Speaker 1: Hi, everybody, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
Speaker 1: I am Mike Spofford, sitting alongside my trusted colleague West
Speaker 1: Hodkowits were coming to you here from our studios at
Speaker 1: lambeau Field and West to continue the review of the
Speaker 1: Packers three loss in Detroit on Sunday. We heard from
Speaker 1: Mike McCarthy on Monday at the podium and for all
Speaker 1: to talk about slow starts and this and that. Mike
Speaker 1: McCarthy's really focused on, at least this is what I
Speaker 1: took away from his remarks. He's really focused on two
Speaker 1: things with this team. Handling the football, which includes obviously
Speaker 1: the turnover ratio, but also dropped passes that kind of thing,
Speaker 1: and then penalties. These are the things that Mike McCarthy
Speaker 1: really wants to focus on cleaning up here with his
Speaker 1: football team to get things back on track. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it makes sense too, because I mean, here's another thing too, Mike.
Speaker 1: We talked so much about Tom Brady and Bill Belichick
Speaker 1: and the success the England Patriots have had, but I mean, historically,
Speaker 1: if you look at the Patriots, they're one of the
Speaker 1: least penalized teams in the NFL. As much as it
Speaker 1: is about talent and ability and scheme and and all
Speaker 1: these things, it is it's funny and that it always
Speaker 1: goes back to fundamentals. And I know for fans that
Speaker 1: isn't as you know, attractive as talking about how do
Speaker 1: we dial up more a D R past plays and
Speaker 1: things like that. But the realization is the teams that
Speaker 1: make the fewest mistakes across all, you know, all three
Speaker 1: phases are the ones that are gonna win. And you
Speaker 1: and I discussed it yesterday a little bit and that
Speaker 1: the Packers just had too many of those, whether it
Speaker 1: was on the kickoff return of Montgomery, whether it was
Speaker 1: you know, the taunting penalty on defense, the personal fouls,
Speaker 1: one of which that end up leading to the Packers
Speaker 1: have and you know, they were able to pooch pun
Speaker 1: it and the Packers brought it out and ended up
Speaker 1: only getting to the fifteen yard line. It's small things
Speaker 1: like that that affect the field position battle and field
Speaker 1: position in time of possession. We talked about it over
Speaker 1: and over again, but ultimately, if you want to be
Speaker 1: able to turn the tide in a football game, that's
Speaker 1: how you do it. And the lines were able to
Speaker 1: accomplish that Sunday. Yeah, I think a very disconcerting thing
Speaker 1: about how some of the things unfolded in that game Sunday.
Speaker 1: And obviously, Aaron Rodgers doesn't fumble the ball twice in
Speaker 1: a game very often. He did not have a good
Speaker 1: day handling the ball. Mason Crosby obviously had the worst
Speaker 1: day of his career. But when you look at some
Speaker 1: of those personal files like you mentioned West, there's either
Speaker 1: a lack of discipline emotionally or a lack of discipline
Speaker 1: with technique that leads to those kinds of penalties. And
Speaker 1: fifteen yards is fifteen yards if you if you take
Speaker 1: a touchback on a kickoff and you get the ball
Speaker 1: to twenty five yard line, fifteen yards is twenty five
Speaker 1: or excuse me, of the seventy five yards you need
Speaker 1: to go for a touchdown. That's just making it way
Speaker 1: too easy on the other team. And the Packers had
Speaker 1: the drive, uh or I should say sorry, the Lions
Speaker 1: had the drive where started out with a pass play.
Speaker 1: I believe it was too golden. Tatie gets a first
Speaker 1: down to over thirteen yards, but then a fifteen yard
Speaker 1: face mask penalty is tacked onto it. That's just that's
Speaker 1: technique discipline, because there's no reason to be grabbing a
Speaker 1: face mask when you're trying to tackle an NFL player.
