Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined by the
Speaker 1: suddenly clean shaven Western Hodkowitz, and we're coming to you
Speaker 1: hear from our studios at lambeau Field, unfortunately, to recap
Speaker 1: a season ending NFC Wildcard playoff loss. The final was
Speaker 1: twenty two to ten at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: and Wes' if there's anything that is going to be
Speaker 1: the you know the recurring theme of the downfall of
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four Green Bay Packers, it's that when
Speaker 1: they had a really, really big game to play, they
Speaker 1: didn't start it well enough to be able to win it.
Speaker 2: This is the hardest part for me, as you and
Speaker 2: I were coming back on the plane and obviously writing
Speaker 2: our content and everything that's followed these last couple of days,
Speaker 2: is there were so many things we talked about going
Speaker 2: into this game, and the Packers knew it too, that
Speaker 2: had to get accomplished, and realistically they didn't achieve any
Speaker 2: of them. I was talking to my father after I
Speaker 2: got home from the game. Sometimes the old father son talk,
Speaker 2: you kind of debrief about.
Speaker 1: Work, and I do it via text message, Yeah with
Speaker 1: my dad.
Speaker 2: Your dad's down in platform. Mine lives two miles away
Speaker 2: from me, so it feasy. But like I said, I
Speaker 2: was like, that was the most disappointing part of this
Speaker 2: game for me. Is nothing surprising happened relative to what
Speaker 2: you knew. The worst case scenario could be. It was
Speaker 2: an early turnover on the kickoff. It was losing the
Speaker 2: turnover margin four to zero for the game, not being
Speaker 2: able to get off to a fast start offensively, struggling
Speaker 2: to find a rhythm and Mike. One of the things
Speaker 2: we talked about last week. Ifiladelphia was gonna lock it
Speaker 2: down and take care of and remove the threat of
Speaker 2: Josh Jacobs that early on, the Packers had to take
Speaker 2: advantage well the Eagles, and which had a very respectable
Speaker 2: run defense, not number one ranked like their pass defense,
Speaker 2: but number top ten. Well, they were able to contain
Speaker 2: him with a light box. They kept the shell on
Speaker 2: the top of the defense, and as Jaden Reid talked
Speaker 2: about after the game, they just the Packers had to
Speaker 2: kind of play underneath that. And when that's the case,
Speaker 2: you have to find ways to create explosive plays. You
Speaker 2: got to make guys miss. You have to get into
Speaker 2: the open field, and Green Bay just struggled to do
Speaker 2: that and their season ended because of it. It's very
Speaker 2: strange footing for me, Mike. This is the first time
Speaker 2: in my time with the Green Bay Packers in which
Speaker 2: they've made the playoffs and have not been in the
Speaker 2: divisional round. Whether it was as a buy or whether
Speaker 2: they played into it. This is the first time the
Speaker 2: Packers have lost in the wildcard round since twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: my last year at the Prescazette. So that there's just
Speaker 2: this feeling all week long of not like whatever the
Speaker 2: antithesis of like finality would be, it's just inconclusive. You know.
Speaker 2: It just feels like, as you wrote about some of
Speaker 2: our stories this week, we never really saw the Packers
Speaker 2: play their best ball. They won eleven games, and now
Speaker 2: they're off into the offseason once again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's certainly frustrating. And Matt Lefuir talked about it
Speaker 1: his season ending news conference was shortly before we turned
Speaker 1: the cameras on here, talked about just how disappointing it
Speaker 1: was for the for the offense to hit the skids
Speaker 1: at the end of the season, and everybody's questioning, you know, okay,
Speaker 1: what went wrong and everything, and I don't you know,
Speaker 1: I'm one who tries to look at it from a
Speaker 1: big picture perspective. I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong
Speaker 1: with the Packers offense. You have to realize that before
Speaker 1: things started to go south in Minnesota in the second
Speaker 1: to last regular season game, the Packers had scored thirty
Speaker 1: plus points five games in a row. That's what makes
Speaker 1: the finish the Minnesota game, the Chicago game, and then
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia game. That's what makes it so so headscore
Speaker 1: and so surprising. I mean, yes, the end result in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia was not surprising based on what had happened in
Speaker 1: Minnesota and leading up to it. The Packers didn't have momentum,
Speaker 1: They had the toughest playoff position as the seventh seat.
Speaker 1: They were not healthy, they were dealing with they were
Speaker 1: getting some guys back on defense, but guys were dropping
Speaker 1: like flies during the game and all that. There's there's
Speaker 1: so much to to try to process there. But offensively,
Speaker 1: I mean, you said it. The Eagles were able to
Speaker 1: contain Josh Jacobs to basically two and a half to
Speaker 1: three yards of carry. I mean he had right around
Speaker 1: fifty yards on seventeen of his carries. He had the
Speaker 1: one that busted a tremendous run down to the one
Speaker 1: yard line set up the touchdown run there on the
Speaker 1: opening play of the fourth quarter. But the Packers couldn't
Speaker 1: get Jacob's going, so then the Eagles were just were
Speaker 1: still able to sit back, make the Packers try to throw,
Speaker 1: try to run the quick game on offense. And as
Speaker 1: I was saying in the Lone I blogged during the game,
Speaker 1: if you're trying to just continue to throw the quick
Speaker 1: outs to get the ball out of Love's hand, because
Speaker 1: anytime there were developing routes, there was a guy in
Speaker 1: his face and he's having to bail the pocket. There
Speaker 1: was no timing, there was no rhythm to anything. If
Speaker 1: all you can do is throw the quick stuff, well
Speaker 1: then the defense is gonna eventually sit on that and
Speaker 1: they're gonna jump it and they're gonna make a play
Speaker 1: on that. So you still have to try to mix
Speaker 1: in everything else. But when everything else was being mixed in,
Speaker 1: there was no rhythm, there was no consistency to anything
Speaker 1: going on offense. And this offense really just ended the
Speaker 1: season with in just a three week malaise of poor
Speaker 1: execution and poor results.
