Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to Packers Unscripted, or should I say
Speaker 1: welcome back to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I
Speaker 1: and Mike Spofford, he is my trusted colleague West Hodkowitz,
Speaker 1: were coming to you here from our studios at lambeau Field,
Speaker 1: and we are back because the Packers have a new
Speaker 1: head coach, the fifteenth head coach and franchise history, Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur is introduced by Mark Murphy and Brian Goudacunst on
Speaker 1: Wednesday afternoon in the lambeau Field Media Auditorium West and
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff we can kick around here and
Speaker 1: a lot to talk about. But but boy, it was
Speaker 1: an exciting day Wednesday at lambeau Field after what's been
Speaker 1: a couple of long years and some frustrating seasons here
Speaker 1: for the Packers. And uh, just seeing how jam packed
Speaker 1: that media auditorium was with all those cameras. A scene
Speaker 1: like that had not really taken place in Green Bay
Speaker 1: in quite a while. No, I mean it, U, It
Speaker 1: definitely was different. There was a palpable energy throughout the building,
Speaker 1: whether it was the media auditorium, packers locker room when
Speaker 1: we were in there, just the vibes in there as well,
Speaker 1: not that there's any players there, but just amongst the
Speaker 1: personnel and the people in the building, it just there
Speaker 1: is a tangible energy that I think you can feel
Speaker 1: radiating from this higher Matt Lafleur, thirty nine years old,
Speaker 1: UH has a really interesting story when you look at
Speaker 1: where he's come from and the route he took and
Speaker 1: some of the lucky breaks that go your way sometimes
Speaker 1: on that road to becoming an NFL head coach an
Speaker 1: expansive resume, I think the kind of guy that you
Speaker 1: look at when you're trying to build a franchise for
Speaker 1: two thousand, nineteen and beyond really has the background you're
Speaker 1: looking for with some of the different offenses that he
Speaker 1: was exposed to and some of the players that he's
Speaker 1: worked with. So now he's the fifteenth head coach and
Speaker 1: franchise history and looking to turn this thing around in
Speaker 1: Title Town. Yeah, I think what you just said, the
Speaker 1: players that he worked with, I think that's the thing
Speaker 1: that stands out to me the most, because let's be
Speaker 1: honest here, the most important thing for Matt Lafleur as
Speaker 1: the head coach of the Green Bay Packers is to
Speaker 1: get Aaron Rodgers back to playing at the level that
Speaker 1: we've seen Aaron Rodgers play at in the past. That
Speaker 1: is job number one. However he's going to go about that.
Speaker 1: And when you look at Matt Lafleur's history as a
Speaker 1: quarterbacks coach in Washington, he found a lot of success
Speaker 1: with the guy who became the NFL offensive Rookie of
Speaker 1: the Year and Robert Griffin the third. Then as quarterbacks
Speaker 1: coach in Atlanta, he was the position coach for Matt
Speaker 1: Ryan when he wins his first m v P in
Speaker 1: two thousand sixteen when the Falcons end up going to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. Then last year, he becomes the offensive
Speaker 1: coordinator and a play caller for the first time with
Speaker 1: the Tennessee Titans, and he deals with a number of
Speaker 1: for an injuries, going back and forth between Marcus Mariota
Speaker 1: and Blaming Gabbert, and transforms their offense into a power
Speaker 1: running team with Derrick Henry and gets them to the
Speaker 1: precipice of a playoff birth of a week seventeen win
Speaker 1: to get in game, which unfortunately the Titans don't win.
Speaker 1: But my point is he's found success with a lot
Speaker 1: of different types of players, particularly quarterbacks and a lot
Speaker 1: of different styles of offense in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: And I think that bodes well for what the history,
Speaker 1: what what what the future holds here for this historic franchise. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's funny too because you you you listed off
Speaker 1: all those different quarterbacks everybody's worked with into me, maybe
Speaker 1: the most impressive out of that group is what he
Speaker 1: and Sean McVeigh did with Jared Goff in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: You really forget. I mean he did, he worked wonders
Speaker 1: with Matt Ryan, helped him, you know, win an m
Speaker 1: v P Award, took his game to another level and
Speaker 1: there run to the Super Bowl in two thousand sixteen.
