Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford. He is the one and only
Speaker 1: West Hotkowits were coming to you here from our studios
Speaker 1: at lambeau Field and West. We have a big Packers
Speaker 1: victory to talk about over the Chicago Bears, but we
Speaker 1: need to start the show by saying one thing. The
Speaker 1: Packers are in the playoffs. They are green Bay gets
Speaker 1: the win over Chicago, the Los Angeles Rams lose at Dallas,
Speaker 1: and the Packers, regardless of what happened to the final
Speaker 1: two weeks, although there's more to play for, the Packers
Speaker 1: are in the postseason for the first time since Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: first and foremost emphatically, the Rams were beaten by soundly.
Speaker 1: It's you know, I went off on a little bit
Speaker 1: of a tangent on Twitter on Sunday night. You may
Speaker 1: or may not have seen it. You don't live your
Speaker 1: life on social media as much as I do. Yes,
Speaker 1: I do not. If there was ever a week in
Speaker 1: the NFL, and we'll get to this Packer game, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about all the ins and outs of it, and
Speaker 1: everybody will be happy and good and we'll move on
Speaker 1: with our week. But if there ever was a Sunday
Speaker 1: that illustrates how it's important just to win games and
Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter what's happened in the past, it
Speaker 1: was Week fifteen in the NFL, and I offer you
Speaker 1: a number of different things into evidence for this one.
Speaker 1: The Rams appeared to finally be getting their footing right.
Speaker 1: They going to Dallas, who, for all intents and purposes,
Speaker 1: has really been struggling trying to hold onto the NFC,
Speaker 1: A scuffling, scuffling Dallas Cowboys team, and the Cowboys just
Speaker 1: do their things, dominate points on the board. Zeke Elliott
Speaker 1: can't be stopped, Dak Prescott looks great, and they win.
Speaker 1: Game was never close. The Rams now are on the
Speaker 1: outskirts of the playoff hunt here as they try to
Speaker 1: keep things going, hoping for a Packers victory now on
Speaker 1: Sunday or on next Monday night against uh the fIF Minnesotakes.
Speaker 1: Then you get the San Francisco forty Niners, one of
Speaker 1: the best teams in the NFL. I think everybody can
Speaker 1: agree with that, and they take on the Atlanta Falcons
Speaker 1: at home at home. If there I put it on Twitter,
Speaker 1: I got nothing. I cannot try to explain the Atlanta
Speaker 1: Falcons at all. I can't either, because if you took
Speaker 1: away all the records and it just I just dropped
Speaker 1: you on December two thousand nineteen, after teleporting you from
Speaker 1: September one, and said here's the Falcons and the forty,
Speaker 1: you would either think, A, maybe these were two bad
Speaker 1: teams or B this was a potential, you know, big
Speaker 1: ramification for the NFC. Yeah, and Atlanta just runs through,
Speaker 1: not runs through, but finds a way to win against
Speaker 1: San Francisco, pulls it out down the stretch. They the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Falcons have five wins in and two of them
Speaker 1: are over the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco
Speaker 1: forty Niners, both on the road. There is no explanation
Speaker 1: for that except for this. It's the NFL. It's the NFL,
Speaker 1: and let's bring us all back into lambeau Field. The
Speaker 1: meeting between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears historic
Speaker 1: and the way I put it as the game ended
Speaker 1: on Twitter, I said, and the Packers win. It was
Speaker 1: a chaotic, strange fourth quarter after the Packers, who, by
Speaker 1: the way, going up against Chicago Bears team that had
Speaker 1: been phenomenal coming out of halftime, the Packers outscore and
Speaker 1: get two quick touchdowns that end up weighing heavily in
Speaker 1: the favor of this game, and then the Bears get
Speaker 1: going in the fourth quarter of the Packers hold them off.
Speaker 1: Packers are eleven and three. They've clinched a playoff spot,
Speaker 1: and now this week they can beat the Minnesota Vikings
Speaker 1: when the NFC North. If they accomplish that, they can
Speaker 1: now beat the Detroit Lions and be the number two
Speaker 1: seed at worst. Right now, this is the NFL Mike.
