Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford. He is the one and only
Speaker 1: West Hodkowitz. Were coming to you here from our studios
Speaker 1: at lambeau Field, West. It is Friday, our final show
Speaker 1: of the week prior to Packers Panthers PM Central Time
Speaker 1: kickoff on Sunday at lambeau Field, and as usual, we
Speaker 1: will wrap up the week with our Keys to Victory.
Speaker 1: Packers are seven and two, looking to go to eight
Speaker 1: and two and stay in first place in the NFC North.
Speaker 1: What's it gonna take? Christian McCaffrey, You stopped him, That's all.
Speaker 1: That's all it takes, right there, right there. We'll see
Speaker 1: you next week, Packers on Scripted. No, I mean it
Speaker 1: is West wants to get to the bye everybody. No,
Speaker 1: I mean you're right, I mean Christian McCaffrey. It's funny
Speaker 1: because you and I could sit in here and we
Speaker 1: talked about Zeke Elliott. We've talked about a number of
Speaker 1: these running backs. Certainly Dalvin Cook is really climbing the
Speaker 1: charts here at that position as well. In the Packers
Speaker 1: see him twice a year. Josh Jacobs, Josh Jacobs, But
Speaker 1: I don't know. I can't think of anyone that jumps
Speaker 1: off the top of my head. Maybe Lashawn McCoy is prime,
Speaker 1: but even then, he didn't run the ball the way
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey runs the ball. This guy is the biggest
Speaker 1: threat I think the league has seen from an all
Speaker 1: around component. I think you and I were discussing it.
Speaker 1: I mean, in some ways, it sort of reminds you
Speaker 1: of a Marshall Folk type run that he's been on.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think he's a guy that when
Speaker 1: it's all said and done, he could very easily have
Speaker 1: a thousand yard rushing season, thousand yard receiving season. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's the type of talent he has, and that's where
Speaker 1: I think you see his game elevated towards. So for
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Packers, what does this all mean? You know,
Speaker 1: Mike Petton I thought was really good when he was
Speaker 1: standing at the podium on Thursday evening discussing this, and
Speaker 1: he said, you know, you can't go with just a
Speaker 1: linebacker on him. If you do, you better have help.
Speaker 1: You can't necessarily just go with a defensive back on him.
Speaker 1: You need to have a plan, and you need to
Speaker 1: stay true to that plan. There's a lot that that
Speaker 1: we have to figure out that we won't know until
Speaker 1: way after the show is posted to Packers dot com.
Speaker 1: What's the status of Adrian Amos? What is this defense
Speaker 1: configuration gonna look like? But no matter who it is,
Speaker 1: the eleven players who are on the field have to
Speaker 1: be accountable, gap sound fundamental. They need to tackle because
Speaker 1: if you don't and Christian McCaffrey gets two feet in
Speaker 1: front of him, he's going to be threatening your end zone. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the guy that Carolina's season, for
Speaker 1: the most part, has revolved around this one player. And
Speaker 1: I'll stick with the running back theme in the sense
Speaker 1: we were We've been talking all week about the Packers
Speaker 1: getting back to generating their offense through Aaron Jones and
Speaker 1: Jamal Williams, and so when you look at the running
Speaker 1: backs involved here, the Packers with their duo, the Panthers
Speaker 1: with McCaffrey, it's funny. I looked at the stats. I
Speaker 1: didn't really less this till I actually looked at him.
