WEBVTT - #907 Packers Unscripted: Long battle, short week 0:00:02.090 --> 0:00:10.879 Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers.com. 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:15.220 I am Mike Spofford, joined by the newly clean-shaven Weston Hodkowitz. 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.600 We're coming to you here from the Pottawatomie Sportsbook studio 0:00:19.260 --> 0:00:23.480 inside the walls of Lambeau Field West to review the Packers' 0:00:23.500 --> 0:00:27.340 20-17 overtime victory on the road against the New York Jets. 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:30.910 There's a lot of Ground to cover when it comes 0:00:31.010 --> 0:00:33.330 to this football game. And we also need to preview 0:00:33.350 --> 0:00:35.510 the next one because the Packers are playing on Thursday. 0:00:35.550 --> 0:00:38.090 So this is our only show this week. We won't 0:00:38.130 --> 0:00:40.540 have a Thursday show due to that being game day. 0:00:42.020 --> 0:00:44.239 But with regard to the win over the Jets, I 0:00:44.340 --> 0:00:48.280 think as time goes on, we may look back at this. 0:00:49.070 --> 0:00:52.350 as the Lucas Van Ness game because boy, was he 0:00:52.450 --> 0:00:53.169 something out there. 0:00:53.270 --> 0:00:57.470 Yeah. It, uh, every pass rusher specifically always seems to 0:00:57.530 --> 0:00:59.970 have one of those performances that when you think back 0:01:00.050 --> 0:01:04.280 on their career, um, that was the moment. Right. And 0:01:04.420 --> 0:01:07.300 for Lucas, I think the most impressive thing about this 0:01:07.360 --> 0:01:11.020 game was the fact that it was all five quarters, right? 0:01:11.060 --> 0:01:13.920 Like it was, Beginning, middle, and end, this guy made 0:01:13.940 --> 0:01:15.940 an impact. I thought it was going to be a 0:01:15.980 --> 0:01:17.860 big day for him right from the get-go, the end 0:01:17.880 --> 0:01:20.540 of that first quarter. He gets the three-yard tackle for 0:01:20.580 --> 0:01:22.480 a loss, which also sort of set the tone for 0:01:22.500 --> 0:01:25.179 the run defense in this game. And then two plays later, 0:01:25.220 --> 0:01:27.820 he's sacking Geno Smith. That's the way you draw this 0:01:27.860 --> 0:01:30.440 thing up, right? When you're talking about being able to 0:01:30.500 --> 0:01:33.040 not only get off the field in three plays, but 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:38.470 also just demoralizing an opponent, The tackles for a loss, 0:01:38.490 --> 0:01:40.429 people don't talk about those in the same breath as 0:01:40.490 --> 0:01:43.130 a sack, but minus three yards for a running back 0:01:43.190 --> 0:01:45.560 or minus three yards for a quarterback, either way it's 0:01:45.590 --> 0:01:48.100 a negative yardage play, and it has a domino effect 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:50.780 on how you can play defensively. So one set up 0:01:50.820 --> 0:01:53.200 the other for Lucas, but to finish with nine tackles, 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:56.880 four quarterback hits, three TFLs, and a sack and a half, 0:01:57.200 --> 0:01:59.160 and then played some of his best ball in overtime 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:01.190 to help Green Bay get that football back and put 0:02:01.220 --> 0:02:04.340 themselves in a position to win the game... I mean, 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:05.900 you can't say enough about number 90. 0:02:05.900 --> 0:02:08.480 Yeah, his finish to the game was really something because, 0:02:08.540 --> 0:02:10.700 as you said, he was a factor right from the get-go. 0:02:10.740 --> 0:02:13.399 He had the early sack. He also had the play. 0:02:13.419 --> 0:02:15.380 He didn't get credit for a sack, but he chased 0:02:15.419 --> 0:02:18.040 down Geno Smith outside the pocket, put a pretty good 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:20.750 hit on him there along the sideline, but Smith gained 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:23.370 a couple of yards, so it didn't go as a sack. 0:02:24.130 --> 0:02:26.950 But then at the end of the game, the game 0:02:26.990 --> 0:02:29.510 is tied. The Packers have rallied from 10 down, gotten 0:02:29.530 --> 0:02:31.810 the game tied late in the fourth quarter, and the 0:02:31.850 --> 0:02:34.300 Jets are near midfield. They have a third and two 