Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my trusted
Speaker 1: Collige West Hodkowits. Were coming to hear from our studios
Speaker 1: at lambeau Field, back from the nation's capital West and
Speaker 1: Uh an old group called the Carpenters. They made a
Speaker 1: lyric rather famous and it goes, rainy days and Mondays
Speaker 1: always get me down. And I think that pretty much
Speaker 1: sums this one up. It was a rainy day at
Speaker 1: FedEx Field and uh kind of rained on the Packers parade.
Speaker 1: Just uh, not one that anybody's gonna remember for for
Speaker 1: a while. No, not for the right reasons. And uh, certainly,
Speaker 1: Uh it was weird, Mike. I woke up on Sunday
Speaker 1: morning and we actually stayed like directly downtown where like
Speaker 1: two blocks from the White House. Looked out my window
Speaker 1: the moment before, and I knew it was gonna rain,
Speaker 1: but just the amount of consistent rain throughout the day,
Speaker 1: it just it it's sort of underscored what this game
Speaker 1: was gonna be for the Packers and and and it's funny.
Speaker 1: I You're always learning things, right, you know, in my
Speaker 1: thirty years I think of every year I've covered the
Speaker 1: NFL and I've had a thought or I've had a
Speaker 1: you know, kind of an analysis hypothesis for how things
Speaker 1: were gonna go, and everybody talked about, you know, while
Speaker 1: coming off of a tie road teams, teams that then
Speaker 1: go on the road, or like, oh, in thirteen or fourteen,
Speaker 1: I actually thought the Packers are gonna be the ons
Speaker 1: a curb that uh. And certainly I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: that's the reason why they lost, but you could see
Speaker 1: what how difficult it is in those circumstances to go
Speaker 1: out there and play well, and in the Packers case,
Speaker 1: particularly in that first half, just not enough. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a rough start on both sides of the ball
Speaker 1: for the Packers. No mistake about a defense was not
Speaker 1: playing well, offense was not playing well. You get down
Speaker 1: into a ten hole at time the and as the
Speaker 1: second half unfolded, you know, the defense boat up and
Speaker 1: got a series of stops, and the bottom line is
Speaker 1: the offense had its opportunities to get back in the game.
Speaker 1: You had the feeling if the Packers could just get
Speaker 1: it to a one score game, that was going to
Speaker 1: flip some of the pressure back to Washington's offense to
Speaker 1: have to try to seize the momentum back that that
Speaker 1: that unit had clearly lost. But the Packers never got
Speaker 1: it to a one score game. They never, they never,
Speaker 1: you know, turned up the screws in that respect, so
Speaker 1: to speak. And you know, whether you want to talk
Speaker 1: about the penalties, the drop passes, all kinds of opportunities
Speaker 1: were there for Green Bay and the Packers just didn't
Speaker 1: cash in and and walked out of there with a
Speaker 1: with a really tough loss. Yeah, it's funny, you're the
Speaker 1: big baseball guy. I don't know as much about anymore,
Speaker 1: but it did seem to seem to me like a
Speaker 1: game where there was a lot of runners left on
Speaker 1: base ye in that the Packers defense. I mean, that
Speaker 1: was about as bizarre of a game as I think
Speaker 1: I've seen in a long time in terms of the
Speaker 1: difference between the first and the second half. Total yards
Speaker 1: in the first half sixty three and the second. Now,
Speaker 1: mind you, Washington had a lead, they were protecting the lead,
Speaker 1: but just how they didn't really do much in the
Speaker 1: second half. Alex Smith had six passing yards after halftime,
Speaker 1: four possessions. Four possessions. Washington had one first down and
Speaker 1: it was on the Clay Matthews roughing the passer penalty,
Speaker 1: which is a whole another discussion I'm sure we can
Speaker 1: touch on again. But um, but no, the Packers defense,
Speaker 1: for as much as the unit struggled in the first half,
Speaker 1: it gave the offense a chance in the second half
Speaker 1: and and it just didn't come together. Yeah, And all
Speaker 1: five explosive plays the defense allowed were in the first
Speaker 1: two quarters. They settle in, but then offensively, every time
Speaker 1: it looked like the Packers were about to mount a rally,
Speaker 1: that Aaron Rodgers was going to lead the troops again,
Speaker 1: just something happened there. It was a drop pass, a fumble, um,
Speaker 1: you know, just things didn't quite go their way. And
Speaker 1: in this in a road environment, playing a team that
Speaker 1: I think, as you've seen with Washington, is as game
Speaker 1: as they are, and their defense, which is pretty stingy
Speaker 1: that I mean, they're playing, they're playing good ball right now.
