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 Hodkowits were coming to you
Speaker 1: here from our studios at lambeau Field to preview Sunday
Speaker 1: Night football West. It will be Packers Bills from Buffalo
Speaker 1: in prime time at high Mark Stadium. Though I know
Speaker 1: you still like to call it the Ralph, which you
Speaker 1: did on our Three Things yesterday. So what used to
Speaker 1: be known as Ralph Wilson Stadium is where the Packers
Speaker 1: will face the Bills on Sunday Night. It's a Buffalo
Speaker 1: Bills team that is five and one coming off a
Speaker 1: bye week, looking every bit the Super Bowl contender they
Speaker 1: were touted as before the season began. And when you
Speaker 1: look at this team West, it all starts at quarterback
Speaker 1: with Josh Allen, who is squarely in the conversation for
Speaker 1: the m v P. As we near the midway point.
Speaker 1: He is, and we're going to discuss all the Bills
Speaker 1: and how good they are in here a second. But
Speaker 1: I don't know if you saw the renderings of that
Speaker 1: stadium that they have that they perspectively put together. Actually,
Speaker 1: they just came out. I think like either yesterday we
Speaker 1: just saw it. It's it's pretty nice. These NFL stadiums,
Speaker 1: bro I mean, we haven't been able to get to
Speaker 1: Sofa yet or Allegiance, but they're they're pretty It's pretty
Speaker 1: wild the way these things are developing. And it's and
Speaker 1: this is why you do it, right. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills have never been hotter, at least during my
Speaker 1: adult life, maybe going back to when I was in
Speaker 1: elementary school. I mean, this team and what they have,
Speaker 1: they are so complete, and they play they feed off
Speaker 1: each other so well. I mean, that's what all the
Speaker 1: best championship teams do, right. It wasn't just that Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers was at the peak of his powers in two
Speaker 1: thousand eleven and twelve and ten. It was they had
Speaker 1: all this emerging talent around him. It's that they had
Speaker 1: a defense that was as solid as what Buffalo has offensively.
Speaker 1: I always loved telling the story two thousand eighteen, when
Speaker 1: we were still doing our pregame show out at lambeau
Speaker 1: Field before the games, Josh Allen whacked me in the
Speaker 1: calf with a ball. Uh. That's that's where he was
Speaker 1: at his rookie season and in warmups he like threw
Speaker 1: a ball and it missed the receiver and hit me
Speaker 1: literally and almost bruised my calf. I mean that's how
Speaker 1: hard it was thrown. And now you look at him
Speaker 1: and this is one of the I mean, this guy
Speaker 1: is going to be a factor in the National Football
Speaker 1: League for the next fifteen years. I mean, he is
Speaker 1: the crown jewel of that draft class. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of great quarterbacks that year, but when you look at
Speaker 1: where he has steered the Buffalo Bills, it's all on
Speaker 1: his shoulders. Yes, Stefon Diggs is fantastic. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: Gabe Davis is coming on. Defensively, Von Miller's brought a
Speaker 1: lot to that defense. But Josh Miller or Josh excuse me,
Speaker 1: Josh Allen is the show and and you're seeing why. Yeah. Well, statistically,
Speaker 1: Josh Allen seventeen touchdowns, four interceptions, a one oh nine
Speaker 1: point one passer rating, which is can in the league,
Speaker 1: just barely below Patrick Mahomes, though Josh Allen one the
Speaker 1: head to head with Patrick Mahomes very recently. Here. The
Speaker 1: other interesting interesting thing, of course about Alan statistically is
Speaker 1: he's actually Buffalo's leading rushier. He has two fifty seven
Speaker 1: rushing yards, which is one more than Devin Singletary and
Speaker 1: actually ten fewer attempts. And when Josh Allen has a
Speaker 1: five point five yard average per rushing attempt, and you
Speaker 1: know that there are several minus one kneel downs, you know,
Speaker 1: into that calculation whether it's a designed run or a
Speaker 1: scramble when Josh, when Josh Allen takes off and runs,
Speaker 1: there's a very good chance it's a chunk play, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, an explosive type of play for this Buffalo offense.
