Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffor, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague Weston hod Quitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you hear from our studios at lambeau Field and Happy
Speaker 1: Halloween to all of you Packers fans out there. Happy Halloween,
Speaker 1: my friend.
Speaker 2: Thanks buddy. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to
Speaker 2: try to gep out of the office a little bit
Speaker 2: early today. I got a very excited five year old
Speaker 2: that is ready to hit the streets and get some
Speaker 2: candy that he probably won't end up eating, but he
Speaker 2: loves the process.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and can you spill the beans on the show?
Speaker 1: What his costume is?
Speaker 2: Do you know what Wildcrats is?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: I don't, Okay, So it's a PBS show. He's a
Speaker 2: huge fan of it. They have like they kind of
Speaker 2: it's two brothers and now it's kind of an animated
Speaker 2: type show now too, and then they can like transform
Speaker 2: into like animals and things like that. So he's like,
Speaker 2: I think it's like a spider monkey kind of thing.
Speaker 2: So he has like this blue costume and he's very
Speaker 2: excited about it.
Speaker 1: It sounds like it. It sounds like a very exciting costume.
Speaker 2: So it's a little bit bigger, Like everything's more elaborate
Speaker 2: these days than when I was a kid, when it
Speaker 2: was like, I'm a fireman, you know. Now it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm this character from a TV show that's very niche,
Speaker 2: but he's pumped about it. Well.
Speaker 1: I would prefer to spend this show talking about Halloween
Speaker 1: and sharing all kinds of Halloween stories, but we actually,
Speaker 1: unfortunately have another Packers loss to talk about, and it's
Speaker 1: the fourth one in a row, this one to the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings at home at Lambeaufield. The final score was
Speaker 1: twenty four to ten. And when you look at how
Speaker 1: this game unfolded, as we talked about last week, a
Speaker 1: lot of similarities to previous games in terms of the
Speaker 1: Packers not being able to get anything going on offense
Speaker 1: in the first half, and this game in particular, happened
Speaker 1: to then get away from the Packers with that sequence.
Speaker 1: At the beginning of the second half, it's ten to three.
Speaker 1: The beginning of the third quarter, the Vikings get the
Speaker 1: ball first because they had won the toss and deferred,
Speaker 1: and in a very short amount of time, the Vikings,
Speaker 1: drove the length of the field, got a touchdown, they
Speaker 1: get an interception, and then they score another touchdown right away,
Speaker 1: and suddenly, in less than half a quarter, a ten
Speaker 1: to three game becomes a twenty four to three game.
Speaker 1: The Packers are in a catch up desperation mode and
Speaker 1: just once again didn't get it done, and Green Bay
Speaker 1: sits at two and five.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a lot to say about this one afterwards.
Speaker 2: You obviously had the Insider Inbox column for Monday. I
Speaker 2: wrote our audition for Tuesday, and the most salient point
Speaker 2: I think I raised in this entire thing is there
Speaker 2: have been moments. There have been moments all year long
Speaker 2: for this team. And I'm not going to use the
Speaker 2: Y word. I'm not going to talk about the youth
Speaker 2: of it. But the one thing is Mike, is when
Speaker 2: you have moments, it gives you hope. But moments also
Speaker 2: don't win you sixty minute football games. And for the Packers,
Speaker 2: I almost equate it. You know, I'm a big MMA guy.
Speaker 2: I almost equated to like an MMA UFC boxing type match.
Speaker 2: Your rounds, you got your quarters, and if you're constantly
Speaker 2: down two rounds on the scorecards, it's going to be
Speaker 2: very difficult to come back, and unless you're throwing a
Speaker 2: knockout blow late, you're gonna have a very difficult time
Speaker 2: being able to pull it off. And this was another
Speaker 2: example of it. Mike. I mean, they've gone now, however
Speaker 2: many first halfs now without a touchdown, four or five,
Speaker 2: whatever it's been. And defensively, you know, they can stop
Speaker 2: defenses or they can stop offenses. They can hold Minnesota
Speaker 2: to sixty two rushing yards in this one after having
Speaker 2: some problems defending the run in a few other games,
Speaker 2: but then in this particular contest they're completing the third
Speaker 2: and lungs. It doesn't balance out. Unfortunately for the Packers.
Speaker 2: It led to their fourth straight loss.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you mentioned it. It's a sixty minute game.