Speaker 1: You have to win the games that are in front
Speaker 1: of you. Doesn't matter how they look, doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: exactly happens. You have to win. In the Green Bay
Speaker 1: Packers by hooker, by crook, the last three weeks have
Speaker 1: been victorious, and they sit at eleven wins onto some
Speaker 1: eleven and three, and very quickly, I'll just lay out
Speaker 1: the scenarios as you just did as well, that there
Speaker 1: are one of two ways the Packers can win the
Speaker 1: NFC North in terms of controlling it themselves. They can
Speaker 1: either beat the Minnesota Vikings next week, or they can
Speaker 1: beat the Detroit Lions in week seventeen. If the Packers
Speaker 1: win either of those games, they are the NFC North champs.
Speaker 1: But as you also just said, if the Packers can
Speaker 1: win both of those games, they will be no worse
Speaker 1: than the two seed in the NFC and they will
Speaker 1: get a first round by and then one seed is
Speaker 1: actually still in play, very much in play because of
Speaker 1: the forty Niners lost yesterday. But getting back to the
Speaker 1: game at hand, the Packers and the Bears, as you
Speaker 1: said it West, the Packers come out of the locker
Speaker 1: room at halftime and they just came out swinging. I mean,
Speaker 1: the end the first half. That second quarter was frustrating.
Speaker 1: The Packers had three consecutive drives to end the second
Speaker 1: quarter that were in Chicago territory, and they came away
Speaker 1: with no point on any of the three drives. They
Speaker 1: go into the locker room only up seven to three,
Speaker 1: when they had a chance, multiple chances to stretch out
Speaker 1: the lead, to really start to assert themselves. They come
Speaker 1: out of the locker room after halftime, bang five place
Speaker 1: seventy three yards, banging five place sixty six yards, two touchdowns,
Speaker 1: and it's twenty one to three, and it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: all those first half frustrations, you put them behind you.
Speaker 1: You got two touchdowns, You're up to three. And all
Speaker 1: the Packers really needed was one more score of any
Speaker 1: kind in the fourth quarter, and they take all the
Speaker 1: drama out of this one. Well, they didn't get that
Speaker 1: one more score in the fourth quarter. The offense is struggling,
Speaker 1: the Bears defensive front started to assert itself in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, the Bears offensively doing some things. They get
Speaker 1: it to thirteen, and the game comes down to the
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, the multilateral, the fumble
Speaker 1: Rooski the the the last desperation played by the Bears.
Speaker 1: And I'll be honest with us, we saw it on
Speaker 1: the press box as it was unfolding, which is a
Speaker 1: little bit wider view than maybe what you see on television.
Speaker 1: Saw it as it was unfolding. I wrote about it
Speaker 1: in my postgame editorial. That was really really close, because
Speaker 1: if Allen Robinson gets the lateral at the ten yard line,
Speaker 1: if Horstead, the rookie tight end from Princeton, if he
Speaker 1: laterals it to Robinson at the ten yard line instead
Speaker 1: of taking a couple more steps, the Bears are in
Speaker 1: the end zone and the game's coming down to a
Speaker 1: two point conversion. But Channon Sullivan. Just as Horseted crosses
Speaker 1: the ten yard line, Channon Sullivan and grabs and starts
Speaker 1: to drag him down. His then attempted ladderal, which is
Speaker 1: too late, ends up being forward. It's a forward fumble
Speaker 1: at that point. Only he can recover it for the
Speaker 1: Bears to to be able to benefit from the play.
Speaker 1: Truman Williams recovers inside the five yard line for the Packers,
Speaker 1: and the gun mercifully sounds to end to end a
Speaker 1: victory for the package. So a couple of things of
Speaker 1: this one. If you're going to have a ladderal play,
Speaker 1: there are two things you need to do in order
Speaker 1: to be successful on it. You need numbers, is the
Speaker 1: first thing. The Bears ended up getting numbers on that.
Speaker 1: They had numbers where they needed them. Yeah, when they
Speaker 1: got the ball to the middle of the field and
Speaker 1: started moving to the right, they they had the numbers.
