Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my partner in crime, Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you hear from our studios at lambeau Field and Wes.
Speaker 1: We have a big Week one victory by the Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers over the Chicago Bears to talk about. But
Speaker 1: before we get to that, I want to start with
Speaker 1: what happened on Monday Night football, Because just before we
Speaker 1: turned the cameras on, the news became official. The MRI
Speaker 1: confirmed that Aaron Rodgers tore his achilles on his fourth
Speaker 1: snap as the quarterback for the New York Jets. His
Speaker 1: season is over now. Of course, there's all kinds of
Speaker 1: speculation that maybe his Hall of Fame career is over.
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily want to go there just yet, but man,
Speaker 1: this just stinks for football fans. It stinks for so
Speaker 1: much people. Matt Lafleur's best friend Robert saw the Jets,
Speaker 1: the Jets fan base, and this stinks for football fans
Speaker 1: in general, that Aaron Rodgers will not be playing this season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it reminds me a lot, and unfortunately, Aaron's much older,
Speaker 2: but it does remind me of eight with Tom Brady
Speaker 2: tearing his acl right off the bat, where you know,
Speaker 2: one of the big lines. And I tried to come
Speaker 2: up with some words to describe all this and to
Speaker 2: talk about it as a late addition to Insider Inbox
Speaker 2: for Tuesday. But the fact that you have a legitimate star,
Speaker 2: a legend in this sport, a guy that has given
Speaker 2: so much to this game, and you know, take away
Speaker 2: anything that happened with the Packers, take away the trade
Speaker 2: and all these ramifications for the Jets. The amount of
Speaker 2: excitement and anticipation in the league for Aaron Rodgers making
Speaker 2: his debut in New York in that market, I can
Speaker 2: only imagine the amount of marketing and you know, finances
Speaker 2: that the Jets put into this, you know, promoting this.
Speaker 1: And a fan base that has gone through I mean,
Speaker 1: a franchise that has I believe, the longest playoff drought
Speaker 1: of any team in the NFL, right, I mean, you
Speaker 1: know or something up there. I mean, this was a
Speaker 1: fan base and a franchise that was that was really
Speaker 1: fired up to have a shot this year. And now
Speaker 1: it feel it feels like the rug has been pulled
Speaker 1: out from under him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it haven't happened right off the bat like that.
Speaker 2: I didn't even get a chance to watch the game yet, Mike.
Speaker 2: I was shooting a show that you know I do
Speaker 2: for wasa TV. And we get done and I look
Speaker 2: at my phone and it was already blowing up about Hey,
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers got hurt. We didn't know the severity at
Speaker 2: that point, but we knew he was injured in watching
Speaker 2: the play. And your heart just sinks because you know,
Speaker 2: I'm not Aaron Rodgers' best friend. I don't know his
Speaker 2: cell phone number, I don't know you know, I never
Speaker 2: went to dinner with him, but we did cover him
Speaker 2: for ten years. We saw this guy go from you know,
Speaker 2: a prospect to a super Bowl champion to a multiple
Speaker 2: time MVP. And here he is embarking on this new
Speaker 2: part of his career in the hype wagon and everything
Speaker 2: that gets tied to it this offseason, then doing hard Knocks.
Speaker 2: I mean, all the years we heard about maybe not
Speaker 2: being so keen on doing hard knocks and Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 2: was the star of it this year. And then it
Speaker 2: ends this way. As I wrote an inbox, the first
Speaker 2: thing I thought about was not this way out of
Speaker 2: all the ways in which Aaron Rodgers season, whatever happens
Speaker 2: beyond that goes down Week one, stepping on the field
Speaker 2: for the first time for the Jets on Monday Night
Speaker 2: Football and he has a rupture achilles is. It takes
Speaker 2: the wind out of the sales for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I have to admit. There was a lot of
Speaker 1: talk in the off season. Rogers even gave some press
Speaker 1: conferences in New York to this effect that the offensive
Speaker 1: line was the weak link for the New York Jets.
Speaker 1: And he took four snaps. Two times he dropped back
Speaker 1: to pass. He was under pressure in both of them.
