Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague Weston Hodkoitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: hear from our studios at lambeau Field, with the Packers
Speaker 1: back from their bye week and looking ahead to a
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoon matchup against the Denver Broncos on the road.
Speaker 1: I will start by apologizing for my voice if it
Speaker 1: sounds a little off. I am slightly under the weather,
Speaker 1: but I don't feel as bad as I sound. I'm
Speaker 1: actually feeling pretty good.
Speaker 2: I don't think you sound bad, though, I don't think
Speaker 2: you sound like gritty like.
Speaker 1: You're saying I need to bring this voice to the
Speaker 1: show more often.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean the type of voice like that you
Speaker 2: walk in the bar, everybody starts looking at.
Speaker 1: You, you know, I mean like you command the room.
Speaker 2: Yeah, command the room. No, I like it. I think
Speaker 2: it's uh you're made for this, but I appreciate you tough.
Speaker 1: I at workout. I'll try to replicate some other time
Speaker 1: before we get to talking about some issues with the Packers. Though, Wes,
Speaker 1: I have to mention this because on our last show.
Speaker 1: Before we took our little break heading into the bye weekend,
Speaker 1: I brought up, or at least raised the question as
Speaker 1: to whether we were just headed for another NFC championship
Speaker 1: rematch between the Eagles and the forty nine Ers. The
Speaker 1: way those two teams are playing, the way they were dominating.
Speaker 1: And lo and behold what happens right after we discuss
Speaker 1: that possibility. A couple of backup quarterbacks with outstanding defenses
Speaker 1: behind them pull off the upsets, and the Browns knock
Speaker 1: off the Niners, the Jets knock off the Eagles. No
Speaker 1: one in the NFL in twenty twenty three now is unbeaten,
Speaker 1: and the Eagles in forty nine Ers may still meet
Speaker 1: again for the NFC Championship. But it just goes to
Speaker 1: show you that it's a long season. Any given Sunday,
Speaker 1: all of those, all those cliches, it's a week to
Speaker 1: week le and that was quite an interesting week of
Speaker 1: NFL football, even though the Packers were not participating.
Speaker 2: In the spot for Jinks is real. So, I mean,
Speaker 2: that's the other thing we learned this week. Hey listen,
Speaker 2: So I had an amazing opportunity. This actually was the
Speaker 2: first week and I ever sat down and watched football
Speaker 2: with my son, which was a lot of fun. I
Speaker 2: watched Vikings and Bears, I watched Lions in Tampa Bay.
Speaker 2: I obviously saw the matchup you talked about with the
Speaker 2: forty nine Ers and Browns Eagles all these games, But
Speaker 2: what was the most interesting to me is you talk
Speaker 2: about teams that are considered like the leaders, the front runners. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: they've also developed these patterns, and for San Francisco, they
Speaker 2: were done in by what has ultimately been one of
Speaker 2: the things that has stopped them from becoming a Super
Speaker 2: Bowl championship team, and that's injuries. Trent Williams goes out
Speaker 2: of that game, returns but still gets banged up. Christian
Speaker 2: McCaffrey gets dinged up at the end of the game,
Speaker 2: Deebo Samuel obviously has the shoulder injury ends up costing
Speaker 2: me my fantasy game this week. We won't go into
Speaker 2: that though, please, But when you're playing a team like
Speaker 2: Cleveland that is as game as they are defensively, Oh yeah,
Speaker 2: the Browns defense is one of the more underrated units
Speaker 2: in the league considering how prolific they've actually been here
Speaker 2: as of late. And then the Jets man I just
Speaker 2: don't know what else you can say. Four takeaways. They
Speaker 2: won that game for their team, but they also did
Speaker 2: it by beating a five to zero football team who's
Speaker 2: known for their offense explosion. Here the last couple seasons,
Speaker 2: the Jets are for real and unfortunately for them, the
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers injury happened. But my goodness, I mean that
Speaker 2: defense is going to keep them in a lot of ballgames.
