Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford. He is Wes Hogkowitz. We're coming
Speaker 1: to you here from our studios at lambeau Field and West.
Speaker 1: It is Tuesday. The Packers Vikings game is in the
Speaker 1: rear view mirror, but it hasn't quite disappeared yet. Because
Speaker 1: for anybody who thought that the NFL might come out
Speaker 1: and say, well, you know that play by Clay Matthews,
Speaker 1: that wasn't exactly what we had in mind in terms
Speaker 1: of roughing the passer, well it turns out it's exactly
Speaker 1: what the NFL had in mind for roughing the pastor
Speaker 1: because that play as well as the one by Eric
Speaker 1: they hit by Eric kendricks On Aaron Rodgers is at
Speaker 1: the end of the first half, which was just as questionable,
Speaker 1: are both being used now by the NFL is examples
Speaker 1: on tape that they are distributing to teams around the
Speaker 1: league to say this is what you are not supposed
Speaker 1: to do when you hit the quarterback. I don't know
Speaker 1: about you, but I was floored when I saw that. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: this reminds me of the old line my dad used
Speaker 1: to tell me when I was a kid, which was
Speaker 1: don't confuse the confused. It was really funny. Mike, you
Speaker 1: and I both obviously do the inbox. I I referenced
Speaker 1: it frequently. I don't know what it was like for
Speaker 1: vic in two thousand and twelve after the fail Mary,
Speaker 1: but I mean the amount of comments, in questions and
Speaker 1: and toat takes that people have been submitting, it's blown
Speaker 1: me away. I guess that I probably got through maybe
Speaker 1: a quarter of the total submissions for the for the
Speaker 1: addition that we did on Tuesday morning. Yeah, the inboxes overflowing,
Speaker 1: and the only understandably so. Yeah. The only thing that
Speaker 1: I keep coming back to is, uh, how the NFL
Speaker 1: has such a stringent view of this Al River n
Speaker 1: the league office, what they believe is roughing the passer.
Speaker 1: But then you have Dean Blandino, who I think you
Speaker 1: would admit was probably the first of the I don't
Speaker 1: want to call him celebrity officials, but I mean he
Speaker 1: was the focal point of this thing for a while
Speaker 1: when he was the head of officiating. He has an
Speaker 1: entirely different opinion of and Mike Pereira as well, who
Speaker 1: was who was the Dean Blandino before Blandino took over.
Speaker 1: So my issue here isn't even with the call anymore.
Speaker 1: It's with the fact that you have all these guys
Speaker 1: who have held the office of the head of officiating
Speaker 1: and there isn't a consensus, and that concerns me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is, And I don't know west to me what
Speaker 1: I have a problem with. I think in trying to
Speaker 1: break this down into the into the simplest terms, what
Speaker 1: I have a problem with is the way anybody who
Speaker 1: is teaching junior high football and kids are putting on
Speaker 1: pads for the same time. If you are coaching how
Speaker 1: to tackle a ball carrier, you wrap up, you have
Speaker 1: to get their legs off the ground to make sure
Speaker 1: you get them on the ground. Now, obviously there are
Speaker 1: things that you can do within that that would be
Speaker 1: considered unnecessary roughness. There are ways in which you can
Speaker 1: rough up a player that is not necessary. But what
Speaker 1: Eric Kendricks and Clay Matthews did, if it's not against
Speaker 1: the quarterback, it is a form tackle that is exactly
Speaker 1: how you're supposed to teach and coach the game. So
Speaker 1: and I understand quarterbacks need to be treated differently for
Speaker 1: the sake of the league and the television ratings and
Speaker 1: the competitiveness and everything else about that. But this is
Speaker 1: going a little bit too far because because what those
Speaker 1: guys did in that Packers Vikings game, if they do that,
Speaker 1: if they do that against any other player carrying the football,
Speaker 1: that is a four star a plus tackle, because that
Speaker 1: is exactly how you're supposed to do it. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And I was really pleased that Mike McCarthy had mentioned
Speaker 1: Eric Kendricks too and his I guess unnecessary roughnest penalty
Speaker 1: on Aaron Rodgers because you and I have been saying
Speaker 1: this since game day. It wasn't just the Matthews play,
Speaker 1: it was the Kendricks one as well. That was pretty questionable. Uh.
