September 23, 2025 • 37 mins
Mike and Wes review the tough loss in Cleveland, discussing some of the key moments (6:17) and miscues (17:39), providing an injury update (26:32), and surveying the NFC North and the league’s unbeaten teams after three weeks (28:43).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always
by my trust in colleague Wes Hodkowitz, coming to you
here from our studios at lambeau Field. Unfortunately, Wes to
talk about a very disappointing, frustrating, put in your own
descriptor thirteen to ten loss to the Cleveland Browns at
(00:28):
Huntington Huntington bank Field on Sunday. It was a game
that was, you know, looking pretty good for fifty five
fifty six minutes of the of the sixty or so,
but the Packers couldn't finish the deal. And hopefully it's
a it's a lesson learned and that you know, it
(00:49):
happened early in the season and one like this doesn't
happen again.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I'm gonna do my favorite Dom Capers impression here, and
I'm gonna say, let's start with the positives. I won't
talk for three minutes like Down occasionally.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Would, but what I'll say is, Okay, we got time.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
We do have time. Okay, Packers were in this game
and control the pace of this game because of how
the defense have played, and honestly, the way the defense
played the entire game. They got put in some really
bad change of possession change whatever they call it, immediate change, situation,
sudden change. Thank you boy, I'm on game the way.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I learned that one from him.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, so a sudden changed situation there at the end
where obviously they end up giving up the last four
yards on the touchdown, and then also Michael Parsons taking
ownership for his jumping off sides and then obviously the
past and Djoku and then sets up the fifty five
yard game winner by Andre Schmidt. Okay, so what I
want to say about this and we we will spend
(01:50):
the next you know, twenty twenty five minutes here breaking
down what went wrong, why it went wrong, and what
the Packers have to do to correct it. There's a
lot of sky is falling people and side or inbox.
As I was editing it on Monday, I'm sure you
were going through it on Sunday night. A couple things
to keep in mind here. One, as you led with
the intro, this was the first couple weeks of the season.
(02:12):
The Packers were two and oh they're now two and one. Unfortunately,
everybody else in the NFC North one and emphatic fashion.
So you lose some ground there, But this was against
an AFC opponent. If you're going to pick up two wins,
you want to get them against Detroit. You want to
get them against Washington. You wanted to get this one
just to get that number three in the win column.
But ultimately there's no lingering effects of it beyond the
(02:34):
fact that we'll see how Detroit handles Cleveland this week.
It will be a stiff test for them. I'm sure
the disappointment stems solely from how they lost the game
and for the defense to play as well as it did,
the Packers to play as clean as they did. From
a turnovers perspective, the penalties were an issue all game,
no question about that, but they didn't turn the ball
over until those final four minutes. That's where everything kind
(02:58):
of went awry. So the challenge for the Packers this
week as they get ready for the Dallas Cowboys, who
are who just got routed by the Chicago Bears, is
we talk all the time about one game at a time.
You beat Detroit, great, you got to focus on Washington.
You beat Washington great, you gotta play Cleveland. You gave
up a stinker at the end against the Browns. You
(03:20):
got to move on to the Dallas Cowboys. That's the
challenge that awaits the Packers. Can you put this game,
learn from it, but put it out of your memory
bank and press forward, because honestly, Mike, it was a
demoralizing loss. You don't lose that way in the final
three and a half minutes of a game and feel
good about it.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
No, you don't. There isn't There isn't anything you walk
out of there feeling good about. And and what you
just described is exactly what I've been thinking in terms
of the perspective the approach with regard to Dallas. I
think the I think the toughest thing and this. You know,
they're professional athletes, professional coaches, you know they deal with
(03:56):
these types of challenges all the time. You have to
be able to walk in into at and T Stadium
on Sunday night to get and get ready to play
the Dallas Cowboys and absolutely not have a single thought
in your mind whatsoever about what happened in Cleveland. You
cannot be thinking about it. You have to you have
to forget about it. It's like you almost have to
convince yourself that what happened in Cleveland didn't matter, even
(04:19):
though of course it does matter. But mentally, I mean,
and this is where I mean we talked last week.
The trip to Cleveland is the first a stretch of
four out of five on the road. You wanted to start,
you know, these regular season road trips on a good note.
It's hard to win on the road in the NFL.
You know, just asked the Detroit Lions who came into
(04:39):
lambeau Field and had a tough time, but then they
really showed up in Baltimore on Monday night under the lights, right,
So these types of things can turn around, but you
don't you don't want to start on the road like
this when you have the stretch that's coming up. So
going into Dallas, it's going to be, you know, it's
going to be all about processing this one, learning from it,
(05:02):
as you said, but doing so quickly and moving on
because you can't. You can't linger on this loss. I mean,
there's so much to fix. In terms of the penalties,
fourteen penalties in the game, five of them were false starts.
I thought the false If I were to pick one
area of the penalties that I thought was the most
(05:23):
damaging in terms of the overall performance. It was the
false starts on offense, because it just seemed every time
they had a false start, they put themselves in a
tougher down and distance situation, and then they weren't able
to convert. And then the great indignity is then the
final false start moves the field goal back five yards,
(05:44):
which then mcmanuson's up getting that kick block from forty
three yards. If that field goal is less than forty yards,
maybe it doesn't get blocked. I mean, you can play
the you know, the ifs and butts and all of that,
you know, till the cows come home. As my grade
school friends used to say.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
But here's the mine used to say, the cats till
the cats.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Till the cats come home. Okay. See if I grew
up in a rural part of Wisconsin, so it was
all about when the cows.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Come so I grew up in swam.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Here's here's what I want to ask you, though, because
because I think I think the fans, I think the
fans in some ways might appreciate this perspective. And hopefully
this doesn't catch you too off guard. It does you
and I, You and I have you and I have
been through plenty of these where whether it's the Packers
coming out on the winning side of the losing side,
where these games, these games flip right at the end,
(06:36):
you know, and uh, and something happens in the final
final seconds, final minutes, whatever it is. My my question
to you is was there was there a moment or
I should maybe the question is what was the moment
that you were the most confident the Packers were going
to win the game when that ultim question they didn't. John,
(06:59):
I'm sorry, no, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
John Fitzpatrick's touchdown, because I felt like at that point
of the game it really was gonna maybe take a
touchdown to win it. Honestly, I think if the Green
Bay Packers play that entire football game, even though they
gave up some explosives there to quinch On Quinchewn Judkins
on one of the field goal drives, I felt like
if the Packers made them go seventy five seventy yards,
(07:21):
the Browns were not gonna be able to get to
the end zone. I just didn't think the Browns were
gonna be able to stitch together that many plays without
making a mistake or out without a sack or a
penalty shoot. They got to the one yard line and
picked up a chop block penalty at that point, right,
so like the Packers were making them earn it defensively.
So when when they got the touchdown to John Fitzpatrick,
I thought it was a very important salient moment because
(07:41):
it wasn't just about that score. It's also that thing
in the back of the minds of the Browns that
would think, well, offensively, we can't get anything going defensively,
this is where things started on ravel for us last
week against Baltimore. If the Packers got that ten point advantage,
that's where I felt like, Okay, we're good. The part
where I started the feel I'm not even joking with
you about this. The part where I started to feel
(08:02):
a little bit weird about it was when it started raining.
And that had no impact on Maybe it did with
the Josh Shacobs fumble, I don't think so, but it
really had no impact on anythings. But when it started
raining right after the Matthew Golden catch, something felt off
to me. Then in that moment, I don't know what
it was it was, and I don't want to draw
(08:22):
any comparisons of the twenty fourteen NFC Championship game. These
are two exactly different things. But it was sort of
like the the Morgan Burnett going down moment, where it
was like, boy, if Golden's able to keep his momentum,
staying bounds and head up field, I mean, that would
have been definitely the dagger, even though I had plenty
of people in my mention saying that the Fitzpatrick touchdown
(08:44):
was the dagger. So the beautiful thing about this is
it's not one specific guy for why the Packers lost it.
Legitimately was all three phases. It was a few big
mistakes and obviously the penalties. You can't have ten penalties
or whatever it was in the fourth court win. Yeah,
But to answer your initial question, where I felt the
best about it was definitely the John Fitzpatrick score.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, and see for me and you you mentioned it
a little bit later on there in your discussion. For me,
it was the Matthew Golden catch. Now, yes, we all
were hoping when we saw that, you know that he
can stay in bounds and get up field and and
maybe he scores or you know, even if he's a
little bit off balance but gets upfield, you know, the
(09:26):
you're getting that much closer to field goal range where
you could add some points whatever the case might be.