Speaker 1: I felt when this trade was made and there was
Speaker 1: the ramifications of the playing time in the draft, pick
Speaker 1: compensation and all that, and thinking strictly in those terms,
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, yeah, there's a chance that Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers is going to get hurt behind that offensive line
Speaker 1: because it's not very good and he's thirty nine years old.
Speaker 1: But I just never envisioned. I mean, this is a
Speaker 1: guy who's come back from two broken collar bones, he's
Speaker 1: played with a broken thumb, he's played with who knows
Speaker 1: what else he played with that nobody knew about. I
Speaker 1: never in a million years would have conceived of like
Speaker 1: something season ending happening, let alone it happening on his
Speaker 1: opening series with his new team. I mean, this is
Speaker 1: just it's unfathomable, and I'm still having a hard time
Speaker 1: processing it, frankly.
Speaker 2: Even when I woke up on Tuesday morning, and I
Speaker 2: know there's a couple of people that made this comment
Speaker 2: too on Twitter or last night. Just doesn't even seem real.
Speaker 2: With the way that that game ended. You know, the Jets,
Speaker 2: Josh Allen, it looks like everything is going their way
Speaker 2: at halftime. They didn't put up a ton of points,
Speaker 2: but it's like, man, how does New York come back
Speaker 2: from this?
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Buffalo Buffalo is in control of the game,
Speaker 1: and then Zach Wilson brings the Jets back and Josh
Speaker 1: Allen starts throwing interceptions and everything else, and suddenly you've
Speaker 1: got a game coming down to the wire.
Speaker 2: And you win the game on a punt return from
Speaker 2: the guy that was basically the feel good story of
Speaker 2: hard knocks making the team and then before you can
Speaker 2: even fully celebrate, and certainly the people inside MetLife Stadium did,
Speaker 2: But you know, Robert Sala with a very sullen report afterwards,
Speaker 2: fearing what they all feared, which ended up being confirmed again.
Speaker 2: You know, Aaron Rodgers, that there's so many stars in
Speaker 2: this league, but it's just so rare that you have
Speaker 2: somebody that captures the imagination the way that Rogers has
Speaker 2: throughout his career and through his rise to being a
Speaker 2: four time MVP. We're in a league now where there
Speaker 2: is no Tom Brady anymore, at least on the field,
Speaker 2: and now for this season, at the very least, no
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers. So it it sucked, man, it it sucked
Speaker 2: to watch it. I was so excited to watch that
Speaker 2: football game just to enjoy it as a football fan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2: And you get a real hard dose of reality and
Speaker 2: how cruel this game can be. Yeah it is.
Speaker 1: It's cruel, it's brutal, and uh yeah, it's a It
Speaker 1: was a It was a real downer of a Monday
Speaker 1: night to uh, to wrap up Week one of this
Speaker 1: NFL season. Twenty four hours before that, the Packers were
Speaker 1: were kind of on cloud nine, you might say, as
Speaker 1: far as Week ones go. A thirty eight to twenty victory,
Speaker 1: a very convincing victory on the road at Soldier Field
Speaker 1: over the Chicago Bears. And when you start with the offense,
Speaker 1: it wasn't just that Jordan Love threw for three touchdowns
Speaker 1: and put up a one twenty plus pass rating and
Speaker 1: had you know, had these uh, these sparkling statistics. To me,
Speaker 1: it was it was two things that we saw to
Speaker 1: Jordan Love. One which we knew all along, which is
Speaker 1: that nothing bothers him. And there were moments in the
Speaker 1: game where things weren't going too well on offense there
Speaker 1: in the first half, after that opening drive touchdown, and
Speaker 1: then you know, the Bears had a little bit of
Speaker 1: a rally there in the second half, and you could
Speaker 1: feel the crowd at Soldier Field getting into things, you know,
Speaker 1: and getting fired up. And Jordan Love was just his calm, collected,
Speaker 1: poised self all the way along. But the other thing
Speaker 1: is pois situationally, third downs, fourth downs. Jordan Love was
Speaker 1: on the money in this game. He made the plays
Speaker 1: when the plays needed to be made in those crucial situations.
Speaker 1: And when you are that good situationally, you were going
Speaker 1: to be a tough team to stop.
