Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford. He is the one and only
Speaker 1: West Hodkowits were coming to you here from our studios
Speaker 1: at lambeau Field West. I said on yesterday's show we
Speaker 1: would get to kind of the injury rundown here for
Speaker 1: the Packers. Uh, some injuries that were talked about going
Speaker 1: into the Vikings game, and unfortunately more injuries coming out
Speaker 1: of the Vikings game. As far as what happened in Minneapolis,
Speaker 1: we saw two offensive lineman David Batry Lane Taylor both
Speaker 1: leave with injuries. Safety Kenroll Bryce, who has been in
Speaker 1: and out of the lineup all season long dealing with
Speaker 1: one thing or another, but he left the game with
Speaker 1: a couple of concerns. Trevor Davis his hamstring, which had
Speaker 1: been the problem in reason he was on I R
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the season, that flared up on
Speaker 1: him again. And I'm trying to think if I'm forgetting
Speaker 1: somebody else from Davis, M Taylor and Box tr think
Speaker 1: that that might be it from the from the actual game,
Speaker 1: No real definitive upgradads, that's right, st Brown. He left
Speaker 1: the game, but then came back in as well, a
Speaker 1: forearm type of injury for him. Um. But with regards
Speaker 1: to David box Tr, Mike McCarthy said, he's dealing with
Speaker 1: a couple of things. Didn't get all that specific there,
Speaker 1: but Packers dealing with some shuffling on the offensive line
Speaker 1: up front, and quite frankly, the way things went on
Speaker 1: Sunday night, it seemed the Minnesota Vikings took advantage of
Speaker 1: kind of the shuffling, the uncertainty, and maybe some cold
Speaker 1: guys coming in off the bench. Yeah, it's a tough
Speaker 1: spot to be in, and I have I just have
Speaker 1: a ton of respect for box Tr and Brian Bulog
Speaker 1: the fact that they've been able to start every game
Speaker 1: this year. Polaga especially coming off of the ACE the
Speaker 1: l injury, and then he's dealt with his knicks and
Speaker 1: bruises throughout the course of this season. Bactr has been
Speaker 1: on the injury report already the last few weeks, goes
Speaker 1: out of the game with what was listed as a
Speaker 1: knee injury, comes back for one series and then leaves again. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's where you had. Jason Spriggs came in at
Speaker 1: left tackle. Justin McCrae who's been down the last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, probably over a month now. Well, he was
Speaker 1: over at right guard for a second when Byron Bell's
Speaker 1: shoe came off, and then on that one of those plays,
Speaker 1: Lane Taylor gets hurt with the quad injury and he
Speaker 1: has to move over the left guard. For my money,
Speaker 1: and I know you dissect the film a little bit
Speaker 1: better than I do. I actually thought McCrae looked, okay,
Speaker 1: look look fine coming back in. But I think one
Speaker 1: of the issues was the Vikings end up throwing a
Speaker 1: multitude of stunts at them down the stretch. You're you
Speaker 1: don't really have that camaraderie that you probably usually have
Speaker 1: between two of those offensive linemen, the inside guys, so
Speaker 1: they were able to get home a couple of times,
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. I mean, I thought it
Speaker 1: was no accident that as soon as both the left
Speaker 1: guard and the left tackle for the Packers, the starters
Speaker 1: were out of the game that suddenly we see the
Speaker 1: stunt from the Vikings on that side and they get
Speaker 1: a third down sack. I mean, you know it's it's
Speaker 1: it's smart on the Vikings part, you know, and this
Speaker 1: is a a defensive front, a pass rush that gets
Speaker 1: a lot done against the best players in the league.
