January 9, 2025 • 43 mins
Mike and Wes update the injury reports for both teams (:44) and discuss Green Bay’s WR room (6:20) and what last year’s playoff experience means (11:49). They also go over their keys to victory (16:19) and look around at the rest of the NFC and AFC Wild Card games (27:10).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
I am Mike Spofford, joined by my partner in crime,
Weston Hodcoats. We're coming to you hear from our studios
at lambeau Field to continue previewing as we did on
our last show, the NFC Wildcard Playoff.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It'll be coming up Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It's a three point thirty Central time kickoff from Lincoln
Financial Field in Philadelphia, Packers against the Eagles. Probably the
best place to start here, Wes is the injury update
with both teams. Because Jalen Hurts, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback,
is back in practice on a limited basis, but all
(00:57):
reports are he is on his way to getting out
of cushion protocol. The Eagles even released one of their
backup quarterbacks, both Ian Book, the former Notre Dame quarterback,
which is obviously a sign that they expect everything to
everything to go to full clearance for Jalen Hurts by
the time Sunday's game rolls around. On the Packer's side
(01:19):
of things, Jordan loved practicing, but on a limited basis.
His elbow is still sore from that injury. On Sunday
against the Bears. He has the feeling back in his
hand and all that. It's not about gripping the football
as it was, but the initial injury that led to
all the numbness in the hand, the banging of the elbow.
The elbow is sore. So he's still trying to work
(01:41):
through that, and obviously the Packers are hoping that maybe
by the end of the week he could be a
full participant in practice and getting closer to full health.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, I mean the other thing was too. I mean,
we only saw the stretching at the time in wits
for shooting this. We haven't seen him throw. I will
have that privilege of going out to practice and see
what the throws look like. I'm sure I will take
a video and we'll have the NFL Network news desk
sending me a DM asking me if they can use it,
because everybody's going to be concentrated on how he's throwing
the football. But yeah, the fact of the matter is
(02:12):
that you know, we're talking with Bull Melton number of
guys in the locker room on Wednesday, and as both said,
he's like, listen, he's going to be out there. We've
taken so many reps with them, We've taken all these
things that the main thing is just how Jordan feels
going into game day. The pieces around him will be
ready for this thing. So but but certainly this is
the way this thing works. I mean, Edgrin Cooper talked
(02:32):
about it to it his locker. You're not gonna find
even guys that aren't on the injury report. You're not
going to find anybody that's feeling great on January ninth.
I mean, these guys have been through some battles here
for the last four four and a half months. So
for Jordan and his sake, you know, we got to
see what the downfield passing game looks like, what the
the accuracy looks like. But I mean, he's a gamer,
(02:53):
and he's tough, and he'll be out there on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, He's certainly done his share of playing through injuries
so far. This seaon not something he necessarily had to
deal with last year in his first year as a starter.
Was that funny the knee injury. The knee injury from
Week one, which he missed a couple of games, But
then you know, wasn't really all the way back when
he was back on the field, and then the groin injury,
which then he also had to try to play through,
(03:16):
and then he never really got healthy until after the
bye week when we saw his season start to take
off and start to resemble the Jordan love we saw
at the end of last season.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I got to go back and make Lauren Stone now
Lauren Anderson, our wonderful colleague out there. She was the
one I think I put on that, or maybe it
was Nicole Tim. I did that project last year looking
at all the starting quarterbacks in the league that started
all seventeen games that were not on the injury report,
and there was only four of them. One of them
was Dak Prescott. We know how his season went. And
(03:45):
then obviously Jordan was another one of them. And fortunately
he's been out there all year, but he's had a
battle through some things as well.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, well on the defensive side. As far as injuries go,
the Packers getting a little bit of good news. Kway
Walker Evan Williams Walker with the anchor Williams with the
quad injury. Both of those guys have missed the last
three games of the regular season. They were back on
the practice field for the first time since those injuries,
both on a limited basis, but trending toward potentially being
(04:15):
available on Sunday. And those are two guys, you know,
basically full time starters. Williams wasn't a full time starter
at the beginning of the season, but essentially as the
season went along, both of those guys full time starters,
and the Packers would obviously love to have them back.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Well, and you're gonna need all your inside linebackers for
this one. You would imagine the Packers will probably play
a fair amount of base just because of the threat
not only of Barclay but also with Jalen Hurts and
being able to contain their running game and some of
the short yarded stuff. So yeah, quay Walker is a
huge part of this. I think ISAIAMH McDuffie has a
big role to play. Eric Wilson potentially could as well.
(04:53):
But at the end of the day, Mike, you and
I everybody wants to see kway Walker and Eddrian Cooper
on the field together. That type of speed, that type
of athleticism, being able to cover those fifty three yards
sideline to sideline. There aren't a lot of teams that
can do that, and for one reason or another injuries wise,
they haven't been able to see that combination a lot
this season. Also the inexperience of Cooper early on. But
(05:15):
where Cooper's at right now in the progression he's made, Yeah,
I mean, the more fifty six is on the field,
the more sevens on the field, I think the Packers'
defense in terms of especially the speed of it definitely increases.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
And Zane Anderson, the safety, he is still he has
not yet returned to practice.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
He is still in concussion protocol.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So if the Packers can get Evan Williams back, we
know Green Bay doesn't have jay R Alexander, but if
you get Williams back, you at least get back to
that nickel secondary that is the preferred group when you
don't have Alexander, which would be McKinney and Williams in
the back end, Javon Bullard playing the slot, and then
(05:57):
Nixon and Valentine playing the outside cornerbacks, and then you
have guys like whether it's Corey Ballentine or Eric Stokes.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Guys like that.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
If you want to go to six defensive backs at
some point, that may not be something we see. As
you just mentioned because the Packers may be playing more
base defense with regard to the running threat of both
Saquon Barkley and quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
We broke down a.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Lot of different aspects of the Philadelphia Eagles on our
last show. Was there anything you felt that we missed
or that you think is worth pointing out here before
we get into the Keys to victory for Green Bay?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I'm gonna be a little self serving here. Obviously. I
wrote a story this morning on hackers Dualt Palm about
to use an old catchment phrase, uh looking at Christian
Watson's injury yea, and in the follout from that, the
emotional impact of that, the on field impact of that,
and it was great. I mean, a lot of guys
talking about this in the locker room afterwards on Wednesday.
(06:54):
Had a long conversation with bau Melton about it, and
I really like something both said at the end of it.
And obviously, these guys are playing for Christian and certainly
they want to be able to step up in his absence,
and you know, leadership wise, performance wise, they've been in
the spot before they want to do it again. But
I thought it was really interesting what Bo said in
a question I'd asked him later on in the interview
(07:16):
about you know, everybody talks about how deep they are,
but just how tight knit that group is. And as
he said, I mean, you got to remember when Dobbs
and Watson were drafted and then they added Reid and
Wix the following year. For two and a half years,
they heard about how young they are, how inexperienced they are,
how you know, these guys they're not going to be
able to do it, and they've continually had that chip
(07:38):
on their shoulder and overcome those types of things. Certainly
they've gone through some different stuff this year as well.
There were drops. There was the issue there early in
the season with Romeo Dobbs and then him not being available.
You know, certainly you look at Christian Watson and his injury.
It is a huge, huge hit to take right on
the cusp of the playoffs. But this this room, by
(08:01):
and large, how close it is and how battle tested
it is, they feel like this is a great opportunity
for them. Now they have everybody from Jayden Reid at
the top to the guys right at you know, they're
gonna be filling in these spots with some of the
opportunities lower on the depth chart. Each guy, to a
man feels like they owe something to Watson, they owe
(08:21):
something to this offense to step up their game. And
I'll tell you this too. It didn't make its way
into the story because there's only so many words that
can be written, but Jaden Reid is very hungry to
kind of change the narrative with himself as well. Great start,
fantastic start against Philadelphia. Came up big for green Bay
during the first half of the season. It's been a
little bit more of a slog in the second half.
(08:42):
He understands his role to play in this as well.
And I just they're going up against the number one
ranked pass defense the National Football Leaguey're going up against
the number one ranked defense by what twenty yards per game?
Twenty five yards per game. This is a significant test.
But green Bay is not backing down for this. And
I will close this point by something that Maliki said,
And it doesn't matter who's on the field for green Bay,
(09:03):
who's ever lined up in front of them, you are
not going to be able to stand in front of us.
They feel like they have the explosivity within this offense
to still make those plays even without number nine available.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I tell you you can't say enough about the culture
that has been built in the wide receiver room in
Green Bay, because it is a bunch of guys that
are competing for playing time, completing, competing for snaps and
opportunities and targets and everything like that. But quite frankly,
you know, the the culture in the culture in that
room is so impressive, and I think it goes back to,
(09:36):
you know, even my early days with Packers dot Com.
And I'm talking about back in like two thousand and eight,
nine and ten, when the group is you know, Donald
Driver and Greg Jennings and James Jones, and then and
Jordy Nelson joins the group, and then a few years
later Randall Cobb joins the group, and then a couple
of years after that, DeVante Adams joins the group. And
(09:57):
the culture in that room and the coaches right now,
Jason Rabel, Ryan Mahafey, they deserve a lot of credit.
But it's also about was what was built in that
room over the years and has been passed along and
doesn't really seem to have ever been disrupted, even as
the as the personnel has changed, It's just the torch
continues to be passed in terms of the standard that's
(10:20):
being set how everybody interacts with one another. They understand
everybody wants to get their catches in theirs and their
touchdowns and their paychecks, but those individual numbers is not
what it's all about. And that wide receiver room in
green Bay, I think is you can't ask for anything
better in terms of the culture.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
No In Romeo and Christian have good heads on their shoulders.