Speaker 2: And they did it in every conceivable way possible. There
Speaker 2: were times where the Packers got in favorable down in
Speaker 2: distance and they took advantage of a third and short opportunity.
Speaker 2: But then he makes a thirteen yard pass to Roam
Speaker 2: Dobs on thirteen and three at a crucial juncture in
Speaker 2: the game when the Packers needed to build some momentum.
Speaker 2: There was just a fourth down play pass to Aaron
Speaker 2: Jones that turns into a touchdown. Right, these type of
Speaker 2: moments are huge for a young quarterback. I mean, they're
Speaker 2: not gonna be the type of things that your fantasy
Speaker 2: football league is necessarily going to give you any extra
Speaker 2: points for. But this is what wins and loses football
Speaker 2: games in this league. The Packers dominated in terms of
Speaker 2: being able to control the pace of this game. They
Speaker 2: won in the red zone, they won in the third downs,
Speaker 2: and also they won in the turnover margin. They played
Speaker 2: clean football. The one gripe that you kind of had
Speaker 2: in this game was okay, well, there are some extracurricular
Speaker 2: penalties that they picked up, but never at really a
Speaker 2: crucial juncture. It was sort of in this mop up
Speaker 2: duty or the Packers had possession of the football after
Speaker 2: a turnover. There were so many things I took away
Speaker 2: from this game, but coming back to the Jordan Love
Speaker 2: piece of it. For a young guy going into that
Speaker 2: stadium and Mike, it was incredible. The atmosphere there in.
Speaker 1: The first quarter, it was intense.
Speaker 2: I've never seen it. It reminded me, this is going
Speaker 2: to be a weird example, but it reminded me when
Speaker 2: I went to the Butler UWM Horizon Ing Championship game.
Speaker 2: I think it was twenty eleven and UW Milwaukee had
Speaker 2: won the regular season title, Butler had made a national
Speaker 2: runner up, and there was ten thousand people in the
Speaker 2: cell just screaming their heads off because of how excited
Speaker 2: they were about their team. Butler routed them and at
Speaker 2: the end of the game there was like two hundred
Speaker 2: people left. That's the same exact way that this game
Speaker 2: played out. For as rowdy as it was and as
Speaker 2: raucous as it was, the Packers completely took the Bears
Speaker 2: fans out of this thing in the third quarter and
Speaker 2: by the end, I made the remark to a few
Speaker 2: people it felt like a preseason game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this was not. This was not a Packers
Speaker 1: crowd that was able to get their hands on a
Speaker 1: lot of tickets. I mean, yes, there were some Packer
Speaker 1: fans sprinkled throughout Soldier Field. But you and I have
Speaker 1: been at plenty of road games where we've seen way
Speaker 1: more Packers fans than we saw. That Bears fan base
Speaker 1: was fired up. They were rare and to go. They
Speaker 1: had the whole you know, everybody screaming from the first
Speaker 1: note to the last of the national anthem and all that.
Speaker 1: I know people don't necessarily see or hear all that
Speaker 1: on TV. But the Packers came out and answered the bell.
Speaker 1: And when you talk about situational football, the Green Bay
Speaker 1: offense converted nine of its first fourteen third downs and then,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, one of those that they didn't, they
Speaker 1: end up converting on fourth down with the thirty five
Speaker 1: yard catch and run touchdown by Aaron Jones. If I
Speaker 1: did the math right, on third and fourth downs, Jordan
Speaker 1: Love was eight out of ten for one hundred and
Speaker 1: forty six yards with two touchdowns on third and fourth down.
Speaker 1: That's tough to beat.
Speaker 2: And he threw for two forty five. I mean, he
Speaker 2: did a lot of his work in those situations. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and the other thing too. You know, you could talk
Speaker 2: about Jordan Love a lot, but and I'm sure you
Speaker 2: want to get into this too with Aaron Jones and
Speaker 2: obviously the offensive line, but twenty one of Green Bay's
Speaker 2: point three of the touchdowns all came on drones, all
Speaker 2: came on drives where Jones just completely dominated. And you know,
Speaker 2: you look at that third quarter, right, I mean, the
Speaker 2: guy had ninety seven I think of his total yards
Speaker 2: on those two series. He was the difference maker in this.
