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 Western hot Kowitz. Were coming to
Speaker 1: you from socially distant locations at lambeau Field and West
Speaker 1: last Sunday night, the snow was falling, It was gathering
Speaker 1: on lambeau Field. The hash marks were brushed off. It
Speaker 1: was a classic post Christmas winter December game at lambeau Field,
Speaker 1: and oh, by the way, the Packers put together probably
Speaker 1: their best performance on both sides of the ball on
Speaker 1: the season in dismantling a ten win Tennessee Titans Team
Speaker 1: four team. Mike, I have to make this point before
Speaker 1: we even jump into this game. You mentioned this was
Speaker 1: the best, most complete performance you wrote about it for
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com, and you're right about that. This was
Speaker 1: also the quintessential Green Bay Packers December football game. Using
Speaker 1: the elements to their advantage. I was trying to think
Speaker 1: of the last game that where it just seemed like
Speaker 1: the Packers were able to use the home field advantage
Speaker 1: to their betterment, to their advantage, and and and being
Speaker 1: able to take advantage of the snow falling, the conditions,
Speaker 1: the way they ran the ball thirty seven times or
Speaker 1: whatever ended up being, and it was just it was
Speaker 1: everything you wanted it to be. In defensively, they embraced
Speaker 1: those elements. Well, everything that worked for Green Bay's offense
Speaker 1: also worked for the defense. In this matchup, the green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers come up with a dominating win. You look
Speaker 1: at the performance of aj Dylan breaking out when everybody
Speaker 1: was focused on Derrick Henry. Here comes the rookie second
Speaker 1: round pick gets inserted in the game, which Jamal Williams
Speaker 1: already down with the thigh injury. Then Aaron Jones is
Speaker 1: dealing with a lower body injury. Jones is able to return,
Speaker 1: but they really wrote Allen and he stepped up to
Speaker 1: the challenge. And before we go any farther with anything else,
Speaker 1: DeVante Adams three more touchdowns towards this season total seventeen
Speaker 1: now on the season, one off the franchise record pays
Speaker 1: of Sterling Sharp also within I believe four catches now,
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong on that. As far as
Speaker 1: breaking the single season mark, Davante Adams is as good
Speaker 1: as they get. Yeah. Absolutely, We've got a lot of
Speaker 1: ground to cover in this show. I you raised an
Speaker 1: interesting thing though about a late season game where the
Speaker 1: Packers really took advantage of the elements and while the
Speaker 1: opponents sort of looked out of its element the way
Speaker 1: Tennessee did in that game. And the one that comes
Speaker 1: to mind was during the run the table in frankly,
Speaker 1: when the Houston Texans, not a great Houston Texans team
Speaker 1: but not a bad one, came into lambeau Field late
Speaker 1: in the year and there was kind of some snow,
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit of sleep, and Houston just looked
Speaker 1: almost dysfunctional. Now Tennessee wasn't quite like that, but the
Speaker 1: Packers jumped on them. Ninety did nothing three straight touchdowns
Speaker 1: to open the game. The defense had an interception in there,
Speaker 1: with Darnell Savage getting one to set up a score.
Speaker 1: Packers were in command of this game, and even when
Speaker 1: Tennessee got the double up, the touchdown before halftime, the
Speaker 1: touchdown right after halftime, suddenly nineteen to zero becomes nineteen
Speaker 1: to fourteen and it's a one score game. The Packers
Speaker 1: answered Aaron Jones busts off a big run. Got a
Speaker 1: little lucky because they missed the call there on stepping
Speaker 1: out of bounds, but the Packers took three plays, scored
Speaker 1: a touchdown, We're back up by two scores, stayed in
Speaker 1: command of the game the rest of the way, and
Speaker 1: that that response against a good team in the second
Speaker 1: half when the momentum was starting to shift the other way.
