Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford sitting next to my partner in crime,
Speaker 1: West Hodkowitz. Were coming to you here from our studios
Speaker 1: at lambeau Field and West. It is our midweek show Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Here coming up on Sunday, the Packers are back at
Speaker 1: lambeau Field. Imagine that it's been a while. Green Bay
Speaker 1: versus Washington a noon Central kickoff at lambeau Field for
Speaker 1: Week four team. So we will take a look here
Speaker 1: at this upcoming opponent. The Washington Redskins are three and nine.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. Wes there two and oh in
Speaker 1: their last two games. And this is a team that
Speaker 1: two weeks ago they were one and nine with an
Speaker 1: interim coach, Jay Gruden having been fired at midseason, Bill
Speaker 1: Callahan takes over as an inner him coach one and nine,
Speaker 1: six games to go with an interim coach. But they
Speaker 1: have not just mailed it in there, not laying down.
Speaker 1: This is a team that is fighting, and they've gotten
Speaker 1: wins over the Detroit Lions and Carolina Panthers the last
Speaker 1: two weeks, and they're coming into Green Bay feeling pretty
Speaker 1: good about themselves. Yeah, and it's really interesting. I've been
Speaker 1: reading all the clipping, the clippings and everything out of
Speaker 1: the Washington newspapers and I'll tell you what, Mike, It's
Speaker 1: crazy how a performance like Darius Guys and Adrian Peterson,
Speaker 1: what they did last Sunday against Carolina quickly that can
Speaker 1: change a narrative for a season. I'm sure there's a
Speaker 1: lot of beat writers and media folks out there that
Speaker 1: were starved for writing for something positive about Washington during
Speaker 1: a really turbulent season on the field off the field,
Speaker 1: and here they are this one to punch that. You know,
Speaker 1: I wrote this an inbox this week. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Packers are still very familiar with what Adrian Peterson can
Speaker 1: do to you. He did it to them in a
Speaker 1: Week three of last last last season a hundred plus
Speaker 1: yards a couple of touchdowns when the Packers lost out
Speaker 1: there at FedEx Field. And there's a certain amount of
Speaker 1: people out there too that would say that Darius Guys
Speaker 1: was arguably the best running back in this year's draft class.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was right up there with all of them.
Speaker 1: But he's been hurt for most of the season, so
Speaker 1: they finally got him together and then the thing I
Speaker 1: thought was most impressive about that win over Carolina, they
Speaker 1: did it really without Terry McLaurin. They were able to
Speaker 1: you know, that's been their big playmaker this season. That's
Speaker 1: been the real bright spot for this offense. Weekend and
Speaker 1: week out. Well, they didn't really have the passing game.
Speaker 1: They went more of a game manager role with Haskins,
Speaker 1: and here they leaned on their two running backs. Guys
Speaker 1: had the sixty yard or Adrian Peterson just a bowl
Speaker 1: not easy to get down within four yards, and Washington
Speaker 1: pulled out a victory. Well, certainly you have to believe
Speaker 1: that Washington's game plan coming into lambeau Field is going
Speaker 1: to be to try to pound the ball with the run.
Speaker 1: With Peterson and guys, they combined for what was a
Speaker 1: two yards correct um combined totals three carries on that,
Speaker 1: by the way. Yeah, so basically the two of them
Speaker 1: together averaging about ten yards a carry against against Carolina
Speaker 1: in a game that they fell behind for nothing, mind you.
Speaker 1: So they decided, Okay, we're gonna stick with the run.
Speaker 1: We're gonna try to limit and this is I think
Speaker 1: what their plan will be against the Packers as well.
Speaker 1: Try to limit how much responsibility falls on the quarterback.
Speaker 1: Get that running game going, keep trying to pound the
Speaker 1: run at Green Bay. And then you do have the
Speaker 1: speedy rookie wide receiver from Ohio State and Terry mclauren.