I mean, if they would have come in without any
of that knowledge whatsoever, I think Green Bay would have
been fine. But I go back to twenty twenty two
and so much about that season was lost. But having
the opportunity to work with Randall Cobb and Alan Lazard
that year, I mean I remember rome even talking about
his interactions with Sammy Watkins, who was only here for
(11:01):
a short time, right, but a guy that was a
former number four overall pick, that had done it at
a high level, was on the tail end of his career.
But kind of showing those young guys how this thing
works and how to carry yourself as a professional, that's
a huge, huge thing. And green Bay we've talked so
much about the depth all season long and guys not
getting their opportunities, guys like Bull Milt and Malik Keith
(11:22):
having to be patient just to get on the field,
let alone get a target. Well, now this is the chance.
And Bo did it last year in Minnesota, he did
it in Dallas. You look at you know, these guys
who have stepped up when they haven't had Christian Watson
in the past. Green Bay needs all of it because
as much as this game, in my opinion, as we
slide into Keys to Victory, is about running the football,
(11:42):
well you have to be able to keep them honest
with the passing game, and all four or five guys
that'll be up in this one are going to have
a hand in it.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Well, one other thought, just in terms of something I
heard in the locker room on Wednesday after practice that
I really liked, and hearing it from Jordan Love, who
is answering all these questions about his elbow and how
does he feel and you know, are you cutting it
loose or not? You know, et cetera, et cetera. But
he's asked about the playoff experience of last year, not
(12:12):
only for himself but for you know, for a lot
of these guys who were in the playoffs for the
first time last year, just like he was. And I
thought what I heard from Jordan Love was was to
me the right the right mental balance, I guess for
lack of a better phrase, and that, yes, what these
guys did in the playoffs last year provides a bit
(12:34):
of confidence that you can you know that that you've
been in this situation, you know how to perform, you
can get it done. The moment's not too big for you, right.
But in the same breath, Jordan Love says, but we
can't live on what we did last year against the
Dallas Cowboys. This is about going out there and having
to do it again, you know. And I just I
felt like it feels like mentally, for everything that's going
(12:56):
on with regard to the you know, the injuries with
the quarterback and with Christian Watson and JayR Alexander being
out now and all of that stuff that is swirling
around this team, and the huge challenge that you're facing
in the Eagles with the number one ranked defense, the
number one running back, all of all of this stuff,
it feels to me like, mentally, whatever happens on Sunday.
(13:17):
I think mentally, this Packers team is in the right place. Yeah,
and it was just it was good to hear that.
I think that I think that stems from the way
Matt Lafleur leads this team, but also the way the
locker room leaders lead this team. When you're talking about
guys like Jordan Love and Elton Jenkins and Xavier McKinney
and Josh Jacobs and those types of guys. I don't
(13:39):
know what's going to happen on Sunday, Wes, and we'll
talk about what the Packers need to do to win
the game. But the Packers are not going out there intimidated.
But they're also not going out there and you know,
in any sort of overconfident way because oh, yeah, well
we were the seventh seed last year and we walked
off the two seed and blew them out of their
own building. Like nobody's living off of that. Yes, it's
part of their history and it gives some confidence, but
(14:01):
they know that it doesn't matter once the ball gets
kicked off on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
You played baseball at the collegiate level, I did. Did
you ever have a game? Thinking back? And I don't
know how good Lawrence was back then, but we.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Weren't very good.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Did you ever get off to a big lead, you know,
five to six run first inning? Sure, like what I
was thinking about. I wasn't a part of the love
press or scrum, but I was in some of the
other stuff. And in these topics come up about Dallas. Yeah,
I think the lasting takeaway from that game, and honestly
probably carried a little bit into the season, was when
you talk about the importance of a fast start. Yeah,
(14:36):
it's about building five six runs, or it's about scoring
twenty seven points against Dallas to get up. You know,
Dallas doesn't score in that game until literally the clock
hit zero in the first half. Right, Yes, it's important
to have that fast start, but it's also the momentum
that's derived from that, it's the confidence that's derived from that,
and it's the way you can take the air out
of the balloon. In a road venue. This is going
(14:58):
to be a much more hostile vironment than at and
T Stadium. Credit to the Cowboys. It's a good place.
It's an unbelievable venue for football. But Philly is different.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
It's walking into the ECW Arena, you know, with those fans,
you know, cheering and shouting at you. That same type
of vibe is going to be at the link and
for green Bay, I feel like the lasting takeaway. Yeah,
you can't take anything from that. Nothing that you did
in Dallas last year is going to help you on
Sunday in terms of point that you put up on
the board. Yeah, but the reminder of how you have
(15:30):
to jump out on teams in the momentum you have
to build in that first quarter. Packers have talked about
it every single week of the season fast starts, how
critical it is in every game, but especially for this
football team, regardless of whether or not you take the
football first, regardless of whether or not you get the
ball first. That is I think one of the big
lessons that Green Bay learned from that game over Dallas,
and it is going to be absolutely critical to being
(15:52):
able to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, well I want, I do want to get to
our keys to victory, but I will take care of
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(16:14):
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Wes Keys to victory, there are a lot of them.
You've got to do a lot of things right to
beat a fourteen and three football team in their own
building in the playoffs. What's at the top of the
list for you?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I made an excellent point and insider inbox you always do.
I don't know about that, yeah, But going back to
the Saquon Barkley games the end of the twenty three season,
which honestly, if you think back on it, that loss
to the Giants, probably you're gonna go down as one
of the worst ones we've had in the laflor Era.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But that's bad.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
But the lessons that were learned that day, I mean,
I think that was kind of in some ways the
beginning of the run for Green Bay when they finally
were able to start stringing the victories again at the
end of the season. But you go back to that game,
green Bay defended Saquon Barkley so well. You go back
to this opener in Brazil, they defended Saquon Barkley so well.
(17:12):
And the point I was making with the insider inbox
Barb was that forty nine rushing yards on eighteen first
half carries in those two games, two point seven yards
per carry. In the second half of those two games,
one hundred and forty rushing yards on twenty six attempts,
five point four yards per carry. It's not even that
the Packers defense, oh they stopped defending the run. Well, No,
(17:34):
this is the problem that Saquon Barkley presents. He is
going to keep hammering on you until that door finally bashes.
In Green Bay, to the best of its ability, cannot
allow that door to fall. You have to be able
to keep up that wave of momentum. Certainly, you don't
want them to get off to a fast start, but
even if you get to halftime and he has ten
(17:55):
rushing yards, you have to treat it like he has
one hundred and forty. You have to treat it like
you have to be able to stop this guy on
every single down he touches the ball. Because you're talking
about all these different things that have to happen in
this game for the Green Bay Packers to win. Number
One is Saquon Barkley not running through this defense that
(18:16):
has been historically solid against the run.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, this is the type of challenge when it's when
it's a running back like Barkley, that is, it becomes
a different stop the run challenge because when an offense
has the best running back in the league and a
guy who I believe this year he had four touchdown
runs of sixty five plus yard yep. The thing is,
(18:41):
no matter how much the Packers stop him, the Eagles
are going to keep feeding him the ball because he
is as much a big play home run threat as
anything that Jalen Hurts can do with AJ Brown or
DeVante Smith or anybody else out there. So you can
stop him for two and a half, three even three
(19:02):
and a half quarters all you want, He's going to
keep getting the football and they will make you stop
him for all four quarters. You know, thinking back to
the Dallas game last year, if the Packers are able
to say, the Packers are able to jump out top
and build a lead, so maybe it's thirteen nothing, seventeen nothing,
something like that, and you're getting close to the end
(19:23):
of the first half, steikwon. Barkley is going to keep
getting the football even if the score is seventeen to nothing,
even if the score is twenty to nothing, because he
can bust a seventy yard touchdown run. He can take
it to the house at any time. So the Eagles
are going to keep pounding away like that. So the
four quarter challenge that he presents in terms of stopping
(19:43):
the run is really unlike anything I think the Packers
have faced all year, since since Week one in Brazil,
when Barkley kept pounding away, you know, all the way
along to the very last possession.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And that was one of the few games where Green
Bay allowed to carry more than thirty yards this entire season.
They still have not allowed to care forty yards this season,
which they have to be able to continue to come
up with this victory. But I just it's funny, man,
Like two years ago, people were ready I'm going into
the twenty two season, people were ready to sell the
ship and sell the farm on Barkley. Too many injuries.
(20:17):
They felt like, Okay, maybe this is sort of a
flash of the pan. What he did earlier in his career.
He put the injuries beside behind him, he willed the
Giants to the playoffs and it didn't happen for them
again in the second year. But this guy has always
been the guy he has been since he entered the league.
It's him, It's Josh Jacobs. It's been Derrick Henry for
(20:39):
almost a decade now. I mean, like, it's just crazy
that we even got to this point that people are
talking about devaluing running backs and things like this. But
the Philadelphia Eagles have nine hundred more rushing yards than
they did last season. I don't even think they've carried
it that many more times. Yeah, but that's the Barkley effect.
I mean, Jalen Hurts. His stats as far as running
(21:00):
concerned are almost identical to last season. The difference is
their lead back had twice as many rushing yards. Yeah,
you have to be able to stop him.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Well, you mentioned the name Josh Jacobs, and I think
that's a big one here for Green Bay as well,
because regardless of what Jordan Loves, health is going to be,
you know, his elbow and obviously the the Packers are
going to need to stay balanced on offense. One way
to do that, of course, is to is to not
fall behind by multiple scores. Don't let the other team
make you get into a one dimensional type of game,
(21:30):
because that's what Philadelphia will be wanting to do. And
then they'll want that crazy crowd at the Link to
be cranking it up, you know, on third downs, knowing
the Packers have to throw all the time, et cetera,
et cetera. Josh Jacobs is a huge key to that
in terms of keeping the offense balanced, keeping the keeping
the Eagles defense honest, and as you said, Wes, the
(21:51):
keeping the keeping the defense honest, things sort of cuts
both ways, right You. The Packers can't just completely lean
on Josh Jacob. They're going to have to throw the ball.
