Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by my
Speaker 1: partner in crime, Weston Hodkowits for coming to you here
Speaker 1: from our studios at lambeau Field West here to talk
Speaker 1: about Packers Buccaneers from Sunday at Raymond James Stadium in
Speaker 1: Hot Tampa. It was a fourteen to twelve final score.
Speaker 1: We can talk about the offense is hot start, the
Speaker 1: struggles thereafter, the defenses dominating performance until the final drive,
Speaker 1: but then they save it with the two point conversion stop.
Speaker 1: The bottom line is the Packers are two and one,
Speaker 1: and as Aaron Rodgers talked about after the game, considering
Speaker 1: your schedule was at Minnesota home against Chicago at Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay to start the year, to be too on one
Speaker 1: right now, you take it and move on. You could
Speaker 1: have opened the show with anything. We could have talked
Speaker 1: about the game. You could have brought up your analysis
Speaker 1: of you know, the most recent Marvel movie. You could
Speaker 1: have discussed anything under the sun here, Mike and I
Speaker 1: was going to respond with the same thing every Friday,
Speaker 1: Mike spot for tonight in that spot over there, Matt
Speaker 1: can't turn the cameras, it's okay, But in that spot
Speaker 1: we do final thoughts for road games, and for the
Speaker 1: first time, when the game ended, I finally said to myself, yeah,
Speaker 1: not only did I did we discuss what was going
Speaker 1: to be the key to victory, what needed to happen
Speaker 1: for the Packers to win. It actually happened. The number
Speaker 1: one thing that you and I both talked about last
Speaker 1: week was a fast start, and you saw offensively how
Speaker 1: far a fast start went against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: Matt Lafour talked about it on Monday. When you're facing
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, you never feel comfortable. There's been enough evidence
Speaker 1: in the past Super Bowl related to show you that
Speaker 1: he's never quite out of a ball game. But for
Speaker 1: the Packers to come out to ten plus play drives
Speaker 1: out of the gate that both produced touchdowns, didn't just
Speaker 1: get points, they got seven. It was the difference between
Speaker 1: a potential win and a loss, and being in the
Speaker 1: locker room afterwards. There were two of them. There was
Speaker 1: offense defense. You were down with the head coach and
Speaker 1: the quarterback. Kenny Clark, I thought had the quote of
Speaker 1: the night where he said, in the past, these are
Speaker 1: games typically we haven't won, and we won them. Not
Speaker 1: only does that tell you about that defense you were
Speaker 1: talking about, but it tells you about the resolve of
Speaker 1: that group. The Packers win on the road against the
Speaker 1: team that had its home opener and they want You
Speaker 1: can't understate that. For things that need to be corrected,
Speaker 1: there's plenty of them. But to get a road win
Speaker 1: in that environment against that quarterback and that team with
Speaker 1: Super Bowl aspirations a huge w for green Bay. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And to follow up on what you said with regard
Speaker 1: to how far a fast start can take you, the
Speaker 1: Packers got that Buccaneers defense on its heels a little
Speaker 1: bit right. Those first two drives ten plays, twelve plays,
Speaker 1: six plus minutes a piece time of possession, you get
Speaker 1: two touchdowns. The third drive is going just as well,
Speaker 1: a different type of drive in that you had the
Speaker 1: big play to Randall Cob the forty yard catch and run.
