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 had Quitz. We're coming to you here
Speaker 2: from our studios at Lambeufield, coming off of the bye week, Wes,
Speaker 2: how is your time off?
Speaker 3: Not long enough? Enough of it? But man, I always
Speaker 3: say I hate the bye week. I always say this,
Speaker 3: hate the bye week because you start to remember what
Speaker 3: it's like to live a normal life again.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then and then it changes right.
Speaker 4: Back, and it goes right back.
Speaker 3: When do you have a responsibility at nine am on Monday? No,
Speaker 3: it was great. It was a great week. I got
Speaker 3: to spend some time with the kiddo. I got to
Speaker 3: catch up on Peaky Blinders. I finished an entire season
Speaker 3: at Peaky Blinders. Work, watched a little bit of football,
Speaker 3: didn't do anything too extravagant. But you know what I
Speaker 3: did do. I got my life in order and I
Speaker 3: was really excited about that.
Speaker 2: Well, that's always helpful for the second half of the season.
Speaker 2: So I managed to take a trip back home. I
Speaker 2: went to visit my visited my.
Speaker 1: Old high school.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, how are the children.
Speaker 1: I actually didn't even see my children.
Speaker 4: Oh no, I met the platfilms.
Speaker 1: Oh, the Platvial children.
Speaker 4: I hope your children are doing well though.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my children are doing just fine. The platvil children are,
Speaker 2: They're in good shape. They they were excited to uh,
Speaker 2: they were excited to hear. I was one of dozens
Speaker 2: of presenters at career day Nice High School, so it
Speaker 2: was a big, big crowd of us, but I was
Speaker 2: one of the few who was actually a platfl High
Speaker 2: school graduate, so that sort of like got their attention, like, oh,
Speaker 2: you actually went to school.
Speaker 1: Here kind of thing.
Speaker 4: So it's pretty nifty man.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I went back and spoke at Bayport once. I
Speaker 3: asked to never do it again. I love Bayport, but
Speaker 3: I'm never gonna I'm never speaking again.
Speaker 2: Well, this one was a first for me. We'll see
Speaker 2: if they invite me back. I'm not entirely sure. But anyway,
Speaker 2: so it's time to talk about date the state of
Speaker 2: the Green Bay Packers six and three, and I think
Speaker 2: the hope here we'll talk about things kind of on
Speaker 2: both sides of the ball, but I think the biggest
Speaker 2: thing that both sides of the ball for the Packers
Speaker 2: are looking for offensive and defensively, is one to get
Speaker 2: back to full health or as close as possible to
Speaker 2: full health, particularly with regard to some very key players,
Speaker 2: but then also to find a way to play that
Speaker 2: complete game, that full four quarter performance that becomes something
Speaker 2: you can hang your hat on, that thing that you
Speaker 2: can that your side of the ball can build on.
Speaker 2: As we get closer to the stretch run of the
Speaker 2: season here, it kind of seems like in different ways,
Speaker 2: both sides of the ball for the Packers are still
Speaker 2: looking for that.
Speaker 3: Nice thing about the bye week is you get a
Speaker 3: chance to sort of take stock of everything. And I
Speaker 3: know I was hitting everyone really hard with the fact
Speaker 3: that the Packers are six and three right now through
Speaker 3: nine games, as opposed to three and six last year
Speaker 3: and already had the bye week behind them and then
Speaker 3: ended up having to play I think maybe it was
Speaker 3: thirteen straight games to finish out the season and get
Speaker 3: on that run that they did.
Speaker 4: There's so much better position this year.
Speaker 3: But another thing I've been kind of drilling home with people,
Speaker 3: and something I truly believe is once you kind of
Speaker 3: get away from the Detroit loss a little bit, you
Speaker 3: start to realize at least in my own opinion, how
Speaker 3: close this Packers team is. They're close, I think Offensively,
Speaker 3: you look at what they were able to do Michael
Speaker 3: and the fact that they ranked top ten, top five
Speaker 3: and so many offensive categories despite not having Jordan Love
Speaker 3: for three games, despite not being able to get over
Speaker 3: this penalty thing, and having these ebbs and flows to that,
Speaker 3: you know, some drop passes, some miscommunication and they're still
Speaker 3: producing at that level of efficiency. The amount of people
Speaker 3: that gotten involved in this thing, the fact that there
Speaker 3: was that little bit of a situation with Romeo Dobbs,
Speaker 3: but it seems like everybody has moved past that. I
Speaker 3: just there's so much like offensive bit of what Green
Speaker 3: Bay is doing. And defensively, I think is the area
Speaker 3: where they really as important as the Jordan Love situation
Speaker 3: is and getting him healthy at this knee and all
Speaker 3: these other things that he's dealt with now more recently
Speaker 3: the groin. Defensively, if you can get Evan Williams back,
Speaker 3: if you can get jay r Alexander back, if you
Speaker 3: can get some of these stalwarts now on your defensive
Speaker 3: side of the ball that have really emerged in the
Speaker 3: first half of the season. Again, there's a lot of
Speaker 3: improvement that has to happen. But considering where Green Bay
Speaker 3: was and how daunting it looked at being three and
Speaker 3: six last year, I think six and three is a
Speaker 3: massive opportunity for this football team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with you. I think the Packers are close.