They're going to have to you know, work the ball
horizontally as well as vertically. Make the Eagles defend, you know,
absolutely as much physical territory as possible and.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
See what you can get done.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And when I think back to Week one and that
game game in Brazil that we watched on that Friday night,
what the Packers absolutely cannot afford to do, which which
really cost him the game back in Week one, is
to is to stall out in the red zone. You've
got to be able to finish drives because the Packers
did enough offensively in terms of moving the football and
(22:39):
getting opportunities. They did enough to win that game offensively,
but they didn't put the points up that they should
have because they didn't finish enough drives. And that's going
to be it's going to be that much harder to
do in a true road game against this defense to
be playing at the link as opposed to be playing
at a you know, quote unquote neutral field. But finishing
(23:01):
drives is the other thing that's at the top of
my list here, because if the Packers are settling for
field goals, you just it's going to be very hard
to put up enough points to outlast the Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
And you also have to go even think of like
last week, you know, without Jalen Hurts, they still beat
the Giants twenty to thirteen, but you'd have to go
all the way back to Week four for the last
time they scored fewer than twenty points.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah, this is one of the.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Most high octane, high efficient offenses in the National Football League,
And now you have Vic Fangio's defense complimenting that. You have, guys,
you know, when you look at Quinjon Mitchell coming in.
When you look at obviously Cooper dejen what he has
added as sort of a versatile piece in that secondary.
The areas that it seemed like Philadelphia came up short
last season what sort of led to their fall during
(23:48):
that final stretch of the year. They filled those holes
on both sides of the ball, and it has allowed
them to be a much more complete football team this season.
The Green Bay Packers have to understand that, yeah, we
are still the youngest team in the NFL. We were
the youngest team in the NFL for the first time
in back to back years, but we also are much
more experienced than we are last year. You have that
(24:09):
experience now of going down to Brazil, playing on that surface,
playing that far away from home, against an opponent of
that caliber, and coming up short, but understanding where you
came up short. Protecting the football, situational offense and defense.
These are the keys not only to winning in the
National Football League, but lasting in the playoffs. You don't
(24:29):
do those two things, You're going home.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah and this and this game isn't going to be
isn't going to be won with any kind of you know,
psychological tricks or anything like that because what I'm sensing
in a granted I'm not there, but paying attention to
kind of what's out there in the media and the
comments that are coming from Philadelphia. What I sense is
that the Philadelphia Eagles, they are perfectly content with the
(24:53):
fact that all the attention in the NFC for the
last couple of weeks was on the Vikings and the
Lions and who was going to get the number one. Absolutely,
they knew their quarterback was in concussion protocol and there
were certainly some concerns there. But now you head into
this week and they're they're absolutely fine with all the
analysts talking about what the Packers did last year as
a number seven seed and went down to Dallas, the
(25:14):
NFC East champs and blew them out of their building
and all that. The Philadelphia Eagles just strike me as
a team that is they they are, they are lying
in wait. They know everybody knows how they completely collapsed
at the end of last season, and there were all
kinds of questions about where the franchise was headed. They've
answered a lot of those questions. But this is a
(25:35):
team that strikes me as one that is that is
ready to answer a lot more and uh and the
as I said before, I think the Packers mentally are
in a really good space, uh going out there to
uh to take on this challenge. But man, you have
to you have to be able to match every ounce
of intensity that the Eagles are going to bring into
this game, because this is a team that's out to
(25:56):
prove something.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
They're intense, they're physical. But I'll tell you something else though, Mike,
You're right, they've answered a lot of those questions, but
the real answer doesn't really matter until now.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
That's right. You're right.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
There was a thing that happened with Marty Schottenheimer for
a lot of years, especially during his run with the Chargers,
where they'd have these really good regular seasons and then
they didn't get it done. Now, credit to the Eagles,
they've made a super Bowl, they've taken that next steps,
more steps than a lot of teams make, but they
still haven't brought back that Lombardi Trophy since the Nick
Foles year. So that part of it makes me think, Yeah,
(26:29):
you should be confident your fourteen win team. You answered
the skeptics, You survived what was going to be a
really tenuous first month of the season. If you don't
start fast. Yeah, and you're at this point, but yet
you still need to win. And that's why I made
the comment and insider inbox, I'm like, the pressure is
still all with them. Green Bay can take as much
(26:50):
pressure and they want to put that on their shoulders.
That's fine, But realistically they're in the same spot as
last year as far as playing with house money. And
that's why I'm really interested to watch this first half
on Sunday afternoon. If you get off to a fast start,
how do the Eagles respond? How does that fan base respond?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Right?
Speaker 3 (27:06):
But you got to earn it, yeah, to be able
to see it.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, no doubt about one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Well, I do want to talk about the rest of
wild Card weekend here in the NFL. Will start in
the NFC. The other two games, both of which will
actually take place after the Packers play. Washington is at
Tampa Bay in the Sunday night game, and then Minnesota
is at the La Rams in the Monday night game.
(27:32):
As far as Washington Tampa Bay, it's fascinating. I know
I was having conversations with you about this and then
I did a little bit more research and posted it
in my road to the Super Bowl story that went
up on the website on Tuesday afternoon. Washington enters the
playoffs as a twelve and five team. Literally half of
their wins, six of them have come in either the
(27:56):
last five seconds or literally the last play of the game.
Six of their twelve when you look at their season,
including for like four in a row here down the
stretch to get to twelve and five, which got them
the sixth seed, and the trip to Tampa Bay absolutely
fascinating in that regard, like, you know what that team
(28:16):
has done in all these down to the wire games
and then Tampa Bay. Baker Mayfield is as hot a
quarterback as any in the league right now. Over his
last I believe four games, he's got one hundred and
twenty plus passer raatee essentially over the last month. Tampa
Bay is a team that, yeah, they don't have a
great record, they won a crappy division, but that's a
(28:39):
team that's confident they can go out win games right now.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Too. The way that that draft class is rallied too,
has just been incredible. I mean, Darnold obviously is in
this playoff right with Minnesota, but right Baker Mayfield man
when he is hot. There is nobody that strikes the
match hotter than he does. I mean when he catches fire,
that guy is just an inferno. Yeah, and he's doing
it again. I'm really interested to see him at up
with Dan Quinn's defense and how they counter that. Quinn's
(29:03):
defense have been up and down at various points of
the season. It does seem like they've sort of peaked
towards the end of the year, though, And certainly when
you talk about Giden Daniels, you're talking about the NFL
offensive rookie of the Year. I know it's going to
be probably a couple days before we hear any of that,
but that is it has to be what happened. Oh yeah, Yeah,
this guy has been electrifying, but he's also been incredibly
clutch as a rookie player in his first NFL season.
(29:25):
You just that aspect of it you can't say enough
about because at the end of the day, you can
have fancy stats and you can do this and that,
do you win football games? He wins football games? Did
you I got to kick out of this? Did you
see that stat? Not that this is anything to do
with the games you lined up for me, but this
is the eighth playoff trip for the Houston Texans and
(29:46):
they've never not been in the three thirty time slot
on set.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah I did. I did hear.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Every single time every Houston Houston Texans Wild Card AFC
Wildcard game is at the three thirty Central on Saturday afternoon,
they had They've been in the same time slot every time.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
The Houston Texans are like the ginger ale and like
the combination box with like the cherry soda and the
orange and what ends up being left at the very end,
and they just they keep throwing into that same spot,
like all right, well, this is the playoff game. We'll
get it out of the way and then we'll move
on with the rest of the tournament. But also the
fact that the three AFC games are all happening before
(30:22):
the NFC game.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, it is. It's kind of interesting how that fell.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Pittsburgh and Baltimore are playing for the third time in
fifteen days or whatever it feels like at this point.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yes, yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's third.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Yeah, it's been like two months. But I mean, like
it's still crazy, like those teams. It just seems like
every time I turn on a television they're playing each other.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Well, here, let me get your thoughts on the AFC
games and then we'll go back to Minnesota and La.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Can you tell the ones that I can watch?
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah, I'm actually really yeah, the ones we're going to
get to watch. So the Chargers are at the Texans,
the Steelers are at the Ravens, and the Broncos are
are at the Bills. The vast majority of the football
analyst world is going to pick the Chargers, the Ravens,
and the Bills to win those three games overwhelmingly. That
(31:09):
will be the sentiment. Do you do you have one
of those three games that you that you would say,
not to say you're gonna predict the upset, but that
you think would maybe have the best chance of going
the other way.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
I wonder if CJ. Stroud can catch something here. Okay,
it's weird to say a team that's a four seed
and is hosting a game is like the underdog. But
I mean, like, well, the way.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
The way they played against the Ravens when they had
at home very recently, that was that was ugly.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
But is it that you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
No, I got I mean the guy was the NFL
Offensive Rookie of the Year last year, and and yeah,
this is a this is a guy who's capable of
throwing for four hundred yards and four touchdowns at any time. Now,
the Chargers defense is one of the best in the league.
