Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford. He is my
Speaker 1: partner in crime, West Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here
Speaker 1: from our studios at lambeau Field and West. The NFC
Speaker 1: Divisional playoff game Saturday night at lambeau Field will pit
Speaker 1: the Packers against the San Francisco forty Niners. This will
Speaker 1: be the ninth postseason meeting between these two franchises. It
Speaker 1: is a rematch of Week three of the regular season.
Speaker 1: It's a rematch of the twenty nineteen NFC Championship game,
Speaker 1: just a couple of seasons ago. Your thoughts on the
Speaker 1: fact that the forty Niners are the opponent we've been
Speaker 1: waiting for, Well, I give the forty Niners credit because
Speaker 1: they gave me the most watchable game over the weekend. Absolutely. Absolutely, Hey,
Speaker 1: it's great. I loved it. From the standpoint of this
Speaker 1: is you look for those type of you couldn't have
Speaker 1: gone wrong. It would have been cool to see them
Speaker 1: get matched up with maybe some teams they haven't seen
Speaker 1: in the playoffs recently, but it's been the forty nine
Speaker 1: is a lot more often than not over the last
Speaker 1: ten years. So the fact that you get another one
Speaker 1: of these battles, obviously the little Floor Shanahan connection, the
Speaker 1: connections between these coaching staff, these players. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: an exciting matchup on Saturday night at lambeau Field. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you the difficult thing of watching that game unfold though,
Speaker 1: is and this is just West Hotkowitz, this is West
Speaker 1: Hawkwits the human being. I'll be honestly, I felt for
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy. I felt for the Cowboys. I felt I
Speaker 1: know a lot of people will be like crying for
Speaker 1: the Cowboys. That's that's an interesting concept, but I I
Speaker 1: just I really respected the team they put on the
Speaker 1: field this year. They have a lot of really young,
Speaker 1: exciting talent. If they would have been able to get
Speaker 1: that match up with, you know, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
Speaker 1: I thought that that would have been an amazing rematch
Speaker 1: to get. But this is how the Chips fell. The
Speaker 1: greenmy Packers get to welcome the San Francisco forty Niners
Speaker 1: a lambau Field for a chance to go to the
Speaker 1: NFC title Game. Well, that Niners Cowboys game on Sunday
Speaker 1: afternoon was just another example It was obviously the best
Speaker 1: game of the six wild card games on what was
Speaker 1: not such a super wild Card weekend as it turned out,
Speaker 1: but that being the best game, it was an example
Speaker 1: of you just you never know what might happen in
Speaker 1: these playoff contests, and you never know how much the
Speaker 1: little details are going to matter. Right when it comes
Speaker 1: down to Dak Prescott and you know the official needs
Speaker 1: to spot the ball before you can do the spike
Speaker 1: and all that. The Cowboys thought they had enough time
Speaker 1: to put themselves in a position to take a shot
Speaker 1: at the end zone. It didn't work out. The clock
Speaker 1: ran out on him. I do think, I do think
Speaker 1: the officials did everything right really in that situation, given
Speaker 1: how frantic it was and that and that the Cowboys
Speaker 1: really didn't execute it properly. That's the boy, That's the
Speaker 1: bottom line. I would feel me be a little a
Speaker 1: tinge more sympathy for the Cowboys, And I feel no
Speaker 1: sympathy at all for that organization in any way, shape
Speaker 1: or form, no matter what. But if that had been
Speaker 1: a trying to get a field goal situation or you know,
Speaker 1: whereas they still we're going to have to throw a
Speaker 1: to thirty yard touchdown pass on on the final play
Speaker 1: the game not impossible, certainly greater odds than a hail Mary,
Speaker 1: which is why they ran the play that they did,
Speaker 1: why they decided to to take that chance running Prescott
Speaker 1: up the middle. But um, the details matter, is my point.