Speaker 1: That was a big positive sign, I think for this
Speaker 1: Packers team, because we've seen in other games where it's
Speaker 1: been harder, it's taken longer to stem the tide and
Speaker 1: get the momentum back in Green Bay's favor. The Packers
Speaker 1: did it right away in the third quarter in this one,
Speaker 1: and that's a really good sign heading in the playoffs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's one of the most overlooked fifty nine yard runs
Speaker 1: you're gonna find when you and everything else that happened
Speaker 1: in this matchup, Aaron Rodgers making his run at the
Speaker 1: m v P, you had another Darnell Savage interception, all
Speaker 1: these other accolades. Oh, by the way, Aaron Jones at
Speaker 1: a time in which the Packers really needed a response,
Speaker 1: provided that response. And it also came again after he
Speaker 1: had been sort of sidelined momentarily was never disclosed with
Speaker 1: an injury, but obviously was battling through a couple of
Speaker 1: things there, and also Mike, you gotta remember a week
Speaker 1: earlier that game, you know, against Carolina, the third quarter
Speaker 1: was sort of the bugaboo there. They weren't able to
Speaker 1: get through what they were trying to get through, and
Speaker 1: it kind of had to end up holding them off.
Speaker 1: This was where they actually got to go in again
Speaker 1: to be able to get their foot back on the
Speaker 1: gas pedal and and finish out the way that they did.
Speaker 1: And just to mention this as well, with Aaron Jones
Speaker 1: ninety four yards in this matchup though what it was
Speaker 1: at two and thirty four total for the two of them,
Speaker 1: that's the type of production you're looking for. And when
Speaker 1: all eyes are on Derrick Henry and you're able to
Speaker 1: hold him underneath the hundred yards rushing in a yeoman's
Speaker 1: effort by the entire your defense, the front, the defensive front,
Speaker 1: the linebackers, uh, the safeties are playing as well as
Speaker 1: they have all season. Uh. That really set the tone
Speaker 1: for what Greenville was able to accomplish. And like the
Speaker 1: biggest compliment you can give a defense, it isn't necessarily
Speaker 1: just looking at, okay, two hundred and sixty total yards
Speaker 1: or or two takeaways. It's what can teams that are
Speaker 1: going to play the Titans learn from your performance. I
Speaker 1: think like Petton in that unit provided some glimpses into
Speaker 1: what it's gonna take to hold off the Titans in
Speaker 1: the long run. They're not always going to be playing
Speaker 1: in the snow. But you saw exactly how much their
Speaker 1: offense is predicated on the play action, and when they
Speaker 1: were not able to establish Henry early on in this
Speaker 1: matchup the downfield past, the game sort of went away
Speaker 1: for the Titans a little bit. That's one thing to
Speaker 1: take note of here, considering Tennessee came in as the
Speaker 1: NFL's highest scoring offense in the Lambau Field on Sunday night. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: I mean, the Packers held the top scoring offense in
Speaker 1: the league to just the two touchdowns, and you're right,
Speaker 1: they really didn't have much of a downfield passing game.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of that was because Derrick Henry
Speaker 1: was not busting off the kind of runs that set
Speaker 1: up the play action and get Ryan Tannehill comfortable in
Speaker 1: the pocket and all of that. I believe it was
Speaker 1: if I remember right from a statistic that I had
Speaker 1: um in Insider Inbox on Monday morning. I wrote it
Speaker 1: pretty late at night, so I'm hoping to remember it correctly.
Speaker 1: But Henry had twenty three carries for nine yards. Only
Speaker 1: five of those twenty three carries did he gain more
Speaker 1: than five yards, and three of those five carries of
Speaker 1: five plus came after the Packers were already ahead thirty
Speaker 1: three to fourteen in the game. So the effort to
Speaker 1: clamp down on Derrick Henry and and to say, you know,
Speaker 1: to say the Packers clamped down on him and he
Speaker 1: had ninety yards, that tells you how good Henry is.
Speaker 1: But it also just shows the effort that the Packers
Speaker 1: put forth. And we saw we saw Mike Petton try
Speaker 1: a lot of different things. He played a six man
Speaker 1: front with four defensive linemen in between the two outside linebackers.