Speaker 1: You get into scoring position and you're knocking on the
Speaker 1: door to possibly go up to three or at a
Speaker 1: minimum seventeen to three, and unfortunately Aaron Jones gets sandwiched
Speaker 1: at the two yard line by a couple of big
Speaker 1: hits and the ball pops out the Buccaneers recover in
Speaker 1: the end zone, and suddenly everything just changes for Green
Speaker 1: Bay's offense, and that that play, that stop was was
Speaker 1: the spark that Tampa Bay's defense needed. They kind of
Speaker 1: snapped out of their doldrum, so to speak, and the
Speaker 1: rest of the game, we saw the Tampa Bay defense
Speaker 1: that we had seen the first two weeks of the
Speaker 1: season and we expected to see. On the flip side,
Speaker 1: we saw the Green Bay Packers defense that everybody was
Speaker 1: hoping to see in the opener at Minnesota. We certainly
Speaker 1: saw glimpses of it in Week two in Chicago, and
Speaker 1: the Packers pretty defensively, pretty much played the four quarter
Speaker 1: game that you were hoping for. Yes, Tom Brady drove
Speaker 1: him eighty nine yards in the last three minutes in
Speaker 1: the heat that you know, guys are tired, exhausted, and
Speaker 1: Brady was Brady. He didn't gash them for some thirty
Speaker 1: five forty yard pass or anything. He methodically moved him
Speaker 1: down the field. He had plenty of time. They get
Speaker 1: the touchdown and then it comes down to it comes
Speaker 1: down to the two point conversion. Now, the Packers caught
Speaker 1: a break here because for all of the wondering was
Speaker 1: the touchdown play a delay a game. Maybe it was,
Speaker 1: maybe it wasn't. There was no question that the initial
Speaker 1: try on the two point play was delayed game and
Speaker 1: they blew the whistle and stopped it. They backed him
Speaker 1: up five yards. I don't know. I'll just preface by saying,
Speaker 1: I don't know how when essentially from the start of
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter, when the game is fourteen to six
Speaker 1: and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers know that they are going
Speaker 1: to go for two if they get a touchdown, how
Speaker 1: you don't have a two point play a ready to
Speaker 1: go and called and in the huddle, and they had
Speaker 1: extra time because the game was paused for a little
Speaker 1: bit while they were reviewing the gauge touchdown. Because he
Speaker 1: took a big hit from Douglas in the end zone,
Speaker 1: there was some question as to where the ball was
Speaker 1: and did the ball touch the ground, did he hang
Speaker 1: onto it. There was a little bit of a delay.
Speaker 1: They're not an official review where they completely stopped everything,
Speaker 1: but a delay to confirm that touchdown, and then the
Speaker 1: Buccaneers still didn't get the snap off in time on
Speaker 1: the two point conversion. Packers catch a break, he goes
Speaker 1: back to the seven yard line. You know Brady is
Speaker 1: gonna have to throw it from there. It's not a
Speaker 1: run pass decision type of thing. And of Andre Campbell
Speaker 1: makes the deflection. I don't know how the Buccaneers take
Speaker 1: a delay a game on a two point conversion there
Speaker 1: that that just stunned me. Do you know what I
Speaker 1: loved about this game? You know, I'm a big UFC guy,
Speaker 1: I like my m m A. This remind subject we
Speaker 1: don't talk about, but go ahead, but I mean, this
Speaker 1: reminded me of your decision in a UFC fight. You
Speaker 1: don't know what that means, but I'm to educate you
Speaker 1: a little bit. It's where you go to the judges scorecards.
Speaker 1: And in my opinion, the Packers beat the Tampa Bay
Speaker 1: Buccaneers two point victory. Right, How did the Packers win
Speaker 1: this game? They beat them in every area of the matchup.
Speaker 1: Think about this the running game green Base. It wasn't
Speaker 1: overly productive, but they had twelve carries between Aaron Jones
Speaker 1: in a J. Dillon running game for Tampa Bay Leonard four.
Speaker 1: Nette wasn't able to get much going only what was
Speaker 1: it twelve carries didn't get much going. Rogers early on
Speaker 1: being able to finish those drives get points. That's what
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay was unable to do. Pat o'donald outpunted Tampa Bay.
Speaker 1: They won the field position battle. You go through all
Speaker 1: these different check marks, well, you go to your final
Speaker 1: play that you're talking about their Matt Lafleur discussed with
Speaker 1: Joe Barry. Okay, we're on our heels right now. Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay's driving. It might come down to a two part play.
Speaker 1: Have your play ready, Tampa Bay. Now, Now, to be
Speaker 1: fair to Byron Leftwich, in this off fens, they're trying
Speaker 1: to just get back in this thing. They're trying to
Speaker 1: get into the end zone to get that two point conversion.
Speaker 1: The burden of proof is on them a little bit more.
Speaker 1: But still, as you outline with all those different variations
Speaker 1: and all those different scenarios that were playing out, to
Speaker 1: be in a spot in which you take a delay
Speaker 1: a game at that juncture of the game, you can't
Speaker 1: do it. And I don't know all the ins and
Speaker 1: outs of what Green Bay saw, but Devantrie Campbell mentioned
Speaker 1: in the locker room afterwards, green Bay was ready for that.