Speaker 1: As you say, the personnel was there to be able
Speaker 1: to get that ball into the end zone. The second thing, though,
Speaker 1: is you need to have perfect execution, and the Bears
Speaker 1: were not perfect. Uh, everything lined up and Tremon Williams
Speaker 1: the first question he was asked, I think maybe even
Speaker 1: the first interview of the post game locker room was
Speaker 1: with Tremon and he said, yeah, we saw it. It
Speaker 1: was close. That's just the reality of it. So but
Speaker 1: the Packers did survive. They got through a Tremon was
Speaker 1: the one to actually jump on that football at the end.
Speaker 1: The thing that I take out of this game, though,
Speaker 1: Mike h in addition to certainly they want to be
Speaker 1: able to close teams out, you have to be able
Speaker 1: to do that to make a deep, lengthy playoff run.
Speaker 1: The thing about this team though, and I said this
Speaker 1: to our boss, my boss, Duke Bober after the game,
Speaker 1: the Packers are eleven and three, and everybody wants to
Speaker 1: figure out how they've done that, and it's really not
Speaker 1: that complicated. You can look at total defense, total offense.
Speaker 1: You can look at those measurables, those archaic measurables, and
Speaker 1: they're not really going to tell you the whole story.
Speaker 1: You can look at passer ratings, you can look at
Speaker 1: offensive efficiency, all those things. The one thing that stands
Speaker 1: out to me, though, is not something you can measure,
Speaker 1: and that's that in all three phases, at different intervals
Speaker 1: of the season and occasionally in the same game, the
Speaker 1: Packers have been exceptional. They've had moments where they've been
Speaker 1: exceptional on defense, they've been exceptional on special teams, and
Speaker 1: they have been exceptional on offense. Teams that aren't good
Speaker 1: in this league never really achieved that at all, at
Speaker 1: least without any type of normal consistency. The Packers have that.
Speaker 1: It's just been a matter of tying it all together
Speaker 1: at the same time. In this game, I thought they
Speaker 1: got off to a great start offensively. I thought defensively
Speaker 1: they held them on three straight drives. They really were
Speaker 1: making life difficult on Mitchell Trubisky, and they were not
Speaker 1: allowing the Bears to get the running game going. The
Speaker 1: second half, the Bears mounted a rally, but it was
Speaker 1: only after the Packers were up by eighteen points. For
Speaker 1: glamour points in terms of like beauty of a performance, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're not going to score very high in that one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, it doesn't change
Speaker 1: the outcome, and the outcome is the Packers are eleven
Speaker 1: and three. Yeah. This is this is the way I
Speaker 1: look at it West, because there's there are a lot
Speaker 1: of different narratives out there right now with regards to
Speaker 1: this Packers team being eleven and three and where they
Speaker 1: are and fighting for a division title in a first
Speaker 1: round by there are There are a few different ways
Speaker 1: you can look at this. You can say, Okay, the
Speaker 1: Packers are the Packers are finding different ways to win.
Speaker 1: They're scratching and claw and they're pulling out these close games.
Speaker 1: But this is one of those things that it's not
Speaker 1: sustainable into January. It's going to catch up with them
Speaker 1: at some point that when you start playing the best teams,
Speaker 1: the other playoff teams, that it's uh, that's not a
Speaker 1: way to make a living in the playoffs. Okay, fine,
Speaker 1: that's one way to look at it. Another way to
Speaker 1: look at it is to say, okay, the Packers whatever
Speaker 1: it is, that they have the chemistry, the belief, everything
Speaker 1: they've got going on this way to to scratch and
Speaker 1: claw and find a different way and have a different
Speaker 1: hero every week. And and yeah, there are fits and
Speaker 1: starts and things don't always look that great. But if
Speaker 1: you keep finding ways to win it it builds on itself.
Speaker 1: It's contagious and and it is something that can continue
Speaker 1: and you write it as long as you can. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's another way to look at it. This is the
Speaker 1: way I prefer to look at things. I don't really
Speaker 1: look at it in either one of those ways. My thing,
Speaker 1: and as you know, my mantra all season has been
Speaker 1: optimism without expectations. With this first with the first year
Speaker 1: head coach, and it says optimism without expectations, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: look forward to that. I appreciate. But the way the
Speaker 1: way I look at I've said it on this show,
Speaker 1: I've said it an insider inbox. This Packers team is
Speaker 1: capable of playing at another level. They just haven't gotten there.
