Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague Wes Honkowitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: here from our studios at Lambeufield to preview Sunday's game
Speaker 1: at Lambeoufield West. It'll be the Green Bay Packers against
Speaker 1: the Arizona Cardinals. Before we dive into the Cardinals, a
Speaker 1: little bit of news on the Packers side of things.
Speaker 1: With practice for the week resuming on Wednesday. Romeo Dobbs
Speaker 1: was at practice, back from his one game suspension from
Speaker 1: last week, and Christian Watson also back at practice after
Speaker 1: missing all of last week and the game with an
Speaker 1: ankle injury. So the Packers possibly no guarantees as to
Speaker 1: how this is all going to shake out, especially with
Speaker 1: regard to Watson's ankle injury, but possibly getting the receiving
Speaker 1: corps back to full strength here with the club returning
Speaker 1: home to play at Lambeau.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and obviously, as Matt Lafleur said, I mean, there's
Speaker 2: both of those guys, Dobbs and Watson. I mean there's
Speaker 2: such critical pieces to this Packers' offense. It's been that
Speaker 2: way for two and a half years, so to have
Speaker 2: both of them back, you know, and obviously the Dobbs
Speaker 2: situation very serious. They went through the whole suspension over
Speaker 2: the weekend. Everyone's looking forward to moving past that. You know,
Speaker 2: we'll have to see at some point what Rome has
Speaker 2: to say about the whole situation, right, but really quickly,
Speaker 2: I just want to say, I mean, you were the
Speaker 2: first one to point it out after watching practice on Wednesday.
Speaker 2: The fact that we're even having this conversation about Christian
Speaker 2: Watson is still somewhat jarring to me that he for
Speaker 2: as nasty as that looked, as bad as that looked
Speaker 2: two weeks ago, for him to potentially be back in
Speaker 2: the cards for this game on Sunday, No pun intended.
Speaker 2: That's it's incredible. And as he was saying, I mean,
Speaker 2: there's been so many setbacks, and he said it wasn't
Speaker 2: even that when he went down, he wasn't even thinking
Speaker 2: so much like oh man, season ending injury. He's like, hey,
Speaker 2: I just don't want to miss one more game. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, just he puts so much work in the
Speaker 2: hamstrings knock on wood have been solid so far. No
Speaker 2: real hiccups for the most part, and then you have
Speaker 2: this really scary looking situation down the seam. So fortunately
Speaker 2: he got through it. Sounds like it wasn't even like
Speaker 2: the high ankle sprain variety. No break obviously, and if
Speaker 2: you can get number nine back on the field, this Packers'
Speaker 2: offense can really go up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the fact that he's back on the practice field
Speaker 1: just ten days after that injury against the Vikings, I
Speaker 1: don't think any of us would have predicted that based
Speaker 1: on the video that we saw and how that injury
Speaker 1: went down. So hopefully his recovery continues at the rapid
Speaker 1: and smooth pace that it has been so far. But
Speaker 1: with regard to the Cardinals, that is the opponent coming
Speaker 1: to lambeau Field Sunday. It's a noon Central Time kickoff.
Speaker 1: Arizona is two to three on the young season. A huge,
Speaker 1: huge victory for the Cardinals last week though, on the
Speaker 1: road at San Francisco Division rival in the NFC West,
Speaker 1: they pull out a twenty four to twenty three triumph. Now,
Speaker 1: this is coming off of back to back home losses
Speaker 1: for the Cardinals against the Lions and the Washington Commanders,
Speaker 1: and the second of those the Washington game was really
Speaker 1: a blowout. They lost, I believe, by twenty eight points.
Speaker 1: They go into San Francisco. They it's a back and
Speaker 1: forth game early on, but then the forty nine Ers
Speaker 1: block a field goal, return it for a touchdown late
Speaker 1: in the first half, and the forty nine Ers are
Speaker 1: up twenty three to ten. At halftime. They're up two scores,
Speaker 1: but the Cardinals defense comes out and pitches a second
Speaker 1: half shutout. The offense gets two touchdowns out. I guess
Speaker 1: I should say a touchdown. I believe it was a
Speaker 1: couple of field goals. They pull out a twenty four
Speaker 1: to twenty three win over a division rival. That's the
Speaker 1: type of victory, quite frankly, West that can be a
Speaker 1: season turner, a season changer for a team that was
Speaker 1: one and three and going on the road to San Francisco.
