Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I and Mike Spafford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my partner in crime, Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you or hear from our studios at Lambeufield to review
Speaker 1: WES A thirty to thirteen victory on Sunday night football
Speaker 1: at Seattle, A big one for green Bay. It gets
Speaker 1: the Packers to ten and four. We'll talk about the
Speaker 1: whole playoff scenarios and situations later on, but with this
Speaker 1: win on the road against a team that was leading
Speaker 1: the NFC West, this one starts with how fast the
Speaker 1: Packers started. Drive for a touchdown or win the toss,
Speaker 1: take the ball, drive for a touchdown, a third down, sack,
Speaker 1: you get the ball back, you drive for another touchdown,
Speaker 1: and this game will fourteen to nothing before Seattle had
Speaker 1: run offensive play number six or whatever, whatever the case,
Speaker 1: was a big time start on the road and that
Speaker 1: carried Green Bay to a big win.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's ever been Again, I'm not patting
Speaker 2: us on the back. I'm just saying in terms of
Speaker 2: us in a general, anybody outlining the.
Speaker 3: Keys of victory for the Packers.
Speaker 2: I don't know if we've ever had an episode of
Speaker 2: Final Thoughts that hit everything on the head as well
Speaker 2: as this one did. The Packers checked.
Speaker 3: Every box, Yeah, they did.
Speaker 2: That first quarter was about as picture perfect as what
Speaker 2: you could have asked for for Green Bay to start
Speaker 2: a football game. And it was interesting listening to Matt
Speaker 2: Lafuir talk about it after the game. You know, the
Speaker 2: first three plays were pretty much what was scripted, and
Speaker 2: then after that he just started riding Josh Jacobs because
Speaker 2: Seattle couldn't stop him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you end.
Speaker 2: Up having a ten play I think it was sixty
Speaker 2: three yard scoring drive that finishes with the one yard
Speaker 2: Josh Shacobs touchdown run, and for the third time this season,
Speaker 2: he had over one hundred yards from scrimmage in the
Speaker 2: first half, the first time since Week thirteen of last season.
Speaker 2: The Packers scored on their back to back opening possessions,
Speaker 2: scored touchdowns on back to back opening possessions. That stadium, Mike,
Speaker 2: You've been there more times than I have. This was
Speaker 2: my fourth trip to what is now known as Lumen Field.
Speaker 2: I've been in there during the NFC Championship game in
Speaker 2: the twenty fourteen to fifteen season. It can get loud,
Speaker 2: it can get boisterous, it can be a very difficult
Speaker 2: environment to play in, and there was no shortage of
Speaker 2: a dozen Go Pack Go chants throughout that game from beginning,
Speaker 2: middle and end. It wasn't perfect. There's things Green Bay
Speaker 2: needs to clean up yet, but in terms of checking
Speaker 2: every box that the Packers needed to to open up
Speaker 2: this game, especially after a week in which Seattle had
Speaker 2: put up seventeen points in the first quarter against Arizona,
Speaker 2: Matt Laflour could not have been much happier with what
Speaker 2: he saw in those first fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll definitely comment on the fans because, as you said,
Speaker 1: I have been to that stadium numerous times. It had
Speaker 1: been six years since we had been there. But I
Speaker 1: said this an insider inbox, I have never seen a
Speaker 1: green Bay Packer contingent that strong in that stadium before.
Speaker 1: It was really something you mentioned we could we could
Speaker 1: hear the gopak go chance in the press box. And
Speaker 1: then when it really hit me is actually the next
Speaker 1: day after the game, I was watching, you know, the
Speaker 1: the full highlight package that we have on our website,
Speaker 1: which is with the TV calls and everything like that,
Speaker 1: and every highlight in that package where the Packers are
Speaker 1: making a big play, you can hear the crowd through
Speaker 1: the TV broadcast. Games in Seattle are just not are
Speaker 1: not like that. And so hats hats off to the
Speaker 1: Packers fans who who showed up and showed out for
Speaker 1: that game, because that was that was really something, because
Speaker 1: that wasn't NFC West leading a division leading Seahawks team
Speaker 1: with a heck of a lot on the line. It's
Speaker 1: prime time at their place late in the season, and
Speaker 1: the Packers fans were were a big time story in
Speaker 1: that game.
Speaker 2: And it wasn't even like the Bear situation where they've
Speaker 2: just unraveled and they're in this losing street that won't end.
Speaker 2: Seattle had won four in a row going into this thing.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you this, and we got to
Speaker 2: get back to this game too. But the drive up
Speaker 2: to the game, I don't know how much time or
Speaker 2: how much you paid attention to people in the street
Speaker 2: as we were driving up. That was my first indicator
Speaker 2: here that this thing is going to be different. There
Speaker 2: was so much green and gold and so many cheeseheads
Speaker 2: when we were just simply driving through Seattle from our
Speaker 2: team bus trying to get into the stadium.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had a fairly short ride from the downtown
Speaker 1: hotel to the stadium where I started to realize it
Speaker 1: wes I'll be honest. Both Saturday night and during the
Speaker 1: day on Sunday, before going to the stadium, I was
Speaker 1: spending a lot of time with my brother in law.