Speaker 1: And that's what makes them makes them so tough to
Speaker 1: stop because Josh Allen doesn't have to get rid of
Speaker 1: the ball to make a big play. Yeah. And the
Speaker 1: weird thing about this whole situation the Packers have been
Speaker 1: and regardless of the skid they've been on, is the
Speaker 1: quarterbacks they're playing. At some point in time, these qbs.
Speaker 1: I guess remember when for so many years you were
Speaker 1: telling Aaron Rodgers, you gotta make sure you slide, you
Speaker 1: gotta make sure you get down. And now Green Bay
Speaker 1: is going through this gauntlet of Daniel Jones, Taylor Heineke,
Speaker 1: and now Josh Allen. These guys have never even heard
Speaker 1: of the you know idea of sliding. I mean they
Speaker 1: are going to Josh Allen is gonna throw his shoulder
Speaker 1: into you. Uh. Even Kenny Clark talked about it as
Speaker 1: locker on Wednesday. He's like Big Ben, but he's more
Speaker 1: fleet afoot like. He He has the size, but he
Speaker 1: also has a lot of athleticism too. He's going to
Speaker 1: create big plays. He's going to do with his feet,
Speaker 1: He's gonna do with his arm. Stefon Diggs has been
Speaker 1: I mean when you talk about Mike with trades happen
Speaker 1: in the National Football League and all there's winners and losers.
Speaker 1: The Bills, Scott Stefon Diggs, the Vikings got Justin Jefferson,
Speaker 1: and those two guys have just completely ascended in their
Speaker 1: own respects in these avenues. Gabe Davis is actually on
Speaker 1: my fantasy team right now. Seven and a half yards
Speaker 1: per catchy at the NY eight yard touchdown last week.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of threats the Packers will have
Speaker 1: to neutralize to be successful at the Ralph. Well, you
Speaker 1: look at and I want to talk about these receivers
Speaker 1: a little bit too, because you look at Stefon Diggs
Speaker 1: six games now Buffalo has played, as we mentioned, coming
Speaker 1: off of a bye week. In six games, Stefon Diggs
Speaker 1: has forty nine catches, six hundred and fifty six yards
Speaker 1: and six touchdowns. I mean the math there says he's
Speaker 1: on pace for you know, a hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: plus receptions like eighteen hundred plus yards and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: seventeen t d s. I mean he is, he is
Speaker 1: on pace here and they're early going for an absolutely
Speaker 1: monster year. And then as you said, you have to
Speaker 1: deal with Gabe Davis as well, who only has fourteen
Speaker 1: catches on the year, but four of those have gone
Speaker 1: for touchdowns as you mentioned in ninety eight yard touchdown,
Speaker 1: which has boosted his average on those fourteen receptions to
Speaker 1: twenty seven and a half yards per catch. This this
Speaker 1: isn't This is an offense that can that can gash you.
Speaker 1: They can make the big play at any time. And no,
Speaker 1: they don't have much of a running game. As I mentioned,
Speaker 1: Josh Allen is the team's leading rusher. But they are
Speaker 1: so dangerous because of Alan's dual threat ability and because
Speaker 1: of these receivers, and you throw in a tight end
Speaker 1: like Dawson Knox, who can make a lot of things happen.
Speaker 1: This is a this is a tough unit to handle.
Speaker 1: And you know, you know, going into Buffalo in prime
Speaker 1: time under the lights, with Aaron Rodgers coming to town
Speaker 1: for the first time in eight years, the Buffalo crowd
Speaker 1: is going to be I mean, it's it's the atmosphere
Speaker 1: in that place is going to be, uh, something else
Speaker 1: for for just a regular season, fol And we don't
Speaker 1: need to revisit two thousand fourteen and that that matchup there.
