September 12, 2023 • 25 mins
Mike and Wes begin by discussing former Packers QB Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending Achilles injury (:19) before reviewing the Week 1 victory over the Bears – including QB Jordan Love’s performance (6:25), RB Aaron Jones’ impact (10:48), the defensive highlights (12:34), and the mix of veteran and rookie contributions (15:30). They also look at the other NFC North results from opening week (19:29).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
by my partner in crime, Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to
you hear from our studios at lambeau Field and Wes.
We have a big Week one victory by the Green
Bay Packers over the Chicago Bears to talk about. But
before we get to that, I want to start with
(00:30):
what happened on Monday Night football, Because just before we
turned the cameras on, the news became official. The MRI
confirmed that Aaron Rodgers tore his achilles on his fourth
snap as the quarterback for the New York Jets. His
season is over now. Of course, there's all kinds of
speculation that maybe his Hall of Fame career is over.
(00:51):
I don't necessarily want to go there just yet, but man,
this just stinks for football fans. It stinks for so
much people. Matt Lafleur's best friend Robert saw the Jets,
the Jets fan base, and this stinks for football fans
in general, that Aaron Rodgers will not be playing this season.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, it reminds me a lot, and unfortunately, Aaron's much older,
but it does remind me of eight with Tom Brady
tearing his acl right off the bat, where you know,
one of the big lines. And I tried to come
up with some words to describe all this and to
talk about it as a late addition to Insider Inbox
for Tuesday. But the fact that you have a legitimate star,
(01:33):
a legend in this sport, a guy that has given
so much to this game, and you know, take away
anything that happened with the Packers, take away the trade
and all these ramifications for the Jets. The amount of
excitement and anticipation in the league for Aaron Rodgers making
his debut in New York in that market, I can
only imagine the amount of marketing and you know, finances
(01:56):
that the Jets put into this, you know, promoting this.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
And a fan base that has gone through I mean,
a franchise that has I believe, the longest playoff drought
of any team in the NFL, right, I mean, you
know or something up there. I mean, this was a
fan base and a franchise that was that was really
fired up to have a shot this year. And now
it feel it feels like the rug has been pulled
(02:21):
out from under him.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, and it haven't happened right off the bat like that.
I didn't even get a chance to watch the game yet, Mike.
I was shooting a show that you know I do
for wasa TV. And we get done and I look
at my phone and it was already blowing up about Hey,
Aaron Rodgers got hurt. We didn't know the severity at
that point, but we knew he was injured in watching
the play. And your heart just sinks because you know,
(02:46):
I'm not Aaron Rodgers' best friend. I don't know his
cell phone number, I don't know you know, I never
went to dinner with him, but we did cover him
for ten years. We saw this guy go from you know,
a prospect to a super Bowl champion to a multiple
time MVP. And here he is embarking on this new
part of his career in the hype wagon and everything
(03:07):
that gets tied to it this offseason, then doing hard Knocks.
I mean, all the years we heard about maybe not
being so keen on doing hard knocks and Aaron Rodgers
was the star of it this year. And then it
ends this way. As I wrote an inbox, the first
thing I thought about was not this way out of
all the ways in which Aaron Rodgers season, whatever happens
(03:27):
beyond that goes down Week one, stepping on the field
for the first time for the Jets on Monday Night
Football and he has a rupture achilles is. It takes
the wind out of the sales for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah. I have to admit. There was a lot of
talk in the off season. Rogers even gave some press
conferences in New York to this effect that the offensive
line was the weak link for the New York Jets.
And he took four snaps. Two times he dropped back
to pass. He was under pressure in both of them.
(04:00):
I felt when this trade was made and there was
the ramifications of the playing time in the draft, pick
compensation and all that, and thinking strictly in those terms,
I was like, Okay, yeah, there's a chance that Aaron
Rodgers is going to get hurt behind that offensive line
because it's not very good and he's thirty nine years old.
But I just never envisioned. I mean, this is a
(04:21):
guy who's come back from two broken collar bones, he's
played with a broken thumb, he's played with who knows
what else he played with that nobody knew about. I
never in a million years would have conceived of like
something season ending happening, let alone it happening on his
opening series with his new team. I mean, this is
(04:42):
just it's unfathomable, and I'm still having a hard time
processing it, frankly.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Even when I woke up on Tuesday morning, and I
know there's a couple of people that made this comment
too on Twitter or last night. Just doesn't even seem real.
With the way that that game ended. You know, the Jets,
Josh Allen, it looks like everything is going their way
at halftime. They didn't put up a ton of points,
but it's like, man, how does New York come back
from this?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, the Buffalo Buffalo is in control of the game,
and then Zach Wilson brings the Jets back and Josh
Allen starts throwing interceptions and everything else, and suddenly you've
got a game coming down to the wire.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And you win the game on a punt return from
the guy that was basically the feel good story of
hard knocks making the team and then before you can
even fully celebrate, and certainly the people inside MetLife Stadium did,
But you know, Robert Sala with a very sullen report afterwards,
fearing what they all feared, which ended up being confirmed again.