Speaker 1: He played a five man front even when he was
Speaker 1: playing the nickel with five defensive backs only having the
Speaker 1: one inside linebacker in between. He tried all kinds of
Speaker 1: these different changeups. And what happened is the Packers made
Speaker 1: those wrinkles work, and they also it also just threw
Speaker 1: Tennessee off just a little bit. You saw Tannehill changing
Speaker 1: some plays at the line of scrimmage. They weren't really
Speaker 1: sure what they wanted to do, and that Tennessee offense
Speaker 1: never got into a rhythm whatsoever. And but I will
Speaker 1: say this as much as people want to talk about,
Speaker 1: and I've got some film clips in my what you
Speaker 1: might have missed on the changeups that Mike Petton put
Speaker 1: together defensively for Derrick Henry. It still comes down to
Speaker 1: getting off blocks and making tackles. You can look at
Speaker 1: the plays that I have on the website and yes,
Speaker 1: the scheme was there and some things worked, but the
Speaker 1: Titans also had guys blocked, and the Packers made plays
Speaker 1: because guys got off blocks and made tackles. So that
Speaker 1: part of it doesn't change it. The effort all across
Speaker 1: the board, all three levels of the defense for the
Speaker 1: Packers got the job done. And oh, by the way, yeah,
Speaker 1: they got two interceptions off of Tannehill as well, with
Speaker 1: Savage and Kirksey both getting picks. Uh, you know, in
Speaker 1: some key situations and savvy ways in which they were
Speaker 1: able to generate those pressures. Mike, this is a selfless
Speaker 1: effort on the defensive side of the ball. They had
Speaker 1: to go into this game knowing, okay, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: very unlikely. We're gonna sack Ryan Tannell eight times, and
Speaker 1: we're just gonna have a litany of celebrations to do
Speaker 1: that with. No it was going to be a hard work,
Speaker 1: bring your lunch pail to the field type of day,
Speaker 1: and everybody executed what their assignment was supposed to be.
Speaker 1: You can have the best plan in the world, Mike
Speaker 1: and Mike Petton drew up a heck of a one
Speaker 1: for that matchup. But the guy's gotta buy in and
Speaker 1: they have to know what's being asked of them. In
Speaker 1: the base package in the dime where they bring up
Speaker 1: Adrian Amos into the box. Adrian Amos, excuse me, gotta
Speaker 1: get that correct when they bring him up into the box,
Speaker 1: that role that Raven Green had been playing. Everybody filtered
Speaker 1: in the the linebackers, Mike, they're rotating all three their
Speaker 1: inside backers, and there was no confusion there. Everybody understood
Speaker 1: what their assignment was. That's where it starts in the
Speaker 1: execution side of it. You kind of heard it in
Speaker 1: Kenny Clark's voice last week when he spoke to the media.
Speaker 1: These guys were jacked up about this. They were excited
Speaker 1: about this challenge. They felt like they had made big strides,
Speaker 1: but now they had the really big quiz at the
Speaker 1: end of the semester to show exactly how far they've come,
Speaker 1: and they did that in that matchup. And it's getting
Speaker 1: back really quickly to the sacks. As you pointed out,
Speaker 1: Christian Kirksey coming on an inside linebacker blitz in a
Speaker 1: base package. How often have you seen that in the
Speaker 1: last ten years? And then Rashaan Gary, who's really his
Speaker 1: biggest contribution was helping defend the edge and set the run. Well,
Speaker 1: he's also the one that was able to get pressure
Speaker 1: that's set up Darnielle Savage's first interception, Preston Smith doing
Speaker 1: that for Christian Kirksey. It's not all about sacks. It's
Speaker 1: about I'll let you affect the game. The Green Bay
Speaker 1: Packers outside linebackers did it in this one. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: on the other side of the ball, hats off to
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Packers offensive line. You talk about a
Speaker 1: unit that looked in its element with all that snow
Speaker 1: on the field and the way the Packers were running
Speaker 1: the ball. It didn't matter if it was Aaron Jones
Speaker 1: or a j Dylan in the game. I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody predicted Dylan was gonna get twenty plus carries an
Speaker 1: out rush Derrick Henry heading into this one, but that's
Speaker 1: exactly what he did. When Dylan started to get the
Speaker 1: hot hand and started to feel that Aaron Rodgers talked about,
Speaker 1: he could he could sense the rookies confidence building. That
Speaker 1: you know, once you start breaking off some five and
Speaker 1: six and seven yard runs, the confidence starts to grow.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, here comes a twelve
Speaker 1: yard run, and then oh, by the way, here's a
Speaker 1: thirty yard run on third and short that bus for
Speaker 1: a touchdown. And then of course he finishes it off
Speaker 1: just trucking a defensive tackle at the goal line to
Speaker 1: get his second touchdown, capping a hundred and twenty four
Speaker 1: yard performance by the rookie. This is really interesting here.
