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 West and Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you Hear from our studios at lambeau Field to talk
Speaker 1: about Packers playoff Football West. It's the NFC Divisional Round.
Speaker 1: The Packers are headed West to face the number one
Speaker 1: seed in the NFC, the San Francisco forty nine Ers.
Speaker 1: It will be a seven to fifteen pm Central Time
Speaker 1: kickoff from Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. Short week here
Speaker 1: for the Packers. It's already Thursday, which is actually Friday,
Speaker 1: and the plane leaves Friday, which is actually Saturday in
Speaker 1: the football world. But however, you want to shake it out.
Speaker 1: This game is coming up soon. It's almost here already.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and for me it feels like Monday right now.
Speaker 2: Trying to get your bearings with all this. Ay, listen,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's been one of these weeks where you
Speaker 2: can celebrate quickly, but you have to flip the page.
Speaker 2: And I think listening to the guys on Wednesday discussed this.
Speaker 2: I mean, there is this US against the world mentality.
Speaker 2: I think guys are excited about this opportunity. And I
Speaker 2: mean it goes without saying Mike, but when you won
Speaker 2: four games in a row and you went into Dallas
Speaker 2: and toppled the Cowboys the way you did, I not
Speaker 2: to there's never going to be an issue with overconfidence
Speaker 2: with this team. But I just think there's a swagger
Speaker 2: that they needed to get back, and it's been reinstilled
Speaker 2: in that locker room and something they're hoping can really
Speaker 2: catapult them towards another massive upset here against the forty
Speaker 2: nine ers. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The way that I've felt about this team, and I
Speaker 1: felt the same way last week going into the Dallas game,
Speaker 1: is they are perfectly aware of what they're up against.
Speaker 1: That these opponents, the Dallas Cowboys last week, the forty
Speaker 1: nine Ers this week, these opponents are better than the
Speaker 1: ones that they played towards the tail end of the
Speaker 1: regular season. I talked last week the Dallas Cowboys would
Speaker 1: be the best team the Packers were going to play
Speaker 1: since the and the City Chiefs came to lambeau Field
Speaker 1: on Sunday Night football. These guys are perfectly aware of
Speaker 1: what they're up against, but they are fully confident in
Speaker 1: if they play their own game, if they do what
Speaker 1: they know they're capable of doing, there's no reason to
Speaker 1: be intimidated or to actually feel like underdogs. That they're
Speaker 1: letting other people talk about the whole underdog underdog thing's
Speaker 1: and that's fine. That's not how they feel about their
Speaker 1: own team.
Speaker 2: No, I think listening to guys discuss this too, they
Speaker 2: respect everybody, but they realize that they are one of
Speaker 2: eight left in this thing, and they have they are
Speaker 2: one of the eight with the chance to win the
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four Lombardi Trophy. Yeah, so San Francisco is
Speaker 2: in the complete opposite situation a Green Bay. They practically
Speaker 2: were able to rest their starters the last six quarters
Speaker 2: of the season. They had the bye last week, and
Speaker 2: it's come up a couple times in my coverage and
Speaker 2: with other writers mentioning, you know, this is the complete
Speaker 2: inverse of what happened two years ago with San Francisco
Speaker 2: coming in here as a six seed after beating Dallas
Speaker 2: and trying to knock off the number one seed at
Speaker 2: Green Bay Packers. They have nothing to lose, they have
Speaker 2: everything to gain. And if you want to mention the
Speaker 2: trying to exercise some of these postseason dmons with the
Speaker 2: forty nine ers. I'm sure that'll be something people want
Speaker 2: to talk about too, But by and large, it's riding
Speaker 2: this Jordan Love train and this wave of momentum and
Speaker 2: hoping that maybe, just maybe with another victory, you can
Speaker 2: step one step closer to achieving something special.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. Well, you look at this forty nine
Speaker 1: ers season. They were twelve and five. As you said,
Speaker 1: they had the bye, so we just have all of
Speaker 1: the regular season to review here. They lost three straight
Speaker 1: games in October when they lost both Deebo Samuel and
Speaker 1: Trent Williams to injury, their star receiver, slasher running back
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call Debo, and then obviously the
Speaker 1: all pro left tackle in Williams. Three straight losses. But
Speaker 1: when they got healthy, they got rolling again. Since then,
Speaker 1: they've only lost two games. One was when they took
Speaker 1: it on the chin from Baltimore, a really hot Baltimore
Speaker 1: Ravens team that went into Santa Clara. Believe that was
