Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
Speaker 1: by my partner in crime, Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to
Speaker 1: you here from our studios at lambeau Field to discuss, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: Wes a thirty one to twenty nine loss at the
Speaker 1: hands of the Minnesota Vikings last Sunday. And I'm just
Speaker 1: going to start by saying this. This is my nineteenth
Speaker 1: season covering Thepackers for Packers dot Com, and my days
Speaker 1: of covering Packers games extends back mid nineties, late nineties,
Speaker 1: early two thousands before I got here. That game, if
Speaker 1: it's not the most bizarre football game I have seen,
Speaker 1: it definitely ranks up there. That was just a weird
Speaker 1: football game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've definitely put it in my top five. The
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen Matt Flynn replacing Scott Tolzene and then them
Speaker 2: tying the Vikings is pretty high on my list.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was that one was theizar for sure.
Speaker 2: And then two weeks later Matt Flynn leading a twenty
Speaker 2: three point a halftime comeback was kind of weird. On
Speaker 2: the road, No lo on the road and then obviously
Speaker 2: for me it's the Hail Mary game in Detroit. Those
Speaker 2: are like the Krem Dala Krem. This is right underneath
Speaker 2: that in terms of just the peculiarity of it. I mean,
Speaker 2: like I it was one of those games too, that
Speaker 2: the game got over with and I'm standing there waiting
Speaker 2: to get in the locker room. You go to the
Speaker 2: auditorium for Matt and Jordan's pressers, I'm standing outside getting
Speaker 2: my notes together for the availability, and I'm like, I
Speaker 2: didn't know how to make heads or tails of that game, because, Okay,
Speaker 2: it could have went one of two ways here. The
Speaker 2: Packers could have won, which was completely on the table
Speaker 2: in the second half, yes, and they also could have
Speaker 2: gotten completely blown out when they were down twenty eight
Speaker 2: to nothing, it seemed like nothing could go right. It
Speaker 2: ends up being a thirty one twenty nine game, which
Speaker 2: is just sort of the weirdest outcome possible in a
Speaker 2: game in which the Packers had real chances to win
Speaker 2: late in the fourth quarters. But all that put together,
Speaker 2: I looked at it this way as I laid my
Speaker 2: head down to go to bed on Sunday night, I'm like,
Speaker 2: if you were ever gonna have a quote unquote I'm
Speaker 2: not calling at this because I know fans will go nuts,
Speaker 2: but that preseason type game, allowing Jordan Love just to
Speaker 2: get into a rhythm and find himself a little bit
Speaker 2: and just get the throws out and get the rust off,
Speaker 2: that was kind of it. Yeah, he found Jayden Reid.
Speaker 2: He had some really nice throws to Dontavian Wicks. The
Speaker 2: defense did some good things. It wasn't good enough to win,
Speaker 2: and the Packers have a vast amount of corrections to make.
Speaker 2: But by and large, I left that game for as
Speaker 2: bad as I felt about it prior to Daniel Wheeland's
Speaker 2: punt in the second quarter. Yeah, I walked out of
Speaker 2: that game being like, all right, these guys are gonna
Speaker 2: be fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, That's the thing is is up until the Vikings
Speaker 1: gave the Packers that gift with the muff punt late
Speaker 1: in the first half that allowed for the Packers to
Speaker 1: get a touchdown before halftime and to stay at least
Speaker 1: within shouting distance of the Vikings going into the third quarter.
Speaker 1: Up until that point, at with a twenty eight to
Speaker 1: nothing score, there was just absolutely nothing that went right
Speaker 1: for Green Bay. The defense gave up the three consecutive
Speaker 1: touchdowns on Minnesota's first three possessions, and that included, you know,
Speaker 1: allowing a third and fourteen on the opening drive after
Speaker 1: a potential interception was dropped, then on the next two
Speaker 1: touchdown drives, if the Packers defense even got them in
Speaker 1: third down, it might have been third and one or
Speaker 1: third and two. They never even felt like they had
Speaker 1: a legitimate chance to get off the field offensively. The
Speaker 1: first four possessions in whatever order result in two missed
Speaker 1: field goals and two interceptions, so it really doesn't get
Speaker 1: too much worse than that, and the second interception then
Speaker 1: sets up Minnesota's fourth touchdown with a short field. They
Speaker 1: punch it in twenty eight to zero. It was just
Speaker 1: a case of, you know, if something could go wrong,
Speaker 1: it did, and then, as this crazy NFL works from
Speaker 1: that point, suddenly, with roughly ten minutes left in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, the score is twenty eight to twenty two.
Speaker 1: The Lambeau crowd is into it, and the Packers have
Speaker 1: a legitimate chance to pull off what would have been
Speaker 1: the biggest comeback in franchise history, which is twenty three points.