Speaker 1: It's a seventeen game season. What I raised in Monday
Speaker 1: Mornings Inbox is that the hallmark of successful professional players,
Speaker 1: the hallmark of a successful professional team, as those individuals
Speaker 1: you know come together collectively, is players being able to
Speaker 1: have a reasonably consistent level of play. You are you're
Speaker 1: a true pro in this game when you can do
Speaker 1: things consistently, when it's not just the flashes in the moments,
Speaker 1: but it's when you can do that time and time again.
Speaker 1: And sixty minutes is a long game, and seventeen games
Speaker 1: is a long season. You're going to be You're going
Speaker 1: to be tested, You're going to be tried. You're going
Speaker 1: to be forced to reach a certain level of consistency
Speaker 1: in order to succeed. And that's that's what the Packers
Speaker 1: continue to search for because ironically, if you have a
Speaker 1: lot of inconsistencies across the board, your results then become
Speaker 1: very consistent. And that's why the Packers are on a
Speaker 1: four game losing streak. The the you know this one
Speaker 1: everybody's you know, talking about, well, you know, when the
Speaker 1: Packers go into hurry up mode and it's like they
Speaker 1: start to move the ball and you know, you start
Speaker 1: to get some points and all that, and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but when the other team is up multiple touchdowns, you know,
Speaker 1: like they play defense differently, you know, I mean, you
Speaker 1: can't continue to put yourself in that position. Even though
Speaker 1: the Packers had some chances to make it a one
Speaker 1: score game in the fourth quarter, you got the block
Speaker 1: field goal that gave you good field position. You had
Speaker 1: a chance there and then and then when you failed
Speaker 1: in the red zone, you get the sack fumble, and
Speaker 1: you get another chance in the red zone to make
Speaker 1: it a one score game, and the offense fails again.
Speaker 1: But even with all of that, it still comes back
Speaker 1: to the fact that two and a half quarters into
Speaker 1: the game, you're down twenty four to three and you've
Speaker 1: done you've done nothing on offense to you know, to
Speaker 1: to establish anything about who you are. Your only success
Speaker 1: offensively is in desperation mode. And Matt Lafleur talked about that,
Speaker 1: it's like you just you can't you can't live that
Speaker 1: way week after week. And the Packers are just still
Speaker 1: searching to find something that they can establish that they
Speaker 1: can execute successfully consistently, something to build on within any
Speaker 1: given game plan, and the way the first halfs have gone,
Speaker 1: the game plan is kind of gets tossed out the
Speaker 1: window at halftime every week.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think he said they ran was at fourteen
Speaker 2: plays for the first four series or something like that.
Speaker 2: And you know, you could talk about touches, you can
Speaker 2: talk about, you know, opportunities, but if you aren't able
Speaker 2: to move the ball on your first four series, it's
Speaker 2: just going to be difficult to just to be able
Speaker 2: to spread the ball around to get Aaron Jones established
Speaker 2: to be able to find, you know, what you're looking
Speaker 2: to achieve. The hardest thing to decipher about this game
Speaker 2: for me was the penalties, because it showed you, again,
Speaker 2: as Matt Lafleur even talked about, if you're not consistent,
Speaker 2: if you're not playing well, you're not going to be
Speaker 2: able to overcome penalties. You know, everything about football is
Speaker 2: kind of like, you know, two glasses and trying to
Speaker 2: keep the one that you want filled and the one
Speaker 2: that you don't want, you know, empty. But the more
Speaker 2: water that you keep that's taken over the other side
Speaker 2: of the boat, that the quicker you're going to sink.
Speaker 2: And for green Bay it was eleven penalties ninety nine yards.
Speaker 2: How many of those came in third down situations? How
Speaker 2: many times the Packers were in third and ten plus?
Speaker 2: And conversely, for as well as green Bay did defend
Speaker 2: Alexander Madison and did defend well against cam Akers, Kirk
Speaker 2: Cousins made some great plays and receivers went along right
Speaker 2: with them. Yeah, Jordan Addison is turning out to be
Speaker 2: a real stud in this league. And I had huge
Speaker 2: questions about Addison if he was gonna be big enough.
Speaker 2: He proved he can play big enough. I mean, you
Speaker 2: look at what you know, kJ Osborne being a complimentary piece. TJ.
Speaker 2: Hockinson didn't have huge numbers, but it was enough to
Speaker 2: move the chains and.
Speaker 1: He was pretty darn effective for that.
Speaker 2: I don't I know the Vikings finished like ten of
Speaker 2: eighteen on third downs, but shoot, I wonder what that
Speaker 2: number was through the end of the third quarter.
