October 14, 2025 • 31 mins
Mike and Wes review the victory over the Bengals, including RB Josh Jacobs’ standout performance (2:06), QB Jordan Love’s game (4:20), the ups and downs on defense (14:12), and substitute K Lucas Havrisik coming through (18:47). They also glance around the NFC North and the league after Week 6 (26:29).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
by my trusted colleague West Hodkoitz. We're coming to you
Hear from our studios at Lambeufield to talk about the
Packers twenty seven to eighteen victory on Sunday over the
Cincinnati Bengals at Lambeufield West. And we'll get into the
(00:27):
good and the not so good and everything from this win.
But I just want to start by saying this. When
you see that the Philadelphia Eagles have suddenly lost two
games in a row, the Buffalo Bills have suddenly lost
two games in a row, and the Detroit Lions went
on the road against a team that had been struggling,
although of course that is the Kansas City Chiefs, but
they lose by two touchdowns. You take your victories and
(00:51):
be happy with them and walk away and just get
back to work. That's where this Packers team is right now.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Just win baby. Al Davis had it right all those years.
I don't know, Mike, you are not huge on the
social media thing, and honestly that's probably smart on you.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
But there were some pretty cool graphics out there. There
are four teams in the National Football League left with
one loss, and the Green Bay Packers happened to be
one of them. When you look at the totality of
a season, wherever this thing goes for Green Bay, I
will always go back to that locker room, the visiting
locker room at AT and T Stadium, when Brandon McManus
was addressing the media and he said to all of us,
(01:26):
you know, we don't know a tie, if it'll be
a good thing or bad thing, how it'll all work
out in the end. But the fact is is if
the Packers leverage it properly, it can give them an
advantage in some of these tiebreakers. Look at the NFC
North right now. The Packers stand on top of it
at three to one and one. Where they take this thing.
We got a lot of games coming up, got two
back to back road games coming up. The Packers need
to get a win on the road here, preferably this week.
(01:49):
But if you don't take care of business at home,
it's going to be a really hard way to get
to the playoffs, get to a good seating. And the
green Bay Packers wasn't the prettiest football game you and
I have had watched, but they got the job done.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
It was definitely a flawed victory. But I think the
discussion of this one, at least for me, it starts
with the performance by Josh Jacobs, because not only did
Josh Jacobs look like the twenty twenty four Josh Jacobs
in terms of being kind of the heartbeat of the
Packers offense in this game, he you know, he racks
up one hundred and fifty yards from scrimmage, gets nearly
(02:23):
a hundred of it rushing, gets the rest of it
receiving rushes for two touchdowns. But then we find out
after the game he's dealing with a little bit of
the stomach flew like he wasn't even feeling all that great,
and yet you would not have known that at all
by what we saw out on the field on Sunday,
and I it was nice to see after the struggles
(02:46):
the Packers have had running the ball early in the season,
we definitely saw the running games start to come to
life in the second half in Dallas, and it felt like,
as I said, this looked like Josh Jacobs as the
as the true catalyst of the Packers offense the way
he was last year, I think that bodes well moving forward.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, absolutely, Michael, And I'll be honest with you, I
don't feel that great today. I'm a little bit under
the weather. But all I could think about this morning.
I don't think I'm sick. You don't worry about that.
But I barely slept last night, and all I could
keep thinking about this morning was God, how the heck
did Josh Jacobs touch the ball twenty three times or whatever?
It was feeling the way he was feeling. And I
(03:24):
don't know if you caught the micd up. Fortunately we
were spared of any involuntary reactions that he might have
had but playing in that football game. But the fact
that he was able to laugh through a lot of
it and keep a positive disposition to the point that
Matt Lafuler wasn't even really aware of just how much
he was hurting in that game, I think obviously speaks
to the type of man that Josh Jacobs is and
(03:44):
also the type of football player he is. He wants
that ball in his hand and the Green Bay Packers.
You and I said it last week on Unscripted, We
said it on the forty eight other videos that you
and I do. The Packers to win games consistently need
Josh Jacobs to be the one kind of steering this thing.
Jordan Love played exceptionally well. Matt Lafleur called it one
of his best games as a Packer starting quarterback. But
(04:06):
I felt like the offense moved up a tick once
Josh Shacobs got going, and particularly in the second half. Yeah,
and when Green Bay needed a response, they turned to
their Pro Bowl running back and he produced in spades.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah. The frustrating thing, the only frustrating thing really offensively
in this game for the Packers was that you went
into halftime with two hundred and forty total yards on
the board. You're on pace for, you know, approaching a
five hundred yard offensive day, but it's only ten to
nothing at the half because the Packers just left too
many points out there on the board in the first half.
(04:38):
One of the biggest reasons was kind of the one
bad play that Jordan Love had, which is I wrote
about in my Rapid Reaction piece that this one bad
play that seems to happen each game is what Jordan
Love needs to get rid of. He knows that everybody
knows that. I think he's going to get there at
some point. But he, you know, tried to force a
(04:59):
ball on a third down scramble play with the Packers
in field goal range. Obviously, it's just throw it away,
kick the field goal, get on the board, three nothing,
get on with the game. It's the opening drive of
the game. You don't need to be a hero in
that moment. That being said, then he comes back at
the end of the game with the game on the line,
(05:20):
third and eight, the Bengals are within six points. You
can't give the ball back to Cincinnati at that point,
and he and Matthew Golden connect on a thirty one
yard absolutely clutch throw and catch and route adjustment by
Golden and all of that. So we're seeing we're seeing,
you know, the sublime along with the ridiculous in some
(05:41):
senses with Jordan Love and when. But what I mean
by that is the the there's so much good that
he's doing, and he's just so close to eliminating that
one play that is going to elevate him statistically and
elevate this Packers offense even further. And I think he's
he's just he's getting there. We just have to wait
(06:02):
for him to get there.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Absent of those three plays, the two interceptions in the
fumble in Dallas, if you take those away, and obviously
it's the old dumbk first thing, it changes everything. If
you take away the bad place, they all count, but
this guy's play. What it's taking away from right now
is the fact that Jordan loves playing like an MVP. Yeah,
that is the way he has performed. When you talk
about your one last look column last week with the
(06:23):
third down productivity with the offense. Right now, when you
talk about the way that he's closed out these games
when the defense has been relinquishing some yards, Jordan Love
has been the rock that this team has needed, and
it's just been that one bug on the windshield that's
sort of been getting interrupted to this thing. But again,
the thing that's so impressive about it, Mike, is that
(06:44):
whether it was Cleveland, Dallas or what happened against Sin
s Eddie, every single time he responded yeah, he didn't
sink into a shell. He didn't change the way he
played necessarily. He still kept the offense driving forward. And
the beautiful thing about it, when you actually look at it,
is Christian Watson isn't back yet. Jaden Reid is gone.
He's developed the chemistry now with Matthew Golden to make
(07:06):
him a go to target. We've seen a resurgence here
from Romeo Dobbs in being that I would almost call
him like the Amen Ross Saint Brown of this Packers offense,
where it's like when you need a play, when you
need a first down, or as we saw a couple
weeks ago, when you need a touchdown, this is the
guy that you turned to Tucker Kraft the twenty four
(07:26):
yard pass in the scene, Mike I wrote an insider Inbox,
I felt like that was one of Tucker's best plays
of the season because it showed the new dimension to
his game that we've been talking about this season. Yeah,
Jordan Love is utilizing all of his perimeter playmakers and
that is the most exciting thing. But as you said,
you have to take away that big play because that's
ultimately what's taking points off the board in Cleveland, obviously
(07:48):
led to a big swing in Dallas and temporarily sidetracked
this offense against Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, and as much as we're going to wait for
Jordan Love to get rid of that one bad play,
his best attribute and I included this in my rapid
reaction column as well, and you just alluded to it.
