Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford. He is my partner in crime
Speaker 1: West had Kuwitz were coming to you here from our
Speaker 1: studios at lambeau Field and West. It's almost your Packers
Speaker 1: Vikings slated for noon Sunday kickoff at lambeau Field. It
Speaker 1: is Friday, our final show of the week and that
Speaker 1: means keys to victory. So we can start on the
Speaker 1: offensive side, the defensive side, whatever direction you want to go.
Speaker 1: But where do you think the Packers need to succeed
Speaker 1: to come out victorious here on Sunday afternoon. Very easy
Speaker 1: answer to this, Mike. You cannot let the Minnesota Vikings
Speaker 1: rush for a hundred and seventy two yards. It's going
Speaker 1: to be the biggest thing. And I know that's gonna
Speaker 1: sound somewhat like a joke, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: there is some relevance to that. The Atlanta Falcons. It
Speaker 1: was one of the rare things that you see in
Speaker 1: this game in two thousand nineteen where the run game
Speaker 1: completely dictates the tempo of the entire football game. And
Speaker 1: as you illustrated earlier this week on our shows, other
Speaker 1: things happened. There were takeaways, there were the situations that
Speaker 1: unfolded that allowed Minnesota to win in the way in
Speaker 1: which they did, But ultimately it came down to the
Speaker 1: fact that they just ran rough shot all over them
Speaker 1: on the ground all day. You and I have both
Speaker 1: talked about different aspects of this run defense from last week. Obviously,
Speaker 1: I had the story on packers dot Com talking about
Speaker 1: how the Packers went with more of an unconventional three
Speaker 1: three five. Look got that right this time with going
Speaker 1: with the five man front, throwing one true inside linebacker
Speaker 1: and then just a bunch of you know, defensive backs,
Speaker 1: and they asked them to tackle and they did. As
Speaker 1: you also illustrated one of your stories, b J. Goodson
Speaker 1: now gets involved in this defense. It sounds for talking
Speaker 1: to Matt Lafleur and also Mike Petton, that he could
Speaker 1: very well have a role in this defense, particularly in
Speaker 1: the early down situations against Minnesota. So whatever concept the
Speaker 1: Packers run with here containing Delvin Cook, to me is
Speaker 1: the primary primary objective because even though Kirk Cousins is
Speaker 1: an All World quarterback, you know, he's a franchise quarterback,
Speaker 1: all those different things, and they have an outside weapons.
Speaker 1: If you allow Delvin Cook to start dictating what you
Speaker 1: have to do defensively, it's going to be a rough afternoon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I say exactly the same thing as far as
Speaker 1: a key to victory on the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna say it this way based on the
Speaker 1: evidence from Week one against the Atlanta Falcons. And obviously
Speaker 1: that's a small sample size, but this Vikings offensive line
Speaker 1: is a better run blocking offensive line than a pass
Speaker 1: parking one. So it sounds kind of crazy to say
Speaker 1: that you actually want to turn the ball over to
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins when he came into lambeau Field last year
Speaker 1: and through for four yards and a bunch of touchdowns,
Speaker 1: you know, especially late in the game and all that.
Speaker 1: But frankly, you know, Mike Zimmer is putting together the
Speaker 1: type the offense that he wants to play. He's fought
Speaker 1: with his offensive coordinators in the past about not running
Speaker 1: the ball enough. He wants to run the ball and
Speaker 1: play defense. So if you're gonna beat this Minnesota Vikings
Speaker 1: team that is really starting to take the shape that
Speaker 1: Mike Zimmer wants, you're gonna have to get them out
Speaker 1: of what they want to do. And that's not to
Speaker 1: say that Kirk Cousins and Stefon Diggs and Kyle Rudolph
Speaker 1: and Adam thieland are going to be an easy group
Speaker 1: to stop if you turn the game over to them.
