Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague Weston Hodkoitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: here from our studios at lambeau Field a day late
Speaker 1: this week, West because of the holiday, but we are
Speaker 1: here to talk about a Christmas Eve victory by the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers in Carolina. Thirty three to thirty was
Speaker 1: the final score. And just when you thought maybe something
Speaker 1: would come easy for the Packers this year, a fourteen
Speaker 1: point lead with about eleven minutes to go in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Of course, the game comes right down to
Speaker 1: the wire, because that's just what this season has been
Speaker 1: a lot to talk about, a lot to dissect as
Speaker 1: far as how that all went down. But the bottom
Speaker 1: line is the Packers got a victory. They are still
Speaker 1: alive in the NFC playoff hunt with two games to go,
Speaker 1: and yeah, this one, it would have been an ab
Speaker 1: slew crusher to let it get away, but fortunately the
Speaker 1: Packers did not.
Speaker 2: It was when we were leaving and we were on
Speaker 2: the bus and both of us are writing scrambling, there's
Speaker 2: a lot going on. There wasn't a whole lot of
Speaker 2: time for fun and festivity. But I was thinking in
Speaker 2: my head when I sat in my seat. It almost
Speaker 2: reminded me of the scene of from Bull Durham of
Speaker 2: Nukelelous and Crash Davis in the back where Nuke walks
Speaker 2: up and he's got the beers or everything. He's like,
Speaker 2: you know, winning it's better than losing, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean? And then you know, then the Crash is
Speaker 2: sitting there half in the bag as well, having a
Speaker 2: different approach everything. That's kind of what this game was
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways for the Green Bay Packers,
Speaker 2: because let's just boil it down to brass tacks. The
Speaker 2: Packers had to win this game, and they achieved that goal.
Speaker 2: Was not pretty. It was definitely ugly at times, but
Speaker 2: they went into another team's house and they got the
Speaker 2: victory they needed. So there is that we're talking about
Speaker 2: meaningful Week seventeen football. They are in the same position
Speaker 2: right now as the Minnesota Vikings at seven and eight,
Speaker 2: trying to keep their playoff hopes alive. What impressed me
Speaker 2: this game was the first half. I thought offensively, green
Speaker 2: Bay did a lot of positive things. Aaron Jones back
Speaker 2: in the lineup and at a time in which they
Speaker 2: desperately needed him to perform without Jaden Reid, which kind
Speaker 2: of caught me off guard. I just figured he would
Speaker 2: just keep pushing through and play through that toe injury.
Speaker 2: He's not able to go. Christian Watson isn't back, don
Speaker 2: Tavian Wicks leaves at halftime. You needed a playmaker like
Speaker 2: Aaron Jones to make plays defensively, kind of like the
Speaker 2: Tampa game without the takeaway. Played pretty well early on,
Speaker 2: they had an adverse situation where there was the roughing
Speaker 2: the kicker, roughing the punter. They had to come back.
Speaker 2: They got another three and out. They were up twenty
Speaker 2: three to ten at halftime, and things were really going
Speaker 2: their way. But as we've talked about so many times, Mike,
Speaker 2: when second half, how things can change, how adjustments can
Speaker 2: be made. And what impressed me about this game is,
Speaker 2: unlike the Atlanta game earlier this season where the Packers
Speaker 2: let it get away and they didn't recover, green Bay
Speaker 2: did recover. I thought that showed the growth of Jordan
Speaker 2: Love and thankfully for green Bay saved by the bell
Speaker 2: as you wrote an inbox, being able to ride this
Speaker 2: thing out for the victory.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was as frustrating as it was to see
Speaker 1: the defense really lose control of the game in the
Speaker 1: second half, because I agree with you. In the first
Speaker 1: half of that the Packers defense played pretty well, got
Speaker 1: a big fourth and short stop around midfield that set
Speaker 1: up the Packers for a touchdown just before halftime that
Speaker 1: you put the score at twenty three to ten. Things
Speaker 1: are looking pretty good. The Packers extended that lead by
Speaker 1: three more points of the third quarter, you started to
Speaker 1: see the cracks in the defense though, when the Panthers
Speaker 1: put together a long drive I believe it was fourteen plays,
Speaker 1: took more than eight minutes off the clock in the
Speaker 1: third quarter, and you wondered if that would have an
Speaker 1: impact on the defense in the fourth quarter, And sure enough,
Speaker 1: it did, because the Panthers were able to put together
Speaker 1: the back to back touchdown drives at the same time
Speaker 1: that a Packers offense that really had been humming along
Speaker 1: pretty well suddenly has back to back three and outs
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, and the momentum in this game
Speaker 1: just had completely flipped the other way. Bryce started, I mean,
Speaker 1: he just started rolling. He was having the game of
Speaker 1: his life. Quite frankly, as far as his rookie year
Speaker 1: in the NFL, he probably felt like he was back
Speaker 1: at Alabama the way he was running around and throwing
Speaker 1: darts and everything else. What I liked about this game
Speaker 1: more than anything else was you said it the Atlanta game.