Speaker 1: And whether you're talking about the Cowboys with all the
Speaker 1: penalties that they had in that game, which certainly benefit
Speaker 1: of the forty Niners, the forty Niners showing how much
Speaker 1: you can control a game in the postseason, and then
Speaker 1: suddenly one interception, a turnover, completely changes the momentum of
Speaker 1: the game and flips it and the Cowboys down to seven.
Speaker 1: The Niners have the ball, it's looking totally bleak for Dallas,
Speaker 1: and then suddenly they're rallying and they give themselves a
Speaker 1: shot at the end of the ball game. You just
Speaker 1: never know how these games are gonna go. That game,
Speaker 1: more than anything, showed me how important it is to
Speaker 1: get off to a fast start. San Francisco did that.
Speaker 1: They got down the field, they scored points. Deebill Samuel
Speaker 1: is just uh a lightning bug. I mean, just what
Speaker 1: he can offer to an offense as a pass catcher
Speaker 1: in the backfield. It's like a super you know, like
Speaker 1: size version of like what Randall Cobb was doing in
Speaker 1: two thousand eleven, two thousand twelve. I mean, just how
Speaker 1: he impacts that San Francisco offense. You saw how far
Speaker 1: he's come and exactly why he is an All Pro.
Speaker 1: But for San Francisco to get the points, get the
Speaker 1: stops early. When a game is as tight as that is, Mike,
Speaker 1: and it goes down to the wire, that's where penalties
Speaker 1: start to show themselves. That's where misfundamentals start to show themselves.
Speaker 1: That's where you know Randy Gregory getting a holding penalty
Speaker 1: against the tackle for Dragon, an offensive lineman to the
Speaker 1: ground just out of nowhere comes into play, and a
Speaker 1: few plays before that, Neville Gallimore does the hands to
Speaker 1: the face on the center I believe it was Alex
Speaker 1: mac the center for the forty Niners. Gives the forty
Speaker 1: Niners an automatic first down when maybe they would have
Speaker 1: had to pump the ball with more time on the clock.
Speaker 1: All those things added up to the situation that Cowboys
Speaker 1: were in in the final moment. In my takeaway from
Speaker 1: that game, once it was over, independent of just the
Speaker 1: fact that the San Francisco forty Niners prevailed was that
Speaker 1: this is one of the things that has made Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur's team so successful in green Bay. Yes, he's a
Speaker 1: brilliant offensive mind. Yes you have a you know, three
Speaker 1: time potentially now four time m v P quarterback. You
Speaker 1: have playmakers on both sides of the ball. But green
Speaker 1: Bay plays discipline. They don't make stupid mistakes. You're going
Speaker 1: to have penalties, and you're gonna have things you don't
Speaker 1: agree with, but are they going to be egregious type
Speaker 1: stuff that is just so visibly obvious to the officials
Speaker 1: they couldn't help but throw the play. That's where the
Speaker 1: Cowboys really got themselves into trouble in this game. And
Speaker 1: if you're winning by two touchdowns, doesn't matter if you're
Speaker 1: if you have a you know, you're commanding in your
Speaker 1: offense is clicking, you can overcome it. They didn't do
Speaker 1: enough of the those things in this game, and Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan and the way they have those guys coached up
Speaker 1: in San Francisco were able to take advantage of it.
Speaker 1: Despite the fact, yeah Nick Bosa going out with the concussion,
Speaker 1: Fred Warner being banged up, they still made it work.
Speaker 1: And this is a team that is very accustomed to
Speaker 1: having to overcome that type of adversity. Well, it's interesting
Speaker 1: because if there's one thing that the forty Niners have
Speaker 1: told me watching watching a good portion of of their
Speaker 1: games the last two weeks, is that the Packers have
Speaker 1: to be ready for a full sixty minute battle. And
Speaker 1: I know that that's a cliche and whatnot for the playoffs,
Speaker 1: but my point is, two weeks ago against the Rams,
Speaker 1: the forty Niners were down seventeen to nothing with their
Speaker 1: playoff hopes, with their season on the line, and they
Speaker 1: rallied back from that and got that game to overtime
Speaker 1: and ended up pulling it out. Then in the wild
Speaker 1: card game, they start out like gangbusters and jump on
Speaker 1: top of the Cowboys thirteen to nothing. Nothing's going right
Speaker 1: for Dallas, and yet the forty Niners still ended up
Speaker 1: having to you know, grind out some first downs and
Speaker 1: and nearly got the first down that they needed to
Speaker 1: not give Dallas the one, the one final chance. But
Speaker 1: this uh, this forty Niners team, nothing's gonna make them blink.
