November 19, 2024 • 33 mins
Mike and Wes put the last-second victory over the Bears into historical perspective (3:03) and review the play of Green Bay’s offense (4:08), QB Jordan Love (10:08) and the Packers’ defense (14:53). They also look at where things stand in the NFC North (27:37) and around the league (29:17).
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 (00:15):
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always
by my partner in crime, Wes Hodkins. We're coming to
you hear from our studios at lambeau Field to discuss Wes.
Yet another down to the wire victory by the Green
Bay Packers is the third one this season the Packers
have won at the buzzer, so to speak, and this
(00:37):
one a blocked field goal at Soldier Field to beat
the Chicago Bears twenty to nineteen. Everything on that final
drive the Bears, you know, getting out of the third
and nineteen, they convert on fourth and short, They get
themselves in position and it's looking like, okay. The Packers
have won a couple games on walkoff field goals. Now
(00:58):
they're going to lose one on walk off field goal.
But no, Carl Brooks gets the hand up there, gets
the fingertip on the football and the Packers survive.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
The Cardiac pack two pointo is what I've been calling
this to my father the past week. Wow, it just
it seems like every way the Packers could win a
football game this year, they've done it. And I am
not above telling you exactly what was going through my
head at the end of that game. Because the Cairo
(01:32):
Santos is in a very accomplished kicker. It's been doing
it for a long time now. In this league. People
forget the issues that the Bears had trying to find
a kicker after Robbie Gold. Santos is the one that
ended that carousel for them, right and has held down
that job for multiple years now. I hate to be
a pessimist. I love being a half glass, half full guy.
But I had a running game story to write. You
(01:53):
were doing a final recap. I was getting ready for
a Packers loss in terms of writing my stuff and
getting stuff ready so we could get down to the
locker room. I was ill prepared for handling a potential game.
Missing a field goal is one thing, but then a
game winning field goal block, the first one since your
great grandfather was what traversing the halls of Washington.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
DC something like that.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, nineteen thirty nine, the last time the Packers have
won a football game off a field goal block on
the last play of the game against the world renowned
Cleveland Rams and they got the job done. Man, And
how many times have I written this season, including in
Tuesday's Inbox. It just doesn't matter. Just win the game.
(02:38):
And this was probably the best, biggest example of it all.
You do not apologize, You do not take any style
points and try to add them into the victory or
massage it any other way other than the sack. The
Packers won the game, and they continued in unprecedented eleven
straight victories over the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
And that's the history oracle note I wanted to pivot
to because this falls in the category of you can't
make this stuff up. Twenty five years ago at lambeau Field,
the Chicago Bears came into Green Bay having lost ten
in a row to the Packers, and they break the
(03:20):
streak of ten straight losses to the Packers on Brian
Robinson's block of Ryan Longwell's chip shot a twenty eight yarder.
The Packers sat on the ball, twenty eight yarder. This
is going to be a win, Brian Robinson, the hand
of Walter Walter Payton had passed away earlier in the week.
The hand of Walter blocks the field goal, and the
Bears break their ten game losing streak in the rivalry.
(03:44):
Fast forward to Sunday at Soldier Field, and the Packers
have won ten straight, and the Bears are lining up
for the field goal to break the ten game losing streak,
and the Packers blocked the field goal to make it
eleven in a row, the first time in the history
of the NFL's oldest rivalry that one team has won
(04:05):
eleven straight. But breaking this game down a little bit
further offensively first, for Green Bay. I came out of
this I came out of this game just with a
whole bunch of mixed feelings about the offense. Because if
you had told me we had talked all week last
(04:26):
week and I was the one stressing it, the Bears
were the number one red zone defense, the Packers were
the number twenty nine red zone offense. That was the
situational matchup that would probably decide the game. If you
had told me before the game started that the Packers
were going to get in the red zone five times
against the Bears and score three touchdowns, I would have
said Packers are going to have a heck of a
(04:47):
chance to win the game. But if you had also
told me that twice when the Packers get in the
red zone, they're going to get zero points on two
red zone opportunities in this case actually two opportunities that
got all the way the five yard line and the
Packers got no points. I would have said, well, you're
gonna have a hard time winning that football game. So
(05:07):
that's where I say, like, I have my mixed feelings.
There was a ton to like about what the Packers
did on offense with very limited opportunities. We'll talk about
the reasons for those limited opportunities when we get to
the defense. There was a lot to like about what
the Packers did on offense, but to only come out
with twenty points in that game was extremely frustrating because again,
(05:28):
as we've said so many times this year, there was
so much more out there for this team to put
on the scoreboard.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
As the great Dom Capers once said in the Packers
media auditorium, let me start with the positives. Okay, first
and foremost, it looks like knock on wood, Jordan Love
has put the groin injury behind him. He was scrambling more,
he was working under center more, absolutely, and the Packers
wanted to run more in this game, more conventional and
(05:55):
they were able to do that. And for all the
things people have Monday Morning quarterback about this game. The
game plan I think was rock solid. There were so
many things that you and I discussed last week. You
had to run the football. They probably didn't run it
as well as they wanted to, but you had to
do it because if you getting third and long, you're
setting You're setting the bear trap. There no pun intended
for Chicago be able to get a takeaway, which is
(06:17):
ultimately what happened in the red zone on one of
those plays when they had to go third and long
and they're still darting towards the end zone. Christian Watson
was unbelievable in this game. The downfield stuff that him
and Jordan Love had been trying to find their chemistry,
trying to find that get on the same page with
They did it in this game. A few moments of
results over process, the long pass, the forty eight yarder
(06:39):
when it also looked like you had Tucker Craft available underneath.