Speaker 1: And then they pulled something out of their back pocket
Speaker 1: when the backups came in the game, and they took
Speaker 1: advantage of it and really just prevented that Minnesota pass
Speaker 1: rushes what prevented the Packers from regaining any kind of
Speaker 1: momentum in the second half. Yeah, and it's just that
Speaker 1: they had a perfect marriage there between their pressure packages,
Speaker 1: what they were trying to do in that regard, and
Speaker 1: then what their coverage units were able to do, not
Speaker 1: being able to, uh, you know, give up holes. You know,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times, you know, Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: we get these things about well, you know, he holds
Speaker 1: onto the ball too long. I don't know if that
Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily the case. In the second half. It was
Speaker 1: trying to find the open receiver, and with Xavier Rhodes
Speaker 1: up until his injury, shadowing Davante Adams and then throwing
Speaker 1: him extra attention. It's on the us the guys to
Speaker 1: be able to find some openings in The Packers just
Speaker 1: weren't able to consistently enough to do it. Um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the injury wise, you look at the box tr and Bolaga.
Speaker 1: I think both of those guys working through what they've
Speaker 1: worked through the course of the season. We'll have to
Speaker 1: see where things are with Lane Taylor. Certainly, you have
Speaker 1: Jason Spriggs and Justin McCrae have played. You know, mccra's
Speaker 1: played every position on the offensive line, so there's there's
Speaker 1: depth there. Bolaga felt strongly about that depth. If they
Speaker 1: need to go that road or however this shakes out. Defensively, though,
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be an interesting thing seeing
Speaker 1: where they stand. Kentroll Bryce tried to play through the
Speaker 1: ankle injury. He actually ends up coming back into the
Speaker 1: game and then took a big hit. Took a big hit.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it was ever made clear whether
Speaker 1: or not he was diagnosed with a concussion. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: was being evaluated, but we didn't hear any anything definitive
Speaker 1: one way or the other. We'll find out on the
Speaker 1: practice field Wednesday if he's out there able to practice,
Speaker 1: or how he's listed on the injury report. But that
Speaker 1: the domino effect with that secondary, just with that one
Speaker 1: guy going out twice. You know, you saw Ebra Campbell
Speaker 1: had to come in and play deep safety. Traumont Williams
Speaker 1: was rotating everywhere depending on what package they were in.
Speaker 1: That Yeah, and we were talking going into the game.
Speaker 1: You know, both Bashad Brelan Kevin King were guys who
Speaker 1: were listening as questionable. They were holding out some hope
Speaker 1: that they might be able to play, but then they couldn't.
Speaker 1: Will see what the status is with those two going forward.
Speaker 1: Obviously it would be big for the secondary to get
Speaker 1: them back, but there are already a lot of moving
Speaker 1: parts in the secondary and then those kinds of those
Speaker 1: kinds of things happen, and you know, let's face it, West,
Speaker 1: we're seeing some of the impact of that. And I
Speaker 1: don't mean to pick on Tremont Williams here because he's
Speaker 1: one of the most respected guys that I've ever covered.
Speaker 1: I hold him in very high esteem. But this is
Speaker 1: a guy who's been bouncing back and forth between corner
Speaker 1: and safety and then he ends up going back to
Speaker 1: return punts again for Trevor Davis. When Trevor Davis goes
Speaker 1: out and what do we see, Well, on one play
Speaker 1: on kind of a pick play, uh in coverage, he
Speaker 1: gets his feet tangled up and falls down and it's
Speaker 1: a third yard touchdown. An easy throw and catch to
Speaker 1: Stefon Diggs and then after not doing the punt, returns
Speaker 1: for a couple of games or whatever it is. He
Speaker 1: goes back there and he makes a mistake in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, you know, misjudges, a ball doesn't get out
Speaker 1: of the way, ends up being a turnover for the Packers.