(05:40):
You know, Aaron Rodgers, that there's so many stars in
this league, but it's just so rare that you have
somebody that captures the imagination the way that Rogers has
throughout his career and through his rise to being a
four time MVP. We're in a league now where there
is no Tom Brady anymore, at least on the field,
and now for this season, at the very least, no
Aaron Rodgers. So it it sucked, man, it it sucked
(06:04):
to watch it. I was so excited to watch that
football game just to enjoy it as a football fan.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And you get a real hard dose of reality and
how cruel this game can be. Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
It's cruel, it's brutal, and uh yeah, it's a It
was a It was a real downer of a Monday
night to uh, to wrap up Week one of this
NFL season. Twenty four hours before that, the Packers were
were kind of on cloud nine, you might say, as
far as Week ones go. A thirty eight to twenty victory,
(06:38):
a very convincing victory on the road at Soldier Field
over the Chicago Bears. And when you start with the offense,
it wasn't just that Jordan Love threw for three touchdowns
and put up a one twenty plus pass rating and
had you know, had these uh, these sparkling statistics. To me,
it was it was two things that we saw to
(07:01):
Jordan Love. One which we knew all along, which is
that nothing bothers him. And there were moments in the
game where things weren't going too well on offense there
in the first half, after that opening drive touchdown, and
then you know, the Bears had a little bit of
a rally there in the second half, and you could
feel the crowd at Soldier Field getting into things, you know,
(07:21):
and getting fired up. And Jordan Love was just his calm, collected,
poised self all the way along. But the other thing
is pois situationally, third downs, fourth downs. Jordan Love was
on the money in this game. He made the plays
when the plays needed to be made in those crucial situations.
(07:44):
And when you are that good situationally, you were going
to be a tough team to stop.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And they did it in every conceivable way possible. There
were times where the Packers got in favorable down in
distance and they took advantage of a third and short opportunity.
But then he makes a thirteen yard pass to Roam
Dobs on thirteen and three at a crucial juncture in
the game when the Packers needed to build some momentum.
There was just a fourth down play pass to Aaron
Jones that turns into a touchdown. Right, these type of
(08:11):
moments are huge for a young quarterback. I mean, they're
not gonna be the type of things that your fantasy
football league is necessarily going to give you any extra
points for. But this is what wins and loses football
games in this league. The Packers dominated in terms of
being able to control the pace of this game. They
won in the red zone, they won in the third downs,
and also they won in the turnover margin. They played
(08:32):
clean football. The one gripe that you kind of had
in this game was okay, well, there are some extracurricular
penalties that they picked up, but never at really a
crucial juncture. It was sort of in this mop up
duty or the Packers had possession of the football after
a turnover. There were so many things I took away
from this game, but coming back to the Jordan Love
piece of it. For a young guy going into that
(08:54):
stadium and Mike, it was incredible. The atmosphere there in.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
The first quarter, it was intense.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I've never seen it. It reminded me, this is going
to be a weird example, but it reminded me when
I went to the Butler UWM Horizon Ing Championship game.
I think it was twenty eleven and UW Milwaukee had
won the regular season title, Butler had made a national
runner up, and there was ten thousand people in the
cell just screaming their heads off because of how excited
(09:20):
they were about their team. Butler routed them and at
the end of the game there was like two hundred
people left. That's the same exact way that this game
played out. For as rowdy as it was and as
raucous as it was, the Packers completely took the Bears
fans out of this thing in the third quarter and
by the end, I made the remark to a few
people it felt like a preseason game.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, and this was not. This was not a Packers
crowd that was able to get their hands on a
lot of tickets. I mean, yes, there were some Packer
fans sprinkled throughout Soldier Field. But you and I have
been at plenty of road games where we've seen way
more Packers fans than we saw. That Bears fan base
was fired up. They were rare and to go. They
(09:58):
had the whole you know, everybody screaming from the first
note to the last of the national anthem and all that.
I know people don't necessarily see or hear all that
on TV. But the Packers came out and answered the bell.
And when you talk about situational football, the Green Bay
offense converted nine of its first fourteen third downs and then,
(10:23):
as you mentioned, one of those that they didn't, they
end up converting on fourth down with the thirty five
yard catch and run touchdown by Aaron Jones. If I
did the math right, on third and fourth downs, Jordan
Love was eight out of ten for one hundred and
forty six yards with two touchdowns on third and fourth down.
That's tough to beat.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And he threw for two forty five. I mean, he
did a lot of his work in those situations. Yeah,
and the other thing too. You know, you could talk
about Jordan Love a lot, but and I'm sure you
want to get into this too with Aaron Jones and
obviously the offensive line, but twenty one of Green Bay's
point three of the touchdowns all came on drones, all
came on drives where Jones just completely dominated. And you know,
(11:06):
you look at that third quarter, right, I mean, the
guy had ninety seven I think of his total yards
on those two series. He was the difference maker in this.
And I thought, as much as we made out of
Jones or Fields and Love and this transition, it does
come down to your playmakers. And I felt like all
the auxiliary pieces, so to speak, in terms of maybe
(11:27):
what the national headlines are, green Bay on paper was
significantly better than the Chicago Bears, and they won in
all those areas. They won with their running back, they
won with their offensive line, they won with their defensive line,
and shoot for as much money as the Chicago Bears
spent on their linebackers this year, it was Kwai Walker
making arguably the biggest defensive play of the day with
(11:49):
the thirty seven yard pick six. The Green Bay Packers
went into Chicago in a situation which they could have
completely had no momentum out of this game if it
goes the wrong way, and instead I think left feeling like,
you know what, we are the team that we really
thought we were this summer.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, I think the Bears. The Bears have a lot
of work to do. I think that was an incredibly disappointing,
deflating in many ways performance for that team and and
everything they were hoping to build toward with Justin Fields
in his third year and Matt Eberfluss the head coach
in his second year, and you know, trying to wrestle
(12:29):
the Packers dominance of the rivalry away from them and
getting the chance to do that the Bears, quite frankly, West,
the Bears have a longer way to go than I thought.