Speaker 1: It's been done twice, a comeback from twenty eight points,
Speaker 1: but the Vikings settled things down. They did what they
Speaker 1: needed to do. The Packers then reverted to making mistakes
Speaker 1: a couple of more turnovers in the fourth quarter when
Speaker 1: the game was still within reach. It's hard to make
Speaker 1: head or tail of it, but I'm with you in that.
Speaker 1: For as awful as things were for pretty much the
Speaker 1: entire first half, you left that game saying, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: it's a tough loss. It stinks, there's all kinds of
Speaker 1: stuff to work on. The Packers are going to be okay.
Speaker 1: Here was This was not just a complete and total
Speaker 1: utter collapse against a division rival. They stood up, they
Speaker 1: fought back, They gave themselves a chance. It didn't work out,
Speaker 1: and Minnesota is sitting on top of the NFC North
Speaker 1: at four and oh the only undefeated team in the
Speaker 1: nf sound right now. The only other undefeated team in
Speaker 1: the league is the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Speaker 1: But it's you know, it's pretty simple to just say,
Speaker 1: all right, you know, you get back to work, get
Speaker 1: your work done, get on the plane, go to LA
Speaker 1: and try to chalk up win number three. That's all
Speaker 1: this week is about.
Speaker 2: That's what it is. It's trying to correct what you
Speaker 2: need to correct. The Packers are one month into this thing,
Speaker 2: I wrote Insider inbox, they're two and two. They're sitting
Speaker 2: in the same boat they were last year. But this
Speaker 2: team is much better than they were three hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty five days ago. The offense is more explosive. Jordan
Speaker 2: Love is so much more confident, albeit somewhat hobbled with
Speaker 2: this knee going into this game. And then defensively, I
Speaker 2: think there's been some real bright spots. I mean, it
Speaker 2: was not an encouraging start. Sam Darnold was way too comfortable.
Speaker 2: They had way too much success. But you know, whether
Speaker 2: it was you know what you might have missed or
Speaker 2: some of the other you know, different types of film
Speaker 2: review stuff that's out there, I mean, you give credit
Speaker 2: to what Kevin O'Connell did. I mean they did a
Speaker 2: lot structurally with their offensive linement, a lot with their
Speaker 2: overall philosophy of offense to be able to get into
Speaker 2: that rhythm that they did early on. It wasn't just
Speaker 2: like okay, there was breakdown after breakdown. It was a
Speaker 2: dropped interception that could have shifted tied with isamh McDuffie absolutely,
Speaker 2: it was Naylor. I believe it was leaking out on
Speaker 2: third and fourteen and being able to get the first down,
Speaker 2: and then after that, it just seemed like the Packers
Speaker 2: couldn't catch a break there for about the next twenty
Speaker 2: five minutes. Yea, once they did, once they slowed things down,
Speaker 2: you started to see the team that we saw in Nashville.
Speaker 2: The problem is is that when you're playing from behind
Speaker 2: like that, you have to take more chances with the football.
Speaker 2: You're not going to run the ball as the way
Speaker 2: you want to. And in Tucker Crawt trying to make
Speaker 2: a play ends of fumbling, you know, with a really
Speaker 2: nice play by Byron Murphins Jr. That's that's the that's
Speaker 2: the precarious position you're in when you're playing from behind.
Speaker 2: And the Packers just weren't. They set themselves so far
Speaker 2: back from the cart it was hard getting that thing
Speaker 2: reattached to pull out a victory.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean a few thoughts defensively.
Speaker 2: One.
Speaker 1: The Packers were in a tough spot going in when
Speaker 1: they found out on Friday that jy R. Alexander couldn't
Speaker 1: practice groin injury was added to the injury report. He
Speaker 1: was already on the report with a quad injury, but
Speaker 1: he had been limited in practice. Then the groin pops up.
Speaker 1: Lafleur actually then said after the game it happened during
Speaker 1: Thursday's practice. He wasn't able to practice on Friday, he
Speaker 1: was out for the game. Carrington Valentine was also out.
Speaker 1: So the Packers are going into this game when you've
Speaker 1: got Justin Jefferson on the other side, and two of
Speaker 1: your top four cornerbacks are on the sideline. The only
Speaker 1: the two of your top four who are available are
Speaker 1: Eric Stokes and Keishawn Nixon. Nixon being mostly a slot guy,
Speaker 1: but then he gets playing you know, some boundary corner.