Speaker 1: They come out of that with a win. They're two
Speaker 1: and three, and this is a team that, quite frankly,
Speaker 1: is going to be riding pretty high coming into Lambo.
Speaker 2: They got walloped by Washington Commanders team that has sort
Speaker 2: of been walloping everybody to this point, especially on the
Speaker 2: offensive side of things. But if you look at the
Speaker 2: rest of their schedule, Michael, they lost by six at Buffalo.
Speaker 2: They lost a narrow game to the Detroit Lions. I mean,
Speaker 2: this has been a crew that has been in every
Speaker 2: type of matchup so far outside of just the revenge
Speaker 2: game or whatever you want to call it with Washington
Speaker 2: and everything that happened there. But the fact is, and
Speaker 2: Matt Lafuer touchdown, I mean, you have a guy in
Speaker 2: Kyler Murray I think is playing back to his potential again.
Speaker 2: There was a couple of years there. Injuries played obviously
Speaker 2: a huge part into that, but it just it wasn't
Speaker 2: the offensive rookie of the year type guy he was
Speaker 2: his first two seasons and how he got things started
Speaker 2: when Tom Clements was his position coach. Now the train
Speaker 2: seemed to be back on the tracks, and he has
Speaker 2: some really unique weapons to work with. I mean, you
Speaker 2: look at Trey McBride, how he emerged last year, a
Speaker 2: guy that actually helped save my fantasy team last season
Speaker 2: at the tight end position. I know that's something you
Speaker 2: care a lot about. But then even you know there's
Speaker 2: so much focus on you know, Marvin Harrison Junior, and
Speaker 2: there is there rightly should be. I mean, as Matt
Speaker 2: Lafore mentioned this is a budding star in this league.
Speaker 2: Guy that's gonna be a factor for years to come.
Speaker 2: But you know, Michael Wilson is off to a good
Speaker 2: start too, who is a third round pick for them
Speaker 2: last year. They've built this roster back up. They've kind
Speaker 2: of gone through a rebuilding phase while still having a
Speaker 2: franchise quarterback. And I think you're seeing Kyler Murray use
Speaker 2: all those weapons in addition to the fact that at
Speaker 2: any given time he can take off and be a
Speaker 2: real threat with his legs too. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've talked about how this Packers offense has
Speaker 1: certainly been among the league leaders in explosive plays and whatnot.
Speaker 1: This Cardinals offense with Kyler Murray with Marvin Harrison Junior,
Speaker 1: is explosive in its own right. I mean, Harrison is
Speaker 1: averaging sixteen point four yards per catch, which is a
Speaker 1: pretty big number. He also has four touchdown receptions. Kyler
Speaker 1: Murray has thrown seven touchdown passes. Four of them have
Speaker 1: gone to the rookie Harrison Murray himself. Whether it's via
Speaker 1: scrambling or the designed running plays, the zone read those
Speaker 1: kinds of things. He's averaging ten point seven yards per rush.
Speaker 1: Which is why their team average rushing the ball is
Speaker 1: five and a half per carry. He is a big
Speaker 1: factor in that. Taking nothing away from James Connor, who
Speaker 1: I believe is a very underrated running back in this league.
Speaker 1: He's a classic power back and he can really give
Speaker 1: you problems. But Murray is the guy you're so focused
Speaker 1: on here because all you have to do is look
Speaker 1: at the highlights from last week against the Niners. He
Speaker 1: runs a simple zone read play, pulls the ball, keeps himself,
Speaker 1: takes it to the right, and by the time he
Speaker 1: got to the forty yard line, he was sticking his
Speaker 1: arm up in the air. No one he was going
Speaker 1: to score fifty yard touchdown and he knew it at
Speaker 1: the forty yard line nobody was going to catch him. Right.
Speaker 2: So this.
Speaker 1: Is a dangerous individual quarterbacking, I believe, a dangerous offense.