Speaker 1: He's averaging I believe it's around fifteen yards of catch,
Speaker 1: he's got five touchdown receptions on the Ears, having a
Speaker 1: really solid rookie season, and he is a game breaker
Speaker 1: type with with his speed, he can he can make
Speaker 1: some big plays out there. Yeah, give you some statistics here,
Speaker 1: Michael mclauren right now, forty two catches. That's fourteen more
Speaker 1: than Chris Thompson, their their third down back. He has
Speaker 1: sixty six receiving yards, which is more than three hundred
Speaker 1: in front of Thompson for first on Washington's roster. Fifteen
Speaker 1: point four yards per catch in a team high five
Speaker 1: touchdown receptions. Let's put that in comparison. Mike Washington has
Speaker 1: the rest of their receivers together have six touchdown receptions,
Speaker 1: so making up forty four point four percent of that production.
Speaker 1: And he's a dynamic football player. And I think you
Speaker 1: know Greg Bates who writes a column and our our
Speaker 1: program for us every week did a story kind of
Speaker 1: looking at the opponent, breaking it down, and I thought
Speaker 1: he made a really good point. I mean, they've had
Speaker 1: a lot ups and downs this year, and there are
Speaker 1: a lot of questions about Washington's upper management where this
Speaker 1: team is going to go in two thousand and twenty
Speaker 1: and beyond. But the thing I like that Bill Callahan
Speaker 1: has done is he's provided some sense of normalcy here.
Speaker 1: Dwayne Haskins is going to be our guy through thick
Speaker 1: and thin, hell and high water. Where that is going
Speaker 1: to be who we're gonna roll with. And they're building
Speaker 1: around their young pieces now Adrian Peterson thirty four years old.
Speaker 1: Now I mean obviously not you know more in the
Speaker 1: autumn of his career. But I the one thing I
Speaker 1: never understood with the way all Washington approached this thing
Speaker 1: was either had to be all Peterson or no, no Peterson.
Speaker 1: They just never really could seem to understand or figure
Speaker 1: out a way to just use him in not a
Speaker 1: limited fashion, but more in a platoon fashion. That's what
Speaker 1: they did against Carolina. They got both of those backs,
Speaker 1: going thirteen carries, ten carries. I don't know why it
Speaker 1: had to be all or nothing for so long for them.
Speaker 1: When Geis is healthy, I think you can see how
Speaker 1: both of these two guys can really play off each other.
Speaker 1: I think sometimes, just to be fair to the coaching
Speaker 1: staff there, I think there were times that Peterson wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily comfortable with the whole the type of role that
Speaker 1: they wanted for him. Now that Darius guys a high
Speaker 1: draft pick, rookie running back who's shown a lot of promise,
Speaker 1: he's gotten himself healthy, Um, you can see obviously the
Speaker 1: potential that's there with that one to punch. I think
Speaker 1: Haskins at quarterback as the rookie, As you said, Callahan
Speaker 1: has made it clear, you know, this isn't gonna be
Speaker 1: some quarterback carousel here. This is their rookie quarterback. They
Speaker 1: invested a high first round draft pick. He's the quarterback
Speaker 1: of the future, so it's time for him to play.
Speaker 1: I think he's protected the football a little bit better,
Speaker 1: maybe than Daniel Jones from the Giants last week. But
Speaker 1: haskins com Lesian percentage he's barely above. I think he's
Speaker 1: only a completion so he has some things to uh
Speaker 1: to iron out there. But in looking at the other
Speaker 1: phases for Washington, as well, you look at their defense west,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of numbers that don't look good.
Speaker 1: They're ranked pretty low against the run, and they're right
Speaker 1: in the middle of the pack against the past. They
Speaker 1: do have a fair number of sacks, so there are
Speaker 1: there are some stats that jump out at you. But
Speaker 1: when you just look at they've been really bad against
Speaker 1: the run, and they've been really bad on third down.