Speaker 1: Well, there's a lot of stirring going on in New
Speaker 1: York now because there was the video of Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: casually playing catch and whatnot. He's already off the crutches
Speaker 1: after the Achilles surgery, and Robert Salas made the comment
Speaker 1: that Aaron Rodgers is on a mission. Obviously, the Jets
Speaker 1: mission if they can somehow get Aaron Rodgers back before
Speaker 1: the end of the season. Their mission is to still
Speaker 1: be in the hunt somehow, because then they feel like
Speaker 1: they will really have a shot. And you mentioned the
Speaker 1: Cleveland Browns. I did not realize this until I saw
Speaker 1: this statistic on Sunday night, and I actually put it
Speaker 1: in Monday Mornings Insider inbox when I was working on
Speaker 1: the column. The Cleveland Browns have allowed one thousand and
Speaker 1: two total yards through five games, which is like the
Speaker 1: third fewest yards allowed through five games, like all time,
Speaker 1: like ever in the NFL, And it's the fewest allowed
Speaker 1: through five games since like nineteen seventy one or something
Speaker 1: like that. You know, over fifty years. What the Cleveland
Speaker 1: Browns are doing on defense? I tell you, I mean,
Speaker 1: it was it was a weekend I thought, for the
Speaker 1: most part, not in every instant, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: a weekend that was ruled by defenses in the NFL.
Speaker 1: We saw, I mean, and this is how backup quarterbacks
Speaker 1: can get surprise victories so to speak, right, can get
Speaker 1: upset victories. Is when is when defense is fined way
Speaker 1: to take over games and then it sort of becomes
Speaker 1: anything goes down the stretch. You know, the forty nine
Speaker 1: ers still have a chance to kick a field goal
Speaker 1: win the game, but they miss it. The uh the
Speaker 1: Eagles still get the ball back at the end with
Speaker 1: a chance, right, but you know, the fourth down pass
Speaker 1: deep down the field, you know, double coverage gets knocked away.
Speaker 1: There is a there's gonna be a lot of interesting
Speaker 1: activity here now that now that nobody's undefeated and the
Speaker 1: Lions are five and one now sitting sitting atop the
Speaker 1: NFC analysts are asking, are the Lions maybe the best
Speaker 1: team in the NFC. I don't know if I'd go
Speaker 1: quite that far just yet, because up until last Sunday,
Speaker 1: the Eagles in the forty nine ers look like they
Speaker 1: were in, you know, on another on another level so
Speaker 1: to speak.
Speaker 2: Yeh.
Speaker 1: But but take nothing away from the Lions. They went
Speaker 1: down to Tampa Bay and only gave up a couple
Speaker 1: of field goals to Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers, and
Speaker 1: they lost their number one running back to an injury,
Speaker 1: and they didn't seem to miss a beat offensively either.
Speaker 2: Thirteen three now the best record in the NFL over
Speaker 2: the last sixteen games, the way they finished last season
Speaker 2: and then being able to carry that momentum into this year,
Speaker 2: it's been really impressive to watch Jared Goff and Amanael
Speaker 2: Saint Brown have developed a chemistry there that I think
Speaker 2: quarterbacks and receivers always look to achieve. I mean, you're
Speaker 2: seeing the big play potential now that Jamison Williams is back,
Speaker 2: Jamiir Gibbs is going to be thrown into the fire
Speaker 2: potentially here he's been dealing with some of his own injuries.
Speaker 2: But if they're going to lose David Montgomery for a minute,
Speaker 2: that's the adjustment that's going to have to be made.
Speaker 2: But Mike I said it at the end of last year,
Speaker 2: and I said it in that regular season finale against
Speaker 2: the Packers. Detroit's defense statistically was not very good last year,
Speaker 2: but they made a change in the second half of
Speaker 2: that season. They got better towards the end of that season,
Speaker 2: and they've just continued to get better. So now you're
Speaker 2: actually starting to see the statistics lining up with the
Speaker 2: way that they perform. And in every single way of
Speaker 2: that game, they dictated what Baker Mayfield could do. In
Speaker 2: addition to the fact that Tampa Bay doesn't have a run game,
Speaker 2: they've really struggled on the ground, but they didn't allow
Speaker 2: Baker to pull off his magic to find a way
Speaker 2: to win that game. I just thought, when you look
Speaker 2: at Detroit and what constitutes being a good team, a
Speaker 2: double digit win team, a twelve win team, they played
Speaker 2: that style of football in this thing because they beat
Speaker 2: him in all three phases.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the efficiency that we started to see the
Speaker 1: second half of last season from Jared Goff with Ben
Speaker 1: Johnson as the offensive coordinator in Detroit. Not a fluke
Speaker 1: by any means, because Jared Goff is continuing to be
Speaker 1: that efficient quarterback. And I would argue, you know, losing
Speaker 1: Montgomery and with what Goff did? I mean, I believe
Speaker 1: it was forty four pass attempts against the Buccaneers, but
Speaker 1: yet they held a thirteen minute advantage in time of possession.