Speaker 1: Well, that's that's what I was just going to say
Speaker 1: when we talk about the third downs. I mean, what
Speaker 1: stood out to me? And I think I put this
Speaker 1: in Monday Mornings Inbox, although I'll be honest, I wrote,
Speaker 1: you know, answer those questions on Sunday night in a
Speaker 1: bit of a fog after everything that had happened. But
Speaker 1: prior to the play on which Kirk Cousins season unfortunately
Speaker 1: ended with the torn achilles. Prior to that play, Minnesota
Speaker 1: was nine out of fourteen on third downs, and not
Speaker 1: just nine out of fourteen wes, but six of those
Speaker 1: nine conversions they needed either eight or nine yards to convert.
Speaker 1: And you know, if third downs in general are supposed
Speaker 1: to be roughly you know, a fifty percent proposition, forty
Speaker 1: five fifty percent whatever whatever you want to put on it.
Speaker 1: Third and eight plus is supposed to be for an
Speaker 1: offense more like a thirty percent proposition. The defense needs
Speaker 1: to be stopping somewhere between two thirds to three quarters
Speaker 1: of those and to allow six conversions of third an
Speaker 1: eight plus in one game, you know, again, it's it's
Speaker 1: a it's a sign of a team that is inconsistent
Speaker 1: and can't establish anything. Because coming into the game, the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers defense was ninth in the league in
Speaker 1: third down percentage, and then suddenly you have this day
Speaker 1: where third and eight plus and Kirk Cousins is tearing
Speaker 1: you up, and all sorts of things happen that that
Speaker 1: actually go against the profile that that you had built
Speaker 1: through the first six games defensively. So it's you know,
Speaker 1: it just feels like as soon as the Packers plug
Speaker 1: one leak in the boat, another leak springs up somewhere else,
Speaker 1: and they just continue to they just continue to chase
Speaker 1: this and they've got to find a way to get
Speaker 1: out of it.
Speaker 2: That was the most disheartening piece of it is because
Speaker 2: they were ranked ninth and that was largely with having
Speaker 2: some issues defending the run. But yet the pass defense.
Speaker 2: A lot of times the pass rush was picking them
Speaker 2: up in those third down situations and in this and
Speaker 2: this can you know this case, everything just flipped on
Speaker 2: its axis. And that's again that's the sign of a
Speaker 2: two and five team that's kind of feeling some type
Speaker 2: of way right now. And it was difficult because at
Speaker 2: the same time I remember talking with Preston Smith about
Speaker 2: this afterwards in a little bit with Kenny Clark. I mean,
Speaker 2: the Packers didn't give up on themselves. They didn't pull
Speaker 2: off a second quarter rally or a second half rally,
Speaker 2: excuse me, but they did continue to fight. I mean
Speaker 2: they got the back to back sacks and the block
Speaker 2: field goal and then the strip sack late. They there
Speaker 2: were moments certainly that that fourteen play drive in the
Speaker 2: third quarter for the offense, but as I said, it's
Speaker 2: sixty minutes and you can't play fifteen of it. You
Speaker 2: have to go the full way.
Speaker 1: Right And that's the thing. And as much as as
Speaker 1: much as the Packers pass rush clearly had an impact
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, not only you know, forcing the
Speaker 1: field goal that got blocked, and then with the backup
Speaker 1: quarterback in for the Vikings, you get the strip sack
Speaker 1: and all that. But through the first three quarters, was
Speaker 1: there much pressure on Kirk Cousins at all. Not really.
Speaker 1: The pass rush didn't really show up until the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: and that's one of the reasons that, you know, all
Speaker 1: the third and eight pluses were being converted. So, as
Speaker 1: you said at the top, the Packers, they they on
Speaker 1: both sides of the ball, they show, they show the flashes.
Speaker 1: You see that it's there. But in this league, in
Speaker 1: this league, when you can't do it for more than
Speaker 1: a quarter and a half or two quarters, if you
Speaker 1: can't do it over the bulk of nobody can play
Speaker 1: a perfect game for sixty minutes, or you know, a
Speaker 1: high level game for all sixty minutes. That's too hard.
Speaker 1: But if you can't play the way you're capable of
Speaker 1: playing for enough of those sixty minutes, you're gonna keep
Speaker 1: taking losses every week. And that's what the that's where
Speaker 1: the Packers have to find whatever it is that they
Speaker 1: can that they can do, that they can rely on,
Speaker 1: that they can execute consistently on both sides of the ball,
Speaker 1: and then try to build on that. And it's just
Speaker 1: been it's been a frustrating process to not be able
Speaker 1: to find it now.
Speaker 2: And you know that was where I kind of fell
Speaker 2: for Jeordan into a little bit because Matt Lafleur talked
Speaker 2: about as postgame presser, certainly you touched on it as well.