Speaker 2: If I may also interject with James Connor, why I
Speaker 2: love him so much as he's just to me, he's
Speaker 2: the throwback, right, He's almost kind of reminds me like
Speaker 2: of the Edgar Bennett, you know, Dorsey Levins type back. Yeah,
Speaker 2: this year, I think as long as carry's like twenty
Speaker 2: two yards, but he's so dang consistent and you know,
Speaker 2: other than you know, some setbacks that he was able
Speaker 2: to work past early in his career and a health perspective.
Speaker 2: I mean, this guy has been just steady as they go, consistent,
Speaker 2: and when you look at at Kyler Murray and where
Speaker 2: he's been successful in the past, it's when he's had
Speaker 2: a running back that he can play off of and
Speaker 2: somebody that can kind of compliment his strengths too as
Speaker 2: a runner. And it kind of goes back to what
Speaker 2: we saw in week one where when you had Jalen
Speaker 2: Hurts in the contrast there with a Saquon Barkley type. So, yeah,
Speaker 2: packers have to be aware of all of it. But
Speaker 2: one of the questions I took from Insider Inbox this
Speaker 2: week because people were asking, like, Okay, well, does this
Speaker 2: mean we're gonna have to get back to the really
Speaker 2: conservative pass rush approach and not letting him escape. That
Speaker 2: is true, you can't let him run over you, but
Speaker 2: Kyler Murray, despite not being the world's tallest quarterback, can
Speaker 2: also really thread you apart from the pocket. Yeah, he's
Speaker 2: a very versatile and dynamic player, and I think that's
Speaker 2: why this is a huge supreme test for them, and
Speaker 2: also why when the draft came around last year, it
Speaker 2: was one of the most obvious things that if Marvin
Speaker 2: Harrison Junior was there for the Cardinals, that they were
Speaker 2: going to take him because that was sort of the
Speaker 2: big play target this offense was really looking for. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well again, on the defensive side for this team, you're
Speaker 1: not talking about a whole lot of household names though.
Speaker 1: Buddha Baker, the safety, is the guy that everybody talks about.
Speaker 2: Blackle's already. By the way, how many fifty two? Wow,
Speaker 2: that's ten tackles a game, brought.
Speaker 1: Ten tackles a game for five games. This defense. It's
Speaker 1: really interesting West because, as we've mentioned a couple times,
Speaker 1: they got blown out at home by Washington. The Commanders
Speaker 1: put up forty two points in that game. But the
Speaker 1: Cardinals come back the following week and not only was
Speaker 1: it a second half shutout against the San Francisco forty
Speaker 1: nine ers on the road, but the forty nine ers
Speaker 1: scored one of their scored seven of their points off
Speaker 1: a blocked field goal. Arizona's defense gave up only sixteen
Speaker 1: points to the San Francisco forty nine ers. That is
Speaker 1: something to pay attention to again, that is that that's
Speaker 1: the type of thing that can that can change a
Speaker 1: team season, that can that can get things going in
Speaker 1: the right direction. So even though you know, I believe
Speaker 1: their leading SAT guy has three sacks, you know nothing
Speaker 1: Dennis Gardeck is that that's the name Gotch a.
Speaker 2: Former college free agent I think like six years ago.
Speaker 1: So yeah, obviously not again, like I say, not a
Speaker 1: lot of household names on this defense, but this is
Speaker 1: a unit that's starting to get things together and they
Speaker 1: were able to pull out the victory against the forty
Speaker 1: nine ers Life last week by getting takeaways on San
Speaker 1: Francisco's final two possessions. The Niners were in position to
Speaker 1: put that game away in down inside the red zone
Speaker 1: inside the ten yard line, and the Cardinals force to fumble,
Speaker 1: recovered it and then we're able to score the go
Speaker 1: ahead points. And then they got a deflection and interception
Speaker 1: of Brock Purty on San Francisco's final drive. So two
Speaker 1: takeaways on the last two drives, they get a big
Speaker 1: road victory. Packers on balance have done a pretty good
Speaker 1: job protecting the football this year. You definitely need to
Speaker 1: continue that against these guys on Sun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and also on the other side of things, you know,
Speaker 2: Zavier McKinney trying to get six in a row off
Speaker 2: of Kyler Murray, who's only thrown two picks. Yeah, through
Speaker 2: the first five games. So yeah. I mean, we could
Speaker 2: sit up here every week and talk about how turnovers
Speaker 2: are going to be a huge factor in the game.
