Speaker 1: Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 2: I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my trust
Speaker 2: in colleague Wes Honkoitz. We're coming to you here from
Speaker 2: our studios at Lambeufield, back from Brazil where the Packers
Speaker 2: unfortunately fell to the Philadelphia Eagles thirty four to twenty nine.
Speaker 2: And Wes Weather, you're talking about the missed opportunities in
Speaker 2: that game, the injury to Jordan Love, which we'll get
Speaker 2: into more of the details of that here in a minute.
Speaker 2: It was just a trip full of regrets for the
Speaker 2: Green Bay Packers. Quite frankly, the way the way things ended.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was weird, Mike, because, like I left the stadium,
Speaker 3: I mean it's a you know, you lost and it sucks,
Speaker 3: But like I remember being so much more demoralized, like
Speaker 3: by what happened in London against the Giants, then in
Speaker 3: this game against the Eagles. And two things that one,
Speaker 3: I think the Eagles are a pretty good team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I think they are too.
Speaker 3: And it was a knockdown, slug out fight. I think
Speaker 3: I counted seven lead changes in this thing. It was
Speaker 3: balanced throughout. It's just that I think the final round there,
Speaker 3: the fourth quarter, the Eagles threw a couple more punches
Speaker 3: and were able to win this thing. It's regrettable from
Speaker 3: the standpoint that the green bait Packers had multiple chances
Speaker 3: to take control of this game and they just were
Speaker 3: not able to do it. When you get three takeaways
Speaker 3: that the way they did two of them right off
Speaker 3: the bat, but you only get six points when you
Speaker 3: seem like every single time there was an opportunity to
Speaker 3: really separate yourself in this matchup, the Packers fell short.
Speaker 3: And then certainly the last fifteen seconds of the game,
Speaker 3: Jordan Love goes down with the knee injury, and I
Speaker 3: just remember sitting there, beautiful stadium, beautiful night, but I
Speaker 3: just remember sitting there in my chair thinking, like, man,
Speaker 3: it really happened again, just like with Aaron and the thumb.
Speaker 3: You hope it doesn't linger the way it did with Aaron.
Speaker 3: But right at the very end, you get got to
Speaker 3: that game relatively healthy as a team, and then unfortunately
Speaker 3: Jordan goes out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, wait, what we have learned to this point
Speaker 2: with regard to Jordan Love's knee injury. The Packers are
Speaker 2: not putting him on injured reserve, which is good news.
Speaker 2: And hearing Matt Lafleur talk about the situation on Monday,
Speaker 2: he didn't use the phrase week to week, but that's
Speaker 2: sort of what I took out of it, that, you know,
Speaker 2: Matt Lafleur was not going to put a timeline on
Speaker 2: this thing, and he didn't even actually rule Jordan Love
Speaker 2: out for this Sunday against the Colts. But you know,
Speaker 2: I took that not as much about what maybe this weekend,
Speaker 2: what might or might not happen this weekend, but that
Speaker 2: there seems to be a lot of internal optimism that
Speaker 2: Jordan Love's injury is not going to keep him out
Speaker 2: too awfully.
Speaker 1: Log Now exactly.
Speaker 2: What that's going to mean, we'll have to wait and see.
Speaker 2: But that was the least good news because we've seen,
Speaker 2: you know, in past years when Aaron Rodgers has broken
Speaker 2: collar bones and the broken thumb and things like that. Now,
Speaker 2: obviously Rogers kept playing through the broken thumb, but it
Speaker 2: was something that definitely affected the Packers' season in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two for quite some time. Hopefully Jordan Love can
Speaker 2: be back on the field sooner than later. The Packers
Speaker 2: want to make sure that he's going to be all
Speaker 2: the way back and he can protect himself and he's
Speaker 2: not at risk of any greater injury to that knee.
Speaker 2: But in the meantime, the Packers are going to prepare
Speaker 2: Malik Willis, who just got here a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2: They're going to prepare him to start against the Indianapolis
Speaker 2: Colts in place of Jordan Love. And it's kind of
Speaker 2: how this league goes sometimes, right, you never know what
Speaker 2: is going to happen week to week in this league,
Speaker 2: and suddenly the Packers season in week two, what we're
Speaker 2: looking at right in front of us just looks completely
Speaker 2: different than maybe what we expected.
Speaker 3: And my big line, not that I'm some fancy writer,
Speaker 3: but was every NFL season has twists and turns, and
Speaker 3: it's how you deal with that. Last year, it was
Speaker 3: Aaron Jones in the hamstring. That was a storyline for
Speaker 3: Green Bay the entire season. Actually, as it turned out,
Speaker 3: he ended up aggravating again at the end of the
Speaker 3: year in San Francisco with it Jordan Love with just
Speaker 3: be in the sprain or whatever would have you. This
Speaker 3: is something that obviously Matt Leffler said they're not going
Speaker 3: to put him in a position where he can't protect himself.
Speaker 3: They're not going to put them in a position where
Speaker 3: they're mortgaging their future for the short term, especially in
Speaker 3: Week two. You don't want to go down that road.
Speaker 3: For Malik Willis. I think this is a golden opportunity
Speaker 3: if he is ultimately the guy that steps out there
Speaker 3: on the field and leads the Packers into the home
Speaker 3: opener against the Indianapolis Colts, because for so long he
Speaker 3: was looking for that opportunity and that chance to show
Speaker 3: how he's grown since just getting his feet wet and
Speaker 3: being thrown into the fire as a rookie in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two, barely played last season, and now here he is.
Speaker 3: He comes to Green Bay, has off of strong training camp,
Speaker 3: strong preseason, but they were going with will Levis and
Speaker 3: they wanted Mason Rudolph as they're backup Tennessee, so then
Speaker 3: Willis was available. Here he is now in this offense,
Speaker 3: and with Matt lafluor Tom Clemens, there is going to
Speaker 3: be an encyclopedia throne at him this week, I would imagine,
Speaker 3: But ultimately it's on the coaches to find a digestible
Speaker 3: game plan that he can function with he can administer
Speaker 3: in the Green Bay Packers very much are still expecting
Speaker 3: to win this game on Sunday.
