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, Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you, you hear from our studios at Lambeufield, back from the
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving weekend, Wes and we are here to talk about
Speaker 1: a Thanksgiving victory by the Green Bay Packers twenty nine
Speaker 1: to twenty two over the Detroit Lions at Ford Field.
Speaker 1: And there are wins, and there are big wins, Wes,
Speaker 1: and I think for the first time this season, for
Speaker 1: the first time probably since Week seventeen last year, when
Speaker 1: the Packers beat the NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings rather
Speaker 1: soundly at lambeau Field, we can say the Packers chalked
Speaker 1: up a big win. This is the biggest one of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three so far, a good one for the
Speaker 1: Packers to get.
Speaker 2: As the great Roy Jones Junior once said, y'all must
Speaker 2: have forgot because the Green Bay Packers showed up in Detroit.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you what, man, I think the popular
Speaker 2: sentiment in that locker room afterwards. You were with Jordan
Speaker 2: Love and Matt Lafleur, But listening to Kenny Clark and
Speaker 2: Christian Watson and a lot of these vets say we
Speaker 2: didn't get there. Weren't a lot of people giving us
Speaker 2: a chance in this game, but they believed. And if
Speaker 2: you look at one of the most common denominators between
Speaker 2: where the Green Bay Packers have been from week one
Speaker 2: to week now thirteen, it's been belief. The execution hasn't
Speaker 2: always been there. Sometimes there's been a few more mistakes
Speaker 2: than Matt Lafleur would have liked, but this team always believed.
Speaker 2: And with a seventeen man injury report, with four of
Speaker 2: the five guys who are questionable for this game not
Speaker 2: being able to play, they only had aj Dillon available.
Speaker 2: This team was undeterred. And it didn't matter if it
Speaker 2: was Jordan Love having another three touchdown zero interception game
Speaker 2: or Christian Watson having his biggest game of the season,
Speaker 2: the young receivers defensively, Gary stepping up in a huge way.
Speaker 2: When Matt Lafleur gives everybody a game ball afterwards that's
Speaker 2: on the roster, it speaks to the Packers quite literally
Speaker 2: needing everybody on that game day active forty eight, and
Speaker 2: they found a way to get it done. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean when you look at you look at how
Speaker 1: banged up the Packers were coming into this game. You're
Speaker 1: short handed at running back, you're short handed at wide
Speaker 1: receiver on the offensive side. On the defensive side, your
Speaker 1: secondary is still banged up. You've got a lot of
Speaker 1: backups and reserves playing there. You're not full strength at
Speaker 1: inside linebacker. So where did this game have to be won?
Speaker 1: It had to be one up front. The Packers were
Speaker 1: in good shape on their offensive line, they were in
Speaker 1: good shape on their defensive line, and those were the
Speaker 1: two units that you know, quite frankly, got it handed
Speaker 1: to them by the Detroit Lions back in Week four
Speaker 1: at Lambell Field. And don't think that NFL players don't
Speaker 1: remember that kind of stuff, right. I Mean, the Packers
Speaker 1: completely turned the tables in the trenches in this game
Speaker 1: compared to the first matchup with the Lions this season.
Speaker 1: And that was the difference. The offensive line, the plan
Speaker 1: with the tight ends and the double teams in the
Speaker 1: chip blocks. They took Aiden Hutchinson out of the game,
Speaker 1: and he was the guy who completely wrecked the game
Speaker 1: back in Week four. I've got a whole bunch of clips.
Speaker 1: In my what you might have missed all the different
Speaker 1: ways that the Packers took care of Aiden Hutchinson and
Speaker 1: did not let him become a factor in this game
Speaker 1: at all. But on the flip side, also the defensive
Speaker 1: front you mentioned Rashan Gary. He goes back to the
Speaker 1: stadium in which he tore his acl last November, and
Speaker 1: he has a three sack, two forced fumble game, one
Speaker 1: of those forced fumbles being a scoop and score by
Speaker 1: Jonathan Owens, a reserve safety. With the secondary all banged up,
Speaker 1: as you said, Wes, this was an all hands on
Speaker 1: deck game. But where the Packers were strongest in terms
Speaker 1: of their health was in the trenches on the offensive
Speaker 1: and defensive lines, and those two units came through big time.
