Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford. He is my trusted colleague West Hodkuits.
Speaker 1: We're coming to you here from our studios at lambeau
Speaker 1: Field West. Packers Bears Sunday Night Football is almost here.
Speaker 1: It's our Friday show, our last show of the week,
Speaker 1: which customarily we begin by focusing on the keys to
Speaker 1: the game for the Green Bay Packers. So let's start
Speaker 1: on the offensive side here. Chicago Bears bringing that defense
Speaker 1: in with Khalil Mack is the new addition. What are
Speaker 1: the keys for the Packers offensively to come out on
Speaker 1: top here? Well, from what I saw from some nation
Speaker 1: national sources, it's to block Khalil Mack, and the Packers
Speaker 1: plan on doing that, so uh yeah. I mean this
Speaker 1: is one of those con tests where, I mean, every
Speaker 1: single week, it's about the pass rush. It's about winning
Speaker 1: that battle. Mike Petton talked about it earlier this week,
Speaker 1: And it doesn't matter if you're dealing with the second
Speaker 1: year quarterback like Mr Drabinsky, or you're dealing with someone
Speaker 1: like Aaron Rodgers that's been doing it at a high
Speaker 1: level for over a decade now, you need to be
Speaker 1: able to pressure the quarterback. So from that perspective, the
Speaker 1: counter balance of that is the offensive line in your tackles.
Speaker 1: The Green Bay Packers are going to have, by all accounts,
Speaker 1: will have their starting five for the first time this
Speaker 1: summer in this game. I know Mike McCarthy said it,
Speaker 1: James Camp and touched on it. You wish you could
Speaker 1: have gotten those guys more reps together, but they're also
Speaker 1: not rookies anymore. Uh. Corey Lindsay has been in this
Speaker 1: league for five years, is on his second contract. You know,
Speaker 1: Lane Taylor has been in this league for five six
Speaker 1: years on his second contract. In David baktr and Brian
Speaker 1: Blag are Pro Bowl type caliber tackles. Blaga probably has
Speaker 1: the toughest assignment in this game, because if you base
Speaker 1: it on recent history, he'll be seeing a lot of
Speaker 1: Khalil mac. But at the same time, you can just hear,
Speaker 1: you know, talking to these guys this week and listening
Speaker 1: to their quotes, they're really embracing this challenge too. So
Speaker 1: I think it's been a really good chess match, especially
Speaker 1: to be able to do it in in the hundredth season.
Speaker 1: The first game at lambeau Field Sunday Night football. The
Speaker 1: energy is going to be electric, and I think seeing
Speaker 1: that how that's gonna work on both sides of the
Speaker 1: ball with the pass rush is gonna be really fun
Speaker 1: to watch. Yeah, I'm not sure how much Khalil Mack
Speaker 1: is going to play, but when that is on the field,
Speaker 1: I think if if the Packers neutralize him in any way,
Speaker 1: I think it takes a little bit of the wind
Speaker 1: out of the sales of the Bears. I mean, they've
Speaker 1: been really energized by this acquisition. I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people would have been looking at this game, frankly
Speaker 1: as a potentially a Packer's runaway in some respects as
Speaker 1: far as the national perspectively, if Khalil Mack hadn't suddenly
Speaker 1: jumped up and joined the Bears defense and now he's
Speaker 1: the key piece potentially to slowing down Aaron Rodgers. So
Speaker 1: I think that's a big part of this game. The
Speaker 1: other part, I'll say, for the Packers offensively, you'd like
Speaker 1: to see them get Jimmy Graham involved early and get
Speaker 1: him going that connection with Aaron Rodgers. Let's see it.
