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 hod Kuwitz. Were coming to
Speaker 1: you here from our studios at lambeau Field and West.
Speaker 1: Week one is in the books for the Green Bay Packers,
Speaker 1: and it was not pretty. Thirty eight to three a
Speaker 1: loss to the New Orleans Saints down in Jacksonville, Florida,
Speaker 1: and uh, ye had not what anybody expected. And uh
Speaker 1: essentially the Packers are in bounce back mode right away
Speaker 1: here in Week two, right out of the gate. Definitely
Speaker 1: not the game I expected in any level. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously you don't into spake green Bay coming out league's
Speaker 1: highest scoring offensive two thousand twenty, putting up three points,
Speaker 1: struggling with turnovers the way they did. I mean, your
Speaker 1: big line all last week I thought was right on point.
Speaker 1: The Packers need to probably be plus two somewhere in
Speaker 1: that category with the turnover margin, and I think they
Speaker 1: win the football game. But the bigger thing that I
Speaker 1: think surprised me was just exactly how the Saints played.
Speaker 1: And you know, we talked all week about Jamis Winston
Speaker 1: and the last time he was a starting quarterback and
Speaker 1: the turnovers. One of the things I was touching on
Speaker 1: this week that doesn't get talked about enough is when
Speaker 1: he had the thirty interceptions, which by no means is good,
Speaker 1: he threw six passes. So what do they do in
Speaker 1: this game? They really minimize the mounting passes that he
Speaker 1: was throwing. It was more of a game management type style,
Speaker 1: relying on his feet when the play broke down instead
Speaker 1: of trying to make things happen. And when you have
Speaker 1: a guy like Alvin Kamara, that's you. You ride that guy.
Speaker 1: And a year ago I talked about it at nauseum.
Speaker 1: Thirteen catches on fourteen targets this year, twenty carries for
Speaker 1: eighty six yards productive yards, didn't have a big gainer
Speaker 1: had their longest carry was fifteen yards and agreement Packers
Speaker 1: just couldn't stop it. Yeah, it felt to me this game.
Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying in
Speaker 1: pointing out these two plays that the Packers would have
Speaker 1: won the game, but this game, to me, two plays
Speaker 1: turned this from being a competitive game into being a blowout.
Speaker 1: And one was the fourth and seven for the New
Speaker 1: Orleans Saints. The scores tend to nothing. New Orleans crosses midfield.
Speaker 1: They have a fourth and seven on I believe it
Speaker 1: was the forty one yard line in Green Bay territory.
Speaker 1: Too far to kick a field goal. Didn't want to
Speaker 1: punt from there, so Sean Payton decides to go for it.
Speaker 1: If the Packers get a stop there, you get the
Speaker 1: ball back in good field position. You're downten to nothing. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, nobody's nobody's losing any sleep at this point.
Speaker 1: But they convert that. They end up finishing the drive.
Speaker 1: There's a busted coverage on the tight end screen there
Speaker 1: on fourth and seven, and they convert that very very easily,
Speaker 1: and they you know, a few plays later there in
Speaker 1: the end zone at seventeen to nothing. Then the other play,
Speaker 1: of course, is the interception early in the third quarter.
Speaker 1: The Packers get a field goal before halftime at seventeen
Speaker 1: to three. They get the ball coming out started the
Speaker 1: third quarter, march it right down the field, get into
Speaker 1: the red zone inside the ten yard line in fact,
Speaker 1: and you're looking at it. Okay, get a touchdown there.
Speaker 1: It's seventeen to ten. The defense has had some rest
Speaker 1: to see if they settled down still a lot of
Speaker 1: ball game to play, more than a quarter and a
Speaker 1: half left to go, but instead of getting into seventeen
Speaker 1: to ten, there's a pressure breakdown on both sides of
Speaker 1: the offensive line. Aaron Rodgers tries to force it on
Speaker 1: second down as Adams is crossing the throws behind him,
Speaker 1: it's picked off. You all know the rest. Those two
Speaker 1: plays really turned this from being what I think everybody
Speaker 1: expected to be a competitive game into being a blowout.