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.230 in Van Ness along with Carl Brooks. They get in 0:02:37.330 --> 0:02:40.809 on stuffing Brees Hall for a one-yard gain. Fourth and one, 0:02:40.830 --> 0:02:44.190 the Jets decide to go for it. And with Jonathan 0:02:44.230 --> 0:02:47.190 Ford clogging up the middle a little bit, Van Ness 0:02:47.250 --> 0:02:49.850 just beats the block across from the other side and 0:02:49.970 --> 0:02:53.440 buries Braylon Allen. And I thought at that moment, I mean, 0:02:53.460 --> 0:02:54.920 you and I both thought the same thing in the 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:58.240 press box. At that moment, the Packers were taking over 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:00.769 at midfield and This comeback was going to be completed 0:03:00.810 --> 0:03:02.930 in regulation. I thought Green Bay had him right where 0:03:02.970 --> 0:03:06.169 they needed him. Unfortunately, the offense wasn't able to finish 0:03:06.190 --> 0:03:08.030 that off. The game did go to overtime. But then 0:03:08.070 --> 0:03:11.040 in overtime, Van Ness is in right away, a half 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:14.380 a sack. A couple of other teammates share a sack 0:03:14.419 --> 0:03:17.140 on the next play. So you get the three and 0:03:17.180 --> 0:03:19.400 out to start overtime, and then the offense does put 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.740 it away at the end. Just a really, really impressive game. 0:03:23.139 --> 0:03:27.310 He had that fifth-year option exercised this past offseason. He's 0:03:27.330 --> 0:03:31.060 under contract for one more year. Everybody was wondering, okay, 0:03:31.100 --> 0:03:33.750 who's going to step up? Who's going to be the 0:03:33.830 --> 0:03:36.310 bell cow of the pass rush for the Packers until 0:03:36.350 --> 0:03:39.570 Micah Parsons comes back? And I think that question was 0:03:39.670 --> 0:03:40.630 answered on Sunday. 0:03:40.650 --> 0:03:43.210 Yeah, and we were talking in the locker room afterwards, 0:03:43.230 --> 0:03:46.170 and Tucker Kraft mentioned it, the kind of relationship he's 0:03:46.270 --> 0:03:49.390 built with Van Ness. And that 23 draft class, just 0:03:49.430 --> 0:03:51.590 the number of playmakers that have come out of that 0:03:51.650 --> 0:03:55.050 thing for Green Bay, there's a lot of confidence within 0:03:55.090 --> 0:03:57.070 that locker room that if the foot injury wouldn't have 0:03:57.110 --> 0:03:59.970 happened last year against Cincinnati— This is the Lucas Van 0:03:59.990 --> 0:04:02.070 Ness the Packers would have seen last year, too, that 0:04:02.150 --> 0:04:05.790 he was on that type of trajectory. And to get 0:04:06.350 --> 0:04:09.340 the amount of respect and the amount of praise that 0:04:09.380 --> 0:04:14.040 he has from Micah Parsons, that doesn't come out of nowhere. 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:19.180 They feel like this guy is fulfilling his potential. He's 0:04:19.260 --> 0:04:22.000 making those strides. Now, I know Packer fans, they can 0:04:22.020 --> 0:04:24.100 get a little impatient at times because it's like when 0:04:24.140 --> 0:04:26.740 you draft a guy, you want to see immediate returns, right? 0:04:26.779 --> 0:04:29.390 That's the way it's been. probably even going back to 0:04:29.410 --> 0:04:31.470 when Aaron Rodgers came here, right? It's like, well, what 0:04:31.510 --> 0:04:33.570 are you doing drafting this guy? Because we need somebody 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:35.250 that's going to come out this season and help us. 0:04:35.330 --> 0:04:38.740 But regardless if you play quarterback or defensive line, those 0:04:38.779 --> 0:04:41.240 investments are always made for two or three, four years 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:43.520 down the line. I think Van Ness is showing that 0:04:43.580 --> 0:04:46.700 right now. And let's be honest, Mike, without Micah Parsons 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:48.660 in the month of September, this is the type of 0:04:48.700 --> 0:04:51.260 Lucas Van Ness the Packers needed. They needed a guy 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:53.339 to step up, provide that type of pass rush. And 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:55.580 I'm telling you, As we get ready for this game 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.520 