Speaker 1: Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 2: I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my partner
Speaker 2: in crime, Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to you hear from
Speaker 2: our studios at lambeau Field to talk about Wes. A
Speaker 2: playoff clinching victory for the Green Bay Packers seventeen to
Speaker 2: nine over the Chicago Bears, the last game at lambeau
Speaker 2: Field for this season, but not the last game of
Speaker 2: the season for the Packers because they now have the
Speaker 2: number seven seed, they will be playing in the wild
Speaker 2: Card round, taking a nine to eight record into the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Hang on, here we go.
Speaker 3: Here we go, buddy, I'll tell you a little story here,
Speaker 3: a little story time with Wes hod to start the show.
Speaker 3: All right, Last year, my good friend Rob Dmofski. For
Speaker 3: as much crap as I give him, I actually watched
Speaker 3: his son Hogan during his run up to the state
Speaker 3: championship with the the Peer boys basketball team. Went to
Speaker 3: all the tournament series games and they were lucky enough
Speaker 3: and fortunate enough to win the Division on state title
Speaker 3: at the Coal Center. When I got done, I said
Speaker 3: to myself, man, I wish I would have enjoyed it more.
Speaker 1: I was just so nervous.
Speaker 3: And then after the game ended on Sunday, I got
Speaker 3: the same feeling like it was like I didn't want
Speaker 3: to talk to anybody. Our boss, Duke Bobber in the
Speaker 3: last two minutes of the game, was trying to tell me, hey,
Speaker 3: you know, this is what's happening with the Rams right now,
Speaker 3: this is what's going on with the forty nine ers,
Speaker 3: and I was like, nothing, I want to hear nothing.
Speaker 3: I want this game to be over. I want the
Speaker 3: Packers to advance and then we could talk about everything
Speaker 3: else later.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: But as I've stepped back from it, we're now two
Speaker 3: days after the fact of this game. What a fun
Speaker 3: football game that was from the Green Bay Packers, the
Speaker 3: way that Jordan Love performed, to have Aaron Jones with
Speaker 3: his third consecutive one hundred yard game, and then certainly
Speaker 3: Dontavian Wicks being the latest receiver to step up for them.
Speaker 3: The Green Bay Packers. So many times, Mike, the Chips
Speaker 3: have been down, they've needed to rally, and they did
Speaker 3: it once again, and they got the three victories they
Speaker 3: needed to, as you said, get themselves back in the postseason.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you look at this game, it all starts
Speaker 2: with how Jordan Love performed. And we've always you know,
Speaker 2: we've wondered because not that there haven't been big games,
Speaker 2: but you always wonder when it's a first time starting quarterback,
Speaker 2: how is he going to respond when the pressure is
Speaker 2: really on, when you have to perform. Jordan Lov went
Speaker 2: out last week at US Bank Stadium in a do
Speaker 2: or die game and showed what.
Speaker 1: He's made of.
Speaker 2: And he showed even more I thought against the Chicago
Speaker 2: Bears that was an absolute tour to force performance. Twenty
Speaker 2: seven out of thirty two, three hundred and sixteen yards.
Speaker 2: He goes over four thousand yards on the season, a
Speaker 2: one twenty eight point six passer rating against the defense that,
Speaker 2: as we had talked about all last week, had been
Speaker 2: allowing only fifteen points per game, and quite frankly, Wes
Speaker 2: I wrote about this mentioned this in a couple of
Speaker 2: the things that I wrote. I thought the Packers completely
Speaker 2: dominated this game in every facet except the scoreboard. They
Speaker 2: didn't score as many points as they should have the
Speaker 2: fact that this game ended seventeen to nine. I'll give
Speaker 2: the Bears some credit. They certainly made some plays that
Speaker 2: made some things difficult on the Packers, But it felt
Speaker 2: to me like the Packers were just stopping themselves and
Speaker 2: not being able to put this game away offensively until
Speaker 2: the final drive to be able to kill the last
Speaker 2: six minutes eight seconds. You're backed up on your own
Speaker 2: six yard line in a one possession game, six minutes
Speaker 2: and eight seconds, four first downs. The Packers put the
Speaker 2: game away with their offense on the field. I thought
Speaker 2: it was a nice reward for the defense to not
Speaker 2: have to go back out on the field after a
Speaker 2: pretty solid performance from Joe Berry's crew.