His best attribute is that he can flush it and
move on with the best of them. He does not
let a bad play, a bad moment bother him in
the slightest because if he did, there's no way The
(08:16):
Packers score on five consecutive drives in Dallas when they're
trailing and when they need points. In this particular game,
the Cincinnati Bengals in the second half go touchdown, field goal, touchdown.
They pull within one score three consecutive times. But what
do we talk about on this show, Wes when a
team is making a comeback, don't let them get the
(08:38):
ball back again only down one score. And Jordan Love
made sure that didn't happen, because every time the Bengals
got within one score, the Packers offense went down the
field and got points of their own and re established
a two score lead. And Joe Flacco and a Bengals
offense that was getting rolling never got the ball back
only down one score. The offense's ability to receive spawn
(09:01):
in big moments the last two games. And I would
even throw in the Cleveland game because they did get
in field goal range to win the game, and then
the kick was blocked. Of course, the offense's ability to
respond in crunch time is kind of becoming the identity
of this of this offense right now, and that's a
pretty good place to be because because there's a lot
(09:25):
that can go on in the first forty five to
fifty to fifty two minutes of a ballgame, you get
into the back half of the fourth quarter and you've
got to get something done. Right now, this Packers offense
is proving it can do that. Now, it's not going
to necessarily be able to do that every single game,
but you got to feel good about their crunch time
performance on that side of the ball right now.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
You can't live in third and long, but you can
survive there, and that's one thing Green Bay's done in
this early part of the season. You hope at some
point you're going to be seeing more third and mediums,
You're going to be seeing more third and shorts, and
the Packers will be able to capitalize on that and
Jordan Lo will be able to do some of the
magic that we've seen so far. But not only for
Love to be coming up in those moments. But for
the offense to be in sync when they desperately need
(10:05):
to be, I think bodes well. We've almost been scared
to say the drop word, right, because that was something
that really plagued them last year.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
No.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Packers' hands through the first six weeks, through the first
five games have been exceptional, some of the best in
the National Football League. Dantavian Wicks was dealing with kind
of an ankle injury, so he was out at the
end of this one a little bit. But the fact
that Wis has flushed what happened last year and forward,
the fact that Dobbs has kind of reassessed himself and
become a go to guy again. The Packers are doing
(10:33):
a lot of good things offensively, and it's allowed them
to kind of get through these early hiccups. But for
me to throw these stats at you really quickly, Michael,
I mean, you're looking right now at a Packers offense
that right now number one in the league and third
down offense fifty two point three percent. They are seventh
in fourth down offense, they are third in red zone offense,
and they are eighth in goal to go. It's a
(10:54):
ninth ranked offense there's a lot of room for growth,
but in the key areas, in those situational moments where
you need to be at your best. Matt Lafloor Jordan Love.
These guys have made it work, and that gives me
hope that if they can find that true identity, that
the identity I think they want to be, not just
a scrappy team, but an explosive team that's hidden behind
(11:17):
all this.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah, and one other thing I want to touch on
on offense, and we will shift gears to the other
side of the ball. Rookie receiver Matthew Golden. We saw
him make a thirty five yard catch down field. I
already mentioned the thirty one yard catch on the clutch
third and eight late in the fourth quarter when the
Packers absolutely had to have it. We also saw early
in the game he was getting the ball in his
(11:38):
hands and I guess a little bit more creative ways
that ended up counting as rushing attempts. Statistically, everybody's asking,
you know, okay, so you know how much more are
they going to get Matthew Golden the ball and everything?
And I'm not trying to I'm not trying to dump
on everybody's like fantasy football hopes and whatever here. But folks,
(12:02):
it's like, as soon as you know, as soon as
Matthew Golden gets his first hundred yard game or whatever,
which is coming at some point, then the next question
is gonna be, well, how come Tucker Craft only got
two targets? I mean, understand what this offense is about.
If Matthew Golden is putting up eighty some yards on
the five touches and whatever, that you know that he
gets enjoy it. This is a young guy who's barely
(12:24):
starting his career and he's on an offense that has
Romeo Dobbs and has Tucker Craft and has Josh Jacobs.
I mean, you don't get to run one hundred plays
in an NFL game. You get to run about sixty
sixty five, you know. I mean, so anyway, I'm enjoying
watching Matthew Golden come into his own and I still,
even as we are here in the middle of October,
(12:46):
there is so much more out there for Matthew Golden
that I think we're you know, we're going to see
an even better and more polished player when we get
to the middle of December and this regular season hits
the stretch.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I was in the scrum after the game with Golden
and when that question started getting asked about he doesn't
have a touchdown yet, And to be honest with you,
and you don't play fantasy football at all, I barely play.
At this point, it didn't even equate in my mind
that he hadn't had a receiving touch yet.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I hadn't even thought about it.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
He just won the Packers the football game. You don't
know what happens there, if that's an incomplete pass, if
he drops it, if Love doesn't make that play that
Cincinnati was in position to answer. And you've been in
the same spot you were in Dallas where both teams
are kind of in the shootout, and especially with the
way that Flacco was playing, the way he was getting
the ball out, the way things were trending for the defense,
they needed a response there. Matthew gold did it. And
(13:39):
I'm going to tell you, if this kid can stay healthy,
he's gonna have a lot of touchdowns, he's gonna have
a lot of catches, and they're gonna find a lot
of ways to utilize him. And when you use a
guy or when you draft a guy in the first round.
That's exactly what you're hoping to add to your team.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, And I just I would just ask people to
not get so fixated on statistics. And I understand we're
in a fantasy football era. Don't get so hung up
on statistics and just enjoy what you're watching out there.
This is an impressive, impressive young player who's only going
to continue to get better. We do need to talk
about the defensive side of the ball, though, because it
(14:13):
is disconcerting that for the second game in a row
with a bye week in between, that things started to
snowball the wrong way on the Packers defense and the
unit couldn't seem to right the ship. In the Dallas game,
it was at the end of the first half when
the Cowboys put together that ninety five yard drive, and
(14:35):
then in the second half the Cowboys couldn't be stopped
until the overtime when they got the stop inside the
five yard line. In this game, the Packers absolutely dominated
the Cincinnati Bengals in the first half, Joe Flacco taking
over at quarterback just a few days before when he
comes in Cincinnati via the trade, and at halftime, the
(14:58):
Bengals have sixty five yards in four first downs. You
can't dominate an NFL offense much better than that. But
the Bengals came out in the second half. They put
they got the second half kickoff, put together a monster drive,
seventeen plays, ten minutes and fourteen seconds off the clock,
and as I talked about before, because the score was
only ten to nothing because the Packers had left some
(15:18):
points on the board in the first half, the Bengals
get that touchdown and suddenly it's a ten to seven game.