I thought we were going to see a better a
better Bears team and a better Bears performance than we
did on Sunday. But when you look at you look
at what Green Bay's defense was able to do, I
(12:52):
guess what stood. What stood out to me the most
is that is that when the Bears did get something going,
unlike last year with the Packers defense, it didn't snowball
into this extended stretch of you know, you're watching the
Packers defense going, come on, somebody do something like what's
going on out there? Right that now the Bears had
(13:16):
their own hand, and those those first couple of drives
that they did have ending in field goals, or at
least the one of them ending in a field goal
because of some false starts, and they put themselves in
a bad spot there. But when the Bears did get
that touchdown in the third quarter, and they were starting
to shift the momentum back, and yes, the Packers answered
(13:36):
with a score, which was big. But then when the
Bears got the ball back again, that's when the interception happens.
The pick, the pick six by kway Walker, the Packers,
the Packers defense. Every time it was looking like the
Bears might get something going, then it stopped and things
turned back the other way. And I think that was
the most positive sign for Green Bay's defense here in
(13:58):
the opener.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah, I think you look at the first first sequence, right,
the Packers win the coin toss to for the Bears
come out and they're going to try to play this
thing hot and heavy. You know, they end up in
a third and short situation third and one Green Bay.
Stuff's kind of a gimmick play there where Cole Komeck
comes under center. The next play, it's gonna be Justin Fields,
big tall, physical guy that can basically run like a
running back. Green Bay stymies him there too, get the
(14:21):
turnover of downs out the forty. Packers get some points,
but after that the offense kind of, you know, it
kind of struggles a little bit trying to, you know,
do something. In that second quarter, green Bay really, with
a few exceptions, didn't blink defensively. I think you look
at the Pro Football Focus numbers on this thing, thirty
five pressures of Justin Fields. The Packers were smart and
how they approached him. Six carries, fifty nine yard, nine carries,
(14:44):
excuse me, fifty nine yards. That's still some decent production
with his feet. He showed you how he can hurt
you if you don't wrap him up on a sack.
But ultimately green Bay did what they've done well in
these games, these five games now against Justin Fields, which
is make him throw the football and can be a
pocket passer in green Bay dominated in those instances for
Sean Gary. I also saw the statistics. I think it
(15:06):
was ten pass rushing snaps, seven pressures or five pressures
something like that. Came to play. Davante Wyatt was not
too big for him of sack and a half coming
off a sack performance the year before. Darnell Savage, Rasul
Douglas played fast and physical, Jyry Alexander shutting out DJ Moore.
All the things you and I talked about last Thursday, Mike.
(15:26):
The Packers executed, They won those matchups, and they won
the football game.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah. I think when you look at things, when you
look at things on both sides of the ball, we
saw a lot of what we expected to see, which
was the Packers offensive line very much in control. Jordan
Love was protected very very well all all game long.
We saw Aaron Jones and his value to this offense
which cannot be overstated. Aaron Jones and what he brings
(15:54):
to this offense is really impressive. Defensively, you know, Jaw
was right, Rareshaun Gary and his limited snaps. That was
Rareshaun Gary. Preston Smith was Preston Smith. But then you
start you start mixing in what these young guys did.
Lucas Vaness, I think he's surprised the heck out of
(16:14):
Justin Fields with how fast he is because I think
Fields thought even though van Ness didn't bite on the
playfake and stayed home on the back side. I think
Fields thought he could run away from him, didn't come
close to running away from him. Van van Ness gets
a sack. Another rookie, Carl Brooks, gets a sack. We
see what Jaden Reed does on offense, makes two big
(16:37):
catches on third down, also as a thirty five yard
pump return that sets the Packers up in good position.
The young guys did their thing as well as everything
we expected the veteran players on this team to do.
Again it was the Bears. They won three games last year.
They still have a long way to go, and the
Packers are going to face better teams, including this week
(16:59):
when they go down to Atlanta in Week two. But
you saw everything you were hoping to see out of
the Packers in week one. This is what the Packers wanted,
this is where they are, and yet Matt Lafleur still
has plenty to work on in terms of you know,
he talked about too many free hitters in the running game,
the penalties, both some of the combative penalties, but then
(17:22):
also the personal files and stuff. It was it was
not by any means some kind of perfect game by
Green Bay, but you saw what you wanted to see
in week one, which hasn't necessarily happened the last couple
of years. And now the Packers get back to work
and move on and try to start to and oh
on the road with a trip to Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Well, and like I said to you as we were
walking down to the locker room after the game, the
green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears the way they
need to beat a team like that. I mean, there
was a lot of hype. I wasn't necessarily buying it
just because I didn't see a brand new car in
the lot. I saw a team that deconstructed their defense
last year and just brought in new players this season.
(18:01):
I saw an offensive line that still had a lot
of the same question marks as last year. Because as
much as gets put on Justin Fields and a lot
of people talk about, well, you know, he can run,
but he can't throw. I think you also saw the
difference between an offensive line with Jordan Love that gave
him time, gave him, you know, opportunity, in an offensive
line with Chicago where they had to kind of make
adjustments based on how much penetration green Bay was getting.