Speaker 2: They always are. But again, I think from when listening
Speaker 2: to Jordan Love talk about it and some of the
Speaker 2: maybe the mental errors, maybe some of the things he
Speaker 2: got downgraded on from that game last week, correcting those
Speaker 2: and being able to get on in a run like
Speaker 2: he did at the second half of last season where
Speaker 2: he had one interception over his last six regular season games,
Speaker 2: whatever it was, that's going to be really critical in
Speaker 2: this one. The Cardinals in a lot of ways are
Speaker 2: going to kind of threaten you. They aren't going to
Speaker 2: give you as many versatile looks as what Minnesota did,
Speaker 2: but in terms of their playmakers, it's going to come
Speaker 2: from everywhere. The other thing to keep in mind too,
Speaker 2: I wrote about this week with Max and bow Melton,
Speaker 2: the two brothers playing each other now in this game.
Speaker 2: Max's snaps had been rising steadily over the last month,
Speaker 2: in his first season, second round pick. He much like
Speaker 2: Eddrian Cooper with the Packers, getting kind of integrated and
Speaker 2: comfortable with this defense. Max has been doing the same
Speaker 2: thing with the Cardinals as well. So thirty two snaps
Speaker 2: last week for him played half the snaps. Very interesting
Speaker 2: to see what those subpackages look like. Is he's kind
Speaker 2: of been rising up that depth chart as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, And I want to ask you about that
Speaker 1: the Melton brothers story that is on Packers dot com.
Speaker 1: It just went up shortly before we turned the cameras
Speaker 1: on here this morning. Max Melton Bo Melton Bo is
Speaker 1: the older brother of the two, both draft picks and
Speaker 1: now going to be playing against one another on the
Speaker 1: same field, possibly lining up across from one another. Right
Speaker 1: one's cornerback, one's a receiver. Just tell the audience kind
Speaker 1: of what was your favorite part of putting this piece together,
Speaker 1: and do be sure to check it out on our website.
Speaker 2: So many cool parts about this. I think the neatest
Speaker 2: thing was the fact that both of his parents, Bo
Speaker 2: and Max's parents they went to Rutgers and as it
Speaker 2: coincidentally turned out, his dad, Gary Senior, ended up playing
Speaker 2: for Greg Ciano two and Schiano is just at a
Speaker 2: graduate assistant there now he's in his second tenure as
Speaker 2: their head coach. His mom was a you know, a
Speaker 2: basketball player for a very successful Rutgers women's basketball program
Speaker 2: during her time there. And the thing I loved most
Speaker 2: about it was the fact that they embraced those roots,
Speaker 2: both Max and bo did. It took their own process
Speaker 2: to end up going to Rutgers, but they accepted that.
Speaker 2: And Bo again didn't commit to Rutgers when they were
Speaker 2: at the peak of their powers with Shiano. I mean,
Speaker 2: they were coming off a four win season in which
Speaker 2: Kyle Flood got fired and then the first year as
Speaker 2: Bo is a senior in high school, they win two
Speaker 2: games with Chris ash But yet he stayed true to
Speaker 2: that program, stayed true to himself, even wrote a letter
Speaker 2: to his parents when he made the decision to commit
Speaker 2: to Rutgers, telling him I'm going to Rutgers for you guys.
Speaker 2: I want to continue our family's legacy. And then Max
Speaker 2: ended up doing the same exact thing. So, seeing the
Speaker 2: tight knit nature of their family, three brothers that all
Speaker 2: went and played Division one football, their oldest brother, Gary
Speaker 2: Paul Junior, he ended up going to Delaware State. They're
Speaker 2: all going to be in attendance. Gary Senior and their
Speaker 2: mom also got these really cool custom made jerseys. They
Speaker 2: didn't want to do the thing where you just slice
Speaker 2: the jersey in half and sew it. They did a
Speaker 2: thing where they kind of like hemmed it where it's
Speaker 2: they split two jerseys, but one is Bo's number eighty
Speaker 2: on the back and the other one is Max's number sixteen.