Speaker 1: It was pure ball control passing. And yeah, the Lions
Speaker 1: didn't light up the scoreboard, but in not lighting up
Speaker 1: the scoreboard, they still completely controlled and dominated that game
Speaker 1: quite frankly, on both sides of the ball.
Speaker 2: So and those are the games, by the way, that
Speaker 2: Tampa's won this year. That's how they got to three
Speaker 2: and one. They've won these scrappy games, and the Detroit
Speaker 2: Lions just completely took that away. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, those are the teams at the top of the NFC.
Speaker 1: Those are the teams that the Packers are chasing. The
Speaker 1: Packers will enter this Sunday's game at Denver with a
Speaker 1: two to three mark, a two game losing streak unfortunately
Speaker 1: heading into the bye week. Now the Packers are coming
Speaker 1: out of that. And I'm just gonna throw this as
Speaker 1: an open ended question at you, Wes, when you look
Speaker 1: at everything that's happened over the first five games here
Speaker 1: for the Packers. Now you're coming out of the bye,
Speaker 1: You've got twelve straight here before the end of the
Speaker 1: regular season. What is the I guess I would say
Speaker 1: the biggest area or the top of mind thing for
Speaker 1: you that you feel the Packers need to improve upon
Speaker 1: in order to get things going back in the right direction.
Speaker 2: Win the first quarter, and you need to play a
Speaker 2: complete game in order to win the game. But if
Speaker 2: you don't come out of the gates, there's only these
Speaker 2: teams are so talented, Mike, and there's so much parity
Speaker 2: in this league. You can't spot an opponent, you know,
Speaker 2: the first four hundred meters of a you know, a
Speaker 2: thirty two hundred meter run. You have to be able
Speaker 2: to keep pace if nothing else, And that's where Green
Speaker 2: Bay's really struggled. I mean, I raised the point in
Speaker 2: Insider Inbox. One of the only things that Denver's actually
Speaker 2: done pretty well up until last week against Kansas City
Speaker 2: was they put points on the board in the first quarter.
Speaker 2: They actually are outscoring teams forty one to thirty one
Speaker 2: in the first quarter, and that's not because they had
Speaker 2: like twenty four points in one first quarter. No, they
Speaker 2: was just consistently putting up seven to fourteen points. The
Speaker 2: problem for Denver is they're the opposite of green Bay
Speaker 2: in that they have ten points in the third quarter.
Speaker 2: They just have not been able to sustain that throughout games.
Speaker 2: They've had injuries in turnovers kind of haunt them. For
Speaker 2: green Bay's standpoint, they've been one of the more productive
Speaker 2: teams in the National Football League in the second half,
Speaker 2: particularly that third quarter. But it's making sure and you
Speaker 2: don't dig that hole early on, So how do you
Speaker 2: stop that. It comes back to sustaining drives offensively, It
Speaker 2: comes back to that initial first down. You go back
Speaker 2: to that opener against Chicago. It wasn't perfect. They got
Speaker 2: the ball at midfield because of a gutsy play by
Speaker 2: the Bears. Yeah, but it was how they took what
Speaker 2: basically was almost a turnover tight play and produce points
Speaker 2: off of it. That's one thing green Bay for the
Speaker 2: last month is just really struggled to do. They have
Speaker 2: to find ways to come out of the gates and
Speaker 2: sustain a drive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the starts have certainly been one of the most
Speaker 1: if not the most concerning issue for the Packers. And
Speaker 1: this is the way I look at and I think
Speaker 1: I'm saying the same thing you are, but maybe with
Speaker 1: slightly different language, because maybe it'll you know how I am.