Speaker 1: But Jared Goff, you think about what the na it
Speaker 1: was around that young man coming off his rookie season
Speaker 1: in two thousands. There were discussions of the bust label
Speaker 1: with him for as high a draft pick as he was,
Speaker 1: and things were not coming together for the Rams, and
Speaker 1: uh that, as you said, the narrative quickly turned. And
Speaker 1: it's in the fact that Carson Wentz was looking like
Speaker 1: the next you know, the second coming of you know,
Speaker 1: Johnny Unitis. I mean it was just incredible, Uh, everything
Speaker 1: where things were at im for my money. Mike, You've
Speaker 1: been around this game a lot longer than I have,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to be a prisoner at the moment.
Speaker 1: But the turnaround, the Rams had just their culture, their
Speaker 1: offensive production. What they did from two thousand sixteen to seventeen,
Speaker 1: I don't know if we've ever seen anything like it
Speaker 1: in the modern era. And then dramatic, he decides, instead
Speaker 1: of just staying in the passenger seat of a very
Speaker 1: comfortable car, I'm gonna go challenge myself. I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: to Tennessee and be my own play caller. Dealt with
Speaker 1: a lot of adversity there, Marcus Mariot are dealing with
Speaker 1: some very significant injuries that he was trying to play through.
Speaker 1: But yet they still found a way. And you take
Speaker 1: all those experiences, what happened in Washington, his one year
Speaker 1: in Notre Dame, what he got reunited with Brian Kelly,
Speaker 1: You had the time with Matt Ryan in Atlanta, l A. Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Now he's with the Green Bay Packers. I think it
Speaker 1: is the perfect culmination of all that experience, putting that
Speaker 1: to work. Now. Yes, on the resume it says thirty nine,
Speaker 1: but if you look at what he's done over the
Speaker 1: last fifteen years and the ladders he's climbed. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is a guy with a wealth of information that
Speaker 1: he's bringing to this offense. Yeah, it's interesting the phrase
Speaker 1: that you used with sitting in the comfortable passenger seat
Speaker 1: of a car, because if he had stayed with the
Speaker 1: Rams as offensive coordinator, Sean McVeigh as the head coach
Speaker 1: is calling the plays on offense there. But with the
Speaker 1: Rams going thirteen and three, being the number two seed
Speaker 1: in the NFC this year and all of that, there's
Speaker 1: a really good chance that Matt Lafleur would have been
Speaker 1: interviewing for a lot more head coaching jobs than than
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Packers. It turns out his risky move
Speaker 1: to go to Tennessee to become a play caller for
Speaker 1: the first time, to grow as a coach and try
Speaker 1: to advance his own career in that way, in some
Speaker 1: respects it dimmed his prospects because Tennessee's offense didn't light
Speaker 1: it up and everything, and and it might have it
Speaker 1: might have shied some teams away. The Packers looked at
Speaker 1: it in a different way. They went behind the statistics,
Speaker 1: They looked at the injuries that were dealt with, all
Speaker 1: the circumstances that went into that, and uh, the chance
Speaker 1: that he took in terms of going out of his
Speaker 1: own comfort zone and not just saying, Okay, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: ride the coattails of Sean McVeigh and Jared Goff as
Speaker 1: long as I can until I get my shot. He said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go call plays somewhere so that when I
Speaker 1: do get my shot, I'm going to be better for it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be more prepared for it. That's how
Speaker 1: Mark Murphy and Brian Brian Goudakums looked at this, and
Speaker 1: and I give them credit for it. Now, who knows
Speaker 1: if this is going to work out or not. Obviously
Speaker 1: there's a ton of energy in the building. Everybody's really excited.
