Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffor, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trust and colleague Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you here from our studios at lambeau Field to review Wes.
Speaker 1: Yet another walk off victory for green Bay, this one
Speaker 1: thirty to twenty seven over the Jacksonville Jaguars on the road.
Speaker 1: A fourth straight win for green Bay six and two
Speaker 1: record now, as I said, second straight walkoff victory, and man,
Speaker 1: just whatever it takes at the end, the Packers are
Speaker 1: finding a way here.
Speaker 2: Survive in advance that you have to learn from it,
Speaker 2: you have to improve from it. And as Tucker Craft
Speaker 2: said after the game, there's certain things that have happened
Speaker 2: in this first half of the season that they have
Speaker 2: to very much get corrected if they're going to be
Speaker 2: a championship team. If this is gonna be a team that
Speaker 2: is going to make some noise in January and potentially
Speaker 2: into February. But all that being said, Mike, you have
Speaker 2: to win these football games. And I was reminded on
Speaker 2: Sunday night and watching some of these games unfold, and
Speaker 2: we'll talk about it later in the show. But obviously
Speaker 2: what happened with Washington. You saw the game between Dallas
Speaker 2: and San Francisco and the high stakes of that matchup
Speaker 2: with both of those teams and the slow starts they've
Speaker 2: been off to. You have to win games in this league.
Speaker 2: You have to find ways through your errors, through your mistakes,
Speaker 2: you have to continue to keep stacking things. And that's
Speaker 2: what the Packers have done during this four game win streak.
Speaker 2: They were able to sweep the AFC SOL in this
Speaker 2: non conference action. They were able to build some momentum
Speaker 2: here through the first half of the season. And if
Speaker 2: you're going to take the situation that the Packers found
Speaker 2: themselves in Week nine last year in compared to this year,
Speaker 2: being able to come out on the winning side of
Speaker 2: this thing, I think shows the maturity of this football
Speaker 2: team in the fact that it can go so many
Speaker 2: different ways, whether it was the takeovers that turning those
Speaker 2: takeovers into points, overcoming the loss of Jordan Love, but
Speaker 2: Willis going back in there, Josh Jacob's rushing for one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty seven yards. Everybody pulled together in this one,
Speaker 2: and as you said, it eventually came down to the
Speaker 2: first time ever in NFL history, According to Elias, a
Speaker 2: kicker in his first two games with the team, as
Speaker 2: time expires, making a game wining field goal. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: it just doesn't get any bigger than that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this one was a lot shorter in that regard,
Speaker 1: a chip shot for Brandon McManus to win the game.
Speaker 1: But of course it starts with Malik Willis doing it
Speaker 1: yet again. He comes in for Jordan Love. Love injures
Speaker 1: is groin on the first possession of the game for
Speaker 1: the Packers. It was a third down. He's trying to
Speaker 1: scramble to his right a little bit and throw back
Speaker 1: across the field to Josh Jacobs and he strains the
Speaker 1: groin muscle. He stays in for the rest of the
Speaker 1: first half. The Packers score thirteen points, and Love is
Speaker 1: in there. On the opening series of the second half,
Speaker 1: he's almost at two hundred yards pass I mean, but
Speaker 1: he's he's gutting it out, not clearly, not one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: The mobility is not there. And on that opening essentially
Speaker 1: the opening third down of the second half for the Packers,
Speaker 1: it's like, that's it. Love can't do it anymore. Malik
Speaker 1: Willis has to go in and this is where what
Speaker 1: I think was a remarkable turning point in this game.
Speaker 1: And I know it came down to the last possession
Speaker 1: and all that, and we'll certainly get into that. But
Speaker 1: Malik Willis comes into the game. He obviously this is
Speaker 1: very different from his previous two games in relief in
Speaker 1: place of Jordan Love, because those other two times he
Speaker 1: had had the whole week of practice, they designed the
Speaker 1: whole game plan with him playing quarterback in mind, all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. This is emergency duty off the bench.
Speaker 1: Willis has to adjust, the coaching staff has to adjust.
Speaker 1: Everything's going on. And on that opening third down, the
Speaker 1: first play he replaces Love, the Packers don't get the
Speaker 1: first down and they punt the ball. So the next
Speaker 1: time Malik Willis gets the football for his first full possession,
Speaker 1: the Packers are trailing. Jacksonville went down long ninety plus
Speaker 1: yard drive for a touchdown, took a seventeen to thirteen lead.
Speaker 1: And this is the first time Malik Willis has been
Speaker 1: the Packers quarterback playing with a deficit. Both of the
Speaker 1: wins back in weeks two and three, Packers were never
Speaker 1: behind in those games. And what did he do with
Speaker 1: using Josh Jacobs pounding away, he scrambles once for himself,
Speaker 1: hits a crucial third down conversion to don Tavian Wicks,
Speaker 1: and then Josh Jacobs busts the long touchdown run and
Speaker 1: Malik Willis is in the game and the Packers aren't
Speaker 1: trailing again. Boom, They're right back out in front. I
Speaker 1: thought that drive in the third quarter showed an incredible
Speaker 1: amount of just poison, moxie and whatever you want to
Speaker 1: say about Malik Willis to be thrown into that situation,
Speaker 1: to be losing, to be on the road, and he
Speaker 1: put the Packers right back in front. And yes, Jacksonville
Speaker 1: ended up tying the game later, but the Packers never
Speaker 1: trailed again.