But with the game tend to nothing, and when the
Packers were backed up on the two yard line, in
my mind, I was like, okay, this this is you know,
this is a big moment right here, this this series
just you know, to get one first down and get
out of this hole. And for Love to hit Golden
(09:47):
down the sideline down the right side on on that
third and eight from the four yard line, that's when
I thought, Okay, you know, they're gonna be fine, like
they've they've got this. But then, as you said, that's
when it started raining. Then on the very next series
the Packers, the Packers go three and out and punt
and and Jordan Love is not able to connect with
(10:08):
Josh Jacobs on just some simple checkdown throws, and you're
starting to wonder, you know, Okay, It's like, okay, was
the rain? You know? Was the rain a factor on
how the ball was coming out of his hand all
of a sudden, I don't know, but it was there.
There there was some weirdness to that. And then right
after that, the Packers then punt and a defense that
(10:31):
had been tackling the Browns at essentially the first instance
the entire game suddenly with I don't know, wet jerseys,
wet hands, whatever, like they couldn't tackle quin Shawn Jenkins
on a couple of plays, he slips through when it
looks like they have the play pretty well defended, and
(10:51):
all of a sudden, the Browns are in field goal
range and you're and it's like, okay, they're gonna make
it a one score, you know, one possession game here again.
So that was the first one for me. I thought
the golden catch, they were going to be fine. And
then the other one is when when Tucker Kraft makes
the catch and run up the right side late in
the fourth quarter to get the Packers into field goal range.
(11:12):
As I'm live blogging the game, I'm doing I'm doing
the math in my head with regard to the clock
and the two minute warning and and you know, okay,
like you can, you know, you can run this down
under thirty seconds and and kick the field goal to
put yourself in the lead. And I thought I thought
they'd be they'd be fine there as well, but the
(11:33):
breakdown in protection on the field goal Shelby Harris, who
I didn't realize until I was reading in one of
your stories that he now has six blocked field goals
in his career. Is just a significant protection breakdown at
at absolutely the wrong time for the Packers there and
(11:53):
then and then the penalties again are rearing their ugly
head on the Browns final drive where Parsons jumped off.
Jumps off sides before the very first snap gives them
five free yards. And then even if the kicker misses
the fifty five yarder, he gets another shot from fifty
because the Packers had jumped off side on the field
(12:15):
goal as well, that was going to be penalty number fifteen.
That only didn't become penalty number fifteen because the kick
was good. So it was just the way the way
things went. The way things went during the game. The
Packers kept hurting themselves all the way along, and those
same things hurt them at the end. And so those
(12:36):
moments that you felt pretty good, like Okay, they're in
good shape to be able to win this, and it
just didn't happen. It's just another example. It's another example
of how every game in the NFL is sixty minutes
and you just you know, I mean, even thinking back,
we talked about it. I'm sorry, I'm going on a monologue.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
No, you're okay. I'm actually texting Garrett right now, so
you're good.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah, with the construction noise, our building manager, construction noise,
thank you. But no, like we talked, we talked after
the Washington game, and Matt Lafleur had even mentioned it
a little bit in one of his UH press conferences
a few days after the Washington game that the Packers
were very much in control of that game, but then
(13:24):
suddenly Washington gets a touchdown and it's seventeen to ten,
and there's still plenty of time on the clock. And
so a game that you've been fully in control of
is just a one score game. And if it's a
one score game with enough time on the clock in
the NFL, you never know what can happen. Now in
the Washington game, the Packers answered, yep. They they drove
(13:45):
back down the field, they got the points to re
establish the two score lead, and as we talked about,
the Commanders never got the ball back, only down by
the one score, right, like that actually didn't happen, Well,
it did happen in the Brown's game. Not only did
they get the ball back only down one score with
the interception, but then they got the ball back again
(14:06):
with a tie score and a chance to win, all
within the span of the last few minutes, and quite frankly,
the vast majority of that was self inflicted. That's the
most frustrating part about it is the Packers did the
damage to themselves and then the Browns simply took advantage
of it. That's how I saw that.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
It's a great way to look at it, Michael, and
I agree with you one thousand percent. There's so many
different levels and avenues to go down with this game,
which is why I fully understand and appreciate where you're
coming from, and no need to apologize the first and
foremost again looking at positives, I'm just going to try
to keep extracting positives from this. We once again learned
that when the chips are down, My goodness, does Tucker
(14:48):
Craft come through a remarkable job that he did in
that instance? Yes. First off, you know, Romeo Dobbs draws
the defensive pass inference, which was really important because with
the way that Carl Chaffer's crew was calling it, it
was getting really tight there like any type of incidental contact,
they're throwing the flag and Packer saw that they were
able to use that against the Browns, and that instance
(15:09):
it got twenty yards out of it. But then right
after that, Tucker Craft takes those low underneath you know
kind of concepts and he's bowling, bawling through people to
get downfield and get them in field goal position. When
they got to the twenty yard line with the way
that or twenty two yard line, with the way that
Brandon McManus had been kicking throughout training camp, throughout the
end of last season, I felt really good about it.
Then I actually did it. It felt like, Okay, they're
(15:31):
going to escape this thing. But then again, it was
the penalties kind of compounding and compounding a near fumble
that they lost with Josh Jacobs. It's just there was
always some negative type play attached to it. And to
bring it back, if I may, with the Matthew Golden thing,
because you're right, I mean, the biggest thing was just
getting your tails off of the goal line to keep
it going downfield, but there was something Again, I don't
(15:53):
want to make this the Dom Caper's episode, but I
always remember Dom talking about the percentages of when you
hit an explosive for over three yards, what your percentage
chances are of scoring. They're extremely high. So it's not
that necessarily the Packers should have gotten points out of that.
But it's like when you get a thirty four yard completion,
you think that's gonna be kind of what gets Cleveland
to maybe be on its heels a little bit more,
(16:14):
maybe to keep them a little bit more honest, and
green Bay just wasn't able to extract any more momentum
from that. Ultimately, there's so many different things you can
boil these things down to, and there's not one specific player, coach, position,
anything that goes into this this loss. But unfortunately green Bay,
it was a multitude of different things happening. Injuries on
the offensive line, the Packers trying to put their foot
(16:35):
on the gas pedal when they're in third and three,
Jordan Love getting picked up, getting picked off, Grant Dell
Pitt making a great play on the ball but unfortunately
returning it to the four yard line, and that was
a short field position that Joe Flacco in this offense needed.
And then my last point before I'll hand the microphone
back to you, the Packers hit Joe Flacco ten times.
If you would have told me they were only going
(16:56):
to actually sack him twice, both Formershaun Gary, I wouldn't
have believed you. But Blaco did even though he had
a fifty five passer rating in this game. Thinks that
interception by Xavier McKinney before the end of the half.
What Flacco did is what Philip Rivers did so well.
It's what Jared Goff at times has done so well.
He got the ball out quickly, even when he was
under duress, whether it was a whether it was a
completion or not. By the way, there was plenty of
(17:17):
times where he got hit and it was an incompletion.
It's not like he just got away scott free. Yeah.
But the inability for Green Bay to get negative yardage
plays out of Cleveland's the offense were struggling as they
were on the offensive side of the ball. Five sacks
negative thirty four yards, fourteen penalties seventy five yards. It's
just it moved the chains on them just too much.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah. The Packers made a lot of mistakes, and they
they made the one mistake in this game. You couldn't
afford to make which was the turnover giving the Browns
the short field, and you could just I know, after games,
you go into the locker room, I go to the
press conferences. We sort of divide and conquer, you know,
our duties that way to cover everything. You could just
hear in that postgame press conference. You could hear the
(17:58):
regret and Matt Leaflets voice over over the play call
that he decided to be aggressive and try to throw
for it when in the back of his mind, you know,
a zone read or play action bootleg and just let
love keep the ball and run with it, or even
just the way the defense was playing, you know, hand
the ball off and if Jacobs doesn't if Jacobs doesn't
get it, you punt the ball. Make sure they have
(18:20):
seventy yards, you know, to go for that time touched on.
