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 trusted colleague Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you,
Speaker 1: Hear from our studios at Lambeufield here to talk about
Speaker 1: Packers Vikings. It will be a noon Central Time kickoff
Speaker 1: on Sunday at Lambeufield. The Packers back at home. Work
Speaker 1: wise for us, we're back in the noontime slot, which
Speaker 1: just makes life a little bit easier and allows us
Speaker 1: to get some more sleep. But all of that aside, West,
Speaker 1: Let's talk about this Minnesota Vikings team in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three because there's a lot of personnel overhaul in the
Speaker 1: off season, a very slow start where they were zero
Speaker 1: and three out of the gate, but they've now won
Speaker 1: three of their last four games to get to three
Speaker 1: and four, and it's been an interesting progression because the
Speaker 1: two wins of the season were against the Panthers and
Speaker 1: against the Bears, and everybody was like, Okay, yeah, the
Speaker 1: Vikings started zero to three, you know, lost a couple
Speaker 1: of tough games, but they should probably beat the Panthers
Speaker 1: and they should probably beat the Bears, so nobody, you know,
Speaker 1: they weren't, you know, creating any ripples in the NFL landscape. Well, lo,
Speaker 1: and behold Monday night, the San Francisco forty nine ers
Speaker 1: come into US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, and the Vikings
Speaker 1: knocked them off. And not some kind of like a
Speaker 1: fluke or a lucky bounce or anything. That was a
Speaker 1: very strong performance by the Vikings on both sides of
Speaker 1: the ball from start to finish in that game. And
Speaker 1: the Vikings are starting to feel pretty good about themselves,
Speaker 1: and for good reason. That was an impressive victory. And
Speaker 1: now they're going to be looking to build on that
Speaker 1: as they come into lambeau Field on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Well, like I said to you a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 2: I mean, the Vikings had to figure out offensively, what
Speaker 2: was the next step without justin Jefferson here. They certainly
Speaker 2: did that. You could see how much stuff they drew
Speaker 2: up for TJ. Hockinson, who now is dealing with the
Speaker 2: foot injury. We'll have to see what's going to be
Speaker 2: his situation this week. But in terms of the explosive plays,
Speaker 2: Jordan Addison became that outlet for Kirk Cousins and they
Speaker 2: made some great plays when they had to make them
Speaker 2: in that game against San Francisco. I think what has
Speaker 2: probably impressed me most about the Vikings so far though,
Speaker 2: because you know what you're getting in Kirk Cousins. We'll
Speaker 2: talk about in your second but he's a consistent, steady
Speaker 2: force for them. But defensively there's been a huge uptick.
Speaker 2: As much as the offense has had to rally without Jefferson,
Speaker 2: what the defense has done without Marcus Davenport. The season
Speaker 2: that Daniel Hunter is off to back to back weeks
Speaker 2: where they win the NFC Defensive Player of the Week
Speaker 2: award with Jordan Hicks after the Chicago game and then
Speaker 2: Cameron buying them last this past week against the forty
Speaker 2: nine ers. Guys are making plays and when you make plays, Mike,
Speaker 2: you win in this league.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I want to touch on one thing with regard
Speaker 1: to the offense, because you said it. Jordan Addison had
Speaker 1: his true breakout game on the national stage Monday nights.
Speaker 1: Evan catches one hundred and twenty three yards two touchdowns,
Speaker 1: including that sixty yarder at the end of the first
Speaker 1: half that where he stole the deep ball from Jimmy Ward.
Speaker 1: It looked like an interception and then turned into a
Speaker 1: sixty yard TD. Interestingly, though, the Vikings offense looked like
Speaker 1: a really tough slog in its first game without Jefferson
Speaker 1: because that game at Soldier Field in Chicago, they were searching,
Speaker 1: they were trying to find something, and they probably don't
Speaker 1: win that game in Chicago if not for Jordan hicks
Speaker 1: defensive touchdown on the scoop and score, which is what
Speaker 1: got him helped to get him the NFC Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Week. But then from one week to the next,
Speaker 1: when they're trying to figure out, Okay, what's this offense
Speaker 1: going to look like without Justin Jefferson, then suddenly on
Speaker 1: the Monday night, Jordan Addison goes off and has a
Speaker 1: has a tremendous game for them Defensively. I wrote about this,
Speaker 1: there's a story. I know. We've had issues with content
Speaker 1: and when things have gotten there's a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: on our website folks.