Speaker 1: on Christmas Night if I'm not mistaken, and really took
Speaker 1: it to the forty nine Ers, and you know, quite
Speaker 1: frankly gave brock Purty his worst the worst game of
Speaker 1: his of his young career at quarterback. And then they
Speaker 1: also lost in Week eighteen when they were resting everybody
Speaker 1: because they had the number one seed wrapped up. But
Speaker 1: these guys wes. They've outscored their opponents by almost two
Speaker 1: hundred total points over the course of the year four
Speaker 1: ninety one to two ninety eight. Brock Purty has a
Speaker 1: one thirteen passer rating, thirty one touchdowns, eleven interceptions, sixty
Speaker 1: nine percent completion ratio. And I think you had brought
Speaker 1: up a statistic in one of our written pieces from
Speaker 1: earlier in the week. His passer rating is like one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty over the second half of the season,
Speaker 1: and that actually includes the four interception game in Baltimore,
Speaker 1: So that one Baltimore game being the outlier where the
Speaker 1: where the Ravens were just all over them from the jump,
Speaker 1: brock Purty's been playing some really, really good football.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, if brock Purdy was a number one
Speaker 2: overall draft pick a couple of years ago, people would
Speaker 2: be talking about how wow, I mean, the forty nine
Speaker 2: ers really knocked this one out of the park. I've
Speaker 2: said this many times. I don't understand why there's so
Speaker 2: much hate with the guy. I think when certain anomalies
Speaker 2: form and come out of nowhere to sort of captivate
Speaker 2: a fan base, and galvanis a football team, people just
Speaker 2: try to find ways to knock it. They did that
Speaker 2: for years with Lamar Jackson too, even though he was
Speaker 2: the first round pick thirty second overall. People just didn't
Speaker 2: quite understand why it was working and needed to find
Speaker 2: a reason to belittle it. Yeah, brock Purty has kind
Speaker 2: of been in that spot, and honestly, Michael, if it
Speaker 2: wasn't for that one game against Baltimore, probably in the
Speaker 2: conversation with Jackson for the MVP this year, Yep.
Speaker 1: Totally, I think that I think that game, quite frankly
Speaker 1: on Christmas Night, might have decided the regular season MVP
Speaker 1: in the NFL.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's he's been mostly lights out and for
Speaker 2: him to be able to navigate this offense with all
Speaker 2: these litany of name players in playmakers when you have
Speaker 2: George Kittle has probably one of the quietest thousand yard
Speaker 2: seasons you've ever heard of from a tight end. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Deebo Samuel missed some time but still finished with over
Speaker 2: eight hundred total or eight hundred receiving yards and many
Speaker 2: more total yards. Christian McCaffrey two thousand total yards. Brandon Ayuk,
Speaker 2: who we've known for years, is going to be a
Speaker 2: really special receiver in this league. He gets over thirteen
Speaker 2: hundred reception thirteen hundred receiving yards for the first time
Speaker 2: his career, but also as averaging almost eighteen yards per catch.
Speaker 2: This is an explosive, dangerous San Francisco offense, and ultimately
Speaker 2: it starts in the hands of rock Perty. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And when I look at you look at this San
Speaker 1: Francisco team, and you know, statistically, you know the total
Speaker 1: points and everything, they were awfully close to the Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys in terms of the point total for the regular season.
Speaker 1: What for me separates the San Francisco forty nine ers
Speaker 1: from the Cowboys is we spent so much time last
Speaker 1: week talking about Ceedee Lamb, and yes, there was Brandon Cooks,
Speaker 1: and they're Jake Ferguson and Tony Pollard. But it felt
Speaker 1: like for the Cowboys there was Ceede Lamb and then
Speaker 1: there were a bunch of other guys. Right with the
Speaker 1: San Francisco forty nine ers. It's like there's all these
Speaker 1: guys that are kind of up on the same level.
Speaker 1: There's McCaffrey, as you said, over two thousand total yards
Speaker 1: over twenty touchdowns this season. You have George Kittle, a
Speaker 1: thousand yard tight end. You have Deebo Samuel over eleven
Speaker 1: hundred total yards and twelve touchdowns despite missing some games
Speaker 1: with injury. And then Brandon Iyuk is right up there
Speaker 1: as well, thirteen hundred yards on just seventy five receptions,
Speaker 1: as you noted, eighteen yards per catch, seven touchdowns. These
Speaker 1: guys have a you know, stable of weapons that they're
Speaker 1: really isn't a hierarchy amongst them, and I think that's
Speaker 1: what that's what makes these guys so challenging to not
Speaker 1: only prepare for, but then obviously to play against out
Speaker 1: on the field.
Speaker 2: Well in the way they've built them over the years.