Speaker 2: A few things I want to touch on here, first
Speaker 2: and foremost, before Malik Willis even threw a pass, before
Speaker 2: even scrambled, before even went under center, I thought it
Speaker 2: was really apropos in the postgame locker room, how Josh
Speaker 2: Jacobs Tuckercraft had both talked about this, the sense of
Speaker 2: calm with the offense when Willis is entering the game.
Speaker 2: As you said, there was a lot of adversity that hit.
Speaker 2: The tide had turned at the end of the second
Speaker 2: quarter two, Jacksonville started with four straight possessions where they
Speaker 2: went three and out or had the interception as well.
Speaker 2: In there, I think, yeah, but four straight possessions without
Speaker 2: a first down, without a first down, Yeah, and here
Speaker 2: they are. They start to get some momentum, and now
Speaker 2: you're asking your backup quarterback for some magic. I even
Speaker 2: tweeted it. I was like, they're asking Malik Willis for
Speaker 2: a little bit more magic here. And then what happens
Speaker 2: immediately after that? He scrambles for twenty yards. They get
Speaker 2: the thirty eight yard touchdown run by Josh Jacobs. But
Speaker 2: before any of that happened, Tucker Kraft saying to those
Speaker 2: guys in the huddle, Hey, we've been here before. We've
Speaker 2: been in this situation before where we don't have Jordan Love.
Speaker 2: This guy made it right, but we also need to
Speaker 2: step up collectively to help him do his job. And
Speaker 2: I felt like that's what this offense did. It was
Speaker 2: more efficient, it ran on time, and really, with the
Speaker 2: exception of just that one slant route they weren't able
Speaker 2: to complete with Romeo Dobbs, I thought pretty much did
Speaker 2: everything blueprint for what you want to accomplish. But what
Speaker 2: I like the most about Malik Willis man in winning time.
Speaker 2: The guy gets it done. They go out there again.
Speaker 2: Another adverse situation that the Jacksonville Jiggers go whatever it was,
Speaker 2: ninety some yards, get down the field, they score, they
Speaker 2: tie the game. There's less than two minutes left, and
Speaker 2: Packers are thinking, all right, we'll run here with Jacobs,
Speaker 2: drain a little bit of clock off, make sure that's
Speaker 2: in your favor so you don't go three and out
Speaker 2: and give them too much time with two timeouts left,
Speaker 2: and then they dial up the play for Jayden Reid
Speaker 2: and one a brilliant play call for Matt LeFlore, a
Speaker 2: brilliant job by the Packers' coaching staff and the players
Speaker 2: for executing and building towards that moment, but just an
Speaker 2: incredibly important play for Malik Heath or Balik Willis. Excuse
Speaker 2: me to hit Reid on that play. He didn't have
Speaker 2: to make a tight window throw, but you had to
Speaker 2: get it there. He had to allow him to go
Speaker 2: up make a field goal. And listening to Brandon McManus
Speaker 2: talking to locker room afterwards about how you know you're
Speaker 2: preparing for whatever the situation might be. Maybe fifty maybe forty,
Speaker 2: you're not sure. And then here you are with a
Speaker 2: twenty four yard field goal to win a football game. Michael,
Speaker 2: this football team behind Malik Willis once again picked each
Speaker 2: other up.
Speaker 1: Yeah they did. They did pick each other up. And
Speaker 1: the explanation of how the play to Jayden Reid came
Speaker 1: about is pretty fascinating because and I've got the breakdown
Speaker 1: of the plays both first out and second down on
Speaker 1: that final drive. It's in my what you might have missed.
Speaker 1: If you want to look at the clips. I'll try
Speaker 1: to blame it as best I can here. Essentially earlier
Speaker 1: in the game, the Packers had run a play action
Speaker 1: bootleg and Jason Vrabel, the team's passing game coordinator, one
Speaker 1: of a longtime offensive assistant for Matt Lafleur, he had
Speaker 1: noticed something where he thought that Jaden Reid, coming from
Speaker 1: essentially an inline position on the right side of the
Speaker 1: offensive formation, leaking through the traffic and out to the left.
Speaker 1: He thought that that would be open off of the
Speaker 1: what they what they call a key pass or a
Speaker 1: bootleg pass. So that play wasn't actually in the game
Speaker 1: plan for this week, but based on Vrabel's suggestion, they
Speaker 1: talked about it on the sideline, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: They so they put it in and they had it
Speaker 1: ready well. On that final possession, then the Packers get
Speaker 1: the ball, a buck forty eight on the clock. They
Speaker 1: got two timeouts. The game is tied, and Lafleur says, okay.
Speaker 1: He calls a running play to Josh Jacobs, but it
Speaker 1: has what's known as a can or an audible to
Speaker 1: the pass play to Jaden Reed. He calls it on
Speaker 1: first down, and they're looking for the safeties to be
Speaker 1: in a certain alignment in the secondary for Jacksonville, for
Speaker 1: Read's route to be open on first out. It's not there.
Speaker 1: They don't get the look they want. They just run
Speaker 1: the standard hand off to Jacobs. They get four yards,
Speaker 1: same personnel, same formation, same play call, with the same
Speaker 1: can call to the pass to Read. The Jacksonville safeties
Speaker 1: Savage and Cisco. They end up playing second down differently.
Speaker 1: Cisco comes down to help and run support where the
Speaker 1: run to Jacob's had just gone on first down. When
Speaker 1: Cisco comes down, Willis puts his hands up to his ears.
Speaker 1: That's the can call. We're going to the alternate play.