Speaker 2: People thought I got let go on Instagram.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of stuff on our website folks that
Speaker 1: has gone up in the last I would say, you know,
Speaker 1: fifteen to sixteen hours because of a shutdown that was
Speaker 1: beyond our Control on Wednesday, so some content is piled
Speaker 1: up and there are some things worth checking out. One
Speaker 1: of those is a story I wrote about the Vikings
Speaker 1: defense and Brian Flores, the new defensive coordinator there. He
Speaker 1: is playing an aggressive brand of defense. The Vikings have
Speaker 1: a blitz rate, according to Pro Football Reference, of fifty
Speaker 1: six percent, and a blitz being defined as sending more
Speaker 1: than four pass rushers on a given pass play. The
Speaker 1: number two team in the league in that category is
Speaker 1: at forty two percent, so for them to be at
Speaker 1: fifty six percent, it tells you how outside the norm
Speaker 1: they are. A couple of interesting things about that, though.
Speaker 1: It seems that the biggest beneficiary as far as the
Speaker 1: pass rush goes with all of the blitzing has been
Speaker 1: Daniel Hunter. I think the blitzing has created a lot
Speaker 1: of one on ones for Daniel Hunter, and he's very
Speaker 1: difficult to block one on one. The Vikings have nineteen
Speaker 1: sacks this year, nine of them from Daniel Hunter. He
Speaker 1: is the guy who is getting to the quarterback. And
Speaker 1: I think it's Brian Flores, his style of defense that
Speaker 1: is creating those opportunities for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Hunter has to be pleased about this. Too,
Speaker 2: because the way they're utilizing him, I mean he's lining
Speaker 2: up over the center at times, you know, he's working
Speaker 2: off the edges. I mean his I think more than
Speaker 2: any and Mike Zimmer is a great defensive mind. But
Speaker 2: the way they've sort of opened the box here on
Speaker 2: Hunter and Mike, I'll be honest with you, I had
Speaker 2: a lot of questions because when you hear you know,
Speaker 2: five ten years ago, you hear next surgeries and things
Speaker 2: of that nature, you really wonder, hey, what does that
Speaker 2: mean for a player's long term prognosis and viability in
Speaker 2: this league? And Daniel Hunter has come back and been
Speaker 2: a force for them this year. They made some significant
Speaker 2: changes with that defense. A Darius Smith goes down to
Speaker 2: the Cleveland Browns, they kind of said, hey, we're going
Speaker 2: to bring in Marcus Davenport, but a lot of this
Speaker 2: is going to be on Hunter to be our lead guy.
Speaker 2: And he's done that. But you know, one of the
Speaker 2: big reasons too. And I haven't been able to really
Speaker 2: do anything with this yet this week, but it's just
Speaker 2: from watching the Vikings this year. I think, as much
Speaker 2: as they blitz and as much pressure as they bring,
Speaker 2: how can you oftentimes get away with that. It's because
Speaker 2: you're getting really good safety play. You have a guy
Speaker 2: like Harrison Smith there who's been doing this now for
Speaker 2: eleven years at a really high level. You look at
Speaker 2: his stats this year at Loan Mike, you don't even
Speaker 2: have to watch the film, force fumble, sacks, takeaways. The
Speaker 2: guy just gets the job done. And then you have
Speaker 2: a young guy like buying him now too that's making plays.