That's gonna be risingly big time challenge there. But but yeah,
you can't whenever you have a playmaker, especially a young
(32:01):
playmaker who's gone through the ups and downs and everything,
you can never count a guy like that out.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
And in the other aspect, sometimes this stuff just doesn't
make sense right, Like you will just be like, Okay,
well the Chargers are rolling hardball's got these guys going well,
and then just something happens where you remember, oh, yeah,
this is the National Football League. Any of these teams
can beat each other at any time. You know, if
the Chargers have all the pieces. They've gotten really banged
up at receiver, but they have the pieces to be
(32:26):
able to contest with that game. The other two. I
can't sit here and honestly tell you the Pittsburgh Steelers
on the losing streak that they're on going up against
Lamar playing the way he's playing right now, the way
that entire team is playing that they're going to have
a chance, and then ultimately, I'd be silly to be
sitting here talking about how good Buffalo is all season
and say, oh yeah, bo Nix is going to go
(32:46):
in there and knock them out of the playoffs. Now,
that would be demoralizing. But I mean, when you look
in terms of the overall consistency of a season, it's
hard to find a team. Maybe no, I don't evenk
you say de Troit because Buffalo beat him in their
own place, But maybe it's Detroit. But Buffalo has just
from beginning, middle and ends, has been the team that
has just been the most consistent one throughout the course
(33:08):
of this thing.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Yeah, I agree with you. There the one thing I
will say and then we'll move on. But the one
thing I will say about Pittsburgh and Baltimore and the
reason it intrigues me, even though Pittsburgh is on this
losing streak and they're not playing all that well, something
about division games in the playoffs. Y, when it's the
(33:28):
third meeting, and as you said, this is the third
meeting in a very short period of time between these
two teams. When when it's division opponents that meet and
they know each other so well, and you know one
team is obviously Baltimore's kind of had Pittsburgh's number here
this year. It's one of those things that I know
everybody is writing the Steelers off. And yes, if gambling
(33:50):
weren't illegal at bookster, I would be putting money on
the Baltimore Ravens to win this game. I absolutely, one
hundred percent believe the Ravens will win in advance. I'm
just very curious because it's a division matchup, it's a
familiar opponent, it's the third time in a short period
of time. Maybe just maybe that gives you know, Pittsburgh
goal will will find something here and make it a
(34:12):
better game than a lot of people think it's gonna be.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
And I'm sure Mike Tomlin is telling his guys, we
beat these guys. You know, it was in our place,
but we beat them. And Russell Wilson did not play
well like but they still found a way.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
And that's the other That's the other thing too about
this one that intrigues me because Mike Tomlin is he's
one of the best coaches in the league. He's going
to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, someday,
and this is the guy who hasn't won a playoff
game in quite a while. Yeah, I think you go
back to you have to go back to twenty sixteen
or twenty seventeen, something like that for Mike Tomlin's last
(34:44):
playoff win. Good coaches, coaches that are that good, you know,
they'll they'll find a way to end a drought like that.
And uh and again, it's just it's it's the thing
that intrigues me about about the Pittsburgh Baltimore matchup, and
I'm really curious to see if if Tomlin can can
change the narrative.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah, you have to go back to I think it's
it was twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Twenty sixteen. Yeah, I knew it'd been. It'd been a while.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I think I think he's lost either six or like
six playoff games in a rowers.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
One thing that's really unfair to him though, that I mean,
it is what it is. You're no one's crying for
you in the n NFL. But like there are some
teams that he got there that probably shouldn't have been.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Oh yeah, that's that's that's you get dogged for that. Yeah,
that's the thing. That's the beauty of Mike Tomlin is
he get he gets teams to the playoffs that nobody
that nobody thinks would would even have a chance to
get there over the course of a long season, and
and they get into the playoffs, and yeah, in recent
years they have been able to win any games. But
I just wonder if if he's going to be able
to uh, to flip the script a little bit. Yeah,
(35:43):
got to get your thoughts though Minnesota at the RAMS,
I made the comment and insider inbox, Uh, you know,
we're talking a lot about the Packers' resiliency being tested. Obviously,
a tough loss against Minnesota, a big division opponent there,
then you don't play well at all the Bears and
end up losing right at the end. Going into the
playoffs on a two game losing streak, you got to
(36:05):
hit the road. The Packers' resiliency is being tested big
time here. I think Minnesota's resiliency is being tested just
as much because of everything that went into I mean,
such a high stakes Week eighteen game on the road.
It's the difference between the one seed and the five seed,
between getting a bye and playing at home in the
divisional round to having to go on the road right away,
(36:28):
and they're going up against a team that beat them
early here in the season in that building and b
a Rams team that where Sean McVay didn't care about
the seed, He didn't care if he was the three
or the four. He felt it was better for his
team to rest his guys, get ready and try to
have everybody as fresh as possible for whatever opponent would
be coming into to Sofi Stadium. It's a this is
(36:52):
this is a this is a big time challenge for
Minnesota and.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
It was a big time gamble. It was a big
time risk by McVeigh. Yep. We're going to figure out
whether or not it pays off because there's a number
of ways to look at this thing. The probably the
biggest one is, well, okay, you're picking your poison as
far as who you're gonna play, but do you just
want to start to bite through that right at the
beginning and start to get through that elephant you know
from day one, and if you beat the Minnesota Vikings,
(37:17):
you take on the world, right you just see where
it takes you from there.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
So you had the half round by or whatever you
want to call this with with sitting in all the
guys they did. And the other thing too. You'd be
remiss not to say the Rams have been banged up
every way a team can be banged up but still
be in the playoffs with its core players, Like it's insane,
Like the fact that they got San Francisco never got
everybody back right. The Rams somehow did like and they
(37:42):
had bad injuries, especially at the receiver position, and.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
They were able to outlast the Seattle Seahawks.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
It's had.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
The Seahawks had a very tough schedule down the stretch.
They lost home games back to back to the Packers
and the Vikings. That put the Rams in control. And
the Rams snagged that division that got there and got
their playoff spot. And then once they had it, Sean
mcvage was like, all right, then, I don't care what
seed we are. We're gonna rest up our guys and
get ready to make a run.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
And for how bad that defense was at certain points
this season, the way they finished out against the division,
finished out against Geno Smith. You saw what Gino did
in the finale. I mean, like that guy still he
threw for a career high passing yards. This year, I
think more touchdowns than he's ever had. I mean, like,
the guy is a real threat that you have to
find ways to get through the Rams. Did that, here's
(38:28):
your reward, You get to face a fourteen win wild
card team. But you know, seeing where this takes him
is going to be really fascinating to watch, because as
long as the Packers are alive, I want to see
the fewest amount of NFC North teams available, you know,
the rest of the way. Not because I don't think
they can beat them, because you don't want to sit
there and play you know division, you know, on cheer
for your division, whatever. But there is also the aspect
(38:49):
in the back of my head that's like Minnesota is
such a strange team in the way in which they've
done this thing this year. Nobody expected them to be here. No,
I had them down for fourth place in the division.
So I had them behind the Chicago Bears, and here
they are Sam Darnald showing what he flashed with the
(39:10):
forty nine ers was no fluke and this it's crazy, man.
But this photon of youth that has emerged out in Carolina,
where these guys go down there and they kind of
flame out and then they go to another team and
become Baker Mayfield again, and Donald becomes the player that
he's become. I mean, it's it's it's been crazy to watch.
I think we won't be able to probably enjoy that
(39:31):
game at all, But I think that's probably I can
see why that was the one that was put on
Monday Night Football because it is a real juggernaut of
a matchup in terms of the wild card round and
how that is formulated.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah, it is one hundred percent. And the whole Sean
McVay Kevin O'Connell thing is interesting as well, obviously, as
amongst the many coaching connections and all that that we
talked about over the years with the I guess what
you'd call the Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan tree.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
Yeah, the double tree.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
I want to mention this too when I say we
can't really enjoy it Monday Night. And the reason I
say that is for two reasons. One, if the Packers lose,
I don't care about football anymore. And two, if the
Packers win, correct me if I'm wrong here. You're playing
on Saturday night, right, There's no situation in which Green
Bay could even play the following Sunday.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Correct, I that's that's the part I don't know.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Yeah, or because they because they haven't announced, they haven't
announced what timeslot Detroit is in.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
So you could potentially have both of them on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Yeah, Okay, never been.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Yeah, because well because see here's the thing, like the
way I understand it, like they what what the NFL
is not going to do is the NFL is not
going to have the Monday night winner between the Rams
and the Vikings play on Saturday. Right, Yes, so, but
but you don't know which of which opponent, the Rams
(40:51):
or the Vikings winner is going to get until all
the other games, like you know, until all the other
games play out, and then you know, and then you
figure out who's going where. So there, so there's there's
more to sort out, you know, because what they used
to do when there were the two bys, when they
were the two buys per conference, they would actually, like
when the Packers would have a bye as one of
(41:13):
the top two seeds, we would actually know right now
during the during the playoff, by what timeslot the following
weekend the Packers had. They had that all set up
in advance.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Now that they're.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Playing a wild card game on a Monday night. They
can't do that anymore because you can't have the Monday
night winner play on Saturday. Like, that's just not that's
just not fair at all. So so they have to
wait for things to sort out before you know what
the schedule is the following week.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
And this is where I was coming from is because
in at least the best I know, there has never
been a weekend where it's been the AFC both games
on a Saturday, NFC both games on a Sunday. It's
always NFC and AFC. So under that idea, let's say
let's say that that is the truth, then the team
(42:01):
whoever wins with the vikings in the rams conceivably would happen.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Would play would play Sunday. Yeah, so I hear what
you're saying. But these days, with the way the whole
television part works, I honestly don't know.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Let's put a pin in this and after the packers
wait on Sunday we can discuss it all over a.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Good We've gone quite a bit overtime. Apologies to our
producer Zach and the regular listeners who count on us
to be a little bit more short and concise. We
weren't today, but I will finish with this. Folks, be
among the thousands of football fans cheering on their team's
NFL picks by joining us April twenty four through April
twenty six of twenty twenty five for the NFL Draft.
(42:37):
Visit green Bay dot com slash Draft twenty five for
more information. And with that, we're going to call it
a rap on this edition of Packers Unscript to'd be
sure to follow all of our coverage of Sunday's NFC
Wildcard playoff game from Philadelphia. Wes and I will both
be there. We'll have it all for you on Packers
dot com. For West, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning
in everybody. We will see you next time.