Speaker 1: And that's that's one of the things that that I
Speaker 1: think has been a trademark of of Matt Lafleur's teams
Speaker 1: in his three years here in Green Bay, They've had
Speaker 1: a lot of down to the wire games. A lot
Speaker 1: of them have gone their way, some of them haven't.
Speaker 1: But these Packers have been and especially this year, have
Speaker 1: been tested late in ball games with down to the
Speaker 1: wire finishes. This forty Niners team is exactly the same way.
Speaker 1: These two teams are not going to flinch in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter on Saturday Night. It's going to be a
Speaker 1: sixty minute, drag out battle all the way to the end.
Speaker 1: There's a reason these two got to the final four
Speaker 1: here in the NFC, and and the forty Niners are
Speaker 1: like the light version of the Packers. The Packers got
Speaker 1: the number one seed in the by because since Week
Speaker 1: two include week one, but since Week two, they found
Speaker 1: a way to win close matchups and they did it
Speaker 1: all season long, with the exception of one game. San
Speaker 1: Francisco got off to a terrible start for what their
Speaker 1: expectations were for this season, not trending in the right way.
Speaker 1: The questions about Garoppolo. They're losing three four straight games
Speaker 1: in a row. They never found a way to solve
Speaker 1: Seattle for some reason this season. It didn't work out
Speaker 1: for them, but down the stretch, look at what they've done, Mike.
Speaker 1: They beat Cincinnati, they beat the l A Rams, they
Speaker 1: lost a competitive game to the top seed in the
Speaker 1: a f C and tennesseeat and the other thing too
Speaker 1: that Green Bay has to keep an eye open this
Speaker 1: never ending carousel running backs. What was the number one
Speaker 1: thing that the San Francisco forty niners were missing in
Speaker 1: Week three? They did they didn't have a back. You know,
Speaker 1: Trace Sermon was handling that role, but realistically they weren't
Speaker 1: able to run the ball. Garoppolo had to throw up more,
Speaker 1: they had more turnovers, They weren't able to be able
Speaker 1: to protect the football. The Packers won that game late
Speaker 1: being able to get Elijah Mitchell going here in the
Speaker 1: second half of the season. The way he's played since
Speaker 1: mid November. It's a stark difference with how this team
Speaker 1: performs with Kyle Shanahan's offense. When they have a running
Speaker 1: back they can go to. Mitchell's been that guy. You
Speaker 1: look at that wild card matchup Dallas could not run
Speaker 1: the ball. San Francisco was really committed to it. With
Speaker 1: throwing in the wrinkles with Samuel that was a difference. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it seems a difference from Week three as well as
Speaker 1: far as looking back at that first matchup between the
Speaker 1: Packers and forty Niners. This year, the forty Niners have
Speaker 1: gotten in my opinion, they've gotten more and more creative
Speaker 1: and versatile with the way that's that they use Deebo Samuel.