Speaker 1: And I think that the situation in the secondary and
Speaker 1: the fact that Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison are pretty
Speaker 1: darn good pair of receivers, I think that influenced jeff
Speaker 1: Halfley trying to stick with the foreman rush. He didn't
Speaker 1: want to really come after Darnald and make from a
Speaker 1: numbers perspective, the secondary and the coverage that much more vulnerable,
Speaker 1: and the fore man rush just couldn't get there. This is,
Speaker 1: to me, this is an example of the once you
Speaker 1: get into a season there are things that are on
Speaker 1: tape and other teams are going to be prepared.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: We have seen through the first three weeks of the
Speaker 1: season the Packers' defensive front four, and they've had a
Speaker 1: good rotation using lots of different guys. But whoever's been
Speaker 1: out there, they've been when they do a straight foreman rush,
Speaker 1: they've been doing a lot of stunts, a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, guys cutting inside, trying to
Speaker 1: essentially run like a pick play type of thing within
Speaker 1: the defensive line to freeze somebody up. And the Vikings
Speaker 1: just looked like they were prepared for every single one
Speaker 1: of those that the Packers tried to run with the
Speaker 1: fore men rush. They were picking everything up, they were
Speaker 1: executing their pass protection, and the Packers only really were
Speaker 1: able to harass Darnold a couple of times in the
Speaker 1: second half when they did bring the extra pressure. So
Speaker 1: Packers were kind of behind the eight ball defensively with
Speaker 1: the laid injury to Alexander and then things with what
Speaker 1: they were planning just didn't really work out and the
Speaker 1: snowball started running downhill. That said, Xavier McKinney keeps points
Speaker 1: off the board with his fourth interception in four games.
Speaker 1: Kuway Walker comes on a blitz and gets a thirteen
Speaker 1: yard sack that leads to that leads to a punt
Speaker 1: for the Vikings, and Keyshawn Nixon comes off the slot
Speaker 1: on the blind side. The Vikings don't pick it up.
Speaker 1: You get the sack fumble and that's you know, leads
Speaker 1: to a touchdown that gets the Packers back into the game.
Speaker 1: So the defense made some big plays, but the Vikings
Speaker 1: were just in command for so long and building that
Speaker 1: twenty eight point lead that the way everything ultimately ultimately unfolded,
Speaker 1: it was too little, too late.
Speaker 2: A couple things stood out to me when I was
Speaker 2: reviewing this game. One, they were not gonna let Kenny
Speaker 2: Clark wreck this game for them. The amount of help
Speaker 2: that they gave Garrett Bradberry, the amount of help and
Speaker 2: chipping they did on the edges. You have to make
Speaker 2: a play. I'm not saying you don't. I mean defensive linemen,
Speaker 2: defensive edge rushers. You still have to find a way
Speaker 2: to generate pressure to create opportunities for yourself. But the
Speaker 2: thing about you talk about the Packers and how they
Speaker 2: have to adjust to having Justin Jefferson out there in
Speaker 2: Jordan Addison, the benefit for the Minnesota Vikings is when
Speaker 2: you have weapons like that that people have to pay
Speaker 2: so much attention to, there's things you can do in
Speaker 2: your offensive front to be able to compensate for that.
Speaker 2: Green Bay eventually did start to find answers in the
Speaker 2: second half. This is something I brought up on Twitter.
Speaker 2: Some people had mentioned to me. This is something that
Speaker 2: Sean McVay has been doing in LA. I have not
Speaker 2: been privy to it, but this idea of basically lining
Speaker 2: up your running back a yard in front of your
Speaker 2: quarterback and shotgun. That's a thing to kind of take
Speaker 2: away the eight gap blitzes and some of the pressure inside.
Speaker 2: But then Jeff Haffley had the right call to defend
Speaker 2: against that when he sent Keyshawn Nixon on that blitz
Speaker 2: right off the edge, right off the strong side edge,
Speaker 2: and it leads to a big play. They started to
Speaker 2: find the answers. I think kay Walker this game was
Speaker 2: a perfect embodiment of the type of player Kway Walker
Speaker 2: can be in this defense when used appropriately. Edgeran Cooper
Speaker 2: gets a fumble recovery off of the Keyshawn Nixon play.
Speaker 2: There were a lot of positives to show to. But again,
Speaker 2: when you fall behind twenty to nothing, there's certain things
Speaker 2: that are going to go against you. The Packers ran
Speaker 2: seventy six offensive plays in this game. They actually ended
Speaker 2: up dominating tom of possession like I talked about, but
Speaker 2: it's because of the interceptions, it's because of the turnovers.
Speaker 2: The Packers can clean some of those things up. If
Speaker 2: they can avoid five penalties in the first quarter. There
Speaker 2: are opportunities here for them to really become a very
Speaker 2: good football team.
Speaker 1: Hopefully.
Speaker 2: Jordan Love being back in the lineup, getting his comfort level,
Speaker 2: getting his timing back with his receivers as of help.
Speaker 2: But as we saw, Mike, don you know, whether it's
Speaker 2: Christian Watson getting injured or DeVante Wyat going down with
Speaker 2: the ankle, there's still going to be adversity that Green
Speaker 2: Bay is going to have to respond to and and
Speaker 2: seeing how guys step up to that, it's going to
Speaker 2: be the real challenge.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was an interesting game for Jordan Love. He's
Speaker 1: he comes back after missing two games with the knee injury.