Speaker 1: But then you look at the game at Carolina last week,
Speaker 1: Christian McCaffrey only gets forty four rushing yards against what's
Speaker 1: supposedly a bad run defense, and the worst third down
Speaker 1: defense in the league actually stopped ten third downs in
Speaker 1: a row, allowing them to come back from a fourteen
Speaker 1: nothing deficit to actually take a two touchdown lead before
Speaker 1: hanging on to beat the Panthers by by one top down.
Speaker 1: So my point is, I think there are a lot
Speaker 1: of full season statistics and rankings and stuff that don't
Speaker 1: really apply to what Washington looks like right now and
Speaker 1: the way they've played these last two weeks. I mean,
Speaker 1: against the Lions, they had a kickoff return for a
Speaker 1: touchdown from a special teams unit that hadn't really done
Speaker 1: much all season long, but suddenly they bust a kickoff return,
Speaker 1: they end up beating the Lions by three points. Chocoling
Speaker 1: up in the wind. Call yeah, and it goes both ways,
Speaker 1: right because offensively, this is statistically the worst offense in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Right now, they're right around twenty two and rushing.
Speaker 1: But then you see what they do in that game
Speaker 1: against Carolina, which the Packers were very familiar with the Panthers,
Speaker 1: seeing them a month ago and seeing how competitive they
Speaker 1: were in that sense. But as you mentioned from the
Speaker 1: very get go of this show, they've won two in
Speaker 1: a row. Now, the feeling change, the temperament changes. One
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I thought last week was such
Speaker 1: a critical game for Green Bays because the Giants had
Speaker 1: lost seven in a row. David Jones hasn't really tasted
Speaker 1: victory yet. You have to beat that team because that's
Speaker 1: what everyone says you should. People are gonna go in
Speaker 1: and Green Bay is gonna be favored in this and
Speaker 1: then by all means should be. This is a team
Speaker 1: that's going towards a playoff push. Washington's playing towards the future.
Speaker 1: But the mandate is the same between them. You can't
Speaker 1: take take either of them lightly defensively, They've worked through
Speaker 1: some very strange things though this year. There's the questions
Speaker 1: with Josh Norman uh and was he benched? Was he
Speaker 1: not benched? And then you look at some of these
Speaker 1: other facets of this defense and exactly what their identity is.
Speaker 1: But as you said, last week, they pulled every everything together,
Speaker 1: they played good ball, and now they sit right around
Speaker 1: nine total defense. I mean, this is a respectable unit
Speaker 1: that is going to still be able to find ways
Speaker 1: to stress this Packers offense. Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: there are a lot of things. I mean it really
Speaker 1: if Matt Lafleur has any concerns, and I don't think
Speaker 1: he necessarily does, because the Packers went about things last
Speaker 1: week the right way, I think they'll go about things
Speaker 1: this week the right way. But if he has any
Speaker 1: concerns about trying to get his players attention with regards
Speaker 1: to this Washington team, all you have to do is
Speaker 1: is put on the film from that Carolina game. They
Speaker 1: outscored Carolina like twenty nine to nothing after the fourteen
Speaker 1: nothing started. I mean, they they didn't just come back.
Speaker 1: They were dominating that game. Now Carolina obviously they just
Speaker 1: fired their head coach, and and Ron Rivera is out
Speaker 1: and they're gonna be looking for a new head coach
Speaker 1: in the off season. And things really, quite frankly for
Speaker 1: Carolina started to go south when Christian McCaffrey doesn't get
Speaker 1: in from the two yard line at lambeau Field, and
Speaker 1: suddenly what looked like a promising season for them has
Speaker 1: has gone the wrong way. But this, uh, this Washington team,
Speaker 1: I think I think they're gonna pose a bigger challenge
Speaker 1: quite frankly to the Packers than the Giants did last week.