Speaker 1: The Deebo Samuel that the Packers are going to see
Speaker 1: at lambeau Field on Saturday night is a different type
Speaker 1: of weapon than the one that they saw back in
Speaker 1: Week three. And you combine that with the emergence of
Speaker 1: the young running back in Elijah Mitchell. Where As you
Speaker 1: said the forty Niners did not have as reliable a
Speaker 1: ground game back in Week three, this is a this
Speaker 1: is a really different offense that the Packers are going
Speaker 1: to that the Packers are going to have to face
Speaker 1: and and uh, it may not be as easy to
Speaker 1: get the turnovers that that the Packers did back in
Speaker 1: Week three that put them in command in the early
Speaker 1: stages of that game. Well, and the other thing that
Speaker 1: separated them from Week three is Brandon aiyuk Is is
Speaker 1: playing at a really high level. You got off to
Speaker 1: a really slow start this season, was starting to really
Speaker 1: look like okay was last year sort of a mirage there,
Speaker 1: like is this guy is still going to be able
Speaker 1: to perform at this level? And then he was able
Speaker 1: to corral himself. And when you see what they can
Speaker 1: do down the field with him and George Kittle and
Speaker 1: then being able to have all these wrinkles with Samuel,
Speaker 1: it creates a lot of different looks. And if you
Speaker 1: ultimately look at it, what is the hallmark of this
Speaker 1: version of the West Coast offense that Kyle Shanahan runs.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of running, and it's a lot of deception,
Speaker 1: and it's a lot of play action build off of
Speaker 1: the run. They want to get the defense's eyes moving,
Speaker 1: they want to get their feet and standing still. They
Speaker 1: want to be able to maximize those chances and be
Speaker 1: able to hurt you for big plays. That's where I
Speaker 1: think the biggest difference is. Now. That being said, well
Speaker 1: we'll talk about some of the defensive stuff and these
Speaker 1: other aspects of it, but a lot of Packer fans
Speaker 1: are working themselves into a tizzy over this, and the
Speaker 1: way that you and I are talking right now probably
Speaker 1: isn't helping things. But the one thing I've been kind
Speaker 1: of trying to just bang into people's heads this week.
Speaker 1: Is there was a reason the Packers were the number
Speaker 1: one seed. A lot of the things San Francisco does well,
Speaker 1: the Packers do them well too. A lot of the
Speaker 1: things that they can do in terms of their offense
Speaker 1: when it's working well, Green Bay actually probably does better
Speaker 1: in terms of the explosivity standpoint. This is going to
Speaker 1: be a good game, but there's a reason why the
Speaker 1: Packers are favorite in it so that they have to
Speaker 1: play to their capabilities. They have to play smart, they
Speaker 1: have to play discipline, they have to protect the football.
Speaker 1: But this is a winnable game if you meet the
Speaker 1: challenges that San Francisco is going to present, specifically on
Speaker 1: the offensive side of the ball. Yeah, it's the nature
Speaker 1: of the beast when you get a first round by
Speaker 1: right and and this is what I talked about it,
Speaker 1: I think on the show last week, if not on
Speaker 1: the show, certainly an inbox that when you're the team,
Speaker 1: it used to be multiple teams getting the buy in
Speaker 1: the conference. Now it's just the one. When you're the team.
Speaker 1: When you're the team that's getting the buy, you're going
Speaker 1: to be facing a team that is coming off of
Speaker 1: its biggest victory of the season, because there are no
Speaker 1: bigger victories out there than playoff victories. And in the
Speaker 1: forty Niners case, they happen to be coming off of
Speaker 1: back to back big victories because they had to win
Speaker 1: in their regular season finale just to get that wild
Speaker 1: card spot. Now they won their wild card game. But
Speaker 1: it's the nature of the beast. You know, the Packers
Speaker 1: got the buy you're gonna be facing a team that
Speaker 1: that that got a big win or two to get
Speaker 1: to this point. But the forty Niners are coming to
Speaker 1: lambeau Field. It sounds like it's going to be cold.
Speaker 1: Not not super frigid, not you know, crazy cold, but
Speaker 1: it sounds like it's going to be cold. I think
Speaker 1: that raises some I think that raises some interesting questions
Speaker 1: with regard to Jimmy Garoppolo's hand, with regard to Garoppolo's
Speaker 1: sprained shoulder, which now which now we found out about
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan saying that that Garoppolo is dealing with a
Speaker 1: little bit of a shoulder issue, his his throwing shoulder.