Speaker 2: And let's stay on the defensive side of the ball
Speaker 2: for a minute, because while I think the story of
Speaker 2: the first half of the season, if you want to
Speaker 2: call it that slightly more than half, has been the
Speaker 2: turnovers on defense, the takeaways, and the aggresive nons with
Speaker 2: which they have played, I think this is a defense,
Speaker 2: as you say, that is close in the sense that
Speaker 2: it's right there to where you don't feel like you
Speaker 2: have to go into a game counting on getting takeaways
Speaker 2: to be successful. For that defense, I think they're getting
Speaker 2: closer to the point. Of course you want them. They're
Speaker 2: the game changing type of plays, but I think this
Speaker 2: defense is getting closer to where it doesn't have to
Speaker 2: rely on them.
Speaker 1: I think health will have a lot to do with that.
Speaker 2: But the big question is can the pass rush establish
Speaker 2: a certain level of play in a certain consistency that
Speaker 2: can be relied upon. And since our last show the
Speaker 2: Packers traded Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a
Speaker 2: seventh round draft pick. Found out then the next day
Speaker 2: that Preston Smith had actually requested the trade. Didn't feel
Speaker 2: like he was fitting in with the transition from the
Speaker 2: three to four front to the four to three. It's
Speaker 2: a ten year vet. He's played his whole career as
Speaker 2: an edge rusher in a three to four. So the
Speaker 2: Packers accommodated that they got a seventh round draft pick
Speaker 2: in return. What that does, is, of course, open a
Speaker 2: tremendous window of opportunity, not only for guys who have
Speaker 2: already been playing regularly in kings Leannigbari and Lucas van
Speaker 2: Ness behind Rashaan Gary, who's certainly the leader of that
Speaker 2: group now and has been for a while long with Preston,
Speaker 2: but also a window of opportunity for younger guys who
Speaker 2: have either barely played or haven't played. And of course
Speaker 2: I'm talking about Aaron Mosby and Brenton Cox junior. So
Speaker 2: the Packers didn't go out and add an edge rusher
Speaker 2: at the deadline. They ended up they traded one because
Speaker 2: he requested it. It's interesting to me because the more
Speaker 2: I thought about this trade and its ramifications, moving on
Speaker 2: from Preston Smith and everything over the bye week, it
Speaker 2: took me back to last season and to a lot
Speaker 2: of the things that Brian Gudakunt said after the season
Speaker 2: was over over in that from a personnel side of things,
Speaker 2: if the Packers feel they have young players who are capable,
Speaker 2: then the answer is they have to let them play,
Speaker 2: and they have to let them grow and develop by playing.
Speaker 2: There's a lot to be said for watching the veterans
Speaker 2: do it, for watching the Preston Smiths and the Rashan.
Speaker 1: Garys of the world do it.
Speaker 2: But if these guys are going to become the players
Speaker 2: that the personnel department believes they have and believes they
Speaker 2: can become, then they have to play. And this is
Speaker 2: opening that window of opportunity for guys like Mosby and
Speaker 2: Cox to play.
Speaker 3: It's an astute point and I will dive into that
Speaker 3: fully here in one moment, but before I do so,
Speaker 3: I just need to say one last.
Speaker 4: Word here about Preston Smith.
Speaker 3: Sure, because in a day and age where guys raise
Speaker 3: hell and if they don't like something, they make it
Speaker 3: known in the media, They make it known in the public.
Speaker 3: They take it out in channels in which should not
Speaker 3: be explored. Preston Smith very quietly said to the Green
Speaker 3: Bits his representation of the Packers, Hey, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm not fitting in? I don't you know nobody knew
Speaker 3: about that?
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: The guys in the locker room said no, I was not,
Speaker 3: you know, talking to basically all these edge rushers saying no,
Speaker 3: I mean he never made that known. That was something
Speaker 3: the personnel department dealt with, something Brian Dudekunz dealt with.