Speaker 1: But the one thing, it's the only time I've ever
Speaker 1: been at Landmark Stadium. Uh, I'm just gonna let that
Speaker 1: go throughout the entire show. No, it's the first time
Speaker 1: I've been to Buffalo since that game. And that day
Speaker 1: it was Kyle Orton, who has been signed that year
Speaker 1: to play quarterback. Their season was pretty much, for the
Speaker 1: lack of a better term, over, I mean, they were
Speaker 1: right or hovering around if I remember right, and the
Speaker 1: feeling in that stadium was not one of jubilation. It
Speaker 1: was pretty melancholy up until the end when they ended
Speaker 1: up actually winning the game. This is gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot different. Sammy Watkins, the former Buffalo Bill was talking
Speaker 1: about this. He's like, when when the Bills are good,
Speaker 1: when they're winning football games, it's like a college town atmosphere.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's what that's like. I mean, you
Speaker 1: and I are going to see it when we're pulling
Speaker 1: up on the buses. Maybe there'll be someone going through
Speaker 1: a table. We're not sure, but yeah, our our buses
Speaker 1: sort of go because I've I've been there for two
Speaker 1: games two thousand and six and two thousand and fourteen,
Speaker 1: and the buses that take us from the hotel of
Speaker 1: the stadium we go through like these neighborhoods. It's it's
Speaker 1: it's the most similar to Green Bay and of any
Speaker 1: place in the NFL where you're going through these neighborhoods
Speaker 1: and you're seeing people with with their you know, their
Speaker 1: tailgate parties in their driveway, in their yards, you know,
Speaker 1: cars being parked, you know, collecting twenty bucks here and
Speaker 1: there or whatever. That's that's what it's like. And our
Speaker 1: our our buses go right through that. So yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: be watching to see if what what sort of Shenanikins
Speaker 1: are happening, especially with it being a night game where
Speaker 1: folks are going to have all day to get ready
Speaker 1: for this one. But what I really like to about
Speaker 1: the Bills offensively is so you look at a guy
Speaker 1: like Devin Singletary, and Singletary is not a guy that
Speaker 1: everyone's like, oh well, this is a big, you know,
Speaker 1: huge threat, but for what the Bills want to do,
Speaker 1: he compliments it perfectly because he can run. But he's
Speaker 1: also their second leading pass catcher in terms of the
Speaker 1: number of receptions. Um they drafted Zack Moss he's involved
Speaker 1: in that too, But I mean Singletary is the guy
Speaker 1: that kind of compliments the whole thing, and there's just Mike.
Speaker 1: You just don't see a lot of weaknesses across the board. Now,
Speaker 1: the Packers are gonna do a lot of things right,
Speaker 1: but you know, Jamison Crowders on this roster obviously, I
Speaker 1: think Jake Kumro is going through some injury stuff right now,
Speaker 1: but that they are veteran, they are versatile, and certainly
Speaker 1: when you have those type of playmakers at the quarterback
Speaker 1: position and guys that can be game records down the field,
Speaker 1: like Digs and like Gabe Davis, that there's a lot
Speaker 1: that Green Bass to account for for sure. And on
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the ball. This is this is
Speaker 1: the unit that has ranked number one in the league
Speaker 1: in both yards allowed and points allowed. A lot of
Speaker 1: statistics certainly jump off the page. Von Miller with six sacks, UM,
Speaker 1: the young guy Russo has four, Those two guys with
Speaker 1: with ten combined. Jordan Poyer in the back end has
Speaker 1: four of this this uh, this defense is ten interceptions
Speaker 1: on the season. UM. A huge challenge for a Green
Speaker 1: Bay offense that is continuing to try to find itself
Speaker 1: to clean up the mental mistakes as well as the
Speaker 1: physical mistakes, settling in with a new offensive line. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the Packers are banged up at receiver. We don't know
Speaker 1: who all is going to be available at wide receiver
Speaker 1: for for Sunday night just yet. UM. This is UH,
Speaker 1: this is this is a tremendous challenge because because this Buffalo,
Speaker 1: this Buffalo defense, they they got von Miller for a reason, right,
Speaker 1: They knew, they knew they were close, but they felt.
Speaker 1: You know, when you when you get knocked out of
Speaker 1: the playoffs by allowing in essence, by allowing a field
Speaker 1: goal to extend a game in twelve seconds or thirteen
Speaker 1: seconds or whatever it was, you're like, all right, we
Speaker 1: need to get a finisher on defense. Von Miller is
Speaker 1: that guy that that when that defense needs a big
Speaker 1: time pressure or a sack or uh you know, strip sack, fumble,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, they're counting on Miller to deliver it.
