November 4, 2025 • 33 mins
Mike and Wes review the loss to the Panthers, focusing on the season-ending injury to TE Tucker Kraft (:47), the missed opportunities on offense (6:32), and the need to bounce back (16:42). They also glance around the NFC after Week 9 (23:58).
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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 partner and everything Packers, Wes Hodkoitz. Coming to
you here from our studios at lambeau Field to discuss
unfortunately a sixteen to thirteen Green Bay loss at the
hands of the Carolina Panthers. I will start by saying
(00:26):
I apologize for the late posting of our normal Tuesday show,
just some issues with the scheduling in the studio. With
the Monday night game coming up, things are all kind
of out of whack this week already. But here we are.
We are getting the show done. A tough one West,
but even tougher than the loss the loss of tight
(00:50):
end Tucker Craft for the rest of the season unfortunately,
a knee injury in the third quarter. Craft is out
for the season and that is going to be a
big adjust meant for the Green Bay Packers offense to
make the rest of the way.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, this is the one that sucks because obviously the
Packers have Super Bowl aspirations, they have goals to play
well into January and February. Certainly number eighty five has
a big thing to do about that. But I remember
a very cold, blistery day in April where you and
(01:26):
I were standing outside on the east side of west
side of Lambellfield. I know my directions, and the Packers
tailgate tour was getting ready to take off, and Tucker
Craft was one of the along with Lucas van S
where the modern era current players that were participating on that,
and Tucker talked about a bevy of things, including him
(01:47):
and his lovely wife were expecting the birth of a
daughter child that was born later in July. He was
talking about the work that he put in at lambeau Field.
He stayed here year round and was preparing himself for
his third NFL season, and just the expectations that he
(02:07):
was putting on himself to step up as a leader,
to step up as a player, and all those things
came true. This guy was a surefire pro bowler in
my opinion. It was cool seeing him start to get
the national notoriety after that win over the Steelers, and
(02:27):
everybody was starting to kind of jump on the Tucker
tucker Craft train. And now it comes to a screeching halt.
Like Matt Lafleur said at his press conference on Monday.
Tucker's handling this as we would all expect him to,
as well as someone possibly could given the circumstances. But
it just stinks that a guy that was really taking
(02:50):
this thing over and becoming one of the more noteworthy
tight ends in the league that gets put on ice
here for a minute. So, yeah, you take away the
football team, you take away the wins and the loss
is the business side of this thing. Your heart just
hurts for a guy that put his soul into making
sure that this was the best season it could possibly
(03:10):
be and and now it's something out of his control
that takes him out of it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, it's the cruelest part of this business. There's no
there's no doubt about it. I Mean, these are the
kinds of things that you know, they're worse than you know,
a tough last second loss. They are they are they're
they're worse than anything else that that goes on, you know,
win or loss wise on a football field. Is when
when a guy, you know, as you said, he's put
(03:35):
everything into it, he was becoming everything that he had
set out to be for himself and and quite frankly,
probably exceeding the expectations that anybody else could have had
for him, quite frankly, because he set a standard so
high for himself just in his third year in the
NFL to to become to become that kind of player.
(03:57):
And it just so happens the very next game after
his career best game to this point. And uh, and
this happens, the Packers are going to have to adjust, obviously,
you know when we will talk more about it in
our upcoming shows, you know, Luke Musgrave, Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs,
the weapons. Hopefully Jayden Reid is back at some point.
(04:20):
You know, the Packers offense will adjust, will adjust and
move forward. But but this is a big, a big loss.
And uh, you just wonder, You just I'm always gonna wonder,
regardless of what Tucker Craft does in twenty twenty six
and twenty twenty seven and beyond, I'm always gonna wonder
(04:42):
just where this twenty twenty five season was gonna go
for Tucker Craft. Because I had written it over the
weekend leading up to the game, he was he was
on pace to basically rewrite Packers' record books for a
single season as far as what a tight end could accomplish,
had accomplished on the field for the Packers, and yeah,
(05:03):
now it's it's all gone for him for the time being.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Worst part of it almost reminds me a little bit
what happened to Bobby Tunyan back in twenty twenty, when
it's like this guy is at the beginning of this
thing and looks like he's about to take off. Yeah,
and he gets robbed of it, you know, with a
knee injury like this, an acl that takes you out
for a year. What I love about Tucker's story is
he unfortunately just literally the day after the game turned
(05:29):
twenty five. Yeah, he's a young buck, and I think
there's gonna be a lot of special seasons ahead for him.
But to play as well as he did and have
such a hand in this five to two and one
start for Green Bay and the victories that they've had
two one hundred yard games, his first two hundred yard
games of his career this season, and to get that
(05:50):
rob from him, it just again, your heart hurts. But
from the Packers' perspective, if you want to look at
it from the x's and o's standpoint, people need to
step up. And you got Christian Watson back now. It
sounds like Jaden Reed is getting healthier. Hopefully get him
back here at some point this season, although it doesn't
sound like he'll be practicing quite yet. Luke Musgrave ended
up having three big catches for thirty four yards on
(06:11):
the Packers last scoring drive. They're going to need him
to take on a bigger role now, John Fitzpatrick, as
far as the inline tight end stuff, a lot of
guys are going to be counted on here and somewhere
down the road. You hope that what Tucker Craft started
this year is just the beginning of something much more
special to come. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Absolutely well when it comes to this loss, sixteen to
thirteen was the final. Carolina wins it on a forty
nine yard walk off field goal. And there are a
lot of reasons the Packers lost this game, but the
one you have to put at the top of the
list is the fact that the first four times the
Packers were in the red zone in this game, they
(06:52):
failed to score a touchdown, and not only didn't get
a touchdown in those first four trips into the red zone,
ending up one of five overall. When they finally did
get a touchdown on their last red zone trip. But
in going zero for four up until the last couple
minutes of the game, they only scored six points. It
wasn't even a matter of oh, they kicked four field
(07:13):
goals and had twelve points on the board, because that
probably would have been enough to win this game. But
whether you're talking, you know, a fumble penalties that pushed
them back and forced them to kick field goals. There
was a fourth and eight decision by Matt Lafleur. They
didn't get any points on that drive outside the red zone.
(07:34):
There was a missed field goal. I mean, the list,
the list of missed opportunities in this game is as
long as it gets and we don't need to necessarily
rehash all of them. But where the Packers go from here,
Quite frankly, they don't have any They get one extra
day to deal with this one because the next game
(07:55):
is Monday Night Football. But that next game is against
the defending champs in the Philadelphia Eagles. The Packers have
got to right the ship, and they've got to do
it in a hurry here because they've got a big
time game coming up.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, and it's weird. I've said this is a number
of people now this week, in the aftermath of this loss,
I actually have no qualms, no issues whatsoever about the Packers'
ability to bounce back. They've done a good job of it.
They've been a resilient team, and they can play to
every level. The problem is is that this was a
game again where the Green Bay Packers were a decided
favorite over the Carolina Panthers, and I think if you
(08:28):
look on scale, everybody would agree the Packers are a
much more talented football team on both sides of the ball.