Speaker 2: A fourth rowne pick from twenty twenty one, that was
Speaker 2: a big hiccup here at the last stage of the
Speaker 2: Mike zimomer eras they just I think they just they
Speaker 2: lost a lot of their depth defensively. I think you've
Speaker 2: slowly seen them build that back while still having some
Speaker 2: of those staples that we've known for so long. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think the I think what the Vikings, what
Speaker 1: the Vikings have hit on with with cam bynam As
Speaker 1: that partner at safety with Harrison Smith is really something
Speaker 1: not you know, buying them actually, as you mentioned, gets
Speaker 1: the NFC Defensive Player of the Week. He has the
Speaker 1: interceptions too in the fourth quarter on San Francisco's two
Speaker 1: possessions as they were trying to rally to to steal
Speaker 1: that game back. Away from the Vikings. We saw it
Speaker 1: a few years ago. The Vikings got a really good
Speaker 1: season from Andrews Anddejo next to Harrison Smith, but then
Speaker 1: he got a nice free agent contract elsewhere and off
Speaker 1: he went. And then the Vikings were looking for another
Speaker 1: partner for Harrison Smith again. So they seem to have
Speaker 1: coming back.
Speaker 2: I think at that he ended up coming back, if.
Speaker 1: I remember that, right, Yeah, you may you may be right.
Speaker 1: But now they seem to have they seem to have
Speaker 1: found one with buying them. You know, we we talked
Speaker 1: so much over the years about uh, you know Eric
Speaker 1: Kendricks and Anthony barr as those two you know linebacker
Speaker 1: mainstays for Minnesota. Well, now Jordan Hicks is the guy
Speaker 1: who's who's getting a lot of attention and playing pretty well.
Speaker 1: And it's all being combined with this, with this new
Speaker 1: this new approach, the new style that that Brian Flores
Speaker 1: has employed. Interestingly, though, when you look at when you
Speaker 1: look at this the statistics overall, for as much as
Speaker 1: the Vikings blitz, you know, nineteen sacks is a decent number.
Speaker 1: As I said, nine of them by daneil Hunter, nineteen
Speaker 1: sacks is tied for tenth in the league. But opposing
Speaker 1: quarterbacks are still completing seventy four percent of their passes
Speaker 1: against the Vikings, and the overall passer rating for opposing
Speaker 1: quarterbacks against Minnesota is around one hundred and two. So
Speaker 1: it's not as though defensively the Vikings are just are
Speaker 1: are dictating everything and dominating or whatever. Like, you know,
Speaker 1: their blitzes have been beaten, they've taken they've taken some chances.
Speaker 1: They paid the price in certain respects, but Brian Flores
Speaker 1: is sticking with this style. This is this is who
Speaker 1: the Vikings are. This is who they're going to be,
Speaker 1: and they're going to you know, ride or die with it,
Speaker 1: so to speak. It presents a really, really interesting challenge
Speaker 1: for the Packers, not only because Jordan Love is a
Speaker 1: first year starter at quarterback he hasn't really faced a
Speaker 1: defense like this before, but the Packers up front with
Speaker 1: their offensive line, the pass protection, I thought was maybe
Speaker 1: the biggest strength of the offense through the first three
Speaker 1: weeks of the season, even when things were you know,
Speaker 1: went south for a while in the New Orleans game
Speaker 1: in Week three, and then the Packers came back and
Speaker 1: won those first three games. The Packers pass protection was
Speaker 1: quite good. The next three games, the pass protection hasn't
Speaker 1: been so good. And now here come the Vikings with
Speaker 1: this blitz happy package.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's really going to be. Where can the
Speaker 2: Packers try to take advantage of that. It's the screen game,
Speaker 2: it's some of the short games of the quick game stuff.
Speaker 2: Getting to a rhythm, something that Jordan Love talked about,
Speaker 2: you know, making sure that you find when the opportunities
Speaker 2: are there and you're in a good spot, getting the
Speaker 2: most yards out of those plays, explosive plays. It was
Speaker 2: a big, you know, buzzword too in the locker room
Speaker 2: on Wednesday. Guys just looking to make bigger things happen.