Speaker 1: So um, And like I said, I don't mean to
Speaker 1: pick on Tremont Williams, but these are the things that
Speaker 1: can happen when you're you're constantly shuffling within a particular
Speaker 1: game with regards to injuries, just because practice, reps and
Speaker 1: everything else are are limited in certain spots. And unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the name of the game. Nobody's gonna
Speaker 1: send the Packers any sympathy cards. It's how the NFL
Speaker 1: game is. Every team has to work through it at
Speaker 1: one time or another. But some games it just affects
Speaker 1: you more than others. Yeah, and I I you know,
Speaker 1: you look at Tremont Williams. I have, as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: a lot of respect for him and he and he's
Speaker 1: earned his money this year. I mean when you look
Speaker 1: at what they needed from him coming in as a leader,
Speaker 1: but also on the field, they the reason Trumon Williams
Speaker 1: came back. Honestly, let's think about it. Is versatility and durability,
Speaker 1: the ability thing, right, we talk about that. Trumon Williams
Speaker 1: gives you that, but there is something about, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: you're gonna play safety on this play. I mean, this
Speaker 1: is a key communicator position. Now you're gonna go down
Speaker 1: to the slot. You're gonna go back to safety, back
Speaker 1: to the slot, depending on what the coverage call is. Now,
Speaker 1: Truman Williams eleven twelve years in the league, He's smart
Speaker 1: enough to be able to do that. But let's make
Speaker 1: no mistake, Mike, there's a reason why you and I
Speaker 1: constantly everybody has constantly been praising what the Packers were
Speaker 1: able to do defensively when Kevin King was up, when
Speaker 1: JayR Alexander was up, and when you had Tremon there
Speaker 1: in a little bit more security at safety. Is because
Speaker 1: it allowed guys to get comfortable at their spots. Um
Speaker 1: this game, nobody really was able to do that. Even
Speaker 1: Alexander to some regard with traveling with theelan had to
Speaker 1: play multiple multiple positions. So, um, yeah, the big thing,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's as easy as okay, Kevin King
Speaker 1: comes back and this defense is rare and to go.
Speaker 1: But I mean, it's such a big loss not having him,
Speaker 1: because that's just that is if you have always talking
Speaker 1: about you know, multiple starters, right, isn't just eleven guys,
Speaker 1: But if you put King in the lineup, that's a
Speaker 1: boundary corner position that you don't have to think about
Speaker 1: the rest of the day. He just plays there. That's
Speaker 1: his role and he's going to fulfill that job. When
Speaker 1: you don't have him, the different guys you have to
Speaker 1: cycle through there to make up for it. It's it's
Speaker 1: a big stress point. Well, and when you look at
Speaker 1: the way things have fallen with with Truman Williams playing
Speaker 1: safety and doing a pretty good job back there, if
Speaker 1: you're missing King and Breland, I mean, let's be honest,
Speaker 1: that's two of your top three cornerbacks. When you have
Speaker 1: Williams at safety, that's that that's tough to handle, especially
Speaker 1: with a receiving corps that has Adam Theeland, Stefon Diggs
Speaker 1: and Kyle Rudolph at tight end. You can't double cover everybody, Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: And and you know the maddening part two is that
Speaker 1: for my money, maybe you feel differently. I mean, I
Speaker 1: thought Brelan was actually starting to finally look comfortable and absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely he was. He was, he was. It looked like
Speaker 1: he was settling into this defense after being a late
Speaker 1: arrival and then dealing with the hamstring. Now is the
Speaker 1: thing this game against the Cardinals, and we'll preview it
Speaker 1: and Wednesday's show. It's not going to be the same
Speaker 1: threats vertically. Uh, you know, Larry Fitzgerald still is a
Speaker 1: guy you have to keep into mind, but I mean
Speaker 1: he's not Larry Fitzgerald from two thousand eight, two thousand nine,
Speaker 1: so there aren't the perimeter weapons. But man, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what, I don't know what the plan of attack is.
Speaker 1: I don't know how close those guys are back from injury.