Speaker 1: Let's see what impact it has on this offense. And
Speaker 1: on any given ball game. And the flip side of that,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to profess to know everything about the
Speaker 1: xs and ohs and the personnel of the Bears, but
Speaker 1: I don't see anybody on that Bears defense that they
Speaker 1: can line up one on one with Jimmy Graham and
Speaker 1: feel comfortable necessarily. So that tells me that they're going
Speaker 1: to have to keep safety help in the middle of
Speaker 1: the field. And if that happens, then it's Adams and
Speaker 1: Allison and or Allison on the outside who are going
Speaker 1: to have some one on ones. And if you've got
Speaker 1: those one on ones on the outside, because that safety
Speaker 1: help is in the middle of the field against Jimmy Graham,
Speaker 1: you have to win those one on one And you
Speaker 1: and I saw it during the training camp, Mike. In
Speaker 1: the preseason. Again, everything's very vanilla. Teams aren't scheming up
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff. But we did notice the Packers
Speaker 1: go to a lot of empty looks, and they can
Speaker 1: do that when you have Time Montgomery as a running back,
Speaker 1: when you have Jamal Williams and his background and has
Speaker 1: proven that he can be a solid pass catcher in
Speaker 1: this league at any given time, being able to potentially
Speaker 1: go empty, and we'll see exactly what their plan is
Speaker 1: for that in this game and have Jimmy Graham, Randall
Speaker 1: Cobb and then one of those running backs also involved
Speaker 1: in addition to Davante Adams and gern Willison. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of matchup problems there that that presents. We saw
Speaker 1: a lot of two tight end packages as well during
Speaker 1: the preseason. I believe the only drive that Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: lad in that game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, all but
Speaker 1: one of those plays was mostly operating out of a
Speaker 1: two tight end set. So, yeah, getting back to your
Speaker 1: original point, there's so many different array of weapons and
Speaker 1: they're all so different. Uh, They're they're all incredibly skilled.
Speaker 1: When you look at what Adams can do on the boundary,
Speaker 1: when you look at what Alison does, and then having
Speaker 1: that kind of contrast of of Graham and Randall Cob
Speaker 1: in the middle of the field, it does it stretches
Speaker 1: out a defense and Vic Fanjo is gonna have to
Speaker 1: take that into account. Yeah, alright, Well, switching gears to
Speaker 1: the defensive side of the ball for the Packers, what
Speaker 1: do you see as the key thing to folk Ghassan here?
Speaker 1: For the Packers to do what they need to do well.
Speaker 1: The The thing I'm most intrigued by is just to
Speaker 1: see what the secondary is gonna look like and where
Speaker 1: all those pieces are gonna fit, because we saw a
Speaker 1: lot of guys really play well throughout the camp and
Speaker 1: in preseason. But as far as the biggest factor in
Speaker 1: this game, I think it comes back to the past rush.
Speaker 1: You do not want to let Mitchell Robinsky get comfortable
Speaker 1: in the pocket. Last year it was kind of an
Speaker 1: uneven year for him, and you always kind of chalked
Speaker 1: it up to is that the rookie sort of exposure
Speaker 1: and trying to get your feet wet like Jared Goff
Speaker 1: maybe did two years ago before he kind of broke out,
Speaker 1: Or are you just gonna have the Carson Wentz hit
Speaker 1: the ground running thing. Traubinsky seems to be more of
Speaker 1: the golf route, just based on the whatever it was
Speaker 1: nine games that he started, but they got him Allan Robinson.
Speaker 1: Now he has Taylor Gabriel and certainly the options that
Speaker 1: he has in that backfield. What can he do with
Speaker 1: that now is going to be a big issue. But
Speaker 1: I think for the Packers, you have Clay Matthews and
Speaker 1: Nick Perry healthy. Now, what kind of pressure can you
Speaker 1: generate against those tackles? What can potentially Mike Daniels and
Speaker 1: Mohammed Wilkerson Kenny Calr do against that interior offensive line.
Speaker 1: It looks like Eric Kush will probably be starting at guard.
Speaker 1: He did not play in the NFL last year. He
Speaker 1: was on injured reserve. So there seems to be opportunities
Speaker 1: as well. As much as the storyline has shifted towards
Speaker 1: Khalil Mack, the Green Bay Packers have an opportunity, especially
Speaker 1: with it being Mike Patton's first game with this scheme
Speaker 1: in Green Bay, to potentially do likewise in terms of
Speaker 1: trying to generate pressure against Mitchell Roe Bisky. Well, I
Speaker 1: may be way off base here, which wouldn't be the
Speaker 1: first time. But when I look at this and I
Speaker 1: know the Bears want to get True Whisky going, and
Speaker 1: they want to get him going with those new receivers,
Speaker 1: that whole new receiving corps. You mentioned Robinson Gabriel, We
Speaker 1: talked about Anthony Miller, the new draft pick. He's in
Speaker 1: that mix as well. But honestly, was I think the
Speaker 1: Bears are going to come in here and try to
Speaker 1: run the ball down the Packers throats. I think Jordan Howard, frankly,
Speaker 1: Jordan Howard is the most accomplished running back, number one
Speaker 1: running back right now in this division. I think there's
Speaker 1: no question about that. Now, Dalvin Cook in Minnesota, he's
Speaker 1: potentially coming back, you know, coming back from that from
Speaker 1: that Ace Yell, dalvln Dalvin Cook maybe the running back
Speaker 1: that everybody's talking about by the end of the season.