Speaker 1: He's playing with the brace on his left knee, and
Speaker 1: you could see in the early going, and he admitted
Speaker 1: it himself his accuracy was a little bit off. The
Speaker 1: throws were not quite there. Some of them were still catchable.
Speaker 1: The passes could have been better, the catches still could
Speaker 1: have been made. And the packers were you know, they
Speaker 1: were were struggling there stalling out. Vikings made My Vikings
Speaker 1: made a really good play the middle. The middle linebacker
Speaker 1: made a really good play on the first interception, you
Speaker 1: know where he basically read Love's eyes, and instead of
Speaker 1: staying with the tight end who was running the deep
Speaker 1: the deep scene kind of the go down the middle,
Speaker 1: who was supposed to clear out that middle linebacker, he
Speaker 1: stayed home because he saw that Love was going to
Speaker 1: try to go to Christian Watson there. Unfortunately, then Watson
Speaker 1: gets hurt on that play, and he's going to be
Speaker 1: out for at least a little while here. The second
Speaker 1: interception for Love, I thought was I mean, it was
Speaker 1: bad luck. It was bad luck for Love. The route
Speaker 1: combination wasn't run quite right, and so then Musgrave didn't
Speaker 1: realize the throw wasn't intended for him, It was intended
Speaker 1: for Dobbs behind him. It ends up getting deflected twice
Speaker 1: and then picked off. But then Love started to settle
Speaker 1: down the accuracy started to come around. They're moving the
Speaker 1: ball and getting some things done. But then he almost
Speaker 1: starts feeling it a little bit too much. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: then when it's thirty one to twenty two, about six
Speaker 1: minutes to go, and it's a first down, and he
Speaker 1: responds to the blitz off the edge by Harrison Smith
Speaker 1: by trying to take the shot deep down the field
Speaker 1: one on one for Wis against Murphy, and Wicks really
Speaker 1: had no chance to catch that ball. So you know,
Speaker 1: like I say, almost almost feeling a little bit too good,
Speaker 1: tries to make too much of a hero play, and
Speaker 1: that towards the comeback effort. In the end, it was
Speaker 1: it was a little bit of everything game. I mean,
Speaker 1: Jordan Love set career highs across the board completions, attempts,
Speaker 1: the three hundred and eighty nine yards, the four touchdowns,
Speaker 1: also tied his career high with three interceptions, so kind
Speaker 1: of all over the board there. The best news about
Speaker 1: it is that is that one from a health standpoint,
Speaker 1: he looked better as the game went up, and he
Speaker 1: looked like he settled in and from everything that we've heard,
Speaker 1: other than the knee being sore, which is to be expected,
Speaker 1: He did take a hit on the one scramble in
Speaker 1: the second quarter, but health wise, he came out of
Speaker 1: it no worse for wear, and he should be able
Speaker 1: to practice the requisite amount of reps this week to
Speaker 1: get ready to play the Rams, and hopefully, you know,
Speaker 1: just having this first game dealing with you know, how
Speaker 1: to play with the knee, dealing with it, managing it
Speaker 1: the way he needs to manage it throughout the course
Speaker 1: of the game. He's now been through that and now
Speaker 1: it's just all I was looking forward, Yeah.
Speaker 2: And it's just getting back into where he was at
Speaker 2: the end of last season. And certainly I thought that
Speaker 2: was one of the brilliant things about what Jordan Love
Speaker 2: did in that second half. We talked so much about
Speaker 2: how impressive his numbers were and how well he played
Speaker 2: during that, but he played a lot of that without
Speaker 2: Christian Watson. He played a lot with it with some
Speaker 2: injuries up front, and he still was the catalyst. He
Speaker 2: was the constant. He was the guy that drove this offense.
Speaker 2: That's where they need to get back to now, especially
Speaker 2: if they're not going to have Watson for however amount
Speaker 2: of time, especially if there's certain things, you know, Tucker
Speaker 2: Craft has kind of been battling through a shoulder injury
Speaker 2: when when the Chips were down last year, Jordan Love
Speaker 2: was the one that was pulling everybody together. And to
Speaker 2: have him back, I think you felt the energy with that.