Speaker 1: Look when the receiver motions, when Russell Gauge motions back
Speaker 1: in line. The way he did that tipped off in
Speaker 1: the Packer's head. And as they said, there's no guarantees,
Speaker 1: but from what they've seen on film that it looks
Speaker 1: like it's going to be a snag concept. It looks
Speaker 1: like they know where guys are going to go. And
Speaker 1: when you watch that play, every single Green Bay defender
Speaker 1: is where they're supposed to be. Campbell is in zone
Speaker 1: coverage six ft four with his vertical goes up and
Speaker 1: tips that ball. The Green Bay Packers get a victory. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have my what you might have missed with the
Speaker 1: video clips this week, which is now on our web
Speaker 1: site packers dot com as we speak, I broke down
Speaker 1: a lot of Devandre Campbell's pass coverage UM and then
Speaker 1: culminating a course in the two point play. And when
Speaker 1: you look really closely at the two point play at
Speaker 1: the end, you can see, as you said, West, the
Speaker 1: Packers had everything covered. Leonard Fournette comes out of the backfield,
Speaker 1: Adrian Amos picks him up. Cameron Braid the tight end,
Speaker 1: does a stop route at the goal line. Eric Stokes
Speaker 1: is right with him, and then with Gauge running the corner, route,
Speaker 1: which is essentially he's running the corner route off of
Speaker 1: the stop route. The stop route by the tight end
Speaker 1: is supposed to draw the defense in, and then the
Speaker 1: corner route is supposed to be open. And Darnell Savage
Speaker 1: sprints to stick with gauge on the corner route and
Speaker 1: he's all over him. And then so Campbell's your zone
Speaker 1: guy while those other guys are kind of matched up
Speaker 1: man to man as these routes develop, and he can
Speaker 1: just watch Brady's eyes to see where does he want
Speaker 1: to go with the football. And as you said, six
Speaker 1: ft four, you can't coach six ft four at linebacker,
Speaker 1: and that reach the length that he has, he gets
Speaker 1: the deflection, it falls, it falls incomplete. The Packers then
Speaker 1: recover the on side kick, the culmination of as you said,
Speaker 1: a victorious day for the special teams, where the Packers
Speaker 1: had the edge in that phase of the game with
Speaker 1: the way Pat o'donnald punted, unfortunately catching a bad break
Speaker 1: on on the running into the punter thing in the
Speaker 1: back of the end zone, which cost the Packers a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of field position. That's a kind of a
Speaker 1: story for another day. But even with that, the Packers
Speaker 1: won on special teams overall in this game with regard
Speaker 1: to the field position, and then a smooth, no drama
Speaker 1: recovery of an onside kick sort of cap that off
Speaker 1: a really good day for Rich Pisaccio's unit. I was
Speaker 1: really surprising. I don't know what the philosophy is with
Speaker 1: how they handle their on side kicks for the Bucks.
Speaker 1: I was really surprised that they tested Lazard over Romeo Dobbs,
Speaker 1: who was the other option. If you watch the film
Speaker 1: Lazard has been with, you know, Davante Adams was the
Speaker 1: featured guy there those years, but Lazard was the opposite one.
