January 14, 2025 • 37 mins
Mike and Wes review the playoff loss to the Eagles, including the Packers’ struggles on offense (4:06), how the Eagles stayed in control (11:41), and the rough start to the game (15:11). They also review the other results from the wild-card round (24:17), including the Vikings’ loss (30:55).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined by the
suddenly clean shaven Western Hodkowitz, and we're coming to you
hear from our studios at lambeau Field, unfortunately, to recap
a season ending NFC Wildcard playoff loss. The final was
twenty two to ten at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia,
(00:39):
and Wes' if there's anything that is going to be
the you know the recurring theme of the downfall of
the twenty twenty four Green Bay Packers, it's that when
they had a really, really big game to play, they
didn't start it well enough to be able to win it.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
This is the hardest part for me, as you and
I were coming back on the plane and obviously writing
our content and everything that's followed these last couple of days,
is there were so many things we talked about going
into this game, and the Packers knew it too, that
had to get accomplished, and realistically they didn't achieve any
of them. I was talking to my father after I
(01:17):
got home from the game. Sometimes the old father son talk,
you kind of debrief about.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Work, and I do it via text message, Yeah with
my dad.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Your dad's down in platform. Mine lives two miles away
from me, so it feasy. But like I said, I
was like, that was the most disappointing part of this
game for me. Is nothing surprising happened relative to what
you knew. The worst case scenario could be. It was
an early turnover on the kickoff. It was losing the
(01:48):
turnover margin four to zero for the game, not being
able to get off to a fast start offensively, struggling
to find a rhythm and Mike. One of the things
we talked about last week. Ifiladelphia was gonna lock it
down and take care of and remove the threat of
Josh Jacobs that early on, the Packers had to take
advantage well the Eagles, and which had a very respectable
(02:10):
run defense, not number one ranked like their pass defense,
but number top ten. Well, they were able to contain
him with a light box. They kept the shell on
the top of the defense, and as Jaden Reid talked
about after the game, they just the Packers had to
kind of play underneath that. And when that's the case,
you have to find ways to create explosive plays. You
got to make guys miss. You have to get into
(02:31):
the open field, and Green Bay just struggled to do
that and their season ended because of it. It's very
strange footing for me, Mike. This is the first time
in my time with the Green Bay Packers in which
they've made the playoffs and have not been in the
divisional round. Whether it was as a buy or whether
they played into it. This is the first time the
Packers have lost in the wildcard round since twenty fifteen,
(02:51):
my last year at the Prescazette. So that there's just
this feeling all week long of not like whatever the
antithesis of like finality would be, it's just inconclusive. You know.
It just feels like, as you wrote about some of
our stories this week, we never really saw the Packers
play their best ball. They won eleven games, and now
they're off into the offseason once again.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, it's certainly frustrating. And Matt Lefuir talked about it
his season ending news conference was shortly before we turned
the cameras on here, talked about just how disappointing it
was for the for the offense to hit the skids
at the end of the season, and everybody's questioning, you know, okay,
what went wrong and everything, and I don't you know,
(03:36):
I'm one who tries to look at it from a
big picture perspective. I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong
with the Packers offense. You have to realize that before
things started to go south in Minnesota in the second
to last regular season game, the Packers had scored thirty
plus points five games in a row. That's what makes
the finish the Minnesota game, the Chicago game, and then
(03:57):
the Philadelphia game. That's what makes it so so headscore
and so surprising. I mean, yes, the end result in
Philadelphia was not surprising based on what had happened in
Minnesota and leading up to it. The Packers didn't have momentum,
They had the toughest playoff position as the seventh seat.
They were not healthy, they were dealing with they were
getting some guys back on defense, but guys were dropping
(04:18):
like flies during the game and all that. There's there's
so much to to try to process there. But offensively,
I mean, you said it. The Eagles were able to
contain Josh Jacobs to basically two and a half to
three yards of carry. I mean he had right around
fifty yards on seventeen of his carries. He had the
(04:40):
one that busted a tremendous run down to the one
yard line set up the touchdown run there on the
opening play of the fourth quarter. But the Packers couldn't
get Jacob's going, so then the Eagles were just were
still able to sit back, make the Packers try to throw,
try to run the quick game on offense. And as
I was saying in the Lone I blogged during the game,
(05:02):
if you're trying to just continue to throw the quick
outs to get the ball out of Love's hand, because
anytime there were developing routes, there was a guy in
his face and he's having to bail the pocket. There
was no timing, there was no rhythm to anything. If
all you can do is throw the quick stuff, well
then the defense is gonna eventually sit on that and
they're gonna jump it and they're gonna make a play
on that. So you still have to try to mix
(05:24):
in everything else. But when everything else was being mixed in,
there was no rhythm, there was no consistency to anything
going on offense. And this offense really just ended the
season with in just a three week malaise of poor
execution and poor results.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And you know, I'm gonna pull down capers here for
one moment, just say I'm gonna start with the positives
first in this and then I'll bring it back to
what you're talking about. Everything that we saw in, everything
we believed in Josh Shacobs I felt like was epitomized
in this game. I think you can make a case
Josh Shacops was maybe the MVP of this entire roster
this season.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I think he was, and the way he.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Performed in his consistency when you're talking about guys that
showed up every single week and did it at a
high level. He made a few mistakes, but as we saw,
if you look at the guys that have had three
hundred plus carries and Packers' history, I think he had
four fumbles on the season. That's right around the lowest.
I think Edgar Bennett had two one year, but you know,
I'm on green had seven had eight For how manch
(06:25):
any times he touched the ball, I thought Josh Jacobs
did a really good job with it. If Green Bay
was gonna have a chance in this thing, the way
he ran, particularly in the second half, which hadn't been
the strong point of the offense this year and the
way he was able to get some of the passing
game stuff going. He gave a speech to the guys
beforehand and saying, if you don't feel like you can
do it, follow me. I'm gonna lead this thing. How
(06:47):
driven he was to maximize this opportunity. Josh Jacobs helped
get the Packers to eleven wins. He helped get them
to the playoffs in any chance they had a winning
this game. I think followed number eight to bring it
back to what you're talking about, though, the synergy of
the offense just has not been there in the last
three games.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Something's been out of sync between the link between the
run and the pass, whatever the case might be. You're right,
synergy is a synergy is a great word because appears
not there.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Why I'm struggling the most with this. I don't discount
what Christian Watson means to this team. He is a
big play, playmaker, but they've played most of the last
season without him. They missed Aaron Jones for just under
half the season as well, and they found ways down
the stretch.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
They weren't able to do that this year, and you
lost Elton Jenkins in this game too, But last year
there was a lot of shuffling going on on the
offensive line and they were still figuring it out. I mean,
losing Jenkins in a playoff game enormous because he had
to be replaced by guys who basically hadn't played and
that's unfortunate. But again, yeah, we're kind of scratching our
(07:54):
heads here as to exactly what the downfall was.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, and National Football League, by the way, if you
want to take out an offensive lineman, just run as
quickly as you can with your helmet directly into his shoulder. Yeah,
And Nolan Smith is going to get the job done.
So the Packers had that was a huge domino effect.
Travis Glover goes in at left guard, doesn't go great,
then Kadem Telford has to come in. And as Josh
Jacobs said afterwards, he actually told Telford afterwards, He's like,
(08:21):
I'm really proud of you. I mean, neither Glover hadn't
played on offense at all. Telford had maybe like fifteen
snaps or something like that before that game. A bad
situation to be in. And by the way, any Packer
fans out there that took issue with them drafting Jordan
Morgan in the first round. You saw why Jordan Morgan
was going to be a first round pick and why
they wanted them. Credit to Telford, credit to Glover. You
(08:41):
give those guys all the respect in the world for
what they do and what they're going through to be
in that position. But the Green Bay Packers, with how
strong they were and how durable they were on the
offensive line this year, you kind of forget that they
don't necessarily have that Evan Smith, you know, on the
sixth guy. They don't necessarily have a guy that you
can turn to as that next guy up the experience
and also has some credits.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
They lost him. They lost that sixth man when when
Jordan Morgan went on injury reserve. Because whether it was
gonna be Morgan or Sean Ryan ultimately as the full
time starter at guard before the before the shoulder injury
cropped up again, you were going to have a sixth
man there that that was gonna put your offensive line
in a different situation.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And they obviously signed Andre Dillard, but Dillard was working
his way back from the that's.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
The that's the other part too, and he was and
he was in he was inactive for this game. He'd
been on the injury list trying to come back from
a concussion for the last couple of weeks. Yeah, so yeah,
it was just it was a bad It was a
bad combination of things and and uh and yeah, losing
Elton Jenkins, especially early in the game like that, and
then the receivers go down like later on. Hey, the
Eagles dealt with injuries too, they lost to Kobe Dean.