Speaker 1: But I'm with you, Wes. You cannot let Dalvin Cook
Speaker 1: dictate how this game goes and uh and if that
Speaker 1: starts happening at lambeau Field, the Packers are going to
Speaker 1: have to adjust whether whether you're gonna try Raven Green
Speaker 1: next to Blake Martinez as an inside linebacker, or go
Speaker 1: with the new guy b J. Goodson, or work Tie
Speaker 1: Summers in there. Whatever you're gonna do, you've got to
Speaker 1: find a way to not let Dalvin Cook dictate things.
Speaker 1: And then the Packers defense settles in. Use the pressure
Speaker 1: that the steady pressure you got on Mitch Drabinsky, get
Speaker 1: after the quarterback in that way and see if you
Speaker 1: can come out Victoria. Yeah. And the other thing is
Speaker 1: this the way to look at it as well, is
Speaker 1: that you know Jerry Alexander and Kevin King and the
Speaker 1: resources that they have in the secondary. I think in
Speaker 1: some regard you have to trust them to be able
Speaker 1: to handle feeling and to handle digs and that's easier
Speaker 1: said than done. I totally understand that. But you go
Speaker 1: back to another thing you're mentioned earlier this week, and
Speaker 1: that you know, the way Kevin King was playing before
Speaker 1: that lower body injury crept up on him against Minnesota
Speaker 1: last year, the different permutations of this defensive core that
Speaker 1: you can use, particularly at that second and third level.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be a big test for those guys
Speaker 1: up front. So whatever that secondary can do to lessen
Speaker 1: that load, uh and take away that dimension the Vikings
Speaker 1: offense is going to really be beneficial. And to close
Speaker 1: this all out, the other thing I wrote an insider
Speaker 1: inbox this week is you know, a fan had asked
Speaker 1: and it was a pertinent question about Okay, what you know,
Speaker 1: what do the packers still have left to show? You know,
Speaker 1: given some of their offensive things that happened to Chicago?
Speaker 1: I mean, is there going to be different things that
Speaker 1: they didn't get too? Different concept, different scheme. You know
Speaker 1: that they're gonna be able to unveil as non scouted
Speaker 1: look and I said, that's totally plausible. But also the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings are going to be in a very similar
Speaker 1: situation with their packs exactly with only ten pass attempts
Speaker 1: on film from week one. I was talking to Tremont
Speaker 1: Williams about this in the locker room yesterday after practice.
Speaker 1: They don't have a lot to go on in terms
Speaker 1: of the twenty nineteen Vikings passing game because Cousins only
Speaker 1: attempted ten passes against the Falcons. Yeah, and Preston Smith, now,
Speaker 1: who's in his fifth NFL season, he said he can't
Speaker 1: really remember going into a game after a quarterback had
Speaker 1: only thrown ten times. So this is gonna be a
Speaker 1: real chess match, I think in that way, seeing exactly
Speaker 1: how the Packers pass game matches up with what on
Speaker 1: the opposite side of the ball, you know Minnesota wants
Speaker 1: to do, and and who's going to win that battle.
Speaker 1: But again getting back to my original point, I think
Speaker 1: it starts up front. I think it starts with shutting
Speaker 1: down Dalvin Cook and being able to really show that
Speaker 1: you know, we're not going to allow you to run
Speaker 1: over us the way that Atlanta did. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: you mentioned having kind of that trust in Jaire Alexander
Speaker 1: and Hevin King. If week one is any indication of
Speaker 1: what the Packers can do in terms of getting pressure
Speaker 1: on the quarterback. You trust if you're if you're putting
Speaker 1: the Vikings into passing situations, you're trusting that you're going
Speaker 1: to continue to get that steady pressure and not let
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins sit back there. Yes, and then the other
Speaker 1: thing that I like, and again it's only one sample size.
Speaker 1: I totally get that we're gonna and that there's gonna
Speaker 1: be fifteen more weeks for this defensive prove itself. But
Speaker 1: the one thing that I really took away from that
Speaker 1: game against Chicago is that these guys can rush and
Speaker 1: get after the quarterback without forsaking their assignments. I mean,
Speaker 1: there were so many times in the past it seemed
Speaker 1: like guys with jet rush, interior alignment with jet rush.