Speaker 1: McCaffrey has like a hundred and sixty five carries on
Speaker 1: the season, and the next most carries of anybody on
Speaker 1: that team is eleven. He he is the workhorse, and
Speaker 1: that hundred and sixty five carries doesn't even include his
Speaker 1: touches when he's catching passes out of the backfield. But
Speaker 1: back to my point with regard to comparing the running
Speaker 1: backs here, I'll say this, it would be a tall order,
Speaker 1: I think, because Christian McCaffrey is going to get his
Speaker 1: as they say, it would be a tall order for
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams to surpass the production of
Speaker 1: what McCaffrey is going to do in this game. If
Speaker 1: the Packers duo can do that, I think the Packers
Speaker 1: win this game hands down. But as long as the
Speaker 1: Jones and Williams production is somewhat comparable to Christian McCaffrey,
Speaker 1: I think the Packers can win this game because I
Speaker 1: like the Packers that the other skill positions, and with
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers at quarterback versus Kyle Allen, I think the
Speaker 1: because I have a lot of advantages elsewhere. But if
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey has a hundred and sixty five total yards
Speaker 1: and a couple of touchdowns and Jones and Williams only
Speaker 1: combined for you know, say seventy five or eighty yards
Speaker 1: and there's this big disparity in the production of the
Speaker 1: running backs. I think the Packers will have a hard
Speaker 1: time winning this game. Yeah, and you're a big fantasy
Speaker 1: football guy, No, Mike, multiple time champion. When you when
Speaker 1: you have your matchup in your single play league, um,
Speaker 1: you look at it. Okay, you might have Zeke Elliott,
Speaker 1: your your opponent might have Christian McCaffrey. If Zeke Elliott
Speaker 1: gets you twenty points, it can offset Christian McCaffrey having
Speaker 1: That's just the way that this thing works, and I
Speaker 1: think there are some parallels to how this NFL game
Speaker 1: has played. The thing I like about Aaron Jones though,
Speaker 1: is he's been up for a challenge. You know, you
Speaker 1: go back to last month going into Dallas, the question
Speaker 1: all week long was can you match Zeke Elliott, you know,
Speaker 1: yard for yard, touchdown for touchdown. He had already done
Speaker 1: that the previous year. Everybody just seemed to forget about it.
Speaker 1: And then by the way, he did it again when
Speaker 1: he got to a T and T stage him. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that I'm guaranteeing that he's gonna outrush
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey out. You know, yardage Christian McCaffrey. But if
Speaker 1: you're within that realm, if you're within that that atmosphere
Speaker 1: of of what he's doing, that's gonna mean good things
Speaker 1: for the Packers offense. And I go back to last
Speaker 1: week and you and I were shooting final thoughts a
Speaker 1: few moments moments ago, and we were discussing this. I
Speaker 1: didn't even realize that besides that first catch that Aaron
Speaker 1: Jones had against the Charges, he didn't get another one
Speaker 1: in that game, that one that end up going for
Speaker 1: negative one yards off of the motion. You need to
Speaker 1: find ways to get on the ball mat. The floor
Speaker 1: has talked about it, Aaron Rodgers has talked about it.
Speaker 1: If you go into a game and Aaron Jones only
Speaker 1: has nine touches, it's not going to turn out very
Speaker 1: well for your offense. It's not going to mean very
Speaker 1: good balance, especially when you don't have Jamal Williams going
Speaker 1: in that you know equation either. So both of those
Speaker 1: running backs, I mean, yeah, Christian McCaffrey's the bell cow,
Speaker 1: he's the workhorse. He does everything to make that offense
Speaker 1: move for Carolina. Packers have two running backs though, and
Speaker 1: then you factor in Davante Adams. All the same discussion
Speaker 1: you and I had last week going into the Charges games,
Speaker 1: it's still pertinent today. You need to get those weapons
Speaker 1: going well. When you look at the statistics. A week ago,
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones was leading the NFL and touchdowns with eleven.
Speaker 1: The Packers go to Los Angeles, Aaron Jones does not
Speaker 1: get a touchdown. Christian McCaffrey scores three touchdowns against the
Speaker 1: Tennessee Titans. Now he leads the NFL and touchdowns with thirteen.
Speaker 1: So there's been a little bit of a back and
Speaker 1: forth going on here. So that's another thing to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on. But I think if we were to
Speaker 1: point to one other thing aside from the running backs,
Speaker 1: that maybe the key to this game, At least in
Speaker 1: my mind, it's the past protection for both teams, because
Speaker 1: we've seen with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. There was
Speaker 1: the stretch there of six games from Week two to
Speaker 1: Week seven. Aaron Rodgers was sacked only seven times over
Speaker 1: the course of six games, and he was throwing the
Speaker 1: ball plenty. But there have been some leaks now the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks, and the protection hasn't quite been there.