Speaker 1: They've shown it in spurts, but they haven't put it
Speaker 1: together for an entire game. They haven't put it together
Speaker 1: for a stretch of of a few games. It's still
Speaker 1: out there for them, and if they can find it,
Speaker 1: neither of the first two options, the first two narratives
Speaker 1: are going to matter because because it's going to put
Speaker 1: them somewhere else. Now, those who would say, well, how
Speaker 1: how can you believe that they can do that? Because
Speaker 1: they've had so many chances and they haven't gotten there.
Speaker 1: You want to be skeptical. Five, You have every right
Speaker 1: to be skeptical that they're not going to get there.
Speaker 1: I get that they're they're fourteen games in here, and
Speaker 1: there hasn't been the evidence to convince anyone that they
Speaker 1: can find it because they've had so many opportunities. So
Speaker 1: the skeptics, I understand that. But I look at yesterday's
Speaker 1: game West the Packers had. The Packers were playing a
Speaker 1: pretty decent football team that had won three in a
Speaker 1: row and four their last five, and the Bears were
Speaker 1: playing for their season, and the Packers had raortunities in
Speaker 1: the first half to dominate that game, and they had
Speaker 1: opportunities in the second half to close it out and
Speaker 1: put it away. Now, they didn't do either one of
Speaker 1: those things, but they were in position to do both
Speaker 1: of those, and it's just it's one more step. And
Speaker 1: it sounds silly, and I get, like I say, I
Speaker 1: get the skeptics, but they're not that far away. They too,
Speaker 1: in my mind, they really are. Now are they going
Speaker 1: to get there? I don't know however far. If they
Speaker 1: can get there, that's going to determine what January is
Speaker 1: going to mean here with whatever playoff run has made.
Speaker 1: But that's the way, that's the way I see it,
Speaker 1: is that it's still out there for them. Their best
Speaker 1: football is still out there. If they can find it.
Speaker 1: The narrative about this team, the way people are looking
Speaker 1: at this team is going to change, because I think
Speaker 1: one thing that people don't recognize is, Okay, if you
Speaker 1: do get finally one of those really attractive wins, one
Speaker 1: of those dominating performances, that's really the only thing left
Speaker 1: out there right now. For Green Bay, They've won every
Speaker 1: other way imaginable, exactly exactly they have they have found
Speaker 1: they have found so many ways to win yesterday being
Speaker 1: and as I've said a lot of times, they've won
Speaker 1: a lot of games this year by being the better
Speaker 1: team in the fourth quarter. They were not the better
Speaker 1: team in the fourth quarter. Yesterday, they were the better
Speaker 1: team by a long shot in the third quarter against
Speaker 1: a team that had dominated third quarters all season long.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is look at the statistics
Speaker 1: to see what the Bears have done. The Packers were
Speaker 1: the team that came out swinging in the third quarter
Speaker 1: and gaining control. Fortunately then was enough. So again it
Speaker 1: was just another way to win a game. So I
Speaker 1: want to highlight a couple of performances on both sides
Speaker 1: of all but before I do this for anybody out there,
Speaker 1: and I'll look into both of the cameras because I'm
Speaker 1: not sure which one Marvin is on right now. For
Speaker 1: anybody that's like beating this drum about the identity, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you an identity thing right here, and you
Speaker 1: can you can put your own hat on the identity.
Speaker 1: This is what it is. Look at turnover differential right
Speaker 1: now in the NFL, not just Green Bay because they're
Speaker 1: number two in the league right now against New England.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read you off, Mike, the top ten teams
Speaker 1: and turnover differential, and I want you to tell me
Speaker 1: what is the I'm in thread between all these teams.
Speaker 1: You're ready, okay, buckled down? New England, Green Bay, Seattle,
Speaker 1: New Orleans, Minnesota, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Tennessee, and Buffalo.