Speaker 1: And the Packers just never recovered from from that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's too much yarn coming off the ball.
Speaker 1: You can't get it back together at that point. And
Speaker 1: you know, I'll turn I'll start with this then we'll
Speaker 1: we'll talk about the turnovers and the interception everything. But
Speaker 1: that second quarter series is the one that stands out
Speaker 1: to me the most because I remember you and I
Speaker 1: are watching this game back at lambeau Field on television,
Speaker 1: and they decided to run it there, I believe. Yeah
Speaker 1: it was the six yard run by Tomorrow, Yeah it was.
Speaker 1: It was third. It was third and long from Green
Speaker 1: base and I kind of figured what they were doing there.
Speaker 1: It made sense because it was a situation which you
Speaker 1: get stopped well then you just punt it. Right. If
Speaker 1: you get some yards out of it and it's manageable,
Speaker 1: well then you have the option to either age still
Speaker 1: punt it, you know and try to you know, pin
Speaker 1: them back, or you know, go for it. In that case,
Speaker 1: green Bay just couldn't get off the field defensively. I
Speaker 1: mean when you look at the third downs, five of
Speaker 1: ten the Saints were on conversions, and then five of
Speaker 1: those that they didn't convert on third down they got
Speaker 1: on fourth down. Then they get inside the red zone
Speaker 1: four or four. Those type of numbers, you're just not
Speaker 1: going to be able to overcome that kind of that deficit,
Speaker 1: regardless of what everything else is. And because of the
Speaker 1: way the Saints played that first half twenty two minutes
Speaker 1: to eight minutes basically in time of possession, rounding out
Speaker 1: some numbers, green Bay led the league I think last
Speaker 1: year in time of possession. Again, stacking the deck against yourself.
Speaker 1: All that being said, Matt Floor even talked about it
Speaker 1: on Monday, or it was after the game, I forget,
Speaker 1: but you know, they still kind of counted themselves lucky
Speaker 1: that they were able to go in a halftime only
Speaker 1: down two scores. After there was a two score at
Speaker 1: for everything that had gone wrong, it was a two
Speaker 1: score game. And you're getting the ball coming out start
Speaker 1: of the third quarter, and they did exactly what they
Speaker 1: wanted to do, except they didn't get the ball in
Speaker 1: the end zone and they turned it over in the
Speaker 1: red zone instead. Yeah, and they made their biggest offensive
Speaker 1: play of the day, a beautiful throw, a beautiful catch
Speaker 1: by Davante Adams gets Mason Crosby and scoring range. He
Speaker 1: ends up making the thirty nine yard or you come
Speaker 1: out a halftime feeling good about yourselves. That was the
Speaker 1: most momentum, most rhythm we saw with the offense coming
Speaker 1: out of the break. But when you get into the
Speaker 1: red area, Mike, we talked so much about Rogers and
Speaker 1: he doesn't throw pick six? Is he really is not
Speaker 1: a guy that throws the interceptions deep inside the opposing teams,
Speaker 1: you know, scoring territory. It happened there in From that
Speaker 1: point on, it just seemed like the air, too much
Speaker 1: air had been let out of the balloon at that point. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the as you said in Insider Inbox, the Packers will
Speaker 1: have plenty of opportunities here to prove that this game
Speaker 1: was was an anomaly the to just see how out
Speaker 1: of character it is. Two key statistics. We talked about
Speaker 1: it on our on our show last week with the
Speaker 1: Keys to Victory. The Packers were second in the league
Speaker 1: last year in third down efficiency. They were the best
Speaker 1: in the league and historically one of the best teams
Speaker 1: ever in the red zone. And what happens. Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: doesn't get a single third down conversion the entire game
Speaker 1: that he's in at quarterback, and the first time on
Speaker 1: the season that they're in the red zone, they not
Speaker 1: only don't get a touchdown, they turned the ball over.