Speaker 3: Well, and what a way for the defense to leave
Speaker 3: the field right with Carl Brooks's sack pushing the Bears
Speaker 3: out of field goal range, out of scoring range, they
Speaker 3: had to punt the ball despite being down eight points
Speaker 3: with six minutes to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then they don't get the ball back.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it ended up it was fourth and twenty two
Speaker 2: or something. I mean, yeah, in any almost any kind
Speaker 2: of normal down in distance on four town, the Bears
Speaker 2: are probably not punning that.
Speaker 3: Football because if you get a three and out, you
Speaker 3: get the ball back ninety seconds later, two minutes later.
Speaker 3: But Green Bay did not allow that to happen. Michael,
Speaker 3: I want to talk to you about that six minute drive.
Speaker 3: I want to talk about how good Green Bay has
Speaker 3: been in four minute situations this season. But before I
Speaker 3: do that, I just want to expand on the Jordan
Speaker 3: Love piece, because you're right, there was some adversity that
Speaker 3: hit this team in this game, and it was not
Speaker 3: being stopped on third down. It was the miss forty
Speaker 3: one yard field goal. It was the missed opportunity right
Speaker 3: before halftime when the clock ran out. It was Jordan
Speaker 3: Love trying to extend for a first down on a
Speaker 3: scramble and then fumbling the football right every time though,
Speaker 3: when there could have been a moment for Jordan Love
Speaker 3: to falter, to wilt, he came back and in so
Speaker 3: many ways this game against the Bears reminded me of
Speaker 3: what we saw from him against Kansas City. This kid
Speaker 3: does not blink. Yeah, he is calm, he's collected, and
Speaker 3: he made some incredible throws throughout, including on that six
Speaker 3: minute drive to finish the thing in some key situations
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, the third down conversion throws to Jayden Reid
Speaker 2: on the third and two and the Packers are still
Speaker 2: inside their own twenty yard line. Then he you know,
Speaker 2: steps up, buys some time and finds Tucker Craft on
Speaker 2: the third and eight, where there was still enough time
Speaker 2: there for the Bears. If the Packers are punting there
Speaker 2: they don't convert on third and eight, there's still enough
Speaker 2: time for the Bears to possibly go down and tie
Speaker 2: up the football game. He hits Kraft and then Aaron
Speaker 2: Jones finishes it off with the with the final first
Speaker 2: down that allows them to then kneel it out. Jones,
Speaker 2: as you said, his third straight hundred yard game, and
Speaker 2: this one came against the number one rushing defense in
Speaker 2: the NFL. Really impressive, what now, really impressive what Aaron
Speaker 2: Jones has done down the stretch. And we've talked so
Speaker 2: much about about how much he's meant to this offense,
Speaker 2: but for him to average five yards of carry against
Speaker 2: one of the top run defenses in the NFL, and
Speaker 2: you've made these statistical comparisons before his longest run was
Speaker 2: seventeen yards. It's not as though that averag was skewed
Speaker 2: by a forty or a fifty yard run that he
Speaker 2: busted out somewhere. Those are great when they happen, but
Speaker 2: when you're looking at the big picture and you're averaging
Speaker 2: five yards of carry and you didn't even have a
Speaker 2: carry longer than seventeen yards. That just shows how consistent
Speaker 2: that production has been upfront by the offensive line opening holes,
Speaker 2: the tackles that Aaron Jones can break, making guys miss.