Speaker 2: And you know, I'm gonna pull down capers here for
Speaker 2: one moment, just say I'm gonna start with the positives
Speaker 2: first in this and then I'll bring it back to
Speaker 2: what you're talking about. Everything that we saw in, everything
Speaker 2: we believed in Josh Shacobs I felt like was epitomized
Speaker 2: in this game. I think you can make a case
Speaker 2: Josh Shacops was maybe the MVP of this entire roster
Speaker 2: this season.
Speaker 1: I think he was, and the way he.
Speaker 2: Performed in his consistency when you're talking about guys that
Speaker 2: showed up every single week and did it at a
Speaker 2: high level. He made a few mistakes, but as we saw,
Speaker 2: if you look at the guys that have had three
Speaker 2: hundred plus carries and Packers' history, I think he had
Speaker 2: four fumbles on the season. That's right around the lowest.
Speaker 2: I think Edgar Bennett had two one year, but you know,
Speaker 2: I'm on green had seven had eight For how manch
Speaker 2: any times he touched the ball, I thought Josh Jacobs
Speaker 2: did a really good job with it. If Green Bay
Speaker 2: was gonna have a chance in this thing, the way
Speaker 2: he ran, particularly in the second half, which hadn't been
Speaker 2: the strong point of the offense this year and the
Speaker 2: way he was able to get some of the passing
Speaker 2: game stuff going. He gave a speech to the guys
Speaker 2: beforehand and saying, if you don't feel like you can
Speaker 2: do it, follow me. I'm gonna lead this thing. How
Speaker 2: driven he was to maximize this opportunity. Josh Jacobs helped
Speaker 2: get the Packers to eleven wins. He helped get them
Speaker 2: to the playoffs in any chance they had a winning
Speaker 2: this game. I think followed number eight to bring it
Speaker 2: back to what you're talking about, though, the synergy of
Speaker 2: the offense just has not been there in the last
Speaker 2: three games.
Speaker 1: Something's been out of sync between the link between the
Speaker 1: run and the pass, whatever the case might be. You're right,
Speaker 1: synergy is a synergy is a great word because appears
Speaker 1: not there.
Speaker 2: Why I'm struggling the most with this. I don't discount
Speaker 2: what Christian Watson means to this team. He is a
Speaker 2: big play, playmaker, but they've played most of the last
Speaker 2: season without him. They missed Aaron Jones for just under
Speaker 2: half the season as well, and they found ways down
Speaker 2: the stretch.
Speaker 1: They weren't able to do that this year, and you
Speaker 1: lost Elton Jenkins in this game too, But last year
Speaker 1: there was a lot of shuffling going on on the
Speaker 1: offensive line and they were still figuring it out. I mean,
Speaker 1: losing Jenkins in a playoff game enormous because he had
Speaker 1: to be replaced by guys who basically hadn't played and
Speaker 1: that's unfortunate. But again, yeah, we're kind of scratching our
Speaker 1: heads here as to exactly what the downfall was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and National Football League, by the way, if you
Speaker 2: want to take out an offensive lineman, just run as
Speaker 2: quickly as you can with your helmet directly into his shoulder. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And Nolan Smith is going to get the job done.
Speaker 2: So the Packers had that was a huge domino effect.
Speaker 2: Travis Glover goes in at left guard, doesn't go great,
Speaker 2: then Kadem Telford has to come in. And as Josh
Speaker 2: Jacobs said afterwards, he actually told Telford afterwards, He's like,
Speaker 2: I'm really proud of you. I mean, neither Glover hadn't
Speaker 2: played on offense at all. Telford had maybe like fifteen
Speaker 2: snaps or something like that before that game. A bad
Speaker 2: situation to be in. And by the way, any Packer
Speaker 2: fans out there that took issue with them drafting Jordan
Speaker 2: Morgan in the first round. You saw why Jordan Morgan
Speaker 2: was going to be a first round pick and why
Speaker 2: they wanted them. Credit to Telford, credit to Glover. You
Speaker 2: give those guys all the respect in the world for
Speaker 2: what they do and what they're going through to be
Speaker 2: in that position. But the Green Bay Packers, with how
Speaker 2: strong they were and how durable they were on the
Speaker 2: offensive line this year, you kind of forget that they
Speaker 2: don't necessarily have that Evan Smith, you know, on the
Speaker 2: sixth guy. They don't necessarily have a guy that you
Speaker 2: can turn to as that next guy up the experience
Speaker 2: and also has some credits.
Speaker 1: They lost him. They lost that sixth man when when
Speaker 1: Jordan Morgan went on injury reserve. Because whether it was
Speaker 1: gonna be Morgan or Sean Ryan ultimately as the full
Speaker 1: time starter at guard before the before the shoulder injury
Speaker 1: cropped up again, you were going to have a sixth
Speaker 1: man there that that was gonna put your offensive line
Speaker 1: in a different situation.
Speaker 2: And they obviously signed Andre Dillard, but Dillard was working
Speaker 2: his way back from the that's.