Speaker 2: Moments Jordan wants to have back, no question about it.
Speaker 2: He talked a lot about his mindset and his mentality
Speaker 2: out there and the things that he has to do better.
Speaker 2: But to have a pass where he actually reads the
Speaker 2: defense perfectly and he has the split safety look and
Speaker 2: he does fire one in there. It wasn't a perfect pass,
Speaker 2: but he does fire it in there for Jaden Reid
Speaker 2: and then the safety collapses and kind of wrestles the
Speaker 2: ball away from him to be the only interception of
Speaker 2: the game. Those are the turning port moments in a
Speaker 2: football game. And you know, and again especially when you've
Speaker 2: had so much difficulty taking the ball away defensively, you
Speaker 2: can have no lapses there. And you know, I think
Speaker 2: that's going to be the big thing that Jason Vrabel
Speaker 2: and in his in the Packers. You know, passing game
Speaker 2: coaches are gonna have to look at this week. Is
Speaker 2: you've got a lot of young talent at receiver, but
Speaker 2: it's also having the strong hands, it's having the body
Speaker 2: and having the physicality to come down with those balls.
Speaker 2: Romeo Dobbs did it a week earlier, and that was
Speaker 2: that was a play where potentially could bend disastrous result
Speaker 2: if he's not fighting for the football against Patrick Sirtan
Speaker 2: junior the way he did. You have to attack the football.
Speaker 2: But again it goes back to the full thing. When
Speaker 2: you're not running the ball well and you're not passing
Speaker 2: the ball particularly well. Some more issues on the offensive
Speaker 2: line this week. There's just a lot of things to fix.
Speaker 2: And the big challenge for Matt Lafleur and his coaching
Speaker 2: staff this particular week getting ready for the Rams is
Speaker 2: where is the emphasis in what do you look to
Speaker 2: improve upon? Because you can't fix everything in six or
Speaker 2: seven days. You have to have a focus and kind
Speaker 2: of work your way forward from there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you had mentioned you had mentioned earlier the
Speaker 1: penalties too, and I don't want to dwell on this
Speaker 1: too much, but going back through the film, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not gonna I'm not going to excuse
Speaker 1: eleven penalties. That's way too many and it's been a
Speaker 1: problem in other games as well. But if you look
Speaker 1: at this, if you look at just this game in particular,
Speaker 1: you and I were talking about it in the press box.
Speaker 1: What ended up being that fifteen yard penalty on John
Speaker 1: Nathan Owens along the sideline when the Packers win the
Speaker 1: challenge because the pass is incomplete, but the Vikings still
Speaker 1: get fifteen yards and a first down. Like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what Jonathan Owens is supposed to do on that,
Speaker 1: Like he's literally trying to back off, he's trying to
Speaker 1: lay off, and yet he still gets flagged for fifteen yards.
Speaker 1: I took a closer look at where Shaun Gary's roughing
Speaker 1: the passer. When I first saw it, I thought it
Speaker 1: was I thought it was the body weight, you know,
Speaker 1: landing on the quarterback thing. Then when I got a
Speaker 1: closer look at it, it's like, yeah, I mean he
Speaker 1: hit him. I don't see how you could call that
Speaker 1: hit late. And Gary actually lands with his knees on
Speaker 1: the ground, like he didn't land with his whole body
Speaker 1: weight on the quarterback. He stopped and his knees hit
Speaker 1: the ground, and yet they still throw the flag for
Speaker 1: fifteen yards. I'm not sure what Rashaan Gary is supposed
Speaker 1: to do on that. You go back to the play
Speaker 1: very early in the game when rashid Walker was flagged
Speaker 1: for being ineligibly downfield. When the Packers had this whole
Speaker 1: busted play and obviously lots of guys on offense were
Speaker 1: not on the same page. Because it's either supposed to
Speaker 1: be a running play or the ball comes out right away.
Speaker 1: Rashid Walker ends up getting flagged illegally downfield. Not his
Speaker 1: fault by any stretch. He's literally standing, he doesn't even
Speaker 1: have anybody to block or anything to do. He's standing
Speaker 1: two yards downfield when Love throws the pass up along
Speaker 1: the sideline and he gets flagged for you know, ineligible
Speaker 1: man downfield has absolutely zero to do with what's going on.
Speaker 1: But that's a penalty that results from everybody else on
Speaker 1: offense not being on the same page and a complete breakdown.