Speaker 1: In so far this season he has. Yeah, and Miller
Speaker 1: really has been I don't want to start throwing out
Speaker 1: like Reggie White type comparisons, but when you look at
Speaker 1: where he has gone in the impact he's had, he's
Speaker 1: really been like that that finishing piece from a lot
Speaker 1: of these really good defenses around the National Football Certainly,
Speaker 1: certainly was for the Rams, helping them win the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl last year, and certainly, I mean, we don't need
Speaker 1: to talk about fifteen and what he did on those
Speaker 1: Denver Broncos teams. But the craziest part of this deal
Speaker 1: for the Bills is they're doing all this without Micah Hyde.
Speaker 1: Mica gets that neck injury earlier in the season, he's
Speaker 1: done for the year. Everybody for so long, they've been
Speaker 1: talking about how Poorer and Hide are probably one of
Speaker 1: the best, if not the best safety combination the National
Speaker 1: Football League right now, both how they play off of
Speaker 1: each other and really their ball hawking skills. I feel like,
Speaker 1: especially with dealing with some of his own injuries. Uh,
Speaker 1: this has only brought out the best and Jordan poy
Speaker 1: are four interceptions on this season. Uh. We hear so
Speaker 1: often from Packers players, from coaches marrying the pass rush
Speaker 1: to the past coverage. That's what a good defense does, Miamire,
Speaker 1: I should say Buffalo does all of it. Third in
Speaker 1: the league, I think in takeaways, lead the league with
Speaker 1: ten interceptions. I let Miami slip out of my mouth
Speaker 1: there because I was gonna say the only team that's
Speaker 1: had success, the only team that's beaten them, and again
Speaker 1: it was a barn Burner type game, was the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: They didn't do it by running the ball well against them,
Speaker 1: They barely ran the ball at all. They did it
Speaker 1: by not having turnovers. The few explosive plays they had,
Speaker 1: they scored on all of them, and they made the
Speaker 1: most of their red zone opportunities. The same thing has
Speaker 1: to happen for the Packers to be successful against this defense,
Speaker 1: right and what and what Miami did in that game,
Speaker 1: because statistically, that game, the one game Buffalo lost this year,
Speaker 1: was lopsided in a number of statistics. In favor of
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Bills. The number of plays, the yards, everything,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't a big turnover fest. But the other
Speaker 1: thing that Miami, the other thing that Miami did is
Speaker 1: Miami's defense continued to rise up in the red zone,
Speaker 1: backed up against the goal line, whatever the case might be.
Speaker 1: Miami's defense made key plays at key times. And so
Speaker 1: all of these, all these plays and yards and everything
Speaker 1: that Buffalo piled up, the Bills weren't able to, uh
Speaker 1: to convert those into enough points to pull out a
Speaker 1: game that they that they otherwise dominated up and down
Speaker 1: the field. So, um that that was my next question
Speaker 1: to you with regard to what what are the keys?
Speaker 1: What are the keys to victory here? I think another
Speaker 1: another category that sticks out is that Buffalo offensively is
Speaker 1: number one in the league on in third down conversions
Speaker 1: um third out conversion percentage. Green Bay defensively is number
Speaker 1: three in the league. But as we've seen, you know,
Speaker 1: we had talked about a couple of the third and
Speaker 1: longs that were converted in London by the Giants that
Speaker 1: sort of turned the tide in that game. And then
Speaker 1: the second half last week against Washington where whether it
Speaker 1: was third and short or third and long. The Packers
Speaker 1: just couldn't get off the field. Washington converting a lot
Speaker 1: of third downs in that second half. So we've seen
Speaker 1: Green Bay have some struggling moments in that regard, and
Speaker 1: uh um, you know, you get it's going to be
Speaker 1: difficult enough in some respects to get a big play
Speaker 1: offense like the Buffalo Bills into a lot of third downs.