Speaker 2: Craft even mentioned just hearing him in the huddle Kite
Speaker 2: gave them just a little bit more confidence knowing that
Speaker 2: the field general is back out there. And I thought,
Speaker 2: more importantly for me, it was just that second half
Speaker 2: just seeing Jordan Love look like himself again. And you're right,
Speaker 2: he probably felt it a little bit too much at times,
Speaker 2: but seeing him hopping, seeing him looking downfield, see him
Speaker 2: having that confidence, standing tall in the pocket, that's vintage
Speaker 2: Jordan Love. That's who this quarterback is, you know. And
Speaker 2: now seeing where they can bring this thing. I mean,
Speaker 2: they lost to a very good Minnesota Vikings team. Now
Speaker 2: they're going to be taking on and we'll previewed on Thursday,
Speaker 2: but they're gonna be taking on an LA Rams team
Speaker 2: that is one very narrow win over the forty nine
Speaker 2: ers away from being oh to four. They're gonna be
Speaker 2: facing an Arizona Cardinals team in their own house here
Speaker 2: that has showed a lot of promise and explosivity with
Speaker 2: their offense, but still is one in three and having
Speaker 2: some stuff to come back from. So they got two
Speaker 2: wins against the AFC, they got two losses against the NFC.
Speaker 2: They're zero to one and what potentially could be the
Speaker 2: best division in football this year. This is where you
Speaker 2: need to be able to take what you did wrong,
Speaker 2: shore up some of those details, and now become the
Speaker 2: team and get together with these wins they ended up
Speaker 2: getting late last season, but probably would have been a
Speaker 2: little bit easier on them if they could have gotten
Speaker 2: that together in October and November.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and you know, I want to just touch
Speaker 1: on this as well, because it's it's representative of kind
Speaker 1: of how this game went. Aaron Jones makes his return
Speaker 1: to lambeau Field. Twenty two carries for ninety three yards,
Speaker 1: a pretty productive day. Doesn't get a touchdown, does you know,
Speaker 1: his lambeau leap with some Viking fans after the game
Speaker 1: is over. But those those twenty two carries, eight of them,
Speaker 1: eight of the twenty two. The Packers held Jones to
Speaker 1: one game or less zero or negative yardage the other
Speaker 1: he got the essentially got the ninety three yards on
Speaker 1: the other fourteen carries because there weren't a whole lot
Speaker 1: of three and four yard runs. It was either zero
Speaker 1: or one or he was busting out for twelve or fourteen.
Speaker 1: So the whole feast or famine nature of the way
Speaker 1: the Packers played run defense in this game was kind
Speaker 1: of a microcosm of how everything went on all on
Speaker 1: all sides of the ball here. And you know, you
Speaker 1: don't want to have you don't want to be riding
Speaker 1: that roller coaster and whatnot. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: there's plenty, there's plenty to look at to correct, but
Speaker 1: there's also plenty out there that shows the Packers, all right, yeah,
Speaker 1: we can do this. We just have to just have
Speaker 1: to do it more consistently and do it more often.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what you have to try to
Speaker 1: hang your hat on moving forward.
Speaker 2: Air Zones won the football game, so that's that's paramount.
Speaker 2: But he didn't beat the Packers, and that was the
Speaker 2: goal of this thing. Andy Clark even said it when
Speaker 2: I was talking to him afterwards in locker room. He
Speaker 2: was almost kind of surprising how much they got away
Speaker 2: from the screen game. They had some success with that
Speaker 2: early and then that went away so when you were
Speaker 2: talking about adjustments and all that, can even said, He's like,
Speaker 2: you know, it's not like there was that many adjustments.
Speaker 2: We defended the run pretty well. It was sort of
Speaker 2: those screens that he was leaking out on early that
Speaker 2: we were kind of having a hard time adjusting to,
Speaker 2: and then the vikings just stopped. So for him to
Speaker 2: go out of this game with a seventeen yard long
Speaker 2: carrying four point two yards per carry, that's not why
Speaker 2: the Packers lost this game. They lost it because they
Speaker 2: got off to a very slow start and when they
Speaker 2: needed that stop in the fourth quarter, they couldn't get it.
Speaker 2: And again, I will say this one last time, because
Speaker 2: you've had to read this in my inboxes a couple
Speaker 2: times now. I give Kevin O'Connell a lot of credit
Speaker 2: for how he handled that fourth quarter. Yep, there's a
Speaker 2: lot of people, maybe even myself included, that would have
Speaker 2: tucked tail and started running two yards into a brick
Speaker 2: wall to protect the lead and to drain the clock.
Speaker 2: He said, no, Sam Donald made a mistake. We're gonna
Speaker 2: come out. We're gonna throw this thing. I have justin
Speaker 2: Jefferson on my sideline. You're gonna get the ball to
Speaker 2: our playmakers, and they shot downfield and got the three
Speaker 2: points they needed ultimately to put this thing out of reach.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the bottom line is the Vikings are paying Justin
Speaker 1: Jefferson thirty five million dollars and when the game and
Speaker 1: when the game was on the line, even though they
Speaker 1: had a lead, they could have milked the clock. It
Speaker 1: was like, No, our thirty five million dollar man is
Speaker 1: the guy who's gonna win this game, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: We're gonna go to him. That's what we're paying him for.