The Packers offense answered the bell every time they had to,
but the Packers' defense didn't show the resiliency that you
need to show, and that this defense is certainly capable
(15:39):
of showing, because suddenly, you know, Flacco got hot, Jamar
Chase got hot, and the Packers didn't seem to have
an answer for it. And quite frankly, you listen to
Matt Lafleur's press conference on Monday, they're searching for the
answers as to what it is that has that has
allowed for these second half struggles to to be such
(16:01):
a concern.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
A couple things first and foremost, I thought this game,
in particular was the moment where Green Bay desperately needed
to take away. I understand you can't force them. I mean,
to a certain extent you can. But you can't force
Joe Flacco to throw in an interception. YadA, YadA, YadA,
and Flacco played the same exact game he played against
them in Cleveland, except his weapons. In this game, he
(16:22):
traded in a better run game in Cleveland for a
much better passing offense. No doubt for Cincinnati, and Jamar
Chase is outer worldly. No disrespect to t Higgins, He's
a fine receiver. Jamar Chase is him. This guy I
wrote an insider Inbox. You throw the ball in his
area code, He's going to go find it. And he
has that rare intangibility. And this is what I also
(16:44):
said about Matthew Golden. You could see it on the
thirty five yard catch he had. When the ball is
thrown to him, it doesn't feel like a fifty to
fifty ball. It doesn't matter if the defender is there.
It feels like he's going to catch it. He did
it on the nineteen yarder the touchdown. He also did
it earlier in the game as well.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And he does it he does a guy like Chase
and we're seeing a little bit of it from Golden
That thirty five yard or down the sideline was a
good example. They do it in a way that just
looks casual when it's a tough play to make, but
they make it look easy. They make it look casual.
They sort of it's sort of like lulling your defender
to sleep in a way that they don't really know
(17:18):
the ball is there, and then suddenly, boom, the receivers
got his hands on it, and you're like, wow, what
a play. And Javar Chase made that play at the
pylon on the fourth and five from the nineteen yard line.
That was the one that had all of us in
the stadium, in the press box everywhere, we were just like,
holy cow, like what a play. Yeah, silence, But by
the same token, that's the type of play. That's the
(17:39):
play that the Packers have to break up. That's the
play you gotta make. It's just like the George Pickens
ball down the left sideline late in the first half
in Dallas, where the Packers look like they have two
guys that are in pretty darn good position to make
the play, but neither one of them makes it. The
receiver makes the play and all of a sudden, you know,
and it's like, those are the plays that are the
(18:00):
difference between X number of points on the board versus
a different number of points on the board at the
end of the day, and all this discussion about what's
wrong with the defense.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Bizarrely, and I'm gonna just flat out call it bizarrely,
the Bengals did not have a play of over twenty
yards in this game. Yeah, the Packers had six, and
all four of the longest plays that Cincinnati mustard all
came in the fourth quarter. For me, I think the
alarming part about it was and this is and I
think this goes back to the self scouting and figure
out what Green Bay needs to do is Jeff Hafley's
(18:32):
defense is very proficient at not giving up the explosive play.
It's why they're ranked right now fourth in the NFL
in total defense. Yep, and right now because of this
game and the way that Cincinnati approaches their rushing offense,
the Packers now have the best run defense in the
NFL seventy three yards allowed per game. But it's almost
like not that you want to give up an explosive play,
but it's just it's almost like the dinking and dunking
(18:55):
element is almost I don't know how you interrupted, and
I'm and it's what Matt Lefloor and Jeff Haffley are
trying to figure out. Because Mike had Parson said it
on Thursday, they knew exactly what Joe Flako was going
to give them. It was gonna be checkdowns over the middle,
and it was gonna be out roads and that's pretty
much what he did. And as Lafleur said, I think
it was somewhere around two point five and under. Every
(19:15):
time the ball was out, he played on time and
a forty year old quarterback that is very confident in
the type of player he is at his age. It
won It's gonna keep Cincinnati in a lot of games
this year, and maybe it's enough to get Joe Burrow
back and still be an earshot of the playoffs. But
it's also something Greenbay has to look at because it
happened with Dak and it happened with Flacco. And I assume, well,
(19:37):
we'll see if Kyler Murray's up, but you have to
think in two weeks Aaron Rodgers is gonna be taken
notice of that as well.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, it's it's it's this cat and mouse game that
that opposing offenses are winning right now against against the
Packers and Jeff Hafley's defense, because they're getting they're they're
doing the quick game, the quick passes, getting the ball
out so the as rush can't get there. The answer
to that, the answer to that is not necessarily to
(20:06):
try to blitz, because if the ball is coming out
so quickly, you know, then you're just compromising the coverage.
Right the times that the Packers have blitzed, I mean
you could see I want to say I saw it
two times for sure, and maybe three. You could see
it was an automatic it was an automatic read by
Joe Flacco that when the Packers did blitz, it was
(20:27):
the backside slant. Yep, Like that's just that's where that's
where the ball, that's where the ball was going. So
but with all with all of this stuff, the quick game,
the backside slant against the blitz, these are these are
the things that the Packers are seeing. Now, Okay, this
is how teams are counteracting the things that we're going
to do. So now, Jeff Hafley and Matt Lafleur, they've
(20:47):
got to come up with Green Bay's counters, and when
you can, when you cannot give up the explosive play,
your defense is always going to be in good shape.
And I do think we're talking about a completely different
defensive performance. Really, if Jamar Chase doesn't make the incredible
catch on fourth and five at the pylon to give
them the extra eight points, if Cincinnati's walking out a
(21:11):
Lambeoufield with only ten points on the board because that
fourth down play gets broken up, or that fourth down
kind of a desperation throw quite frankly by Joe Flacco,
if that play doesn't work, the Bengals are leaving Lambeoufield
with ten points, and we're talking about a pretty good
day from the Packers defense. Again, So there's a lot
that's troublesome, But yet it's not like there's this huge gap,
(21:32):
I guess, is what I'm trying to say, between the
Packers being the defense they want to be and getting
those results.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
We need to move the show along because we ran
into some issues at the beginning and we have a
construction schedule to get to. But it's probably the first
time I've ever done this. When we come back on Thursday,
I want to open up discuss this a little further,
because I have some thoughts on in a couple of
reasons that I had my Keys to victory last week
that I'm curious to play out defensively for green Bay
(22:01):
now going into this game against Arizona. But we'll get
to that because one we got sponsorship business, but we
also got to talk about lukecas Halfsik. But defensively, I
think there's a lot of layers to that onion that
are worth unpacking.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, all right, well, we do need to pay some
bills around here, so let's turn it over right now
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(22:58):
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Learn more about all the Wonders of Wisconsin at travel
Wisconsin dot com slash Wonders. Welcome back to Packers unscripted.
You brought up his name, Wes Kicker. Lucas Haversix signed
on Saturday as an emergency option in case Brandon McManus
(23:18):
can't go on Sunday, and I guess I'll say it
this way. It sort of felt like Brandon McManus could
have gone on Sunday, but because it was only the
fifth game of the season and the Packers have already
had their bye week, they chose the high side of
caution here. With so many games left to go that
(23:38):
they don't want this quad injury of McManus's to become
like this season long thing to have to deal with.