Speaker 1: But if the Packers get them into third down, they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to They're gonna have to get off the
Speaker 1: field that way. I mean for the green Bay Pratt Packers,
Speaker 1: you ask about how they win this game. To me,
Speaker 1: there's three things that this is going to boil down
Speaker 1: to it. It It is the third down defense. They need
Speaker 1: that to hold true in this game, as you mentioned
Speaker 1: third right now in the National Football League. It is
Speaker 1: their red zone defense, their six right now in the
Speaker 1: National Football League. If the Bills do get into deep territory,
Speaker 1: you need to find ways to keep them out of
Speaker 1: the end zone because they're not going to be punting
Speaker 1: a ton. There's going to be plays that they are
Speaker 1: going to extend. They're going to have ten play twelve
Speaker 1: play drives. Do you generate turner takeaways off of that,
Speaker 1: Are you able to stop them and force them to
Speaker 1: send the field goal unit on yeah, and hey for
Speaker 1: fourth and three from the forty five yard line. Sean
Speaker 1: mcdermot's going forth most of the time. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's not just the third down defense. You have to
Speaker 1: be ready for them to for them to roll the
Speaker 1: dice on fourth down to exactly and then obviously that's
Speaker 1: something Green Bay is gonna have to take into account.
Speaker 1: And realistically, it comes back to what happened last week
Speaker 1: with Taylor Heineke. The Packers again, as I mentioned on
Speaker 1: two Day's show, they had twenty nine pressures according to
Speaker 1: Pro Football Focus, whatever it was nine quarterback hits or
Speaker 1: sit whatever that number was. Maybe it was even more
Speaker 1: than that one sack. Uh. The Packers have to be
Speaker 1: able to finish plays pressure contain be smart about it.
Speaker 1: That was another thing Kenny Clark and Dean Lawry Boll
Speaker 1: talked about knowing your rush lanes, making sure that Alan
Speaker 1: doesn't leak out because the dangerous thing about him is
Speaker 1: he can make every throw from every point of the field.
Speaker 1: He'll throw across the hashes if he has he sees
Speaker 1: the opportunity. But he also is not afraid to talk
Speaker 1: the ball and run it. That's where green Bay has
Speaker 1: to be able to hold up. And also I know
Speaker 1: it's been a grind for green Bay with the run
Speaker 1: defense so far this season seven or whatever it is
Speaker 1: in the league right now. Making sure that Singletary doesn't
Speaker 1: get a lot of production, making sure that Alan doesn't
Speaker 1: leak out. You do want to make sure that you're
Speaker 1: forcing this thing to the past, because to me, green
Speaker 1: Bay it's been They've been in this drought with takeaways
Speaker 1: and turnovers that I think can only last so long.
Speaker 1: You can only get your hands on so many passes
Speaker 1: before those things finally start getting caught. They need takeaways
Speaker 1: in this matchup. Yeah, absolutely, and and and Buffalo has
Speaker 1: given the ball away ten times so far this year.
Speaker 1: That ranks, you know, around the bottom third of the
Speaker 1: league in terms of the giveaways. And we had talked
Speaker 1: on our last show about how the Packers had they
Speaker 1: got the big pick six, they almost had another defensive
Speaker 1: score if not for the penalty, but they had opportunities
Speaker 1: for other turnovers. And you get your hands on the ball,
Speaker 1: you've got it. You've got to cash in on it.
Speaker 1: You can't let those chances get away. On the offensive side,
Speaker 1: as I talked about before, the Packers are trying to
Speaker 1: figure themselves out there, trying to clean up the mental mistakes,
Speaker 1: the physical mistakes the Packers just offensively, especially against the
Speaker 1: number one defense in the league. You've got to play
Speaker 1: as clean of football as you can play. The mental
Speaker 1: errors that Aaron Rodgers is talking about of the plays
Speaker 1: that they're running, have a mental error by somebody, a
Speaker 1: missed assignment by somebody that can't continue. The physical mistakes,
Speaker 1: the drop passes, the poor technique that leads to holding calls.
Speaker 1: Those are the Packers simply have to have to clean
Speaker 1: up everything to give themselves opportunities against a against a
Speaker 1: Buffalo defense. Because what's going to help what's going to
Speaker 1: help you out the most against Josh Allen is too,
Speaker 1: is to create a game with fewer possessions. Right, you
Speaker 1: can't let Josh Allen take the field thirteen or fourteen times.