Speaker 1: And O'Connell just stayed aggressive, kept dialing it up and
Speaker 1: they were able to at the twenty eight to twenty
Speaker 1: two point, they were able to drive it down the
Speaker 1: field mostly thanks to Jefferson, and get the field goal
Speaker 1: that made it a two score game again. And then
Speaker 1: the Packers were really playing uphill.
Speaker 2: And it's one month. There's a lot of time to go.
Speaker 2: But I mean, Sam Donald is making himself a lot
Speaker 2: of money with the way he's playing right now. I
Speaker 2: think Sam Donald is proving I go back to that
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen draft and Sam Donald was my guy. That
Speaker 2: was the one I thought when everyone was talking about
Speaker 2: who are these five quarterbacks who could be the franchise guy.
Speaker 2: I thought Sam Donald was the number one overall pick personally,
Speaker 2: and it did not go well with the Jets. It
Speaker 2: went even worse with the Panthers. And as we talked
Speaker 2: about last week, he's pulled himself back together into being
Speaker 2: a real playmaker and he made place. He had some
Speaker 2: real big gaffs with some of those aid incompletions, but
Speaker 2: he needed when this team needed him to make place,
Speaker 2: he did it.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting because then we mentioned this last week
Speaker 1: as well. These quarterbacks, these quarterbacks who who fail early
Speaker 1: become journeymen and then become these successful reclamation projects. The
Speaker 1: main ones that come to mind right now being Sam Donald,
Speaker 1: Baker Mayfield, and Gino Smiths. What do those guys have
Speaker 1: in common? They were all really high draft picks for
Speaker 1: a reason. Yep, right, I mean, so if they get
Speaker 1: in the right situation with the right coaches, the right system,
Speaker 1: coaches that can emphasize emphasize their strengths, and they have
Speaker 1: the right kind of team around them. Mean all that,
Speaker 1: it's all about the environment and whatnot, and those guys
Speaker 1: can can take advantage. And we've we've seen those high
Speaker 1: draft picks who look like total flame outs become really
Speaker 1: really good quarterbacks for teams that are playing some pretty
Speaker 1: good football right now. A couple of lingering issues with
Speaker 1: the Packers that definitely need to be addressed moving forward.
Speaker 1: The two the two that stand out to me that
Speaker 1: are lingering are the issues in the kicking game with
Speaker 1: narvice and missing two more field goals. That's five misses
Speaker 1: including the one that was wiped out by the penalty
Speaker 1: in Tennessee. Five miss field goals in four games. All
Speaker 1: of the missed field goals under fifty yards. Packers have
Speaker 1: to do better there. They're expressing their confidence in Narvice
Speaker 1: and they want this young man to work through it.
Speaker 1: They need to get more production when they send the
Speaker 1: field goal unit on the field. The other lingering issue
Speaker 1: is is penalties eight more in this game, most of
Speaker 1: them in the first half. Packers played a lot cleaner
Speaker 1: in the second half, but with eight penalties, that's now
Speaker 1: thirty four penalties not including declined or offsetting thirty four
Speaker 1: penalties and four games. Yeah, it's got to change. I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's got to change for the Packers to
Speaker 1: be able to be the team that they want to
Speaker 1: and expect to.
Speaker 2: Be yeah, and it's it was hard in this game
Speaker 2: because I think they finished with eight for sixty eight
Speaker 2: and five of them were in the first quarter.
Speaker 1: And more of them defensively on one drive.
Speaker 2: One drive, And that's that's going to make an impact
Speaker 2: on things. So for Green Bay, I'm with you one
Speaker 2: hundred percent. I mean, that's this, this roller coaster of ten, five, ten, eight.