Speaker 1: Now West heading into the playoffs, the Packers suddenly have
Speaker 1: a shiny, fresh new weapon to to throw into this offense.
Speaker 1: Who Now, they don't completely change the running game scheme wise,
Speaker 1: depending on which back is in there, but A. J.
Speaker 1: Dillon is a different style of back as we've talked about,
Speaker 1: and he showed, he showed what he can do and
Speaker 1: as I like to point out, those big legs are fresh,
Speaker 1: aren't they. They sure are, Mike, our friend James Jones
Speaker 1: made an excellent point saying it kind of in a
Speaker 1: way reminds them the old James Starks in two thousand
Speaker 1: and ten. Now, don't get me wrong, A J. Dillon
Speaker 1: comes much more credential than James did as a sixth
Speaker 1: round pick on a Buffalo at the time. But it
Speaker 1: really is a guy that up until Sunday only had
Speaker 1: twenty four carries on those legs to that point, didn't
Speaker 1: have a preseason at all. I mean, this is a
Speaker 1: guy that has it to work his way back, but
Speaker 1: from being on the COVID reserve list for a month,
Speaker 1: and he looked every bit as strong and every bit
Speaker 1: as powerful as you and I were discussing back in
Speaker 1: the spring when you wrote that ory on him coming
Speaker 1: out of the NFL Draft. And to make this point
Speaker 1: as well, I'm gonna keep doing this, Mike, because Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur is very calculated with what he says. He doesn't
Speaker 1: just say stuff to say it. And it was a
Speaker 1: big moment, and maybe I'm making more of it than
Speaker 1: what other people are, but he was standing at that
Speaker 1: podium back in February when life was just a little
Speaker 1: bit more normal at the time, and he said, we
Speaker 1: have two fantastic backs. We love both of these guys.
Speaker 1: We would like a third, we want another option. Brian
Speaker 1: Goodicin's two months later gave him that other option and
Speaker 1: A J. Dillon And now assuming they can get Jamal
Speaker 1: Williams back here, Aaron Rodgers sounded optimistic about that they
Speaker 1: have three guys that they can shove down the throat
Speaker 1: of defenses in the postseason. Aaron Jones injury complicated things
Speaker 1: a little bit, But I do wonder how much we're
Speaker 1: gonna see some of those two running back packages getting
Speaker 1: those back involved, being able to motion guys out, being
Speaker 1: more unpredictable there is. We're in week seventeen, Mike, and
Speaker 1: there's still a lot left in the cupboard for the
Speaker 1: Packers to pull from. Yeah, this is going to be
Speaker 1: interesting moving forward here with with what with the options
Speaker 1: that the Packers are going to have in the backfield.