Speaker 1: Pittsburgh and Tennessee are kind of outliers right now. Everybody
Speaker 1: else is either already clinched a playoff spot or on
Speaker 1: the precipice of getting a playoff spot. You want to
Speaker 1: talk identity. The identity of this year's team. The first thing,
Speaker 1: I literally think it was the first thing that Mike
Speaker 1: Petton said this season was they wanted to take the
Speaker 1: ball away more this year. They have fifteen interceptions they
Speaker 1: had seven last year. They've turned the ball, They've been
Speaker 1: able to turn over the football more, whether it was forced,
Speaker 1: almost anything like that. Their takeaway numbers are up. In
Speaker 1: their giveaways our second fewest in the league right now
Speaker 1: to New Orleans eight to nine. That's the identity. That's
Speaker 1: the reason why the Packs have been able to win
Speaker 1: these games. And they wont turnover differential three to zero
Speaker 1: again yesterday. If you don't give away the football and
Speaker 1: you take it away and now you've got a punt
Speaker 1: returner that can help you with field position, you're going
Speaker 1: to start winning some ballgames. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's
Speaker 1: it's like I say, there's there are The Packers have
Speaker 1: been in position to play that next level, to take
Speaker 1: their game to the next level. They haven't gotten there yet,
Speaker 1: and they have to find it somehow. It's on Matt Lafleur,
Speaker 1: it's on the coaches, it's on Aaron Rodgers to find
Speaker 1: that somehow, and that is what is going to determine
Speaker 1: whether in January, when they are playing against other playoff teams,
Speaker 1: whether they're going to be able to advance in In
Speaker 1: my opinion, that's what it comes down to. U some
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Speaker 1: Some stars of the game to point out here from
Speaker 1: Sunday's victory over the Bears. Offensively, Aaron Jones two rushing touchdowns.
Speaker 1: He now had fourteen rushing touchdowns on the year and
Speaker 1: seventeen total touchdowns. He's closing in two regular season games
Speaker 1: to go. He's closing in on a mon Greens single
Speaker 1: season touchdown record for the Green Bay Packers, which is twenty.
Speaker 1: And then you have Davante Adams, who put up a
Speaker 1: yard performance including a twenty nine yard touchdown catch on
Speaker 1: a fourth down. It's actually a fourth down audible. Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers checked um, saw that Adams was one on one
Speaker 1: in the slot against buster scrind screen scrind screw um.
Speaker 1: The announcer said screen yesterday, I've I've heard it both ways.
Speaker 1: I've yeah, absolutely, um, but a check and rather than
Speaker 1: just throw the pass for the first down on fourth down,
Speaker 1: Rogers goes for the home run. One on one, Adams
Speaker 1: wins his route, makes the catch touchdown, so he gets
Speaker 1: a hundred yard game and gets in the end zone.
Speaker 1: And uh, the Packers two most dynamic offensive perimeter are
Speaker 1: players were the guys who got the job done. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and those first two drives you're talking about. After the
Speaker 1: second in the start of the second half, eight of
Speaker 1: the ten targets were in their direction, whether it be
Speaker 1: through the run or the past. But between them and
Speaker 1: I wrote about this for our game notes was Jake
Speaker 1: Kumro with the forty nine yard catch, which coincidentally enough
Speaker 1: that tied his career high. He also had the forty
Speaker 1: nine yard or last year against the Jet a touchdown
Speaker 1: something about forty nine yards. That just agree with him
Speaker 1: and Jake, But you know, one of those main things again,
Speaker 1: they've just had a lot of different guys stepping up
Speaker 1: throughout the course of the year. It happened to be
Speaker 1: Kumro's moment there. But when you look at Davante Adams,
Speaker 1: I thought he was exceptional in this game. He did
Speaker 1: have I know one or two passes he wishes he
Speaker 1: could have back, but for him to get him going
Speaker 1: the thirty four yard or early on and then the
Speaker 1: twenty nine yard touchdown was a big boost for this offense.
Speaker 1: And then Aaron Jones, man, for a guy that was
Speaker 1: kind of labeled as a scap back, what he can
Speaker 1: do in the red area now and in terms of
Speaker 1: I called him a bull in a China shop on Twitter.