Speaker 2: And you know, they had a multitude of really successful
Speaker 2: running backs. The Packers saw a good one and Raheem
Speaker 2: Mostered a couple of years ago in the postseason. But
Speaker 2: give credit to John Lynch, give credit to that coaching staff.
Speaker 2: They realize that Christian McCaffrey, a player of his caliber,
Speaker 2: was sort of the missing piece for them. It's not
Speaker 2: just him. We saw what the offense looked like when
Speaker 2: Diebo was unavailable.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: There are different guys that function into this, but when
Speaker 2: all those playmakers are together and playing together as one,
Speaker 2: there's a reason why they've they've been able to blow
Speaker 2: out as many teams as they have. They've been able
Speaker 2: to sustain this consistency throughout the course of the season.
Speaker 2: But to give you that shining light, that that hope
Speaker 2: is that there is a path forward it but it
Speaker 2: is largely base. Then be an opportunistic and the few
Speaker 2: opportunities you're going to get to get a takeaway, you
Speaker 2: need to take advantage of them. Yep. When you are
Speaker 2: able to stop Christian McCaffrey, like happened during that three
Speaker 2: game skid when he didn't have over one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty yards in three games total, they were able to
Speaker 2: teams were able to find ways for a victory. That's
Speaker 2: what Green Bay has to do, and they have to
Speaker 2: be prepared to do it for four quarters because forty
Speaker 2: nine ers come out swinging and they do not stop.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll take a look at the defensive side of
Speaker 1: the ball as well, and then we'll get to our
Speaker 1: keys to victory. But defensively two numbers stand out above
Speaker 1: all else. Forty eight sacks from this defense on the season,
Speaker 1: as well as twenty two interceptions. These guys get after you.
Speaker 1: Nick Bosa ten and a half sacks, Javon Hargrave seven sacks.
Speaker 1: Eric Armstead, who it appears they are getting back from
Speaker 1: injury the way it looks based on the practice reports
Speaker 1: and whatnot, he had five sacks this season. They added
Speaker 1: Chase Young yep, former number two overall draft pick by Washington.
Speaker 1: They added him to that defensive front. He's had two
Speaker 1: and a half sacks since he came to the forty
Speaker 1: nine ers.
Speaker 2: This is.
Speaker 1: We've been talking in recent weeks, obviously about how much
Speaker 1: Aaron Jones has meant to the Packers offense and getting
Speaker 1: the running game going and what that means, not only
Speaker 1: not only for the guys up front, the Packers' offensive
Speaker 1: line and establishing the line of scrimmage and being able
Speaker 1: to run the ball that's where an offensive line really
Speaker 1: asserts its potential dominance, but in opening up the play
Speaker 1: action and everything else that goes along with being able
Speaker 1: to run the football. The San Francisco forty nine Ers
Speaker 1: a much better run defense than the Dallas Cowboys. I
Speaker 1: think everybody knew, based on how teams had beaten the
Speaker 1: Cowboys during the season, that running the ball against them
Speaker 1: was going to be paramount and was going to be
Speaker 1: very doable. The forty nine Ers third in the league
Speaker 1: this season against the run. Defensively, this is the stat
Speaker 1: that jump doubt at me, though, Wes And when you
Speaker 1: talk about trying to find the paths forward the forty
Speaker 1: nine Ers, though they were third in the league against
Speaker 1: the run, as far as rushing yards giving up, they
Speaker 1: were fourteenth in the league and yards per carry. That's
Speaker 1: an indication obviously that they were winning so many games
Speaker 1: by such large scores that in the second half of
Speaker 1: games teams were out of their running game. They had
Speaker 1: to throw, they had to play catch up. The forty
Speaker 1: nine Ers took teams out of their running game early,
Speaker 1: just based on how things went on the scoreboard, and
Speaker 1: so the total yards rushing that this defense gave up
Speaker 1: was one of the lowest in the league. Fourteenth in
Speaker 1: yards per carry means that if you can hang in there,
Speaker 1: if you don't fall behind by too much, and you
Speaker 1: stick to the run and keep after these guys, you
Speaker 1: can keep yourself in favorable down in distance with the
Speaker 1: running game, and I think that's something that could be
Speaker 1: a real key for the Packers here on Saturday night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because when you are getting into these type of blowouts,
Speaker 2: it's not just about oh, you can't run the ball.
Speaker 2: It said teams can't get into what they want to do.