Speaker 1: But Jordan Howard is the most accomplished running back in
Speaker 1: this division. And he's a pounder, he is a he
Speaker 1: is a big, strong guy. And then you have the
Speaker 1: change up with Tart Cohen, the fast, speedy guy who
Speaker 1: can get involved in the short passing game and on
Speaker 1: you know, some outside runs trying to get to the edge.
Speaker 1: I think the running game is is going to be
Speaker 1: Mitchell Trubisky's best friend here in his second year, as
Speaker 1: he starts a season as the starting quarterback for the
Speaker 1: first time. I think the Bears have got the excuse me,
Speaker 1: the Packers have got to take the Bears running game
Speaker 1: out of this and put the game in Trubisky's hands.
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of issues that obviously surface
Speaker 1: last year for the Packers on defense. But the one
Speaker 1: thing that they did pretty well in these division matchups
Speaker 1: was stopping Howard and both of the games when you
Speaker 1: look back to September, the Packers have done a good
Speaker 1: job on him over the of the years. Eighteen carries
Speaker 1: for fifty three yards and then obviously in November fifteen
Speaker 1: carries fort and that on one play, So they did
Speaker 1: do a good job of bottling him up. And I'm
Speaker 1: really glad made that point because it's a valid argument
Speaker 1: to make. We talked so much about the interior line
Speaker 1: and being able to generate pressure, and they have that capability.
Speaker 1: Wilkerson has two ten plus sax seasons. You know, Mike
Speaker 1: Daniels in five consecutive years has had at least four
Speaker 1: and a half or five. And then you also have
Speaker 1: Kenny Clark coming off the best year of his career
Speaker 1: in a breakthrough season. But at the core of this,
Speaker 1: it is about the run defense. And Blake Martinez made
Speaker 1: that comment during the off season. You know, he wants
Speaker 1: to break the the NFL record for tackles, but he
Speaker 1: also mentioned I believe it was in one of the
Speaker 1: Packers TV networks, UH, one of those simulcasts when he
Speaker 1: was doing in a sidelineterview saying, well, if Kenny Clark
Speaker 1: and and Mike Daniels keep making those tackles at the
Speaker 1: front line, I'm not going to be able to have
Speaker 1: that opportunity, which I think he's okay with. If these
Speaker 1: guys are bottling people up. It is. It's so true, Mike.
Speaker 1: It is about pass rush, it's about pressure, but the
Speaker 1: starting point is the run defense, and that's something the
Speaker 1: Packers are hoping to carry over from from some of
Speaker 1: the success they've had the past few seasons. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: always just feel like, especially with a young quarterback on
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator Matt Naggie, the new head coach, he's gonna
Speaker 1: want to get that running game going, and that's what's
Speaker 1: gonna get Trubisky comfortable, especially playing on the road in
Speaker 1: the season opener. All that kind of stuff. But getting
Speaker 1: back to Naggie for a second, I'm gonna give you
Speaker 1: a little bit of an audio outline of my first
Speaker 1: One Last Look column for this season, which is my
Speaker 1: weekly column during the regular season that gets posted on Saturday's,
Speaker 1: the day before the game. Matt Naggy new head coach.
Speaker 1: This will be his first Packers Bears game in this
Speaker 1: long storied rivalry Packers over the last twenty years, not
Speaker 1: a lot of success. Actually, when a new Bears head
Speaker 1: coach has his first game against the Packers, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you the rundown. Here Dick Geron's first game as
Speaker 1: head coach against the Packers. The Bears win fourteen to
Speaker 1: thirteen at lambeau Field on a blocked chip shot field goal.