Hi, everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com.
I am Mike Spofford, joined by my partner in crime,
Weston Hodcoats. We're coming to you hear from our studios
at lambeau Field to continue previewing as we did on
our last show, the NFC Wildcard Playoff.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
It'll be coming up Sunday.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It's a three point thirty Central time kickoff from Lincoln
Financial Field in Philadelphia, Packers against the Eagles. Probably the
best place to start here, Wes is the injury update
with both teams. Because Jalen Hurts, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback,
is back in practice on a limited basis, but all
(00:57):
reports are he is on his way to getting out
of cushion protocol. The Eagles even released one of their
backup quarterbacks, both Ian Book, the former Notre Dame quarterback,
which is obviously a sign that they expect everything to
everything to go to full clearance for Jalen Hurts by
the time Sunday's game rolls around. On the Packer's side
(01:19):
of things, Jordan loved practicing, but on a limited basis.
His elbow is still sore from that injury. On Sunday
against the Bears. He has the feeling back in his
hand and all that. It's not about gripping the football
as it was, but the initial injury that led to
all the numbness in the hand, the banging of the elbow.
The elbow is sore. So he's still trying to work
(01:41):
through that, and obviously the Packers are hoping that maybe
by the end of the week he could be a
full participant in practice and getting closer to full health.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, I mean the other thing was too. I mean,
we only saw the stretching at the time in wits
for shooting this. We haven't seen him throw. I will
have that privilege of going out to practice and see
what the throws look like. I'm sure I will take
a video and we'll have the NFL Network news desk
sending me a DM asking me if they can use it,
because everybody's going to be concentrated on how he's throwing
the football. But yeah, the fact of the matter is
(02:12):
that you know, we're talking with Bull Melton number of
guys in the locker room on Wednesday, and as both said,
he's like, listen, he's going to be out there. We've
taken so many reps with them, We've taken all these
things that the main thing is just how Jordan feels
going into game day. The pieces around him will be
ready for this thing. So but but certainly this is
the way this thing works. I mean, Edgrin Cooper talked
(02:32):
about it to it his locker. You're not gonna find
even guys that aren't on the injury report. You're not
going to find anybody that's feeling great on January ninth.
I mean, these guys have been through some battles here
for the last four four and a half months. So
for Jordan and his sake, you know, we got to
see what the downfield passing game looks like, what the
the accuracy looks like. But I mean, he's a gamer,
(02:53):
and he's tough, and he'll be out there on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, He's certainly done his share of playing through injuries
so far. This seaon not something he necessarily had to
deal with last year in his first year as a starter.
Was that funny the knee injury. The knee injury from
Week one, which he missed a couple of games, But
then you know, wasn't really all the way back when
he was back on the field, and then the groin injury,
which then he also had to try to play through,
(03:16):
and then he never really got healthy until after the
bye week when we saw his season start to take
off and start to resemble the Jordan love we saw
at the end of last season.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
I got to go back and make Lauren Stone now
Lauren Anderson, our wonderful colleague out there. She was the
one I think I put on that, or maybe it
was Nicole Tim. I did that project last year looking
at all the starting quarterbacks in the league that started
all seventeen games that were not on the injury report,
and there was only four of them. One of them
was Dak Prescott. We know how his season went. And
(03:45):
then obviously Jordan was another one of them. And fortunately
he's been out there all year, but he's had a
battle through some things as well.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
Yeah, well on the defensive side. As far as injuries go,
the Packers getting a little bit of good news. Kway
Walker Evan Williams Walker with the anchor Williams with the
quad injury. Both of those guys have missed the last
three games of the regular season. They were back on
the practice field for the first time since those injuries,
both on a limited basis, but trending toward potentially being
(04:15):
available on Sunday. And those are two guys, you know,
basically full time starters. Williams wasn't a full time starter
at the beginning of the season, but essentially as the
season went along, both of those guys full time starters,
and the Packers would obviously love to have them back.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Well, and you're gonna need all your inside linebackers for
this one. You would imagine the Packers will probably play
a fair amount of base just because of the threat
not only of Barclay but also with Jalen Hurts and
being able to contain their running game and some of
the short yarded stuff. So yeah, quay Walker is a
huge part of this. I think ISAIAMH McDuffie has a
big role to play. Eric Wilson potentially could as well.
(04:53):
But at the end of the day, Mike, you and
I everybody wants to see kway Walker and Eddrian Cooper
on the field together. That type of speed, that type
of athleticism, being able to cover those fifty three yards
sideline to sideline. There aren't a lot of teams that
can do that, and for one reason or another injuries wise,
they haven't been able to see that combination a lot
this season. Also the inexperience of Cooper early on. But
(05:15):
where Cooper's at right now in the progression he's made, Yeah,
I mean, the more fifty six is on the field,
the more sevens on the field, I think the Packers'
defense in terms of especially the speed of it definitely increases.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
And Zane Anderson, the safety, he is still he has
not yet returned to practice.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
He is still in concussion protocol.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
So if the Packers can get Evan Williams back, we
know Green Bay doesn't have jay R Alexander, but if
you get Williams back, you at least get back to
that nickel secondary that is the preferred group when you
don't have Alexander, which would be McKinney and Williams in
the back end, Javon Bullard playing the slot, and then
(05:57):
Nixon and Valentine playing the outside cornerbacks, and then you
have guys like whether it's Corey Ballentine or Eric Stokes.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Guys like that.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
If you want to go to six defensive backs at
some point, that may not be something we see. As
you just mentioned because the Packers may be playing more
base defense with regard to the running threat of both
Saquon Barkley and quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
We broke down a.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Lot of different aspects of the Philadelphia Eagles on our
last show. Was there anything you felt that we missed
or that you think is worth pointing out here before
we get into the Keys to victory for Green Bay?
Speaker 3 (06:32):
I'm gonna be a little self serving here. Obviously. I
wrote a story this morning on hackers Dualt Palm about
to use an old catchment phrase, uh looking at Christian
Watson's injury yea, and in the follout from that, the
emotional impact of that, the on field impact of that,
and it was great. I mean, a lot of guys
talking about this in the locker room afterwards on Wednesday.
(06:54):
Had a long conversation with bau Melton about it, and
I really like something both said at the end of it.
And obviously, these guys are playing for Christian and certainly
they want to be able to step up in his absence,
and you know, leadership wise, performance wise, they've been in
the spot before they want to do it again. But
I thought it was really interesting what Bo said in
a question I'd asked him later on in the interview
(07:16):
about you know, everybody talks about how deep they are,
but just how tight knit that group is. And as
he said, I mean, you got to remember when Dobbs
and Watson were drafted and then they added Reid and
Wix the following year. For two and a half years,
they heard about how young they are, how inexperienced they are,
how you know, these guys they're not going to be
able to do it, and they've continually had that chip
(07:38):
on their shoulder and overcome those types of things. Certainly
they've gone through some different stuff this year as well.
There were drops. There was the issue there early in
the season with Romeo Dobbs and then him not being available.
You know, certainly you look at Christian Watson and his injury.
It is a huge, huge hit to take right on
the cusp of the playoffs. But this this room, by
(08:01):
and large, how close it is and how battle tested
it is, they feel like this is a great opportunity
for them. Now they have everybody from Jayden Reid at
the top to the guys right at you know, they're
gonna be filling in these spots with some of the
opportunities lower on the depth chart. Each guy, to a
man feels like they owe something to Watson, they owe
(08:21):
something to this offense to step up their game. And
I'll tell you this too. It didn't make its way
into the story because there's only so many words that
can be written, but Jaden Reid is very hungry to
kind of change the narrative with himself as well. Great start,
fantastic start against Philadelphia. Came up big for green Bay
during the first half of the season. It's been a
little bit more of a slog in the second half.
(08:42):
He understands his role to play in this as well.
And I just they're going up against the number one
ranked pass defense the National Football Leaguey're going up against
the number one ranked defense by what twenty yards per game?
Twenty five yards per game. This is a significant test.
But green Bay is not backing down for this. And
I will close this point by something that Maliki said,
And it doesn't matter who's on the field for green Bay,
(09:03):
who's ever lined up in front of them, you are
not going to be able to stand in front of us.
They feel like they have the explosivity within this offense
to still make those plays even without number nine available.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
I tell you you can't say enough about the culture
that has been built in the wide receiver room in
Green Bay, because it is a bunch of guys that
are competing for playing time, completing, competing for snaps and
opportunities and targets and everything like that. But quite frankly,
you know, the the culture in the culture in that
room is so impressive, and I think it goes back to,
(09:36):
you know, even my early days with Packers dot Com.
And I'm talking about back in like two thousand and eight,
nine and ten, when the group is you know, Donald
Driver and Greg Jennings and James Jones, and then and
Jordy Nelson joins the group, and then a few years
later Randall Cobb joins the group, and then a couple
of years after that, DeVante Adams joins the group. And
(09:57):
the culture in that room and the coaches right now,
Jason Rabel, Ryan Mahafey, they deserve a lot of credit.
But it's also about was what was built in that
room over the years and has been passed along and
doesn't really seem to have ever been disrupted, even as
the as the personnel has changed, It's just the torch
continues to be passed in terms of the standard that's
(10:20):
being set how everybody interacts with one another. They understand
everybody wants to get their catches in theirs and their
touchdowns and their paychecks, but those individual numbers is not
what it's all about. And that wide receiver room in
green Bay, I think is you can't ask for anything
better in terms of the culture.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
No In Romeo and Christian have good heads on their shoulders.
I mean, if they would have come in without any
of that knowledge whatsoever, I think Green Bay would have
been fine. But I go back to twenty twenty two
and so much about that season was lost. But having
the opportunity to work with Randall Cobb and Alan Lazard
that year, I mean I remember rome even talking about
his interactions with Sammy Watkins, who was only here for
(11:01):
a short time, right, but a guy that was a
former number four overall pick, that had done it at
a high level, was on the tail end of his career.