(18:25):
The thing I loved about this victory though, Mike and
you touched on it on your story on Monday, the
fact that the Packers offensive line, for as many questions
as there were, you know, David bock Terry doesn't practice last.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Week for like two weeks.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, situation at right tackle, all these things in that
unit probably put together one of the more impressive performances
I've seen, even dating back to training camp. I just
thought they looked in command, and I thought, even on
both sides, you know, this is iron sharpening iron, and
some good players in both of these offensive and defensive fronts,
and they finally got to go out in really go
(19:00):
full tilt against an opposing team, and it gave them
a lot to build on.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
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(19:26):
Subs fifty years of better, all right, quickly before we go,
take taking a look at Week one, and in particular
in the NFC North. Obviously packers want to know Bears
zero to one. But the Detroit Lions beat the defending champs,
the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead in the NFL kickoff
(19:46):
game last Thursday, and then the Buccaneers went into US
Bank Stadium and knocked off the defending NFC North champion
Minnesota Vikings in Week one. I think everybody in the
f world or just about everybody, thought both of those
games would go the other way, that the Lions would
be zero to one and the Vikings would be one
(20:07):
to zero based on those Week one matchups and locations
of those games. But here we are West, the new
season is underway, and you just never know.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
If there was ever a game that indicated the importance
of a tight end and then the importance of the quarterback,
it was these two games, starting just really quickly with
the Buccaneers. Baker Mayfield won this game for Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay was not able to run the ball well,
they weren't. Situationally. There were some struggles, but ultimately Baker
Mayfield made some plays and didn't make as any mistakes
(20:39):
as Kirk Cousins made. Even though Cousins from a pure
output standpoint production standpoint outshined him, it comes back to
that turnover margin. This game changes, things evolve, but it
always comes back to how you do protecting the football
in when the chips were down and Mayfield need to
make a throw, he made it late. Because as many
changes as there are there for them, both with Tom
(21:00):
Brady and also some of those backfield additions, they still
got Mike Evans and they still got Chris Godwin, and
I thought both of those guys really shine when they
needed to. I'll throw the Lions thing back to you
because I think I probably had a little bit more
different opinion on this than a lot of folks. But
I will say this, the Lions beat the Chiefs. They
went into Arrowhead Stadium. That's a huge victory. I don't
(21:23):
think it was the coming out party that the NFL
wanted it to be based on that. I think they
were kind of hoping for maybe a forty two to
forty one shootout. It did not work out that way.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Beating Kansas City is one thing. Beating Kansas City with
Travis Kelcey is another. Unfortunately for the Packers, they probably
will have to see Kelsey later this season. I think
the Lions that worked out perfectly for them. The fact
that Kelsey's injury happened when it did, Kansas City had
to make some really stark adjustments, and unfortunately for Kadarius
Tony probably had one of the worst games I think
I've ever seen from a player in a regular season. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Absolutely, I mean the bottom line is this, even with
even with Travis Kelcey being out, with Chris Jones not
having signed his contract to you know, all pro players
for the Kansas City Chiefs, if they catch the football,
they win the game, right, I mean, it's it's it's
that It's that simple. Because because the Lions got seven
points on defense off of a perfect throw by Patrick Mahomes,
(22:20):
that turns into seven points the other way. So, but
that's football. That's the way this game goes. You have
you have to execute, and when you and when you
don't execute, and the other team is good enough to
take advantage of your mistakes, that's what happens. And and
and that's how this league goes. And that's why, as
I said, you just you just never know. It's why
(22:41):
you have to play the games, and you have to
take care of business, and and the Kansas City Chiefs
are going to be fine. I think I think the
larger question now when I when I look at where
the Detroit Lions are a lot of hype, obviously a
lot of folks picking them to win the NFC North.
Now they start with a big win in Kansas City.
(23:01):
Go back to what for me and I'll always remember this,
it was my first year here in this position with
Packers dot Com. And go back to what Mike McCarthy
said when he was first hired here in Green Bay
in two thousand and six and he's taking over a
four and twelve team. Everybody was wondering where this was
going with a Hall of Fame quarterback and Brett Favre,
and Mike McCarthy was asked what the biggest challenge was
(23:24):
going to be and he says, our biggest challenge will
be handling success. I mean, a he knew that he
was going to make the team successful, but it is
a big challenge in this league to handle success. What
happens when you're in a downturn with your team, with
your franchise, and then the success comes to maybe some
(23:45):
guys who haven't experienced it yet in the NFL, how
do they handle it, what happens, how do you move forward?
Not making any predictions one way or the other, I
think that is the big question right now for the
Lions and for Dan Campbell moving forward, because that there's
no two ways about it. That was a huge victory for.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Them, absolutely, and especially to have that platform a team
that went so long without even really being in prime
time other than some Thanksgiving games, that was a big
moment that what I will My big takeaway from this
game was though actually had very little to do with
the offensive side of the ball, It had to do
with One, they're very creative on special teams. I give
them so much credit for that. The fake punts that
they've pulled off the last couple of years are just incredible.
(24:24):
But Two, that defense statistically was not very good last year.
Packers had some rough outings against them, but I feel
like they built towards something at the end of the
season and that carried into this game. Aiden Hutchinson is
going to be a real player in this league and
he's going to be a problem for a lot of teams. Yeah,
He's a beast to deal with, especially the way they're
using and moving them inside a little bit. Brian Branch
(24:47):
might end up being the best overall value pick though
of this draft. I mean, it's a guy that a
lot of folks talked about being a possible first rounder. Unfortunately,
he plays safety in twenty twenty three, and some people
don't want to put those assets towards the position. But
he played great and it wasn't just the pick. I
mean overall. I thought he had a really solid football
game and showed how valuable that position can be for
(25:07):
a team that has really struggled in its secondary the
last few seasons.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, the Lions look like they're putting something together on
defense with without a whole lot of household names. Aidan
Hutchinson is the name everybody knows, but it feels like
we're going to start to know some more of the
names on that Lions defense as the season goes forward.
So and Packers are going to see him soon enough
week four Thursday, and at football it's coming up soon enough.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Two weeks away.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah, it's it's gonna be here before we know it,
and the Lions will be coming here to Green Bay
for a big NFC North battle. But with that we'll
call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
team on packers dot com for wes I am Mike.
Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you
(25:50):
next time.
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
by my partner in crime, Weston Hodkowitz. We're coming to
you hear from our studios at lambeau Field and Wes.
We have a big Week one victory by the Green
Bay Packers over the Chicago Bears to talk about. But
before we get to that, I want to start with
(00:30):
what happened on Monday Night football, Because just before we
turned the cameras on, the news became official. The MRI
confirmed that Aaron Rodgers tore his achilles on his fourth
snap as the quarterback for the New York Jets. His
season is over now. Of course, there's all kinds of
speculation that maybe his Hall of Fame career is over.
(00:51):
I don't necessarily want to go there just yet, but man,
this just stinks for football fans. It stinks for so
much people. Matt Lafleur's best friend Robert saw the Jets,
the Jets fan base, and this stinks for football fans
in general, that Aaron Rodgers will not be playing this season.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah, it reminds me a lot, and unfortunately, Aaron's much older,
but it does remind me of eight with Tom Brady
tearing his acl right off the bat, where you know,
one of the big lines. And I tried to come
up with some words to describe all this and to
talk about it as a late addition to Insider Inbox
for Tuesday. But the fact that you have a legitimate star,
(01:33):
a legend in this sport, a guy that has given
so much to this game, and you know, take away
anything that happened with the Packers, take away the trade
and all these ramifications for the Jets. The amount of
excitement and anticipation in the league for Aaron Rodgers making
his debut in New York in that market, I can
only imagine the amount of marketing and you know, finances
(01:56):
that the Jets put into this, you know, promoting this.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
And a fan base that has gone through I mean,
a franchise that has I believe, the longest playoff drought
of any team in the NFL, right, I mean, you
know or something up there. I mean, this was a
fan base and a franchise that was that was really
fired up to have a shot this year. And now
it feel it feels like the rug has been pulled
(02:21):
out from under him.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, and it haven't happened right off the bat like that.
I didn't even get a chance to watch the game yet, Mike.
I was shooting a show that you know I do
for wasa TV. And we get done and I look
at my phone and it was already blowing up about Hey,
Aaron Rodgers got hurt. We didn't know the severity at
that point, but we knew he was injured in watching
the play. And your heart just sinks because you know,
(02:46):
I'm not Aaron Rodgers' best friend. I don't know his
cell phone number, I don't know you know, I never
went to dinner with him, but we did cover him
for ten years. We saw this guy go from you know,
a prospect to a super Bowl champion to a multiple
time MVP. And here he is embarking on this new
part of his career in the hype wagon and everything
(03:07):
that gets tied to it this offseason, then doing hard Knocks.
I mean, all the years we heard about maybe not
being so keen on doing hard knocks and Aaron Rodgers
was the star of it this year. And then it
ends this way. As I wrote an inbox, the first
thing I thought about was not this way out of
all the ways in which Aaron Rodgers season, whatever happens
(03:27):
beyond that goes down Week one, stepping on the field
for the first time for the Jets on Monday Night
Football and he has a rupture achilles is. It takes
the wind out of the sales for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah. I have to admit. There was a lot of
talk in the off season. Rogers even gave some press
conferences in New York to this effect that the offensive
line was the weak link for the New York Jets.
And he took four snaps. Two times he dropped back
to pass. He was under pressure in both of them.
(04:00):
I felt when this trade was made and there was
the ramifications of the playing time in the draft, pick
compensation and all that, and thinking strictly in those terms,
I was like, Okay, yeah, there's a chance that Aaron
Rodgers is going to get hurt behind that offensive line
because it's not very good and he's thirty nine years old.
But I just never envisioned. I mean, this is a
(04:21):
guy who's come back from two broken collar bones, he's
played with a broken thumb, he's played with who knows
what else he played with that nobody knew about. I
never in a million years would have conceived of like
something season ending happening, let alone it happening on his
opening series with his new team. I mean, this is
(04:42):
just it's unfathomable, and I'm still having a hard time
processing it, frankly.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Even when I woke up on Tuesday morning, and I
know there's a couple of people that made this comment
too on Twitter or last night. Just doesn't even seem real.
With the way that that game ended. You know, the Jets,
Josh Allen, it looks like everything is going their way
at halftime. They didn't put up a ton of points,
but it's like, man, how does New York come back
from this?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah, the Buffalo Buffalo is in control of the game,
and then Zach Wilson brings the Jets back and Josh
Allen starts throwing interceptions and everything else, and suddenly you've
got a game coming down to the wire.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
And you win the game on a punt return from
the guy that was basically the feel good story of
hard knocks making the team and then before you can
even fully celebrate, and certainly the people inside MetLife Stadium did,
But you know, Robert Sala with a very sullen report afterwards,
fearing what they all feared, which ended up being confirmed again.