Speaker 1: Some of the sacks. I believe Rogers has been sacked
Speaker 1: eight times in the last two games, and he's the
Speaker 1: first to admit some of those are on him. He
Speaker 1: held the ball too long a couple of those. He
Speaker 1: was frustrated that he couldn't get away from the pressure.
Speaker 1: But he's been feeling more pressure the last couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: and the Packers need to get back to where they
Speaker 1: were a few weeks ago in that realm. And as
Speaker 1: you've talked about with Kyle Allen, this is a young,
Speaker 1: twenty three year old quarterback. He went his first four
Speaker 1: starts this season without throwing an interception. Now he's thrown
Speaker 1: four interceptions in his last two games. Some of that
Speaker 1: is due to pressure, you know, getting to enforcing a
Speaker 1: young quarterback to make mistakes. And that's what Mike Petton
Speaker 1: and this Packers defense needs to do. Provided there at
Speaker 1: least containing McCaffrey and not letting him completely control the
Speaker 1: ball game. Yeah, because if you do, that's where I
Speaker 1: think Kyle Allen can get into a rhythm. That's where
Speaker 1: this passing game gets going, because then suddenly you're selling
Speaker 1: out to stop Christian McCaffrey. And as I'm mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: when we were previewing the Panthers, they still have weapons
Speaker 1: who can hurt you, and guys you know when you
Speaker 1: look at Greg Olsen that can move the chains on you.
Speaker 1: So that's why it has to be such a huge
Speaker 1: emphasis for green Bay going into this one. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, I mean, I look at this matchup
Speaker 1: as Kyle Allen has done some great things this year,
Speaker 1: especially early on, look phenomenal considering what I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people's expectations were after Cam Newton went down,
Speaker 1: and they're sitting at Owen too, and you wonder if
Speaker 1: this season is just gonna spiral. Last year didn't go
Speaker 1: according to plan, what's going to happen this year? Well,
Speaker 1: what happened was Kyle Allen realized the resource he had
Speaker 1: in McCaffrey and they built the offense around that. The
Speaker 1: one team that's been you know, exceedingly successful in being
Speaker 1: able to throw him off his game West San Francisco,
Speaker 1: and they turned the ball over, they pressured him, and
Speaker 1: I just feel like for green Bay last week it
Speaker 1: did not go according to plan against Philip Rivers. And
Speaker 1: the thing about Philip Rivers and the thing about Drew
Speaker 1: Brees is those guys are gonna hurt you regardless if
Speaker 1: you get pressure because of just how quickly they get
Speaker 1: the ball out. You can't allow a guy like Alan
Speaker 1: to get into that kind of rhythm in this game.
Speaker 1: That's why someone asked us an insider inbox this week,
Speaker 1: the Packers win the coin toss, what do you do?
Speaker 1: I defer. I want my defense on the field. I
Speaker 1: want them to get that first crack and Allen, I
Speaker 1: want them to get some energy if they can get
Speaker 1: an early stop, you know, maybe not allow McCaffrey to
Speaker 1: get that first first down. You do that, you start
Speaker 1: to feel good about yourselves. Then it starts to go
Speaker 1: back down to the reality of the situation in that
Speaker 1: Kyle Allen, you know, kind of came in through humble
Speaker 1: beginnings here in the NFL. He's still only twenty three.
Speaker 1: You need him to play like a twenty three year
Speaker 1: old quarterback. And the best way to do that is
Speaker 1: Zadarius Smith, Preston Smith, those type of guys with the
Speaker 1: back of their minds constantly thinking about Christian McCaffrey, but
Speaker 1: also making sure that they can't hurt you with that
Speaker 1: pass game either. Well, what are your thoughts here, Wes
Speaker 1: with regard to the weather for this game on Sunday,
Speaker 1: because the forecast at this point is high on Sunday
Speaker 1: is load a mid thirties. The low on Sunday night
Speaker 1: will be twenty degrees. And with a three kickoff, and
Speaker 1: with the clocks changing a week ago, we're looking at
Speaker 1: you get towards the end of the second quarter, it's
Speaker 1: dark outside. This will be this will essentially be a
Speaker 1: night game for the last two and a half quarters
Speaker 1: of the game, so the temperature is going to be
Speaker 1: in the twenties. I haven't looked through all of Kyle
Speaker 1: Allen's background, but I would imagine he hasn't played I mean,
Speaker 1: having played in college at Houston and now in Carolina
Speaker 1: as a as a rookie. He's from Scottsdale, Arizona. That
Speaker 1: was the part I didn't know is exactly where he's from.