Speaker 3: Something Preston Smith dealt with. If he got traded, great,
Speaker 3: If he doesn't, no one would have ever even knew
Speaker 3: that that situation was broach. My hat goes off to
Speaker 3: Preston Smith. Five and a half years here, he finishes
Speaker 3: his time here, six all time in sacks since nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty to two. And the fact that this guy gave
Speaker 3: so much to this team and had such an impact
Speaker 3: on all these young pass rushers and still went about
Speaker 3: his business the way he did. I've said it before,
Speaker 3: I'll say it again. He never wore a captain's patch
Speaker 3: in Green Bay. But I will tell you this man,
Speaker 3: in terms of people that absolutely represented what that was
Speaker 3: Preston Smith was that person and everybody in that locker
Speaker 3: room knew that absolutely.
Speaker 2: And it's worth saying, and I'm glad you pointed it out.
Speaker 2: It's worth saying. The way this went down, I think
Speaker 2: not only says a lot about Preston Smith, but it
Speaker 2: also said a lot about the mutual respect that existed
Speaker 2: between Preston Smith and this organization. Because if Preston smith
Speaker 2: representation goes to the packers and requests a trade, if
Speaker 2: the packers are really upset about it and they don't
Speaker 2: like it, they could very easily leak it to the
Speaker 2: media and put Preston Smith on notice, and they make
Speaker 2: him look like the bad guy for requesting a trade.
Speaker 2: That didn't happen either. These were two sides that respected
Speaker 2: each other and understood the situation, and it just very
Speaker 2: quietly got resolved. And that's it's refreshing. I guess I'll
Speaker 2: just say, though, without getting into other examples, in.
Speaker 3: Preston's a guy that is going to be thirty two
Speaker 3: years old next week. He still has a lot of
Speaker 3: football ahead of him. If he feels like this scheme
Speaker 3: in that system is going to what's going to help
Speaker 3: him propel him to having a longer career. All the
Speaker 3: credit to him for that. That being said, to your
Speaker 3: original point, I think this is a massive opportunity and
Speaker 3: I think Aaron Moseby's a really interesting guy. I thought
Speaker 3: that was really cool. On his third snap on defense
Speaker 3: with the Packers, he hits his first sack or shares
Speaker 3: a sack with Rashan Gary. The guy I'm excited to
Speaker 3: see is Brenton Cox Junior. Because the thing is is
Speaker 3: the Packers use pretty much all those outside linebackers are
Speaker 3: they have on their special teams units. Lucas Banas has
Speaker 3: a role, kings Leanningbari has a role. Certainly, Moseby's a
Speaker 3: four core.
Speaker 4: Guy for them.
Speaker 3: That being said, Brenton Cox just hasn't been able to
Speaker 3: get into that GameDay situation because a lot of that
Speaker 3: is the special teams a lot of it. The guys
Speaker 3: ahead of him on the depth chart on defense are
Speaker 3: also ahead of him on the depth chart on special teams.
Speaker 3: This is a massive opportunity for him. This is a
Speaker 3: guy that has flashed so many times as a former
Speaker 3: five star recruit. Everybody knows his story, knows what he's overcome,
Speaker 3: knows the professionalism I think he showed in one and
Speaker 3: a half years here in Green Bay. Now he potentially
Speaker 3: has an opportunity to get some snaps on the field, because,
Speaker 3: as you said, Michael, that's where ultimately this learning has
Speaker 3: to take place. That's where you have to cut your teeth.
Speaker 3: That's where you have to sink or swim. Now, both
Speaker 3: him and Moseby, you'd imagine we'll get some of those
Speaker 3: snaps as well in that re Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's where it's It's how the Packers found out
Speaker 2: last year what they had in the rookie receivers and
Speaker 2: the rookie tight ends and the young guys that the
Speaker 2: personnel department believed in and said, hey, all right, like
Speaker 2: there are gonna be some bumps in the road, but
Speaker 2: you have to let these guys play, you have to
Speaker 2: let them develop. In this case, guys like Moseby and
Speaker 2: Cox undrafted guys not to not chosen in the draft.
Speaker 2: But I think the actions over the trade deadline certainly
Speaker 2: indicate that the Packers believe in these guys, and they
Speaker 2: believe that given the opportunity, Yes there are going to
Speaker 2: be some mistakes, Yes there may be some setbacks along
Speaker 2: the way, but given the opportunity to grow and develop
Speaker 2: that these are guys who can contribute to a contending team.
Speaker 2: So we're going to we're going to find that out.
Speaker 2: Shifting back to the offense for a second, and I
Speaker 2: wrote a story after our first kind of open locker
Speaker 2: room after the bye on Monday afternoon and looking into
Speaker 2: looking in this the statistics, and you mentioned offensively, how
Speaker 2: you know, the Packers have very very in some cases high,
Speaker 2: in other cases very respectable rankings in the offensive categories.
