Speaker 1: Hi everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my partner in crime, Wes Hodkoits. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you hear from our studios at lambele Field West. It's
Speaker 1: been a short compact week. Thursday Night football is almost
Speaker 1: here and it's a big one of course, Packers against
Speaker 1: the Cardinals out in Arizona. Cardinals at seven and no
Speaker 1: Packers at six and one. We know all of that.
Speaker 1: A very important game here for late November. And the
Speaker 1: latest with regard to the Packers, Uh, the offense is
Speaker 1: going to be a bit shorthanded, it appears because not
Speaker 1: only is Davante Adams on the COVID nineteen reserve list,
Speaker 1: but Alan Lazard has been added to that list as well. Um,
Speaker 1: A real challenge here now for the Packers on offense
Speaker 1: when you're going up against one of the best offenses
Speaker 1: in the league and you kind of think, you know,
Speaker 1: this is going to be one of those you've got
Speaker 1: to keep up score type of games without question, and
Speaker 1: you know in first and foremost, as I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: every time we address COVID nineteen related items. You hope
Speaker 1: for the best from a humanistic standpoint for Davante Adams
Speaker 1: and al Lazard, both genuinely good guys, you hope everything
Speaker 1: works out in that regard. Shifting back to the business
Speaker 1: of football, the fact of the matter is that the
Speaker 1: Packers are pretty depleted at receiver. You also have Malik
Speaker 1: Taylor on COVID nineteen as well. Mark was about the
Speaker 1: scantling at the time in which we're taping this, not
Speaker 1: sure if he's going to be activated or not. All
Speaker 1: of injured reserve. So just looking at terms of who
Speaker 1: the active guys are on the roster, it's Randall Cobb,
Speaker 1: Econemius st. Brown, you would imagine they'll probably end up
Speaker 1: activating Jowan were in free off the practice squad for
Speaker 1: this game. He was active last week as well. It
Speaker 1: almost in some ways, Mike reminds you a little bit
Speaker 1: of that playoff game at the end of the fifteen season,
Speaker 1: where now they lost Randall Cobb in the course of
Speaker 1: that game, but they were down to basically their last
Speaker 1: three guys at receiver and James Jones with the hoodie,
Speaker 1: Jeff Janis and Jared aber Dais and then nearly one
Speaker 1: the day game. But it's gonna be about the playmakers
Speaker 1: in this game. Regardless of whether or not MBS is
Speaker 1: back or Taylor is activated. They have to be able
Speaker 1: to rely on their running backs Aaron Jones and AJ
Speaker 1: Dillon not just as runners, as playmakers. They're gonna need
Speaker 1: Robert Tonyan to step up, Mark you know, you know
Speaker 1: Mercedes Lewis has gonna go to the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: It's gonna take a full throated effort there by the
Speaker 1: Packers to make this thing go for them on Thursday night,
Speaker 1: and then obviously the biggest kingpin of all, Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: playing the way that Aaron Rodgers needs to play against
Speaker 1: the guy. And Kyler Murray, who had twenty four years old,
Speaker 1: really looks like he's going to be one of the
Speaker 1: preeminent quarterbacks here for years to come. Yeah, absolutely, you wonder.
Speaker 1: I mean for the Packers, this is one of those
Speaker 1: things where who's it going to be, right? Who is
Speaker 1: the guy or guys? You hope it's even more than
Speaker 1: one that steps up and has that kind of big
Speaker 1: time game. Obviously, Robert Tonyan had a very productive game
Speaker 1: last week against Washington, got into the end zone on
Speaker 1: a twenty yard touchdown pass e hu st Brown. We
Speaker 1: saw him catch a touchdown against Chicago. Yes it got
Speaker 1: called back, you know, controversial or close call type of
Speaker 1: penalty thing there. Maybe rookie receiver Marii Rodgers gets more
Speaker 1: snaps here. We've seen Randall Cobb have a multi touchdown
Speaker 1: game this season. And then we all know what the
Speaker 1: Packers have in the backfield. Aaron Jones, A J. Dillon
Speaker 1: the Packers interestingly, and this is a stat that's almost
Speaker 1: hard to believe, of course, but in the Matt Lafleur era,
Speaker 1: Davantae Adams has missed six games and yet the Packers
Speaker 1: are six and oh in those games. And the reason I'm,
Speaker 1: you know, asking the question who's it going to be?