All all those things are going through his head, all
sorts of regrets and everything after the game. But I'll
say this, I'll ask this of the fans because as
I'm to get the one shot, as I'm going through
the insider inbox and answering questions on the plane ride back,
(18:42):
and then as I get home on Sunday night, and
and I'm finishing up the Insider Inbox for Monday morning,
and there's submission after submission of people being so frustrated
with Lafleur and and how and how this went, and
so frustrated with Jordan Love and the interception and all that.
And I get it, trust me, I get it because
(19:03):
because of all the mistakes that was that was the
one play that swung the game. But I I just
I asked, I asked the fans two things here. One,
just remember that right after the interception, Jordan Love got
the Packers into field goal position to win the game,
and the fact that that kick was blocked had nothing
(19:23):
to do with the quarterback. So that's point number one.
Point number two. You wanna you wanna understand Matt Lafleur
better and understand how he processes games and how he
leads this team. Go to Packers dot com and watch
the twenty minute Monday press conference. I'm gonna I'm making
(19:44):
a comment on this on the Insider Inbox for tomorrow.
Matt Lafleur's best press conferences are the day after a
tough loss. He dives into all of the details. He
goes over everything that he has seen. The shortcoming of
his team, the players, the coaches, everything. He dives into
(20:05):
all of it, and he gives the media and by extension,
the fans, the best look into how they process these
difficult moments, and that twenty minutes on Monday of Matt
Lafuur at the podium answering questions. As a Packers fan,
it's worth your time to check it out. Just watch
(20:25):
the whole thing. Watch how he talks about things and
how he has reviewed it and he's processing it and
getting the team to move on to the next game,
which is where we started this whole discussion at the
beginning of the show. Just want to put that out there.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I love that you said that, and I agree with
you wholeheartedly on what that Monday press conference is like
and what a lot of those Monday press conferences have
been like after difficult losses. Because again, it always goes
back to it. If you're pointing the finger, there's three
coming back at you. And Mattlfluor is never going to
go up there and say, well, this player did this wrong,
this coach did this wrong. This is why we're not
succeeding right now. No, it's not about that. It's about
(21:00):
looking internally at every phase of this thing, and each
person looking themselves in the mirror and figuring out what
they did wrong in this The Packers do not lose
this game if it wasn't for all three phases, just
like many times you win these games because of all
three phases. They came up short and they had to
learn a difficult, bitter lesson. But if you don't compartmentalize that,
if you don't rechannel that, if you don't focus now
on what's ahead of you with the Dallas Cowboys, who
(21:21):
by all accounts are not going to have Ceedee Lamb
available on Sunday, then you're doing yourself a disservice and
you're also letting this thing potentially mushroom. That's what you
have to curb against right now. And the last thing
I'll say really quickly about the Jordan Love topic, because
I know again some fans are really they pick out
that one specific, specific play and again it's a tough situation.
(21:41):
Jordan said afterwards, he's got to see that defender there.
You have to be able to figure these things out.
But at the same time, Jordan Love has played some
really good football so far this season, and you're seeing
more of what he looks like as a quarterback when
he's healthy, using his legs, using his scrambling ability, extend plays,
not just always operating from the pocket, being very being multiple.
And the thing that's impressed me the most is, honestly,
(22:02):
how he's taken charge of the line of scrimmage. Now.
It's not just that a call goes in there and Okay,
this is what we're running. It's that he's trying to
diagnose what the defense has given him and getting green
band potentially the best look, which is what the top
quarterbacks have to do with where the game is headed
and where things are at right now. And the last
thing I'll say in this topic too, depending on whatever
else you want to discuss, the Cleveland Browns made a
(22:24):
lot of plays, and no one ever wants to give
the opponent credit. It's always about, Okay, well, this is
what we did wrong, and this person needs to be
removed and we got to bench this person. Whatever. Harold
Fannon Junior would not be denied when he broke three
tackles to get downfield. Quinn Shawn Judkins, after being repeatedly
stopped at the line of scrimmage, kept his fortitude and
(22:45):
ended up having more than half of his yards on
two carries of his eighteen. You know, Joe Flacco showed
his veteran resolve. There was a lot of injuries on
the offensive line for the Browns too. They stuck together
and defensively, you know, Matt Leffleur said this, as far
as you know, maybe the over look the pieces around
Miles Garrett. Honestly, I really don't think they did. I
think that's him showing respect to the Browns and how
(23:07):
deep they are with their defense. Green Bay knew across
the line and throughout that secondary what they were getting
in the number one ranked defense, and as I wrote
an Insider Inbox, that defense is going to keep the
Browns in a lot of games this year. Yes, hopefully
they do it this Sunday against the Detroit Lions. But
the fact is is sometimes you do have to tip
your cap to the opponent. Last thing I'll say, because
(23:28):
someone said an insider Inbox again, well why didn't Jordan
Love do to Cleveland what Patrick Mahomes single handedly did
against the Giants while not recognizing the Giants respectfully have
the thirty first ranked total defense right now and Cleveland
might have given up as many yards in one game
(23:48):
as the Giants, haven't you know, or the Giants may
have given up more yards in one game than the
Browns having three. I mean, it's just it's remarkable. Sometimes
you have to keep perspective on things. The Packers caught
Cleveland at a tough time. They got Judkins back, that
was their offense, and it did just enough to get
the win.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
It was.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
It was a tough day for the Packers offensive line,
with the false starts, with the pass protection, with the injuries,
which we'll get to in a minute. Jordan Love had
a couple a handful whatever you want to call it,
of rough plays, but good defenses are going to do
that to you and h And unfortunately, the Packers' worst
mistakes were at crunch time, and and when you make
(24:29):
your worst mistakes at crunch time, you have no time
to make up for them. And they almost did, but
then the special team's mistake with the block field goal
ends up preventing you from from escaping and and getting
out of Cleveland with with a narrow victory.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
So yeah, and the other thing is too with Jordan.
I think that's probably the hardest thing for me to
swallow about this is in a lot of ways, I
thought he actually was pitching kind of a perfect game.
He's dealing with a banged up offensive line, he's not
making mistakes, he's playing clean football. Then it's almost like
he walked the batter and then he gave up the
home run to not only lose the perfect the no hitter,
but the perfect game, but then the no hitter right
(25:05):
with the interception, because it tilted everything back in Cleveland's favor.
And I don't know if I've ever covered a game. Mic.
You have a few more seasons ONMBI, but I don't
know if I've ever covered a game where it was
so obvious what had to happen for the Packers to win,
and then for the scenario to play out in which
they lost the game by those means. And it's not
that the Packers didn't realize it. It's that they fought
(25:26):
a really difficult opponent and the Browns just made plays
when they had to and showed a lot of resolve
for an oher and two football team.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, I would agree. There a couple of the topics
I want to get to, but we do need to
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(26:17):
Hey Packers fans, we always knew Lambeufield was a wonder
but now it's official. Learn more about all the wonders
of Wisconsin at Travel Wisconsin dot com Slash Wonders. Welcome
back to Packers Unscripted West. We do need to update
things with regard to injuries. So Zach Tom he bowed
out of the game after one play. Unfortunately, was not
(26:40):
able to go when he thought he would be able
to dealing with that oblique injury. The bad news is
it was the decision to play him. Matt Lafleur himself
regretted it the way it turned out that he really
wasn't up to playing and the Packers had to make
adjustments immediately because of that. The good news is it
(27:02):
doesn't sound like he did anything worse or did any
additional damage as far as as far as the injury
is concerned. But where that leaves him as far as
his status for this week, with the bye week coming
up and all that, we'll just have to see how
that shakes out. Left guard Aaron Banks also left the
game at halftime with a groin injury, which Lafleur indicated
(27:24):
was not the same injury, the same one yeah with previously,
so so that is certainly concerning. And then Javon Bullard
is in the concussion protocol a very I guess you'd
say hard helmet contact there in the fourth quarter of
that game. Fortunately, after Bullard was down for a while,
(27:47):
he got up, he was able to walk off the
field under his own power and everything, so that was
good to see. But he is in the concussion protocol.
At this point, you mentioned Tucker Kraft, It sounds like
he came out of the game no worse for where
which is good.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, and there's the paper of records. Since the last
time we shot this, Tuckercraft suffered a knee injury in practice,
was questionable for the game and then ends up starting.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
A game that happened after our second show last week.
