September 26, 2023 • 26 mins
Mike and Wes review the comeback victory over the Saints, including QB Jordan Love’s leadership (2:59), the momentum changes (9:40) and the offense staying aggressive (13:30). They also preview the upcoming Thursday game vs. Detroit, looking at the challenges of a short week (15:34), how both teams fared against the Falcons (18:21) and keys to victory for the Packers (22:52).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
I am Mike Spafford, joined as always by my partner
in crime, Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from
our studios at Lambefield and Wes, we have double duty
to take care of on this show today because we
have to talk Packers Saints. We also have to talk
Packers Lions. Review one game, preview another. We'll start with
(00:29):
reviewing Sunday's game at Lambefield And I don't know where
you want to start with this, but I'm going to
start right here because last week we spent a good
portion of our Tuesday show talking about how one bad
quarter of football can wipe out three pretty good quarters
of football. Well, now, one awfully good quarter of football
(00:52):
wiped out three very very struggling quarters of football for
the Green Bay Packers, and they came out of these
two games games at one on one because they pulled
off a seventeen point fourth quarter comeback against the Saints.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Can I can I break down the third wall a
little bit here? Well, just give you a little bit
of a background here. So I got tickets for two
separate collections of people. My good friend Matteo Rubinato and
his family were at the game. Also, one of our
former interns of Donna Olson, brought her dad to the game.
Both of them. At halftime, my texted, go on, I'm
really sorry because like they both are super excited and
(01:28):
it was a slow start. And then afterwards, after that
fourth quarter I sent both the text going, now ENVM
turned out cool. Yeah, uh, it's funny. Mike. As many
years as I've covered this thing, and you obviously have
a couple more of these games under your belt than
I do, I always feel like I see something new
and this game, as much as there were some parallels
(01:51):
to what happened in twenty eighteen, the only other time
the Packers have come back from a seventeen point deficit
in that win over the Bears in the beginning of
the hundred six, this one just felt different because this one,
it's not like the quarterback was out, it's not that
anybody was injured. While other than the people that were
injured at the beginning, it was just a matter of
the Packers just really were not executing early on, and
(02:13):
there were too many penalties they were thrown in a
bunch of third and long situations. As good as you know,
Jordan Love has been on third and longs. It's difficult
when it's third and nine plus.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Especially against the defense like that one oh.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
One hundred percent, they're not going to give you any
extra you know, leeway. But then you get to that
fourth quarter and that last seven minutes specifically, and everything
turned over. And what I learned from that. There's a
number of things you and I are going to talk
about here in terms of the grittiness of the team,
guys stepping up and making plays. But if there was
ever a situation that shows you what a young quarterback's
(02:50):
medal is made out of, it was that with Jordan Love,
the kids stepped up routinely and made a bunch of
plays that I don't know a lot of NFL quarterbacks
could make.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, I mean that.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
One of the big talking points after the game was
just how as badly as everything had gone for three
quarters that you know, as we've talked about with Jordan Love,
he was still he was still poised. He didn't let
anything fluster him or rattle him. He was the leader
of that team, or specifically of the offense in getting
(03:22):
things going, because we'll talk in a minute about how
the defense on balance played a pretty darn good football
game from start to finish. But when you talk about
a comeback like this, and I mentioned this an insider
inbox other conversations I've had with people, I've seen a
lot of comebacks in my day, both by the Packers,
by the other team, whatever it may be. I don't
(03:46):
know if I've ever seen one that felt like it
came completely out of the blue, that it just you
just had felt like there was nothing that you were
going to hang your hat on and say, Okay, yeah,
there's still a chance. There's still a chance, you know,
even going all the way up to the first play
of the fourth quarter, the Packers are in the red zone.
They've got fourth and two at the thirteen yard line.
(04:08):
Seventeen to nothing at the start of the fourth quarter
is not insurmountable. It's three scores. It's a tough hill
to climb, but it's not insurmountable. But then on fourth
and two from the thirteen yard line, they the Packers
can't connect. Love and Patrick Taylor are just not on
the same page with when the Saints, in essence, we're
giving them the first down, the way they were lining
(04:29):
up defensively, you don't execute that pass, you turn the
ball over on downs, and you know, you're just like,
what do you even have to go on here? And
then suddenly, you know, the defense was holding up it's
and kept getting the ball back to the offense to
give them chance after chance after chance. And then suddenly
those chances turned into field goal, touchdown, touchdown, a gutsy
(04:51):
two point conversion on the middle score after the second
touchdown or after the first touchdown, the second score, which
which turned out to be a tremendous play by Jordan Love,
just off schedule, improvising finding samai toure when he starts
to scramble and buy some time, but he's got no
way to get to the goal line himself, and he
(05:12):
just whips a pass across across his body, and you know,
you could feel the energy in the stadium. The defense
was getting its job done. You know, you know, Jayden
Reid makes a diving catch for thirty yards just a
couple of plays after Jordan Love scrambles twenty four yards
up the sideline. I mean, it was just it started
to compound itself, but it it just it felt like
(05:34):
it came out of the blue, and and I give credit.
You know, there have been some discussions in Matt Lafleur's
press conferences like is this is a young team? Are
they just too young to know any better? That you're
not supposed to be able to do that. You're not
supposed to just flip a switch and go win a
game that you kind of had no business winning. But
(05:54):
they found a way and it certainly puts the team
in a much better place mentally, psychologically and everything going
into a short week with a division rival coming in
here for Thursday night football.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And that's what impressed me the most because a game
that maybe they didn't have any business winning came a
week after a game they had no business losing, correct,
when they had so much momentum going for them in
the fourth quarter against the Falcons on the road. This
game a couple things. It also stood out to me.
You touched on it with Jordan Love inside the red zone.
There are so many things about him and we're getting
(06:27):
you know, it's we're almost getting long winded. I'm definitely
getting long winded talking about his poise and his confidence
and just his composure in those situations. But the kid
is the guy's just built for red zone situations and
situational football. Yeah, that played a two ray although it
wasn't technically in the red zone. I mean he's dancing,
he's scrambling the pocket, he's stepping tall, he's seeing through
(06:49):
the clutter, and he's finding his receiver on an extended
play that you don't typically see happen on a two
point conversion. Usually you got to hit your mark right
away or you're not going to get the points. They made.