Speaker 1: Robert Tonyan did a little bit of it. They decided
Speaker 1: to go after Lazard and it was a solid on
Speaker 1: side kick attempt. But Alan is just so zoned in
Speaker 1: and he's so experienced at it and so composed. Everybody
Speaker 1: did their job. I mean, I don't know if you
Speaker 1: want to dovetail into this right away, but just the
Speaker 1: way that Rich Bisacci has coached these units. What what
Speaker 1: a good solid discipline special teams coordinator can do is
Speaker 1: take the talent that he has, take the players that
Speaker 1: are available, and maximize their strengths. Um I think about
Speaker 1: that from your jack cocos as your long snappers that
Speaker 1: weren't long snappers that suddenly our NFL long snappers and
Speaker 1: is doing a solid job. I think about Pat o'donald
Speaker 1: and a guy that you know Chicago, let him, let
Speaker 1: him hit the market, and the Packers scooped him up immediately,
Speaker 1: Rudy Ford gets cut by Jacksonville. Rudy Ford is suddenly
Speaker 1: every single time right in the punt returner's face as
Speaker 1: a flyer, Key shan Nick Sin coming in not only
Speaker 1: in relief of jyr Alexander and playing fifty seven defensive steps,
Speaker 1: but playing on all the core special teams units were
Speaker 1: grabbing a ball that ends up landing at the two
Speaker 1: yard line. Mike, I'm not trying to throw anybody under
Speaker 1: the bus. I'm not trying to rip on anything. But
Speaker 1: you know, when was the last time that you recall
Speaker 1: the Packers being able to kill a punt at a
Speaker 1: two yard line? And then the implications that that had
Speaker 1: for where that drive went. For the Buccaneers that go
Speaker 1: three and out, all those little things matter, and I
Speaker 1: think for the Green Bay Packers perspective, getting more consistency,
Speaker 1: more durability, more disciplined from their special teams units. Today
Speaker 1: this was the game, Mike where they didn't just they
Speaker 1: weren't just a push. They were the advantage that Green
Speaker 1: Bay has been looking for from the wefense. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: there are a handful of guys to talk about in
Speaker 1: terms of the whether you want to call them the
Speaker 1: heroes of the game or the unsung heroes of the game.
Speaker 1: We mentioned a little bit already with Devandre Campbell, not
Speaker 1: just the deflection on the two point conversion, but four
Speaker 1: teen tackles in this game. Had ever an other good
Speaker 1: solid plays in in pass coverage as well as against
Speaker 1: the run. You had mentioned how for Net couldn't get going.
Speaker 1: You know, Kenny Clark ends up with with two sacks
Speaker 1: and was a force against the run all day long.
Speaker 1: Romeo Dobbs, the rookie receiver eight receptions, gets his first
Speaker 1: NFL touchdown. The eight receptions only one shy for the
Speaker 1: of the single game Packers rookie record, which was Max
Speaker 1: McGee's nine catches back in nine day. Yeah. So so,
Speaker 1: Romeo Dobbs was close to uh close to setting a
Speaker 1: rookie record and maybe maybe he'll get that one at
Speaker 1: some point in a game this year, and a couple
Speaker 1: of guys we've already mentioned to Keishan Nixon and Pat
Speaker 1: O'donnald Nixon having to step in Alexander leaves the game
Speaker 1: with a groin injury on the opening series of the game.
Speaker 1: So then the rest of the way, Keishaw Nixon has
Speaker 1: to balance being the nickel corner and then also his
Speaker 1: special team's duties. Um, I think, I mean he ended
Speaker 1: up on the field for a total of I believe
Speaker 1: it was more than seventy snap seventy three snaps, more
Speaker 1: than any other player for the Packers when you combine
Speaker 1: his defense and special team snaps. Nixon really really bawled
Speaker 1: out for this team. And then Pat O'Donnell, as Rich
Speaker 1: Bisacchi talked about last week, sort of all the different
Speaker 1: clubs in his bag as a golfer in terms of
Speaker 1: the way, the way he can punt the ball, you know,
Speaker 1: the style of punt where he wants to place it,
Speaker 1: the coverage that the Packers have. The Buccaneers had to
Speaker 1: start so many drives at their twenty or worse, and
Speaker 1: you know, the Packers defense had so much field to defend.
Speaker 1: The one time the Buccaneers did have a short field.