I forgot all about it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
So Packers have a major injury scare. He's questionable and
then ends up paying eighty eight percent of the offensive
snaps and it sounds like came out of the game good,
So kudos A Tucker.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Craft came out of the game okay. And then DeVante Wyatt,
whose injury I'm not sure what it is. It hasn't
been specified. Apparently he left very late in the game
on Sunday, but Matt Leffler said that he is day
to day, so nothing of nothing of any long term
concern there. You mentioned it quite a bit earlier. Everybody
else in the NFC North one over the weekend. So
(28:46):
the standings right now in the division, Packers, Lions, and
Vikings are all two and one. The Chicago Bears are
one and two. Minnesota gets a romp of a victory
with Carson Wentz stepping in for JJ McCarthy. The Detroit
Lions maybe across the board in the NFL as far
(29:07):
as the first three weeks are concerned, the Lions might
have posted the most single impressive victory in the NFL
so far with going into Baltimore on a Monday night.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Six seven, six seven.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I got some thoughts on that, going into Baltimore on
a Monday night, rushing for over two hundred yards, sacking
Lamar Jackson seven times, yep, and putting up thirty eight points.
The thirty eight to thirty final score does not really
indicate how much Detroit took command of this game in
the fourth court and really put the Ravens away. Just
(29:41):
a really impressive performance by Detroit. That is a team
that I mean, They've now scored what would that be,
ninety points in two games since the Packers defense gave
them all they could handle in Week one here at
lambeau Field. So plenty to watch moving forward there. And
then yeah, the Bears get off the schneid benjam And
gets his first win as a head coach. They take
(30:02):
it to the Dallas Cowboys. We'll talk about this more
on our next show, but the Cowboys are going to
take the field Sunday night against Green Bay with something
to prove, because they walked out of Chicago like wondering
what in the world hit.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Them in Banga. Frankly, yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting
to see what happens this week. We already got what
was the Trebon Diggs I think is also banged up
for them.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
And Booker on the offensive Booker was on the offensive line,
is also going to be out in this game.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
And we don't know where things are at with Kenny
Kenny Clark as the ankle injury coming out of that,
There's really been no update on there. In addition to
the fact that, as I mentioned early on, Ceedee Lamb
not gonna be playing this game because of a high
ankle spraint. Okay, time for Wes's litany of thoughts. First
and foremost, I need the Cleveland Browns from last week
to show up against the Detroit Lions. Okay, this weekend.
(30:48):
I need whatever the heck that was that the Baltimore
Ravens put on the field. I need that to show
up in December against Green Bay. The Baltimore Ravens defense
is not the Baltimore Ravens defense anymore. That was embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
They just collapsed at fourth quarter, they completely fell apart defensively.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I never have seen anything. I think the Ravens are
they dead last now in rankings for total defense? Yeah
they are. If you had ever told me there was
a day that the Baltimore Ravens four hundred and nine
point five yards allowed and they played Cleveland, they played Cleveland.
My goodness, if they played any other team other than
the Browns right now, what that could potentially be? So
(31:26):
and then there's these fumbling issues now with Derek Henry.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I mean, Derek Henry can't hang out of the ball,
Lamar Jackson taking taking way too many sacks and the bolt.
I mean, it just it boggles my mind that a
John harbaughd defense just gave up over two hundred yards
rushing in a game. I'm completely flabbergasted.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Oh and by the way, not that this matters. No
one cares except for me, David Montgomery. That last touchdown, yep,
caused me to lose my fantasy football game. So thank
you Baltimore defense. Yeah, it is what that's a different
topic for a different day. But yeah, I mean the
NFC north Man, I think I said it right after
the Packers beat the Lions that's a big win because
(32:09):
you don't know how many teams are going to beat
the Lions the season, so you got to take care
of business when you're the team playing them. I absolutely
love this ongoing storyline though, with the fact that whoever
the Minnesota Vikings trot out there at quarterback, Kevin O'Connell
and that person make it work. And now, mind you,
there's a lot of things going on in Cincinnati. There's
a lot of issues right now on that team on
(32:30):
both sides of the ball. But Carson Wentz is a
guy that time and time again has been left for
dead by this league. For him to come in almost
in a Molik Willis type role, this guy was not
here during the offseason. He was not planning to be
their number two quarterback to JJ McCarthy, and for him
to play as well as he did, you salute him
for that. In Caleb Williams, in Romadunza, Luther Burden, they
(32:54):
got something there. I'm curious how much of that is
the Bears and how much of it is Dallas Is
and really the doldrums of their defense right now.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, that defense is struggling, but.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You gotta beat the team that's in front of you.
And what did I tell you last week when I
said there was a must win game? I felt like
that Bears game was a must win game for Chicago
and Ben Johnson and they responded.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, last thing before we go. There are a handful
of three and oh teams right now in the NFL.
In the NFC, it's the San Francisco forty nine Ers,
it's the Philadelphia Eagles. And I feel like I'm forgetting
one other one in the NFC, who's three and oh
Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yes, so the Buccaneers have
won all three games in the final minute, which is
(33:37):
kind of hard to believe, but they are three and oh.
And then in the AFC you have the Buffalo Bills
and again somebody I'm forgetting.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Very easy to forget just based on the same Indianapolis
Colts and the Chargers and the But I mean the Colts.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Are three and oh. See I didn't write them down
before I came in here.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Shane Strike, and I mean what they've done there with
Daniel Jones.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
My question to you, is there a three and oh
team amongst that half dozen or whatever the number is,
that's three and oh across the league. That is the
most impressive to you right now?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Oh, it's definitely Philly, but I gotta look here, sorry,
has the buccaneer? Oh yeah, the Buccaneers beating the team
that has a win. Yet they did they beat Atlanta
because I mean, the Buccaneers are kind of beating up
on the teams that are really struggling right now. But hey,
you gotta win the games. I mean, Houston's oh to three,
(34:28):
and obviously, yeah, Atlanta's one and two. So they beat
a team that has a win, So that's cool. But yeah,
I mean, the fact of the matter is Jim Harbaugh
has the mightiest touch and it seems like he's unlocked
justin Herbert, And I'm excited to watch the Chargers this season,
especially since the r Realers and he cross over there
with Green Bay. It's gonna fun to watch them. But
(34:49):
Philly does what Philly does, and they're so darn athletic
on the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
They're down twenty six to seven ad home to the Rams,
and they came all the way back and won that
game and then sunctuated it with a blocked field goal
return for a touchdown. A field goal that would have
given the Rams the victory, and it just ended up
giving Philly a larger margin of victory with the touchdown
at the end.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I got to do something I never do on this
show because it is your show. We all know that.
I am told and reminded by our digital apartment, Jen
Stone or Jen Ward, Bryan, Lauren Stone Anderson and Nicole
tim that this is your show and it's not my show.
But what I'll say is this the Packers, We're going
(35:35):
to move it forward here. We talked a lot about
where they came up short last week. I want to
just say a couple things. In addition to the fact
that Shaun Gary had two more sacks and I think
might be in the league lead four and a half
reasons for hope for the Green Bay Packers. Okay, fans,
are you ready for this? After Week three? Third right
now in total yards two hundred and thirty two point
(35:55):
three yards per game, Third against the run sixty four
point three yards. They gave up fifty two to Judkins
in two plays. Could you imagine if they would have
held that down too? Passing yards there? Seventh with one
sixty eight, But they're first in the league. In passing
yards per play, which I actually think is the more
important stat because it doesn't take into account all the
(36:17):
garbage time. Hey, you're playing back in zone four point
three to one yards per play. You have to do better.
Obviously with the takeaways. They're looking at that right now,
fourteen point seven points allowed per game, Michael, that is
the best in the National Football League. And I could
go on and on and on as far as where
Green Bay is at right now and things to like,
(36:37):
pretty much in the top ten for red zone, third downs,
goal to go. Why does that matter? Because the green
Bay Packers have a defense. They got to make fewer mistakes,
They got to clean up these penalties. But my goodness,
they have a defense in this game against the Browns.
Result notwithstanding, it reminded you that there's going to be
a time again this season where they're going to need
(36:57):
to lean on their defense to win a low scoring ballgame.
And if they can stay healthy, they got the guys
to do it.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, your show have Defense will travel with that. We'll
call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
team continually on Packers dot Com. For west Iimmike, thank
you for tuning in. Everybody, We will see you next time.