Play happened, though Matt Lafloory even said he didn't feel
great about the play call going into that, but Jordan
Love made the Packers look really smart.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
And when you look at the play on film, just
another example of how things were not going in the
Packers direction and they weren't really executing well. Jaden Reid
comes in motion on that two point conversion and his
timing on the motion is off. He almost gets hit
by the shotgun snap because he either he goes too
far doesn't get their I don't know what exactly his
(07:27):
assignment was in terms of the motion, but the snap
on the two point conversion almost hit him in the
leg and would have completely wrecked that and obviously would
have changed everything going down the stretch if the Packers
are down eight as opposed to being down six. I mean,
there was so much that the Packers had to do
to overcome to kind of get out of their own way.
(07:47):
When you talk about the penalties and the pre snap
stuff and the holding and the special teams was committing
penalties and putting them in bad field position and all
of that kind of stuff. Somehow they just you know,
Matt Lafleur talks about resilience, but it wasn't just resilience.
There was also a persistence in this game. This team,
(08:09):
This team showed a persistence, whether you're talking about the
defense going out there and just continually getting stops to
get the ball back to the offense, or whether you're
talking about Jordan Love trying to hit Romeo Dobbs against
Isaac Yadam the one on one coverage on the outside
because Marshaun Lattimore's on the other side. You don't really
want to mess with the all pro over there. He
(08:29):
kept after it and then sure enough they finally connected
for what turned up out to be the game winning touchdown.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, and then what has to happen after that, it's
Andres Carlson making that extra point. I mean, it was
even something that got brought up with Rich Pasaccia though
those are big key moments for a young team, a
young holder, first year player, and Daniel Wheelan and you know,
early on Wheeland has the punt return for a touchdown.
They make the adjustments there and then honestly, what sort
of picked the Packers up during that final stretch, to
(08:56):
my eye, it was that play that they ran on
the special team's kickoff coverage where you had Darnell Savage
knifing inside of Keishawn Nixon making an open field tackle
and making Rashid Shaheed, who actually had that punt return
for touchdown, right dropping him at the seventeen and making
the Saints take over the ball at that spot. There
were some unfortunate things. Derek Carr goes down with the
(09:17):
ac joint sprain on one of the sacks that Rashawn
Gary had, but then Gary down the stretch made some
big plays, four quarterback hits, three sacks. I don't even
know how many pressures he got accredited for with like
Pro Football Focus, but the guy was constantly around the
football it was my story after the game. You touched
on it as well, the complimentary football aspect of this.
It's everything that was missing in Atlanta. It was President
(09:39):
Lambellfield on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, and it just goes to show how, you know,
as we talked about last week, how important crunch time
is in this business. You know, these games unless unless
it's you know, the Miami Dolphins against the Denver Broncos,
these games are.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
These games are not.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
They're very rarely out of reach, you know, with when
they're fifteen minutes to play, when there's still a whole
quarter to go, and seventeen to nothing looked terrible, and
the Packers offensively were playing terribly. But if you can
get your act together in crunch time, and especially when
you're playing at home, just like the Falcons last week
were at home, they get the crowd behind them, you know.
(10:17):
Matt Lafleur said after the game, Momentum is Momentum is
a weird thing.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
There are all.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Sorts of philosophical debates about whether it's real or not
or or whatever. But man, you've you felt it, and
you felt it in the stadium that the Lambeau crowd,
they were there for Jordan Love's first home start. And
once they had something to cheer about, man, they brought
it and and yeah, the Saints lost Derek Carr on
(10:43):
one of those one of those sacks by Rashaun Gary.
Jamis Winston steps in, He's still got Chris o'lave and
Michael Thomas and these guys to throw the ball to it,
and the Packers defense just kept kept getting the job done.
You know, I pointed out in my in by what
you might have misfeature that's on the website, there were two,
(11:03):
you know, really two defensive sequences that not a lot
of people are talking about because they weren't in the
fourth quarter. But you look at the end of the
first half, when Derek Carr is still in the game,
They've got first and goal in the seven yard line
with a chance to go up twenty one to zero,
and the Packers defense held made him kick the field goal.
It was only seventeen to nothing at the half as
(11:24):
opposed to twenty one. And then on one of Winston's
early possessions, he actually gets a first down or two
and they have a first down at the I believe
it's the thirty seven yard line. For green Bay. No,
I'm sorry, forty one yard line of green Bay. So
they moved the chains one more time. That field goal
is under fifty yards and they're looking at potentially adding
(11:46):
three points even with Winston not doing a whole lot.
But the defense rose up and got a three and
out there, made them punt. The Saints didn't get to
didn't get any more points on the board. And then,
of course, you know Packers catch a break when when
the Saints rookie kicker misses from forty six yards.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
But that goes back to.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Your point about Andras Carlson with the pat right, he's
a rookie kicker as well, there's a lot of pressure there. No,
thirty three yards for a pat is not forty six
yards from the hash for a field goal. But still
one guy, one rookie made a clutch kick in this
game and the other one didn't, and it was huge
in the Packers coming out on the winning side.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
And honors made too, because I mean that thirty eight
yard er. The Packers don't win this game if you
don't make that field.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Goal, Yeah, absolutely, because that was to get him on
the board.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
If they don't get any points on that drive after
they've already been stopped on the fourth and two and
turned it over. That would have been almost since or moderable.
Just from a momentum standpoint or rhythm standpoint, I think
it would have been hard to kick it into that
extra gear. But this is what had to happen. It
was the response the Packers needed to make. You didn't
have jyr Alexander, who was questionable with the back injurer.
(12:52):
You didn't have Christian Wattson, David Baktiari or Aaron Jones. Again,
they needed young guys to rise that occasion. Whether or
not they know enough to know not what they know
in these matchups, it's irrelevant. It's about what do you
do when you go out there. I thought that team
followed the energy of Jordan Love, the twenty five yard
scramble that he had to kickstart one of the series,
(13:14):
the thirty yard pass to Jaden Reid. We saw a
number of different DPI calls. Again, for as much as
people have been talking about oh, he throws downfield so often,
the Packers are generating yards, They're generating points off those opportunities.