Speaker 1: I also think about the Vegas game and the Denver game,
Speaker 1: when the Packers offense needed to have a drive when
Speaker 1: it's back was against the wall, when all the momentum
Speaker 1: was pointing against the team and the offense had to respond.
Speaker 1: It did in this one. You had the big pass
Speaker 1: to Romeo Dobbs on third and four. You had the
Speaker 1: really nice catch and run by Tyler sorry Tucker Craft
Speaker 1: on the pass over the middle that was threaded in
Speaker 1: between two defenders, and you're able to run the clock
Speaker 1: down all the way down to twenty two seconds. You
Speaker 1: kick the field goal. There's only nineteen seconds left on
Speaker 1: the clock. The Packers offense. Everything seem to have flipped
Speaker 1: the other way in this game on both sides of
Speaker 1: the ball, and the offense answered the call and put
Speaker 1: together the drive that was needed, the type of drive
Speaker 1: that had been missing in other games throughout the course
Speaker 1: of the season.
Speaker 2: Well, and let's be honest here, too, Mike. If Bryce
Speaker 2: Young is going to have the game of his career
Speaker 2: so far one hundred and ten passer rating, two passing
Speaker 2: touchdowns after a month in which he did not have one,
Speaker 2: you need to have a response from your quarterback. And
Speaker 2: I thought Jordan Love was exceptional in this game. The
Speaker 2: pass to Tucker Kraft, Mike, He's thrown a lot of
Speaker 2: great balls this year in terms of intermediate routes underneath routes.
Speaker 2: That was about his pinpoint accurate as I think I've
Speaker 2: seen from him this season. Yeah, there was not an
Speaker 2: inch to spare on either side of that ball, And
Speaker 2: credit to Kraft for bringing that one in because I mean,
Speaker 2: maybe it's a makeable kick yet you know Anders had
Speaker 2: made the fifty three yarder, but it's definitely bigger question
Speaker 2: mark if he doesn't get that reception, if they don't
Speaker 2: find a way to sneak their way into the red zone,
Speaker 2: make it really a chip shot. Jordan was exceptional And
Speaker 2: what more or can you say about his past to
Speaker 2: don Tavian Wicks too. Again, similar to last week with
Speaker 2: Jayden Reid kind of seeing through the clutter and this
Speaker 2: guy is showing Mike when he can extend plays and
Speaker 2: get out of the pocket. How dangerous he can be.
Speaker 2: It is the number one trait that I look at
Speaker 2: with him that I see the shades of Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 2: and the influence of Aaron Rodgers, because he isn't just
Speaker 2: again like I said to you last week, it's not
Speaker 2: the Madden rollout. It's not just the Okay, I got
Speaker 2: the ball and now I'm gonna try to get away
Speaker 2: from the pass rushers as quickly as possible. He is
Speaker 2: reading the field, he's going through his progressions, and he
Speaker 2: is allowing his playmakers to make plays for him. Don
Speaker 2: Tavian Wicks making a great catch on that to get
Speaker 2: off one of those early scores.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought Jordan Love was outstanding in this game
Speaker 1: when you factor in as you mentioned before, Watson was
Speaker 1: not back, Jayden Reid had to miss the game. Obviously,
Speaker 1: Luke Musgrave was not back. The big thing, the big
Speaker 1: boost that this offense got was the old Aaron Jones,
Speaker 1: you know, borderline, workhorse type of type of running back.