Speaker 1: The other guys on the team also put their hands
Speaker 1: up to their ears. Everybody's on the same page. Everything
Speaker 1: looks exactly the same, except it's a play action fake
Speaker 1: and a bootleg and instead of blocking Jaden, Reid leaks
Speaker 1: out and he's wide open. I mean, everything that went
Speaker 1: into getting to that moment with the game on the line.
Speaker 1: It's fascinating, but it's an example. It's also an example
Speaker 1: of the complex level at which the game is played
Speaker 1: in the NFL. This is the kind of stuff that
Speaker 1: goes on all the time. We just don't necessarily hear
Speaker 1: about it. We don't get all the explanations. And there
Speaker 1: are things that happen like this where it goes wrong
Speaker 1: and it doesn't work and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But the Packers pulled this off with a guy, a
Speaker 1: quarterback who'd come off the bench in an emergency situation
Speaker 1: and suddenly the game is on the line, on the road,
Speaker 1: and the last thing you want to do is give
Speaker 1: the ball back to Trevor Lawrence because he's scored ten
Speaker 1: points on his last two possessions. It was a It
Speaker 1: was a remarkable finish and and they're they're just there's
Speaker 1: so many people who deserve credit for it, and ultimately
Speaker 1: Malik Willis to execute the way he did and to
Speaker 1: put that ball on the money for Jaden Reid not
Speaker 1: only so we could catch it, but so that he
Speaker 1: could get all the extra yards after the catch and
Speaker 1: get well into field goal range. Just an incredible finish
Speaker 1: and a great win for Green Bay.
Speaker 2: I couldn't summon up any better mic and for the
Speaker 2: packers of me. Again, it's it's like eleven different chess
Speaker 2: games gonna go on simultaneously out there when you're trying
Speaker 2: to figure out how all these things are going to
Speaker 2: fit together. But what I like the most about that
Speaker 2: play too is, you know, Jaden Reid he had he
Speaker 2: had a couple of tough moments in this game, you know,
Speaker 2: a couple passes where he had his hands on him
Speaker 2: he wasn't able to bring him in. But it's a
Speaker 2: sixty minute game, and it's why you have to have
Speaker 2: a short memory. And Josh Jacobs even said when I
Speaker 2: asked him about it in the locker room, you know,
Speaker 2: watching the play from where he was standing, he thought
Speaker 2: Jayden Reid was gone, just because the way he is,
Speaker 2: the way he plays, and how quick he is. There's
Speaker 2: just very few guys in the league that can catch him,
Speaker 2: and for Green Bay then to be at what it
Speaker 2: whatever was the fifteen yard line, they start running it again.
Speaker 2: Chris Brooks, the reserve running back on this roster who
Speaker 2: is getting more playing time in this game. The Jagors
Speaker 2: try to let him get in the end zone because
Speaker 2: they're out of timeouts now. The only way they have
Speaker 2: to potentially win this game is to let the Packers
Speaker 2: score and then try to tie it again. Yeah, or
Speaker 2: potentially go for two. If they would get the touchdown
Speaker 2: and Brooks has the presence of mind to go down,
Speaker 2: it ends up being a twenty four yard field goal
Speaker 2: and an easier field goal than if they were kicking
Speaker 2: an extra point, and McManus and the operation was smooth
Speaker 2: and write what it needed to be. I keep saying this, Mike.
Speaker 2: I tweeted it the moment when I was waiting for
Speaker 2: you to finish up with the game recap. I remember
Speaker 2: tweeting this in the press box. I said, there's so
Speaker 2: many moves that happened, and so much that goes down
Speaker 2: during the offseason program and free agency and the draft
Speaker 2: and everything. The Packers signing Brandon McManus in trading for
Speaker 2: Malik Willis and potentially how many wins that has already
Speaker 2: saved or produced for the Packers, depending how you look
Speaker 2: at it. Yeah, for the total cost of a seventh
Speaker 2: round pick next year. Again, Brian Goudicuins wants no flowers
Speaker 2: and there is an other trophy that he is more
Speaker 2: enamored with than any type of individual accolade that could
Speaker 2: be thrown his way. But I'll tell you what, man,
Speaker 2: having the pulse on your football team and having that
Speaker 2: type of communication with your coaching staff and understanding how
Speaker 2: the team needs to continue to get better as the
Speaker 2: season wears on. The Willis and McManus acquisitions, I just
Speaker 2: you cannot stress just how critical those have been for
Speaker 2: literally ten cents on the dollar for what they paid.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Brian Gudiicuns would be the first one to
Speaker 1: say that finding guys like Malik Willis when you need
Speaker 1: to make a change at backup quarterback and Brandon McManus
Speaker 1: when you need to make a change at kicker. This
Speaker 1: is the pro personnel side, yes, right, scouting department, and
Speaker 1: and there's a there's a team of them, a bunch
Speaker 1: of great guys. And Gutakuns always wants to give them credit.
Speaker 1: This is an example of why these guys are watching
Speaker 1: everything at all times. They have they they're watching film,
Speaker 1: they have scouting reports, they are paying attention to what
Speaker 1: is going on everywhere around the league in terms of
Speaker 1: who is available, who might become available, and because you
Speaker 1: have to make these decisions fairly quickly when the need arises.
Speaker 1: And UH again, that's just that, that's a that's a
Speaker 1: piece of what goes on behind the scenes. That it's yes,
Speaker 1: it's Brian Gutukunz who makes the final decision, but he's
Speaker 1: getting a lot of input and a lot of research
Speaker 1: and and a lot of the scouting is being done
Speaker 1: by the other guys on his team. And to make
Speaker 1: that collective decision for uh, for what to do.