Speaker 2: Elton Jenkins, And it's been fun watching Elton because he's
Speaker 2: become a leader of that locker room. He's not just
Speaker 2: a leader of the offensive lineman. He's become one of
Speaker 2: the voices of that locker room. It's a reasoned voice.
Speaker 2: He's not gonna go up there and making any huge
Speaker 2: declarations to anybody in terms of what he thinks the
Speaker 2: team is capable of. Right, But I think they follow that.
Speaker 2: I think they follows even keeledness in the way that
Speaker 2: he carries himself. And he was saying afterwards, like we
Speaker 2: wanted to dominate in this game. We understood what happened
Speaker 2: and what our role was. In Week four in Green
Speaker 2: Bay having that loss, and that was a difficult time.
Speaker 2: If you remember, Elton was dealing with a knee injury.
Speaker 2: They just lost David again for the season.
Speaker 1: And the guy Tom was playing banged up in that
Speaker 1: game too. You know, he was gutting through a pretty
Speaker 1: difficult injury on a short week, with that game being
Speaker 1: on a Thursday back in September.
Speaker 2: And in this game, Green Bay Packers didn't care. They
Speaker 2: went out there and they played on their terms. And
Speaker 2: Mike I of the mentality that Matt Lafleur took with
Speaker 2: this football team. You don't have any practices, you're just
Speaker 2: doing walkthroughs. So if I could, I would love to
Speaker 2: see the footage of them and the creek or wherever
Speaker 2: they were running through those first fifteen plays and the
Speaker 2: ideology that was following it, the fact that if we
Speaker 2: win the opening coin toss, we are going to take
Speaker 2: the football for the first time the season. We are
Speaker 2: not going to defer. We are going to go into
Speaker 2: the mouth of the lion. No pun intended. Pretty good
Speaker 2: line though, or pun intended or pun intended maybe if
Speaker 2: I want to be like that. But we're gonna throw
Speaker 2: a pass up for fifty three yards to Christian Wattson,
Speaker 2: a guy that this offense desperately needed to get going.
Speaker 2: They gave him the ball on back to back plays
Speaker 2: to start this thing. Yep, Jordan Love throws this magician
Speaker 2: pass to Jayden Reid on a slant. I've watched this
Speaker 2: thing twenty five times and I still don't know how
Speaker 2: the football got in there. Five plays, seventy five yards
Speaker 2: get into the end zone, exactly the start green Bay needed.
Speaker 2: Michael The defense contributed to but twenty first quarter points,
Speaker 2: matching green Bay's output through the first ten games combined.
Speaker 2: In the first quarter, Yeah, green Bay Packers got it
Speaker 2: done the way they needed to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was pretty remarkable. I thought, you know, the
Speaker 1: way this game started, the big pass to Christian Watson.
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur had said he pondered that first play call
Speaker 1: quite a bit. He thought about changing it. He mentioned
Speaker 1: to Jordan Love he was thinking about changing it, not
Speaker 1: taking the deep shot, and Jordan Love said, no, I
Speaker 1: want that play. Let's do it, you know, let's call that.