Speaker 2: The thing that's interesting about the Vikings is that pretty
Speaker 2: much they're they're fifteen across the board, like I mean,
Speaker 2: they're just they're right there. Sacks, total yards, passing, everything's
Speaker 2: just kind of right there, takeaways, all that right in
Speaker 2: the middle. The Packers have to find a way to
Speaker 2: get them on their heels the way in which they
Speaker 2: were on their heels earlier this season. Maybe that doesn't happen.
Speaker 2: Maybe enough young guys have stepped up. Maybe you have
Speaker 2: a guy like Hicks in the middle of that defense,
Speaker 2: who's kind of had a revitalization of his career. People
Speaker 2: kind of forget like Arizona kind of shipped him out
Speaker 2: at the end of that run there, and he resurfaces
Speaker 2: with the Vikings has played really good ball for them
Speaker 2: because the fix has been around for what probably eight
Speaker 2: nine years already in the NFL. But at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, Green needs to be able to maximize
Speaker 2: the chances that they're presented with that blitz game, whether
Speaker 2: that's getting the run game established or the screen game.
Speaker 2: Just Jordan Lovefield like himself again. But Mike, you are
Speaker 2: right the Packers offensive line, that was seen as one
Speaker 2: of the big strengths of this unit going into the
Speaker 2: year when you had David Baktiari and Elton Jenkins standing there.
Speaker 2: You don't have that combination anymore. How is the adjustments
Speaker 2: going to be made throughout the course of the season
Speaker 2: to make sure that they talk about time and time
Speaker 2: again the efforts there, but the execution is so pivotable,
Speaker 2: not only to love but also with that run game.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, I want to get a little bit more
Speaker 1: into Keys to Victory here in a minute, West, But
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Speaker 1: fifty years of better. All right, when it comes to
Speaker 1: Keys to Victory, I'm gonna dovetail a little bit off
Speaker 1: of what you said with regard to you know, the
Speaker 1: Packers are looking for explosive plays. You have to try
Speaker 1: to maximize on certain opportunities. And yes, you need to
Speaker 1: get chunk plays in this league. They can help turn
Speaker 1: the tide. You know. They jump start the offense, they
Speaker 1: get things going, they put the defense on its heels.
Speaker 1: This strikes me from and just watching watching San Francisco
Speaker 1: have so many fits and starts offensively against this Vikings defense.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you can just drop back and
Speaker 1: try to push the ball down the field against this
Speaker 1: Vikings defense. With the way Bidam is playing at safety,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have Harrison Smith back there with the way
Speaker 1: they blitz doesn't always allow for a lot of downfield
Speaker 1: routes to develop. But the Vikings, because of their pressure scheme,
Speaker 1: they put themselves in some vulnerable positions where if you
Speaker 1: can break one tackle that might create an explosive game,
Speaker 1: that might turn a six yard play into a twenty
Speaker 1: six yard play because they're compromise based on how they
Speaker 1: come after the quarterback. The San Francisco forty nine Ers
Speaker 1: got back into that game on Monday night with a
Speaker 1: quick little slip pass to Christian McCaffrey. They had two
Speaker 1: guys that got blocked, one guy missed the tackle, and boom,
Speaker 1: McCaffrey was gone for a thirty five yard touchdown, and
Speaker 1: suddenly that game changed and the forty nine ers were
Speaker 1: potentially on the verge of pulling off a comeback there.
Speaker 1: I think the explosive plays, if the Packers are going
Speaker 1: to get them, they're going to come from getting players
Speaker 1: the ball in space and trying to make somebody miss,
Speaker 1: not so much forcing the ball downfield against the defense
Speaker 1: that I don't know if necessarily is going to allow
Speaker 1: that very easily.
Speaker 2: Well, and then that's where it kind of ties into
Speaker 2: what my biggest key is going to be and I'm
Speaker 2: sure it's gonna be something we'll be talking about, hopefully
Speaker 2: maybe not after Sunday if it works out the way
Speaker 2: it does is taking the ball away and not being
Speaker 2: the team that blinks first. Because you go back, you
Speaker 2: think about that game against Denver. Packers played really clean
Speaker 2: offensively until the final series. Denver Broncos never turned over
Speaker 2: the football in that game. So while it is just
Speaker 2: one interception late when they are trying to push the
Speaker 2: ball down field, how much does that one turnover change
Speaker 2: the course of a football game. Now, maybe they get
Speaker 2: the ten yard pickup and then maybe they end up
Speaker 2: not having any completion whatever. But if you're not going
Speaker 2: to get the takeaways, you need to protect the football.