on Thursday night against the Atlanta Falcons now, who's going 0:04:58.580 --> 0:05:00.820 to be the guy on the film for the Falcons 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:03.860 this week that we've got to neutralize this dude? That's 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:06.380 going to be Lucas Van Ness. And the exciting part 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:08.820 for me, if the Packers can get to the other 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.230 side of this here in three, four weeks, when Micah 0:05:12.250 --> 0:05:17.250 Parsons is back, that's another guy that offenses are going 0:05:17.270 --> 0:05:18.150 to have to account for. 0:05:18.170 --> 0:05:18.270 Right. 0:05:18.740 --> 0:05:20.839 Through two weeks of the season, Green Bay second in 0:05:20.860 --> 0:05:23.520 the league right now in run defense, right? Sixth overall 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:26.380 in total defense. And that's without one of the best 0:05:26.420 --> 0:05:29.160 players in pro football right now. So Lucas Van Ness 0:05:29.180 --> 0:05:32.680 has had a big deal, a big role in the 0:05:32.720 --> 0:05:34.820 pass rush in addition to a lot of creativity from 0:05:34.870 --> 0:05:35.460 Jonathan Gannon. 0:05:35.670 --> 0:05:37.970 I'm glad you said what you said about last year 0:05:38.170 --> 0:05:41.240 with Lucas because... I said it on this show. I 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:45.430 said it in Insider Inbox. People very easily forgot. Not 0:05:45.510 --> 0:05:49.390 only did Van Ness get hurt, injure that foot on 0:05:49.430 --> 0:05:52.110 a sack when he's sacking Joe Flacco, and that gave 0:05:52.170 --> 0:05:54.710 him one and a half sacks through basically the first 0:05:54.790 --> 0:05:57.120 month of the season last year. But then after he 0:05:57.150 --> 0:05:59.740 missed all that time, came back late in the year, 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:02.260 who was the one guy who got a sack of 0:06:02.339 --> 0:06:04.640 Caleb Williams in the playoff game in Chicago? It was 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:09.000 Lucas Van Ness. And everybody just sort of conveniently forgot 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:12.520 that and He was going to, I think, be showing 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:16.460 more of this last year. It's just the injury and 0:06:16.500 --> 0:06:19.640 all that didn't get him the opportunity. I want to 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:21.640 stay on the defensive side of the ball, though, because 0:06:21.700 --> 0:06:24.760 another big moment late in this game, and there were 0:06:24.820 --> 0:06:26.560 lots of them on both sides of the ball for 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:30.520 the Packers to pull off this comeback. But safety Evan Williams. 0:06:31.500 --> 0:06:36.229 That play he made on the deep ball, Adonai Mitchell, 0:06:36.290 --> 0:06:39.200 I believe, was the receiver. Yep. Packers are in a 0:06:39.220 --> 0:06:43.350 zone coverage on that side of the field, and Williams 0:06:43.930 --> 0:06:48.529 sees him getting deep down the sideline. He takes off. 0:06:50.070 --> 0:06:54.650 Everything about breaking up that pass, Wes, the speed, the range, 0:06:55.430 --> 0:07:01.210 the timing, the technique, a perfectly clean play, not even 0:07:01.350 --> 0:07:04.880 anything that could be considered pass interference. And for as 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.580 far away... as he started to get over and make 0:07:08.620 --> 0:07:12.380 that play. That play is potentially the death knell for 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.490 the Packers in that game. If that's completed and the 0:07:15.530 --> 0:07:17.630 Jets are in scoring range, they can start to work 0:07:17.670 --> 0:07:20.790 the clock and everything else and get the potential game-winning 0:07:20.850 --> 0:07:25.430 points there. That play by Evan Williams was really something. 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:27.900 There was so much about it in the way the 0:07:27.940 --> 0:07:30.760 press box is orientated, that play was coming towards us. 0:07:31.140 --> 0:07:33.990 So when we, you and I both saw Evan Williams 0:07:34.110 --> 0:07:36.630 crossing the hashes to get downfield and to be able 0:07:36.650 --> 0:07:39.490 to get himself in position to make that play. But 0:07:39.550 --> 0:07:42.050 as you said, out of all the various attributes and 0:07:42.070 --> 0:07:43.850 all the things that Williams did well in that play, 0:07:44.450 --> 0:07:48.500 the timing of it was exceptional because there's so many safeties. 