(09:47):
They're going to be trying to get to a Super
Bowl without one of their better defensive players. Hey, it happens.
But when you're the seventh seed on the road, playing
in Philadelphia, those are the kinds of things that just
that add to the mistake you were already making, and
the mistakes were being made on offense and specialty and.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Not to keep bringing up the fifteen playoff game here,
but there were so many parallels between that with how
banged up they were at receiver going in where you
already lost Christian Watson, much like they didn't have Davante
in that fifteen playoff game. You're down to three receivers
that you're finishing that game with. Right. Musgrave is still
working his way back at the tight end position Ben
Simms was down, so they just they ran. They were
(10:26):
up against it. And in credit to Philadelphia, I thought,
every single time, other than that first quarter where green
Bay got some stops to help them mitigate some of
the damage there early on and get through those early
interceptions from Love when green Bay started to score, Philadelphia
matched it every time yep in the second half, and
(10:46):
that's ultimately why they won the football game.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, I mean, that's what it came down to. The
Packers defense held tough, held really really strong. The fact
that the fact that it was only ten to nothing
at halftime was was an impressive showing by the defense.
Obviously the opening touchdown because of the fumble on the
opening kickoff, we'll get back to that in a minute,
(11:09):
but the defense had a stretch there from after that
first possession with the short field through the opening possession
of the second half. That was six drives for the Eagles,
five punts in a field goal against a team that
was fourteen to three in the regular season and got
it starting quarterback back for this game. That was a
(11:29):
winning performance from the defense. Unfortunately, the way things unfolded
is then when once the Packers did get on the board.
They got it to ten to three, but then the
defense wasn't able to get it back to the offense
with just a one score deficition. It becomes sixteen to three.
Then the Packers score. Jacobs has the big rundown of
the one yard line. Packers score get it to sixteen
(11:50):
to ten, but then the defense was not able to
get the ball back to the offense with the one
score deficit. The Jordan Love won, the offense finally was
starting to find something. Jordan Love didn't have the ball
in his hands, just needing one score to either even
up the game or potentially take the lead. That just
never happened. And that's why you can't. You can't start
(12:13):
as poorly as the Packers did. You cannot put up
a goose egg in the first half on the scoreboard
in a playoff game. And yeah, I mean if you
if you had told me, if you had told me
at the start of the fourth quarter that the Philadelphia
Eagles were gonna have sixteen points on the board, I
would have said, the Packers are winning the game and
(12:33):
going to Detroit. I was telling you you would take that.
You would take that in a heartbeat, ninety nine times
out of a hunt.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
My whole thing all week, and you had to hear
me say this was I thought it was gonna be
the first to thirty win.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah, and I totally agreed with you on that.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
These two teams barely got to thirty together. Yeah, like
it turned into something. And that's respect to Fangio's defense,
that's respect to Jeff Hafley's defense. I'm not discounting that
both of those are top five defenses. Fangios was the
best of the National Football League from a yardage perspect
but I just felt like, based on what we saw
in Brazil, it was going to follow that track. AJ
(13:06):
Brown had one catch for ten yards, right. Saquon Barkley
did what he always did, although he didn't get the
huge explosive this time. He just did it kind of
wearing down, Yeah, the offense or the defensive line. But
I'll tell you what, Mike. For me, I don't know
how many people out in Philadelphia wrote about this, but
Dallas Goddard was the MVP of this game for me,
because when you talk about veteran players that step up
(13:29):
and a guy that had to deal with some big
injuries this year, Yeah, he was sort of the safety
valve that finally got Jalen Hurts going in addition to
his touchdown, where you know, you know, again we can
have that conversation about being offensive players doing the illegal
hands of the face thing, and that's fine, but whatever
the case may be, he's the one that kind of
(13:49):
got them going there in the second half and in
obviously one hundred and thirty one passing yards for Jalen
Hurts was enough to win this game.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, I mean, that's and at the end of the day,
the Eagles had the Eagles had a couple penalties, you know,
some things that set them back like here and there,
but ultimately the Eagles didn't the Eagles didn't make a
big mistake. They they played for the most part, they
played air free football. I mean to the extent that
you know, the Packers had made so many mistakes early
(14:18):
with the fumble on the opening kickoff, the two interceptions
in the first half, that there were two instances on
third and long where they just handed it off to
Berkley because they're like, we're not going to put our
quarterback in a bad situation. We're I mean, the Packers
have made enough mistakes to give the Eagles the lead,
and the Eagles are just going to be like, Okay,
(14:39):
we're gonna you know, we're not going to try to
do something crazy on third and long. We'll hand it
off to Barkley. Maybe he breaks it. If he doesn't,
we'll punt the football because we're not going to make
the kind of mistake that can change the game. That's
the way they were playing because of how the Packers started,
and we'll get to that start right now. Because if
there is if there is a big fat what if
(15:02):
about this football game. And I hate playing this game
the what if game, because we can talk about We
talked about the injury to Jenkins and the Packers losing
their receivers and all this other stuff. The biggest what
if that's hanging over this game is what if the
replay review gives the ball back to the Packers on
the opening kickoff? Because everybody saw it. I mean, however,
(15:24):
many millions of people are watching this game on TV.
It sure looked like the skycam showed that Kishawn Nixon
had recovered that ball and then it got ripped away
from him later on like down under the pile. And
Nixon even said Basically, he felt like it was two guys,
one on each side of him that were ripping his
(15:44):
arms apart, so that the ball then came out again,
and the end the Eagles came out of the pile
with the ball. They reviewed it. They said the call stands,
so obviously it wasn't in their mind, it wasn't conclusive
enough that Nixon had recovered the ball and secured the recovery.
The question we were talking about before we turn the
(16:04):
cameras on, is there are these things floating around out
there is did the replay center in New York actually
have access to the overhead camera or did it only
have the more traditional camera angles used to broadcast the game.
(16:25):
If New York didn't have access to the overhead camera,
I totally understand the call that they made. But if
that is true, and I'm not saying that it is,
I don't know that it is. It's just sort of
something that we're hearing. But if that is true, I
don't understand that at all. And if it isn't true,
and if they did have the look at the overhead camera,
(16:46):
I don't understand how you can say Keishawn Nixon didn't
have that ball on the ground and he's clearly down
by contact.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I've just gone back and forth over this in my head,
and because the first and foremost like, I would love
to sit here and say, okay, well, all this is
mitigated if you hold onto the football right. Aaron Burks
also through his helmet directly into Kishan's face mask, which
also shouldn't be happening. Whether it should be penalized, I
assume orn will be fine for that, I think, But
(17:17):
whatever the case may be, Kishan's human, like, I understand
why that happens. A helmet to helmet, helmet to face
mask hit is going to have repercussions to it. What
I'm NFL officiating has its challenges, and I'm trying to
be more understanding of what the humans on the field
are going through and what they're dealing with in the moment.
(17:40):
Everything surrounding NFL officiating is so antiquated. It is so antiquated.
Everything evolves with this game. The players evolve, the technology evolves.
We listen to Matt Leafluor talk for thirty eight minutes today.
Some of the stuff he's mentioning how he goes back
to his analytics department to see hey, how are we
doing with shotgun play action? How are we doing with
stuff under center? They gave him the percentages where they
(18:01):
rank in the National Football League, and yet you have
the most popular sport in the world that's being disseminated
to the entire country and in part you know, basically
every part of the world sees these skys camshots and
Brad Allen and his crew it's a scrum. I understand
human element, but they missed it. They missed Oran, they
(18:22):
missed the fumble recovery, and New York stops the game,
looks at it, evidently gets a high sea scratches its
head a little bit and says, now play stands yeah,
and then moments later it's seven to nothing Eagles. I
say it every year, Mike. I said it two weeks
ago as it related to another game in the National
(18:42):
Football League. There's always going to be these plays that
happen in the playoffs that change the outcome. I'm not
saying the Packers win that game, right, I'm not saying
Packers did not pill you.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Well, That's why I termed it as it's the bit
what if of this football game? Is if that turnover
on the opening kickoff is not a turnover. That's the
what if that we'll never know the answer.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
And there's a number of games left to be played.