Speaker 2: I should say eighty on the front, Max's sixteen on
Speaker 2: the back, and they flip that and they'll both wear
Speaker 2: those jerseys for the game. So very special family, very
Speaker 2: hard working family. And the fact that, as as Gary
Speaker 2: Senior said, they could have never envisioned a scenario in
Speaker 2: which their kids were playing in the National Football League,
Speaker 2: let alone both of them at the same time. We'll
Speaker 2: have to see their Their older brother is keeping his
Speaker 2: fingers crossed that they're gonna end up lining up against
Speaker 2: each other. He said, I didn't put this in the story,
Speaker 2: but he's like, hey, if they want to tell Max, hey,
Speaker 2: when when your brother's on the field, you just follow
Speaker 2: him wherever he goes. He would love that they both
Speaker 2: also play special teams, so it will be curious That's.
Speaker 1: What I was going to ask. Is there a chance
Speaker 1: with maybe with Bo being a flyer on the punt team,
Speaker 1: and then would Max potentially line up across from him
Speaker 1: as the you know, as the blocker of the flyer
Speaker 1: on the outside on punt play.
Speaker 2: So if you go off the film, they actually line
Speaker 2: up typically on opposite side.
Speaker 1: Oh okay.
Speaker 2: So Bo didn't want to get into the strategy or
Speaker 2: the scheme of this, but is there a chance that
Speaker 2: rich Bassacia or the staff over at the Cardinals would
Speaker 2: maybe flip them over to give them some jammer and
Speaker 2: flyer opportunities against each other potentially, But more than anything,
Speaker 2: both of those guys and Bo had had a great
Speaker 2: quote in the story too, saying that when his brother
Speaker 2: went to Rutgers, that was enough for him. If it
Speaker 2: would have all ended there for both of them, or
Speaker 2: at least for Bo, he would have been happy the
Speaker 2: fact that he got to play one year high school
Speaker 2: ball with his younger brother two years because of COVID
Speaker 2: with them at Rutgers. He would have been totally satisfied
Speaker 2: the fact that they were with each other on draft
Speaker 2: night for both of the times that they got picked
Speaker 2: and bow in the seventh round and twenty twenty two.
Speaker 2: Max obviously is the forty third pick. This past April,
Speaker 2: they knew right away that this game was on the horizon.
Speaker 2: They knew the Packers and Cardinals were going to play
Speaker 2: each other. So to be able to carry their family's
Speaker 2: name into that, there's a huge sense of pride that
Speaker 2: goes along with that. In addition to the fact, I
Speaker 2: think there's going to be a lot of Milton family
Speaker 2: members bawling up in the stands watching their two sons
Speaker 2: and watching those two kids go at it.
Speaker 1: Well, if they do line up across from one another,
Speaker 1: whether it be on a punt or perhaps on a
Speaker 1: Packers offensive play from scrimmage, that would make a family
Speaker 1: photo for the ages, right, I mean that would that
Speaker 1: would be that would be an all timer, right.
Speaker 2: Gary said, that's all he wants. He'll be balling, he'll
Speaker 2: be crying everything he gets that we were I was
Speaker 2: sitting there with Bill Rabier at Bo's locker, just kind
Speaker 2: of following up with him on on Wednesday, and we
Speaker 2: so we got the dig brothers. We're the only ones
Speaker 2: that I could think of. I don't know if there's
Speaker 2: any other, but it's it's not exactly something you can
Speaker 2: just ask Elias, like, Okay, what brothers played against each
Speaker 2: other in terms of the contrasting positions offensive lineman, defensive linement,
Speaker 2: what have you? I came up with Stefan and Trayvon Diggs,
Speaker 2: But I mean otherwise I can't think of early any.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's the only one that really.
Speaker 2: You have the mccordy's, you have the Kelsey's, you have
Speaker 2: all these people, but.
Speaker 1: You have the various kickers. You know, yeah, there have
Speaker 1: been you know, brothers of kickers on different teams. But
Speaker 1: but yeah, in terms of actually lining up, you know,
Speaker 1: on at competing positions on the field at the same time,
Speaker 1: it's incredibly rare.
Speaker 2: And Gary Junior had said too, He's like, that's the
Speaker 2: cool thing about is like, my brothers play the antithesis
Speaker 2: of each other as far as their positions are concerned.