It is what it is. But what I loved about
that play too. I'm sure you saw it in You're
What you might have missed series. Tucker's running right towards
Christian to celebrate with them. As soon as the play
Happens was extremely happy for him. Watson's a guy that
has very much. He has absolutely earned all of those opportunities.
The sixty yard catch and run won the Packers the
(07:00):
game pretty much, and they did those types of explosive plays.
And when you look at how the Packers won this game,
independent of Carl Brooks's block, they won it with explosive plays.
The Chicago Bears played cleaner, the Packers played better, and
that's how they won the game. The disappointing thing was
much like I was talking about with the run game.
Everybody knew the Packers had to produce inside the red
(07:22):
zone to be able to really pull away in this one,
and they failed to do that. Part of that. You
give credit to the Bears. They're the number one ranked
red zone defense for a reason. But unfortunately some of
the things that have plagued the Packers showed up in
the red zone. The penalty that initially pushed him back
on the illegal man downfield, those are the type of
things you still want to clean up while buying large.
They did in the penalty front, but it showed itself
(07:43):
in the red area and then certainly just a missed
opportunity Jordan Love played a pretty solid game overall, but
then as Matt Lafleur was saying, the ball kind of
sales on him on that third down pass to Tucker
Craft a moment where the Packers are just maybe trying
to use that catch and run that yack to potentially
getting to the end zone, and it doesn't work out there,
it ends up being an interception, Chicago's offense starts rolling
(08:05):
the other way. A lot of words I've just spoken,
but basically it comes down to the fact that Packers
still have things to work on, but they're one of
the most explosive offenses in the league right now, and
that's ultimately what bailed them out.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
That's that's what I keep, you know, hanging the hat on,
so to speak, with regard to this Packers offense for
the frustrations and the points that are left out there,
and the scoreboard you know hasn't in so many games,
hasn't reflected what, you know, maximizing those opportunities would be
(08:38):
this team, no matter what defense it has gone against,
they can generate explosive plays and that is something that
that is something that this offense can definitely hang its
hat on moving forward. I'm one hundred percent with you
on Christian Watson was that was a tremendous game for him.
All four of his catches, all four of his receptions,
were explosive plays, and they were all critical. They were
(09:01):
all big time plays at big moments in the game.
The other guy, I will point out that I thought
played a really, really good game, and it seems like
I talk about him every week as Josh Jacobs. He
was grinding away on the ground. He also had an
impact in the passing game, rushing and receiving one hundred
and thirty four yards from scrimmage. For Jacobs, the receiving
(09:23):
was a combination of a couple of design passes, but
also a couple of checkdowns, which then also gets me
to the game that Jordan Love played. And quite honestly,
yes there's a lot of focus on the interception, is
a throw that got away from him. Was the right
decision where the ball was supposed to go on the play,
It was just a bad throw. The Bears happened to
have somebody in the right spot where the overthrow went
(09:45):
to get the interception, But honestly, that was the only
bad pass Jordan Love threw. The entire game. Quite frankly,
he ends up thirteen out of seventeen. He scrambled and
took off. He made the Bears pay a little bit
with his legs. He did take checkdowns to the running backs,
whether it was to Chris Brooks or to Josh Jacobs
here and there. Other than that one bad pass, he
(10:08):
did not put the ball in harm's way. I thought
Jordan Love played a really, really good game. I think
him being fully healthy, having the bye week to rest up,
take all the practice reps, all that stuff we talked
about last week certainly played into it. Jordan Love was
this close, this close because of that one bad pass
to playing the type of game that we would be
(10:28):
praising him for. Everybody would be praising him for up
and down. I think that's a huge sign for this
Packers offense moving forward. And in his defense a little bit,
Matt Lafleur fell on the sword with regard to the interception,
not because of the play itself, but because that third
and long was set up because Lafleur criticized himself for
(10:51):
not just running Jacobs on second and one from the
five yard line. Called the pass play. That's what leads
to the illegal man downfield. You don't get illegal man
downfield if you run the ball, so that back the
Packers up. Then they tried the end around with Jayden
Reid that lost a few more yards of put Love
in a bad spot with third and long, and Matt
Lafleur was really upset himself for not just calling a
(11:13):
running play on second and one. You get a first
and goal inside the five yard line. You pounded in there,
and very likely the game is fourteen to three and
we're not talking about a black blocked field goal at
the end for the win. But back to my original point,
I thought Jordan Love played probably his best overall game
of the season. There's only one bad pass, one play
(11:35):
like that that we're talking about as far as as
far as what went wrong, and hopefully that bodes well
for this offense moving forward.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Do you know what I like the most? Mike Packers
had a huge momentum flip right around halftime. A bulk
of the Chicago Bears points came between that mark of
at the end of the first half. In the beginning
of the second, Love kept his composure as we know
he does, but he led them out a huge drive
there to start the third quarter, capitalized by Josh Jacobs
(12:03):
getting that seven yard rushing touchdown, the fiftieth of his
NFL career in the regular season, and then when they
needed drives late, he made plays and he put his
players in positions to make plays. The past the Christian
Watson not the most perfect textbook pass. Watson had to
lay out for that thing and make a play. But
the thing I love about what.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Jordan and Love had a guy in his face on
that absolutely number ninety nine had had just slipped by
Josh Myers. The pocket had held up really well. Josh
Jacobs had picked up the blitzer TJ Edwards ninety nine
had started to slip by Josh Myers and got a
pretty good hit on Love as he let that ball go.