Speaker 2: I think that's really the key thing. And Matt Lafuir
Speaker 2: emphasized that on Monday that, yes, Malik Willis has only
Speaker 2: been here for a couple of weeks and he can't
Speaker 2: really put a percentage on how much of the playbook
Speaker 2: he actually knows, or how much of the playbook he
Speaker 2: will know by the time Sunday's kickoff rolls around. But
Speaker 2: that doesn't really matter. What matters is that Malik Willis
Speaker 2: needs to understand one hundred percent of the game plan
Speaker 2: that the Packers are going to take into this game. No,
Speaker 2: he won't have that encyclopedic knowledge of the offensive system
Speaker 2: that an Aaron Rodgers or Jordan Love would have with
Speaker 2: the experience that they bring with Matt lfuor and with
Speaker 2: this system to the tape. But that's not what matters.
Speaker 2: It's about the game plan that's going to be taken
Speaker 2: into that game on Sunday. And when you look at this,
Speaker 2: you look at what Malik Willis will will have at
Speaker 2: his disposal. Yes, you know, there were a lot of
Speaker 2: regrets from the Eagles game. With regard to the mischances
Speaker 2: in the red zone, the goal to go after, the turnovers,
Speaker 2: all that kind of stuff, the penalties, there's a lot
Speaker 2: for the Packers to clean up there on the offensive
Speaker 2: side of the ball in particular. But a couple of things.
Speaker 2: One we saw the massive explosive playability of Jaden Reid.
Speaker 2: He ends up scoring two touchdowns in this game, one rushing,
Speaker 2: one receiving the thirty three yard end around for a touchdown,
Speaker 2: and then the seventy yard catch and run for a touchdown.
Speaker 2: So that is certainly something for the Packers to hang
Speaker 2: their hat on. And aside from the end around for
Speaker 2: a touchdown, the Packers really got their running game going.
Speaker 2: It was a tough slot early they had to make
Speaker 2: some adjustments against the Eagles, but after Josh Jacobs was
Speaker 2: held to just six yards i'm sorry, four yards on
Speaker 2: his first six carries against the Eagles, after that, Wes
Speaker 2: Emanuel Wilson and Josh Jacobs combined for one hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty six yards on fourteen carries. That was nine yards
Speaker 2: per carry basically from the second quarter on against the Eagles.
Speaker 2: That kind of running game, if the Packers can bring
Speaker 2: that kind of running game into the home opener against
Speaker 2: the Colts with Malik Willis at quarterback. That's going to
Speaker 2: go a long way for that young man trying to
Speaker 2: get a victory here in Jordan Love's play.
Speaker 3: And that was probably when you get back to what
Speaker 3: this game played out. The most maddening part of it
Speaker 3: is if you would have told me on Friday morning,
Speaker 3: as you and I are getting ready to get go
Speaker 3: to this game, that the Packers are going to run
Speaker 3: the ball twenty one times for one hundred and sixty
Speaker 3: three yards and a touchdown three takeaways, I would say, oh, well,
Speaker 3: how many touchdowns they went by? Just because it's like
Speaker 3: those are big time numbers and big time explosive plays.
Speaker 3: And the thing that you can take some solace in
Speaker 3: now going into this is it seemed like they were
Speaker 3: functioning better as a unit in the second half. And
Speaker 3: it's not just okay, well Philly was wearing down. No,
Speaker 3: guys were just fulfilling their assignments. And that's always the
Speaker 3: nice thing about being able to talk to Mattlin floor
Speaker 3: on a Monday and just being able to get away
Speaker 3: from the game a little bit. See the film Take
Speaker 3: the Emotions Out of it in the locker room afterwards,
Speaker 3: as Matt Steimond pointed out and his question to Matt,
Speaker 3: a lot of guys were talking about the scheme change
Speaker 3: they made and things that they did differently in the
Speaker 3: second half, And as the floor pointed out on Monday,
Speaker 3: it's wasn't so much that it was just guys blocking better,
Speaker 3: being able to take out linebackers at the second level
Speaker 3: rather than them shooting gaps and being able to stall
Speaker 3: the running backs. And be really honest with you, I
Speaker 3: thought one of the biggest plays and I can't remember
Speaker 3: exactly how many yards I went for, but there was
Speaker 3: one of those moments right there early in the third quarter.
Speaker 3: I believe it was where Josh Jacobs was sort of
Speaker 3: dead to rights in the hole and he made a
Speaker 3: guy miss. And then once they started being able to
Speaker 3: get some of those ten and eleven yard plays, the
Speaker 3: ball started bouncing a little bit more. Emmanuel Wilson, Dude,
Speaker 3: I've said it time and time again. This guy can
Speaker 3: just run the football. And I had asked Josh Jacobs
Speaker 3: about him two weeks ago and he said, if you
Speaker 3: watch him on film, he doesn't look like he's that fast,
Speaker 3: but that guy can move like when he's on the
Speaker 3: field and you're playing the game of football. He is
Speaker 3: a very difficult guy to bring to the ground with
Speaker 3: his size and his speed. And they don't have aj Dillon.
Speaker 3: But I'll tell you what, man, especially with Marshawn Lloyd
Speaker 3: still working his way back from this hamstring, Emmanuel Wilson
Speaker 3: is a really good complimentary back in Mike. Before I
Speaker 3: throw this back to I will just say one last time.
Speaker 3: Twenty thirteen, the Packers lost Aaron Rodgers to the collar
Speaker 3: bowen for the first time. Matt Flynn was a godsend
Speaker 3: coming in from Buffalo after he got cut and was
Speaker 3: able to manage the offense for the next month to
Speaker 3: be able to get the Packers in a playoff position.