Speaker 1: But you got Airs or Atlanta coming around the corner
Speaker 1: with Calvin Ridley and some of their weapons. It's like,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you have to take another week or
Speaker 1: anything like that, but this is a week where I
Speaker 1: think the Packers, you know, they can they can get healthy,
Speaker 1: they can see where things land. But there's still some
Speaker 1: big games coming up as far as vertical threats and
Speaker 1: people they're gonna have to stop yeah, no question about it. Well,
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Speaker 1: want to finish one more point. I usually don't like
Speaker 1: to jump over you. That's I don't know if this
Speaker 1: has ever happened before, and I'm very curious if this
Speaker 1: would work out this season. And we'll talk again about
Speaker 1: the Cardinals on Wednesday. But the Cardinals are dead last.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize it until this very moment when I
Speaker 1: broughtup their stats. They're dead last in points, total yards,
Speaker 1: passing yards, and rushing yards all four categories. I wonder
Speaker 1: if the team's ever accomplished that. Yeah, that's that's a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I wasn't trying to dog on the Cardinals,
Speaker 1: but I'm just saying it's not the same kind of
Speaker 1: threat that you dealt with with the Vikings and Rudolph
Speaker 1: and the multitude options. Yeah. Well, I want to get
Speaker 1: back to something you brought up, which was Alexander traveling
Speaker 1: with theland, which is another way of saying matched up
Speaker 1: against a guy basically, you know, he's your assignment for
Speaker 1: the entire game. There are different ways to is it.
Speaker 1: But interesting in the fact that I think this is
Speaker 1: the type of cover cover guy versus receiver matchup that
Speaker 1: we might be seeing in the NFC North for quite
Speaker 1: some time. This This this might have been, uh, this
Speaker 1: might have been the first this season is kind of
Speaker 1: the first of what could be many of these two
Speaker 1: guys going head to head a lot. It reminds me
Speaker 1: a lot of Xavier Rhads and Davante Adams on the
Speaker 1: other side of the ball. I think that that's a
Speaker 1: matchup for the foreseeable future. Those guys are gonna be
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of each other. Um, We've seen it in
Speaker 1: in the past, Peanut Tilman, some of the matchups he's
Speaker 1: had against receivers, and and certainly the relationship he had
Speaker 1: with Aaron Rodgers. This has the makings of that. The
Speaker 1: exciting thing about Gyr Alexander, Um, you can talk about
Speaker 1: the confidence, you can talk about the natural ability and
Speaker 1: all the things that go along with that. But for
Speaker 1: Joe Jr. Jason Simmons, and Mike Petton to all sit
Speaker 1: down and make the decision, and I understand there's been
Speaker 1: some injuries there, but make the decision that a twenty
Speaker 1: one year old man is ready for that spot. He
Speaker 1: was ready to go up against the Pro Bowl receiver
Speaker 1: down in and down out. Now, they did some different things,
Speaker 1: particularly in the second half. It wasn't just always him,
Speaker 1: just one on one man to man. Yeah, the second
Speaker 1: half the Packers went to a lot of zone coverages
Speaker 1: with what they were dealing with in in the back end,
Speaker 1: and and that's when theland really did the bulk of
Speaker 1: his damage I thought was in the second half. But
Speaker 1: you know, and and afterwards Alexander said he in his opinion,
Speaker 1: there were three three passes he caught on him. He
Speaker 1: didn't have any touchdowns against him against Thelan. The thing
Speaker 1: that is the most interesting to me is, Okay, the
Speaker 1: result is what it is. You lost the game, the
Speaker 1: Vikings rallied in the second half. This is that you
Speaker 1: move on. But the knowledge in an ability to get
Speaker 1: that kind of matchup, to play the amount of snaps
Speaker 1: that he played in that game, that is going to
Speaker 1: be so big for Alexander down the stretch and in
Speaker 1: really going forward in his career. He said, you know,
Speaker 1: Theelan showed him some vet moves. He showed him what
Speaker 1: the high level Swiss Army knife type receivers can do