But fortunately Watson was able to make the diving cat.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
As Lafloor said, staring down the barrel. Sometimes YEA to
make those plays I do. But Watson made it right.
And and that's where getting on the same page is
so critical and being able to capitalize on these opportunities.
Jordan Love man, people are going to perseverate on the interception,
and that's going to be something the rest of the season.
He's already thrown eleven. We have nine more games in
(13:05):
the regular season? Is that? Or no, eight more? How
many games we have left? Or they're seven? Seven? Thank you?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Hopefully the Packers have nine or ten games left, but
seven in the regular.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
NFL is adding games every three minutes. I can't figure
out exactly how many they are left anymore. Seven games
left in the regular season. He's sitting on eleven interceptions.
I'm going to tell you a little bit of a secret.
He's probably going to throw another one at some point. Yeah,
you will. So when people come up with the well
he threw another pick, and now it's eleven, Well he
might throw on this week, it might be twelve. You
can't worry about what's happened. Even last year. I thought,
(13:34):
I don't know if you caught this, but Alex Smith
had a tremendous analysis of Jordan Love in the lead
up to Sunday's game, where he was talking about Jordan's
numbers in the first half of last year are pretty
similar to what they are right now. But then he
got on that run. Nobody was talking about the eleven
interceptions the last season. They're talking about the four thousand
passing yards the thirty two touchdowns, and that's where they
(13:55):
need Jordan to get to now. So I thought that
was a major step in the right direction offensively.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, I mean, not to get hung up on the
interceptions for too long. But the reason that the bad
decision interceptions really hurt you is because you're going to
have interceptions where a throw just gets away from you,
where something happens or a guy drops go or ball
gets deflected or whatever, a guy doesn't catch it. So's
(14:21):
and that's where the bad decision ones hurt you. You
have to eliminate those. And if Jordan Love eliminates the
bad decision interceptions, yeah, once in a while a throw
is going to get away. It might get picked off.
You can live with that at the end of the day.
The frustrating thing not just the two drives that reach
the five yard line, but ultimately the Packers come away
with no points. But as well as the Packers were
(14:43):
moving the ball steadily consistently on offense, they only got
six possessions in this game, not including the one play
neel down at the end of the first half. Six
possessions in this game, and that's because the Packers defense
had a really really rough day. The defense could not
get off the field, could not get the ball back
to Jordan Love and the offense enough. The Bears end
(15:05):
up with thirty six and a half minutes of time
of possession. They end up with on their seven drives.
They didn't have a single drive with fewer than seven plays,
and five of their seven drives were double digit plays
ten or more. Combining third and fourth downs, the Bears
(15:25):
were twelve out of seventeen. Ye The Packers' defense just
they put themselves in enough situations to get off the field,
but then they couldn't do it. And the Bears had
switched offensive coordinators, like we talked about, I think the
new offensive coordinator whispered something in Caleb Williams's ear, so
(15:46):
to speak of like, hey, you can take off and run.
Your legs are a good weapon, go ahead and use them.
Don't forget about them kind of thing. And they mixed
in the zone read stuff where it was you know
where he gets the decision to hand off or keep,
and he hurt the pa between the scrambles and the
zone read seventy rushing yards from the quarterback. That was
a big game from Caleb Williams, and I thought the
(16:07):
way he used his legs built his confidence in the
passing game and the throws that he was able to make,
and it just felt like it felt to me like
the way the way Caleb Williams used his legs to
hurt the Packers, it just kept the Packers defense on
its heels. Yeah, a whole game. The Packers were not
in attack mode on defense because they got kind of
(16:30):
thrown off kilter by all the running around that Caleb
Williams was doing. And credit to the Bears it it
should have been enough for them to win the game,
and it almost was if they don't get the kick blocked.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And kind of like Malik Willis when he was filling
in for Jordan Love with what he can do with
his legs, what Williams did is it helped set up
DeAndre Swift. Swift had a really hard time getting going.
Rashaan Johnson had a hard time getting going when he
started scrambling. Then they started working the read option. That's
then when he broke off the thirty nine yard touch Yeah.
Then he gets the touchdown on the top on the sweep. Yeah,
(17:03):
And that's where you're starting to see things happen. Now again,
I'll mention the positives here quickly. With the Packers defense,
they didn't rupture. That's the thing. Green Baby had thirty
fewer possessions or whatever it was, but they still had
more explosive plays than yea, the Bears did.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And at the end of the day, there's only nineteen
points on the board. So you can't you know, you
can't be too overly critical. But it was the way
the game unfolded and the way the possessions were limited
that the Packers offense just didn't get the chances that
you would like it to get when they're moving the
ball so.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Well, and a lot of those explosive plays the Bears
got ended up being during the final stretch of that game. Yeah, now,
I'll bring it back around for a second. The Packers
end up turning over the ball and Bears get it
at the two yard line. This is where I sometimes
and Connor Lewis knows these statistics a lot better than
me the idea and Matt kind of touched on this
a little bit too. When a team is starting at
(17:55):
the minus two, if you don't rupture, even if you
give up a couple first downs and the Bears are
playing the way they have to play, they consistently have
to keep getting first downs. That helped green Bay get
through that situation to get the ball back to eventually
have the one where they finally did go ahead with
the scoring drive. They responded in that instance that the
(18:16):
tough thing for green Bay though, was, and I've gone
back and forth with fans about this, but you finally
get some pressure on the quarterback, you get the TJ.