Speaker 2: And I thought, as much as we made out of
Speaker 2: Jones or Fields and Love and this transition, it does
Speaker 2: come down to your playmakers. And I felt like all
Speaker 2: the auxiliary pieces, so to speak, in terms of maybe
Speaker 2: what the national headlines are, green Bay on paper was
Speaker 2: significantly better than the Chicago Bears, and they won in
Speaker 2: all those areas. They won with their running back, they
Speaker 2: won with their offensive line, they won with their defensive line,
Speaker 2: and shoot for as much money as the Chicago Bears
Speaker 2: spent on their linebackers this year, it was Kwai Walker
Speaker 2: making arguably the biggest defensive play of the day with
Speaker 2: the thirty seven yard pick six. The Green Bay Packers
Speaker 2: went into Chicago in a situation which they could have
Speaker 2: completely had no momentum out of this game if it
Speaker 2: goes the wrong way, and instead I think left feeling like,
Speaker 2: you know what, we are the team that we really
Speaker 2: thought we were this summer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the Bears. The Bears have a lot
Speaker 1: of work to do. I think that was an incredibly disappointing,
Speaker 1: deflating in many ways performance for that team and and
Speaker 1: everything they were hoping to build toward with Justin Fields
Speaker 1: in his third year and Matt Eberfluss the head coach
Speaker 1: in his second year, and you know, trying to wrestle
Speaker 1: the Packers dominance of the rivalry away from them and
Speaker 1: getting the chance to do that the Bears, quite frankly, West,
Speaker 1: the Bears have a longer way to go than I thought.
Speaker 1: I thought we were going to see a better a
Speaker 1: better Bears team and a better Bears performance than we
Speaker 1: did on Sunday. But when you look at you look
Speaker 1: at what Green Bay's defense was able to do, I
Speaker 1: guess what stood. What stood out to me the most
Speaker 1: is that is that when the Bears did get something going,
Speaker 1: unlike last year with the Packers defense, it didn't snowball
Speaker 1: into this extended stretch of you know, you're watching the
Speaker 1: Packers defense going, come on, somebody do something like what's
Speaker 1: going on out there? Right that now the Bears had
Speaker 1: their own hand, and those those first couple of drives
Speaker 1: that they did have ending in field goals, or at
Speaker 1: least the one of them ending in a field goal
Speaker 1: because of some false starts, and they put themselves in
Speaker 1: a bad spot there. But when the Bears did get
Speaker 1: that touchdown in the third quarter, and they were starting
Speaker 1: to shift the momentum back, and yes, the Packers answered
Speaker 1: with a score, which was big. But then when the
Speaker 1: Bears got the ball back again, that's when the interception happens.
Speaker 1: The pick, the pick six by kway Walker, the Packers,
Speaker 1: the Packers defense. Every time it was looking like the
Speaker 1: Bears might get something going, then it stopped and things
Speaker 1: turned back the other way. And I think that was
Speaker 1: the most positive sign for Green Bay's defense here in
Speaker 1: the opener.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you look at the first first sequence, right,
Speaker 2: the Packers win the coin toss to for the Bears
Speaker 2: come out and they're going to try to play this
Speaker 2: thing hot and heavy. You know, they end up in
Speaker 2: a third and short situation third and one Green Bay.
Speaker 2: Stuff's kind of a gimmick play there where Cole Komeck
Speaker 2: comes under center. The next play, it's gonna be Justin Fields,
Speaker 2: big tall, physical guy that can basically run like a
Speaker 2: running back. Green Bay stymies him there too, get the
Speaker 2: turnover of downs out the forty. Packers get some points,
Speaker 2: but after that the offense kind of, you know, it
Speaker 2: kind of struggles a little bit trying to, you know,
Speaker 2: do something. In that second quarter, green Bay really, with
Speaker 2: a few exceptions, didn't blink defensively. I think you look
Speaker 2: at the Pro Football Focus numbers on this thing, thirty
Speaker 2: five pressures of Justin Fields. The Packers were smart and
Speaker 2: how they approached him. Six carries, fifty nine yard, nine carries,
Speaker 2: excuse me, fifty nine yards. That's still some decent production
Speaker 2: with his feet. He showed you how he can hurt
Speaker 2: you if you don't wrap him up on a sack.