Speaker 1: Because you look at how the Packers have won those
Speaker 1: six games when Adams has been out of the lineup.
Speaker 1: In Matt Lafleur's offense, we saw Aaron Jones have a
Speaker 1: four touchdown game in Dallas. We saw him have a
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty plus receiving yards at Kansas City, both
Speaker 1: of those games in in nineteen. Jamal Williams had a
Speaker 1: hundred yard rushing game in twenty nineteen with Davante Adams
Speaker 1: out of the lineup in the Packers beat the line
Speaker 1: in prime time, and then you go to last year,
Speaker 1: Tony In had the three touchdown game against the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 1: Al Lazard had the big game at New Orleans. So
Speaker 1: it's been always been somebody right in order to be
Speaker 1: able to come out victorious. So the question is, you know,
Speaker 1: who is it going to be. We'll have to find out. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The best part about that streak that they've been on
Speaker 1: is I think the narrative going into every single one
Speaker 1: of those games was, well they lost Stavante Adams, now
Speaker 1: what and and it was inevitably somebody always stepping up.
Speaker 1: The Ala Lazard one, although they won't have Lazard on
Speaker 1: Thursday night, is the one that really hits home for
Speaker 1: me because I thought it was that game that he
Speaker 1: really showed that this guy can be a guy that
Speaker 1: can be counted on, you know, when the lights are bright. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: he suffers the cm I in that game and then
Speaker 1: he misses six games. But it's like I said, it's
Speaker 1: gonna take all hands on deck to beat a team
Speaker 1: like Arizona. They're the top scoring defense in the National
Speaker 1: Football League right now. I mean, we focus so much
Speaker 1: offensively what they do, but defensively they're limiting teams as well.
Speaker 1: Cliff Kingsbury that style of offense, the air raid, what
Speaker 1: ever you want to call it. There's so much focus.
Speaker 1: Even going back to his time at Texas Tech has
Speaker 1: been on the offensive side of the ball. They very
Speaker 1: quietly built a monster on defense though, with you know,
Speaker 1: Buddha Baker and as you know, Marcus Golden. They bring
Speaker 1: in you know, J. J. Watt, Chandler Jones has been
Speaker 1: one of the top pass rushers, while unheralded, a very
Speaker 1: productive player for a number of years now. So there's
Speaker 1: just been reactivated as well, reactivate as well, and there's
Speaker 1: just there's so many weapons that you look at. Um
Speaker 1: Isaiah Simmons was a really exciting inside linebacker coming out,
Speaker 1: you know, and you know Xavi and Collins. There's a
Speaker 1: lot that Greeny is gonna have to contend with. And
Speaker 1: you know, to their credit, Rogers La Fleur, Nathaniel Hackett,
Speaker 1: they've been able to develop some really brilliant game plans
Speaker 1: over the years. And you know, as as Dean Lowry
Speaker 1: kind of said, you know, and talking with the media
Speaker 1: on on Tuesday, you know, Aaron Jones, a J. Dillon
Speaker 1: have really stepped up through the course of this season.
Speaker 1: This might be a game where it makes sense for
Speaker 1: those guys to step up again. Yeah. Absolutely. And on
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the ball, all Packers are planning
Speaker 1: to be without defensive coordinator Joe Berry, who tested positive
Speaker 1: for COVID, Matt Lafleur announcing late in the day on
Speaker 1: Tuesday that defensive backs coach and passing game coordinator on
Speaker 1: the defensive side, Jerry Gray, will be the play caller
Speaker 1: for the defense on Thursday, and obviously a natural choice
Speaker 1: there because Gray has been a defensive coordinator for two
Speaker 1: different franchises in this league, a total of eight years,
Speaker 1: five years with Buffalo, three with Tennessee. This is a
Speaker 1: this is a seat he has sat in before, right
Speaker 1: and uh and and and a coach who, in a
Speaker 1: couple of short years here has made has made quite
Speaker 1: an impact on this Packers. Oh yeah, I mean you
Speaker 1: could tell, you know since day one when he came
Speaker 1: in through the door, just the way he carries himself,
Speaker 1: you know, the respect, the credibility. Uh. And in the
Speaker 1: production I mean, jire Alexander, you know a lot of
Speaker 1: that credit goes to Jay Are, but you know, he's
Speaker 1: become an all Pro cornerback now adding to that lineage
Speaker 1: with Gray and some of the work he did in
Speaker 1: Minnesota and with the Titans. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: history there in terms of his production with with the
Speaker 1: cornerback position. But it would have always made sense under
Speaker 1: any circumstance for Grading be the guy that gets the
Speaker 1: call if Joe Barry can't be there. But this week
Speaker 1: in particular, I think is really important because now it
Speaker 1: is going to be about a tight window that Green
Speaker 1: Bay has to bounce back off a really good, you know,
Speaker 1: successful all around team victory on Sunday and now play
Speaker 1: you know, statistically the best team in the National Football League.