Speaker 1: It just those are the kinds of things that the
Speaker 1: Packers have to clean it up because when you talk
Speaker 1: about self inflicted wounds, they were all over the stat
Speaker 1: sheet in Detroit, Yeah, Mike. And then the other issue
Speaker 1: is to you talk thirteen yards and fifteen yards, that's
Speaker 1: twenty eight yards. That's an explosive play, right to put
Speaker 1: that in comparison for you. I mean they only had
Speaker 1: what was it, four plays over twenty yards total? Packers
Speaker 1: had six. I believe in this contest, Packers actually we're
Speaker 1: able to beat them in a lot of the categories
Speaker 1: that can determine victory. But the Lions got them in
Speaker 1: the artery of of this football game. They got him
Speaker 1: with the turnovers, They got him with the penalties. They
Speaker 1: got them with the being able to capitalize on those
Speaker 1: penalties and capitalize on those turnovers. And it's something you
Speaker 1: have to clean up because I think you go back
Speaker 1: to that game against Buffalo, what did the Packers do
Speaker 1: really well? They played all four quarters and yeah, they
Speaker 1: made some plays along the way, you have to in
Speaker 1: order to win a football game. But they were relatively
Speaker 1: clean in what they were able to do. You can
Speaker 1: talk about what you want to do as far as execution,
Speaker 1: but in terms of there weren't those situations where they
Speaker 1: were hurting themselves. There's just too many of them. And
Speaker 1: you and I stood in that stadium, like we heard
Speaker 1: that crowd. When you have that kind of energy in there,
Speaker 1: all that does it just feeds even more into it. So,
Speaker 1: as you and I discussed yesterday, the San Francisco forty
Speaker 1: niners are going to come in here on Monday night.
Speaker 1: You have to put that behind you because this is
Speaker 1: a big game. Now. You have to learn from what
Speaker 1: you did. You have to protect the football. You have
Speaker 1: to be able to minimize those penalties because if you
Speaker 1: don't do that, then you have a bigger issue going
Speaker 1: to the boy. Yeah. Another thing McCarthy pointed out from
Speaker 1: a statistical standpoint and it and it certainly is a
Speaker 1: reflection of the penalties, especially on special teams, and then
Speaker 1: also the missed field goals. He calculated the Packers were
Speaker 1: somewhere in the neighborhood of three hundred yards behind in
Speaker 1: field position. Total in terms of what they lost to
Speaker 1: the Lions. That's a heck of a lot to have
Speaker 1: to make up. We talked about it yesterday. We just
Speaker 1: when you just look at the average starting field position
Speaker 1: of each team for their number of drives, you multiplied
Speaker 1: by the number of drives. That's how you get a
Speaker 1: statistic like that. And you know, the only time I
Speaker 1: can remember the Packers feeling like they had any field
Speaker 1: position whatsoever was when Prator missed that long field goal
Speaker 1: and the Packers took over on the forty five yard line.
Speaker 1: But the Packers obviously missed multiple field goals which gave
Speaker 1: gave the Lions the ball, you know, at plus thirty
Speaker 1: or you know, on the plus side of the thirty
Speaker 1: yard line, and the two fumbles by Rogers were you know,
Speaker 1: both in Green Bay territory, so they take over in
Speaker 1: positive position there and and it's it just creates such
Speaker 1: a huge mountain to have to climb, and then you
Speaker 1: add you add in the fact that you're playing on
Speaker 1: the old and and all of that. It just it
Speaker 1: feels like we're back to, you know, talking about some
Speaker 1: of the same issues that we're going on with the
Speaker 1: Washington game, where you're digging yourself a big hole. They
Speaker 1: kind of did it in a different way. But um,
Speaker 1: but starting games like this, whatever the reasons are, it's
Speaker 1: it has to stop where these these road games are
Speaker 1: not going to change, right. And the other thing is too,
Speaker 1: is that when you pass the ball fifty two times,
Speaker 1: you run the ball twenty times. When you have offensive plays.