Speaker 1: And then of course, the other the other news from
Speaker 1: their side is what will be the hell of Nick
Speaker 1: Bosa coming off of the concussion from the game against
Speaker 1: Alice and Fred Warner Um, the star inside linebacker who
Speaker 1: injured his ankle. I will say when when Warner went
Speaker 1: down on the field, that looked a lot worse than
Speaker 1: an ankle injury, So um, good for him that that
Speaker 1: that it wasn't a you know, one of these major,
Speaker 1: major serious injuries. We'll see what the news is. Right
Speaker 1: now as we're taping this, the news is pretty positive
Speaker 1: for the forty niners with regard to those injuries. It
Speaker 1: sounds like they are expecting to have both Bosa and
Speaker 1: Warner available on Saturday night. But we'll just have to we'll, we'll, we'll,
Speaker 1: we'll have to see how close to the Bosa one.
Speaker 1: Did make me kind of raise an eyebrow though, because
Speaker 1: it's like I thought this was like an independent neurologist,
Speaker 1: so I mean, maybe he's already been cleared, but otherwise
Speaker 1: I thought that was really interesting that they were already
Speaker 1: like kind of like, yeah, he should be should be okay.
Speaker 1: But be that as it may. Jordan Willis is still
Speaker 1: working through the high ankle sprain, so he could potentially
Speaker 1: be out. Um again, we'll get to that later. In
Speaker 1: the week. But the thing I have my ons Garoppolo. Uh,
Speaker 1: he talked and was pretty honest in terms of the
Speaker 1: media and what he's dealing with and and how it's
Speaker 1: changing his mechanics and his throwing motion, and obviously the
Speaker 1: challenges that get presented in colder weather with that ligament issue. Uh,
Speaker 1: that is going to there. There was several times Mike
Speaker 1: in that game against Dallas where you know, they could
Speaker 1: have put maybe the figurative dagger to steal a Wayne
Speaker 1: Larvy term into the Cowboys and he just wasn't able
Speaker 1: to make that throw, was it wasn't where it needed
Speaker 1: to be, or that one that ended up being overthrown
Speaker 1: over to Ayuk. I believe it was on the third
Speaker 1: down that was a third and long. He had opportunities
Speaker 1: and they just couldn't be able to connect. Seeing what
Speaker 1: the limitations are with that are going to be really
Speaker 1: interesting to watch. But ultimately you and I both know this, Mike,
Speaker 1: They're gonna try to run the football. We saw it
Speaker 1: in the nineteen championship game. They've seen it every time
Speaker 1: the Packers have played Kyle Shanahan over the last five years.
Speaker 1: They are going to want to impose their will in
Speaker 1: the trenches, and that's where the Packers have to step
Speaker 1: up to the challenge. Kenny Clark arrested, Dean Lawrie arrested.
Speaker 1: You hope that Devandra Campbell's doing okay with that elbow
Speaker 1: injury after getting a chance to rest a little bit.
Speaker 1: If they get moving fast sideline to sideline, it can
Speaker 1: be stout in their gaps. This is a totable, totally
Speaker 1: winnable game for green Bay to be able to control that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I do think the forty Niners u UM are going
Speaker 1: to be absolutely committed to the running game for sixty minutes.
Speaker 1: I mean, barring and I would say even even if
Speaker 1: the Packers get out to a start, say like the
Speaker 1: Rams did against the Niners a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and it's say it's seventeen to nothing in the second
Speaker 1: quarter or something like that, are not just going to
Speaker 1: trash their running game and turn the game over to
Speaker 1: Garoppolo and throw throw throw in the cold at lambeau Field.
Speaker 1: The Packers, regardless of how this game starts, good or bad,
Speaker 1: the Packers are going to have to be prepared to
Speaker 1: defend the run. Mitchell and Samuel and whatever other tricks
Speaker 1: and play actions and motions and everything that that Kyle
Speaker 1: Shanahan's gonna draw up for this one. They're gonna have
Speaker 1: to be prepared to defend that for sixty minutes. And
Speaker 1: I think, going back to the other point about Garoppolo,
Speaker 1: hearing the news now about the sprain shoal or and
Speaker 1: and as you said, he wasn't really able to to
Speaker 1: put that dagger in the Cowboys there in the second half.