Speaker 1: On the first one, Christian Watson goes up between two defenders, attacks,
Speaker 1: the ball comes down with at fifty three yards. As
Speaker 1: you said. A few plays later, they're in the end
Speaker 1: zone when Watson runs the wrong route which created all
Speaker 1: of that traffic, but the ball got through, and you know,
Speaker 1: hats off to Jaden Reid for having the concentration with
Speaker 1: a guy draped on him and with Christian Watson cutting
Speaker 1: across and blocking his vision and everything, he's still able
Speaker 1: to make that catch and get the ball into the
Speaker 1: end zone. But what I liked even more, quite frankly
Speaker 1: west than the opening series was that after the Lions
Speaker 1: responded right away with a touchdown of their own, the Packers'
Speaker 1: offense got right back to work. They went right back
Speaker 1: down the field and they were right back in the
Speaker 1: end zone again. It was like, okay, you matched us, Well,
Speaker 1: we're going to take the lead again and see what
Speaker 1: you can do. And then what happens. That's where you
Speaker 1: get the first sack, fumble, the scoop and score by
Speaker 1: Jonathan Oens and suddenly you're up by two touchdowns. And yes,
Speaker 1: the Lions they had gotten within nine and then very
Speaker 1: late in the game they got within seven. But you know,
Speaker 1: the Packers sort of maintained that two score lead for
Speaker 1: the most part, you know, the rest of the ball game.
Speaker 1: And you can't that was for a for as hostile
Speaker 1: an environment as that was. That place was chalk full
Speaker 1: of Detroit fans. It's Thanksgiving. There aren't a lot of
Speaker 1: There were very few Green Bay fans in the stands
Speaker 1: and throughout the you know, I had mentioned this, and
Speaker 1: this is what I felt sitting in the press box.
Speaker 1: Throughout that whole game. That crowd was into it. They
Speaker 1: were expecting Theirs to come back. They had just seen
Speaker 1: their Lions come back from twelve down with four minutes
Speaker 1: to go against the Bears. That crowd was expecting another comeback.
Speaker 1: They thought, Okay, the Packers have had their fun. Our
Speaker 1: guys are going to get things going here. They made
Speaker 1: things as difficult as they could on Jordan Love and
Speaker 1: the offense with all the noise, but Jordan Love stayed
Speaker 1: in command of things from the start. There was the
Speaker 1: one mix up on the fourth and short with the
Speaker 1: handoff to aj Dillon where they got crossed up and
Speaker 1: they ran into each other. Other than that, you can't
Speaker 1: you almost can't even point to a play where you go, boy,
Speaker 1: they really messed that one up, right. I mean, Jordan
Speaker 1: Love was in command of this game, and we've seen him.
Speaker 1: When you're talking about the Steelers game, to the Chargers game,
Speaker 1: to the Lions game, the arrow, the arrow keeps pointing
Speaker 1: up with Jordan Love.
Speaker 2: He's there.
Speaker 1: You know. There are lots of fits and starts through
Speaker 1: the first seven eight games of the season. Now, all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, we're starting to see steady consists. Didn't
Speaker 1: continual progress with Love and with the offense as a whole.
Speaker 1: It's exciting to think what the last month and a
Speaker 1: half of this season might hold.
Speaker 2: If we had more video technology. We could bring up
Speaker 2: the clip right now when you and I are talking
Speaker 2: about going into that game against Chicago in Week one
Speaker 2: and what had to happen by December first, what this
Speaker 2: offense needed to do with these young perimeter players and
Speaker 2: the strides they needed to make. Pittsburgh was such a
Speaker 2: turning point for them for a number of reasons, but
Speaker 2: I thought the biggest one was it was the first
Speaker 2: game that Green Bay had lost, and credit to you
Speaker 2: for pointing this out. I didn't necessarily believe it myself,
Speaker 2: but it was the first game they lost where if
Speaker 2: you took away the ending, you felt the progress there
Speaker 2: and you felt like they were building towards something. When
Speaker 2: you took the emotion out of it, and you look
Speaker 2: at what's happened since then, four days you go back
Speaker 2: to back games against the Chargers and the Lions. The
Speaker 2: challenge mentally and physically that that brings upon a football
Speaker 2: team and its players, the Green Bay Packers stood up
Speaker 2: to it. And if there was ever a stretch that
Speaker 2: I thought embodied what Jordan Love is as a quarterback,
Speaker 2: being able to take away the noise, being able to
Speaker 2: look past the factor three and six and just focus
Speaker 2: on the task at hand, first against the Chargers and
Speaker 2: then against the Lions, it was this stretch. You're seeing
Speaker 2: a young quarterback improve, You're seeing the skill position players
Speaker 2: around him improve and galvanize, and I think that's making
Speaker 2: all the difference. But if I may, I give a
Speaker 2: lot of credit. No one's going to write about it.
