he left five years ago.
Speaker 1: Uh and and just the guy that can be a
Speaker 1: he can be a bell cow, he can run between
Speaker 1: the tackles, he can catch. I think Montgomery has a
Speaker 1: lot of those trades, but he just doesn't seem to
Speaker 1: have that final one where it's like, this is a
Speaker 1: guy that you can just ride playing and play out
Speaker 1: or he's still a young developing player who has had
Speaker 1: some injury issues and hasn't hasn't really established that consistent
Speaker 1: presence yet. He may get there, but he's not there yet. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's just it's I I because I was incredibly high
Speaker 1: and I remember saying that to you. I'm like, when
Speaker 1: they had to trade all those picks to get klil
Speaker 1: Mac that draft I was I would have been totally
Speaker 1: fine if David Montgomery was my first pick the third
Speaker 1: round that year. But for you know, whatever reasons, injuries,
Speaker 1: offensive structure, it hasn't happened yet, and the Packers have
Speaker 1: to make sure on Sunday that it doesn't happen if
Speaker 1: he is on the field. Yeah, alright, Well, before we
Speaker 1: switch to the offensive side of the ball for green Bay,
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Speaker 1: Associated bank dot com backslash Packers. All right, on the
Speaker 1: offensive side of the ball here for Green Bay, this
Speaker 1: is this to me is the is the interesting statistic
Speaker 1: going into it West. We know the Bears defense is good.
Speaker 1: They don't give up a lot of points. Their first
Speaker 1: in the league in third down defense. Packers are fourth
Speaker 1: in the league and third down offense. That's an interesting
Speaker 1: matchup here. But here's the thing. The Chicago Bears are
Speaker 1: four in the league against the run. They're actually giving
Speaker 1: up a hundred and fifth teen rushing yards per game,
Speaker 1: which is slightly which about a yard per game more
Speaker 1: than Green Bay. The Packers are actually ranked thirteenth against
Speaker 1: the run for all of their ups and downs in
Speaker 1: in that phase of things. I think the Packers, Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur in this offense needs to have a certain commitment
Speaker 1: to the run here against the Chicago Bears defense, whether
Speaker 1: it's Aaron Jones or Jamal Williams or whoever you want
Speaker 1: to to to feature more. Packers have got to get
Speaker 1: the ground game back. It's much like the Bears. The
Speaker 1: Packers have to get their ground game back to where
Speaker 1: it was in September in terms of the production for
Speaker 1: this offense to uh to really be at at at
Speaker 1: full steam and full strength for four quarters. And I
Speaker 1: think the Packers will look to do that on Sunday night. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think even if you listen to Matt Lafleur
Speaker 1: coming out of that game and even sort of the
Speaker 1: the tone of his voice here the last week or so,
Speaker 1: they want to be more committed to the run. When
Speaker 1: they were really offensively pushing the tempo earlier this season,
Speaker 1: it was because they were running the ball well, specifically
Speaker 1: with Aaron Jones. So the question here is going to
Speaker 1: be finding the tempo right because to some extent, I
Speaker 1: understand why they didn't run the ball more. Against Indianapolis,
Speaker 1: they opened in a five receiver set. It was a
Speaker 1: great call. They got one on one looks for Davante Adams.
Speaker 1: But as we saw going back to the Mike McCarthy era,
Speaker 1: that's a great aggressive mindset to have. But if that's
Speaker 1: an incompletion, you're looking at second and ten, and then
Speaker 1: you're looking at third and long. If you aren't able
Speaker 1: to find either another pass or break a run, that's
Speaker 1: where you start to play from behind a little bit.
Speaker 1: I thought one of the things Green they did exceptionally
Speaker 1: well during their four game winning streak to start the year,
Speaker 1: was that there was such a good balance. But all
Speaker 1: those past concepts sort of were predicated on what they
Speaker 1: were establishing with the run. They've been up against it.
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones has been hurt. Tyler Irvin now is dealing
Speaker 1: with a second injury. He had the risk now he
Speaker 1: has a rib injury. They've had to really make all
Speaker 1: these modifications. But I just go back to that tried
Speaker 1: and true stat Mike. It's not fun. It's not some
Speaker 1: like great PFF for sabor metric thing, But if you
Speaker 1: look at the history here when Aaron Jones touches the
Speaker 1: ball twenty or more times in a game, it turns
Speaker 1: out pretty good for Green Bay and they just haven't
Speaker 1: been able to get in that vicinity as of late. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I was looking up some numbers and I actually
Speaker 1: uh wrote about that in the Wednesday Insider Inbox edition.