But kind of showing those young guys how this thing
works and how to carry yourself as a professional, that's
a huge, huge thing. And green Bay we've talked so
much about the depth all season long and guys not
getting their opportunities, guys like Bull Milt and Malik Keith
(11:22):
having to be patient just to get on the field,
let alone get a target. Well, now this is the chance.
And Bo did it last year in Minnesota, he did
it in Dallas. You look at you know, these guys
who have stepped up when they haven't had Christian Watson
in the past. Green Bay needs all of it because
as much as this game, in my opinion, as we
slide into Keys to Victory, is about running the football,
(11:42):
well you have to be able to keep them honest
with the passing game, and all four or five guys
that'll be up in this one are going to have
a hand in it.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Well, one other thought, just in terms of something I
heard in the locker room on Wednesday after practice that
I really liked, and hearing it from Jordan Love, who
is answering all these questions about his elbow and how
does he feel and you know, are you cutting it
loose or not? You know, et cetera, et cetera. But
he's asked about the playoff experience of last year, not
(12:12):
only for himself but for you know, for a lot
of these guys who were in the playoffs for the
first time last year, just like he was. And I
thought what I heard from Jordan Love was was to
me the right the right mental balance, I guess for
lack of a better phrase, and that, yes, what these
guys did in the playoffs last year provides a bit
(12:34):
of confidence that you can you know that that you've
been in this situation, you know how to perform, you
can get it done. The moment's not too big for you, right.
But in the same breath, Jordan Love says, but we
can't live on what we did last year against the
Dallas Cowboys. This is about going out there and having
to do it again, you know. And I just I
felt like it feels like mentally, for everything that's going
(12:56):
on with regard to the you know, the injuries with
the quarterback and with Christian Watson and JayR Alexander being
out now and all of that stuff that is swirling
around this team, and the huge challenge that you're facing
in the Eagles with the number one ranked defense, the
number one running back, all of all of this stuff,
it feels to me like, mentally, whatever happens on Sunday.
(13:17):
I think mentally, this Packers team is in the right place. Yeah,
and it was just it was good to hear that.
I think that I think that stems from the way
Matt Lafleur leads this team, but also the way the
locker room leaders lead this team. When you're talking about
guys like Jordan Love and Elton Jenkins and Xavier McKinney
and Josh Jacobs and those types of guys. I don't
(13:39):
know what's going to happen on Sunday, Wes, and we'll
talk about what the Packers need to do to win
the game. But the Packers are not going out there intimidated.
But they're also not going out there and you know,
in any sort of overconfident way because oh, yeah, well
we were the seventh seed last year and we walked
off the two seed and blew them out of their
own building. Like nobody's living off of that. Yes, it's
part of their history and it gives some confidence, but
(14:01):
they know that it doesn't matter once the ball gets
kicked off on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
You played baseball at the collegiate level, I did. Did
you ever have a game? Thinking back? And I don't
know how good Lawrence was back then, but we.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Weren't very good.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Did you ever get off to a big lead, you know,
five to six run first inning? Sure, like what I
was thinking about. I wasn't a part of the love
press or scrum, but I was in some of the
other stuff. And in these topics come up about Dallas. Yeah,
I think the lasting takeaway from that game, and honestly
probably carried a little bit into the season, was when
you talk about the importance of a fast start. Yeah,
(14:36):
it's about building five six runs, or it's about scoring
twenty seven points against Dallas to get up. You know,
Dallas doesn't score in that game until literally the clock
hit zero in the first half. Right, Yes, it's important
to have that fast start, but it's also the momentum
that's derived from that, it's the confidence that's derived from that,
and it's the way you can take the air out
of the balloon. In a road venue. This is going
(14:58):
to be a much more hostile vironment than at and
T Stadium. Credit to the Cowboys. It's a good place.
It's an unbelievable venue for football. But Philly is different.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
It's walking into the ECW Arena, you know, with those fans,
you know, cheering and shouting at you. That same type
of vibe is going to be at the link and
for green Bay, I feel like the lasting takeaway. Yeah,
you can't take anything from that. Nothing that you did
in Dallas last year is going to help you on
Sunday in terms of point that you put up on
the board. Yeah, but the reminder of how you have
(15:30):
to jump out on teams in the momentum you have
to build in that first quarter. Packers have talked about
it every single week of the season fast starts, how
critical it is in every game, but especially for this
football team, regardless of whether or not you take the
football first, regardless of whether or not you get the
ball first. That is I think one of the big
lessons that Green Bay learned from that game over Dallas,
and it is going to be absolutely critical to being
(15:52):
able to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Yeah, well I want, I do want to get to
our keys to victory, but I will take care of
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(16:14):
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Wes Keys to victory, there are a lot of them.
You've got to do a lot of things right to
beat a fourteen and three football team in their own
building in the playoffs. What's at the top of the
list for you?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I made an excellent point and insider inbox you always do.
I don't know about that, yeah, But going back to
the Saquon Barkley games the end of the twenty three season,
which honestly, if you think back on it, that loss
to the Giants, probably you're gonna go down as one
of the worst ones we've had in the laflor Era.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
But that's bad.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
But the lessons that were learned that day, I mean,
I think that was kind of in some ways the
beginning of the run for Green Bay when they finally
were able to start stringing the victories again at the
end of the season. But you go back to that game,
green Bay defended Saquon Barkley so well. You go back
to this opener in Brazil, they defended Saquon Barkley so well.
(17:12):
And the point I was making with the insider inbox
Barb was that forty nine rushing yards on eighteen first
half carries in those two games, two point seven yards
per carry. In the second half of those two games,
one hundred and forty rushing yards on twenty six attempts,
five point four yards per carry. It's not even that
the Packers defense, oh they stopped defending the run. Well, No,
(17:34):
this is the problem that Saquon Barkley presents. He is
going to keep hammering on you until that door finally bashes.
In Green Bay, to the best of its ability, cannot
allow that door to fall. You have to be able
to keep up that wave of momentum. Certainly, you don't
want them to get off to a fast start, but
even if you get to halftime and he has ten
(17:55):
rushing yards, you have to treat it like he has
one hundred and forty. You have to treat it like
you have to be able to stop this guy on
every single down he touches the ball. Because you're talking
about all these different things that have to happen in
this game for the Green Bay Packers to win. Number
One is Saquon Barkley not running through this defense that
(18:16):
has been historically solid against the run.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, this is the type of challenge when it's when
it's a running back like Barkley, that is, it becomes
a different stop the run challenge because when an offense
has the best running back in the league and a
guy who I believe this year he had four touchdown
runs of sixty five plus yard yep. The thing is,
(18:41):
no matter how much the Packers stop him, the Eagles
are going to keep feeding him the ball because he
is as much a big play home run threat as
anything that Jalen Hurts can do with AJ Brown or
DeVante Smith or anybody else out there. So you can
stop him for two and a half, three even three
(19:02):
and a half quarters all you want, He's going to
keep getting the football and they will make you stop
him for all four quarters. You know, thinking back to
the Dallas game last year, if the Packers are able
to say, the Packers are able to jump out top
and build a lead, so maybe it's thirteen nothing, seventeen nothing,
something like that, and you're getting close to the end
(19:23):
of the first half, steikwon. Barkley is going to keep
getting the football even if the score is seventeen to nothing,
even if the score is twenty to nothing, because he
can bust a seventy yard touchdown run. He can take
it to the house at any time. So the Eagles
are going to keep pounding away like that. So the
four quarter challenge that he presents in terms of stopping
(19:43):
the run is really unlike anything I think the Packers
have faced all year, since since Week one in Brazil,
when Barkley kept pounding away, you know, all the way
along to the very last possession.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And that was one of the few games where Green
Bay allowed to carry more than thirty yards this entire season.
They still have not allowed to care forty yards this season,
which they have to be able to continue to come
up with this victory. But I just it's funny, man,
Like two years ago, people were ready I'm going into
the twenty two season, people were ready to sell the
ship and sell the farm on Barkley. Too many injuries.
(20:17):
They felt like, Okay, maybe this is sort of a
flash of the pan. What he did earlier in his career.
He put the injuries beside behind him, he willed the
Giants to the playoffs and it didn't happen for them
again in the second year. But this guy has always
been the guy he has been since he entered the league.
It's him, It's Josh Jacobs. It's been Derrick Henry for
(20:39):
almost a decade now. I mean, like, it's just crazy
that we even got to this point that people are
talking about devaluing running backs and things like this. But
the Philadelphia Eagles have nine hundred more rushing yards than
they did last season. I don't even think they've carried
it that many more times. Yeah, but that's the Barkley effect.
I mean, Jalen Hurts. His stats as far as running
(21:00):
concerned are almost identical to last season. The difference is
their lead back had twice as many rushing yards. Yeah,
you have to be able to stop him.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Well, you mentioned the name Josh Jacobs, and I think
that's a big one here for Green Bay as well,
because regardless of what Jordan Loves, health is going to be,
you know, his elbow and obviously the the Packers are
going to need to stay balanced on offense. One way
to do that, of course, is to is to not
fall behind by multiple scores. Don't let the other team
make you get into a one dimensional type of game,
(21:30):
because that's what Philadelphia will be wanting to do. And
then they'll want that crazy crowd at the Link to
be cranking it up, you know, on third downs, knowing
the Packers have to throw all the time, et cetera,
et cetera. Josh Jacobs is a huge key to that
in terms of keeping the offense balanced, keeping the keeping
the Eagles defense honest, and as you said, Wes, the
(21:51):
keeping the keeping the defense honest, things sort of cuts
both ways, right You. The Packers can't just completely lean
on Josh Jacob. They're going to have to throw the ball.