Speaker 1: And and I think it creates, you know, sort of
Speaker 1: this confusion. This Uh, it's just an air of uncertainty
Speaker 1: that you do not want to have when you're trying
Speaker 1: to play as fast as possible, as clean as possible,
Speaker 1: but trying to play the game fast. The part I'm
Speaker 1: struggling with the most right now as we get into
Speaker 1: now week three and we move forward, is that. And
Speaker 1: I still at this point in time, have not seen
Speaker 1: the officiating video I'm very interested the league sends it out,
Speaker 1: it's available to the media, I'm really interested to watch
Speaker 1: it because this is how this isn't a precedent for
Speaker 1: Week two. This is the precedent for the rest of
Speaker 1: the season and how this thing is going to be called.
Speaker 1: And uh for a for a pass rusher to be
Speaker 1: in a spot right now that they have so many
Speaker 1: different thoughts going through their head when traditionally it was
Speaker 1: just getting the quarterback. Mike McCarthy put it as well
Speaker 1: as I think you can put it. You want to
Speaker 1: protect the quarterback. Everybody's on board with protecting the quarterback.
Speaker 1: That's a necessity for the league, but you also don't
Speaker 1: want to create a comparative competitive disadvantage for the defense.
Speaker 1: And I don't know, Mike, but that kind of what
Speaker 1: this smells like right now. Yeah, And as McCarthy suggested,
Speaker 1: not all the variables are being taken into account here,
Speaker 1: because you know, he even said, when when a quarterback
Speaker 1: is throwing a ball, especially throwing a deep ball as
Speaker 1: in the case with with Cousins on the past that
Speaker 1: Jayer Alexander intercepted, you know, there's a lot of force,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of momentum of the quarterback's body. Well,
Speaker 1: you know he's gonna be a little lighter on his
Speaker 1: feet at that point, and then if contact happens, yeah,
Speaker 1: his feet are going to be off the ground. But
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that the guy who's hitting him is
Speaker 1: trying to lift and drive him into the ground. That's
Speaker 1: just that's sort of what naturally happens in the low
Speaker 1: of these athletes doing what they do and trying to
Speaker 1: do their jobs. So, as McCarthy said, and I agree
Speaker 1: with you, I thought he put it very succinctly and
Speaker 1: very clearly. There there are some variables that aren't being
Speaker 1: considered here in the application of this, and the league
Speaker 1: needs to get to the bottom of it and needs
Speaker 1: to provide some kind of clarity because otherwise, and I
Speaker 1: don't mean to take this to the absurd extreme, but otherwise,
Speaker 1: I don't know what you tell a defensive player to
Speaker 1: do when he gets to the quarterback, aside then from
Speaker 1: wrap your arms around him in a bear hug, hold
Speaker 1: him up and wait for the official to blow the whistle,
Speaker 1: because that is the only way you can guarantee yourself
Speaker 1: that you're not going to be called for roughing or
Speaker 1: get a penalty or get a fine or whatever else
Speaker 1: goes along with it. Um and and hey, these these
Speaker 1: players hate it when those flags come out. They hate
Speaker 1: it when their pocketbooks get hit for this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And uh, I'm not sure what they're going to do
Speaker 1: and how they go forward from here. It's very interesting
Speaker 1: because as I went back and watched the game, there
Speaker 1: basically is one technique right now that appears to be
Speaker 1: fully legal, no question about it, when it comes to
Speaker 1: sack in the quarterback. And we saw it on both
Speaker 1: sides of the ball in that game, which is kind
Speaker 1: of just bulldozing over the quarterback in the quarterback basically
Speaker 1: turtling up. That's kind of what happened on the Kenny
Speaker 1: Clark one, and it's what happened on a couple of
Speaker 1: the Aaron Rodgers ones when he wasn't able to escape
Speaker 1: the pocket. The sack, you know, the defender basically goes
Speaker 1: over the top of the quarterback, the quarterback turtles up
Speaker 1: and and that's a sack. If if it's not that,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so you can't hit him in the head,