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones only had fourteen touches against the Indianapolis Colts.
Speaker 1: So you wonder, like, why aren't the Packers giving them
Speaker 1: ball more? Well, the Packers only ran fifty seven offensive
Speaker 1: plays in the game. The two three and ounce in
Speaker 1: the third quarter and combined with you know, the Colts
Speaker 1: with the long drives and then you have the fumble
Speaker 1: on the kickoffs so you lose a possession. There the
Speaker 1: number of opportunities the package try to run on those
Speaker 1: two three, Yeah, and and they did, they did exactly,
Speaker 1: But overall, the number of opportunities are down. When we've
Speaker 1: seen Aaron Jones getting the twenty plus touches per game,
Speaker 1: the Packers are running, you know, well north of sixty
Speaker 1: offensive plays total, They're up at six sixty eight, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe even seventy plays. I think the first game of
Speaker 1: the season against Minnesota, green Bay ran like seventy five
Speaker 1: offensive plays. I mean, just think the difference between seventy
Speaker 1: five plays in Week one and fifty seven plays last week.
Speaker 1: It's a huge difference over the course of the game.
Speaker 1: So it's it's all of it's all of that. It's
Speaker 1: it's about getting it's about getting the offense, you know,
Speaker 1: in in that consistent move the chain's mode to get
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones all those opportunities that you'd like him to get,
Speaker 1: because you do want Aaron Jones to touch the ball
Speaker 1: more than fourteen times in a game. Everybody would admit that,
Speaker 1: you know exactly. And again it's one of these deals
Speaker 1: where you just have to figure out exactly what's working
Speaker 1: for you. I thought last week, even though green Bay
Speaker 1: did come up short, Okay, that's the reintegration of al
Speaker 1: Lazard in the offense. That's having Robert Tonyan and you know,
Speaker 1: your main playmakers. I even made the comment during the
Speaker 1: game that you know, after a game in which against
Speaker 1: the Jacksonville that they were swinging in Jowan Winfrey from
Speaker 1: the practice squad. He played a half dozen plays. It
Speaker 1: was more your standard four top four receivers. In this
Speaker 1: game with Lizard Adams mvs. Obviously, and then e q
Speaker 1: st Brown getting the twenty three yards screen. The biggest
Speaker 1: question I have going into the month of December here is, Okay,
Speaker 1: you've you've gotten this far. You've got Aaron Jones healthy,
Speaker 1: Jamal Williams is doing fine. What does this look like?
Speaker 1: What does the Matt Lafleur offense look like as you
Speaker 1: move into the month of December. How much running are
Speaker 1: we going to see? What are the allocations of snaps
Speaker 1: going to look like? We always used to joke about
Speaker 1: I personally, did you know Mike McCarthy had always have
Speaker 1: this list of Okay, well we gotta get Eddie Lacey,
Speaker 1: this mini carries, and James starts, this mini carries, and
Speaker 1: Christian Michael this mini carries. I remember even seeing it
Speaker 1: on the board. It never worked out that way, but
Speaker 1: Mike had what he was aiming for, just seeing what
Speaker 1: the preparation is and how that gets affected throughout the
Speaker 1: course of the game. That I think that starts on Sunday.
Speaker 1: I think you're facing a team that, yes, you said
Speaker 1: they are giving up yards on the run, but I
Speaker 1: think their tenth in the in the league when it
Speaker 1: comes to average yards per carry. They hold up their
Speaker 1: end of the bargain, but they're there to be had.
Speaker 1: I think it's a great test for green Man. I
Speaker 1: think it's something they need to do look at, specifically
Speaker 1: as a running the game to be able to bounce
Speaker 1: back after what some of the things that came upshot
Speaker 1: against Indianapolis. Yeah, and not that we need to belabor
Speaker 1: the belabor the point on third down because third down
Speaker 1: is always important. But as I said, the Bears are
Speaker 1: first in the league and third down defense percentage wise.
