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 partner in crime, Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you hear from our studios at Lambeufield to talk about Wes.
Speaker 1: Another Packers victory, this one twenty seven to nineteen over
Speaker 1: the Kansas City Chiefs, the defending Super Bowl champions come
Speaker 1: to lambeau Field and the Packers are the ones triumphant.
Speaker 1: Three straight wins for Green Bay, four of the Packers
Speaker 1: last five in the win column. And I tell you,
Speaker 1: if you were going to script the beginning of a
Speaker 1: game and it wasn't going to when your defense is
Speaker 1: facing a challenge like Patrick Mahomes and this Chiefs offense,
Speaker 1: and if that script is not allowed to include you know,
Speaker 1: turnovers and you know, a defensive touchdown like in Detroit
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving, having the Packers score two touchdowns on their
Speaker 1: first two drives, having the Kansas City Chiefs held out
Speaker 1: of the end zone on their first two drives, and
Speaker 1: then you're at the two minute warning heading into halftime
Speaker 1: and that Patrick Mahomes has only gotten the ball twice.
Speaker 1: You can't other than turnovers. You couldn't draw it up
Speaker 1: any better.
Speaker 2: You couldn't And the fact that by stopping them in
Speaker 2: the red zone it allowed you to keep a touchdown
Speaker 2: off the board. Yeah, and I looked at this game
Speaker 2: up until really going into the fourth quarter is like
Speaker 2: just a fast break NBA game where it was offenses
Speaker 2: moving the ball and defenses trying to make plays, and
Speaker 2: ultimately the Green Bay Packers didn't blink. They didn't blink
Speaker 2: with Jordan Love under center his what fourth game now
Speaker 2: of the season with three touchdowns and no interceptions. My
Speaker 2: headline for Insider Inbox was one of the first things
Speaker 2: I wrote when I was putting that together for Tuesday
Speaker 2: was Jordan Love was at his best when it's team
Speaker 2: needed it the most, and to have the players around
Speaker 2: him pick him up. Romeo Dobbs with one of the
Speaker 2: sickest catches.
Speaker 1: That I've ever seen, crazy play.
Speaker 2: Especially given the circumstances. AJ Dillon running hard and then defensively,
Speaker 2: they were able to withstand the early blows from Mahomes
Speaker 2: and Travis Kelcey and when they need to make plays
Speaker 2: in the second half, they did that. Cream Bay Packers
Speaker 2: picked up by far their biggest victory of the season
Speaker 2: against the Detroit Lions, and it took them just over
Speaker 2: a week to better that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the run that the Packers are on right now
Speaker 1: is pretty impressive when you look at you look at
Speaker 1: how far this team has come. You know, a Monday
Speaker 1: night loss on the road in Vegas that was extremely
Speaker 1: frustrating against a Raiders team that was not playing well.
Speaker 1: Then you come off the bye week and you go
Speaker 1: to Denver and you're playing a Broncos team that, granted
Speaker 1: is playing much better now, but was not playing well
Speaker 1: at the time, and the Packers were not able to
Speaker 1: get that victory either. Now, suddenly from two and five
Speaker 1: and three and six after a frustrating loss in Pittsburgh,
Speaker 1: one that, as we have talked about, was where some
Speaker 1: signs were being shown. The Pittsburgh loss had that had
Speaker 1: a familiar ending, but that entire game was not the
Speaker 1: same script, was not the same story as some of
Speaker 1: those other frustrating losses. That's where things started to turn.
Speaker 1: And now from being two and five and three and
Speaker 1: six to being six and six. And to me, this game,
Speaker 1: when you look at the Packers offense, this game was
Speaker 1: about the command that Jordan Love had I mean in
Speaker 1: terms of in terms of the checks at the line,
Speaker 1: whether he was under center in the shotgun. I made
Speaker 1: a comment in Insider Inbox that to me, when AJ
Speaker 1: Dillon's pounding out the yarts, he that he is and
Speaker 1: he's done this throughout his career. Now late in the season,
Speaker 1: he really is that big, powerful, cold weather, bad weather
Speaker 1: running back, and the Packers are using that right now.
Speaker 1: When a running back is pounding out those kind of yards,
Speaker 1: and then we see Jordan Love running play action, he
Speaker 1: just looks like he's got command of the whole field
Speaker 1: in the pocket off of that playfake when you know
Speaker 1: you've got the defense playing you. Honestly, the pass protection
Speaker 1: is holding up, and the way the Packers are able
Speaker 1: to push the ball downfield right now and then have
Speaker 1: those checkdowns available when Love needs them, the offense is
Speaker 1: in a really good place.
Speaker 2: I don't have a Pro Football Focus membership at the moment.