They want to get on top of this, They want
to get rid of it. So Haversek got the call
and the young man came through.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
He did, I'm just to mention too, Brandon McManus. I
actually watched him a little bit during his warm up
down on the field and Lafleur had said too, he
was kicked, and well McMahon said, yeah, I mean he
was drilling fifty yarders, but there was still an element
of pain in the follow through and that's kind of
what the Packers wanted to shield against. So again, we'll
see what the weak calls for Brandon, because obviously he's
a big part of this team. They extended him for
(24:11):
a reason. You want to have him healthy. But for
Lucas haversek in this wild, wild specialist world, we hear
the stories all the time. Whether it's kickers, punters, long snappers,
these guys have to do very bizarre things at times
to try keeping their careers afloat or try to find
an opportunity. As haversc said afterwards, there's only thirty two
of these jobs in the NFL, so he had a
shot at it back in twenty three. His second NFL
(24:33):
game was actually at Lambeau Field with the Los Angeles Rams,
But since then he's bounced around a lot. Last year
he kicked for the Arlington Renegades in the UFL. He's
trying to find a way to keep this thing going,
he said. He's picked up some substitute teaching jobs. Somebody
in our Insider Inbox columns said they actually worked with
them at.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
A school down in Arizona, Arizona.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
He was an undrafted rookie. He went to Arizona University
of Arizona and graduated in twenty twenty two. Ye now
he's been living in Cleveland and he's been doing the circuit.
He said he thought about getting a substitute teaching job again,
but he had it work out two weeks ago in
New York. He had a workout last Tuesday in Indianapolis,
and then the Packers called and he came in here
(25:13):
works out. I believe it was on a Thursday. The
Packers signed him on a Saturday, and next thing you know,
he's having to make five huge kicks in a game
in which the Packers really needed those field goals for
him to distill that all down and show that Moxie
I thought spoke volumes about him. And it also is
another lesson and just how that rolodex is so important
and the Packers, regardless if you're on the team or not,
(25:34):
it's particularly at the specialist position. You always got to
keep your vision out there to figure out if there's
a guy that you might need to turn to in
those instances.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, and he came through, with the biggest kick of
the game being the one just after the two minute warning.
The Packers are up by six. They fail on the
third and two, and so they send out Haversick for
a thirty nine yard or two again re establish the
two score lead and in effect put the game away
with less than two minutes to go, not give the
(26:01):
Bengals the ball back with just the six point cushion
and uh and and he drilled it. And it made
him five for five on the day with the two
field goals the three extra points. Pretty uh, pretty darn
good showing. And by the entire field goal operation for
the issues that that the unit has had a good
showing there all.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
In the game. Ball here in the game.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Ball for yeah, good and and well deserved. Good for him,
all right, Wes, We're gonna be talking about this a
lot as the season goes along, so I don't want
to belabor it right now. But three, one on one,
four and two, three and two, three and two. Those
are your four records. In the NFC North, every single
team is above five hundred. Here in the middle of October.
(26:43):
So as I like to say, buckle up, folks, like
this is this is just getting started. Here we go.
This division, this division is not backing down from anybody.
And uh yeah, uh, here we go.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
There's nothing I hate more than watching base when you're
in the Brewers case for down one to nothing. I
don't mean to rub any salt in the wound here, okay,
but I'm just telling you, like honestly, what my viewing
habits were on Monday night. So I don't need to
watch the Brewers try to chase one run late in
the innings. It ended up being very exciting at the end.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
It was a very exciting ending. Unfortunately went the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
But yes, but for that reason, I switched my channel
over to ABC. I watched the end of the Chicago
Washing game. I didn't need to be agitated. I'm a
quitter by natural mindset. And I'm going to tell you
this Packer fans, I don't know because of the burg
game going on, I don't know how many people watch
Chicago Bears game. One very scrappy performance by the Bears,
but two, if you ever again needed another reminder of
(27:41):
how difficult it is to win a game in the
National Football League see the Washington Commanders, because they found
a way to lose that game. And to the Bear's
credit and to Jake Moody's credit, who is their practice
squad kicker, He's already been released from the forty nine
ers because of just being too erratic. He came through
clutch and and Ben Johnson credit to him. I thought
they had some really smart blocking schemes. I thought the
(28:01):
offensive line for the Bears played exceptionally well. Caleb Williams
was very smart with how he handled that final sequence
to put them in scoring position, and the Bears clawed out.
But for the Washington Commanders to fall to three and
three that way, it again shows you for a team
that's that talented and has Super Bowl aspirations this season
with how it's built.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, and they got their quarterback back this game after
he had missed some time.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, and yeah, that's how it goes.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Yeah. Absolutely, And right now, the top team record wise
in the NFC is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at five
and one. They chalked up another win over a previously
previous one loss team in the San Francisco forty nine Ers,
who've been playing with their backup quarterback. The Niners are
now four and two, So I think I saw if
I counted it correctly, and you've got your screen and
(28:46):
you've got your thing called up there, I believe it's
now twelve. Twelve of the sixteen teams in the NFC
are above five hundred right now.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
That's correct? Would you like to well five hundred or better?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Sorry? Yeah, five hundred. So only four teams in the
NFC are below five hundred right now, and with this
much time left to go and only seven playoff spots available,
it is going to be an absolute dogfight the rest.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Of the way. And I mean there was a lot
of extracurriculars that happened with the Kansas City Detroit game. Unfortunately,
what that did with Brian Branch who's now been suspended
for one game because of what happened with Juju Smith
Schuster afterwards, it took away from the spotlight that that
was an excellent win for the Kansas City Chiefs in
a gritty performance by them. Gritty's been my word of
the day, I guess. But Chiefs are team that's had
(29:32):
to claw themselves back into this thing, and they've done
it steadily. And I think you can see the life
sort of reviving around them right now, particularly in the
belief in Patrick Mahomes and what he could do with
the squad this year. A really strong performance from them,
a strong answer, and I felt like that was a
statement game because Detroit was riding high four straight wins
after the loss here in Green Bay, which I'm sure
(29:54):
there's a lot of stuff that they thought about that
you're on the road. They played the Packers tough, some
things didn't go their way, and then the Kansas City
came out here and showed that, you know, there's still
a team to be trifled with.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah, and the other one I'll throw out there too,
because this one, I'll be honest to cut me by surprise,
because I thought the Jacksonville Jaguars, coming off of that
Monday night victory over Kansas City, that okay, here come
the Jaguars, Trevor Lawrence, and nope, they run into this.
They they're hosting the Seattle Seahawks about as long a flight, yeah,
(30:24):
you know, continentale, not internationally, but as long a flight
continentally as anybody has to make. Seattle flying all the
way to Jacksonville, I guess Miami would be further. But
the Seattle Seahawks and Sam Darnold Man, they bounced back
from a tough loss against Tampa Bay the previous week
when they lose right at the wire, and they go
(30:45):
into Jacksonville and post to win, and Seattle's right there
now with everybody at four and two.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Big time performance by the Seahawks, Big time performance by
Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers. Huge performance by the Atlanta Falcons,
who have a really sneaky good defense that gave Buffalo
all kinds of fits. We talk so much about the North,
and the North is going to be a It's going
to be a meat grinder this year, yep. But the
NFC in general is very talented this year and it
(31:12):
is going to be a complete race for those three
wildcard spots, so any win matters. Packers are three to
one and one, one of the four left with one win,
and as we'll preview on Packers Unscripted on Thursday, trying
to pick up another against one of the four teams
that are actually below five hundred in the NFC, the
Arizona Cardinals.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
That's right, and with that we will call it a
rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to
follow all of our coverage of the team on packers
dot com. For Wes, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Everybody.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
We will see an next time.