Speaker 1: But then a gap comes open, an opportunity, you know,
Speaker 1: presents itself the way they were able to suffocate that
Speaker 1: pocket with Mitchell Trubisky in it, and now this week
Speaker 1: you've got a quarterback that is probably less mobile than Rubinsky.
Speaker 1: They need to keep that pressure going. So, whether that's
Speaker 1: the Smith's, whether that's some of the blitz stuff that
Speaker 1: you know, Mike Hama said, Mike Zimmer, Mike Petton has
Speaker 1: been wanting to incorporate Dean Lowry, Kenny Clark. It's a
Speaker 1: full boat approach to the way in which you have
Speaker 1: to actually attack this this Vikings passage. And when you're
Speaker 1: talking about that jetting up the field and abdicating other assignments,
Speaker 1: that's when you're vulnerable to the screens and the draws
Speaker 1: and and the Vikings. For what they have done offensively
Speaker 1: against the Packers in recent years, they always seem to
Speaker 1: hit him on a screen pass for a big play
Speaker 1: because guys are too anxious to get after the quarterback.
Speaker 1: And that's something with this new defensive front, some of
Speaker 1: the new pieces here, maybe that changes. And as much
Speaker 1: as you and I can talk about the sack totals
Speaker 1: the quarterback hits, the pressures that Darius Smith had ten
Speaker 1: or whatever, let's the thing that is not going to
Speaker 1: be as gaudy or not as flashy that people want
Speaker 1: to talk about as if Packers just played really fundamentally
Speaker 1: sound football against the Chicago Bears and then the results
Speaker 1: were what they were after that. Yeah, well, on the
Speaker 1: offensive side of the ball. As far as a key
Speaker 1: to victory, I kind of look at this as a
Speaker 1: almost a reverse chain reaction because for me, It starts
Speaker 1: with being able to convert on third down, because, as
Speaker 1: we talked about, two for twelve not good enough, Well,
Speaker 1: how do you convert more on third down? Well, don't
Speaker 1: get in ten plus quite so much, because six of
Speaker 1: those twelve were ten plus. Well, how do you avoid
Speaker 1: getting into ten plus by running the football well on
Speaker 1: first and second down? So that chain reaction takes us
Speaker 1: back to this Packers running game needs to get going
Speaker 1: and needs to produce more than it did against the Bears. Unequivocally. Uh.
Speaker 1: And that was something that Nathaniel Hackett was sort of
Speaker 1: talking about when he came to the podium on Thursday, discussing,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of some of the issues they had
Speaker 1: right off the bat trying to run the football. He
Speaker 1: mentioned it. The question was asked if he felt like,
Speaker 1: if they were able to maybe do make some of
Speaker 1: the headway that they did in the second half right
Speaker 1: off the bat, how much of a difference it would
Speaker 1: have made throughout the course of the game, And he
Speaker 1: agreed it would have been a significant one. They did,
Speaker 1: they were able to carve out those yards. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, Aaron Jones finished with thirty nine rushing yards.