Speaker 1: The that's the other part too, and he was and
Speaker 1: he was in he was inactive for this game. He'd
Speaker 1: been on the injury list trying to come back from
Speaker 1: a concussion for the last couple of weeks. Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 1: it was just it was a bad It was a
Speaker 1: bad combination of things and and uh and yeah, losing
Speaker 1: Elton Jenkins, especially early in the game like that, and
Speaker 1: then the receivers go down like later on. Hey, the
Speaker 1: Eagles dealt with injuries too, they lost to Kobe Dean.
Speaker 1: They're going to be trying to get to a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl without one of their better defensive players. Hey, it happens.
Speaker 1: But when you're the seventh seed on the road, playing
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, those are the kinds of things that just
Speaker 1: that add to the mistake you were already making, and
Speaker 1: the mistakes were being made on offense and specialty and.
Speaker 2: Not to keep bringing up the fifteen playoff game here,
Speaker 2: but there were so many parallels between that with how
Speaker 2: banged up they were at receiver going in where you
Speaker 2: already lost Christian Watson, much like they didn't have Davante
Speaker 2: in that fifteen playoff game. You're down to three receivers
Speaker 2: that you're finishing that game with. Right. Musgrave is still
Speaker 2: working his way back at the tight end position Ben
Speaker 2: Simms was down, so they just they ran. They were
Speaker 2: up against it. And in credit to Philadelphia, I thought,
Speaker 2: every single time, other than that first quarter where green
Speaker 2: Bay got some stops to help them mitigate some of
Speaker 2: the damage there early on and get through those early
Speaker 2: interceptions from Love when green Bay started to score, Philadelphia
Speaker 2: matched it every time yep in the second half, and
Speaker 2: that's ultimately why they won the football game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's what it came down to. The
Speaker 1: Packers defense held tough, held really really strong. The fact
Speaker 1: that the fact that it was only ten to nothing
Speaker 1: at halftime was was an impressive showing by the defense.
Speaker 1: Obviously the opening touchdown because of the fumble on the
Speaker 1: opening kickoff, we'll get back to that in a minute,
Speaker 1: but the defense had a stretch there from after that
Speaker 1: first possession with the short field through the opening possession
Speaker 1: of the second half. That was six drives for the Eagles,
Speaker 1: five punts in a field goal against a team that
Speaker 1: was fourteen to three in the regular season and got
Speaker 1: it starting quarterback back for this game. That was a
Speaker 1: winning performance from the defense. Unfortunately, the way things unfolded
Speaker 1: is then when once the Packers did get on the board.
Speaker 1: They got it to ten to three, but then the
Speaker 1: defense wasn't able to get it back to the offense
Speaker 1: with just a one score deficition. It becomes sixteen to three.
Speaker 1: Then the Packers score. Jacobs has the big rundown of
Speaker 1: the one yard line. Packers score get it to sixteen
Speaker 1: to ten, but then the defense was not able to
Speaker 1: get the ball back to the offense with the one
Speaker 1: score deficit. The Jordan Love won, the offense finally was
Speaker 1: starting to find something. Jordan Love didn't have the ball
Speaker 1: in his hands, just needing one score to either even
Speaker 1: up the game or potentially take the lead. That just
Speaker 1: never happened. And that's why you can't. You can't start
Speaker 1: as poorly as the Packers did. You cannot put up
Speaker 1: a goose egg in the first half on the scoreboard
Speaker 1: in a playoff game. And yeah, I mean if you
Speaker 1: if you had told me, if you had told me
Speaker 1: at the start of the fourth quarter that the Philadelphia
Speaker 1: Eagles were gonna have sixteen points on the board, I
Speaker 1: would have said, the Packers are winning the game and
Speaker 1: going to Detroit. I was telling you you would take that.
Speaker 1: You would take that in a heartbeat, ninety nine times
Speaker 1: out of a hunt.
Speaker 2: My whole thing all week, and you had to hear
Speaker 2: me say this was I thought it was gonna be
Speaker 2: the first to thirty win.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I totally agreed with you on that.