Speaker 1: That's just my gun. Yeah, I would agree with that,
Speaker 1: especially the way that they're trending. I mean, thirty six
Speaker 1: right now. As far as tackle or excuse me, sacks
Speaker 1: pretty spread across the board. Quentin Dunbar four interceptions they
Speaker 1: brought in Landon Collins was a big signing for them. Uh,
Speaker 1: these you know over the past year, and I just
Speaker 1: look at this team is still a way that you
Speaker 1: know they're gonna be. It's tough to come back from
Speaker 1: a mentality when you're three and nine like that is
Speaker 1: a difficult thing to do. There's going to be question marks.
Speaker 1: But I listened to Bill Calhan's postgame news conference. You
Speaker 1: read the clips. As I said off the bat, this
Speaker 1: is a team that does have confidence right now, and
Speaker 1: they have confidence and they have nothing to lose. So
Speaker 1: for green Bay to earn that number ten victory of
Speaker 1: the season, it's going to come through a very game
Speaker 1: Washington team. Yeah, I would agree with you. Um select
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Speaker 1: get prepared here for this week four team game, I'm
Speaker 1: interested in your take on this West because we've talked
Speaker 1: about We've talked about some issues the the Packers. They're
Speaker 1: trying to show up some things on defense, they're trying
Speaker 1: to get more impact from the return game. And we'll
Speaker 1: talk about the new returner of the Packers have acquired
Speaker 1: in a minute. But here's here's the thing for me.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of people out there saying, you know, okay,
Speaker 1: it's December now, the Packers they are what they are,
Speaker 1: you know, And to a certain extent I agree with that.
Speaker 1: But at the same time. I remember three years ago
Speaker 1: a Packers team that through the month of December started
Speaker 1: looking better and better and better than where they were
Speaker 1: at Thanksgiving and where they were just before Thanksgiving. And
Speaker 1: the fact that now this Packers team has been on
Speaker 1: the road for four of its last five games and
Speaker 1: now gets to come home for back to back home games.
Speaker 1: You know how this league works, west When you have issues,
Speaker 1: it is so much easier to try to fix your
Speaker 1: issues when you're playing at home, no matter which side
Speaker 1: of the ball it is. Then when you're playing on
Speaker 1: the road. I think these next two games, and then
Speaker 1: you obviously have the Monday nighter in Minnesota coming up
Speaker 1: after it, but I think these next two home games
Speaker 1: for the Packers, this is this is your chance to
Speaker 1: to try to fix some things and and give the
Speaker 1: team that one more step forward, that one more uptick
Speaker 1: before the stretch run and hopefully I'll playoff run in January. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it was last week. I used my analogy
Speaker 1: about the tuneup fight. If you're a fighter, if you're
Speaker 1: a boxer, you lose a championship type matchup, you start
Speaker 1: back down, you pull yourself back up, you try to
Speaker 1: get some wins back together, you try to make another
Speaker 1: run at this thing. They started that last week against
Speaker 1: the Giants, and there was a there's a comment that
Speaker 1: Adam hohl Heinrich because in Packer's Daily spoiler Alert, we
Speaker 1: don't always write our own scripts on that, we have
Speaker 1: people that do that for us. But at Triple H
Speaker 1: had written in there. You know, there was no real
Speaker 1: hangover from what happened in San Francisco, and that's what
Speaker 1: you wanted to see because as we discussed on Monday
Speaker 1: show too, I mean, eighteen points, it was a possession game.
Speaker 1: There really weren't a whole lot of opportunities just blow
Speaker 1: that thing open. But the Packers did what they needed
Speaker 1: to do against an opponent that they needed to beat,
Speaker 1: and that earned you this opportunity against Washington. You beat Washington,
Speaker 1: that earns you an opportunity against Chicago. Because you and
Speaker 1: I both watched the Monday night game with Minnesota, they're
Speaker 1: not lying over for anybody. I mean, that is gonna
Speaker 1: be a tough, knockdown, drag out war in week sixteen.
Speaker 1: That's just the way this thing is looking right now.