Speaker 1: You know how I am with regard to crunch time
Speaker 1: and how much that matters in this league. You know,
Speaker 1: making the plays when you've got to make them in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, late in games when things are tight.
Speaker 1: And I'll talk about a few more of those later
Speaker 1: on as well. So you can't win a game, You
Speaker 1: can't win a game, generally speaking, with a fast start
Speaker 1: in the NFL. But as you talked about, if you can,
Speaker 1: if you can come out of the gates with some
Speaker 1: production and at least keep pace, you get off to
Speaker 1: a decent start in a game, it just increases your
Speaker 1: margin for air the rest of the way. What we've
Speaker 1: seen with the Packers, because they've gotten off touch such
Speaker 1: slow starts, is then you get into the second half,
Speaker 1: you're in comeback mode and your margin for error is
Speaker 1: almost nil. Can't you can't you know, you can't make
Speaker 1: a mistake on offense where you cross midfield and then
Speaker 1: throw an interception because you're just too far behind you
Speaker 1: haven't made enough good things happen, the defense gets in
Speaker 1: a position where it can't allow one scoring drive, you know,
Speaker 1: in the second half, because the offense is too far behind.
Speaker 1: So a stronger start will increase this team's margin for air.
Speaker 1: Because these games are not going to go perfectly. And
Speaker 1: I know we talk about the youth a lot and
Speaker 1: all of that, and the Packers are still working through
Speaker 1: a lot of that, but those things are going to
Speaker 1: continue to come up where it's not always going to
Speaker 1: look smooth, it's not always going to look perfect. But
Speaker 1: if you can put yourself in a position where you
Speaker 1: have a little bit more of a margin for air,
Speaker 1: then you have a chance at crunch time to make
Speaker 1: the plays that you need to make.
Speaker 2: Let's even go back to that Detroit game against green
Speaker 2: Bay because this also probably feeds into what Packers need
Speaker 2: to do a little bit better down these last twelve games.
Speaker 2: Green Bay did a really good job against David Montgomery
Speaker 2: in that game for the most part, but they kept
Speaker 2: going back to Montgomery over and over and over again.
Speaker 2: They created some second in short opportunities, some third and
Speaker 2: short opportunities, and then later on in that fourth quarter
Speaker 2: when he was starting to get up to twenty five,
Speaker 2: twenty six, twenty seven touches. That's when things started to
Speaker 2: rupture a little bit more. Green Bay has really struggled
Speaker 2: to generate those plays offensively. You know, you look at
Speaker 2: the time of possession. I threw this stat and insider
Speaker 2: inbox two in Matt Lafleur's first four years as Packers
Speaker 2: head coach, win or lose playoffs are now NFC Championship
Speaker 2: game or not making the playoffs. They've been a top
Speaker 2: five team in time of possession. Time of possession isn't
Speaker 2: a b all end all stat. I will always say that,
Speaker 2: but it is an indication of overall efficiency. Yeah. Green
Speaker 2: Bay right now, I believe is in twenty eighth or
Speaker 2: twenty ninth. They just haven't won that phase. And it's
Speaker 2: because of not sustaining drives. It's because of you know,
Speaker 2: some of the things that have happened defensively. Green Bay
Speaker 2: needs to get back to that, to the sort of
Speaker 2: the roots of this offense and what they do well
Speaker 2: because win or lose, that was what they always kind
Speaker 2: of were able to hang their hat on, is that
Speaker 2: we're gonna make you play defense. We're gonna make guys
Speaker 2: go out there and have to give energy every single time.