0:07:48.540 --> 0:07:50.060 I think some of this is experience. Some of it's 0:07:50.070 --> 0:07:52.720 just instincts. There's so many guys, almost like a pass 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:55.480 catcher downfield when they're completely open that end up dropping 0:07:55.500 --> 0:07:58.460 the pass because they overthink it. Evan Williams could have 0:07:58.540 --> 0:08:00.640 pressed there. He could have gotten nervous. He could have 0:08:00.660 --> 0:08:03.420 seen what the situation was and, hey, I got to 0:08:03.460 --> 0:08:05.180 make this player. It's not getting made at all. This 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.020 is going to be an explosive. This could potentially lose 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.880 us the football game. But yet he stayed within himself 0:08:09.900 --> 0:08:12.470 and and got to the pass catcher in the football 0:08:12.550 --> 0:08:14.710 at the exact moment that he needed to to break 0:08:14.750 --> 0:08:17.160 that pass up. And it ended up not even being close. 0:08:17.820 --> 0:08:21.260 When you think of safety play and the versatility that 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:23.760 the Packers utilize with their safeties, and they always talk 0:08:23.780 --> 0:08:25.480 about it. They've talked about it since the beginning of time. Well, 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:27.380 all of our guys can play all these different positions. 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:31.170 What's a real strength of this defense is they truly can. 0:08:31.850 --> 0:08:35.490 That easily could have been Xavier McKinney. He's been in 0:08:35.530 --> 0:08:37.730 that position before. We've seen Javon Bullard when he's had 0:08:37.750 --> 0:08:39.470 to play deep safety being able to make those plays. 0:08:40.270 --> 0:08:44.010 But since day one, as a fourth-round pick out of Oregon, 0:08:44.670 --> 0:08:47.969 Evan Williams has shown that knack. It's why he led 0:08:47.990 --> 0:08:50.150 the Packers in interceptions last year. It's why he was 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:54.540 a PFWA All-Rookie player during his rookie season. This has 0:08:54.580 --> 0:08:56.880 been a real find and a real strength for this defense. 0:08:56.900 --> 0:08:59.660 And yeah, there is a litany of things to talk about. 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:01.900 In addition to the fact that the Packers' run defense 0:09:01.940 --> 0:09:03.880 was just truly exceptional in this game. They gave up 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.960 barely anything other than those two stretch plays there, I think, 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.730 in the third quarter. Everything else, they pretty much kept 0:09:09.770 --> 0:09:12.070 in front of them. And when the moment came that 0:09:12.090 --> 0:09:15.489 they had to eliminate in a potential explosive play, Evan 0:09:15.510 --> 0:09:16.390 Williams was that dude. 0:09:16.510 --> 0:09:19.710 Yeah, absolutely. Well, there's also stuff to talk about with 0:09:19.770 --> 0:09:22.850 regard to special teams in this game because not only 0:09:23.510 --> 0:09:28.719 does rookie kicker Trey Smack hit the game-tying and game-winning 0:09:28.780 --> 0:09:31.160 field goals in this game, a couple of real pressure 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:36.319 points there for the young man, But Sky Moore provides 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.480 the boost to the return game. He did exactly what 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:41.719 he was brought to Green Bay to do. And not 0:09:41.820 --> 0:09:44.479 only does he have two big returns in this game, 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.599 unfortunately one of them the offense wasn't able to capitalize 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.790 on the field position early on, but he did it 0:09:50.830 --> 0:09:55.470 in a big moment, right? A clutch moment. The Packers 0:09:55.530 --> 0:09:58.470 are looking like they might get pinned inside their own 0:09:58.490 --> 0:10:01.150 20-yard line down by three. you know, late in the 0:10:01.190 --> 0:10:05.610 fourth quarter. And he makes the first guy miss, and 0:10:05.650 --> 0:10:09.550 then boom, he takes off. As the old saying goes, 0:10:09.870 --> 0:10:11.410 and one of the guys said it in the locker 0:10:11.429 --> 0:10:13.110 room after the game, and I don't remember it, and 0:10:13.190 --> 0:10:17.010 I've heard other past special teams coordinators say it, it's 0:10:17.030 --> 0:10:20.219 called running through the smoke. That's what returners have to do. 0:10:20.860 --> 0:10:27.540 And Sky Moore did that on that 63-yarder. Unfortunately, the 0:10:27.660 --> 0:10:31.030 offense wasn't able to turn that into a go-ahead touchdown. 0:10:31.070 --> 0:10:33.750 The offense bogged down in the red zone and had 0:10:33.790 --> 0:10:36.190 to just kick the tying field goal. But boy, did 0:10:36.230 --> 0:10:39.570 that provide a spark for the team. You really felt, okay, yeah, 0:10:39.670 --> 0:10:43.980 this comeback is definitely happening here. And, you know, hats 0:10:44.030 --> 0:10:45.720 off to Sky Moore on a heck of a return. 0:10:45.820 --> 0:10:48.120 Yeah. It's like that when ESPN always does those little 0:10:48.140 --> 0:10:50.480 like standups where they're like, Sky Moore told me in 0:10:50.500 --> 0:10:52.980 the locker room. That's what it was. Like I was, 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:55.240 I was talking to Sky about that afterwards. And he said, 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:57.660 I mean, and my question was actually not even about 0:10:57.679 --> 0:10:59.870 the punt play. It was about the kickoff because the 0:10:59.890 --> 0:11:02.830 punt play was impressive from this standpoint. It wasn't the 0:11:02.870 --> 0:11:06.109 most well blocked. No, it wasn't. Sky got enough of 0:11:06.210 --> 0:11:09.620 it and did the rest. The kickoff really impressed me 0:11:09.660 --> 0:11:12.480 because Sky saw the holes and we saw him accelerating 0:11:12.500 --> 0:11:15.800 through the holes, but they were there. That's exciting. And 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:17.870 obviously the Packers offense, unfortunately, was not able to do 0:11:17.910 --> 0:11:20.429 anything with it. But Sky said he wants to get 0:11:20.470 --> 0:11:22.750 Jordan Love as close to the 50 every single time. 0:11:22.850 --> 0:11:25.330 He wants them to be in field goal range when 0:11:25.390 --> 0:11:28.280 he gets done touching the football. And while it didn't 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:31.819 happen in the kickoff, it happened on the punt. And Michael, 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:33.620 I thought one of the, there were so many different 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:37.020 superlatives that Tom Fanning and our communications department provided about 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:41.050 the special teams impact of this game, including the 208 0:11:41.050 --> 0:11:45.010 total return yards being the most since Will Blackman had 0:11:45.010 --> 0:11:48.230 209 back in the 2008 season. But what I liked 0:11:48.250 --> 0:11:50.610 the most, because it brought me back to the beginning 0:11:50.630 --> 0:11:52.949 of when I covered this football team, was the fact 0:11:52.990 --> 0:11:55.070 that Sky was the first Packers player in the same 0:11:55.130 --> 0:11:57.550 game to have a 60 plus yard punt return and 0:11:57.570 --> 0:12:01.099 a 40 plus yard kickoff return since Randall Cobb. in 0:12:01.140 --> 0:12:07.579 his rookie season, November of 11 against Minnesota. That, respectfully, 0:12:08.380 --> 0:12:11.280 is probably the last time that I had a feeling 0:12:11.700 --> 0:12:16.559 about Green Bay's special teams unit being a real weapon 0:12:17.220 --> 0:12:19.660 and not just being something that needed to mitigate damage. 