Speaker 2: But ultimately green Bay did what they've done well in
Speaker 2: these games, these five games now against Justin Fields, which
Speaker 2: is make him throw the football and can be a
Speaker 2: pocket passer in green Bay dominated in those instances for
Speaker 2: Sean Gary. I also saw the statistics. I think it
Speaker 2: was ten pass rushing snaps, seven pressures or five pressures
Speaker 2: something like that. Came to play. Davante Wyatt was not
Speaker 2: too big for him of sack and a half coming
Speaker 2: off a sack performance the year before. Darnell Savage, Rasul
Speaker 2: Douglas played fast and physical, Jyry Alexander shutting out DJ Moore.
Speaker 2: All the things you and I talked about last Thursday, Mike.
Speaker 2: The Packers executed, They won those matchups, and they won
Speaker 2: the football game.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think when you look at things, when you
Speaker 1: look at things on both sides of the ball, we
Speaker 1: saw a lot of what we expected to see, which
Speaker 1: was the Packers offensive line very much in control. Jordan
Speaker 1: Love was protected very very well all all game long.
Speaker 1: We saw Aaron Jones and his value to this offense
Speaker 1: which cannot be overstated. Aaron Jones and what he brings
Speaker 1: to this offense is really impressive. Defensively, you know, Jaw
Speaker 1: was right, Rareshaun Gary and his limited snaps. That was
Speaker 1: Rareshaun Gary. Preston Smith was Preston Smith. But then you
Speaker 1: start you start mixing in what these young guys did.
Speaker 1: Lucas Vaness, I think he's surprised the heck out of
Speaker 1: Justin Fields with how fast he is because I think
Speaker 1: Fields thought even though van Ness didn't bite on the
Speaker 1: playfake and stayed home on the back side. I think
Speaker 1: Fields thought he could run away from him, didn't come
Speaker 1: close to running away from him. Van van Ness gets
Speaker 1: a sack. Another rookie, Carl Brooks, gets a sack. We
Speaker 1: see what Jaden Reed does on offense, makes two big
Speaker 1: catches on third down, also as a thirty five yard
Speaker 1: pump return that sets the Packers up in good position.
Speaker 1: The young guys did their thing as well as everything
Speaker 1: we expected the veteran players on this team to do.
Speaker 1: Again it was the Bears. They won three games last year.
Speaker 1: They still have a long way to go, and the
Speaker 1: Packers are going to face better teams, including this week
Speaker 1: when they go down to Atlanta in Week two. But
Speaker 1: you saw everything you were hoping to see out of
Speaker 1: the Packers in week one. This is what the Packers wanted,
Speaker 1: this is where they are, and yet Matt Lafleur still
Speaker 1: has plenty to work on in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: he talked about too many free hitters in the running game,
Speaker 1: the penalties, both some of the combative penalties, but then
Speaker 1: also the personal files and stuff. It was it was
Speaker 1: not by any means some kind of perfect game by
Speaker 1: Green Bay, but you saw what you wanted to see
Speaker 1: in week one, which hasn't necessarily happened the last couple
Speaker 1: of years. And now the Packers get back to work
Speaker 1: and move on and try to start to and oh
Speaker 1: on the road with a trip to Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Well, and like I said to you as we were
Speaker 2: walking down to the locker room after the game, the
Speaker 2: green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears the way they
Speaker 2: need to beat a team like that. I mean, there
Speaker 2: was a lot of hype. I wasn't necessarily buying it
Speaker 2: just because I didn't see a brand new car in
Speaker 2: the lot. I saw a team that deconstructed their defense
Speaker 2: last year and just brought in new players this season.
Speaker 2: I saw an offensive line that still had a lot
Speaker 2: of the same question marks as last year. Because as
Speaker 2: much as gets put on Justin Fields and a lot
Speaker 2: of people talk about, well, you know, he can run,
Speaker 2: but he can't throw. I think you also saw the
Speaker 2: difference between an offensive line with Jordan Love that gave
Speaker 2: him time, gave him, you know, opportunity, in an offensive
Speaker 2: line with Chicago where they had to kind of make
Speaker 2: adjustments based on how much penetration green Bay was getting.