Speaker 1: You need somebody who's been there. He's done that. Gray
Speaker 1: has done it, as you said, in two different stops.
Speaker 1: Will be very interested to see what the communication processes,
Speaker 1: Like Matt Lafleur said, right now, Gray will call the
Speaker 1: plays inside linebackers coach Kirk Oliva Daddy will be the
Speaker 1: one that will actually relay them to uh Devandre Campbell
Speaker 1: the Packers, you know, Mike linebacker. So there'll be a
Speaker 1: little bit of a you know, telephone game going on there.
Speaker 1: But that being said, uh, this is a unit that's
Speaker 1: played really well together and Campbell's made a lot of
Speaker 1: things work from a communication standpoint this week, this year,
Speaker 1: this is going to be a big stress. It's going
Speaker 1: to be a big challenge. But ultimately, I feel like
Speaker 1: the Packers have to think that they're in a good
Speaker 1: spot right now considering the way they've built defensively over
Speaker 1: the last month. Yeah, and it'll be interesting to see
Speaker 1: on the defensive side as well. With regard to the injuries.
Speaker 1: Do the Packers get Preston Smith back for this game?
Speaker 1: Do they get Kevin King back for this game? And
Speaker 1: for all the attention on Kyler Murray, and rightfully so,
Speaker 1: he's off to an m v P type start to
Speaker 1: his one season. But you look at this receiving corps
Speaker 1: for the Arizona Cardinals. Mike Goodness West, DeAndre Hopkins, A J. Green,
Speaker 1: Christian Kirk, and then you're number four is a young
Speaker 1: man named ron Dale Moore who I have not watched
Speaker 1: a whole lot of Arizona this season, but I did
Speaker 1: watch a good portion of their game against the Minnesota
Speaker 1: Vikings early in the season because I believe that was
Speaker 1: week two when the Packers were playing on Monday night,
Speaker 1: so we we were at home watching games on Sunday.
Speaker 1: And this Rondel Moore out of Purdue. Obviously I saw
Speaker 1: him in the Big Ten as well. If this, if
Speaker 1: this guy's your number four receiver, like, my goodness, you
Speaker 1: you you're a matchup nightmare for for any defense. If
Speaker 1: they want to put all four of those receivers on
Speaker 1: the field, they can, they can spread you out. They
Speaker 1: can still have a running back in the backfield to
Speaker 1: to run the ball out of that spread type of stuff.
Speaker 1: And obviously Kyler Murray himself is a threat to run
Speaker 1: the ball as well. And if they didn't have enough,
Speaker 1: they went and traded a third round pick for Zach Ertz,
Speaker 1: you know, just to get to get a tight end
Speaker 1: if you if you want to have a tight end
Speaker 1: and instead you know, approven Pro Bowl type tight end
Speaker 1: instead of one of those wide receivers. There you go. No.
Speaker 1: But you know the thing is, I just love the
Speaker 1: balance of their offense. A couple of things. It's impressive.
Speaker 1: First and foremost, Murray has been exceptional hundred sixteen passer
Speaker 1: rating this year, seventeen touchdowns against five interceptions, completing passes
Speaker 1: at Mike. I remember back in the day that you
Speaker 1: get to six you percent on your completions, that was
Speaker 1: a good year for a quarterback. It's trending more and
Speaker 1: more towards now. Yeah, he's he's putting. I mean, his
Speaker 1: completion percentages even is even north of Drew Brees, and
Speaker 1: Drew Brees was was doing that. But you know, you
Speaker 1: look at it. The fact is I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: he's scrambling in terms of just running the ball, he's
Speaker 1: doing that less this year, but he's still making place happen.