Speaker 2: A lot of GMS in that room too. You you
Speaker 2: you made me write that story in the off season
Speaker 2: for the ear.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of guys that I think well and
Speaker 1: and and Ted Thompson had the same had the same
Speaker 1: group of guys who did go on to become GMS elsewhere.
Speaker 1: And Brian Gudakountz now has that team of guys that
Speaker 1: they're going to be you know, as they say, running
Speaker 1: their own show pretty soon. You know, in the in
Speaker 1: the Ted Thompson area, you had John Schneider and Reggie
Speaker 1: McKenzie and John Dorsey, those guys, and now it's you know, John,
Speaker 1: Eric Sullivant, John wi Jakowski, Mill Hendrickson, you know Williams,
Speaker 1: you know Richie Williams.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: All these guys are there. They're going to get a
Speaker 1: chance someday to to be in charge of their own shop.
Speaker 1: So it uh, it speaks to uh to what the
Speaker 1: Packers have here, sort of behind the curtains, so to speak.
Speaker 1: We do need to get to where things are on
Speaker 1: the injury front. Matt Lafleur did not really have an
Speaker 1: update on quarterback Jordan Love on Monday, but the way
Speaker 1: he talked about things, uh, Jordan Love has not necessarily
Speaker 1: been ruled out for Sunday against the Lions. It's a
Speaker 1: it's a wait and see kind of thing. They're gonna
Speaker 1: see where Love is at the end of the week
Speaker 1: and they'll make a decision there. But just the fact
Speaker 1: that that's even part of the conversation is obviously tremendous
Speaker 1: news for the Packers. Other guys who exited this game,
Speaker 1: Josh Jacobs went out right at the end, which is
Speaker 1: why Chris Brooks was in the game, and then he
Speaker 1: sort of took the dive inside the five yard line
Speaker 1: to keep the clock running. Jayi Alexander got hurt on
Speaker 1: the game tying touchdown pass to Evan Ingram and Evan Williams,
Speaker 1: the rookie safety. He had left the game in the
Speaker 1: first half with a hamstring injury. Not a lot of
Speaker 1: updates necessarily to pass along, although I'll say this, Josh
Speaker 1: Jacobs wanted to go back into the game and they
Speaker 1: just they held him out and said, you know, no,
Speaker 1: we Brooks will take these last couple of handoffs as
Speaker 1: we kill the clock. That's what we're going to do here.
Speaker 1: So by all accounts, hopefully Jacobs is okay. Not really
Speaker 1: sure on Alexander or Williams. I know there are some
Speaker 1: media reports out there and whatnot. Lafleur didn't say anything
Speaker 1: specifically about their chances other than obviously the Packers would
Speaker 1: be in a tough spot defensively if they're missing one
Speaker 1: or both of those guys with the high powered, high
Speaker 1: flying Detroit Lions coming in. But it's going to be
Speaker 1: a week where we're going to be watching the injury
Speaker 1: report and seeing where things go here for Green Bay.
Speaker 2: It's funny how every coach to some extent, has their
Speaker 2: own phrases or little statements. I remember Mike McCarthy back
Speaker 2: in the day was always, you know, so and so
Speaker 2: is going to be stressed to play this week. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, he didn't want to go into all the things,
Speaker 2: but sometimes you use that stress to play. And one
Speaker 2: of the things I've noticed with Matt Lafleur, when when
Speaker 2: things are good, he doesn't want to go into everything.
Speaker 2: He doesn't want to talk about it. He mentioned he
Speaker 2: still needed to talk to the training staff, but he
Speaker 2: said Jordan Love was in good spirits on Monday, and
Speaker 2: if you go back and look at some of the
Speaker 2: track record, Matt has said that type of stuff. I'm
Speaker 2: not guaranteed anybody's playing on Sunday, but I will say
Speaker 2: for what I thought that could have potentially been when
Speaker 2: he left the game, I remember telling you, and I
Speaker 2: relayed that too, that it was a groin injury. You
Speaker 2: even double checked with me on that, just because we're
Speaker 2: thinking knee, we're thinking calf, we're thinking something else. Groin
Speaker 2: injuries can be pretty severe too. You always worry about
Speaker 2: the core muscle issues and the sports hernias, but the
Speaker 2: fact that it wasn't knee related, I think first and
Speaker 2: foremost was a sigh relief that there were no setbacks
Speaker 2: with that. But again, we'll see where the week goes
Speaker 2: on everything. But the fact is, man, you're seeing some
Speaker 2: of these things happen in the league right now. Where
Speaker 2: the Detroit game, you know, Aiden Hutchinson's sitting there with
Speaker 2: his leg up there, everyone giving him a big ovation,
Speaker 2: but he's out of the cards for them the rest
Speaker 2: of the season. We saw what happened with Christian Darisol
Speaker 2: last week for the Minnesota Vikings. And it is a
Speaker 2: league in a sport that takes its toll on a
Speaker 2: football team. So for the Green Bay Packers at the
Speaker 2: very least, we'll see again how things go. But with
Speaker 2: Jai Air, with Evan Williams or Jordan Love probably all
Speaker 2: top ten top players for this team. The fact that
Speaker 2: we're not worrying about the worst case scenario there, I think.
