Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford, sitting next to my colleague West Hodkowitz,
Speaker 1: and we're coming to you here from our studios at
Speaker 1: lambeau Field and West to follow up a little bit
Speaker 1: on our previous show. We talked a lot about Mike
Speaker 1: McCarthy season ending press conference and in the previous shows
Speaker 1: about Ted Thompson and the decision there to step aside
Speaker 1: and transition into a new role in the organization. One
Speaker 1: thing we haven't really touched on to any extent yet
Speaker 1: is collectively, what is now really the end of an
Speaker 1: era in terms of this twelve year partnership between head
Speaker 1: coach Mike McCarthy and GM Ted Thompson and um, you know,
Speaker 1: really the length of it alone is somewhat unprecedented in
Speaker 1: the league. The level of success nine total playoff appearances,
Speaker 1: I believe, four trips to the NFC Championship Game, one
Speaker 1: trip to the Super Bowl. That level of success certainly
Speaker 1: ranks up there. If you were to pick a characteristic
Speaker 1: or two of them as a due of their partnership,
Speaker 1: that that sort of defines it or what you'll remember
Speaker 1: it for what would you say unity. I think it's
Speaker 1: the thing that stands out to me. And then that
Speaker 1: that's not to say, you know, every marriage has its fights, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not to say that it was just
Speaker 1: all sunshines and rainbows for eleven years. I mean, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be times where guys are gonna butt heads. That's
Speaker 1: only natural. But they always had the same path. It
Speaker 1: was never a question about I'm gonna go this way,
Speaker 1: you're going to go that way. They had discussions and
Speaker 1: then they pressed forward, they pressed on, and I think
Speaker 1: that was the number one characteristic I thought made this
Speaker 1: really this one to punch work for the Packers. If
Speaker 1: you go back, Mike and I did a story in
Speaker 1: December of two thousand six team looking at McCarthy's offenses
Speaker 1: and and looking at you know, the history there of
Speaker 1: of Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy. There aren't a lot
Speaker 1: of personnel executives in a head coach that got on
Speaker 1: a run as long as they did, and they were
Speaker 1: one of the most successful pairings in NFL history in
Speaker 1: doing that together. Yeah, guys have different motivations, the life
Speaker 1: takes some different directions, but for them to stay on
Speaker 1: that same path for twelve years. I think it just
Speaker 1: says a lot about the relationship that they built and
Speaker 1: exactly you know, the the the kind of foundation they
Speaker 1: were able to forge with this football team. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: if there's a characteristic that comes to mind for me,
Speaker 1: and it's similar to the unity term that you brought
Speaker 1: up for me, what I always think of his mutual
Speaker 1: respect because, as you know, I've been the editor of
Speaker 1: the Packers Yearbook for a number of years, and a
Speaker 1: while back, I don't remember exactly what year it was,
Speaker 1: but I did a story for the Packers Yearbook, a
Speaker 1: rather lengthy feature story about the relationship between the two
Speaker 1: of them, how they work together. And if there was
Speaker 1: one element that very overwhelmingly came out of the discussions
Speaker 1: that I had with both of them about how they
Speaker 1: worked together, it was about the level of mutual respect
Speaker 1: in that Mike McCarthy is the coach of the team,
Speaker 1: Ted Thompson runs the roster, and they let each other
Speaker 1: do their jobs and as you say, not to say
Speaker 1: there wouldn't be disagreements sometimes, but Mike McCarthy is not
Speaker 1: going to tell Ted Thompson, I need that guy in
Speaker 1: the draft, or I need that player in free agency.
Speaker 1: Ted Thompson is not going to tell Mike McCarthy, that's
Speaker 1: my second round pick, you have to play him. You know,
Speaker 1: that's not how that how it worked at all. As
Speaker 1: you said, they would discuss things, they would reach some
Speaker 1: sort of an agreement, and they would forge ahead and
Speaker 1: they and I'm not saying that they operated completely in silos,
Speaker 1: but it's that the one guy respected the other guy
Speaker 1: and respected his job enough that they didn't they didn't
Speaker 1: tread into somebody else's territory. And I think that's it
Speaker 1: led to the longevity and how it worked for so long.