Speaker 1: So the way you do that is by is by
Speaker 1: getting back to and you had mentioned this an insider inbox,
Speaker 1: getting back to winning the time of possession. The Packers
Speaker 1: need to convert on third down move the chains shorten
Speaker 1: the game in the sense of in the sense of
Speaker 1: not putting your defense out there as many times against
Speaker 1: a guy like Josh Allen. There's a there's so much
Speaker 1: that the Packers need to clean up offensively, but at
Speaker 1: some point they're going to do it. And and when
Speaker 1: they do it, we're gonna gonna see it. We're gonna
Speaker 1: know what it looks like and uh, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: see a team that's gonna give itself a much better
Speaker 1: chance to win regardless of the opponent, compared to what
Speaker 1: we've seen the last couple of weeks. Exactly and offensively,
Speaker 1: maximizing your opportunities first down, being able to move the ball,
Speaker 1: get first downs, being able to actually generate big plays
Speaker 1: organically in not having to force them. That was the
Speaker 1: other thing you. You had made a comment in in
Speaker 1: box earlier this week about the about the second and longs,
Speaker 1: and I went I went back and counted from the
Speaker 1: Washington game, and if I counted correctly, I counted six
Speaker 1: different times in the game the Packers were in second
Speaker 1: and ten or more. Six times second and ten or more.
Speaker 1: You can't live that way on offense. It's just that
Speaker 1: that that's just that's not a way you can survive
Speaker 1: in this league. It doesn't mean it doesn't mean you
Speaker 1: have to be in second and two all day, but
Speaker 1: you need to be in second and six and second
Speaker 1: and five most of the day to give yourself a chance,
Speaker 1: because if you're in a position, god forbid, I think
Speaker 1: there's even a couple of second and if you're in
Speaker 1: that spot, that's not how you generate a fifty five
Speaker 1: yard pass play to Sammy Watkins. You generate those type
Speaker 1: of opportunities sitting in third and short, sitting in second
Speaker 1: and manageable, being able to give the defense a lot
Speaker 1: to consider and how they want to defend you. That's
Speaker 1: going to be paramount in this game. And if I
Speaker 1: may to throw in, it's not just offense and defense.
Speaker 1: Special teams is going to have a big part to
Speaker 1: play in this too. Time of possession in the field
Speaker 1: situationally is going to be critical. Uh Isaiah McKenzie is
Speaker 1: one of the best kickoff returners Nobody in the National
Speaker 1: Football League really ever talks about. Uh is a dynamic guy.
Speaker 1: If he's able to take it out of the end zone.
Speaker 1: Jamison Crowder has been doing it for so long in
Speaker 1: the National Football League, has been so consistent in that
Speaker 1: way a guy that maybe hasn't broken one for touchdown
Speaker 1: yet this year on punts, but has been able to
Speaker 1: give them an extra eleven twelve twenty yards off their
Speaker 1: punt returns. Green Bay has to be able to win
Speaker 1: the time of possession and has to win the field position.
Speaker 1: I think those are the two small things in this
Speaker 1: matchup when you talk about little details that are really
Speaker 1: going to be looming over this game and making it
Speaker 1: making the Packers not be the ten point dogs, and
Speaker 1: everyone thinks they are pro proving that they still are
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl contender. A month ago everybody believed them
Speaker 1: to be. Yeah. Absolutely, I agree with you. Some sponsor
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Speaker 1: Subs fifty years of better. And I gotta stop myself
Speaker 1: on the Jamison crowter thing. I knew I messed up
Speaker 1: on that one because Carter actually is on injured reserve
Speaker 1: right now, so he's for a few weeks. Oh, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize. I forgot about As soon as I said,
Speaker 1: I was like, that doesn't sound right to me. But
Speaker 1: they do still have to worry about Isaiah mackenzie though. Yeah, Um,
Speaker 1: we we're walking on a tight rope here, Mike. We
Speaker 1: we do it live, right, That's right, we do it live.
Speaker 1: That's a part of the story. Um. Wanted to get
Speaker 1: your thoughts on a few other games around the league
Speaker 1: in Week eight in the NFL. These are the ones
Speaker 1: when I was glancing at the schedule that jumped out
Speaker 1: to me in terms of, uh, you know, I want
Speaker 1: to kind of pay attention during the afternoon on Sunday
Speaker 1: as Sunday night football approaches to see how these turn out.