Speaker 1: We saw once again, as we've talked about many times
Speaker 1: after games this year, just how difficult this Packers offense
Speaker 1: is to stop when it is running the football efficiently
Speaker 1: and I'll say this to heading into the postseason, and
Speaker 1: then I want to talk about Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams,
Speaker 1: because there's plenty to discuss there. But I wonder here
Speaker 1: moving forward, if the second half of the Carolina game,
Speaker 1: which was too stinker quarters, as Aaron Rodgers put it,
Speaker 1: I wonder if that might have been a really good
Speaker 1: thing to happen to this offense. And I say that
Speaker 1: because Carolina decided they were going to take away Davante Adams,
Speaker 1: the Packers were determined to still get the ball to
Speaker 1: Davante Adams. And after the game, both Matt Lafleur and
Speaker 1: then as the week went on Aaron Rodgers both admitted
Speaker 1: they got away from the running game against Carolina, and
Speaker 1: it had been working. It was what made the offense
Speaker 1: so efficient in the first half against Carolina. I think
Speaker 1: there was a lesson learned there by the play color,
Speaker 1: by the quarterback, by the entire offense. With what happened
Speaker 1: in the second half of Carolina, I think that's potentially
Speaker 1: a good thing for Green Bay moving forward. Mike, you
Speaker 1: like my my fighting analogies. I know you're a huge
Speaker 1: fan of them, but it really reminds you as kind
Speaker 1: of like a sparring fight, a sparring boxing match a
Speaker 1: little bit. Carolina Panthers, they their record is what that
Speaker 1: it is, but there are a lot of talented players
Speaker 1: on that defense. Brian Burns and I think Jeremy Chin
Speaker 1: are going to be guys that really rise up and
Speaker 1: become perennial Pro bowlers in this league. But the Panthers
Speaker 1: were an opponent. Everyone expected the Packers to beat. The
Speaker 1: Panthers kind of reminded everybody that, Okay, we can still
Speaker 1: come up and we can make adjustments and we can
Speaker 1: find ways to take away your best player. So what
Speaker 1: do the Packers do. They take that experience and they
Speaker 1: go up against the Tennessee Titans team that while their
Speaker 1: record is better, their defense has some major issues right now.
Speaker 1: They were working through some problems the sacks, the lack
Speaker 1: of sacks this season. That was prevalent in this game,
Speaker 1: and I thought it weighed really heavily into the final outcome.
Speaker 1: But the Packers use what they had done to make
Speaker 1: adjustments to make Davonte Adams that much better in this matchup.
Speaker 1: He got single coverage in the end zone, he caught
Speaker 1: a touchdown. They gave him cloud coverage two guys on him.
Speaker 1: Davantae Adams used every single little uh what do they
Speaker 1: call that, the little thing in the cleat right, the spike,
Speaker 1: the spike, thank you. He used every single one of
Speaker 1: those cutback shed both of his guys and was able
Speaker 1: to catch the other touchdown pass. Green Packers moved Davantae
Speaker 1: Adams around a lot in this game, eleven catches at
Speaker 1: two yards and to three touchdowns later. Again, a running
Speaker 1: game that can complement an all pro receiver. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of weapons here for Green Bay to tap into
Speaker 1: in January. Yeah, no question about it. Well, Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: All he did on a snowy and somewhat windy game,
Speaker 1: at least it was windy for the first half before
Speaker 1: things calmed down a little bit. He goes out and
Speaker 1: throws four touchdown passes, which matches the number of incompletions
Speaker 1: he has and going twenty one out of puts up
Speaker 1: another monster pass rating is thrown interception, which obviously bothered him.
Speaker 1: And and uh, you know always will. But I'll tell
Speaker 1: you Wes and I know we'll talk a little bit
Speaker 1: more about Adams here as well. But I just don't
Speaker 1: see right now how Aaron Rodgers is not the NFL
Speaker 1: Most Valuable Player. He's got he's got a lead of
Speaker 1: whatever it is, eight or nine passer rating points on
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes at this point, he still has fewer interceptions
Speaker 1: than Mahomes. He's got forty four touchdown passes. He's won
Speaker 1: away from his own career high back in two thousand
Speaker 1: eleven when he had forty five and had that NFL
Speaker 1: record one two and a half passer rating. I think
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers uh locked down the m v P with
Speaker 1: that performance against what still looks like a playoff bound
Speaker 1: team in the Tennessee Titans. Yeah. I agree with you, Mike,
Speaker 1: and I think the odds makers do too as well
Speaker 1: from what I saw this past week and the national media.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. What I love so much about
Speaker 1: what Rogers has done this season is you can talk
Speaker 1: about the forty four touch down passes, another four thousand
Speaker 1: yards season, the first quarterback. What is an NFL history
Speaker 1: to have three seasons or is it five seasons now
Speaker 1: with over thirty five passes and touchdown passes in a season.