Speaker 1: And I know Mattle Floyd talked about he was running
Speaker 1: out of gas a little bit at the end of
Speaker 1: the game, which is why you know, on a couple
Speaker 1: of those those three and outs in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: I think if jones tank hadn't been quite so close
Speaker 1: to empty, maybe the Packers were able to grind out
Speaker 1: and do something a little bit more on offense there.
Speaker 1: But Jones with the twenty one carries one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty seven yards also had an eight yard reception early
Speaker 1: in the game, so one hundred and thirty five yards
Speaker 1: from scrimmage. You can't overstate how important he is to
Speaker 1: the offense and how important he was to Jordan Love
Speaker 1: in a game where so many, so many of the
Speaker 1: other weapons were missing.
Speaker 2: I wrote my sidebar, which we call Keys of the Game,
Speaker 2: which you can still read on Packers dot com if
Speaker 2: you're still there so willing to do so. And the
Speaker 2: big thing on that was Jones and Dobbs. And this
Speaker 2: came later in the game, after all that production that
Speaker 2: Jones had early on, but Dobbs went up to him
Speaker 2: and he said, hey, we got to make a play,
Speaker 2: And it was at that moment that Green Bay was
Speaker 2: needing a response. The game is thirty to thirty. I
Speaker 2: looked at this game as something that Aaron Jones started
Speaker 2: in Romeo Dobbs finished in the first half eighty nine
Speaker 2: rushing yards for Jones only thirteen receiving yards one catch
Speaker 2: for Dobbs in the first half. Second half, he ends
Speaker 2: up having three more catches, finishes with seventy nine yards,
Speaker 2: gets a touchdown pass on kind of that quick out,
Speaker 2: that sprint out that kept the momentum going for them there.
Speaker 2: But then the thirty six yard reception down the sideline.
Speaker 2: I know there was some controversy about it. I know
Speaker 2: Adam Thielen felt some type of way about it down
Speaker 2: in Carolina, But the fact of the matter is the
Speaker 2: longest catch of Romeo Dobbs' career and when the Packers.
Speaker 2: For as much as we've talked this season, Mike about
Speaker 2: rookies in unexpected contributions, guys stepping up at some point,
Speaker 2: if you're going to make a playoff push, you need
Speaker 2: your stars, you need your stable, you need your constants. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I don't think over the last two years there's
Speaker 2: probably any two bigger constants right now than Romeo Dobbs
Speaker 2: and Aaron Jones. That is your workhorse. That is where
Speaker 2: you go to. That for Jordan is where the experience
Speaker 2: comes from. Despite the fact Romeo's only twenty three it's
Speaker 2: the guys that have seen the most ball at this point.
Speaker 2: And that's what impressed me about this game. For as
Speaker 2: many times as I've written in our sidebars and we've
Speaker 2: talked about these young guys who have stepped up, this
Speaker 2: game came back to the guys that have been around,
Speaker 2: that have been there, that have done that, and they
Speaker 2: made the plays when they need to be made.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And I know the Packers have a lot
Speaker 1: to sort out on the defensive side of the ball
Speaker 1: with what is going on. They turned over the cornerback
Speaker 1: spots to Jay r Alexander and Eric Stokes in this
Speaker 1: game when they'd been running for quite a while with
Speaker 1: Carrington Valentine and Corey Ballentine, so there was a change
Speaker 1: up there. There was obviously a more aggressive approach with
Speaker 1: the pass rush. There was more blitzing, particularly early in
Speaker 1: the game. I think Carolina adjusted to that. Bryce Young
Speaker 1: started to get the ball out of his hands at
Speaker 1: a little bit Quicker also started to bolt the pocket
Speaker 1: a little bit sooner when he felt that pressure coming in.
Speaker 1: And I'll say this, you know we're not going to
Speaker 1: sit here and discuss whatever it is that Matt Lafleur
Speaker 1: is a value waiting in decisions that he's going to
Speaker 1: going to ultimately make. But this was a good example,
Speaker 1: even though it was at the packers expense, and we've
Speaker 1: seen it at the Packers' expense over the last few weeks.