Speaker 1: One of the basic arithmetic of this game is that
Speaker 1: every single play you're exposing the football to summer guard.
Speaker 1: And for the Detroit Lions, I mean you look at it.
Speaker 1: They were able to win the field position battle, which
Speaker 1: means they don't need to stitch together as long a drives,
Speaker 1: which means you don't have to expose the football as much.
Speaker 1: And that's where that all comes into play. And I
Speaker 1: think that's a really good point. When you look at
Speaker 1: three some yards whatever it ended up being, they basically
Speaker 1: got seventeen points given to them in some reguard in
Speaker 1: terms of working with short field position. That's where you're
Speaker 1: getting the big difference. Yeah, alright, Well, a little bit
Speaker 1: of sponsored business here West because I neglected my duty
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Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers. Okay, Another thing that definitely deserves to
Speaker 1: be discussed here that should not be overlooked in terms
Speaker 1: of what's happening with this Packers offense is the start
Speaker 1: through five games that receiver Davante Adams is off to here.
Speaker 1: Not only is he yon pace for significant career highs
Speaker 1: for himself in terms of receptions and yards. And I
Speaker 1: know five games is not sixteen. It's not simple math
Speaker 1: um to to do the projections, and it's a long
Speaker 1: projection when they're still eleven games to go. But if
Speaker 1: he does keep up this pace, there is a Packers
Speaker 1: single season receptions record that has stood for quite a
Speaker 1: while sterling Shark one and twelve. Davante Adams is actually
Speaker 1: on pace to break that eighteen right now. And as
Speaker 1: you said, it is a long season. But what I
Speaker 1: think is interesting is he had what a lot of
Speaker 1: people would consider to be a breakout year in two
Speaker 1: thousand sixteen, and he really doubled up on it again
Speaker 1: before that concussions. At the end of two thousand seventeen,
Speaker 1: Davante Adams is just way above both of his starts
Speaker 1: from both of those seasons fourner and twenty five receiving yards.
Speaker 1: I believe it was somewhere around. I think he was
Speaker 1: two eighty five last year and to fifteen the year
Speaker 1: before that, almost doubling, uh, those amount of plays. And
Speaker 1: and yeah, you and I talked about yesterday. I'm sure
Speaker 1: he wants to have that deep ball back um in
Speaker 1: that game against the Lions. But really, what's what I
Speaker 1: thought as I watched that game is that Davantae Adams
Speaker 1: made a lot of tough catches, made a lot of
Speaker 1: competitive you gotta have them catches where if he doesn't
Speaker 1: come up with it, sure it might have been scored
Speaker 1: as a drop, but I don't know if anybody would
Speaker 1: have been sitting there gone, ah, you know, he should
Speaker 1: have caught that. I mean, there was some real difficult
Speaker 1: ones that caught along the course of that game that
Speaker 1: he was able to come through with. That that play
Speaker 1: in the third quarter the one that stands out to
Speaker 1: me the most, and I forget exactly the down in distance,
Speaker 1: but it was fourth and ten plus and it was
Speaker 1: I believe it was on the opening drive of the
Speaker 1: third quarter of Packers are down twenty four nothing, they've
Speaker 1: got to go for it on fourth down, and quite frankly,
Speaker 1: he wasn't open. Aaron Rodgers put the ball in the
Speaker 1: only possible spot that he could have and Davante Adams
Speaker 1: made an absolutely tremendous catch and to me, able to
Speaker 1: make that play on fourth down to move the chains
Speaker 1: and keep your team alive at that point when you're
Speaker 1: down two to zero, otherwise you're turning it over in
Speaker 1: good field position again for the Lions. I thought it
Speaker 1: was just an incredibly clutch play. And I know Rogers said,
Speaker 1: you know, Adams would say he wishes in the fourth
Speaker 1: quarter he had caught that one down by the goal line.