Speaker 1: you can't hit him too low in the legs. And
Speaker 1: now we're talking about the core of the body where
Speaker 1: if you're putting your head down to attack the quarterback
Speaker 1: in a clean fashion, moving your head to the side,
Speaker 1: you don't know what he's doing with that football. I
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah. Well, and and that's what Mike Daniels
Speaker 1: ran into because he gets right in there. He's still
Speaker 1: got a blocker working on him, but he he gets
Speaker 1: enough of an escape to possibly get to Cousins. But
Speaker 1: then Cousins pump fakes with the ball and Daniels thinks
Speaker 1: the ball is gone. I can't take this guy and
Speaker 1: throw him on the ground because I'm going to get
Speaker 1: a penalty and a fine and everything else. Well, then
Speaker 1: Cousin still has the ball, avoids a ten yard loss
Speaker 1: and gets back to the line of scrimmage. That's not
Speaker 1: football either, That's that's not how this is supposed to go.
Speaker 1: So I know we're gonna be talking about this, I think,
Speaker 1: for for a long time, all season long, because they're
Speaker 1: going to continue to be plays that come up. And
Speaker 1: the more of these plays occur in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: of close games, and we all know how many close
Speaker 1: games there are in this league, it's going to continue
Speaker 1: to be a discussion. Well, and here's The other factor
Speaker 1: this to the NFL is making an example of claim
Speaker 1: Matthews this week on Friday, the NFL will announce or
Speaker 1: reporters will start announcing fines. If Clay Matthews gets fine,
Speaker 1: and if they're making it a point in emphasis, you
Speaker 1: can kind of, you know, connect the dots. He has
Speaker 1: the opportunity to appeal that fine. This thing's gonna keep
Speaker 1: having a domino effect going forward. So I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's not just this game. It's gonna be week to week. Now.
Speaker 1: I saw the other there was another game across the
Speaker 1: league that there was a player I don't know who
Speaker 1: it is, excuse me, but a guy got too rough
Speaker 1: in the pastor yes, it was a player for New
Speaker 1: Orleans and I can't think of his name at the moment,
Speaker 1: but yeah, too roughing the passer penalty. So they basically
Speaker 1: doubled his fine. And because he's essentially like a league
Speaker 1: minimum salary guy, his two fines are larger than his
Speaker 1: game check. He basically paid the NFL to play a game.
Speaker 1: Something's not right about that. Yeah, it's nice deduction, I suppose.
Speaker 1: But anyway, well, uh, some quick little sponsor business here West.
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Speaker 1: We Believe in Better. Okay, Staying on the topic of
Speaker 1: quarterbacks for a moment, a little bit of discussion on
Speaker 1: Monday in the aftermath of the Packers VI Kings game
Speaker 1: on just how mobile Aaron Rodgers was in this game,
Speaker 1: certainly more mobile than I thought he would be taking
Speaker 1: off on the third and seven in the first quarter
Speaker 1: up the middle, scrambling for the first down. You know,
Speaker 1: the whole crowd in Lambeau Field kind of collectively holding
Speaker 1: its breath. But as the game went on, he got
Speaker 1: more and more mobile. And in fact, when you look
Speaker 1: at say that that pass in the fourth quarter in
Speaker 1: the end zone to Davante Adams, the one that Eric
Speaker 1: Kendricks kind of ripped away and there was that collision
Speaker 1: in the end zone that might have sealed the game
Speaker 1: for the Packers. Aaron Rodgers was you know, looked pretty
Speaker 1: close to the old Aaron Rodgers slipping out, escaping the
Speaker 1: pocket and throwing the ball on the run. That's hopefully
Speaker 1: a good sign here for the Packers going forward, because
Speaker 1: he looked like a different quarterback than in the second
Speaker 1: half against Chicago. And Mike McCarthy mentioned too, even seeing
Speaker 1: him after taking a majority of the reps on Saturday,
Speaker 1: he looked a lot more mobile. He said. He still
Speaker 1: didn't have anything dialed up for him. There were no
Speaker 1: designed quarterback runs at all, but he did look a
Speaker 1: lot better than he did in the second half against Chicago.