Slayton sack, which is then followed by the Rashan Gary sack.
And Rashan might have had his best game of the
season against Chicago with what he was able to do.
When you look at the pressure numbers, when you look
at the quarterback he had, some of the tackles he had,
Rashan was getting after it. He gets a sack from
(18:37):
minus eight or nine yards third and nineteen. You're sitting
in I know everybody wants the Packers to move up
and play pressman coverage and be physical and everything, and
you just cannot do that. But it's what that third
downplay was a good illustration of, is the extremely minute
narrow margin for error. Kings Lingbari leaves his feet on
(18:58):
the pass rush. He's trying to make a play yep.
But then Williams again with the feet, gets in the
open field, extends and then Romadunze makes two fantastic catches
back to back plays. To be able to move the
ball down field, you have to get off the field
on third downs eight conversions and beyond that three fourth
down conversions. On the five instances where they didn't convert
(19:18):
on third down, Chicago was just way too efficient. Green
Bay has to break that. That being said, they made
it right, and that's what complimentary football is. If you're
not getting everything from the defense, but they're still keeping
points off the board, there's still finding ways to keep
you in it. That's where the special teams has to
pick them up. And obviously that's where the explosive plays
came into a factor for Green Bay as well.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, I thought I thought the defense, the defense had,
the defense had a chance to sort of cure a
lot of ills on the day when you know the
game's on the line, final possession, the Packers have the
lead by one point, you get the back to back sacks,
you put them in third and nineteen. You and I
were talking because I think at that point it was
the two minute warnings. So there's a little bit of
(20:01):
a break up the clock. You and I were talking,
and I think you and I were in agreement where
it's like, Okay, you don't get too aggressive on third
and nineteen. You make them take the check down, you know,
you you sit back and cover, you make them take
the checkdown. You come up, get a tackle, maybe they
get seven or eight yards, and you've got them in
like fourth and twelve, and then the game's on the line.
(20:21):
On fourth and twelve. What happened. The play got extended,
and that's where that's where your plan defensively gets foiled,
because the play gets extended and it becomes a you know,
a quote unquote plaster situation because the quarterback avoids the sack,
gets out of the pocket, and then the receivers are
are further downfield and they're able to hit the sixteen
(20:44):
yard or so. Then instead of a instead of a
fourth and long or a fourth and medium, you're in
a much more fourth and manageable, you know, fourth and three.
And then and then on that play, the fourth down play,
I just I tipped my hat to Caleb Williams and
roma death. That was a that was a back shoulder
throwing catch down the sideline. I don't know what you
(21:05):
can really do to defend that, and it's and it's
such a quick, you know, three step drop and release.
There's nothing the pass rush can really do there. That's
just a great play by those guys. You would have
liked to have seen them, you know, seen it not
be fourth and three, because then the defense is in
a little bit different different situation.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
But the rush call changes completely.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, absolutely, every the way the way you play it,
the way you play it changes. So unfortunately, you know,
that opportunity for the defense to kind of cure the
ills and maybe get the the same type of stop
that the defense got to win the Rams game when
the Rams were kind of, you know, trying to rally
at the end. The defense had a chance to do
that and didn't do that. And so that's that's concerning
(21:47):
from that standpoint. Unfortunately, the Packers had lost jyr Alexander.
They thought they were going to get him back. He
only plays a handful of snaps in the first half.
The knee wasn't good enough. He ends up in street
close for the second half and wasn't able to continue.
You so that's an injury injury situation that we will
uh that we will continue to watch. But UH, but
you know, it felt like at the it's it's the
(22:10):
word I used at the beginning of the show. It
just felt like the Packers survived it. Yeah, and UH
and you know, and now they're they're seven and three
with UH with a lot to look forward to. As
you said, seven regular season games left to go. There
is a ton of football left in this season and
uh and the Packers are in position to make something
up and.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Quickly to end on this this note before we start
looking at the league. You know, you give I tipped
my hat to Rich Bisaccia, you know, Byron Storer, everybody
that's involved in that side of the face they did
their research going into this game. They saw a potential
opportunity there with the a gap and the field goal
protection unit. As Matt Lafleur and Josh Jacobs both said,
Bassachia brought it to the team and basically it brought
(22:49):
it to his his phase, his wifense and said, I'll
be highly disappointed if we don't come out with the
block in this game. And I was talking with Javon
Bullard afterwards and he's like, yeah, you know what we
thought we'd get. Well, it just so happened to be
the last one that they finally end up getting through on.
And Carl Bradford gets his second block of his career.
And I want to mention that books Carl Brooks, Carl Bradford,
(23:09):
I did it again.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah, that's the second time you does.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I hope Carl's doing well out there. He's getting a
lot of pub here on Packers Unscripted this season. Carl
Brooks gets the job done the second block of his career.
And I thought this was a tremendous statistic that Tom
Fanning from the Packers' communication staff figured out. I don't
know if it was in concert with Elias or not.