Speaker 2: And for the Green Bay Packers, they need to get
Speaker 2: more movement on those two sides of things. And I
Speaker 2: think defensively for the Packers having as strong of a
Speaker 2: showing as they did against Chicago. Now, mind you, Bears
Speaker 2: are going through some big transition points in that Week
Speaker 2: one game, but that was their only fumble recovery of
Speaker 2: the season. In that game, two of the interceptions if
Speaker 2: my memory serves correctly, and they only are sitting on
Speaker 2: five takeaways at this point. Now going into week eight, they.
Speaker 1: Have the only takeaways since week one are the two
Speaker 1: Rudy Ford interceptions against the Lions and against the Raidings.
Speaker 2: Actually the interception Quay had the interception and unfortunately Quay
Speaker 2: dropped the one against the Falcons.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and job miss went against the Falcons as well.
Speaker 2: And then yeah, they've kind of not the opportunities haven't
Speaker 2: been there. Yeah, So I mean you have to be
Speaker 2: able to create yourselves opportunities. And for Agreement to start
Speaker 2: the way they did, I would have never thought, you know,
Speaker 2: sitting here in week eight now they'd be tied for
Speaker 2: the bottom of the league right now in terms of
Speaker 2: you know, where they're at and generating turnovers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's always that's always a tough one because obviously,
Speaker 1: as the old saying goes, and Larry mccaerron said it
Speaker 1: on our Three Things video that we shot on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: that you know, turnovers can come in bunches, and that's
Speaker 1: what happened for this defense last year. I mean that
Speaker 1: four game winning streak at the end of the year
Speaker 1: that that got the Packers back in the wild card hunt.
Speaker 1: That was very much fueled by turnovers defensively opponent, the
Speaker 1: Packers were taking the ball away, doing it on a
Speaker 1: regular basis, and it it really provided the you know,
Speaker 1: the rocket boost to what became a four game winning streak.
Speaker 1: You always have to be careful though, right because because
Speaker 1: if you're if you're trying to force the issue too
Speaker 1: much with regard to turnovers, that's when tackles get missed.
Speaker 1: That's when you know, a short pass con rupt you
Speaker 1: into into a big gain, that kind of thing. So
Speaker 1: there's there's always there's always a fine line there, but
Speaker 1: it really is about the entire the entire defense, because
Speaker 1: turnovers are forced by pressuring the quarterback, by making him uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: you know, all those things. So a lot of times
Speaker 1: interceptions are as much the result of the pass rush
Speaker 1: leading to a bad throw as the guy in the
Speaker 1: back end, you know, making a great a great play
Speaker 1: on his own. So it all goes hand in hand
Speaker 1: and uh and teamwork wise, the Packers have to find
Speaker 1: a way to start getting some takeaways because they have
Speaker 1: been hard to come by.
Speaker 2: The best example of this entire season is the Raiders game.
Speaker 2: I mean, the Las Vegas Raiders did not chase anything
Speaker 2: in that game, it was deflected passes turning interceptions. It
Speaker 2: was a timely pick at the end of the game.
Speaker 2: I mean that that's where these things come from. I'll
Speaker 2: be honest with you, I'm actually still kind of shocked
Speaker 2: the Packers haven't had a strip sack yet other than
Speaker 2: Kenny's at the start of the season. Like that part
Speaker 2: of it has really been surprising to me, just with
Speaker 2: the way that Shaun Garry has rushed the passer and
Speaker 2: the amount of force that he's been going into guys.