I think probably the most frustrating part of this is
that a lot of the markers. You don't have to
be a head coach in this league. You don't have
to be Matt Lafleur, Brian Goodekunst. Everybody knew going into
this thing, including this Dullard. What had to happen in
(08:48):
this game. Green Bay had to run the ball better
than the Carolina Panthers. They need to stop Rico Dawdle,
which a lot of teams have struggled to do, but
they needed to do that. They need to put this
game Bryce Young's hands, and offensively, they needed to establish
Josh Jacobs. We saw glimpses of that this was actually
Josh's second best rushing performance this season as as far
(09:11):
as statistics are concerned. But when you give up one
hundred and thirty rushing yards to Dawdle, both of their
touchdowns came through Dowdell. They rushed for almost one hundred
and seventy yards in this game. That's not going to
cut it, not when you're the number three ranked rush
defense going in. In addition to the fact, as you
laid out, with these red zone woes, the Packers had
seven possessions, never punted. They had almost two hundred yards
(09:33):
through those first three possessions in just three points to
show for it. Situationally, Green Bay fell short and unfortunately
for them, it led to their first loss at Lambeufield
this season.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, that's what this game really came down to with
situational football, because the Packers had as you mentioned, they
only had seven possessions in the game. One of those,
the only short possession that they had was unfortunately, when
ill advised deep shot down the field on first down
was intercepted triple coverage. It was it was a bad call,
(10:07):
bad decision all that, But the other six drives the
Packers the the other six drives were all between nine
and thirteen plays in length. The Packers were moving the ball,
and but what it came down to is essentially the
Packers were kind of the Panthers. Excuse me, this is
(10:29):
going to come out the wrong way, but the Panthers
in some respects were letting them move the football because
they were sitting back. They were, you know, playing too
high safety, and not just too high safety, but zone
coverage behind that, which means the cornerbacks are are off
the line of screens, they're keeping everything in front of them,
they're giving they're giving the short stuff. And then what
(10:53):
they're planning on doing is then when the opposing offense
gets in the red zone and the field shrinks and
it cranks up the level of precision you need to
operate on offense. Because the field is smaller, they're counting
on the Packers to make a mistake. And essentially that's
exactly how the game played out because the Packers did
(11:14):
not have the consistency and the discipline, whether you're talking
about a fumble or a penalty or a sack or
whatever the case might be. The Packers didn't have the
consistency and the discipline to avoid that mistake that was
going to keep them out of the end zone. And
when that happens time and time again, you're giving the
other team no reason to change their plan, no reason
(11:37):
to play any differently. And so then when you don't
break through and get that touchdown until there's just two
and a half minutes on the clock, which which is
the touchdown that tied the game, the Panthers defensively were
able to play exactly the way they wanted to play
for the entire game. They never had to change what
they wanted to do, and then they got the ball.
(12:00):
They got the ball last their running back who rushed
for one hundred and thirty yards. He broke off the
big run from midfield to the thirty one and nineteen
yard run that took them into field goal range. In
the final minute of the game, they drained the clock
and kicked the field goal, and they got on the
airplane back to Charlotte with a victory that in a
game the Packers, honestly Wes had no business losing. Yes,
(12:23):
it's just it's not a game that the Packers should
have lost, but because they were forced to play a
way that they didn't want to play, and they couldn't
execute in that way to beat a lesser team. You
come out on the short end of it.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, it's you summed it up. And it was a
lot of the same sentiments that were shared in the
locker room afterwards. Michael Parsons almost said exactly what you
said word for word. I mean Bryce Young threw for
one hundred and two passing yards. Yeah, in this with
an interception on a very bad ball that Xavier McKinney
picked off in the end the back of the end zone.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Bryce Young had only two road wins as a starting
quarterback in his career before Sunday, and the Packers did
not put the game in his hands. And I say that, yes,
the run defense was a problem, but not putting the
game in Bryce Young's hands was the fault of the
run defense as well as the Packers offense not scoring
the points they needed to score to make Bryce Young
(13:16):
have to throw the ball to beat them. And a
guy with only two road wins as a starting quarterback
came in and got his third and he didn't really
do a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Yeah, And so there are some people I saw online
that were trying to make a lot of Micah Parson's
comments afterwards, saying that that was an indictment on Young.
It really wasn't. It was more an indictment on the
Packers and that they're going up against a young quarterback
that has thrown the ball to the opposing team of
fair share of times during his career when it's been
in his plate. And Rico Doubtel has turned out to
(13:45):
be the perfect complimentary piece to them because Young is
gaining experience and there's a relationship there that you can
tell that they have a very clear identity of what
they want to be now. And I said this to
Darren Gant, a buddy mine who covered the Panthers for
their website. Do exactly what we do, and I said,
they are a fun and frisky football team, and they
(14:05):
play to what they are and that is run the ball,
stop the run. And that's what they accomplished in this game.
In addition to being able to play that way for
four quarters, I think is probably the most surprising thing,
just based on way that the game tilted. That being
said for Green Bay standpoint, because Young wasn't dropping back
(14:27):
that much, only had two quarterback hits. One of them
was the strip sack that they ended up recovering, and
then a few plays later McKinney gets the interception and
the other was just a I think a blitz on
from kay Walker. So it was tough to get home
against this guy, and it was tough to correl this
running back. That the hardest part to swallow. And I
know a lot will be made about the fourth and
(14:48):
eight decision. Matt Lafleur took ownership for it. It's been
bantied about already quite a bit this week, but for me,
it really does go back to that nineteen yard run
at midfield. It was a great look. I thought that
disguise was excellent on it. But the problem is is
that it's second and ten. You've already had a hard
(15:09):
time staying in front of Dowbdle all game. I don't
know what the big fear was there of Young pulling
it and throwing it, and it seemed like Green Bay
was really kind of prepared for that, and then when
the draw came, they just got completely caught off guard.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah, and I mean credit the Panthers. They called, they called,
They called the right play at the right time. I
think I think the Packers defense was in that moment
was a little bit on its heels because Young had
hit a couple of throws to mc millington to move
the chains, you know, the the underneath stuff, and uh,
it was it was clear that that Carolina was Carolina
(15:48):
was going to drain the clock on that possession. It
was a question of would they get would they get
close enough? And even when they got to the thirty
one yard line, they didn't even they weren't even able
to get any closer. Quite frankly, weren't even trying. They
were like, Okay, it's forty nine yards. We're not going
to take any risk here whatsoever, and they're going to
send out the kicker and uh, and he was able
(16:10):
to make the kick to uh to win the game.