It was probably just his own studying. Since twenty twenty two,
when Rich Pasaci was hired, the Green Bay Packers now
(23:34):
have the second most blocked field goals in the National
Football League to Pittsburgh. And if anybody, if you know
anything about the Steelers special teams units, yeah, and just
what they've accomplished, they have ten in that stretch. The
Packers have six, two of those belonging to Brooks. Two
of them belonging to Kolbe Wooden, and I think Josh
Niman is in there as well. That the Packers have
found ways to be able to do that. It just
so happened in this case it ended up saving them
(23:55):
a football game. The Packers now sitting at seven to three.
Three of those games have come down to the and
that final play has been special teams.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And I'll just say this before I get onto sponsor
business and we move on to other topics. There's a
lot of people talking out there about the Bears head
coach Matt Eberflu said he's sending the play into the
league because contact with the long snapper. I'm just going
to clarify this because I didn't actually clarify it very
well in Monday's Insider Inbox column. I'm going to do
so in Wednesday's column. Yes, the long snapper is protected
(24:25):
from contact, but the rule is he's only protected from
contact when his head is down down and he's not
allowed to just keep his head down the entire time
and prevent Basically, to prevent anybody from rushing the a gap,
he has to snap the ball, get his head up
in position, and when his head is up then he
(24:46):
can be contacted. So you can't just snap the ball
as a long snapper on a field goal and keep
your head down and not allow anybody to rush in
that spot. I mean, we know the Bears aren't going
to get anywhere with sending this into the league. I
guess I don't blame him in some respects for doing it.
If I'm mat Eberfluse, I don't know if I would
have made that public that I'm complaining about that.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
You know, Packerson stuff in the league every week.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
They don't announce it, and matt Lelafure never tells anybody,
you know, unless he's unless he's directly asked about it,
and he might say, yes, I'm sending into the league,
and then he's not even going to comment on it.
We've never heard anything of what the Packers get back
from the league in those situations. So I just wanted
to clarify what the rule actually is because a lot
(25:30):
of people think the rule is the long snapper can't
be touched.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
No.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I mean, yes, he can't be touched when his head
is down, but he also can't keep his head down
the entire time.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
So may I add one last thing? Sure, you know
how an insider in box. Occasionally we'll get the people
that write in there. It's like, Hey, I was a
high school football coach or I officiated you know my
middle school, you know basketball teams league. I have one
of those moments here. One thing happened in that game
against the Bears, because obviously there was that incident with
(26:00):
Xavier McKinney at the start of the game. I found
this funny Matt Aberflus pining for calls and everything like that.
I think there's a line there where you obviously are
working the officials. But it reminded me of my own
city league basketball career, where there were times where we
would play teams and we knew we were not as
good as them, and we knew we needed every single
(26:20):
thing to go right in order to even have a
remote chance of beating them, and we would be on
the officials of these making twenty five bucks or whatever
for the game. That's what it reminded me of. It
didn't remind me of a head coach working the referees.
It reminded me of a guy that's pretty desperate for
his team to win. And I mean before the McKinney flag,
(26:41):
there was another incident on the sideline where his hands
were up, his neck was back, and he's thrown himself
around like a beanie baby, trying to, you know, make
it known that he thinks there should be a penalty.
It is what it is. You move on. But I
love what Matt Lafleur said about this. You can't depend
on that stuff. He wasn't talking about Eberflus, but he
was just talking about it happens all the time. There
(27:01):
are always penalties that you are going to disagree with,
the things you didn't think got called. But your team
still needs to win the football game and play beyond that.
Yeah the Bears didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, you have to protect your field goal kicker, and
the Bears didn't do it. The Packers got the penetration
that helped them win the game. Sponsor business Here West
Sirius XMNFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to
the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need. Twenty
four to seven, three sixty five and ed cousin subs.
We have something for everyone. The Garlasconts and cheese Kurds,
(27:32):
mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes, all paired
with your favorite sub or sub in a bowl, Cousin
subs fifty plus years of better. All right, we're running
a little bit late, so we'll get through this quickly
and then sign off. The NFC North Detroit is nine
and one, Minnesota is eight and two, Green Bay is
seven and three. The weekend played out as we thought.
The NFC North completed a fourteen to two near sweep
(27:56):
of the AFC South, with the Jaguars losing to the
Lions and the Titans losing to the Viking.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I didn't get to tell you this during your pre
production meeting. The Lions still have to play the Colts
this week. Really, yeah, they do, so we're close. It's
thirteen and two right now, thirteen and thirteen to two,
die bad. I was gonna mention that too beforehand when
I was looking at the schedule Lions Detroit.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
And missed THEUS oil. I missed that, then, I'm not
thought that.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I just want to make sure we got that right.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
So no, I appreciate that. I appreciate that I missed it.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
The Lion's going to be big underdogs, going in.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
By Lucas Oil occasionally is wrong, but that being said,
so it is thirteen and two.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You look at how Jared Goff bounced back a five
interception game and he was perfect fifty eight point three.
The Jacksonville Jaguars barely even got off the bus. Yeah, wow,
fifty two to six. You do that to somebody in
the National FOOTBA League. There was a couple of those
games we covered in the McCarthy era. I think there
was one with even early on, I think he before
(28:54):
I started covering the team. There was a game against
the Saints where I think they won like fifty five
to three or something like that. But if you can
do that with thirty two teams the best players in
the world, you tip your cap to them. And then
certainly Tennessee made it a little bit interesting, but just
Minnesota too much. One, eight and two, seven and three.