Speaker 1: I'm excited for Matt Lafleur. When you see a thirty
Speaker 1: nine year old guy up there achieve his dream. He
Speaker 1: is a head coach in the NFL, and he's a
Speaker 1: head coach, which for one of the most historic franchises
Speaker 1: in the NFL. It's a it's a great thing to
Speaker 1: watch as as a as a spectator. But um, but
Speaker 1: this process and and and the way the Packers went
Speaker 1: about it. They talked to a lot of people, and uh,
Speaker 1: there was no doubt in Mark Murphy and Brian Gudakunsen
Speaker 1: russ Ball's mind that Matt Lafleur was the guy for
Speaker 1: the job. Ten interviews that they conducted seven over a
Speaker 1: span of three days last weekend, the last of which
Speaker 1: was Matt Lafleur. They mentioned that they went at like
Speaker 1: four or five different cities or something like that over
Speaker 1: a span of three days. Yeah, but the thing that
Speaker 1: was the most compelling about it isn't and rightfully so,
Speaker 1: sometimes if you're interviewing all those people, the last one
Speaker 1: is gonna look the most attractive. So they had to
Speaker 1: step back. They had to make sure they took the
Speaker 1: emotions out of it. And when they reassessed a couple
Speaker 1: of days later, yeah, this is the guy that made
Speaker 1: sense for the Green Bay Packers. The other thing to
Speaker 1: kind of bounce off of what you're talking about a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes ago, he could have stayed in l A.
Speaker 1: They could have had another a lot of success again
Speaker 1: this year, thirteen wins. Uh, certainly look like they're gonna
Speaker 1: be one of the front runners here to make a
Speaker 1: run at a Super Bowl, but he probably wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been as well conditioned to be a head coach if
Speaker 1: he stayed there. This way, he did get out there,
Speaker 1: he did get that experience. And Mike, I mean, correct
Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong here, But you go back and
Speaker 1: look at the Packers history of when they've had success,
Speaker 1: specifically on the offensive side of the ball, it's been
Speaker 1: when they've had a head coach that's being the play
Speaker 1: caller coaches coach Mike McCarthy, play caller Mike Sherman during
Speaker 1: the best run that he had in Green Bay was
Speaker 1: when he took over play calling again from Tom Rosalie.
Speaker 1: You look at you know, Mike Homer and these guys.
Speaker 1: This is how they get to this level. If this
Speaker 1: is the way you coach, if this is the way
Speaker 1: you play, if this is the way you work when
Speaker 1: you get to that top job, why would you change
Speaker 1: what you are? Tiger doesn't change its stripes, right, So
Speaker 1: from that regard, I think for him to get out there,
Speaker 1: put himself out there, be a play caller, gained that experience.
Speaker 1: When you're sitting down in that interview, then as he said,
Speaker 1: you can have that manual, you can have everything laid
Speaker 1: out what it's gonna take to be a head coach
Speaker 1: in this league. The GM, the CEO president you're talking to,
Speaker 1: they're gonna throw that in the middle of the table
Speaker 1: and they want to hear what you have to say.
Speaker 1: They want to hear about your experiences. I'll tell you what, Mike,
Speaker 1: do you listen to Matt Lafleour go through how he
Speaker 1: got to this position, the continuous upward climb that he's
Speaker 1: been on. It's impressive because whether it was his intention
Speaker 1: five ten years ago or not, he checked all the
Speaker 1: boxes to afford himself this opportunity. Yeah. And when you
Speaker 1: look at the Packers history, as you mentioned this last
Speaker 1: quarter century plus of the success, the revitalization that began
Speaker 1: with Ron Wilf and Mike Holmgren and whatnot, Mike Holmgren
Speaker 1: didn't have any previous NFL head coaching experience when he
Speaker 1: was hired. Mike Sherman didn't, Mike McCarthy didn't. The only
Speaker 1: one who did was Ray Rhodes, who only lasted one
Speaker 1: year and was gone after an eight and eight season.