Speaker 2: So while you know Travis Kelsey and Jason Kelsey's talks
Speaker 2: about well, I just cheer for the offense, Vicky's gonna
Speaker 2: have some decisions to make and how things are going
Speaker 2: to play out on Sunday.
Speaker 1: There you go, Well, I want to get to our
Speaker 1: keys to victory, but I'll take care of some sponsor business.
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Speaker 1: plus years of better. One quick note on the Cardinals.
Speaker 1: I forgot to mention when we were talking about their offense,
Speaker 1: they have lost one of their starting offensive linemen, Andez
Speaker 1: is out for the season.
Speaker 2: Do you know who he was? Do you know who
Speaker 2: Will Hernandez is?
Speaker 1: I vaguely recall he was Aaron Jones's guard at that
Speaker 1: Texas at UTEPS. I knew there was something in the
Speaker 1: back of my mind that I knew something about Will
Speaker 1: Hernandez and and you've got it, that's the one. So
Speaker 1: the Cardinals will be plugging in a new guard in
Speaker 1: this game, so we'll see how perhaps that impacts their
Speaker 1: offensive line. But keys to victory what jumps out at
Speaker 1: you the top of your list for this one? For
Speaker 1: the Packers to leave lambeau Field Sunday afternoon at four
Speaker 1: and two.
Speaker 2: Packers got to run the football. Arizona is another team
Speaker 2: here that has kind of struggled to stop the run
Speaker 2: so far this season, twenty eighth in rushing yards, I mean,
Speaker 2: twentieth in yards per carry, but.
Speaker 1: I think it's about one hundred and fifty a game, yeah,
Speaker 1: around there that they're allowing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually yeah, so yeah. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: you got to get Josh Shacobs established in this thing,
Speaker 2: and they kind of trying to find some hard yards
Speaker 2: last week. They eventually got them, But I mean, I
Speaker 2: think that's going to be a big thing being able
Speaker 2: to let me put it this way, the better that
Speaker 2: you run the football, I think, the less chances that
Speaker 2: Jordan Love has to take with throwing the ball. That's
Speaker 2: sort of been the last year and a half kind
Speaker 2: of the standard. It feels like when that's a good
Speaker 2: way to put all Jordan protects the ball, well, so
Speaker 2: you want to do that. And then also the fact
Speaker 2: is they have not been good on third down. And
Speaker 2: if you think about it in terms of I'm speaking
Speaker 2: of the defense of Arizona Cardinals, it makes sense because
Speaker 2: when you're giving up yards like that, you're getting into
Speaker 2: more favorable second and medium, third and short situations, and
Speaker 2: I steel like that's one area where the Packers again
Speaker 2: needed to do better. Last week. They had to go
Speaker 2: a bulk of that game without a third down conversion.
Speaker 2: This one, I think got to come out really set
Speaker 2: that early.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I agree. I agree with you one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: With regard to the running game. You know, the Packers
Speaker 1: were facing the worst rush defense in the league last
Speaker 1: week in the Rams, but the Rams kind of loaded
Speaker 1: up to stop the run. They didn't play, they didn't
Speaker 1: play two safeties back. They didn't play I mean Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur estimated they played maybe ten snaps of two shell
Speaker 1: They were bringing extra safety down. They were not going
Speaker 1: to let the Packers run the ball the way some
Speaker 1: other opponents had run the ball against them. And unfortunately
Speaker 1: then it it took a while. It really kind of
Speaker 1: took probably that last drive of the first half quite frankly,
Speaker 1: before Jordan Love found his rhythm and got things going
Speaker 1: in the passing game. If the Cardinals are going to
Speaker 1: load up to stop the run, I don't know if
Speaker 1: they will, but the Packers need to find that efficiency
Speaker 1: in the passing game early, because you don't just run
Speaker 1: the ball to run it into a brick wall. If
Speaker 1: a team is loaded up, if they're playing single high
Speaker 1: safety and it's lots of one on ones on the outside,
Speaker 1: that's an invitation to throw the football, and you have
Speaker 1: to find completions. You have to find consistency and efficiency
Speaker 1: in that regard. The other thing for me that this
Speaker 1: game comes down to is simply the explosive plays. I
Speaker 1: think the Packers are gonna have their chances to make some,
Speaker 1: as they have every week so far this season against
Speaker 1: this particular defense. But this is about limiting the explosive
Speaker 1: plays that the Cardinals might be able to make. Whether
Speaker 1: it's Kyler Murray on the zone read or on a
Speaker 1: scramble where he's buying time and extending the play, or
Speaker 1: Marvin Harrison Junior doing things down the field. You have
Speaker 1: to limit the explosive plays. You have to really make
Speaker 1: the Cardinals earn everything they're gonna get, make them go
Speaker 1: the long way to score and perhaps then a mistake
Speaker 1: happens along the way and they don't get the point
Speaker 1: production they're looking for. If the Cardinals, if the Cardinals start,
Speaker 1: you know, hitting the Packers with explosives. This could turn
Speaker 1: into a rough day for the defense.