Speaker 2: These two teams barely got to thirty together. Yeah, like
Speaker 2: it turned into something. And that's respect to Fangio's defense,
Speaker 2: that's respect to Jeff Hafley's defense. I'm not discounting that
Speaker 2: both of those are top five defenses. Fangios was the
Speaker 2: best of the National Football League from a yardage perspect
Speaker 2: but I just felt like, based on what we saw
Speaker 2: in Brazil, it was going to follow that track. AJ
Speaker 2: Brown had one catch for ten yards, right. Saquon Barkley
Speaker 2: did what he always did, although he didn't get the
Speaker 2: huge explosive this time. He just did it kind of
Speaker 2: wearing down, Yeah, the offense or the defensive line. But
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what, Mike. For me, I don't know
Speaker 2: how many people out in Philadelphia wrote about this, but
Speaker 2: Dallas Goddard was the MVP of this game for me,
Speaker 2: because when you talk about veteran players that step up
Speaker 2: and a guy that had to deal with some big
Speaker 2: injuries this year, Yeah, he was sort of the safety
Speaker 2: valve that finally got Jalen Hurts going in addition to
Speaker 2: his touchdown, where you know, you know, again we can
Speaker 2: have that conversation about being offensive players doing the illegal
Speaker 2: hands of the face thing, and that's fine, but whatever
Speaker 2: the case may be, he's the one that kind of
Speaker 2: got them going there in the second half and in
Speaker 2: obviously one hundred and thirty one passing yards for Jalen
Speaker 2: Hurts was enough to win this game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's and at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: the Eagles had the Eagles had a couple penalties, you know,
Speaker 1: some things that set them back like here and there,
Speaker 1: but ultimately the Eagles didn't the Eagles didn't make a
Speaker 1: big mistake. They they played for the most part, they
Speaker 1: played air free football. I mean to the extent that
Speaker 1: you know, the Packers had made so many mistakes early
Speaker 1: with the fumble on the opening kickoff, the two interceptions
Speaker 1: in the first half, that there were two instances on
Speaker 1: third and long where they just handed it off to
Speaker 1: Berkley because they're like, we're not going to put our
Speaker 1: quarterback in a bad situation. We're I mean, the Packers
Speaker 1: have made enough mistakes to give the Eagles the lead,
Speaker 1: and the Eagles are just going to be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna you know, we're not going to try to
Speaker 1: do something crazy on third and long. We'll hand it
Speaker 1: off to Barkley. Maybe he breaks it. If he doesn't,
Speaker 1: we'll punt the football because we're not going to make
Speaker 1: the kind of mistake that can change the game. That's
Speaker 1: the way they were playing because of how the Packers started,
Speaker 1: and we'll get to that start right now. Because if
Speaker 1: there is if there is a big fat what if
Speaker 1: about this football game. And I hate playing this game
Speaker 1: the what if game, because we can talk about We
Speaker 1: talked about the injury to Jenkins and the Packers losing
Speaker 1: their receivers and all this other stuff. The biggest what
Speaker 1: if that's hanging over this game is what if the
Speaker 1: replay review gives the ball back to the Packers on
Speaker 1: the opening kickoff? Because everybody saw it. I mean, however,
Speaker 1: many millions of people are watching this game on TV.
Speaker 1: It sure looked like the skycam showed that Kishawn Nixon
Speaker 1: had recovered that ball and then it got ripped away
Speaker 1: from him later on like down under the pile. And
Speaker 1: Nixon even said Basically, he felt like it was two guys,
Speaker 1: one on each side of him that were ripping his
Speaker 1: arms apart, so that the ball then came out again,
Speaker 1: and the end the Eagles came out of the pile
Speaker 1: with the ball. They reviewed it. They said the call stands,
Speaker 1: so obviously it wasn't in their mind, it wasn't conclusive
Speaker 1: enough that Nixon had recovered the ball and secured the recovery.
Speaker 1: The question we were talking about before we turn the
Speaker 1: cameras on, is there are these things floating around out
Speaker 1: there is did the replay center in New York actually
Speaker 1: have access to the overhead camera or did it only
Speaker 1: have the more traditional camera angles used to broadcast the game.
Speaker 1: If New York didn't have access to the overhead camera,
Speaker 1: I totally understand the call that they made. But if
Speaker 1: that is true, and I'm not saying that it is,
Speaker 1: I don't know that it is. It's just sort of
Speaker 1: something that we're hearing. But if that is true, I
Speaker 1: don't understand that at all. And if it isn't true,
Speaker 1: and if they did have the look at the overhead camera,
Speaker 1: I don't understand how you can say Keishawn Nixon didn't
Speaker 1: have that ball on the ground and he's clearly down
Speaker 1: by contact.
Speaker 2: I've just gone back and forth over this in my head,
Speaker 2: and because the first and foremost like, I would love
Speaker 2: to sit here and say, okay, well, all this is
Speaker 2: mitigated if you hold onto the football right. Aaron Burks
Speaker 2: also through his helmet directly into Kishan's face mask, which
Speaker 2: also shouldn't be happening. Whether it should be penalized, I
Speaker 2: assume orn will be fine for that, I think, But
Speaker 2: whatever the case may be, Kishan's human, like, I understand
Speaker 2: why that happens. A helmet to helmet, helmet to face
Speaker 2: mask hit is going to have repercussions to it. What
Speaker 2: I'm NFL officiating has its challenges, and I'm trying to
Speaker 2: be more understanding of what the humans on the field
Speaker 2: are going through and what they're dealing with in the moment.
Speaker 2: Everything surrounding NFL officiating is so antiquated. It is so antiquated.
Speaker 2: Everything evolves with this game. The players evolve, the technology evolves.
Speaker 2: We listen to Matt Leafluor talk for thirty eight minutes today.
Speaker 2: Some of the stuff he's mentioning how he goes back
Speaker 2: to his analytics department to see hey, how are we
Speaker 2: doing with shotgun play action? How are we doing with
Speaker 2: stuff under center? They gave him the percentages where they
Speaker 2: rank in the National Football League, and yet you have
Speaker 2: the most popular sport in the world that's being disseminated
Speaker 2: to the entire country and in part you know, basically
Speaker 2: every part of the world sees these skys camshots and
Speaker 2: Brad Allen and his crew it's a scrum. I understand
Speaker 2: human element, but they missed it. They missed Oran, they
Speaker 2: missed the fumble recovery, and New York stops the game,
Speaker 2: looks at it, evidently gets a high sea scratches its
Speaker 2: head a little bit and says, now play stands yeah,
Speaker 2: and then moments later it's seven to nothing Eagles. I
Speaker 2: say it every year, Mike. I said it two weeks
Speaker 2: ago as it related to another game in the National
Speaker 2: Football League. There's always going to be these plays that
Speaker 2: happen in the playoffs that change the outcome. I'm not
Speaker 2: saying the Packers win that game, right, I'm not saying
Speaker 2: Packers did not pill you.