Speaker 1: That might not seem like a lot when you look
Speaker 1: on the outside looking in, But when you look at
Speaker 1: that first quarter, the negative twelve yards or wherever they started,
Speaker 1: it was progress. So I still stick to what I
Speaker 1: said before the Chicago game because the job is not
Speaker 1: gonna get any easier. This is still a really good
Speaker 1: run defense. It's a great defense in general. So it's
Speaker 1: gonna be about making sure that you can get opportunities
Speaker 1: where Aaron Jones touches the ball and he has open
Speaker 1: field in front of him, whether that's as a pass,
Speaker 1: whether that's as a run. I thought some of the
Speaker 1: concepts they did in the second half, some of the
Speaker 1: ways in which you know Jones was able to set
Speaker 1: up runs and hit his cutbacks, that's where you want
Speaker 1: to get to. And then certainly incorporating Jamal Williams into
Speaker 1: that plan as well, because is Aaron Rodgers said, and
Speaker 1: I mentioned it when yesterday or whatever. With the conversation
Speaker 1: you have with John Coon, they're gonna see some really
Speaker 1: good defenses in this NFC North. So I don't want
Speaker 1: to sit here and say, well, okay, well Denver's next
Speaker 1: week or Philadelphia is a week after that. Note you
Speaker 1: want to be able to get it done now and
Speaker 1: make your life easier against Minnesota, especially starting at the
Speaker 1: season at home here. Yeah, well, when you look back
Speaker 1: at Week one in the Packers running game, Aaron Jones
Speaker 1: in the second half, he did have I believe it
Speaker 1: was four carries in the second half that went for
Speaker 1: five six plus yards. You'd obviously like to see some
Speaker 1: of those earlier in the game so you don't end
Speaker 1: up with a first quarter like the Packers had at
Speaker 1: Soldier Field. But it's an illustration of how important it
Speaker 1: is to still and if your defense is keeping you
Speaker 1: in the game, you still need to stick with the
Speaker 1: run and keep trying to pound it in there because eventually, yes,
Speaker 1: some of those runs you're gonna get six yards, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get five yards, and you're gonna put yourself in
Speaker 1: the right down and distant situation to let Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: go to work exactly. And and you know, we've always
Speaker 1: discussed this. You go back to two thousand fourteen during
Speaker 1: the prime and Vettie Lacey's career. You go back to
Speaker 1: you know, Ryan Grant. When the running game is there
Speaker 1: and keeping defense is honest, that's when things really truly,
Speaker 1: you know, hit maximum function. Here for the offense, it's
Speaker 1: when Aaron Rodgers can really pick a part of defense.
Speaker 1: So I think we've seen shadows of it, you know,
Speaker 1: shades of it with Aaron Jones when he can get going. Certainly,
Speaker 1: you go back to that game that Jamal Williams had
Speaker 1: last year against the Jets. He played a big role
Speaker 1: in that come back and being able to mount the
Speaker 1: momentum that they did. They've had those moments. It's I
Speaker 1: think the key now and I think over the course
Speaker 1: of the season they're going to have moments again, but
Speaker 1: doing it against the top echelon of the league that's
Speaker 1: going to be the biggest key for this season, not
Speaker 1: only this game. And I just feel like this is
Speaker 1: one that you want to get started with. Yeah, all right, Well,
Speaker 1: we'd be remiss if we exited this week without talking
Speaker 1: about the celebration that's going to happen at halftime of
Speaker 1: Sunday's game against the Vikings. And I'm talking about a
Speaker 1: tribute to the late bart Star who passed away earlier
Speaker 1: this year. I know on shows earlier this year we talked,
Speaker 1: we gave some reflections on on Mr Starr. The Packers
Speaker 1: wearing a number fifteen decal on the back of their
Speaker 1: helmets all season long this year in h in memory
Speaker 1: of of Star, just a tremendous individual. I'm I'm really
Speaker 1: excited just to just to see the tribute and to
Speaker 1: be able to do something like this in front of
Speaker 1: the eighty thousand fans that are going to come to
Speaker 1: lambeau Field because you and I, Wes, We've been at
Speaker 1: plenty of games over the years that when Bart Star
Speaker 1: was able to come out of the tunnel, whether it
Speaker 1: was on Alumni weekend like this one is, or whether
Speaker 1: it was for Brett Farve's number retirement, his number being
Speaker 1: added to the facade of lambeau Field on that rainy
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving night, whatever time. Any time that Bart Star has
Speaker 1: come out of that tunnel, the cheers from the lambeau
Speaker 1: Field fans have really been something else. And uh and
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I'm excited to see, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the fans get to enjoy kind of one last moment
Speaker 1: in memory of Bart. I'm gonna do a little bit
Speaker 1: of a story time here with Wes Hodquits. I hope
Speaker 1: that's okay. Absolutely, it is probably a little bit off
Speaker 1: the rails, but ah to me and You're right. The
Speaker 1: crowd is always just completely went wild for bart Star.