Speaker 3: But the reason why the Packers were still alive when
Speaker 3: Aaron Rodgers came back in Chicago was because of how
Speaker 3: well Eddie Lacy ran the football and how well that
Speaker 3: offensive line block for him. However long Jordan Law gone
Speaker 3: zero games, one game, four games, who knows. Yeah, that
Speaker 3: running game is going to be very important for Green
Speaker 3: Bay now moving forward and being able to have a
Speaker 3: second half like they did in Brazil.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I hope people realize as well. And I
Speaker 2: put together my weekly what you Might have Missed segment
Speaker 2: looking at the film specifically about the running game, and
Speaker 2: I have the clips in there of what the Eagles
Speaker 2: were doing on those early runs the way Nakobe Dean
Speaker 2: Zach bond. The linebackers were shooting gaps. They weren't scraping,
Speaker 2: you know, they weren't playing traditional run defense. They were
Speaker 2: shooting gaps and playing really aggressively, and it was throwing
Speaker 2: off the timing of the Packers blocking where you start
Speaker 2: with a double team or a combo block and then
Speaker 2: a guy shifts off to go pick off the linebacker.
Speaker 2: My point is this is not as simple as saying, oh,
Speaker 2: look at as soon as Emmanuel Wilson went in the game,
Speaker 2: the Packers started to run the ball better. You know,
Speaker 2: so why isn't it just give the ball to Wilson
Speaker 2: instead of Jacobs. Well, take a look at the film,
Speaker 2: because when Wilson did first go into the game, and
Speaker 2: the Packers also did change what they were doing where
Speaker 2: they they instead of just doing strictly the zone scheme runs,
Speaker 2: they were doing some gap scheme runs. They were pulling
Speaker 2: Sean Ryan from right guard. They were pulling Tucker Kraft
Speaker 2: from the right side at tight end to come over
Speaker 2: and make blocks. So they were changing up their blocking scheme.
Speaker 2: That got the Eagles on their heels a little bit
Speaker 2: to say like, okay, we can't just charge straight up
Speaker 2: my field against this running game. So then when the
Speaker 2: Packers went back to the zone scheme later in the game,
Speaker 2: and again these clips are in the what you might
Speaker 2: have missed, then you saw the Packers had. The Packers
Speaker 2: timing was a little bit better. They were kind of
Speaker 2: in some ways ignoring the combo blocks getting to the
Speaker 2: guys on the second level right away so that they
Speaker 2: couldn't shoot those gaps, and the running game just continued
Speaker 2: to produce. And so at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: you know the It's one of those things about Week one, right,
Speaker 2: the Packers didn't know the Eagles were going to come
Speaker 2: out and just shoot gaps with their linebackers against the
Speaker 2: run in the first quarter. It took them a quarter
Speaker 2: to adjust it. Unfortunately, it was during that quarter when
Speaker 2: the Packers were getting the turnovers. They were in the
Speaker 2: red zone and gold to go situations, but had to
Speaker 2: settle for field goals because they couldn't get the running
Speaker 2: game going in those moments. So it's just part of
Speaker 2: how these games play out, and you just never know
Speaker 2: the fact that the Packers still put twenty nine points
Speaker 2: on the board in this game. When you look at
Speaker 2: how many points they sort of left on the board
Speaker 2: with the red zone failures and the one extra point
Speaker 2: where they tried to go for two didn't get it.
Speaker 2: You had a missed field goal in there. The Packers
Speaker 2: put twenty nine on the board and had, you know,
Speaker 2: legitimate opportunity for forty, you know, or at least upper
Speaker 2: thirties in this game. So there is something for the
Speaker 2: Packers to take into this game with Malik Willis at quarterback,
Speaker 2: and then potentially, you know, you throw in the wrinkle
Speaker 2: of a guy like Willis who might have some runs
Speaker 2: designed for him as a quarterback, right, the kind of
Speaker 2: thing that you don't necessarily design for Jordan Love. But
Speaker 2: Malik Willis is a different type of quarterbacks. So I'll
Speaker 2: be curious to see exactly when we talk about the
Speaker 2: game plan and what Malik Willis has to digest, what
Speaker 2: exactly the game plan is going to look like come
Speaker 2: Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 3: It was funny because Matt had said. He came out
Speaker 3: and said right away, you don't. If Jordan is not clear,
Speaker 3: then it will be Milik Willis. With Sean Clifford, the
Speaker 3: fifth round pick from last year's currently on the practice squad,
Speaker 3: he would serve as the backup. And some people had
Speaker 3: asked an insider inbox that, well, you know, why would
Speaker 3: you start Clifford? He has more knowledge of the playbook.
Speaker 3: That's true, but there's also a ton of film out
Speaker 3: there in pre season on Sean. People really don't know
Speaker 3: what to expect what the Green Bay Packers want to
Speaker 3: do with right Willis contrast to what he was doing
Speaker 3: in some of the things he was asked to do
Speaker 3: in Tennessee. Again, we did the five things story. We
Speaker 3: talked to him after he came here. This is a
Speaker 3: guy that is a dual threat quarterback. A lot of
Speaker 3: people said coming into the league, the more you can
Speaker 3: draw up for him based off of run action is
Speaker 3: going to be really benefit him. In addition to having
Speaker 3: a really good downfield arm towards the sideline, he could win.
Speaker 3: Malik Willis was one of the top quarterbacks in that
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two for that reason. It's just now going
Speaker 3: to be a question of how quickly can you catch
Speaker 3: the train? And that's where we're gonna have to find
Speaker 3: out potentially on Sunday, exactly where he's at in this
Speaker 3: whole thing. But the Green Bay Packers went out, Mike,
Speaker 3: we said it. They didn't rest on their laurels. They
Speaker 3: felt they needed to get better at that position, and
Speaker 3: Milik Willis potentially could have a big opportunity to show that.
Speaker 2: It definitely looks like a big opportunity for that young man.