Speaker 1: It makes me think that the sprain shoulder is almost
Speaker 1: more of an issue for him in the hand because
Speaker 1: two weeks ago against the Rams, that eighty eight yard
Speaker 1: drive that they needed to tie the game and get
Speaker 1: it to over time, he made three laser like throws
Speaker 1: where you wouldn't think anything was wrong with him at all,
Speaker 1: that there was no issue with the hand whatsoever. Now
Speaker 1: we're hearing about this, this sprain shoulder thing coming out
Speaker 1: of the Dallas game, it sounds to me like that
Speaker 1: might be more of an issue than uum than the
Speaker 1: hand thing that's been talked about for the last several weeks.
Speaker 1: What did you think of what I wrote about them
Speaker 1: seeing amenros st Brown against Detroit and how that could
Speaker 1: be kind of maybe an entree here to seeing Samuel.
Speaker 1: There are different types of players, but with you know,
Speaker 1: Samuel carry the ball boy was eleven twelve times last week.
Speaker 1: I mean he had the ball a lot in the backfield.
Speaker 1: It was. It was a tough outing there in that
Speaker 1: regard for what they did versus the trick plays whatever
Speaker 1: you wanna call him, that Detroit ram But I'll tell what, Mike,
Speaker 1: the Packers haven't seen a whole lot of that this
Speaker 1: year other than really seeing Samuel in Week three. I
Speaker 1: felt personally like that actually was a pretty good tune up,
Speaker 1: at least getting them an idea of what the risks
Speaker 1: are there in terms of the steaks if you don't
Speaker 1: properly defend against. I think I think it can I
Speaker 1: think it can be certainly from uh, I guess what
Speaker 1: I would say from the the eye discipline standpoint with
Speaker 1: the defense to not you can't get too distracted because
Speaker 1: for all of the motions and tricks that you know
Speaker 1: that that the Lions employed in that in that Week
Speaker 1: eight team game, the Niners, the Niners do the motions
Speaker 1: and and the fakes and all this to get you distracted.
Speaker 1: They do it play after play after play, right, So
Speaker 1: from an eye discipline standpoint where I don't think a
Speaker 1: guy like aman Ross st Brown prepares you for someone
Speaker 1: like Samuel Is because Samuel is so hard to tackle.
Speaker 1: He he, I mean, his his yards after the catch
Speaker 1: was like first in the league, right in terms of
Speaker 1: per per reception um in the NFL this year. And
Speaker 1: you you have you have to be sound with your
Speaker 1: tackling on him, because he will break tackles, he will
Speaker 1: slip away, he will get the extra yards to to
Speaker 1: move the chains and turn turn good plays into explosive plays.
Speaker 1: And and that's uh, that's something the Packers are are
Speaker 1: certainly going to have to deal with on Saturday night. Um,
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Speaker 1: and that goes through if you're watching this on Friday.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry you already lost, but I think it goes
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Speaker 1: might want to enter too. Maybe I should. Yeah. That
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Speaker 1: all right, all right, Well, we have another show this
Speaker 1: week in which we can get a little dig a
Speaker 1: little bit more into the Keys to Victory and whatnot.
Speaker 1: We'll have a couple of days of media access, hearing
Speaker 1: from coaches and players and whatnot. Get a sense of
Speaker 1: of the landscape here in Green Bay heading into this game.