What a division.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, I want to get your thoughts really quickly before
we go, because we talked about all these big games
featuring all these teams with seven plus wins going into
the weekend. So Philadelphia defeats Washington, Buffalo defeats Kansas City
and hands the Chiefs their first loss of the season,
and Pittsburgh kicks a whole bunch of field goals and
it's enough to beat the Baltimore Ravens. I can't say
(29:32):
I'm surprised or shocked necessarily by any of those results.
And I think all of those teams still have a
lot in front of them, and some of those some
of those games might quite frankly be playoff previews.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Mike tom Litt'll be a Hall of Fame coach, He'll
be in Canton someday. But my goodness, there's so many
times I watch his team's play. I'm like, this guy
would have been perfect in the sixties. He could have
been a Lombardi, you know, just they just find ways
to win. Who beats the Baltimore Ravens eighteen to sixteen
with field goal? Nobody but Mike tob Tke tob a
little fight the way Chris Boswell and in that in
(30:06):
that team, uh.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Well and and Justin Tucker missed some kicks there. Chris Boswell,
h Boswell was the was the kicking star of the game,
and uh and Justin Tucker's uh had had a bad
game in what's a Hall of Fame career?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
What's for that guy? Been a bad season for him unfortunately. Yeah. Uh,
Kansas City and Buffalo I just want to say this quickly.
This was the outcome both of these teams needed. I
didn't think there was any reason this chief should be undefeated.
And I'm not saying like, oh, they don't deserve it.
I'm saying they're a team that I think needed to
eventually lose one. Buffalo desperately needed to beat Kansas City. Now, ultimately,
(30:41):
I think that game will once again be decided at
some point in the postseason. Just seemed like it's the
way it's been working out. But I think there's a
lot more to be gained from that for for the Chiefs,
even though you want to win that game from a
potential loss. I thought Patrick mahomes post game speech was terrific.
Is his address of the media was. I loved.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I absolutely loved, because I and I saw it on
the plane live because we have our little TV screens
there as we're doing our work and I'm keeping kind
of a little bit of an eye in the game.
Buffalo is up by two. They've got a fourth and
two inside the thirty yard line, and Sean McDermott said, well,
I could kick the field goal and go up five
(31:17):
and watch Patrick Mahomes go down and score a touchdown
and beat me, or I can put the ball in
my quarterback's hands on fourth and two and we're going
to try to go get a touchdown. And not only
do they convert the fourth and two, but Josh Allen
takes it all the way into the end zone, so
they get the two score lead that Sean McDermott wanted.
And the two score lead is what finally put Patrick
(31:38):
Mahomes away.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
And you know what the real dirty secret is of
this game. You obviously want to get the first round
by but this doesn't matter. What they needed is they
needed to beat Kansas City and they need to be
aggressive because it's that type of mindset that's finally going
to get you past them in the playoffs, and that's
ultimately what the Bills are trying to do. I loved it.
It was It was tremendous call. It was tremendous gutsiness.
And it also when you have an established football team
(32:02):
with an established coach and in a staff, in a
franchise quarterback that people tried to, you know, kind of
throw some shade at earlier this year, but I mean,
Josh Allen is obviously one of the top three quarterbacks
in the league, potentially the MVP this season. That's the
type of stuff that you do. And obviously it worked
out well for Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
And I'll say real quickly before we go team to
watch in the NFC right now, obviously the Packers, everything
going on in the NFC North is worth watching. But
the team to watch in the NFC right now is
Washington because they had a big game on a Thursday night.
They were right there against the Eagles, and they completely
collapsed in the fourth quarter, just got railroaded in the
(32:40):
fourth quarter by a division rival. Now they get a
little extra time because it was a Thursday night game.
But how Washington now responds to that moving forward is
going to be a big factor in the NFC playoff
picture of the rest.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
When you talk about slumpbusters, when you're hosting the Dallas Cowboys,
in this version of the Dallas Cowboys, you will have
an up ertilly to bounce back.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah, they will. They will, But I'm talking more long
well for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah, but I mean, like, talk about a gift from
above after that loss, after this little streak.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
They right, they're not, They're not. They're not getting sent
to Detroit. Yeah, play play their next game, right So
all right, Well, with that, we got to talk about
the draft because you should be among the thousands of
football fans cheering on their team's NFL picks by joining
us April twenty four through April twenty six of twenty
twenty five for the NFL Draft. Visit green Bay dot
(33:30):
com slash Draft twenty five for more information, and with
that we'll call it a wrap 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, everybody. We will see you
next time.
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joined as always
by my partner in crime, Wes Hodkins. We're coming to
you hear from our studios at lambeau Field to discuss Wes.
Yet another down to the wire victory by the Green
Bay Packers is the third one this season the Packers
have won at the buzzer, so to speak, and this
(00:37):
one a blocked field goal at Soldier Field to beat
the Chicago Bears twenty to nineteen. Everything on that final
drive the Bears, you know, getting out of the third
and nineteen, they convert on fourth and short, They get
themselves in position and it's looking like, okay. The Packers
have won a couple games on walkoff field goals. Now
(00:58):
they're going to lose one on walk off field goal.