(05:40):
You know, Aaron Rodgers, that there's so many stars in
this league, but it's just so rare that you have
somebody that captures the imagination the way that Rogers has
throughout his career and through his rise to being a
four time MVP. We're in a league now where there
is no Tom Brady anymore, at least on the field,
and now for this season, at the very least, no
Aaron Rodgers. So it it sucked, man, it it sucked
(06:04):
to watch it. I was so excited to watch that
football game just to enjoy it as a football fan.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yeah, me too.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And you get a real hard dose of reality and
how cruel this game can be. Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
It's cruel, it's brutal, and uh yeah, it's a It
was a It was a real downer of a Monday
night to uh, to wrap up Week one of this
NFL season. Twenty four hours before that, the Packers were
were kind of on cloud nine, you might say, as
far as Week ones go. A thirty eight to twenty victory,
(06:38):
a very convincing victory on the road at Soldier Field
over the Chicago Bears. And when you start with the offense,
it wasn't just that Jordan Love threw for three touchdowns
and put up a one twenty plus pass rating and
had you know, had these uh, these sparkling statistics. To me,
it was it was two things that we saw to
(07:01):
Jordan Love. One which we knew all along, which is
that nothing bothers him. And there were moments in the
game where things weren't going too well on offense there
in the first half, after that opening drive touchdown, and
then you know, the Bears had a little bit of
a rally there in the second half, and you could
feel the crowd at Soldier Field getting into things, you know,
(07:21):
and getting fired up. And Jordan Love was just his calm, collected,
poised self all the way along. But the other thing
is pois situationally, third downs, fourth downs. Jordan Love was
on the money in this game. He made the plays
when the plays needed to be made in those crucial situations.
(07:44):
And when you are that good situationally, you were going
to be a tough team to stop.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And they did it in every conceivable way possible. There
were times where the Packers got in favorable down in
distance and they took advantage of a third and short opportunity.
But then he makes a thirteen yard pass to Roam
Dobs on thirteen and three at a crucial juncture in
the game when the Packers needed to build some momentum.
There was just a fourth down play pass to Aaron
Jones that turns into a touchdown. Right, these type of
(08:11):
moments are huge for a young quarterback. I mean, they're
not gonna be the type of things that your fantasy
football league is necessarily going to give you any extra
points for. But this is what wins and loses football
games in this league. The Packers dominated in terms of
being able to control the pace of this game. They
won in the red zone, they won in the third downs,
and also they won in the turnover margin. They played
(08:32):
clean football. The one gripe that you kind of had
in this game was okay, well, there are some extracurricular
penalties that they picked up, but never at really a
crucial juncture. It was sort of in this mop up
duty or the Packers had possession of the football after
a turnover. There were so many things I took away
from this game, but coming back to the Jordan Love
piece of it. For a young guy going into that
(08:54):
stadium and Mike, it was incredible. The atmosphere there in.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
The first quarter, it was intense.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I've never seen it. It reminded me, this is going
to be a weird example, but it reminded me when
I went to the Butler UWM Horizon Ing Championship game.
I think it was twenty eleven and UW Milwaukee had
won the regular season title, Butler had made a national
runner up, and there was ten thousand people in the
cell just screaming their heads off because of how excited
(09:20):
they were about their team. Butler routed them and at
the end of the game there was like two hundred
people left. That's the same exact way that this game
played out. For as rowdy as it was and as
raucous as it was, the Packers completely took the Bears
fans out of this thing in the third quarter and
by the end, I made the remark to a few
people it felt like a preseason game.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Yeah, and this was not. This was not a Packers
crowd that was able to get their hands on a
lot of tickets. I mean, yes, there were some Packer
fans sprinkled throughout Soldier Field. But you and I have
been at plenty of road games where we've seen way
more Packers fans than we saw. That Bears fan base
was fired up. They were rare and to go. They
(09:58):
had the whole you know, everybody screaming from the first
note to the last of the national anthem and all that.
I know people don't necessarily see or hear all that
on TV. But the Packers came out and answered the bell.
And when you talk about situational football, the Green Bay
offense converted nine of its first fourteen third downs and then,
(10:23):
as you mentioned, one of those that they didn't, they
end up converting on fourth down with the thirty five
yard catch and run touchdown by Aaron Jones. If I
did the math right, on third and fourth downs, Jordan
Love was eight out of ten for one hundred and
forty six yards with two touchdowns on third and fourth down.
That's tough to beat.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And he threw for two forty five. I mean, he
did a lot of his work in those situations. Yeah,
and the other thing too. You know, you could talk
about Jordan Love a lot, but and I'm sure you
want to get into this too with Aaron Jones and
obviously the offensive line, but twenty one of Green Bay's
point three of the touchdowns all came on drones, all
came on drives where Jones just completely dominated. And you know,
(11:06):
you look at that third quarter, right, I mean, the
guy had ninety seven I think of his total yards
on those two series. He was the difference maker in this.
And I thought, as much as we made out of
Jones or Fields and Love and this transition, it does
come down to your playmakers. And I felt like all
the auxiliary pieces, so to speak, in terms of maybe
(11:27):
what the national headlines are, green Bay on paper was
significantly better than the Chicago Bears, and they won in
all those areas. They won with their running back, they
won with their offensive line, they won with their defensive line,
and shoot for as much money as the Chicago Bears
spent on their linebackers this year, it was Kwai Walker
making arguably the biggest defensive play of the day with
(11:49):
the thirty seven yard pick six. The Green Bay Packers
went into Chicago in a situation which they could have
completely had no momentum out of this game if it
goes the wrong way, and instead I think left feeling like,
you know what, we are the team that we really
thought we were this summer.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yeah, I think the Bears. The Bears have a lot
of work to do. I think that was an incredibly disappointing,
deflating in many ways performance for that team and and
everything they were hoping to build toward with Justin Fields
in his third year and Matt Eberfluss the head coach
in his second year, and you know, trying to wrestle
(12:29):
the Packers dominance of the rivalry away from them and
getting the chance to do that the Bears, quite frankly, West,
the Bears have a longer way to go than I thought.