Speaker 2: You have to moved those waters out. And again that's
Speaker 2: not that there's ever like one set blueprint for how
Speaker 2: you win football games, but that's what the Packers did
Speaker 2: really well when Mattlflor got here that first season. They
Speaker 2: didn't put themselves in negative yardage situations. This offense is
Speaker 2: five times more explosive today than it was in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: But the twenty nineteen team was so methodical and so
Speaker 2: successful because it negated the takeaway turnovers and it negated
Speaker 2: the negative yardage plays as far as nervius. And this
Speaker 2: is going to be a real quandary for the Packers
Speaker 2: because I agree with Matt Lafleur and I agree with
Speaker 2: Brian Goodikunz. This is the guy they went with. And
Speaker 2: I said it to you the day that the Packers
Speaker 2: made that decision We're going to cut our kickers and
Speaker 2: we're going to claim this guy from Tennessee. That's a
Speaker 2: big decision and you have to really take that decision
Speaker 2: to heart as far as what your plan is going
Speaker 2: to be and how you're going to proceed with this
Speaker 2: young man. Anders Carlson had the full bandwidth of last season,
Speaker 2: would have been interested to see how Green Bay would
Speaker 2: have handled that if he hadn't gotten off to the
Speaker 2: start that he did last year. He was very hot
Speaker 2: for those first five games.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: But a lot of times when I said this to
Speaker 2: you before to with Brian Goudikuntz, a lot of times
Speaker 2: gms will get on themselves too much about moving on
Speaker 2: from a kicker, moving on from a specialist. But the
Speaker 2: reality is it is a performance based business and there
Speaker 2: are guys you can bring in anywhere at any time
Speaker 2: that can do the job without having to quote unquote
Speaker 2: learn a playbook. So when you look at guys that
Speaker 2: end up buying themselves time and end up earning opportunities
Speaker 2: and becoming entrench kickers in this league, Michael, it's not
Speaker 2: a big secret. It's usually because they made a boatload
Speaker 2: of kicks right off the bat, and that's how they
Speaker 2: did it. That's how that young man has done it
Speaker 2: in Atlanta these last few years. So it's a tough
Speaker 2: spot to be in. The Packers believe them. You and
Speaker 2: I have seen the leg strength. It is prototypical leg strength.
Speaker 2: But you got to put it through the upfarts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you gotta make Oh hey, as Mason Crosby used
Speaker 1: to say, my job is to make kicks.
Speaker 2: My job is to make kick.
Speaker 1: You said that for a lot of years.
Speaker 2: Should be on his Packers' Hall of Fame plaque. Someday,
Speaker 2: my job was to make kicks. I don't know if
Speaker 2: we're wrapping this all up, so I want to say this.
Speaker 2: I did not talk enough about Jayden Reid. I just
Speaker 2: need to say this because I've written about it, We've
Speaker 2: talked about it. I'm so happy. Matt Lafure mentioned at
Speaker 2: his press conference on Monday he felt like he had
Speaker 2: three outstanding catches in that game. My takeaway, and I
Speaker 2: ended up doing it as my key to the game.
Speaker 2: My takeaway was, and I don't I'm not. I'm the
Speaker 2: last person that's going to label receivers, but I thought
Speaker 2: Jayden Reid proved in this game that when the chips
Speaker 2: are down, he's the guy you go to. And it's
Speaker 2: not because always better than anybody else. The catches he made,
Speaker 2: in the situations he made in his body positioning in
Speaker 2: that game, whether it was in the middle of the
Speaker 2: field and the backfield coming across the middle, Jaden Reid
Speaker 2: showed that he he's not the Green Bay Packers Deebo Samuel.
Speaker 2: He is the Green Bay Packers Jayden Reid. And this
Speaker 2: young man, Tom Fanning cooked up the stat I don't
Speaker 2: have it all in front of me, but his pro
Speaker 2: production through his first twenty games in the National Football
Speaker 2: League is almost unparallel. And when the Packers needed a playmaker,
Speaker 2: when someone needed to step up, that man was Jayden
Speaker 2: Reid and I don't think you can give him enough
Speaker 2: flowers for that.
Speaker 1: It's going to be exciting to see where this goes.
Speaker 1: We talked about it after the Brazil game, and I
Speaker 1: think the word that I used at the time is electrifying.
Speaker 1: He he is and the Packers have had some big
Speaker 1: time playmakers here over the years. We've seen plenty of them,
Speaker 1: but I don't think I've ever tagged the word electrifying
Speaker 1: on anybody. He's there's there's a different presence to him
Speaker 1: as a playmaker. He as you say, he's not the
Speaker 1: Packers Deebo Samuel, He's he is his own He is
Speaker 1: his own guy. And you can't compare him to anybody
Speaker 1: in Packer's history either, you know, whether you're talking about
Speaker 1: you know, some of the greatest playmakers that we've seen
Speaker 1: this century in Green Bay. He's different. He's different, and
Speaker 1: he's a he's a treat to watch. I will take
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Speaker 1: years of better. You said it earlier in the show,
Speaker 1: the NFC North might be the best division in football
Speaker 1: where things stand right now, the Minnesota Vikings are four
Speaker 1: and oh, the Detroit Lions with their quarterback going eighteen
Speaker 1: for eighteen on Monday Night football, knowing completions and catching
Speaker 1: a touchdown passive of his own from his wide receiver.
Speaker 1: The Detroit Lions are three and one. They knocked off
Speaker 1: the previously undefeated Seattle Seahawks who put up over five
Speaker 1: hundred yards of offense and still lost by two touchdowns.