Speaker 1: I don't think cold weather football is something that he
Speaker 1: has played before. And I'm really interested to see how
Speaker 1: this plays out with him. Obviously they are going to
Speaker 1: run their offense through McCaffrey here, but you know how
Speaker 1: it is west when when it gets cold, that ball
Speaker 1: is harder for quarterbacks to hang onto. It's more difficult
Speaker 1: to to be completely pinpoint accurate on your passes. If
Speaker 1: this truly is Kyle Allen's first cold other game, it's
Speaker 1: something the Packers need to take advantage of. Absolutely. I
Speaker 1: mean the way I look at this is, I mean,
Speaker 1: Kyle Allen's played well enough that I expect him to
Speaker 1: be mature enough to be able to handle that. But
Speaker 1: I think I always think of it this way, like
Speaker 1: you're you're you've been writing stories now for what twenty years?
Speaker 1: Twenty five years a professional career. Now that's a little
Speaker 1: bit longer than Kyle Allen has been playing quarterback. But
Speaker 1: you know, if if I throw a wind tunnel in
Speaker 1: front of you, it's not gonna be fun, but you
Speaker 1: should still be able to write a story. If I
Speaker 1: put a giant bass next to you, it's going to
Speaker 1: be annoying, but you should still be able to write
Speaker 1: your story. That's what this is like a lot the
Speaker 1: way I look at it for quarterbacks. Yeah, it's cold
Speaker 1: that you've been playing football your entire life. Deal with
Speaker 1: it now. The one area where I think the Packers
Speaker 1: have a decided advantage there is what Aaron Jones was
Speaker 1: talking about this week, the fact that they have been
Speaker 1: out on the practice field at Nichki Field, you know,
Speaker 1: doing their team periods in the cold, getting used to
Speaker 1: that again. Traymont Smith catching kickoffs and punts out in
Speaker 1: the cold. Aaron Jones, who's from El Paso, who when
Speaker 1: I was talking to him this week, he said, I
Speaker 1: mean until he basically got to NFL, he never played
Speaker 1: any cold weather games. He said. You never get used
Speaker 1: to it, but you learn how to adapt to it,
Speaker 1: you learn how to play in it. And for that reason,
Speaker 1: that's why this is so beneficial for Green Bay this week,
Speaker 1: this time of the year, everybody in December expects, Okay,
Speaker 1: you're gonna play cold weather football, is just the way
Speaker 1: it is. There's enough teams in the North and the
Speaker 1: East said it's something you're gonna have to deal with.
Speaker 1: But to have a game like this in November, Mike,
Speaker 1: I remember a few years ago against Indianapolis Colts, it's
Speaker 1: like seventy degrees at Lambeau. Basically this week of the
Speaker 1: season are roughly right around, so nobody's anticipating, much like Maha,
Speaker 1: nobody's anticipating that this is gonna be a game that's
Speaker 1: gonna be seven degrees. But when they did flex it
Speaker 1: back a little bit, and it does get dark out
Speaker 1: this close to the daylight savings time. These are all
Speaker 1: the factors that come into play, and I, for one,
Speaker 1: am I going to be very interested to see how
Speaker 1: Kyle Allen adapts is Did you hear the quotes if
Speaker 1: I heard them correctly? There were some comments from Ron
Speaker 1: Rivera coming out of Carolina that he didn't actually believe
Speaker 1: the Packers were practicing outside. He told Yea, he told
Speaker 1: the media down there, let's let's be clear, they're practicing indoors.