Speaker 1: Well, That's why I termed it as it's the bit
Speaker 1: what if of this football game? Is if that turnover
Speaker 1: on the opening kickoff is not a turnover. That's the
Speaker 1: what if that we'll never know the answer.
Speaker 2: And there's a number of games left to be played.
Speaker 2: Yet there's going to be another officiating thing. We have
Speaker 2: all this garbage of this replay assists stuff that is
Speaker 2: at times utilized and at times not utilized, and at
Speaker 2: times makes no sense. But yet you have an instance
Speaker 2: like that where you have technology showing what's happening on
Speaker 2: the play and not even like the stuff that happened
Speaker 2: with Egdri and Cooper a couple weeks ago, where it's
Speaker 2: like you're looking as the dress gold or is it blue?
Speaker 2: Whereas the off sides is he not? No, you legitimately
Speaker 2: see Keishan with the hand with the ball in his hand.
Speaker 2: And if New York doesn't have that technology, what are
Speaker 2: we doing here? Yea? Why are we playing this game? Right?
Speaker 1: And my and my larger problems as many know what
Speaker 1: I've said about the safety rules and replay review and
Speaker 1: everything like that, if the NFL, if the NFL is
Speaker 1: looking at that replay and and they deem because I don't,
Speaker 1: I will confess I don't know all the rules as
Speaker 1: far as the helmet hits, whether a guy supposedly needs
Speaker 1: to be launching himself, you know, in certain situations or
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. I don't know all the
Speaker 1: helmet to helmet rules, but if the NFL is looking
Speaker 1: at that, and if that is, if that helmet to
Speaker 1: helmet shot by Burkes on Nixon is something that is
Speaker 1: going to generate a fine for Oran Burks, and all
Speaker 1: that the replay did was decide nothing because they couldn't
Speaker 1: figure out apparently who had the ball under the scrum.
Speaker 1: And Aaron Burks is going to get a FedEx in
Speaker 1: his locker for with a fifteen thousand dollars fine for
Speaker 1: a helmet hit. And that's a play that started a
Speaker 1: playoff game and handed a seven to nothing lead, or
Speaker 1: it would have been a minimum three to nothing lead
Speaker 1: even if the Packers defense rises up there. What are
Speaker 1: we doing here?
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, well, we're making money, is what
Speaker 2: we're doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's exactly what the league is doing. But
Speaker 1: I what I am most frustrated with, and it comes
Speaker 1: to it comes to obviously a bigger spotlight in the
Speaker 1: playoff games, but just this what the NFL is passing off,
Speaker 1: what needs to be accepted with regard to these safety rules,
Speaker 1: is that some are going to get flagged in the game,
Speaker 1: but then we're going to review them and they're not
Speaker 1: going to get fined. And then some are not going
Speaker 1: to be flagged in the game, and then they're going
Speaker 1: to be fined, and the players are going to get
Speaker 1: money taken out of their pocketbook. But these are just
Speaker 1: the results that everybody has to accept. I'm sorry, it's
Speaker 1: gotten to the point of being unacceptable, especially when if
Speaker 1: indeed that Oron Burks gets fined for that helmet shot,
Speaker 1: when it impacts a playoff game to the extent that
Speaker 1: this one did. Sorry, I'll get off the soapbox.
Speaker 2: Excellent points all around. Let's say Oron doesn't get fined
Speaker 2: at all. The independent neurologist calls Keishawn Nixon off the
Speaker 2: field to take a look. Right, why did that happen?
Speaker 2: Why did that happen? What technology did the independent neurologists
Speaker 2: have to see? Hey, yeah, Keishaw Nixon, we need to
Speaker 2: take a look at him. The Eagles player just drill
Speaker 2: them in that helmet with his helmet. But yet we
Speaker 2: can't do anything about these things. Right, So again, the
Speaker 2: National Football League, they want to make their cash, They
Speaker 2: want to get things going. The ad revenue is gonna
Speaker 2: come in, the Super Bowl be played, they're gonna hand
Speaker 2: out the trophy again to somebody. But in terms of
Speaker 2: the x's and o is and what these people invest
Speaker 2: into this game. Yeah, if there's stuff available to you
Speaker 2: to make it a cleaner, more palatable product, let's do that.
Speaker 2: Oh and by the way, the other thing that absolutely
Speaker 2: needs to get thrown out the door this offseason would
Speaker 2: be amazing if they could do this this stuff about
Speaker 2: if we see it, you know, if it has to
Speaker 2: be all these things, but we'll flag it. We won't
Speaker 2: flag it, but we'll find it. And that's how we're
Speaker 2: gonna do it. This is stuff that led to Josh
Speaker 2: Jacobs having all those random fines, like.
Speaker 1: And he spent spent the season appealing fines and and
Speaker 1: I want at least one appeal from uh, you know,
Speaker 1: thanks to some good reporting by Pete Doherty there that
Speaker 1: we found out about. But yeah, I mean exactly, it
Speaker 1: just becomes a question of of of what are we
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Speaker 1: All right, other results around wild Card weekend. I want
Speaker 1: to start with the AFC because I want to give
Speaker 1: a shout out to the Houston Texans. Shout out Demico
Speaker 1: Ryans and that defense brought it on Saturday afternoon. We
Speaker 1: talked to I think we mentioned on our last show
Speaker 1: how every time Houston has been in the playoffs, they've
Speaker 1: been in the Saturday three thirty, you know, central kickoff
Speaker 1: of Wildcard.