Speaker 1: Go figure on that one. And then the Packers and
Speaker 1: the Bears are both two and two. So if the
Speaker 1: math is right in my head, four three two to two,
Speaker 1: eleven and five, the NFC North collectively is eleven and
Speaker 1: five after five weeks. That's pretty good, pretty good, And
Speaker 1: there's only been one division game Powers and Vikings where
Speaker 1: you get the automatic win, automatic loss for somebody. There's
Speaker 1: only been one division game through four weeks in this division,
Speaker 1: and the collective record of the division is eleven and five.
Speaker 2: I think in this I'm going to bring this up
Speaker 2: right now with my little pen because I want to
Speaker 2: make sure I get this right. Eighteen completions on eighteen
Speaker 2: attempts for two hundred and ninety two yards with two touchdowns.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jared Goff and what he has done? How many
Speaker 2: times this guy has been written off right from his
Speaker 2: rookie year with Saint Louis to not being the guy
Speaker 2: that can get the Rams over the.
Speaker 1: Hump, even though he went they went to a super Bowl, even.
Speaker 2: Though I went to Super Bowl with him, to becoming
Speaker 2: what was believed to be a placeholder quarterback in Detroit,
Speaker 2: to being a fifty three million dollars a year quarterback
Speaker 2: that's playing the way he's playing right now. They're built, man,
Speaker 2: I'm and around. Saint Brown made an absolute jaw dropping
Speaker 2: catch in the end zone.
Speaker 1: That that toe tap touchdown.
Speaker 2: Man, that was Yeah, the referees couldn't even believe it. No,
Speaker 2: I mean that that game won. In addition to being
Speaker 2: a very electrifying, very exciting football game, it again spoke
Speaker 2: to just how dangerous the Lions are.
Speaker 1: All three, all four of.
Speaker 2: These teams the NFC North, they are going to do
Speaker 2: it differently this year. Yeah, it's gonna be really interesting
Speaker 2: watching every single one of these battles between these teams
Speaker 2: because they all do different things. Well, but I mean,
Speaker 2: you look at what the Lions are doing and the
Speaker 2: way they're built and how they've responded to how last
Speaker 2: season ended for them, they are not to be trifled
Speaker 2: with the one thing I will say though, Gino Smith,
Speaker 2: Kenneth Walker the third they did take it to that
Speaker 2: defense a little bit and they had to, but.
Speaker 1: They just they just couldn't finish drive. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: when they were on the edge of field goal range,
Speaker 1: they couldn't get into field goal range to make a kick.
Speaker 1: And then you know late in the game when they're
Speaker 1: going forward on fourth downs and whatnot, they couldn't get
Speaker 1: the scores that they needed. They racked up over five
Speaker 1: hundred yards, but it was like, you know, most of
Speaker 1: the times when they crossed midfield, they it felt like
Speaker 1: they played the whole game Detroit territory. But Detroit's defense,
Speaker 1: with its back against the wall on several drives, just
Speaker 1: stood tall and got the job done to where the
Speaker 1: point total ends up being what was it, twenty seven
Speaker 1: or twenty nine or something like that, with over five
Speaker 1: hundred yards of offense. The Detroit defense, for all the
Speaker 1: yards they gave up, they still got a lot of
Speaker 1: stops and that was really the difference in the game.
Speaker 2: The one thing working against green Bay too, is they're
Speaker 2: gonna have to basically play probably two track meets against
Speaker 2: the Lions this season. They don't get a real cold
Speaker 2: weather game against them, so it's gonna be exciting.
Speaker 1: The Packers are gonna see Geno Smith and the Seahawks
Speaker 1: later on.
Speaker 2: This they will, Yeah, Gino Smith is kind of in
Speaker 2: a similar boat, almost, kind of where Jordan Love has
Speaker 2: been at, where he's made some really good plays, but
Speaker 2: the turnovers and hard to overcome for them at this point.
Speaker 2: And defensively again, it's just it's.
Speaker 1: They were they were banged up on defense going in.
Speaker 1: They knew they were kind of up against it defensively,
Speaker 1: and and the Lions really took advantage of the Seahawks
Speaker 1: missing some keepee.
Speaker 2: And I was already in bed at this point when
Speaker 2: you texted me. I was getting my beauty rest.
Speaker 1: But when I didn't get a response, I figured you
Speaker 1: must have you must have turned in.
Speaker 2: Well, I you know, I think I turned on some
Speaker 2: Netflix and I'm like laying in my bed. But I
Speaker 2: will say you're right in your assessment where it's like defense, man,
Speaker 2: if you can get it in this league, great, But boy,
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's optional. But there's games like this
Speaker 2: where it's like, okay, which offense isn't gonna make as
Speaker 2: many mistakes is really what it comes to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's sometimes. That's the way these games. Uh, that's
Speaker 1: the way these games go. Well with that, we'll call
Speaker 1: out a wrap on this edition of Packers unscript ma'd
Speaker 1: be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
Speaker 1: team on Packers dot com. For Wes, I'm Mike. Thank
Speaker 1: you for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time.