Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague West Hodkowitz. Were coming to you
Speaker 1: here from our studio at lambeau Field and West. It's
Speaker 1: been a few days, but the Packers last Thursday night
Speaker 1: not their sixth victory of the season, thirty to seventeen
Speaker 1: over a depleted San Francisco forty Niners outfit out West.
Speaker 1: The Packers get to six and two at the midway point. Really,
Speaker 1: we've said this a couple of times this season, but
Speaker 1: this was one of the games that the Packers just
Speaker 1: did what they had to do because the forts their
Speaker 1: lineup did not resemble anything like what they had in
Speaker 1: the two meetings against the Packers last year in November
Speaker 1: and again in January, and um and the Packer simply
Speaker 1: went out West and took care of business well. And
Speaker 1: one reason this is such a big deal, Mike, is
Speaker 1: because it was what they kind of failed to do
Speaker 1: four days earlier, taking care of business against a team
Speaker 1: that had one win. As we've come to find out,
Speaker 1: the Vikings very much are still alive in this thing
Speaker 1: with Dalvin Cook in their backfield. But I think everybody
Speaker 1: was expecting Green Bay, despite their history in San Francisco,
Speaker 1: at least of late. They expected them to go out
Speaker 1: there and really impose their will on the forty niners.
Speaker 1: And to their credit, they did that, and they did
Speaker 1: it on both offense and defense. Looking strictly at the offense,
Speaker 1: I thought, when you talk about in terms of consistency
Speaker 1: throughout the course of a game, this was a really
Speaker 1: solid effort by them. It started with getting Aaron Jones
Speaker 1: back in the backfield. I thought, you know, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna look at his stats in that game and you're
Speaker 1: not gonna be blown away. But what he gave them,
Speaker 1: especially on those first two series when there were so
Speaker 1: many questions about his health, what the backfield was gonna
Speaker 1: look like without having Jamal Williams and A J. Dillon.
Speaker 1: He just allowed the offense to settle in, get its
Speaker 1: composure back in. The Packers, to their credit, for the
Speaker 1: large part of four quarters, were able to carry that
Speaker 1: through the game. Davante Adams has another marquee performance and
Speaker 1: then really quickly just to touch on the defense, This
Speaker 1: is I wrote about an insider inbox this week. This
Speaker 1: is I think kind of the pick me up. They
Speaker 1: needed a reminder of the takeaways, the big plays, what
Speaker 1: this unit is capable of. Now. I understand it was
Speaker 1: a backup quarterback, and I understand that the forty Niners
Speaker 1: were missing a lot of skill position players. But again,
Speaker 1: if you didn't accomplish those things against an offense that
Speaker 1: was depleted, it raises even more questions. So I thought,
Speaker 1: in terms of just being able to get the train
Speaker 1: back on the tracks, Green Bay accomplished that goal out
Speaker 1: in Santa Clara. Yeah, a couple of things statistically, I
Speaker 1: think to to mention here offensively, and really it flew
Speaker 1: under the radar in a sense because of the Packers
Speaker 1: getting Aaron Jones back on offense and what he meant,
Speaker 1: and with the big game that Davante Adams had. But
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers was twenty five out of thirty one for
Speaker 1: three five yards with four touchdowns and a one forty
Speaker 1: seven point to pass A rating. And that's on a
Speaker 1: short week, basically not practice, sing and flying two time
Speaker 1: zones away two. And yes, the forty Niners have had
Speaker 1: some injuries on defense, but they were they were missing
Speaker 1: their pass rushers, and yes, and Richard Sherman is also
Speaker 1: on injured reserve in their secondary, but the defense not
Speaker 1: nearly as banged up and statistically has held its own
Speaker 1: throughout the course of this season for the forty Niners,
Speaker 1: and Aaron Rodgers just absolutely carved them up. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know if anybody has any Thursday Night Short
Speaker 1: week statistics like over the course of NFL history, but
Speaker 1: I think you'd be hard pressed to find six in completions,
Speaker 1: four touchdown passes in one seven passer rating very often
Speaker 1: in history. The other one, of course, is Davante Adams
Speaker 1: ten catches, a hundred and seventy three yards and a touchdown.