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always
by my trusted colleague West Hodkoitz. We're coming to you
Hear from our studios at Lambeufield to talk about the
Packers twenty seven to eighteen victory on Sunday over the
Cincinnati Bengals at Lambeufield West. And we'll get into the
(00:27):
good and the not so good and everything from this win.
But I just want to start by saying this. When
you see that the Philadelphia Eagles have suddenly lost two
games in a row, the Buffalo Bills have suddenly lost
two games in a row, and the Detroit Lions went
on the road against a team that had been struggling,
although of course that is the Kansas City Chiefs, but
they lose by two touchdowns. You take your victories and
(00:51):
be happy with them and walk away and just get
back to work. That's where this Packers team is right now.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Just win baby. Al Davis had it right all those years.
I don't know, Mike, you are not huge on the
social media thing, and honestly that's probably smart on you.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
But there were some pretty cool graphics out there. There
are four teams in the National Football League left with
one loss, and the Green Bay Packers happened to be
one of them. When you look at the totality of
a season, wherever this thing goes for Green Bay, I
will always go back to that locker room, the visiting
locker room at AT and T Stadium, when Brandon McManus
was addressing the media and he said to all of us,
(01:26):
you know, we don't know a tie, if it'll be
a good thing or bad thing, how it'll all work
out in the end. But the fact is is if
the Packers leverage it properly, it can give them an
advantage in some of these tiebreakers. Look at the NFC
North right now. The Packers stand on top of it
at three to one and one. Where they take this thing.
We got a lot of games coming up, got two
back to back road games coming up. The Packers need
to get a win on the road here, preferably this week.
(01:49):
But if you don't take care of business at home,
it's going to be a really hard way to get
to the playoffs, get to a good seating. And the
green Bay Packers wasn't the prettiest football game you and
I have had watched, but they got the job done.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
It was definitely a flawed victory. But I think the
discussion of this one, at least for me, it starts
with the performance by Josh Jacobs, because not only did
Josh Jacobs look like the twenty twenty four Josh Jacobs
in terms of being kind of the heartbeat of the
Packers offense in this game, he you know, he racks
up one hundred and fifty yards from scrimmage, gets nearly
(02:23):
a hundred of it rushing, gets the rest of it
receiving rushes for two touchdowns. But then we find out
after the game he's dealing with a little bit of
the stomach flew like he wasn't even feeling all that great,
and yet you would not have known that at all
by what we saw out on the field on Sunday,
and I it was nice to see after the struggles
(02:46):
the Packers have had running the ball early in the season,
we definitely saw the running games start to come to
life in the second half in Dallas, and it felt like,
as I said, this looked like Josh Jacobs as the
as the true catalyst of the Packers offense the way
he was last year, I think that bodes well moving forward.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Yeah, absolutely, Michael, And I'll be honest with you, I
don't feel that great today. I'm a little bit under
the weather. But all I could think about this morning.
I don't think I'm sick. You don't worry about that.
But I barely slept last night, and all I could
keep thinking about this morning was God, how the heck
did Josh Jacobs touch the ball twenty three times or whatever?
It was feeling the way he was feeling. And I
(03:24):
don't know if you caught the micd up. Fortunately we
were spared of any involuntary reactions that he might have
had but playing in that football game. But the fact
that he was able to laugh through a lot of
it and keep a positive disposition to the point that
Matt Lafuler wasn't even really aware of just how much
he was hurting in that game, I think obviously speaks
to the type of man that Josh Jacobs is and
(03:44):
also the type of football player he is. He wants
that ball in his hand and the Green Bay Packers.
You and I said it last week on Unscripted, We
said it on the forty eight other videos that you
and I do. The Packers to win games consistently need
Josh Jacobs to be the one kind of steering this thing.
Jordan Love played exceptionally well. Matt Lafleur called it one
of his best games as a Packer starting quarterback. But
(04:06):
I felt like the offense moved up a tick once
Josh Shacobs got going, and particularly in the second half. Yeah,
and when Green Bay needed a response, they turned to
their Pro Bowl running back and he produced in spades.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah. The frustrating thing, the only frustrating thing really offensively
in this game for the Packers was that you went
into halftime with two hundred and forty total yards on
the board. You're on pace for, you know, approaching a
five hundred yard offensive day, but it's only ten to
nothing at the half because the Packers just left too
many points out there on the board in the first half.
(04:38):
One of the biggest reasons was kind of the one
bad play that Jordan Love had, which is I wrote
about in my Rapid Reaction piece that this one bad
play that seems to happen each game is what Jordan
Love needs to get rid of. He knows that everybody
knows that. I think he's going to get there at
some point. But he, you know, tried to force a
(04:59):
ball on a third down scramble play with the Packers
in field goal range. Obviously, it's just throw it away,
kick the field goal, get on the board, three nothing,
get on with the game. It's the opening drive of
the game. You don't need to be a hero in
that moment. That being said, then he comes back at
the end of the game with the game on the line,
(05:20):
third and eight, the Bengals are within six points. You
can't give the ball back to Cincinnati at that point,
and he and Matthew Golden connect on a thirty one
yard absolutely clutch throw and catch and route adjustment by
Golden and all of that. So we're seeing we're seeing,
you know, the sublime along with the ridiculous in some
(05:41):
senses with Jordan Love and when. But what I mean
by that is the the there's so much good that
he's doing, and he's just so close to eliminating that
one play that is going to elevate him statistically and
elevate this Packers offense even further. And I think he's
he's just he's getting there. We just have to wait
(06:02):
for him to get there.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Absent of those three plays, the two interceptions in the
fumble in Dallas, if you take those away, and obviously
it's the old dumbk first thing, it changes everything. If
you take away the bad place, they all count, but
this guy's play. What it's taking away from right now
is the fact that Jordan loves playing like an MVP. Yeah,
that is the way he has performed. When you talk
about your one last look column last week with the
(06:23):
third down productivity with the offense. Right now, when you
talk about the way that he's closed out these games
when the defense has been relinquishing some yards, Jordan Love
has been the rock that this team has needed, and
it's just been that one bug on the windshield that's
sort of been getting interrupted to this thing. But again,
the thing that's so impressive about it, Mike, is that
(06:44):
whether it was Cleveland, Dallas or what happened against Sin
s Eddie, every single time he responded yeah, he didn't
sink into a shell. He didn't change the way he
played necessarily. He still kept the offense driving forward. And
the beautiful thing about it, when you actually look at it,
is Christian Watson isn't back yet. Jaden Reid is gone.
He's developed the chemistry now with Matthew Golden to make
(07:06):
him a go to target. We've seen a resurgence here
from Romeo Dobbs in being that I would almost call
him like the Amen Ross Saint Brown of this Packers offense,
where it's like when you need a play, when you
need a first down, or as we saw a couple
weeks ago, when you need a touchdown, this is the
guy that you turned to Tucker Kraft the twenty four
(07:26):
yard pass in the scene, Mike I wrote an insider Inbox,
I felt like that was one of Tucker's best plays
of the season because it showed the new dimension to
his game that we've been talking about this season. Yeah,
Jordan Love is utilizing all of his perimeter playmakers and
that is the most exciting thing. But as you said,
you have to take away that big play because that's
ultimately what's taking points off the board in Cleveland, obviously
(07:48):
led to a big swing in Dallas and temporarily sidetracked
this offense against Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, and as much as we're going to wait for
Jordan Love to get rid of that one bad play,
his best attribute and I included this in my rapid
reaction column as well, and you just alluded to it.