It's exciting. Packers are playing an exciting brand of football
right now.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, when you talk about again about the persistence that
it took in this comeback, Matt Lafleur continued to try
to push the ball down the field. This was not
some kind of dink and dunk. Take what the defenses
giving you comeback, and you know, on the one drive,
two explosive attempts down the field turn into two defensive
pass interference penalties covering sixty seven yards and suddenly you're
(13:52):
in scoring position to make it a one score game.
Jaden Reid he got his hands on some passes that
he'd like to have back that he feels he should
have caught. Everybody feels he should have caught those, but
Jordan Reid kept going to him. Not that he had
a whole lot of choice with Aaron Jones and Christian
Watson not in the game, but Jayden Reid just kept
plugging away. He was persistent, He stayed with it, and
(14:13):
he makes the big thirty yard diving catch down the
field that you know, whatever the next gen stats say
was thirty percent catch probability or whatever, but he he
makes the play when he had some other plays earlier
in the game that maybe were a little bit more routine,
so to speak, and he he doesn't come up with him.
But they just these young guys that had that had
(14:34):
to step up into big roles. They just kept playing
and they just kept fighting. And Matt lafleur Scher was
proud of him after the game.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I appreciate the analytics and the numbers certainly that played
into the Packers' decision to go for the two point conversion. Yeah,
successfully make it, but it always gets I always get
the kick out of these percentages or these probabilities, because
there was also like a nine ninety seven point four
percent probability that the Saints were gonna win that game
with like seven minutes last day, back and change. But
(15:01):
the Packers didn't give up. They believed, and now they
have to enjoy it very quickly and then prepare for
the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well that's what I want to get to, is how
quickly the Packers have to turn the page here. But
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(15:28):
with their favorite sub or sub and a bowl cousin
subs fifty years of better. All right, there's a lot
of challenges here facing the Packers on a short week west.
Not only is there obviously the limited preparation time and everything,
which which is the same for both teams coming off
of a game on Sunday, but the Packers have they
(15:49):
have so much about their operation on offense and on
special teams in particular, that they need to clean up.
There were all the penalties on offense. There was the
there were penalties on special teams. There was the punp
return allowed for a touchdown. You have so little time
right now to try to straighten that stuff out. I mean,
you have to review it in some fashion. But at
(16:09):
the same time, you've got to move on and prepare,
specifically for a Detroit Lions team that's coming into lambeau
Field with the same two and one record. Both the
Bears and the Vikings are zero to three. So this
is for first place in the NFC North at this
early stage of the season. The winner is going to
walk off that field on Thursday night, you know, sitting
(16:31):
on top of the division. Big game here that you know,
both of the Packers and Lions games this year are
in short weeks on Thursdays, right the one in Detroit
will beyond Thanksgiving Day. This is the first one, and
for a Week four game, it feels awfully big.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Yeah, for a thursdaynight football game, it feels awfully big.
I mean, there's been some blowouts here over the past
couple of years in these games, and certainly this one
is one that I think a lot of people are
gonna be tuning into. The Lions had such an interesting
performance against the Falcons. The more I dived into this,
that is just a strange game that they played. Defensively,
played excellent. They stopped that running game. Jared Goff through
(17:09):
thirty three passes and targeted four receivers, just ridiculous, kind
of like it's a'm and Ross Saint Brown And it
was Sam Laporta in this game, and that was pretty
much the passing attack. And then Jamior Gibbs I think
showed a lot of the flashes that we've seen with him.
But I'm telling you right now, Michael I am going
to telegraph what my final thoughts player to watch for
(17:33):
this is going to be.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Well, we have to shoot it pretty soon because the
game is.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
But I don't want to do any spoilers, but I'll
say this, man, this is a Rashawn Gary game. And
what I mean by that is the Lions do have
a couple injuries on the offensive line. There are some
guys that are banged up. As good as that group
has been, and they still were not sure whether or
not they're going to have David Montgomery was estimated as
limited on Monday, but that's their third down back and
(17:59):
I keep on it. But the first thing I watched
in the first two games with the Lions is Gibbs
is a very talented back and he looks like he
needs some seasoning in terms of the other aspects of
the position. Packers have to make that count. You have
to put on pressure to Jared Goff because, as we've
seen so many times, including last season, when he gets
into a rhythm and he protects the football, it's a
pretty efficient offense and it can be difficult to stop.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Absolutely, and this is really interesting the way this falls.
And we were kind of hinting at this last week
because it doesn't doesn't happen this way very often. But
here the Packers and Lions are meeting in week four,
and they have both played the same team each of
the last two weeks, right, And you know, it's a
(18:42):
week to week league in the NFL. Different teams match
up with opponents in different ways, so you can't you
can't read too much into it. But there's a lot
of there's a lot of sort of thumbs up thumbs
down kind of things when you try to make the comparisons.
Because the Detroit Lions, for as much as they control
old that win over the Falcons, they only scored twenty
(19:03):
points against Atlanta's defense in their own stadium. The Packers
had twenty four points against Atlanta in three quarters before
things kind of fell apart in the fourth quarter on
the road there. But then the flip side of it
is that Atlanta running game that the Packers could not handle.
The Lions completely shut it down. I believe they ended
up as a team the Falcons with only forty four
(19:25):
yards rushing on twenty attempts. So that turned the game
over to Desmond Ridder, the Falcons quarterback. It was all
in his hands, and the Lions just made his life
miserable in the pocket. They were getting after him. Play
after play after play. They end up with seven sacks
of Rittter in the game. So when I look at
this one, and I totally agree with you with regard
(19:47):
to Rashaan Gary, the flip side of it is true
for me. If you're the Packers, Aiden Hutchinson is the
guy you can't let dictate what is going to be
going on out there. And the Lions have a good defense,
and they have other good defensive players aside from Aiden Hutchinson,
But to me, it feels like he's the you know,
the old Reggie Jackson New York Yankees line. He's the
(20:09):
straw that stirs the drink on that Lions defense. I
think we saw it against the Chiefs in the in
the kickoff opener in Week one, on that Thursday night game.