It's it's tough because uh, you know Dowdell, Dowdell had
I believe it was for I guess what you would
classify as explosive runs yep in the game and uh,
which gave him gave him a hefty average. It's just
and it just seemed like every time Dowdell, every time
(16:30):
Doddell did get an explosive run. That's what led to
That's what led to points, you know, for the for
the Panthers. So here's a here's here's my question to
you though, as the Packers, as the Packers now try
to figure this out, coming off coming off of this performance,
(16:51):
in the wake of the Tucker Craft injury and every
and everything like that, do do the Packers? Are the
Packers going to be able to win a game like
this in the field, like like down the road, And
what I mean in a game like this is are
they are they going to be able to win a game?
(17:13):
Figure out how to win a game when they're not
able to play the way they want to play? Because
I think that that right now is kind of what's
you know, what's what's lingering out there is that the
Cardinal the Cardinals sat back defensively. I would say the Steelers,
though not as much because the Steelers definitely blitz Jordan
Love plenty in that game. But we saw the Cardinals
(17:35):
sit back defensively. We've seen the Panthers sit back defensively,
and you know, Cardinals were able to do the job
for the first half and then the Packers kind of
going in the second half. The Panthers, as I said,
were never never had to come out of what they
were doing and when this pack when this Packers offense
gets into an uncomfortable spot in terms of not being
able to play that the way they want to play.
(17:57):
Are they going to be able? Are they going to
be able to find ways to win in doing that?
I think, because I think they're going to be in
this position again, and the growth of this team is
going to depend on whether they can figure that out well.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
And it's just understanding the situation too. In the hardest
part about this, and you've talked about this an inbox
quite a bit already, probably more even more than I have,
is that it's not like every single drive it was
the same issue, right, It was different things that plagued
(18:29):
them at different times. They move the ball very well
early on and saveon Williams has a fumble that they
lose and the drive ends. There's other instances like the
fourth and eight the play before that, where they're trying
that screen and then's going for a loss of five.
There's times where the situation where Jordan Love has to
kind of scan the field and understand where things are,
like the interception that he went downfield with. I feel
(18:53):
like all the firepower Green Bay needs is within this offense.
I feel like there are those outlets even without Craft.
We've seen it with Dobbs, We've seen it at times
with Matthew Golden, who it sounds like is alright with
the shoulder, and I'm now having Christian Watson back is
going to be huge for them, I feel like, especially
in that regard. But it's being able to consistently do
(19:15):
that week after week after week. And Xavier McKinney, as always,
was extremely eloquent after the game when talking about, you know,
this performance and what happened against Carolina wasn't necessarily a
huge surprise because they'd been kind of playing with fire
already in some of those close wins, including the matchup
against Arizona, but they found a way to win in
the end either way. Mike, I actually don't think we're
(19:38):
probably gonna get that answer on Monday Night Football. Yet
they could win that big, they can look that big.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
It's not going to happen. We're not going to see
it necessarily right away, but there's still you know, there's
nine regular season games left here.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
But that game against New York is the one I'm
looking at because that's the one where regardless of what
happens with the Giants next weekend, the Packers will again
be decided favorites. Regardless of the the outcome against the Eagles,
they are going to go into MetLife as a significant favorite.
And I'm not even saying you got to win thirty
five to seven or anything crazy like that, but how
do you play that opponent is going to be very critical.
(20:12):
I think these next two games we're going to learn
a lot about this football team because now the gimmes
are over, not even gimmeis, but the mulligans are over.
You had that performance against the Browns, it reflects in
your record. You had that performance against the Panthers, it
reflects on your record. Now the Packers are getting into
the real crux of their season. The NFC North games
(20:33):
are waiting, and they are all going to be doozies.
Have you learned from what has happened? Have you been
able to make the corrections to ultimately not have those
self inflicted wounds when there is no mulligan to be had. Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
And I like the way I like the way you
put that because I believe this Packers team is going
to bounce back, and I believe we are going to
see a much much better performance on Monday Night at
Lambeufield against the Philadelphia Eagles. It will be light years
better than what we saw against the Carolina Panthers. But
as we all know, the Packers can play light years
(21:10):
better than they did against the Panthers, and the Eagles
still could be just good enough to come in here.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And beat Grip Bay.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Right, That's that's the difference. So we'll see what happens.
I think the Packers are going are going to bounce
back and play a good game, win or lose against
the Eagles on Monday Night. The question is, as you
just said, when that happens, does that bounce back performance
become something that they build on moving forward or does
(21:38):
it just become another part of this whole up and down,
you know, roller coaster type thing that we've seen that's
ultimately over the long haul, what's going to define this
season and where it's headed. We're going to we're going
to get a taste of it. We're gonna get a
taste of it Monday night, but then it's going to
be in the coming weeks after that. Because the easiest,
the easiest time to bounce back instead, a new standard
(22:00):
is when you played your worst game yep, which is
what the Packers just did. They played their worst game
of the season on Sunday against Carolina. But then assuming
that that happens, which I believe it will, then what
happens after that, So.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
It's not always about the wins or the loss is
not to jump over you there, but it is. I mean,
you go back to twenty sixteen, Packers got it handed
to them by Washington, but yet it still felt after
that game with Jared Cook coming back, it just kind
of felt like things were changing. And then the next
week they came and had a really virtuoso performance against
coincidentally the Philadelphia Eagles, and that started the whole run
the table thing.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
And it's not even just saying you gotta win eight
games in a row or anything crazy like that. My
point is is that you need to have it where
you have that rock, that foundation, that solidarity, that we
now have the confidence that we're gonna go out there
and it's not just rolling the dice, that we're gonna
go out there and impose our will and we're gonna
play our brand of football. That's where the Packers are
(22:56):
still this particular team is trying.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
To get Yeah, yeah, I agree. We'll pay some bills
here quickly with a word from our sponsors. Serious XMNFL
Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute
NFL news that true football fanatics need. Twenty four seven,
three sixty five. At Cousin Subs, we have something for
everyone like our Wisconsin cheese curds, mac and cheese, golden fries,
(23:20):
and creamy shakes, all paired with your favorite sub or
Subina bowl. Cousin Subs fifty plus years of better. Pit
Boss Grills the official grill of Packers tailgating at Lambeau
or at your house. Take your game day to the
next level with a pit Boss wood pellet grill. Pit
Boss Grills available at minards. Hey Packers fans, we always
(23:43):
knew Lambeoufield 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 Wes.
It's time to look again around the division around the conference.
Packers at five two and one in the NFC North
(24:04):
that is still good enough for the top spot for
the time being, the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears are
both five and three. In the Minnesota Vikings by virtue
of a big, big road victory over the Lions, Minnesota
is at four and four. So once again we are
back at the stage in the NFC North where no
one is below five hundred and it becomes anyone's division again.