They're going to have to you know, work the ball
horizontally as well as vertically. Make the Eagles defend, you know,
absolutely as much physical territory as possible and.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
See what you can get done.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
And when I think back to Week one and that
game game in Brazil that we watched on that Friday night,
what the Packers absolutely cannot afford to do, which which
really cost him the game back in Week one, is
to is to stall out in the red zone. You've
got to be able to finish drives because the Packers
did enough offensively in terms of moving the football and
(22:39):
getting opportunities. They did enough to win that game offensively,
but they didn't put the points up that they should
have because they didn't finish enough drives. And that's going
to be it's going to be that much harder to
do in a true road game against this defense to
be playing at the link as opposed to be playing
at a you know, quote unquote neutral field. But finishing
(23:01):
drives is the other thing that's at the top of
my list here, because if the Packers are settling for
field goals, you just it's going to be very hard
to put up enough points to outlast the Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
And you also have to go even think of like
last week, you know, without Jalen Hurts, they still beat
the Giants twenty to thirteen, but you'd have to go
all the way back to Week four for the last
time they scored fewer than twenty points.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Yeah, this is one of the.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Most high octane, high efficient offenses in the National Football League,
And now you have Vic Fangio's defense complimenting that. You have, guys,
you know, when you look at Quinjon Mitchell coming in.
When you look at obviously Cooper dejen what he has
added as sort of a versatile piece in that secondary.
The areas that it seemed like Philadelphia came up short
last season what sort of led to their fall during
(23:48):
that final stretch of the year. They filled those holes
on both sides of the ball, and it has allowed
them to be a much more complete football team this season.
The Green Bay Packers have to understand that, yeah, we
are still the youngest team in the NFL. We were
the youngest team in the NFL for the first time
in back to back years, but we also are much
more experienced than we are last year. You have that
(24:09):
experience now of going down to Brazil, playing on that surface,
playing that far away from home, against an opponent of
that caliber, and coming up short, but understanding where you
came up short. Protecting the football, situational offense and defense.
These are the keys not only to winning in the
National Football League, but lasting in the playoffs. You don't
(24:29):
do those two things, You're going home.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah and this and this game isn't going to be
isn't going to be won with any kind of you know,
psychological tricks or anything like that because what I'm sensing
in a granted I'm not there, but paying attention to
kind of what's out there in the media and the
comments that are coming from Philadelphia. What I sense is
that the Philadelphia Eagles, they are perfectly content with the
(24:53):
fact that all the attention in the NFC for the
last couple of weeks was on the Vikings and the
Lions and who was going to get the number one. Absolutely,
they knew their quarterback was in concussion protocol and there
were certainly some concerns there. But now you head into
this week and they're they're absolutely fine with all the
analysts talking about what the Packers did last year as
a number seven seed and went down to Dallas, the
(25:14):
NFC East champs and blew them out of their building
and all that. The Philadelphia Eagles just strike me as
a team that is they they are, they are lying
in wait. They know everybody knows how they completely collapsed
at the end of last season, and there were all
kinds of questions about where the franchise was headed. They've
answered a lot of those questions. But this is a
(25:35):
team that strikes me as one that is that is
ready to answer a lot more and uh and the
as I said before, I think the Packers mentally are
in a really good space, uh going out there to
uh to take on this challenge. But man, you have
to you have to be able to match every ounce
of intensity that the Eagles are going to bring into
this game, because this is a team that's out to
(25:56):
prove something.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
They're intense, they're physical. But I'll tell you something else though, Mike,
You're right, they've answered a lot of those questions, but
the real answer doesn't really matter until now.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
That's right. You're right.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
There was a thing that happened with Marty Schottenheimer for
a lot of years, especially during his run with the Chargers,
where they'd have these really good regular seasons and then
they didn't get it done. Now, credit to the Eagles,
they've made a super Bowl, they've taken that next steps,
more steps than a lot of teams make, but they
still haven't brought back that Lombardi Trophy since the Nick
Foles year. So that part of it makes me think, Yeah,
(26:29):
you should be confident your fourteen win team. You answered
the skeptics, You survived what was going to be a
really tenuous first month of the season. If you don't
start fast. Yeah, and you're at this point, but yet
you still need to win. And that's why I made
the comment and insider inbox, I'm like, the pressure is
still all with them. Green Bay can take as much
(26:50):
pressure and they want to put that on their shoulders.
That's fine, But realistically they're in the same spot as
last year as far as playing with house money. And
that's why I'm really interested to watch this first half
on Sunday afternoon. If you get off to a fast start,
how do the Eagles respond? How does that fan base respond?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Right?
Speaker 3 (27:06):
But you got to earn it, yeah, to be able
to see it.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, no doubt about one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Well, I do want to talk about the rest of
wild Card weekend here in the NFL. Will start in
the NFC. The other two games, both of which will
actually take place after the Packers play. Washington is at
Tampa Bay in the Sunday night game, and then Minnesota
is at the La Rams in the Monday night game.
(27:32):
As far as Washington Tampa Bay, it's fascinating. I know
I was having conversations with you about this and then
I did a little bit more research and posted it
in my road to the Super Bowl story that went
up on the website on Tuesday afternoon. Washington enters the
playoffs as a twelve and five team. Literally half of
their wins, six of them have come in either the
(27:56):
last five seconds or literally the last play of the game.
Six of their twelve when you look at their season,
including for like four in a row here down the
stretch to get to twelve and five, which got them
the sixth seed, and the trip to Tampa Bay absolutely
fascinating in that regard, like, you know what that team
(28:16):
has done in all these down to the wire games
and then Tampa Bay. Baker Mayfield is as hot a
quarterback as any in the league right now. Over his
last I believe four games, he's got one hundred and
twenty plus passer raatee essentially over the last month. Tampa
Bay is a team that, yeah, they don't have a
great record, they won a crappy division, but that's a
(28:39):
team that's confident they can go out win games right now.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Too. The way that that draft class is rallied too,
has just been incredible. I mean, Darnold obviously is in
this playoff right with Minnesota, but right Baker Mayfield man
when he is hot. There is nobody that strikes the
match hotter than he does. I mean when he catches fire,
that guy is just an inferno. Yeah, and he's doing
it again. I'm really interested to see him at up
with Dan Quinn's defense and how they counter that. Quinn's
(29:03):
defense have been up and down at various points of
the season. It does seem like they've sort of peaked
towards the end of the year, though, And certainly when
you talk about Giden Daniels, you're talking about the NFL
offensive rookie of the Year. I know it's going to
be probably a couple days before we hear any of that,
but that is it has to be what happened. Oh yeah, Yeah,
this guy has been electrifying, but he's also been incredibly
clutch as a rookie player in his first NFL season.
(29:25):
You just that aspect of it you can't say enough
about because at the end of the day, you can
have fancy stats and you can do this and that,
do you win football games? He wins football games? Did
you I got to kick out of this? Did you
see that stat? Not that this is anything to do
with the games you lined up for me, but this
is the eighth playoff trip for the Houston Texans and
(29:46):
they've never not been in the three thirty time slot
on set.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah I did. I did hear.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Every single time every Houston Houston Texans Wild Card AFC
Wildcard game is at the three thirty Central on Saturday afternoon,
they had They've been in the same time slot every time.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
The Houston Texans are like the ginger ale and like
the combination box with like the cherry soda and the
orange and what ends up being left at the very end,
and they just they keep throwing into that same spot,
like all right, well, this is the playoff game. We'll
get it out of the way and then we'll move
on with the rest of the tournament. But also the
fact that the three AFC games are all happening before
(30:22):
the NFC game.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, it is. It's kind of interesting how that fell.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
Pittsburgh and Baltimore are playing for the third time in
fifteen days or whatever it feels like at this point.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yes, yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's third.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Yeah, it's been like two months. But I mean, like
it's still crazy, like those teams. It just seems like
every time I turn on a television they're playing each other.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Well, here, let me get your thoughts on the AFC
games and then we'll go back to Minnesota and La.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Can you tell the ones that I can watch?
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah, I'm actually really yeah, the ones we're going to
get to watch. So the Chargers are at the Texans,
the Steelers are at the Ravens, and the Broncos are
are at the Bills. The vast majority of the football
analyst world is going to pick the Chargers, the Ravens,
and the Bills to win those three games overwhelmingly. That
(31:09):
will be the sentiment. Do you do you have one
of those three games that you that you would say,
not to say you're gonna predict the upset, but that
you think would maybe have the best chance of going
the other way.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
I wonder if CJ. Stroud can catch something here. Okay,
it's weird to say a team that's a four seed
and is hosting a game is like the underdog. But
I mean, like, well, the way.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
The way they played against the Ravens when they had
at home very recently, that was that was ugly.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
But is it that you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 2 (31:39):
No, I got I mean the guy was the NFL
Offensive Rookie of the Year last year, and and yeah,
this is a this is a guy who's capable of
throwing for four hundred yards and four touchdowns at any time. Now,
the Chargers defense is one of the best in the league.