Speaker 1: You want to ramp up a crowd, get bart Star
Speaker 1: out there, they'll be with you. There was a reason
Speaker 1: why Brett Farve wanted him back with him in two
Speaker 1: thousand fifteen, right, I mean just the relationship, the history.
Speaker 1: But this is what always stood out to me about
Speaker 1: bart Star. And it goes act and not even I'm
Speaker 1: not even talking about the alumni weekends or him coming
Speaker 1: back and holding a flag and you know, we'rabbing people up.
Speaker 1: It was when you'd come back to lambeau Field, like
Speaker 1: in a media standpoint. I remember there was instances where
Speaker 1: he'd come back and it would be part of a
Speaker 1: you know, a promotion or some kind of like you know,
Speaker 1: just just a small thing that maybe people didn't even
Speaker 1: know that he was there for. And where I want
Speaker 1: to tie this back to is I'm lucky to still
Speaker 1: have one of my grandparents alive, a wonderful woman who
Speaker 1: I'm love very very much. When Starr would come back,
Speaker 1: I remember talking to Mike vander Moss about this. It
Speaker 1: was almost sort of like your grandparents sort of coming over,
Speaker 1: you know, when you're eight nine years old, and just
Speaker 1: that feeling that you would get when they're there and
Speaker 1: they're hanging out, you know, you know, you're telling stories,
Speaker 1: maybe playing some ball with you or something like that.
Speaker 1: I always got a very similar feel whenever Bart Star
Speaker 1: was in the building. And it's hard to explain. I
Speaker 1: don't even know if I'm doing a good job of it,
Speaker 1: but there was just this feeling that everything was right
Speaker 1: in the world. And he did that. He carried that
Speaker 1: torch for this organization for so long. So many generations
Speaker 1: have been affected by him, impacted by him, and when
Speaker 1: you look at the impact that him and his wife
Speaker 1: Cherry made, Bart Jr. Everybody at the Bard Star Foundation.
Speaker 1: I said it earlier the spring. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: a legacy. That's something that passed your lifetime, will continue
Speaker 1: to resonate with generations to come. Fathers and well, you know,
Speaker 1: mothers will talk to their children about what he meant
Speaker 1: in what he represented, and I think that's really special. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I can't say it any better than that, So appreciate
Speaker 1: your thoughts there before we go here. At the end
Speaker 1: of the week, West other games Week two in the NFL,
Speaker 1: if you start in the NFC North, the only division
Speaker 1: game is Packers and Vikings, but the Bears on the
Speaker 1: road at Denver and the Lions at home against the Chargers,
Speaker 1: both trying to avoid and two. Well, I guess for
Speaker 1: the Lions it wouldn't be O and two because they're
Speaker 1: O O and one, but both teams trying to avoid
Speaker 1: going winless through the first two weeks of this season.
Speaker 1: It's weird in this, this whole gamut of the NFL,
Speaker 1: how it just always seems like if a coach leaves
Speaker 1: and gets another head coaching job somewhere else, they always
Speaker 1: end up playing that team the next year, right Like
Speaker 1: Vic Fangio was sort of the innovator, helped renovate that defense.
Speaker 1: And this is an a f C NFC matchup that
Speaker 1: only happens once every four years, but it happens the
Speaker 1: first year that Fangio leaves Chicago and goes to be
Speaker 1: the head coach of the Brand. And I'm sure it's
Speaker 1: no surprise whatsoever that it just so happened that this
Speaker 1: got scheduled for Week two, But the fact that this
Speaker 1: ended up being on the two thousand nineteen slate, I
Speaker 1: think is really funny that you have Vic Fangio now
Speaker 1: after everything he did last year with with those defensive
Speaker 1: players in you know, Khalil Mack, and now he's going
Speaker 1: to be talking to his offensive coordinator, you know, discussing
Speaker 1: how you need to you know, attack these guys, basically
Speaker 1: fighting a mirror of yourself. And certainly Matt Nage is
Speaker 1: gonna have a great vantage point on on what Fangio
Speaker 1: does with his defense in in you know Denver. So
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a great matchup to watch. Uh, certainly
Speaker 1: to oh and one teams. I mean one of those
Speaker 1: is gonna be Owen too. I think I always talk
Speaker 1: about that this time of year, but um, I know
Speaker 1: Denver's going through slight rebuild. But the fact that they
Speaker 1: traded for Joe Flacco tells you that I should say something.