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.730 There was flashes of it. Jeff Janis had some good 0:12:22.750 --> 0:12:26.030 years as a kickoff returner. Micah Hyde was an exceptional 0:12:26.070 --> 0:12:30.349 punt returner after Randall Cobb, Jeremy Ross had some good moments, 0:12:30.370 --> 0:12:32.189 but unfortunately for Jeremy, there was a, you know, a 0:12:32.190 --> 0:12:34.620 ball control issue there that kind of took away his 0:12:34.670 --> 0:12:38.720 explosive opportunities, but it's been a real grind, a real 0:12:38.740 --> 0:12:40.760 grind to be like, okay, just, just catch the ball 0:12:40.780 --> 0:12:44.260 and get down. This is the first time, especially on 0:12:44.300 --> 0:12:46.520 punt returns, where it felt like the Packers had the 0:12:46.580 --> 0:12:49.620 foot on the pedal and comfortably doing so. That's why 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:53.360 Sky Moore's here. That's why Cam Acord is here. And Mike, 0:12:53.860 --> 0:12:58.990 as Christian Watson also told Packers.com afterwards, They probably don't 0:12:59.010 --> 0:13:00.750 win this game. They might not win this game if 0:13:00.809 --> 0:13:02.750 not for Sky doing that. Because they might have been 0:13:02.790 --> 0:13:05.660 playing there just to protect it, just to see if 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:07.620 you can get something going downfield. They needed at least 0:13:07.660 --> 0:13:10.580 three points. Sky Moore made sure that they did that. 0:13:10.740 --> 0:13:15.480 Yeah, a couple other quick thoughts there. It took Brian 0:13:15.500 --> 0:13:18.040 Gutekunst two cracks at this as far as bringing in 0:13:18.090 --> 0:13:20.730 the returner, right? Because he tried it with Mikko Hardman 0:13:20.929 --> 0:13:24.540 in 2025. But that didn't go the way they thought. 0:13:24.580 --> 0:13:27.800 They didn't feel like he was worthy of a roster spot. 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:29.599 They ended up letting him go at the end of 0:13:29.660 --> 0:13:32.660 training camp. So then this year, that offseason signing was 0:13:32.700 --> 0:13:35.760 Sky Moore, and they were committed to having him on 0:13:35.780 --> 0:13:38.230 the roster and being in this role right from the jump. 0:13:38.900 --> 0:13:41.730 The other thing, too, you mentioned the kickoff return, which 0:13:41.790 --> 0:13:44.309 is where there were some really good blocks. Not surprisingly, 0:13:44.390 --> 0:13:47.050 one of the really good blocks was thrown by Isaiah McDuffie. 0:13:47.070 --> 0:13:49.830 He wears that C on his chest for the special 0:13:49.850 --> 0:13:52.730 teams for a reason. Another one of the really good blocks, though, 0:13:53.220 --> 0:13:55.620 somewhat surprisingly, J. Michael Sturdivant. J. 0:13:55.660 --> 0:13:56.179 Michael Sturdivant. 0:13:56.320 --> 0:14:02.380 Making his NFL debut as an undrafted rookie. Um, that 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:06.250 unfortunately segues into some of the bad news from this game, 0:14:06.290 --> 0:14:11.650 which is that on the opening series offensively, both receiver 0:14:11.690 --> 0:14:19.450 Jaden Reed, right tackle Zach Bacaboweli go down. Um, Both injuries, 0:14:19.890 --> 0:14:25.250 very serious, hard to watch, quite frankly. Reed ended up 0:14:26.390 --> 0:14:29.720 staying overnight in New Jersey, staying in the hospital, did 0:14:29.740 --> 0:14:34.140 not come home with the team. It was initially announced 0:14:34.220 --> 0:14:36.440 as a neck injury, and Matt LaFleur said after the 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:38.940 game he had the feeling in all of his extremities. 0:14:39.460 --> 0:14:43.700 Those types of things were all checked out. With the Packers' 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.580 right tackle, Baka Boweli, it sounds like he's going to 0:14:46.620 --> 0:14:49.590 be out for a while. That's how Matt LaFleur termed 0:14:49.620 --> 0:14:52.710 it after the game. We'll see perhaps later today. It's 0:14:52.750 --> 0:14:55.109 kind of a goofy week in terms of media availability 0:14:55.150 --> 0:14:57.470 because of the short week and the Thursday game, but 0:14:57.510 --> 0:14:59.430 perhaps later today we get a little bit more of 0:14:59.470 --> 0:15:03.160 an update on these injuries. That was tough to watch. 