Speaker 1: So again, I'm not excusing eleven penalties, but when you
Speaker 1: look at what happened in this particular games, there are
Speaker 1: a lot of them that are just that are absolute
Speaker 1: head scratchers that you just kind of go like, what
Speaker 1: is going on out there? And why why do these
Speaker 1: continue to pile up against Greenback.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was no news with Sean Hockeley's crew with
Speaker 2: how they called this game. Now again, as Mattel four,
Speaker 2: will be the first one to tell you, you have
Speaker 2: to play better to not allow those moments to affect
Speaker 2: the outcome of a game exactly.
Speaker 1: Pack that's one hundred percent true.
Speaker 2: But that being said, it came back to a lot
Speaker 2: of the things that I've had an issue with the
Speaker 2: National Football League in the last ten years. The Jonathan
Speaker 2: Owens thing and the Rashan Gary thing are actually very
Speaker 2: similar if you actually go back and look at them,
Speaker 2: if you watch them in real time. Don't slow it down,
Speaker 2: just watch it in real time. Both times, the defensive
Speaker 2: player is kind of being shielded from what he's seeing
Speaker 2: on the play by another defensive player. Jonathan Owens is
Speaker 2: the second safety involved on that play down the sideline.
Speaker 2: Rudy Ford, I believe it was was directly in front
Speaker 2: of him. He's just trying to stop the play and
Speaker 2: as it turns out, dude, if he could have actually
Speaker 2: seen Jordan Addison putting his head down on that play,
Speaker 2: I believe it was Addison. He's going to be able
Speaker 2: to pull off. He doesn't see that though. All he's
Speaker 2: the twenty jersey in front of him bang bang play
Speaker 2: fifteen yards, as I joked about on Twitter x or whatever,
Speaker 2: the one thing that that challenge in addition to actually
Speaker 2: overturning the catch, which again, it was just an amazing
Speaker 2: play by the referees to just get everything correct on
Speaker 2: that play, considering they incorrectly said that that was a reception.
Speaker 2: But what was funny the most about is New York.
Speaker 2: And then they both got a good look at that
Speaker 2: play again and there's nothing you can do. You can't
Speaker 2: overturn a penalty. But like, it was just a ridiculous call.
Speaker 1: It was, it was, it was. It was absolutely ridicuous.
Speaker 2: And then watch the Gary. You can watch the TV copy.
Speaker 2: You don't even need to watch, like the football copy
Speaker 2: that all twenty two films. Watch the TV copy of
Speaker 2: the Gary hit. Watch it at full speed, and you
Speaker 2: tell me exactly what Rashaun Gary's supposed to do when
Speaker 2: his job description is to attack the quarterback, to get
Speaker 2: after the quarterback. Yeah, bang bang play, Kingsleyannigbari.
Speaker 1: Yes, I was. I was just going to say. This
Speaker 1: is this discussion is essentially about not all penalties, even
Speaker 1: ones with the same name, are created equal because what
Speaker 1: Kingsleyanbari did was absolutely roughing the passer and absolutely a
Speaker 1: lack of discipline. And that is absolutely the type of
Speaker 1: penalty the Packers have to eliminate from their game. The
Speaker 1: other roughing the passer around Rashaan Gary. I don't know
Speaker 1: what he's supposed to do.
Speaker 2: I could have swore that I would play math football.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and it was and gay, it was the Vikings,
Speaker 1: and it was Kirk Cousins at lambeau Field two. You know,
Speaker 1: Week two of twenty eighteen over again. All right, well,
Speaker 1: we'll move on to a couple of other topics. I'll
Speaker 1: take care of some sponsor business here. First, Serious XMNFO
Speaker 1: Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute
Speaker 1: NFL news that true football fanatics Steed twenty four to seven,
Speaker 1: three sixty five and Ed Cousin Subs. We have something
Speaker 1: for everyone, like our Wisconsin cheese curds, mac and cheese,
Speaker 1: golden fries and creamy shakes, all paired with your favorite
Speaker 1: sub or sub and a bowl Cousin Subs. Fifty years
Speaker 1: of better, Big news on Monday. Rashaan Gary, We've already
Speaker 1: been talking about him. Rashan Gary is going to be
Speaker 1: a Green Bay Packer for quite some time. He signs
Speaker 1: a multi year contract extension. He was playing this year
Speaker 1: on the rookie first round pick, fifth year option, and
Speaker 1: we sort of knew this was how it was going
Speaker 1: to go that as soon as Rashaun Gary showed that
Speaker 1: he was back from the ACL and back to his
Speaker 1: old self and the era of his career was still
Speaker 1: pointing up, the Packers are going to get this done
Speaker 1: and not let Rashaan Gary reach free agency. It's the
Speaker 1: exact same approach they took with Elton Jenkins last year.