Speaker 2: There is a bit of a discrepancy though, in the
Speaker 2: fact that the Packers ranked third in the league in
Speaker 2: yards per game offensively, but only ninth in the league
Speaker 2: in points per game. And I think that discrepancy in
Speaker 2: those two rankings, both of which are plenty solid, of course,
Speaker 2: but the discrepancy in those two rankings, I think is
Speaker 2: an indication of the opportunities that the Packers offense has
Speaker 2: let get away. And those opportunities have gotten away for
Speaker 2: the reasons that we've discussed the drop passes and the
Speaker 2: penalties and the interceptions, because we talked about, you know,
Speaker 2: Jordan Love's number being too high there, I think what
Speaker 2: the Packers feel like offensively in the sense that I
Speaker 2: got in the locker room on Monday talking to Josh
Speaker 2: Jacobs and talking to Jayden Reid and talking to Josh
Speaker 2: Myers about what's out there for this offense. Not a
Speaker 2: one of them said anything about the schemes that defenses
Speaker 2: are playing and what the other team is doing to them.
Speaker 2: They're all looking at it as this is right in
Speaker 2: front of us. Yeah, we can fix this, we can
Speaker 2: perform better, we can put better numbers on the board.
Speaker 2: This is very much this is very much an inward
Speaker 2: looking team on offense saying it's all right in front
Speaker 2: of them to get it going to where they believe
Speaker 2: they can go.
Speaker 3: The number one thing when I looked at the Packers
Speaker 3: offense and going back and going through NFLGSIS twenty ninth
Speaker 3: in red zone offense right now, twenty fourth and goal
Speaker 3: to go in nineteenth and third downs, that's really the
Speaker 3: only area where Green Bay's kind of come up short
Speaker 3: is the situational stuff. Obviously, we make a lot out
Speaker 3: of the penalties, but if you look at the penalties
Speaker 3: green Bay, it's not like they're demonstrably higher than the
Speaker 3: rest of the NFL.
Speaker 4: It's just that they've had them happen at the wrong time.
Speaker 2: Right, it's the way, it's the when they've occurred, and
Speaker 2: a lot of them, particularly early in the year, were
Speaker 2: occurring in the red zone, which is then affecting the
Speaker 2: the point production at the end of the day.
Speaker 3: Had an impact, I think in the Detroit game as well,
Speaker 3: and being able to sustain drives and you know, it's
Speaker 3: one thing to move the football, it's another thing to
Speaker 3: be able to get the full six points out of it.
Speaker 3: And I feel like that's where Green Bay still has
Speaker 3: a lot left out there for them. I look at
Speaker 3: a guy like Romeo Dobbs, who has been just an absolute,
Speaker 3: you know, dream for a quarterback in the red zone.
Speaker 3: Can they get more opportunities for him. We'll see how
Speaker 3: everything goes here. With Christian Watson in the second half
Speaker 3: of the season, I think there's a lot out there
Speaker 3: for him as well. Josh Jacobs has been the third
Speaker 3: leading rusher in the National Football League. He finally got
Speaker 3: his first receiving touchdown during the first half of the season.
Speaker 3: Where can the Packers build this offense out with him
Speaker 3: as well? And as it sounds like from what Brian
Speaker 3: Gudkuin said last week, there's a potential that Marshawn Lloyd
Speaker 3: here will be back shortly as he works his way
Speaker 3: back from the ankle injury. So green Bay offensively should
Speaker 3: have their full allotment of weapons. That the other thing.
Speaker 3: And we'll preview the Bears game on Thursday and we'll
Speaker 3: get into this little bit more. But Green Bay's quarterbacks
Speaker 3: are the least sacked quarterbacks in the National Football League.
Speaker 3: They've had twelve sacks this season. The Bears have had
Speaker 3: the most. Now as far as this individual position, I
Speaker 3: think maybe Cleveland between the two quarterbacks, has more, but
Speaker 3: nobody's taken more sacks than Caleb Williams. The Packers' ability
Speaker 3: to keep the pocket clean give whether it's Jordan Love
Speaker 3: or Malik Willis, giving them a workable pocket and allowing
Speaker 3: playmakers to make plays. It's all been there for Green Bay.
Speaker 3: Can you finish these drives? That's where ultimately they need
Speaker 3: to get to.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I think it's out there. It's out there for
Speaker 2: the Packers. They know it, they see it. But as
Speaker 2: Josh Meyer said, you know when he was then asked
Speaker 2: as a hobb Okay, what does it take to get there?