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always
by my trust in colleague Wes Hodkowitz, coming to you
here from our studios at lambeau Field. Unfortunately, Wes to
talk about a very disappointing, frustrating, put in your own
descriptor thirteen to ten loss to the Cleveland Browns at
(00:28):
Huntington Huntington bank Field on Sunday. It was a game
that was, you know, looking pretty good for fifty five
fifty six minutes of the of the sixty or so,
but the Packers couldn't finish the deal. And hopefully it's
a it's a lesson learned and that you know, it
(00:49):
happened early in the season and one like this doesn't
happen again.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I'm gonna do my favorite Dom Capers impression here, and
I'm gonna say, let's start with the positives. I won't
talk for three minutes like Down occasionally.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Would, but what I'll say is, Okay, we got time.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
We do have time. Okay, Packers were in this game
and control the pace of this game because of how
the defense have played, and honestly, the way the defense
played the entire game. They got put in some really
bad change of possession change whatever they call it, immediate change, situation,
sudden change. Thank you boy, I'm on game the way.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I learned that one from him.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, so a sudden changed situation there at the end
where obviously they end up giving up the last four
yards on the touchdown, and then also Michael Parsons taking
ownership for his jumping off sides and then obviously the
past and Djoku and then sets up the fifty five
yard game winner by Andre Schmidt. Okay, so what I
want to say about this and we we will spend
(01:50):
the next you know, twenty twenty five minutes here breaking
down what went wrong, why it went wrong, and what
the Packers have to do to correct it. There's a
lot of sky is falling people and side or inbox.
As I was editing it on Monday, I'm sure you
were going through it on Sunday night. A couple things
to keep in mind here. One, as you led with
the intro, this was the first couple weeks of the season.
(02:12):
The Packers were two and oh they're now two and one. Unfortunately,
everybody else in the NFC North one and emphatic fashion.
So you lose some ground there, But this was against
an AFC opponent. If you're going to pick up two wins,
you want to get them against Detroit. You want to
get them against Washington. You wanted to get this one
just to get that number three in the win column.
But ultimately there's no lingering effects of it beyond the
(02:34):
fact that we'll see how Detroit handles Cleveland this week.
It will be a stiff test for them. I'm sure
the disappointment stems solely from how they lost the game
and for the defense to play as well as it did,
the Packers to play as clean as they did. From
a turnovers perspective, the penalties were an issue all game,
no question about that, but they didn't turn the ball
over until those final four minutes. That's where everything kind
(02:58):
of went awry. So the challenge for the Packers this
week as they get ready for the Dallas Cowboys, who
are who just got routed by the Chicago Bears, is
we talk all the time about one game at a time.
You beat Detroit, great, you got to focus on Washington.
You beat Washington great, you gotta play Cleveland. You gave
up a stinker at the end against the Browns. You
(03:20):
got to move on to the Dallas Cowboys. That's the
challenge that awaits the Packers. Can you put this game,
learn from it, but put it out of your memory
bank and press forward, because honestly, Mike, it was a
demoralizing loss. You don't lose that way in the final
three and a half minutes of a game and feel
good about it.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
No, you don't. There isn't There isn't anything you walk
out of there feeling good about. And and what you
just described is exactly what I've been thinking in terms
of the perspective the approach with regard to Dallas. I
think the I think the toughest thing and this. You know,
they're professional athletes, professional coaches, you know they deal with
(03:56):
these types of challenges all the time. You have to
be able to walk in into at and T Stadium
on Sunday night to get and get ready to play
the Dallas Cowboys and absolutely not have a single thought
in your mind whatsoever about what happened in Cleveland. You
cannot be thinking about it. You have to you have
to forget about it. It's like you almost have to
convince yourself that what happened in Cleveland didn't matter, even
(04:19):
though of course it does matter. But mentally, I mean,
and this is where I mean we talked last week.
The trip to Cleveland is the first a stretch of
four out of five on the road. You wanted to start,
you know, these regular season road trips on a good note.
It's hard to win on the road in the NFL.
You know, just asked the Detroit Lions who came into
(04:39):
lambeau Field and had a tough time, but then they
really showed up in Baltimore on Monday night under the lights, right,
So these types of things can turn around, but you
don't you don't want to start on the road like
this when you have the stretch that's coming up. So
going into Dallas, it's going to be, you know, it's
going to be all about processing this one, learning from it,
(05:02):
as you said, but doing so quickly and moving on
because you can't. You can't linger on this loss. I mean,
there's so much to fix. In terms of the penalties,
fourteen penalties in the game, five of them were false starts.
I thought the false If I were to pick one
area of the penalties that I thought was the most
(05:23):
damaging in terms of the overall performance. It was the
false starts on offense, because it just seemed every time
they had a false start, they put themselves in a
tougher down and distance situation, and then they weren't able
to convert. And then the great indignity is then the
final false start moves the field goal back five yards,
(05:44):
which then mcmanuson's up getting that kick block from forty
three yards. If that field goal is less than forty yards,
maybe it doesn't get blocked. I mean, you can play
the you know, the ifs and butts and all of that,
you know, till the cows come home. As my grade
school friends used to say.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
But here's the mine used to say, the cats till
the cats.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Till the cats come home. Okay. See if I grew
up in a rural part of Wisconsin, so it was
all about when the cows.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Come so I grew up in swam.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Here's here's what I want to ask you, though, because
because I think I think the fans, I think the
fans in some ways might appreciate this perspective. And hopefully
this doesn't catch you too off guard. It does you
and I, You and I have you and I have
been through plenty of these where whether it's the Packers
coming out on the winning side of the losing side,
where these games, these games flip right at the end,
(06:36):
you know, and uh, and something happens in the final
final seconds, final minutes, whatever it is. My my question
to you is was there was there a moment or
I should maybe the question is what was the moment
that you were the most confident the Packers were going
to win the game when that ultim question they didn't. John,
(06:59):
I'm sorry, no, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
John Fitzpatrick's touchdown, because I felt like at that point
of the game it really was gonna maybe take a
touchdown to win it. Honestly, I think if the Green
Bay Packers play that entire football game, even though they
gave up some explosives there to quinch On Quinchewn Judkins
on one of the field goal drives, I felt like
if the Packers made them go seventy five seventy yards,
(07:21):
the Browns were not gonna be able to get to
the end zone. I just didn't think the Browns were
gonna be able to stitch together that many plays without
making a mistake or out without a sack or a
penalty shoot. They got to the one yard line and
picked up a chop block penalty at that point, right,
so like the Packers were making them earn it defensively.
So when when they got the touchdown to John Fitzpatrick,
I thought it was a very important salient moment because
(07:41):
it wasn't just about that score. It's also that thing
in the back of the minds of the Browns that
would think, well, offensively, we can't get anything going defensively,
this is where things started on ravel for us last
week against Baltimore. If the Packers got that ten point advantage,
that's where I felt like, Okay, we're good. The part
where I started the feel I'm not even joking with
you about this. The part where I started to feel
(08:02):
a little bit weird about it was when it started raining.
And that had no impact on Maybe it did with
the Josh Shacobs fumble, I don't think so, but it
really had no impact on anythings. But when it started
raining right after the Matthew Golden catch, something felt off
to me. Then in that moment, I don't know what
it was it was, and I don't want to draw
(08:22):
any comparisons of the twenty fourteen NFC Championship game. These
are two exactly different things. But it was sort of
like the the Morgan Burnett going down moment, where it
was like, boy, if Golden's able to keep his momentum,
staying bounds and head up field, I mean, that would
have been definitely the dagger, even though I had plenty
of people in my mention saying that the Fitzpatrick touchdown
(08:44):
was the dagger. So the beautiful thing about this is
it's not one specific guy for why the Packers lost it.
Legitimately was all three phases. It was a few big
mistakes and obviously the penalties. You can't have ten penalties
or whatever it was in the fourth court win. Yeah,
But to answer your initial question, where I felt the
best about it was definitely the John Fitzpatrick score.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Yeah, and see for me and you you mentioned it
a little bit later on there in your discussion. For me,
it was the Matthew Golden catch. Now, yes, we all
were hoping when we saw that, you know that he
can stay in bounds and get up field and and
maybe he scores or you know, even if he's a
little bit off balance but gets upfield, you know, the
(09:26):
you're getting that much closer to field goal range where
you could add some points whatever the case might be.