Speaker 2: Week Are they in it next weekend? Did we see?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: There are?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Houston, You're right speak the Houston Kansas City once
Speaker 1: again Saturday at three point thirty. But uh man, oh man, Houston,
Speaker 1: and and this just this just goes to show that
Speaker 1: that when you when you can rise up in the
Speaker 1: big moments and play your best football when it matters.
Speaker 1: H I mean what Houston did a very up and
Speaker 1: down season, a very humbling loss late in the season
Speaker 1: to another playoff contender in the Baltimore Ravens. But boy,
Speaker 1: that uh uh, that defense gave Justin Herbert and the
Speaker 1: Chargers fits and uh and that game was not about c. J.
Speaker 1: Stroud or Joe Mixon at all. That game was all
Speaker 1: about Houston, Texas and that Demico Ryans defense. And I'm
Speaker 1: you know, Kansas City is obviously a heavy favorite to
Speaker 1: go to the AFC Championship and beat Houston at Arrowhead,
Speaker 1: but I am very curious to see what Houston's defense
Speaker 1: does against a Kansas City offense that has never really
Speaker 1: been clicking on all cylinders this season.
Speaker 2: No, not at all, And it.
Speaker 1: Makes for a very intriguing matchup. And we can talk
Speaker 1: more about that on our next show as well.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I gotta say, man, Justin Herbert had four interceptions.
Speaker 2: He had three during the regular season total. Wow.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that.
Speaker 2: My crack colleague and our assistant director of communications when
Speaker 2: we were watching this, Tom Fanning, I believe he told
Speaker 2: me that Justin Herbert had never had more than two
Speaker 2: interceptions in a game before, and they had four.
Speaker 1: In this game.
Speaker 2: Derek Stingley by the way when you talk about the
Speaker 2: top cornerbacks in the league, I think it's probably time
Speaker 2: to He got a first team All Pro honors, people
Speaker 2: respecting him. But like he's in that conversation now, he's
Speaker 2: lived up to his potential.
Speaker 1: It needs to be said. Not all four of those
Speaker 1: interceptions were Herbert's fault, though his receivers were letting him
Speaker 1: were letting him down big time.
Speaker 2: But I mean it goes to the overall thing. I mean,
Speaker 2: they basically had you know, McConkey was the one guy
Speaker 2: that was kind of going for him. Kudos to JK. Dobbins.
Speaker 2: I have so much respect for that dude coming back
Speaker 2: from the injuries he did getting back from the injuries
Speaker 2: he did this season, no doubt. But the charge running
Speaker 2: game was non existence and it basically just became the
Speaker 2: you know, the Lad McConkie show, and it just did
Speaker 2: not was not a good recipe for success. No for
Speaker 2: the formerly known as the San Diego Superchart.
Speaker 1: No, it was not. The other AFC games I think
Speaker 1: pretty much went as as expected, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: I was surprised that Denver didn't put up a better fight.
Speaker 1: In Buffalo, they score on the opening possession, of the game,
Speaker 1: and then they didn't score the rest of the game,
Speaker 1: and Buffalo Buffalo turns that one into a blowout. And
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Steelers just completely no showed in the first
Speaker 1: half in Baltimore, you know, down twenty one to nothing,
Speaker 1: and Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson ran all over him
Speaker 1: for whatever it was three hundred rushing yards or two
Speaker 1: ninety nine or whatever the number was. On the NFC side,
Speaker 1: you gotta give it up to the Cardiac Commanders brother
Speaker 1: five consecutive games now five straight, four to end the
Speaker 1: regular season, first playoff game, and seven overall if you
Speaker 1: include two games from earlier in the year. The Washington
Speaker 1: Commanders win a game on literally or pretty much effectively,
Speaker 1: the last play of the football game. It is unbelievable
Speaker 1: the run that Dan Quinn and the Washington Commanders and
Speaker 1: Jayden Daniels and those guys are on. And this one
Speaker 1: is not just a walk off field goal, it's a
Speaker 1: walk off doink and in field people to win on
Speaker 1: the road at Tampa Bay. And it's the Washington Commanders
Speaker 1: getting the shot at the Detroit Lions in the divisional round.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately for Zaane Gonzales, that thing went in because otherwise
Speaker 2: him checking his hair fifty eight times and then Deinten
Speaker 2: thirty seven yarder, you would have never lived that down. Listen, man,
Speaker 2: You and I we've spent a lot of unscripteds when
Speaker 2: we're looking at the league talking about Jayden Daniels and
Speaker 2: and just the enigma he's been this year. He's been
Speaker 2: a force, and he was a force in this game.
Speaker 2: Washington did not run the ball well they needed they
Speaker 2: needed Daniels to be the guy that he's been all season,
Speaker 2: and he stepped up. And when you talk about these
Speaker 2: comebacks late, the way he's performed in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 2: I don't know what his QBR coback rating is in
Speaker 2: those instances, but he's really stepped up for them.
Speaker 1: There hasn't There hasn't been. I can't remember a rookie
Speaker 1: quarterback who has appeared so completely unflappable in clutch situations,
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, in overtime, whatever you want to
Speaker 1: call it, than what we've seen from Jade and Daniels,
Speaker 1: it is. It is remarkable what he has done in
Speaker 1: crunch time of games.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and and Baker Mayfield played a fine game. It
Speaker 2: just it was one of those things where mattl Floor
Speaker 2: talks about this every once in a while, where it
Speaker 2: just comes down to possessions and Washington never punted. So
Speaker 2: I mean, when you're in those situations.