Speaker 1: There is no substitute for a player in this league
Speaker 1: getting a jolt of confidence, and we saw it from
Speaker 1: Bryce Young. He is a rookie quarterback, number one overall pick,
Speaker 1: a team that that you know, by and larger shouldn't
Speaker 1: say a team because they've had a defense that's been
Speaker 1: pretty solid this year, but an offense in general that
Speaker 1: was in a rebuilding mode in Carolina, not an offense
Speaker 1: that's ready for a rookie quarterback to just step in
Speaker 1: and run things. So there, you know, have been all
Speaker 1: kinds of struggles throughout the year. But once Bryce Young
Speaker 1: started feeling it, man, he I mean, whatever had happened
Speaker 1: in the previous fourteen games this season went right out
Speaker 1: the window because he'd looked like the Heisman Trophy winner.
Speaker 1: He'd looked like the number one overall pick. When guys,
Speaker 1: when guys get that, when guys get that jolt of
Speaker 1: confidence in this league, it's really you have to try
Speaker 1: to do something to take it away. You have to
Speaker 1: try to flip the momentum back. The Packers weren't able
Speaker 1: to do that. Whether it's whether it's Baker Mayfield, who
Speaker 1: is an accomplished quarterback in this league, a guy who's
Speaker 1: gotten his team to the playoffs and won a playoff
Speaker 1: game and another stop in his career, then started hopping
Speaker 1: around to different teams. He started to get the he
Speaker 1: started to feel that level of confidence and he got
Speaker 1: rolling and the Packers weren't able to stop it. And
Speaker 1: Bryce Young did the same thing. It took him to
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter for him, but once he started doing that,
Speaker 1: you know, fortunately the Panthers ran out of time on
Speaker 1: the final drive because if they'd been able to kick
Speaker 1: a field goal there wes I said it an insider inbox,
Speaker 1: it felt like that if they kicked the field goal
Speaker 1: and tie the game and it goes to overtime, it
Speaker 1: felt like the only way the Packers were going to
Speaker 1: win that game is to win the toss in overtime
Speaker 1: and go down and score a touchdown and not let
Speaker 1: Bryce Young touch the ball again because the Packers just
Speaker 1: weren't stopping him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the weird thing about it is when I was
Speaker 2: watching this game and then you know, even getting a
Speaker 2: chance to go back and let read get it again
Speaker 2: in real time, I could see. I mean that first
Speaker 2: quarter was rough for Young. Yes, there was no touch
Speaker 2: on his passes, didn't seem like there was much on
Speaker 2: the pass as either. He just looked unsure, he looked mechanical.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think he was. I think he was
Speaker 1: caught off guard by the aggressive approach with the pass
Speaker 1: rush that the Packers were sending a fifth, sometimes a
Speaker 1: sixth rusher in certain instances. He didn't react very well
Speaker 1: and his passes were off the mark, and but he
Speaker 1: settled down their offense as a whole adjusted to it.
Speaker 1: The Packers really didn't have a CounterPunch to knock that
Speaker 1: momentum back the other way once it started going the
Speaker 1: wrong direction.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Young made a couple plays early in that
Speaker 2: second quarter that I think can directly be attributed to
Speaker 2: him gaining some of that confidence too, because in those
Speaker 2: moments he was making something where there may be was
Speaker 2: nothing to be made of. I think there was a
Speaker 2: one pass he had a DJ Shark definitely. Tremble ended
Speaker 2: up being a guy that he was able to have
Speaker 2: a sort of an outlier, a guy he could look
Speaker 2: for and feel confident in his throws with. And once
Speaker 2: he started making some tougher throws, that's when it seemed
Speaker 2: like in the second half things started to get easier
Speaker 2: for him. He started to make the things that are
Speaker 2: based more on getting the ball out, playing on time,
Speaker 2: seeing what green Bay's giving you, an adjusting to that.
Speaker 2: In the fourth quarter, he was nothing short of exceptional.
Speaker 2: I think green Bay again, whatever the reason is, kind
Speaker 2: of fell back into those doldrums of way too much space,
Speaker 2: way too much uncontested catches and guys like Adam Feelin.