Speaker 1: These throws. He's you you've been watching of him escaping
Speaker 1: the pocket and throwing across the hash marks but still
Speaker 1: finding receivers. The laws of quarterback have steadily been broken,
Speaker 1: and seems like the last few years with what these
Speaker 1: guys can do running and throwing against their body and
Speaker 1: and Murray exemplifies that. But what I like the most
Speaker 1: about what they've built in Arizona is the wide array
Speaker 1: of weapons that they have. I'd like Christian Kirk since
Speaker 1: he came out of college, and I think you're seeing
Speaker 1: him break out this year. DeAndre Hopkins is the guy
Speaker 1: that gets all the headlines and while he is having
Speaker 1: another productive season. He's leading them in receptions. They have
Speaker 1: so many different ways that they can go. As you
Speaker 1: mentioned Ron del Moore also becoming a your playmaker. And
Speaker 1: then obviously you know with Chase Edmonds now being the
Speaker 1: featured back, there are just they have what I think
Speaker 1: it's five guys over twenty four catches this year, four
Speaker 1: guys over three receiving yards. They can burn you in
Speaker 1: a lot of ways. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, a little bit
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Speaker 1: Submona Bowl Cousins subs. We believe in better. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: you alluded to it early in the show that this stadium,
Speaker 1: which is now called State Farm Stadium, I believe it's
Speaker 1: been the location of some rather wild and wacky Packers games, right,
Speaker 1: and of course I'm talking about the two playoff games
Speaker 1: out there in the Aaron Rodgers era, the two thousand
Speaker 1: nine wild card game the two thousand if team divisional game,
Speaker 1: both just nutty crazy games in different ways in their
Speaker 1: own way. The first one back in OH nine and
Speaker 1: the Packers fall behind by three touchdowns, you know, us
Speaker 1: an onside kick in the middle of this big comeback.
Speaker 1: They get the score tied a couple of different times,
Speaker 1: goes to overtime. Aaron Rodgers has a shot down the
Speaker 1: middle to Greg Jennings for you know, as he said,
Speaker 1: could have been a walk off eight yard touchdown. He
Speaker 1: just misses him, and then of course the sack fumbled,
Speaker 1: the missed face mask and Carlos Dansby's running the other way,
Speaker 1: and the Cardinals are moving out and the Packers go home.
Speaker 1: And then six years later the Packers are back in
Speaker 1: that stadium in the postseason, and of course that one
Speaker 1: fans probably remember even more. You've got the fourth and
Speaker 1: fourth and twenty bomb to Jeff Janis and then he
Speaker 1: catches the Hail Mary. A couple of plays after that,
Speaker 1: and as you had mentioned, this is all after back
Speaker 1: in the first quarter, Randall Cobb makes an unbelievable catch
Speaker 1: on a deep ball down the field that doesn't even
Speaker 1: count because of a penalty, and he ends up getting
Speaker 1: a punctured lung on the play, and and it is
Speaker 1: taken to the hospital, and he's watching the second half
Speaker 1: from a second half and the overtime after the hail
Speaker 1: Mary from a hospital bed, and Larry Fitzgerald ends up
Speaker 1: with the big play and scores the winning touchdown. So
Speaker 1: now the Packers are going back without their defensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: with two of their top receivers, one of them obviously
Speaker 1: an All Pro, not available to play one of those
Speaker 1: games where you just you just wonder. Okay, So what's
Speaker 1: the crazy thing that's going to happen now? I mean,
Speaker 1: this is why everybody's going to tune in Thursday night, right.