Speaker 2: I mean, look at what happened against Dallas. Yeah, Dallas
Speaker 2: put up some yards late and they got some points,
Speaker 2: but it was after they scrapped everything they were trying
Speaker 2: to do offensively in the first half, at least through
Speaker 2: the first quarter. Same situation with San Francisco and the
Speaker 2: teams that they've had to face this season. And I
Speaker 2: think that's why if I'm Adam Stenovich and Matt Lafloor
Speaker 2: and those offensive coaching staff members reiterating to your guys
Speaker 2: this week, this is why you run the football. This
Speaker 2: is why you run the football. Against Dallas. When you
Speaker 2: get twenty five yards on the first seven carries, you
Speaker 2: keep chipping away, you keep trying to work up that
Speaker 2: hill because if you don't, that's where the pass rushers
Speaker 2: get going. And I give Steve Wilkes a lot of credit.
Speaker 2: They've had some injuries this year, but he's been very
Speaker 2: multiple and how they've been able to generate pressures. Sixteen
Speaker 2: different guys I believe had sacks for them this season.
Speaker 2: It's not like it was just oh, Nick Bosa had
Speaker 2: twenty and then everybody else filled in. Now Nick the
Speaker 2: way there ten and a half thirty five quarterback hits.
Speaker 2: But it's it's the sum of the hole from that
Speaker 2: vantage point, and then it also does help Mike. It
Speaker 2: doesn't matter if the year is twenty fourteen or twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four if you're talking about San Francisco football, if
Speaker 2: you're talking about the forty nine ers, they have stellar
Speaker 2: inside linebacker play. It is a tail as old as time.
Speaker 2: And Fred Warner, in my estimation, they've had some good ones.
Speaker 2: I'd put him up there as the very best. His longevity,
Speaker 2: his durability, and his ability to perform at a high level.
Speaker 2: You know, Drake Greenlaw, these other guys that have come in.
Speaker 2: It takes a team, it's all eleven. But Fred Warner
Speaker 2: has been the quarterback of that defense for years now,
Speaker 2: and I think is when you talk about, well, why
Speaker 2: are they able to be so successful year in a
Speaker 2: year out, I think it starts with him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's It's funny when you look at it because back,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever you want to call it, roughly a
Speaker 1: decade ago, let's say it just for round numbers sake,
Speaker 1: they had Patrick Willis and Navarro bow As, those two
Speaker 1: linebackers just commanding the middle of the field on that defense.
Speaker 1: And you watch that defense and you go, man like,
Speaker 1: you know, how is anybody ever going to find another
Speaker 1: tandem like this? Well, the forty nine ers now have
Speaker 1: Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw and and I think you're right.
Speaker 1: I mean, as much as I, you know, admired Patrick Willis,
Speaker 1: and I think you know he's he's getting deserved Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame consideration. Fred Warner might be better than Patrick Willis.
Speaker 1: And you know, a decade ago, I wouldn't have said
Speaker 1: that that the forty nine ers might ever find another
Speaker 1: another middle linebacker inside linebacker as good as Willis.
Speaker 2: So funny though the game changed, like when you talk
Speaker 2: about twenty tens, early twenty tens, Willis was the man
Speaker 2: like he he is a bona fide Hall of Famer.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: But it's like even as the inside linebacker position evolved
Speaker 2: in these defenses changed to the pass heavy nature of
Speaker 2: the league. Then you have somebody like Warner who popped.
Speaker 2: And I remember the first couple of times Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 2: was hip to this well.
Speaker 1: Before I was just I was just going to bring
Speaker 1: that up. Aaron Rodgers was talking about how good Fred
Speaker 1: Warner was before Fred Warner ever got an All Pro
Speaker 1: vote of any kind. Quite frankly, and as usually happens,
Speaker 1: the outside recognition comes after, you know, a little while
Speaker 1: after a guy actually establishes himself and buts as much
Speaker 1: as Fred Warner maybe wasn't a household name a handful
Speaker 1: of years ago. The teams that were playing against the
Speaker 1: forty nine ers, they absolutely knew about Warner out.
Speaker 2: How funny is it though, too? You know, Chris Borland
Speaker 2: walked away from the game, but they found Chris Borland too,
Speaker 2: Like yeah, it's not like, yeah, we talk about oh,
Speaker 2: the first round pick. Fred Warner was a third round pick.