His best attribute is that he can flush it and
move on with the best of them. He does not
let a bad play, a bad moment bother him in
the slightest because if he did, there's no way The
(08:16):
Packers score on five consecutive drives in Dallas when they're
trailing and when they need points. In this particular game,
the Cincinnati Bengals in the second half go touchdown, field goal, touchdown.
They pull within one score three consecutive times. But what
do we talk about on this show, Wes when a
team is making a comeback, don't let them get the
(08:38):
ball back again only down one score. And Jordan Love
made sure that didn't happen, because every time the Bengals
got within one score, the Packers offense went down the
field and got points of their own and re established
a two score lead. And Joe Flacco and a Bengals
offense that was getting rolling never got the ball back
only down one score. The offense's ability to receive spawn
(09:01):
in big moments the last two games. And I would
even throw in the Cleveland game because they did get
in field goal range to win the game, and then
the kick was blocked. Of course, the offense's ability to
respond in crunch time is kind of becoming the identity
of this of this offense right now, and that's a
pretty good place to be because because there's a lot
(09:25):
that can go on in the first forty five to
fifty to fifty two minutes of a ballgame, you get
into the back half of the fourth quarter and you've
got to get something done. Right now, this Packers offense
is proving it can do that. Now, it's not going
to necessarily be able to do that every single game,
but you got to feel good about their crunch time
performance on that side of the ball right now.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
You can't live in third and long, but you can
survive there, and that's one thing Green Bay's done in
this early part of the season. You hope at some
point you're going to be seeing more third and mediums,
You're going to be seeing more third and shorts, and
the Packers will be able to capitalize on that and
Jordan Lo will be able to do some of the
magic that we've seen so far. But not only for
Love to be coming up in those moments. But for
the offense to be in sync when they desperately need
(10:05):
to be, I think bodes well. We've almost been scared
to say the drop word, right, because that was something
that really plagued them last year.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
No.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Packers' hands through the first six weeks, through the first
five games have been exceptional, some of the best in
the National Football League. Dantavian Wicks was dealing with kind
of an ankle injury, so he was out at the
end of this one a little bit. But the fact
that Wis has flushed what happened last year and forward,
the fact that Dobbs has kind of reassessed himself and
become a go to guy again. The Packers are doing
(10:33):
a lot of good things offensively, and it's allowed them
to kind of get through these early hiccups. But for
me to throw these stats at you really quickly, Michael,
I mean, you're looking right now at a Packers offense
that right now number one in the league and third
down offense fifty two point three percent. They are seventh
in fourth down offense, they are third in red zone offense,
and they are eighth in goal to go. It's a
(10:54):
ninth ranked offense there's a lot of room for growth,
but in the key areas, in those situational moments where
you need to be at your best. Matt Lafloor Jordan Love.
These guys have made it work, and that gives me
hope that if they can find that true identity, that
the identity I think they want to be, not just
a scrappy team, but an explosive team that's hidden behind
(11:17):
all this.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Yeah, and one other thing I want to touch on
on offense, and we will shift gears to the other
side of the ball. Rookie receiver Matthew Golden. We saw
him make a thirty five yard catch down field. I
already mentioned the thirty one yard catch on the clutch
third and eight late in the fourth quarter when the
Packers absolutely had to have it. We also saw early
in the game he was getting the ball in his
(11:38):
hands and I guess a little bit more creative ways
that ended up counting as rushing attempts. Statistically, everybody's asking,
you know, okay, so you know how much more are
they going to get Matthew Golden the ball and everything?
And I'm not trying to I'm not trying to dump
on everybody's like fantasy football hopes and whatever here. But folks,
(12:02):
it's like, as soon as you know, as soon as
Matthew Golden gets his first hundred yard game or whatever,
which is coming at some point, then the next question
is gonna be, well, how come Tucker Craft only got
two targets? I mean, understand what this offense is about.
If Matthew Golden is putting up eighty some yards on
the five touches and whatever, that you know that he
gets enjoy it. This is a young guy who's barely
(12:24):
starting his career and he's on an offense that has
Romeo Dobbs and has Tucker Craft and has Josh Jacobs.
I mean, you don't get to run one hundred plays
in an NFL game. You get to run about sixty
sixty five, you know. I mean, so anyway, I'm enjoying
watching Matthew Golden come into his own and I still,
even as we are here in the middle of October,
(12:46):
there is so much more out there for Matthew Golden
that I think we're you know, we're going to see
an even better and more polished player when we get
to the middle of December and this regular season hits
the stretch.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I was in the scrum after the game with Golden
and when that question started getting asked about he doesn't
have a touchdown yet, And to be honest with you,
and you don't play fantasy football at all, I barely play.
At this point, it didn't even equate in my mind
that he hadn't had a receiving touch yet.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
I hadn't even thought about it.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
He just won the Packers the football game. You don't
know what happens there, if that's an incomplete pass, if
he drops it, if Love doesn't make that play that
Cincinnati was in position to answer. And you've been in
the same spot you were in Dallas where both teams
are kind of in the shootout, and especially with the
way that Flacco was playing, the way he was getting
the ball out, the way things were trending for the defense,
they needed a response there. Matthew gold did it. And
(13:39):
I'm going to tell you, if this kid can stay healthy,
he's gonna have a lot of touchdowns, he's gonna have
a lot of catches, and they're gonna find a lot
of ways to utilize him. And when you use a
guy or when you draft a guy in the first round.
That's exactly what you're hoping to add to your team.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, And I just I would just ask people to
not get so fixated on statistics. And I understand we're
in a fantasy football era. Don't get so hung up
on statistics and just enjoy what you're watching out there.
This is an impressive, impressive young player who's only going
to continue to get better. We do need to talk
about the defensive side of the ball, though, because it
(14:13):
is disconcerting that for the second game in a row
with a bye week in between, that things started to
snowball the wrong way on the Packers defense and the
unit couldn't seem to right the ship. In the Dallas game,
it was at the end of the first half when
the Cowboys put together that ninety five yard drive, and
(14:35):
then in the second half the Cowboys couldn't be stopped
until the overtime when they got the stop inside the
five yard line. In this game, the Packers absolutely dominated
the Cincinnati Bengals in the first half, Joe Flacco taking
over at quarterback just a few days before when he
comes in Cincinnati via the trade, and at halftime, the
(14:58):
Bengals have sixty five yards in four first downs. You
can't dominate an NFL offense much better than that. But
the Bengals came out in the second half. They put
they got the second half kickoff, put together a monster drive,
seventeen plays, ten minutes and fourteen seconds off the clock,
and as I talked about before, because the score was
only ten to nothing because the Packers had left some
(15:18):
points on the board in the first half, the Bengals
get that touchdown and suddenly it's a ten to seven game.