Speaker 1: I have a an epilogue to this whole ring, is
Speaker 1: what I'm about to say. So I hope you'll give
Speaker 1: me the the extended Mike as soon as I finished
Speaker 1: my answer to your question, because there are two different
Speaker 1: things I want to go into here. First and foremost,
Speaker 1: there has been some wild stuff that's happened in Scottsdale
Speaker 1: over the years, and I wasn't on the beat yet,
Speaker 1: but I remember that two thousand nineteen games. Is that
Speaker 1: still the highest scoring playoff game in NFL history. I
Speaker 1: wasn't sure. Yeah, it ended up ended up fifth one
Speaker 1: tot five in overtime. The ninety six points, I believe
Speaker 1: is still the highest. I don't remember anything beating I
Speaker 1: still I believe that's still the highest scoring postseason game
Speaker 1: in NFL in a wild game because of especially all
Speaker 1: the craziness that happened in the Packers offense, but the
Speaker 1: Packers defense, that might still be the best defense they've
Speaker 1: had pound for pound, you know, since basically Super Bowl
Speaker 1: thirty one, right, I mean, statistically I think it was
Speaker 1: what number two in the league and told defense that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and yet Kurt Warner through five touchdown passes and only
Speaker 1: four incompletions, and it was it was unbelievable football game.
Speaker 1: Nothing made sense about it. But two thousand fifteen is
Speaker 1: a weird one. And I remember technically I guess to
Speaker 1: be January of sixteen, right right. I remember saying to
Speaker 1: my colleague Pete Doherty as we left the stadium that night,
Speaker 1: that was the last game you covered for the press,
Speaker 1: because it was I also missed my alarm the next
Speaker 1: morning and was almost the only time I missed a
Speaker 1: flight I had Pete Doherty and Ryan would calling me
Speaker 1: at four twenty in the morning. We were supposed to
Speaker 1: all drive over there quickly, throwing all my clothes and uh.
Speaker 1: I ended up catching the last shuttle to make my
Speaker 1: like six o'clock flight over at the airport. Always stay
Speaker 1: at the airport hotel. That's the key if you're ever
Speaker 1: having to go and be a professional football writer. Getting
Speaker 1: back to the main part of this story, But no,
Speaker 1: but that game. What I told Pete when we left
Speaker 1: is that was a hard game to cover because for
Speaker 1: the first time I felt as as strange as the
Speaker 1: fourteen NFC Championship game was. But I think there are
Speaker 1: a lot of things that worked against the Packers. There
Speaker 1: are a lot of opportunities missed right that ultimately led it.
Speaker 1: The thing that stunk about the fifteen playoff game was
Speaker 1: that the outcome didn't match the story. The narrative of
Speaker 1: the game didn't actually correlate with the result. It's if
Speaker 1: that should have been a game the Packers one, not
Speaker 1: because they played better or not, but because of the
Speaker 1: Hail Marys. The Janice, a guy that caught more yards
Speaker 1: I think in that game than maybe the rest of
Speaker 1: his NFL career, at least close to it. Jared Aberdaris
Speaker 1: having to step up that game in particular is one
Speaker 1: will always stand out to me because it was it
Speaker 1: illustrates to Aaron Rodgers brilliance, but it also, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of show just the craziness that can happen in
Speaker 1: the National Football League. Yeah, and I'll and I'll add
Speaker 1: on that too because of because of the wild ending
Speaker 1: with the bomb from the end zone on fourth and
Speaker 1: twenty and then the hail Mary to get the game
Speaker 1: to overtime. It's easy to forget in that game. Also
Speaker 1: when you talk about things that were working against the Packers,
Speaker 1: they're not only losing Randall Cobb early in the game.
Speaker 1: Davante Adams was not in that game because he had
Speaker 1: gotten hurt in the wild card round the previous week
Speaker 1: against Washington, So Davantae Adams was not on the field
Speaker 1: for that game. But Arizona's go ahead scoring drive this
Speaker 1: is when Carson Palmer was the Cardinals quarterback. On that
Speaker 1: go ahead scoring drive, Sam Shields had a chance at
Speaker 1: an interception right by the end zone pylon just missed
Speaker 1: it wasn't able to haul it in, and then a
Speaker 1: couple of plays later, they score the go ahead touched
Speaker 1: on off a deflected pass. You know, you were you
Speaker 1: and I were sitting basically kind of. I was in
Speaker 1: the row behind you in the press box in that
Speaker 1: end zone. That pass gets deflected and I don't even
Speaker 1: remember which receiver caught it, but um, but the Packers
Speaker 1: play great defense to deny that touchdown, and yet they
Speaker 1: still come up with the touchdown reception off the deflection
Speaker 1: um and uh, you know, the Packers almost won that
Speaker 1: game in as shorthanded as they were in regulation without
Speaker 1: the hail Mary. They were that close to winning that
Speaker 1: game and and uh and moving on in the playoffs
Speaker 1: that year. So just a wild and crazy game. And
Speaker 1: as I said, I'm just wondering, given all the circumstances
Speaker 1: that are going into this one, what wild and crazy
Speaker 1: thing is going to happen on Thursday night out in
Speaker 1: the desert. You beautifully sent me back up like a
Speaker 1: like a volleyball volley right, You got it right back
Speaker 1: to me, Because this is the point I wanted to
Speaker 1: make it. Yeah, this game could be played on Thursday night,
Speaker 1: It could be played on Sunday night, could be played
Speaker 1: on Monday night. The Packers are probably gonna be a
Speaker 1: hurting unit no matter what. You know, they're gonna They're
Speaker 1: gonna have a chance to get some guys back here.