Speaker 1: He lives out lives out in Seattle, and you know,
Speaker 1: we were kind of out and about walking around both
Speaker 1: in the evening on Saturday as well as then during
Speaker 1: the day on Sunday, and it started to hit me.
Speaker 1: Even going down to the market and the waterfront. They've
Speaker 1: done a whole nice like reconstruction, whole redevelopment of the
Speaker 1: wor waterfront down there. Just walking around, I was seeing
Speaker 1: so many Packer sweatshirts, Packer jackets, packer caps and stuff,
Speaker 1: and I started to realize, maybe this game is gonna
Speaker 1: be a little bit different. I wasn't really paying that
Speaker 1: much attention on the bus ride. I was probably in
Speaker 1: my phone looking at other scores of the games that
Speaker 1: were going on whatever. But Saturday night and during the
Speaker 1: day on Sunday, I definitely started to get a sense
Speaker 1: like there are more Packers fans. It was the type
Speaker 1: of thing that we had seen in La, in Jacksonville,
Speaker 1: other places like earlier this season, not the kind of
Speaker 1: thing we've seen in Seattle before. But I started to
Speaker 1: get that feeling and it turned out to be true.
Speaker 2: And I think probably what influenced me too is I
Speaker 2: did the PEP rally the night before when you were
Speaker 2: spending some time with family.
Speaker 1: Yea.
Speaker 2: And a great turnout for it, our packers everywhere, folks
Speaker 2: Brandon Market did a tremendous job putting it on, but
Speaker 2: it was being out there as well. And how many
Speaker 2: people came up to me after the PEP rally and
Speaker 2: talked about and this is the point I'm trying to
Speaker 2: make with this. You know, it had been six years
Speaker 2: since the Packers have played there. Yeah, there was a
Speaker 2: time where the Seattle almost felt like a pseudo NFC
Speaker 2: North team.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And there were so many people that came up to
Speaker 2: me on the West coast saying, you know, they don't
Speaker 2: get out to Green Bay. How excited they were that
Speaker 2: the Packers were finally back. People from California, Oregon and
Speaker 2: obviously Seattle and Tacoma and Washington and people showed out. Man,
Speaker 2: that is something that I honestly, there were so many
Speaker 2: positive things that happened in this game that needed to
Speaker 2: be written about, need to be touched on. But I'll
Speaker 2: tell you what, man, I was probably this close from
Speaker 2: actually just doing a notebook lead on what that crowd
Speaker 2: was like, because so many guys afterwards said it really
Speaker 2: did feel.
Speaker 3: Like a home game.
Speaker 2: The amount of noepack go chance, and especially not just
Speaker 2: like randomly when the offense was on the field, I mean,
Speaker 2: Gino Smith and Seattle's offense had to deal with it
Speaker 2: right away. The defense for Green Bay felt it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely it was. We've seen it in other places, yeah,
Speaker 1: not in Seattle before, and that's what made this one
Speaker 1: this one pretty special. You mentioned the opening drive ten
Speaker 1: plays for the touchdown finished by Josh Jacobs. Jacobs gets
Speaker 1: the ball on nine of the ten plays. I mean,
Speaker 1: you talk about you talk about war course, but also,
Speaker 1: as you said, Seattle wasn't stopping him, so the Packers were,
Speaker 1: you know, while he was fresh and everything, and if
Speaker 1: the Seahawks weren't gonna be able to stop him, the
Speaker 1: Packers were going to feed him the football. The Packers
Speaker 1: won the battle up front. Not just with Jacobs, but
Speaker 1: and also how they were protecting Jordan Love and Jordan
Speaker 1: Love had a pretty clean game back there in the pocket.
Speaker 2: Love played extraordinary and being able to establish the run
Speaker 2: I thought really set up Jordan for a lot of
Speaker 2: what he accomplished in this game. And when you have
Speaker 2: those type of weapons and you establish, you know, Josh
Speaker 2: Jacobs as a pass catcher as well early on, I
Speaker 2: felt like that's what started to open things up for
Speaker 2: them a little bit more. You got Jayden Reed back
Speaker 2: involved after last week they were struggling to do that.