Speaker 1: And in this quarter century plus, the Packers have had
Speaker 1: numerous playoff appearances. I believe it's seven trips to the
Speaker 1: NFC Champion Chip Game, three trips to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: So this this fits with how the Packers do things.
Speaker 1: It's about it's about seizing the moment and seizing the
Speaker 1: opportunity with somebody that they believe is ready for that
Speaker 1: next step. And yes, is there a risk, is it
Speaker 1: taking a chance on somebody who maybe hasn't proven himself. Yes,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, if you let somebody else
Speaker 1: take that chance, they're going to reap the reward in
Speaker 1: success if they're the ones who were right. And if
Speaker 1: you were sitting on the sideline because you because you weren't,
Speaker 1: you know, willing to stick your neck out there. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I know you're a big gambler. I know it. I
Speaker 1: see it in your eyes. But if you're sitting in
Speaker 1: a blackjack table, the dealer isn't showing his hand. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's how these things go. Probably a poker
Speaker 1: analogy have been more suitable there. But be that as
Speaker 1: it may, you don't know what you're getting. The whole
Speaker 1: life is full of box of chocolates. Approach to this thing,
Speaker 1: you have to go off your gut instinct. And Mark
Speaker 1: Murphy said from the very beginning of this. He's been
Speaker 1: through these things before. He did it at Colgate, did
Speaker 1: it at Northwestern, He's done it with the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 1: You have to trust your process, you have to trust
Speaker 1: the people, you have to trust the voices. I thought
Speaker 1: one thing that was really enlightening. Murphy laid it all
Speaker 1: out there in terms of what their process was, sitting
Speaker 1: down with the Packers leadership council, with the players in
Speaker 1: that locker room, what do you want out of the
Speaker 1: head coach? A process that him and Brian Goodkins both did.
Speaker 1: They pulled in a lot of different people, and in
Speaker 1: the end they felt that they found a guy they
Speaker 1: felt would be the right fit for this organization. Even
Speaker 1: put him on the phone with Aaron Rodgers to discuss
Speaker 1: this offense and where he wants to take things. And
Speaker 1: we'll talk about this going forward to Mike. But the
Speaker 1: fact that you know he did work with Matt Ryan.
Speaker 1: He had to prove something to Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan
Speaker 1: had been in the league for seven years already at
Speaker 1: that point, and it's and had been been to multiple
Speaker 1: playoff games that appeared in NFC Championship games and all
Speaker 1: that before the Dan Quinn and Kyle Shanahan and Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur era began there on the offensive side. The same
Speaker 1: thing that Mike McCarthy had to do when he had
Speaker 1: to prove himself to Brett Fare, when he had to
Speaker 1: prove himself to Joe Montana. Same thing when you look
Speaker 1: at all these different coaches in the league that have
Speaker 1: worked with veteran quarter acts or veterans at any position.
Speaker 1: You need to show that you can coach. He's done that,
Speaker 1: He's proven it, and now he's going to be working
Speaker 1: with another m v P quarterback in Aaron Rodgers, who
Speaker 1: I had to be honest with you, Mike. As much
Speaker 1: success as the Packers have had over the last thirteen years,
Speaker 1: there is a lot to be said for Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: now at thirty five years old, getting a chance to
Speaker 1: operate in a new system. It's a you know, things
Speaker 1: like this don't happen a lot, so getting a chance
Speaker 1: to see what he can do now, taking his skill set,
Speaker 1: what he's done to this point in his career, getting
Speaker 1: a chance to marry it now with Matt Lafleur's scheme
Speaker 1: and system. I think it's an exciting thing and it's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why to get off to the
Speaker 1: beginning of her show. There is that real tangible energy
Speaker 1: that you feel in the building. Right Yeah, I want
Speaker 1: to get back to that point you just made about
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Speaker 1: know this all revolves or very much revolves around Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers in terms of the immediate future here of the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers, And what I think is interesting because
Speaker 1: this was my gut feeling going into this coaching search
Speaker 1: from the minute the Packers decided to part ways with
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy. In my mind, I was feeling like, if
Speaker 1: you look at this as we're on the back third
Speaker 1: of Aaron Rodgers career, just say, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know if saying back half that
Speaker 1: might be asking him to play a little bit too long.