Speaker 2: He did rush for I believe it was right around
Speaker 2: two hundred yards in the three starts that he had
Speaker 2: for Tennessee back as a rookie in twenty twenty. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so he dragged a he know, he averaged, you know,
Speaker 2: right around sixty or seventy rushing yards per game, which
Speaker 2: is pretty productive for a quarterback.
Speaker 3: By the way, because I focus so much on Jacobs
Speaker 3: in Wilson, you had mentioned in your original toss to
Speaker 3: me with Jayden Reid, and I don't know if you're
Speaker 3: planning to get back to that, but I'm just going
Speaker 3: to jump in here and ment.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3: The way that he made plays in this game. I
Speaker 3: said it to you. I said it to Tom Fanning,
Speaker 3: I haven't covered the league as long as you have.
Speaker 3: I haven't covered the league as long as robdimovsk has.
Speaker 3: In terms of a guy that is a natural wide receiver,
Speaker 3: I've never seen anybody play that position with the vision
Speaker 3: that he has, whether it was on the thirty three
Speaker 3: yard end a round for the touchdown run, or whether
Speaker 3: it was what he for the people he made miss
Speaker 3: on a seventy yard touchdown. When that guy is in
Speaker 3: open space, he's not as big as a running back,
Speaker 3: but he sure runs like one. Yeah, and his ability
Speaker 3: to break ankles. Again, I don't want to get into
Speaker 3: the wide receiver one two, three, four five, talk, but
Speaker 3: I thought this was an excellent example that when the
Speaker 3: pads are on and the bolts are flying, this kid
Speaker 3: is special.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We saw we saw a taste of that, right A.
Speaker 2: I don't want to say tease, because he certainly was
Speaker 2: very productive as a rookie. We saw the potential of
Speaker 2: what Jaden Reid could become in this league as a
Speaker 2: rookie last year. I think what we saw in the
Speaker 2: first game of his second season is that he is
Speaker 2: he is on the verge of sort of entering that
Speaker 2: definition of an electrifying player. There is something, there is
Speaker 2: something special, something different about the ball when it is
Speaker 2: in his hands, when the ball is headed towards him
Speaker 2: through the air, he brings a different dimension to things.
Speaker 2: And I do think that is something the Packers can
Speaker 2: whether it's Jordan Love or Malik Willis at quarterback, I
Speaker 2: think that is something that the Packers are going to
Speaker 2: look to maximize on here moving forward.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: The real tragedy in this was Jordan's knee injury happening
Speaker 3: one play after that thirty three yard catch on the sideline.
Speaker 3: YEAHY read that pound for pound. In terms of the difficulty,
Speaker 3: that might have been the most difficult catch anyone made
Speaker 3: on the field that day, and it came at a
Speaker 3: pivotal time for Green Bay trying to mount and forget
Speaker 3: themselves in a position for hail Mary. They got back
Speaker 3: to the line of scrimmage, Jordan gets hurt on the
Speaker 3: next play. Everybody forgets about. It's not talked about. It's
Speaker 3: kind of lost within the box score. Jayden reed just
Speaker 3: catch radius in addition to just what he does when
Speaker 3: he gets the ball in the open field. Kids got it, man, Yeah,
Speaker 3: he's a lot there for the Green Bit Packers to
Speaker 3: work with.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be fun to watch.
Speaker 2: We do need to discuss the defensive side of the
Speaker 2: ball here, and we'll do that after some sponsor business.
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Speaker 2: Fifty years fifty plus years of better Defensively for the Packers,
Speaker 2: it was not the debut of Jeff Haflee and his
Speaker 2: defense as the new defensive coordinator. Was not the debut
Speaker 2: that anybody was hoping for. Thirty four points by the Eagles.
Speaker 2: It started out tremendously with the Xavier McKinney interception, a
Speaker 2: great early moment for a brand new Green Bay Packer,
Speaker 2: Then the fumble recovery on the Eagle's second possession, and
Speaker 2: then jay r Alexander had an interception later in the
Speaker 2: game for the three takeaways. Now the Eagles are a
Speaker 2: talented offense. You know, this is the team that's been
Speaker 2: to the Super Bowl. They are a perennial playoff contender.
Speaker 2: Jalen Hurts is a really really difficult quarterback to handle
Speaker 2: that receiver combination AJ Brown DeVante Smith, and then you
Speaker 2: throw Saquon Barkley into the backfield. We talked about him
Speaker 2: all of last week. And that offensive line certainly didn't
Speaker 2: look like without Jason Kelcey at center, that it had
Speaker 2: even skipped a beat. That looked like a pretty darn
Speaker 2: good unit. That that gave the Packers some trouble.
Speaker 1: So all that.
Speaker 2: Being said, getting a few days away from the game
Speaker 2: and trying to digest it, and yes, the mistackles were
Speaker 2: frustrating to watch. I know the field conditions had something
Speaker 2: to do with that, and that cut both ways, et cetera,
Speaker 2: et cetera. Getting away from the game a little bit,
Speaker 2: the two things that bothered me the most of the
Speaker 2: defensive performance were the big touchdown to AJ Brown coming
Speaker 2: out of the gate at halftime. I believe it was
Speaker 2: the second or third play of the second half. The
Speaker 2: Packers had done a decent job of keeping the explosive plays,
Speaker 2: you know, at least in check a little bit during
Speaker 2: the first half, but then boom, they hit you for
Speaker 2: that big one. It goes all the way for a touchdown,
Speaker 2: sort of answered the seventy yard er that Jaden Reid
Speaker 2: had had in the second quarter for Green Bay. And
Speaker 2: then the other one for me was the final drive.
Speaker 2: You know, the Packers, they bogged out on an offense.