Speaker 1: Whatever it was signed Joe Flacco tells you that they
Speaker 1: still feel like they can contend this year. So that's
Speaker 1: gonna be one to follow to see exactly how all
Speaker 1: those pieces fall into place. As far as the Lions,
Speaker 1: even though they're at home, I think they have their
Speaker 1: work cut out for them. Uh, just based on you know,
Speaker 1: the charges in Philip Rivers have been up and down
Speaker 1: over the years, but it just seems like they found
Speaker 1: their rhythm again based on what happened last year, and
Speaker 1: that's gonna be a tough out for the Lions. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that is gonna be a tough, tough home
Speaker 1: game for Detroit. And obviously those two a f C
Speaker 1: West teams are teams that the Packers are going to
Speaker 1: see later in the season. Denver obviously coming up right
Speaker 1: away for green Bay. The rest of the slate in
Speaker 1: Week two, we all know where it starts. It's New
Speaker 1: Orleans at the Los Angeles Rams, the rematch of the
Speaker 1: controversial NFC Championship game from a year ago. Different location
Speaker 1: be out in l A this time instead of at
Speaker 1: the Superdome in New Orleans, but both teams want to
Speaker 1: know and expected to be contenders once again, and this
Speaker 1: is the big rematch from last January. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's funny. I actually thought this would dominate headlines a
Speaker 1: little bit more this week. It doesn't really seems like
Speaker 1: it has. Yeah, it seems like it's been quiet as
Speaker 1: far as the national media attention on this game. And
Speaker 1: maybe it's just because it's too early in the season
Speaker 1: for for the storylines to just I just thought, like,
Speaker 1: you know, it being you know how last year ended
Speaker 1: in the controversy with that play. I mean they made
Speaker 1: a rule basically based on that play. Yeah, they they
Speaker 1: change the change the replay review system based on one
Speaker 1: play in a playoff game. Yeah, But I mean it's
Speaker 1: just it's it's really interesting to watch and to see
Speaker 1: exactly what the Rams you know can do this year
Speaker 1: at the Rams remind me of that title contender right
Speaker 1: that has this you know, incredible, miraculous run and gets
Speaker 1: the shot you know at the champion and then just
Speaker 1: gets completely flatlined in the first round. And seeing how
Speaker 1: they build themselves back up here with a young team
Speaker 1: for the most part of young core. Uh, that's gonna
Speaker 1: be my number, you know, one of my top three
Speaker 1: things to watch this season as far as the Saints
Speaker 1: are concerned. You always know what you're getting with them.
Speaker 1: That is as steady as a program as there is
Speaker 1: right now in the NFL. You know where their strengths are,
Speaker 1: you know where their relative weaknesses are. And seeing exactly
Speaker 1: where those two things meet and if they can make
Speaker 1: another run here ten years after their last championship. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be fun to watch and just seeing the ramifications
Speaker 1: and implications for this conference A lot is going to
Speaker 1: be decided in the NFC West this year. I think
Speaker 1: the NFC North is strong, the NFC West is strong.
Speaker 1: I could very well see that being the two divisions
Speaker 1: that are vying for those wild card spots at the
Speaker 1: end of the season. So games like this, especially with
Speaker 1: the Saints pulling off the wind that they did last week,
Speaker 1: has a lot of you know, a lot on the
Speaker 1: line with it. Yeah, it could be uh, we'll see,
Speaker 1: you never know in September football in the NFL, but
Speaker 1: it could be a pretty high scoring game if the
Speaker 1: weather is good in l a and everything between those
Speaker 1: two offense. A couple of other NFC games I've got
Speaker 1: my eye on West, mostly involving the NFC East because
Speaker 1: Dallas is playing at Washington and then Philadelphia is playing
Speaker 1: in the NFC South at Atlanta. But the Dallas Washington
Speaker 1: game I bring it up just because Dallas started with
Speaker 1: a division win last week over the Giants and now
Speaker 1: they're going on the road to d C to play Washington.