Speaker 1: The Packers defense rose up and stopped him and and
Speaker 1: and made him kick a field goal there in the
Speaker 1: third quarter after Aaron Rodgers through an interception. So just
Speaker 1: so many, so many things about this game for the Packers,
Speaker 1: even with all of the offensive struggles from drive number
Speaker 1: four all the way until the end of the game,
Speaker 1: this was this was a game where all of the
Speaker 1: phases had to do their part and they did just
Speaker 1: enough to get it against a darn good team that
Speaker 1: was was undermanned, just like the Packers were. Green Bay
Speaker 1: was missing receivers. The Buccaneers are missing receivers. The offensive
Speaker 1: line situation, Donovan Smith not playing, the Packers were rotating
Speaker 1: David Baktyari Yashnaiman at left tackle. That was another story
Speaker 1: in this game. But you know, when the Buccaneers are
Speaker 1: back to full strength, just as when the Packers are
Speaker 1: back to full strength, these are two teams that we're
Speaker 1: going to be talking about um at the end of
Speaker 1: this thing. And uh and we'll see maybe if there's
Speaker 1: a rematch on the horizon. Yeah, and and the other
Speaker 1: guy too. I mean, if you want to talk about
Speaker 1: like Keishaan Nixon is an unsung hero, gets his first
Speaker 1: career force fumble. The other guy that I thought was
Speaker 1: like the unsung unsung hero was Jaren Reid. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you look at Kenny Clarke, Kenny Clark had two sacks,
Speaker 1: and Kenny deserve those sacks. What the plays that he's
Speaker 1: created the last two weeks to not have one yet,
Speaker 1: that was a travesty, So it's nice to see him
Speaker 1: get rewarded for that. But on one of those sects
Speaker 1: that that and he had, it was Jared Reid splitting
Speaker 1: a double team in which he was getting held to
Speaker 1: force Brady to come up in the pocket and create
Speaker 1: a sack opportunity and almost got Brady down himself. Brady
Speaker 1: Brady was able to keep his balance enough, which is
Speaker 1: why Clark ends up getting credit for the sack because
Speaker 1: Reid didn't get him on the ground, but Read against
Speaker 1: the double team almost got Brady on the ground by himself.
Speaker 1: So then what ends up happening for him later on
Speaker 1: when Keishaw Nixon gets the force fumble, Read is the
Speaker 1: one that's jumping on the top of it. Kay Walker
Speaker 1: gets the first force fumble earlier in the game. Darn
Speaker 1: Darniell Savage is jumping on it. When you talk about
Speaker 1: total complete team victories, this was what you're discussing because Mike,
Speaker 1: I know there are some people in Insider Inbox this
Speaker 1: week asking about, well, what happened to the offense, what
Speaker 1: happened to the defense late? Why are they back and
Speaker 1: prevent defense? The one thing people need to understand is
Speaker 1: they were not taking on the you know, uh, that
Speaker 1: is a good football team. I don't want to use
Speaker 1: any disparaging language towards any other team right now, but
Speaker 1: it was not You're not facing a low FCS school there.
Speaker 1: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, as you indicated, are going to
Speaker 1: be in this thing. For Green Bay to hold off
Speaker 1: that charge, I thought said a lot, you know, and
Speaker 1: and it just came from so many different areas. David
Speaker 1: Baktre playing thirty five snaps, his biggest workload since tearing
Speaker 1: his a c L year and a half ago, yosh
Speaker 1: Naiman and him agreeing to do the rotation, there's just
Speaker 1: when you look when Matt Lafleur did his post games
Speaker 1: celebration and his speech to his guys, it is one
Speaker 1: of those games which I think are the most rewarding
Speaker 1: ones where you can point to all forty eight guys
Speaker 1: that were up on that roster and see that each
Speaker 1: of one of you have had something to do with
Speaker 1: this thing. Yeah, that was a That was a big one.
Speaker 1: That was a big one for the Packers to get.
Speaker 1: Also in the sense that the way the game started
Speaker 1: and the way the defense played for fifty seven minutes um,
Speaker 1: it would have been such a shame to let that
Speaker 1: one get away. And we all know, we all know
Speaker 1: what that feels like when you just you know it's
Speaker 1: a game that you should win, the way it's unfolding,
Speaker 1: the way you're controlling all three phases of the game,
Speaker 1: as you had talked about. And sometimes in the NFL,
Speaker 1: these games get away from you. I mean, just ask
Speaker 1: the Buffalo Bills who were down in Miami and ran
Speaker 1: ninety offensive plays to Miami's thirty nine and gained four
Speaker 1: hundred and nine seven yards to Miami's two hundred and
Speaker 1: twelve and had eleven third down convergence to Miami's three,
Speaker 1: and the Buffalo Bills lost the football game. And you
Speaker 1: get on that flight home from Florida, coincidentally, and then
Speaker 1: you're sitting there wondering, how in the world did we
Speaker 1: lose that football game, the Packers found a way to
Speaker 1: win it. And and that's that's what it takes in
Speaker 1: this league, especially right now with the Screen Bay team,
Speaker 1: where you're still going through the transition at receiver, you're
Speaker 1: getting trying to get Romeo Dobs more involved. Um had
Speaker 1: no choice but to be more involved because of the
Speaker 1: injuries and the young man came through. You're trying to
Speaker 1: get your offensive line healthy. This defense is now finding
Speaker 1: its legs, establishing itself the unit that we saw in
Speaker 1: training camp against the New Orleans Saints and those two
Speaker 1: joint practices the Packers are. The Packers are getting there.