Speaker 2: He is at the top of his game right now,
Speaker 2: West and we hadn't seen that really since Week one
Speaker 2: when the hamstring first you know, went out on him
Speaker 2: crossing the goal line at Soldier Field. Aaron Jones is
Speaker 2: at the top of his game and that has helped
Speaker 2: this offense get to the top of its game.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I mean, when you look at three straight games of
Speaker 3: one hundred yards rushing and the Packers winning all three
Speaker 3: of those games, that's really as easy as it boils
Speaker 3: down to. When you're getting production like that from Aaron Jones,
Speaker 3: it shows twenty and one now in the regular season
Speaker 3: under Matt Lafloor, when Aaron Jones gets at least one
Speaker 3: hundred total yards twenty one and two all time underneath
Speaker 3: Matt Lafloor. In those circumstances, this guy is looking as
Speaker 3: fresh as he's looked all season. Yep, he's looking fast
Speaker 3: he's looking powerful, and while he was very explosive in
Speaker 3: that win against Minnesota, he actually came back and you
Speaker 3: could have told me that was Jerome Bettis by the
Speaker 3: way that he was moving piles, keeping his feet moving,
Speaker 3: looking like a guy that is really trying to pull
Speaker 3: this team on his back to get them back to
Speaker 3: the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants it more than him.
Speaker 3: And as I tweeted, you probably didn't see it because
Speaker 3: you were doing the live blog, but I took that
Speaker 3: old grinch, little meme, jiff, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 3: When his heart is kind of busting out of the frame,
Speaker 3: he's trying to get the sled from falling down the hill.
Speaker 3: That's Aaron Jones.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: He puts it all out there.
Speaker 3: And at a time in which they did not have
Speaker 3: aj Dillon at all, he wasn't even in the cards
Speaker 3: because of the stinger, this thing needed to be on
Speaker 3: his shoulders, and he.
Speaker 1: Was the bell call that the Packers needed him to be.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I want to talk about this defensive effort
Speaker 2: because I certainly don't want to overlook it, but I
Speaker 2: want to go back and make one more point about
Speaker 2: Jordan Love because because my favorite, my favorite sequence when
Speaker 2: you talk about the no blink and the response to adversity.
Speaker 2: Jordan Love fumbles the ball away on the scramble, the
Speaker 2: Bears recover. It's fourteen to six. The Bears drive and
Speaker 2: kick a field goal and get to within fourteen to
Speaker 2: nine early in the fourth quarter. It's a game the
Speaker 2: Packers are absolutely dominated. But yet there's most of a
Speaker 2: quarter left to play. You're only up by five points.
Speaker 2: Anything can happen. The very next play, his very first
Speaker 2: snap after fumbling the ball on the previous possession, what
Speaker 2: does Jordan Love do? Play action bootleg to the left,
Speaker 2: fires it downfield for Jaden Reid, hits him in stride,
Speaker 2: big play, fifty nine yards down the field and the
Speaker 2: Packers are in position to get points again. He just
Speaker 2: lets it all hang out there. I mean, that fumble
Speaker 2: was critical and could have completely shifted the momentum of
Speaker 2: this game. And what did Jordan Love do. He went
Speaker 2: out and just took it right by and just didn't
Speaker 2: let the only turnover of the game, didn't let it
Speaker 2: bother him. And that's something that, as Matt Lafleur said
Speaker 2: after the game, you can't teach, you can't coach that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff that's just in him. That's who he is,
Speaker 2: and we've just seen we've seen it start to come
Speaker 2: out more and more as this Packers offense has had
Speaker 2: more and more success.
Speaker 3: I've said it for three years, Michael, whether it's just
Speaker 3: the way he handled being behind Aaron Rodgers or how
Speaker 3: he's handled becoming the starting quarterback the Green Bay Packers,
Speaker 3: Jordan Love has just completely aced this test. He has
Speaker 3: been at every part of his career. Now in year four,
Speaker 3: he has been the player the Packers have needed him
Speaker 3: to be. Year one was all about learning, Year two
Speaker 3: is about showing strides. Year three was showing he could
Speaker 3: do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and year four is.
Speaker 3: Proving that he is a bona fide NFL starting quarterback.
Speaker 3: And before we pivot to the defense, I just want
Speaker 3: to mention this quickly. Aaron Jones, everything he did on
Speaker 3: the run, five catches on five targets, Dantavian Wicks, you
Speaker 3: look at his stats, six on seven. Bo Melt steps
Speaker 3: up again with another five catches. The Packers lose Romeo
Speaker 3: Dobbs in the first driving this game has to go
Speaker 3: to the hospital to get observed for that chest injury.