Speaker 1: Brian Robinson blocks Ryan Longwell. It was six days after
Speaker 1: Walter Payton had passed away, and it was the hand
Speaker 1: of Walter was sort of the line out of Chicago
Speaker 1: that reached up to block that field goal. Okay, fast
Speaker 1: forward five years, two thousand and four, Lovey Smith's first game. Now,
Speaker 1: he made the famous proclamation that the number one priority
Speaker 1: for Chicago was to beat Green Bay when he was hired,
Speaker 1: because the Packers were dominating the series with Farve at
Speaker 1: that point. The Lovey Smith wins his first game against
Speaker 1: the Packers to ten, gets a ninety five yard fumble
Speaker 1: return for a touchdown by safety Mike Brown. Another kind
Speaker 1: of crazy happening, right. Okay, Now go forward another nine years,
Speaker 1: Mark Tressman's first game as head coach. I don't need
Speaker 1: to remind anybody what happened in that game at lambeau
Speaker 1: Field and Packers Bears Shay McClelland sacks Aaron Rodgers the
Speaker 1: broken collar bone. The Bears win that game. Okay, so
Speaker 1: a lot of crazy happenings that allowed the Bears to
Speaker 1: win those head coaching debuts. But then the Packers flipped
Speaker 1: the script in John Fox. He takes over for the Bears.
Speaker 1: His first game against the Packers happens to be Week one,
Speaker 1: just like it is this time with Naggie, and the
Speaker 1: Packers pulled that one out down in Chicago. James Jones
Speaker 1: comes back after an absence from Green Bay, catches a
Speaker 1: couple of touchdown passes. Clay Matthews has a big interception
Speaker 1: of Jay Cutler in the fourth quarter that helps to
Speaker 1: salt the game away. So I think you know where
Speaker 1: I'm going with this. You look at an absence of
Speaker 1: a player for the Packers who's come back and an
Speaker 1: interception playing a big role this game points to Termont
Speaker 1: Williams doing something special here for the Packers to do
Speaker 1: what they did against John Fox and get away from
Speaker 1: what happened in these other Bears head coaching debuts. Against
Speaker 1: Green Bay. Here's what I love about Trumon Williams two.
Speaker 1: And that's a really good analogy in terms of getting
Speaker 1: from point to point b with what I'm sure is
Speaker 1: going to be a great column on Saturday. But the
Speaker 1: one thing I love about Williams is that, and then
Speaker 1: so many guys said it, and it sometimes can get
Speaker 1: click cliche, but you know, he looks like he's twenty five.
Speaker 1: He looks like he's twenty four. I think maybe it
Speaker 1: was Demetri Goodson who said he looks like he's twenty six,
Speaker 1: you know, a little higher on that schedule, all right,
Speaker 1: the spectrum, but he looks like he can still play
Speaker 1: football and at thirty five years old, and we'll see
Speaker 1: what Mike Petton's plans are for him. But I still,
Speaker 1: I've said this time and time again, if he's starting
Speaker 1: on the boundary on Sunday night at thirty five years old,
Speaker 1: Trumon Williams has accomplished a lot in the NFL that
Speaker 1: might be right up there with one of the really
Speaker 1: special things. You don't see that a lot you see cornerbacks.
Speaker 1: Terrence Newman just retired thirty nine years old, forty years old,
Speaker 1: but you don't see a lot of cornerbacks do that
Speaker 1: playing the boundary at that age, and it looks like
Speaker 1: he still has a springing nous and his lower body
Speaker 1: to do it. But getting back to my original point, Mike,
Speaker 1: you have Williams, you have Devon House coming back. You know,
Speaker 1: Kevin King looks like the shoulders gonna be okay, He's
Speaker 1: gonna be able to play through. And Jaire Alexander and
Speaker 1: Josh Jackson what they put on film during the training camp,
Speaker 1: five really talented cornerbacks the Packers have to choose from.
Speaker 1: Mike Petton has to choose from. In addition to that
Speaker 1: deep safety group that that has five guys on the roster,
Speaker 1: It's really going to be interesting to see how those
Speaker 1: chess pieces moved because so many of those guys can
Speaker 1: play the slot, a few of them can even play
Speaker 1: back on deep safety, a couple of them can play
Speaker 1: inside linebacker. Seeing how Petton moves those pieces, because we
Speaker 1: saw a ton of different combinations during camp, is going
Speaker 1: to be to me, as I said earlier, the most
Speaker 1: intriguing aspect of this game in this first month of
Speaker 1: the regular season. Yeah, Well, one other thing I want
Speaker 1: to hit on for sure, as we are here in
Speaker 1: week one before the first regular season game is played.