Speaker 2: Some of the big plays were there again with Christian Watson,
Speaker 2: including a defensive pass interference penalty both him and then
Speaker 2: at the first the end of the first half with
Speaker 2: the one that Romeo Dobbs drew. Both of those plays
Speaker 2: were critical, even though they ultimately don't show up in
Speaker 2: the box score, but contributed to six points and six
Speaker 2: points that while you want to finish, those drives are
Speaker 2: what kind of countered what Jason Myers had did with
Speaker 2: making his two field goals for Seattle. And I don't
Speaker 2: think enough can be said about Romeo Dobbs being able
Speaker 2: to come back off the concussion going through the protocol,
Speaker 2: deciding to wear the Guardian cap, wanting to be better
Speaker 2: safe than sorry. The first touchdown, he plows through two
Speaker 2: Seattle defenders to get into the end zone, if you said, drive,
Speaker 2: to put his team up fourteen to nothing, and then
Speaker 2: coming down the stretch when Green Bay was kind of
Speaker 2: faltering a little bit offensively, he was able to punch
Speaker 2: that in as well makes a tremendous catch in the
Speaker 2: back of the end zone. Only three catches for forty yards,
Speaker 2: but it's those type of things that you've come to
Speaker 2: expect from Dobbs and Love's ability to navigate through all
Speaker 2: that and find his right receivers, find the guys he
Speaker 2: wanted to go to. At the football I just felt like,
Speaker 2: and as Mattlafourt said, they're not throwing the ball as
Speaker 2: much as they did last year. But I thought the
Speaker 2: way that Jordan did it, I think completing seventeen of
Speaker 2: his first nineteen in this game, it was so effective
Speaker 2: at just managing the situations and especially early on, being
Speaker 2: able to control the tempo of that game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I thought it was. It was a big
Speaker 1: time performance from Dobbs coming back after missing the two
Speaker 1: games he gets. He gets in the end zone twice
Speaker 1: twice in very different ways, but a showcase of his
Speaker 1: abilities both as a pass catcher and as just a
Speaker 1: powerful athlete. And then with Christian Watson, I actually just
Speaker 1: posted a story on our website shortly before we turned
Speaker 1: the cameras on. Here Watson now over a five game stretch.
Speaker 1: This is five games he is averaging like thirty yards
Speaker 1: per catch right now, like he has become a big
Speaker 1: play machine. Plus the long play the pass interference that
Speaker 1: ended up being a thirty nine yard gain. I thought
Speaker 1: Watson the way he adjusted to the ball in the
Speaker 1: air on the sideline throw and then was able to
Speaker 1: make the catch and ten the toes and stay in bounds,
Speaker 1: I thought that was a tremendous play. And then not
Speaker 1: one of the bigger plays, but a shorter play that
Speaker 1: converted a third down where he makes the diving catch
Speaker 1: on the extended play with love, you know, sort of
Speaker 1: throwing a low throw to keep it away from the
Speaker 1: defender and Watson goes down and grabs it, moves the
Speaker 1: chains there, keeps the drive alive. Christian Watson is really
Speaker 1: really coming into coming into his own offensively on the
Speaker 1: defensive side. This one starts with Edger and Cooper, And
Speaker 1: as you said, we sort of set the stage for
Speaker 1: a lot of things that we talked about last week
Speaker 1: going into this one, and we had talked about Cooper
Speaker 1: being back at practice it was looking like he was
Speaker 1: going to play, and what kind of a chess piece
Speaker 1: that he can be for Jeff Haffley the defensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: and how he's used in the pass rush, how he's
Speaker 1: used dropping into coverage, and Boy edgering Cooper played a
Speaker 1: way of a game, a super high impact game, had
Speaker 1: the sack early, had the inner late, making other plays
Speaker 1: in between, big time performance from the rookie who, as
Speaker 1: everybody is saying, is just starting to scratch the surface
Speaker 1: of the player he can become.
Speaker 2: And as Matt Lafleur said too, it wasn't just what
Speaker 2: he did on defense. His his first play back was
Speaker 2: a special teams coverage tackle. He finished with two coverage
Speaker 2: tackles in this game as well. It seems like every
Speaker 2: time we talk about Eddrian Cooper, it when he had
Speaker 2: some injuries early on this season, then he misses the
Speaker 2: three games with the hamstring, but when he comes back,
Speaker 2: the way this defense performs, the way they play it
Speaker 2: is different, it looks different, it feels different, and their
Speaker 2: ability to sprinkle him in where he plays thirty four
Speaker 2: defensive snaps in this game. He has five tackles, two
Speaker 2: for loss. He has two passes defense. He finishes the
Speaker 2: interception after he drops the first one. He has the
Speaker 2: first of seven sacks that Green Bay has defensively, when
Speaker 2: you look for guys that are going to not only
Speaker 2: be explosive play makers, but really kind of energize your defense,
Speaker 2: that's what he does with his speed, with his athleticism,
Speaker 2: and so many times, Mike, I look at that box score,
Speaker 2: and I look at his bio on our website and
Speaker 2: it says six foot two, two hundred and twenty eight
Speaker 2: twenty nine pounds. When you stand next to him, when
Speaker 2: you watch him play, does he look like somebody who's
Speaker 2: sixty to two, two hundred and thirty pounds. I would
Speaker 2: have said he's sixty four to two forty like Kay Walker.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just he.