Aiden Hutchinson is the guy who makes that defense go,
I think, And if the Packers can whether David Baktier
is gonna play, we don't know, you know, Zach Tom
(20:30):
injured his knee, you know, at right tackle. We don't
really know where the Packers are going to be on
the offensive line for this game. But man, you've got
to keep Aiden Hutchinson from taking command of this thing
because he can wreck a whole lot offense.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
And if you haven't watched the Lions yet this year,
I haven't seen a lot of them. What I would
suggest is in the back of your mind, kind of
keep twenty nineteen Zadarius Smith in your head. I mean,
they are going to move him around all over the place.
I mean John Runyon, Royce Newman, if he gets the
call again at left guard, They're going to have to
be aware of his whereabouts in this one because they
just they don't plug him in at one spot. It's
(21:06):
not even about playing them off the edges. They'll play
him anywhere now at this point, and the guy can
actually wreck the game from there because it's not just
about the sacks that he gets, it's the way in
which the defense around him adjust to that. I'll tell
you this, man, at the end of last year, I
know the Lions statistically we're not very good. I think
we saw two of the best performances that they had
against Green Bay, both at their place and then here
(21:26):
in the finale.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yeah, I agree entirely, but that.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Momentum they had at the end of last season with
Aaron Glenn's unit, they continued to build off of it,
and I think they've been one of the more stingy
defenses so far this season. You had to read about
it when I wrote about it in Inbox. But you know,
Brian Branch is looking like an absolute gem of a
pick there in the middle of the second round, a
guy that had a first round grade. But everybody's like, oh,
it's twenty twenty three. Do you want to spend a
(21:51):
first round pick on a safety. He's reminding everybody about
how impactful that position can be. And again, Michael, that
is a spot in that secondary that they really have
struggle gold in recent years. To Phill they had some
decent pass rushers, they had some good linebackers, but they
didn't have defensive backs. They're starting to find some defensive backs.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Now, yeah they are.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
It's it's coming together for the Lions defensively, and you wonder,
I mean, they they certainly certainly made life difficult for
the Chiefs, and that kickoff opener. They had some some
ups and downs against Geno Smith. That was kind of
a high scoring game there in Week two, although the
Seahawks did have a pick six off of golf in
that game, so that that added to the point total.
(22:29):
That when it comes to points against, that counts against
your defense kind of unfairly in that respect. And yeah,
I mean holding the holding the Atlanta Falcons, a two
to zero team that had a lot going for him,
holding those guys to just six points last week. These
short weeks, you never you never know what's gonna happen.
Both teams are up against the same limitations quickly before
(22:53):
we go. Aside from anything that we've already talked about,
anything else that jumps out at you as a key
to victory for Green Bay in.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
This field, position and time of possession, the Lions have
done a really good job of both of those things.
I personally said for a number of years, I think
Jack Fox is probably one of the more underrated punters
in the NFL. A lot of people don't talk about
this guy, but the guy only puts together solid performance
after solid performance, a consistent forty two net punter. When
the Lions are playing their brand of football, they are
controlling the temple, those things, the tempo of it. Khalif
(23:23):
Raymond involved in that, and you mentioned it Michael a
couple weeks back with that pick six. That's the one
thing that Green Bay I think is going to need
in this game to succeed. I'm not saying you have
to go and score a touchdown, but I'm just saying
you need to find ways to take away the football
and generate points off those takeaways. That's been one area
outside of the you know, the kuway Walker interception that
they've kind of struggled with here early on. But if
(23:44):
you can win the turnover battle, you can win the
time of possession. I think the Green Bit Packers can
get out of this thing. Three and one.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, I think the thing that jumps out to me,
and a lot of it comes off of just with
what the Packers are struggling with with their ground game
in particular, and then also you look at what the
Lions did to the Falcons offensively. The Packers have to
find a way to stay balanced in this game, and
Green Bay's run game is not where they want it
to be. Certainly, if Aaron Jones can get back and
(24:12):
be able to play in this game, that would be
a huge boost in that regard. But as much as
the ground game is struggling, You're still going to have
to find a way to be effective in some fashion
on the ground, because the Falcons found out last week
what it's like if you become one dimensional against this
Lion's defense, it's lights out. I mean, Desmond Ritter just
had no chance back there. He was getting buried every
(24:33):
other play when he's trying to throw, and the Packers
can't get into Packers can't get into that kind of game.
You've got to find a way to get something you
can rely on, something that can be consistent on the
ground so that Lion's defense has to play You, honest,
I agree with you.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
And the other thing I'll close on this. You know,
you're absolutely right there's a lot of corrections green By
need to make coming out of that game against the Saints.
But to me, now, maybe this is just me being
too much of a softy. I guess you could say,
but it's like, well, a soft, sensitive softy. No. But
to me, I had almost bring up those last ten
(25:14):
minutes of film and just put that in front of
the team too and be like, this is what it's
supposed to look like.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
This, Yeah, this is who this is who we are.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
This is who we are, because you know what's great
about that sequence, Michael, It's not like the Packers just
completed every single pass and they everything went right. No,
Jordan Love had plenty of incompletions during that time as well,
but they kept getting after it. They kept chopping wood.
I think was one of the expressions that Preston Smith
used after the game. And these are the type of
matchups you want to be able to do. Because I'm
telling you, Michael, the way the schedule's lining up, things
(25:42):
are favorable for Green Bay. They needed to get out
of this first stretch of the season. Okay, you know
this wasn't advantageous to go two weeks on the road
and then come back home if you go, if you
split on the road, and when your first your first
two at home, you go into that Monday night game
against the Raiders feeling pretty good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Absolutely, And obviously everybody's crossing their fingers. We're probably not
going to know until ninety minutes before kickoff just where
the Packers are health wise with all of these guys
who have been who have been missing time. But hey,
that's life in the NFL, and the Packers are dealing
with it every day.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Now, Packers kept eleven offensive linemen at least on the
initial fifty three minute man roster, and every day we're
being reminded about how you need those guys in order
to navigate a season.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
There's a reason for it.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right 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 and everything from Thursday night's
big game against the Lions at lambeau Field. We'll have
it all for you on Packers dot com. For Wes,
I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Everybody. We will see you next time.
Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
I am Mike Spafford, joined as always by my partner
in crime, Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you here from
our studios at Lambefield and Wes, we have double duty
to take care of on this show today because we
have to talk Packers Saints. We also have to talk
Packers Lions. Review one game, preview another. We'll start with
(00:29):
reviewing Sunday's game at Lambefield And I don't know where
you want to start with this, but I'm going to
start right here because last week we spent a good
portion of our Tuesday show talking about how one bad
quarter of football can wipe out three pretty good quarters
of football. Well, now, one awfully good quarter of football
(00:52):
wiped out three very very struggling quarters of football for
the Green Bay Packers, and they came out of these
two games games at one on one because they pulled
off a seventeen point fourth quarter comeback against the Saints.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Can I can I break down the third wall a
little bit here? Well, just give you a little bit
of a background here. So I got tickets for two
separate collections of people. My good friend Matteo Rubinato and
his family were at the game. Also, one of our
former interns of Donna Olson, brought her dad to the game.
Both of them. At halftime, my texted, go on, I'm
really sorry because like they both are super excited and
(01:28):
it was a slow start. And then afterwards, after that
fourth quarter I sent both the text going, now ENVM
turned out cool. Yeah, uh, it's funny. Mike. As many
years as I've covered this thing, and you obviously have
a couple more of these games under your belt than
I do, I always feel like I see something new
and this game, as much as there were some parallels
(01:51):
to what happened in twenty eighteen, the only other time
the Packers have come back from a seventeen point deficit
in that win over the Bears in the beginning of
the hundred six, this one just felt different because this one,
it's not like the quarterback was out, it's not that
anybody was injured. While other than the people that were
injured at the beginning, it was just a matter of
the Packers just really were not executing early on, and
(02:13):
there were too many penalties they were thrown in a
bunch of third and long situations. As good as you know,
Jordan Love has been on third and longs. It's difficult
when it's third and nine plus.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Especially against the defense like that one oh.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
One hundred percent, they're not going to give you any
extra you know, leeway. But then you get to that
fourth quarter and that last seven minutes specifically, and everything
turned over. And what I learned from that. There's a
number of things you and I are going to talk
about here in terms of the grittiness of the team,
guys stepping up and making plays. But if there was
ever a situation that shows you what a young quarterback's
(02:50):
medal is made out of, it was that with Jordan Love,
the kids stepped up routinely and made a bunch of
plays that I don't know a lot of NFL quarterbacks
could make.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Yeah, I mean that.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
One of the big talking points after the game was
just how as badly as everything had gone for three
quarters that you know, as we've talked about with Jordan Love,
he was still he was still poised. He didn't let
anything fluster him or rattle him. He was the leader
of that team, or specifically of the offense in getting
(03:22):
things going, because we'll talk in a minute about how
the defense on balance played a pretty darn good football
game from start to finish. But when you talk about
a comeback like this, and I mentioned this an insider
inbox other conversations I've had with people, I've seen a
lot of comebacks in my day, both by the Packers,
by the other team, whatever it may be. I don't
(03:46):
know if I've ever seen one that felt like it
came completely out of the blue, that it just you
just had felt like there was nothing that you were
going to hang your hat on and say, Okay, yeah,
there's still a chance. There's still a chance, you know,
even going all the way up to the first play
of the fourth quarter, the Packers are in the red zone.
They've got fourth and two at the thirteen yard line.
(04:08):
Seventeen to nothing at the start of the fourth quarter
is not insurmountable. It's three scores. It's a tough hill
to climb, but it's not insurmountable. But then on fourth
and two from the thirteen yard line, they the Packers
can't connect. Love and Patrick Taylor are just not on
the same page with when the Saints, in essence, we're
giving them the first down, the way they were lining
(04:29):
up defensively, you don't execute that pass, you turn the
ball over on downs, and you know, you're just like,
what do you even have to go on here? And
then suddenly, you know, the defense was holding up it's
and kept getting the ball back to the offense to
give them chance after chance after chance. And then suddenly
those chances turned into field goal, touchdown, touchdown, a gutsy
(04:51):
two point conversion on the middle score after the second
touchdown or after the first touchdown, the second score, which
which turned out to be a tremendous play by Jordan Love,
just off schedule, improvising finding samai toure when he starts
to scramble and buy some time, but he's got no
way to get to the goal line himself, and he
(05:12):
just whips a pass across across his body, and you know,
you could feel the energy in the stadium. The defense
was getting its job done. You know, you know, Jayden
Reid makes a diving catch for thirty yards just a
couple of plays after Jordan Love scrambles twenty four yards
up the sideline. I mean, it was just it started
to compound itself, but it it just it felt like
(05:34):
it came out of the blue, and and I give credit.
You know, there have been some discussions in Matt Lafleur's
press conferences like is this is a young team? Are
they just too young to know any better? That you're
not supposed to be able to do that. You're not
supposed to just flip a switch and go win a
game that you kind of had no business winning. But
(05:54):
they found a way and it certainly puts the team
in a much better place mentally, psychologically and everything going
into a short week with a division rival coming in
here for Thursday night football.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And that's what impressed me the most because a game
that maybe they didn't have any business winning came a
week after a game they had no business losing, correct,
when they had so much momentum going for them in
the fourth quarter against the Falcons on the road. This
game a couple things. It also stood out to me.
You touched on it with Jordan Love inside the red zone.
There are so many things about him and we're getting
(06:27):
you know, it's we're almost getting long winded. I'm definitely
getting long winded talking about his poise and his confidence
and just his composure in those situations. But the kid
is the guy's just built for red zone situations and
situational football. Yeah, that played a two ray although it
wasn't technically in the red zone. I mean he's dancing,
he's scrambling the pocket, he's stepping tall, he's seeing through
(06:49):
the clutter, and he's finding his receiver on an extended
play that you don't typically see happen on a two
point conversion. Usually you got to hit your mark right
away or you're not going to get the points. They made.