Speaker 2: I am not gifted in terms of breaking down the
Speaker 2: game analytically as you are. But I can tell you
Speaker 2: what I saw with my eyes on Sunday in two
Speaker 2: things that stood out to me the most. With the
Speaker 2: offensive side of the ball quickly to touch on AJ
Speaker 2: Dillon because I wrote about him in our post game
Speaker 2: key to the game. Yeah, eighteen carries, seventy three yards.
Speaker 2: He averaged four point one yards per carry. Mike, do
Speaker 2: you know what his longest carry was in this game?
Speaker 1: I'm going to I guess seven yards, ten yards.
Speaker 2: Ten He came in the fourth quarter. Okay, So when
Speaker 2: you average four point one yards per care and your
Speaker 2: longest carry is ten yards, what does that tell you?
Speaker 2: It tells you that you're not going backwards.
Speaker 1: Yep, you're grinding it out.
Speaker 2: You're not being tackled for a loss. You're not putting
Speaker 2: yourself in second and tens or second in eleven situations.
Speaker 2: The green Bay Packers steadily moved the football early on
Speaker 2: seven carries for thirty yards on the opening drive in
Speaker 2: the fourth quarter. One of the big reasons why Green
Speaker 2: Bay executed their four minute offense and were able to
Speaker 2: get those extra field goals was because of the way
Speaker 2: that ag Dillon was running the football exceptional. But the
Speaker 2: thing I loved most was how I've opened up the
Speaker 2: play action game and everything started building off one another.
Speaker 2: The end a rounds, the jet motions, they were almost
Speaker 2: like the Aaron Jones, so to speak. As far as
Speaker 2: the contrast to the power running style of aj Dillon. Sure,
Speaker 2: and when you got the play action game going, you
Speaker 2: could just see Kansas City's defense especially want to be
Speaker 2: as aggressive as they are, but fuddled and probably my
Speaker 2: favorite image of this season so far, and we've started
Speaker 2: to see it in recent weeks because you can see
Speaker 2: not from an overconfidence standpoint, but you can see Jordan
Speaker 2: Love feeling himself. You can see him enjoying it. You
Speaker 2: can see him having fun out there. It's when they've
Speaker 2: gotten some of these plays off play action where everything
Speaker 2: is blocked, the protection is there, and Jordan's kind of
Speaker 2: hoppen a little bit as he's looking downfield trying to
Speaker 2: find something. You can see the excitement in the young
Speaker 2: man at making plays and from the greenmat Packers' perspective,
Speaker 2: twenty five completions on thirty six attempts. His overall passer
Speaker 2: completion percentage is now over sixty percent on the season.
Speaker 2: That was a big thing we talked about earlier this year.
Speaker 2: Two sixty seven, three touchdowns, one eighteen point six pass rating. Michael,
Speaker 2: we're talking right now in terms of the NFL. One
Speaker 2: of the best guys performing at that position.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean for Jordan Love to post a
Speaker 1: passer rating nearly forty points higher than Patrick Mahomes. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you had told me that before the game, that
Speaker 1: that would have been the disparity in the passer rating
Speaker 1: between the two quarterbacks and the Packers would have that
Speaker 1: kind of advantage, you know, my jaw would have hit
Speaker 1: the floor. And it's not as though Patrick Mahomes played
Speaker 1: a poor game by any stretch. But you mentioned earlier
Speaker 1: that the Packers never blinked, and this was a game
Speaker 1: that as it was going along, you know, the Packers score,
Speaker 1: the Chief's answer, you know, Packers score, Chiefs answer with
Speaker 1: another field goal. But then the Chiefs get the ball. Packers,
Speaker 1: you know, botched a chance to get a two score
Speaker 1: lead going into halftime. There was a there was a
Speaker 1: false start there and the passing game kind of broke down.
Speaker 1: They weren't able to get the field goal attempt to
Speaker 1: make it seventeen to six. The Chiefs get the ball
Speaker 1: coming out of halftime and they go right down and
Speaker 1: get their first touchdown of the game. Packers stopped the
Speaker 1: two point conversion, but so it's fourteen to twelve. But
Speaker 1: at that point it became a game of like, okay,
Speaker 1: who's gonna blink first, right, and you look at the
Speaker 1: you know the next well, I shouldn't say the next
Speaker 1: couple of possessions in succession, but to two possessions in
Speaker 1: the second half as this thing unfolded. One was the Packers,
Speaker 1: face to fourth and one, decided to pass on what
Speaker 1: would have been a very long field goal attempt, went
Speaker 1: for it, and that became the Romeo Dobs catch that
Speaker 1: you mentioned, where you know, Jordan Love has the pressure
Speaker 1: right in his face, Chris Jones is as close to
Speaker 1: burying him as Chris Jones got all night long, quite frankly.