Speaker 2: We're gonna give our defense time to rest on the
Speaker 2: you know, on the other side of things, green Bay
Speaker 2: struggled to find that. I think that partially has to
Speaker 2: do with some of the issues with the run game,
Speaker 2: but it also comes down to the situational football elements
Speaker 2: that Green Bay struggled with, not so much in the
Speaker 2: red area like last year, but in some of the
Speaker 2: early down stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and what you said too about sustaining drives, I
Speaker 1: mean or I go with that as well as is
Speaker 1: a couple of things and Matt Lafleur's talked about a
Speaker 1: lot in terms of the Packers have to avoid the
Speaker 1: negative plays and whether that's you know, we saw like
Speaker 1: against New Orleans it was a lot of penalties and
Speaker 1: some other games it's been tackles for loss or in
Speaker 1: the case of the Raiders game, there were the sacks
Speaker 1: and what Max Crosby was doing in the offensive backfield
Speaker 1: and all that. You have to You're not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to eliminate them, but you have to cut down
Speaker 1: on those negative plays that are putting you behind the
Speaker 1: chains and making it difficult to sustain those drives. But
Speaker 1: then the other thing I will say, and this really
Speaker 1: goes for both sides of the ball, is you have
Speaker 1: to make the plays that are there. You know, when
Speaker 1: you look at you know, why why are the Packers
Speaker 1: two and three right now? Because all these games, you know,
Speaker 1: certainly the close ones, they always hinge on a couple
Speaker 1: of plays here or there. You know, you look at
Speaker 1: the Atlanta game and there were a couple of interceptions
Speaker 1: that were in guys hands that were dropped. There was
Speaker 1: a third and one on offense where the hole was
Speaker 1: there and it wasn't converted. You know, right before the
Speaker 1: final interception against the Raiders on that last drive, a
Speaker 1: couple of drop passes that could have moved the chains
Speaker 1: and put the offense in a better position. Those are
Speaker 1: all plays that are there to be made, and you
Speaker 1: have to make them. When you're the team that makes them,
Speaker 1: your odds of winning go way up. When you let
Speaker 1: those opportunities get away, things shift, you know, to the opponent,
Speaker 1: and their chances are the ones that rise. So the
Speaker 1: plays have been there for the Packers, and not to
Speaker 1: say that making those plays was going to guarantee some
Speaker 1: sort of a victory, but boy, their chances of winning
Speaker 1: those games, we're gonna go We're gonna go up dramatically.
Speaker 1: And I think if they just make more of those
Speaker 1: plays that are there, they put themselves in better positions.
Speaker 2: Since you and I are just Monday morning quarterbacks now
Speaker 2: that just sit around and watch football on the weekends. Yeah,
Speaker 2: did you get a chance to watch Chargers and Cowboys?
Speaker 1: Did you get actually watch most of the game Monday night?
Speaker 2: So perfect example that because we just it's not just
Speaker 2: about Green Bay. It's what other teams do, and it's
Speaker 2: the difference between a win and a loss sometimes. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think about that. Keenan Allen played a great game
Speaker 2: on Sunday night, Monday night. Excuse me, he completely broke
Speaker 2: I believe it's blank. The cornerback from the Cowboys completely
Speaker 2: broke his ankles right beat him with the double move.
Speaker 2: The guy didn't just get lost on the play. He
Speaker 2: actually fell down and he's going up the sideline there
Speaker 2: justin Herbert kind of airmails. The pass just overthrows him,
Speaker 2: just standing in the pocket, not running. Ornything just overthrows him.
Speaker 2: It ends up. You know, Alan reaches out for it.
Speaker 2: Probably at the very least if he beats the safety
Speaker 2: it's going to be a touchdown, but at the very
Speaker 2: least it's going to be an explosive play, probably twenty
Speaker 2: twenty five yards. Alan misses him. You think about the
Speaker 2: difficulties that La had trying to move the ball against
Speaker 2: that Dallas defense. If you hit that explosive difference in
Speaker 2: the ballgame. Conversely, Cowboys have probably one of their worst
Speaker 2: play call, no disrespect to Mike McCarthy, but probably one
Speaker 2: of their worst play calls of the entire game. Play
Speaker 2: is completely falling apart. They're trying to run like the
Speaker 2: screen game or something. Dak is under pressure. He fires
Speaker 2: off this pass that Tony Pollard. Pollard makes one cornerback
Speaker 2: miss and takes it up the field for sixty yards
Speaker 2: or whatever. That that's the difference when you execute in
Speaker 2: areas of the game where you're not supposed to execute
Speaker 2: and you don't make the plays that are there to
Speaker 2: be made.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that mistackle, the mistackle on the dump off pass
Speaker 1: to Pollard maybe was the biggest play in the entire game.