Speaker 3: Is allowed to come back but doesn't doesn't play in
Speaker 3: the rest of the game, and it didn't matter. Jordan
Speaker 3: Love was Jordan Love and the guys around him. I
Speaker 3: think there's so much to be said for how these guys,
Speaker 3: when they're given their opportunity, respond to his leadership. And ultimately,
Speaker 3: when you have a game where Daniel Wheeland doesn't have
Speaker 3: to punt once, feels that momentum down in and down out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And what Dontavian Wicks did in this game was
Speaker 2: just emblematic of how things have gone for this offense
Speaker 2: with the perimeter weapons all season long. He'd missed the
Speaker 2: last game and a half. He exited at halftime against
Speaker 2: Carolina on Christmas Eve after catching a touchdown pass. He
Speaker 2: misses one and a half games. He comes back and
Speaker 2: he scores two touchdowns, gets both of Jordan Love's touchdown passes.
Speaker 2: And for those who haven't seen it, I would encourage
Speaker 2: them to check out your story The Key to the
Speaker 2: Game story that was posted on Sunday night, Dontavian Wicks
Speaker 2: playing with heavy heart that game on Sunday. The date
Speaker 2: was the date of the birthday of one of his
Speaker 2: three Virginia football teammates. That was murdered in that tragic
Speaker 2: shooting in Virginia before Dantavian Wicks came to the NFL.
Speaker 2: So please check out that story. You found out about that.
Speaker 2: Wix was talking about it at his locker after the game.
Speaker 2: Really good story and just definitely worth the read.
Speaker 3: Well, and to understand what he went through and what
Speaker 3: that football team went through last year. It's something that
Speaker 3: they're going to carry with them the rest of their lives.
Speaker 3: And you can go on Virginia's page. They still have
Speaker 3: the emblem with the V and acknowledging and remembering the
Speaker 3: three players. In this case, Lavelle Davis Junior was the
Speaker 3: one that unfortunately lost his life in that would have
Speaker 3: been twenty two years old on Sunday. And as you know,
Speaker 3: Dantavian talked about afterwards kind of playing through him, living
Speaker 3: through him a little bit there and after his second
Speaker 3: touchdown mentioned he did go to the sideline and cried.
Speaker 3: You know, just an emotional evening. But my goodness, this
Speaker 3: fifth round pick. When you saw all those stats he
Speaker 3: put together his junior year, breaking Herman Moore's last season record. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you're understanding more and more why this guy is the
Speaker 3: player that he's become here in a very short amount
Speaker 3: of time. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, well, we do need to shift gears to the defense.
Speaker 2: And I'll just start with this. We us. If you
Speaker 2: had told me all the discussion in previewing this game
Speaker 2: and everything last week talking about what the Bears were
Speaker 2: going to have to do in order to keep the
Speaker 2: Packers on their heels and possibly ruined Green Bay season,
Speaker 2: if you had told me that the Packers were going
Speaker 2: to hold Khalil Herbert and Justin Fields to a combined
Speaker 2: fifty five yards rushing between those two guys, I would
Speaker 2: have said, the Chicago Bears are going to have a
Speaker 2: really hard time winning this game. And that's exactly what went.
Speaker 1: Down on twenty carries slash scrambles.
Speaker 3: It's not like it was a situation where the Packers
Speaker 3: got up and the Bears just had to start throwing, right.
Speaker 3: They tried, They tried their darnedest, but they couldn't get
Speaker 3: a single carry of more than nine yards in this game.
Speaker 3: And it was a full attention to a detail approach
Speaker 3: match with a natural aggressiveness that I thought was really
Speaker 3: integral to this thing. Kenny Clark mentioned it. They ran
Speaker 3: a lot of inside stunts with their defensive tackles. You'll
Speaker 3: see that a lot with edge rushers, just trying to
Speaker 3: confuse the tackles a little bit. But when you do
Speaker 3: that in the interior, it's just trying to muddy things up.