Speaker 1: You know, that's just not the way the Packers played
Speaker 1: football in at all. So on the defensive side of things,
Speaker 1: you mentioned it, the third down efficiency, the fourth down efficiency,
Speaker 1: the red zone. The Saints got two touchdowns off of
Speaker 1: very very short fields, one off of the long interception returned,
Speaker 1: the other one of failed fourth down, so basically two
Speaker 1: red zone possessions to start and and they converted those
Speaker 1: into touchdowns. But early in the game, especially on those
Speaker 1: two long touchdown drives, the Packers defense had opportunities to
Speaker 1: get off the field. There were third downs, there were
Speaker 1: fourth downs, and they just they they did not take
Speaker 1: advantage of those opportunities. Jamis Winston scrambled away on you know,
Speaker 1: on a I talked about that last week as well,
Speaker 1: that you have to you have to be careful how
Speaker 1: you rush these guys, you know, these guys with the legs,
Speaker 1: that that can hurt you. He had thirty six yards rushing,
Speaker 1: you know it within the first couple of drives of
Speaker 1: the football game. And you know, I felt that completely
Speaker 1: put the Packers defense on their heels the rest of
Speaker 1: the time. And then and then we saw other times
Speaker 1: he's going back there and sitting back there in the
Speaker 1: pocket because the Packers weren't coming after him because he
Speaker 1: had burned him with with with the legs and all that.
Speaker 1: So it just it was it was a snowball that
Speaker 1: started going downhill the Packers. The Packers couldn't stop it,
Speaker 1: and uh and unfortunately the game just got completely out
Speaker 1: of hand. Yeah, we talked about it. I mean, it
Speaker 1: was gonna be a different type of challenge, as difficult
Speaker 1: as it was playing Drew Brees for the past twelve
Speaker 1: of years or whatever it came out to be. Um,
Speaker 1: Actually it was more like this going up against Jamis Winston.
Speaker 1: Everything gets basically put on its head a little bit.
Speaker 1: This guy has a big home run type arm. You
Speaker 1: saw them that Deonte Harris fifty five yard touchdown when
Speaker 1: they finally did go for the ball down field at
Speaker 1: the same exact moment that I think I even mentioned
Speaker 1: you as we're watching the game, man, he only has
Speaker 1: ninety three passing yards so far, and it was like
Speaker 1: literally the next play. But but realistically, Mike, the two
Speaker 1: areas other than those statistics I reeled off because those
Speaker 1: are really the most telling, it's the most important of all.
Speaker 1: But the two areas where I thought green Bay lost
Speaker 1: this game was New Orleans dominated him in the run game,
Speaker 1: offensive and defense of being able to stop green Bays run,
Speaker 1: knocking him out of that rhythm. You mentioned how uncharacteristic
Speaker 1: some of the mental mistakes were that Green Bay had.
Speaker 1: It was also on characteristic. They just couldn't get any
Speaker 1: of their typical offense going in that early going. And
Speaker 1: then conversely, I talked about Chima, but I mean talk
Speaker 1: about Tony Jones Jr. Being a guy that was a
Speaker 1: really steady, complimentary presence to him, and the fact that
Speaker 1: they were able to get a hundred forty rushing yards
Speaker 1: in the first half, thanks in part also to Winston
Speaker 1: in a hundred and seventy yards for the game. I
Speaker 1: keep saying this over and over again, but they dictated
Speaker 1: the terms in which this game was going to be played.
Speaker 1: They used the Jacksonville It was a different type of environment,
Speaker 1: but they wore green Bay down and ultimately I just
Speaker 1: think kind of, you know, demoralize them in some ways.
Speaker 1: So the big key for green Bay this week is
Speaker 1: Matt Floor discussed and I really appreciate Aaron Rodgers comments
Speaker 1: afterwards as well. I mean he said we played bad.