Speaker 2: Is just an explosive athlete. So whether he's trailing guys
Speaker 2: in coverage, whether they're using him as that third down option,
Speaker 2: as a potential inside linebacking Blitzer, that just the guy
Speaker 2: continually makes plays. And now this week is up for
Speaker 2: the NFL Rookie of the Week award, which fans can
Speaker 2: vote on. I said it to a person on Twitter.
Speaker 2: I believe it was either on Sunday night or it
Speaker 2: was on Monday Days. Kind of get messed up here
Speaker 2: with how everything's been going. Just to Tad, but he
Speaker 2: reminds me so much right now of how dom Capers
Speaker 2: utilize Clay in twenty fifteen, when and they were starting
Speaker 2: to transition him back to outside linebacker, but they would
Speaker 2: still use him as an inside option every once in
Speaker 2: a while. You don't know where Edgrin Cooper is coming from.
Speaker 2: You don't know where and when Jeff Hafley is going
Speaker 2: to deploy him. Yeah, and I think that makes it
Speaker 2: really dangerous. There will come a time where he will
Speaker 2: be an every down player this defense. It may still
Speaker 2: even be this season with Kwai Walker's injury coming up here,
Speaker 2: but fornight right now, this guy is giving you everything
Speaker 2: you could want more from a rookie second round pick.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I agree with you totally that the Packers
Speaker 1: defense just looks different when he's out there on the field.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the seven sacks Packers continually pressuring Gino Smith
Speaker 1: and then also backup Sam Howell. When Smith went out
Speaker 1: of the game, he ends up He ends up leaving
Speaker 1: the game on a pressure by Edger and Cooper. The
Speaker 1: seven sacks kings Leannebari gets two of them of Howell
Speaker 1: on basically on the same series, Devonte Wyatt gets a
Speaker 1: sack Rareshaun Gary gets when Carl Brooks gets a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of pressures. One of his pressures sets up the
Speaker 1: Gary sack. Another one of his pressures, along with Eric Wilson,
Speaker 1: sets up the bad throw that Carrington Valentine picks off
Speaker 1: in the end zone. The second year corner Valentine, he
Speaker 1: gets the first interception of his career. Couldn't have come
Speaker 1: at a better time in a lot of ways. The
Speaker 1: score is the score. The Packers are in control of
Speaker 1: the game. It's seventeen to three, but you're late in
Speaker 1: the first half. The Seahawks are going to get the
Speaker 1: ball coming out of halftime because the Packers had elected
Speaker 1: to receive when they won the toss at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the game, and the Seahawks are in the red
Speaker 1: zone on third down. You're looking at minimum it's going
Speaker 1: to be seventeen to six, possibly seventeen to ten if
Speaker 1: the Seahawks get a score there and Valentine reads the
Speaker 1: sort of desperation throw toward the back corner of the
Speaker 1: end zone. Smith is throwing off his back foot because
Speaker 1: of the pressure from Brooks and Wilson, and he's trying
Speaker 1: to hit Noah Fant the tight end going towards the
Speaker 1: back corner. Williams is guarding Fan. Valentine is on Smith Jigba,
Speaker 1: but he sees where the ball is headed and he
Speaker 1: peels off his guy makes a leaping interception in the
Speaker 1: end zone. Huge turning point in the game, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: because then the Packers ended up going into halftime up
Speaker 1: twenty to three. It was a three score game at intermission.
Speaker 2: I wasn't able to get much into it just based
Speaker 2: on all the content that we had going up. But
Speaker 2: I thought Xavier McKinney was really good on this after
Speaker 2: the game, because he talked about how a lot of
Speaker 2: the deception they were doing with their safeties was causing
Speaker 2: Gino Smith and then eventually Sam Howell a lot of
Speaker 2: problems they couldn't delineate or decipher when the Packers were
Speaker 2: in too high or single high and they got caught
Speaker 2: in that. It almost led the first time to the
Speaker 2: Carrington Valentine pick.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was the play right before, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then they come back the next play and as
Speaker 2: you said, there was so much pressure there and Gino
Speaker 2: made a mistake. He put that thing out there, and Carrington,
Speaker 2: much to his credit, this is the guy that still
Speaker 2: was chasing his first as I say chasing because he
Speaker 2: wasn't chasing, but he's still looking for his first NFL interception. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he bounces back from what should have been, you know,
Speaker 2: a potential definitely an interception. You know, you only know
Speaker 2: how far he might have been able to take that
Speaker 2: thing if he picks it off clean to being able
Speaker 2: to bounce back the next play and get it. Matt
Speaker 2: lefor jokingly said, well, not jokingly, he was serious, but
Speaker 2: you know, said he wishes Carrington would have stayed in
Speaker 2: the end zone after he intercepted it.
Speaker 1: Takes a touch back there, young man still.
Speaker 2: Took it back out to the fourteen, obviously excited about it.