Speaker 2: Matt Lafuor certainly doesn't want it talked about. But the
Speaker 2: way that Lafleur attacked this game strategically, being able to
Speaker 2: punch a team in the face on its home field
Speaker 2: in the first quarter. Yeah, it felt really good and
Speaker 2: it was a fast start, but Mike, it dictated the
Speaker 2: rest of the game. Detroit was able to mount a
Speaker 2: fair amount of total yards. They had production, but Green
Speaker 2: Bay was able to play with that lead defense. They
Speaker 2: didn't rupture for big plays and the Lions could not
Speaker 2: get in the end zone. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, one last thing I want to comment with
Speaker 1: regard to the offense before I'll follow up on what
Speaker 1: you just said with the defense. The other thing that
Speaker 1: you saw happening in this game, not just from one player,
Speaker 1: not just from Christian Watson on the opening play of
Speaker 1: the game, but throughout the game as you saw Maleiku
Speaker 1: Heath and Jaden Reid and Romeo Dobbs and Watson all
Speaker 1: making contested catches. Jordan Love was giving was putting the
Speaker 1: ball in places where they would have a chance to
Speaker 1: make plays, and a lot of those plays weren't going
Speaker 1: Green Bay's way. Earlier in the season, the receivers were
Speaker 1: not able to come down with those not from a
Speaker 1: lack of effort, but just lack of experience that you know,
Speaker 1: things don't work out quite right. Well, those things are
Speaker 1: starting to work out now those guys are attacking the ball.
Speaker 1: I mean, my favorite one, quite frankly, was the one.
Speaker 1: It was over the middle on It was kind of
Speaker 1: a long yarded situation. I believe it was second and long.
Speaker 1: It was right after a holding penalty, and Romeo Dobbs
Speaker 1: makes a really tough, tough, contested grab over the middle
Speaker 1: and that was the first time the ball had come
Speaker 1: to him since he had dropped a slant on third
Speaker 1: down earlier. Romeo just, you know, it's like, okay, you
Speaker 1: block it out and and he made a much much
Speaker 1: tougher catch in a big situation that then set up
Speaker 1: Christian Watson's touchdown in the third quarter there on the
Speaker 1: defensive side of the ball. You said it with regard
Speaker 1: to the how the Packers ultimately were able to contain
Speaker 1: the Lions, and it came down it came down to
Speaker 1: fourth down stops. Four times. Four times the Packers stopped
Speaker 1: the Lions going forward on fourth down. One of those
Speaker 1: was the fake punt. Hats off to Lucas van Ness
Speaker 1: and to kings Leyannigbari. Those were the two guys when
Speaker 1: I looked at the film. That's it what you might
Speaker 1: have missed as well. Anigbari sets the edge just like
Speaker 1: it was a running play. He didn't, you know he
Speaker 1: he you know, immediately shifted in a run defense mode.
Speaker 1: Set the edge Lucas van Ness who had broken through
Speaker 1: the line, but he immediately shifts to go chase the guy,
Speaker 1: you know, the up back who takes the takes the
Speaker 1: direct snap and uh, and they're able to shut down
Speaker 1: that fake punt. But also three other stops on fourth
Speaker 1: down were the where the defense just held strong. I
Speaker 1: mean quay Walker's uh, quay Walker's coverage in the end
Speaker 1: zone on that pass to uh was it Laporta? I
Speaker 1: think who was who was running that route? The pressure
Speaker 1: generated by Preston Smith and Rashaun Garry on on some
Speaker 1: of those other fourth downs. The defense came up big
Speaker 1: when it had to. And when you talk about the
Speaker 1: special teams contribution, I mean Daniel Wheeland, how I mean
Speaker 1: how many punts were either fair caught or down at
Speaker 1: the ten yard line or they you know, yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and one of those was down at the two yard line.