Speaker 1: If you haven't checked it out, folks, go to Packers
Speaker 1: dot com and check out West is really really nicely
Speaker 1: put together story on Robert Tonyan, the number four tight end,
Speaker 1: join the Packers practice squad late last season, did absolutely
Speaker 1: everything he was asked to do and made the team
Speaker 1: this year. Aaron Rodgers said he deserved to make this
Speaker 1: team as the fourth tight end. You talked with Tanyan
Speaker 1: with both his mother and his father. A real uh
Speaker 1: family affair here in terms of his athletic career going
Speaker 1: all the way along. You laid it out really nicely.
Speaker 1: It's it's really a good story. And these are the
Speaker 1: stories that we love, these underdog stories of these guys
Speaker 1: who who work so hard and kind of come out
Speaker 1: of nowhere to make it in the NFL. He comes
Speaker 1: from Indiana State. Just tell us about the story because
Speaker 1: Roster cut Down Day was his mother's birthday. It was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was, And she said I was joking with her
Speaker 1: about this that it was, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: longest days of her life, one of the longest birthdays
Speaker 1: she's ever had. You know, she vacuumed the house, she dusted,
Speaker 1: she was cleaning, and at times, as I wrote in
Speaker 1: the story, when she just gave up, she just paced
Speaker 1: around the house with her phone in her hand, waiting
Speaker 1: to hear from him. Um. The thing the impetus for
Speaker 1: the story actually stemmed from a conversation I had. I've
Speaker 1: talked to him throughout the training camp, but it was
Speaker 1: a conversation I had with him in the locker room
Speaker 1: in Kansas City when both of his parents had gone
Speaker 1: to Arrowhead Stadium to watch him, and both of them,
Speaker 1: for the most part, got to all of his college games.
Speaker 1: His older sister sometimes she played at Bowling Green for volleyball,
Speaker 1: so sometimes they had to split up a little bit,
Speaker 1: but for the most part, they've always tracked him at
Speaker 1: every level, going back to when he started playing in
Speaker 1: middle school. The thing that was most interesting to me
Speaker 1: about Tanyan story is that he was at a position
Speaker 1: that I think a lot of But when you're just
Speaker 1: filling out a fifty three man roster in June, you
Speaker 1: just think, okay, you have those three tight ends, the
Speaker 1: three veterans, you move on. And Tanian earned a spot
Speaker 1: on that roster, and I mentioned to his mortain Tammy
Speaker 1: the quote that Aaron Rodgers said about how he earned this,
Speaker 1: and it made her emotional because if you understand tanyan story,
Speaker 1: he was a high school quarterback that really didn't get
Speaker 1: looked at very much. The high school team didn't have
Speaker 1: a ton of success. He goes to Indiana State, doesn't
Speaker 1: have a ton of success there, and he eventually moves
Speaker 1: over to receiver, and she said that was the lowest
Speaker 1: point for him because all he ever did is he
Speaker 1: wanted to be a quarterback. When he was three years old,
Speaker 1: he had a birthday party wearing a Brett Farve jersey
Speaker 1: in Illinois because like the quarterback, and when he had
Speaker 1: to move to to receiver, he understood it, but it
Speaker 1: was tough. And he's went to that school in Indiana
Speaker 1: State head and had a guy make the opening roster
Speaker 1: in the NFL and eighteen years there's been one guy
Speaker 1: that's played aid in for the Green Bay Packers for
Speaker 1: out of Indiana State in the franchise's history. And he
Speaker 1: makes the decision not only to convert to receiver, we
Speaker 1: ended up being the second all tailand leading receiver in
Speaker 1: Indiana State history, but then he understands that he has
Speaker 1: to move to tight end to play that at the
Speaker 1: next level. And and you'll get it if you get
Speaker 1: a chance to read the story. I just kind of
Speaker 1: go through the different levels of what that journey entailed.
Speaker 1: But I think the most important thing for him is
Speaker 1: last year he got cut by Detroit, really didn't get
Speaker 1: much of a chance during training camp to prove himself.
Speaker 1: Took ten visits throughout the course of the regular season
Speaker 1: up until the Packers finally bringing him in in December
Speaker 1: for a workout, and then was told by one of
Speaker 1: the scouts after it to call your parents and tell
Speaker 1: him you're not coming home. And you know, he took that.