(24:29):
And then when you look around at the rest of
the conference, Philadelphia, the Rams, the Seahawks, the Buccaneers are
all six and two. San Francisco is six and three,
Carolina is five and four. Those are two teams that
have not had their bye week yet, so they have
nine games under their belt. But when you add it
all up, there are nine teams in the NFC right
(24:49):
now with either five or six victories. I mean, there's
still a long way to go, you know, roughly half
the season, however you want to look at it. But
but man, oh man, it's there's still so much out
in front of everybody, right and and yes, at the
end of the day, as I said in Monday's Insider Inbox,
(25:10):
this loss to Carolina was a massive missed opportunity for
the Packers on a weekend when the Detroit Lions got beat. Yeah,
so it was a massive missed opportunity. But you have
to forget, you have to forget all of it, put
it all aside because there are nine games to go
here and this both the race and the NFC North
(25:32):
and the NFC in general is as tight as it gets.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah. And my biggest point is, Mike, you and I
both had to answer our own fair share of incenter
inbox questions already this week. And my message to Packer
fans right now is to chill out. Some Packer fans
need to chill out this. You talk about being on
a roller coaster, and that's fine. Up and down, it happens.
Packers are five to two and one still at the
end of the day, if you want to see what
(25:56):
a bad football team is like, there's plenty of examples
out there for you to five. Packer fans gotta get
some balance here, bro, because we are one week away,
one week removed from Jordan Love is the greatest quarterback ever,
and the Packers are the best team ever, and they're
gonna win the Super Bowl and they're gonna win every game
the rest of the season. And we didn't need or
Aaron Rodgers to all the garbage that sifted into my
(26:20):
inbox and I've had to read for the last thirty
six hours. You want to see what's going around the league,
look at what happened with the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
It's not that they lost to Minnesota. It's that they've
had a completely Jeckyll and Hyde running game that at
times looks dominant and at times gets no traction. JJ
McCarthy threw for one hundred and forty three passing yards
(26:41):
in that game. Justin Jefferson didn't even hurt them. Aaron
Jones and Jordan Mason did. Yeah, mistakes did. It is
tough week in and week out to just run through everybody,
it doesn't matter who the opponent is. Do the Packers
got to do better? Yes, because exactly what you just said,
it is an extremely tight NFC race from the top
to who potentially could be that number seven seed. But
(27:03):
my goodness, man, every single time the Packers lose or
there's a setback, or there's an interception, or you're not
happy with the throw or the play call, people just
completely losing their minds on social media. You may not
realize this, but I remember everything I see all those
things that I don't just start on to the next
game and forget about it. We have to move forward.
(27:25):
And it's not just one game. The Packers have already
played eight games. If you take that approach, every single week, win, lose,
er in one case tie, there's nothing to be able
to grab onto anymore. Disappointment is fine. There's nothing wrong
with disappointment. I get it. I was a Brewers fan
growing up. I understand disappointment, my friends. But the Packers
(27:50):
could easily win this game against the Eagles, and the
only thing that matters then is how they play against
the Giants.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Right, And that's the thing now where it's where, Yes,
the opportunity was lost against the Panthers. It's extremely frustrating,
especially in a home game, to see the team perform
like that. And I'm not discounting that, but in this
marathon of an NFL season, it's all about it's all
about how you respond. How do you? I mean you
(28:20):
have to respond in games, and you have to respond
after games on a week to week basis in this league.
I mean, the Detroit Lions right now are talking about
are talking about how in the world did we turn
the ball? Over three or four times, whatever it was,
playing at home against the division rival. You can't do
that and win, right. The Indianapolis Colts, who were riding
(28:41):
on you on top of the world there, you know,
they went into Pittsburgh where the Packers went in in
primetime and got a victory in high stakes and you know,
ultra hyped game and whatnot. The Indianapolis Colts took their
seven and one record into Pittsburgh and started turning the
football over. They started making mistakes. I mean, whether you're
talking turnovers or penalties or missed blocks or you know, whatever,
(29:06):
whatever the case might be. It's just it's what makes
winning consistently in this league so difficult to do so now.
And it's just it puts you in different spots over
the course of a season, right. I mean the spot
the Packers are in now is is okay, it's it's
recovery mode. It's bounce back mode and get back to
(29:27):
get back to being who you are. But then also know,
the lesson that has to be learned from the Carolina
game is that if you get into a game where
you're not able to play the way you want to play,
you still got to find a way to win it,
and that's what they that's what they didn't do. So
if they can, if they can learn that lesson, and
whether it's whether it's against you know, the Giants or
(29:50):
the Ravens toward the end of the year, or when
they go out to Denver to play the Broncos, if
they get if they get into a game where they're
not they're not able to play the way they want
to play. But you're sitting there in a one score
game in the fourth quarter, it's like, figure it out
and find a way to win it and then you
can work on all the other stuff later. That's the
opportunity that got away from him against the Panthers, and
(30:11):
hopefully that's the lesson learned that the next opportunity they
can figure it out and then they're not sitting here
taking another you know, taking another tally mark in the
lost CAUP.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Just to bring it through this really quickly, you had
the Arizona Cardinals dispatch the Dallas Cowboys twenty seven to seventeen.
Questions now and whether or not Jacoby Brissett should be
the starting quarterback they're moving forward.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I said that after the Packers played. After that, I mean,
I thought what Jacoby Brissett did in those back to
back games, the one before playing the Packers, and then
how he looked playing against the Packers. I thought, I thought, yeah,
it looks like it looks like Arizona's got a better
quarterback in their backup than they do in their starter.
But that's me.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
The Buffalo Bills defeated the Kansas City Chiefs twenty eight,
twenty one. The Chiefs now at four losses five and
four on the season. You look over and the Bears
game against the Bengals when you talk about fine lines
the fact that the Bears gave up a ton of
production to Joe Flacco that entire offense, but found a
way to win because of the issues that Cincinnati's defense
(31:14):
is having. First time, I think, what was it since
nineteen sixty six an offense has scored over thirty five
or forty points in back to back weeks and lost
both of those games. This is the plight of the NFL.
The Atlanta Falcons played the seven and two now seven
and two New England Patriots really tough. Michael Pennix played well,
Drake London played well. It didn't matter. They still lost.
(31:35):
You were saying earlier today in one of our conversations
you and I were having, especially in the modern day
with the expanded playoff formats, it's about playing well at
the end of the season. Right now is about gathering
as many victories as you can. And for the Packers,
they needed that one that would have got into six wins.
You had to edit inbox on Saturday. I rode in there.
That's the only goal is to get that six win
and the conduit for that was going to be the
(31:57):
Carolina Panthers. That is out of the question. Now now
can you get it against the Philadelphia Eagles?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
When after? When after? When brings you to the dance
and then you hope that you have your best team
at that time and we have a long long way
to go.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, yeah, that we get. Where I see the Packers
at right now is they have a lot of stuff
to figure out. There's a lot of time still to
do that. But now the added challenge has been thrown
in of doing that without one of your best offensive
players in Tucker Craft.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
So just the biggest thing to come out of last
weekend win or lose.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
The task got harder. The task is obvious, but the
task now also got harder, so how are they going
to respond to it? And we will talk more about
that and about the Eagles, the six and two Philadelphia Eagles,
the defending Super Bowl champs coming to lambeau Field on
our next show in a couple of days, But for now,
we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers
Unscript and be sure to continue following all of our
(32:53):
coverage of the team on Packers dot com. For West,
I'm Mike. 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 Spofford, joined as always
by my partner and everything Packers, Wes Hodkoitz. Coming to
you here from our studios at lambeau Field to discuss
unfortunately a sixteen to thirteen Green Bay loss at the
hands of the Carolina Panthers. I will start by saying
(00:26):
I apologize for the late posting of our normal Tuesday show,
just some issues with the scheduling in the studio. With
the Monday night game coming up, things are all kind
of out of whack this week already. But here we are.