Speaker 2: What does it take to really put yourself up there
Speaker 2: as one of the best offenses in the league. And
Speaker 2: he said it takes an intentionality every day to what
Speaker 2: you do and how you go about your work. And
Speaker 2: I think that's the you know, the inward looking message
Speaker 2: is is that that's the approach. And we'll see, I
Speaker 2: mean in a sense, we won't see because we don't
Speaker 2: get to watch practice, but maybe will hear and perhaps
Speaker 2: see in the results if some of the things that
Speaker 2: Matt Lafleur talked about in terms of changing the structure
Speaker 2: of practice a little bit, emphasizing certain things over others,
Speaker 2: if that ends up, you know, perhaps changing the results
Speaker 2: a little bit.
Speaker 1: For the better.
Speaker 2: Because and I say all that going back to your
Speaker 2: original point very early in the show talking about both
Speaker 2: sides of the ball, the Packers are close, like they
Speaker 2: are close. They are not far away from where they
Speaker 2: need to be and where they believe they should be,
Speaker 2: but they haven't gotten there.
Speaker 3: And you're never going to play a perfect game. There's
Speaker 3: going to be things that Green Bay did really well
Speaker 3: in the first half of the season that they maybe
Speaker 3: won't do as well in the second half, because that's
Speaker 3: just how this game is played. To the variables that
Speaker 3: are in play with it. But that being said, there's
Speaker 3: things that happened during the first half of the season
Speaker 3: that you just don't expect to happen over the course
Speaker 3: of an entire year. The receiver drops, right, I mean,
Speaker 3: there's guys in that equation that you expect they're going
Speaker 3: to be able to make those plays here going forward.
Speaker 2: Yea, guys who have been more reliable than they've shown
Speaker 2: in some of their worst moments.
Speaker 3: And the other thing is too And I'll close on this.
Speaker 3: I wish people maybe sometimes they get to see.
Speaker 4: These locker room interviews.
Speaker 3: Maybe they don't if you're on Packers dot Com or
Speaker 3: some of the local television stations, But like, I wish
Speaker 3: everybody could watch the six ten minutes whatever it was
Speaker 3: that Sean Ryan talked after the game against Detroit, Because
Speaker 3: when you talk about when fans get so upset and
Speaker 3: we see things in insider inbox and they don't like this,
Speaker 3: So why isn't this being fixed? How come they haven't
Speaker 3: gotten better in this area? If you would have listened
Speaker 3: to Sean Ryan after that game discussing his false start
Speaker 3: that ultimately pushed the Packers back from a third and
Speaker 3: three to a third and eight and then they end
Speaker 3: up having I think they punted on that one. Then, Yes,
Speaker 3: how seriously these guys take this and how much that
Speaker 3: bothered Sean afterwards. I'm sure it's something that still said
Speaker 3: he was thinking about going into the bye week. These
Speaker 3: guys want to get it right and they want to
Speaker 3: get things fixed, and they're not going to make excuses
Speaker 3: when you don't have Josh Myers and the communication changes
Speaker 3: on the offensive line and guys are trying to do
Speaker 3: different positions that they haven't normally played, they won't use
Speaker 3: those excuses. But at the same time, when you hear
Speaker 3: them lament their errors, hearing them for that understanding the
Speaker 3: emphasis in the intentionality to use that for a phrase. Again,
Speaker 3: these guys take this so serious. Yeah, and they want
Speaker 3: to come through for your team.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And we'll see when the team gets back on
Speaker 2: the practice field on Wednesday. We'll see where things are
Speaker 2: health wise with Jordan Love and with Josh Myers at
Speaker 2: center with the wrist injury, and as you mentioned that
Speaker 2: defense with jay r Alexander and Evan Williams, and hopefully
Speaker 2: the health report sort of turns in a more positive
Speaker 2: direction here. As the Packers hit the second half of
Speaker 2: the season, so I'll take care of a little bit
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Speaker 2: All right, Well, we sort of covered the state of
Speaker 2: the Packers at six and three, so let's shift gears
Speaker 2: into the state of the NFC nose because the Detroit
Speaker 2: Lions are eight and one, the Minnesota Vikings right behind
Speaker 2: at seven and two, the Packers right behind them at
Speaker 2: six and three, and the Chicago Bears this week's opponent
Speaker 2: for Green Bay, now four and five. And as we
Speaker 2: had talked about Wes, you know, they lose. They lose
Speaker 2: the game on the Hail Mary in Washington and suddenly
Speaker 2: everything is going haywire with their season. They've lost two
Speaker 2: more in a row since then. They've now fired their
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator, turned over the offense to the passing game
Speaker 2: coordinator Thomas Brown. So Shane Waldern is out, Thomas Brown
Speaker 2: is in trying to figure out trying to get the
Speaker 2: number one overall draft pick Caleb Williams going. But there
Speaker 2: is just there's a lot of turmoil.
Speaker 1: In Chicago right now.