Speaker 1: But if we say that, if he's on the back
Speaker 1: third of his career, what's it going to take to
Speaker 1: maximize this final stretch of Aaron Rodgers career? And in
Speaker 1: my mind it was like, you know, do you have
Speaker 1: to give him something completely new and challenge him? You know,
Speaker 1: this is one of the most competitive guys I've ever
Speaker 1: been around. He's competitive at everything, ping pong, Jeopardy, and football,
Speaker 1: you name it. So if you're gonna if you're gonna
Speaker 1: hand him something called the playbook or whatever, if you're
Speaker 1: going to hand him something and challenge him and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're one of the best that's ever played this game,
Speaker 1: apply your Hall of Fame talents to this, let's go.
Speaker 1: I think I think that's the best way to really
Speaker 1: maximize on whatever it is that Aaron Rodgers has left
Speaker 1: here before he retires and heads off to Canton, Ohio
Speaker 1: at some point. So I like this approach from the Packers. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's no guarantee it's gonna work. There's no guarantee that
Speaker 1: anything that the Packers were going to do here was
Speaker 1: was going to work. That's why you have to go
Speaker 1: through the process, as you said, and trust it. But
Speaker 1: I think Aaron Rodgers is potentially going to be re
Speaker 1: energized and revitalized by the challenges that are now going
Speaker 1: to be placed in front. If you know anything about
Speaker 1: covering Rodgers, being around Rodgers, these are the type of
Speaker 1: things that he really embraces. And the fact that you
Speaker 1: cannot discount this either, Mike. The Packers finished six nine
Speaker 1: and one last year. Aaron Rodgers is not feeling great
Speaker 1: about that. He wants to win. There's probably nobody in
Speaker 1: this league maybe has ever walked through this particular building
Speaker 1: that's wanted to win more than Aaron Rodgers has. So um, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know again, I don't want to put words into
Speaker 1: his own mouth. We'll hear what he has to say
Speaker 1: in April during the offseason program or everything else comes
Speaker 1: out before then. But just knowing one that the packers
Speaker 1: did the best they could to include as many different
Speaker 1: voices as they could in terms of trying to understand
Speaker 1: what this team needs, what do they want, What do
Speaker 1: we need to do to put themselves back in a
Speaker 1: situation of dominance? You want to get back to that
Speaker 1: different plateau. That is not easy to attain, but it's
Speaker 1: something that I think if you have that open communication,
Speaker 1: if you have that dialogue, it's going to be there
Speaker 1: for you and I one of the things that I
Speaker 1: was really in us with And I don't know what
Speaker 1: outside media and and pundance are going to do with this,
Speaker 1: but I really did enjoy what Matt Lafleur said about
Speaker 1: you know, there's a big playbook. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: plays in that playbook. If there's something you don't like
Speaker 1: in that playbook, you don't feel comfortable running, tell me
Speaker 1: will use something else. And I think to some extent,
Speaker 1: you know, people can be like, well then that's so
Speaker 1: and so trying to dictate things. No, Mike, you and
Speaker 1: I discuss things on a daily basis, right, We write stories,
Speaker 1: we do things. Hey, how do you feel about this?