Speaker 1: You can't you can't overstate how important field position was
Speaker 1: in this because as you said, the Lions did rack
Speaker 1: up a bunch of yards, but at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, they didn't they they didn't get the points
Speaker 1: out of it because they were starting every drive from
Speaker 1: the ten yard line. It seemed like, which which put
Speaker 1: the Packers defense in great position. When you have all
Speaker 1: three all three phases of the team doing those kinds
Speaker 1: of things, reducing the mistakes, you never play a perfect game.
Speaker 1: But to see the Packers in command of a game
Speaker 1: essentially from start to finish on the road against the
Speaker 1: team that is leading the division, leading the NFC North
Speaker 1: by a pretty wide margin, it was it was impressive.
Speaker 1: And that that's as big a building block as the
Speaker 1: Packers have set down for whatever the future is, whatever
Speaker 1: that they've set down in their foundation. That's the biggest
Speaker 1: one of this season.
Speaker 2: There was a lot of consternation and insider inbox about
Speaker 2: complimentary football and the way that you spell it this
Speaker 2: past couple days.
Speaker 1: But oh, we have to have our fun. We have
Speaker 1: letters too.
Speaker 2: But when you when you talk about winning and losing,
Speaker 2: and a lot of times it will go back to
Speaker 2: the quarterback. I get it. That is obviously where the
Speaker 2: ball starts, and it is about who has the ball
Speaker 2: in his hands. But complimentary football is something that is
Speaker 2: really wrap did up here, I thought for green Bay
Speaker 2: over the last few months, last few weeks, I should say,
Speaker 2: and being able to again a team like the Lions.
Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of people forget man, the Lions
Speaker 2: were on a seven game winning streak against the division,
Speaker 2: and they'd beaten the Packers four straight times, and if
Speaker 2: they would have gotten the fifth, that would have been
Speaker 2: the first time since the streak of eleven straight losses
Speaker 2: for Green Bay from nineteen forty nine to fifty three.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're talking back in the early fifties, that day time,
Speaker 1: in that last time the Lions had beaten the Packers
Speaker 1: that many times in a row.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that they'd been in that kind of rut. Dare
Speaker 2: I say so, to be able to do this, I
Speaker 2: think there's so much that goes into it, And Mike,
Speaker 2: not that it's ever about Okay, well you got one
Speaker 2: back because of some of these losses earlier this year.
Speaker 2: I think the difference is is that the green Bay
Speaker 2: Packers learned from those losses and now they beat an
Speaker 2: eight win football team, a team that is right at
Speaker 2: the top of the NFC, and It's a reminder here,
Speaker 2: especially after everything that happened on Monday Night football, that
Speaker 2: you know, the playoffs are very much in reach. If
Speaker 2: the Green Pack can start to build on this and
Speaker 2: take care of business.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I want to talk about next, is
Speaker 1: some of the things as far as where this picture looks.
Speaker 1: But I'll take care of some sponsor business first. Serious
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Speaker 1: fifty years of better. All right, Well, the Packers have
Speaker 1: won three of their last four. They actually, you know,
Speaker 1: one play away if you look at the Pittsburgh game, right,
Speaker 1: you're one play away from a four game winning streak,
Speaker 1: but three of their last four they are at five
Speaker 1: and six. The Minnesota Vikings took one on the chin
Speaker 1: Monday night at home against the Chicago Bears, who are
Speaker 1: suddenly playing a little bit different brand of football. When
Speaker 1: you look at the fact that they had the Lions
Speaker 1: down by twelve points with four minutes to go and
Speaker 1: let that one get away. They almost let the game
Speaker 1: in Minneapolis Monday Night get away, but they get a
Speaker 1: last second field goal from Cairo Santos, his fourth field
Speaker 1: goal the game. They win without a touchdown, twelve to ten.