Speaker 2: I think Borlan might have been a fourth round I mean,
Speaker 2: when you you look at the Packers offensive side of
Speaker 2: the ball right now with Dontavian Wicks, and when you
Speaker 2: find real talent in the middle rounds of the draft, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's how you fill out a football team. You don't
Speaker 2: do it in March and free agency, Yeah, you do
Speaker 2: it in April and yeah, I mean, I can't say
Speaker 2: enough about him because it's been impressive. It is, so
Speaker 2: this all came up for me. Not to take this
Speaker 2: off on a tangent, but you're not on social media,
Speaker 2: but I got a lot of my social media stuff
Speaker 2: that gets kicked back to me. One. By the way,
Speaker 2: today was I believe nine years to the day that
Speaker 2: we were in Seattle when the Packers played the Seahawks
Speaker 2: and the NFC championship game. Not to bring up bad memories,
Speaker 2: but a week ago it was eleven years of the
Speaker 2: day that we were in Candlestick for the NFC Divisional
Speaker 2: playoff game against the forty nine ers. And you talk
Speaker 2: about blue bloods. I know Colin Coward had this on
Speaker 2: his show a couple days. This is what the NFL
Speaker 2: is about. The coaching staff's change. The players definitely change,
Speaker 2: but it's those mentalities that are kind of woven into
Speaker 2: the fabric of organizations and that's why it's really exciting.
Speaker 2: I can't wait for Saturday. I just wish it could
Speaker 2: be here already.
Speaker 1: Honesty, it's wild when you think about it. The Packers
Speaker 1: and Cowboys last week played their ninth postseason game against
Speaker 1: one another for those two franchises, Packers forty nine ers.
Speaker 1: This is now the tenth postseason game between these two teams.
Speaker 1: I want to get to want to get to our
Speaker 1: keys to victory for Green Bay, but I don't want
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Speaker 1: of better. All right, I want to mention this before
Speaker 1: we get into more specific keys to victory because this
Speaker 1: is sort of like the obvious one. When you're the
Speaker 1: seventh seed going up against the one seed you're looking for.
Speaker 1: You know, you have to give yourself a chance at
Speaker 1: the victory, right, you have to put yourself in position,
Speaker 1: give yourself a chance at the end. And here's here's
Speaker 1: the interesting thing that I found. You know, as I
Speaker 1: mentioned the forty nine. Ers have outscored their opponents this
Speaker 1: year by amost two hundred total points in their twelve victories.
Speaker 1: Only one of those victories was by one score. It
Speaker 1: was a seven point victory early in the season. There
Speaker 1: are other eleven wins have all been by multiple scores.
Speaker 1: And it just makes me wonder because last week, all
Speaker 1: the pressure was on the Dallas Cowboys and you know,
Speaker 1: the seas everything and all these slogans that they had,
Speaker 1: and you know Jerry Jones saying he thought they had
Speaker 1: a team that could win it all all that pressure
Speaker 1: that lied in Dallas, and the Packers were the Packers
Speaker 1: were were the outsiders coming in. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: pressure on San Francisco here. They've been a really good
Speaker 1: team for a long time, whether you're talking about the
Speaker 1: Harbaugh years or now the the Shanahan years as a
Speaker 1: head coach, but they still have yet to win that championship.
Speaker 1: For as good as they've been, for as long as
Speaker 1: they've been, there's a lot of pressure on that other side.
Speaker 1: And this team only won one game this year that
Speaker 1: was decided by one score. If you can keep this
Speaker 1: thing close, how much pressure is going to ratchet up
Speaker 1: on those guys in the fourth quarter if it's a
Speaker 1: tight game. That's where I think that That's where I
Speaker 1: think just maybe, just maybe the whole seven seed versus
Speaker 1: one thing could work for green Bay if they can
Speaker 1: be there at the end.
Speaker 2: And winning on third downs and getting making this be
Speaker 2: where brock Purdy has to make some plays. And I
Speaker 2: know there's some comments made about pressure this week, and
Speaker 2: brock Purty has been extraordinary against the Blitz this year,
Speaker 2: but you need to be able to generate pressure with
Speaker 2: four though two yes, And that's where I feel like
Speaker 2: you're going to need to give your coverage guys some
Speaker 2: leeway there. You're gonna need to allow those guys to
Speaker 2: be able to adapt and learn from what they're seeing
Speaker 2: from San Francisco, because they're going to see it all.
Speaker 2: They're going to get the book thrown at them. With
Speaker 2: them aunt of weapons they have in the way that
Speaker 2: they can utilize them, it's going to be a very
Speaker 2: like It's going to be a really fun game to
Speaker 2: watch in terms of the athleticism, the skill and I
Speaker 2: really believe the scheme from both sides. But for Green Bay,
Speaker 2: the one thing you cannot lose sight of is the
Speaker 2: fact that Brock Purty still is a second year quarterback.
Speaker 2: He still is a young dude. And there were no
Speaker 2: two quarterbacks hotter during the final eight games of the
Speaker 2: regular season than Brock Purdy and Jordan Love. It's not
Speaker 2: a joke. It's not a coincidence that these teams got
Speaker 2: to this point. No, it starts with quarterback play. And
Speaker 2: I love the way that Jordan Love is playing right now.