Speaker 1: What do you want to do here? Do you want
Speaker 1: to do something like this. Yeah, because if you're just
Speaker 1: sitting there saying, hey, Wes, I want you to like
Speaker 1: go around the office and and start you know, or
Speaker 1: going around Green Bay and start collecting setting new sales
Speaker 1: ads and things like that. No, I don't want to
Speaker 1: do that. I wasn't paid to do that. I'm paid
Speaker 1: to write. I'm paid to do this show. I think
Speaker 1: it's really important to know what the whole barometer is,
Speaker 1: what the landscape is, what do you feel comfortable with,
Speaker 1: particularly when you're coming in with a new scheme with
Speaker 1: a quarterback that you have coached before. That's what the
Speaker 1: next three months are going to be about this coaching staff,
Speaker 1: once it's developed, trying to set the place, trying to
Speaker 1: set the plan, and then once April first comes around,
Speaker 1: implementing that and getting that vision down. And just based
Speaker 1: on their short interactions so far, again only a testimony
Speaker 1: at this point in time to the floor, it sounds
Speaker 1: like everybody's on the same page from that regard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it certainly looks that way, and we'll see how things
Speaker 1: come together. Now. Matt Lafleur's number one job in the
Speaker 1: immediate future is to build his coaching staff. He didn't
Speaker 1: really get into any specifics in his introductory news conference
Speaker 1: on Wednesday as far as that goes, there are some
Speaker 1: reports out there about some coaches that he may retain. Um,
Speaker 1: he didn't get into that. He said he is planning
Speaker 1: to sit down with some of the members of the
Speaker 1: Packers coaching staff from including defensive coordinator Mike Petton. So
Speaker 1: we'll see how that evolves. And those are things that
Speaker 1: we can discuss on on future shows as we get
Speaker 1: the news of those decisions. But I think this is
Speaker 1: something where he's, uh, he's going to act quickly and
Speaker 1: swiftly and get this staff built because it's because now
Speaker 1: it's about building that offensive playbook potentially you know, seeing
Speaker 1: seeing what's there defensively, um, a special team's playbook, all
Speaker 1: of that, because he's in charge of the whole show now,
Speaker 1: it's not just it's not just the one side of
Speaker 1: the ball. And he's also gonna want to have some
Speaker 1: conversations potentially with Brian Goudakunst about Okay, here's what I
Speaker 1: see on the current roster. These are the kinds of
Speaker 1: things I'd like to do so in free agency, in
Speaker 1: the draft, or there's are there some types of players
Speaker 1: maybe we can target to to fill in some gaps
Speaker 1: and fill in some holes as you uh as the
Speaker 1: Packers transition to a new system, certainly offensively at least.
Speaker 1: So there's there's a lot of there's a lot of
Speaker 1: work to be done and and quite frankly, he doesn't
Speaker 1: have a whole lot of time to do it. No.
Speaker 1: I mean you think back to the first couple of
Speaker 1: years of Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy. Uh. Ted Thompson brought
Speaker 1: in Charles Woodson. Mike McCarthy had to coach Charles Woodson.
Speaker 1: You have to be able to have that dialogue in
Speaker 1: terms of what are the players we feel and need
Speaker 1: to be here and how are we going to go
Speaker 1: about using them and being able to maximize their talents.
Speaker 1: That's the next step. Honestly, I think this the next
Speaker 1: couple of weeks here, however, the shuffles out with the
Speaker 1: coaching staff trying to finalize that. I've always felt this way,
Speaker 1: it's one of the most important times of the season
Speaker 1: because you're gonna have time to set down, sit down
Speaker 1: and figure out what you want to do for a playbook.
Speaker 1: You're it's not as much time as you used to
Speaker 1: as far as working with players, but you're gonna have
Speaker 1: that time to, you know, explain to them what the
Speaker 1: vision is. But this is the time of the year
Speaker 1: where everything is moving so fast, there's so much going on,
Speaker 1: and it really does put that rolodex to to work
Speaker 1: and making sure that you know, when you're trying to
Speaker 1: set a roster of two individuals working towards a common
Speaker 1: goal and finding a real common bond between them among them,
Speaker 1: this is uh a pivotal time now for Matt Lafleur
Speaker 1: as he looks to begin putting his step on this organization. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: a couple more minutes before we go here on today's show,
Speaker 1: US wanted to just get your thoughts on NFC divisional playoffs.
Speaker 1: Are i should say NFL divisional playoffs coming up this weekend?
Speaker 1: Four games. You've got Colts, Chiefs, Chargers, Patriots in the
Speaker 1: a f C, Cowboys, Rams, Eagles, Saints in the NFC.