But with the game tend to nothing, and when the
Packers were backed up on the two yard line, in
my mind, I was like, okay, this this is you know,
this is a big moment right here, this this series
just you know, to get one first down and get
out of this hole. And for Love to hit Golden
(09:47):
down the sideline down the right side on on that
third and eight from the four yard line, that's when
I thought, Okay, you know, they're gonna be fine, like
they've they've got this. But then, as you said, that's
when it started raining. Then on the very next series
the Packers, the Packers go three and out and punt
and and Jordan Love is not able to connect with
(10:08):
Josh Jacobs on just some simple checkdown throws, and you're
starting to wonder, you know, Okay, It's like, okay, was
the rain? You know? Was the rain a factor on
how the ball was coming out of his hand all
of a sudden, I don't know, but it was there.
There there was some weirdness to that. And then right
after that, the Packers then punt and a defense that
(10:31):
had been tackling the Browns at essentially the first instance
the entire game suddenly with I don't know, wet jerseys,
wet hands, whatever, like they couldn't tackle quin Shawn Jenkins
on a couple of plays, he slips through when it
looks like they have the play pretty well defended, and
(10:51):
all of a sudden, the Browns are in field goal
range and you're and it's like, okay, they're gonna make
it a one score, you know, one possession game here again.
So that was the first one for me. I thought
the golden catch, they were going to be fine. And
then the other one is when when Tucker Kraft makes
the catch and run up the right side late in
the fourth quarter to get the Packers into field goal range.
(11:12):
As I'm live blogging the game, I'm doing I'm doing
the math in my head with regard to the clock
and the two minute warning and and you know, okay,
like you can, you know, you can run this down
under thirty seconds and and kick the field goal to
put yourself in the lead. And I thought I thought
they'd be they'd be fine there as well, but the
(11:33):
breakdown in protection on the field goal Shelby Harris, who
I didn't realize until I was reading in one of
your stories that he now has six blocked field goals
in his career. Is just a significant protection breakdown at
at absolutely the wrong time for the Packers there and
(11:53):
then and then the penalties again are rearing their ugly
head on the Browns final drive where Parsons jumped off.
Jumps off sides before the very first snap gives them
five free yards. And then even if the kicker misses
the fifty five yarder, he gets another shot from fifty
because the Packers had jumped off side on the field
(12:15):
goal as well, that was going to be penalty number fifteen.
That only didn't become penalty number fifteen because the kick
was good. So it was just the way the way
things went. The way things went during the game. The
Packers kept hurting themselves all the way along, and those
same things hurt them at the end. And so those
(12:36):
moments that you felt pretty good, like Okay, they're in
good shape to be able to win this, and it
just didn't happen. It's just another example. It's another example
of how every game in the NFL is sixty minutes
and you just you know, I mean, even thinking back,
we talked about it. I'm sorry, I'm going on a monologue.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
No, you're okay. I'm actually texting Garrett right now, so
you're good.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Yeah, with the construction noise, our building manager, construction noise,
thank you. But no, like we talked, we talked after
the Washington game, and Matt Lafleur had even mentioned it
a little bit in one of his UH press conferences
a few days after the Washington game that the Packers
were very much in control of that game, but then
(13:24):
suddenly Washington gets a touchdown and it's seventeen to ten,
and there's still plenty of time on the clock. And
so a game that you've been fully in control of
is just a one score game. And if it's a
one score game with enough time on the clock in
the NFL, you never know what can happen. Now in
the Washington game, the Packers answered, yep. They they drove
(13:45):
back down the field, they got the points to re
establish the two score lead, and as we talked about,
the Commanders never got the ball back, only down by
the one score, right, like that actually didn't happen, Well,
it did happen in the Brown's game. Not only did
they get the ball back only down one score with
the interception, but then they got the ball back again
(14:06):
with a tie score and a chance to win, all
within the span of the last few minutes, and quite frankly,
the vast majority of that was self inflicted. That's the
most frustrating part about it is the Packers did the
damage to themselves and then the Browns simply took advantage
of it. That's how I saw that.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
It's a great way to look at it, Michael, and
I agree with you one thousand percent. There's so many
different levels and avenues to go down with this game,
which is why I fully understand and appreciate where you're
coming from, and no need to apologize the first and
foremost again looking at positives, I'm just going to try
to keep extracting positives from this. We once again learned
that when the chips are down, My goodness, does Tucker
(14:48):
Craft come through a remarkable job that he did in
that instance? Yes. First off, you know, Romeo Dobbs draws
the defensive pass inference, which was really important because with
the way that Carl Chaffer's crew was calling it, it
was getting really tight there like any type of incidental contact,
they're throwing the flag and Packer saw that they were
able to use that against the Browns, and that instance
(15:09):
it got twenty yards out of it. But then right
after that, Tucker Craft takes those low underneath you know
kind of concepts and he's bowling, bawling through people to
get downfield and get them in field goal position. When
they got to the twenty yard line with the way
that or twenty two yard line, with the way that
Brandon McManus had been kicking throughout training camp, throughout the
end of last season, I felt really good about it.
Then I actually did it. It felt like, Okay, they're
(15:31):
going to escape this thing. But then again, it was
the penalties kind of compounding and compounding a near fumble
that they lost with Josh Jacobs. It's just there was
always some negative type play attached to it. And to
bring it back, if I may, with the Matthew Golden thing,
because you're right, I mean, the biggest thing was just
getting your tails off of the goal line to keep
it going downfield, but there was something Again, I don't
(15:53):
want to make this the Dom Caper's episode, but I
always remember Dom talking about the percentages of when you
hit an explosive for over three yards, what your percentage
chances are of scoring. They're extremely high. So it's not
that necessarily the Packers should have gotten points out of that.
But it's like when you get a thirty four yard completion,
you think that's gonna be kind of what gets Cleveland
to maybe be on its heels a little bit more,
(16:14):
maybe to keep them a little bit more honest, and
green Bay just wasn't able to extract any more momentum
from that. Ultimately, there's so many different things you can
boil these things down to, and there's not one specific player, coach, position,
anything that goes into this this loss. But unfortunately green Bay,
it was a multitude of different things happening. Injuries on
the offensive line, the Packers trying to put their foot
(16:35):
on the gas pedal when they're in third and three,
Jordan Love getting picked up, getting picked off, Grant Dell
Pitt making a great play on the ball but unfortunately
returning it to the four yard line, and that was
a short field position that Joe Flacco in this offense needed.
And then my last point before I'll hand the microphone
back to you, the Packers hit Joe Flacco ten times.
If you would have told me they were only going
(16:56):
to actually sack him twice, both Formershaun Gary, I wouldn't
have believed you. But Blaco did even though he had
a fifty five passer rating in this game. Thinks that
interception by Xavier McKinney before the end of the half.
What Flacco did is what Philip Rivers did so well.
It's what Jared Goff at times has done so well.
He got the ball out quickly, even when he was
under duress, whether it was a whether it was a
completion or not. By the way, there was plenty of
(17:17):
times where he got hit and it was an incompletion.
It's not like he just got away scott free. Yeah.
But the inability for Green Bay to get negative yardage
plays out of Cleveland's the offense were struggling as they
were on the offensive side of the ball. Five sacks
negative thirty four yards, fourteen penalties seventy five yards. It's
just it moved the chains on them just too much.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah. The Packers made a lot of mistakes, and they
they made the one mistake in this game. You couldn't
afford to make which was the turnover giving the Browns
the short field, and you could just I know, after games,
you go into the locker room, I go to the
press conferences. We sort of divide and conquer, you know,
our duties that way to cover everything. You could just
hear in that postgame press conference. You could hear the
(17:58):
regret and Matt Leaflets voice over over the play call
that he decided to be aggressive and try to throw
for it when in the back of his mind, you know,
a zone read or play action bootleg and just let
love keep the ball and run with it, or even
just the way the defense was playing, you know, hand
the ball off and if Jacobs doesn't if Jacobs doesn't
get it, you punt the ball. Make sure they have
(18:20):
seventy yards, you know, to go for that time touched on.