Speaker 1: I look at this as a restaurant. I usually a
Speaker 1: restaurant that restaurant. Analogy here, um and that is that
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy has been the chef of this restaurant now
Speaker 1: for twelve years. Ted Thompson was like the proprietor, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's the one going out getting the ingredients,
Speaker 1: getting everything that Mike McCarthy needs to make the dinner,
Speaker 1: to make the menu come to life. And that's not
Speaker 1: to say if you're not gonna have communication between the
Speaker 1: two sides, but they both understood that what they do,
Speaker 1: they do well and Mike McCarthy coming in. I remember
Speaker 1: I asked him this a number of years ago. Uh,
Speaker 1: but when he got when he got hired in Green Bay,
Speaker 1: if he knew that the draft and development thing it
Speaker 1: was going to be as rigid as it was. This
Speaker 1: is like two thousand and twelve, two thousand and thirteen
Speaker 1: where the Packers weren't signing any free agents. It was
Speaker 1: their guys, and then it was their draft picks, and
Speaker 1: then it was maybe a couple of guys here and there.
Speaker 1: And he said, you know, it's about the process. It's
Speaker 1: about buying into the process. And you know, Ted Thompson
Speaker 1: was so upfront with what his vision was for building
Speaker 1: the football team. And there was some ways around that too.
Speaker 1: I mean he when he needed Charles Woodson, he went
Speaker 1: and got Charles Woodson, needed Ryan Picketty, got Ryan Pickett.
Speaker 1: I mean there definitely was room for that. But at
Speaker 1: its core, that draft and developed style. Thompson was just
Speaker 1: so honest with guys about that. I think that's something
Speaker 1: McCarthy always appreciated, you know, right from day one, is
Speaker 1: that he knew what the vision was and from there,
Speaker 1: when you have that kind of vision your front office,
Speaker 1: it makes it as a head coach that much easier
Speaker 1: to really lay down your vision for what your team
Speaker 1: is going to look like. I agree with you, McCarthy
Speaker 1: said many times publicly one of the things he appreciated
Speaker 1: the most about Ted Thompson was his consistency. He always
Speaker 1: knew where he was coming from. He always understood what
Speaker 1: his vision was. As you said, and I think it
Speaker 1: was a two way street, and that Ted Thompson really
Speaker 1: respected Mike McCarthy's consistency as a head coach, the way
Speaker 1: he ran the football team, um, the way he delivered
Speaker 1: messages in front of the football team, the way he
Speaker 1: coached at every single Sunday that you know, and and
Speaker 1: again that goes back to the mutual respect. I really
Speaker 1: think they both had a tremendous amount of respect for
Speaker 1: how the other guy went about his job and it
Speaker 1: led to a lot of success. In the next segment, Mike,
Speaker 1: we're gonna look at some of the things that they
Speaker 1: did together, some of their their biggest moments. But one
Speaker 1: thing I do want to add into that is McCarthy
Speaker 1: always talks about he never when he steps to the
Speaker 1: point him he doesn't want to create questions for a
Speaker 1: locker room. I think that's something that Thompson also did
Speaker 1: really well. He doesn't want to say anything, he doesn't
Speaker 1: say anything, but also through his actions, he never put
Speaker 1: himself in the spotlight when things are going well. He
Speaker 1: didn't put himself in front of the spot like he
Speaker 1: was the same guy, regardless of it was a difficult
Speaker 1: win or they just won the Super Bowl. In that
Speaker 1: type of consistency, I think it makes it a lot
Speaker 1: easier when you're trying to build a corporation, when you're
Speaker 1: trying to build any kind of you know, business in
Speaker 1: life more than a restaurant, more than a restaurant, that
Speaker 1: that you have that kind of consistency in place, because
Speaker 1: it does go a long way. It's a lot a
Speaker 1: lot of people like to hoot and holler and like
Speaker 1: to release tooth their own horn. Thompson never did that. Well,
Speaker 1: now that you're talking about restaurants, I'm getting hungry. So
Speaker 1: let's go to a break back with moreen Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Right after this Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford
Speaker 1: in this chair, Wes Hodkowitz in that one, and West
Speaker 1: continuing our discussion from the last segment about the McCarthy
Speaker 1: Thompson a dozen year partnership. We saw these guys. They
Speaker 1: were the ones who had to navigate what obviously was
Speaker 1: a rocky transition in two thousand and eight from Brett
Speaker 1: Farve to Aaron Rodgers. They came out the other end
Speaker 1: a couple of years later, won a Super Bowl in
Speaker 1: the midst of obviously a run of consecutive playoff appearances
Speaker 1: that reached eight before it ended this year. When you
Speaker 1: look back on on some of this stuff, I know
Speaker 1: there are a lot of accomplishments to look at, um,
Speaker 1: but aside from the obvious, you know, the call of
Speaker 1: Rogers and and winning the Super Bowl. Not to diminish
Speaker 1: those by any means, but what what kind of stuff