Speaker 1: I played bad. It really is that simple. The goal now,
Speaker 1: as Davante Adams tweeted with flush it and respond, you
Speaker 1: got Detroit coming in here next week. Now you gotta
Speaker 1: figure out what happened in these first two days of
Speaker 1: the week, make those corrections, and then reset, because the
Speaker 1: Packers got a huge gift in the fact the NFC
Speaker 1: North all ended up coming up empty this weekend. But
Speaker 1: now you've got a divisional opponent coming into your house
Speaker 1: and you have to hold serve. Yeah. Absolutely, um. Some
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Speaker 1: all paired with your favorite sub or sub in a bowl.
Speaker 1: Cousin Subs, we believe in better. A couple of injury
Speaker 1: situations to talk about here with the Packers. One is
Speaker 1: that tight end Josiah Deguar is in the concussion protocol.
Speaker 1: He was down on the field for quite a while.
Speaker 1: Everyone thankful that he was able to get up and
Speaker 1: walk off the field, Matt Lafleur saying on Monday that
Speaker 1: he's definitely in a better place than he was on Sunday,
Speaker 1: so that is very good to hear. But he is
Speaker 1: in the concussion protocol and we will just have to
Speaker 1: see what happens. Darnell Savage left the game in the
Speaker 1: second half with a shoulder injury. Matt Lafleur does not
Speaker 1: believe it is a long term issue at all, and
Speaker 1: even suggested that with the extra day with the Packers
Speaker 1: not playing until Monday night, that that might be enough
Speaker 1: time for Darnell Savage to even get back on the
Speaker 1: field here in week two, and then Zadarius Smith. He
Speaker 1: went into the game questionable. He only practiced once during
Speaker 1: training camp, ended up playing eighteen snaps. Apparently came out
Speaker 1: of it no worse for where um health wise. I'm
Speaker 1: sure he has a little bit of an objection to
Speaker 1: that flag, that flag that was thrown on the roughing
Speaker 1: the passer. I don't want to go off on a
Speaker 1: big tangent here West, but I just have to say, Look,
Speaker 1: I've been saying it for years. The NFL puts in
Speaker 1: all these safety rules, and I get it, I understand it.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying there's a problem with the safety rules.
Speaker 1: But if you're gonna put all the safety rules in,
Speaker 1: why aren't you going to use replay to make sure
Speaker 1: you get the calls right? Because he didn't hit him high,
Speaker 1: he didn't hit him low, he didn't land with his
Speaker 1: body weight on him, he didn't hit him late. He
Speaker 1: hit him hard. Yes, he hit him hard, and it
Speaker 1: looked bad. So they throw a flag because it looked bad.
Speaker 1: And when you look at it on the replay, he
Speaker 1: didn't break a rule. The safety rules are in place,
Speaker 1: he didn't break a rule. So you can't just throw
Speaker 1: a flag because it looked bad. I just I get it.
Speaker 1: It was twenty four to three. I still don't think
Speaker 1: the game is over at that point. Necessarily, the Packers
Speaker 1: probably are not going to win the game. But what
Speaker 1: if that call happens when it's one and you wipe
Speaker 1: out an interception by a defense in the end zone
Speaker 1: on a call like that, I mean, come on, NFL,
Speaker 1: make the safety rules reviewable on replay. It's simple, it's simple.
Speaker 1: Just if the rules are that important, then make sure
Speaker 1: you get the calls right. Alright? That all right, I'm done,
Speaker 1: go ahead, you're right. The thing I'm actually most grateful
Speaker 1: for on that play was that Jamis Winston threw the
Speaker 1: ball because I still feel like that flag is probably
Speaker 1: getting thrown even if he sacks him. I really believe that. No,
Speaker 1: you no, you're you're absolutely The referee was looking at
Speaker 1: one thing and one thing only. Well, and that is
Speaker 1: his job. He's he that referee is back there to
Speaker 1: protect the quarterback Monday night, raw is what he was
Speaker 1: looking at. He was looking at how that quarterback is
Speaker 1: going back. I give Jamis a lot of credit. His
Speaker 1: head whipped back like he just got into a car.
Speaker 1: Accident and that there was no contact to the head
Speaker 1: at all. Right, that's the thing. His head whipped back
Speaker 1: because of the power of the hit. But Zadarius Smith
Speaker 1: did not break a rule. And then because it because
Speaker 1: it looked bad, because it looked bad, he throws the flag.