Speaker 2: There's you know, still eight minutes left on the clock basically,
Speaker 2: and Matt Lafleur in close decides, okay, not going to
Speaker 2: go for it on fourth down. Here kick the field
Speaker 2: goal to get within two points. Because you're only down five,
Speaker 2: get within two. There's eight minutes on the clock. You
Speaker 2: should have a chance to get the ball back. And
Speaker 2: the Packers defense couldn't get off the field. The Eagles
Speaker 2: killed seven minutes and twenty five seconds out of seven
Speaker 2: minutes fifty two seconds in the fourth quarter, ran that
Speaker 2: clock all the way down, kicked the field with goal
Speaker 2: to go back up by five, and the Packers did
Speaker 2: you know, just had those those few seconds left. Those
Speaker 2: were the two things that I think were the most troublesome,
Speaker 2: where the one long touchdown that was allowed and then
Speaker 2: that final drive when Green Bay couldn't get off the field.
Speaker 2: Those are the you know, you limit explosives and you
Speaker 2: don't let a team control the football for fifteen sixteen plays, right,
Speaker 2: Those are the kinds of things that get you beat
Speaker 2: defensively in a very offensive league. So I think that's
Speaker 2: that becomes the focus moving forward because I think that,
Speaker 2: you know, the tackling is going to get better.
Speaker 1: It was week one.
Speaker 2: You know, guys haven't necessarily played, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: all all these things factor into into Week one matchups.
Speaker 2: But so that's an area that I think will just
Speaker 2: get better for the Packers the more they play.
Speaker 3: With you one hundred percent. Two things to really quickly.
Speaker 3: I want to go over first because people always like
Speaker 3: doing this little funny thing about, oh, this is why
Speaker 3: you played starters in the preseason. I think I heard
Speaker 3: something during the Monday night broadcast. I don't remember the
Speaker 3: exact total, the amount of illegal procedure penalties called league
Speaker 3: wide this week one was like up there in terms
Speaker 3: of the totality of league history. I think there was
Speaker 3: like a dozen or some two dozen or something like that.
Speaker 2: Well, and they decided to make this emphasis about the
Speaker 2: alignment of the offensive line and making sure guys are
Speaker 2: not too far off the ball and all that. So
Speaker 2: they just started, you know, they just started chucking flags
Speaker 2: like crazy, which, of course it would have been nice
Speaker 2: if they had been doing that in the preseason. Yeah,
Speaker 2: post to waiting until week one. But I digress.
Speaker 3: Could they do a thing where it's like all the
Speaker 3: offensive linemann have to check with the side judge. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so it's like you have the receiver outside, Yeah, so
Speaker 3: everybody else making sure we're all on the linements.
Speaker 1: Or we're okay.
Speaker 3: Yeah, here's where you brought up the thing that bothered
Speaker 3: you the most. For me, it's a fact that the
Speaker 3: Eagles did not convert a third down in the second half.
Speaker 3: They did not convert when they're over five in the
Speaker 3: second half. They were four and thirteen in the game. Yeah,
Speaker 3: the Packers struggled to get them in third down situations?
Speaker 3: Was the issue? When they did, they got off the
Speaker 3: field or you had a weird defensive holding penalties that
Speaker 3: got called. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say the one third down that was
Speaker 2: a conversion that doesn't statistically go as a conversion as
Speaker 2: the defensive hold on Kenny Clark, which was on third
Speaker 2: and seven. It was going to be I think fourth
Speaker 2: and one off of a Hurtz running player scramble, but
Speaker 2: instead of even the fourth and one and the chance
Speaker 2: to maybe get the stop there, it was an automatic
Speaker 2: first down for a defensive hold on the interior of
Speaker 2: the defensive line.
Speaker 3: And then he also had the defensive holding on Jire
Speaker 3: Alexander for his mime work in fields. Was that aj bra.
Speaker 2: Which which took which took away what was going to
Speaker 2: be a third and twelve right at the start of
Speaker 2: that was the very start of the drive. The Packers
Speaker 2: were going to have the Eagles in third and twelve,
Speaker 2: but then Alexander got flagged for maybe one of the
Speaker 2: most phantom defensive holding calls I've ever seen.
Speaker 3: But again, all that aside, I digress, Yeah, aside, because
Speaker 3: I mean, that was the frustrating part of it. But
Speaker 3: here's why the green bait Packers lost the game. They
Speaker 3: didn't lose because of that. They didn't lose because of
Speaker 3: Kenny's thing. They lost because between the explosive plays and
Speaker 3: the ability for the Eagles to stay sustained drives, the
Speaker 3: Eagles ran the clock out on them, basically, and when
Speaker 3: they had the football, they just were a bit more efficient.
Speaker 3: Green Bay really struggled in the goal to go situations
Speaker 3: and the red zone opportunities and just weren't able to convert.
Speaker 3: Whereas when you get a sixty seven yard touchdown like
Speaker 3: he did with aj Brown to start the second half,
Speaker 3: the Packers went into halftime ahead. I believe they might
Speaker 3: even went into the fourth quarter ahead too, if my
Speaker 3: memory serves me correctly. At least it was close, and
Speaker 3: it just was that the Eagles kept applying the pressure
Speaker 3: and if you could just find a way, you don't
Speaker 3: have to go get an interception or a fumble recovery
Speaker 3: on every single series. But after those two takeaways, that's
Speaker 3: when Jalen Hurts found his rhythm. He started finding Smith,
Speaker 3: he started finding Brown and Saquon Barkley, Mike. Like I say,
Speaker 3: every freaking time the Packers play Saquon Barkley, they bottle
Speaker 3: them up early, and then he breaks those two or
Speaker 3: three carries that one make his stats look a lot
Speaker 3: more impressive than they probably were, and two really translate
Speaker 3: in the box score in terms of the wins and
Speaker 3: the losses and the touchdowns. He again was efficient when
Speaker 3: his team needed him to be efficient, just like last
Speaker 3: December when we were in East Rutherford. So for Green Bay,
Speaker 3: it's about trying to figure out what exactly the answers
Speaker 3: are going to be to this. Xavier McKinney came to
Speaker 3: the podium after the game. He felt like a lot
Speaker 3: of the things the Packers did incorrectly are correctable. I
Speaker 3: think there's still a lot of optimism, still a lot
Speaker 3: of hype, still a lot of energy about this defense
Speaker 3: and what's going to happen under Jeff Haffley. But what
Speaker 3: they have to find that balance with is you can
Speaker 3: get a lot of takeaways. The twenty eleven defense led
Speaker 3: the league in takeaways. They also were thirty second and
Speaker 3: total yards allot Yeah, you have to be able to
Speaker 3: strike the balance there In Green Bay, I thought the
Speaker 3: front played well at times. It sounds like from the
Speaker 3: pass rushing perspective, the guys executed the assignment they wanted
Speaker 3: to contain Jalen Hurts. They largely did that.