Speaker 2: That's a credit to the quarterbacks to be able to
Speaker 2: hold onto that thing. But yeah, it's right there for them,
Speaker 2: and they have to make these things happen, especially against
Speaker 2: Kirk Cousins. I mean, you and I have talked about
Speaker 2: this all week long, Mike. He has one hundred and
Speaker 2: five career passer rating against Green Bay. He's five and
Speaker 2: five all time against them. You like that, one and five,
Speaker 2: five and one. Sorry to get that correct.
Speaker 1: There was the one tie in there.
Speaker 2: But go back to what was the most probably dominant
Speaker 2: performance green Bay had against him. It was last December. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and it was their biggest win of that season while
Speaker 2: the Vikings were basically getting ready for a playoff run.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was. That was by far Kirk Cousins worst
Speaker 1: game as a as a quarterback against the Packers. He had,
Speaker 1: you know, through three interceptions. The Vikings offense never really
Speaker 1: got going until the game was well out of hand.
Speaker 1: Even his his statistics in that game were somewhat misleading
Speaker 1: because until the Vikings you know got you know, got
Speaker 1: some some points late that didn't really matter. It was.
Speaker 1: It was a really really awful day for Minnesota's offense.
Speaker 1: I mean, can can the Packers somehow do that to
Speaker 1: the Vikings offense again? We'll see. I mean Justin Jefferson's
Speaker 1: not out there. Jordan Addison is going to be a
Speaker 1: big part of this thing, and TJ. Hockinson is going
Speaker 1: to be a big part of this thing too. Either.
Speaker 1: There's some major challenges for green Bay even though Justin
Speaker 1: Jefferson is on ir.
Speaker 2: Yep, No, it's going to be a real challenge. And
Speaker 2: that's why green Bay, like we said last week, going
Speaker 2: into Denver, you cannot take any of these games for
Speaker 2: granted at this point because Michael, it does not get
Speaker 2: any easier than the stretch. You're getting three or four
Speaker 2: at home, you're playing all these things at noon games,
Speaker 2: and then on the other side of it, you're looking
Speaker 2: at Detroit and Kansas City, so you have to be
Speaker 2: able to get some wins here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you look at things from the Vikings perspective too,
Speaker 1: they're like, you know, as we mentioned at the top
Speaker 1: of the show, they started out zero to three at
Speaker 1: this as, okay, we can come into lambeau Field. If
Speaker 1: we can beat the Packers, get to four and four,
Speaker 1: then it's almost like they're starting over. They get a
Speaker 1: clean slate, they get back to five hundred. That's what
Speaker 1: the Packers were hoping for with Denver. If the Packers
Speaker 1: could have gotten the win in Denver, you're three and three,
Speaker 1: you know, and kind of you throw everything out the
Speaker 1: window and try to move forward, and then but you
Speaker 1: don't get that victory, and now you're still you're still chasing,
Speaker 1: you're still building. So the Packers are trying to do that.
Speaker 1: The Packers are trying to prevent the Vikings from, you know,
Speaker 1: from getting to that restart point at five hundred. Two teams,
Speaker 1: you know, very for you know, what still counts as
Speaker 1: an early season game. Two teams that are that are
Speaker 1: still very much trying to find exactly what direction they're
Speaker 1: going to go.
Speaker 2: Here and what a victory does in the National Football League.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is kind of a topic that I
Speaker 2: know Aaron Rodgers touched on with Pat McAfee this week.
Speaker 2: One win changes everything. I mean, you look at the
Speaker 2: Minnesota Vikings, even what I wrote on Monday originally for
Speaker 2: our Insider Inbox column, and then they come out and
Speaker 2: they play the way they did against San Francisco the
Speaker 2: New York Jets. I mean, now you're listening to some
Speaker 2: of these things this week with the Broncos talking about
Speaker 2: how they want to end their losing streak to the
Speaker 2: Kansas City Chiefs that's been sixteen in a row or
Speaker 2: whatever like that. Yeah, one win, It's crazy, man, This
Speaker 2: is a crazy, crazy league.
Speaker 1: A couple other games I want to mention, just because
Speaker 1: it's a very curious schedule in the NFL this week.