I thought we were going to see a better a
better Bears team and a better Bears performance than we
did on Sunday. But when you look at you look
at what Green Bay's defense was able to do, I
(12:52):
guess what stood. What stood out to me the most
is that is that when the Bears did get something going,
unlike last year with the Packers defense, it didn't snowball
into this extended stretch of you know, you're watching the
Packers defense going, come on, somebody do something like what's
going on out there? Right that now the Bears had
(13:16):
their own hand, and those those first couple of drives
that they did have ending in field goals, or at
least the one of them ending in a field goal
because of some false starts, and they put themselves in
a bad spot there. But when the Bears did get
that touchdown in the third quarter, and they were starting
to shift the momentum back, and yes, the Packers answered
(13:36):
with a score, which was big. But then when the
Bears got the ball back again, that's when the interception happens.
The pick, the pick six by kway Walker, the Packers,
the Packers defense. Every time it was looking like the
Bears might get something going, then it stopped and things
turned back the other way. And I think that was
the most positive sign for Green Bay's defense here in
(13:58):
the opener.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah, I think you look at the first first sequence, right,
the Packers win the coin toss to for the Bears
come out and they're going to try to play this
thing hot and heavy. You know, they end up in
a third and short situation third and one Green Bay.
Stuff's kind of a gimmick play there where Cole Komeck
comes under center. The next play, it's gonna be Justin Fields,
big tall, physical guy that can basically run like a
running back. Green Bay stymies him there too, get the
(14:21):
turnover of downs out the forty. Packers get some points,
but after that the offense kind of, you know, it
kind of struggles a little bit trying to, you know,
do something. In that second quarter, green Bay really, with
a few exceptions, didn't blink defensively. I think you look
at the Pro Football Focus numbers on this thing, thirty
five pressures of Justin Fields. The Packers were smart and
how they approached him. Six carries, fifty nine yard, nine carries,
(14:44):
excuse me, fifty nine yards. That's still some decent production
with his feet. He showed you how he can hurt
you if you don't wrap him up on a sack.
But ultimately green Bay did what they've done well in
these games, these five games now against Justin Fields, which
is make him throw the football and can be a
pocket passer in green Bay dominated in those instances for
Sean Gary. I also saw the statistics. I think it
(15:06):
was ten pass rushing snaps, seven pressures or five pressures
something like that. Came to play. Davante Wyatt was not
too big for him of sack and a half coming
off a sack performance the year before. Darnell Savage, Rasul
Douglas played fast and physical, Jyry Alexander shutting out DJ Moore.
All the things you and I talked about last Thursday, Mike.
(15:26):
The Packers executed, They won those matchups, and they won
the football game.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Yeah. I think when you look at things, when you
look at things on both sides of the ball, we
saw a lot of what we expected to see, which
was the Packers offensive line very much in control. Jordan
Love was protected very very well all all game long.
We saw Aaron Jones and his value to this offense
which cannot be overstated. Aaron Jones and what he brings
(15:54):
to this offense is really impressive. Defensively, you know, Jaw
was right, Rareshaun Gary and his limited snaps. That was
Rareshaun Gary. Preston Smith was Preston Smith. But then you
start you start mixing in what these young guys did.
Lucas Vaness, I think he's surprised the heck out of
(16:14):
Justin Fields with how fast he is because I think
Fields thought even though van Ness didn't bite on the
playfake and stayed home on the back side. I think
Fields thought he could run away from him, didn't come
close to running away from him. Van van Ness gets
a sack. Another rookie, Carl Brooks, gets a sack. We
see what Jaden Reed does on offense, makes two big
(16:37):
catches on third down, also as a thirty five yard
pump return that sets the Packers up in good position.
The young guys did their thing as well as everything
we expected the veteran players on this team to do.
Again it was the Bears. They won three games last year.
They still have a long way to go, and the
Packers are going to face better teams, including this week
(16:59):
when they go down to Atlanta in Week two. But
you saw everything you were hoping to see out of
the Packers in week one. This is what the Packers wanted,
this is where they are, and yet Matt Lafleur still
has plenty to work on in terms of you know,
he talked about too many free hitters in the running game,
the penalties, both some of the combative penalties, but then
(17:22):
also the personal files and stuff. It was it was
not by any means some kind of perfect game by
Green Bay, but you saw what you wanted to see
in week one, which hasn't necessarily happened the last couple
of years. And now the Packers get back to work
and move on and try to start to and oh
on the road with a trip to Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Well, and like I said to you as we were
walking down to the locker room after the game, the
green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears the way they
need to beat a team like that. I mean, there
was a lot of hype. I wasn't necessarily buying it
just because I didn't see a brand new car in
the lot. I saw a team that deconstructed their defense
last year and just brought in new players this season.
(18:01):
I saw an offensive line that still had a lot
of the same question marks as last year. Because as
much as gets put on Justin Fields and a lot
of people talk about, well, you know, he can run,
but he can't throw. I think you also saw the
difference between an offensive line with Jordan Love that gave
him time, gave him, you know, opportunity, in an offensive
line with Chicago where they had to kind of make
adjustments based on how much penetration green Bay was getting.