Speaker 1: Now correct me if I'm wrong on this statistical framework,
Speaker 1: but I believe that's the third time this year Davante
Speaker 1: Adams has had double digit catches for a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty plus yards. And there are only two other receivers
Speaker 1: in and FL history who have had three of those
Speaker 1: types of games in a single season. And Davante Adams
Speaker 1: has done it in six games because he missed two
Speaker 1: of the Packers first eight. That's just outrageous. It's crazy
Speaker 1: and and it and it gets even crazier when you
Speaker 1: break it down and you add in the touchdown receptions
Speaker 1: he's had in all those games, then it's only Kelvin
Speaker 1: Johnson from two thousand and twelve. I believe that matches him. Again.
Speaker 1: That was Megatron having an entire season and Davante playing
Speaker 1: in only six of the Packers first eight games. Somebody
Speaker 1: in the other day was asking me, I was having
Speaker 1: just a just a conversation about the first half of
Speaker 1: the season, and they said, I mean, you can make
Speaker 1: a lot of cases that Aaron Rodgers right now is
Speaker 1: a leading MVP candidate hundred and seventeen point five passer rating.
Speaker 1: You and I discussed it at our desks a couple
Speaker 1: of days ago. He's on pace for I think a
Speaker 1: career high in touchdown passes, career high potentially in yards
Speaker 1: depending on if he can, you know, match some more
Speaker 1: of these big games here in the second half of
Speaker 1: the season. And that is very true. And Rogers does
Speaker 1: serves a lot of credit for the way he's performed
Speaker 1: to this level, especially after I think so many people
Speaker 1: left him out at the side of the road here
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the season. But Davante Adams man,
Speaker 1: if he hasn't given credit for being an all pro
Speaker 1: at the end of the season. If he stays on
Speaker 1: this trajectory, I don't know what it's gonna take. I
Speaker 1: wrote about it after the game. You probably saw the
Speaker 1: plethora of media social media post from his teammates saying
Speaker 1: that this is the best receiver in the game. That's
Speaker 1: a conversation that you can lose so much breath over
Speaker 1: it's almost not even worth discussing. But the fact that routinely,
Speaker 1: Mike we get into this conversation every single year and
Speaker 1: he's not even among the nominees is kind of inexcusable.
Speaker 1: At this point, We're talking about a guy that can
Speaker 1: run the entire route tree, He catches touchdowns, he does
Speaker 1: everything that you need him to do in this offense.
Speaker 1: He moves around, Aaron Rodgers trusts him. But because of
Speaker 1: the fact, I really do think it boils down to this,
Speaker 1: the fact that he's not a celebrity receiver in this
Speaker 1: league that actually hurts him. The fact that he doesn't
Speaker 1: end up on first take because of something he says,
Speaker 1: or he doesn't end up being a guy that's getting
Speaker 1: all these different you know, you know, publicity and off
Speaker 1: the field adulation for the way that he lives his life.
Speaker 1: He is a meat and potatoes receiver in this league,
Speaker 1: and he just so happens to arguably be the best
Speaker 1: one among a ton of successful receivers in a passing era.
Speaker 1: Davante Adams is entering some really rare air right now,
Speaker 1: and you're seeing it happen on a week by week basis,
Speaker 1: and I think it speaks to his character in general.
Speaker 1: And as you said, he doesn't say a lot of
Speaker 1: controversial things that he was actually asked after the San
Speaker 1: Francisco game, do you think you're the best receiver in
Speaker 1: the NFL? And he said, yeah, I do. But how
Speaker 1: many headlines, how many talk shows are talking about that?
Speaker 1: Not many? And that's okay, but they're not talking about
Speaker 1: it because Davante Adams is not some controversial diva look
Speaker 1: at me wide receiver figure. That's not who he is.