Speaker 2: Thirteen carries for thirty three yards. Again, another one like
Speaker 2: you were talking about earlier. You look at a stat
Speaker 2: at the end of the game, if you had told
Speaker 2: me before kickoff, Jalen Hurts was gonna have thirty three
Speaker 2: yards rushing on thirteen attempts. Considering what Jalen Hurts did
Speaker 2: to the Packers two years ago in Philadelphia with his legs,
Speaker 2: would have been like, that's great. Then the defense is
Speaker 2: doing the job there, right, It's a there's there's always
Speaker 2: a push and pull, there's a give and take. You
Speaker 2: try to take something away, and it's then what does
Speaker 2: the opponent do to try to compensate for that? And
Speaker 2: it was the combination of the explosive plays and then
Speaker 2: the one long sustained drive at the end when the
Speaker 2: Packers are desperately wanting to get the ball back. You're
Speaker 2: only down by two, get it back, get another field goal,
Speaker 2: and you know, you take the lead, you have a
Speaker 2: chance to win, and it just never materialized.
Speaker 3: If you want, like the end of the forty nine
Speaker 3: Ers game, I mean, that's basically what the forty nine
Speaker 3: Ers did too. When you get a lead like that,
Speaker 3: you can start pounding it down another team's throat, You
Speaker 3: gas out their defense, you kind of take the air
Speaker 3: out of the balloon a little bit, and you're able
Speaker 3: to get out of there with a victory. The part
Speaker 3: that I think that's funny, though, Mike Night, we can
Speaker 3: cover this league for so long, and as much as
Speaker 3: coaches don't want to give a gooway game plans, they
Speaker 3: don't want to talk about, you know, what's what's going
Speaker 3: to happen. How many times is it where you go
Speaker 3: back and look and see what happened the last time
Speaker 3: between two teams in the adjustments that those teams make, right,
Speaker 3: whether it was the way the Packers defended Hurts or
Speaker 3: as Keishawn Nixon talked about last time. He absolutely killed
Speaker 3: them in that game in twenty twenty two. Yeah, in
Speaker 3: the kickoff returns, I think he averaged like thirty one
Speaker 3: yards of return or something one hundred and fifty two
Speaker 3: yards total. And in this game, they weren't messing with
Speaker 3: it every single time man is booting it through the
Speaker 3: end zone. It's those type of things. Now, talking quickly
Speaker 3: about some silver linings here to come out of this.
Speaker 3: I thought Edrin Cooper got eleven snaps, He had three
Speaker 3: tackles in a pass deflection. When you're talking about guys
Speaker 3: maximizing their minutes there, Matt Lafour even said on Monday,
Speaker 3: he's probably warranting more opportunities here moving forward.
Speaker 2: Every time we see Edger and Cooper on the field,
Speaker 2: whether it was on the practice field during training camp
Speaker 2: and which unfortunately we didn't get to see him as
Speaker 2: much as we wanted, also then seeing him in this
Speaker 2: opening game against the Eagles. Anytime we see Edger and
Speaker 2: Cooper on the field, his speed jumps off the field
Speaker 2: like it's undeniable how fast he is and how much
Speaker 2: faster he is than the average defensive player, at least
Speaker 2: defensive front seven player in this league.
Speaker 3: And it's pivotable the inside linebacker position, because you could
Speaker 3: talk about guys that have four to four speed. I
Speaker 3: mean he had four or five to one, quay as
Speaker 3: four to five to two. You know, there's guys like
Speaker 3: we talked about before the game. TJ. Edwards, you know,
Speaker 3: he ran in the four to eights, goes undrafted, but
Speaker 3: he doesn't waste any movement and can play the game
Speaker 3: at a faster level based on how he's reading things.
Speaker 3: The benefit of that speed, especially for a young players,
Speaker 3: it's going to allow you to maybe make some mistakes,
Speaker 3: but allow your athleticism will compensate for that. Matt Lafleur said,
Speaker 3: it wasn't perfect. There's some communication stuff that Cooper has
Speaker 3: to work out. You have to be able to get
Speaker 3: those reps, you have to be able to be thrown
Speaker 3: in the fire a little bit. But when the Packers
Speaker 3: are looking for an improving defense throughout the course of
Speaker 3: the seat, and I'm not playing depth chart here, but
Speaker 3: I'm just telling you there's a reason why they drafted
Speaker 3: him and in Tron Hopper. I mean, these are the
Speaker 3: guys that were Day two picks. They see as fundamental
Speaker 3: guys that you can build with in the future. And
Speaker 3: giving him an op some opportunities I think is going
Speaker 3: to be really pivotal here moving forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when I look at the big picture on the
Speaker 2: defensive side for the Packers, I just I'm you know me, Wes,
Speaker 2: I just I feel like the game is oriented toward offense.