Speaker 1: And yes, all of the photos from the media and
Speaker 1: everything are indoors because the packers did have done their
Speaker 1: initial the initial parts of the workouts have been in
Speaker 1: the Hudson Center, but then for all of the eleven
Speaker 1: on eleven on Wednesday and Thursday, they go outside onto
Speaker 1: the the heated portion of the field where the snow
Speaker 1: is gone and it's cleared off and and they're dealing
Speaker 1: with the elements in the actual scrimmage eleven on eleven
Speaker 1: portions of practice. It didn't sound like Rivera even believed
Speaker 1: that the packers were actually doing it, weren't stretching outside
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But I don't Yeah. I mean, well,
Speaker 1: it's just it's just interesting to me when I heard
Speaker 1: when I heard those comments. If I heard them correctly,
Speaker 1: I will I will qualify. Yeah, and I haven't seen them,
Speaker 1: but let's say that is true. Because you're an upstanding citizen,
Speaker 1: I assume that they are. Uh one. If you saw
Speaker 1: him Matt Lafleur and he went to the podium after
Speaker 1: practice on Thursday, they weren't practicing outside. He was just
Speaker 1: sitting in a freezer for two hours into Evan Siegel
Speaker 1: are very trusted colleague and photographer. He has foe those
Speaker 1: of them outside at practice. So be that as it may.
Speaker 1: I just think when you look at there's a lot
Speaker 1: of first year players are getting used to this, but
Speaker 1: there's a lot of veteran players too on this team
Speaker 1: that have dealt with this. Sadarius Smith dealt with it
Speaker 1: in summer gard in Baltimore. You have a guy like
Speaker 1: Adrian Amos, despite the hamstring injury right now, he played
Speaker 1: in it for four years at at Chicago. He dealt
Speaker 1: with it at Penn State. So like, there are guys
Speaker 1: that I think are ready for this and understand what
Speaker 1: this is gonna be. I'm mostly curious to see all
Speaker 1: the side stuff. You know, how you know in the
Speaker 1: special teams, how does that affect things? You know, if
Speaker 1: Mason Crosby, does that give him an advantage? And seeing
Speaker 1: how these teams react to this once you get into
Speaker 1: that second half and it really starts to get cold.
Speaker 1: I never tried to make too much out of weather storylines,
Speaker 1: but just given the unique timing of this matchup, it
Speaker 1: is very interesting. Now you know, this is something that's
Speaker 1: coming into play this early well, and neither one of
Speaker 1: these teams has done much in the return game kickoff
Speaker 1: returns or pump returns, really and you wonder, especially on kickoffs,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a lot harder to sail that ball
Speaker 1: all the way through the end zone. I think there
Speaker 1: will be opportunities for both teams to try to get
Speaker 1: something done in the kickoff return games. So you wonder
Speaker 1: if one of these special teams units provides a spark
Speaker 1: in that way, because neither one of these return games
Speaker 1: for the Panthers or the Packers have been very impactful
Speaker 1: this year at all. No, they haven't been. And I
Speaker 1: think you obviously Caroline has done the right thing over
Speaker 1: the course of years. You don't want to be using
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey in that way, but they've been trying to
Speaker 1: find someone there. I think d J. Moore has been
Speaker 1: handling it at times this season, but he's also kind
Speaker 1: of done a breakthrough player for them on offense. So
Speaker 1: those things are really going to be interesting to watch,
Speaker 1: you know. I brought up the Crosby example because you know,
Speaker 1: Joey Slide really hasn't been late in the world on
Speaker 1: fire right now for the Panthers had another miskick last
Speaker 1: week fifteen and twenty one on the season, twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two on extra points. So he's from Virginia. I I
Speaker 1: don't know what his experience isn't play in the cold,
Speaker 1: but like, those are the things that are interesting to
Speaker 1: me because while they're very small, how many times mike
Speaker 1: over the course of years and it's affected the Packers
Speaker 1: in a negative way too. Have you seen a game
Speaker 1: in no Member in December be decided by a miss
Speaker 1: you know, extra point, a missle, you know, punt, a
Speaker 1: return that ends up being you know, uh, either muffed
Speaker 1: or whatnot. So those are the areas in Sean Menega
Speaker 1: talked a lot about this week and some of the
Speaker 1: emphasis that they're putting on it, trying to get more production,
Speaker 1: whether it is the return game, whether it's their blockers,
Speaker 1: whether it is punts. I mean, Packers special teams want
Speaker 1: to play better and this is one area with this
Speaker 1: type of work that they got this week that they
Speaker 1: could potentially do that. Yeah. Well, let's take a quick
Speaker 1: look around before we go at what else is going
Speaker 1: on in Week ten in the NFL. In the NFC North,
Speaker 1: some significant matchups here. The Lions and the Bears are
Speaker 1: facing each other for the first time. This one is
Speaker 1: in Chicago before they have the rematch later this month
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit, and this is really the
Speaker 1: right now for Lions and Bears. It's the battle to
Speaker 1: avoid the seller. One of these teams looking for their
Speaker 1: fourth victory to stay in third place, the loser will
Speaker 1: be in last place after ten weeks of the season.