Speaker 2: Not to boil it down to well, Love has to
Speaker 2: have a better passer rating than Perdier, he needs to
Speaker 2: throw for more yards than Perdier, have more touchdowns. But
Speaker 2: the way that Jordan Love is playing right now, if
Speaker 2: he can solve this riddle, that is the Steve Wilkes defense.
Speaker 2: I love green bays chances in this game because even
Speaker 2: though they're nine to eight, the reason you play all
Speaker 2: these games, the reason why they don't just wrap it
Speaker 2: up after Halloween and say all right, time for the playoffs,
Speaker 2: right is because of the masturation that happens with these
Speaker 2: football teams. San Francisco is the juggernaut. They've been doing
Speaker 2: it since day one. They were doing it well before
Speaker 2: this season began. Green Bay, in a lot of ways,
Speaker 2: is more of the start but I think when you
Speaker 2: look at the ceiling and where this thing is rising
Speaker 2: for Green Bay, the trajectory that they're on. I threw
Speaker 2: the line in an insider inbox, you had to edit it.
Speaker 1: It.
Speaker 2: To me, it really does remind me of a marathon.
Speaker 2: It reminds me of a race. It reminds me of
Speaker 2: a thirty two hundred meter run where packers have had
Speaker 2: a really good kick here in these last four weeks
Speaker 2: of the season, and now this is the litmus test
Speaker 2: to see if you can catch who's been the front
Speaker 2: runner in the NFC.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the analogy that I used in insider Inboxes, I
Speaker 1: actually took things back to the Olympics with speed skating.
Speaker 1: To me, the regular season in the NFL now is
Speaker 1: the long track, those long distance whatever five thousand meters,
Speaker 1: ten thousand meters, the guys with the long strides and everything.
Speaker 1: You go through this marathon to put yourself in position.
Speaker 1: And after the marathon, a whole bunch of teams are eliminated,
Speaker 1: and then there's a set of teams that are moving on.
Speaker 1: Then they go from the long track with the speed
Speaker 1: skating to the short track and they fire another starting
Speaker 1: gun and off they go. And you know, and it's
Speaker 1: you know, guys slide, you know, you make you make
Speaker 1: one mistake in the postseason, you slide off the track.
Speaker 1: You're done because it's short track, right, And that's what
Speaker 1: that's that's that's what the playoffs, that's what the playoffs
Speaker 1: are like. We talked about running the ball and what
Speaker 1: that means to this offense. We talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: obviously being in a close game, seeing how the forty
Speaker 1: nine Ers react if they're in a close game with
Speaker 1: the pressure that's on them. Offensively, the Packers have done
Speaker 1: such a good job at finishing drives lately. They move
Speaker 1: the ball, they get it into the red zone, They're
Speaker 1: putting that ball in the end zone more often than not.
Speaker 1: All of that is going to be paramount when I
Speaker 1: look at things on the defensive side of the ball
Speaker 1: for the Packers, it all comes down to tackling this
Speaker 1: forty nine Ers, as we talk about, with all of
Speaker 1: those weapons, all the different guys that Perdy can get
Speaker 1: the ball to, they scheme things up to get their
Speaker 1: guys into open space, into one on one matchups in
Speaker 1: the open field. This is a very difficult offense to
Speaker 1: rally to the ball. And get a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: guys to the ball to make tackles. You are forced
Speaker 1: to make one on one tackles against McCaffrey, against Samuel,
Speaker 1: against you know, Brandon Ayuk, against all these guys in
Speaker 1: the open field. You cannot miss tackles against these guys
Speaker 1: because that's where the six and seven yard gains rupture
Speaker 1: into twenty six and twenty seven yard gains. The Packers
Speaker 1: have to be on their p's and q's with tackling
Speaker 1: in this game, and I think that's what's going to
Speaker 1: give them the opportunities to get the forty nine ers
Speaker 1: into third downs and see if they can get off
Speaker 1: the field.
Speaker 2: What did you make of the forecast out there? I
Speaker 2: touched on this an inbox. I was curious see what
Speaker 2: your thoughts were on Yeah, I mean I've scattered shower basically.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've been hearing different I've been hearing different things.