Speaker 1: are you going to remember? Well, I think it has
Speaker 1: to start in two thousand and eight. Uh and and
Speaker 1: certainly you give Thompson credit for what the what they
Speaker 1: built and the fact that in McCarthy credit for that
Speaker 1: they were able to get in the NFC title Game
Speaker 1: in two thousand seven, only two years into their partnership,
Speaker 1: three years into Thompson taking over as GM, and you know,
Speaker 1: coming off of four and twelve season his first year,
Speaker 1: But that two thousand and eight summer um. There's so
Speaker 1: many layers that I talked on yesterday's show about how
Speaker 1: I think that that is still going to be his
Speaker 1: ultimate accomplishment because it takes an enormous amount of trust
Speaker 1: and your scouting department, a normalist amount of trust in
Speaker 1: yourself to not waiver there because he put his career
Speaker 1: on the line. Let's just be honest. I mean, if
Speaker 1: if Aaron Rodgers doesn't work out and they let Brett
Speaker 1: Fave walk out the door for a third round draft pick,
Speaker 1: it would have been tough for him to come back
Speaker 1: from that. But Mike McCarthy in investing two years into
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers and his development and and it just doesn't
Speaker 1: happen this way anymore. You see it. My guys and
Speaker 1: teams they want to talk about, you know, we want
Speaker 1: to give a guy time to develop. And how many
Speaker 1: times is it four weeks into the season when the
Speaker 1: team's one in four, one in three, one and five,
Speaker 1: two and four, everyone's calling for the backup quarterback, everyone's
Speaker 1: calling for the rookie. Packers were fortunate in that way
Speaker 1: that they didn't really have to do that because the
Speaker 1: quarterback was Brett Farve. It's such a you see it
Speaker 1: in small burst right now of when teams are able
Speaker 1: to accomplish that. But that long road, playing the long
Speaker 1: game with Aaron Rodgers in the development that two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight season, I think it's such a testament to
Speaker 1: Thompson and McCarthy and how they developed this team and
Speaker 1: really setting themselves up for the future with the development
Speaker 1: of number twelve. Yeah, in many ways they staked their
Speaker 1: legacy on Aaron Rodgers because of that decision they had
Speaker 1: to make and the fact that in two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight the team went six and ten. Things did not
Speaker 1: go as planned. There was a five game losing streak
Speaker 1: late in the year after when the team was you know,
Speaker 1: around five hundred or so after ten games, and then
Speaker 1: you know, McCarthy made a wholesale change of the defensive
Speaker 1: coaching staff, you know, brought in Dom Caper's the whole
Speaker 1: new scheme and all that. It's interest to me because
Speaker 1: when I when I think of, you know, the acquisition
Speaker 1: of the players and then coaching of the players in
Speaker 1: terms of in terms of the partnership, a couple of
Speaker 1: things come to mind. One for me was two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: at the end of training camp the Packers didn't have
Speaker 1: a running back. I'm On Green had left after a
Speaker 1: successful two thousand six season, left as a free agent
Speaker 1: to go to Houston. Some guys the Packers were counting
Speaker 1: on were injured through the preseason. There was really nobody
Speaker 1: to necessarily turn to immediately as the number one running back,
Speaker 1: Ted Thompson makes a trade and brings in Ryan Grant
Speaker 1: from the New York Giants. Trades a low round draft
Speaker 1: pick to bring him in. Yeah, and you fast forward
Speaker 1: to the end of that season. It's snow one out
Speaker 1: here at lambau Field in the playoffs against the Seattle Seahawks,
Speaker 1: and Ryan Grant fumbles two times and Seattle takes a
Speaker 1: fourteen nothing lead five minutes into the game. Mike McCarthy's
Speaker 1: game plan that day was to run the ball on
Speaker 1: the Seattle Seahawks, and a lot of coaches after two
Speaker 1: fumbles in the first five minutes and a fourteen nothing
Speaker 1: deficit would have yanked that guy. Mike McCarthy stuck with
Speaker 1: him and Ryan at Rusha's for two one yards and
Speaker 1: three touchdowns. That right there, that late training camp, end
Speaker 1: of training camp acquisition and then that guy being a
Speaker 1: playoff hero when he could have been a playoff goat
Speaker 1: that that timeline right there, and that being in the
Speaker 1: second year of their partnership together. That to me says
Speaker 1: a lot about about just how things can come together
Speaker 1: and work when when two guys respect each other the
Speaker 1: way they die. And so much was made over the
Speaker 1: years about Ted Thompson and free agency and didn't attack
Speaker 1: those things enough, but it was interesting. He did have
Speaker 1: a really interesting He was able to keep always a
Speaker 1: temperature on the state of his team and when they
Speaker 1: needed a Ryan Grant type player to come in. I
Speaker 1: even think of that two thousand ten season and and
Speaker 1: you know, Eric Walden, that's the next that's the next one.