Speaker 1: I mean it might be. Yeah, it turned it turned
Speaker 1: a modest gain into a into an explosive play that
Speaker 1: completely that completely changed things. Again, it's another another example
Speaker 1: of the the plays that are there. It doesn't take
Speaker 1: anything magic, It doesn't take anything herculean to make it happen.
Speaker 1: When it's there, when it's right in front of you,
Speaker 1: you gotta make it. And uh And I think the
Speaker 1: Packers have had those opportunities and I think they can.
Speaker 1: I think they they'll have the ability to generate more
Speaker 1: of those opportunities as these young players on offense continue
Speaker 1: to grow. The other thing I will say too, we
Speaker 1: don't really know exactly where the Packers are health wise
Speaker 1: right now. They were back for a post by week
Speaker 1: practice on Monday. Aaron Jones and Darnell Savage, having missed,
Speaker 1: slashed exited the previous game. They were back on the
Speaker 1: on the practice field. Devandre Campbell Kuay Walker were not
Speaker 1: just yet. But the other thing I'll say too, And
Speaker 1: this echoes a little bit of what Matt Lafleur had
Speaker 1: said before the break, and it dovetails off of the
Speaker 1: point I just made if and when, Assuming the Packers
Speaker 1: are going to get Aaron Jones back at some point,
Speaker 1: we hope it's this week, maybe it's not. Who knows,
Speaker 1: but Aaron Jones is not the is not the cure
Speaker 1: all fix all for everything because a lot of these
Speaker 1: things I was just talking about about making the plays
Speaker 1: that are there to be made, those have nothing to
Speaker 1: do with Aaron Jones being absent from from the ballgame.
Speaker 1: Those are plays that other guys can make. And yes,
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones reinsertion into this offense would be a huge boost.
Speaker 1: It will definitely help a lot of things. But the
Speaker 1: mentality for the players, and I know that coaches certainly
Speaker 1: have this mentality as well, it can't be that Aaron
Speaker 1: Jones is just going to is going to fix everything
Speaker 1: because because this this this is the ultimate team sport,
Speaker 1: and the opportunities have been there for others as well.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent. I mean that was what ultimately you
Speaker 2: think about where guys have originally stepped up and you
Speaker 2: know Christian Watson where he made the most of his
Speaker 2: opportunities later in that season, Romeo Dobbs stepping up early
Speaker 2: in the season when they didn't have Watson last year. Right,
Speaker 2: It's how guys established themselves in these offenses. And you know,
Speaker 2: you go back to that final sequence and not to
Speaker 2: put on any one specific player, any specific phase, but
Speaker 2: there were opportunities to catch the football and they did
Speaker 2: not come up with them. So what ends up happening.
Speaker 2: Jordan Love has to do a little bit more heroics
Speaker 2: and it leads to an interception in an end zone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's put He's put in a third and ten
Speaker 1: that quite frankly shouldn't have been third and ten.
Speaker 2: And look at the end of the Tampa was not
Speaker 2: going to win the game. But look at the end
Speaker 2: of the Tampa game too, where when you're in third
Speaker 2: and ten and you're just taking streaks to the end zone,
Speaker 2: it just shots the end zone, that's all you can
Speaker 2: Probability is not going to be there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I do need to take care of a
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Speaker 1: of better. One other topic to get to before we go.
Speaker 1: We heard from a whole bunch of Packers assistant coaches
Speaker 1: on Monday after practice, we heard from the coordinators as
Speaker 1: well as the defensive assistance. Again, I'll just throw it
Speaker 1: out to you open ended. Anything that came out of
Speaker 1: those media sessions that sort of struck a chord or
Speaker 1: stuck in your mind that you heard from from one
Speaker 1: of the coaches about a particular player or something going
Speaker 1: on with the team right now.