Speaker 1: And so he can speak his mind and be honest
Speaker 1: and he says, hey, I'm not trying to be cocky
Speaker 1: or arrogant. I'm just I'm I'm just being confident in
Speaker 1: who I am and that and people accept that. And
Speaker 1: I do think it's it's if he can stay healthy,
Speaker 1: and yes, he did miss two and a half games,
Speaker 1: earlier this season. If he can stay healthy, it's really
Speaker 1: really going to be interesting to see the kind of
Speaker 1: numbers that he puts up here. The guy, if he
Speaker 1: would have played in those first two games, will be
Speaker 1: on pace for two thousand receiving yards this season. I mean,
Speaker 1: it is just ridiculous. It would be a Megatron, a
Speaker 1: Megatron type season because he's had some of those games, Mike.
Speaker 1: I know it's happened a number of times the last
Speaker 1: few years where he's had ten catch plus games, But
Speaker 1: the yards after catch this year, the explosive plays that
Speaker 1: have been built into that that isn't twelve catches for
Speaker 1: ninety four yards. We're having him nearing two hundred yards
Speaker 1: on almost a weekly basis. And to your point there
Speaker 1: about that question, Jason will They from ESPN Wisconsin asked
Speaker 1: that of him, and I know it received some you know,
Speaker 1: comments on on media and whatnot, But the thing about
Speaker 1: Davante's answer that I thought was so illuminating was, yet, well,
Speaker 1: what do you expect him to say? It's not what
Speaker 1: he said, it's how he said it. There's so many
Speaker 1: receiver as I can think of over the last ten
Speaker 1: fifteen years that would have either laughed at that or
Speaker 1: scoffed at or be like, are you kidding me? Of
Speaker 1: course I am. But it's the way that DeVante even
Speaker 1: admitted humbly he would agree with that assertion. That's the
Speaker 1: way he carries himself in the wits, the way he's
Speaker 1: conducted his business for six plus seasons. And the biggest
Speaker 1: thing that Rogers said in any comment that he made
Speaker 1: in the post game of that matchup was he makes
Speaker 1: life as a quarterback so easy because he's not complaining
Speaker 1: about his touches. He's not complaining about his targets. This
Speaker 1: is a guy who just routinely gets open and and
Speaker 1: he's able to, you know, go from there. It's it's
Speaker 1: an incredible story. And the fact that he's still a
Speaker 1: month shy of his twenty eight birthday, I just speaks
Speaker 1: to really how special this guy is gonna be if
Speaker 1: he can stay on pace and if he stays healthy
Speaker 1: in the long term. Yeah, I want to get a
Speaker 1: couple more thoughts from you on the Packers offense in
Speaker 1: a moment here, But first, folks, serious x m NFO
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Speaker 1: backslash Packers All right West As the Packers get prepared here,
Speaker 1: coming off of the weekend off the mini buy whatever
Speaker 1: you wanna call it, Jacksonville Jaguars slated to come into
Speaker 1: lambeau Field this coming Sunday. We've seen this Packers offense
Speaker 1: deal with the absence of Davante Adams for a couple
Speaker 1: of games. David Baktier has been out now for a
Speaker 1: handful of games. Either Aaron Jones or Jamal Williams has
Speaker 1: been out. Jones with the caff injury for a while.
Speaker 1: He's back. Williams had to miss the last game being
Speaker 1: on the COVID list as a as a high risk
Speaker 1: close contact. As this offense starts to get these guys back,
Speaker 1: David Bakti is back at practice, Alan Lazard is back
Speaker 1: at practice. Jamal Williams is now off of that COVID list.
Speaker 1: He was back at practice on Monday. What where do
Speaker 1: you think this Packers offense can go when you know
Speaker 1: it gets all the all the horses back in the stable,
Speaker 1: so to speak. You know, I mean this there, these guys,
Speaker 1: there have only been you've played eight games. That's thirty
Speaker 1: two quarters of football. I would argue five of those
Speaker 1: thirty two quarters they've had trouble. The last three quarters
Speaker 1: against Tampa Bay, the second half in the second game
Speaker 1: against Minnesota. The other twenty seven out of thirty two
Speaker 1: quarters this offense has been on the field, they've been
Speaker 1: really really hard to stop with all kinds of moving
Speaker 1: parts on the offensive line and amongst the skill position players.