Speaker 1: Chicago is at Dallas, which looks like a much more
Speaker 1: interesting game than it did before last week when the
Speaker 1: before the Bears had beaten the Patriots on the road
Speaker 1: in primetime. Arizona is at Minnesota, Arizona coming off of
Speaker 1: a Thursday night win with this quote unquote mini by
Speaker 1: Minnesota coming off of its full bye week. Obviously, the
Speaker 1: Vikings with just one loss so far this year. San
Speaker 1: Francisco is at the l A. Rams. One of the
Speaker 1: Rams are three and three, the forty nine are three
Speaker 1: and four. I don't think either team expected to be
Speaker 1: in that spot. And now those two NFC West rivals
Speaker 1: going head to head and then probably the what what
Speaker 1: you would label the game of the biggest surprises in
Speaker 1: certainly in the NFC at least, is the Giants, with
Speaker 1: their six and one record, are at Seattle and the
Speaker 1: Seahawks are at four and three in first place in
Speaker 1: the NFC West. The only team in the NFC West
Speaker 1: that is above five hundred, so Chicago, Dallas, Arizona, Minnesota,
Speaker 1: San fran Rams and Giants Seahawks. What interests you there? Well,
Speaker 1: seeing exactly where things are with Gino Smith is going
Speaker 1: to be one of because this will be a big
Speaker 1: test for him going up against that Giants defense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how clean they play, how dynamic they've been with not
Speaker 1: a who lot of whole lot of household names. The
Speaker 1: thing about Smith and you've got to see how long
Speaker 1: these can go. We did plenty of stories over the
Speaker 1: past of you know, Ryan Fitzpatrick, you know, had some
Speaker 1: amazing runs and when you think about what he did
Speaker 1: in Tampa for a time and in Miami, But can
Speaker 1: you consistently do it? If Gino Smith can actually carry
Speaker 1: this out through the course of the year, I don't
Speaker 1: know if he would qualify as like a comeback Player
Speaker 1: of the Year type candidate, but you do start to
Speaker 1: get some like rich Gannon type vibes from that. A
Speaker 1: guy that got an opportunity and then had to sit
Speaker 1: a lot um And I think you give John Schneider
Speaker 1: a lot of credit, you give Pete Carroll a lot
Speaker 1: of credit, and certainly Gino a lot of credit that
Speaker 1: this is a guy that was completely written off. And
Speaker 1: when Russell Wilson got hurt a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: and he had to go in a lot of people
Speaker 1: were mocking that. Um when they make the trade and
Speaker 1: Drew lock comes over there and it's like, Oh, you're
Speaker 1: gonna have Drew Locker Gino Smith and everyone laughs about it.
Speaker 1: Gino Smith has played really good ball this year. You
Speaker 1: have to do it consistently. Seven games does not make
Speaker 1: a season. But I'll tell you what, man, if he
Speaker 1: goes and they hold court against the Giants, that that's
Speaker 1: something you're really going to have to start to respect
Speaker 1: and acknowledge. I do also really quickly want to touch
Speaker 1: on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because as the Packers ready
Speaker 1: for this matchup with Buffalo, the Buccaneers are at a
Speaker 1: crossroads to three and four going up against a Baltimore
Speaker 1: team that, to a certain extent, they've underachieved in some
Speaker 1: people's eyes. To be sitting where they're at, that's a
Speaker 1: kind of a big game for both of those teams,
Speaker 1: and for Tampa playing at home. That's the one that's tonight, right,
Speaker 1: That's the one I was looking at the slate of
Speaker 1: sun so I missed that when I was football goes
Speaker 1: And for anybody that listens this over the weekend, I'm
Speaker 1: sorry we're wasting kind of your time here. But in
Speaker 1: terms of Thursday I football, this is as big as
Speaker 1: those games get. Because you know, you had a lot
Speaker 1: of injuries on both things. Mark Andrews didn't practice this week.