Speaker 1: Is there any one of these four games that you're
Speaker 1: looking forward to the most. There's a couple, really, three
Speaker 1: are the ones that I'm most excited about. I'll just
Speaker 1: say this is my favorite weekend of NFL football of
Speaker 1: the year. Divisional playoffs you've got, you know, the Saturday afternoon,
Speaker 1: Saturday night and then two games on Sunday afternoon, the
Speaker 1: final eight. As you advanced to the to the final four.
Speaker 1: That I think it's the best weekend of football there
Speaker 1: is really excited to see how the Rams do. We're
Speaker 1: talking so much about the Floor and his former connections
Speaker 1: with Sean McVeigh. They have a tough, tough, you know
Speaker 1: battle coming up here against the Dallas defense that looks
Speaker 1: really formidable at this point in time, especially now without
Speaker 1: the Bears in this thing. Saints and Eagles is interesting
Speaker 1: just because of the you know, the the Cinderella story
Speaker 1: again here with Philadelphia. But for me my money, if
Speaker 1: you said West pick one game, it's that Charges In
Speaker 1: the Patriots, it's Drew Brees Philip Rivers, a tale as
Speaker 1: old as time. And as I wrote in Insider in Box,
Speaker 1: I think there is a small part of me that
Speaker 1: is rooting for a Philip Rivers Drew Brees Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: I think if you're building up a card uh w W,
Speaker 1: e UFC, whatever it is, I just think that that
Speaker 1: is the biggest most attention you can bring those two
Speaker 1: weeks building towards that all this time passed after those
Speaker 1: two had been together. That would be a wonderful scenario.
Speaker 1: But as far as this weekend's concerned, can Philip Rivers
Speaker 1: exercise a few demons here against the New England Patriots
Speaker 1: and advanced back to an AFC championship game. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: some interesting things here. I think there there's an interesting
Speaker 1: narrative storyline to all four of these games because with
Speaker 1: Colts Chiefs, I know it was a handful of years ago,
Speaker 1: but that one playoff game with the huge comeback, what
Speaker 1: wasn't it? Wasn't it the Colts that were down like
Speaker 1: twenty eight points or twenty seven points or something like
Speaker 1: that to the Chiefs in the postseason and they came
Speaker 1: back and won. That was a while ago, I know.
Speaker 1: But was that during Andrew luck second year? When was that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It might have It might have been Luck second season.
Speaker 1: You can keep talking, Yeah, yep, it was yeah, Yeah, tremendous,
Speaker 1: tremendous playoff game. Then you look at Chargers and Patriots
Speaker 1: with what they're talking about for the weather in Foxborough
Speaker 1: on Sunday, it could the cold and the snow, and
Speaker 1: who knows, maybe another Tuck rule game is on the horizon.
Speaker 1: Charles Woodson will have to uh be sitting in a
Speaker 1: in a sky box there at Gillette Stadium just in case. Um.
Speaker 1: Then in the NFC, the Cowboys defense you mentioned it
Speaker 1: going up against the Rams. This is the Cowboys defense
Speaker 1: that really is the only one that we've seen, at
Speaker 1: least through the second half of the regular season in
Speaker 1: the NFL that was able to tame the New Orleans Saints.