We are getting the show done. A tough one West,
but even tougher than the loss the loss of tight
(00:50):
end Tucker Craft for the rest of the season unfortunately,
a knee injury in the third quarter. Craft is out
for the season and that is going to be a
big adjust meant for the Green Bay Packers offense to
make the rest of the way.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Yeah, this is the one that sucks because obviously the
Packers have Super Bowl aspirations, they have goals to play
well into January and February. Certainly number eighty five has
a big thing to do about that. But I remember
a very cold, blistery day in April where you and
(01:26):
I were standing outside on the east side of west
side of Lambellfield. I know my directions, and the Packers
tailgate tour was getting ready to take off, and Tucker
Craft was one of the along with Lucas van S
where the modern era current players that were participating on that,
and Tucker talked about a bevy of things, including him
(01:47):
and his lovely wife were expecting the birth of a
daughter child that was born later in July. He was
talking about the work that he put in at lambeau Field.
He stayed here year round and was preparing himself for
his third NFL season, and just the expectations that he
(02:07):
was putting on himself to step up as a leader,
to step up as a player, and all those things
came true. This guy was a surefire pro bowler in
my opinion. It was cool seeing him start to get
the national notoriety after that win over the Steelers, and
(02:27):
everybody was starting to kind of jump on the Tucker
tucker Craft train. And now it comes to a screeching halt.
Like Matt Lafleur said at his press conference on Monday.
Tucker's handling this as we would all expect him to,
as well as someone possibly could given the circumstances. But
it just stinks that a guy that was really taking
(02:50):
this thing over and becoming one of the more noteworthy
tight ends in the league that gets put on ice
here for a minute. So, yeah, you take away the
football team, you take away the wins and the loss
is the business side of this thing. Your heart just
hurts for a guy that put his soul into making
sure that this was the best season it could possibly
(03:10):
be and and now it's something out of his control
that takes him out of it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, it's the cruelest part of this business. There's no
there's no doubt about it. I Mean, these are the
kinds of things that you know, they're worse than you know,
a tough last second loss. They are they are they're
they're worse than anything else that that goes on, you know,
win or loss wise on a football field. Is when
when a guy, you know, as you said, he's put
(03:35):
everything into it, he was becoming everything that he had
set out to be for himself and and quite frankly,
probably exceeding the expectations that anybody else could have had
for him, quite frankly, because he set a standard so
high for himself just in his third year in the
NFL to to become to become that kind of player.
(03:57):
And it just so happens the very next game after
his career best game to this point. And uh, and
this happens, the Packers are going to have to adjust, obviously,
you know when we will talk more about it in
our upcoming shows, you know, Luke Musgrave, Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs,
the weapons. Hopefully Jayden Reid is back at some point.
(04:20):
You know, the Packers offense will adjust, will adjust and
move forward. But but this is a big, a big loss.
And uh, you just wonder, You just I'm always gonna wonder,
regardless of what Tucker Craft does in twenty twenty six
and twenty twenty seven and beyond, I'm always gonna wonder
(04:42):
just where this twenty twenty five season was gonna go
for Tucker Craft. Because I had written it over the
weekend leading up to the game, he was he was
on pace to basically rewrite Packers' record books for a
single season as far as what a tight end could accomplish,
had accomplished on the field for the Packers, and yeah,
(05:03):
now it's it's all gone for him for the time being.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Worst part of it almost reminds me a little bit
what happened to Bobby Tunyan back in twenty twenty, when
it's like this guy is at the beginning of this
thing and looks like he's about to take off. Yeah,
and he gets robbed of it, you know, with a
knee injury like this, an acl that takes you out
for a year. What I love about Tucker's story is
he unfortunately just literally the day after the game turned
(05:29):
twenty five. Yeah, he's a young buck, and I think
there's gonna be a lot of special seasons ahead for him.
But to play as well as he did and have
such a hand in this five to two and one
start for Green Bay and the victories that they've had
two one hundred yard games, his first two hundred yard
games of his career this season, and to get that
(05:50):
rob from him, it just again, your heart hurts. But
from the Packers' perspective, if you want to look at
it from the x's and o's standpoint, people need to
step up. And you got Christian Watson back now. It
sounds like Jaden Reed is getting healthier. Hopefully get him
back here at some point this season, although it doesn't
sound like he'll be practicing quite yet. Luke Musgrave ended
up having three big catches for thirty four yards on
(06:11):
the Packers last scoring drive. They're going to need him
to take on a bigger role now, John Fitzpatrick, as
far as the inline tight end stuff, a lot of
guys are going to be counted on here and somewhere
down the road. You hope that what Tucker Craft started
this year is just the beginning of something much more
special to come. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Absolutely well when it comes to this loss, sixteen to
thirteen was the final. Carolina wins it on a forty
nine yard walk off field goal. And there are a
lot of reasons the Packers lost this game, but the
one you have to put at the top of the
list is the fact that the first four times the
Packers were in the red zone in this game, they
(06:52):
failed to score a touchdown, and not only didn't get
a touchdown in those first four trips into the red zone,
ending up one of five overall. When they finally did
get a touchdown on their last red zone trip. But
in going zero for four up until the last couple
minutes of the game, they only scored six points. It
wasn't even a matter of oh, they kicked four field
(07:13):
goals and had twelve points on the board, because that
probably would have been enough to win this game. But
whether you're talking, you know, a fumble penalties that pushed
them back and forced them to kick field goals. There
was a fourth and eight decision by Matt Lafleur. They
didn't get any points on that drive outside the red zone.
(07:34):
There was a missed field goal. I mean, the list,
the list of missed opportunities in this game is as
long as it gets and we don't need to necessarily
rehash all of them. But where the Packers go from here,
Quite frankly, they don't have any They get one extra
day to deal with this one because the next game
(07:55):
is Monday Night Football. But that next game is against
the defending champs in the Philadelphia Eagles. The Packers have
got to right the ship, and they've got to do
it in a hurry here because they've got a big
time game coming up.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, and it's weird. I've said this is a number
of people now this week, in the aftermath of this loss,
I actually have no qualms, no issues whatsoever about the Packers'
ability to bounce back. They've done a good job of it.
They've been a resilient team, and they can play to
every level. The problem is is that this was a
game again where the Green Bay Packers were a decided
favorite over the Carolina Panthers, and I think if you
(08:28):
look on scale, everybody would agree the Packers are a
much more talented football team on both sides of the ball.