That's gonna be risingly big time challenge there. But but yeah,
you can't whenever you have a playmaker, especially a young
(32:01):
playmaker who's gone through the ups and downs and everything,
you can never count a guy like that out.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
And in the other aspect, sometimes this stuff just doesn't
make sense right, Like you will just be like, Okay,
well the Chargers are rolling hardball's got these guys going well,
and then just something happens where you remember, oh, yeah,
this is the National Football League. Any of these teams
can beat each other at any time. You know, if
the Chargers have all the pieces. They've gotten really banged
up at receiver, but they have the pieces to be
(32:26):
able to contest with that game. The other two. I
can't sit here and honestly tell you the Pittsburgh Steelers
on the losing streak that they're on going up against
Lamar playing the way he's playing right now, the way
that entire team is playing that they're going to have
a chance, and then ultimately, I'd be silly to be
sitting here talking about how good Buffalo is all season
and say, oh yeah, bo Nix is going to go
(32:46):
in there and knock them out of the playoffs. Now,
that would be demoralizing. But I mean, when you look
in terms of the overall consistency of a season, it's
hard to find a team. Maybe no, I don't evenk
you say de Troit because Buffalo beat him in their
own place, But maybe it's Detroit. But Buffalo has just
from beginning, middle and ends, has been the team that
has just been the most consistent one throughout the course
(33:08):
of this thing.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Yeah, I agree with you. There the one thing I
will say and then we'll move on. But the one
thing I will say about Pittsburgh and Baltimore and the
reason it intrigues me, even though Pittsburgh is on this
losing streak and they're not playing all that well, something
about division games in the playoffs. Y, when it's the
(33:28):
third meeting, and as you said, this is the third
meeting in a very short period of time between these
two teams. When when it's division opponents that meet and
they know each other so well, and you know one
team is obviously Baltimore's kind of had Pittsburgh's number here
this year. It's one of those things that I know
everybody is writing the Steelers off. And yes, if gambling
(33:50):
weren't illegal at bookster, I would be putting money on
the Baltimore Ravens to win this game. I absolutely, one
hundred percent believe the Ravens will win in advance. I'm
just very curious because it's a division matchup, it's a
familiar opponent, it's the third time in a short period
of time. Maybe just maybe that gives you know, Pittsburgh
goal will will find something here and make it a
(34:12):
better game than a lot of people think it's gonna be.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
And I'm sure Mike Tomlin is telling his guys, we
beat these guys. You know, it was in our place,
but we beat them. And Russell Wilson did not play
well like but they still found a way.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
And that's the other That's the other thing too about
this one that intrigues me because Mike Tomlin is he's
one of the best coaches in the league. He's going
to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, someday,
and this is the guy who hasn't won a playoff
game in quite a while. Yeah, I think you go
back to you have to go back to twenty sixteen
or twenty seventeen, something like that for Mike Tomlin's last
(34:44):
playoff win. Good coaches, coaches that are that good, you know,
they'll they'll find a way to end a drought like that.
And uh and again, it's just it's it's the thing
that intrigues me about about the Pittsburgh Baltimore matchup, and
I'm really curious to see if if Tomlin can can
change the narrative.
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Yeah, you have to go back to I think it's
it was twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Twenty sixteen. Yeah, I knew it'd been. It'd been a while.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
I think I think he's lost either six or like
six playoff games in a rowers.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
One thing that's really unfair to him though, that I mean,
it is what it is. You're no one's crying for
you in the n NFL. But like there are some
teams that he got there that probably shouldn't have been.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Oh yeah, that's that's that's you get dogged for that. Yeah,
that's the thing. That's the beauty of Mike Tomlin is
he get he gets teams to the playoffs that nobody
that nobody thinks would would even have a chance to
get there over the course of a long season, and
and they get into the playoffs, and yeah, in recent
years they have been able to win any games. But
I just wonder if if he's going to be able
to uh, to flip the script a little bit. Yeah,
(35:43):
got to get your thoughts though Minnesota at the RAMS,
I made the comment and insider inbox, Uh, you know,
we're talking a lot about the Packers' resiliency being tested. Obviously,
a tough loss against Minnesota, a big division opponent there,
then you don't play well at all the Bears and
end up losing right at the end. Going into the
playoffs on a two game losing streak, you got to
(36:05):
hit the road. The Packers' resiliency is being tested big
time here. I think Minnesota's resiliency is being tested just
as much because of everything that went into I mean,
such a high stakes Week eighteen game on the road.
It's the difference between the one seed and the five seed,
between getting a bye and playing at home in the
divisional round to having to go on the road right away,
(36:28):
and they're going up against a team that beat them
early here in the season in that building and b
a Rams team that where Sean McVay didn't care about
the seed, He didn't care if he was the three
or the four. He felt it was better for his
team to rest his guys, get ready and try to
have everybody as fresh as possible for whatever opponent would
be coming into to Sofi Stadium. It's a this is
(36:52):
this is a this is a big time challenge for
Minnesota and.
Speaker 3 (36:55):
It was a big time gamble. It was a big
time risk by McVeigh. Yep. We're going to figure out
whether or not it pays off because there's a number
of ways to look at this thing. The probably the
biggest one is, well, okay, you're picking your poison as
far as who you're gonna play, but do you just
want to start to bite through that right at the
beginning and start to get through that elephant you know
from day one, and if you beat the Minnesota Vikings,
(37:17):
you take on the world, right you just see where
it takes you from there.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (37:21):
So you had the half round by or whatever you
want to call this with with sitting in all the
guys they did. And the other thing too. You'd be
remiss not to say the Rams have been banged up
every way a team can be banged up but still
be in the playoffs with its core players, Like it's insane,
Like the fact that they got San Francisco never got
everybody back right. The Rams somehow did like and they
(37:42):
had bad injuries, especially at the receiver position, and.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
They were able to outlast the Seattle Seahawks.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
It's had.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
The Seahawks had a very tough schedule down the stretch.
They lost home games back to back to the Packers
and the Vikings. That put the Rams in control. And
the Rams snagged that division that got there and got
their playoff spot. And then once they had it, Sean
mcvage was like, all right, then, I don't care what
seed we are. We're gonna rest up our guys and
get ready to make a run.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
And for how bad that defense was at certain points
this season, the way they finished out against the division,
finished out against Geno Smith. You saw what Gino did
in the finale. I mean, like that guy still he
threw for a career high passing yards. This year, I
think more touchdowns than he's ever had. I mean, like,
the guy is a real threat that you have to
find ways to get through the Rams. Did that, here's
(38:28):
your reward, You get to face a fourteen win wild
card team. But you know, seeing where this takes him
is going to be really fascinating to watch, because as
long as the Packers are alive, I want to see
the fewest amount of NFC North teams available, you know,
the rest of the way. Not because I don't think
they can beat them, because you don't want to sit
there and play you know division, you know, on cheer
for your division, whatever. But there is also the aspect
(38:49):
in the back of my head that's like Minnesota is
such a strange team in the way in which they've
done this thing this year. Nobody expected them to be here. No,
I had them down for fourth place in the division.
So I had them behind the Chicago Bears, and here
they are Sam Darnald showing what he flashed with the
(39:10):
forty nine ers was no fluke and this it's crazy, man.
But this photon of youth that has emerged out in Carolina,
where these guys go down there and they kind of
flame out and then they go to another team and
become Baker Mayfield again, and Donald becomes the player that
he's become. I mean, it's it's it's been crazy to watch.
I think we won't be able to probably enjoy that
(39:31):
game at all, But I think that's probably I can
see why that was the one that was put on
Monday Night Football because it is a real juggernaut of
a matchup in terms of the wild card round and
how that is formulated.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah, it is one hundred percent. And the whole Sean
McVay Kevin O'Connell thing is interesting as well, obviously, as
amongst the many coaching connections and all that that we
talked about over the years with the I guess what
you'd call the Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan tree.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
Yeah, the double tree.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
I want to mention this too when I say we
can't really enjoy it Monday Night. And the reason I
say that is for two reasons. One, if the Packers lose,
I don't care about football anymore. And two, if the
Packers win, correct me if I'm wrong here. You're playing
on Saturday night, right, There's no situation in which Green
Bay could even play the following Sunday.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Correct, I that's that's the part I don't know.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Yeah, or because they because they haven't announced, they haven't
announced what timeslot Detroit is in.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
So you could potentially have both of them on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Yeah, Okay, never been.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Yeah, because well because see here's the thing, like the
way I understand it, like they what what the NFL
is not going to do is the NFL is not
going to have the Monday night winner between the Rams
and the Vikings play on Saturday. Right, Yes, so, but
but you don't know which of which opponent, the Rams
(40:51):
or the Vikings winner is going to get until all
the other games, like you know, until all the other
games play out, and then you know, and then you
figure out who's going where. So there, so there's there's
more to sort out, you know, because what they used
to do when there were the two bys, when they
were the two buys per conference, they would actually, like
when the Packers would have a bye as one of
(41:13):
the top two seeds, we would actually know right now
during the during the playoff, by what timeslot the following
weekend the Packers had. They had that all set up
in advance.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Now that they're.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
Playing a wild card game on a Monday night. They
can't do that anymore because you can't have the Monday
night winner play on Saturday. Like, that's just not that's
just not fair at all. So so they have to
wait for things to sort out before you know what
the schedule is the following week.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
And this is where I was coming from is because
in at least the best I know, there has never
been a weekend where it's been the AFC both games
on a Saturday, NFC both games on a Sunday. It's
always NFC and AFC. So under that idea, let's say
let's say that that is the truth, then the team
(42:01):
whoever wins with the vikings in the rams conceivably would happen.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Would play would play Sunday. Yeah, so I hear what
you're saying. But these days, with the way the whole
television part works, I honestly don't know.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
Let's put a pin in this and after the packers
wait on Sunday we can discuss it all over a.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
Good We've gone quite a bit overtime. Apologies to our
producer Zach and the regular listeners who count on us
to be a little bit more short and concise. We
weren't today, but I will finish with this. Folks, be
among the thousands of football fans cheering on their team's
NFL picks by joining us April twenty four through April
twenty six of twenty twenty five for the NFL Draft.
(42:37):
Visit green Bay dot com slash Draft twenty five for
more information. And with that, we're going to call it
a rap on this edition of Packers Unscript to'd be
sure to follow all of our coverage of Sunday's NFC
Wildcard playoff game from Philadelphia. Wes and I will both
be there. We'll have it all for you on Packers
dot com. For West, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning
in everybody. We will see you next time.
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