All all those things are going through his head, all
sorts of regrets and everything after the game. But I'll
say this, I'll ask this of the fans because as
I'm to get the one shot, as I'm going through
the insider inbox and answering questions on the plane ride back,
(18:42):
and then as I get home on Sunday night, and
and I'm finishing up the Insider Inbox for Monday morning,
and there's submission after submission of people being so frustrated
with Lafleur and and how and how this went, and
so frustrated with Jordan Love and the interception and all that.
And I get it, trust me, I get it because
(19:03):
because of all the mistakes that was that was the
one play that swung the game. But I I just
I asked, I asked the fans two things here. One,
just remember that right after the interception, Jordan Love got
the Packers into field goal position to win the game,
and the fact that that kick was blocked had nothing
(19:23):
to do with the quarterback. So that's point number one.
Point number two. You wanna you wanna understand Matt Lafleur
better and understand how he processes games and how he
leads this team. Go to Packers dot com and watch
the twenty minute Monday press conference. I'm gonna I'm making
(19:44):
a comment on this on the Insider Inbox for tomorrow.
Matt Lafleur's best press conferences are the day after a
tough loss. He dives into all of the details. He
goes over everything that he has seen. The shortcoming of
his team, the players, the coaches, everything. He dives into
(20:05):
all of it, and he gives the media and by extension,
the fans, the best look into how they process these
difficult moments, and that twenty minutes on Monday of Matt
Lafuur at the podium answering questions. As a Packers fan,
it's worth your time to check it out. Just watch
(20:25):
the whole thing. Watch how he talks about things and
how he has reviewed it and he's processing it and
getting the team to move on to the next game,
which is where we started this whole discussion at the
beginning of the show. Just want to put that out there.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
I love that you said that, and I agree with
you wholeheartedly on what that Monday press conference is like
and what a lot of those Monday press conferences have
been like after difficult losses. Because again, it always goes
back to it. If you're pointing the finger, there's three
coming back at you. And Mattlfluor is never going to
go up there and say, well, this player did this wrong,
this coach did this wrong. This is why we're not
succeeding right now. No, it's not about that. It's about
(21:00):
looking internally at every phase of this thing, and each
person looking themselves in the mirror and figuring out what
they did wrong in this The Packers do not lose
this game if it wasn't for all three phases, just
like many times you win these games because of all
three phases. They came up short and they had to
learn a difficult, bitter lesson. But if you don't compartmentalize that,
if you don't rechannel that, if you don't focus now
on what's ahead of you with the Dallas Cowboys, who
(21:21):
by all accounts are not going to have Ceedee Lamb
available on Sunday, then you're doing yourself a disservice and
you're also letting this thing potentially mushroom. That's what you
have to curb against right now. And the last thing
I'll say really quickly about the Jordan Love topic, because
I know again some fans are really they pick out
that one specific, specific play and again it's a tough situation.
(21:41):
Jordan said afterwards, he's got to see that defender there.
You have to be able to figure these things out.
But at the same time, Jordan Love has played some
really good football so far this season, and you're seeing
more of what he looks like as a quarterback when
he's healthy, using his legs, using his scrambling ability, extend plays,
not just always operating from the pocket, being very being multiple.
And the thing that's impressed me the most is, honestly,
(22:02):
how he's taken charge of the line of scrimmage. Now.
It's not just that a call goes in there and Okay,
this is what we're running. It's that he's trying to
diagnose what the defense has given him and getting green
band potentially the best look, which is what the top
quarterbacks have to do with where the game is headed
and where things are at right now. And the last
thing I'll say in this topic too, depending on whatever
else you want to discuss, the Cleveland Browns made a
(22:24):
lot of plays, and no one ever wants to give
the opponent credit. It's always about, Okay, well, this is
what we did wrong, and this person needs to be
removed and we got to bench this person. Whatever. Harold
Fannon Junior would not be denied when he broke three
tackles to get downfield. Quinn Shawn Judkins, after being repeatedly
stopped at the line of scrimmage, kept his fortitude and
(22:45):
ended up having more than half of his yards on
two carries of his eighteen. You know, Joe Flacco showed
his veteran resolve. There was a lot of injuries on
the offensive line for the Browns too. They stuck together
and defensively, you know, Matt Leffleur said this, as far
as you know, maybe the over look the pieces around
Miles Garrett. Honestly, I really don't think they did. I
think that's him showing respect to the Browns and how
(23:07):
deep they are with their defense. Green Bay knew across
the line and throughout that secondary what they were getting
in the number one ranked defense, and as I wrote
an Insider Inbox, that defense is going to keep the
Browns in a lot of games this year. Yes, hopefully
they do it this Sunday against the Detroit Lions. But
the fact is is sometimes you do have to tip
your cap to the opponent. Last thing I'll say, because
(23:28):
someone said an insider Inbox again, well why didn't Jordan
Love do to Cleveland what Patrick Mahomes single handedly did
against the Giants while not recognizing the Giants respectfully have
the thirty first ranked total defense right now and Cleveland
might have given up as many yards in one game
(23:48):
as the Giants, haven't you know, or the Giants may
have given up more yards in one game than the
Browns having three. I mean, it's just it's remarkable. Sometimes
you have to keep perspective on things. The Packers caught
Cleveland at a tough time. They got Judkins back, that
was their offense, and it did just enough to get
the win.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
It was.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
It was a tough day for the Packers offensive line,
with the false starts, with the pass protection, with the injuries,
which we'll get to in a minute. Jordan Love had
a couple a handful whatever you want to call it,
of rough plays, but good defenses are going to do
that to you and h And unfortunately, the Packers' worst
mistakes were at crunch time, and and when you make
(24:29):
your worst mistakes at crunch time, you have no time
to make up for them. And they almost did, but
then the special team's mistake with the block field goal
ends up preventing you from from escaping and and getting
out of Cleveland with with a narrow victory.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
So yeah, and the other thing is too with Jordan.
I think that's probably the hardest thing for me to
swallow about this is in a lot of ways, I
thought he actually was pitching kind of a perfect game.
He's dealing with a banged up offensive line, he's not
making mistakes, he's playing clean football. Then it's almost like
he walked the batter and then he gave up the
home run to not only lose the perfect the no hitter,
but the perfect game, but then the no hitter right
(25:05):
with the interception, because it tilted everything back in Cleveland's favor.
And I don't know if I've ever covered a game. Mic.
You have a few more seasons ONMBI, but I don't
know if I've ever covered a game where it was
so obvious what had to happen for the Packers to win,
and then for the scenario to play out in which
they lost the game by those means. And it's not
that the Packers didn't realize it. It's that they fought
(25:26):
a really difficult opponent and the Browns just made plays
when they had to and showed a lot of resolve
for an oher and two football team.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, I would agree. There a couple of the topics
I want to get to, but we do need to
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(26:17):
Hey Packers fans, we always knew Lambeufield was a wonder
but now it's official. Learn more about all the wonders
of Wisconsin at Travel Wisconsin dot com Slash Wonders. Welcome
back to Packers Unscripted West. We do need to update
things with regard to injuries. So Zach Tom he bowed
out of the game after one play. Unfortunately, was not
(26:40):
able to go when he thought he would be able
to dealing with that oblique injury. The bad news is
it was the decision to play him. Matt Lafleur himself
regretted it the way it turned out that he really
wasn't up to playing and the Packers had to make
adjustments immediately because of that. The good news is it
(27:02):
doesn't sound like he did anything worse or did any
additional damage as far as as far as the injury
is concerned. But where that leaves him as far as
his status for this week, with the bye week coming
up and all that, we'll just have to see how
that shakes out. Left guard Aaron Banks also left the
game at halftime with a groin injury, which Lafleur indicated
(27:24):
was not the same injury, the same one yeah with previously,
so so that is certainly concerning. And then Javon Bullard
is in the concussion protocol a very I guess you'd
say hard helmet contact there in the fourth quarter of
that game. Fortunately, after Bullard was down for a while,
(27:47):
he got up, he was able to walk off the
field under his own power and everything, so that was
good to see. But he is in the concussion protocol.
At this point, you mentioned Tucker Kraft, It sounds like
he came out of the game no worse for where
which is good.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Yeah, and there's the paper of records. Since the last
time we shot this, Tuckercraft suffered a knee injury in practice,
was questionable for the game and then ends up starting.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
A game that happened after our second show last week.