(18:25):
The thing I loved about this victory though, Mike and
you touched on it on your story on Monday, the
fact that the Packers offensive line, for as many questions
as there were, you know, David bock Terry doesn't practice last.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
Week for like two weeks.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, situation at right tackle, all these things in that
unit probably put together one of the more impressive performances
I've seen, even dating back to training camp. I just
thought they looked in command, and I thought, even on
both sides, you know, this is iron sharpening iron, and
some good players in both of these offensive and defensive fronts,
and they finally got to go out in really go
(19:00):
full tilt against an opposing team, and it gave them
a lot to build on.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
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(19:26):
Subs fifty years of better, all right, quickly before we go,
take taking a look at Week one, and in particular
in the NFC North. Obviously packers want to know Bears
zero to one. But the Detroit Lions beat the defending champs,
the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead in the NFL kickoff
(19:46):
game last Thursday, and then the Buccaneers went into US
Bank Stadium and knocked off the defending NFC North champion
Minnesota Vikings in Week one. I think everybody in the
f world or just about everybody, thought both of those
games would go the other way, that the Lions would
be zero to one and the Vikings would be one
(20:07):
to zero based on those Week one matchups and locations
of those games. But here we are West, the new
season is underway, and you just never know.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
If there was ever a game that indicated the importance
of a tight end and then the importance of the quarterback,
it was these two games, starting just really quickly with
the Buccaneers. Baker Mayfield won this game for Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay was not able to run the ball well,
they weren't. Situationally. There were some struggles, but ultimately Baker
Mayfield made some plays and didn't make as any mistakes
(20:39):
as Kirk Cousins made. Even though Cousins from a pure
output standpoint production standpoint outshined him, it comes back to
that turnover margin. This game changes, things evolve, but it
always comes back to how you do protecting the football
in when the chips were down and Mayfield need to
make a throw, he made it late. Because as many
changes as there are there for them, both with Tom
(21:00):
Brady and also some of those backfield additions, they still
got Mike Evans and they still got Chris Godwin, and
I thought both of those guys really shine when they
needed to. I'll throw the Lions thing back to you
because I think I probably had a little bit more
different opinion on this than a lot of folks. But
I will say this, the Lions beat the Chiefs. They
went into Arrowhead Stadium. That's a huge victory. I don't
(21:23):
think it was the coming out party that the NFL
wanted it to be based on that. I think they
were kind of hoping for maybe a forty two to
forty one shootout. It did not work out that way.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Beating Kansas City is one thing. Beating Kansas City with
Travis Kelcey is another. Unfortunately for the Packers, they probably
will have to see Kelsey later this season. I think
the Lions that worked out perfectly for them. The fact
that Kelsey's injury happened when it did, Kansas City had
to make some really stark adjustments, and unfortunately for Kadarius
Tony probably had one of the worst games I think
I've ever seen from a player in a regular season. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Absolutely, I mean the bottom line is this, even with
even with Travis Kelcey being out, with Chris Jones not
having signed his contract to you know, all pro players
for the Kansas City Chiefs, if they catch the football,
they win the game, right, I mean, it's it's it's
that It's that simple. Because because the Lions got seven
points on defense off of a perfect throw by Patrick Mahomes,
(22:20):
that turns into seven points the other way. So, but
that's football. That's the way this game goes. You have
you have to execute, and when you and when you
don't execute, and the other team is good enough to
take advantage of your mistakes, that's what happens. And and
and that's how this league goes. And that's why, as
I said, you just you just never know. It's why
(22:41):
you have to play the games, and you have to
take care of business, and and the Kansas City Chiefs
are going to be fine. I think I think the
larger question now when I when I look at where
the Detroit Lions are a lot of hype, obviously a
lot of folks picking them to win the NFC North.
Now they start with a big win in Kansas City.
(23:01):
Go back to what for me and I'll always remember this,
it was my first year here in this position with
Packers dot Com. And go back to what Mike McCarthy
said when he was first hired here in Green Bay
in two thousand and six and he's taking over a
four and twelve team. Everybody was wondering where this was
going with a Hall of Fame quarterback and Brett Favre,
and Mike McCarthy was asked what the biggest challenge was
(23:24):
going to be and he says, our biggest challenge will
be handling success. I mean, a he knew that he
was going to make the team successful, but it is
a big challenge in this league to handle success. What
happens when you're in a downturn with your team, with
your franchise, and then the success comes to maybe some
(23:45):
guys who haven't experienced it yet in the NFL, how
do they handle it, what happens, how do you move forward?
Not making any predictions one way or the other, I
think that is the big question right now for the
Lions and for Dan Campbell moving forward, because that there's
no two ways about it. That was a huge victory for.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Them, absolutely, and especially to have that platform a team
that went so long without even really being in prime
time other than some Thanksgiving games, that was a big
moment that what I will My big takeaway from this
game was though actually had very little to do with
the offensive side of the ball, It had to do
with One, they're very creative on special teams. I give
them so much credit for that. The fake punts that
they've pulled off the last couple of years are just incredible.
(24:24):
But Two, that defense statistically was not very good last year.
Packers had some rough outings against them, but I feel
like they built towards something at the end of the
season and that carried into this game. Aiden Hutchinson is
going to be a real player in this league and
he's going to be a problem for a lot of teams. Yeah,
He's a beast to deal with, especially the way they're
using and moving them inside a little bit. Brian Branch
(24:47):
might end up being the best overall value pick though
of this draft. I mean, it's a guy that a
lot of folks talked about being a possible first rounder. Unfortunately,
he plays safety in twenty twenty three, and some people
don't want to put those assets towards the position. But
he played great and it wasn't just the pick. I
mean overall. I thought he had a really solid football
game and showed how valuable that position can be for
(25:07):
a team that has really struggled in its secondary the
last few seasons.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, the Lions look like they're putting something together on
defense with without a whole lot of household names. Aidan
Hutchinson is the name everybody knows, but it feels like
we're going to start to know some more of the
names on that Lions defense as the season goes forward.
So and Packers are going to see him soon enough
week four Thursday, and at football it's coming up soon enough.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Two weeks away.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah, it's it's gonna be here before we know it,
and the Lions will be coming here to Green Bay
for a big NFC North battle. But with that we'll
call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
team on packers dot com for wes I am Mike.
Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you
(25:50):
next time.
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