Speaker 1: In Week eight, there were two two what you call
Speaker 1: the cross conference games that kind of caught my eye.
Speaker 1: One is Cleveland is at Seattle and the other one
Speaker 1: is Cincinnati is at San Francisco. I think both of
Speaker 1: these are really intriguing games in terms of teams that
Speaker 1: obviously don't face each other very often. Cleveland's still going
Speaker 1: with PJ. Walker at quarterback. Deshaun Watson won't be able
Speaker 1: to play, you know, don't look now, but the Seattle
Speaker 1: Seahawks are four and two and now have a home
Speaker 1: game with a chance to a chance to get to
Speaker 1: five and two. And then the Bengals they you know,
Speaker 1: they got themselves back to even they're at that three
Speaker 1: and three point where they're going to try to jump
Speaker 1: start and move forward, but they have to go to
Speaker 1: San Francisco and play a Niners team now that has
Speaker 1: suddenly lost two straight after a five and zero start.
Speaker 1: You know exactly where our things with San Francisco and
Speaker 1: the offense, with the injuries they're dealing with with Deebo
Speaker 1: Samuels and Trent Williams and guys like that, those two
Speaker 1: games just really intriguing to me in terms of sort
Speaker 1: of that uncommon opponent type stuff.
Speaker 2: And just to give credit again to the Vikings, I
Speaker 2: mean they they responded better without their top wide out
Speaker 2: than the forty nine ers did. Now. I know Samuel
Speaker 2: is not the same type of receiver. They'll use him
Speaker 2: in sixty different ways, but that offense really struggled without him.
Speaker 2: There I thought that was sort of the running made
Speaker 2: to Christian McCaffrey, and they just they lost something without
Speaker 2: him on the field with that shoulder injury. But yeah,
Speaker 2: this whole week, Mike, I mean, look at all these
Speaker 2: matchups when you talk about it. You know, the Rams
Speaker 2: going up against the Cowboys, that's a huge game for
Speaker 2: both of those teams. CJ. Stroud taking on Bryce Young,
Speaker 2: the Jaguars and the Steelers. I mean, for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: there's no buys this week. I didn't understand that.
Speaker 1: Oh really, I don't know how to.
Speaker 2: I can't figure out, for the life of me, the
Speaker 2: algorithm the NFL is using with bye weeks. Last year
Speaker 2: there wasn't Week five bye weeks, and this year Week
Speaker 2: four bye weeks, and this year there was, and now
Speaker 2: there's no Week eight bye weeks. That maybe we're observing
Speaker 2: Halloween or something. I'm not sure, but that seems very
Speaker 2: odd to me. But getting back to the original crux
Speaker 2: of this thing, you have teams like the Browns in
Speaker 2: the Seahawks, those are very incomplete teams. The Browns are
Speaker 2: winning these things with one of the best defenses we've
Speaker 2: seen in this era, but they have really crazy questions,
Speaker 2: right now yet their quarterback position the Seahawks. You know,
Speaker 2: Kenneth Walker, the third is dealing with a calf injury
Speaker 2: right now. How's that gonn affect him? They need him going.
Speaker 2: Tyler Lockett is not doing anything like That's what makes
Speaker 2: this league so interesting on a week to week basis
Speaker 2: is you have teams that are rising in full and
Speaker 2: it really seems to swing by the quarter and it'll
Speaker 2: be very interesting to see where it goes. But the
Speaker 2: message of that that I want to today and the
Speaker 2: point I want to make with that is it does
Speaker 2: show you what the power of one win can do,
Speaker 2: especially in a Green Bay Packers case where they're looking
Speaker 2: to end this three game losing streak.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, that's what the Packers are after. It's get
Speaker 1: a win and then try to move forward from there.
Speaker 1: And it's about time that the Packers get one. So
Speaker 1: with that, we will call it a rap on this
Speaker 1: edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of
Speaker 1: our coverage of the team and everything from Sunday's game
Speaker 1: at lambeau Field. We will have it all for you
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.