Speaker 2: I mean, dude, Adam Feelin Mike. I said it all
Speaker 2: last week. I've set it for two years now. The
Speaker 2: guy's well over thirty. Now. He is on the north
Speaker 2: side of this thing. The Minnesota Vikings clearly felt like
Speaker 2: they were ready to go another direction. I still think
Speaker 2: he has a lot to give this game. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: one handed catch, the snag he had on the side
Speaker 2: that was able to bring up. What happened was Bryce
Speaker 2: Young started making plays and his receivers started making plays
Speaker 2: for him, and it no longer was okay. Well, they
Speaker 2: got DJ Shark and a bunch of old guys. It
Speaker 2: was no. I mean, they got some guys that are
Speaker 2: going to step up and play for him in Green Bay.
Speaker 2: As you said, that fourth quarter, so much of it's
Speaker 2: going to be on the defense. Understandably so because it
Speaker 2: went right up to that final second. But I kind
Speaker 2: of took on a bunch of people in Insider inbox
Speaker 2: that were like, well, why is Matt Lafleur throwing the
Speaker 2: offense under the bus. There are a lot of people
Speaker 2: saying that, and it's like, well, the reason he did
Speaker 2: that is one, everybody has a part to play in
Speaker 2: this thing, and two they weren't. It was going back
Speaker 2: to early season Packers football, where it was the defense
Speaker 2: was having these long sustained drives, opposing team was scoring,
Speaker 2: and then the Packers went three and out twice. You
Speaker 2: have to be able to lift up the other phases
Speaker 2: of this thing. We'll see what this defense looks like
Speaker 2: on Sunday. We have a lot of previewing to do
Speaker 2: Mike and our content. But Nick Mallins just threw four interceptions.
Speaker 2: The Minnesota Vikings aren't saying who their quarterback's going to be,
Speaker 2: right the Grimmitt Packers, there's a very easy, clear blueprint
Speaker 2: for what needs to happen here if things are going
Speaker 2: to turn around. I think it gets back to taking
Speaker 2: away the football, which they just have not been doing lately.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I agree with you there, And I'll say
Speaker 1: this with regard I'll say this with regard to the offense. Yes,
Speaker 1: the Packers had put up I believe it was the
Speaker 1: first play of the fourth quarter. They scored the touchdown
Speaker 1: with Dobbs and they're at thirty points one play into
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. But how many times have I talked
Speaker 1: about it, Wes wins. You can't win a game in
Speaker 1: this league in the first three quarters. You can't. What
Speaker 1: matters is what you do in the fourth quarter. Now,
Speaker 1: you can lose a game in the first three quarters.
Speaker 1: You can play badly enough to lose one. It's very
Speaker 1: hard to win a game in the first three quarters.
Speaker 1: And the offense, for all the good that they had done,
Speaker 1: the way the game unfolded and how you have to
Speaker 1: perform at crunch time, the offense didn't get it done
Speaker 1: until the final drive when they had to have it,
Speaker 1: and they did get it. And that's what you hang
Speaker 1: your hat on in this game. And then you learn
Speaker 1: from what went wrong. On the back to back three
Speaker 1: and outs that stalled what had been a really, really
Speaker 1: impressive and productive offensive day against a pretty darn good defense.
Speaker 2: And the other thing I'll say too, and this is
Speaker 2: a credit to Chris Tabor. It's a credit to the
Speaker 2: Panthers because they could easily tucktail and call it a
Speaker 2: day and just focused on getting through the rest of
Speaker 2: the season. It's not like Carolina came out and scored
Speaker 2: immediately after that touchdown at Dobs. They actually end up
Speaker 2: having to punt again, right, but Johnny Hecker flips the field.
Speaker 2: Green Bay has to start at its own eleven, and
Speaker 2: Green Bay's unable to move the ball after that play.