Speaker 1: So I've heard that supposedly it's going to rain all
Speaker 1: day on Saturday. Other things I've heard said it it's
Speaker 1: going to rain Saturday night, but it might start not
Speaker 1: start raining until the second half of the game, like
Speaker 1: you know, further into the evening. I don't know. It's
Speaker 1: if you're asking me, you know, does does A does
Speaker 1: a wet potentially wet, sloppy or slow track? You know,
Speaker 1: favor favor one team over the other. I'd be okay
Speaker 1: with a little bit of a wet sloppy track just
Speaker 1: because of because I think it. I think it would
Speaker 1: potentially throw the forty nine ers off more than it
Speaker 1: would throw the Packers off.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and not that I think both teams are built
Speaker 2: athletically and to speed. Green Bays, I'm much is probably
Speaker 2: the fastest receiving core they add in my time on
Speaker 2: the beat, yep. But San Francisco. I don't know how
Speaker 2: many of those kind of mutter games they've played in
Speaker 2: this year, but Green Bay's played through some interesting elements
Speaker 2: throughout the course of the season. I'm curious see what happens.
Speaker 2: Like I told people in inbox, you can't formulate the
Speaker 2: game plan on it, but it's stuff you have to
Speaker 2: be prepared for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: And to tie this back to the point I want
Speaker 2: to make we you know so much gets made out
Speaker 2: of Christian McCaffrey and absolutely deserves every bit of that credit.
Speaker 2: But probably the most underrated running back during that same
Speaker 2: entire time has been Aaron Jones. He got one Pro
Speaker 2: Bowl nod, but for the most part he's been more
Speaker 2: of a locally appreciated running back rather than the nationwide accolades.
Speaker 2: And at twenty nine years old, he's running as well
Speaker 2: as he's ran his entire career in terms of the
Speaker 2: consistency of it. I think at four straight hundred yard games,
Speaker 2: twenty plus touches and all these matchups, I've ran through
Speaker 2: all the statistics before on how the Packers fare when
Speaker 2: he gets over one hundred total yards. I honestly believe
Speaker 2: when you're talking about keys the victory, the biggest one
Speaker 2: probably comes back to the stat that you threw out
Speaker 2: there about the yards per carry aloud by San Francisco
Speaker 2: this season. If you're able to keep within arm's reach
Speaker 2: of them, what is possible? Go back to two years
Speaker 2: ago they kind of fell out of that. Aaron Jones
Speaker 2: had a ton of receiving yards, but they weren't able
Speaker 2: to establish that. Can you crack that egg and being
Speaker 2: able to sustain that throughout an entire football game regardless
Speaker 2: of what the canis may be.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and I think it is regardless of what
Speaker 1: the conditions may be, it's going to be what are
Speaker 1: what are the numbers on the scoreboard and how is
Speaker 1: that going to How is that going to impact how
Speaker 1: you're calling the game in the second half in particular,
Speaker 1: as things go along, can you can you stick with
Speaker 1: the game plan or does the game get into a
Speaker 1: situation where you know you you you have to you
Speaker 1: have to throw some things out because you need to
Speaker 1: operate more quickly, you need to try to score quickly.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's what this could come down to.
Speaker 2: And that's where San Francisco and it's twenty two interceptions
Speaker 2: come into play. Tabarious Ward with five, that entire defense
Speaker 2: with twenty two, which is tied for the most of
Speaker 2: the NFL this year with Chicago, and how do they
Speaker 2: solve that riddle against the Bears? They got the run
Speaker 2: game going with Aaron j Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely well. Before we go, some quick thoughts on the
Speaker 1: other games uh NFC Divisional playoff weekend. In the NFC,
Speaker 1: it's Tampa Bay at Detroit. In the AFC, you have
Speaker 1: Kansas City at Buffalo. Remarkably the first non Super Bowl
Speaker 1: postseason game that will be on the road. For Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes in his career. Right, Yeah, he's played, whether it's wildcard,
Speaker 1: divisional conference championship, he has always played at Arrowhead Stadium
Speaker 1: except for the Super Bowls. He has to go on
Speaker 1: the road now to Buffalo, which is sort of the
Speaker 1: thirteen second revenge game from that, you know, the game
Speaker 1: with the whole thirteen second thing and the field goal
Speaker 1: that sent the playoff game a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: to overtime. And then Houston at Baltimore and you know,
Speaker 1: another really interesting quarterback matchup, Lamar Jackson against c. J. Stroud.
Speaker 1: Doesn't doesn't get much more, much more, any entertaining than that.
Speaker 1: Your thoughts on any of those three ball games?
Speaker 2: Did you see The Dark Knight? I don't know. If
Speaker 2: you're a big movie guy, did.
Speaker 1: You I saw it a long time ago. My friend.
Speaker 2: The Kansas City and Buffalo reminds me the Jokers line
Speaker 2: of like we are just destined to do this forever.
Speaker 2: It seems like no matter what, we always get Kansas
Speaker 2: City in Buffalo, it's just rinse and repeat. With that matchup.