Speaker 1: And so this matchup with Dallas' defense going up against
Speaker 1: the Rams out in l A. It's it's curious to
Speaker 1: me from that standpoint. Can the Cowboys keep it up
Speaker 1: on the defensive side and give their power running game
Speaker 1: with Ezekiel Elliott and then you know those occasional over
Speaker 1: the plays to a Marii Cooper with that that addition
Speaker 1: to their passing offense from late in the year. And
Speaker 1: then Eagles against the Saints. I don't remember exactly what
Speaker 1: the final score was in the regular season, but the Saints,
Speaker 1: the Saints, Claubert, these guys, and I'll just say this,
Speaker 1: if you're the Eagles, you don't you don't get a
Speaker 1: chance seven. You don't get a chance in the NFL
Speaker 1: normally to come back in the playoffs and get a
Speaker 1: rematch against a team that quite frankly rubbed your noses
Speaker 1: in it. So as as bullish as I've been on
Speaker 1: the Saints all season long, and the fact that they
Speaker 1: have the number one seed and it's going to be
Speaker 1: really tough for somebody to go into the Superdome and
Speaker 1: beat them, the fact that the Eagles kind of got
Speaker 1: their tails kicked, I should say this flat out did
Speaker 1: get their tails kicked by this team earlier in the
Speaker 1: season is what makes this one kind of intriguing to me,
Speaker 1: because these kind of rematches don't happen very often. And
Speaker 1: here's the biggest thing, Michael, the Eagles have absolutely zilch
Speaker 1: to lose in this game. They're playing with house money
Speaker 1: again again, could not have gone any worse the first
Speaker 1: time that they played the Saints, So yeah, what what
Speaker 1: do you have to lose in a matchup like this?
Speaker 1: Go out? They got, They got the biggest break. They
Speaker 1: got the biggest break any team could ask for in
Speaker 1: the postseason. A tip, a tip and a donk and
Speaker 1: a clock I mean on that field goal that that
Speaker 1: won the game in Chicago for them and sent the
Speaker 1: Bears to an early exit in the postseason. That's a
Speaker 1: some sometimes that's all a team needs. But that being said,
Speaker 1: I still think I still think the Saints in New
Speaker 1: Orleans are going to be the toughest out in in
Speaker 1: the postseason. Absolutely, and that's also I think one of
Speaker 1: the reasons why we'll see exactly how the Rams do
Speaker 1: if they you know, they've been up and down a
Speaker 1: little bit during the second half of the season, but
Speaker 1: if it would work out to where you could get
Speaker 1: Dallas going into the Superdome against the Saints. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the things that's really interesting. I have a
Speaker 1: lot of respect for Rod Marinelli the defense that he
Speaker 1: built there in Dallas, but what was one of the
Speaker 1: biggest things that they struggled for years? It was trying
Speaker 1: to find inside linebackers for that defense, middle linebackers for
Speaker 1: that defense, especially with Sean Lee doing you know, working
Speaker 1: through some of the injuries. And now you have a
Speaker 1: story like Jalen Smith, the way he's played after such
Speaker 1: a devastating injury coming out of college Layton vander esh
Speaker 1: is one of the you know, an all Pro type
Speaker 1: player right out of the gate. They're complete team in
Speaker 1: the middle of the field, and where do teams like
Speaker 1: the Rams in Saints try to hurt you the middle
Speaker 1: of the field. Would be an interesting scenario to watch,
Speaker 1: especially if they get back to back matchups with those
Speaker 1: two teams. Yeah, and however it comes out in the NFC,
Speaker 1: I just realized this. No matter what the matchup is
Speaker 1: in the NFC Championship, it will be a rematch from
Speaker 1: the regular season. Whether it's because the Cowboys have played
Speaker 1: the Saints and the Eagles obviously, and the Rams have
Speaker 1: played both the Saints and the Eagles, so um, so
Speaker 1: we'll see. I think maybe that's partly why in the
Speaker 1: back of my mind I wanted to see the Bears
Speaker 1: against the Saints playoffs because we hadn't seen that one yet.
Speaker 1: But it didn't happen. So but should be a should
Speaker 1: be a great, uh, a great two days of NFL football.
Speaker 1: I'll be sitting down with my San Pellegrino and eating
Speaker 1: a couple of pretzel sticks and enjoying these. I might
Speaker 1: have something a little stronger than San Pellegrino, But with that,
Speaker 1: we are going to call it a wrap on this
Speaker 1: edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of
Speaker 1: our coverage of the team and what's going on with
Speaker 1: the Packers head coach and his assistant staff on Packers
Speaker 1: dot com. On Twitter, you can still follow him at
Speaker 1: west hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the
Speaker 1: team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, We'll see you
Speaker 1: next time.