Speaker 1: So the Minnesota Vikings now are six and six heading
Speaker 1: into their bye week. So the Packers and the Vikings
Speaker 1: tied in the lost column with six losses a piece.
Speaker 1: The Vikings currently have the last playoff spot in the
Speaker 1: NFC if the season ended today, but also the sixth spot.
Speaker 1: The second the last spot in the NFC is the
Speaker 1: Seattle Seahawks, who are six and five. They only have
Speaker 1: one fewer loss than the Packers because they lost on
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving to the San Francisco forty nine ers. And also
Speaker 1: with the Packers at five and six, you have the
Speaker 1: New Orleans Saints, you have the Los Angeles Rams, the Packers.
Speaker 1: You know, you like the fact that you know this
Speaker 1: could shake out in any number of ways. You like
Speaker 1: the fact that the Packers beat both of those teams.
Speaker 1: When it comes to potential tiebreaker scenarios, down the road.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, Wes, none of this stuff matters
Speaker 1: because the Packers are still the team you know, trailing
Speaker 1: and chasing, right, You're trailing and chasing at this point.
Speaker 1: None of this matters if you don't keep stacking victories
Speaker 1: and keep putting pressure on those teams that are in
Speaker 1: front of you. And we'll talk on our next show
Speaker 1: about the Kansas City Chiefs. The opponent company here to
Speaker 1: Lambellfield a tremendous challenge, but one that certainly the whole
Speaker 1: outlook of this game with the Chiefs coming to Lambeoufield
Speaker 1: looks very very different with the Packers coming off this
Speaker 1: win over the Lions.
Speaker 2: You use the word challenge, I will use the word
Speaker 2: opportunity because the Grivay Packers suddenly are on their first
Speaker 2: winning streak of the season. They are if you win
Speaker 2: three games, then you can, I think officially label it
Speaker 2: is that what Major League taught us, yeah, back in
Speaker 2: the day. But but the bigger thing.
Speaker 1: Is is that has happened before?
Speaker 2: What it has happened before? What a way that would
Speaker 2: be to catapult yourself into December, A December in which
Speaker 2: Matt Lafleur is still fifteen to h during his time
Speaker 2: as the Packers head coach. His teams know how to
Speaker 2: finish and and for Green Bay standpoint Mike, the record
Speaker 2: is great, you know, in terms of where they are,
Speaker 2: that they're in this race, and you can talk all
Speaker 2: about this and you can talk about seedings and playoffs
Speaker 2: and all this jazz, but the bigger thing for me
Speaker 2: is how this young football team. And I'm gonna still
Speaker 2: say young because I'm not officially in the locker room,
Speaker 2: I'm not on the coaching staff, I'm not teaching anybody
Speaker 2: the game. I'm just observing. It is one of the youngest,
Speaker 2: if not the youngest football team in the National Football League,
Speaker 2: and they're getting better and you know, we'll see how
Speaker 2: this goes. You have to have consistency. I know what
Speaker 2: the schedule looks like on the other side of the
Speaker 2: Kansas City game, a lot of what people would refer
Speaker 2: to as winnable games for the Green Bay Packers, But
Speaker 2: there's six games to go and six games to prove
Speaker 2: your point right now if you're this football team, but
Speaker 2: being able to get a win like that against Detroit
Speaker 2: on the road in the division and kind of put
Speaker 2: your foot down and say we are a good football team.
Speaker 2: We have potential to be a good football team. Not
Speaker 2: next year, not the year after that, but in the
Speaker 2: here and now. I thought was important because there is
Speaker 2: a swagger that goes along with it. Last quick point
Speaker 2: here with Rashaun Gary three sacks, two force fumbles, first
Speaker 2: Packers player to do that since Aaron Campman in twenty six.