Yet there's going to be another officiating thing. We have
all this garbage of this replay assists stuff that is
at times utilized and at times not utilized, and at
times makes no sense. But yet you have an instance
like that where you have technology showing what's happening on
the play and not even like the stuff that happened
(19:23):
with Egdri and Cooper a couple weeks ago, where it's
like you're looking as the dress gold or is it blue?
Whereas the off sides is he not? No, you legitimately
see Keishan with the hand with the ball in his hand.
And if New York doesn't have that technology, what are
we doing here? Yea? Why are we playing this game? Right?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
And my and my larger problems as many know what
I've said about the safety rules and replay review and
everything like that, if the NFL, if the NFL is
looking at that replay and and they deem because I don't,
I will confess I don't know all the rules as
far as the helmet hits, whether a guy supposedly needs
(20:02):
to be launching himself, you know, in certain situations or
whatever the case may be. I don't know all the
helmet to helmet rules, but if the NFL is looking
at that, and if that is, if that helmet to
helmet shot by Burkes on Nixon is something that is
going to generate a fine for Oran Burks, and all
that the replay did was decide nothing because they couldn't
(20:26):
figure out apparently who had the ball under the scrum.
And Aaron Burks is going to get a FedEx in
his locker for with a fifteen thousand dollars fine for
a helmet hit. And that's a play that started a
playoff game and handed a seven to nothing lead, or
it would have been a minimum three to nothing lead
even if the Packers defense rises up there. What are
(20:47):
we doing here?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
I mean, you know, well, we're making money, is what
we're doing.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, that's that's exactly what the league is doing. But
I what I am most frustrated with, and it comes
to it comes to obviously a bigger spotlight in the
playoff games, but just this what the NFL is passing off,
what needs to be accepted with regard to these safety rules,
is that some are going to get flagged in the game,
(21:12):
but then we're going to review them and they're not
going to get fined. And then some are not going
to be flagged in the game, and then they're going
to be fined, and the players are going to get
money taken out of their pocketbook. But these are just
the results that everybody has to accept. I'm sorry, it's
gotten to the point of being unacceptable, especially when if
indeed that Oron Burks gets fined for that helmet shot,
(21:36):
when it impacts a playoff game to the extent that
this one did. Sorry, I'll get off the soapbox.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Excellent points all around. Let's say Oron doesn't get fined
at all. The independent neurologist calls Keishawn Nixon off the
field to take a look. Right, why did that happen?
Why did that happen? What technology did the independent neurologists
have to see? Hey, yeah, Keishaw Nixon, we need to
take a look at him. The Eagles player just drill
them in that helmet with his helmet. But yet we
(22:02):
can't do anything about these things. Right, So again, the
National Football League, they want to make their cash, They
want to get things going. The ad revenue is gonna
come in, the Super Bowl be played, they're gonna hand
out the trophy again to somebody. But in terms of
the x's and o is and what these people invest
into this game. Yeah, if there's stuff available to you
to make it a cleaner, more palatable product, let's do that.
(22:24):
Oh and by the way, the other thing that absolutely
needs to get thrown out the door this offseason would
be amazing if they could do this this stuff about
if we see it, you know, if it has to
be all these things, but we'll flag it. We won't
flag it, but we'll find it. And that's how we're
gonna do it. This is stuff that led to Josh
Jacobs having all those random fines, like.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
And he spent spent the season appealing fines and and
I want at least one appeal from uh, you know,
thanks to some good reporting by Pete Doherty there that
we found out about. But yeah, I mean exactly, it
just becomes a question of of of what are we
what are we doing here? All right, some sponsor business
(23:02):
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(23:24):
All right, other results around wild Card weekend. I want
to start with the AFC because I want to give
a shout out to the Houston Texans. Shout out Demico
Ryans and that defense brought it on Saturday afternoon. We
talked to I think we mentioned on our last show
(23:44):
how every time Houston has been in the playoffs, they've
been in the Saturday three thirty, you know, central kickoff
of Wildcard.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Week Are they in it next weekend? Did we see?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
There are?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, Houston, You're right speak the Houston Kansas City once
again Saturday at three point thirty. But uh man, oh man, Houston,
and and this just this just goes to show that
that when you when you can rise up in the
big moments and play your best football when it matters.
H I mean what Houston did a very up and
(24:17):
down season, a very humbling loss late in the season
to another playoff contender in the Baltimore Ravens. But boy,
that uh uh, that defense gave Justin Herbert and the
Chargers fits and uh and that game was not about c. J.
Stroud or Joe Mixon at all. That game was all
(24:37):
about Houston, Texas and that Demico Ryans defense. And I'm
you know, Kansas City is obviously a heavy favorite to
go to the AFC Championship and beat Houston at Arrowhead,
but I am very curious to see what Houston's defense
does against a Kansas City offense that has never really
been clicking on all cylinders this season.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
No, not at all, And it.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Makes for a very intriguing matchup. And we can talk
more about that on our next show as well.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Absolutely, I gotta say, man, Justin Herbert had four interceptions.
He had three during the regular season total. Wow.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I didn't realize that.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
My crack colleague and our assistant director of communications when
we were watching this, Tom Fanning, I believe he told
me that Justin Herbert had never had more than two
interceptions in a game before, and they had four.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
In this game.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Derek Stingley by the way when you talk about the
top cornerbacks in the league, I think it's probably time
to He got a first team All Pro honors, people
respecting him. But like he's in that conversation now, he's
lived up to his potential.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
It needs to be said. Not all four of those
interceptions were Herbert's fault, though his receivers were letting him
were letting him down big time.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
But I mean it goes to the overall thing. I mean,
they basically had you know, McConkey was the one guy
that was kind of going for him. Kudos to JK. Dobbins.
I have so much respect for that dude coming back
from the injuries he did getting back from the injuries
he did this season, no doubt. But the charge running
game was non existence and it basically just became the
you know, the Lad McConkie show, and it just did
not was not a good recipe for success. No for
(26:09):
the formerly known as the San Diego Superchart.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
No, it was not. The other AFC games I think
pretty much went as as expected, you know, I mean
I was surprised that Denver didn't put up a better fight.
In Buffalo, they score on the opening possession, of the game,
and then they didn't score the rest of the game,
and Buffalo Buffalo turns that one into a blowout. And
the Pittsburgh Steelers just completely no showed in the first
(26:34):
half in Baltimore, you know, down twenty one to nothing,
and Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson ran all over him
for whatever it was three hundred rushing yards or two
ninety nine or whatever the number was. On the NFC side,
you gotta give it up to the Cardiac Commanders brother
five consecutive games now five straight, four to end the
(26:56):
regular season, first playoff game, and seven overall if you
include two games from earlier in the year. The Washington
Commanders win a game on literally or pretty much effectively,
the last play of the football game. It is unbelievable
the run that Dan Quinn and the Washington Commanders and
Jayden Daniels and those guys are on. And this one
(27:19):
is not just a walk off field goal, it's a
walk off doink and in field people to win on
the road at Tampa Bay. And it's the Washington Commanders
getting the shot at the Detroit Lions in the divisional round.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Unfortunately for Zaane Gonzales, that thing went in because otherwise
him checking his hair fifty eight times and then Deinten
thirty seven yarder, you would have never lived that down. Listen, man,
You and I we've spent a lot of unscripteds when
we're looking at the league talking about Jayden Daniels and
and just the enigma he's been this year. He's been
a force, and he was a force in this game.