Speaker 1: I thought, Lane Taylor I wrote about this for the
Speaker 1: website on Monday night, and we wrote about it on
Speaker 1: Inbox on Tuesday morning. Tailor at such a great point
Speaker 1: when he was talking to the media on Monday and
Speaker 1: saying there was a lot of there was a big
Speaker 1: benefit to him, you know, squirming out and getting that
Speaker 1: seven yard pick up for the first down on third down,
Speaker 1: because that showed the vikings early on that you at
Speaker 1: least had to account for him. Yeah, maybe he won't
Speaker 1: be extending plays like he usually does. But you also
Speaker 1: can't just think, Okay, well, we don't need a spy
Speaker 1: on him. You started to see the spy steak back
Speaker 1: up there again. It kept them a little bit more honest,
Speaker 1: and that opened things up a little bit more for
Speaker 1: Rogers in the passing game. His number one weapon, Mike
Speaker 1: is the fact that you don't know what he's gonna
Speaker 1: do on a give him play. He can make an
Speaker 1: adjustment at the line of scrimmage once the play develops.
Speaker 1: If things break down, he can make plays on the
Speaker 1: scrambled trill. So having his full arsenal at least being
Speaker 1: able to showcase some of it. I think that was
Speaker 1: big for this Vikings game. And barring any setbacks with
Speaker 1: Washington Buffalo, every team that comes up on the schedule
Speaker 1: there gonna see that tape and they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: understand that. Okay, you know, Aaron Rodgers, while he maybe
Speaker 1: not is, he's still Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, He's not a
Speaker 1: statue back there in the pocket. And I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I agree with Lane Taylor that that was a factor
Speaker 1: in the game. There's no there's no question about it.
Speaker 1: And we'll see Aaron Rodgers. He normally talks to the
Speaker 1: media on Wednesdays during the week, so tomorrow when we
Speaker 1: hear from him, we will see because I think the
Speaker 1: first question, or unless people are going to ask about
Speaker 1: the roughing, the path and stuff, but one of the
Speaker 1: first questions he will get, I think is, Okay, it's Wednesday.
Speaker 1: How do you feel this Wednesday compared to last Wednesday
Speaker 1: when you're three days removed from the game. Because if
Speaker 1: he's feeling, if he's feeling better week to week, as
Speaker 1: as he goes through this, we know that will be
Speaker 1: a positive sign for him to to get through this
Speaker 1: and and you know, maybe whatever after getting the week
Speaker 1: off at the bye in the middle of October, you know,
Speaker 1: then maybe the real old Aaron Rodgers will be will
Speaker 1: be back to full strength after that. We'll see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have to see. And obviously things can change week
Speaker 1: to week. Certainly the Packers are hoping that he can
Speaker 1: continue to make progress throughout this whole process and not
Speaker 1: have any setbacks. But as Lane Taylor also mentioned, you know,
Speaker 1: he's the kind of guy that he's he doesn't throw
Speaker 1: caution to the wind. I mean, he knows how to
Speaker 1: play football, and he knows how to play it one way,
Speaker 1: and that's to win and put everything he has on
Speaker 1: the field. It was a commendable performance. I know, Geronimo Allison,
Speaker 1: a number of guys really, you know, praised him for
Speaker 1: for what he put out on the field. Both Taylor
Speaker 1: and McCarthy called him a warrior in separate separate interviews.