Speaker 2: I hate to keep using that Dodger bullet analogy, but
Speaker 2: you do feel somewhat better that it's not anything more significant.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, well, you mentioned it earlier a few other
Speaker 1: things that we do need to get to as far
Speaker 1: as reviewing this game. Josh Jacobs twenty five carries one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty seven yards two touchdowns, including that thirty
Speaker 1: eight yarder, which I thought was one of the one
Speaker 1: of the most remarkable touchdown runs I've seen in quite
Speaker 1: a while. The blocking initially at the point of attack
Speaker 1: was obviously really good, but then he makes the one
Speaker 1: guy miss in the hole with incredible footwork. Then he
Speaker 1: breaks another tackle as a guy is trying to grab
Speaker 1: him by the shoulders, and then he's off to the
Speaker 1: races with getting a nice downfield block from Watson. The
Speaker 1: more I watched Josh Jacobs, I haven't seen I haven't
Speaker 1: seen a running back. And this is no knock on
Speaker 1: Ryan Grant or Eddie Lacy or Aaron Jones or Jamal
Speaker 1: Williams or any of these guys. But I have not
Speaker 1: seen a running back in Green Bay with the combination
Speaker 1: of the vision and the footwork that Josh Jacobs has,
Speaker 1: because Jacobs is not how shall I say, Aaron Jones
Speaker 1: always look like a slippery running back. Like the way
Speaker 1: he ran. He was hard, he was hard to tackle.
Speaker 1: He had he had a quickness, and a slipperiness to him.
Speaker 1: Josh Jacobs doesn't quite have that. But what he does
Speaker 1: with his feet to make guys miss and to get
Speaker 1: tacklers off balance and then to accelerate to get the
Speaker 1: yardage that he can, he's a He's just he's a
Speaker 1: different type of runner. But man, he is fun to
Speaker 1: watch that he is. He is more talented than I
Speaker 1: ever knew previously, whether it was you know, at Alabama
Speaker 1: with the Raiders seeing him in person, and now seeing
Speaker 1: him every game for the Green Bay Packers, I couldn't
Speaker 1: be more impressed with what he brings to the table.
Speaker 2: Here's the way I work through these situations now, because
Speaker 2: I don't want to make it about comparables, because anytime
Speaker 2: we see something nice about somebody makes sound like it
Speaker 2: was something a detriment to the others.
Speaker 1: Exactly, And that's not what I'm doing here either.
Speaker 2: What I'm doing and what my strategy is now is
Speaker 2: let's pretend that Josh Jacobs is the only running back
Speaker 2: the Green Bay Packers have ever had. No Paul Horning,
Speaker 2: no Jim Taylor, no Aaron you know, Jones, Amon Green,
Speaker 2: this is the only guy. So here we are. You're
Speaker 2: watching him play the first thing I thought, and again
Speaker 2: he had to work through some stuff, he said. He
Speaker 2: was telling the coaches, hey, trust me, trust me. Because
Speaker 2: the first happened that he had thirty six rushing yards.
Speaker 2: He had ninety six in the second half. He was
Speaker 2: seeing the holes, he was seeing what he was looking for.
Speaker 2: Even when he was going down, he felt like the
Speaker 2: big play was still there. And even on the big play,
Speaker 2: the thirty eight yard touchdown, he broke a couple of
Speaker 2: rules to make that happen. Yeah, because he wanted to
Speaker 2: be able to exercise that and be able to try
Speaker 2: to find, you know, a touchdown. But here's the thing
Speaker 2: about Josh Jacobs, and this is what I've this is
Speaker 2: why I figured out he's a first round pick. He
Speaker 2: went to Alabama, he as all these things that go
Speaker 2: for him. The guy's a professional football player. The way
Speaker 2: he approaches this game, it's like watching a sign test
Speaker 2: work in figuring out what he wants to do and
Speaker 2: what certain traits he wants to utilize on any given play.
Speaker 2: You know, whether it's diagnosing what's happening at the line
Speaker 2: of scrimmage in one cutting, whether it's him with kind
Speaker 2: of that jump cut that he does, or sometimes the
Speaker 2: guy can just go north and south on you and
Speaker 2: push you forward for seven yards. That has happened plenty
Speaker 2: of times this season too. Yea, and he does it again.
Speaker 2: We'll see how everything looks this week on the injury
Speaker 2: report front. But he does it while being an incredibly
Speaker 2: durable force at that position. And when you look at
Speaker 2: Brian Goodekoin's tract record for wanting to sign free agents,
Speaker 2: durability is a big part of that. So while he
Speaker 2: was an All Pro, and while he was a rushing champion,
Speaker 2: while he had all these things going for him with
Speaker 2: the Raiders, the fact that he did all this while
Speaker 2: being a workhorse belcow back and being able to still
Speaker 2: improve throughout that workload, I think it just shows you
Speaker 2: the type of athlete Green Bay Packers were bringing into
Speaker 2: their program independent of anybody else who's ever carried the
Speaker 2: football for him this twenty twenty four football team, Josh
Speaker 2: Jacobs is the right answer.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I want to talk about the defense a little
Speaker 1: bit too here because this was this was just it
Speaker 1: was a strange, weird day. I thought. On defense, we
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier the first four times the Jaguars had the ball,
Speaker 1: they didn't get a single first downright, Packers defense was
Speaker 1: on top of it. They were flying high. It was
Speaker 1: looking like a continuation and a building off of what
Speaker 1: we had seen against Arizona, against Houston and getting to
Speaker 1: this point and then all of a sudden, it wasn't
Speaker 1: just that the Jaguars started moving the ball it started.
Speaker 1: It was that they started taking chunks of the field.