Speaker 3: It's trying to get bodies moving, it's trying to close
Speaker 3: up gaps.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Carl Brooks has become outstanding at that. He throws
Speaker 2: his body into multiple offensive linemen, as you say, to
Speaker 2: muddy things up, to muddy the waters, and that's created
Speaker 2: opportunities for sacks. I actually have the video of a
Speaker 2: couple of those in in what you might have missed
Speaker 2: piece that's on the website if you want to check
Speaker 2: out those clips. I mean, Kenny Clark and Carl Brooks
Speaker 2: are becoming quite the tandem when they get that stump
Speaker 2: call in the middle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then Kenny was able to get his seven
Speaker 3: now up to seven and a half sacks on the
Speaker 3: season off of that, the Packers just it was perfect, man.
Speaker 3: They only allowed four plays of more than sixteen yards
Speaker 3: in terms of just the explosiveness passing wise, by not
Speaker 3: allowing Herbert to get going, it neutralized everything the Bears
Speaker 3: wanted to do offensively. Back to back games for Herbert
Speaker 3: with over one hundred yards rushing, green Bay kept him
Speaker 3: to twenty eight on twelve. Yeah, justin fields. We talk
Speaker 3: about all the time, he's gonna get his yards. This game,
Speaker 3: he did not get his yards. And while they didn't
Speaker 3: turn over the football, while they played relatively clean, there
Speaker 3: was just nothing spectacular about what the Chicago Bears offered.
Speaker 3: And then when they would get into the third and
Speaker 3: long situations, they could not stay on the field.
Speaker 1: Green Bay.
Speaker 3: Again, for everything they've been through over the last month,
Speaker 3: I felt like that was one of the strongest defensive
Speaker 3: performances they've had this season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, five sacks of justin fields, and more importantly, four
Speaker 2: of those five on third down. You know, timing is everything, right,
Speaker 2: you get a sack on third down, that's how your
Speaker 2: defense gets off the field. The Bears. If I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 2: the Bears had six possessions in this game, and all
Speaker 2: six of them they crossed the fifty yard line at
Speaker 2: some point on each of those drives. Packers defense rows
Speaker 2: up in the moments that it needed to. I mean
Speaker 2: to have six possessions by the opponent that crossed the
Speaker 2: fifty yard line and there are only nine points on
Speaker 2: the board. Three field goals, one of those being the
Speaker 2: the you know, the doink, the deflection that goes in.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: This was this was a game. This was a game
Speaker 2: that that the Packers defense was big in the clutch,
Speaker 2: in the big, in the big moments to keep the
Speaker 2: points off the board. And you hope that that's something
Speaker 2: that can continue because you know, we'll talk a lot
Speaker 2: more about Green Bay and Dallas and the big matchup
Speaker 2: in the wild card round coming up on Sunday. Two
Speaker 2: offenses that are going to move the ball a heck
Speaker 2: of a lot, and it already looks like a game
Speaker 2: that's probably going to be decided in the red zone.
Speaker 2: Who's going to be able to finish drives and who's
Speaker 2: going to settle for field goals. The Packers defense can
Speaker 2: can keep this up and force a couple of field
Speaker 2: goals that could be the difference in the game.
Speaker 3: And my last point on this because you need it all.
Speaker 3: You need to have the pressures, you need to have
Speaker 3: the sacks, you need to have the defensive line contributing
Speaker 3: the way they did. You're gonna need a bottle up
Speaker 3: Tony Pollard. But Michael, there's a two time All Pro
Speaker 3: cornerback that was back on the field on Sunday for
Speaker 3: Green Bay. The shoulder injury appears to be behind him.
Speaker 3: The issues that led to the suspension appear to be
Speaker 3: behind him, and jyr Alexander to me, looked like he
Speaker 3: was having.
Speaker 1: Fun again out there. It was it's going to take
Speaker 1: some time.