Speaker 1: He did everything he could do. He put on the weight,
Speaker 1: put on good clean weight, came back for training camp
Speaker 1: as a tight end, And to be honest with you, Mike,
Speaker 1: other than the fact that he was a former practice
Speaker 1: squad player and an undrafted free agent in this league,
Speaker 1: they're really he really wasn't that dramatic. I mean, it
Speaker 1: just he just seemed like after that game in Kansas
Speaker 1: City where he had four catches and thirty yards and
Speaker 1: a touchdown, it just sort of seemed like it was there.
Speaker 1: He was going to be on the roster. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: writing was on the wall that he had that he
Speaker 1: had done what it took. And I think as a
Speaker 1: as amazing a happy birthday phone call as I'm sure
Speaker 1: that was on on Saturday. The thing he could really
Speaker 1: take the most pride in, I think, is that he
Speaker 1: didn't make this roster, as you said, because the packers
Speaker 1: needed a tight end. He made this roster because the
Speaker 1: packers didn't want his talent to go somewhere else. Because
Speaker 1: you can certainly have three tight ends on a fifty
Speaker 1: three and be just fine. So that's definitely an element
Speaker 1: to to how he made it here and got as
Speaker 1: far as he did. The cool part of the story too,
Speaker 1: once he does. Once his parents Bob sr And Tammy
Speaker 1: got the call, uh, they were celebrating. She actually bought
Speaker 1: three bottles of Green Bay Packers champagne, but she didn't
Speaker 1: tell anybody about it. She had completely hidden in a
Speaker 1: in a cupboard, but then quietly on Saturday morning moved
Speaker 1: them into the refrigerator just in case, you know, things
Speaker 1: turned out okay. He calls her she's just like Robert,
Speaker 1: and he goes Happy Birthday, and he mentioned the locker
Speaker 1: room this week that he was going to buy her
Speaker 1: an item. He's a pretty notorious gift giver. I guess
Speaker 1: he's phenomenal with his mom and his sister. But as
Speaker 1: she said, I put it near the end of the story,
Speaker 1: all she wants is that number eighty five jersey and
Speaker 1: just to look at where he's come from in the
Speaker 1: last twenty four years, the man he's become, and now
Speaker 1: this opportunity. She admitted, she understands how the game works.
Speaker 1: People have told her the NFL is not for long,
Speaker 1: but they're enjoying this moment. They're gonna be here on
Speaker 1: Sunday night, and whenever he does step onto the field
Speaker 1: for the Packers, they're going to be cheering them on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we see, uh we still see some eighty five
Speaker 1: jerseys at lambeau Field. A lot of people still have
Speaker 1: their Greg Jennings jerseys. But if anybody's at the game
Speaker 1: Sunday night and they see an eighty five with Tanya
Speaker 1: on the back, it's probably uh Tammy Tony. And there's
Speaker 1: quite a few of them too. I was told that
Speaker 1: basically the whole city, their whole town of mckenry. Uh there,
Speaker 1: They've had requests to the Packers Pro shop all week
Speaker 1: for Jerseys. They haven't can them out. Yeah, they haven't
Speaker 1: produced a lot of NFL players, haven't really produced a
Speaker 1: ton of high Division one players, So this is a
Speaker 1: really special moment for them. And it's also the understanding
Speaker 1: the maturity that that I think Tonyan demonstrated during this
Speaker 1: He never got too high, never got too low. When
Speaker 1: he felt like he needed to be a little happier,
Speaker 1: he went out to California for a month in October
Speaker 1: and in the early November to get away from some
Speaker 1: of the gloominess and and things that a company the
Speaker 1: fall in the Midwest. But um for him to be
Speaker 1: able to make that roster behind Jimmy Graham, Marcedes Lewis
Speaker 1: and Lance Kendricks, that's not lost on him. It means
Speaker 1: the world. Yeah. Alright, Well, one other thing I want
Speaker 1: to touch on before we go. As we usually do
Speaker 1: on our Friday show, we take a look at what's
Speaker 1: going what else is going on around the league, particularly
Speaker 1: in the NFC, and things that may affect the Packers.