Speaker 2: First off, just to mention it because we just got
Speaker 2: done talking about it, but hearing Stenovich's perspective on where
Speaker 2: the Packers' offensive coordinator Adam Stenovich his perspective on where
Speaker 2: the offense is at right now after these five games.
Speaker 2: Nothing that you and Iden already just discussed, but where
Speaker 2: the Packers need to get to, where the offensive line
Speaker 2: needs to get to, where the young nucleus around Jordan
Speaker 2: Love needs to produce, and ultimately just trying to get
Speaker 2: some win back in their sales. That's been a big
Speaker 2: line that I've been pushing an inbox. I mean, I
Speaker 2: really think, I mean, you cannot take the Denver Broncos
Speaker 2: for granted whatsoever, but five and one one in five,
Speaker 2: the Packers just need to get a win. They need
Speaker 2: to get that feeling of what it's like to win again,
Speaker 2: because while while the New Orleans win was great and
Speaker 2: it felt awesome in that fourth quarter, you remember what
Speaker 2: it looked like the first three quarters until you had
Speaker 2: that comeback. They got to go back to defeating opponent
Speaker 2: again like they did against the Bears. I think that
Speaker 2: can be a huge thing for them. The other aspect
Speaker 2: of it actually goes over to Ryan Downer in the
Speaker 2: safety position, because he was asked about Rudy Ford, and
Speaker 2: I thought, Rudy, when we're talking about guys that have
Speaker 2: capitalized on their opportunities, Rudy's probably one of the best
Speaker 2: examples of that so far. A lot of questions for
Speaker 2: the Packers at the safety position. There was a wide
Speaker 2: open competition throughout the summer of who was going to
Speaker 2: line up next to Darnell Savage. Ford signed here after
Speaker 2: leaving Jacksonville last September. He signed here, duing part to
Speaker 2: the opportunity he was hoping to get on defense. We
Speaker 2: all knew everyone in the NFL saw what he could
Speaker 2: do as a gunner as a coverage player. He wanted
Speaker 2: to be able to show that I can my skills
Speaker 2: on special teams can translate to defense. And all the
Speaker 2: dude has done in that time since is take advantage
Speaker 2: of that hasn't been perfect, but when you look at
Speaker 2: the PFF staff right now that he's leading the league
Speaker 2: and run stops, he has two more interceptions after back
Speaker 2: to back games, Packers have needed somebody to provide a
Speaker 2: lift here defensively, and I don't think it was a
Speaker 2: coincidence that one of the better overall defensive performances Green
Speaker 2: Bay got this season came after Rudy Ford was able
Speaker 2: to capitalize on an interception. Hearing Downard talk about how
Speaker 2: this was a guy that has finally gotten his opportunity
Speaker 2: and capitalized on it, I think that is one of
Speaker 2: the when there's been injuries, when there's been opportunities, when
Speaker 2: you've looked for guys to step up, Rudy Ford has
Speaker 2: been one of those guys that I think has responded.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree, I think, and I had featured
Speaker 1: him in my in my What you might have missed
Speaker 1: with some video clips from the game against the Raiders,
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, aside from getting the interception, I
Speaker 1: thought Ford played a really solid game, especially in the
Speaker 1: run support. The other thing that stood out to me,
Speaker 1: and we heard it from a couple of the of
Speaker 1: the defensive coaches is that, yes, of course they want
Speaker 1: to get Devandre Campbell and Kway Walker back in the
Speaker 1: middle of the defense as soon as possible, But the
Speaker 1: defensive play did not take some huge step back with
Speaker 1: Isaiah McDuffie and Eric Wilson filling in at those inside
Speaker 1: linebacker spots, and I think that speaks to the preparation
Speaker 1: of those guys. The I mean, Eric Wilson's you know,
Speaker 1: he's a long time you know, relative to what's on
Speaker 1: this Packers roster. He's a longtime veteran in this league.
Speaker 1: He's played a lot of football, and he, you know,
Speaker 1: he just stepped in and did his thing out there.
Speaker 1: He's kind of, you know, he's kind of an undersized
Speaker 1: you know, he's only about two hundred and thirty pounds.