Speaker 1: But I tell you, if you want to, if you
Speaker 1: want something that's a real treat to watch on film,
Speaker 1: because I did this for my What You Might Have
Speaker 1: Missed segment, which is on the website for anyone who
Speaker 1: wants to check it out, and and Larry McCarron did
Speaker 1: some on video as well. Just watch on some of
Speaker 1: these catches of Adams his footwork at the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 1: He was going against Darius Slay pretty much the whole game,
Speaker 1: and I think Slave might be the best, certainly the
Speaker 1: most accomplished cornerback. I would say, one of the top
Speaker 1: two in the NFC North and maybe in the whole NFC,
Speaker 1: along with Xavier Rhodes from Minnesota. This is a this
Speaker 1: is a really really good player. They call him big
Speaker 1: play Slave for a reason. The Lions lean on him
Speaker 1: a lot and uh and for the number of times
Speaker 1: that Adams was able to win that battle and get
Speaker 1: separation with his footwork, it really is something to watch
Speaker 1: on film. Yeah, what stands out to me too, Mike,
Speaker 1: And this is not to take anything away from Kenny Golladay.
Speaker 1: He had a really fine day, but he had four
Speaker 1: catches for yards. Sixty of those came off that one
Speaker 1: played on the sideline. Davante Adams was absolutely surgical in
Speaker 1: this game. His longest reception was thirty yards and the
Speaker 1: average fifteen point six per catch in this contest. What
Speaker 1: does that tell you? That tells you that when he
Speaker 1: was getting the football in his hands. It wasn't is
Speaker 1: these short out roads and he's getting out of bounds
Speaker 1: or a stop ro for eight yards. He was getting
Speaker 1: the ball and he was running after catch. Now I
Speaker 1: don't know exactly what the final total ended up being,
Speaker 1: but one of the adjustments the Packers made, and he
Speaker 1: talked about it after the game. Without having Randall CoV
Speaker 1: in this game, without having Druny Ellison, they moved him
Speaker 1: around a lot. He was working a lot of the slot.
Speaker 1: He did a lot of the underneath concepts doing you know,
Speaker 1: being able to work some slants, and he was producing
Speaker 1: off those slants. And certainly the third yard catch that
Speaker 1: was a big one at a big point in the game.
Speaker 1: I think it was third and seven. Packers were not
Speaker 1: able to convert into points, I believe, but he really
Speaker 1: was able to keep pushing and powering the offense forward.
Speaker 1: I think when you look at the second half specifically
Speaker 1: with then being able to get on those drives, a
Speaker 1: lot of those started with an early catch and run
Speaker 1: from Davante Adams, And yeah, he's he's at the peak
Speaker 1: of his powers. He's twenty five years young at this point,
Speaker 1: he's going to be making a difference in this league
Speaker 1: for a long time. And I know for him, he
Speaker 1: probably wasn't gonna be thinking about receptions, records or things
Speaker 1: like that. But if everything stays how it should, I
Speaker 1: think you're looking at the guy who not only is
Speaker 1: gonna be looking at that for es thousand yard season,
Speaker 1: but looking at getting that respect that everybody in Green
Speaker 1: Bay feels like he deserves because he is one of
Speaker 1: the top ten receivers in this league. Now, yeah, not that,
Speaker 1: not that we had any questions about it, but certainly
Speaker 1: living up to the new contract that he no no
Speaker 1: issues there whatsoever, showing uh, he's a true professional with
Speaker 1: his arrows still pointing up. Because you said he's at
Speaker 1: the peak of his powers and there might be another
Speaker 1: peak yet for him to reach. And you know, I
Speaker 1: was talking to him. We've mentioned this a few times
Speaker 1: now with the offseason story that I did with that
Speaker 1: was in the Packers yearbook. One of the things he
Speaker 1: said is there's no complacency with him. There's guys that
Speaker 1: they get contracts and they want to be on television,
Speaker 1: They want to be you know, they want to have
Speaker 1: their brand out there. They want to sell you know, cologne.