Speaker 1: I was going to mention Howard Green when they needed
Speaker 1: another guy on the defensive line and you know, picked
Speaker 1: him up off the street and and the Packers coaching
Speaker 1: staff in the hotel before his first game, you know,
Speaker 1: a road game, they're setting up chairs in the conference room,
Speaker 1: you know, as like the XS and os and teaching
Speaker 1: him certain alignments and stuff just so they can get
Speaker 1: him a few snaps in the next game because they're
Speaker 1: gonna need him. That's what that that's the combination of
Speaker 1: you bring the player in and the other guys coach
Speaker 1: him up and get him ready to go and uh,
Speaker 1: and they made it work a lot of times. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's just that that was such a big thing
Speaker 1: in that run because they had so many guys get injured.
Speaker 1: And what do we talk about yesterday, Mike, That really
Speaker 1: trying to close the gap between your young players and
Speaker 1: your veterans when injuries occur. That two thousand ten team,
Speaker 1: they put together a four level class on what it
Speaker 1: takes to make that happen with with Walden coming in,
Speaker 1: with Howard Green, even with all those injuries they had
Speaker 1: to navigate that season and Charlie Pepper stepping up the
Speaker 1: way he did. I mean, they just they got contributions
Speaker 1: from everywhere. Pepper was a waiver claim in two thousand
Speaker 1: and six, if I'm not mistaken, Ted Thompson claimed him
Speaker 1: off off waivers from the Giants, and then you know,
Speaker 1: Trumont Williams has a tremendous postseason former practice squad player.
Speaker 1: They just the contributions were from everywhere. And I thought
Speaker 1: a really interesting thing was Mike McCarthy. The last question
Speaker 1: he was really asked in his news conference on Thursday
Speaker 1: was about you know what his memories are going to
Speaker 1: be A Ted Thompson and and he said, you know
Speaker 1: them standing on that stage all awkward with him Mark
Speaker 1: Murphy Thompson trying to pass around the Lombardi Trophy, kind
Speaker 1: of enjoying and reveling in that moment. Such a unique
Speaker 1: man and obviously still gonna be around the organization. But
Speaker 1: it's those type of memories and the first time you
Speaker 1: touch Lombardi Trophy and it's a little heavier than you expect.
Speaker 1: It's those type of memories that I think, ultimately for
Speaker 1: everybody involved, are going to be the things that when
Speaker 1: you look back at your coaching career, when you look
Speaker 1: back at your GM career, the job you did in
Speaker 1: Green Bay are gonna be the first thing that come
Speaker 1: to mind. Yeah. Absolutely. With that, let's go to a
Speaker 1: break back with more on Packers Unscripted right after this.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford in this chair,
Speaker 1: Wes Hodko in that one West. It's wild Card weekend
Speaker 1: in the NFL coming up here. Um, let's uh start
Speaker 1: with the two a f C games. You have, one
Speaker 1: on Saturday and one on Sunday. I believe the game
Speaker 1: on Saturday is Tennessee at Kansas City. I think around
Speaker 1: the middle of December, when Tennessee was starting to slide,
Speaker 1: it didn't look like they were going to make the playoffs,
Speaker 1: but they did beat a pretty good Jacksonville team, another
Speaker 1: playoff team that we'll talk about in a minute. To
Speaker 1: get into the playoffs. The Kansas City Chiefs are hosting
Speaker 1: this game. Looked like the world beaters in the first
Speaker 1: month and a half of the season. Alex Smith was
Speaker 1: League MVP in mid October. Then they you know, hit
Speaker 1: the skids a little bit, but Andy Reid got that
Speaker 1: team playing pretty well again down the stretch, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Kansas City. I would imagine there's a lot
Speaker 1: of confidence in Kansas City playing at Arrowhead in the
Speaker 1: playoffs that they can win this one. Hats off to
Speaker 1: Andy Reid because that thing could have just gotten completely
Speaker 1: out of control in Kansas City when you start that
Speaker 1: hot and go through such a difficult mid season stretch.