Speaker 3: It's going to take some time to get his win
Speaker 3: back and feel, you know, feel the way he wants
Speaker 3: to feel to be out there. But when you're talking
Speaker 3: about a test like DJ Moore in what the explosive
Speaker 3: possibilities are of the Bears offense, now you're ready for
Speaker 3: ceedee lamb, You're ready for these challenges that Dallas is presenting.
Speaker 1: If there was.
Speaker 3: Ever a time for number twenty three to be back
Speaker 3: on the field for the Green Bay Packers, this is
Speaker 3: the time. This is in twenty twenty one. He's not
Speaker 3: coming back to play eight snaps and dime. They need
Speaker 3: him out there as much as possible. Yeah, and I
Speaker 3: feel like this is definitely the leap, the step, the
Speaker 3: propelling propellanation, if I may call it that, but no,
Speaker 3: but just just the impat for what could be something special. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and I'm excited to see what Gayer can do with
Speaker 3: that opportunity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you on that one
Speaker 2: hundred percent. A little bit of sponsor business here West
Speaker 2: Sirius XM NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up
Speaker 2: to the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need
Speaker 2: twenty four to seven, three sixty five and that Cousin subs.
Speaker 2: We have something for everyone, like our Wisconsin cheese curds,
Speaker 2: mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes, all paired
Speaker 2: with your favorite sub or sub and a bowl Cousin
Speaker 2: Subs fifty years of better.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna say anything about a new fancy mic stand.
Speaker 2: I was, I was gonna. I was gonna let you
Speaker 2: talk about that with sipping coffee out of it.
Speaker 3: I'm really excited about these things. Look at the cool logo. Yeah,
Speaker 3: we got some more swag here. I'm very excited to
Speaker 3: be drinking my morning coffee out of this moving forward.
Speaker 2: There you go. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I
Speaker 2: will still display.
Speaker 1: You could get hot apple cider, that's true. I could.
Speaker 2: You're right, You're right, I could well. Looking at the
Speaker 2: playoff picture, the packers are the seven seed in the NFC,
Speaker 2: they will travel to face the number two seed Dallas Cowboys,
Speaker 2: who wrapped up the NFC East Division title with a
Speaker 2: blowout victory over Washington. Pretty much what we expected there.
Speaker 2: So the seven versus the two is Green Bay at Dallas.
Speaker 2: That will be three thirty pm Central Time kickoff from
Speaker 2: AT and T Stadium. Just to run down the way
Speaker 2: the rest of the playoff picture looks, the Detroit Lions
Speaker 2: are the three seed. They will host the six seed
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Rams. Tampa Bay wins the NFC South as
Speaker 2: the four seed, they will host the five seed Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 2: San Francisco is the one seed with the lone by.
Speaker 2: That's how the NFC looks right now. Just your any
Speaker 2: of your thoughts and we'll speak maybe on more the
Speaker 2: specific matchups on our next show heading into the weekend,
Speaker 2: but just your thoughts on how kind of things shook
Speaker 2: out in the NFC and the placement that everyone fell into.
Speaker 3: This isn't just for product placement. I'm gonna do this
Speaker 3: one more time to Mike Tomlin to the Pittsburgh Steelers,
Speaker 3: because if Pittsburgh doesn't get the job done against Seattle.
Speaker 1: The Green Bay Packers aren't in the.
Speaker 3: Playoffs, right, Everything that could have went against Green Bay
Speaker 3: for the most part.
Speaker 1: By that, I think I actually have to drink right
Speaker 1: when I toasted.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, you should, you should.
Speaker 3: But things didn't go well in terms of how last
Speaker 3: year everything fell Green Bay's direction, it didn't go that
Speaker 3: way this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The one difference maker was Pittsburgh picking up that victory
Speaker 3: because Seattle was able to eke out their win. So
Speaker 3: you had Seattle, New Orleans and then also New Orleans
Speaker 3: by proxy of Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1: All those teams ended up with nine wins.
Speaker 3: The Green Bay Packers need to win a football game
Speaker 3: to keep themselves in it, and because of that, it
Speaker 3: was nice to see Pittsburgh also get.