(27:53):
Washington did not run the ball well they needed they
needed Daniels to be the guy that he's been all season,
and he stepped up. And when you talk about these
comebacks late, the way he's performed in the fourth quarter,
I don't know what his QBR coback rating is in
those instances, but he's really stepped up for them.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
There hasn't There hasn't been. I can't remember a rookie
quarterback who has appeared so completely unflappable in clutch situations,
in the fourth quarter, in overtime, whatever you want to
call it, than what we've seen from Jade and Daniels,
it is. It is remarkable what he has done in
crunch time of games.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, and and Baker Mayfield played a fine game. It
just it was one of those things where mattl Floor
talks about this every once in a while, where it
just comes down to possessions and Washington never punted. So
I mean, when you're in those situations.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Yeah, dan Quinn was going for it on fourth down on.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
The retime well every time, every time, and other than
kicking field goals. So a remarkable performance, be honest with you,
jealous wise, that's kind of why I was like, oh, Packers,
if you can.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Get that sixth seed, Yeah, exactly, that's gonna happen. That's
that's why the sixth seed matters. The difference between that.
It was the difference between playing a ten win Buccaneers
team and a fourteen win Eagles team in the first round.
That's the difference. That's why. It's why positioning matters, It's
why momentum matters, It's why playing your best football being
healthy matters.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
They're up against it going up against Detroit in that offense,
but you know they're with there with commanders offense. Man,
they could play with anybody. So I think Jade Daniels,
we can all agree at this point, is a guy
that can put up the points if you need him too.
So it's a fresh matchup.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yes, Baker Mayfield, he's going to take into the offseason.
You said, as you said, he played a solid game.
But the one botched handoff that was it, that created
one mistake, created the short field for Washington to get
a touchdown after they had failed on fourth and goal.
They get the ball back right around the twenty yard
line or whatever it was, and then they end up
scoring the touchdown anyway. And that's a tough way, certainly
(29:50):
a tough way for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to go out.
But speaking of tough ways, yeah, speaking of tough ways
to go out, here's we had talked about. Sean McVay
and I just I just went through the list. Positioning matters,
Momentum matters, being healthy, playing your best football matters, right,
(30:11):
Sean McVay said, positioning doesn't matter. He didn't care about
whether he was the three or the four seed. He
obviously felt that with the wins that his team had
built up that they had enough momentum, right, so he
prioritized health. He prioritized his guys being rested and healthy
over everything, and so he didn't care that he dropped
(30:36):
to the four seed. Or was it just the evil
genius plan of Sean McVay knowing that, well, if we
get the four seed, you're going to get a team
coming off of a devastating loss because of what would
be at stake physically and a physically, you know, wear
you out type of football game. And yeah, the Vikings.
(30:57):
You talk about the Packers, you know, the way the
offense hit the skids late. The Packers go from eleven
to four with two games in the regular season to
go to out of the playoffs after one postseason game
three weeks later, the Vikings go from fourteen in two
playing for the number one seed and the bye and
the home field advantage, to eight quarters later their season
(31:20):
is over and they are out. That has to be
one of the bigger kicks in the teeth that I
have witnessed in terms of it happening the way it
did to the Minnesota Viking.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I don't want to change my tune because I congratulate
Sam Donald on everything he did this year. He played.
He deserves to be in the Pro Bowl. He played
an unreal season he did. But this game really spoke
to the difference between with respect, Sam Donald and someone
like Matthew Stafford, who has played this game for as
long as he has, he's won a super Bowl. And
(31:56):
credit to the Rams for the way they made themselves,
and credit to the Cardinals too, and everyone down in
Arizona for how they made them feel at home in
a very hard situation, a very emotional situation, something much
bigger than football that's happening in LA and how they
had to really uproot themselves and go down and play
this game. And they had the field, the practice field
(32:17):
they did in Rams colors, So credit to them on that.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
It was a lot that was going on surrounding this game.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
But boy, I tell you, man, I said this to you.
I wrote it an inbox, the difference of having a
healthy Stafford, a healthy Puka Nukua, a healthy Tyler Higbee
and then.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Who ended up ended up getting hurt and leaving the game.
But yeah, before that, but no, he was a huge
factor in the early port.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
And then Cooper Cup makes one catch and it was
kind of a big one. Yeah, I mean like it,
it's the way these things go. You can't make mistakes.
The Vikings made way too many in the first half,
and that was it.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, here's a couple questions I want to throw at you.
And then we'll wrap this up with regard with regard
to the Vikings, is is the less is the lesson
or the big picture thing? When it comes to Sam Donald,
that experience in really big games matters because where he
(33:15):
had gone in his career and all the games that
he had lost, and all the struggles he had had
with the Jets and with the Panthers. How many big,
truly big games had Sam Donald played in?
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Right?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
One of the biggest was he played a career game
against the Green Bay Packers at us Bank Stadium. But
then as the stakes got higher against Detroit. Now that's
on the road obviously, and then and then against against
the Rams in sort of on the road slash neutral site,
Sam Donald's inexperience in big games showed, and it showed
(33:48):
big time. And and that leaves the Vikings with what
we thought a couple of weeks ago was a slam
dunk decision in terms of their quarterback for next year.
Now now it it's not such a slam duck.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Is it? No? And Okay, so two things is the
first part of that question, like, I am just completely
perplexed at what happened with Minnesota. I mean, the Rams
defense was not a world beater this year. No, They
ranked near the bottom of the league for most of
the season. Now, credit to Sean McVay. Again, that's a
sign of good coaching. They got him peaking at the
end of the year. They got a little bit healthier
(34:22):
as well. But I mean the amount of pressure they
generated on Sam Donald, whether it was the four man rushes,
whether it was blitzes, I mean like they got after
him and he did not respond well to it. Here's
where I'm really torn about what the decision now becomes
with Donald. And you can play back the Packers unscripted
of me saying hey absolutely have to sign him thirteen
days ago. But it's like, Okay, Kevin O'Connell has built
(34:46):
up enough positive vibes there. He's thirty four and seventeen.
They have not won a playoff game, but he has
a thirteen win season on his resume and a fourteen
win season on his resume. If there was ever a
time if you want to invest into the young quarterback
and you're gonna get some grace, this is it, as
opposed to what is it going to cost to keep
Sam Donald? If Sam Donald is going to be back
(35:07):
for twenty million dollars or even thirty million dollars, I think,
like what Baker's playing for, you probably give it another go.
But does he want a long term contract? Are you
gonna put a franchise tag on them? Like? These are
the type of decisions they're going to have to make.
Because the reason to bring this all back around, the
Vikings were the second oldest team in the National Football
League going into the year, behind Miami. They're not a
(35:27):
bunch of young bucks. They kind of were looking to
win as soon as possible.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah, and you look at their list of pending free agents.
You look at the list of pending free agents. Now,
they're not all going to be gone. They're going to
bring back some of those guys, but the guys that
they're but the guys that they are going to bring
back are going to eat up most of their cap space.
And then you have the quarterback decision to make. On
top of that, there.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Are some people losing their mind an inbox like, well,
the Vikings have all this cap so, yeah, because they
have a bunch of unrestricted free agents coming up. Yeah's
why they got caps.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
That's why they have caps.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
And the quarterback made ten million dollars this year.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's let's see, let's see where
the let's see where the cap space is when free agency,
you know, gets underway and gets rolling.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Here Dad's wall, it's always fatter before the kids asked
to go to the arcade.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah, you know what I mean. So well, it's the
Rams heading to Philadelphia, It's the Commanders heading to Detroit.
On the AFC side. Baltimore at Buffalo, that's going to
be the last of the four games of divisional weekend.
That's going to be a doozy. I actually just saw something.
And gambling remains illegal at Bushwood. But the Buffalo Bills
(36:31):
are a home playoff underdog for the first time in
I believe it's eighteen or nineteen playoff game home playoff
games in They're franchise of history. The Baltimore Ravens are
actually favored on the road in Buffalo Bill's mafias. That's
gonna be a doozy of a game. I want to
talk about it more on our next show. Obviously, Houston
is Houston's going to Kansas City to face Patrick Mahomes,
(36:54):
who hasn't thrown a pass since he opened a present
on Christmas Day or something. Yeah, I mean it's been
a while, but we'll see. We do have one more
show before we're going to sign off for the season.
We will record another show later this week and then
we will say goodbye for a portion of the off season.
(37:18):
And when we come back, it will be this right here,
what I'm about to talk about. Because mark your calendars, folks,
the twenty twenty five NFL Draft is coming to Green Bay.
B among the thousands of football fans cheering on their
team's picks by joining us April twenty four through April
twenty six. Of twenty twenty five is a green Bay
dot com slash Draft twenty five for more information. And
(37:39):
with that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition
of Packers Unscripted. Sure to follow all of our coverage
of this season wrap up week here on Packers dot
Com for Wesiam Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody.