Speaker 1: But you don't know what Davante and Lazard, whether or
Speaker 1: not where all that situation would Oh, my rant, my epilogue,
Speaker 1: if you will that I wanted to say. And I
Speaker 1: don't even know if if Marv wants me to speak
Speaker 1: directly into the camera over here on my single shot.
Speaker 1: But to the NFL, if you're watching, if you tuned
Speaker 1: in today the Packers on scripted, thank you, first off,
Speaker 1: But secondly, we gotta get rid of these switching time
Speaker 1: zones on Thursday night football. It's got to stop. There's
Speaker 1: seventeen regular season games now. This thing is going to
Speaker 1: January nine. Regardless of the Packers win the rest of
Speaker 1: their games or lose the rest of their games, January
Speaker 1: nine is the Packers finale. We gotta keep these Thursday
Speaker 1: night games in the same time zone. I understand all
Speaker 1: the things that go into a schedule, and I don't
Speaker 1: care that the Cardinals are seven and old Cardinals could
Speaker 1: be oh in seven, Like it's not about all this
Speaker 1: is unfair to the Packers. The fact that guys have
Speaker 1: to turn around on this kind of schedule and then
Speaker 1: have to fly to Arizona. Thursday night football games are
Speaker 1: here to stay. It's just the way life is. They
Speaker 1: make too much money off of it. But we can't
Speaker 1: do this and more. Green Bay went to San Francisco
Speaker 1: on a Thursday night a couple of years back. Remember
Speaker 1: when that was. That was last year. That was last year. Sorry,
Speaker 1: it's been a long years going on in the world.
Speaker 1: But if you want to do Thursday football, fine, But
Speaker 1: the Packers play Soak Division games games in the Midwest.
Speaker 1: They played Cincinnaticks played Thursday night game at Seattle. It's time.
Speaker 1: It's time to keep these Thursday night games in the
Speaker 1: same time zone in my opinion, But I mean having
Speaker 1: to fly out to even if Arizona was coming here.
Speaker 1: I just I just don't think that's right. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's right from a player's safety standpoint. Packers could
Speaker 1: win by fifty, they could lose by fifty either way.
Speaker 1: I I don't feel like this is the right thing
Speaker 1: for the nash Football League. So you're right, some crazy
Speaker 1: stuff is gonna happen, But unfortunately, I don't think all
Speaker 1: of it could potentially be quote unquote natural. Thank you, Mark,
Speaker 1: I appreciate the time. Yeah, I totally agree with you.
Speaker 1: Last thing before we go, we always do talk about
Speaker 1: the keys to victory, so let's let zero in on
Speaker 1: it here. We've talked about a lot of things during
Speaker 1: the week as far as containing Kyler Murray and what
Speaker 1: the Packers need to do, you know, with the shorthanded
Speaker 1: receiving corps on offense and all that. What's the biggest
Speaker 1: thing that stands out to you as this Thursday night
Speaker 1: game kicks off, Dean low reset it. I'm not even
Speaker 1: have an original thought. I'm gonna copy Dean rush lane integrity.