Speaker 2: And even I mean when the home fans are channing
Speaker 2: for the head coach to be fired after a loss
Speaker 2: to the New England Patriots over the weekend, that's just
Speaker 2: that's a lot to deal with for the Packers neighbors
Speaker 2: to the south.
Speaker 3: They sure are, but the groom at Packers they is
Speaker 3: they're still looking for that first NFC North wind too.
Speaker 1: Very true.
Speaker 3: So kind of like the situation I look at with
Speaker 3: what happened to Jacksonville, this is another ponent you're not
Speaker 3: going to be able to just look past. You have
Speaker 3: to be able to go out there and set the tone.
Speaker 3: Matt Lafleur has yet to lose to the Chicago Bears
Speaker 3: as the head coach. Unfortunately, Preston Smith is no longer here.
Speaker 3: He had never lost at all at any interval of
Speaker 3: his career to the Chicago Bears, and unfortunately, I don't
Speaker 3: think we'll play them again this season. But all that
Speaker 3: being said, here's the thing that I look at this
Speaker 3: as sew or excuse me, Josh Jacobs said it as locker.
Speaker 4: I think it was after the Houston game.
Speaker 3: How football is a crazy game because you can almost
Speaker 3: see the momentum, you can feel it more than anything else.
Speaker 3: Doesn't matter what the box score says, doesn't matter what
Speaker 3: the statistics say. It's all momentum in that very moment.
Speaker 3: And it feels like the air got let out of
Speaker 3: the balloon for them in Washington, YEP, with that loss
Speaker 3: to Washington, and it had.
Speaker 2: They were four and two, on the verge of going
Speaker 2: to five and two and beating one of the up
Speaker 2: and coming teams in the league and the Washington Commanders,
Speaker 2: and as it was like the balloon popped on that one.
Speaker 3: Play in the craziest thing of all, Mike, I know
Speaker 3: you had to read my inbox when I was going
Speaker 3: off about this. Either twenty three straight drives now without
Speaker 3: a touchdown, but this stat about how Caleb Williams has
Speaker 3: neither a touchdown nor an interception in these last three games,
Speaker 3: it's it is mind boggling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's bizarre one way.
Speaker 4: Or the other.
Speaker 3: Like just that it goes three straight games with none
Speaker 3: of those scoring statistics. And that being said, I mean
Speaker 3: the other thing I look at for as much flak
Speaker 3: as Williams got, as much as the Bears offensive line
Speaker 3: got in that game against New England, the Patriots are
Speaker 3: a team that really have struggled to protect their quarterback,
Speaker 3: and the Bear's got one sack on Drake May So
Speaker 3: I mean there's a lot of things happen in that
Speaker 3: universe right now for Chicago, and none of it looks good.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll talk more about this on Thursday as we
Speaker 2: as we more directly preview the game. But it's really
Speaker 2: interesting from a preparation standpoint because it's not as though
Speaker 2: the Bears can completely, you know, overhaul the playbook because
Speaker 2: they fired their offensive coordinator and turned it over to
Speaker 2: somebody else. But that being said, you kind of have
Speaker 2: to be prepared maybe for some unscouted looks and for
Speaker 2: you know, some changeups and and things like that, some
Speaker 2: some out of character stuff maybe in the offense, because
Speaker 2: the new offensive coordinator is going to be looking for
Speaker 2: some kind of a jump start, something that's going to
Speaker 2: energize the offense and and get them going. So on
Speaker 2: the Packers side, from a preparation standpoint, it's not as
Speaker 2: easy necessarily as saying, oh, look the Patriots got like
Speaker 2: nine sacks of Caleb Williams, and you know we can
Speaker 2: we can you know sort of you know, look at
Speaker 2: look at what they did and see how that fits
Speaker 2: what we do, and that's going to be the plan.
Speaker 2: When there's changes like this going on, you can't just
Speaker 2: make assumptions like that. That being said, you don't want
Speaker 2: to be chasing ghosts trying to guess or figure out
Speaker 2: what they're.
Speaker 1: Going to do.
Speaker 2: But it becomes a very a very different kind of
Speaker 2: week from a preparation standpoint. And that being said, this
Speaker 2: Bears defense is no picnic.
Speaker 1: It's not.
Speaker 2: I mean, they didn't have a great game, certainly in Arizona,
Speaker 2: but in Washington and against the Patriots, the Bears defense.
Speaker 1: Played pretty darn well.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a solid unit.