Speaker 1: When you get an opportunity to to seize momentum, to
Speaker 1: to seize an opportunity to to put some points on
Speaker 1: the board, you have to execute on it. And the
Speaker 1: Packers just weren't able to do that. Yeah. Well, to
Speaker 1: give you another baseball analogy, I wrote flying back on
Speaker 1: the Plane. Last night, I was working on the Insider
Speaker 1: Inbox column for Monday morning, and I said, you know,
Speaker 1: in a baseball lineup, you have to string the hits together.
Speaker 1: It doesn't do any good to get a hit in
Speaker 1: the first inning, one hit in the second inning, one
Speaker 1: hit in the fourth inning. You have to string him together.
Speaker 1: And the way this game went, the Packers couldn't string
Speaker 1: anything together. You get an interception from the defense, but
Speaker 1: then the offense has great field position and can't take advantage.
Speaker 1: The special teams pins Washington on the two yard line. Well,
Speaker 1: that's time for the defense to do it's part, but
Speaker 1: to plays seventy five yards and Washington's right in scoring
Speaker 1: range again. You know, the offense hits the sixty four
Speaker 1: yard touchdown, but then the defense allows another oring drive
Speaker 1: right back the other way. Right after that. The Packers
Speaker 1: couldn't string anything together, and the result is then you're
Speaker 1: scrambling in the second half to try to get back
Speaker 1: in the game, and it just didn't happen. It's an
Speaker 1: eleven on eleven game. It's offense versus defense, and in
Speaker 1: too many phases, the Packers just got beat just enough
Speaker 1: that ultimately it would end up being the result that
Speaker 1: it was. The difficult thing is is there were positives
Speaker 1: in this that that get lost. And I'm sure we'll
Speaker 1: talk about the Clay Matthews uh penalty here in a moment,
Speaker 1: but I mean the fact that Clay Matthews finally did
Speaker 1: get a sack or it looked like he was that
Speaker 1: that looked like vintage Clay Matthews on that play gets
Speaker 1: wiped out. Nimo Allison has a sixty four yard touchdown
Speaker 1: past Doronimo Allison is leading the Packers and receiving right now,
Speaker 1: and you know it's it's all for not Mark Quisvelde.
Speaker 1: Scantling looks like he can be the gunner that the
Speaker 1: Packers need to compliment J K. Scott, who had another
Speaker 1: strong game. Aaron Jones is back involved. But all those
Speaker 1: positives didn't ultimately help the Packers get to where they
Speaker 1: needed to be and what you need to do more
Speaker 1: than anything else, and you I talked about before it
Speaker 1: came in here. As great as those those moments are,
Speaker 1: it comes down to fundamentals across the entire offense and defense,
Speaker 1: and we could talk about it to where the blue
Speaker 1: in the face and people get you know, tired of it.
Speaker 1: But it's true if you go back and look at
Speaker 1: some of the areas where the Packers came up short,
Speaker 1: it's fundamental mistakes and not being able to either protect
Speaker 1: the football, secure the football, or you know, just just
Speaker 1: losing their technique. Yeah, obviously and and technique that that
Speaker 1: is a key thing. Mike McCarthy, you know, after the game,
Speaker 1: said hey, you know, we had too many penalties, and
Speaker 1: it does go back to the fundamentals because whether you're
Speaker 1: talking about the hand placement of offensive linemen when they're
Speaker 1: getting called for holding, or the techniques in the defensive
Speaker 1: backfield when you're getting multiple pass interference penalties on one drive,
Speaker 1: those kinds of things just they take the wind out
Speaker 1: of the sales of of any team. There's only so
Speaker 1: there's only so many times you're gonna get that opportunity
Speaker 1: to seize the momentum and uh and when you let
Speaker 1: it slip away like that, and then on top of it,
Speaker 1: you have a couple of veteran players in Randall Cobb
Speaker 1: and Lance Kendricks, and I don't mean to single them
Speaker 1: out because other guys had penalties other guys had past
Speaker 1: interference calls and all that, but the drop passes when
Speaker 1: it's veteran, proven veteran players. These guys are gonna atone
Speaker 1: for their mistakes. We know that. But that's tough because
Speaker 1: you know, the past narrative around here has been, well,
Speaker 1: it's young guys who make mistakes and you have to
Speaker 1: live with them. In this case, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of veteran players unfortunately that let the Packers down. And
Speaker 1: and you know their pros, they'll bounce back, they'll they'll
Speaker 1: get the job done. But it's it's it's a you know,
Speaker 1: a tally market in the al column because of because
Speaker 1: of a lot of guys that that you know, no,
Speaker 1: they didn't play up to their own standard. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: Randall Cobb is about as even keel as they come,
Speaker 1: and was beating himself up about it afterwards, you know,
Speaker 1: having the fumble in that series, the really close forth
Speaker 1: and to play looked like he had the catch upon
Speaker 1: further review, ball did come out and to touch the ground.