Speaker 1: The number of explosive plays, the twenty plus yard pass plays.
Speaker 1: They got a few of them at the end of
Speaker 1: the first halt when the Jaguars got ten points before
Speaker 1: halftime on their last two possessions, and then we saw
Speaker 1: it again at the end of the game late in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter where they got ten points again and honestly,
Speaker 1: Wes might have had two touchdowns, It might have had
Speaker 1: fourteen points there if not for the third down shotgun snap.
Speaker 1: That was a bad snap that bounces off Trevor Lawrence's
Speaker 1: leg and they just have to fall on it, right
Speaker 1: over it and then they have to kick the field goal.
Speaker 1: So they didn't even get the opportunity to convert on
Speaker 1: third down there near the red zone because because of
Speaker 1: the bad snap. But it was just it was this
Speaker 1: up and down like jekylin high day. You know, two
Speaker 1: massive takeaways. Xavier McKinney gets his sixth interception, still leading
Speaker 1: the NFL in that category. Edgrin Cooper makes a great
Speaker 1: play getting the strip sack backed by the goal line.
Speaker 1: Devonte Wyatt, you know, somebody called it like a musical
Speaker 1: chairs type of gam like he bumped the Jaguars lineman
Speaker 1: out of the way to recover. It sets up an
Speaker 1: easy touchdown Malik Willis to Tucker Craft. So though you know,
Speaker 1: two takeaways, that's that gave the Packers fourteen points, set
Speaker 1: up fourteen points on the day. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: good things the Packers defense did, but there are a
Speaker 1: lot of things that, you know, you're kind of scratching
Speaker 1: your head going, you know, what is with suddenly giving
Speaker 1: up eight pass pigs of twenty plus yards in the
Speaker 1: same game when all these other good things were also happening.
Speaker 1: It was just it's strange. It's hard to get a
Speaker 1: handle on exactly what was going on out excuse me.
Speaker 2: Ten explosive plays for the Packers or that they allowed
Speaker 2: in this game, including some of the rushing stuff. Here's
Speaker 2: what stood out to me the most. So you look
Speaker 2: at this as like a verdict right with the jury,
Speaker 2: who was giving what type of evidence and who was
Speaker 2: ultimately going to be the winner. From the Packers' perspective,
Speaker 2: it was the fact that they did come out on
Speaker 2: ahead on the turnover margin, the fact that they turned
Speaker 2: those turnovers into fourteen points whereas the Jacksonville Jaguars immediately
Speaker 2: gave it back, and the fact that Green Bay was
Speaker 2: able to be a little bit more efficient in some
Speaker 2: of the situational stuff, not necessarily red zone and goal
Speaker 2: to go, but some of the other aspects of this game.
Speaker 2: The Jaguars went zero for eight to start this game
Speaker 2: on third down and really struggled to get into their operation,
Speaker 2: but they overcame that with some of those explosive plays
Speaker 2: late in the matchup. Despite losing Christian Kirk to a
Speaker 2: broken collar bone and then also you know Thomas leaving,
Speaker 2: Brian Thomas Junior leaving with the chest injury. Trevor Lawrence
Speaker 2: was exceptional down the stretch, but the Green Bay Packers
Speaker 2: just gave him too many holes and too many openings
Speaker 2: with which to work. And as Matt Lafleur said, I mean,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things you can diagnose for what
Speaker 2: went wrong there in the second half of green Bay.
Speaker 2: But the amount of times that green Bay was in
Speaker 2: cover two in trying to get them to play in
Speaker 2: front of them, trying to hit the check downs dictating
Speaker 2: the terms of the game. But then they're missing tackles
Speaker 2: and those things are turning into explosive plays. It wasn't
Speaker 2: good enough. So that's the lesson the Packers have to learn.
Speaker 2: Fortunately for them, they did have the comeback with the takeaways.
Speaker 2: They were very pragmatic about how they utilize those. Edgrin
Speaker 2: Cooper with thirty four snaps, has eight tackles, a huge
Speaker 2: pass deflection on a trail route on the play in
Speaker 2: which Kirk got hurt and then also punches the ball
Speaker 2: out for the old only sack of the game ends
Speaker 2: up becoming a strip sack that leads to seven points.
Speaker 2: Very opportunistic game for green Bay. But what's what's coming
Speaker 2: on the horizon now against the Detroit Lions. I mean,
Speaker 2: you also have to be very much cautious here about
Speaker 2: how you proceed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and with you know, a lot of fans are asking, well,
Speaker 1: you know, where was where was the pass rush and
Speaker 1: everything that you know that the Packers had shown against
Speaker 1: Arizona against Houston leading up to this, with with the
Speaker 1: quarterbacks not being comfortable and all that, sometimes the other
Speaker 1: team just does a better job. I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: not like it's not like the Packers weren't dialing up
Speaker 1: some of the same stuff that they do with the
Speaker 1: pass rush. We saw Minnesota, Minnesota for the for the
Speaker 1: entire first half of that game at Lambellfield, they just
Speaker 1: handled everything that green Bay's defense was thrown at him.
Speaker 1: I thought Jackson Jacksonville's offensive line they handled green Bay's
Speaker 1: pass rush much like much like Minnesota did. Unlike Arizona
Speaker 1: and Houston that had a hard time with the stunts
Speaker 1: and you know, and and that's you know, those guys
Speaker 1: breaking through on on on, you know, the the games
Speaker 1: and stunts up front, and that's how those quarterbacks got uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: Sometimes that's gonna happen. But then also what happened in
Speaker 1: this game is the couple of times that Jeff Halfley
Speaker 1: did dial up a blitz. It's like, Okay, the foreman
Speaker 1: rush isn't getting there. You got to pick your spots
Speaker 1: and send a fifth guy, maybe send a sixth guy.