Speaker 1: I mean, Mike McCarthy says it all the time, every season,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be faced with adversity. Did that stretch cost
Speaker 1: them a chance at a first round by absolutely, I
Speaker 1: mean it gave him you know, took away that home
Speaker 1: field advantage type of thing that I think was out
Speaker 1: there for them when the Patriots were kind of struggling
Speaker 1: a little bit early on, but they were able to
Speaker 1: get the horses corralled. This is an interesting matchup. It's
Speaker 1: funny you talked a little bit about college football. You
Speaker 1: remember a few years ago. I think it was what
Speaker 1: Northern Illinois is probably going back like five six years
Speaker 1: they got into like an FBS game. Yeah, that a
Speaker 1: great year. This is what the a f C Playoffs
Speaker 1: kind of feel like to me, where you got a
Speaker 1: bunch of these teams that sort of came out of
Speaker 1: nowhere and you're not sure what to make of them.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to make out of the Tennessee Titans.
Speaker 1: I do know what to I know what's at stake here.
Speaker 1: I know what Kansas City, what they look like when
Speaker 1: they played to the best of their abilities, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure they're obviously gonna be prepared for this. But Tennessee
Speaker 1: is just such an outlier right now, just trying to
Speaker 1: see exactly what they're gonna be able to do, especially
Speaker 1: without de Marco Murray in this game with a knee injury.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be very interesting to watch. Yeah, big moment
Speaker 1: for Marcus Mario, absolutely his first getting his first playoff games,
Speaker 1: something that, even if things don't necessarily go well against
Speaker 1: the Chiefs, could set the table here for the for
Speaker 1: the Tennessee Titans, because they do believe they have their
Speaker 1: franchise quarterback. Fast forward here to Sunday. The Buffalo Bills
Speaker 1: in the playoffs for the first time. Since we're watching that,
Speaker 1: one of the TVs here in the office the other
Speaker 1: day was replaying the Music City Miracle when the Buffalo
Speaker 1: Bills their last playoff appearance in nine they lost on
Speaker 1: the lateral kickoff return Frank why check to Kevin Dyson
Speaker 1: in Nashville, Tennessee won that game. Buffalo goes on the
Speaker 1: road here to Jacksonville, a team with um a very
Speaker 1: impressive defense, but questions at quarterback as far as the consistency.
Speaker 1: Blake Bordles in the playoffs for the first time. Obviously,
Speaker 1: just about everybody for the Buffalo Bills except maybe Micah
Speaker 1: Hyde in the playoffs for the first time. How do
Speaker 1: you see this one? You know, this is an interesting one, Mike.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to bring up the stats right now for
Speaker 1: how Buffalo ranks against the run this season. Uh, if
Speaker 1: I'm if, honestly, if I'm the Jaguars, if Leonard for
Speaker 1: Nette's ankles, okay, I think this is a game where
Speaker 1: he has to touch the ball thirty times. I really do.
Speaker 1: Because you looked at how banged up the Jacksonville Jaguars
Speaker 1: are with their perimeter weapons. In the fact that Blake
Speaker 1: Bortles has had as difficult of a time as he
Speaker 1: has had trying to protect the football this year, I
Speaker 1: think that that is their their their avenue to a victory.
Speaker 1: The Bills are interesting. It sounds like Shady McCoy is
Speaker 1: gonna be okay for this game. He doesn't think the
Speaker 1: ankle is gonna be as big of an issue as
Speaker 1: they thought it was going to be earlier this week.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, they also have some questions
Speaker 1: at quarterback as well. Um. I think Tyrod Taylor is
Speaker 1: a more veteran. He obviously has had success there in
Speaker 1: the past. He does protect the football, but he's not
Speaker 1: incredibly dynamic. So seeing how this game plays out, and
Speaker 1: the fact that one of these teams that have gone
Speaker 1: through some really difficult times here in the last ten
Speaker 1: years is actually going to be making into the divisional
Speaker 1: round of the playoffs. Is the reason why I will
Speaker 1: be sitting down and watching this game on Sunday. This
Speaker 1: is my must watch game this week. All right, should
Speaker 1: be a good one. I want to get to the
Speaker 1: NFC games. But before that, West picture this, You and
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Speaker 1: lambeau Field. Nice picture, isn't it. Well. If you enter
Speaker 1: Cousin Subs Best Seats in the House promotion, you and
Speaker 1: a guest could win a chance to kick back on
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Speaker 1: We believe in Better back with more and Packers Unscripted
Speaker 1: right after this. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford
Speaker 1: alongside West, Hoggwitz and West. We've got to get to
Speaker 1: these NFC games before we go here. Both NFC games
Speaker 1: getting the prime TV slots Saturday Night and late Sunday afternoon. First,
Speaker 1: you've got the Atlanta Falcons get in as the sixth seed.