Speaker 1: If you win the much same situation the Packers are in,
Speaker 1: if you win your first two games of the season,
Speaker 1: both against division opponents, and you start too and oh
Speaker 1: and you've got those two pelts on the wall, so
Speaker 1: to speak, from your own division, that makes everybody start
Speaker 1: to take notice right away. And with regards to the
Speaker 1: Eagles at the Falcons. The Eagles with a strong come
Speaker 1: back at home after falling behind Washington last week. They
Speaker 1: come back and win Atlanta trying to recover from what
Speaker 1: really was a debacle of a week one for them
Speaker 1: in Minnesota. And a Falcons team that a lot of
Speaker 1: people are wondering are they ever going to get back
Speaker 1: to where they were in when they were on the
Speaker 1: virgin of winning the Super Bowl. Suddenly they've got a
Speaker 1: really good Philadelphia team coming into Atlanta and the Falcons
Speaker 1: trying to avoid Owen two. So this is season four
Speaker 1: the show that we've been doing, right, So we've worked
Speaker 1: into it so far, and we've been doing the breaking
Speaker 1: down the games, looking at a little bit of a
Speaker 1: preview going into the Sunday games for the last you know,
Speaker 1: however many episodes I'm sure Marvin knows upstairs. Is it
Speaker 1: just weird like the Atlanta Falcons always have the hardest
Speaker 1: schedule in the NFL. It never seems like and I'm
Speaker 1: not making excuses for them. They didn't play well last
Speaker 1: week and they got their butts handed to him for it.
Speaker 1: But it just always seems like, hey, they didn't have
Speaker 1: the you know, the two thousand sixteen Cleveland Brown's coming
Speaker 1: up the next week. It's like they always have to
Speaker 1: be back on their A game. The Philadelphia Eagles and
Speaker 1: we can talk. You're absolutely right about the Dallas Cowboys.
Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of momentum right now. I mean,
Speaker 1: if they get dak Press Box press Press Scott's contract
Speaker 1: done here in the next couple of weeks, I think
Speaker 1: that's gonna be like, if they actually get that done
Speaker 1: during the season, they're gonna be floating on Cloud eleven.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just because of just you saw just
Speaker 1: the way they played with with Zeke being back on
Speaker 1: the field, and I watched that whole game. It just
Speaker 1: seemed like they had a real incredible energy about them
Speaker 1: on both sides of the ball. So for the Eagles perspective,
Speaker 1: they have to keep up with that. So if you're Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: if you're Doug Peterson, I think you gotta go in
Speaker 1: there and you gotta put on the film of what
Speaker 1: happened last week the Falcons and you say, Jordan Howard
Speaker 1: Darren Sproles, whoever you want to throw at them, We're
Speaker 1: gonna run it down their throat until you can prove differently.
Speaker 1: Because that's when you put that on film. You hear
Speaker 1: it time and time again. You know that's where teams
Speaker 1: are really going to try to hit you. Yeah, definitely,
Speaker 1: And that's another opponent. Packers are going to see the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Eagles at Lambeuf Field in a primetime game before
Speaker 1: September out. And you know, I was just talking about
Speaker 1: the NFC West, then obviously North, the whole NFC this year. Man,
Speaker 1: this is a strong conference. Yeah, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of you know, a lot of games here that
Speaker 1: are decided earlier the season. They're going to ultimately be
Speaker 1: in the difference between playoffs and not playoffs for a
Speaker 1: lot of teams. Yeah, no question about it. Well, with that,
Speaker 1: we will sign off on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team and of Sunday's home opener against the Vikings on
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com, Subscribed to us, like us on iTunes
Speaker 1: and other podcast services if you will. 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, See you
Speaker 1: next time.