Speaker 2: P Fie. I think it's also a really important game with
Speaker 2: Xavier McKinney and whatever they decide to do at the
Speaker 2: other safety position, if that ends up being Evan Williams again,
Speaker 2: or you know, Alexander comes back, what the domino effect
Speaker 2: of that is on the rest of the secondary. But
Speaker 2: specifically looking at Xavier, he was mentioning last week with
Speaker 2: Matthew Stafford looking him off, that was about the most
Speaker 2: that that's happened to him so far this season. People
Speaker 2: just don't want to go with the ball with where
Speaker 2: he is right now. And I feel like when you
Speaker 2: look at Marvin Harrison Junior in the big place, he
Speaker 2: making and he can do it after the catch too.
Speaker 2: But the benefit of having someone like x back there
Speaker 2: is that that's what challenges the quarterback when in terms
Speaker 2: of wanting to threaten the top of a secondary, you know,
Speaker 2: the ceiling of a secondary, and every single time that
Speaker 2: ball has aired out, just with his quickness, with his
Speaker 2: instincts and just his football iqback there, it seems like
Speaker 2: Xavier always puts himself in a position to make a
Speaker 2: play on that if not intercepting it breaking it up
Speaker 2: like he did late in that game last week as well.
Speaker 2: So this is a great game to have a player
Speaker 2: like Zabra McKinney on the back end. But at the
Speaker 2: same time, if you do rupture, if Marvin Harrison Junior
Speaker 2: does get one on you, I think the big key
Speaker 2: is looking at some of these games these last few weeks,
Speaker 2: is you can't let them do it again. You have
Speaker 2: to be able to rebound from that, because otherwise it
Speaker 2: can be a really long afternoon for your defense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. Looking around the rest of the league.
Speaker 1: At week six, quickly before we go the NFC North
Speaker 1: leaders the Minnesota Vikings at five and oh they are
Speaker 1: on their bye week. The Detroit Lions are back from
Speaker 1: there by they are three to one. They head to
Speaker 1: Dallas to take on the Cowboys. Dallas coming off of
Speaker 1: a very gritty, hard fought, bad weather, late night victory
Speaker 1: at Pittsburgh with the late touchdown there. And I'll just
Speaker 1: say this, it would not surprise me in the slightest
Speaker 1: if the Detroit Lions go back into Dallas and run
Speaker 1: another tackle eligible play by the goal line right possible.
Speaker 1: Dan camp is gonna is gonna put that in and
Speaker 1: and uh and they're gonna do They're gonna do it again.
Speaker 1: Maybe not. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Dan Campbell's you just had to say he's gonna option
Speaker 2: out the quarterback and he'll have the offensive one and
Speaker 2: take the snap this time as well. There we go,
Speaker 2: riverboat Dan.
Speaker 1: A couple other A couple other interesting games though. Actually
Speaker 1: Thursday night football San Francisco is at Seattle. Suddenly the
Speaker 1: Seahawks had started three and oh, they're now three and two.
Speaker 1: The forty nine Ers, the defending obviously NFC champions Super
Speaker 1: Bowl participants last year. They are two and three, looking
Speaker 1: to avoid going to UH to two and four. Very
Speaker 1: interesting game on on Thursday night the Chicago Bears looking
Speaker 1: to get to four and two. They have the Jacksonville
Speaker 1: Jaguars in London early on Sunday morning. Your thoughts on
Speaker 1: any of those games?