Speaker 2: When you see these phantom defensive holding calls on Jay
Speaker 2: Orr Alexander and some random like once out of sixty
Speaker 2: plays a defensive holding call on a defensive lineman out
Speaker 2: a third and seven. I mean, it's just there's so
Speaker 2: much in this game that is geared against defenses. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that we talk a lot about complimentary football, and that's
Speaker 2: how you win games in this league. And to me,
Speaker 2: complimentary football in this league is when your defense is
Speaker 2: able to do something positive the offense has to capitalize
Speaker 2: on to maintain control of the game. And when you
Speaker 2: look at how this game unfolded, the defense got the
Speaker 2: two turnovers early, but the offense was only able to
Speaker 2: put six points on the board. In the second half,
Speaker 2: the defense got back to back three and outs, back
Speaker 2: to back three and outs. After the Eagles had established
Speaker 2: quite a bit in the second quarter offensively and put
Speaker 2: some points on the board, the defense gets back to
Speaker 2: back three and outs, but then the Packers offense goes
Speaker 2: punt interception on those two following possessions. That's not complimentary football,
Speaker 2: and that's not what That's not how to win games
Speaker 2: in this league. You have to be able to capitalize
Speaker 2: when your defense does good things, because there are going
Speaker 2: to be bad things that happened to your defense all
Speaker 2: the time in this league. That's how it's generated, that's
Speaker 2: how it's oriented. It's about offense, it's about scoring points.
Speaker 2: And the Packers weren't able to capitalize on the good
Speaker 2: things that they're defense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean for Xavier McKinney to come out in
Speaker 3: the second play as a official member the Green Bay
Speaker 3: Packers in a regular season game and have that interception.
Speaker 3: You know Jyry Alexander gets the one laid as well,
Speaker 3: and Green Bay just isn't able to get those footballs
Speaker 3: in the end zone. And that's it's tough man. We again,
Speaker 3: that's ultimately you go back to twenty twenty in the
Speaker 3: NFC Championship game. That's how they lost that game. They
Speaker 3: got some takeaways, they weren't able to create enough points
Speaker 3: in the second half with them. You have to be
Speaker 3: able to finish those opportunities, especially early on when you're
Speaker 3: getting it inside the scoring territory of the other team.
Speaker 3: Now again, I think you want to look at silver
Speaker 3: linings the fact that green Bay got out of this
Speaker 3: thing defensively healthy. You know, we were able to now
Speaker 3: face a team and Anton Richardson coming in that challenge
Speaker 3: that that's going to present in a very similar type
Speaker 3: of quarterback and he's going to do things unorthodox. He
Speaker 3: completed and we'll talk about this later this week. I mean,
Speaker 3: he completed nine passes for two hundred yards. He isn't
Speaker 3: exploding play waiting to happen, but isn't your traditional quarterback.
Speaker 3: It's not going to get easier, is my point. Green
Speaker 3: Bay's defense is going to have to have a gut
Speaker 3: check here, have to look in the mirror, and it's
Speaker 3: going to have to make sure they say to themselves, Okay,
Speaker 3: we had did some really good things in the preseason,
Speaker 3: We did some really good things during training camp. How
Speaker 3: do we make those things happen on Sundays other than
Speaker 3: just getting some takeaways early?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, I know we're running a little bit long.
Speaker 2: I just want to get a couple of thoughts from
Speaker 2: you on other things around the league. In Week one,
Speaker 2: particularly in the NFC North, the Lions and the Vikings
Speaker 2: and the Bears all chalked up victories in very different ways.
Speaker 2: Hats off to the Vikings, Sam Darnold, Aaron Jones making
Speaker 2: their debut in those purple helmets. Those guys got it done.
Speaker 2: The Vikings defense got it done against a Giants team
Speaker 2: that is definitely searching for answers. The Lions, they blow
Speaker 2: the lead on Sunday Night Football to the Rams, and
Speaker 2: the Rams actually have a chance to put that game away.
Speaker 2: They have a first down with two and a half
Speaker 2: minutes to go, and but the Lions get the stop,
Speaker 2: they get the tying field goal, then they just ran
Speaker 2: the ball down. The Rams throats in overtime. So Matthew
Speaker 2: Stafford didn't, you know, basically from the two and a
Speaker 2: half minute mark where Stafford has a first down for
Speaker 2: the Rams and a chance to put the game away,
Speaker 2: basically Stafford didn't get the ball back. The Lions drove
Speaker 2: and kicked the field goal to tie, and then in
Speaker 2: the one possession in overtime, and then the Bears their
Speaker 2: defense and special teams overcame a very shaky debut from
Speaker 2: Caleb Williams at quarterback. So everybody else in the NFC
Speaker 2: North is one.
Speaker 1: To Ozero and the Packers are on one looking up.
Speaker 3: I just want to see that Tennessee Titans team, that
Speaker 3: same Tennessee Titans team in two weeks. I mean that
Speaker 3: what they did and the ways in which they hurt themselves,
Speaker 3: whether it was the block punt or just the offensive
Speaker 3: just atrocity in.
Speaker 2: This It was Christmas in September in Chicago. Man, Holy Kyle,
Speaker 2: that was that was a total giveaway of a football game,
Speaker 2: beyond like, beyond normal comprehension.
Speaker 3: It is one thing if you would be doing that
Speaker 3: in the first half and you fall behind. You guys
Speaker 3: had a three score lead, and that's how you let
Speaker 3: it leak away by just quickly giving them Christmas present
Speaker 3: after Christmas. It was unbelievable, and the Bears get out
Speaker 3: of there with the win. I'll bring it back really
Speaker 3: quick to the Vikings because I've been very critical of them.
Speaker 3: I had some huge questions, especially after McCarthy's injury. Sam Donald,
Speaker 3: I've still I've gone so many different ways on Sam Donald. Mike.
Speaker 3: I mean, he did put together some good football last
Speaker 3: year for the forty nine ers. I mean he stepped up.
Speaker 3: He did need him to do. I thought that that
Speaker 3: was a questionable signing for them to give him ten
Speaker 3: million dollars and to have him go to Minnesota as
Speaker 3: you know, this starter holding you know, the seat warm,
Speaker 3: and then he did exactly nineteen of twenty four, did
Speaker 3: exactly what he needed to do to help the Vikings
Speaker 3: win that game. The Lions quickly one hundred and sixty
Speaker 3: three rushing yards Mike.
Speaker 1: And most of those on one drive in overtime.