Speaker 1: Yeah, dan Quinn was going for it on fourth down on.
Speaker 2: The retime well every time, every time, and other than
Speaker 2: kicking field goals. So a remarkable performance, be honest with you,
Speaker 2: jealous wise, that's kind of why I was like, oh, Packers,
Speaker 2: if you can.
Speaker 1: Get that sixth seed, Yeah, exactly, that's gonna happen. That's
Speaker 1: that's why the sixth seed matters. The difference between that.
Speaker 1: It was the difference between playing a ten win Buccaneers
Speaker 1: team and a fourteen win Eagles team in the first round.
Speaker 1: That's the difference. That's why. It's why positioning matters, It's
Speaker 1: why momentum matters, It's why playing your best football being
Speaker 1: healthy matters.
Speaker 2: They're up against it going up against Detroit in that offense,
Speaker 2: but you know they're with there with commanders offense. Man,
Speaker 2: they could play with anybody. So I think Jade Daniels,
Speaker 2: we can all agree at this point, is a guy
Speaker 2: that can put up the points if you need him too.
Speaker 2: So it's a fresh matchup.
Speaker 1: Yes, Baker Mayfield, he's going to take into the offseason.
Speaker 1: You said, as you said, he played a solid game.
Speaker 1: But the one botched handoff that was it, that created
Speaker 1: one mistake, created the short field for Washington to get
Speaker 1: a touchdown after they had failed on fourth and goal.
Speaker 1: They get the ball back right around the twenty yard
Speaker 1: line or whatever it was, and then they end up
Speaker 1: scoring the touchdown anyway. And that's a tough way, certainly
Speaker 1: a tough way for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to go out.
Speaker 1: But speaking of tough ways, yeah, speaking of tough ways
Speaker 1: to go out, here's we had talked about. Sean McVay
Speaker 1: and I just I just went through the list. Positioning matters,
Speaker 1: Momentum matters, being healthy, playing your best football matters, right,
Speaker 1: Sean McVay said, positioning doesn't matter. He didn't care about
Speaker 1: whether he was the three or the four seed. He
Speaker 1: obviously felt that with the wins that his team had
Speaker 1: built up that they had enough momentum, right, so he
Speaker 1: prioritized health. He prioritized his guys being rested and healthy
Speaker 1: over everything, and so he didn't care that he dropped
Speaker 1: to the four seed. Or was it just the evil
Speaker 1: genius plan of Sean McVay knowing that, well, if we
Speaker 1: get the four seed, you're going to get a team
Speaker 1: coming off of a devastating loss because of what would
Speaker 1: be at stake physically and a physically, you know, wear
Speaker 1: you out type of football game. And yeah, the Vikings.
Speaker 1: You talk about the Packers, you know, the way the
Speaker 1: offense hit the skids late. The Packers go from eleven
Speaker 1: to four with two games in the regular season to
Speaker 1: go to out of the playoffs after one postseason game
Speaker 1: three weeks later, the Vikings go from fourteen in two
Speaker 1: playing for the number one seed and the bye and
Speaker 1: the home field advantage, to eight quarters later their season
Speaker 1: is over and they are out. That has to be
Speaker 1: one of the bigger kicks in the teeth that I
Speaker 1: have witnessed in terms of it happening the way it
Speaker 1: did to the Minnesota Viking.
Speaker 2: I don't want to change my tune because I congratulate
Speaker 2: Sam Donald on everything he did this year. He played.
Speaker 2: He deserves to be in the Pro Bowl. He played
Speaker 2: an unreal season he did. But this game really spoke
Speaker 2: to the difference between with respect, Sam Donald and someone
Speaker 2: like Matthew Stafford, who has played this game for as
Speaker 2: long as he has, he's won a super Bowl. And
Speaker 2: credit to the Rams for the way they made themselves,
Speaker 2: and credit to the Cardinals too, and everyone down in
Speaker 2: Arizona for how they made them feel at home in
Speaker 2: a very hard situation, a very emotional situation, something much
Speaker 2: bigger than football that's happening in LA and how they
Speaker 2: had to really uproot themselves and go down and play
Speaker 2: this game. And they had the field, the practice field
Speaker 2: they did in Rams colors, So credit to them on that.
Speaker 1: It was a lot that was going on surrounding this game.
Speaker 2: But boy, I tell you, man, I said this to you.
Speaker 2: I wrote it an inbox, the difference of having a
Speaker 2: healthy Stafford, a healthy Puka Nukua, a healthy Tyler Higbee
Speaker 2: and then.
Speaker 1: Who ended up ended up getting hurt and leaving the game.
Speaker 1: But yeah, before that, but no, he was a huge
Speaker 1: factor in the early port.
Speaker 2: And then Cooper Cup makes one catch and it was
Speaker 2: kind of a big one. Yeah, I mean like it,
Speaker 2: it's the way these things go. You can't make mistakes.
Speaker 2: The Vikings made way too many in the first half,
Speaker 2: and that was it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, here's a couple questions I want to throw at you.
Speaker 1: And then we'll wrap this up with regard with regard
Speaker 1: to the Vikings, is is the less is the lesson
Speaker 1: or the big picture thing? When it comes to Sam Donald,
Speaker 1: that experience in really big games matters because where he
Speaker 1: had gone in his career and all the games that
Speaker 1: he had lost, and all the struggles he had had
Speaker 1: with the Jets and with the Panthers. How many big,
Speaker 1: truly big games had Sam Donald played in?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: One of the biggest was he played a career game
Speaker 1: against the Green Bay Packers at us Bank Stadium. But
Speaker 1: then as the stakes got higher against Detroit. Now that's
Speaker 1: on the road obviously, and then and then against against
Speaker 1: the Rams in sort of on the road slash neutral site,
Speaker 1: Sam Donald's inexperience in big games showed, and it showed
Speaker 1: big time. And and that leaves the Vikings with what
Speaker 1: we thought a couple of weeks ago was a slam
Speaker 1: dunk decision in terms of their quarterback for next year.