I think probably the most frustrating part of this is
that a lot of the markers. You don't have to
be a head coach in this league. You don't have
to be Matt Lafleur, Brian Goodekunst. Everybody knew going into
this thing, including this Dullard. What had to happen in
(08:48):
this game. Green Bay had to run the ball better
than the Carolina Panthers. They need to stop Rico Dawdle,
which a lot of teams have struggled to do, but
they needed to do that. They need to put this
game Bryce Young's hands, and offensively, they needed to establish
Josh Jacobs. We saw glimpses of that this was actually
Josh's second best rushing performance this season as as far
(09:11):
as statistics are concerned. But when you give up one
hundred and thirty rushing yards to Dawdle, both of their
touchdowns came through Dowdell. They rushed for almost one hundred
and seventy yards in this game. That's not going to
cut it, not when you're the number three ranked rush
defense going in. In addition to the fact, as you
laid out, with these red zone woes, the Packers had
seven possessions, never punted. They had almost two hundred yards
(09:33):
through those first three possessions in just three points to
show for it. Situationally, Green Bay fell short and unfortunately
for them, it led to their first loss at Lambeufield
this season.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, that's what this game really came down to with
situational football, because the Packers had as you mentioned, they
only had seven possessions in the game. One of those,
the only short possession that they had was unfortunately, when
ill advised deep shot down the field on first down
was intercepted triple coverage. It was it was a bad call,
(10:07):
bad decision all that, But the other six drives the
Packers the the other six drives were all between nine
and thirteen plays in length. The Packers were moving the ball,
and but what it came down to is essentially the
Packers were kind of the Panthers. Excuse me, this is
(10:29):
going to come out the wrong way, but the Panthers
in some respects were letting them move the football because
they were sitting back. They were, you know, playing too
high safety, and not just too high safety, but zone
coverage behind that, which means the cornerbacks are are off
the line of screens, they're keeping everything in front of them,
they're giving they're giving the short stuff. And then what
(10:53):
they're planning on doing is then when the opposing offense
gets in the red zone and the field shrinks and
it cranks up the level of precision you need to
operate on offense. Because the field is smaller, they're counting
on the Packers to make a mistake. And essentially that's
exactly how the game played out because the Packers did
(11:14):
not have the consistency and the discipline, whether you're talking
about a fumble or a penalty or a sack or
whatever the case might be. The Packers didn't have the
consistency and the discipline to avoid that mistake that was
going to keep them out of the end zone. And
when that happens time and time again, you're giving the
other team no reason to change their plan, no reason
(11:37):
to play any differently. And so then when you don't
break through and get that touchdown until there's just two
and a half minutes on the clock, which which is
the touchdown that tied the game, the Panthers defensively were
able to play exactly the way they wanted to play
for the entire game. They never had to change what
they wanted to do, and then they got the ball.
(12:00):
They got the ball last their running back who rushed
for one hundred and thirty yards. He broke off the
big run from midfield to the thirty one and nineteen
yard run that took them into field goal range. In
the final minute of the game, they drained the clock
and kicked the field goal, and they got on the
airplane back to Charlotte with a victory that in a
game the Packers, honestly Wes had no business losing. Yes,
(12:23):
it's just it's not a game that the Packers should
have lost, but because they were forced to play a
way that they didn't want to play, and they couldn't
execute in that way to beat a lesser team. You
come out on the short end of it.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, it's you summed it up. And it was a
lot of the same sentiments that were shared in the
locker room afterwards. Michael Parsons almost said exactly what you
said word for word. I mean Bryce Young threw for
one hundred and two passing yards. Yeah, in this with
an interception on a very bad ball that Xavier McKinney
picked off in the end the back of the end zone.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Bryce Young had only two road wins as a starting
quarterback in his career before Sunday, and the Packers did
not put the game in his hands. And I say that, yes,
the run defense was a problem, but not putting the
game in Bryce Young's hands was the fault of the
run defense as well as the Packers offense not scoring
the points they needed to score to make Bryce Young
(13:16):
have to throw the ball to beat them. And a
guy with only two road wins as a starting quarterback
came in and got his third and he didn't really
do a whole lot.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
Yeah, And so there are some people I saw online
that were trying to make a lot of Micah Parson's
comments afterwards, saying that that was an indictment on Young.
It really wasn't. It was more an indictment on the
Packers and that they're going up against a young quarterback
that has thrown the ball to the opposing team of
fair share of times during his career when it's been
in his plate. And Rico Doubtel has turned out to
(13:45):
be the perfect complimentary piece to them because Young is
gaining experience and there's a relationship there that you can
tell that they have a very clear identity of what
they want to be now. And I said this to
Darren Gant, a buddy mine who covered the Panthers for
their website. Do exactly what we do, and I said,
they are a fun and frisky football team, and they
(14:05):
play to what they are and that is run the ball,
stop the run. And that's what they accomplished in this game.
In addition to being able to play that way for
four quarters, I think is probably the most surprising thing,
just based on way that the game tilted. That being
said for Green Bay standpoint, because Young wasn't dropping back
(14:27):
that much, only had two quarterback hits. One of them
was the strip sack that they ended up recovering, and
then a few plays later McKinney gets the interception and
the other was just a I think a blitz on
from kay Walker. So it was tough to get home
against this guy, and it was tough to correl this
running back. That the hardest part to swallow. And I
know a lot will be made about the fourth and
(14:48):
eight decision. Matt Lafleur took ownership for it. It's been
bantied about already quite a bit this week, but for me,
it really does go back to that nineteen yard run
at midfield. It was a great look. I thought that
disguise was excellent on it. But the problem is is
that it's second and ten. You've already had a hard
(15:09):
time staying in front of Dowbdle all game. I don't
know what the big fear was there of Young pulling
it and throwing it, and it seemed like Green Bay
was really kind of prepared for that, and then when
the draw came, they just got completely caught off guard.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah, and I mean credit the Panthers. They called, they called,
They called the right play at the right time. I
think I think the Packers defense was in that moment
was a little bit on its heels because Young had
hit a couple of throws to mc millington to move
the chains, you know, the the underneath stuff, and uh,
it was it was clear that that Carolina was Carolina
(15:48):
was going to drain the clock on that possession. It
was a question of would they get would they get
close enough? And even when they got to the thirty
one yard line, they didn't even they weren't even able
to get any closer. Quite frankly, weren't even trying. They
were like, Okay, it's forty nine yards. We're not going
to take any risk here whatsoever, and they're going to
send out the kicker and uh, and he was able
(16:10):
to make the kick to uh to win the game.
It's it's tough because uh, you know Dowdell, Dowdell had
I believe it was for I guess what you would
classify as explosive runs yep in the game and uh,
which gave him gave him a hefty average. It's just
and it just seemed like every time Dowdell, every time
(16:30):
Doddell did get an explosive run. That's what led to
That's what led to points, you know, for the for
the Panthers. So here's a here's here's my question to
you though, as the Packers, as the Packers now try
to figure this out, coming off coming off of this performance,
(16:51):
in the wake of the Tucker Craft injury and every
and everything like that, do do the Packers? Are the
Packers going to be able to win a game like
this in the field, like like down the road, And
what I mean in a game like this is are
they are they going to be able to win a game?