Speaker 1: But it's the seventy percent completion percentage that's the difference here.
Speaker 1: It's a guy that was around in the low sixties.
Speaker 1: For a couple of seasons people were talking about him
Speaker 1: throwing the ball away too much, holding onto the ball
Speaker 1: too long. He is playing on time, he's playing in sync,
Speaker 1: and I think you've seen the evolution of a guy
Speaker 1: that has always been an m v P caliber quarterback
Speaker 1: and will be a first ballot Hall of Famer someday,
Speaker 1: and you've seen him sort of grow into himself as
Speaker 1: now a thirty seven year old quarterback that needs to
Speaker 1: play the game a little differently. The arm strength is there,
Speaker 1: the awareness is still at its peak, and Rogers is
Speaker 1: still can scramble enough to keep a defense. Honest, he
Speaker 1: just looks like the full five tool player that everybody
Speaker 1: thought he was, and he's showing everybody that that guy
Speaker 1: is still very much here and is, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: he has to be the m v P at this point.
Speaker 1: If Aaron Rodgers isn't the m v P, you're changing
Speaker 1: the metric, You're moving the goalpost to avoid giving him
Speaker 1: that award he was taking on the running back that
Speaker 1: is the highest guy in that in that competition. And
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes has had an up and down month of December.
Speaker 1: They've won games, but it hasn't been because of his dominance.
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers has been dominant and for a team that
Speaker 1: allegedly didn't have any weapons at the beginning of this season.
Speaker 1: I mean this was you know, if you put west
Speaker 1: Hockwoods out there, this team isn't winning anything, right, That's
Speaker 1: what they were saying with with you know, they needed
Speaker 1: a first round receiver and all that. Well, if that's true,
Speaker 1: here's judgment day. Yeah, Aaron Rodgers has made this team
Speaker 1: better and he's gotten the most out of the talent
Speaker 1: that was always there that maybe people didn't want to realize. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if he does win that third m VP, he
Speaker 1: would join some pretty select company. Only five players in
Speaker 1: NFL history in terms of the Associated Press NFL MVP Award,
Speaker 1: which began in the late nineteen fifties, only five players
Speaker 1: have won three and we're talking about Peyton Manning, Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: Bret Fare, Jim Brown, and Johnny Unitis. Aaron Rodgers would
Speaker 1: be the sixth to to make that a half dozen. Um,
Speaker 1: before we get to those records of Davante Adams that
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier, West, I cannot forget about the sponsor
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Speaker 1: dot com. Backslash Packers All right, Davante Adams West gets
Speaker 1: three touchdowns, another double digit reception, another hundred plus yard game,
Speaker 1: whole home performance. I say that completely in jest, but
Speaker 1: he's just he's done it so many times here. But
Speaker 1: you are right. He now with one nine receptions and
Speaker 1: with seventeen touchdowns, he is four catches and two touchdowns
Speaker 1: away from breaking the Packers single season franchise records in
Speaker 1: those categories held by Sterling Sharp. Sharp had a hundred
Speaker 1: and twelve catches eighteen touchdowns. Those are the records. He's
Speaker 1: also a hundred and ninety two yards away from breaking
Speaker 1: his buddy Jordy Nelson's single season receiving yardage record of
Speaker 1: fifteen nineteen. Now a hundred odds on that one are
Speaker 1: not as good, but I wouldn't put anything past him
Speaker 1: at this point that being said, which record or records
Speaker 1: do you think Davante Adams gets here in Week seventeen
Speaker 1: at Chicago. I want him to get the receptions record,
Speaker 1: um And the main reason for that is I think
Speaker 1: in my opinion, and if you want to debate, we
Speaker 1: most certainly can. I mean, this is the greatest possession
Speaker 1: receiver in Packers history, um. Don Hudson's incredible. He did
Speaker 1: some amazing things. The vertical passing game was so primitive,
Speaker 1: and what they were able to accomplish amazing. James Lofton,
Speaker 1: Sterling Sharp, some great great receivers. Davante Adams what he
Speaker 1: can do with the ball in his hands and his
Speaker 1: ability to get open to catch those passes, I've never
Speaker 1: seen anything like it. And again I made this point
Speaker 1: Insider Inbox. I don't watch every single opponent. I don't
Speaker 1: get a chance to see DeAndre Hopkins on a daily
Speaker 1: basis and some of these other top of the line receivers.