Speaker 1: I wanted to get your other thoughts before we go
Speaker 1: today about the rest of wild Card weekend, very little
Speaker 1: of which was was dramatic at all. UH. Cincinnati Cincinnati
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas came down to a really good goal
Speaker 1: to go, a goal to gost situation there with with
Speaker 1: the Raiders in Cincinnati the Bengals. Hats off to the
Speaker 1: Bengals that franchise get its first postseason victory in thirty
Speaker 1: one year. I think thirty one is that the number
Speaker 1: thirty one years UM and UH certainly sets up some
Speaker 1: interesting matchups in the a f C with with the
Speaker 1: Bengals traveling to the top seeded Titans, and then UH
Speaker 1: in the other divisional round you have a rematch of
Speaker 1: last year's a f C championship game with the Buffalo
Speaker 1: Bills going to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs
Speaker 1: and and UH. As I mentioned in Inside or in
Speaker 1: Box earlier this week, Josh Allen has done some really
Speaker 1: cool things, some really great things in the playoffs and
Speaker 1: and you know, kind of resurrected a Buffalo franchise that
Speaker 1: was down in the dumps for a while the next
Speaker 1: step for Josh Allen is to win a postseason game
Speaker 1: on the road, and this is a this this is
Speaker 1: his next opportunity in Kansas City. Still isn't perfect. Like
Speaker 1: that's the thing. Like, as as much as they dominated
Speaker 1: the Steelers, they still made quite a few mistakes in
Speaker 1: that game. Well, if they're playing i mean, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: if they're playing any offense except Pittsburgh's, the way that
Speaker 1: first quarter and a half went in Kansas City on
Speaker 1: Sunday night, the Chiefs are in trouble. You can't start
Speaker 1: a playoff game like that. I mean they were, you know,
Speaker 1: they got in gear and Pittsburgh's offense never really did
Speaker 1: until it was too late. But but boy, you play
Speaker 1: a quarter and a half like that, Um, you're asking
Speaker 1: to get knocked out of the post. Yeah, and in
Speaker 1: remarkable the way that that ended up playing out, and
Speaker 1: they got their stuff together. Certainly they're very explosive and
Speaker 1: and hey, Jeric McKinnon, man it almost he's not on
Speaker 1: the same level as a Garrison Hurst, But man, you
Speaker 1: feel good for that kid. I mean two years he
Speaker 1: basically missed completely with injuries and he ends up kind
Speaker 1: of being this filling guy with Edwards Hilaire being hurt
Speaker 1: and just he looks explosive, he looks I mean I
Speaker 1: was I've always been a Jerrick McKinnon fan, even going
Speaker 1: back to his days with the with the Vikings, So
Speaker 1: I was happy to see that. But certainly, you know,
Speaker 1: you look at the way Kansas City plays and Mahomes
Speaker 1: is as talent as there are in the nf fell
Speaker 1: right now, but he takes chances. Man a couple of
Speaker 1: times running thrown across his body, across the hashes downfield,
Speaker 1: he will take chances. I just I want to see
Speaker 1: what Micah hide and poor Yeaut, what what those guys
Speaker 1: do against that that look. That being said, uh, I
Speaker 1: have to talk about the Cincinnati Bengals really fast, because
Speaker 1: I had visions of like the Vontes perfect issues at
Speaker 1: the end of that Pittsburgh game where they came so
Speaker 1: close to winning a game with with Marvin Lewis what
Speaker 1: was that like probably five or six years ago, and
Speaker 1: it was and I was like, man, is are the
Speaker 1: Raiders going to find a way to pull this thing
Speaker 1: away from them? And and just the excitement level to
Speaker 1: do it in that place and the fans you could
Speaker 1: not help but feel great for them. And they're a
Speaker 1: real problem. I mean Joe Burrow and Joe Mixon running
Speaker 1: the ball the way he was and and certainly you
Speaker 1: look at jamaar Ches and just how talented he is.