Speaker 2: I talked with Carrington about the play afterwards. He said
Speaker 2: it was about darn time that he finally got that interception.
Speaker 2: But I thought that was a really good reward for
Speaker 2: him because this is a guy that has played a
Speaker 2: lot of critical, important football, considering he was a seventh
Speaker 2: round pick a year ago out of Kentucky who was
Speaker 2: an early entrant that didn't have a ton of college
Speaker 2: stats and it was all based on potential. And he's
Speaker 2: come into the door and played really well for Green
Speaker 2: Bay out of the stretch. And also, you know, not
Speaker 2: having Gyr Alexander, you needed somebody like that to step up,
Speaker 2: and Valentin did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that was a big time play for sure.
Speaker 1: The Packers nearly nearly dominated this game from start to finish.
Speaker 1: It ended up that they didn't. Unfortunately, some mistakes happened
Speaker 1: in the second half. I just want to say this
Speaker 1: though I'm not I'm not excusing the mistakes the Packers made,
Speaker 1: but I am really tired of the narrative out there
Speaker 1: that Matt Lafleur supposedly just wants to sit on a lead.
Speaker 1: And that's then and that's why these teams are always
Speaker 1: coming back. You have to look at what happened. You know,
Speaker 1: there was a play action, rollout, aggressive call down the
Speaker 1: field throw Jordan Love just missed it with Romeo Dobbs
Speaker 1: being open on the on the rollout to the right,
Speaker 1: it happens, you know, poor execution. Throw wasn't quite there,
Speaker 1: wasn't able to make the catch. Josh Jacobs has a
Speaker 1: huge hole. Maybe he gets tripped by the guy on
Speaker 1: the ground. Maybe he does, I'm not sure, but he
Speaker 1: ends up stumbling and then the ball gets punched out
Speaker 1: and you get eternal. A later in the fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: a third and two, Packers go aggressive. They're gonna throw
Speaker 1: the ball and unfortunately Jayden Reid, who is going to
Speaker 1: be wide open because the Seahawks are totally committed to
Speaker 1: stopping Josh Jacobs on third and two, Reid is going
Speaker 1: to be wide open, but unfortunately he slips, falls down
Speaker 1: on his route. The pass just falls harmlessly incomplete. The
Speaker 1: Packers made mistakes that didn't allow them to put this
Speaker 1: game away any earlier. But this narrative about how it
Speaker 1: was their approach or it was the play calling or
Speaker 1: whatever like, just stop with that nonsense. That is not
Speaker 1: why the Seahawks got back into the game. They got
Speaker 1: back into the game because of some mistakes the Packers made.
Speaker 1: They were trying to be aggressive, had plays there that
Speaker 1: could be made. They weren't made. The defense faltered once, really,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, just faltered the one time, allowing the
Speaker 1: Charbonnay touchdown run after after the Jacobs fumble. But then
Speaker 1: after that the defense rose up, was getting the sacks
Speaker 1: of how got the interception by Cooper. So the Packers
Speaker 1: were this close, in my opinion, to completely dominating that
Speaker 1: game from starting to finish, and they know the mistakes
Speaker 1: they made, and quite frankly, as much as Matt Lafleur
Speaker 1: always likes to credit the opponent, the mistakes the Packers
Speaker 1: made and not putting this game away were just on themselves.
Speaker 1: Yes they were one hundred percent, were just on themselves.
Speaker 1: It wasn't what the Seahawks were doing, in my opinion.
Speaker 3: So this.
Speaker 1: The way this game started, was a huge step forward
Speaker 1: for the Green Bay Packers as they looked to make
Speaker 1: the playoffs and try to make a playoff run. They
Speaker 1: still know there's just that little bit more out there
Speaker 1: for them because they did let a team back in
Speaker 1: the game that probably shouldn't have been in the game.
Speaker 1: Sorry for the long diatrab, I just had to get
Speaker 1: that out there because I'm tired of the way it
Speaker 1: has been talked about amongst this fan base in terms
Speaker 1: of why these things happen. You just have to look
Speaker 1: at it.
Speaker 3: You have to.
Speaker 1: Understand the facts and how things actually occur before your
Speaker 1: criticism is worthwhile.
Speaker 3: And my dad said it too after the game, I shoulday.
Speaker 2: The day after we got back to Green Bay, I
Speaker 2: went ate dinner with my parents and you know, he said,
Speaker 2: he's like, you know, they played well, it's a human game, yeah,
Speaker 2: and there's going to be for all the things that
Speaker 2: went wrong for Seattle. There were a few things that
Speaker 2: went wrong for Green Bay too. I thought what was
Speaker 2: more important though, was how Green Bay's defense picked up
Speaker 2: the offense in the second half when Seattle had chances.
Speaker 2: You know, mostly the Packers defense held them in check.
Speaker 2: Charbonet breaks out that twenty four years I was.