Speaker 1: But Mike, every single game, there's one moment where I
Speaker 1: just say to myself, how did he catch that? How
Speaker 1: did he make that catch? Against these type of cornerbacks
Speaker 1: that he's going up against every single week. Davante Adams
Speaker 1: is getting the best effort the best defender that the
Speaker 1: defense has to offer. Oh and then, by the way,
Speaker 1: usually has a safety paying attention to his whereabouts as well.
Speaker 1: It hasn't mattered he catches the ball. Aaron Rodgers has
Speaker 1: such a great talent, right he can put the ball
Speaker 1: wherever he once in the field, and he has the
Speaker 1: arm strength to do it. And Davante Adams in those
Speaker 1: very small windows in which Rogers can deliver that football
Speaker 1: times out of a hundred catches them. I saw there
Speaker 1: was that that stat a couple of days ago from
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus that they hadn't even charted him for
Speaker 1: a drop until what was it two weeks ago. I
Speaker 1: mean the fact that this guy has been able to
Speaker 1: accomplish what he has. That's why I think the possession
Speaker 1: record more than any other one, no matter how many
Speaker 1: receiving yards he ends up where if he does break
Speaker 1: Sharp's touchdown record, his possessions and his ability to catch
Speaker 1: the amount of passes he has over the last few seasons,
Speaker 1: it's off the charts. Yeah, I'm with you that if
Speaker 1: he's only going to get one of these single season
Speaker 1: franchise records, I'd like it to be the receptions one
Speaker 1: as well, because just two years ago he had a
Speaker 1: hundred and eleven receptions, one off of Sharp's record with
Speaker 1: one game to go, and he ended up with a
Speaker 1: little bit of a bum knee and the Packers sat
Speaker 1: him and he wasn't able to play in week seventeen
Speaker 1: in order to break that record. So this is his
Speaker 1: chance again. Now he goes into the final game with
Speaker 1: a hundred nine receptions, three shy of tying Arp and
Speaker 1: four shy of beating him. So the Packers twelve and three,
Speaker 1: one game left to go in the regular season. There
Speaker 1: are two ways West that the Packers can lock down
Speaker 1: the number one seed for the NFC in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: It's either I wish we had like a little graphic
Speaker 1: that came down, yea, we need this time because you're
Speaker 1: the you're the expert on this. I just sit here.
Speaker 1: I'm the fan. I just watch. That's okay. But the
Speaker 1: two ways are this, the Packers can beat the Chicago
Speaker 1: Bears and it doesn't matter what anybody else does. And
Speaker 1: that's really the situation the Packers have been in for
Speaker 1: the last couple of weeks. I believe when it was
Speaker 1: three games left to go. It was if the Packers
Speaker 1: win their last three, they get the one seed. That
Speaker 1: hasn't changed. The Packers have won the first two. If
Speaker 1: they beat the Bears, they get the one seed. The
Speaker 1: other way is if the Seattle Seahawks lose to the
Speaker 1: San Francisco forty Niners, then the Packers don't need to
Speaker 1: beat the Bears in order to get the one seed.