Play happened, though Matt Lafloory even said he didn't feel
great about the play call going into that, but Jordan
Love made the Packers look really smart.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
And when you look at the play on film, just
another example of how things were not going in the
Packers direction and they weren't really executing well. Jaden Reid
comes in motion on that two point conversion and his
timing on the motion is off. He almost gets hit
by the shotgun snap because he either he goes too
far doesn't get their I don't know what exactly his
(07:27):
assignment was in terms of the motion, but the snap
on the two point conversion almost hit him in the
leg and would have completely wrecked that and obviously would
have changed everything going down the stretch if the Packers
are down eight as opposed to being down six. I mean,
there was so much that the Packers had to do
to overcome to kind of get out of their own way.
(07:47):
When you talk about the penalties and the pre snap
stuff and the holding and the special teams was committing
penalties and putting them in bad field position and all
of that kind of stuff. Somehow they just you know,
Matt Lafleur talks about resilience, but it wasn't just resilience.
There was also a persistence in this game. This team,
(08:09):
This team showed a persistence, whether you're talking about the
defense going out there and just continually getting stops to
get the ball back to the offense, or whether you're
talking about Jordan Love trying to hit Romeo Dobbs against
Isaac Yadam the one on one coverage on the outside
because Marshaun Lattimore's on the other side. You don't really
want to mess with the all pro over there. He
(08:29):
kept after it and then sure enough they finally connected
for what turned up out to be the game winning touchdown.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, and then what has to happen after that, it's
Andres Carlson making that extra point. I mean, it was
even something that got brought up with Rich Pasaccia though
those are big key moments for a young team, a
young holder, first year player, and Daniel Wheelan and you know,
early on Wheeland has the punt return for a touchdown.
They make the adjustments there and then honestly, what sort
of picked the Packers up during that final stretch, to
(08:56):
my eye, it was that play that they ran on
the special team's kickoff coverage where you had Darnell Savage
knifing inside of Keishawn Nixon making an open field tackle
and making Rashid Shaheed, who actually had that punt return
for touchdown, right dropping him at the seventeen and making
the Saints take over the ball at that spot. There
were some unfortunate things. Derek Carr goes down with the
(09:17):
ac joint sprain on one of the sacks that Rashawn
Gary had, but then Gary down the stretch made some
big plays, four quarterback hits, three sacks. I don't even
know how many pressures he got accredited for with like
Pro Football Focus, but the guy was constantly around the
football it was my story after the game. You touched
on it as well, the complimentary football aspect of this.
It's everything that was missing in Atlanta. It was President
(09:39):
Lambellfield on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yeah, and it just goes to show how, you know,
as we talked about last week, how important crunch time
is in this business. You know, these games unless unless
it's you know, the Miami Dolphins against the Denver Broncos,
these games are.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
These games are not.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
They're very rarely out of reach, you know, with when
they're fifteen minutes to play, when there's still a whole
quarter to go, and seventeen to nothing looked terrible, and
the Packers offensively were playing terribly. But if you can
get your act together in crunch time, and especially when
you're playing at home, just like the Falcons last week
were at home, they get the crowd behind them, you know.
(10:17):
Matt Lafleur said after the game, Momentum is Momentum is
a weird thing.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
There are all.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Sorts of philosophical debates about whether it's real or not
or or whatever. But man, you've you felt it, and
you felt it in the stadium that the Lambeau crowd,
they were there for Jordan Love's first home start. And
once they had something to cheer about, man, they brought
it and and yeah, the Saints lost Derek Carr on
(10:43):
one of those one of those sacks by Rashaun Gary.
Jamis Winston steps in, He's still got Chris o'lave and
Michael Thomas and these guys to throw the ball to it,
and the Packers defense just kept kept getting the job done.
You know, I pointed out in my in by what
you might have misfeature that's on the website, there were two,
(11:03):
you know, really two defensive sequences that not a lot
of people are talking about because they weren't in the
fourth quarter. But you look at the end of the
first half, when Derek Carr is still in the game,
They've got first and goal in the seven yard line
with a chance to go up twenty one to zero,
and the Packers defense held made him kick the field goal.
It was only seventeen to nothing at the half as
(11:24):
opposed to twenty one. And then on one of Winston's
early possessions, he actually gets a first down or two
and they have a first down at the I believe
it's the thirty seven yard line. For green Bay. No,
I'm sorry, forty one yard line of green Bay. So
they moved the chains one more time. That field goal
is under fifty yards and they're looking at potentially adding
(11:46):
three points even with Winston not doing a whole lot.
But the defense rose up and got a three and
out there, made them punt. The Saints didn't get to
didn't get any more points on the board. And then,
of course, you know Packers catch a break when when
the Saints rookie kicker misses from forty six yards.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
But that goes back to.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Your point about Andras Carlson with the pat right, he's
a rookie kicker as well, there's a lot of pressure there. No,
thirty three yards for a pat is not forty six
yards from the hash for a field goal. But still
one guy, one rookie made a clutch kick in this
game and the other one didn't, and it was huge
in the Packers coming out on the winning side.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
And honors made too, because I mean that thirty eight
yard er. The Packers don't win this game if you
don't make that field.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
Goal, Yeah, absolutely, because that was to get him on
the board.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
If they don't get any points on that drive after
they've already been stopped on the fourth and two and
turned it over. That would have been almost since or moderable.
Just from a momentum standpoint or rhythm standpoint, I think
it would have been hard to kick it into that
extra gear. But this is what had to happen. It
was the response the Packers needed to make. You didn't
have jyr Alexander, who was questionable with the back injurer.
(12:52):
You didn't have Christian Wattson, David Baktiari or Aaron Jones. Again,
they needed young guys to rise that occasion. Whether or
not they know enough to know not what they know
in these matchups, it's irrelevant. It's about what do you
do when you go out there. I thought that team
followed the energy of Jordan Love, the twenty five yard
scramble that he had to kickstart one of the series,
(13:14):
the thirty yard pass to Jaden Reid. We saw a
number of different DPI calls. Again, for as much as
people have been talking about oh, he throws downfield so often,
the Packers are generating yards, They're generating points off those opportunities.