Speaker 1: Those are plays that that Cobb prides himself on, and
Speaker 1: he knows the offense and needs those moments, and certainly
Speaker 1: Lance Kendricks that was a great opportunity for a big play,
Speaker 1: and and he did a phenomenal job to it. It
Speaker 1: appeared like it was sort of an extended scrambled drow
Speaker 1: where he was out in the flat, that he turned
Speaker 1: it up field, almost turning it into a wheel route
Speaker 1: gets behind the linebacker coverage, And the most frustrating part
Speaker 1: of that, and I know he talked about it. It's
Speaker 1: all focused is that it wasn't even like it was
Speaker 1: broken up, like he actually had the separation. He pulled
Speaker 1: it down the linebacker fifty four. I think that was
Speaker 1: faster Foster. He didn't actually touch him until really he's
Speaker 1: on the ground. It just wasn't able to secure it.
Speaker 1: Moments like that that I think Aaron Rodgers talked about it.
Speaker 1: The guys talked about the locker room afterwards, separates the
Speaker 1: winds and the losses, and unfortunately for the packers, this
Speaker 1: one goes down as an owl. Yeah, well, a little
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Speaker 1: injury to insults, so to speak, the Packers left Washington
Speaker 1: rather banged up. Here we saw Maha mid Wilkerson, veteran
Speaker 1: defensive lineman, get carted off the field, which with what
Speaker 1: looked like a pretty nasty ankle injury. Brian Bulaga left
Speaker 1: the game with a back injury. Also on the right
Speaker 1: side of the offensive line, Justin McCrae left the game
Speaker 1: with a shoulder injury. Towards the end of the game,
Speaker 1: Nick Perry on the defensive side, was being evaluated for
Speaker 1: a concussion. We'll see as the week goes along what
Speaker 1: kind of updates we get on those injuries. But but boy,
Speaker 1: those are those are some some key veteran players that
Speaker 1: you know, you hope, you know, things obviously don't look
Speaker 1: good with Wilkerson when the cart comes out like that,
Speaker 1: but with some of the other guys, you hope maybe
Speaker 1: none of these are long term deals. Yeah, and and
Speaker 1: blag is certainly the way he was able to come
Speaker 1: back from the knee injury and and be a starter
Speaker 1: for this offense and be accountable at that position, and
Speaker 1: in moving back in at right tackle. It's it's tough
Speaker 1: to see, you know him have to go out, Certainly
Speaker 1: Jason Spriggs, who actually thought looked pretty good at the
Speaker 1: end of training camp working mostly on the left side, well,
Speaker 1: now he has to go back to the right side, uh,
Speaker 1: and gets worked there. Justin mccrawe actually said afterwards, this
Speaker 1: is the shoulder injury. He's kind of been dealing with
Speaker 1: the going back to training camp, and he sort of
Speaker 1: tried to muscle through it. There was a point in
Speaker 1: time in that game, though, where he started to realize
Speaker 1: subconsciously he wasn't really getting his hands behind his blocks anymore.
Speaker 1: He was doing things that compensate for that. And because
Speaker 1: he wasn't in his you know mind, you know, being
Speaker 1: able to help the offense at his full full pressure,
Speaker 1: full you know, full accord, he pulls himself out by
Speaker 1: Ron Bell ends up being the guy that finishes the
Speaker 1: game there. It's tough because the Packers offensive line, I
Speaker 1: thought one of the big positives these first two weeks
Speaker 1: they had all five guys, they were able to start
Speaker 1: working together, building that rapport, and then you lose some
Speaker 1: of that. As far as Wilkerson, that one's really tough
Speaker 1: because we've seen Mike in these first three games were
Speaker 1: probably more specifically the Vikings game, how big the Packers
Speaker 1: plans are for him with this defense and the ways
Speaker 1: that they can use him. And and he actually had
Speaker 1: a pretty good pressure earlier in that game that I
Speaker 1: thought kind of helped contribute to the Clinton Dick's interception
Speaker 1: being able to get in Alex Smith's face. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: was lined up as a five tech on that play
Speaker 1: and he was he was coming around the edge and
Speaker 1: Kenny Clark had some pressure up the middle, and then
Speaker 1: Smith gets rid of that ball, the tight end doesn't
Speaker 1: break off his route, and you know, the pressure through
Speaker 1: the timing of the playoff ends up being a pick
Speaker 1: for the Packers, and Smith is standing in the heart
Speaker 1: of the pocket at that time. He can't throw it away.