Speaker 1: That was the one play the defense that was holding
Speaker 1: them to field goals and getting stops. Otherwise, the one
Speaker 1: play was the Sharboney touchdown run that got out the
Speaker 1: back end. Other than that, I thought the Packers' defense
Speaker 1: really held them in check for the bulk of the game.
Speaker 2: Well, and as I said to you as we were
Speaker 2: getting ready to board the plane, and I felt like,
Speaker 2: you know, seven layers of hell like the Packers. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Gino Smith got hurt, I get it. Sam Hall came
Speaker 2: in and did not play well. No, but you got
Speaker 2: to play the team that's out there. The Packers were
Speaker 2: in a situation much like Keishawn Nixon said a few
Speaker 2: weeks ago. I mean, they were in a spot where
Speaker 2: they had to go with their backup quarterback for two
Speaker 2: starts in a bulk of three games, and Malik Willis
Speaker 2: got the job done. It's just the way this game
Speaker 2: gets played. Defensively. I like what I saw though, they
Speaker 2: especially that defensive front mic. I mean, I tweeted this
Speaker 2: out on Monday, but the Packers very suddenly are up
Speaker 2: to forty sacks on the season. And yeah they've had
Speaker 2: a bulk of those happen in two games, but they're
Speaker 2: finding ways to win, and it's multiple pass rushers. Kingsley
Speaker 2: in Igbari. I mean, you cannot say enough about the
Speaker 2: fact that he got his first two sack game in
Speaker 2: a three play spam. You're seeing a guy like Brenton
Speaker 2: Cox Junior, who up until the Presst Smith trade had
Speaker 2: not played at all this season. Now he's up to
Speaker 2: three sacks. Aaron Moseby I said this during the game.
Speaker 2: The guy's actually a really good zone dropper. He has
Speaker 2: multiple pass deflections now when he's dropping from the zone
Speaker 2: coverage when they're doing some of those semi related pressure luck, which.
Speaker 1: Is probably the biggest thing he's had to learn. Quite
Speaker 1: frank one, hundreds of times of his transition. The college
Speaker 1: playery was to the player that the Packers are trying
Speaker 1: to develop him into in the NFL.
Speaker 2: Keep in mind, this is the guy at one point
Speaker 2: in his college career was a safety. So you're finding
Speaker 2: ways to use these guys' skill sets to your advantage
Speaker 2: when they've changed him into a pass rusher and things
Speaker 2: like that. So be that as it may. The Packers
Speaker 2: found a way to get out of Seattle with the victory.
Speaker 2: It was a It was great being in that locker
Speaker 2: room the first time the locker room that there has
Speaker 2: been so much sadness and so many did so much disappointment,
Speaker 2: you know, the last I'll never forget that twenty fourteen game,
Speaker 2: you know, with Tremont Williams understanding what that meant for
Speaker 2: him and where he was going to be going after that,
Speaker 2: and guys that felt like they were right there and
Speaker 2: didn't get it. Not that this makes up for it, no,
Speaker 2: but for a place that the Packers hadn't won in
Speaker 2: sixteen years, to play the way they did and to
Speaker 2: finish a game thirty to thirteen over a team that
Speaker 2: is eight and six and still in control of their
Speaker 2: destiny for the playoffs.
Speaker 3: There's a lot there to be proud of.
Speaker 1: I feel like, yeah, absolutely, I'll take care some sponsor
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Speaker 1: Packers are ten and four. The Buffalo Bills went into
Speaker 1: Detroit and beat a banged up Lions team that continues
Speaker 1: to get more banged up with each passing game, so
Speaker 1: the Lions long winning streak is snapped. They dropped to
Speaker 1: twelve and two Minnesota Beach Chicago on Monday night, so
Speaker 1: they are twelve and two. So the top three teams
Speaker 1: in the NFC West twelve and two, twelve and two,
Speaker 1: ten and.
Speaker 3: Four NFC What did I say, NFC West.
Speaker 1: Oh, NFC North, Sorry, I was on the whole sea.
Speaker 3: The Packers swept the West. Maybe that's what you were.
Speaker 1: Saying, Yeah, something like that. Top three teams in the
Speaker 1: NFC No. Twelve and two, twelve and two, ten and four.
Speaker 1: What that means for green Bay is that, in the
Speaker 1: simplest terms, the Packers are one win away from clinching
Speaker 1: a playoff spot. If green Bay gets to eleven wins,
Speaker 1: they are in the playoffs, regardless of anything else that happens.