It's exciting. Packers are playing an exciting brand of football
right now.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, when you talk about again about the persistence that
it took in this comeback, Matt Lafleur continued to try
to push the ball down the field. This was not
some kind of dink and dunk. Take what the defenses
giving you comeback, and you know, on the one drive,
two explosive attempts down the field turn into two defensive
pass interference penalties covering sixty seven yards and suddenly you're
(13:52):
in scoring position to make it a one score game.
Jaden Reid he got his hands on some passes that
he'd like to have back that he feels he should
have caught. Everybody feels he should have caught those, but
Jordan Reid kept going to him. Not that he had
a whole lot of choice with Aaron Jones and Christian
Watson not in the game, but Jayden Reid just kept
plugging away. He was persistent, He stayed with it, and
(14:13):
he makes the big thirty yard diving catch down the
field that you know, whatever the next gen stats say
was thirty percent catch probability or whatever, but he he
makes the play when he had some other plays earlier
in the game that maybe were a little bit more routine,
so to speak, and he he doesn't come up with him.
But they just these young guys that had that had
(14:34):
to step up into big roles. They just kept playing
and they just kept fighting. And Matt lafleur Scher was
proud of him after the game.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
I appreciate the analytics and the numbers certainly that played
into the Packers' decision to go for the two point conversion. Yeah,
successfully make it, but it always gets I always get
the kick out of these percentages or these probabilities, because
there was also like a nine ninety seven point four
percent probability that the Saints were gonna win that game
with like seven minutes last day, back and change. But
(15:01):
the Packers didn't give up. They believed, and now they
have to enjoy it very quickly and then prepare for
the Detroit Lions.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well that's what I want to get to, is how
quickly the Packers have to turn the page here. But
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(15:28):
with their favorite sub or sub and a bowl cousin
subs fifty years of better. All right, there's a lot
of challenges here facing the Packers on a short week west.
Not only is there obviously the limited preparation time and everything,
which which is the same for both teams coming off
of a game on Sunday, but the Packers have they
(15:49):
have so much about their operation on offense and on
special teams in particular, that they need to clean up.
There were all the penalties on offense. There was the
there were penalties on special teams. There was the punp
return allowed for a touchdown. You have so little time
right now to try to straighten that stuff out. I mean,
you have to review it in some fashion. But at
(16:09):
the same time, you've got to move on and prepare,
specifically for a Detroit Lions team that's coming into lambeau
Field with the same two and one record. Both the
Bears and the Vikings are zero to three. So this
is for first place in the NFC North at this
early stage of the season. The winner is going to
walk off that field on Thursday night, you know, sitting
(16:31):
on top of the division. Big game here that you know,
both of the Packers and Lions games this year are
in short weeks on Thursdays, right the one in Detroit
will beyond Thanksgiving Day. This is the first one, and
for a Week four game, it feels awfully big.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Yeah, for a thursdaynight football game, it feels awfully big.
I mean, there's been some blowouts here over the past
couple of years in these games, and certainly this one
is one that I think a lot of people are
gonna be tuning into. The Lions had such an interesting
performance against the Falcons. The more I dived into this,
that is just a strange game that they played. Defensively,
played excellent. They stopped that running game. Jared Goff through
(17:09):
thirty three passes and targeted four receivers, just ridiculous, kind
of like it's a'm and Ross Saint Brown And it
was Sam Laporta in this game, and that was pretty
much the passing attack. And then Jamior Gibbs I think
showed a lot of the flashes that we've seen with him.
But I'm telling you right now, Michael I am going
to telegraph what my final thoughts player to watch for
(17:33):
this is going to be.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Well, we have to shoot it pretty soon because the
game is.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
But I don't want to do any spoilers, but I'll
say this, man, this is a Rashawn Gary game. And
what I mean by that is the Lions do have
a couple injuries on the offensive line. There are some
guys that are banged up. As good as that group
has been, and they still were not sure whether or
not they're going to have David Montgomery was estimated as
limited on Monday, but that's their third down back and
(17:59):
I keep on it. But the first thing I watched
in the first two games with the Lions is Gibbs
is a very talented back and he looks like he
needs some seasoning in terms of the other aspects of
the position. Packers have to make that count. You have
to put on pressure to Jared Goff because, as we've
seen so many times, including last season, when he gets
into a rhythm and he protects the football, it's a
pretty efficient offense and it can be difficult to stop.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Absolutely, and this is really interesting the way this falls.
And we were kind of hinting at this last week
because it doesn't doesn't happen this way very often. But
here the Packers and Lions are meeting in week four,
and they have both played the same team each of
the last two weeks, right, And you know, it's a
(18:42):
week to week league in the NFL. Different teams match
up with opponents in different ways, so you can't you
can't read too much into it. But there's a lot
of there's a lot of sort of thumbs up thumbs
down kind of things when you try to make the comparisons.
Because the Detroit Lions, for as much as they control
old that win over the Falcons, they only scored twenty
(19:03):
points against Atlanta's defense in their own stadium. The Packers
had twenty four points against Atlanta in three quarters before
things kind of fell apart in the fourth quarter on
the road there. But then the flip side of it
is that Atlanta running game that the Packers could not handle.
The Lions completely shut it down. I believe they ended
up as a team the Falcons with only forty four
(19:25):
yards rushing on twenty attempts. So that turned the game
over to Desmond Ridder, the Falcons quarterback. It was all
in his hands, and the Lions just made his life
miserable in the pocket. They were getting after him. Play
after play after play. They end up with seven sacks
of Rittter in the game. So when I look at
this one, and I totally agree with you with regard
(19:47):
to Rashaan Gary, the flip side of it is true
for me. If you're the Packers, Aiden Hutchinson is the
guy you can't let dictate what is going to be
going on out there. And the Lions have a good defense,
and they have other good defensive players aside from Aiden Hutchinson,
But to me, it feels like he's the you know,
the old Reggie Jackson New York Yankees line. He's the
(20:09):
straw that stirs the drink on that Lions defense. I
think we saw it against the Chiefs in the in
the kickoff opener in Week one, on that Thursday night game.