Speaker 1: This one just happened to the contract extension happened to
Speaker 1: come earlier in the season, whereas with Jenkins it was
Speaker 1: more around Christmas time. But congratulations to Gary. As Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur said, you love to see guys who put in
Speaker 1: the work and go about it the right way and
Speaker 1: have the approach that Gary has, and a guy who
Speaker 1: is so well liked by his teammates and for what
Speaker 1: he brings to the field, to the locker room and
Speaker 1: everything else, to get rewarded for everything that he puts
Speaker 1: in and hopefully, you know, as I said, for Sean,
Speaker 1: Gary's arrow is continuing to point up with regards to
Speaker 1: his career. The Packers defense is going to benefit from
Speaker 1: that for years to.
Speaker 2: Comb quintessential Packers move taking care of one of their
Speaker 2: own and doing it with a little bit of time
Speaker 2: left on his contract to help you spread out that
Speaker 2: signing bonus. And let's be honest, Mike, this deal probably
Speaker 2: gets done last December if if Rashawn doesn't tear as
Speaker 2: acl that's the only.
Speaker 1: Question, absolutely that and and for all we know there
Speaker 1: was something in the works. Yeah, you know, because these
Speaker 1: things don't happen overnight. There may have been something in
Speaker 1: the works last year before Gary's injury, and then when
Speaker 1: something like that happens, you know, it all gets put
Speaker 1: on hold.
Speaker 2: He was on such a tear at the beginning of
Speaker 2: last season, and then for him to come back his
Speaker 2: second game really back, and well, technically I guess it
Speaker 2: would be the third, but first at Lambo, the three
Speaker 2: SAT game against New Orleans, and just that every single
Speaker 2: week he's taken steps and you know, forty six season
Speaker 2: I forty six snaps. This past weekend against Minnesota, both
Speaker 2: Kenny Clark and Preston both gave him credit to I mean,
Speaker 2: the stats maybe didn't show up as much, but he
Speaker 2: was effective and contribute on both of their individual sacks.
Speaker 2: Just the type of game wrecker green Bay needs upfront
Speaker 2: in the trenches and a guy that they can move
Speaker 2: around and be versatile with. And the biggest piece of all,
Speaker 2: as you said, Michael still only twenty five years old,
Speaker 2: I mean, so much still ahead of him in terms
Speaker 2: of his game and his development, trying to become, as
Speaker 2: he even said in the locker room on Monday, you know,
Speaker 2: the man he's becoming, the players, he's becoming, the belief
Speaker 2: that Green Bay has shown in him, and ultimately, you know,
Speaker 2: trying to prove to them that, hey, you guys have
Speaker 2: made a huge investment in me in twenty nineteen, You're
Speaker 2: doing it again in twenty twenty three, and I want
Speaker 2: to be that all pro Pro Bowl type pass rusher
Speaker 2: that you can lean on for years to come. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, he's He's a big part. He's a big part
Speaker 1: of what the Packers are are doing defensively, and he's
Speaker 1: you know, I mean the fact that he wears number
Speaker 1: fifty two is kind of fitting because this does feel
Speaker 1: a lot like when you know, when the Packers got
Speaker 1: Clay Matthews in the fold long term, and he was.