Speaker 1: But Love sees that the Kansas City secondary is a
Speaker 1: little bit mixed up and doesn't think anybody's really going
Speaker 1: to be able to make a play on Romeo, so
Speaker 1: he throws it up there and Dobbs is able to
Speaker 1: come down with it between multiple defenders who are converging
Speaker 1: but couldn't get there, which is exactly what Love thought
Speaker 1: when he let the ball go, that they wouldn't get
Speaker 1: there in time. Huge fourth and one conversion. So that
Speaker 1: was a moment where maybe the Packers were going to blink.
Speaker 1: The Chiefs are going to get a fourth downstop and
Speaker 1: take over with just a two point deficit. It would
Speaker 1: have stayed fourteen to twelve at that time, but you
Speaker 1: convert the four and one and then against the blitz
Speaker 1: you hit Christian Watson for his second touchdown of the game.
Speaker 1: The other blink moment then became when it's twenty four
Speaker 1: to nineteen, the Chiefs have the ball, they get a
Speaker 1: pass interference against the Packers that puts them just across midfield,
Speaker 1: and then Keishawn Nixon comes up with an interception, and
Speaker 1: that was the first time either quarterback blinked in this game.
Speaker 1: Nixon gets the pick with about five minutes to go,
Speaker 1: and you, I'll let you take the story from here,
Speaker 1: because you heard from Nixon in the locker room and
Speaker 1: wrote about how he had used some pretty extensive film
Speaker 1: study to get a read on what was going to
Speaker 1: happen there that led to his interception.
Speaker 2: Yeah, mannerism study. It's something that I think is probably
Speaker 2: a part of the normal day to day curriculum in
Speaker 2: the National Football League where coaches will go over kind
Speaker 2: of the tells and tips that they're seeing. Both on
Speaker 2: the All twenty two film, but as Matt Lafleure talked
Speaker 2: about on Monday's press conference with the media. You know,
Speaker 2: you get it on the TV copy too, because of
Speaker 2: how they mike up centers and kind of figuring out
Speaker 2: what the cadences are and in those type of things.
Speaker 2: And in this particular case, it was one of the
Speaker 2: checks that Patrick Mahomes was making that he had talked
Speaker 2: with I should say, he being Keishawn Nixon, had discussed
Speaker 2: with his coaches and in the cornerbacks room as Okay,
Speaker 2: if this happens and this is the look that you're
Speaker 2: getting with two receivers over on the right side, this
Speaker 2: might be what the check is going to be, and
Speaker 2: ultimately how the play is going to play out. The
Speaker 2: one thing, maybe you deduced it a little bit better
Speaker 2: than I did. Watching it unfold from the Kansas City perspective,
Speaker 2: I was trying to figure out if they were trying
Speaker 2: to run a rub route or if it was just
Speaker 2: a quick stop and then the guy going underneath it.
Speaker 2: It was kind of a weird sort.
Speaker 1: Of Yeah, it's what I looked at it, and it is.
Speaker 1: It's one of the clips in my what you might
Speaker 1: have missed. I took a look at, you know, a
Speaker 1: key defensive plays, the sacks in the red zone, the
Speaker 1: two point conversion stop, and then the last one being
Speaker 1: the interception there by Nixon. And it looked it looks like,
Speaker 1: essentially it is a rub route. They're trying to set
Speaker 1: up a natural pick type of situation where where sky Moore,
Speaker 1: the inside receiver, is looping underneath. I believe it's Rashi
Speaker 1: Rice who who's running just a quick stop route from
Speaker 1: the outside, so he's looping underneath. What Nixon was able
Speaker 1: to do is he is he stayed back so that
Speaker 1: he didn't, you know, run into Rice or Rice's defender
Speaker 1: on the short route. He stayed back, he was able
Speaker 1: to loop behind. And really then what happened when you
Speaker 1: look at it closely on the film is when sky
Speaker 1: Moore it kind of looks like a wheel route, and
Speaker 1: it does. It's not a wheel route out of the backfield,
Speaker 1: but it's a wheel route from the slot around the
Speaker 1: other receiver. What sky Moore realizes is how good a
Speaker 1: position Nixon is in, and he sort of realized I'm
Speaker 1: not going to win this route, and he starts to
Speaker 1: slow up, but Mahomes has already let the ball go
Speaker 1: because he's counting on his guy to run the route,
Speaker 1: and by slowing up like he did, he didn't have
Speaker 1: a chance to sort of defend Nixon from being able
Speaker 1: to pick the ball off. Nixon had a clean open
Speaker 1: catch because because More wasn't running full speed on the route.
Speaker 1: Because Nixon played it so well, it was like it
Speaker 1: was sort of like I got you, I beat you,
Speaker 1: and More gave up on the play. So that's the
Speaker 1: kind of thing that it was a mistake by the
Speaker 1: Chiefs offense. The Packers were able to take advantage cash
Speaker 1: in and then and they ran the clock down almost
Speaker 1: to a minute left to go before kicking the field
Speaker 1: of the field goal to go up eight points.