Speaker 1: So it is amazing, I think when you look at
Speaker 1: what he put himself through in sixteen, in fourteen with
Speaker 1: the lower body injuries, the soft tissue injuries last year,
Speaker 1: coming back on the early side of that timeline with
Speaker 1: the shoulder, Rogers wants to do what he has to
Speaker 1: do to win, and this is another example of it. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: we promised on yesterday's show because we did not really
Speaker 1: get to our glance around the league with everything that
Speaker 1: had happened in that nine tie against the Vikings. But
Speaker 1: we did touch on the fact that only two teams
Speaker 1: in the NFC right now at two and no after
Speaker 1: two games, the Los Angeles Rams, a playoff team from
Speaker 1: a year ago defending division champions in the NFC West,
Speaker 1: and then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the Harvard grad
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick lighting things up. I think right now, based statistically,
Speaker 1: if you were to say, okay, who is the m
Speaker 1: v P of the NFL through the first two weeks
Speaker 1: would be a toss up between Patrick Mahomes from Kansas
Speaker 1: City and Ryan Fitzpatrick, the quarterback from the Buccaneers. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if before the regular season started, if
Speaker 1: anybody thought those two would be in the m v
Speaker 1: P conversation here in the middle of September, you don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, no, nobody thought that. I got a kick
Speaker 1: out of one thing I saw on social media. They
Speaker 1: did a Venn diagram of who's going to be the
Speaker 1: m v P, and it was Ryan fits and then Patrick,
Speaker 1: and then they had the two circles going over each
Speaker 1: other and then it merging into Patrick Mahomes. It is amazing.
Speaker 1: It's it's amazing what Mahomes has done, how efficient he's been.
Speaker 1: I think he has what a one forty three passer
Speaker 1: rating right now. It's something for Kansas City and in Fitzpatrick.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing about Fitzpatrick. This isn't a shocker because
Speaker 1: he's had big games that Buffalo Bills with Chan Gailey
Speaker 1: there the late two thousands, early two thousand tens. They
Speaker 1: had some potent offenses, but turnovers were an issue. I
Speaker 1: think that's gonna be the big thing for Fitzpatrick is
Speaker 1: being able to limit those because everybody knows he can
Speaker 1: throw the football. He has a heck of an arm.
Speaker 1: He's as smart as they come at the position. So
Speaker 1: to have them be able to have this success and
Speaker 1: beat the defending Super Bowl champions, obviously, it puts them
Speaker 1: in the driver's seat right now. And what has always
Speaker 1: been a very competitive NFC South, Yeah, well, nobody in
Speaker 1: the NFC North is two and oh Packers and Vikings
Speaker 1: at one oh and one. We see the Chicago Bears
Speaker 1: move up to one and one with their Monday night
Speaker 1: victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle takes another one on
Speaker 1: the chin, they fall to oh and two, and um
Speaker 1: kind of West's the same old story we've been talking
Speaker 1: about with Seattle for the last few years now, and
Speaker 1: that is they have not been able to fix that
Speaker 1: offensive line and uh, and it's a it's a grab
Speaker 1: bag back there with Russell Wilson as to whether he
Speaker 1: has will have any time to throw, whether he can
Speaker 1: get away and make plays on the run and all that.
Speaker 1: The Bears defense, you know, kind of swallowed him up
Speaker 1: and wasn't until the fourth quarter. You know, Wilson got
Speaker 1: some things going and and then in the in the
Speaker 1: desperation to come back, he throws a pick six that
Speaker 1: that seals the game for Chicago's defense. Yeah, you can
Speaker 1: just see Russell Wilson is the NFL quarterback has to
Speaker 1: lift his team. It comes with the job description. But
Speaker 1: it just seems like every year we're seeing Wilson have
Speaker 1: to shoulder a little bit more. Uh. And and you've
Speaker 1: seen a little bit of an erosion of the defense. Uh.