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:05.780 It was a tough way for the game to start 0:15:05.980 --> 0:15:09.950 for the Packers, and you know, You don't like to 0:15:09.990 --> 0:15:13.200 make excuses, but you wonder in some ways if things 0:15:13.260 --> 0:15:15.480 starting that way and losing two of your starters, two 0:15:15.500 --> 0:15:17.640 of your best players on offense right on the opening 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:21.820 series of the game, if that just threw things off 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:26.010 the psyche of the team, whatever it was. Because for 0:15:26.030 --> 0:15:27.870 the first three quarters of this game, it was pretty 0:15:27.910 --> 0:15:32.450 sloppy out there. I mean, it didn't look good. Fortunately, 0:15:32.510 --> 0:15:35.110 the Packers got their act together and did what they 0:15:35.130 --> 0:15:37.240 had to do in the fourth quarter to come back 0:15:37.300 --> 0:15:40.810 and win it and win it in overtime. But this 0:15:40.850 --> 0:15:43.750 was an ugly one for a while, and it doesn't 0:15:43.790 --> 0:15:47.030 feel good. I'm glad the Packers got the win, obviously, 0:15:47.070 --> 0:15:49.190 but it doesn't feel good to have played like that, 0:15:49.270 --> 0:15:51.570 and now you have a short week where you're not 0:15:51.650 --> 0:15:54.620 really practicing. It's just walk-through mental stuff and all that 0:15:54.630 --> 0:15:56.200 because you have to get ready to play again on 0:15:56.260 --> 0:15:58.880 Thursday night. This team's got a lot of work to 0:15:58.920 --> 0:15:59.980 do and a lot of stuff to clean up. 0:16:00.100 --> 0:16:02.520 Yeah, there's so much to talk about that, Mike. Just 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.780 first and foremost, before I segue into anything as relates 0:16:05.820 --> 0:16:10.130 to football, Yeah, just a really scary back-to-back incident. You 0:16:10.170 --> 0:16:14.850 don't want to see Reid or Bako Biwale go down 0:16:15.370 --> 0:16:17.900 like that at any juncture of the season, let alone 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:23.380 on back-to-back plays. And just speaking strictly from a football standpoint, 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.680 a humanistic standpoint, obviously good to hear the positive reports 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:29.230 on Reid, and hopefully everything works out okay with Zach 0:16:29.250 --> 0:16:31.770 from just a life standpoint, and then we'll see what 0:16:31.790 --> 0:16:37.410 happens with football. But the mental... toughness and resolve that 0:16:37.450 --> 0:16:40.280 is required for those guys then to go back out 0:16:40.420 --> 0:16:42.780 on the field. Think about it. Those offensive players had 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.620 to reset twice in a span of what, maybe 15 0:16:45.620 --> 0:16:50.630 minutes between when unfortunately Jaden was put on the back stretcher, 0:16:51.350 --> 0:16:53.650 carted off, and then Zach also having to get carted off. 0:16:54.070 --> 0:16:55.490 And then they had to play football again. And we 0:16:55.510 --> 0:16:57.590 were talking with Sean Ryan about that afterwards. And it's just, 0:16:58.070 --> 0:17:02.390 football is such an interesting, strange little sport because As 0:17:02.490 --> 0:17:04.470 difficult as that is to see your brothers go down 0:17:04.530 --> 0:17:06.609 like that, you have to flip a switch and you've 0:17:06.630 --> 0:17:09.170 got to get back to playing football. And that dovetails 0:17:09.230 --> 0:17:11.570 into the bigger point I'm trying to make here. I 0:17:11.630 --> 0:17:14.470 am not at all comparing the situation of two significant 0:17:14.510 --> 0:17:17.310 serious injuries to those guys to what happened with some 0:17:17.350 --> 0:17:22.650 penalties in Minnesota. But when adversity hit in Minnesota and 0:17:22.770 --> 0:17:25.210 Green Bay couldn't get off the field, mostly out of 0:17:25.230 --> 0:17:30.189 their control, the response wasn't there. Offensively, defensively, it just 0:17:30.270 --> 0:17:33.220 wasn't what it needed to be. It took the Packers 0:17:33.260 --> 0:17:36.740 a little time. It didn't happen instantaneously. But their ability 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.650 to show that resolve, to one, stay in the game 0:17:39.670 --> 0:17:41.209 the way they did in the first half, not let 0:17:41.230 --> 0:17:42.929 it get away from them. The defense continued to hold 0:17:42.990 --> 0:17:45.490 up their end of the bargain. But in the second half, 0:17:46.190 --> 0:17:50.120 find little ways to gain momentum and win. That's how 0:17:50.190 --> 0:17:52.899 championship teams are built. And I know there's a lot 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:54.080 of people that are going to talk about it was 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:57.320 an ugly win and it was the Jets and all 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:01.090 these other things. But they all count the same. And 0:18:01.250 --> 0:18:03.109 the last time I looked walking into the studio, the 0:18:03.150 --> 0:18:07.300 Packers are 1-1. And unfortunately, with everything that happened in Minnesota, 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:08.800 maybe they let one get away a little bit, but 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:11.080 it also felt like they grabbed one in New York. 