Speaker 1: I mean it's just he is not easy to take
Speaker 1: down for a guy that is only five nine, just
Speaker 1: a hair over two pounds, I mean, he can make
Speaker 1: that work for him. I mean, how many times this
Speaker 1: year when the Packers have been I think yesterday it
Speaker 1: was a twenty one yard touched on on, so they
Speaker 1: were technically just outside the red zone. But how many
Speaker 1: times this year when the Packers have been, say, in
Speaker 1: between the ten and the twenty yard line in the
Speaker 1: red zone, have they handed it off to Jones and
Speaker 1: and he makes he makes somebody miss and then boom,
Speaker 1: he's in the ends. I mean, the number of I'd
Speaker 1: have to look it up, but the number of say,
Speaker 1: touchdown runs of his that are like, you know, nine
Speaker 1: yards plus where he's he's not just plowing in from
Speaker 1: the one or two yard line every time he's He's
Speaker 1: had a bunch of those this year, and he just
Speaker 1: looks really impressive doing it. Yeah, and I'd be remiss
Speaker 1: if I didn't also do a shot off for the
Speaker 1: offensive line. I didn't get a chance to put this
Speaker 1: in the game notes. It kind of bothers me a
Speaker 1: little bit. I mean, Brian Blaga again doing a salad
Speaker 1: job against Khalil Mack. Yeah, outstanding. I mean Elton Jenkins.
Speaker 1: I know there's some film nuts that are already putting
Speaker 1: out some stuff on him and how he was able
Speaker 1: to move the line of scrimmage, especially in some of
Speaker 1: those red zone scenarios. Overall, I thought they did a
Speaker 1: really nice job to give Rogers a play a pocket. Uh,
Speaker 1: certainly there was yards. Matt Lafleur said it again, there's
Speaker 1: things that were still left out there, but I think
Speaker 1: you're seeing the offensive line really peak at the right time.
Speaker 1: I have to talk, though, Mike about Kenny Clark, and
Speaker 1: I'm used him as my locker room report. Kenny Clark
Speaker 1: another two sacks, tying his career single game career high.
Speaker 1: This is a guy that you want to talk about
Speaker 1: trusting the process here. I mean, it was a rough
Speaker 1: ten week stretch there. He was playing good football, but
Speaker 1: he just didn't. He wasn't getting home. The Smiths were
Speaker 1: really you know, knocking down that time clock to get
Speaker 1: after the quarterback. Yeah, the personal stats weren't there for Clark,
Speaker 1: and now we're starting to see those personal stats start
Speaker 1: to pile. And in a blink of the eye, he
Speaker 1: has five sacks on the season, eight of his fifteen
Speaker 1: and a half career sacks coming in the month of December.
Speaker 1: I think that's just that's just amazing to me. He's
Speaker 1: now and now it's more than half of his career
Speaker 1: sacks are in one month or in the month, and
Speaker 1: you don't think of December as a big month for sacks.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, the conditions get tough, you know,
Speaker 1: you're running the football more. And there's Kenny Clark making
Speaker 1: an impact. Dean Lawry gets an interception. Packers weren't able
Speaker 1: to do anything with it offensively, but that was a
Speaker 1: critical play at a critical moment at the time. Ate
Speaker 1: at least a little bit of clock and stop some
Speaker 1: of the momentum for Chicago and Mike. It's going to
Speaker 1: turn into a weekly segment on these Monday shows. But
Speaker 1: Tyler Irvin again forty five yard kickoff return, the Packers
Speaker 1: longest in four calendar years. Uh, this young man just
Speaker 1: comes in as a waiver claim. And after all the
Speaker 1: issues and all the narrative and question marks about the
Speaker 1: Packers return units, this guy comes in and he's been
Speaker 1: a stud. And I actually asked Aaron Jones about this
Speaker 1: because Jones is very effusive about his praise of of
Speaker 1: Irvin the week before, and I kind of asked him.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously he shares a position room with him,
Speaker 1: but I was like, how do you know him? Like? What? What?
Speaker 1: Why did you feel that he's been following him going
Speaker 1: back to San Jose State because when he was at UTEP,
Speaker 1: those two are not youtup. I'm sorry, Uh Texas he yeah,
Speaker 1: Texas hel Passo. I should just said Texas Western. I
Speaker 1: mean that's just whatever. No, But when he was he
Speaker 1: was in college, both of those guys were among the
Speaker 1: league leaders in rushing one year and he was kind
Speaker 1: of like comparing himself to this Tyler Irvin guy that
Speaker 1: he had no idea who he was. And then ever
Speaker 1: since then, he's kind of tracked his career. He comes
Speaker 1: in now and has been making a big impact here
Speaker 1: on these returning and it's the past two weeks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well I want to I I do. We do need
Speaker 1: to say certainly defensively, because the Packers offense started to
Speaker 1: struggle in the fourth quarter after a very dominant third quarter.