Aiden Hutchinson is the guy who makes that defense go,
I think, And if the Packers can whether David Baktier
is gonna play, we don't know, you know, Zach Tom
(20:30):
injured his knee, you know, at right tackle. We don't
really know where the Packers are going to be on
the offensive line for this game. But man, you've got
to keep Aiden Hutchinson from taking command of this thing
because he can wreck a whole lot offense.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
And if you haven't watched the Lions yet this year,
I haven't seen a lot of them. What I would
suggest is in the back of your mind, kind of
keep twenty nineteen Zadarius Smith in your head. I mean,
they are going to move him around all over the place.
I mean John Runyon, Royce Newman, if he gets the
call again at left guard, They're going to have to
be aware of his whereabouts in this one because they
just they don't plug him in at one spot. It's
(21:06):
not even about playing them off the edges. They'll play
him anywhere now at this point, and the guy can
actually wreck the game from there because it's not just
about the sacks that he gets, it's the way in
which the defense around him adjust to that. I'll tell
you this, man, at the end of last year, I
know the Lions statistically we're not very good. I think
we saw two of the best performances that they had
against Green Bay, both at their place and then here
(21:26):
in the finale.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yeah, I agree entirely, but that.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Momentum they had at the end of last season with
Aaron Glenn's unit, they continued to build off of it,
and I think they've been one of the more stingy
defenses so far this season. You had to read about
it when I wrote about it in Inbox. But you know,
Brian Branch is looking like an absolute gem of a
pick there in the middle of the second round, a
guy that had a first round grade. But everybody's like, oh,
it's twenty twenty three. Do you want to spend a
(21:51):
first round pick on a safety. He's reminding everybody about
how impactful that position can be. And again, Michael, that
is a spot in that secondary that they really have
struggle gold in recent years. To Phill they had some
decent pass rushers, they had some good linebackers, but they
didn't have defensive backs. They're starting to find some defensive backs.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
Now, yeah they are.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
It's it's coming together for the Lions defensively, and you wonder,
I mean, they they certainly certainly made life difficult for
the Chiefs, and that kickoff opener. They had some some
ups and downs against Geno Smith. That was kind of
a high scoring game there in Week two, although the
Seahawks did have a pick six off of golf in
that game, so that that added to the point total.
(22:29):
That when it comes to points against, that counts against
your defense kind of unfairly in that respect. And yeah,
I mean holding the holding the Atlanta Falcons, a two
to zero team that had a lot going for him,
holding those guys to just six points last week. These
short weeks, you never you never know what's gonna happen.
Both teams are up against the same limitations quickly before
(22:53):
we go. Aside from anything that we've already talked about,
anything else that jumps out at you as a key
to victory for Green Bay in.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
This field, position and time of possession, the Lions have
done a really good job of both of those things.
I personally said for a number of years, I think
Jack Fox is probably one of the more underrated punters
in the NFL. A lot of people don't talk about
this guy, but the guy only puts together solid performance
after solid performance, a consistent forty two net punter. When
the Lions are playing their brand of football, they are
controlling the temple, those things, the tempo of it. Khalif
(23:23):
Raymond involved in that, and you mentioned it Michael a
couple weeks back with that pick six. That's the one
thing that Green Bay I think is going to need
in this game to succeed. I'm not saying you have
to go and score a touchdown, but I'm just saying
you need to find ways to take away the football
and generate points off those takeaways. That's been one area
outside of the you know, the kuway Walker interception that
they've kind of struggled with here early on. But if
(23:44):
you can win the turnover battle, you can win the
time of possession. I think the Green Bit Packers can
get out of this thing. Three and one.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, I think the thing that jumps out to me,
and a lot of it comes off of just with
what the Packers are struggling with with their ground game
in particular, and then also you look at what the
Lions did to the Falcons offensively. The Packers have to
find a way to stay balanced in this game, and
Green Bay's run game is not where they want it
to be. Certainly, if Aaron Jones can get back and
(24:12):
be able to play in this game, that would be
a huge boost in that regard. But as much as
the ground game is struggling, You're still going to have
to find a way to be effective in some fashion
on the ground, because the Falcons found out last week
what it's like if you become one dimensional against this
Lion's defense, it's lights out. I mean, Desmond Ritter just
had no chance back there. He was getting buried every
(24:33):
other play when he's trying to throw, and the Packers
can't get into Packers can't get into that kind of game.
You've got to find a way to get something you
can rely on, something that can be consistent on the
ground so that Lion's defense has to play You, honest,
I agree with you.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
And the other thing I'll close on this. You know,
you're absolutely right there's a lot of corrections green By
need to make coming out of that game against the Saints.
But to me, now, maybe this is just me being
too much of a softy. I guess you could say,
but it's like, well, a soft, sensitive softy. No. But
to me, I had almost bring up those last ten
(25:14):
minutes of film and just put that in front of
the team too and be like, this is what it's
supposed to look like.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
This, Yeah, this is who this is who we are.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
This is who we are, because you know what's great
about that sequence, Michael, It's not like the Packers just
completed every single pass and they everything went right. No,
Jordan Love had plenty of incompletions during that time as well,
but they kept getting after it. They kept chopping wood.
I think was one of the expressions that Preston Smith
used after the game. And these are the type of
matchups you want to be able to do. Because I'm
telling you, Michael, the way the schedule's lining up, things
(25:42):
are favorable for Green Bay. They needed to get out
of this first stretch of the season. Okay, you know
this wasn't advantageous to go two weeks on the road
and then come back home if you go, if you
split on the road, and when your first your first
two at home, you go into that Monday night game
against the Raiders feeling pretty good. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Absolutely, And obviously everybody's crossing their fingers. We're probably not
going to know until ninety minutes before kickoff just where
the Packers are health wise with all of these guys
who have been who have been missing time. But hey,
that's life in the NFL, and the Packers are dealing
with it every day.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
Now, Packers kept eleven offensive linemen at least on the
initial fifty three minute man roster, and every day we're
being reminded about how you need those guys in order
to navigate a season.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
There's a reason for it.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Right 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 and everything from Thursday night's
big game against the Lions at lambeau Field. We'll have
it all for you on Packers dot com. For Wes,
I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Everybody. We will see you next time.
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