We will see x T
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined by the
suddenly clean shaven Western Hodkowitz, and we're coming to you
hear from our studios at lambeau Field, unfortunately, to recap
a season ending NFC Wildcard playoff loss. The final was
twenty two to ten at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia,
(00:39):
and Wes' if there's anything that is going to be
the you know the recurring theme of the downfall of
the twenty twenty four Green Bay Packers, it's that when
they had a really, really big game to play, they
didn't start it well enough to be able to win it.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
This is the hardest part for me, as you and
I were coming back on the plane and obviously writing
our content and everything that's followed these last couple of days,
is there were so many things we talked about going
into this game, and the Packers knew it too, that
had to get accomplished, and realistically they didn't achieve any
of them. I was talking to my father after I
(01:17):
got home from the game. Sometimes the old father son talk,
you kind of debrief about.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Work, and I do it via text message, Yeah with
my dad.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Your dad's down in platform. Mine lives two miles away
from me, so it feasy. But like I said, I
was like, that was the most disappointing part of this
game for me. Is nothing surprising happened relative to what
you knew. The worst case scenario could be. It was
an early turnover on the kickoff. It was losing the
(01:48):
turnover margin four to zero for the game, not being
able to get off to a fast start offensively, struggling
to find a rhythm and Mike. One of the things
we talked about last week. Ifiladelphia was gonna lock it
down and take care of and remove the threat of
Josh Jacobs that early on, the Packers had to take
advantage well the Eagles, and which had a very respectable
(02:10):
run defense, not number one ranked like their pass defense,
but number top ten. Well, they were able to contain
him with a light box. They kept the shell on
the top of the defense, and as Jaden Reid talked
about after the game, they just the Packers had to
kind of play underneath that. And when that's the case,
you have to find ways to create explosive plays. You
got to make guys miss. You have to get into
(02:31):
the open field, and Green Bay just struggled to do
that and their season ended because of it. It's very
strange footing for me, Mike. This is the first time
in my time with the Green Bay Packers in which
they've made the playoffs and have not been in the
divisional round. Whether it was as a buy or whether
they played into it. This is the first time the
Packers have lost in the wildcard round since twenty fifteen,
(02:51):
my last year at the Prescazette. So that there's just
this feeling all week long of not like whatever the
antithesis of like finality would be, it's just inconclusive. You know.
It just feels like, as you wrote about some of
our stories this week, we never really saw the Packers
play their best ball. They won eleven games, and now
they're off into the offseason once again.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, it's certainly frustrating. And Matt Lefuir talked about it
his season ending news conference was shortly before we turned
the cameras on here, talked about just how disappointing it
was for the for the offense to hit the skids
at the end of the season, and everybody's questioning, you know, okay,
what went wrong and everything, and I don't you know,
(03:36):
I'm one who tries to look at it from a
big picture perspective. I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong
with the Packers offense. You have to realize that before
things started to go south in Minnesota in the second
to last regular season game, the Packers had scored thirty
plus points five games in a row. That's what makes
the finish the Minnesota game, the Chicago game, and then
(03:57):
the Philadelphia game. That's what makes it so so headscore
and so surprising. I mean, yes, the end result in
Philadelphia was not surprising based on what had happened in
Minnesota and leading up to it. The Packers didn't have momentum,
They had the toughest playoff position as the seventh seat.
They were not healthy, they were dealing with they were
getting some guys back on defense, but guys were dropping
(04:18):
like flies during the game and all that. There's there's
so much to to try to process there. But offensively,
I mean, you said it. The Eagles were able to
contain Josh Jacobs to basically two and a half to
three yards of carry. I mean he had right around
fifty yards on seventeen of his carries. He had the
(04:40):
one that busted a tremendous run down to the one
yard line set up the touchdown run there on the
opening play of the fourth quarter. But the Packers couldn't
get Jacob's going, so then the Eagles were just were
still able to sit back, make the Packers try to throw,
try to run the quick game on offense. And as
I was saying in the Lone I blogged during the game,
(05:02):
if you're trying to just continue to throw the quick
outs to get the ball out of Love's hand, because
anytime there were developing routes, there was a guy in
his face and he's having to bail the pocket. There
was no timing, there was no rhythm to anything. If
all you can do is throw the quick stuff, well
then the defense is gonna eventually sit on that and
they're gonna jump it and they're gonna make a play
on that. So you still have to try to mix
(05:24):
in everything else. But when everything else was being mixed in,
there was no rhythm, there was no consistency to anything
going on offense. And this offense really just ended the
season with in just a three week malaise of poor
execution and poor results.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
And you know, I'm gonna pull down capers here for
one moment, just say I'm gonna start with the positives
first in this and then I'll bring it back to
what you're talking about. Everything that we saw in, everything
we believed in Josh Shacobs I felt like was epitomized
in this game. I think you can make a case
Josh Shacops was maybe the MVP of this entire roster
this season.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
I think he was, and the way he.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Performed in his consistency when you're talking about guys that
showed up every single week and did it at a
high level. He made a few mistakes, but as we saw,
if you look at the guys that have had three
hundred plus carries and Packers' history, I think he had
four fumbles on the season. That's right around the lowest.
I think Edgar Bennett had two one year, but you know,
I'm on green had seven had eight For how manch
(06:25):
any times he touched the ball, I thought Josh Jacobs
did a really good job with it. If Green Bay
was gonna have a chance in this thing, the way
he ran, particularly in the second half, which hadn't been
the strong point of the offense this year and the
way he was able to get some of the passing
game stuff going. He gave a speech to the guys
beforehand and saying, if you don't feel like you can
do it, follow me. I'm gonna lead this thing. How
(06:47):
driven he was to maximize this opportunity. Josh Jacobs helped
get the Packers to eleven wins. He helped get them
to the playoffs in any chance they had a winning
this game. I think followed number eight to bring it
back to what you're talking about, though, the synergy of
the offense just has not been there in the last
three games.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Something's been out of sync between the link between the
run and the pass, whatever the case might be. You're right,
synergy is a synergy is a great word because appears
not there.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Why I'm struggling the most with this. I don't discount
what Christian Watson means to this team. He is a
big play, playmaker, but they've played most of the last
season without him. They missed Aaron Jones for just under
half the season as well, and they found ways down
the stretch.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
They weren't able to do that this year, and you
lost Elton Jenkins in this game too, But last year
there was a lot of shuffling going on on the
offensive line and they were still figuring it out. I mean,
losing Jenkins in a playoff game enormous because he had
to be replaced by guys who basically hadn't played and
that's unfortunate. But again, yeah, we're kind of scratching our
(07:54):
heads here as to exactly what the downfall was.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, and National Football League, by the way, if you
want to take out an offensive lineman, just run as
quickly as you can with your helmet directly into his shoulder. Yeah,
And Nolan Smith is going to get the job done.
So the Packers had that was a huge domino effect.
Travis Glover goes in at left guard, doesn't go great,
then Kadem Telford has to come in. And as Josh
Jacobs said afterwards, he actually told Telford afterwards, He's like,
(08:21):
I'm really proud of you. I mean, neither Glover hadn't
played on offense at all. Telford had maybe like fifteen
snaps or something like that before that game. A bad
situation to be in. And by the way, any Packer
fans out there that took issue with them drafting Jordan
Morgan in the first round. You saw why Jordan Morgan
was going to be a first round pick and why
they wanted them. Credit to Telford, credit to Glover. You
(08:41):
give those guys all the respect in the world for
what they do and what they're going through to be
in that position. But the Green Bay Packers, with how
strong they were and how durable they were on the
offensive line this year, you kind of forget that they
don't necessarily have that Evan Smith, you know, on the
sixth guy. They don't necessarily have a guy that you
can turn to as that next guy up the experience
and also has some credits.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
They lost him. They lost that sixth man when when
Jordan Morgan went on injury reserve. Because whether it was
gonna be Morgan or Sean Ryan ultimately as the full
time starter at guard before the before the shoulder injury
cropped up again, you were going to have a sixth
man there that that was gonna put your offensive line
in a different situation.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
And they obviously signed Andre Dillard, but Dillard was working
his way back from the that's.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
The that's the other part too, and he was and
he was in he was inactive for this game. He'd
been on the injury list trying to come back from
a concussion for the last couple of weeks. Yeah, so yeah,
it was just it was a bad It was a
bad combination of things and and uh and yeah, losing
Elton Jenkins, especially early in the game like that, and
then the receivers go down like later on. Hey, the
Eagles dealt with injuries too, they lost to Kobe Dean.