Speaker 1: He's not not as you know, as big as a
Speaker 1: guy like Campbell or or Walker, but he's certainly willing
Speaker 1: to throw his body around in there. And we've seen
Speaker 1: McDuffie making, you know, the progression that he's made since
Speaker 1: he came here as a six round pick out of
Speaker 1: Boston College. Packers want to get their starters back in there.
Speaker 1: But but that defensive performance against the Raiders, it held
Speaker 1: up in large part because of those guys stepping in,
Speaker 1: and I think I think some credit is due there.
Speaker 2: There's a lot about them too, if I may, just
Speaker 2: because arguably, I think Kuway has probably been their best
Speaker 2: all around defensive player so far this season.
Speaker 1: I mean, the.
Speaker 2: Guy he makes the tackles that are there, but he
Speaker 2: also the way he's triggering this year is different, and
Speaker 2: the way he's collapsing on the line of scrimmage. You
Speaker 2: take that out of the defense. In that second half,
Speaker 2: I had real questions about what was going to happen
Speaker 2: with Josh Jacobs. But side of just that one twenty
Speaker 2: four yard run to the edge, Green Bay still bottled
Speaker 2: that up, and I thought that was a big credit
Speaker 2: to Wilson.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I may quibble with you a little bit, not
Speaker 1: to take anything away from Walker, but if I were
Speaker 1: to pick a defensive MVP through the first five games,
Speaker 1: I might have to say, Raseuell Douglas. Yeah, know that
Speaker 1: I know that he gave you know, he gave up
Speaker 1: the touchdown against the Lions when he got fooled. And
Speaker 1: then there was the whole conversation after the game about Hey,
Speaker 1: we plan that just for you. We knew you were
Speaker 1: going to bite on this move. Whatever, Hey, that happens.
Speaker 1: That's the cat and mouse game that's played in the
Speaker 1: NFL Rasseul Douglas to me, has he's he was, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of that that turnover machine in some respects in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one when he first got here and you know,
Speaker 1: was thrown into things and he was making, you know,
Speaker 1: getting these key interceptions. Then you know, he he settled in,
Speaker 1: did his thing last year. But I'm it feels like
Speaker 1: he is a he is almost a different player this
Speaker 1: year than he was last year. There's something something about
Speaker 1: something about as approach, his swagger, just his his attitude,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, that he looks a
Speaker 1: little bit different. Maybe he's just that much more comfortable
Speaker 1: in this defense now that he's had you know, a
Speaker 1: couple of training camps and all that to get ready.
Speaker 1: But really like what we're.
Speaker 2: Seeing his back outside. I mean he spent the off
Speaker 2: season outside too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. Last last year there was a lot
Speaker 1: of experimentation going on with where he was lining up.
Speaker 2: I respected what the idea was there, because you look
Speaker 2: at him, he has a similar size to a Charles Woodson.
Speaker 2: There was that comparison. I think that that Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 2: threw out there at the time, and but he the
Speaker 2: way he battles and the way he uses his size
Speaker 2: on the perimeter, Yeah, that is where I think he's
Speaker 2: really shown his growth. And honestly, it'd be really interesting
Speaker 2: if you just broke out his play in the number
Speaker 2: of snaps he's taken just at the perimeter cornerback spot.
Speaker 2: The Packers made a pretty pretty gutsy call there. They're
Speaker 2: gonna say we're gonna play sides. We're gonna have gay
Speaker 2: Air on the left, We're gonna play Rastul on the right,
Speaker 2: understanding that you're gonna see a lot of DeVante over there.
Speaker 2: And I thought he really competed well against I'm a
Speaker 2: guy that there is. It's a high wire act going
Speaker 2: against DeVante. Yeah, no, No, I thought he really succeeded.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, the Packers defense certainly has something to build
Speaker 1: off of heading into the Denver game. The Packers offense
Speaker 1: trying to get things untracked early in games, like we
Speaker 1: had talked about earlier. We'll talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about the Denver Broncos on our next show leading into
Speaker 1: Sunday's game, But for now we'll call it a rap
Speaker 1: on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow
Speaker 1: all of our coverage on the team on packers dot
Speaker 1: com for wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody.
Speaker 1: We will see you next time.