Speaker 1: You know, he's a centerpiece type of defensive player that
Speaker 1: you build your process, you build your scheme around, you
Speaker 1: build your game plans around what you think Rashaun Gary
Speaker 1: can do out on the field on a weekly basis,
Speaker 1: and that's where the Packers defense is headed.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say this too, I just interrupt you. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was cool him talking. He talked for about eight
Speaker 2: minutes at his locker on Monday, already all business. He
Speaker 2: probably said the word rams more than any other word
Speaker 2: during the presser, very much focused on that. But he
Speaker 2: did get I'm not going to say he cried. He
Speaker 2: didn't cry, but you could tell the emotions kind of
Speaker 2: pouring through him a little bit at least, kind of
Speaker 2: going through him talking about his mom and his sister
Speaker 2: being alongside him when he did sign that contract right
Speaker 2: before the game. Two ladies that have been with him
Speaker 2: since the beginning, as he said, since seventh grade when
Speaker 2: he started football to now and been on that journey
Speaker 2: with him and to be able. You can just see
Speaker 2: how proud he was of that because it has been
Speaker 2: for a lot of people. NFL is a is a
Speaker 2: life changing opportunity, but you can tell more than just money,
Speaker 2: the amount of pride that he felt being able to
Speaker 2: become the man and player that you know, his mom
Speaker 2: thought he could be, and that he's tried to prove
Speaker 2: that he can be for her at this point in
Speaker 2: his life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to do that also coming back from such
Speaker 1: a devastating injury a year ago actually just I guess
Speaker 1: fifty one weeks ago, like right right around there, if
Speaker 1: my math is correct. A couple other things I want
Speaker 1: to hit on, just with regard to other results around
Speaker 1: the league. We do like to talk about kind of
Speaker 1: what else is out there. And I'm not sure. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure what you thought, Wes, but but when I
Speaker 1: saw kind of what was happening in Week eight with
Speaker 1: some of the results, what I kept coming back to
Speaker 1: mentally is we're seeing we're seeing some good teams and
Speaker 1: teams that a lot of people believe would be good
Speaker 1: teams and playoff contenders and all that showing their medal
Speaker 1: a little bit in terms of bouncing back from some
Speaker 1: rough spots. You know, the Detroit Lions, you know, they
Speaker 1: got it handed to them by the Baltimore Ravens, but
Speaker 1: then they come back their first home Monday, night football game,
Speaker 1: and however, many years at Ford Field and they get
Speaker 1: a victory. The Cincinnati Bengals were scuffling along. You know,
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow wasn't entirely healthy with the calf injury, and
Speaker 1: the Bengals had these issues and they get a big,
Speaker 1: you know, two touchdown win over the San Francisco forty
Speaker 1: nine ers on the road. A couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: the Dallas Cowboys got smacked around by the forty nine ers,
Speaker 1: and now they've come back and you know, they put
Speaker 1: a they put a pounding on the the La Rams,
Speaker 1: who will be coming into lambeau Field this week. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, the score was like thirty three to three
Speaker 1: or something like that before before the Rams really found
Speaker 1: anything offensively. So that's kind of what I've been That's
Speaker 1: kind of what I've been seeing. And I think the
Speaker 1: next team to show, now they have a bye this
Speaker 1: week with the three straight losses, but the next team
Speaker 1: to show, okay, are you going to bounce back from
Speaker 1: the adversity is the forty nine ers, who have now
Speaker 1: gone from five to zero to five and three. You know,
Speaker 1: their quarterback has you know, was you know, brought back
Speaker 1: on six days from concussion protocol. A lot of people
Speaker 1: questioning that the Niners didn't play that well against against
Speaker 1: the Bengals. I think that's that's the next one to watch.
Speaker 1: And and the Kansas City Chiefs they go into Denver,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, streaks are always going to end.
Speaker 1: I mean, they had beaten the Denver Broncos sixteen consecutive times,
Speaker 1: one of their division rivals. They go into Denver on
Speaker 1: a snowy Sunday and somehow Patrick Mahomes and company they
Speaker 1: only score nine points, and they had almost that many turnovers.
Speaker 1: I think they had five or six or whatever it was.
Speaker 1: You know, just goes to show that when you don't
Speaker 1: protect the football, you start turning it over. Anybody can
Speaker 1: anybody can beat you. So so the Chiefs have some
Speaker 1: adversity to respond to now, as well.
Speaker 2: Tons of respect for Patrick Mahomes going out there and
Speaker 2: toughing it out. Probably shouldn't have just played in that game.
Speaker 2: Probably should have just called that one a night. And
Speaker 2: given you know, Blain Gabbard an opportunity there. I just
Speaker 2: didn't seem like himself and Denver man I told you
Speaker 2: two weeks ago. I mean not that I'm some kind
Speaker 2: of Southsayer. But I mean, like when we were talking
Speaker 2: about going into the Packer game, I thought Denver did
Speaker 2: a lot of good things, especially defensively against Kansas City,
Speaker 2: and it seemed like they made the corrections they needed
Speaker 2: to make. And I mean one hundred and fourteen passing
Speaker 2: yards and three touchdowns for Russell Wilson. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: not the biggest stat line you're ever gonna see, but
Speaker 2: when you're efficient and when you commit yourself to the
Speaker 2: run the way that they did, they controlled the game
Speaker 2: and they ultimately protected the ball better and were able to
Speaker 2: succeed Detroit was a real gut check I felt like,
Speaker 2: because yeah, I mean, Vegas is just in shambles right now.
Speaker 2: I feel terrible for what's happening with DeVante there.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think we all do.