Speaker 1: I know, you know, Mike Evans, these are tough games
Speaker 1: to step into and there's big implications for both of
Speaker 1: these squads. Yeah. Absolutely, With as far as as far
Speaker 1: as the NFC North goes, the Bears three and four
Speaker 1: with a chance, with a chance to get back to
Speaker 1: five hundred on the road against the Cowboys, a Cowboys
Speaker 1: team that now has Dak Prescott back, and Prescott is
Speaker 1: playing in his second straight game coming back from his
Speaker 1: hand injury, thumb injury, UM and UH Arizona being on
Speaker 1: the road at Minnesota, I don't think anybody thought the
Speaker 1: Vikings would be five and one at this point. And
Speaker 1: one thing that one thing that's always interesting to me
Speaker 1: about Minnesota when they get in this position and now
Speaker 1: this is a new regime, right, a new head coach,
Speaker 1: new GM and all that, there are times there are
Speaker 1: times that Minnesota has jumped out in front. The Vikings
Speaker 1: have jumped out in front and UM and responded really
Speaker 1: well and stayed there and made a run like they
Speaker 1: did in twenty seventeen they got all the way even
Speaker 1: with case Keenum who was quote quote unquote backup quarterback,
Speaker 1: getting all the way to NFC Championship game. There are
Speaker 1: other times Minnesota has jumped out front and then has
Speaker 1: not responded well to being the team everybody's chasing UM
Speaker 1: in the NFC North and UH and and what has
Speaker 1: been a gap early on has has closed. So I'm
Speaker 1: curious to see now that they've They've had their bye week,
Speaker 1: but now they have to go the rest of the
Speaker 1: way without a break. Can the Vikings sustain it? And
Speaker 1: uh um and an error own a team that very
Speaker 1: up and down and all that, but also as we know,
Speaker 1: very dangerous with Kyler Murray and those offensive weapons. I
Speaker 1: think that's a really interesting matchup just to see where
Speaker 1: where Minnesota is and how the Vikings maybe set the tone,
Speaker 1: so to speak, to be the front runner in the
Speaker 1: NFC North because hands down that's what they are right
Speaker 1: now by a pretty good margin. Yeah, and this is
Speaker 1: for the Vikings measure. This is that that cross conference,
Speaker 1: you know, division game that's set up based on your
Speaker 1: allotment last year. So these are two teams that I think,
Speaker 1: in a lot of people's eyes underachieved last season, especially
Speaker 1: with how things started for Arizona. So you're seeing with
Speaker 1: two different directions. I think they've traveled to this point.
Speaker 1: But as you mentioned, the wild card in all this
Speaker 1: is Murray because he's going to give the Vikings problems
Speaker 1: considerations that they haven't really had a factory in yet.
Speaker 1: When you look at the extended plays, when you look
Speaker 1: at the creativity of the Kingsbury offense, That's where I
Speaker 1: want to see how this thing shuffles out. Offensively, the
Speaker 1: Vikings are dangerous, but there's so many known things about
Speaker 1: that offense and in the way that Kirk Cousins plays
Speaker 1: the position. Certainly the threat that Justin Jefferson presents their
Speaker 1: backfield equation, but defensively is the one that I just
Speaker 1: still you just wonder, you know, Patrick Peterson facing his
Speaker 1: old old team, is he still going to be able
Speaker 1: to capture you know, the phone youth there a little
Speaker 1: bit that he's had at times in Minnesota. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of things to consider in it, and certainly for
Speaker 1: the Packers measure, looking at the Vikings and then also
Speaker 1: seeing the Bears having a very competitive game against Dallas
Speaker 1: after trading Robert Quinn this week, how is that defense
Speaker 1: going to respond for Chicago. It's a very interesting point
Speaker 1: right now for this division. Yeah, well, a lot of
Speaker 1: interesting games to pay attention to on Sunday before the
Speaker 1: big kickoff in the evening from Buffalo for Packers and Bills.
Speaker 1: With that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition
Speaker 1: of Packers on Script. He'd be sure to follow all
Speaker 1: of our coverage of the team, will have everything from
Speaker 1: Sunday Night's game for you from Buffalo on Packers dot
Speaker 1: com for Wes, I am Mike, Thank you for tuning in, everybody,
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time.