Speaker 2: Did forty nine ers run this thing? Two ways? They
Speaker 2: either make it, they threaten the World Championship, they threaten
Speaker 2: a Super Bowl, or everyone just gets hurt the same year.
Speaker 2: Like it's the weirdest thing. It's like some teams rebuild
Speaker 2: the like the nine have to unfortunately like heal like
Speaker 2: it's just again, I was saying to my buddy this
Speaker 2: morning on my Jake Moody got hurt. Yeah, Like it's
Speaker 2: like like.
Speaker 1: When you tell me I had to sign a kicker.
Speaker 2: Now, when you talk about like bad luck and misfortune,
Speaker 2: I mean, I understand people always perseverate on the Packers
Speaker 2: and what their injury situation is looking Like I tell
Speaker 2: you what, every three years or so, the forty nine
Speaker 2: ers just get hit with all of it and and
Speaker 2: we'll have to see how they respond. They'd done okay
Speaker 2: up until you know, these last few weeks, but it's
Speaker 2: a lot to take onto the ship Washington. Doing the
Speaker 2: short trip to Baltimore is my probably game of the week.
Speaker 2: I'm just so excited to see how, you know, Daniels
Speaker 2: and everything he's accomplishing so far. Baltimore has kind of
Speaker 2: battled itself back as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was an zero to two start for the Ravens,
Speaker 1: and they've gotten things rolling in the right direction.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I think Daniel's going up against that crew
Speaker 2: is going to be really really interesting to watch and
Speaker 2: seeing if he can continue the street. Because I mean,
Speaker 2: right now, at this point in time, I think we
Speaker 2: all would agree we're looking at the offense, a player,
Speaker 2: a rookie the year at this point.
Speaker 1: Well, especially one week after Joe Burrow just threw five
Speaker 1: touchdown passes against that Ravens defense, and now that Ravens
Speaker 1: defense has to deal with Jayden Daniels.
Speaker 2: Yea Ravens, that's been a Yeah. They took a lot
Speaker 2: of hits with their personnel, a lot of hits with
Speaker 2: their coaching staff, and it's been a harder road ahead
Speaker 2: this year. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think so Monday Night Football as well. Two teams
Speaker 1: in the AFC East that are about as desperate for
Speaker 1: a victory as it gets. The Buffalo Bills coming off
Speaker 1: of losing at the Horn a fifty nine yard field
Speaker 1: goal by the Houston Texans and of the walk off variety.
Speaker 1: So the Bills lose a crusher there. And then the Jets,
Speaker 1: of course, now having changed head coaches, changed offensive play callers,
Speaker 1: all kinds of chaos and turmoil at with regard to
Speaker 1: the Jets, and they're playing at home on Monday Night
Speaker 1: Football against the division arrival.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I mean two weeks ago I was talking
Speaker 2: about how Buffalo was the team to me that was
Speaker 2: right at the top of the heat of this league,
Speaker 2: just based on how much everybody had counted them out
Speaker 2: based and how many people had what they had to
Speaker 2: say about Josh Allen and yeah, unfortunately you lose a
Speaker 2: couple tight ones and this is where you sit when
Speaker 2: you're at three and two. So yeah, it'll be a
Speaker 2: big challenge for them. Very interesting to see how the
Speaker 2: Jets respond. You know, there's those things go one of
Speaker 2: two ways. Either you rally after coach gets fired in
Speaker 2: that next week, or sometimes you get walloped.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. Either either there's a there's a galvanizing that
Speaker 1: goes on, or there's more of a more of a
Speaker 1: splintering and falling. Yeah, that's it goes on, and everybody's
Speaker 1: going to be watching the Jets, uh to see what
Speaker 1: happens there. So with that we'll call it a rap
Speaker 1: on this edition a Packers Unscript. To be sure to
Speaker 1: follow all of our coverage of the team. Everything from
Speaker 1: Sunday's game against the Cardinals will be on Packers dot
Speaker 1: com and check out Wes's really cool piece on Max
Speaker 1: and Bo Melton that is also on our website. So
Speaker 1: for Wes, I am Mike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody.
Speaker 1: We will see you next time