Speaker 1: I add that in myself. But I mean, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. They they go and want to become
Speaker 1: their own business. He is all about football. Football is
Speaker 1: his business. This is a thing that he wants to perfect,
Speaker 1: that he wants to show that he can be the
Speaker 1: best at this thing. And I've just been really impressed
Speaker 1: with the start he's gotten off to and how consistent
Speaker 1: he's been because he has four receiving yards. But other
Speaker 1: than this, it's just been one consistent performance after another.
Speaker 1: It hasn't had any of those you know valleys yet.
Speaker 1: So speak al right, Well, another bit of sponsor business
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Speaker 1: go here, a couple of other milestone type of items
Speaker 1: to talk about. Aaron Rodgers past forty passing yards on Sunday,
Speaker 1: and if I read things correctly, in terms of the
Speaker 1: number of games played in the NFL, he was the
Speaker 1: fourth fastest to do it. Now, if you combine forty
Speaker 1: yards with three touchdowns, he is the fastest. He got
Speaker 1: to three hundred touchdowns. I believe it was in Yeah,
Speaker 1: he got to three hundred touchdowns, way faster than anybody else,
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't even close. Um, But it's interesting now
Speaker 1: as we just saw Drew Brees on Monday Night Football
Speaker 1: break the all time passing yardage record and he now
Speaker 1: sits at number one. Aaron Rodgers, within the next week
Speaker 1: or two has a chance to pass guys like Johnny
Speaker 1: Unitus and Joe Montana on that list. And I know
Speaker 1: that's not what Aaron Rodgers is thinking about. It's not
Speaker 1: what the packers are thinking about. They're thinking about getting
Speaker 1: a victory, trying to get healthy over the by and
Speaker 1: and get things going here into the meat of the schedule.
Speaker 1: But if you just step back for a second and
Speaker 1: you start talking about names like Uniteds in Montana, and
Speaker 1: you look at what Drew Brees has done and the
Speaker 1: yardage that he's put up. Um, it's a pretty special
Speaker 1: time to be watching what these quarterbacks can do in
Speaker 1: the NFL. Yeah, it is Mike because he's still got
Speaker 1: Tom Brady playing at a high level at forty one
Speaker 1: years young. Certainly, Ben Roethlisberger, what he's accomplished in this game,
Speaker 1: the points that he puts up every single week. And
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers, to me, still is in the league of
Speaker 1: his own in terms of the total package of the position.
Speaker 1: We have a guy that can scramble, he can extend plays,
Speaker 1: he has a bullet for an arm. There's just so
Speaker 1: many things that he does exceptionally well that I don't
Speaker 1: think this league has seen before in terms of having
Speaker 1: them all together as a single attribute. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: really do appreciate this time. And I'm sure there's gonna
Speaker 1: be the Carson Wentzes and you know, Jared Goffs in
Speaker 1: the next generation that will eventually, you know, take that
Speaker 1: torch and and really run with it. But this, in
Speaker 1: a way, the Breeze, Rodgers, Roethlisberger, Brady, when Manning was
Speaker 1: still here, that quarterback club, I think it stood, it
Speaker 1: stood the test of time in what they were asked
Speaker 1: to do. And this is not taken anything away from
Speaker 1: the Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Brett Farve done Marino era.
Speaker 1: But there's just so many more things that are on
Speaker 1: the quarterback now today than ever before, and for them
Speaker 1: to actually play at that level really impressive. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: funny when I think about and watching Drew Brees set
Speaker 1: the record on Monday Night football. The Saints now four
Speaker 1: straight wins after the week one lost their four and one,
Speaker 1: they're certainly looking like the team that's right up there
Speaker 1: with the Los Angeles Rams in terms of announcing themselves
Speaker 1: as a as a team to beat in the NFC.