Speaker 2: You want to talk about a defining performance for a
Speaker 2: young player in a rallying cry for the defenders around him.
Speaker 2: The Green Bay Packers won this game with Carrington Valentine,
Speaker 2: a rookie seventh round pick at cornerback. Corey Ballantine over
Speaker 2: at the other cornerback spot, a guy that was on
Speaker 2: the practice squad earlier this season. Jonathan Owen's on the
Speaker 2: back end, rookie seventh round pick Anthony Johnson junior at safety,
Speaker 2: Isaiah McDuffie staying in for Devondre Campbell, whom the Packers
Speaker 2: hope to have back this week. The Packers have had
Speaker 2: so much stuff go against them this season. When things
Speaker 2: start to align, it makes you really wonder about what
Speaker 2: the possibilities are for really all the phases, but you know,
Speaker 2: specifically these units that have been impacted by injuries, what
Speaker 2: their true potential is, because I think you're seeing it
Speaker 2: right now with the receivers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's going to be coming off of this win
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving and with the hope that the Packers are
Speaker 1: going to get a little bit healthier, and we'll have
Speaker 1: a little bit more of an update in that regard
Speaker 1: on our next show, because we'll at least have seen
Speaker 1: you know who's practicing on Wednesday when we sit down
Speaker 1: to do our Thursday show. But the level of excitement
Speaker 1: that's being generated now by this team and coming into
Speaker 1: a Sunday night football game against the defending Super Bowl
Speaker 1: champions and all that Patrick mahomes first appearance in his
Speaker 1: career at lambeau Field, everything that goes along with that.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of excitement here as far as as
Speaker 1: far as what is going on. And Packers fans are
Speaker 1: gonna sit back all day on Sunday and scoreboard watch,
Speaker 1: right because you don't have a you don't have a
Speaker 1: Packers game to watch until seven thirty Central Time or
Speaker 1: whatever the kickoff is, and there will be a lot
Speaker 1: of other a lot of other games to pay attention to.
Speaker 1: That'll be u that'll be worth watching. A couple other
Speaker 1: comments I want to make with regard to Week twelve,
Speaker 1: because we always look around the league a little bit.
Speaker 1: Two biggest things that jumped out at me West as
Speaker 1: far as the other results. Also on Thanksgiving, that San
Speaker 1: Francisco forty nine Ers victory over the Seahawks sure feels
Speaker 1: like whatever that three game losing streak was that the
Speaker 1: Niners went through is like ancient history. At this point
Speaker 1: they have they have put that in the rearview mirror.
Speaker 1: They are in complete control of the NFC West and
Speaker 1: and the Niners look like they are ready to to
Speaker 1: make a charge here down the stretch and see where
Speaker 1: they end up in the seating with regard to the
Speaker 1: playoff picture. And on the other side of things, the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills, Man, you talk about a gut punch loss.
Speaker 1: They left it all on the field at the Link
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia against the only team left in the NFL
Speaker 1: with just one loss on the season, the Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 1: The Bills had the lead for good chunks of that game.
Speaker 1: They had the lead right up to the end of
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. They took a lead in overtime. They
Speaker 1: just could not put the Eagles away. And man, and
Speaker 1: as as tough and convoluted and complicated as that AFC
Speaker 1: playoff picture is going to be. To think that the
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bills are sitting at six and six with all
Speaker 1: of the other quarterback injuries and things that have gone
Speaker 1: on in the AFC, but they're going to be struggling
Speaker 1: to get to get a playoff spot here now, it's
Speaker 1: not over for them. Not that not saying that at all,
Speaker 1: but man, if you had told me at the start
Speaker 1: of the season that Josh Allen's basically going to be
Speaker 1: healthy through the first three month of the year and
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Bills are going to be six and six,
Speaker 1: I would have said, you're crazy. But that's where they are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Bills have just had some terrible losses. I mean,
Speaker 2: they have a hard schedule the way it is. Yes,
Speaker 2: they're division champion, but then the games that they needed
Speaker 2: to win they didn't win. I mean, they lost to
Speaker 2: the Jets early on, They lost to the New England Patriots,
Speaker 2: who only have two wins so far on the season.