Speaker 1: One thing is you very astutely pointed out, Mike with
Speaker 1: Taylor Heineke, even with some regards to Justin Fields. You know,
Speaker 1: these guys that have the ability to scramble on you,
Speaker 1: you can't get behind them. You have to be able
Speaker 1: to understand that. Okay, you're trying to get them, you're
Speaker 1: trying to rush him, you're trying to sack them, but
Speaker 1: you also can't get out of your lanes to do
Speaker 1: that because they can hurt you with their feet. The
Speaker 1: dangerous thing about Kyler Murray is with his arm. This
Speaker 1: guy can burn you. Yes, he could scramble for fifty
Speaker 1: yards if he wants to, but he also could hit
Speaker 1: you for an explosive play through the air. Yeah he can.
Speaker 1: He can get out of the pocket and and let
Speaker 1: it rip fifty sixty yards down the field. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's got that kind of arm strength. Were on the
Speaker 1: runoff of one leg, he can let it fly. The
Speaker 1: Packers are banged up, especially now on the offensive side
Speaker 1: of the ball, but defensively, the one area that's been
Speaker 1: a strong suit for them here has been the defensive line.
Speaker 1: Kenny's having to work through the ankle right now, but
Speaker 1: for the most part that group is solidified now being
Speaker 1: able to push the pocket, collapse the pocket on Murray,
Speaker 1: I think it is going to be essentially you can't
Speaker 1: let him get into a rhythm because otherwise he's gonna
Speaker 1: put up the yards. Yeah. Absolutely, And and for me,
Speaker 1: if the Packers were at full strength offensively, I would say, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're going to get into a shootout,
Speaker 1: you know, bring it on Aaron Rodgers. Maybe can you know,
Speaker 1: can can win a shootout here against Kyler Murray without
Speaker 1: Davante Adams, without Al Lazard. I'm just I just don't
Speaker 1: think the Packers want to get into that kind of game.
Speaker 1: I think the Packers and I'm not saying, you know,
Speaker 1: you you play Dick Bennett basketball here against the Arizona Cardinals,
Speaker 1: but you but but I don't think you can. I
Speaker 1: don't think you can go into this game thinking, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're just we're just gonna let it rip and and
Speaker 1: try to outscore him. I think the Packers need to
Speaker 1: be able to run the football, control the clock, limit
Speaker 1: limit the number of possessions that that defense is gonna
Speaker 1: have to chase Kyler Murray around. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: obviously you've got to put points on the board. Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: this is a This is a great This is a
Speaker 1: great quarterback matchup. Obviously, a three time m v P
Speaker 1: against a guy that you know at some point is
Speaker 1: probably going to win an m v P, whether it's
Speaker 1: this year or some other time. But Aaron Rodgers has
Speaker 1: to Aaron Rodgers has to be the best player on
Speaker 1: the field, both in terms of the plays that he
Speaker 1: makes with the personnel that he has, but also in
Speaker 1: how he just he has to take command of the game.
Speaker 1: In terms of this is this is how the offense
Speaker 1: is gonna run. We're gonna be efficient, We're going to
Speaker 1: do what it takes, and we're not going to have
Speaker 1: to score forty points in order to win this. This
Speaker 1: is this is where this is where Aaron Rodgers has
Speaker 1: to essentially control the football game in my mind. And
Speaker 1: these are where the five star chefs really separate themselves, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're not you may not have your fla minon,
Speaker 1: you may not have all the things that you need
Speaker 1: to to have your typical you know, thousand dollar five
Speaker 1: of course meal, but you do have weapons yet in
Speaker 1: this offense, and Rogers has to find ways to utilize them.
Speaker 1: And there's been so many times, Mike, I've been covering
Speaker 1: this team for ten years, you've been doing it for
Speaker 1: fifteen where you've seen Aaron Rodgers with a depleted resources
Speaker 1: or not having his top receiver have to find ways
Speaker 1: to make things work with the other guys in the room.
Speaker 1: And there's a reason why since April they've been having
Speaker 1: you know, more than what It hasn't just all been
Speaker 1: Davante Adams. They've been developing these young guys as well.
Speaker 1: You have to get the job done with the guys
Speaker 1: who are available come on Thursday night. Yeah, well it
Speaker 1: should be. It should be a fun one to watch,
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. And 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: and everything with regard to Thursday Night's big game. We'll
Speaker 1: have it all for you on Packers dot com for Wes,
Speaker 1: I am Mike, Thank you for tuning and everybody, we
Speaker 1: will see you next time.