Speaker 1: And that's why. And I don't I don't blame the
Speaker 1: official that that's what That's what I want people to understand.
Speaker 1: I don't blame the official for throwing the flag because
Speaker 1: it looked like roughing the past, but it wasn't. Look
Speaker 1: at the replay, make sure you get the call right.
Speaker 1: And the NFL refuses to do that, I don't understand.
Speaker 1: And and the fact of the matter is I actually
Speaker 1: got really fired up watching the game too, because everybody
Speaker 1: will always say, well, then the games get too long,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're doing all these reviews. And my only,
Speaker 1: my only counter to that then is okay, if that's
Speaker 1: the emphasis then, because we're all about emphasis is in
Speaker 1: the NFL. You know, God forbid that I celebrate while
Speaker 1: I'm directly you know, across from where as opposed to
Speaker 1: my body being turned this way. That's an issue, that's
Speaker 1: a penalty that could get me ejected. Right, but God forbid,
Speaker 1: you know, if that's the emphasis and that's where hey,
Speaker 1: we're not going to be able to review these things.
Speaker 1: Then it is on the referees to get this right.
Speaker 1: It is their job to get it right, whether they're
Speaker 1: in the position, whether that means adding another guy somewhere
Speaker 1: in the stadium that is looking from a different perspective,
Speaker 1: only focused on that quarterback. That's something the NFL has
Speaker 1: to figure out because my biggest issue. Let's say the
Speaker 1: game doesn't turn around. Let's say the Packers do still
Speaker 1: loset to ten or whatever. We saw this happen with
Speaker 1: JayR Alexander two years three years ago. It cost him
Speaker 1: an interception. In this day and age, it's not easy
Speaker 1: to play defense, and it's not easy to generate turnovers.
Speaker 1: If a guy gets a takeaway, he should be rewarded
Speaker 1: for it if the play was clean, unacceptable. All right,
Speaker 1: thank you for indulge you, but I apologize. I will.
Speaker 1: I will say this. Good to see Darius Smith. From
Speaker 1: a health perspective, it sounds like, no question, that's a
Speaker 1: huge thing for this defense because they're gonna need them,
Speaker 1: no question about it. Absolutely. You mentioned it before the
Speaker 1: NFC North took a goose again. Week one, the the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings go into Cincinnati and lose in overtime. Actually
Speaker 1: they were in my opinion, they were lucky to get
Speaker 1: it to overtime in the first place. I think Cincinnati
Speaker 1: made made some really questionable decisions when they had a
Speaker 1: two score lead there in the second half. But that aside,
Speaker 1: Minnesota was then in position maybe five six seven yards
Speaker 1: away from being able to kick a field goal win
Speaker 1: that game, and overtime Dalvin Cook fumbles the ball, Cincinnati recovers,
Speaker 1: they get in position and kick a walk off as
Speaker 1: the overtime clock expires. So Minnesota is oh and one.
Speaker 1: That the Chicago Bears hang with the l A Rams
Speaker 1: for a while there on Sunday Night. I believe it
Speaker 1: was a fourteen game there in the second half. Then
Speaker 1: the Rams pull away at the end win by twenty.
Speaker 1: So the Bears are oh on one. And then the
Speaker 1: Packers opponent here coming up in Week two, Monday Night Football,
Speaker 1: the Detroit Lions. They fall behind big time. They're down
Speaker 1: with I don't know, four or five minutes left in
Speaker 1: the game, and suddenly they get this big rally going.
Speaker 1: They score and get a two. They recover an onside kick,
Speaker 1: they score again, get another two point conversion. Suddenly a
Speaker 1: twenty four point deficit is an eight point deficit. It's
Speaker 1: forty one to thirty three. And then the Niners have
Speaker 1: the game put away on a completed pass on a
Speaker 1: third down conversion and they fumble the ball. Detroit gets
Speaker 1: it back and they actually get within twenty five yards
Speaker 1: of that potential game tying touchdown, but they fall to
Speaker 1: the forty ninerst to thirty three. But we saw that's
Speaker 1: the Detroit Lions team that showed a lot of fight
Speaker 1: in a game that they were getting. They were getting
Speaker 1: it handed to him for three and a half quarters.