Speaker 2: The thing I loved about this victory though, Mike and
Speaker 2: you touched on it on your story on Monday, the
Speaker 2: fact that the Packers offensive line, for as many questions
Speaker 2: as there were, you know, David bock Terry doesn't practice last.
Speaker 1: Week for like two weeks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, situation at right tackle, all these things in that
Speaker 2: unit probably put together one of the more impressive performances
Speaker 2: I've seen, even dating back to training camp. I just
Speaker 2: thought they looked in command, and I thought, even on
Speaker 2: both sides, you know, this is iron sharpening iron, and
Speaker 2: some good players in both of these offensive and defensive fronts,
Speaker 2: and they finally got to go out in really go
Speaker 2: full tilt against an opposing team, and it gave them
Speaker 2: a lot to build on.
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Speaker 1: Subs fifty years of better, all right, quickly before we go,
Speaker 1: take taking a look at Week one, and in particular
Speaker 1: in the NFC North. Obviously packers want to know Bears
Speaker 1: zero to one. But the Detroit Lions beat the defending champs,
Speaker 1: the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead in the NFL kickoff
Speaker 1: game last Thursday, and then the Buccaneers went into US
Speaker 1: Bank Stadium and knocked off the defending NFC North champion
Speaker 1: Minnesota Vikings in Week one. I think everybody in the
Speaker 1: f world or just about everybody, thought both of those
Speaker 1: games would go the other way, that the Lions would
Speaker 1: be zero to one and the Vikings would be one
Speaker 1: to zero based on those Week one matchups and locations
Speaker 1: of those games. But here we are West, the new
Speaker 1: season is underway, and you just never know.
Speaker 2: If there was ever a game that indicated the importance
Speaker 2: of a tight end and then the importance of the quarterback,
Speaker 2: it was these two games, starting just really quickly with
Speaker 2: the Buccaneers. Baker Mayfield won this game for Tampa Bay.
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay was not able to run the ball well,
Speaker 2: they weren't. Situationally. There were some struggles, but ultimately Baker
Speaker 2: Mayfield made some plays and didn't make as any mistakes
Speaker 2: as Kirk Cousins made. Even though Cousins from a pure
Speaker 2: output standpoint production standpoint outshined him, it comes back to
Speaker 2: that turnover margin. This game changes, things evolve, but it
Speaker 2: always comes back to how you do protecting the football
Speaker 2: in when the chips were down and Mayfield need to
Speaker 2: make a throw, he made it late. Because as many
Speaker 2: changes as there are there for them, both with Tom
Speaker 2: Brady and also some of those backfield additions, they still
Speaker 2: got Mike Evans and they still got Chris Godwin, and
Speaker 2: I thought both of those guys really shine when they
Speaker 2: needed to. I'll throw the Lions thing back to you
Speaker 2: because I think I probably had a little bit more
Speaker 2: different opinion on this than a lot of folks. But
Speaker 2: I will say this, the Lions beat the Chiefs. They
Speaker 2: went into Arrowhead Stadium. That's a huge victory. I don't
Speaker 2: think it was the coming out party that the NFL
Speaker 2: wanted it to be based on that. I think they
Speaker 2: were kind of hoping for maybe a forty two to
Speaker 2: forty one shootout. It did not work out that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but.
Speaker 2: Beating Kansas City is one thing. Beating Kansas City with
Speaker 2: Travis Kelcey is another. Unfortunately for the Packers, they probably
Speaker 2: will have to see Kelsey later this season. I think
Speaker 2: the Lions that worked out perfectly for them. The fact
Speaker 2: that Kelsey's injury happened when it did, Kansas City had
Speaker 2: to make some really stark adjustments, and unfortunately for Kadarius
Speaker 2: Tony probably had one of the worst games I think
Speaker 2: I've ever seen from a player in a regular season. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I mean the bottom line is this, even with
Speaker 1: even with Travis Kelcey being out, with Chris Jones not
Speaker 1: having signed his contract to you know, all pro players
Speaker 1: for the Kansas City Chiefs, if they catch the football,
Speaker 1: they win the game, right, I mean, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: that It's that simple. Because because the Lions got seven
Speaker 1: points on defense off of a perfect throw by Patrick Mahomes,
Speaker 1: that turns into seven points the other way. So, but
Speaker 1: that's football. That's the way this game goes. You have
Speaker 1: you have to execute, and when you and when you
Speaker 1: don't execute, and the other team is good enough to
Speaker 1: take advantage of your mistakes, that's what happens. And and
Speaker 1: and that's how this league goes. And that's why, as
Speaker 1: I said, you just you just never know. It's why
Speaker 1: you have to play the games, and you have to
Speaker 1: take care of business, and and the Kansas City Chiefs
Speaker 1: are going to be fine. I think I think the
Speaker 1: larger question now when I when I look at where
Speaker 1: the Detroit Lions are a lot of hype, obviously a
Speaker 1: lot of folks picking them to win the NFC North.