Speaker 1: And then the other one that I'm sure all Packers
Speaker 1: fans will be watching once Green Bay and Carolina wrap up.
Speaker 1: Sunday Night Football Minnesota down in Dallas. Vikings at Cowboys
Speaker 1: are really interesting one, not only for the NFC North,
Speaker 1: but also with what's going on in the NFC East
Speaker 1: and the NFC playoff picture as a whole. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a fascinating week just starting off with the Bears and
Speaker 1: lines really quickly. Really, no outcome is negative for Green Bay.
Speaker 1: They could one team could win, they could tie. Everything
Speaker 1: is you know, kind of beneficial in that regard. The
Speaker 1: Cowboys matchups fascinating from the standpoint of you know, Dallas
Speaker 1: looked good early on, fell into a lull, and then
Speaker 1: here they are right back in the thick of things
Speaker 1: again in Minnesota in some ways probably a little bit
Speaker 1: more on the positive end of the spectrum, but has
Speaker 1: sort of mirrord mirrored what Dallas has done, so seeing
Speaker 1: you know, what they could potentially do in that environment
Speaker 1: and if they can pick themselves up after the Kansas
Speaker 1: City lost the game. That I'm probably more than any though,
Speaker 1: just from a standpoint of, uh, you know, intrigue for
Speaker 1: me is l a going to Pittsburgh because for a
Speaker 1: couple different standpoints here. One, the Rams are in a
Speaker 1: division right now where they have to keep up in
Speaker 1: that wild card race. With the way that San Francisco
Speaker 1: is just running away with the West right now in
Speaker 1: outpacing Seattle for the front of that division right now,
Speaker 1: they need to get this win the Rams do against
Speaker 1: the Steelers. But the thing that's interesting about the Steelers, Mike,
Speaker 1: I don't even know if you realize this, for as
Speaker 1: much as we made out of you know, the issues
Speaker 1: with while you start off going back to Antonio Brown
Speaker 1: and then they lose Ben Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph has a
Speaker 1: terrible you know, you know, hit their second in the
Speaker 1: league right now and turnover margin only to New England.
Speaker 1: And that's the reason they're four and four right now.
Speaker 1: So you gotta give Mike Tomlin a lot of credit.
Speaker 1: And if you're the Green Bay Packers, you are cheering
Speaker 1: all the way for the Steelers in this matchup because
Speaker 1: for the Rams to be potentially sitting at five and
Speaker 1: four after the year that they had, uh we talked
Speaker 1: all the time about being seven and two and or one,
Speaker 1: and these type of records, what they do for you
Speaker 1: over the course of the season, how that separates you
Speaker 1: in the second half of the year. That's why, because
Speaker 1: there's gonna be teams like this that are much like
Speaker 1: the Packers have been in this position the last few years,
Speaker 1: where they are scratching and clawing and trying to get
Speaker 1: their way back into the wild card race and if
Speaker 1: you can just stay, you know, maintain that distance, that
Speaker 1: goes a long way. So yes, certainly the Steelers, if
Speaker 1: they could potentially hold serve against the Rams, that is
Speaker 1: huge implications for the NFC. Yeah. Well, the timing of
Speaker 1: things with regards to the NFC North teams has flipped
Speaker 1: around a little bit compared the last week because last week,
Speaker 1: by the time the Packers kicked off in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: they knew that the Bears had lost and the Vikings
Speaker 1: had lost, and there was this big opportunity on the table. Well,
Speaker 1: now it's the Vikings that have the final game, and
Speaker 1: they will know the outcome of the Bears Lions game.