Speaker 1: And that's the Detroit. The fighting Detroit Lions are gonna
Speaker 1: be here at lambeau Field come Monday night. Yeah. We
Speaker 1: always talk about teams taking on the mantra and the
Speaker 1: mentality of their coach, and I thought you saw that
Speaker 1: this game with the Lions, because I was one of
Speaker 1: those people that left them for dead. In this game,
Speaker 1: Jared Goff gets off to a slow start. You're not
Speaker 1: really sure what the running game is. Jamal Williams had
Speaker 1: a great game, but DeAndre Swift is sort of their ace.
Speaker 1: That's the guy they've been working on being the lead back,
Speaker 1: and and here's you know, Jamal kind of coming out
Speaker 1: of nowhere. All that being said, I really don't know
Speaker 1: how to make heads or tails out of that first
Speaker 1: week for the NFC North, whether it's the Packers, whether
Speaker 1: it's the Vikings and the Lions, the Bears. I think
Speaker 1: you saw that they're they're kind of far away from
Speaker 1: where I think where they need to be and where
Speaker 1: they want to be. I think they have to figure
Speaker 1: out that quarterback situation first and then start to let
Speaker 1: the dominance. And there, and and and they were. They
Speaker 1: were behind the eight ball in some respects to that.
Speaker 1: You know, the new stadium out there in l A,
Speaker 1: which did not have any fans last year, Suddenly it's
Speaker 1: the first game where those l A fans get to
Speaker 1: fill the place and it's Sunday night football in primetime.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a tough way to open your season.
Speaker 1: And as I said, they did hang with them into
Speaker 1: the second half there. It was a one score game
Speaker 1: him for a while, but ultimately the Rams took control
Speaker 1: down the stretching for him away. I just have a
Speaker 1: harder time figuring out I mean, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of it's gonna come down to us trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how good the Cincinnati Bengals are. And you know,
Speaker 1: I think everybody in the NFC North has to play him.
Speaker 1: The Vikings were the first one to play him, and
Speaker 1: everybody else is going to get a shot at him.
Speaker 1: To Joe Burrow's legit. If he can stay healthy, I
Speaker 1: think he's gonna give a lot of teams problems. I
Speaker 1: think there's some questions with their defense there, but you know,
Speaker 1: the Vikings, that's been the way this thing's gone for them.
Speaker 1: It's been a lot of ups and downs, and when
Speaker 1: you're up and down too much, you end up at
Speaker 1: that seven and nine, eight and eight level. So some
Speaker 1: questions that Mike Zimmers group has to answer. But getting
Speaker 1: bringing it back to Detroit to close this thing up,
Speaker 1: they showed a lot of heart, they showed a lot
Speaker 1: of desire and I still you know, they lost Jeff
Speaker 1: Acuda this week, so that's gonna be a big loss
Speaker 1: for them for the season. Young cornerback that had a
Speaker 1: fantastic camp and looked like he was making the strides
Speaker 1: they wanted to after a rough rookie year. So they're
Speaker 1: gonna have to rally the troops, but they present a
Speaker 1: lot of issues, Mike, you know, with t J Hockenson
Speaker 1: kind of coming on. Certainly the two headed Ackfield um
Speaker 1: and Jared Goff has been there, done that, so they're
Speaker 1: gonna come in wanting to be you know, find a
Speaker 1: way to come in and upend the Green Bay. So
Speaker 1: that's something that Matt Floor is gonna have to have
Speaker 1: these guys ready for. Yeah, well, the first NFC North
Speaker 1: matchup of one, it's already here in week two. With that,
Speaker 1: we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team all week long. We've got it for you on
Speaker 1: Packers dot com for West, I'm Mike. Thank you for
Speaker 1: tuning in everybody. We'll see you next time.