Speaker 2: We'll see what the result this. We won't be able
Speaker 2: to watch it. I doubt I'll watch any of it.
Speaker 2: But Houston versus Baltimore, I think is gonna be worth
Speaker 2: the price fed mission. Yep. Again in a lot of ways,
Speaker 2: it's very much similar to the Packers going into Santa Cilara.
Speaker 2: Houston has had a remarkable turnaround this year. C J.
Speaker 2: Stroud has infused life into that organization that I don't
Speaker 2: think has been there in probably fifteen years. I mean,
Speaker 2: there was some okay runs with with Watson, but nothing
Speaker 2: like this. I mean where they think, you know, you
Speaker 2: got Nico Collins is playing so well right now. You know,
Speaker 2: Devin Singletary I think has shown that he can be
Speaker 2: a back in this league, and when he had some
Speaker 2: fits and starts in Buffalo.
Speaker 1: And Demiko Ryans, quite frankly, has put together kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of a no name defense that that
Speaker 1: is pretty darn good. I mean, you don't you don't
Speaker 1: have JJ Watt, you don't have that headliner on the
Speaker 1: Houston Texans defense anymore. But Demico Ryans, you know, has
Speaker 1: has put together a pretty good unit on that side
Speaker 1: of the ball.
Speaker 2: You know. And honestly, we talked so much about Stroud
Speaker 2: but and since been a good pick for them too.
Speaker 2: I mean it looks like he has plenty in front
Speaker 2: of him that how often a number two overall pick
Speaker 2: can get overlooked just because of the number one pick
Speaker 2: was being probably the offensive rookie of the year. That'll
Speaker 2: be a fun matchup. But let's be honest, Mike, we
Speaker 2: don't care about Houston, we don't care about Baltimore. We
Speaker 2: don't care about what's going on in AFC West and
Speaker 2: the AFC East. Tampa Bay is going to go into
Speaker 2: to Detroit and either that game is going to mean
Speaker 2: everything to the Packers or it's going to mean nothing
Speaker 2: to the Packers. Yeah, and I am very curious to
Speaker 2: see a Tampa Bay team that has had imperfections this year.
Speaker 2: But then last week you saw what they did against Philadelphia,
Speaker 2: a Philadelphia team that was just kind of begging to
Speaker 2: get knocked out and they threw the blows in the
Speaker 2: second half to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they did.
Speaker 2: Against the Detroit team that not only did they get
Speaker 2: that win finally in the playoffs, but they had to
Speaker 2: win it the hard way against the Rams. That was
Speaker 2: a knockdown, dragou battle in a postseason.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Lions started. The Lions started fast in that game.
Speaker 1: They got three touchdowns in the first half. Then in
Speaker 1: the second half, they only had like eighty six yards
Speaker 1: of total offense, and as I mentioned on our last show,
Speaker 1: their defense just kept stopping the Rams in the red zone,
Speaker 1: making them kick field goals, and they were able to
Speaker 1: hang on. You know, they just hung on for that
Speaker 1: one point victory, whereas the you know, the the Buccaneers
Speaker 1: in some respects were the opposite where it was. You know,
Speaker 1: they were slugging it out a little bit with the Eagles,
Speaker 1: but then as you said, in the second half, they
Speaker 1: threw the haymakers and pulled away. So the way those
Speaker 1: two teams got to this point through wild card weekend
Speaker 1: was very different.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's great. I love the way the playoffs
Speaker 2: lined up this year. I think there's a lot of
Speaker 2: exciting different variables to this and whether it's the storyline
Speaker 2: with the Lions or seeing what the Packers can do
Speaker 2: with this late season rally. I liked one of the
Speaker 2: big comments that Matt lufford this week is we are
Speaker 2: going to come out swinging. Kenny Clark said it in
Speaker 2: the locker room after the game. We are going to fight.
Speaker 2: That is the one thing we are going to do.
Speaker 2: We are not going to guarantee victories, but we are
Speaker 2: going to and it was good enough for winning Dallas,
Speaker 2: and now the Packers have to decide whether or not
Speaker 2: it's gonna be good enough to take care of business
Speaker 2: in California.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it's gonna be. It's gonna be a whale
Speaker 1: of a ball game. Can't wait for it to get here.
Speaker 1: As you said, With that, we will sign off on
Speaker 1: this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all
Speaker 1: of our coverage of the team and all of our
Speaker 1: coverage from Saturday nights NFC Divisional playoff game. We will
Speaker 1: be there at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara with all
Speaker 1: of that for you, for Wes, I am Mike, thank
Speaker 1: you for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.