But no, Carl Brooks gets the hand up there, gets
the fingertip on the football and the Packers survive.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
The Cardiac pack two pointo is what I've been calling
this to my father the past week. Wow, it just
it seems like every way the Packers could win a
football game this year, they've done it. And I am
not above telling you exactly what was going through my
head at the end of that game. Because the Cairo
(01:32):
Santos is in a very accomplished kicker. It's been doing
it for a long time now. In this league. People
forget the issues that the Bears had trying to find
a kicker after Robbie Gold. Santos is the one that
ended that carousel for them, right and has held down
that job for multiple years now. I hate to be
a pessimist. I love being a half glass, half full guy.
But I had a running game story to write. You
(01:53):
were doing a final recap. I was getting ready for
a Packers loss in terms of writing my stuff and
getting stuff ready so we could get down to the
locker room. I was ill prepared for handling a potential game.
Missing a field goal is one thing, but then a
game winning field goal block, the first one since your
great grandfather was what traversing the halls of Washington.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
DC something like that.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yeah, nineteen thirty nine, the last time the Packers have
won a football game off a field goal block on
the last play of the game against the world renowned
Cleveland Rams and they got the job done. Man, And
how many times have I written this season, including in
Tuesday's Inbox. It just doesn't matter. Just win the game.
(02:38):
And this was probably the best, biggest example of it all.
You do not apologize, You do not take any style
points and try to add them into the victory or
massage it any other way other than the sack. The
Packers won the game, and they continued in unprecedented eleven
straight victories over the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
And that's the history oracle note I wanted to pivot
to because this falls in the category of you can't
make this stuff up. Twenty five years ago at lambeau Field,
the Chicago Bears came into Green Bay having lost ten
in a row to the Packers, and they break the
(03:20):
streak of ten straight losses to the Packers on Brian
Robinson's block of Ryan Longwell's chip shot a twenty eight yarder.
The Packers sat on the ball, twenty eight yarder. This
is going to be a win, Brian Robinson, the hand
of Walter Walter Payton had passed away earlier in the week.
The hand of Walter blocks the field goal, and the
Bears break their ten game losing streak in the rivalry.
(03:44):
Fast forward to Sunday at Soldier Field, and the Packers
have won ten straight, and the Bears are lining up
for the field goal to break the ten game losing streak,
and the Packers blocked the field goal to make it
eleven in a row, the first time in the history
of the NFL's oldest rivalry that one team has won
(04:05):
eleven straight. But breaking this game down a little bit
further offensively first, for Green Bay. I came out of
this I came out of this game just with a
whole bunch of mixed feelings about the offense. Because if
you had told me we had talked all week last
(04:26):
week and I was the one stressing it, the Bears
were the number one red zone defense, the Packers were
the number twenty nine red zone offense. That was the
situational matchup that would probably decide the game. If you
had told me before the game started that the Packers
were going to get in the red zone five times
against the Bears and score three touchdowns, I would have
said Packers are going to have a heck of a
(04:47):
chance to win the game. But if you had also
told me that twice when the Packers get in the
red zone, they're going to get zero points on two
red zone opportunities in this case actually two opportunities that
got all the way the five yard line and the
Packers got no points. I would have said, well, you're
gonna have a hard time winning that football game. So
(05:07):
that's where I say, like, I have my mixed feelings.
There was a ton to like about what the Packers
did on offense with very limited opportunities. We'll talk about
the reasons for those limited opportunities when we get to
the defense. There was a lot to like about what
the Packers did on offense, but to only come out
with twenty points in that game was extremely frustrating because again,
(05:28):
as we've said so many times this year, there was
so much more out there for this team to put
on the scoreboard.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
As the great Dom Capers once said in the Packers
media auditorium, let me start with the positives. Okay, first
and foremost, it looks like knock on wood, Jordan Love
has put the groin injury behind him. He was scrambling more,
he was working under center more, absolutely, and the Packers
wanted to run more in this game, more conventional and
(05:55):
they were able to do that. And for all the
things people have Monday Morning quarterback about this game. The
game plan I think was rock solid. There were so
many things that you and I discussed last week. You
had to run the football. They probably didn't run it
as well as they wanted to, but you had to
do it because if you getting third and long, you're
setting You're setting the bear trap. There no pun intended
for Chicago be able to get a takeaway, which is
(06:17):
ultimately what happened in the red zone on one of
those plays when they had to go third and long
and they're still darting towards the end zone. Christian Watson
was unbelievable in this game. The downfield stuff that him
and Jordan Love had been trying to find their chemistry,
trying to find that get on the same page with
They did it in this game. A few moments of
results over process, the long pass, the forty eight yarder
(06:39):
when it also looked like you had Tucker Craft available underneath.
It is what it is. But what I loved about
that play too. I'm sure you saw it in You're
What you might have missed series. Tucker's running right towards
Christian to celebrate with them. As soon as the play
Happens was extremely happy for him. Watson's a guy that
has very much. He has absolutely earned all of those opportunities.
The sixty yard catch and run won the Packers the
(07:00):
game pretty much, and they did those types of explosive plays.
And when you look at how the Packers won this game,
independent of Carl Brooks's block, they won it with explosive plays.
The Chicago Bears played cleaner, the Packers played better, and
that's how they won the game. The disappointing thing was
much like I was talking about with the run game.
Everybody knew the Packers had to produce inside the red
(07:22):
zone to be able to really pull away in this one,
and they failed to do that. Part of that. You
give credit to the Bears. They're the number one ranked
red zone defense for a reason. But unfortunately some of
the things that have plagued the Packers showed up in
the red zone. The penalty that initially pushed him back
on the illegal man downfield, those are the type of
things you still want to clean up while buying large.