Speaker 1: And the fact that, yeah, they there's plenty of stuff
Speaker 1: to work on. But the fact that they're getting there
Speaker 1: and there two and one with two of arguably their
Speaker 1: toughest road trips of the year are out of the way,
Speaker 1: now that's a pretty good spot, big picture wise, to
Speaker 1: be in. And I was asked the question insider inbox um,
Speaker 1: which I thought was a really good question, which was,
Speaker 1: you know, other than you know, a week earlier, Matt
Speaker 1: la Floor had talked about if we don't have Elton
Speaker 1: Jenkins back, we don't know if we win this game.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we win this game. Somebody asked
Speaker 1: me that, but they said, you know, if it's not
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers who needed to play for the Packers to
Speaker 1: win this thing, I've said Romeo Dobbs, and I said
Speaker 1: devanre Campbell and Romeo game a lot of credit. As
Speaker 1: you outlined with the game he had. The way he
Speaker 1: started that thing really critical. But that precondition that the
Speaker 1: guy put in there, Rodgers, I thought was really important
Speaker 1: because this is a game where as much that was
Speaker 1: made out of Rogers and Brady this week from the outside,
Speaker 1: it was a game where you needed a quarterback like
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers to handle the situation he was presented. I
Speaker 1: when I when we got done with this whole thing,
Speaker 1: and I'm starting to look back at the highlights on
Speaker 1: video afterwards. I was blown away by how talented Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers and Tom Brady are and I am fully convinced
Speaker 1: if Tom Brady wanted to, he could test fifty because
Speaker 1: of the way he has mastered that position. Mike, I
Speaker 1: watched Sunday Night Football, I watched Monday Night football. Quarterback
Speaker 1: play shouldn't look that effortless in those two guys, especially
Speaker 1: against good defense. Against good defenses. In those two guys
Speaker 1: gave their teams a chance to win, and that's what
Speaker 1: the grades do. That side of it, in kind of
Speaker 1: a knockdown, drag out war is just really something special
Speaker 1: to watch. Yeah, absolutely no question about it. UM a
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Speaker 1: Cousin Subs fifty years of better. All right, I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about what else happened in
Speaker 1: Week three in the NFL, first and foremost being that
Speaker 1: with the Packers beating the Buccaneers, but then also Buffalo
Speaker 1: losing as I mentioned, Kansas City losing on the road
Speaker 1: to Indianapolis, the New York Giants losing at home on
Speaker 1: Monday Night to the Dallas Cowboys. Suddenly there are only
Speaker 1: two undefeated teams after three weeks of the season, and
Speaker 1: that's the Miami Dolphins and the Philadelphia Eagles. Two teams.
Speaker 1: The Packers will play both on the road later this season.
Speaker 1: But here we are West, there's only there's only two
Speaker 1: three and oh teams left to go in the NFC North.
Speaker 1: Three teams are at two and one, with the Packers,
Speaker 1: the Vikings, and the Bears. Following Minnesota's come back went
Speaker 1: over Detroit and Chicago pulling out a walk off field
Speaker 1: goal victory over Lovey Smith and the Houston Texans. I
Speaker 1: want to get your thoughts a little bit on the
Speaker 1: Minnesota Detroit game, because Detroit looked like it had this
Speaker 1: game one a few times. They jumped out fourteen to nothing.