Speaker 1: Lawrence Burned, I mean, you know, he saw he saw
Speaker 1: it coming. He got the ball out, you know, to
Speaker 1: somebody who was in open space, you know, the vacated
Speaker 1: space where the blitzer comes from. Lawrence was on top
Speaker 1: of that. So just suddenly saying, okay, we're not getting
Speaker 1: any pressure. We got to keep dialing up blitz is
Speaker 1: that wasn't going to be the answer because because Trevor
Speaker 1: Lawrence had made the Packers pay a couple of times,
Speaker 1: so they got into a tough spot defensively there where
Speaker 1: the foreman rush wasn't getting home, but but Lawrence was
Speaker 1: taking care of him against the blitz and it just
Speaker 1: it just becomes a matter of survival at that point,
Speaker 1: and and it's tough. Fortunately, when the Jaguars did get
Speaker 1: things going there in the fourth quarter, then ultimately they
Speaker 1: didn't get the ball back. The game didn't go to overtime.
Speaker 1: The Packers were able to kill the entire clock and
Speaker 1: getting those last points, they didn't get the ball back,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that's sometimes that's what it takes to win
Speaker 1: in this league.
Speaker 2: And why did it happen because of the way green
Speaker 2: Bay started the game, and it's why it's a four quarter,
Speaker 2: sixty minute football game. And the hole that the Jacksonville
Speaker 2: Jaguars found themselves in. Even though it wasn't huge by
Speaker 2: any means, it's what enabled Green Bay to make a
Speaker 2: few plays there in the second half that ultimately tipped
Speaker 2: the scales in their favor.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, a little bit of sponsor business here.
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Speaker 1: the league weeks week eight. Excuse me, I was about
Speaker 1: to say week six for some reason. I don't know why.
Speaker 1: This is why I was going to say six, because
Speaker 1: including the Packers game, there were six games wes in
Speaker 1: which there was a score in the final minute the
Speaker 1: final sixty seconds of regulation where the lead changed hands.
Speaker 1: Six games in the league in one week, which is
Speaker 1: actually tied for the most in the league in one
Speaker 1: week of games since the league Mercher in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: was that the Ackers loll in that the Packers game
Speaker 1: was involved in that. And then, of course, as you
Speaker 1: had alluded to earlier, Washington defeating the Chicago Bears on
Speaker 1: the hail Mary in the Nation's Capital, and we were
Speaker 1: all we were all watching that on our little TV
Speaker 1: screens on the flight, on the flight coming back, and
Speaker 1: that was quite the Uh, it was quite the reaction
Speaker 1: from everyone on the plane. It was probably about fifteen
Speaker 1: to twenty seconds later than everybody else's re action around
Speaker 1: the country because of the delay of the satellite fever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for the live of the quote unquote live TV broadcast.
Speaker 1: But but man, Jade and Daniels. Strange game in Washington,
Speaker 1: with the Commanders kicking a bunch of field goals, they
Speaker 1: couldn't punch in any touchdowns. They kick a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of field goals. The Bears can't do anything until late
Speaker 1: in the third quarter. Then the Bears finally get on
Speaker 1: the board, they blow another chance to score. Then they
Speaker 1: do get the go ahead points in the final in
Speaker 1: the final minute, but they left just enough time for
Speaker 1: Jade and Daniels to try a hail Mary. And we
Speaker 1: you know, we don't need to get into everything with
Speaker 1: Tyreek Stevenson. But the bottom line is the Bears botched it.
Speaker 1: The Bears botched it on the hail mary. They didn't
Speaker 1: knock the ball down, they tipped it. And not only
Speaker 1: did they tip it, they had nobody guarding the tip man.
Speaker 1: Noah Brown is standing all alone in the back of
Speaker 1: the end zund and a successful hail mary. That'll go
Speaker 1: down as as one of the plays of the year
Speaker 1: and felt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you if you're your defensive coach at
Speaker 2: any level of football, that that goes down as teaching
Speaker 2: tape for how not to defend a hail mary. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just it's true. I mean under fash. The other
Speaker 2: thing about that was you weren't even in the end zone,
Speaker 2: like I could see it, like the like the uh
Speaker 2: Randall Cobb went against the Giants many years ago in
Speaker 2: the playoff game. Randall was at the back of the end.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was the very ball came out.
Speaker 2: So yeah, Noah Brown was one of the only people
Speaker 2: actually standing in the end zone when he caught that passage.
Speaker 1: Which is all the more reason why you can't have
Speaker 1: somebody standing there all by himself and from what I've
Speaker 1: heard and what I've read, it sounded like Tyreek Stevenson
Speaker 1: who was kind of off in his own little world
Speaker 1: for a while there. He's the guy who's supposed to
Speaker 1: be boxing out the tip man, or at least to
Speaker 1: be there in case the ball is tips so that
Speaker 1: there isn't an uncontested catch of the tip. That's exactly
Speaker 1: what happened, and uh and Washington wins a game.
Speaker 2: Instead, he ended up being the stocked into to his malone.
Speaker 2: I mean, it just it's terrible the way that worked out.