Speaker 1: And I've always been big on Tee Higgins. They have
Speaker 1: a lot of ability, and I think they're gonna be
Speaker 1: a tough out for one of these teams. So that
Speaker 1: pass rush of Cincinnati's is no joke either. That that
Speaker 1: that front, that front four, it's not It's not a
Speaker 1: bunch of household names. And we talked about that when
Speaker 1: the Packers went to Cincinnati. It's not a lot of
Speaker 1: big names, household name type of guys, but they get
Speaker 1: after the quarterback and and they make things difficult because
Speaker 1: that that front four doesn't have to ask people to
Speaker 1: blitz all the time. And Sam Hubbard like there were
Speaker 1: several times I'm like, oh, Trey Henderson is having a
Speaker 1: good game. I'm like, oh no, that's Sam Hubbard. I mean,
Speaker 1: like they played really good football the rest of the games,
Speaker 1: Mike there was I mean, Tampa Bay played out exactly
Speaker 1: like I thought it would. I thought the end we knew,
Speaker 1: we knew the Eagles the Eagles got a really bad
Speaker 1: matchup going up against that Tampa Bay defense, and the
Speaker 1: game played out that way right from the start. I
Speaker 1: think with regard to the you know, the Cardinals and
Speaker 1: the Rams, we were all hoping for a better, more
Speaker 1: competitive game on Monday night. It just goes to show you.
Speaker 1: I mean, this was a Cardinals team, as we all know,
Speaker 1: was seven and oh undefeated late October, facing the Packers
Speaker 1: on a on a Thursday night, and the Packers handed
Speaker 1: them their first loss of the season. It's i the
Speaker 1: way teams look in October is not how you end
Speaker 1: up looking in January. In this league, you're always changing.
Speaker 1: Teams are always changing, always evolving, and uh and the
Speaker 1: Cardinals this year just kind of evolved in in the
Speaker 1: wrong direction and they ended up being an easy out.
Speaker 1: Quite frankly for the Los Angeles Rams. Hats off to
Speaker 1: Matthew Stafford. He gets his first playoff victory after after
Speaker 1: a trio of disappointments in Detroit. But quite frankly, Stafford
Speaker 1: didn't have to do a whole lot to win this
Speaker 1: game because Kyler Murray just didn't challenge Los Angeles defense.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing, Like when the night ended, and
Speaker 1: and certainly the Rams game was over at halftime, it
Speaker 1: seemed like I actually would look back the schedule. I
Speaker 1: was talking to our producer Matt Iveran about this morning.
Speaker 1: I said, you know what, the eight teams that are
Speaker 1: left before and each this is the way it should
Speaker 1: have worked out. I don't feel like anybody got eliminated
Speaker 1: where it was like, oh, that's the Super Bowl favorite, right,
Speaker 1: And maybe that has something to do with the parody
Speaker 1: this year, but overall, in a year in which there
Speaker 1: has been so many teams that have been ebbing and flowing,
Speaker 1: it really does look to me, at least in the
Speaker 1: second half of the season, and we got the most
Speaker 1: consistent teams down the stretch to this divisional round of
Speaker 1: the playoffs. So I'm fascinated to watch how it plays out.
Speaker 1: The Rams I think are the best matchup. I don't
Speaker 1: know not to say that Arizona couldn't have had success
Speaker 1: against Tom Brady and Bruce Arians, and certainly there would
Speaker 1: have been that storyline with that connection, but I feel
Speaker 1: like the Rams in the Bucks, that's a game that
Speaker 1: should happen, and one of those teams there observingly, So
Speaker 1: we'll go on to the NFC title game. We're eight
Speaker 1: games away. I mean, there's eight teams left, you know,
Speaker 1: and there's there's three games away from the biggest prize.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be fascinating to see how these games
Speaker 1: play out. Rams Rams and Buccaneers met earlier in the season,
Speaker 1: Packers and forty Niners met earlier in the season. Doesn't
Speaker 1: matter now because the season is on the line this weekend.
Speaker 1: For everyone involved with that, we'll call it a rap
Speaker 1: on this edition of Packers un Scripted. Be sure to
Speaker 1: follow all of our coverage of the team here Divisional
Speaker 1: playoff week, we'll have it all for you on Packers
Speaker 1: dot com for West, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in everybody,
Speaker 1: and we'll see you next time.