Speaker 2: It got really dicey in that final series for Kansas City.
Speaker 2: But after that play, the Chiefs offense never looked in sync. Again, Yeah,
Speaker 2: it really didn't. And obviously they're playing in a two
Speaker 2: minute situation all that, but it just seemed like it
Speaker 2: was one of those backbreaking type of moments. The stat
Speaker 2: that I brought up and we talked about it last
Speaker 2: week then being minus six now and turnover differential. They're
Speaker 2: four and four on the season. When Patrick Mahomes has
Speaker 2: an interception, they haven't lost when he doesn't have one.
Speaker 2: So it shows you just how quickly that can all
Speaker 2: turn on them if it doesn't work out that way. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Keishaw Nixon, I said it was one of the finest
Speaker 2: over the shoulder interceptions I've ever seen. I'll say this,
Speaker 2: I don't know if I've ever seen it over the
Speaker 2: shoulder interception within ten yards of the play. Sometimes it
Speaker 2: happens if a guy lofts a ball and that the
Speaker 2: receiver doesn't run it rout right or it's overthrown. Keisha
Speaker 2: Nixon had an over the shoulder interception that ended up
Speaker 2: in sort of a toe taper on the sidelines, all
Speaker 2: within like ten yards. Yeah, it was kind of a
Speaker 2: wild thing, and I know a lot of people the
Speaker 2: reactions of this thing I've seen, I mean, just people
Speaker 2: completely awestruck at it. But as Nixon said afterwards, he's like,
Speaker 2: I've had a couple of those chances already this season.
Speaker 2: We remember one of them, I believe in Denver, where
Speaker 2: he was so close to being able to just couldn't
Speaker 2: get his feet Downes caught the ball, but it's the
Speaker 2: other part of the process of the catch that one.
Speaker 2: He did it, and it was a huge moment for greenback.
Speaker 1: Well, it's one of those things too that with Nixon
Speaker 1: being a return guy, he at times he has to
Speaker 1: catch the ball in different positions and you know, in
Speaker 1: other ways than sort of the traditional way that a
Speaker 1: defender might intercept a pass. So those kinds of skills
Speaker 1: certainly come in handy. This win is big as it
Speaker 1: is for the Packers, and we'll talk about where things
Speaker 1: sit in the playoff picture in a minute. It came
Speaker 1: at a cost, however, unfortunately, because Christian Watson in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, as he picked up a crucial first down
Speaker 1: to move the chains, keep the clock moving there late
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, he tweaked his hamstring, went down,
Speaker 1: was helped off the field. We don't know the extent
Speaker 1: of the injury where things are at. It is an
Speaker 1: injury that he has dealt with in one form or
Speaker 1: another throughout his two seasons in the NFL, So that's
Speaker 1: very unfortunate. Christian Watson was really getting going, not only
Speaker 1: having the two touchdown catches against the Chiefs, but four
Speaker 1: of his five touchdowns on the season. We're in this
Speaker 1: three game winning streak that the Packers are currently on.
Speaker 1: He was, you know, starting to certainly starting to look
Speaker 1: like the Christian Watson that you know that took the
Speaker 1: league by storm over a four or five game stretch
Speaker 1: last season as a rookie. In November, we'll see how
Speaker 1: long he's going to be out, and it's it's a
Speaker 1: big blow to the Packers offense when you add the
Speaker 1: fact that Luke Muskrave, your rookie tight end who had
Speaker 1: been just starting to stretch defenses a little bit and
Speaker 1: get more attention and whatnot, he's also out now. He's
Speaker 1: on injured reserve and we don't really know if or
Speaker 1: when he'll be back this season. So offensively, another hurdle
Speaker 1: to deal with here as Matt Lafleur and the offensive
Speaker 1: coaches are going to have to game plan presumably, you know,
Speaker 1: I would think at least this game against the Giants
Speaker 1: and maybe another one, who knows. We don't know the timeline,
Speaker 1: but there's going to be some time here that Christian
Speaker 1: Watson is going to miss and they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: game plan and set up the offense moving forward without
Speaker 1: number nine on the field.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was bummed out to see how that ends
Speaker 2: for him, because, for my money, Michael, I understand he
Speaker 2: wasn't going to be up for Offensive Player of the
Speaker 2: Week or Offensive Rookie of the Week like he was
Speaker 2: like twelve times last season. But I would venture to
Speaker 2: say that that was one of his best games of
Speaker 2: his NFL career because he played as a possession receiver
Speaker 2: and he showed the more well rounded aspects of his game.