Speaker 1: The Packers are fourth in the league and third down
Speaker 1: offense percentage wise. They're going to be some critical, critical
Speaker 1: third downs in this game on Sunday Night that that
Speaker 1: will factor in. I want to just get your thoughts
Speaker 1: on some other games on Sunday, since we get to
Speaker 1: watch the bulk of the Sunday slate before the Packers
Speaker 1: will kick off in the evening. Your thoughts on on
Speaker 1: Carolina going to Minnesota. And I bring this up because
Speaker 1: Carolina is a team the Packers will be playing in December.
Speaker 1: That game has now been slated for Saturday night on
Speaker 1: December nineteenth at lambeau Field. But if you ever if
Speaker 1: you ever want an example of the NFL being a
Speaker 1: week to week league. As we talk about. Two weeks ago,
Speaker 1: the Carolina Panthers gave up forty six points to the
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Seven days later, they shut out the
Speaker 1: Detroit Lions and one to zero. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I've ever seen that from forty six points allowed to
Speaker 1: zero from week to week. But my point is Carolina,
Speaker 1: you don't really know what you're gonna get. And now
Speaker 1: Minnesota is they're they're hanging by a thread here in
Speaker 1: the NFC North because of that lost to the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 1: That's just I gotta I have to comment on this.
Speaker 1: That Panthers Lions game is the most bizarre thing I've
Speaker 1: ever seen. It wasn't that crazy. With all due respect
Speaker 1: to him. P J Walker from the XFL was starting
Speaker 1: for the Panthers a quarterback. They don't have Teddy Bridgewater.
Speaker 1: I don't know what bridgewater status is for this week yet.
Speaker 1: I do know it's kind of up in the area
Speaker 1: yet with Christian because he's on my fantasy team and
Speaker 1: it's currently killing me. But Minnesota, I think there's a
Speaker 1: stat out there's something like the last five games they
Speaker 1: only allowed one rushing touchdown, so regardless of whether or
Speaker 1: not McCaffrey's on the field. Uh, this Vikings defense is
Speaker 1: playing much better. But both of these teams are sitting
Speaker 1: at four wins going into the month of December. One
Speaker 1: of them for sure is not going to have more
Speaker 1: than that as they march into that that month. So
Speaker 1: this is sort of last call if you want to
Speaker 1: make a playoff run here, if the Vikings want to
Speaker 1: show that they're for real. It's so tough to win three,
Speaker 1: four or five games a role in this league. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have a let up at some point. Unfortunate for
Speaker 1: Minnesota it happened against the Cowboys at home. But you
Speaker 1: can have a chance to get one back against the
Speaker 1: Panthers or you're gonna be looking really far up now
Speaker 1: at this NFC North as you march into those last
Speaker 1: four games. Yeah, no question about it. Um. Another interesting
Speaker 1: one in the a f C. We saw the Colts
Speaker 1: take on the Tennessee Titans on the Thursday night before
Speaker 1: the Colts then took on the Packers. Well, now the
Speaker 1: Tennessee Indianapolis rematches here already, these two teams playing each
Speaker 1: other twice in a span of three weeks. The Colts
Speaker 1: get the Titans at home. Both teams are tied with
Speaker 1: the best record in the a f C South, um
Speaker 1: so first place in in that division is on the line,
Speaker 1: and both of these teams coming off of big wins,
Speaker 1: both overtime wins. As a matter of fact, because the
Speaker 1: Tennessee Titans beat the Baltimore Ravens in overtime on a
Speaker 1: Derrick Henry touchdown run. Just curious your thoughts on what
Speaker 1: we're gonna see here in the a f C South
Speaker 1: with these two heavyweights going at it. Well, I understand
Speaker 1: as difficult as it was for the Packers to lose
Speaker 1: that game, the real thing you have to understand from
Speaker 1: the Colts perspective is they're heading into a meat grinder
Speaker 1: here at the end of this season. Now again they
Speaker 1: have to face the Tennessee Titans. They were able to
Speaker 1: turn them back. Can you do it for the second
Speaker 1: time in three weeks? You get them at home? But
Speaker 1: after that you're taking out a Las Vegas Raiders team
Speaker 1: that has really surprised a lot of people. They still
Speaker 1: have a game in Pittsburgh coming up, and for whatever
Speaker 1: reason with how this a f C got scheduled out
Speaker 1: this year, uh, they face the Texans twice in three
Speaker 1: weeks as well. So it's a bizarre schedule that they
Speaker 1: have lined up extremely a f C self heavy. But
Speaker 1: in terms of Tennessee, yeah, it's a competitive final stretch here.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have Green Bay. You do have a Cleveland
Speaker 1: team that's off to a pretty good start playing competitive football.