Speaker 1: They will know whether the Packers won or lost. The
Speaker 1: Vikings will know whether they are playing to potentially tie
Speaker 1: the Packers for first place or if they will need
Speaker 1: to win just in order to stay one game behind
Speaker 1: and not potentially fall two games behind if the Packers
Speaker 1: come out victorious. So and with the Packers heading into
Speaker 1: their bye week, obviously, as as we've been talking about, boy,
Speaker 1: the last thing you want to do with after a
Speaker 1: seven and one start to be seven and one at
Speaker 1: the midway point. The last thing you want to do
Speaker 1: is go into the bye week on a two game
Speaker 1: losing streak. You want to get the good vibes, the
Speaker 1: good feeling back. You want to be able to enjoy
Speaker 1: the bye weekend, you rest up, and then you get
Speaker 1: ready for a stretcher on. Yeah, you want to be
Speaker 1: able to have those positive thoughts in the back of
Speaker 1: your head. That was one thing you know, over the years,
Speaker 1: ups and downs side, for the most part, the Packers
Speaker 1: always were able to make those right adjustments, and sometimes
Speaker 1: it came off a win, sometimes it came off of
Speaker 1: a loss. But the years in which they won, I
Speaker 1: just remember the feeling of that locker room and sort
Speaker 1: of the joy of of where they potentially are and
Speaker 1: where they could potentially be. And that's why this game
Speaker 1: has so much importance. I just look at it in
Speaker 1: terms of the Panthers are for real. I mean, they've
Speaker 1: gone through some you know, real adversity here earlier in
Speaker 1: the season. But Mike, you look at how this NFC
Speaker 1: is shaping up. At five and three, they are still
Speaker 1: right in this hunt, absolutely and honestly not that far
Speaker 1: off of the Saints still at seven and one, and
Speaker 1: you know, certainly they have an easier opponent this week
Speaker 1: against Atlanta. But yeah, strangling Falcons, all these things you
Speaker 1: factor them together. I mean, I you know, you want
Speaker 1: to talk quickly about the Raiders and Chargers game. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Raiders came right back Chargers after looking so good
Speaker 1: against Green Band Sunday. They didn't look like they knew
Speaker 1: what they were doing offensively in that first half. That's
Speaker 1: just the way this game is played. That's how things go.
Speaker 1: Packers need to have short memories. They need to win
Speaker 1: this game against the Panthers and sit eight and two
Speaker 1: into the bye week see in San Francisco. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: the big one coming up on Monday night, which we'll
Speaker 1: talk about on our Monday show after as we also
Speaker 1: recap Packers Panthers, But that Seahawks forty Niners game on
Speaker 1: Monday night, that's a that's a big one in the
Speaker 1: in the picture here and and we'll see what the
Speaker 1: landscape looks like after all the results on for all
Speaker 1: the popcorn man, I mean, it's uh that as I
Speaker 1: said before, I mean, that might be the best Monday
Speaker 1: night football game that we've seen in ten fift here.
Speaker 1: So that's it's huge, huge football game. Heck of a
Speaker 1: matchup for sure. With that, we'll call it a wrap
Speaker 1: on this edition of pack Kers Unscripted. Be sure to
Speaker 1: follow all of our coverage of the team and with
Speaker 1: everything going on Sunday afternoon's game from lambeau Field. It'll
Speaker 1: all be on Packers dot com. Subscribe to us, like
Speaker 1: us on iTunes and other podcast services. On Twitter, He's
Speaker 1: at west hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for
Speaker 1: the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll see
Speaker 1: you next time.