Speaker 1: So Green Bay to have two back to back home
Speaker 1: games to get people revved up again because we there
Speaker 1: was a ton of them. You and I covered a
Speaker 1: ton of them at home here the first two months
Speaker 1: of this season. And this is they were just in
Speaker 1: a stretch of one game in forty eight days or
Speaker 1: whatever it was at Lambeau so and I think the
Speaker 1: home stretch early on when we saw the way the
Speaker 1: Packers came out sputtering on offense in Week one against
Speaker 1: a good Chicago defense. But after Week one to have
Speaker 1: that stretch of five home games in six weeks, Matt Lafleur,
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers, the offense, they were able to they were
Speaker 1: able to work out the kinks. They were able to
Speaker 1: really fix some things and work on some things. When
Speaker 1: you had the stretch of home games, well, now you're
Speaker 1: always going to have other issues that are going to
Speaker 1: crop up throughout the season. When you're in a stretch
Speaker 1: of four road games out of five, it's tough to
Speaker 1: fix your issues. You're trying to just say, hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna try to find a way to survive. We're gonna
Speaker 1: try to find a way to win games. They fell
Speaker 1: flat in l a, they fell flat in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: They gotta win. They got a road win against the Giants.
Speaker 1: They got a road win against Kansas City and that
Speaker 1: stretch of four road games in five weeks. Now they're
Speaker 1: back home. It's a it's an opportunity to turn some
Speaker 1: things around and and in looking for a spark on
Speaker 1: special teams in the return game, Packers are still trying.
Speaker 1: Traymont Smith has been released. Tyler Irvin, a return specialist.
Speaker 1: I guess you might say he's officially running mostly turned
Speaker 1: in his career, but yes, he's mostly mostly done returns
Speaker 1: in his career, most recently from Jacksonville claimed off waivers.
Speaker 1: And it looks like they're just gonna plug him in
Speaker 1: as the return man and say, all right, kid, you
Speaker 1: know here you go, this is this is your shot
Speaker 1: because we're looking for a spark here. Yeah, and they
Speaker 1: needed the guy. I think that was natural at both
Speaker 1: of them. I mean when you look at tray Smith,
Speaker 1: I mean, certainly he has some pelts on the wall
Speaker 1: as it relates to the kickoff return, but not as
Speaker 1: many of them at the pro level on punt returns.
Speaker 1: In Irvin, you have a guy that has done it
Speaker 1: both uh, and I just think, yeah, I mean, people
Speaker 1: have been asking for they want things to be shaken
Speaker 1: up a little bit, and the Packers have. You've been
Speaker 1: following them with what they've done over the last month
Speaker 1: with special teams. They're doing everything they can and this
Speaker 1: is an important game to do it, Mike, because Washington
Speaker 1: special teams are legit. Dustin Hopkins I think, you know,
Speaker 1: not having his best year, but you know Steven Sims
Speaker 1: has one brought back for a touchdown this year in
Speaker 1: the night or whatever that was. They are going to
Speaker 1: push for field position in this game and the Packers
Speaker 1: need to start winning that. And here's the thing. You
Speaker 1: have four games like I think Packers by no means
Speaker 1: are looking ahead, but I think at nine and three
Speaker 1: they feel like they're a playoff team. They feel like
Speaker 1: they're a contender. This is you know, we talked about
Speaker 1: these two games at home. These next four weeks are
Speaker 1: an audition for the playoffs to show exactly where you
Speaker 1: stack up and how far you could potentially bring this
Speaker 1: thing and to go where they need to go. The
Speaker 1: special teams need to be better. J K. Scott put
Speaker 1: a huge foot forward, no pun intended last week in
Speaker 1: New York, especially in those can aditions where he's been
Speaker 1: kind of struggling a little bit with colder weather. Mason Crosby.
Speaker 1: We've talked to nauseum about the performance that he had
Speaker 1: and what he was able to do in those conditions
Speaker 1: in the season, and he's had in general. Kickoff return,
Speaker 1: punt return has been the one thing that has been
Speaker 1: left to be desired since Week one of the season.
Speaker 1: So you bring in Irvin, now you see what he
Speaker 1: has to offer. The great thing about this position and
Speaker 1: the great thing about special teams this goes back to
Speaker 1: something that Tim mass they told me in two thousand thirteen.