Speaker 1: They lost to the Broncos because they had twelve guys
Speaker 1: on the field on a last second field goal attempt
Speaker 1: that gave the Broncos another crack and they took a
Speaker 1: loss there, so.
Speaker 2: You know what happens when you face a team that
Speaker 2: is the defending NFC representative in the Super Bowl. They're
Speaker 2: gonna be in these games right down to the wire.
Speaker 2: And Jalen Hurts is a really good ace to have
Speaker 2: up your sleeve.
Speaker 1: Yeah he is.
Speaker 2: But if I may really quickly, the big thing I
Speaker 2: thought was my takeaway from this, in addition to what
Speaker 2: you said about San Francisco, although I do think when
Speaker 2: Deebo Samuel's available, they're just an entirely different football team
Speaker 2: than when he's not. Agreed that was a big part
Speaker 2: of it, but agreed, it was that the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 2: The message that I look at for them to have
Speaker 2: out of all this is just win football games. Whether
Speaker 2: it's Kansas City or the Carolina Panthers, just win football games.
Speaker 2: Because this week was a reminder. And and the Josh
Speaker 2: Dobbs thing is a great story, and I will not
Speaker 2: take anything away from him, but you and I were
Speaker 2: conversing a little bit on Monday night about this, and
Speaker 2: the main thought that kept the voice I heard, the
Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy voice in the back of my head about
Speaker 2: you know, there's good players there's good players with moments
Speaker 2: of greatness, and then there's elite players. Josh Dobbs is
Speaker 2: a good player with moments of greatness. But there's something
Speaker 2: about this game, with the difficulty of it. It drags
Speaker 2: you back down to earth real quick, yep does. And
Speaker 2: Chicago is if Chicago's going to do anything the Josh
Speaker 2: the Justin fields things. If they're ever going to do anything,
Speaker 2: they have to find ways to turn these takeaways into points.
Speaker 2: They still aren't doing it, and they got away with
Speaker 2: one against Minnesota. Luckily for green Bay it worked out
Speaker 2: that way. But there's gonna be teams here, you know,
Speaker 2: team like Seattle too, has some really off matchups on
Speaker 2: the horizon. The Green Bay Packers just need to win
Speaker 2: football games here. They need to take care of business.
Speaker 2: And you know, see where it takes you from there,
Speaker 2: because I I really have a hard time believing Mike
Speaker 2: at least not one, if not both of the wild
Speaker 2: card spots, they are really only gonna need nine wins
Speaker 2: to break into the postseason.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it might, It certainly might end up that way.
Speaker 1: And with with six games to go for all of
Speaker 1: these teams that are anywhere from you know, six and
Speaker 1: five to four and seven right now in the NFC,
Speaker 1: all these teams that are that are bunched into that
Speaker 1: group that you look at as as you know, contending
Speaker 1: for those last two, the six and seven spots. There
Speaker 1: are six games to go. That is a ton of football,
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of games that week to week. You know,
Speaker 1: this team's gonna win and then be the team everybody's
Speaker 1: you know, scared of, and then the next week they're
Speaker 1: gonna take it on the chin. And you know, as
Speaker 1: you said, it's it's you. You just have to you
Speaker 1: just have to keep winning games. You have to win
Speaker 1: whatever games you can. You just you you prepare every week.
Speaker 1: It's a week to week league. It's one at a time.
Speaker 1: All all of those cliches, they're cliches, Wes because they're.
Speaker 2: True, absolutely, and they say it a lot.
Speaker 1: Exactly exactly, So with that we'll call it a rap
Speaker 1: on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow
Speaker 1: all of our coverage of the team all week long
Speaker 1: on Packers dot com. For Wes, I'm Mike. Thank you
Speaker 1: for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.