Speaker 1: The number seven seed over in the AFC side of things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Seattle, as we had talked about Seattle pulling out
Speaker 2: those last minute victories with touchdowns against Philadelphia and Tennessee,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, they were, you know, they were
Speaker 2: the team that was that was keeping themselves in control
Speaker 2: of their playoff fate until Pittsburgh made the long flight
Speaker 2: out to Seattle, and with Mason Rudolph at quarterback, that
Speaker 2: pittsb offense is found has found something different. And as
Speaker 2: you said, the Steelers, they're the seventh seed in the AFC.
Speaker 2: They will travel to Buffalo game. Buffalo is the two seed,
Speaker 2: having beaten Miami in the Sunday night football game to
Speaker 2: end the regular season. So Buffalo ends up winning the
Speaker 2: AFC East. Quite the game there though, too, because actually,
Speaker 2: if Miami had won that game, it would have been,
Speaker 2: based on the seeds a rematch the following week, Buffalo
Speaker 2: would have been right back at Miami to play them
Speaker 2: again in the wildcard round. Instead, Buffalo jumps up to
Speaker 2: the two. They're gonna host Pittsburgh. Miami is the six.
Speaker 2: They will go to three seed Kansas City, and then
Speaker 2: Cleveland as the five seed, will travel to four seed Houston.
Speaker 2: Houston ends up winning the AFC South with a big
Speaker 2: victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday night, and then
Speaker 2: they watched the Tennessee Titans knock off the Jacksonville Jaguars
Speaker 2: to knock Jacksonville out of the division race and out
Speaker 2: of the playoffs. Houston's a division champ with the rookie
Speaker 2: quarterback CJ. Stroud, the first year coaching Dimiico Ryans, and
Speaker 2: they're hosting a playoff game in the AFC.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's a great it's fun how the playoffs actually
Speaker 3: lined up when you look in in terms of it.
Speaker 3: And I felt like green Bay was a part of this.
Speaker 3: I know I've talked ad nauseam about how I felt
Speaker 3: like the playoffs would be better if green Bay snuck in.
Speaker 3: I just feel like over Seattle, over New Orleans, there's
Speaker 3: just more to like about that team. There's more upside,
Speaker 3: there's more value. There's a reason why it's sitting in
Speaker 3: the three twenty five slot on Sunday right. And while
Speaker 3: you may not have household names as much yet with
Speaker 3: Houston and some of these other squads, c J Stroud
Speaker 3: being the rookie, being kind of the savior there of
Speaker 3: that franchise and playing the way that he played this
Speaker 3: season and the way he played in that game.
Speaker 2: That's that final drive, that final drive for that touchdown
Speaker 2: to take the lead against Indianapolis. A couple of the
Speaker 2: throws he made on that drive were just phenomenal, I
Speaker 2: mean absolutely unbelievable for a rookie to be making those
Speaker 2: kind of plays with the season on the line, the
Speaker 2: pressure that went with it. Really impressed by c J. Stroud,
Speaker 2: and I got to believe he's the offensive Rookie of
Speaker 2: the Year in the NFL. I think he probably had
Speaker 2: it wrapped up before that game, but he left absolutely
Speaker 2: no doubt that he should get that award.
Speaker 3: But then you look at obviously there is the Deshaun
Speaker 3: Watson factor between the matchup with Houston and Cleveland. I'm
Speaker 3: sure stuff will be made of that this week. But
Speaker 3: how cool is it that it's Joe Flacco who was
Speaker 3: signed off the coach what less than a month ago,
Speaker 3: just a little over a month ago, and then he
Speaker 3: didn't even play in Cleveland's finale because he was so
Speaker 3: important to them in a game that didn't have.
Speaker 1: Any additional meaning.
Speaker 3: And then now he's going to lead the Browns, the
Speaker 3: Cleveland Browns, the franchise that has not really had any
Speaker 3: success since they were reintroduced into the NFL in nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety nine. He's going to be the team to try
Speaker 3: to mount a rally here with him, to try to
Speaker 3: propel them to something special. And then, if I may
Speaker 3: just quickly closing on the Dallas Cowboys, because this is
Speaker 3: going to be a supreme test, I do think there
Speaker 3: is a lot to like about this football team, But
Speaker 3: I have continued to say, Michael Dallas is eight to
Speaker 3: no at home at at AT and T Stadium. I
Speaker 3: believe that they were. They also undefeated last year at
Speaker 3: home as well. It might have gotten all the way
Speaker 3: up there maybe right about that.