Speaker 1: Thursday Night Football, we had the kickoff opener for the
Speaker 1: NFL season. The Eagles hang on and beat the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 1: Any impressions of that opening game. It was a really
Speaker 1: it was a strange game to watch because it was
Speaker 1: actually kind of dramatic, but it was slow at points
Speaker 1: to Yeah, the biggest thing I took away from it
Speaker 1: is that, as you and I've talked about, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be some bumps to go through with these with these
Speaker 1: rules and officiating. But uh, my biggest takeaway, this might
Speaker 1: not even be the thing that rises to the top
Speaker 1: of your mind, is Darren Sprowls still has it and
Speaker 1: he's still a speedy, explosive football player thirty five years old,
Speaker 1: and I think he's gonna be a big weapon for
Speaker 1: them this season. Yeah, if you're the Atlanta Falcons, don't
Speaker 1: you just feel like you went through deja vu? I
Speaker 1: mean driving down? I mean it was even the same
Speaker 1: end zone, the same end of the field. You've got
Speaker 1: the chance in the final men of the game, multiple chances,
Speaker 1: you know, first in goal, got all these shots at
Speaker 1: the end zone to win the ball game. You can't
Speaker 1: get the completion that you need. And uh and you
Speaker 1: walk out of Lincoln Financial Field with another tough laws
Speaker 1: and they got just like the divisional round the last January,
Speaker 1: and they basically got five downs with the illegal contact
Speaker 1: in the end zone. That's right that they got. They
Speaker 1: got the extra shot at it, still couldn't do it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean for the Eagles, you gotta feel
Speaker 1: good about it. I know everybody was thrown up that.
Speaker 1: I think it's what days since they've lost a game now,
Speaker 1: So it's a good way to start. But yeah, after
Speaker 1: the Falcons, that's a that's a tough one to swallow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're looking at the NFC North here in Week one.
Speaker 1: The Lions play on Monday night actually, so we may
Speaker 1: hit on that game in a little while. But the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings opened the season at home against the San
Speaker 1: Francisco forty Niners. Jimmy Garoppolo undefeated as a starter in
Speaker 1: the NFL was he won two games with New England
Speaker 1: as a starter and then went five and with the
Speaker 1: San Francisco forty Niners when he took over a one
Speaker 1: and ten team last year for the final five games.
Speaker 1: So this is an intriguing matchup here. You know, week one,
Speaker 1: you always never know what you're gonna get it. Maybe
Speaker 1: the most unpredictable week in all of football in a
Speaker 1: very unpredictable league in general. But the forty Niners going
Speaker 1: into Minneapolis. What do you think Jimmy Garoppolo and US
Speaker 1: Bank Stadium is going to be interesting to watch. I
Speaker 1: don't know how much you and I'll actually be able
Speaker 1: to see it, but uh, that's gonna be probably the
Speaker 1: biggest challenge he's faced so far in his young career. Yeah,
Speaker 1: showed a lot of moxie last year. Obviously has an arm,
Speaker 1: he can run an offense. He threw for a lot
Speaker 1: of yards in a short on a time last season.
Speaker 1: But I'm most interested to see if the forty nine
Speaker 1: can start finishing some of those drives. You know, he
Speaker 1: had a lot of passing yards last year, but not
Speaker 1: a lot of touchdowns. H And the Minnesota is not
Speaker 1: a team with Mike Zimmer's defense that gives up a
Speaker 1: lot of them either, So seeing that contrast is gonna
Speaker 1: be interesting. And then obviously Kirk Cousins the you know,
Speaker 1: with everything that he was paid this offseason, the Vikings
Speaker 1: really hitching their way into him, seeing if he can
Speaker 1: take that offense to the next level. Yeah, it feels
Speaker 1: like from everything we hear, it's like a super Bowl
Speaker 1: or bust mentality. And Annapolis amongst amongst their fan base
Speaker 1: and everything, so They certainly want to get things started
Speaker 1: out right at home against against a team from the
Speaker 1: West Coast that some people are thinking maybe is a
Speaker 1: is a playoff sleeper with Garoppolo, so an interesting MATCHO.
Speaker 1: Absolutely the NFC West, There's been a lot of movement
Speaker 1: there the last few years, that the bottom's risen and
Speaker 1: see if they can take it from there. All right,
Speaker 1: with that, we will call it a wrap on this
Speaker 1: edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of
Speaker 1: our coverage of the team and of sunday Nights big
Speaker 1: Week one game on Packers dot com on Twitter. He's
Speaker 1: at West Hot, I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for
Speaker 1: the team. Mccau. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you
Speaker 1: next time, m HM.