Speaker 1: So Monday Night against New Orleans, if the Packers coming
Speaker 1: back to Lambeufield can get that win, it'll be uh,
Speaker 1: it'll be a playoff spot secured. They can clinch a
Speaker 1: playoff spot before Monday Night based on Sunday's results, But
Speaker 1: it would require the Falcons losing and either the Rams
Speaker 1: or the Seahawks also losing, would you which We'll see
Speaker 1: what happens there and and we'll certainly talk we'll certainly
Speaker 1: talk more about New Orleans on our next show leading
Speaker 1: into the Monday Night game. But I tell you, Wes,
Speaker 1: it's really interesting now. Not only not only is there
Speaker 1: a tie atop the NFC North at twelve two between
Speaker 1: Detroit and Minnesota, but the Philadelphia Eagles are also twelve
Speaker 1: and two because they got a big home win over
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh Steelers the battle for Pennsylvania. So there is
Speaker 1: a lot to be decided here in terms of not
Speaker 1: only the NFC North Championship, but just the seating at
Speaker 1: the top of both at the top and the bottom
Speaker 1: of the NFC in terms of how the playoff seating
Speaker 1: is going to shake out, There's still long ways to
Speaker 1: go here before we're going to know exactly the lineup
Speaker 1: one through seven.
Speaker 2: I do want to mention this because you mentioned all
Speaker 2: the scenarios which the Packers can get. In Atlanta's hosting
Speaker 2: the New York Giants. You have the La Rams are
Speaker 2: traveling to met Life to face the New York Jets,
Speaker 2: and then Seattle has a real tough tilt against the
Speaker 2: Minnesota Vikings, though they get to stay at home for
Speaker 2: that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed what Matt Lafleur's message was with the
Speaker 2: media on Tuesday morning when he met with us, because
Speaker 2: he was asked about the playoffs and the possibility of
Speaker 2: Clinton get the playoffs, and in it wasn't trying to
Speaker 2: create a Jim Mora type SoundBite, but basically made it clear,
Speaker 2: I don't give a whot about the playoffs right now.
Speaker 2: There's three games the Packers need to win. They are
Speaker 2: heck bent on trying to win all three of those
Speaker 2: games and then seeing where the chips fall from there.
Speaker 2: Certainly there's gonna be a tough game opponent on Monday Night,
Speaker 2: although it sounds like Derek Carr will not be available
Speaker 2: for it, as he potentially could be out the remainder
Speaker 2: of the season based on some of the reports out there.
Speaker 1: It'll be the Spencer Rattler Show, the Spencer as far
Speaker 1: as Rattler show. But again, this was so critical for
Speaker 1: the Packers to win this game. When you were looking
Speaker 1: at all these scenarios and all these variables in the
Speaker 1: New York Times simulator for the playoffs, everything gets exponentially
Speaker 1: clearer in terms of Green Bay's pats to the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Now that they've beaten the Seattle Seahawks. They hold the
Speaker 1: tiebreaker over the Seahawks, they hold the tiebreaker over the
Speaker 1: Rams the one they don't hold the tiebreaker of Atlanta.
Speaker 1: But Atlanta trying to claw its way back into the
Speaker 1: NFC South, if it would win the last three games
Speaker 1: of the year, would have to beat Washington, which affects
Speaker 1: the Packers. It also could potentially get them to win
Speaker 1: the division, which maybe that would require Tampa Bay to
Speaker 1: fallout of contention. There's all these different things you have
Speaker 1: to consider in addition to the fact that Kirk Cousins
Speaker 1: is still not playing very well right now, did not
Speaker 1: play well in Vegas. So the Atlanta Falcons did not
Speaker 1: call a pass play on first down in the entire
Speaker 1: game last night, Like what I understand, You have Bijon
Speaker 1: Robinson and he handed the ball off on first down
Speaker 1: all night long.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, which I would have done the same exact
Speaker 2: thing the other aspect of this. And just to bring
Speaker 2: it back to this past weekend's game. Outside of Buffalo
Speaker 2: taking care of business in Detroit and holding off the
Speaker 2: Lions during whatever that was during the fourth quarter that happened,
Speaker 2: Green Bay didn't get a lot of help. In terms
Speaker 2: of the week fifteen. You had the Rams beat the
Speaker 2: forty nine ers, you had the Saints not being able
Speaker 2: to pull off the comeback in the upset all Washington.
Speaker 1: Big time comeback maybe made the gutsy call to go
Speaker 1: for two on the after the touchdown on the last
Speaker 1: play of the game. They get the touchdown there, down
Speaker 1: by a point, they decided to go for two instead
Speaker 1: of play for overtime. Washington gets the stop and the
Speaker 1: Commanders survive and get their ninth win.
Speaker 2: The Chargers didn't even bother showing up against Tampa Bay.
Speaker 2: Minnesota destroys the Bears. The Bears kept going on fourth down,
Speaker 2: it didn't matter. Pittsburgh struggles against Philadelphia and then obviously,
Speaker 2: like I mentioned already, as bad as Kirk Cousins played, still,
Speaker 2: the Falcons out gunned the Raiders, who now seem to
Speaker 2: be in pole position here from the maybe Shador Sanders sweepstakes.
Speaker 2: So Green Bay did what he needed to do. It
Speaker 2: won the game, and here they are now at ten
Speaker 2: and four.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ten and four.