Speaker 2: Set career high seven receptions, but it was only for
Speaker 2: seventy one yards, but so many of those plays, none
Speaker 2: of which were more than twenty yards on an individual catch,
Speaker 2: but so many of those plays contributed to either the
Speaker 2: Packers sustaining a drive or as we saw the two
Speaker 2: touchdowns the first one in the second quarter, in the
Speaker 2: second one and the third, and how strongly he attacked
Speaker 2: the football and just being able to use all of
Speaker 2: his tools together as one. You had to edit it.
Speaker 2: When I wrote it last month, Christian Watson was going
Speaker 2: to be just fine. I liked his mentality, I liked
Speaker 2: his athleticism. I felt like he was going to be
Speaker 2: able to pull himself back into this thing and finish strong,
Speaker 2: which he has been doing. Unfortunately, the inner the hamstring
Speaker 2: does pop up. One thing he did clarify, and I
Speaker 2: want to make sure we make this point. His people
Speaker 2: had kind of been asking on social media or some
Speaker 2: of the media had been talking about, well, him trying
Speaker 2: to stop himself to stay in balance. Is where the
Speaker 2: hamstring injury happened. Watson said, No, it happened during the
Speaker 2: process of it. He just went down, not to make
Speaker 2: anything worse. I mean, obviously he wanted to stand bounce,
Speaker 2: but they had already had the issue before that, so
Speaker 2: you hope for the best. It was good to see
Speaker 2: him walking around. Obviously, he was talking with teammates afterwards.
Speaker 2: It you know, it's not like Desmond Bishop situation, which
Speaker 2: is always the one in the back of my head
Speaker 2: when a guy goes down like he did. But hamstring
Speaker 2: injuries also don't heal themselves overnight. We're gonna have to
Speaker 2: see what the Packers do here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna it's gonna take. It's gonna take another
Speaker 1: adjustment on offense. But Lafleur in this offensive staff, they've
Speaker 1: been dealing with adjustments all along. You know, you lose
Speaker 1: David Baktieri, Aaron Jones has been in and out of
Speaker 1: the lineup all season. Now Watson was out before back in.
Speaker 1: Now Watson's out. Musgrave is out. You know, it's not
Speaker 1: anything that they haven't dealt with in the past, and
Speaker 1: and uh, and they'll have to roll with it again.
Speaker 1: The uh, the final drive. I want to make one
Speaker 1: point about that. What I considered an extremely chaotic final drive,
Speaker 1: I don't and I don't think it was just because
Speaker 1: I was live blogging the game and trying to figure
Speaker 1: out and keep up.
Speaker 2: No, I was just watching. I didn't understand what I.
Speaker 1: Was and trying to type everything and and stay on
Speaker 1: top of it. There are all kinds of analyzes out there.
Speaker 1: I sort of said my peace with regard to the
Speaker 1: officiating in the Monday Insider inbox. You know, the late
Speaker 1: hit on Mahomes shouldn't have been called, The past interference
Speaker 1: on Valentine obviously should have been called. Did the officials
Speaker 1: manage the clock correctly? Absolutely not. And then you have
Speaker 1: the Hail Mary, which apparently, and I'm not watching the
Speaker 1: NBC broadcast, but apparently they were making a big deal
Speaker 1: out of Travis Kelsey getting shoved in the back by
Speaker 1: Jonathan Owens on the Hail Mary. And it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: when's the last time you ever saw a pass interference flag?
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, folks. I literally I have seen
Speaker 1: I believe in my lifetime, I have seen one pass
Speaker 1: interference flag thrown on a hail mary and it was
Speaker 1: literally when a guy got grabbed and dragged to the
Speaker 1: ground where they had there was like no choice if
Speaker 1: you are jock for a position to go try to
Speaker 1: get the football. It's an anything goes free for all situation.
Speaker 1: The point I wanted to make about all this is
Speaker 1: hearing the comments afterward from Patrick Mahomes and from Travis
Speaker 1: Kelcey with regard to the final drive. Mahomes is asked
Speaker 1: about the interference on Valentine, the deep ball to MVS
Speaker 1: that wasn't called, and Patrick Mahomes says, I need to
Speaker 1: throw better football. Travis Kelsey's asked about the hail mary
Speaker 1: and he says, I'm not putting this loss on anything
Speaker 1: but ourselves. That's how champions talk. That's how champions two
Speaker 1: Super Bowl championships in the last handful of years. That's
Speaker 1: how champions deal with defeats like that. They are not
Speaker 1: pointed the fans are gonna do what they want to do.
Speaker 1: Those players are not pointing the fingers at the officials
Speaker 1: for how that thing went down, and I think that's
Speaker 1: just it's an important thing to remember. It's an important
Speaker 1: thing to file away. How the Kansas City Chiefs dealt
Speaker 1: with this.