Speaker 1: They couldn't get that extra score like I was talking about,
Speaker 1: to give them that little bit of distance they needed.
Speaker 1: The Packers defense had to stop the Chicago Bears three
Speaker 1: times in the fourth quarter with the one score lead,
Speaker 1: with the eight point lead, you had Dean Lowry make
Speaker 1: the incredible interception kind of off of a like a
Speaker 1: zone drop, the type of thing almost and then not.
Speaker 1: I mean, it would have been a heck of a
Speaker 1: play just if he had batted the past down. But
Speaker 1: he gets the gets the myths up there and then
Speaker 1: is able to to make the catch off the deflection
Speaker 1: and juggling it on the way down, and he gets
Speaker 1: the interception. The Packers unfortunately don't get a score out
Speaker 1: of that. They punt the Bears back to the five
Speaker 1: yard line. The Bears drive out to midfeet yield, but
Speaker 1: then the Packers get the stop there. A turnover on
Speaker 1: downs ends up in a fourth and ten. They get
Speaker 1: the stop, so they stop him there and then they
Speaker 1: end up getting the third stop of the late fourth
Speaker 1: quarter with the um the multilateral play there at the
Speaker 1: very end. So Packers defense did give up ten points
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, but because the offense wasn't able
Speaker 1: to wasn't able to finish this one off the defense
Speaker 1: needed to get three stops there down the stretch and uh,
Speaker 1: and the unit was able to come through and if
Speaker 1: nothing else, Uh, certainly I know there's yardage there that
Speaker 1: the defense would love to add back. Mitchell Robinski was
Speaker 1: able to get into a rhythm Alan Robinson and also
Speaker 1: um Anthony Miller both over hundred yards receiving. But the
Speaker 1: biggest thing, Mike, that was the key I thought to
Speaker 1: that is they didn't break for an explosive sixty seventy
Speaker 1: yard touchdown. They have at least made the Bears milk
Speaker 1: the clock out to be able to put themselves in
Speaker 1: a position to ice that game. Yeah, and I think
Speaker 1: it's worth saying too quickly before we go eight quarters
Speaker 1: against the Chicago Bears. Packers defense allowed touchdown Chicago and
Speaker 1: it was in the eighth quarter of those eight quarters.
Speaker 1: So it's really good defensive effort that uh, that has
Speaker 1: set up the Packers nicely to have a shot to
Speaker 1: win the division here because they beat the defending division
Speaker 1: champs twice with some really good defense. Absolutely, yeah, they're
Speaker 1: they're gonna be in for a stiff test this week.
Speaker 1: We'll see what happens with Delvin Cook he left with
Speaker 1: the shoulder injury. But certainly Kirk Cousins as of late
Speaker 1: has been playing better weapons there that they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to account for. But defensively, if they were looking to
Speaker 1: get a little bit of swagger back, the last three
Speaker 1: games have not allowed more than fifteen points in any
Speaker 1: of those contests. We can talk about yards, you can
Speaker 1: talk about all these different scenarios, but it ultimately comes
Speaker 1: down to the points on the scoreboard, and the last
Speaker 1: three games the Packers have their defense has given them
Speaker 1: a chance to win these games. Yeah. Well, we'll be
Speaker 1: talking about this upcoming matchup with the Vikings as the
Speaker 1: week goes along. We'll also take a little bit bigger
Speaker 1: look at the NFC playoff picture after the Saints play
Speaker 1: on Monday Night Football, so we'll get to that on
Speaker 1: tomorrow show as well, but for now we will call
Speaker 1: it a wrap up this edition of Packers on Script
Speaker 1: and be sure to follow all of our coverage of
Speaker 1: the team on packers dot com, subscribe to us, like
Speaker 1: us on iTunes and other podcast services, and check out
Speaker 1: the Packers YouTube channel for all sorts of great video
Speaker 1: content for WES, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in everybody.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time. H