The Packers offense answered the bell every time they had to,
but the Packers' defense didn't show the resiliency that you
need to show, and that this defense is certainly capable
(15:39):
of showing, because suddenly, you know, Flacco got hot, Jamar
Chase got hot, and the Packers didn't seem to have
an answer for it. And quite frankly, you listen to
Matt Lafleur's press conference on Monday, they're searching for the
answers as to what it is that has that has
allowed for these second half struggles to to be such
(16:01):
a concern.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
A couple things first and foremost, I thought this game,
in particular was the moment where Green Bay desperately needed
to take away. I understand you can't force them. I mean,
to a certain extent you can. But you can't force
Joe Flacco to throw in an interception. YadA, YadA, YadA,
and Flacco played the same exact game he played against
them in Cleveland, except his weapons. In this game, he
(16:22):
traded in a better run game in Cleveland for a
much better passing offense. No doubt for Cincinnati, and Jamar
Chase is outer worldly. No disrespect to t Higgins, He's
a fine receiver. Jamar Chase is him. This guy I
wrote an insider Inbox. You throw the ball in his
area code, He's going to go find it. And he
has that rare intangibility. And this is what I also
(16:44):
said about Matthew Golden. You could see it on the
thirty five yard catch he had. When the ball is
thrown to him, it doesn't feel like a fifty to
fifty ball. It doesn't matter if the defender is there.
It feels like he's going to catch it. He did
it on the nineteen yarder the touchdown. He also did
it earlier in the game as well.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And he does it he does a guy like Chase
and we're seeing a little bit of it from Golden
That thirty five yard or down the sideline was a
good example. They do it in a way that just
looks casual when it's a tough play to make, but
they make it look easy. They make it look casual.
They sort of it's sort of like lulling your defender
to sleep in a way that they don't really know
(17:18):
the ball is there, and then suddenly, boom, the receivers
got his hands on it, and you're like, wow, what
a play. And Javar Chase made that play at the
pylon on the fourth and five from the nineteen yard line.
That was the one that had all of us in
the stadium, in the press box everywhere, we were just like,
holy cow, like what a play. Yeah, silence, But by
the same token, that's the type of play. That's the
(17:39):
play that the Packers have to break up. That's the
play you gotta make. It's just like the George Pickens
ball down the left sideline late in the first half
in Dallas, where the Packers look like they have two
guys that are in pretty darn good position to make
the play, but neither one of them makes it. The
receiver makes the play and all of a sudden, you know,
and it's like, those are the plays that are the
(18:00):
difference between X number of points on the board versus
a different number of points on the board at the
end of the day, and all this discussion about what's
wrong with the defense.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Bizarrely, and I'm gonna just flat out call it bizarrely,
the Bengals did not have a play of over twenty
yards in this game. Yeah, the Packers had six, and
all four of the longest plays that Cincinnati mustard all
came in the fourth quarter. For me, I think the
alarming part about it was and this is and I
think this goes back to the self scouting and figure
out what Green Bay needs to do is Jeff Hafley's
(18:32):
defense is very proficient at not giving up the explosive play.
It's why they're ranked right now fourth in the NFL
in total defense. Yep, and right now because of this
game and the way that Cincinnati approaches their rushing offense,
the Packers now have the best run defense in the
NFL seventy three yards allowed per game. But it's almost
like not that you want to give up an explosive play,
but it's just it's almost like the dinking and dunking
(18:55):
element is almost I don't know how you interrupted, and
I'm and it's what Matt Lefloor and Jeff Haffley are
trying to figure out. Because Mike had Parson said it
on Thursday, they knew exactly what Joe Flako was going
to give them. It was gonna be checkdowns over the middle,
and it was gonna be out roads and that's pretty
much what he did. And as Lafleur said, I think
it was somewhere around two point five and under. Every
(19:15):
time the ball was out, he played on time and
a forty year old quarterback that is very confident in
the type of player he is at his age. It
won It's gonna keep Cincinnati in a lot of games
this year, and maybe it's enough to get Joe Burrow
back and still be an earshot of the playoffs. But
it's also something Greenbay has to look at because it
happened with Dak and it happened with Flacco. And I assume, well,
(19:37):
we'll see if Kyler Murray's up, but you have to
think in two weeks Aaron Rodgers is gonna be taken
notice of that as well.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, it's it's it's this cat and mouse game that
that opposing offenses are winning right now against against the
Packers and Jeff Hafley's defense, because they're getting they're they're
doing the quick game, the quick passes, getting the ball
out so the as rush can't get there. The answer
to that, the answer to that is not necessarily to
(20:06):
try to blitz, because if the ball is coming out
so quickly, you know, then you're just compromising the coverage.
Right the times that the Packers have blitzed, I mean
you could see I want to say I saw it
two times for sure, and maybe three. You could see
it was an automatic it was an automatic read by
Joe Flacco that when the Packers did blitz, it was
(20:27):
the backside slant. Yep, Like that's just that's where that's
where the ball, that's where the ball was going. So
but with all with all of this stuff, the quick game,
the backside slant against the blitz, these are these are
the things that the Packers are seeing. Now, Okay, this
is how teams are counteracting the things that we're going
to do. So now, Jeff Hafley and Matt Lafleur, they've
(20:47):
got to come up with Green Bay's counters, and when
you can, when you cannot give up the explosive play,
your defense is always going to be in good shape.
And I do think we're talking about a completely different
defensive performance. Really, if Jamar Chase doesn't make the incredible
catch on fourth and five at the pylon to give
them the extra eight points, if Cincinnati's walking out a
(21:11):
Lambeoufield with only ten points on the board because that
fourth down play gets broken up, or that fourth down
kind of a desperation throw quite frankly by Joe Flacco,
if that play doesn't work, the Bengals are leaving Lambeoufield
with ten points, and we're talking about a pretty good
day from the Packers defense. Again, So there's a lot
that's troublesome, But yet it's not like there's this huge gap,
(21:32):
I guess, is what I'm trying to say, between the
Packers being the defense they want to be and getting
those results.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
We need to move the show along because we ran
into some issues at the beginning and we have a
construction schedule to get to. But it's probably the first
time I've ever done this. When we come back on Thursday,
I want to open up discuss this a little further,
because I have some thoughts on in a couple of
reasons that I had my Keys to victory last week
that I'm curious to play out defensively for green Bay
(22:01):
now going into this game against Arizona. But we'll get
to that because one we got sponsorship business, but we
also got to talk about lukecas Halfsik. But defensively, I
think there's a lot of layers to that onion that
are worth unpacking.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, all right, well, we do need to pay some
bills around here, so let's turn it over right now
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(22:58):
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Learn more about all the Wonders of Wisconsin at travel
Wisconsin dot com slash Wonders. Welcome back to Packers unscripted.
You brought up his name, Wes Kicker. Lucas Haversix signed
on Saturday as an emergency option in case Brandon McManus
(23:18):
can't go on Sunday, and I guess I'll say it
this way. It sort of felt like Brandon McManus could
have gone on Sunday, but because it was only the
fifth game of the season and the Packers have already
had their bye week, they chose the high side of
caution here. With so many games left to go that
(23:38):
they don't want this quad injury of McManus's to become
like this season long thing to have to deal with.