Speaker 2: Law, I loved it, and I think that starts with
Speaker 2: the Andy Reid. I think it goes through that coaching staff,
Speaker 2: and obviously when you have leaders like Kelsey and Mahomes,
Speaker 2: it's gonna be something that permiates to the rest of
Speaker 2: the locker room. What I like the most about it
Speaker 2: in the games are completely different, by the way, but
Speaker 2: the way that the Chiefs handled this reminded me so
Speaker 2: much of how the Patriots handled the loss to Green
Speaker 2: Bay in twenty fourteen. Here there's teams that chase the playoffs,
Speaker 2: were trying to make the playoffs, and there's teams that
Speaker 2: are trying to build themselves into Super Bowl champions, and
Speaker 2: that's what the Patriots did in twenty fourteen. It wasn't
Speaker 2: a controversial ending like that, but I just remember Bill
Speaker 2: Belichick talking about what they'd learned from that game in
Speaker 2: the fact they ended up not losing another game the
Speaker 2: rest of the season. For the Chiefs perspective, there's a
Speaker 2: lot of things that Kansas City has to shore up.
Speaker 2: We've seen it it's been something that's cost them some games.
Speaker 2: In this particular one, it was chaotic no matter which
Speaker 2: way you slice it, Packers, Chiefs, whoever. The officiating kind
Speaker 2: of started to alter the way that this what extremely
Speaker 2: entertaining in exciting football game was playing out. But you
Speaker 2: have to overcome it. The one thing I found most
Speaker 2: interesting about the discussion about the hill Mary was just
Speaker 2: that it's like, have you ever watched the play before
Speaker 2: in the understanding that when a hail Mary goes up?
Speaker 2: It's not It's the one play where the defense is
Speaker 2: kind of seen as in a second offense, so to speak.
Speaker 2: Everyone can attack the football.
Speaker 1: Yeah, everybody's got a shot at that ball.
Speaker 2: It's not the defense's job to prevent the offense from
Speaker 2: catching the ball. The defense has a chance for it too.
Speaker 2: That's where the jockeying aspect this comes through. And I'll
Speaker 2: just make this point with Dean Blandino because he came
Speaker 2: out with a thirty third team and provided some analysis
Speaker 2: with this. Again, I welcome anything that the NFL wants
Speaker 2: to put in front of us in terms of how
Speaker 2: that game was officiated at the end and what they
Speaker 2: were exactly looking for and whether things are right or wrong.
Speaker 2: Guessing we're not going to see it. I'm guessing there's
Speaker 2: just going to be some reports coming out on Saturday
Speaker 2: about whether or not John Nathan Owens was fine, and
Speaker 2: that's all we're going to be left to deduce from this.
Speaker 2: But as Dean Blandino pointed out, there, when you look
Speaker 2: at the way that everything played out at the end,
Speaker 2: the officiating call on the Mahomes thing, he was clearly
Speaker 2: in bounds that should not have happened. That's where it
Speaker 2: all started. And then the MBS play Obviously you watch it,
Speaker 2: you see the contact there. But when think but Matt
Speaker 2: Lafleur touched on it and the little bit that he
Speaker 2: discussed it on his press conference on Monday, It's about
Speaker 2: how games are officiated and augmenting yourself to that officiation
Speaker 2: of the game. It's why I took such an issue
Speaker 2: with Clete Blakeman's crew in twenty twenty with those playoffs
Speaker 2: in the FC Championship game, game is officiated one way.
Speaker 2: They changed it over in the last two minutes and
Speaker 2: officiated completely the other way. Whatever. That's where really Brad
Speaker 2: Allen's crew got into a jam because it was a
Speaker 2: terrible call. On the Mahomes thing. If you happen to
Speaker 2: look up and see the screen, even though it's not
Speaker 2: a reviewable play, they left it up there. You can
Speaker 2: clearly see Jonathan Owens making the contact with Mahomes while
Speaker 2: he's still in bounds, not even one foot out of bounds,
Speaker 2: And I think that's what started to alter the way
Speaker 2: the rest of the game unfolded.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'll say it once again because my face
Speaker 1: continues to get blue and bluer and power over the years.
Speaker 1: If they just make safety rules reviewable, a lot of
Speaker 1: controversy in the sleep could be avoided because it doesn't
Speaker 1: take long to look at a play that is a
Speaker 1: potential safety violation and decide whether or not it really was.
Speaker 1: And the Mahomes play, the hit on the sideline would
Speaker 1: exactly fall into that category. So I think a potential solution,
Speaker 1: a potential improvement, is staring the NFL in the face
Speaker 1: with regard to the safety rules, whether you're talking about
Speaker 1: late hits, whether you're talking about roughing the passer, whether
Speaker 1: you're talking about defenseless hits on defenseless receivers, helmet to
Speaker 1: helmet contact, Just if these calls are going to these
Speaker 1: are all fifteen yard calls and they cost players money.