Speaker 1: There's really no playbook for specialists in return positions. You
Speaker 1: can be replaced like that and the guy can go
Speaker 1: in there and do the job just like that. He
Speaker 1: needs to know the block and patterns, he needs to
Speaker 1: have a general feel for the scheme. But returning is
Speaker 1: returning and kicking is kicking. Tyler. Irvin has a chance
Speaker 1: now to come in here and show that he belongs. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And with regards to the Packers special teams as a whole, Yes,
Speaker 1: the return game, they haven't gotten the spark there that
Speaker 1: they've been looking for. Coverage wise, they haven't allowed any
Speaker 1: real backbreaking returns. A couple of explosive returns here, and
Speaker 1: they're during the season, but nothing really backbreaking. And yeah,
Speaker 1: early earlier in the year than than more recently. Penalties
Speaker 1: are certainly way down on special teams compared to a
Speaker 1: year ago, which which was a huge problem. So it's
Speaker 1: not as it's not as though the sky is completely
Speaker 1: falling on special teams here. And certainly what j K.
Speaker 1: Scott did against the Giants, he's been in a slump
Speaker 1: for about a month. Two of his three punts against
Speaker 1: the Giants were really really good ones. I mean, penned
Speaker 1: them inside the twenty yard line um with you know,
Speaker 1: high hangers that um that were either fair caught or
Speaker 1: downed in difficult field position for the Giants. So that's
Speaker 1: that looks like it's you know, he looks like he's
Speaker 1: working his way out of that. Any kind of a spark, really,
Speaker 1: it feels like that the Packers could get from their
Speaker 1: return game could really make a difference here down the stretch.
Speaker 1: If suddenly Aaron Rodgers is starting a few drives at
Speaker 1: the thirty five or the thirty eight yard line as
Speaker 1: opposed to the twenty two or the twenty five yard line,
Speaker 1: things could really start to look different. West and That's
Speaker 1: what Brian goodacombs to Matt Lafleur after here. That's why
Speaker 1: they keep changing things around. They're looking for their looking
Speaker 1: for that spark. And and this is an opportunity with Irvin.
Speaker 1: He was available on the waiver wire from Jacksonville. They're
Speaker 1: going to give him a shot. Yeah. And the thing
Speaker 1: that I thought this week really proved too is there
Speaker 1: just aren't There isn't an answer just sitting on the
Speaker 1: street corner right. For so many weeks, especially Insider in
Speaker 1: Box more so than this show, we would get question
Speaker 1: after question, why did they trade Trevor Davis? What was
Speaker 1: the reasoning that was behind this? Trevor Davis got released
Speaker 1: this week from Oakland. You hate to see that for him.
Speaker 1: He's a good guy, but it goes to show you,
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody's always looking to get better, especially in
Speaker 1: the Special Team's phases where guys can be recycled so quickly.
Speaker 1: Davis has already ended up in Miami, for example. So
Speaker 1: the Packers, in addition now having a second round pick
Speaker 1: for next year, I feel like they have a guy
Speaker 1: that you know, we're gonna probably learn a little bit
Speaker 1: more about him later in the day. But to to
Speaker 1: be able to find answers and be able to find uh,
Speaker 1: you know in potentially he find something that could push
Speaker 1: you and propel you into the postseason. All it takes,
Speaker 1: Sean Menega said it since the very beginning of the season.
Speaker 1: All it takes is that one big return. The Packers
Speaker 1: are still waiting on it, and Urvan's gonna be the
Speaker 1: chance it gets a chance to you know, potentially do it. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: we will see if if they get that that little
Speaker 1: extra juice that they're looking for in that phase. But
Speaker 1: for now, we are going to call it a wrap
Speaker 1: on this edition of Packers on Scripted. Be sure to
Speaker 1: follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers
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Speaker 1: for tuning in, everybody, We'll see you next time.