Speaker 1: But in watching in watching Breezes like I still remember
Speaker 1: my first newspaper job, wassa daily Harold got off work,
Speaker 1: was at a was was at a bar on a
Speaker 1: Saturday night watching Wisconsin against Purdue at Camp Randall Stadium.
Speaker 1: And that's the game that Drew Brees had eighty one
Speaker 1: pass attempts is at the n C a record for
Speaker 1: past attempts in one game. And I remember sitting there thinking,
Speaker 1: what is this guy gonna do in the NFL when
Speaker 1: he gets there? And low and bold, here we are
Speaker 1: twenty years later or whatever it is. And uh, and
Speaker 1: he's throwing for more yards than anybody in the history
Speaker 1: of the game. The cradle quarterbacks, right, I mean he
Speaker 1: was the ultimate baby that came out of that program,
Speaker 1: a little boiler baby. Yeah, but no. But that being said, Mike, Uh,
Speaker 1: it is incredible what he's becoming. For my money, I
Speaker 1: think you can go with either him or Reggie White.
Speaker 1: I think they're one or two one A one B
Speaker 1: as far as the greatest free agent signings of all
Speaker 1: time when you look at not only what he meant
Speaker 1: in terms of winning football and sat in with the
Speaker 1: Saints and in New Orleans, but what he meant to
Speaker 1: that community after Hurricane Katrina, them winning that Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: how he's been really the focal point. And the other
Speaker 1: thing is too. Just from a pure football fan aspect,
Speaker 1: it's great to see him have a resurgence here because
Speaker 1: there were some years where they were seven and nine
Speaker 1: and things weren't looking so good. The football league is
Speaker 1: better when the New Orleans Saints are able to put
Speaker 1: some points on the board and able to throw the
Speaker 1: football around, and it's made for some really compelling football
Speaker 1: here early on. And it's gonna be fun to see
Speaker 1: where it goes from here. But the nice thing is
Speaker 1: to Aaron Rodgers at thirty four. You know, he's certainly
Speaker 1: is going to have his sights on a lot of
Speaker 1: those records too. Sometime in the future. It'll be interesting
Speaker 1: to see where Brees and Brady and some of those
Speaker 1: guys put them. Yeah, and the the officials on Monday
Speaker 1: Night Football still couldn't help but penalize the Saints for
Speaker 1: excessive celebration after Drew Brees sets the record with a
Speaker 1: sixty two yard touchdown pass. But whatever, that's just how
Speaker 1: it goes though, right it is there had to be
Speaker 1: something it probably fitting. That's as fitting as it gets
Speaker 1: in the NFL. But with that, we'll call it a
Speaker 1: wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted and I will
Speaker 1: turn over the sign off today to you. Well, thank you, Michael.
Speaker 1: You're a true pro and Mike Spofford does this better
Speaker 1: than anybody. But I wanted to mention one quick thing.
Speaker 1: We've been doing this now for what three and twenty
Speaker 1: six episodes? Thing something like that. Um, first one, we're
Speaker 1: not having our biggest fan watching us, and that's my grandmother,
Speaker 1: Monica hot Cave. Make sure I get the name right.
Speaker 1: I always I always get this, um my number one
Speaker 1: supporter through all these years. And it was actually funny
Speaker 1: turned over a box to my dad last month that
Speaker 1: I was given yesterday that actually had all my clippings
Speaker 1: from the Press Gazette during my ten years at the
Speaker 1: Press Gazette. She passed away, worked all the way up
Speaker 1: to her her final day on this planet. Google's cheese Shop.
Speaker 1: Lena Wisconsin. UM and an amazing person. Everything that I
Speaker 1: have in this world I think for her and um.
Speaker 1: She was also Aaron Rodgers biggest fan too. I gotta
Speaker 1: throw that in. I always got the update on Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: But a phenomenal woman. We're gonna miss her, but fortunately
Speaker 1: now she has the best seat for this show going forward.
Speaker 1: Sounds good. With that, we will sign off. Thanks for watching, everybody,
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time.