Speaker 1: Where do you think this offense can go when everybody's
Speaker 1: back together. It reminds me of you know, watch those
Speaker 1: cooking shows on you know, whether it be Food Network
Speaker 1: or some of these other channels, where you know, you
Speaker 1: give them the certain amount of you know, ingredients to
Speaker 1: work with and they come up with something good and
Speaker 1: it's fine, and the all the judges, you know, praise
Speaker 1: them for it and they pick a winner and everything
Speaker 1: like speaking of making things look easy, but yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1: But then you watch the cooking shows where they open
Speaker 1: up the entire super market and they say, just go
Speaker 1: ham figure something out and then what guys can come
Speaker 1: up with. I think that's where the Packers offense is
Speaker 1: right now. They've made do here over the last six weeks,
Speaker 1: especially whether it was when they're missing Davante Adams or
Speaker 1: these last four or five games where they haven't had
Speaker 1: Alan Lazard. You mentioned the injuries that you know, Robert
Speaker 1: Tonyan played in every game, but then he developed an
Speaker 1: ankle injury. To Tyler, you know, Lane Taylor, if you
Speaker 1: want to go back to the opener, losing the guy
Speaker 1: that was the presumptive starter at right guard. So all
Speaker 1: these different things they've overcome and now you're starting to
Speaker 1: see the light at the end of the tunnel again.
Speaker 1: Another thing I wrote an inbox this week is this
Speaker 1: is probably the healthiest the Packers are going to be
Speaker 1: the rest of the season coming out of this mini
Speaker 1: by so to speak. Not saying they're gonna get everybody back,
Speaker 1: but it's trending the right way, and even the guys
Speaker 1: that may not be back for the Jaguars, it's looking
Speaker 1: pretty good. On the other end of that, the one
Speaker 1: me personally as the writer, the enthusiasts, the story guy.
Speaker 1: I mean, it would be pretty interesting if Alan Lazard
Speaker 1: can come back and play against his former team in
Speaker 1: the jack Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. But all that being said,
Speaker 1: to answer your original question, I think the arrow is
Speaker 1: pointing up for them and Rogers being able to develop
Speaker 1: trust and all these different guys throughout this process, not
Speaker 1: knowing when he's gonna have Davante Adams or Aaron Jones.
Speaker 1: Losing Aaron Jones two days before a game. I mean,
Speaker 1: the way that they've been able to adapt. Matt Lafleur
Speaker 1: didn't have to sell me on anything when he became
Speaker 1: a head coach. Who am I But my goodness, man,
Speaker 1: I think these last six weeks. You know, there's so
Speaker 1: many questions. Last year, well, they were healthy the whole year.
Speaker 1: They didn't face any adversity. Of course, they were thirteen
Speaker 1: and three there, six and two right now, And a
Speaker 1: lot of it has to do with the fact that
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur, Nathaniel hack At, these offensive coaches that have
Speaker 1: been able to adapt and make this offense still a
Speaker 1: top ten unit in despite of the fact they've been
Speaker 1: missing some pieces. Yeah, well, let me get some thoughts
Speaker 1: from you on the Jacksonville Jaguars. This is a one
Speaker 1: win a f C football team, uncommon opponent, all of
Speaker 1: that that will be coming in to lambeau Field on Sunday,
Speaker 1: and with a rookie quarterback who'll be making his second
Speaker 1: NFL start, Jake Luton, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, had
Speaker 1: taken over for the injured Gardner Minshew. I'm personally disappointed
Speaker 1: we're not going to get to see Gardner Minshew. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, as with Jacksonville being a team the Packers
Speaker 1: only play once every four years, and all we've really
Speaker 1: been able to see is highlights of Minshew in his
Speaker 1: young career so far. Um. I was looking forward to
Speaker 1: getting a chance to see him in person. But be
Speaker 1: that as it may, who are the guys on offense
Speaker 1: for this Jacksonville team that will be supporting this rookie
Speaker 1: quarterback Luton? And who could give the Packers some trouble
Speaker 1: on something? Here's the thing, And Matt Lafleur didn't talk
Speaker 1: in depth about the Jaguars yet, but I imagine he
Speaker 1: will later this week, and I'm guessing what he's gonna
Speaker 1: say is this is a team that's better than the
Speaker 1: record shows. And that's not just all fluff either. I mean,
Speaker 1: you talk about you know, the Vikings and where they
Speaker 1: were at and losing some close games. Jacksonville has lost
Speaker 1: some close games, but they've also dropped now six in
Speaker 1: a row, I believe, since that opener against Indianapolis. So
Speaker 1: there's gonna be sort of a gut check moment for them.