Speaker 1: They're running game in the post Marshawn Lynch era has
Speaker 1: not really been overly effective. Uh And certainly trying to,
Speaker 1: you know, get their weapons figured out there. They put
Speaker 1: a big investment into Lockett Tyler Lockett this offseason, trying
Speaker 1: to find ways to integrate him into the offense. But
Speaker 1: ultimately it is about the protection and it is about
Speaker 1: giving Russell Wilson the time he needs a throw. Because
Speaker 1: he is a very unique quarterback. It makes a unique
Speaker 1: requirement of that offensive front. They've not been able to
Speaker 1: do it. Credit to the Chicago Bears, though. Six sacks
Speaker 1: for Vic Fangio's defense a lot of pressure on Wilson.
Speaker 1: We both know how difficult he is the sack getting
Speaker 1: six sacks against him, that's not an easy accomplishment. And
Speaker 1: the number one thought I that went through my head
Speaker 1: as I saw some of the clips of this game
Speaker 1: was that I still, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: think the Packers did the right thing for themselves as
Speaker 1: an organization. I think the Bears and Ryan Pace did
Speaker 1: the best made the best decision possible for their team.
Speaker 1: I think the outlier right now is the Raiders and
Speaker 1: seeing you know, when you have a talent that that's
Speaker 1: that unique, that good, that's it's tough to give those
Speaker 1: up in the prime of their career. They did that,
Speaker 1: and now they're going to have to deal with the
Speaker 1: after effects of it. They're all in two now going
Speaker 1: into week three. Yeah, and the rest of the rest
Speaker 1: of the NFC North is going to have to deal
Speaker 1: with Khalil Mack twice a year now. The Packers. I
Speaker 1: have one of those two out of the way. But
Speaker 1: I'll say this about the Bears, what what I'm curious
Speaker 1: to see because they're obviously feeling their way with Matt
Speaker 1: Naggie's off fense, a lot of the misdirection at sometimes
Speaker 1: it looks like a college offense. And I don't mean
Speaker 1: that as an insult. I'm saying it looks like just
Speaker 1: just all the all the trickery in some ways, with
Speaker 1: the motion and the misdirection and the read options stuff
Speaker 1: and all that it it looks like a college offense
Speaker 1: out there. What I'm wondering is at what point are
Speaker 1: they gonna cut mits Rubisky loose and let him attack
Speaker 1: down the field. Because what I've seen from the Bears offense,
Speaker 1: and I realized it's only two games and they're making
Speaker 1: their way here with the new coaching staff in the
Speaker 1: new offense, but you can't play offense like that for
Speaker 1: sixteen games in the NFL and expect to succeed because
Speaker 1: you have to make plays down the field. Trabinsky hasn't
Speaker 1: done it yet, and I'm not saying he can't um
Speaker 1: but whether or not he does, I think is what's
Speaker 1: going to define Chicago's offense as this season goes along. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought last year they were pretty conservative with him.
Speaker 1: He had six point six yards per completion. This year
Speaker 1: it's five point four, So it's actually gone down in
Speaker 1: the first two weeks of this season. I think there's
Speaker 1: a delicate Allan's there, especially when you play a quarterback.
Speaker 1: Early you heard Patrick Mahomes talk about what he felt
Speaker 1: the benefit was. I know John Dorsey was very stringent
Speaker 1: proponent of it, letting a young quarterback sit uh and
Speaker 1: I don't think there's a right or wrong way. But
Speaker 1: Mahomes said, I mean how much he learned from watching
Speaker 1: Alex Smith on the top level quarterback in this league
Speaker 1: that's done it for a long time, and now jumping
Speaker 1: into the driver's seat as opposed to Trubisky where you
Speaker 1: do have the training wheels off at first, but the
Speaker 1: question becomes, well when do you take them off? Because
Speaker 1: they wanted they wanted to sit Trubisky, but Mike Glennon
Speaker 1: didn't didn't get the job done, and they they had
Speaker 1: to pull the plug on it and throw them in there.
Speaker 1: So their plan just didn't work out the way they want.