Speaker 1: in this league. Is the guy can run the road tree,
Speaker 1: he can line up anywhere on the line of scrimmage. Well,
Speaker 1: the movie, the movie made on that short crossing route
Speaker 1: at the end of the first half when there was
Speaker 1: all kinds of space, I mean, that's that's one on
Speaker 1: one and it's a crossing round and you you could
Speaker 1: see Theeland was almost putting on the brakes before he
Speaker 1: caught the ball, like he knew exactly what he was
Speaker 1: gonna do, and with that much space around him and
Speaker 1: no defensive help, I mean Alexander really didn't have much
Speaker 1: of a chance unless he just completely guessed. You know,
Speaker 1: jayre would have had to completely guess exactly what theland
Speaker 1: was going to do and be right. Or because if
Speaker 1: if thee if he actually guesses he's gonna cut back
Speaker 1: and he's wrong, feeling's going down the sideline where there's
Speaker 1: even less help coming in to to try to cut
Speaker 1: him off. So, um, that was that was That was
Speaker 1: a great that That was a great play by theelan
Speaker 1: and and just one of those one on one things
Speaker 1: in the open field. Speed and timing and everything that
Speaker 1: has to be processed in a millisecond is remarkable with
Speaker 1: that position. And when you take on someone like that
Speaker 1: that is a shifty and able to switch on a dimons,
Speaker 1: theling is it's a matchup. But like I said, I
Speaker 1: think Alexander, those are the kind of reps that are
Speaker 1: really going to help him going forward if he can
Speaker 1: stay healthy. Man, that kid has a real shot to
Speaker 1: be something special in this league. Um, and you've seen
Speaker 1: it from day one. It's not easy, Mike, You've seen it.
Speaker 1: You've covered this league for a long time. For a
Speaker 1: rookie to come in, I don't care if you're a
Speaker 1: first round draft pick. I don't care if you're picked
Speaker 1: in the first twenty picks. To be able to have
Speaker 1: that confidence, in that ability to have a short memory
Speaker 1: on things and play down after down at that level,
Speaker 1: at that young of age, that's um, that's gonna take
Speaker 1: you a long way. It was interesting early in the ballgame,
Speaker 1: and you had mentioned the play yesterday and Larry McCarn
Speaker 1: breaks it down on one of his Rock reports on
Speaker 1: the website as well. It was almost as though, really
Speaker 1: early in the game Alex Alexander sent a message to
Speaker 1: Theeling like this is what you're going to be in
Speaker 1: for today with that that bubble screen to Digs and
Speaker 1: he kind of blew up theeling, you know, shoved him
Speaker 1: into Digs and then chase down STUFFI digs for the
Speaker 1: tackle for loss. But uh and and you could you
Speaker 1: could see and the open field play at the end
Speaker 1: of the second quarter we were just talking about there
Speaker 1: was there was a pride factor there with Adam Theland.
Speaker 1: Not to say that he needed to be woken up
Speaker 1: or anything in a big game like this, but you
Speaker 1: could see the rest of the game there was a
Speaker 1: pride factor with Adam Theland after what happened in the
Speaker 1: first quarter early in that game, and then in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter when um, I believe it was fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: second half anyway, when Theland does get the touchdown, he
Speaker 1: took a pretty big shot from Kyler Facral right at
Speaker 1: the goal line there as he as he plowed into
Speaker 1: the end zone and he popped right back up and
Speaker 1: was ready to celebrate. I mean to me, anyway, that
Speaker 1: was a guy who was remembering what happened to him
Speaker 1: in the first quarter and didn't like that that was
Speaker 1: on film for everybody to see, so to speak, and
Speaker 1: credit at Adam Feland. This guy, this guy, he's come
Speaker 1: from obviously the humble beginnings we've we've talked about that
Speaker 1: in the past. This is this is an elite receiver
Speaker 1: in the NFL. This guy is big time. Yeah, totally,
Speaker 1: and the way what he's made himself into coming out
Speaker 1: of Minnesota State Mankato has been really impressive. It was
Speaker 1: funny though. I did ask Alexander about that play in
Speaker 1: the locker room afterwards, and he actually said it had
Speaker 1: less to do with feeling than it did digs Uh.