Speaker 1: But there's playmakers go Laura, especially on the offensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball. The one thing Luton proved to me
Speaker 1: in that game against Houston was this guy can deal.
Speaker 1: He can throw the football. It's not just some rookie
Speaker 1: seventh round pick or whatever. He is being back there
Speaker 1: being wide eyed. He threw for three hundred yards in
Speaker 1: that game. And DJ Shark, who appears to be back
Speaker 1: to you know, a hundred percent here after dealing with
Speaker 1: some of his own injuries. I mean, he showed you
Speaker 1: exactly how dominating he can be. This is a legit
Speaker 1: number one receiver in this league. If the guy can
Speaker 1: get the ball to him, he can really make you pay.
Speaker 1: And with JayR. Alexander working his way back now in
Speaker 1: the concussion protocol his status uncertain, that could be a
Speaker 1: big thing to worry about as well. But ultimately I
Speaker 1: think this goes back to the run game. Mike That's
Speaker 1: going to continue to be the question for Green Bay
Speaker 1: until they prove it not to be. In James Robinson,
Speaker 1: they made a decision right away at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season that this is our running back. This is
Speaker 1: the guy we're gonna run with. Leonard for Nette they
Speaker 1: released and Robinson he's he's pretty you know, he would
Speaker 1: have fit well into the Black and Blue division. I
Speaker 1: feel It's not like he's just a consummate home run threat,
Speaker 1: but he wears you down, man, and they have so
Speaker 1: much trust in him. This is one of the few
Speaker 1: backs in the NFL right now that is a true,
Speaker 1: tried and true every down back and they'll shut them
Speaker 1: down your throat for four quarters. Yeah, this is this
Speaker 1: is going to be This is going to be an
Speaker 1: interesting one because there there is there that lack of
Speaker 1: familiarity when you play these A f C teams And
Speaker 1: obviously that cuts both ways, because the Jaguars are not
Speaker 1: familiar um necessarily with with the Packers. But it always,
Speaker 1: it always creates these potential surprises that you just don't
Speaker 1: you don't exactly know what you're walking into. And yes,
Speaker 1: it it can be seen maybe as another get well
Speaker 1: game for the Packers defense facing a backup rookie quarterback
Speaker 1: and all of that. But the Packers defense is going
Speaker 1: to have its challenges, and I think what you mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier about, Okay, this defense hasn't generated the turnovers that
Speaker 1: it did a year ago that were so important to
Speaker 1: the success on that side of the ball. But they
Speaker 1: generated a couple of them against San Francisco and certainly,
Speaker 1: I mean, Darnell Savage probably should have had to pick six.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be kicking himself over over that one that
Speaker 1: he missed against the forty niners for the rest of
Speaker 1: the season. But those opportunities were there. They're starting to
Speaker 1: cash in on them. You you start to get, you know,
Speaker 1: that type of momentum going in the turnover category, and yeah,
Speaker 1: if they can do it again against another young quarterback,
Speaker 1: more power to him, because a lot of it is
Speaker 1: just sometimes it's it's how you feel about yourself when
Speaker 1: you're out there on the field and how you carry yourself,
Speaker 1: and and maybe even more so this year because you
Speaker 1: don't have the crowd behind you to start screaming and
Speaker 1: yelling on third and seven and all of that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. So I think it'll be interesting to see
Speaker 1: how the Packers defense if if if they can, you know,
Speaker 1: put together a second straight solid performance, even if they're
Speaker 1: facing an offense that is not necessarily at full strength. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and again you're seeing the line out there already on
Speaker 1: this game, and we were talking to two touchdown to
Speaker 1: score line right now for green Bay. You and I
Speaker 1: discussed this a couple of weeks ago. It goes back
Speaker 1: to two thousand than sixteen, No, two thousand twelve. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: when the Jaguars came in here and I think they
Speaker 1: were sixteen point dogs to green Bay. Green Bay won
Speaker 1: that game, but they were well within sixteen points. So
Speaker 1: you have to be able to again make a statement
Speaker 1: here early on the schedule sets up really well for
Speaker 1: green Bay. I know we're gonna talk about the whole
Speaker 1: landscape here in a minute, but this is sort of
Speaker 1: a take care of business type game before you have
Speaker 1: to go and play a difficult matchup against a quarterback
Speaker 1: you have had a rough history with a Philip Rivers.