Speaker 2: When Carolina got the ball to forty, that's where their
Speaker 2: scoring started. So when you talk about complimentary football in
Speaker 2: all three phases, serving as one, the Panthers did it
Speaker 2: terrifically brilliantly in that fourth quarter, But in the totality
Speaker 2: of a game, Green Bay did it longer and more consistently,
Speaker 2: and as ugly as it looked at times, the Packers
Speaker 2: did do what it took to win that football game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it just goes to show how important crunch time
Speaker 1: is in this league because if the Packers had let
Speaker 1: that one get away, a lot of good on both
Speaker 1: sides of the ball through the first three quarters would
Speaker 1: have felt like it had all been thrown in the
Speaker 1: garbage with the season going on out the window. Some
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Speaker 1: Where things sit right now in the NFC. Don't look now,
Speaker 1: but the Detroit Lions not only won their first Division
Speaker 1: championship in thirty years, they are tied with two other teams,
Speaker 1: that being the Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco forty
Speaker 1: nine ers at eleven and four in the race for
Speaker 1: the number one seed and the only playoff buy that
Speaker 1: comes with it. Those three squads eleven and four with
Speaker 1: two weeks to go. As far as the wild card
Speaker 1: situation goes, right now, you have the Los Angeles Rams
Speaker 1: and the Seattle Seahawks both at eight and seven, sitting
Speaker 1: in the six and seventh spots, and then a quartette
Speaker 1: of teams the Packers, Vikings, Saints, and Falcons, all at
Speaker 1: seven and eight, one game behind those six and seven
Speaker 1: spots with two games left to play. And I know
Speaker 1: there's all kinds of math and various scenarios that could
Speaker 1: unfold over these last two weeks because nothing is a given.
Speaker 1: But for my money, Wes, and I know gambling is
Speaker 1: illegal at Bushwood, but for my money, the Packers against
Speaker 1: the Vikings on Sunday night is an elimination game. The loser,
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's lottery ticket time at that point.
Speaker 1: If you lose this game and get your ninth loss,
Speaker 1: with everything else that's swirling around in these two wild
Speaker 1: card spots, you are barely hanging on, if at all. Essentially,
Speaker 1: the winner Sunday Night in Minneapolis between the Packers and
Speaker 1: the Vikings will still be very much alive, and the
Speaker 1: loser is pretty much packing its bags.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's what happens when you're when you're sitting
Speaker 2: at seven and eight. And I know a lot of
Speaker 2: people but I'm month ago, we're saying, well, you know,
Speaker 2: eight wins, and I think I was even among them
Speaker 2: at one point, that might be enough to get you
Speaker 2: in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But the Seattle Seahawks are the team that the team
Speaker 1: that really changed the outlook on this because the last
Speaker 1: two weeks now against the Philadelphia Eagles and then against
Speaker 1: the Tennessee Titans, the Seahawks put together a length of
Speaker 1: the field drive, scoring a touchdown in the final minute
Speaker 1: when they were losing to take the lead and pull
Speaker 1: out back to back games. And you know, credit to
Speaker 1: Seattle because they've been on a losing streak and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, they are the crunch time team when
Speaker 1: they've got the ball last, and they've gotten two wins
Speaker 1: that both games they were on the verge of losing,
Speaker 1: but they got two wins and they are at eight
Speaker 1: and seven along with the Rams. So that's where, you know,
Speaker 1: the idea of finishing eight to nine and maybe sneaking
Speaker 1: into the playoffs has pretty much gone out the window.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's interesting too because I would venture in
Speaker 2: my own opinion to say the Los Angeles Rams are
Speaker 2: a superior football team to the Seattle Seahawks. But the
Speaker 2: Rams have to face the forty nine ers in two weeks.
Speaker 2: They have to get through the Giants this Sunday. Seattle
Speaker 2: just has to worry about Pittsburgh and Arizona. So for
Speaker 2: my here's what I've been saying all week long. I
Speaker 2: think I said to you. I know I definitely said
Speaker 2: it to our supervisor, Duke Bober. All the Greenmay Packers
Speaker 2: can do is worry about nine wins. They can get
Speaker 2: to eight this Sunday night, you beat the Vikings, and
Speaker 2: you could talk about that conversation for nine. I would rather,
Speaker 2: to be perfectly honest with you, the Green Bay Packers
Speaker 2: go nine and eight and take care of business and
Speaker 2: miss the playoffs. Then whatever that was at the end
Speaker 2: of last season where the entire table fell to Green Bay.
Speaker 2: But then they.
Speaker 1: Lose and then you don't. Yeah, you don't cash in
Speaker 1: on all those breaks, everything fail your way to set
Speaker 1: you up for a win to get in and then
Speaker 1: you and then you didn't get it.