Speaker 1: So it's things like that, man, where it's just the
Speaker 1: Packers defensive line. We talked about it all summer long.
Speaker 1: It was going to be a strength for them. I
Speaker 1: think they've had their moments. But we'll have to see
Speaker 1: what happens with Wilkerson. That's a big chunk of it though.
Speaker 1: If if he's not able to go, Yeah, well we'd
Speaker 1: be remiss if we didn't at least discussed to some
Speaker 1: extent the Clay Matthews ready passer third straight week. Now,
Speaker 1: Clay Matthews first nine years of his career, he has
Speaker 1: four roughing the passer penalties. The last three weeks he's
Speaker 1: had three. Now we all know, as we've said, the
Speaker 1: one against Chicago, and Matthews has admitted it multiple times
Speaker 1: that was on him. He knows he shouldn't have done it,
Speaker 1: perfectly legitimate roughing the passer call. But these last two
Speaker 1: weeks and you can you can just see the frustration
Speaker 1: right there on the field. He's sacks Smith. He looks
Speaker 1: at the referee right away, you know, because he's actually
Speaker 1: worried that maybe a flag is going to come out,
Speaker 1: and then sure enough the flag does come out. I Joe,
Speaker 1: I was, you know, I say, maybe half joking in
Speaker 1: my chat or an inbox wherever I wrote it last
Speaker 1: week that you know it's time to just bear hug
Speaker 1: the quarterback and hold on like I I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't know what else Clay Matthews is supposed to do.
Speaker 1: Not that being said, you have to try to do
Speaker 1: something different because you can't keep getting flags. So you
Speaker 1: can't just keep doing the same thing because the flags
Speaker 1: are gonna keep coming out. But I'm not sure what
Speaker 1: the answer is West. I'm really not get the flags out,
Speaker 1: the flag, the red flags, throw them on the quarterback.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, Mike, Um, here's what's funny about this.
Speaker 1: Here's the feeder of it. Week one egregious. You know
Speaker 1: everyone understands that just because I mean, even if he
Speaker 1: wasn't trying to be malicious in it, you go up
Speaker 1: near the quarterback's head and the balls out, they're gonna
Speaker 1: throw the flag. Matthews got that last last week is
Speaker 1: last week wasn't a penalty. This might have been the
Speaker 1: first week that the referees got the call right in
Speaker 1: terms of the letter of the law. But that doesn't
Speaker 1: change the fact it's a terrible foul. It's a terrible call.
Speaker 1: But it is funny in that claim Matthews. After three
Speaker 1: straight weeks, the referees actually got the call probably right,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't change the fact that it's terrible and uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, But here's here, here's the things.
Speaker 1: And this is interesting because after after we got back
Speaker 1: last night, after the plane landed, got home, I'm looking
Speaker 1: through some different things on the internet. I got my
Speaker 1: eye on Sunday Night Football. I saw I saw a
Speaker 1: discussion that happened on the Sunday Night Football pregame show
Speaker 1: and apparently they had Terry McAuley, the former official who's
Speaker 1: now kind of one of these rules analysts for the networks,
Speaker 1: and he pointed out something very interesting that there is
Speaker 1: language in the rule as far as this whole body
Speaker 1: weight thing on the quarterback. There's language and the rule
Speaker 1: about it being unnecessary, you know. And that's the part
Speaker 1: I think that's getting lost here. Is that. Okay, so yes,
Speaker 1: by the letter of the law, Clay Matthews landed with
Speaker 1: all of his body weight on the quarterback. But it
Speaker 1: was necessary for him to make the play. It wasn't
Speaker 1: some unnecessary act that was outside of the play that
Speaker 1: he was trying to make. And I think that's what's
Speaker 1: getting lost here. And as as we've talked about all
Speaker 1: of this focus on the rules and the changes in
Speaker 1: the rules and all this kind of stuff. It has
Speaker 1: the the officials hyper focused on finding reasons to throw
Speaker 1: flags instead of stopping to think about the reasons not to.