Speaker 3: Quite frank then David Montgomery, when you know they have
Speaker 3: they have the backs and they got the offensive lineman,
Speaker 3: and some people were joking about on Twitter when they've
Speaker 3: kind of forgot about that for a little bit. They
Speaker 3: showed that when they need to, they can just run
Speaker 3: the ball down your throat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll make a couple other comments and then we'll
Speaker 2: get out of here. With regard to the Vikings, we
Speaker 2: saw last year when Kirk Cousins went down and the
Speaker 2: Vikings were putting these other quarterbacks in there. We saw
Speaker 2: Josh Dobbs, right, we saw Kevin O'Connell come up with
Speaker 2: these game plans, and Josh Dobbs was able to win
Speaker 2: some games and keep the Vikings in contention, but it
Speaker 2: was always short lived. Right then, as soon as as
Speaker 2: soon as there's enough out there, then teams figure out, okay,
Speaker 2: this is what Kevin O'Connell in this offensive system is
Speaker 2: doing with this quarterback, and then defenses are able to
Speaker 2: start to buckle down. They make life more difficult, and ultimately,
Speaker 2: you know, the Vikings faded in the end. What will
Speaker 2: happen now with Sam Darnold Because this was another new guy.
Speaker 2: Kevin O'Connell was able to strut his stuff. And I'm
Speaker 2: not being critical of O'Connell here in terms of how
Speaker 2: the Vikings, he's a good gun, did last year. I'm
Speaker 2: being complimentary that he takes these quarterbacks that nobody expects
Speaker 2: him to be able to win with. He puts together
Speaker 2: these game plans and gets those guys executing the level
Speaker 2: where they can. It just hasn't proven to be sustainable
Speaker 2: when you don't have that franchise quarterback guy, right, So
Speaker 2: I'm very curious to see what happens with the Vikings
Speaker 2: in that regard moving forward. The other thing I want
Speaker 2: to say is coming out of Week one, and I
Speaker 2: know mostly my brain is always focused on the NFC.
Speaker 2: I don't look at the AFC all that much as
Speaker 2: the regular season goes on, but I was most impressed
Speaker 2: by three teams in the NFC, one being the Eagles.
Speaker 1: They really did impress me.
Speaker 2: As frustrating as it was to see the Packers not
Speaker 2: be able to pull out that game, I do think
Speaker 2: the Eagles are going to be darn good. But the
Speaker 2: other two teams that impressed me were the Cowboys and
Speaker 2: the forty nine Ers. I thought both of those, especially
Speaker 2: especially the Cowboys being on the road in Week one
Speaker 2: at Cleveland, a team that was the best defense in
Speaker 2: the league last year statistically in several categories, and the
Speaker 2: Cowboys really took it to them and kind of got
Speaker 2: a runaway blowout victory in Week one, right after Dak
Speaker 2: Prescott signs the big new contract and all that. So
Speaker 2: things are looking up down there in Dallas, at least
Speaker 2: the way the season is starting.
Speaker 3: And you tip your cap to Kyle Shanahan, you tip
Speaker 3: your cap to the forty nine ers to not have
Speaker 3: I don't care if they didn't know, if he wasn't
Speaker 3: playing on Friday or ten minutes before the game, did
Speaker 3: not have Christian McCaffrey. To put Jared Mason out there,
Speaker 3: who's a guy they've been developing, but to put him
Speaker 3: out there. He gets more carries in that game than
Speaker 3: he's ever had since high school. Guy played at Georgia Tech,
Speaker 3: and he didn't have that many carries right right, and
Speaker 3: to be able to perform the way he did finish
Speaker 3: with one hundred and forty seven rushing yards helped me win.
Speaker 3: My fantasy game was sam But the fact that they
Speaker 3: were able to run as dominant and play as dominantly
Speaker 3: as they did against that forty nine or the Jets defense,
Speaker 3: I think speaks volumes about those I've talked a.
Speaker 2: Lot over the last couple of years. When we talk
Speaker 2: about the forty nine ers, you know, Deebo, Samuel George Kittle,
Speaker 2: Christian McCaffrey is as good, as dangerous, as explosive an
Speaker 2: offensive trio as there is in this league. But anytime
Speaker 2: one of those guys has been out a lot of time,
Speaker 2: it's been Deebo. But there are times that McCaffrey has
Speaker 2: missed games as well. In his time in San Francisco,
Speaker 2: it doesn't seem like San Francisco's offense is the same.
Speaker 2: Last night was the first time Monday Night against the Jets,
Speaker 2: the first time that it felt to me the forty
Speaker 2: nine ers were missing one of those big three on
Speaker 2: offense and you couldn't tell. You couldn't tell, and that
Speaker 2: that was in my mind what was so impressive about
Speaker 2: that performance.
Speaker 3: And they didn't even try to start passing with Mason either.
Speaker 3: They just said, run the football, kid, go do the
Speaker 3: best seats.
Speaker 1: That kid ran hard, You ran hard hard.
Speaker 3: It was. It was a fun game to watch in
Speaker 3: terms of that and maybe not the most entertaining ever,
Speaker 3: but just watching a guy that is an underformer, undrafted
Speaker 3: free agent. Now he's playing for a team that was
Speaker 3: in the Super Bowl last year and they just say, yeah,
Speaker 3: we don't have the reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
Speaker 3: You're gonna be the one carrying the football for us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, here he go.
Speaker 3: It's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: Here you go.
Speaker 2: All right. Well, we've gone long today, but it's been
Speaker 2: a fun show.
Speaker 1: Thanks for putting up with us.
Speaker 2: Please continue to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 2: Packers on Packers dot Com. Week two, we'll have another
Speaker 2: show this week. We'll look ahead to the Indianapolis Cult
Speaker 2: and that matchup, and maybe we'll hear from one or
Speaker 2: both of the Packers quarterbacks by the then by the
Speaker 2: time next time we turn the cameras on for Wes,
Speaker 2: I am Mike.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in, everybody. We will see you
Speaker 1: next time.