Speaker 2: By the way, man, dude mention this at all, not
Speaker 2: to jump over you. Hopefully they didn't screw up Zach's
Speaker 2: camera's work there. Kenny Clark said this in the locker room.
Speaker 2: Mightn't even think about this. He actually said, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's been a minute since he won ten games, and
Speaker 2: I thought about it for a second. I'm like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it has been it's been three years since the Packers
Speaker 2: won ten games in a season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, ten games in the regulars, regular season. So the
Speaker 1: tenth tenth win was in the playoffs last year.
Speaker 3: They needed eighteen to get in last year.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, but uh here here's I'm glad you brought
Speaker 1: up a little bit about next week's next week's schedule
Speaker 1: in the NFL, because I'm actually glad. I'm actually glad
Speaker 1: that the Falcons, even as much as they're struggling, I'm
Speaker 1: glad that they're playing the Giants.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I want the Falcons to beat the Giants, because I
Speaker 1: don't I don't want the Packers to have clinched their
Speaker 1: playoff spot before Monday Night. I want the Packers to
Speaker 1: take the field Monday night at home, in front of
Speaker 1: what hopefully is a very fired up, excited crowd, to
Speaker 1: go out there and beat the Saints and clinch their
Speaker 1: playoff spot that way, not from scoreboard watching during the
Speaker 1: day during the day on Sunday, and then you have
Speaker 1: a whole day on Monday to kill before you have
Speaker 1: to go out there and play. I mean, I'm hoping
Speaker 1: the Falcons. I'm hoping the Falcons beat the Giants, because
Speaker 1: if that happens, it doesn't matter what happens with the
Speaker 1: Rams and the Seahawks. The playoff spot's not clinched. The
Speaker 1: Packers would take the field on Monday night and can
Speaker 1: and just clinch it on their own. That's what I
Speaker 1: want to see.
Speaker 2: If there's anything you know about me, and you've known
Speaker 2: me for pretty much all my adult life and you've
Speaker 2: worked with me for almost a decade now, I am
Speaker 2: definitely a bird in the hand guy. I will take
Speaker 2: that playoff spot as soon as.
Speaker 3: It will come.
Speaker 2: But that being said, I agree with you, and I
Speaker 2: think that's the same message that Matt Lafleur is preaching
Speaker 2: right now. It's not about Week sixteen. It's about the
Speaker 2: full breadth of an eighteen game regular season and where
Speaker 2: that positions you for the playoffs. He already talked about
Speaker 2: it with Larry, He talked about it with you guys
Speaker 2: after the game. They want to be road warriors. They
Speaker 2: understand that. Barring some really bizarre circumstances here in the
Speaker 2: NFC North, which would have a multitude of layers to it.
Speaker 3: If they could actually.
Speaker 2: Win this thing in the last three weeks, they're going
Speaker 2: to have to go on the road and they're going
Speaker 2: to have to play in some hostile environments in order
Speaker 2: to make a Super Bowl run. They're embracing that, and
Speaker 2: I think one point I tried to make it in
Speaker 2: or inbox on Tuesday was whether it's the games in
Speaker 2: which they've won they're five and two on the road,
Speaker 2: or the games in which they lost, in which they
Speaker 2: heard probably the most ruckous Ford Field Stadium we've ever
Speaker 2: heard before. The Packers now are experiencing all of this,
Speaker 2: and I feel like in the long run, for a
Speaker 2: very young football team, a team that is still very young,
Speaker 2: that is going to benefit them.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, we will talk on our next show about a
Speaker 1: Saints team that is motivated, that is fired up, that
Speaker 1: maybe as close to mathematically out of it as you
Speaker 1: can be, but they aren't playing like it. And we'll
Speaker 1: get into that. It's in a couple of days.
Speaker 3: It is bizarre, though.
Speaker 2: Look, and you know we're again we were talking before
Speaker 2: we started the show. I'm doing the game program for
Speaker 2: this week and we're on the normal schedule, even though
Speaker 2: it's the Monday Night game. I mean Marcos Veldez Scantling
Speaker 2: is one of their starting receivers right now. Quez wasn't
Speaker 2: even on the team two months ago. I mean they
Speaker 2: had been beat up at certain positions, not all of them,
Speaker 2: but certain positions.
Speaker 3: You got to get the.
Speaker 1: Job done though, yeah, absolutely before that. Be among the
Speaker 1: thousands of football fans cheering on their team NFL draft
Speaker 1: picks by joining us April twenty four through April twenty
Speaker 1: six of twenty twenty five for the NFL Draft. Visit
Speaker 1: green Bay dot com slash Draft twenty five for more information.
Speaker 1: And with that, we'll call it a rap on this
Speaker 1: edition of Packers Unscripted. Sure to follow all of our
Speaker 1: coverage of the team on Packers dot com. For Wes,
Speaker 1: I'm Miike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will
Speaker 1: see you next time.