(17:13):
Figure out how to win a game when they're not
able to play the way they want to play? Because
I think that that right now is kind of what's
you know, what's what's lingering out there is that the
Cardinal the Cardinals sat back defensively. I would say the Steelers,
though not as much because the Steelers definitely blitz Jordan
Love plenty in that game. But we saw the Cardinals
(17:35):
sit back defensively. We've seen the Panthers sit back defensively,
and you know, Cardinals were able to do the job
for the first half and then the Packers kind of
going in the second half. The Panthers, as I said,
were never never had to come out of what they
were doing and when this pack when this Packers offense
gets into an uncomfortable spot in terms of not being
able to play that the way they want to play.
(17:57):
Are they going to be able? Are they going to
be able to find ways to win in doing that?
I think, because I think they're going to be in
this position again, and the growth of this team is
going to depend on whether they can figure that out well.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
And it's just understanding the situation too. In the hardest
part about this, and you've talked about this an inbox
quite a bit already, probably more even more than I have,
is that it's not like every single drive it was
the same issue, right, It was different things that plagued
(18:29):
them at different times. They move the ball very well
early on and saveon Williams has a fumble that they
lose and the drive ends. There's other instances like the
fourth and eight the play before that, where they're trying
that screen and then's going for a loss of five.
There's times where the situation where Jordan Love has to
kind of scan the field and understand where things are,
like the interception that he went downfield with. I feel
(18:53):
like all the firepower Green Bay needs is within this offense.
I feel like there are those outlets even without Craft.
We've seen it with Dobbs, We've seen it at times
with Matthew Golden, who it sounds like is alright with
the shoulder, and I'm now having Christian Watson back is
going to be huge for them, I feel like, especially
in that regard. But it's being able to consistently do
(19:15):
that week after week after week. And Xavier McKinney, as always,
was extremely eloquent after the game when talking about, you know,
this performance and what happened against Carolina wasn't necessarily a
huge surprise because they'd been kind of playing with fire
already in some of those close wins, including the matchup
against Arizona, but they found a way to win in
the end either way. Mike, I actually don't think we're
(19:38):
probably gonna get that answer on Monday Night Football. Yet
they could win that big, they can look that big.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
It's not going to happen. We're not going to see
it necessarily right away, but there's still you know, there's
nine regular season games left here.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
But that game against New York is the one I'm
looking at because that's the one where regardless of what
happens with the Giants next weekend, the Packers will again
be decided favorites. Regardless of the the outcome against the Eagles,
they are going to go into MetLife as a significant favorite.
And I'm not even saying you got to win thirty
five to seven or anything crazy like that, but how
do you play that opponent is going to be very critical.
(20:12):
I think these next two games we're going to learn
a lot about this football team because now the gimmes
are over, not even gimmeis, but the mulligans are over.
You had that performance against the Browns, it reflects in
your record. You had that performance against the Panthers, it
reflects on your record. Now the Packers are getting into
the real crux of their season. The NFC North games
(20:33):
are waiting, and they are all going to be doozies.
Have you learned from what has happened? Have you been
able to make the corrections to ultimately not have those
self inflicted wounds when there is no mulligan to be had. Yeah?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
And I like the way I like the way you
put that because I believe this Packers team is going
to bounce back, and I believe we are going to
see a much much better performance on Monday Night at
Lambeufield against the Philadelphia Eagles. It will be light years
better than what we saw against the Carolina Panthers. But
as we all know, the Packers can play light years
(21:10):
better than they did against the Panthers, and the Eagles
still could be just good enough to come in here.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
And beat Grip Bay.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Right, That's that's the difference. So we'll see what happens.
I think the Packers are going are going to bounce
back and play a good game, win or lose against
the Eagles on Monday Night. The question is, as you
just said, when that happens, does that bounce back performance
become something that they build on moving forward or does
(21:38):
it just become another part of this whole up and down,
you know, roller coaster type thing that we've seen that's
ultimately over the long haul, what's going to define this
season and where it's headed. We're going to we're going
to get a taste of it. We're gonna get a
taste of it Monday night, but then it's going to
be in the coming weeks after that. Because the easiest,
the easiest time to bounce back instead, a new standard
(22:00):
is when you played your worst game yep, which is
what the Packers just did. They played their worst game
of the season on Sunday against Carolina. But then assuming
that that happens, which I believe it will, then what
happens after that, So.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
It's not always about the wins or the loss is
not to jump over you there, but it is. I mean,
you go back to twenty sixteen, Packers got it handed
to them by Washington, but yet it still felt after
that game with Jared Cook coming back, it just kind
of felt like things were changing. And then the next
week they came and had a really virtuoso performance against
coincidentally the Philadelphia Eagles, and that started the whole run
the table thing.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
And it's not even just saying you gotta win eight
games in a row or anything crazy like that. My
point is is that you need to have it where
you have that rock, that foundation, that solidarity, that we
now have the confidence that we're gonna go out there
and it's not just rolling the dice, that we're gonna
go out there and impose our will and we're gonna
play our brand of football. That's where the Packers are
(22:56):
still this particular team is trying.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
To get Yeah, yeah, I agree. We'll pay some bills
here quickly with a word from our sponsors. Serious XMNFL
Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute
NFL news that true football fanatics need. Twenty four seven,
three sixty five. At Cousin Subs, we have something for
everyone like our Wisconsin cheese curds, mac and cheese, golden fries,
(23:20):
and creamy shakes, all paired with your favorite sub or
Subina bowl. Cousin Subs fifty plus years of better. Pit
Boss Grills the official grill of Packers tailgating at Lambeau
or at your house. Take your game day to the
next level with a pit Boss wood pellet grill. Pit
Boss Grills available at minards. Hey Packers fans, we always
(23:43):
knew Lambeoufield 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 Wes.
It's time to look again around the division around the conference.
Packers at five two and one in the NFC North
(24:04):
that is still good enough for the top spot for
the time being, the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears are
both five and three. In the Minnesota Vikings by virtue
of a big, big road victory over the Lions, Minnesota
is at four and four. So once again we are
back at the stage in the NFC North where no
one is below five hundred and it becomes anyone's division again.