Speaker 3: It's a unit that if you allow I mean, it's
Speaker 3: the way it's been with Matt ebraflus Over. I mean,
Speaker 3: they're going to play you competitively. It's just been a
Speaker 3: matter of what's going on with their offense and are
Speaker 3: they basically able to generate points in yards and production,
Speaker 3: and they were not able to do that against New England. Now,
Speaker 3: all that being said, what's funny to me in these
Speaker 3: instances is there's nothing more dangerous than a team or
Speaker 3: a person with nothing to lose. And we're entering those
Speaker 3: waters now for the Bears, because if this thing continues
Speaker 3: to turn, there won't be a year four for Ebraflus.
Speaker 3: There's going to be another change over again, and they're
Speaker 3: going to try to find another head coaching staff that
Speaker 3: can work with Caleb Williams to try to build him
Speaker 3: up the quarterback they feel.
Speaker 4: He can be.
Speaker 3: But all that being said is that's stuff for down
Speaker 3: the line. What the Packers have to worry about is
Speaker 3: this game at Soldier Field and again needing to pick
Speaker 3: up not only wins in this division, but wins in
Speaker 3: this conference. And Green Bay schedule as far as wins
Speaker 3: and losses are concerned, looks favorable during the second half,
Speaker 3: But you look at a San Francisco team that now
Speaker 3: has Christian McCaffrey back, You look at you know, how
Speaker 3: the Miami Dolphins look with Tua and the beaten that
Speaker 3: they put down on the Rams, and certainly we're gonna
Speaker 3: have another matchup with Detroit, this is going to be
Speaker 3: a challenge, and I feel like moments like this, going
Speaker 3: down to Soldier Field, this is where you can own
Speaker 3: it and sort of set your tone and build yourself
Speaker 3: up during this final stretch, much like they were able
Speaker 3: to do last year during that big run they got on.
Speaker 2: Well at the top of the NFC North. If you
Speaker 2: had told me Wes going into the bye weekend that
Speaker 2: the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings were going to
Speaker 2: combine to throw eight interceptions on Sunday and that they
Speaker 2: were both going to win, I was gonna, you know, say, huh, like.
Speaker 1: What are you talking.
Speaker 2: Well, that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: Granted, one of Jared Goff's five interceptions was a hail
Speaker 2: Mary at the end of the first half, sort of
Speaker 2: meaningless in that respect, but still, even if you take
Speaker 2: that one away, Jared got through four other interceptions. Sam
Speaker 2: Darnold threw three for Minnesota. The Vikings didn't even get
Speaker 2: a touchdown in Jacksonville. But the defensive performances of both
Speaker 2: of those teams. What the Vikings did. Now they were
Speaker 2: facing Mac Jones, the backup quarterback for Jacksonville, it wasn't
Speaker 2: Trevor Lawrence, but Minnesota's defense. Other than one drive in
Speaker 2: the game where Mac Jones got a touchdown, they just
Speaker 2: completely shut the Jaguars down. And the Detroit Lions, after
Speaker 2: some real shaky moments in the first half and falling
Speaker 2: behind by sixteen points, they pitched a second half shutout
Speaker 2: on the road at Houston against a first place team
Speaker 2: and a quarterback in CJ.
Speaker 4: Stroud who looked.
Speaker 2: Like he was getting back to being at NFL offensive
Speaker 2: Rookie of the Year that he was last year, and
Speaker 2: Detroit's defense just completely locked it down with the help
Speaker 2: of one very very poorly thrown pass that should have
Speaker 2: been a fit fifty yard touchdown that turned into an
Speaker 2: interception for Stroud when he had a absolute layup for
Speaker 2: a bomb for a touchdown and through a terrible ball,
Speaker 2: and that really ended up being the difference in the
Speaker 2: game because the Lions are not going to be able
Speaker 2: to overcome one more touchdown by the Texans, and Texans
Speaker 2: had their opportunity. That being said, though the top of
Speaker 2: this NFC North eight and one, seven and two, six
Speaker 2: and three, the numbers are right there. It's a it's
Speaker 2: going to be it's going to be quite the fight,
Speaker 2: but the Detroit Lions are the team that remains in
Speaker 2: control of this division.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And if if you want a quick synopsis of how
Speaker 3: you managed to lose a game in which he led
Speaker 3: twenty three to seven and a half time, this is
Speaker 3: what will suit you. Zero net yards interception, one net
Speaker 3: yard punt, forty net yards interception, six net yards, punt,
Speaker 3: one net yard punt, four net yards punt, thirty net yards,
Speaker 3: missfield goal. That's how you lose a football game. Uh, listen, good.
Speaker 2: That was just a train wreck of a second half.
Speaker 2: Not good by the Houston Texans offense, and they're defense
Speaker 2: was trying to keep them in. It's not it's not
Speaker 2: like the Lions just exploded for a whole bunch of points.