Speaker 2: I feel terrible for the young man because from all
Speaker 2: accounts it sounds like it's a good dude, but it
Speaker 2: just made a huge mental air on that game. Without
Speaker 2: perseverating on everything that Bears did wrong, though, I do
Speaker 2: want to say something about Jayden Daniels because I said
Speaker 2: this to a good friend of mine, Scott Vencey, on
Speaker 2: the way home that night after I was driving home
Speaker 2: from the airport. I am already ready to put Jade
Speaker 2: and Daniels in the elite category for quarterbacks. I don't
Speaker 2: want to talk about rookies. I don't want to talk
Speaker 2: about young player. I'm talking about legitimate, elite quarterbacks. And
Speaker 2: this is why I'm willing to say this. He proved
Speaker 2: in this game, and he's done at intervals of the season,
Speaker 2: but he definitely proved in this game. I can put
Speaker 2: this entire team on my back and win a football game.
Speaker 2: And Mike, there are so few guys in this league,
Speaker 2: regardless of position, but definitely quarterbacks that can do that
Speaker 2: where it's like I am going to will you to
Speaker 2: a win, a w a little tally in that win margin.
Speaker 2: And Daniels is that guy. So even when things aren't
Speaker 2: going right, he has so much arm talent and the
Speaker 2: fact that he was able to pull that off after
Speaker 2: basically trying to execute the Aaron Rodgers scramble drill and
Speaker 2: then having to roll it back. Yeah, it's just can't
Speaker 2: say enough about him in Washington. For as much as
Speaker 2: we talked about the Green Bay Packers being the outpost
Speaker 2: of the NFL in the early nineties, late eighties, early nineties,
Speaker 2: that's what the Washington Commanders have been here for the
Speaker 2: last six seven eight years. Really.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and yeah, they've been out in the wilderness.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of hype on them right now and rightfully.
Speaker 1: So yeah, absolutely, Well, quickly the NFC North as things
Speaker 1: stand right now, the Detroit Lions coming off a blowout
Speaker 1: win over the Titans. We can talk about that more
Speaker 1: on our next show. They are six and one on
Speaker 1: top of the division, the Packers right behind at six
Speaker 1: and two. The Minnesota Vikings lost two games in a
Speaker 1: span of five days. They are five and two, yep.
Speaker 1: And the Chicago Bears, with the Hail Mary defeat in DC,
Speaker 1: they are four and three. So lambeau Field this Sunday
Speaker 1: and we'll get into it all in our next show.
Speaker 1: But the top two teams in the NFC North going
Speaker 1: ahead to head for the first of two times this season.
Speaker 1: Six and one versus six and two. This is what
Speaker 1: you put yourself in these positions for, is to have
Speaker 1: these opportunities. And the Packers are a team kind of
Speaker 1: piecing it together, and there's all these questions about the
Speaker 1: injury report and everything else. And the Lions are a
Speaker 1: team that is just rolling right now. They are a
Speaker 1: freight train coming down the tracks. I'm going to be
Speaker 1: a heck of a week and a heck of a
Speaker 1: matchup on Sunday.
Speaker 2: I'll save all my comments on the Lions for Thursday's
Speaker 2: show because we'll need something to talk about. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: their win was incredibly impressive. Certainly the Los Angeles Rams
Speaker 2: doing the Packers a favor, some controversy a little bit
Speaker 2: at the end of the game, but the Rams still
Speaker 2: did have control that thing late to be able to
Speaker 2: now send the Vikings to a second straight loss. But
Speaker 2: why is this so important? Because the Green Bit Packers
Speaker 2: are six and two, but they're two and two in
Speaker 2: conference right now. Tampa Bay Buccaneers are on the outside
Speaker 2: looking into the playoff picture. They're four and four. They're
Speaker 2: four and two in the NFC. Those are the type
Speaker 2: of things you got to keep an eye on as
Speaker 2: you look towards tiebreakers and other things here down the stretch.
Speaker 2: But the Green Bit Packers did exactly what you and
Speaker 2: I have been saying for the last month. Mike. You
Speaker 2: have to take care of business. You couldn't work try
Speaker 2: about any more of these NFC North opponents until they're
Speaker 2: finally here. Well, guess what, man, This Sunday, Lambeufield, the
Speaker 2: Detroit Lions are coming to town. Yeah, and we'll see
Speaker 2: who's all out there, and it'll probably be a take
Speaker 2: the entire week to see who's available. But a massive,
Speaker 2: massive opportunity the green Bait Packers have ever earned by
Speaker 2: being able to reel off these four straight victories.
Speaker 1: Yep. And we will get into it on our next
Speaker 1: show in a couple of days, but for now, we'll
Speaker 1: call it a rap on this edition of Packers n Scripting.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team on Packers dot com for Wesiam Mike. Oh wait,
Speaker 1: hold on, oh, we got to talk about the draft.
Speaker 1: Hold on, mark your calendars, folks. Yep, I almost forgot
Speaker 1: you'd lose your job. I would mark your calendars. The
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five NFL Draft is coming to Green Bay.
Speaker 1: Be among the thousands of football fans cheering on their
Speaker 1: team's picks by joining us April twenty four through April
Speaker 1: twenty six, twenty twenty five. Visit green Bay dot com
Speaker 1: slash Draft twenty five for more information.
Speaker 2: We should just start doing that. During the intro, I'm
Speaker 2: Mike alongside my partner in crime, Wes Hodkowitz. We are
Speaker 2: here from our Packers studios to let you know that
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty five NFL Draft is coming to Green Bay,
Speaker 2: and then we can start the show.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning. In everybody. We will see you
Speaker 1: next time.