Speaker 1: Minnesota comes back, ties at fourteen all. Then in the
Speaker 1: second half the Lions get ahead, but then they let
Speaker 1: it get away and they lose on a thirty sum
Speaker 1: yard touchdown pass where kJ Osbourne's wide open with like
Speaker 1: thirty seconds left in the game. And uh and the
Speaker 1: Vikings escape at home from a from a Lions team
Speaker 1: that gave them absolutely everything they could handle. That's a
Speaker 1: that's a result that you know, could have some pretty
Speaker 1: big implications here as the as the rest of the
Speaker 1: NFC North season unfolds. But um, Minnesota two and one,
Speaker 1: just like the packers, some bearras. Yep, yeah, and you
Speaker 1: tip your captain Minnesota for winning that type of matchups.
Speaker 1: Certainly having it at their place I think definitely helped
Speaker 1: Detroit is interesting to me. They're probably maybe the most
Speaker 1: interesting team in the NFC right now just because of
Speaker 1: all the things that they have going for themselves. You know,
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, their their first round pick, in
Speaker 1: the impact he's been making early on. It looks like
Speaker 1: Jeff Akuta has put the Achilles injury behind him, the
Speaker 1: slow start behind him. He did a bang up job
Speaker 1: against Justin Jefferson, but ultimately Mike. As many things happened
Speaker 1: in this game, it really told me this the Detroit
Speaker 1: Lions are going to go. As far as DeAndre Swift
Speaker 1: takes them. They are a different offense when he's either
Speaker 1: not available or working through some stuff. Give credit to
Speaker 1: Jamal Williams did a fine job in that game, but
Speaker 1: william Swift is their home run hitter, and they just everything.
Speaker 1: It seems like with Jared Goff changes based on his availability.
Speaker 1: I thought this was one of those matchups, and to
Speaker 1: Minnesota's credit, they had to work through their own issues
Speaker 1: with Dlvin cook Um and they get it, and and
Speaker 1: they were able to get that victory and and certainly,
Speaker 1: uh you know, bounce back after a big letdown in
Speaker 1: week two. Well, a lot of questions in Detroit with
Speaker 1: regard to the decisions at the end of the game
Speaker 1: with the fourth and four when earlier in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter and Dan Campbell had been going forward on fourth
Speaker 1: down all throughout the game. There's a fourth and one
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, the Lions are up by three.
Speaker 1: They pass on a I believe it would have been
Speaker 1: about a forty nine yard field goal, and the kicker
Speaker 1: had missed from forty eight yards earlier in the game.
Speaker 1: They go for it on fourth and one, they don't
Speaker 1: get it. They're presented with a similar situation with just
Speaker 1: over a minute to go. It's fourth and four and
Speaker 1: it's a fifty four yard field goal, with the kicker
Speaker 1: having missed from forty eight earlier in the game. And
Speaker 1: then Campbell, after going forward on fourth down all day long,
Speaker 1: decides to try the fifty four yard field goal. The
Speaker 1: kicker misses it badly. Minnesota then takes over the ball
Speaker 1: at the forty four yard line with great field position
Speaker 1: um and quite frankly, Campbell owned it. Um, you know said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I made made the wrong decision there. I should have
Speaker 1: should have stuck with what, you know, what they've been
Speaker 1: doing throughout the course of the game, which was to
Speaker 1: go for it on fourth down and keep the ball
Speaker 1: in their offenses hands. And unfortunately those You can do
Speaker 1: so much and we almost saw it in the Packers game,
Speaker 1: as I said, the fifty seven minutes with with what
Speaker 1: this defense had done against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: You can do so much right in a football game
Speaker 1: for fifty minutes, for fifty five, for fifty nine and
Speaker 1: a half minutes, and something, you know, a decision, one play,
Speaker 1: a bad bounce, a bad call, something can go something
Speaker 1: can go wrong, and uh and it can cost you
Speaker 1: a victory. And and it's it can be. It can
Speaker 1: be so demoralizing. And yet this league is all about
Speaker 1: how do you pick yourself back up and keep going because,
Speaker 1: as Matt Lafleur likes to say, nobody cares about your adversity. Right,
Speaker 1: everybody's got another game the next week, and you have
Speaker 1: to get ready to go play and try to chuck