Speaker 2: But I mean they they made a and Jamiir Gibbs,
Speaker 2: I thought we not thought he did have the best
Speaker 2: game of his career so far and showed, hey, I
Speaker 2: can be an every down back if you need me
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you feel it. You feel like that guy is
Speaker 1: maybe just starting to get going, and you know, I
Speaker 1: mean they're going to get David Montgomery back and then
Speaker 1: suddenly the Lions are going to have this two headed
Speaker 1: monster in the backfield and to give their offensive coordinator
Speaker 1: Ben Johnson all sorts of options.
Speaker 2: But it's for me, it's all about Aaron Glenn and
Speaker 2: that defense because that is the one area we've seen
Speaker 2: Ben Johnson make some good play calls. We've seen their
Speaker 2: offense do some good things. Jamal Williams had thirty eight
Speaker 2: rushing touchdowns last year, but defensively the last eleven months. Man,
Speaker 2: I keep saying it, but I mean, they're a different team,
Speaker 2: and I think a lot of it is with that
Speaker 2: young pass rusher of Theirs and doing the thriller dance
Speaker 2: and everything with his background. But they just they Vegas
Speaker 2: just could not do anything against them. Yeah, Josh Jacobs
Speaker 2: has been neutralized, DeVante's been neutralized. Brutal.
Speaker 1: Yeah. One other, one other thought I wanted to ask you,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to get into a whole discussion
Speaker 1: because it's a discussion for another t.
Speaker 2: It's about how the Giant's almost one with eight passing yards.
Speaker 1: Well, actually I was I was thinking about bringing that up,
Speaker 1: but I know, I know we're kind of we're kind
Speaker 1: of pushing our limits time wise.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you, did you see did
Speaker 1: you see the touchdown that the Eagles scored out of
Speaker 1: the tush push formation.
Speaker 2: I don't think I did. Know.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, they just they just made that play
Speaker 1: that much harder to defend because they lined up in
Speaker 1: a short yardage with the two guys behind Jalen Hurts
Speaker 1: looking like they're going to do the whole tush push thing.
Speaker 1: And then and one of the guys behind Hurts was
Speaker 1: DeAndre Swift, and Hurts took the snap, spun around, handed
Speaker 1: it off to him, and he just turned the corner
Speaker 1: and was gone touchdown. I mean, you, now, what do
Speaker 1: you do? Like, how do you how in the world
Speaker 1: do you defend the Eagles on short yardage when they
Speaker 1: can do that and they're also successful with the tush
Speaker 1: push thing like eighty nine and a half percent of
Speaker 1: the time or whatever. I mean the Eagle The Eagles
Speaker 1: are seven and one, and my personal opinion, I know
Speaker 1: they've got some they've got some issues to sort out defensively,
Speaker 1: but but it feels to me like the Eagles maybe
Speaker 1: are just starting to hit their stride.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, And it's funny to be that, you know,
Speaker 2: Jason Kelcey. There are these questions about, hey, is he
Speaker 2: gonna call quits after the Super Bowl. I mean, that
Speaker 2: guy's playing as good of football as he's ever played
Speaker 2: right now, and he is the catalyst to that play.
Speaker 1: He probably loves that play more than anybody else. You know,
Speaker 1: it's probably fun for him.
Speaker 2: It's like a little sumo wrestler, you know, just kind
Speaker 2: of pushing people around. But the other thing I will
Speaker 2: mention is Nick Sirianni and the adjustments you have to
Speaker 2: make in this league. And unfortunately I did not get
Speaker 2: a chance to see that play, but it just it
Speaker 2: reminds me of you can't fall into patterns. I think
Speaker 2: that's one of the things that I've said this on
Speaker 2: some of the other things I've done this week. You know,
Speaker 2: Brian Flores impressed me about what the Vikings did on Sunday.
Speaker 2: They're blitzing more than any other team the National Football League.
Speaker 2: So all right, we're gonna put nine guys up on
Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage and we're gonna drop eight. I mean, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: they it's the adjustments you make off of what you're
Speaker 2: showing on film and when you decide to turn that
Speaker 2: switch and certainly the Eagles have been on the cutting
Speaker 2: edge of it and they've continued to sort of dominate
Speaker 2: this thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, there are some really good games on the
Speaker 1: schedule in the NFL in Week nine, and we'll talk
Speaker 1: about those on our next show as we preview Packers
Speaker 1: and Rams, which will be at Lambeufield on Sunday at noon.
Speaker 1: But for now, we're going to call it a rap
Speaker 1: on this edition of Packers on Script. You'd be sure
Speaker 1: to follow all of our coverage of the team all
Speaker 1: week long. We have it all for you on Packers
Speaker 1: dot com. For Wes, I'm Miike. Thank you for tuning
Speaker 1: in everybody. We will see you next time.