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.360 And now they get to reset. Now they have the Falcons. 0:18:14.619 --> 0:18:16.680 Now you can try to respond and get into this 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.080 little mini-buyer, whatever you want to call it, on the 0:18:19.140 --> 0:18:21.740 better side of 2-1. But this is what happens in 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:24.159 the National Football League. It's what happens during a regular season. 0:18:24.340 --> 0:18:27.060 You're going to have these moments. And for the Packers, luckily, 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:28.399 they were able to find a way through it. 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:31.460 Yeah, a couple of things really plaguing this team right now. 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:36.740 The penalties is a big one statistically, and the penalties 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:38.919 are all over the board because they're everything from the 0:18:38.980 --> 0:18:42.990 pre-snap stuff to the personal foul stuff. It's been all 0:18:43.010 --> 0:18:47.090 of it. And the Packers need to do a better 0:18:47.130 --> 0:18:50.430 job there. You're not going to completely eliminate penalties. They're 0:18:50.450 --> 0:18:54.500 part of the game. But to have 26 of them accepted, 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:58.670 not including the declined and offsetting ones, which would add 0:18:58.710 --> 0:19:01.890 to the total. That's way too many in two weeks. 0:19:02.830 --> 0:19:06.790 But the other thing that was a little disconcerting about 0:19:06.830 --> 0:19:10.129 this game is offensively, the Packers put the ball on 0:19:10.150 --> 0:19:15.000 the ground four times. Tucker Craft, Caleb Johnson, Marshawn Lloyd, 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:18.640 Jordan Love all put the ball on the ground. Fortunately, 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:21.940 only one of those resulted in a lost fumble. And 0:19:22.540 --> 0:19:25.590 the defense put on the field in its own red zone, 0:19:26.050 --> 0:19:28.170 was able to hold the Jets to a field goal 0:19:28.310 --> 0:19:32.570 after that turnover. But those are the types of things 0:19:32.590 --> 0:19:35.689 that normally you're talking about that get you beat in 0:19:35.730 --> 0:19:38.590 this league, and you're talking about a loss instead of 0:19:38.630 --> 0:19:43.850 a win. And on the defensive side, dovetailing a little 0:19:43.869 --> 0:19:46.270 bit with the offense, another thing with the offense is 0:19:46.330 --> 0:19:48.970 the third down conversions have not been good through the 0:19:49.020 --> 0:19:53.740 first two weeks. Defensively, opposing offenses are converting third downs 0:19:53.940 --> 0:19:56.659 at too high a rate. I believe I counted four 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.770 in this game against the Jets where Geno Smith was 0:19:59.830 --> 0:20:05.570 able to convert on third and nine or longer, four times. Now, 0:20:06.030 --> 0:20:09.010 the defense rose up big time at the end of 0:20:09.050 --> 0:20:12.120 this game And as you mentioned earlier, the run defense 0:20:12.180 --> 0:20:15.700 throughout was really good. And that's been the biggest strength 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.840 of this defense through the first two weeks. But even 0:20:18.900 --> 0:20:21.820 as many positive signs as there are there, they've got 0:20:21.859 --> 0:20:23.659 to be looking at that film at those third and 0:20:23.700 --> 0:20:27.350 long conversions and going, man, how many more opportunities did 0:20:27.410 --> 0:20:29.290 we have to get off the field, right? How many 0:20:29.350 --> 0:20:34.270 more opportunities are we going to give another team? Because 0:20:34.290 --> 0:20:36.609