Speaker 2: And that's not just about heart heartbreak and ecstasy and
Speaker 2: all this stuff. It's because I look for the Green
Speaker 2: Bay Packers, if you can get a winning season on this,
Speaker 2: you get to the postseason. Fantastic, that's the goal. That's
Speaker 2: an incredible experience. But this Packers team has the opportunity
Speaker 2: to be in that same seat that the Detroit Lions
Speaker 2: were in last year. Detroit did not make the playoffs
Speaker 2: after they beat green Bay here, But if you go
Speaker 2: listen to that locker room afterwards, you listen to Dan Campbell,
Speaker 2: you'd have thought they just won the Super Bowl. Green
Speaker 2: Bay needs to keep building because this is bigger than
Speaker 2: just this season. But that's why I think, more than
Speaker 2: any other year I've covered, I'm just so locked into
Speaker 2: what green Bay situation is and then just once that
Speaker 2: situation's over with, seeing where all the rest of the
Speaker 2: chips have fallen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for those who want to for those who want
Speaker 1: to try to get the simplest handle possible on the
Speaker 1: Packers playoff scenario, this is what it boils down to.
Speaker 1: And this doesn't cover all the bases, but this is
Speaker 1: a a very basic way to understand what needs to happen.
Speaker 1: Number one is the Packers need to win two games
Speaker 1: to get to nine and eight. Then the second thing
Speaker 1: is the help that they need, and what they need
Speaker 1: is the Rams to lose one more, the Seahawks to
Speaker 1: lose one more, the Falcons to lose one more, but
Speaker 1: they only need two of those three things to happen.
Speaker 1: So Rams Seahawks, Falcons two of those three with two
Speaker 1: victories to get to nine and eight, and the Packers
Speaker 1: should be grabbing a wild card spot. That's the simplest
Speaker 1: way to just sort of bake it into your mind
Speaker 1: as far as far as going into things here. And
Speaker 1: of course the interesting part is with the Packers and
Speaker 1: the Vikings playing on Sunday night, all of this, you know,
Speaker 1: all the scoreboard watching will be, you know, going on
Speaker 1: on Sunday afternoon. You know what happens in the Rams game,
Speaker 1: what happens in the Seahawks game, what happens in the
Speaker 1: Falcons game. And so we'll just see where things are
Speaker 1: when the Packers kick the ball off. But the bottom
Speaker 1: line is the Packers go. You need to win Sunday
Speaker 1: night in Minneapolis to stay in this hunt.
Speaker 2: I think the part I find it's a little bit
Speaker 2: funny too, is you got to play the games that
Speaker 2: are in front of you, have to beat the opponents
Speaker 2: that are in front of you. But one reason why
Speaker 2: you can never sit here, and we've had two great
Speaker 2: lessons the last two seasons of why you can't just
Speaker 2: look at a schedule and say, well, these are the
Speaker 2: games of Packers are gonna win, these games are gonna lose,
Speaker 2: right because of how the season's gone. You can make
Speaker 2: an argument that Green Bay has really lost to one
Speaker 2: bad team with that being, in my opinion, the New
Speaker 2: York Giants. They lost to Denver when they only had
Speaker 2: one win. They lost to Vegas when they had Josh
Speaker 2: McDaniels as their head coach. But all these teams have
Speaker 2: been like five hundred type teams.
Speaker 1: It's all been very much like Green Bay going through
Speaker 1: lots of ups and downs where you look at, oh wow,
Speaker 1: they beat them, and they beat them, but oh geez,
Speaker 1: they lost to them, and they lost to them. All
Speaker 1: these teams, I think, with the exception of the Giants,
Speaker 1: all these teams have that same sort of ledger in
Speaker 1: front of them as far as their twenty twenty three
Speaker 1: season goes.
Speaker 2: And that's why I just think this is so interesting, because, yeah,
Speaker 2: we don't know how Sunday Night's gonna go. We don't
Speaker 2: know how Week eighteen will go, right, and maybe the
Speaker 2: Packers get enough done to get in the playoffs. Maybe
Speaker 2: they don't. But Mike, my whole thing and you've had
Speaker 2: to edit my writing here the last couple of weeks
Speaker 2: is that the Packers get in. Man, that's a really
Speaker 2: interesting football team. But they have to earn that opportunity
Speaker 2: and that mission and that path, and we'll preview it
Speaker 2: on Thursday. Yeah, that begins with the Minnesota likings.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one last thing I want to mention before we go,
Speaker 1: and we will certainly preview in great detail Green Bay
Speaker 1: and Minnesota on our next episode, which will actually shoot tomorrow,
Speaker 1: since now the week is shifting back into normal mode
Speaker 1: after the holiday on Monday.