Speaker 2: I don't recall specifically.
Speaker 1: Whatever the case may be.
Speaker 3: I even called them in one of the appearances I
Speaker 3: did this week the greatest show on turf in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three. I am so excited to see this incarnation
Speaker 3: of the Packers take on the Cowboys. And I understand
Speaker 3: we will talk on this and we'll preview it on Thursday.
Speaker 3: But when people were talking through various scenarios of well,
Speaker 3: could they go to Detroit? Could they go to Dallas?
Speaker 1: Detroit would have been fun. The Packers have.
Speaker 3: Already beaten the Lions at Ford Field this season, but
Speaker 3: independent of the Mike McCarthy discussion, to see the Green
Speaker 3: Bay Packers now test itself against a team like the Cowboys,
Speaker 3: I personally was kind.
Speaker 1: Of excited to see.
Speaker 3: That's how the ball bounced when it was all said
Speaker 3: and done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I am too. I just I think this, I
Speaker 2: think this matchup is really something you're talking about. I
Speaker 2: don't know exactly where what the statistic are where they
Speaker 2: are ranked in terms of the entire season. But you're
Speaker 2: talking right now about about two offenses in the Cowboys
Speaker 2: and the Packers that are playing as good an offensive
Speaker 2: football maybe as anybody out there. Because I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: don't be fooled by the Cowboys only scoring the twenty
Speaker 2: points or whatever it was against the Lions when they
Speaker 2: beat them. I mean, see ceedee lamb. I think it
Speaker 2: was fumbled one through the end zone when they were
Speaker 2: going to get a touchdown there, and the whole fiasco
Speaker 2: with the tripping penalty probably cost them, you know, four
Speaker 2: points there. So this is this Dallas team has one
Speaker 2: heck of an offense, and this Packers team is playing
Speaker 2: as good at offensive football as any team in the
Speaker 2: league right now in my opinion.
Speaker 3: And as I always tell anybody, if you are a
Speaker 3: football fan, if you are a Packers fan, there is
Speaker 3: no better time to be alive than in January when
Speaker 3: you're one of the last fourteen teams left in this thing.
Speaker 1: It's exciting.
Speaker 3: It's exciting that the Packers and Jordan Love's first year
Speaker 3: as a starting quarterback have been able to make this
Speaker 3: jump and seeing how long this ride goes, if you
Speaker 3: can take it all the way to Vegas, who knows.
Speaker 1: But it is a fun thing to be a part of.
Speaker 3: And when I opened the show and talked about my
Speaker 3: kind of nerves and everything, it was mostly built out
Speaker 3: of the idea of story.
Speaker 1: I felt like this team was good enough that this
Speaker 1: should be the story.
Speaker 3: It should be getting back to the Playoffs with this
Speaker 3: particular team, Not when the receivers are two years older
Speaker 3: or you have some other guys that are going to
Speaker 3: be maturing from this young core.
Speaker 1: No, right now. Seeing what this team, with all the.
Speaker 3: Strides it's made since week one, where it can take
Speaker 3: this thing now in January, that to me, Michael as
Speaker 3: a writer, as a as a reporter, that's incredibly interesting
Speaker 3: to track and I'm excited to see how this plays out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent, it's going to be a fun
Speaker 2: week around here. But with that, we will call it
Speaker 2: a rap on this edition of Packers Unscript. You'd be
Speaker 2: sure to follow all of our coverage of the team,
Speaker 2: all the preview stuff leading up to Packers Cowboys on
Speaker 2: Sunday from Dallas. We will have it all for you
Speaker 2: on Packers dot com. For Wes, I'm Mike, thank you
Speaker 2: for tuning in. Everybody will see you next time. Mm
Speaker 2: hmm