(09:47):
They're going to be trying to get to a Super
Bowl without one of their better defensive players. Hey, it happens.
But when you're the seventh seed on the road, playing
in Philadelphia, those are the kinds of things that just
that add to the mistake you were already making, and
the mistakes were being made on offense and specialty and.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Not to keep bringing up the fifteen playoff game here,
but there were so many parallels between that with how
banged up they were at receiver going in where you
already lost Christian Watson, much like they didn't have Davante
in that fifteen playoff game. You're down to three receivers
that you're finishing that game with. Right. Musgrave is still
working his way back at the tight end position Ben
Simms was down, so they just they ran. They were
(10:26):
up against it. And in credit to Philadelphia, I thought,
every single time, other than that first quarter where green
Bay got some stops to help them mitigate some of
the damage there early on and get through those early
interceptions from Love when green Bay started to score, Philadelphia
matched it every time yep in the second half, and
(10:46):
that's ultimately why they won the football game.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Yeah, I mean, that's what it came down to. The
Packers defense held tough, held really really strong. The fact
that the fact that it was only ten to nothing
at halftime was was an impressive showing by the defense.
Obviously the opening touchdown because of the fumble on the
opening kickoff, we'll get back to that in a minute,
(11:09):
but the defense had a stretch there from after that
first possession with the short field through the opening possession
of the second half. That was six drives for the Eagles,
five punts in a field goal against a team that
was fourteen to three in the regular season and got
it starting quarterback back for this game. That was a
(11:29):
winning performance from the defense. Unfortunately, the way things unfolded
is then when once the Packers did get on the board.
They got it to ten to three, but then the
defense wasn't able to get it back to the offense
with just a one score deficition. It becomes sixteen to three.
Then the Packers score. Jacobs has the big rundown of
the one yard line. Packers score get it to sixteen
(11:50):
to ten, but then the defense was not able to
get the ball back to the offense with the one
score deficit. The Jordan Love won, the offense finally was
starting to find something. Jordan Love didn't have the ball
in his hands, just needing one score to either even
up the game or potentially take the lead. That just
never happened. And that's why you can't. You can't start
(12:13):
as poorly as the Packers did. You cannot put up
a goose egg in the first half on the scoreboard
in a playoff game. And yeah, I mean if you
if you had told me, if you had told me
at the start of the fourth quarter that the Philadelphia
Eagles were gonna have sixteen points on the board, I
would have said, the Packers are winning the game and
(12:33):
going to Detroit. I was telling you you would take that.
You would take that in a heartbeat, ninety nine times
out of a hunt.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
My whole thing all week, and you had to hear
me say this was I thought it was gonna be
the first to thirty win.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Yeah, and I totally agreed with you on that.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
These two teams barely got to thirty together. Yeah, like
it turned into something. And that's respect to Fangio's defense,
that's respect to Jeff Hafley's defense. I'm not discounting that
both of those are top five defenses. Fangios was the
best of the National Football League from a yardage perspect
but I just felt like, based on what we saw
in Brazil, it was going to follow that track. AJ
(13:06):
Brown had one catch for ten yards, right. Saquon Barkley
did what he always did, although he didn't get the
huge explosive this time. He just did it kind of
wearing down, Yeah, the offense or the defensive line. But
I'll tell you what, Mike. For me, I don't know
how many people out in Philadelphia wrote about this, but
Dallas Goddard was the MVP of this game for me,
because when you talk about veteran players that step up
(13:29):
and a guy that had to deal with some big
injuries this year, Yeah, he was sort of the safety
valve that finally got Jalen Hurts going in addition to
his touchdown, where you know, you know, again we can
have that conversation about being offensive players doing the illegal
hands of the face thing, and that's fine, but whatever
the case may be, he's the one that kind of
(13:49):
got them going there in the second half and in
obviously one hundred and thirty one passing yards for Jalen
Hurts was enough to win this game.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, I mean, that's and at the end of the day,
the Eagles had the Eagles had a couple penalties, you know,
some things that set them back like here and there,
but ultimately the Eagles didn't the Eagles didn't make a
big mistake. They they played for the most part, they
played air free football. I mean to the extent that
you know, the Packers had made so many mistakes early
(14:18):
with the fumble on the opening kickoff, the two interceptions
in the first half, that there were two instances on
third and long where they just handed it off to
Berkley because they're like, we're not going to put our
quarterback in a bad situation. We're I mean, the Packers
have made enough mistakes to give the Eagles the lead,
and the Eagles are just going to be like, Okay,
(14:39):
we're gonna you know, we're not going to try to
do something crazy on third and long. We'll hand it
off to Barkley. Maybe he breaks it. If he doesn't,
we'll punt the football because we're not going to make
the kind of mistake that can change the game. That's
the way they were playing because of how the Packers started,
and we'll get to that start right now. Because if
there is if there is a big fat what if
(15:02):
about this football game. And I hate playing this game
the what if game, because we can talk about We
talked about the injury to Jenkins and the Packers losing
their receivers and all this other stuff. The biggest what
if that's hanging over this game is what if the
replay review gives the ball back to the Packers on
the opening kickoff? Because everybody saw it. I mean, however,
(15:24):
many millions of people are watching this game on TV.
It sure looked like the skycam showed that Kishawn Nixon
had recovered that ball and then it got ripped away
from him later on like down under the pile. And
Nixon even said Basically, he felt like it was two guys,
one on each side of him that were ripping his
(15:44):
arms apart, so that the ball then came out again,
and the end the Eagles came out of the pile
with the ball. They reviewed it. They said the call stands,
so obviously it wasn't in their mind, it wasn't conclusive
enough that Nixon had recovered the ball and secured the recovery.
The question we were talking about before we turn the
(16:04):
cameras on, is there are these things floating around out
there is did the replay center in New York actually
have access to the overhead camera or did it only
have the more traditional camera angles used to broadcast the game.
(16:25):
If New York didn't have access to the overhead camera,
I totally understand the call that they made. But if
that is true, and I'm not saying that it is,
I don't know that it is. It's just sort of
something that we're hearing. But if that is true, I
don't understand that at all. And if it isn't true,
and if they did have the look at the overhead camera,
(16:46):
I don't understand how you can say Keishawn Nixon didn't
have that ball on the ground and he's clearly down
by contact.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I've just gone back and forth over this in my head,
and because the first and foremost like, I would love
to sit here and say, okay, well, all this is
mitigated if you hold onto the football right. Aaron Burks
also through his helmet directly into Kishan's face mask, which
also shouldn't be happening. Whether it should be penalized, I
assume orn will be fine for that, I think, But
(17:17):
whatever the case may be, Kishan's human, like, I understand
why that happens. A helmet to helmet, helmet to face
mask hit is going to have repercussions to it. What
I'm NFL officiating has its challenges, and I'm trying to
be more understanding of what the humans on the field
are going through and what they're dealing with in the moment.
(17:40):
Everything surrounding NFL officiating is so antiquated. It is so antiquated.
Everything evolves with this game. The players evolve, the technology evolves.
We listen to Matt Leafluor talk for thirty eight minutes today.
Some of the stuff he's mentioning how he goes back
to his analytics department to see hey, how are we
doing with shotgun play action? How are we doing with
stuff under center? They gave him the percentages where they
(18:01):
rank in the National Football League, and yet you have
the most popular sport in the world that's being disseminated
to the entire country and in part you know, basically
every part of the world sees these skys camshots and
Brad Allen and his crew it's a scrum. I understand
human element, but they missed it. They missed Oran, they
(18:22):
missed the fumble recovery, and New York stops the game,
looks at it, evidently gets a high sea scratches its
head a little bit and says, now play stands yeah,
and then moments later it's seven to nothing Eagles. I
say it every year, Mike. I said it two weeks
ago as it related to another game in the National
(18:42):
Football League. There's always going to be these plays that
happen in the playoffs that change the outcome. I'm not
saying the Packers win that game, right, I'm not saying
Packers did not pill you.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Well, That's why I termed it as it's the bit
what if of this football game? Is if that turnover
on the opening kickoff is not a turnover. That's the
what if that we'll never know the answer.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
And there's a number of games left to be played.