Speaker 2: Thanks Joe Man.
Speaker 1: I just got to say, does anybody out there want
Speaker 1: to play the Baltimore Ravens right now?
Speaker 2: Goodness? Seeing the super Bowl?
Speaker 1: Goodness, gracious, you talk about you talk about a team
Speaker 1: that is putting it together and getting on a roll
Speaker 1: at the right time, and they've still got one heck
Speaker 1: of a tough matchup this week. They now they after
Speaker 1: these games, they big games they've had against Jacksonville and
Speaker 1: against and against the forty nine ers, these you know,
Speaker 1: games over teams that look like they're certainly headed to
Speaker 1: the playoffs. But but then the Baltimore Ravens beat them convincingly.
Speaker 1: Now they have to face the Miami Dolphins, who are
Speaker 1: coming off of a big win of their own at
Speaker 1: home against the Dallas Cowboys last week. And but boy,
Speaker 1: I just you know, Baltimore Ravens are nine to one
Speaker 1: in their last ten games. Their only loss in that
Speaker 1: stretch is a two point loss to the Cleveland Browns,
Speaker 1: a team that is certainly no slouch out there as well.
Speaker 1: And I just I couldn't be more impressed because a
Speaker 1: lot of people thought, when you know, Mark Andrews goes
Speaker 1: down with terrible injury, a lot of people, oh, what's
Speaker 1: that going to do to, you know, to the Ravens
Speaker 1: offense and all this, Well it had, you know, no
Speaker 1: offense to Mark Andrews. It hasn't affected them a whole
Speaker 1: heck of a lot. And that's a credit to jarn
Speaker 1: hark Ball, credit to the rest of those guys. The
Speaker 1: Baltimore Ravens right now are looking like the team to
Speaker 1: beat in the NFL.
Speaker 2: And credit to Lamar Jackson because they took away his
Speaker 2: top receiving target for years and he adapted much better
Speaker 2: this year without Andrews than some of these previous years
Speaker 2: when Andrews has been unavailable and obviously likely factors into
Speaker 2: that they've had to make the adjustments in the backfield,
Speaker 2: but they still have Gus Edwards. I mean, the Baltimore
Speaker 2: Ravens are an incredibly fun team to watch. And I'll
Speaker 2: be honest with you, Mike, That's why originally I was
Speaker 2: wondering whether or not the Sunday Night game would actually
Speaker 2: get played with the Packers and Vikings or if they
Speaker 2: get flexed out of it just because of Baltimore.
Speaker 1: In Miami Miami.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then when you talk about this is the
Speaker 2: beautiful thing about the National Football League, the way you
Speaker 2: build football teams. Baltimore very home grown, very gritty. Their defense,
Speaker 2: I mean Patrick Queen talked about it after the game.
Speaker 2: I mean, they don't people don't want to play our
Speaker 2: brand of football. And then you have the Miami Dolphins,
Speaker 2: which is a lot of guys that have been brought
Speaker 2: in with draft picks from other places, a lot of
Speaker 2: guys that have a lot of speed, and you're gonna
Speaker 2: have those two objects really colliding here. There's been so
Speaker 2: many of these AFC matchups where I was like, boy,
Speaker 2: this could be a potential you know, AFC.
Speaker 1: Championship previous Yeah, playoff preview type of game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but here we are again. This definitely feels like
Speaker 2: it could have that type of ibe because I think
Speaker 2: when you're looking in terms of the most consistent teams
Speaker 2: this season, not just in that conference, the Dolphins and
Speaker 2: the Ravens certainly are at the top of that list.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. Well. We will look ahead in
Speaker 1: more detail to the rest of the Week seventeen schedule
Speaker 1: in the NFL, as well as obviously the Packers and
Speaker 1: the Vikings from US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. We'll have
Speaker 1: it for you on our next show, but for now,
Speaker 1: we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team on Packers dot com. For Wes, I'm Mike. Thank
Speaker 1: you for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.