I forgot all about it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
So Packers have a major injury scare. He's questionable and
then ends up paying eighty eight percent of the offensive
snaps and it sounds like came out of the game good,
So kudos A Tucker.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Craft came out of the game okay. And then DeVante Wyatt,
whose injury I'm not sure what it is. It hasn't
been specified. Apparently he left very late in the game
on Sunday, but Matt Leffler said that he is day
to day, so nothing of nothing of any long term
concern there. You mentioned it quite a bit earlier. Everybody
else in the NFC North one over the weekend. So
(28:46):
the standings right now in the division, Packers, Lions, and
Vikings are all two and one. The Chicago Bears are
one and two. Minnesota gets a romp of a victory
with Carson Wentz stepping in for JJ McCarthy. The Detroit
Lions maybe across the board in the NFL as far
(29:07):
as the first three weeks are concerned, the Lions might
have posted the most single impressive victory in the NFL
so far with going into Baltimore on a Monday night.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Six seven, six seven.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I got some thoughts on that, going into Baltimore on
a Monday night, rushing for over two hundred yards, sacking
Lamar Jackson seven times, yep, and putting up thirty eight points.
The thirty eight to thirty final score does not really
indicate how much Detroit took command of this game in
the fourth court and really put the Ravens away. Just
(29:41):
a really impressive performance by Detroit. That is a team
that I mean, They've now scored what would that be,
ninety points in two games since the Packers defense gave
them all they could handle in Week one here at
lambeau Field. So plenty to watch moving forward there. And
then yeah, the Bears get off the schneid benjam And
gets his first win as a head coach. They take
(30:02):
it to the Dallas Cowboys. We'll talk about this more
on our next show, but the Cowboys are going to
take the field Sunday night against Green Bay with something
to prove, because they walked out of Chicago like wondering
what in the world hit.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Them in Banga. Frankly, yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting
to see what happens this week. We already got what
was the Trebon Diggs I think is also banged up
for them.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
And Booker on the offensive Booker was on the offensive line,
is also going to be out in this game.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
And we don't know where things are at with Kenny
Kenny Clark as the ankle injury coming out of that,
There's really been no update on there. In addition to
the fact that, as I mentioned early on, Ceedee Lamb
not gonna be playing this game because of a high
ankle spraint. Okay, time for Wes's litany of thoughts. First
and foremost, I need the Cleveland Browns from last week
to show up against the Detroit Lions. Okay, this weekend.
(30:48):
I need whatever the heck that was that the Baltimore
Ravens put on the field. I need that to show
up in December against Green Bay. The Baltimore Ravens defense
is not the Baltimore Ravens defense anymore. That was embarrassing.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
They just collapsed at fourth quarter, they completely fell apart defensively.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
I never have seen anything. I think the Ravens are
they dead last now in rankings for total defense? Yeah
they are. If you had ever told me there was
a day that the Baltimore Ravens four hundred and nine
point five yards allowed and they played Cleveland, they played Cleveland.
My goodness, if they played any other team other than
the Browns right now, what that could potentially be? So
(31:26):
and then there's these fumbling issues now with Derek Henry.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
I mean, Derek Henry can't hang out of the ball,
Lamar Jackson taking taking way too many sacks and the bolt.
I mean, it just it boggles my mind that a
John harbaughd defense just gave up over two hundred yards
rushing in a game. I'm completely flabbergasted.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Oh and by the way, not that this matters. No
one cares except for me, David Montgomery. That last touchdown, yep,
caused me to lose my fantasy football game. So thank
you Baltimore defense. Yeah, it is what that's a different
topic for a different day. But yeah, I mean the
NFC north Man, I think I said it right after
the Packers beat the Lions that's a big win because
(32:09):
you don't know how many teams are going to beat
the Lions the season, so you got to take care
of business when you're the team playing them. I absolutely
love this ongoing storyline though, with the fact that whoever
the Minnesota Vikings trot out there at quarterback, Kevin O'Connell
and that person make it work. And now, mind you,
there's a lot of things going on in Cincinnati. There's
a lot of issues right now on that team on
(32:30):
both sides of the ball. But Carson Wentz is a
guy that time and time again has been left for
dead by this league. For him to come in almost
in a Molik Willis type role, this guy was not
here during the offseason. He was not planning to be
their number two quarterback to JJ McCarthy, and for him
to play as well as he did, you salute him
for that. In Caleb Williams, in Romadunza, Luther Burden, they
(32:54):
got something there. I'm curious how much of that is
the Bears and how much of it is Dallas Is
and really the doldrums of their defense right now.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Yeah, that defense is struggling, but.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You gotta beat the team that's in front of you.
And what did I tell you last week when I
said there was a must win game? I felt like
that Bears game was a must win game for Chicago
and Ben Johnson and they responded.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, last thing before we go. There are a handful
of three and oh teams right now in the NFL.
In the NFC, it's the San Francisco forty nine Ers,
it's the Philadelphia Eagles. And I feel like I'm forgetting
one other one in the NFC, who's three and oh
Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yes, so the Buccaneers have
won all three games in the final minute, which is
(33:37):
kind of hard to believe, but they are three and oh.
And then in the AFC you have the Buffalo Bills
and again somebody I'm forgetting.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Very easy to forget just based on the same Indianapolis
Colts and the Chargers and the But I mean the Colts.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Are three and oh. See I didn't write them down
before I came in here.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
Shane Strike, and I mean what they've done there with
Daniel Jones.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
My question to you, is there a three and oh
team amongst that half dozen or whatever the number is,
that's three and oh across the league. That is the
most impressive to you right now?
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Oh, it's definitely Philly, but I gotta look here, sorry,
has the buccaneer? Oh yeah, the Buccaneers beating the team
that has a win. Yet they did they beat Atlanta
because I mean, the Buccaneers are kind of beating up
on the teams that are really struggling right now. But hey,
you gotta win the games. I mean, Houston's oh to three,
(34:28):
and obviously, yeah, Atlanta's one and two. So they beat
a team that has a win, So that's cool. But yeah,
I mean, the fact of the matter is Jim Harbaugh
has the mightiest touch and it seems like he's unlocked
justin Herbert, And I'm excited to watch the Chargers this season,
especially since the r Realers and he cross over there
with Green Bay. It's gonna fun to watch them. But
(34:49):
Philly does what Philly does, and they're so darn athletic
on the defensive side of the ball.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
They're down twenty six to seven ad home to the Rams,
and they came all the way back and won that
game and then sunctuated it with a blocked field goal
return for a touchdown. A field goal that would have
given the Rams the victory, and it just ended up
giving Philly a larger margin of victory with the touchdown
at the end.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
I got to do something I never do on this
show because it is your show. We all know that.
I am told and reminded by our digital apartment, Jen
Stone or Jen Ward, Bryan, Lauren Stone Anderson and Nicole
tim that this is your show and it's not my show.
But what I'll say is this the Packers, We're going
(35:35):
to move it forward here. We talked a lot about
where they came up short last week. I want to
just say a couple things. In addition to the fact
that Shaun Gary had two more sacks and I think
might be in the league lead four and a half
reasons for hope for the Green Bay Packers. Okay, fans,
are you ready for this? After Week three? Third right
now in total yards two hundred and thirty two point
(35:55):
three yards per game, Third against the run sixty four
point three yards. They gave up fifty two to Judkins
in two plays. Could you imagine if they would have
held that down too? Passing yards there? Seventh with one
sixty eight, But they're first in the league. In passing
yards per play, which I actually think is the more
important stat because it doesn't take into account all the
(36:17):
garbage time. Hey, you're playing back in zone four point
three to one yards per play. You have to do better.
Obviously with the takeaways. They're looking at that right now,
fourteen point seven points allowed per game, Michael, that is
the best in the National Football League. And I could
go on and on and on as far as where
Green Bay is at right now and things to like,
(36:37):
pretty much in the top ten for red zone, third downs,
goal to go. Why does that matter? Because the green
Bay Packers have a defense. They got to make fewer mistakes,
They got to clean up these penalties. But my goodness,
they have a defense in this game against the Browns.
Result notwithstanding, it reminded you that there's going to be
a time again this season where they're going to need
(36:57):
to lean on their defense to win a low scoring ballgame.
And if they can stay healthy, they got the guys
to do it.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Yeah, your show have Defense will travel with that. We'll
call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
team continually on Packers dot Com. For west Iimmike, thank
you for tuning in. Everybody, We will see you next time.
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