Speaker 1: And then you've got a Chicago Bears team that, while
Speaker 1: facing some adversity right now, has been a winning ball
Speaker 1: club for the bulk of this season. As far as
Speaker 1: the Jaguars go, though, I do think this ultimately comes
Speaker 1: down to what Green Bay's offense does against their defense.
Speaker 1: Jacksonville has been up and down to this point of
Speaker 1: the season on the defensive side of the ball. Josh
Speaker 1: Allen is back now he's healthy. He still only has
Speaker 1: two and a half sacks on the season. He was
Speaker 1: working through some of his own stuff, but all those
Speaker 1: sacks have come in three of his last four games.
Speaker 1: So there's still things to worry about there. But I
Speaker 1: just think with you being at home, if you can
Speaker 1: come out again. They've scored on all eight of their
Speaker 1: opening possessions, make a statement early on. It really sets
Speaker 1: you up here to to be able to, you know,
Speaker 1: do what everyone is expecting them to do. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: as far as where things stand in the bigger picture here,
Speaker 1: the Packers are six and two, two games up in
Speaker 1: the lost column in the NFC North, with the Chicago
Speaker 1: Bears at five and four and the Bears having lost
Speaker 1: three straight, and then behind them the Lions and the
Speaker 1: Vikings are both three and five, And as far as
Speaker 1: the NFC in general goes, this is where things I
Speaker 1: think it really really interesting. Not that I'm taking the
Speaker 1: NFC North for granted, because the Packers still have to
Speaker 1: play the Bears twice um. Although I do say, and
Speaker 1: I mentioned this an insider inbox, I don't think it's
Speaker 1: a bad thing right now that with the way Minnesota
Speaker 1: is starting to make its presence, felt that the season
Speaker 1: series is done. If the Vikings are going to try
Speaker 1: to catch the Packers, they don't get to play them
Speaker 1: again in order to do that. And I think that
Speaker 1: that bodes well for green Bay because it just makes
Speaker 1: it that much hard d for Minnesota to make that
Speaker 1: run at first place. But in the NFC in general,
Speaker 1: three teams right now with the top record at six
Speaker 1: and two. You have Green Bay, Seattle and New Orleans.
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay right behind at six and three, and then
Speaker 1: you have the Rams and the Arizona Cardinals are both
Speaker 1: five and three. So that's a half dozen teams that
Speaker 1: are all within one game of one another for the
Speaker 1: number one spot for the top record in the NFC.
Speaker 1: And here's the interesting thing, schedule wise, I'll throw a
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff at you here as far as what
Speaker 1: the second half of the schedule looks like. As I
Speaker 1: mentioned the Bear, the Packers are playing the Bears twice
Speaker 1: the Packers also will have to play the Colts and
Speaker 1: the Titans, the top two teams in the a f
Speaker 1: C South, and the Bears and the Vikings have already
Speaker 1: played the Colts and the Titans. Those games are off
Speaker 1: of their schedules, and the Packers have both of those
Speaker 1: coming up. But then also as far as the rest
Speaker 1: of the NFC is concerned, Seattle and Arizona have to
Speaker 1: play each other once more, and the Rams have two
Speaker 1: games left with the Cardinals and two games left with
Speaker 1: the Seahawks. So the Rams are five and three and
Speaker 1: of their remaining eight games, half of them four of
Speaker 1: them are those division games against the Cardinals and the Seahawks.