Speaker 1: They have a shot to defend their NFC title from
Speaker 1: a year ago. They play at the Los Angeles Rams
Speaker 1: and then on Sunday on NFC South rematch third meeting
Speaker 1: this year between the Carolina Panthers in New Orleans Saints.
Speaker 1: The first two one by the Saints pretty convincingly actually
Speaker 1: in both games, but now they have to try to
Speaker 1: beat Carolina for a third time. Yeah, And and really,
Speaker 1: to me, Mike, the biggest storyline, I mean, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of things to look at in these postseason runs.
Speaker 1: New Orleans, the way they're able to renovate themselves and
Speaker 1: make themselves a contender again. To me, it comes back
Speaker 1: to Julius Peppers. He is now sixteen years into his
Speaker 1: NFL career, had another phenomenal season, I think, end up
Speaker 1: with third eleven or eleven and a half sacks this year.
Speaker 1: Can he finally do it? And you know, he feels
Speaker 1: so strongly about that Packers locker room, and and there's
Speaker 1: so many relationships he's built there. But just getting a
Speaker 1: chance to talk to some guys throughout the course of
Speaker 1: the year, and especially that week leading up to the
Speaker 1: Panthers game. There's a lot of guys who are still
Speaker 1: really touched by Julius Peppers. Even though he's not in
Speaker 1: that room. He gained so much respect during those three
Speaker 1: years in Green Bay. I'm I'm gonna be tracking the
Speaker 1: Panthers through this thing. I don't know if they're the favorites.
Speaker 1: They probably aren't, but i mean, in terms of just
Speaker 1: what he brought during those three years in Green Bay,
Speaker 1: it would be nice to see, even if it doesn't
Speaker 1: happen with the Packers, to see him finally get that
Speaker 1: elusive Super Bowl ring. Yeah. I'm trying to decide, and
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about this. I'm wondering if the winner
Speaker 1: of that New Orleans Carolina game is the one that's
Speaker 1: going to go to the Super Bowl from the NFC.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm thinking. I'm thinking the team that wins
Speaker 1: that one is going to be in an awfully good
Speaker 1: position to make a run here. But that Saturday night game,
Speaker 1: the Falcons playing out in l A, Matt Ryan against
Speaker 1: Jared Goff. You've got two high powered offenses there. The Rams,
Speaker 1: young coach Sean McVeigh doing a tremendous job getting that
Speaker 1: franchise back into the postseason. I can't I'm not sure
Speaker 1: the last time they were in it, but it must
Speaker 1: have been when Kurt Warner Kurt Right, What's I don't
Speaker 1: know if Mark Boulger ever got that Boulger might have
Speaker 1: gotten him to the playoffs. Once it's been, it's been.
Speaker 1: It's been a while, and uh, but a lot of excitement,
Speaker 1: you know, around the Rams and just you know, can
Speaker 1: they carry their high scoring offense into the playoffs when
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna be facing better defenses. They are
Speaker 1: very healthy, Michael, so that is gonna be something to track.
Speaker 1: They were able to taper themselves at the end of
Speaker 1: the season. Jared Goff has been incredibly consistent throughout the
Speaker 1: course of the year. And then you have a team
Speaker 1: like the Atlanta Falcons who worked consistent throughout the course
Speaker 1: of year but got hot and got the job done
Speaker 1: when they needed to. I agree with you with your
Speaker 1: last point. Philadelphia has issues right now and Nick Foles
Speaker 1: in the Minnesota Vikings, You're not sure what's going to
Speaker 1: happen at quarterback there. These are two games where whoever
Speaker 1: wins in these really could build some momentum for themselves. Yeah,
Speaker 1: somebody could get on a run here and go from
Speaker 1: the wild Card round possibly all the way and a
Speaker 1: lot of times these past few years, there's been a
Speaker 1: lot of examples, the Giants, the Packers in two thousand ten,
Speaker 1: of teams that win that first game and run the
Speaker 1: table from there. Yep. Absolutely, it's about playing your best
Speaker 1: at this time of year. But with that, we'll 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: on Packers dot com on Twitter. He's at west Hod
Speaker 1: I'm at my exp offered at Packers for the team account.
Speaker 1: Enjoy wild Card weekend everybody. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: H