Yet there's going to be another officiating thing. We have
all this garbage of this replay assists stuff that is
at times utilized and at times not utilized, and at
times makes no sense. But yet you have an instance
like that where you have technology showing what's happening on
the play and not even like the stuff that happened
(19:23):
with Egdri and Cooper a couple weeks ago, where it's
like you're looking as the dress gold or is it blue?
Whereas the off sides is he not? No, you legitimately
see Keishan with the hand with the ball in his hand.
And if New York doesn't have that technology, what are
we doing here? Yea? Why are we playing this game? Right?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
And my and my larger problems as many know what
I've said about the safety rules and replay review and
everything like that, if the NFL, if the NFL is
looking at that replay and and they deem because I don't,
I will confess I don't know all the rules as
far as the helmet hits, whether a guy supposedly needs
(20:02):
to be launching himself, you know, in certain situations or
whatever the case may be. I don't know all the
helmet to helmet rules, but if the NFL is looking
at that, and if that is, if that helmet to
helmet shot by Burkes on Nixon is something that is
going to generate a fine for Oran Burks, and all
that the replay did was decide nothing because they couldn't
(20:26):
figure out apparently who had the ball under the scrum.
And Aaron Burks is going to get a FedEx in
his locker for with a fifteen thousand dollars fine for
a helmet hit. And that's a play that started a
playoff game and handed a seven to nothing lead, or
it would have been a minimum three to nothing lead
even if the Packers defense rises up there. What are
(20:47):
we doing here?
Speaker 2 (20:49):
I mean, you know, well, we're making money, is what
we're doing.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, that's that's exactly what the league is doing. But
I what I am most frustrated with, and it comes
to it comes to obviously a bigger spotlight in the
playoff games, but just this what the NFL is passing off,
what needs to be accepted with regard to these safety rules,
is that some are going to get flagged in the game,
(21:12):
but then we're going to review them and they're not
going to get fined. And then some are not going
to be flagged in the game, and then they're going
to be fined, and the players are going to get
money taken out of their pocketbook. But these are just
the results that everybody has to accept. I'm sorry, it's
gotten to the point of being unacceptable, especially when if
indeed that Oron Burks gets fined for that helmet shot,
(21:36):
when it impacts a playoff game to the extent that
this one did. Sorry, I'll get off the soapbox.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
Excellent points all around. Let's say Oron doesn't get fined
at all. The independent neurologist calls Keishawn Nixon off the
field to take a look. Right, why did that happen?
Why did that happen? What technology did the independent neurologists
have to see? Hey, yeah, Keishaw Nixon, we need to
take a look at him. The Eagles player just drill
them in that helmet with his helmet. But yet we
(22:02):
can't do anything about these things. Right, So again, the
National Football League, they want to make their cash, They
want to get things going. The ad revenue is gonna
come in, the Super Bowl be played, they're gonna hand
out the trophy again to somebody. But in terms of
the x's and o is and what these people invest
into this game. Yeah, if there's stuff available to you
to make it a cleaner, more palatable product, let's do that.
(22:24):
Oh and by the way, the other thing that absolutely
needs to get thrown out the door this offseason would
be amazing if they could do this this stuff about
if we see it, you know, if it has to
be all these things, but we'll flag it. We won't
flag it, but we'll find it. And that's how we're
gonna do it. This is stuff that led to Josh
Jacobs having all those random fines, like.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
And he spent spent the season appealing fines and and
I want at least one appeal from uh, you know,
thanks to some good reporting by Pete Doherty there that
we found out about. But yeah, I mean exactly, it
just becomes a question of of of what are we
what are we doing here? All right, some sponsor business
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(23:24):
All right, other results around wild Card weekend. I want
to start with the AFC because I want to give
a shout out to the Houston Texans. Shout out Demico
Ryans and that defense brought it on Saturday afternoon. We
talked to I think we mentioned on our last show
(23:44):
how every time Houston has been in the playoffs, they've
been in the Saturday three thirty, you know, central kickoff
of Wildcard.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Week Are they in it next weekend? Did we see?
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
There are?
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, Houston, You're right speak the Houston Kansas City once
again Saturday at three point thirty. But uh man, oh man, Houston,
and and this just this just goes to show that
that when you when you can rise up in the
big moments and play your best football when it matters.
H I mean what Houston did a very up and
(24:17):
down season, a very humbling loss late in the season
to another playoff contender in the Baltimore Ravens. But boy,
that uh uh, that defense gave Justin Herbert and the
Chargers fits and uh and that game was not about c. J.
Stroud or Joe Mixon at all. That game was all
(24:37):
about Houston, Texas and that Demico Ryans defense. And I'm
you know, Kansas City is obviously a heavy favorite to
go to the AFC Championship and beat Houston at Arrowhead,
but I am very curious to see what Houston's defense
does against a Kansas City offense that has never really
been clicking on all cylinders this season.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
No, not at all, And it.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Makes for a very intriguing matchup. And we can talk
more about that on our next show as well.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Absolutely, I gotta say, man, Justin Herbert had four interceptions.
He had three during the regular season total. Wow.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
I didn't realize that.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
My crack colleague and our assistant director of communications when
we were watching this, Tom Fanning, I believe he told
me that Justin Herbert had never had more than two
interceptions in a game before, and they had four.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
In this game.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Derek Stingley by the way when you talk about the
top cornerbacks in the league, I think it's probably time
to He got a first team All Pro honors, people
respecting him. But like he's in that conversation now, he's
lived up to his potential.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
It needs to be said. Not all four of those
interceptions were Herbert's fault, though his receivers were letting him
were letting him down big time.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
But I mean it goes to the overall thing. I mean,
they basically had you know, McConkey was the one guy
that was kind of going for him. Kudos to JK. Dobbins.
I have so much respect for that dude coming back
from the injuries he did getting back from the injuries
he did this season, no doubt. But the charge running
game was non existence and it basically just became the
you know, the Lad McConkie show, and it just did
not was not a good recipe for success. No for
(26:09):
the formerly known as the San Diego Superchart.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
No, it was not. The other AFC games I think
pretty much went as as expected, you know, I mean
I was surprised that Denver didn't put up a better fight.
In Buffalo, they score on the opening possession, of the game,
and then they didn't score the rest of the game,
and Buffalo Buffalo turns that one into a blowout. And
the Pittsburgh Steelers just completely no showed in the first
(26:34):
half in Baltimore, you know, down twenty one to nothing,
and Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson ran all over him
for whatever it was three hundred rushing yards or two
ninety nine or whatever the number was. On the NFC side,
you gotta give it up to the Cardiac Commanders brother
five consecutive games now five straight, four to end the
(26:56):
regular season, first playoff game, and seven overall if you
include two games from earlier in the year. The Washington
Commanders win a game on literally or pretty much effectively,
the last play of the football game. It is unbelievable
the run that Dan Quinn and the Washington Commanders and
Jayden Daniels and those guys are on. And this one
(27:19):
is not just a walk off field goal, it's a
walk off doink and in field people to win on
the road at Tampa Bay. And it's the Washington Commanders
getting the shot at the Detroit Lions in the divisional round.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Unfortunately for Zaane Gonzales, that thing went in because otherwise
him checking his hair fifty eight times and then Deinten
thirty seven yarder, you would have never lived that down. Listen, man,
You and I we've spent a lot of unscripteds when
we're looking at the league talking about Jayden Daniels and
and just the enigma he's been this year. He's been
a force, and he was a force in this game.
(27:53):
Washington did not run the ball well they needed they
needed Daniels to be the guy that he's been all season,
and he stepped up. And when you talk about these
comebacks late, the way he's performed in the fourth quarter,
I don't know what his QBR coback rating is in
those instances, but he's really stepped up for them.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
There hasn't There hasn't been. I can't remember a rookie
quarterback who has appeared so completely unflappable in clutch situations,
in the fourth quarter, in overtime, whatever you want to
call it, than what we've seen from Jade and Daniels,
it is. It is remarkable what he has done in
crunch time of games.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, and and Baker Mayfield played a fine game. It
just it was one of those things where mattl Floor
talks about this every once in a while, where it
just comes down to possessions and Washington never punted. So
I mean, when you're in those situations.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Yeah, dan Quinn was going for it on fourth down on.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
The retime well every time, every time, and other than
kicking field goals. So a remarkable performance, be honest with you,
jealous wise, that's kind of why I was like, oh, Packers,
if you can.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Get that sixth seed, Yeah, exactly, that's gonna happen. That's
that's why the sixth seed matters. The difference between that.