Speaker 1: My point is there is a lot to be sorted
Speaker 1: out here over the over the last eight weeks eight
Speaker 1: games of this regular season. In the good news is
Speaker 1: the Packers are right where they need to be at
Speaker 1: the moment, and they just need to need to do
Speaker 1: what it takes to stay there. Yeah, my lingering comment
Speaker 1: has been, Mike, especially getting through this third quarter of
Speaker 1: the season, is that you just got to continue to
Speaker 1: pile up the wins, because I really do feel like
Speaker 1: whatever team gets hot in weeks fifteen sixteen seventeen is
Speaker 1: gonna be the one that really takes a run into
Speaker 1: the playoffs, because right now all the horses are pretty
Speaker 1: much a line going around the second turn. And it's
Speaker 1: funny too, because every time somebody wants to claim someone
Speaker 1: is sort of the leader in the clubhouse in the NFC,
Speaker 1: they sort of get knocked off the pedestal. Going into
Speaker 1: that game against New or Wines, everybody just said, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: Tampa's the best team. New Orleans changed that. New Orleans
Speaker 1: the same team that three weeks ago everybody said, well,
Speaker 1: this this team is terrible. Why are they playing Taysom
Speaker 1: Hill as much as they are. It's a game of
Speaker 1: consistency and there's going to be weekly ups and downs. Well,
Speaker 1: and not that long ago, Seattle is undefeated. They take
Speaker 1: an overtime loss to a division rival with Arizona. Then
Speaker 1: they go play across conference game, across country, trip out
Speaker 1: to Buffalo and get knocked off by a pretty good
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills team. And so suddenly Seattle is six and two,
Speaker 1: and New Orleans, whom the Packers defeated on the road
Speaker 1: way back at the beginning of the season, there now
Speaker 1: six and two, and right there with with green Bay
Speaker 1: and Seattle with the at the top spot in the NFC. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to get into this because it's
Speaker 1: way too really to do it. But right now, if
Speaker 1: the playoffs started, the Packers would be the three seed
Speaker 1: based on the strength of the conference and everything, and
Speaker 1: the wins against the conference, New Orleans would be number one.
Speaker 1: But it shows you, you know, Mike McCarthy always used
Speaker 1: to have that line, and I really always liked it
Speaker 1: where he mentioned you got to get to ten wins
Speaker 1: and then you can start talking and you can start
Speaker 1: talking about the scenarios. And so that's where that to me,
Speaker 1: it's like it's not quite a magic number, because it's not.
Speaker 1: You can't guarantee anything, but it really does line up
Speaker 1: well with green Bay having a chance to get that
Speaker 1: by to make a run at it here with the
Speaker 1: way the schedule aligns. But you can't have any more hiccups.
Speaker 1: You can't have those those blimps in the radar, those
Speaker 1: anomalies like they felt that there was in that game
Speaker 1: against Minnesota, because even after that game ended, Mike, we're
Speaker 1: doing the post game zooms. I don't know how you
Speaker 1: felt about it. I still felt like Green Bay was
Speaker 1: a much better team. They just got beat on that
Speaker 1: particular day day by the best player on the field
Speaker 1: and Cook. And as we found out the last two weeks,
Speaker 1: now this just in Dalvin Cook is pretty good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he might be making a run at the best running
Speaker 1: back in the NFL right now. So all that being said,
Speaker 1: you have to tie it together. You have to win
Speaker 1: these intra conference games coming up for these that last
Speaker 1: month of the season to be meaningful. But Mike I
Speaker 1: was working on the game program this morning for the
Speaker 1: Jaguars game. The Green Bay Packers here, five games at
Speaker 1: home to close the season, three on the road. This
Speaker 1: is an opportunity, it's a huge opportunity to think the
Speaker 1: most of it. Absolutely well, with that, we will call
Speaker 1: it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be
Speaker 1: sure to follow all of our coverage of the team
Speaker 1: all week long on Packers dot com for Wes I
Speaker 1: am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We'll see
Speaker 1: you next time.