Speaker 1: But you have to show that you're still the team
Speaker 1: that everybody thought you were when they think everyone sort
Speaker 1: of pegged them just to be able to turn back
Speaker 1: the Colts two weeks ago and it didn't happen. So, uh,
Speaker 1: seeing if they can not only Okay, they ran the
Speaker 1: ball exceptionally well against some fifty four yards whatever they
Speaker 1: finished with, but they couldn't throw with a darn Can
Speaker 1: you get the passing game going? That's ultimately I think
Speaker 1: it gonna be the biggest indicator whether or not they
Speaker 1: can come out with a victory. Yeah. One other one
Speaker 1: I want to get your thoughts on before we go
Speaker 1: cross conference game here. Kansas City is at Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1: The Buccaneers coming off of the Monday night loss to
Speaker 1: the Rams. They're now two games back in the lost
Speaker 1: column to the Saints in the NFC South. But they
Speaker 1: have to face the one loss Kansas City Chiefs, who
Speaker 1: other than that one time this year, they just seem
Speaker 1: to pull out a game. Patrick Patrick Mahomes just seems
Speaker 1: to be uh, seems to be the guy you want
Speaker 1: with the ball in his hands at the end of
Speaker 1: any game. Um, this is a big one. This is
Speaker 1: a big one for Tampa Bay because if they lose it,
Speaker 1: if they pick up their fifth loss, with the way
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Saints are playing and they have no
Speaker 1: more games left against New Orleans, that division is almost over.
Speaker 1: The division race is gonna be hard. Fortunately for them.
Speaker 1: The NFC as as much of a toss up as
Speaker 1: the a f C is right now for the top
Speaker 1: nine spots right now in that conference, the NFC is
Speaker 1: pretty much sorted itself out for the most part. If
Speaker 1: the Packers would be able to beat the Bears on Sunday,
Speaker 1: I mean, you basically have your top seven teams here
Speaker 1: heading into December, and it's pretty well defined. That being said,
Speaker 1: you need to be able to win your division in
Speaker 1: order to host a game. So, I mean this is
Speaker 1: critical for Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers more than any other
Speaker 1: team I think, and there's been a lot of them
Speaker 1: just seem like they ebb and flow so drastically week
Speaker 1: by week. They can have magnificent performances, they can have
Speaker 1: massive letdowns. Well, now you're taking on not only a
Speaker 1: team that is considered to be again a front runner
Speaker 1: for the Super Bowl, but squad that's basically been beaten
Speaker 1: once and I mean really hasn't been touched otherwise. So, uh,
Speaker 1: seeing how they've responded, that's gonna be really interesting. And
Speaker 1: also from the a f C perspective, whether it's this
Speaker 1: game you have Pittsburgh gonna be taking on Baltimore again.
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh is sitting at tennan o the quietest ten and oh,
Speaker 1: I think I've ever really seen in the NFL. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is a huge game in a lot of ways
Speaker 1: for Kansas City as well, to show that there's still
Speaker 1: very much in this thing and they want to get
Speaker 1: that one single bye here in the f C plan.
Speaker 1: The loan by at the at the top of the
Speaker 1: playoffs standings and in each conference will certainly be an
Speaker 1: interesting story as we get into December. But we gotta
Speaker 1: say it to the Cleveland Browns if they can turn
Speaker 1: back the one win Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, who are
Speaker 1: now going to be turning to Mike Glenn as their
Speaker 1: starting quarterback. Cleveland assures itself a non losing season. A
Speaker 1: lot of things happening, and it's looking like looking like
Speaker 1: the Browns are gonna have a legitimate shot at the
Speaker 1: playoffs here as long as they as long as they
Speaker 1: can can take care of business against a team like
Speaker 1: Jacksonville that I'm sure they believe they should beat. So well,
Speaker 1: Happy Thanksgiving again, ready, thank you for tuning in everybody.
Speaker 1: We will sign off on this edition of Packer's Own
Speaker 1: Script and be sure to follow all of our coverage
Speaker 1: of the team and everything from Sunday nights big game,
Speaker 1: Packers Bears at lambau Field. It'll all be for you
Speaker 1: on Packers dot com for West. I'm Mike. Take care
Speaker 1: and Happy Thanksgiving. We'll see you next time.