Speaker 1: He said. Stefan Diggs was talking quite a bit early
Speaker 1: on in that game and he was through. Theeeling was
Speaker 1: the object he had to get through to get to him.
Speaker 1: But I think a lot of that fire was actually
Speaker 1: stirred by Diggs and the fact that Alexander was able
Speaker 1: to push him back and then finish that play. Uh,
Speaker 1: that was a big he felt like that was a
Speaker 1: big feather in his cap um. But yeah, those two
Speaker 1: guys together what they've developed, and and a lot of
Speaker 1: credit to to Rick Spielman to be able to find
Speaker 1: you know, Digs in the later rounds. What was Diggs
Speaker 1: I want to say, a fifth round pick or something.
Speaker 1: He was fifth round out of Maryland. Yeah, And and
Speaker 1: to be able to get him and then be able
Speaker 1: to have confidence in you're in state schools and give
Speaker 1: a guy a shot. I mean that's the reason why
Speaker 1: the Packers bringing Jake Kum out right. I Mean, you
Speaker 1: get these guys in the state system that sometimes you
Speaker 1: get a little bit more familiarity with that other teams
Speaker 1: aren't paying attention to and to give him a shot. Uh.
Speaker 1: And and they've certainly it's worked out for him. And
Speaker 1: that's gonna be two PIP players and Packers are gonna
Speaker 1: be seen for a long time. Yeah, when you don't
Speaker 1: have to invest a first or second round draft pick
Speaker 1: in the wide receiver position, and you have a pair
Speaker 1: like that that are still young and and you know,
Speaker 1: on the rise as as they are, that's uh, you know,
Speaker 1: as our friend Pete Doherty likes to say, that's like
Speaker 1: found money in the NFL. When when you either an
Speaker 1: undrafted guy or a guy who's drafted on the third
Speaker 1: day becomes a frontline Pro Bowl level player like that,
Speaker 1: that's uh that that's a tremendous asset to building an
Speaker 1: NFL roster. That's why I've I've continually constantly maintained that
Speaker 1: two thousand thirteen draft for Ted Thompson doesn't get nearly
Speaker 1: enough credit because if you go back and look at that, Mike,
Speaker 1: there were two players that were taken on the third
Speaker 1: day of the draft, non fullbacks, that turned into Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl players. Packers got both of them in Micah Hyde
Speaker 1: into in David bo in addition to J. C. Treader,
Speaker 1: who ended up becoming a starting center for the Cleveland Browns,
Speaker 1: finding box tr in the fourth round of that draft.
Speaker 1: Consider how many first round misses there were on the
Speaker 1: offensive line in that draft, how just how many first
Speaker 1: round misses that left tackle There are almost every year
Speaker 1: in the draft, and the Packers got a franchise one
Speaker 1: in the fourth round. That's been a big factor in
Speaker 1: the Packers building their offensive line the way they have
Speaker 1: over the years. If you read draft that that draft,
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a hypothetical, but David botr Is probably
Speaker 1: a top five pick, might be top three, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: behind maybe Levan Bell and somebody else. But I mean,
Speaker 1: it's that's how you do it. And in credits to
Speaker 1: the Vikings, that's that's what they've done and they're right
Speaker 1: in the thick of this thing. Yeah. Well, hopefully we'll
Speaker 1: find out as the week goes along what the status
Speaker 1: is with Box some of these other injured players for
Speaker 1: the Packers getting ready for Arizona. But with that, we'll
Speaker 1: call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on Script.
Speaker 1: To be sure to follow all of our coverage of
Speaker 1: the team on Packers dot Com on Twitter. He's at
Speaker 1: west Hot, I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the
Speaker 1: team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.