Speaker 1: Get them right. And I think if you just put
Speaker 1: the safety rules in the reviewable category, you can get
Speaker 1: a lot more of this. Right.
Speaker 2: We're wasting five minutes reviewing whether or not Rashi Rice's
Speaker 2: knee is down. We're wasting forty five seconds to discuss
Speaker 2: quarterbacks and you know, intentional grounding. Yeah, but it's inexplicable
Speaker 2: to be able to just take a second to see
Speaker 2: if maybe Patrick Mahomes was still in bounce.
Speaker 1: Right, and the league and the league is the league
Speaker 1: is just is forcing fans to accept that plays that
Speaker 1: get flagged but then the players don't get fined, and
Speaker 1: then plays that don't get flagged, and then the players
Speaker 1: do get fined that you find out about later in
Speaker 1: the weekend. Everybody's just supposed to accept that that's how
Speaker 1: this is supposed to go. To me, it's ludicrous. It's ludicrous.
Speaker 2: And again I'm not going to sit your point fingers.
Speaker 2: But if you look at the pool report after the game,
Speaker 2: in Brad Allen's comments to the gentleman from Kansas City
Speaker 2: that was conducting it, there was really no expansion on
Speaker 2: why things ruled. It was that was the right rule.
Speaker 2: That was the right rule, And I think that's kind
Speaker 2: of the fact we've had from the league here for
Speaker 2: a number of years in terms of don't question it,
Speaker 2: Yeah it was correct.
Speaker 1: Well, I've got to get to some sponsor business here.
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Speaker 1: long to get to this point, but we have to
Speaker 1: talk about where things are in the NFC. This is
Speaker 1: the easiest way to explain where things are right now.
Speaker 1: There are four teams in the NFC that are tied
Speaker 1: at six and six. You have the Packers, the Vikings,
Speaker 1: the Rams, and the Seahawks, and there are two as
Speaker 1: far as those teams at six and six, they are
Speaker 1: fighting for two wild card spots that are available, the
Speaker 1: number six and the number seven seeds in the NFC.
Speaker 1: You also have two teams at five and seven. The
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New Orleans Saints are both
Speaker 1: five and seven, one game back of those four teams
Speaker 1: that are six and six.
Speaker 2: And the Falcons, so their division title.
Speaker 1: Yes, but as of now, the Falcons are the you know,
Speaker 1: the division leader in the NFC South. So if you
Speaker 1: look at it from that wild card perspective, the six
Speaker 1: and seven seeds that are available, it's essentially six teams,
Speaker 1: all the those four six and six as I mentioned,
Speaker 1: the two five and sevens, it's those six teams fighting
Speaker 1: for two spots. There are five games left to go.
Speaker 1: I don't really look at you know, okay, who has
Speaker 1: the spot now versus you know, based on the tie
Speaker 1: breakers as they sit right now. I mean that's valuable
Speaker 1: only in the sense of, okay, if you don't lose
Speaker 1: any more games the rest of the season, you know,
Speaker 1: this is the spot you're you know, this is the
Speaker 1: spot you would you would occupy. Right So, but there
Speaker 1: are five games left for all these teams. There is
Speaker 1: a lot of football left to be played and a
Speaker 1: lot to sort out. But the most important thing, of course,
Speaker 1: is that the Packers are the team that have thrust
Speaker 1: themselves into this going from three and six to six
Speaker 1: and six, and I think there's no argument that of
Speaker 1: those six teams fighting for those two spots, the Packers
Speaker 1: are the hottest club right now. And it's just up
Speaker 1: to the Packers to keep this thing going starting next
Speaker 1: Monday night against the New York Giants.
Speaker 2: Well in the NFL got what they wanted with the
Speaker 2: seventeenth game and the seventh playoff seed, because right now
Speaker 2: we are in Week fourteen, correct, and there is one
Speaker 2: team in the National Football League eliminated from the playoffs,
Speaker 2: that's Carolina Panthers. Everybody else, including the New England Patriots,
Speaker 2: are actually still technically alive for the wild.
Speaker 1: Yeah, mathematically, there's a pass.
Speaker 2: So what does this tell you when you have two
Speaker 2: teams here at six and six and two other teams
Speaker 2: at six and six that are on the outskirts, look
Speaker 2: the outside looking in and the inside looking out. Win
Speaker 2: football games? And I think that was basically the biggest
Speaker 2: message that Matt Lafleur had, especially once the tides started
Speaker 2: to turn a little bit. They got to three and six,
Speaker 2: then they're at four and six and so on and
Speaker 2: so forth. Don't worry about who the opponent is, worry
Speaker 2: about what the outcome is going to be. And the
Speaker 2: Packers have to keep that same mentality because you're gonna
Speaker 2: look and we'll discuss it later this week. But you know,
Speaker 2: the Giants are humbling some teams right now. People forget,
Speaker 2: Giants went into the bye week with back to back wins.