(24:29):
And then when you look around at the rest of
the conference, Philadelphia, the Rams, the Seahawks, the Buccaneers are
all six and two. San Francisco is six and three,
Carolina is five and four. Those are two teams that
have not had their bye week yet, so they have
nine games under their belt. But when you add it
all up, there are nine teams in the NFC right
(24:49):
now with either five or six victories. I mean, there's
still a long way to go, you know, roughly half
the season, however you want to look at it. But
but man, oh man, it's there's still so much out
in front of everybody, right and and yes, at the
end of the day, as I said in Monday's Insider Inbox,
(25:10):
this loss to Carolina was a massive missed opportunity for
the Packers on a weekend when the Detroit Lions got beat. Yeah,
so it was a massive missed opportunity. But you have
to forget, you have to forget all of it, put
it all aside because there are nine games to go
here and this both the race and the NFC North
(25:32):
and the NFC in general is as tight as it gets.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Yeah. And my biggest point is, Mike, you and I
both had to answer our own fair share of incenter
inbox questions already this week. And my message to Packer
fans right now is to chill out. Some Packer fans
need to chill out this. You talk about being on
a roller coaster, and that's fine. Up and down, it happens.
Packers are five to two and one still at the
end of the day, if you want to see what
(25:56):
a bad football team is like, there's plenty of examples
out there for you to five. Packer fans gotta get
some balance here, bro, because we are one week away,
one week removed from Jordan Love is the greatest quarterback ever,
and the Packers are the best team ever, and they're
gonna win the Super Bowl and they're gonna win every game
the rest of the season. And we didn't need or
Aaron Rodgers to all the garbage that sifted into my
(26:20):
inbox and I've had to read for the last thirty
six hours. You want to see what's going around the league,
look at what happened with the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
It's not that they lost to Minnesota. It's that they've
had a completely Jeckyll and Hyde running game that at
times looks dominant and at times gets no traction. JJ
McCarthy threw for one hundred and forty three passing yards
(26:41):
in that game. Justin Jefferson didn't even hurt them. Aaron
Jones and Jordan Mason did. Yeah, mistakes did. It is
tough week in and week out to just run through everybody,
it doesn't matter who the opponent is. Do the Packers
got to do better? Yes, because exactly what you just said,
it is an extremely tight NFC race from the top
to who potentially could be that number seven seed. But
(27:03):
my goodness, man, every single time the Packers lose or
there's a setback, or there's an interception, or you're not
happy with the throw or the play call, people just
completely losing their minds on social media. You may not
realize this, but I remember everything I see all those
things that I don't just start on to the next
game and forget about it. We have to move forward.
(27:25):
And it's not just one game. The Packers have already
played eight games. If you take that approach, every single week, win, lose,
er in one case tie, there's nothing to be able
to grab onto anymore. Disappointment is fine. There's nothing wrong
with disappointment. I get it. I was a Brewers fan
growing up. I understand disappointment, my friends. But the Packers
(27:50):
could easily win this game against the Eagles, and the
only thing that matters then is how they play against
the Giants.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Right, And that's the thing now where it's where, Yes,
the opportunity was lost against the Panthers. It's extremely frustrating,
especially in a home game, to see the team perform
like that. And I'm not discounting that, but in this
marathon of an NFL season, it's all about it's all
about how you respond. How do you? I mean you
(28:20):
have to respond in games, and you have to respond
after games on a week to week basis in this league.
I mean, the Detroit Lions right now are talking about
are talking about how in the world did we turn
the ball? Over three or four times, whatever it was,
playing at home against the division rival. You can't do
that and win, right. The Indianapolis Colts, who were riding
(28:41):
on you on top of the world there, you know,
they went into Pittsburgh where the Packers went in in
primetime and got a victory in high stakes and you know,
ultra hyped game and whatnot. The Indianapolis Colts took their
seven and one record into Pittsburgh and started turning the
football over. They started making mistakes. I mean, whether you're
talking turnovers or penalties or missed blocks or you know, whatever,
(29:06):
whatever the case might be. It's just it's what makes
winning consistently in this league so difficult to do so now.
And it's just it puts you in different spots over
the course of a season, right. I mean the spot
the Packers are in now is is okay, it's it's
recovery mode. It's bounce back mode and get back to
(29:27):
get back to being who you are. But then also know,
the lesson that has to be learned from the Carolina
game is that if you get into a game where
you're not able to play the way you want to play,
you still got to find a way to win it,
and that's what they that's what they didn't do. So
if they can, if they can learn that lesson, and
whether it's whether it's against you know, the Giants or
(29:50):
the Ravens toward the end of the year, or when
they go out to Denver to play the Broncos, if
they get if they get into a game where they're
not they're not able to play the way they want
to play. But you're sitting there in a one score
game in the fourth quarter, it's like, figure it out
and find a way to win it and then you
can work on all the other stuff later. That's the
opportunity that got away from him against the Panthers, and
(30:11):
hopefully that's the lesson learned that the next opportunity they
can figure it out and then they're not sitting here
taking another you know, taking another tally mark in the
lost CAUP.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Just to bring it through this really quickly, you had
the Arizona Cardinals dispatch the Dallas Cowboys twenty seven to seventeen.
Questions now and whether or not Jacoby Brissett should be
the starting quarterback they're moving forward.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I said that after the Packers played. After that, I mean,
I thought what Jacoby Brissett did in those back to
back games, the one before playing the Packers, and then
how he looked playing against the Packers. I thought, I thought, yeah,
it looks like it looks like Arizona's got a better
quarterback in their backup than they do in their starter.
But that's me.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
The Buffalo Bills defeated the Kansas City Chiefs twenty eight,
twenty one. The Chiefs now at four losses five and
four on the season. You look over and the Bears
game against the Bengals when you talk about fine lines
the fact that the Bears gave up a ton of
production to Joe Flacco that entire offense, but found a
way to win because of the issues that Cincinnati's defense
(31:14):
is having. First time, I think, what was it since
nineteen sixty six an offense has scored over thirty five
or forty points in back to back weeks and lost
both of those games. This is the plight of the NFL.
The Atlanta Falcons played the seven and two now seven
and two New England Patriots really tough. Michael Pennix played well,
Drake London played well. It didn't matter. They still lost.
(31:35):
You were saying earlier today in one of our conversations
you and I were having, especially in the modern day
with the expanded playoff formats, it's about playing well at
the end of the season. Right now is about gathering
as many victories as you can. And for the Packers,
they needed that one that would have got into six wins.
You had to edit inbox on Saturday. I rode in there.
That's the only goal is to get that six win
and the conduit for that was going to be the
(31:57):
Carolina Panthers. That is out of the question. Now now
can you get it against the Philadelphia Eagles?
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
When after? When after? When brings you to the dance
and then you hope that you have your best team
at that time and we have a long long way
to go.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, yeah, that we get. Where I see the Packers
at right now is they have a lot of stuff
to figure out. There's a lot of time still to
do that. But now the added challenge has been thrown
in of doing that without one of your best offensive
players in Tucker Craft.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
So just the biggest thing to come out of last
weekend win or lose.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
The task got harder. The task is obvious, but the
task now also got harder, so how are they going
to respond to it? And we will talk more about
that and about the Eagles, the six and two Philadelphia Eagles,
the defending Super Bowl champs coming to lambeau Field on
our next show in a couple of days, But for now,
we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers
Unscript and be sure to continue following all of our
(32:53):
coverage of the team on Packers dot com. For West,
I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will
see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.