Speaker 1: Now now it it's not such a slam duck.
Speaker 2: Is it? No? And Okay, so two things is the
Speaker 2: first part of that question, like, I am just completely
Speaker 2: perplexed at what happened with Minnesota. I mean, the Rams
Speaker 2: defense was not a world beater this year. No, They
Speaker 2: ranked near the bottom of the league for most of
Speaker 2: the season. Now, credit to Sean McVay. Again, that's a
Speaker 2: sign of good coaching. They got him peaking at the
Speaker 2: end of the year. They got a little bit healthier
Speaker 2: as well. But I mean the amount of pressure they
Speaker 2: generated on Sam Donald, whether it was the four man rushes,
Speaker 2: whether it was blitzes, I mean like they got after
Speaker 2: him and he did not respond well to it. Here's
Speaker 2: where I'm really torn about what the decision now becomes
Speaker 2: with Donald. And you can play back the Packers unscripted
Speaker 2: of me saying hey absolutely have to sign him thirteen
Speaker 2: days ago. But it's like, Okay, Kevin O'Connell has built
Speaker 2: up enough positive vibes there. He's thirty four and seventeen.
Speaker 2: They have not won a playoff game, but he has
Speaker 2: a thirteen win season on his resume and a fourteen
Speaker 2: win season on his resume. If there was ever a
Speaker 2: time if you want to invest into the young quarterback
Speaker 2: and you're gonna get some grace, this is it, as
Speaker 2: opposed to what is it going to cost to keep
Speaker 2: Sam Donald? If Sam Donald is going to be back
Speaker 2: for twenty million dollars or even thirty million dollars, I think,
Speaker 2: like what Baker's playing for, you probably give it another go.
Speaker 2: But does he want a long term contract? Are you
Speaker 2: gonna put a franchise tag on them? Like? These are
Speaker 2: the type of decisions they're going to have to make.
Speaker 2: Because the reason to bring this all back around, the
Speaker 2: Vikings were the second oldest team in the National Football
Speaker 2: League going into the year, behind Miami. They're not a
Speaker 2: bunch of young bucks. They kind of were looking to
Speaker 2: win as soon as possible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you look at their list of pending free agents.
Speaker 1: You look at the list of pending free agents. Now,
Speaker 1: they're not all going to be gone. They're going to
Speaker 1: bring back some of those guys, but the guys that
Speaker 1: they're but the guys that they are going to bring
Speaker 1: back are going to eat up most of their cap space.
Speaker 1: And then you have the quarterback decision to make. On
Speaker 1: top of that, there.
Speaker 2: Are some people losing their mind an inbox like, well,
Speaker 2: the Vikings have all this cap so, yeah, because they
Speaker 2: have a bunch of unrestricted free agents coming up. Yeah's
Speaker 2: why they got caps.
Speaker 1: That's why they have caps.
Speaker 2: And the quarterback made ten million dollars this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean it's let's see, let's see where
Speaker 1: the let's see where the cap space is when free agency,
Speaker 1: you know, gets underway and gets rolling.
Speaker 2: Here Dad's wall, it's always fatter before the kids asked
Speaker 2: to go to the arcade.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what I mean. So well, it's the
Speaker 1: Rams heading to Philadelphia, It's the Commanders heading to Detroit.
Speaker 1: On the AFC side. Baltimore at Buffalo, that's going to
Speaker 1: be the last of the four games of divisional weekend.
Speaker 1: That's going to be a doozy. I actually just saw something.
Speaker 1: And gambling remains illegal at Bushwood. But the Buffalo Bills
Speaker 1: are a home playoff underdog for the first time in
Speaker 1: I believe it's eighteen or nineteen playoff game home playoff
Speaker 1: games in They're franchise of history. The Baltimore Ravens are
Speaker 1: actually favored on the road in Buffalo Bill's mafias. That's
Speaker 1: gonna be a doozy of a game. I want to
Speaker 1: talk about it more on our next show. Obviously, Houston
Speaker 1: is Houston's going to Kansas City to face Patrick Mahomes,
Speaker 1: who hasn't thrown a pass since he opened a present
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day or something. Yeah, I mean it's been
Speaker 1: a while, but we'll see. We do have one more
Speaker 1: show before we're going to sign off for the season.
Speaker 1: We will record another show later this week and then
Speaker 1: we will say goodbye for a portion of the off season.
Speaker 1: And when we come back, it will be this right here,
Speaker 1: what I'm about to talk about. Because mark your calendars, folks,
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five NFL Draft is coming to Green Bay.
Speaker 1: B among the thousands of football fans cheering on their
Speaker 1: team's picks by joining us April twenty four through April
Speaker 1: twenty six. Of twenty twenty five is a green Bay
Speaker 1: dot com slash Draft twenty five for more information. And
Speaker 1: with that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition
Speaker 1: of Packers Unscripted. Sure to follow all of our coverage
Speaker 1: of this season wrap up week here on Packers dot
Speaker 1: Com for Wesiam Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody.
Speaker 1: We will see x T