Speaker 1: That's what's going on here, and unfortunately the Packers seem
Speaker 1: to be the team that's right in the middle of it. Now,
Speaker 1: not long before the Clay Matthews sack, Aaron Rodgers gets
Speaker 1: basically tossed like a rag doll on a sack, actually
Speaker 1: really lands on his head, his helmet goes right into
Speaker 1: the turf. And then we in the press box were
Speaker 1: treated to a little conversation between Rogers and referee Craig
Speaker 1: Rolstad where he had left his microphone on during the
Speaker 1: TV time out, and we heard Rogers asking the referee
Speaker 1: about hey, like, did you know do you see me
Speaker 1: get thrown down on my head there? And the referee said, well,
Speaker 1: I couldn't see it through all the pile of bodies
Speaker 1: and whatever based on his angle, so he couldn't, so
Speaker 1: he couldn't throw the flag. So that again brings me
Speaker 1: back to the point I've been making all along, which
Speaker 1: is if you want to protect these players, then you
Speaker 1: have to have replay to look at this, because if
Speaker 1: one guy is in charge of throwing that flag and
Speaker 1: he can't see what happened, then how are we How
Speaker 1: is anybody's supposed to get anything right and trust that
Speaker 1: the calls are all going to be legitimate and fair.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's not happening correctly, and the league needs
Speaker 1: to do something about it. Ding ding Ding. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: can't add much more to that. You're right. Here's here's
Speaker 1: the one thing I will say though. Uh, this is
Speaker 1: the one thing I really appreciated about Clay Matthews. Afterwards
Speaker 1: he said he did not he did not agree with
Speaker 1: it obviously. Uh. And he handled it all, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: handled it very professionally. You could tell his frustration, considering
Speaker 1: he comes from a third generation football family, has an
Speaker 1: uncle that played in the league for twenty years, a
Speaker 1: father that played in the league for nineteen years. He's
Speaker 1: been playing this game for twenty years. He said, this
Speaker 1: is the way I play it. I almost wish, though,
Speaker 1: he would have did one thing differently, And and I
Speaker 1: understand that the games played at a million miles prower
Speaker 1: there's nothing to do. I think it would have made
Speaker 1: a great statement to the league if he would have
Speaker 1: bear hugged him and stopped and then to getting back
Speaker 1: to the original thing, because one they would have had
Speaker 1: to he had his arms covered, so there's nothing Alex Smith.
Speaker 1: If you if you can get the quarterback in a
Speaker 1: bear hug, he's not He's not going. And I think
Speaker 1: that would have been a great statement in terms of
Speaker 1: the I'm not saying this is how you should do it,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying I think that would have been a
Speaker 1: great moment for people to really look at be like,
Speaker 1: is this the league you want? Is this the play
Speaker 1: you want? Do you want your your your faces, your
Speaker 1: celebrity pass rushers that the guys that Sunday Night Football
Speaker 1: is gonna put their promotions. Do you want him going
Speaker 1: up to Alex Smith and bear hugging him until the
Speaker 1: ref calls end of forward progress, until they blow the whistle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think that might be what's gonna happen because
Speaker 1: getting back to you original thing about unnecessary, you know, penalty,
Speaker 1: Clay Matthew said he could have made it unrest unnecessary.
Speaker 1: There's things he could have done that would have been
Speaker 1: absolutely specific plays. But he got inside leverage on the tackle,
Speaker 1: He had a straight line to the quarterback. You're telling me,
Speaker 1: Clay Matthews is going to be able to get his
Speaker 1: hips around on that play. And by the way, you
Speaker 1: get your hips around too much, you know what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You're soup plexing them. You're gonna do the same thing
Speaker 1: that happened to Rogers, but now you don't have the
Speaker 1: clutter and you're getting the play. Yeah yeah, yeah, what
Speaker 1: what what Doron Payne did? If Rollsdad can see it,
Speaker 1: he's throwing the flag and and that potentially changes up
Speaker 1: changes a possession of possible scoring opportunity. So here's Packers,
Speaker 1: here's the here's the lesson. Here kids, make sure there's
Speaker 1: a scrum around the quarterback. They take your what you will? Yeah, yeah, yes, well,
Speaker 1: I tell you what was We spent more time on
Speaker 1: that than I thought we were going to. And there
Speaker 1: was a lot that happened elsewhere in the NFL, And
Speaker 1: let's save a lot of that discussion and where things
Speaker 1: are in the NFC North for tomorrow's show. And there's
Speaker 1: some other things obviously to follow up on this game.
Speaker 1: But you know what, we're just gonna what. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: interrupt you one more time, you know, the ultimate travesty
Speaker 1: with this Matthews played two pretty good games. He played
Speaker 1: well against Minnesota, got wiped out. He got a sack
Speaker 1: in this game and got wiped out. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: but we do have to call it a wrap on
Speaker 1: this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all
Speaker 1: of our coverage of the team on the website packers
Speaker 1: dot com. On Twitter, you can follow him at west
Speaker 1: Hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account.
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.