It was the difference between playing a ten win Buccaneers
team and a fourteen win Eagles team in the first round.
That's the difference. That's why. It's why positioning matters, It's
why momentum matters, It's why playing your best football being
healthy matters.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
They're up against it going up against Detroit in that offense,
but you know they're with there with commanders offense. Man,
they could play with anybody. So I think Jade Daniels,
we can all agree at this point, is a guy
that can put up the points if you need him too.
So it's a fresh matchup.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Yes, Baker Mayfield, he's going to take into the offseason.
You said, as you said, he played a solid game.
But the one botched handoff that was it, that created
one mistake, created the short field for Washington to get
a touchdown after they had failed on fourth and goal.
They get the ball back right around the twenty yard
line or whatever it was, and then they end up
scoring the touchdown anyway. And that's a tough way, certainly
(29:50):
a tough way for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to go out.
But speaking of tough ways, yeah, speaking of tough ways
to go out, here's we had talked about. Sean McVay
and I just I just went through the list. Positioning matters,
Momentum matters, being healthy, playing your best football matters, right,
(30:11):
Sean McVay said, positioning doesn't matter. He didn't care about
whether he was the three or the four seed. He
obviously felt that with the wins that his team had
built up that they had enough momentum, right, so he
prioritized health. He prioritized his guys being rested and healthy
over everything, and so he didn't care that he dropped
(30:36):
to the four seed. Or was it just the evil
genius plan of Sean McVay knowing that, well, if we
get the four seed, you're going to get a team
coming off of a devastating loss because of what would
be at stake physically and a physically, you know, wear
you out type of football game. And yeah, the Vikings.
(30:57):
You talk about the Packers, you know, the way the
offense hit the skids late. The Packers go from eleven
to four with two games in the regular season to
go to out of the playoffs after one postseason game
three weeks later, the Vikings go from fourteen in two
playing for the number one seed and the bye and
the home field advantage, to eight quarters later their season
(31:20):
is over and they are out. That has to be
one of the bigger kicks in the teeth that I
have witnessed in terms of it happening the way it
did to the Minnesota Viking.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I don't want to change my tune because I congratulate
Sam Donald on everything he did this year. He played.
He deserves to be in the Pro Bowl. He played
an unreal season he did. But this game really spoke
to the difference between with respect, Sam Donald and someone
like Matthew Stafford, who has played this game for as
long as he has, he's won a super Bowl. And
(31:56):
credit to the Rams for the way they made themselves,
and credit to the Cardinals too, and everyone down in
Arizona for how they made them feel at home in
a very hard situation, a very emotional situation, something much
bigger than football that's happening in LA and how they
had to really uproot themselves and go down and play
this game. And they had the field, the practice field
(32:17):
they did in Rams colors, So credit to them on that.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
It was a lot that was going on surrounding this game.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
But boy, I tell you, man, I said this to you.
I wrote it an inbox, the difference of having a
healthy Stafford, a healthy Puka Nukua, a healthy Tyler Higbee
and then.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Who ended up ended up getting hurt and leaving the game.
But yeah, before that, but no, he was a huge
factor in the early port.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
And then Cooper Cup makes one catch and it was
kind of a big one. Yeah, I mean like it,
it's the way these things go. You can't make mistakes.
The Vikings made way too many in the first half,
and that was it.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, here's a couple questions I want to throw at you.
And then we'll wrap this up with regard with regard
to the Vikings, is is the less is the lesson
or the big picture thing? When it comes to Sam Donald,
that experience in really big games matters because where he
(33:15):
had gone in his career and all the games that
he had lost, and all the struggles he had had
with the Jets and with the Panthers. How many big,
truly big games had Sam Donald played in?
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Right?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
One of the biggest was he played a career game
against the Green Bay Packers at us Bank Stadium. But
then as the stakes got higher against Detroit. Now that's
on the road obviously, and then and then against against
the Rams in sort of on the road slash neutral site,
Sam Donald's inexperience in big games showed, and it showed
(33:48):
big time. And and that leaves the Vikings with what
we thought a couple of weeks ago was a slam
dunk decision in terms of their quarterback for next year.
Now now it it's not such a slam duck.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Is it? No? And Okay, so two things is the
first part of that question, like, I am just completely
perplexed at what happened with Minnesota. I mean, the Rams
defense was not a world beater this year. No, They
ranked near the bottom of the league for most of
the season. Now, credit to Sean McVay. Again, that's a
sign of good coaching. They got him peaking at the
end of the year. They got a little bit healthier
(34:22):
as well. But I mean the amount of pressure they
generated on Sam Donald, whether it was the four man rushes,
whether it was blitzes, I mean like they got after
him and he did not respond well to it. Here's
where I'm really torn about what the decision now becomes
with Donald. And you can play back the Packers unscripted
of me saying hey absolutely have to sign him thirteen
days ago. But it's like, Okay, Kevin O'Connell has built
(34:46):
up enough positive vibes there. He's thirty four and seventeen.
They have not won a playoff game, but he has
a thirteen win season on his resume and a fourteen
win season on his resume. If there was ever a
time if you want to invest into the young quarterback
and you're gonna get some grace, this is it, as
opposed to what is it going to cost to keep
Sam Donald? If Sam Donald is going to be back
(35:07):
for twenty million dollars or even thirty million dollars, I think,
like what Baker's playing for, you probably give it another go.
But does he want a long term contract? Are you
gonna put a franchise tag on them? Like? These are
the type of decisions they're going to have to make.
Because the reason to bring this all back around, the
Vikings were the second oldest team in the National Football
League going into the year, behind Miami. They're not a
(35:27):
bunch of young bucks. They kind of were looking to
win as soon as possible.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah, and you look at their list of pending free agents.
You look at the list of pending free agents. Now,
they're not all going to be gone. They're going to
bring back some of those guys, but the guys that
they're but the guys that they are going to bring
back are going to eat up most of their cap space.
And then you have the quarterback decision to make. On
top of that, there.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Are some people losing their mind an inbox like, well,
the Vikings have all this cap so, yeah, because they
have a bunch of unrestricted free agents coming up. Yeah's
why they got caps.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
That's why they have caps.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
And the quarterback made ten million dollars this year.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's let's see, let's see where
the let's see where the cap space is when free agency,
you know, gets underway and gets rolling.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Here Dad's wall, it's always fatter before the kids asked
to go to the arcade.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah, you know what I mean. So well, it's the
Rams heading to Philadelphia, It's the Commanders heading to Detroit.
On the AFC side. Baltimore at Buffalo, that's going to
be the last of the four games of divisional weekend.
That's going to be a doozy. I actually just saw something.
And gambling remains illegal at Bushwood. But the Buffalo Bills
(36:31):
are a home playoff underdog for the first time in
I believe it's eighteen or nineteen playoff game home playoff
games in They're franchise of history. The Baltimore Ravens are
actually favored on the road in Buffalo Bill's mafias. That's
gonna be a doozy of a game. I want to
talk about it more on our next show. Obviously, Houston
is Houston's going to Kansas City to face Patrick Mahomes,
(36:54):
who hasn't thrown a pass since he opened a present
on Christmas Day or something. Yeah, I mean it's been
a while, but we'll see. We do have one more
show before we're going to sign off for the season.
We will record another show later this week and then
we will say goodbye for a portion of the off season.
(37:18):
And when we come back, it will be this right here,
what I'm about to talk about. Because mark your calendars, folks,
the twenty twenty five NFL Draft is coming to Green Bay.
B among the thousands of football fans cheering on their
team's picks by joining us April twenty four through April
twenty six. Of twenty twenty five is a green Bay
dot com slash Draft twenty five for more information. And
(37:39):
with that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition
of Packers Unscripted. Sure to follow all of our coverage
of this season wrap up week here on Packers dot
Com for Wesiam Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody.
We will see x T
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