Speaker 1: So the question is now is is how do you
Speaker 1: approach this Because at the end of the day, when
Speaker 1: you take a quarterback, when you trade up to take
Speaker 1: a quarterback like they did with Rubinsky, you're taking him
Speaker 1: because of his playmaking ability. And I think right now
Speaker 1: They've been very safe with him and certainly was a
Speaker 1: game plan that allowed them to beat Seattle. But as
Speaker 1: you said, over the course of a sixteen game regular season,
Speaker 1: if you have a young quarterback that you believe in,
Speaker 1: at some point you have to kind of let, you know,
Speaker 1: loosen the reins a little bit. Yeah, And just to
Speaker 1: touch on the Detroit Lions in the NFC North before
Speaker 1: we go, they are owing two for them, a rough
Speaker 1: start under new head coach Matt Patricia. And we'll be
Speaker 1: talking about the Lions soon enough here with the Packers
Speaker 1: heading to Detroit in a few weeks. But um, I'll
Speaker 1: just say this. I watched the highlights, the full extended
Speaker 1: highlights on NFL dot Com of the Lions game at
Speaker 1: San Francisco this uh this past weekend, and it didn't
Speaker 1: look good for a while if the Lions were down
Speaker 1: thirty in the fourth quarter. But I tell you what,
Speaker 1: Matthew Stafford in the fourth quarter, he just he just
Speaker 1: becomes a different player. He brought those guys back, He
Speaker 1: got two touchdowns. They were at thirty to twenty seven.
Speaker 1: The defense gets a huge interception that they run back
Speaker 1: all the way into the red zone in the last
Speaker 1: two minutes where it's looking like they're at least going
Speaker 1: to tie, if not win the game, but the interception
Speaker 1: gets called back on a defensive holding penalty. Folks in
Speaker 1: Detroit just as upset about the officiating as as people
Speaker 1: in Green Bay this week. So I just throw that
Speaker 1: out there because the Detroit Lions were on the verge
Speaker 1: of a potentially season turning type of comeback on the
Speaker 1: road against a pretty decent San Francisco team and it
Speaker 1: and it didn't work out. But I guess my point is,
Speaker 1: don't let that O and two record fool you. I
Speaker 1: know they look bad in Week one, but they were
Speaker 1: a different team in Week two. Know they were, and
Speaker 1: I think the San Francisco forty niners are a different
Speaker 1: team going into this season. They weren't the pushovers that
Speaker 1: they were throughout most of last year before and even
Speaker 1: the year before that, you know, before the Jimmy Garoppolo
Speaker 1: era started. The thing about the Lions is there's pieces there.
Speaker 1: You can see Carrie on Johnson has a lot of talent.
Speaker 1: At what point do they kind of just dedicate to
Speaker 1: him as the running back? You know, they've been really
Speaker 1: careful with him the first couple of weeks. I do
Speaker 1: believe he is the guy to kind of break that
Speaker 1: hundred yard rushing mark that I think they have in
Speaker 1: a class whatever years. Uh and and certainly Matthew Stafford
Speaker 1: is one of the top of the best in the
Speaker 1: league when it comes to quarterback. My biggest question is
Speaker 1: do they have enough you know, guys on defense to
Speaker 1: take them where they need to go, Because we've seen
Speaker 1: in this post Kelvin Johnson era what ever can do
Speaker 1: with this offense. He just needs a little help. And
Speaker 1: in the times in which they've faltered, it's just not
Speaker 1: being able to get enough of those auxiliary pieces to
Speaker 1: complement what he's doing. In they don't have the defensive
Speaker 1: front that they had a handful of years ago. The
Speaker 1: and Dominquan Sioux and those guys that were really the
Speaker 1: core of of that defense they're gone and Matt Patricia's
Speaker 1: job is to is to put it back together, um
Speaker 1: and and and get them back to where they need
Speaker 1: to be defensively to compete in the NFC North. But
Speaker 1: with that, we're going to call it a wrap on
Speaker 1: this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all
Speaker 1: of our coverage of the team on packers dot com
Speaker 1: on Twitter, he's still at west Hod, I'm still at
Speaker 1: Mike Spofford, and the team account is still at Packers.
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.