They want to get on top of this, They want
to get rid of it. So Haversek got the call
and the young man came through.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
He did, I'm just to mention too, Brandon McManus. I
actually watched him a little bit during his warm up
down on the field and Lafleur had said too, he
was kicked, and well McMahon said, yeah, I mean he
was drilling fifty yarders, but there was still an element
of pain in the follow through and that's kind of
what the Packers wanted to shield against. So again, we'll
see what the weak calls for Brandon, because obviously he's
a big part of this team. They extended him for
(24:11):
a reason. You want to have him healthy. But for
Lucas haversek in this wild, wild specialist world, we hear
the stories all the time. Whether it's kickers, punters, long snappers,
these guys have to do very bizarre things at times
to try keeping their careers afloat or try to find
an opportunity. As haversc said afterwards, there's only thirty two
of these jobs in the NFL, so he had a
shot at it back in twenty three. His second NFL
(24:33):
game was actually at Lambeau Field with the Los Angeles Rams,
But since then he's bounced around a lot. Last year
he kicked for the Arlington Renegades in the UFL. He's
trying to find a way to keep this thing going,
he said. He's picked up some substitute teaching jobs. Somebody
in our Insider Inbox columns said they actually worked with
them at.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
A school down in Arizona, Arizona.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
He was an undrafted rookie. He went to Arizona University
of Arizona and graduated in twenty twenty two. Ye now
he's been living in Cleveland and he's been doing the circuit.
He said he thought about getting a substitute teaching job again,
but he had it work out two weeks ago in
New York. He had a workout last Tuesday in Indianapolis,
and then the Packers called and he came in here
(25:13):
works out. I believe it was on a Thursday. The
Packers signed him on a Saturday, and next thing you know,
he's having to make five huge kicks in a game
in which the Packers really needed those field goals for
him to distill that all down and show that Moxie
I thought spoke volumes about him. And it also is
another lesson and just how that rolodex is so important
and the Packers, regardless if you're on the team or not,
(25:34):
it's particularly at the specialist position. You always got to
keep your vision out there to figure out if there's
a guy that you might need to turn to in
those instances.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, and he came through, with the biggest kick of
the game being the one just after the two minute warning.
The Packers are up by six. They fail on the
third and two, and so they send out Haversick for
a thirty nine yard or two again re establish the
two score lead and in effect put the game away
with less than two minutes to go, not give the
(26:01):
Bengals the ball back with just the six point cushion
and uh and and he drilled it. And it made
him five for five on the day with the two
field goals the three extra points. Pretty uh, pretty darn
good showing. And by the entire field goal operation for
the issues that that the unit has had a good
showing there all.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
In the game. Ball here in the game.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Ball for yeah, good and and well deserved. Good for him,
all right, Wes, We're gonna be talking about this a
lot as the season goes along, so I don't want
to belabor it right now. But three, one on one,
four and two, three and two, three and two. Those
are your four records. In the NFC North, every single
team is above five hundred. Here in the middle of October.
(26:43):
So as I like to say, buckle up, folks, like
this is this is just getting started. Here we go.
This division, this division is not backing down from anybody.
And uh yeah, uh, here we go.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
There's nothing I hate more than watching base when you're
in the Brewers case for down one to nothing. I
don't mean to rub any salt in the wound here, okay,
but I'm just telling you, like honestly, what my viewing
habits were on Monday night. So I don't need to
watch the Brewers try to chase one run late in
the innings. It ended up being very exciting at the end.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
It was a very exciting ending. Unfortunately went the wrong way.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
But yes, but for that reason, I switched my channel
over to ABC. I watched the end of the Chicago
Washing game. I didn't need to be agitated. I'm a
quitter by natural mindset. And I'm going to tell you
this Packer fans, I don't know because of the burg
game going on, I don't know how many people watch
Chicago Bears game. One very scrappy performance by the Bears,
but two, if you ever again needed another reminder of
(27:41):
how difficult it is to win a game in the
National Football League see the Washington Commanders, because they found
a way to lose that game. And to the Bear's
credit and to Jake Moody's credit, who is their practice
squad kicker, He's already been released from the forty nine
ers because of just being too erratic. He came through
clutch and and Ben Johnson credit to him. I thought
they had some really smart blocking schemes. I thought the
(28:01):
offensive line for the Bears played exceptionally well. Caleb Williams
was very smart with how he handled that final sequence
to put them in scoring position, and the Bears clawed out.
But for the Washington Commanders to fall to three and
three that way, it again shows you for a team
that's that talented and has Super Bowl aspirations this season
with how it's built.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, and they got their quarterback back this game after
he had missed some time.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yeah, and yeah, that's how it goes.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Yeah. Absolutely, And right now, the top team record wise
in the NFC is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at five
and one. They chalked up another win over a previously
previous one loss team in the San Francisco forty nine Ers,
who've been playing with their backup quarterback. The Niners are
now four and two, So I think I saw if
I counted it correctly, and you've got your screen and
(28:46):
you've got your thing called up there, I believe it's
now twelve. Twelve of the sixteen teams in the NFC
are above five hundred right now.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
That's correct? Would you like to well five hundred or better?
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Sorry? Yeah, five hundred. So only four teams in the
NFC are below five hundred right now, and with this
much time left to go and only seven playoff spots available,
it is going to be an absolute dogfight the rest.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Of the way. And I mean there was a lot
of extracurriculars that happened with the Kansas City Detroit game. Unfortunately,
what that did with Brian Branch who's now been suspended
for one game because of what happened with Juju Smith
Schuster afterwards, it took away from the spotlight that that
was an excellent win for the Kansas City Chiefs in
a gritty performance by them. Gritty's been my word of
the day, I guess. But Chiefs are team that's had
(29:32):
to claw themselves back into this thing, and they've done
it steadily. And I think you can see the life
sort of reviving around them right now, particularly in the
belief in Patrick Mahomes and what he could do with
the squad this year. A really strong performance from them,
a strong answer, and I felt like that was a
statement game because Detroit was riding high four straight wins
after the loss here in Green Bay, which I'm sure
(29:54):
there's a lot of stuff that they thought about that
you're on the road. They played the Packers tough, some
things didn't go their way, and then the Kansas City
came out here and showed that, you know, there's still
a team to be trifled with.
Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah, and the other one I'll throw out there too,
because this one, I'll be honest to cut me by surprise,
because I thought the Jacksonville Jaguars, coming off of that
Monday night victory over Kansas City, that okay, here come
the Jaguars, Trevor Lawrence, and nope, they run into this.
They they're hosting the Seattle Seahawks about as long a flight, yeah,
(30:24):
you know, continentale, not internationally, but as long a flight
continentally as anybody has to make. Seattle flying all the
way to Jacksonville, I guess Miami would be further. But
the Seattle Seahawks and Sam Darnold Man, they bounced back
from a tough loss against Tampa Bay the previous week
when they lose right at the wire, and they go
(30:45):
into Jacksonville and post to win, and Seattle's right there
now with everybody at four and two.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Big time performance by the Seahawks, Big time performance by
Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers. Huge performance by the Atlanta Falcons,
who have a really sneaky good defense that gave Buffalo
all kinds of fits. We talk so much about the North,
and the North is going to be a It's going
to be a meat grinder this year, yep. But the
NFC in general is very talented this year and it
(31:12):
is going to be a complete race for those three
wildcard spots, so any win matters. Packers are three to
one and one, one of the four left with one win,
and as we'll preview on Packers Unscripted on Thursday, trying
to pick up another against one of the four teams
that are actually below five hundred in the NFC, the
Arizona Cardinals.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
That's right, and with that we will call it a
rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to
follow all of our coverage of the team on packers
dot com. For Wes, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Everybody.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
We will see an next time.
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