Speaker 1: The other intrigue that's thrown into this here with this
Speaker 1: being a week seventeen Packers Bears matchup Soldier Field, is
Speaker 1: the Bears are fighting for a playoff spot as well.
Speaker 1: If the Bears beat the Packers, they get into the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Chicago also can get into the playoffs with a loss
Speaker 1: to the Packers if the Arizona Cardinals lose to the Rams,
Speaker 1: except the Rams now don't have their starting quarterbacks, so
Speaker 1: I don't think the Bears are gonna put a whole
Speaker 1: lot of stock into that. They are going to take
Speaker 1: the field on Sunday three pm kickoff in Chicago playing
Speaker 1: for their playoff lives. You and I were walking out
Speaker 1: on the after the game on Sunday, I believe it was,
Speaker 1: and you mentioned how the interesting thing about how week
Speaker 1: seventeen shapes up is and I think the Sunday night
Speaker 1: game is was at Washington, Washington against Philly Philly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is interesting how there are so many intriguing like
Speaker 1: spider webs that connect through all this, but there isn't
Speaker 1: like just one Okay Packers versus Bears two thousand thirteen
Speaker 1: winner take off for the NFC North. There aren't any
Speaker 1: of There aren't a lot of those matchups, and that's
Speaker 1: what makes this game so compelling. The number of layers
Speaker 1: involved with this matchup against the Bears, the history, the rivalry,
Speaker 1: the fact that Mitchell Robinski has had has had some
Speaker 1: bad moments against Green Bay that I'm sure he wants
Speaker 1: to exercise. The fact that green Bay the last big
Speaker 1: carey they gave up was against David Montgomery last month.
Speaker 1: How Khalil Mack has been affected in this, the fact
Speaker 1: that Keen Hicks didn't play in the first game between
Speaker 1: these teams. There are a lot of storylines to follow,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you look at San Francisco right now,
Speaker 1: Mike jeff Wilson, what he did last week against that
Speaker 1: Seattle defense. It's very possible that the Forts find a
Speaker 1: way to win that and their season on a high note.
Speaker 1: But the green Bay Packers want to win this game.
Speaker 1: They are not going to be looking at what happens there.
Speaker 1: They if they feel like they're gonna be a team
Speaker 1: that wins the Super Bowl that can contend to add
Speaker 1: another Lombardi Trophy to this stadium. They want to beat
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears regardless of that. So it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a great matchup. I think it's gonna be a fun week.
Speaker 1: In the fact that you and I are gonna be
Speaker 1: sitting here at lambeau Field, we won't be in Soldier Field.
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna feel the energy. I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna see it on television. What this matchup means for
Speaker 1: both of these teams Green Bay look in the lockdown
Speaker 1: that number one in the Chicago Bears rising themselves from
Speaker 1: the dead a little bit to maybe pay make a
Speaker 1: playoff push. Yeah, the Bears trying to become just the
Speaker 1: third team since the seventy NFL a f L merger
Speaker 1: to have a six game losing streak during a season
Speaker 1: and still make the playoffs. Only two other teams have
Speaker 1: done at the nineteen seventies Cincinnati Bengals and the two
Speaker 1: thousand and fourteen Carolina Panthers. So we'll have a lot
Speaker 1: more to talk about with regard to the Bears later
Speaker 1: this week and this whole playoffs scenario, West. You know,
Speaker 1: the Seahawks game, the Cardinals, Rams game that impacts Packers
Speaker 1: Bears and all that. All those games are gonna be
Speaker 1: going on at the same time. That's how the NFL
Speaker 1: has set it up. So it'll be you and I
Speaker 1: doing the scoreboard, watching the players on the field, not
Speaker 1: quite sure how much they'll be able to pay attention.
Speaker 1: But with that we will sign off on this edition
Speaker 1: of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our
Speaker 1: coverage of the team all week long on Packers dot
Speaker 1: com for West, I Am Mike. Thanks for tuning in everybody.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time. M