Speaker 2: They didn't beat the Kansas City Chiefs, they didn't beat
Speaker 2: the Detroit Lions, but they got back to back wins.
Speaker 2: So you have to respect the opponent and the threats
Speaker 2: that are presented. But for the Green Bay Packers to
Speaker 2: be able to dig themselves out of that hole and
Speaker 2: put themselves back in a situation where it can even
Speaker 2: be a funny little tweet or a nice little thing
Speaker 2: that's going to get some engagement about how, oh they're
Speaker 2: technically the seventh seed right now, if the season would end,
Speaker 2: that is a testament to Matt lafleuor it's a testament
Speaker 2: to that locker room. And now that they've tasted some
Speaker 2: of that success, especially with the young football team, understanding
Speaker 2: that you can look past no opponent and that schedule
Speaker 2: gets to be a little bit more favorable. The dark
Speaker 2: woods are behind you, here. You no longer have to
Speaker 2: be fearful of the big bad wolf. You still have
Speaker 2: to be cognizant that there are dangers out there, and
Speaker 2: the Green Bay Packers have to be able to take
Speaker 2: care of business or you can get humbled very fast.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And we'll talk about more about where the
Speaker 1: how the playoff picture looks, who all these other teams
Speaker 1: are playing this week, because with the Packers on Monday
Speaker 1: night out in New Jersey, it's gonna be a Sunday
Speaker 1: of scoreboard watching and all of that for Packers fans.
Speaker 1: So we'll we'll break that down as well as the
Speaker 1: upcoming opponent, the Giants, on our next program.
Speaker 2: I'm not let you sign off yet, Okay, San Francisco, Philly,
Speaker 2: just give me your thoughts on that really fast, because
Speaker 2: we're not gonna ever talk about it again.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's true. I got caught up in everything else.
Speaker 2: No, No, we had a lot to discuss, but I
Speaker 2: do want your thoughts on that game.
Speaker 1: San. I mean, I don't always like the phrase statement
Speaker 1: game because it gets a bit overused, but that was
Speaker 1: a statement.
Speaker 2: That was a statement.
Speaker 1: I mean I save it. I save that overused phrase
Speaker 1: for certain moments the San Francisco forty nine Ers sent
Speaker 1: a message to phill Yeah, exactly. It was on the
Speaker 1: road in Philadelphia. They sent a message to the rest
Speaker 1: of the league. I you know, I had mentioned it
Speaker 1: last week that this that little three game losing streak.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say little three games is a lot, but
Speaker 1: that three game losing streak the Niners went through is
Speaker 1: absolutely ancient history. Right now, that team, that team is
Speaker 1: on a roll. They are looking, I would argue, even
Speaker 1: better than at any point they may have looked last
Speaker 1: year before they lost their quarterback initially when you know
Speaker 1: when Perdy then had to had to jump into things.
Speaker 1: It's interesting. The Eagles are still the you know, still
Speaker 1: have the best record. They're the only team with two losses.
Speaker 1: But boy, you know, with the Niners having that tie
Speaker 1: breaker on the Eagles, now all they have to do
Speaker 1: is tie them at the seventeen game mark, and the
Speaker 1: Niners are going to get that first round by eighteen.
Speaker 2: Carries forty six yards for Philly. Jalen Hurts was the
Speaker 2: leading rusher with twenty yards in that game. I mean,
Speaker 2: they completely neutralize that offense and then the quick thing
Speaker 2: I want to do, and this will be your opening
Speaker 2: now to sign off is Brock Purty nineteen of twenty
Speaker 2: seven three fourteen four touchdowns. Having Deebo Samuel helps too.
Speaker 2: But when teams not only five, people always want to
Speaker 2: talk about is he the guy? Is he the guy?
Speaker 2: Doesn't matter if people say he's the guy, it matters.
Speaker 2: Does that locker room think he's the guy?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: And Brock Purdy is the guy and I think we're
Speaker 2: learning week after week after week, Jordan Love is the
Speaker 2: guy in this locker room. The doubters can say whatever
Speaker 2: they want, but this team is following Jordan Love. And
Speaker 2: when you have a young rookie quarterback, a young first
Speaker 2: year starting quarterback, just like Brock Purty did last year,
Speaker 2: when you have that self belief, you can conquer anything.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And we'll talk more about what lies ahead
Speaker 1: for the Eagles on our next show as well, because
Speaker 1: because that's really going to get interesting there in the
Speaker 1: NFC East. But we do have to sign off on
Speaker 1: this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow continue
Speaker 1: to follow all of our coverage of the team on
Speaker 1: Packers dot com. For Wes, I'm Mike. Thank you for
Speaker 1: tuning in. Everybody. We will see you next time,