Speaker 1: up a w whatever it takes. There's one aspect with
Speaker 1: the Campbell thing that bothered me though, and you and
Speaker 1: I discussed this on the plane ride home. He's right
Speaker 1: about the fifty four yard and about going for it
Speaker 1: on fourth down, but it reminds me. And I don't
Speaker 1: want to say the player because I want to make
Speaker 1: sure I don't miss represent what his words were. But
Speaker 1: I remember about fifteen years ago, I think there was
Speaker 1: a Brewers player that talked maybe ten years ago, talked about,
Speaker 1: you know, his his philosophy at the plate and for
Speaker 1: boiling down and making a long story short. He basically
Speaker 1: surmises to he he basically makes up his mind on
Speaker 1: what he's doing before the pitch even comes. That's kind
Speaker 1: of what this fourth down things sort of felt like
Speaker 1: with me with Campbell. It's like, it's great to have
Speaker 1: confidence in your guys and do all this, but I
Speaker 1: think at some point you need to have a little
Speaker 1: bit of analysis and a little bit of self reflection
Speaker 1: on the situation, because otherwise it isn't that you're necessarily
Speaker 1: being aggressive or a riverboat guy or anything. It's just
Speaker 1: now you're just sort of that's what you are. And
Speaker 1: if you flip a coin enough times or you bet
Speaker 1: on red enough times, it's gonna come out black. So like,
Speaker 1: I think there needs to be some game situation awareness
Speaker 1: in there as well. You respect what he's doing, but
Speaker 1: I think if you flip that coin too many times,
Speaker 1: or you keep you know, betting on that same color,
Speaker 1: it's eventually gonna you know, you're gonna come up with craps.
Speaker 1: And for the Lions, that sort of worked out that
Speaker 1: way well, and and it's it's it's also difficult from
Speaker 1: a leadership standpoint too, because you know those decisions and
Speaker 1: how the game unfolds, and then the decisions you're making
Speaker 1: crunch time. It sends certain messages to your guys, right,
Speaker 1: And what I think is difficult in that spot is
Speaker 1: when you've gone forward on fourth down five times in
Speaker 1: the game, you've converted four out of five. You were
Speaker 1: four out of four until they stopped you on a
Speaker 1: fourth and one. But yet you know you're not a
Speaker 1: hundred percent confident in in your kicker making a fifty
Speaker 1: four yard or and yet at fourth and fourth, then
Speaker 1: suddenly that's the moment, with a minute ten on the
Speaker 1: clock that you tell your offense, Nope, we're going to
Speaker 1: kick at this time. You know, you know, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: That's why that's why these guys get paid the big
Speaker 1: bucks and and uh and they have to answer for it.
Speaker 1: But but here we are West. As I start with
Speaker 1: this review of Week three, three weeks into the NFL season,
Speaker 1: there have been according to a statistic I saw in ESPN,
Speaker 1: there have been eighteen games in the NFL decided by
Speaker 1: three points or fewer, which is the most ever in
Speaker 1: the first three weeks of an NFL season, and only
Speaker 1: two out of thirty two teams are unblemished at this point.
Speaker 1: At at three and O, um buckle up right, this
Speaker 1: is I mean, there are fourteen regular season games left,
Speaker 1: plus the playoffs. This is gonna be some wild ride
Speaker 1: here in the NFL. Exactly, Mike. And there is one
Speaker 1: team that's owin three in the Las Vegas Raiders. And
Speaker 1: when you talk about those close narrow victories or close
Speaker 1: narrow losses in their case, that shows you the margin
Speaker 1: for air. And absolutely Matt Lafleur says it's so much,
Speaker 1: and he jokes about he says it's a cliche, but
Speaker 1: it is not easy to win in this league. Just
Speaker 1: look at the Raiders. Just as easily as the Miami
Speaker 1: Dolphins are three and O, the Raiders are three right,
Speaker 1: that's just the way this thing works. And for the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers, as Aaron Rodgers said after the game,
Speaker 1: to beat two and one after their first three, coming
Speaker 1: back into this home stretch or friendly or stretch, now
Speaker 1: you're feeling pretty good about things. Yeah, no question about it.
Speaker 1: With that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition
Speaker 1: of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our
Speaker 1: coverage of the team on Packers dot com. For West,
Speaker 1: I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody, you See
Speaker 1: you next time.