Speaker 1: Now they start with a big win in Kansas City.
Speaker 1: Go back to what for me and I'll always remember this,
Speaker 1: it was my first year here in this position with
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. And go back to what Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: said when he was first hired here in Green Bay
Speaker 1: in two thousand and six and he's taking over a
Speaker 1: four and twelve team. Everybody was wondering where this was
Speaker 1: going with a Hall of Fame quarterback and Brett Favre,
Speaker 1: and Mike McCarthy was asked what the biggest challenge was
Speaker 1: going to be and he says, our biggest challenge will
Speaker 1: be handling success. I mean, a he knew that he
Speaker 1: was going to make the team successful, but it is
Speaker 1: a big challenge in this league to handle success. What
Speaker 1: happens when you're in a downturn with your team, with
Speaker 1: your franchise, and then the success comes to maybe some
Speaker 1: guys who haven't experienced it yet in the NFL, how
Speaker 1: do they handle it, what happens, how do you move forward?
Speaker 1: Not making any predictions one way or the other, I
Speaker 1: think that is the big question right now for the
Speaker 1: Lions and for Dan Campbell moving forward, because that there's
Speaker 1: no two ways about it. That was a huge victory for.
Speaker 2: Them, absolutely, and especially to have that platform a team
Speaker 2: that went so long without even really being in prime
Speaker 2: time other than some Thanksgiving games, that was a big
Speaker 2: moment that what I will My big takeaway from this
Speaker 2: game was though actually had very little to do with
Speaker 2: the offensive side of the ball, It had to do
Speaker 2: with One, they're very creative on special teams. I give
Speaker 2: them so much credit for that. The fake punts that
Speaker 2: they've pulled off the last couple of years are just incredible.
Speaker 2: But Two, that defense statistically was not very good last year.
Speaker 2: Packers had some rough outings against them, but I feel
Speaker 2: like they built towards something at the end of the
Speaker 2: season and that carried into this game. Aiden Hutchinson is
Speaker 2: going to be a real player in this league and
Speaker 2: he's going to be a problem for a lot of teams. Yeah,
Speaker 2: He's a beast to deal with, especially the way they're
Speaker 2: using and moving them inside a little bit. Brian Branch
Speaker 2: might end up being the best overall value pick though
Speaker 2: of this draft. I mean, it's a guy that a
Speaker 2: lot of folks talked about being a possible first rounder. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: he plays safety in twenty twenty three, and some people
Speaker 2: don't want to put those assets towards the position. But
Speaker 2: he played great and it wasn't just the pick. I
Speaker 2: mean overall. I thought he had a really solid football
Speaker 2: game and showed how valuable that position can be for
Speaker 2: a team that has really struggled in its secondary the
Speaker 2: last few seasons.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Lions look like they're putting something together on
Speaker 1: defense with without a whole lot of household names. Aidan
Speaker 1: Hutchinson is the name everybody knows, but it feels like
Speaker 1: we're going to start to know some more of the
Speaker 1: names on that Lions defense as the season goes forward.
Speaker 1: So and Packers are going to see him soon enough
Speaker 1: week four Thursday, and at football it's coming up soon enough.
Speaker 2: Two weeks away.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's gonna be here before we know it,
Speaker 1: and the Lions will be coming here to Green Bay
Speaker 1: for a big NFC North battle. But with that we'll
Speaker 1: call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Speaker 1: Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team on packers dot com for wes I am Mike.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you
Speaker 1: next time.