Speaker 2: The Lions got enough points and got what they needed
Speaker 2: to make the comeback and win the game. The Texans
Speaker 2: defense is fighting and trying to hold them in there
Speaker 2: while the offense was just absolutely self destructive.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean this is they started the first touchdown of
Speaker 3: the second half. You know, the Lions started at the
Speaker 3: Houston forty four, right, Just that's just the way it goes.
Speaker 3: But anyway, that's neither here nor there. Good teams find
Speaker 3: ways to win games, and Detroit is a very good team,
Speaker 3: and I still think Minnesota is a good team. Sam Donald.
Speaker 3: The shine is starting to come off of it a
Speaker 3: little bit, but there's there's.
Speaker 2: A lot of a lot of you know, we obviously
Speaker 2: talked a lot about the interceptions with Jordan Love. There's
Speaker 2: a big turnover and interception discussion going on in Minnesota
Speaker 2: with Sam Donald right now. And because the last two
Speaker 2: games against the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars, the
Speaker 2: Vikings have won those games because of their defense and
Speaker 2: not really because of anything Sam Donald has done.
Speaker 3: You know, and I look at it that it's becoming
Speaker 3: more evident to me as much of a star as
Speaker 3: Justin Jefferson is, and certainly TJ. Hockinson now that he's back,
Speaker 3: but Aaron Jones is something that really does drive that offense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he does.
Speaker 3: They are a different team when he's unavailable, and unfortunately
Speaker 3: he left for a little bit. I think came back
Speaker 3: dealing with maybe a rib issue. Aaron Jones might be
Speaker 3: their most As much as they were talking about Sam
Speaker 3: Darnold as a possible like MVP candidate, Aaron Jones might
Speaker 3: be the most important asset to that offense right now
Speaker 3: with what they're doing. But Donald has to figure some
Speaker 3: stuff out because he went from looking like a guy
Speaker 3: that could really bring them somewhere to okay, can we
Speaker 3: win and despite this guy? And that's something Minnesota's going
Speaker 3: to figure out now. To their credit, they do not
Speaker 3: take the wins off the board. You are seven and
Speaker 3: two right now, you still have a lot of momentum,
Speaker 3: and they've been in the front before with Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 4: Then let that thing go.
Speaker 3: They have to be able to find ways to keep
Speaker 3: the winnings coming. It just so happened they're playing a
Speaker 3: Jacksonville team with as many issues that they have, yep,
Speaker 3: and if not more, and they found a way to
Speaker 3: tek out that victory. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well it's gonna be h It's gonna be an entertaining
Speaker 2: second half of the season, no doubt about it. We
Speaker 2: will dive more into specifically the Bears and this matchup
Speaker 2: of the Packers and the Bears at Soldier Field on Sunday.
Speaker 2: Will do that on our next show in a.
Speaker 3: I'm surprised you didn't want to talk about Baltimore and Cincinnati.
Speaker 4: Oh, too far away. We can go. It's time to go.
Speaker 4: Let's talk about the draft. But how about that? Huh yeah,
Speaker 4: that was a game.
Speaker 2: That was a game I remarked to, Uh yeah, that
Speaker 2: was way I forgot about it because I was moving
Speaker 2: back on Thursday night, you know, before all of the
Speaker 2: craziness and one score close games on Sunday.
Speaker 3: I watched the end of this shows you the ultimate
Speaker 3: bye week experience. I watched the end of that game
Speaker 3: from Shoots bar in Swama Goo there you go, like,
Speaker 3: and just seeing the the the way that both of
Speaker 3: those teams are thinking down the stretch to end up
Speaker 3: being a very probably probably one of the better Thursday
Speaker 3: Night games ever.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely well.
Speaker 2: And to be honest and not to go off on
Speaker 2: a complete tangent here, Yeah, but that's what Thursday night
Speaker 2: football should be is division rivals. Yes, because of teams
Speaker 2: that know each other, you don't need all the the
Speaker 2: extra preparation that goes into playing the more unfamiliar opponents.
Speaker 2: Thursday night games should be division games because then that's
Speaker 2: what makes for much better Thursday night football, yes, than
Speaker 2: when you randomly pair the Los Angeles Rams and the
Speaker 2: you know, Cleveland Browns.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I mean it's just you know, division games on
Speaker 2: Thursday night makes for better Thursday night football. I think
Speaker 2: the NFL needs to needs to understand that.
Speaker 4: All right, I'm with you before we go.
Speaker 2: The home of the twenty twenty five NFL Draft is
Speaker 2: right here in Green Bay April twenty four through April
Speaker 2: twenty six of twenty twenty five. Visit green Bay dot
Speaker 2: com slash Draft twenty five for more information, and with that,
Speaker 2: we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 2: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 2: team on Packers dot com For Wes, I'm Miike.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in, everybody. We will see you
Speaker 1: next time.