They did in the penalty front, but it showed itself
(07:43):
in the red area and then certainly just a missed
opportunity Jordan Love played a pretty solid game overall, but
then as Matt Lafleur was saying, the ball kind of
sales on him on that third down pass to Tucker
Craft a moment where the Packers are just maybe trying
to use that catch and run that yack to potentially
getting to the end zone, and it doesn't work out there,
it ends up being an interception, Chicago's offense starts rolling
(08:05):
the other way. A lot of words I've just spoken,
but basically it comes down to the fact that Packers
still have things to work on, but they're one of
the most explosive offenses in the league right now, and
that's ultimately what bailed them out.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
That's that's what I keep, you know, hanging the hat on,
so to speak, with regard to this Packers offense for
the frustrations and the points that are left out there,
and the scoreboard you know hasn't in so many games,
hasn't reflected what, you know, maximizing those opportunities would be
(08:38):
this team, no matter what defense it has gone against,
they can generate explosive plays and that is something that
that is something that this offense can definitely hang its
hat on moving forward. I'm one hundred percent with you
on Christian Watson was that was a tremendous game for him.
All four of his catches, all four of his receptions,
were explosive plays, and they were all critical. They were
(09:01):
all big time plays at big moments in the game.
The other guy, I will point out that I thought
played a really, really good game, and it seems like
I talk about him every week as Josh Jacobs. He
was grinding away on the ground. He also had an
impact in the passing game, rushing and receiving one hundred
and thirty four yards from scrimmage. For Jacobs, the receiving
(09:23):
was a combination of a couple of design passes, but
also a couple of checkdowns, which then also gets me
to the game that Jordan Love played. And quite honestly,
yes there's a lot of focus on the interception, is
a throw that got away from him. Was the right
decision where the ball was supposed to go on the play,
It was just a bad throw. The Bears happened to
have somebody in the right spot where the overthrow went
(09:45):
to get the interception, But honestly, that was the only
bad pass Jordan Love threw. The entire game. Quite frankly,
he ends up thirteen out of seventeen. He scrambled and
took off. He made the Bears pay a little bit
with his legs. He did take checkdowns to the running backs,
whether it was to Chris Brooks or to Josh Jacobs
here and there. Other than that one bad pass, he
(10:08):
did not put the ball in harm's way. I thought
Jordan Love played a really, really good game. I think
him being fully healthy, having the bye week to rest up,
take all the practice reps, all that stuff we talked
about last week certainly played into it. Jordan Love was
this close, this close because of that one bad pass
to playing the type of game that we would be
(10:28):
praising him for. Everybody would be praising him for up
and down. I think that's a huge sign for this
Packers offense moving forward. And in his defense a little bit,
Matt Lafleur fell on the sword with regard to the interception,
not because of the play itself, but because that third
and long was set up because Lafleur criticized himself for
(10:51):
not just running Jacobs on second and one from the
five yard line. Called the pass play. That's what leads
to the illegal man downfield. You don't get illegal man
downfield if you run the ball, so that back the
Packers up. Then they tried the end around with Jayden
Reid that lost a few more yards of put Love
in a bad spot with third and long, and Matt
Lafleur was really upset himself for not just calling a
(11:13):
running play on second and one. You get a first
and goal inside the five yard line. You pounded in there,
and very likely the game is fourteen to three and
we're not talking about a black blocked field goal at
the end for the win. But back to my original point,
I thought Jordan Love played probably his best overall game
of the season. There's only one bad pass, one play
(11:35):
like that that we're talking about as far as as
far as what went wrong, and hopefully that bodes well
for this offense moving forward.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Do you know what I like the most? Mike Packers
had a huge momentum flip right around halftime. A bulk
of the Chicago Bears points came between that mark of
at the end of the first half. In the beginning
of the second, Love kept his composure as we know
he does, but he led them out a huge drive
there to start the third quarter, capitalized by Josh Jacobs
(12:03):
getting that seven yard rushing touchdown, the fiftieth of his
NFL career in the regular season, and then when they
needed drives late, he made plays and he put his
players in positions to make plays. The past the Christian
Watson not the most perfect textbook pass. Watson had to
lay out for that thing and make a play. But
the thing I love about what.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Jordan and Love had a guy in his face on
that absolutely number ninety nine had had just slipped by
Josh Myers. The pocket had held up really well. Josh
Jacobs had picked up the blitzer TJ Edwards ninety nine
had started to slip by Josh Myers and got a
pretty good hit on Love as he let that ball go.
But fortunately Watson was able to make the diving cat.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
As Lafloor said, staring down the barrel. Sometimes YEA to
make those plays I do. But Watson made it right.
And and that's where getting on the same page is
so critical and being able to capitalize on these opportunities.
Jordan Love man, people are going to perseverate on the interception,
and that's going to be something the rest of the season.
He's already thrown eleven. We have nine more games in
(13:05):
the regular season? Is that? Or no, eight more? How
many games we have left? Or they're seven? Seven? Thank you?
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Hopefully the Packers have nine or ten games left, but
seven in the regular.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
NFL is adding games every three minutes. I can't figure
out exactly how many they are left anymore. Seven games
left in the regular season. He's sitting on eleven interceptions.
I'm going to tell you a little bit of a secret.
He's probably going to throw another one at some point. Yeah,
you will. So when people come up with the well
he threw another pick, and now it's eleven, Well he
might throw on this week, it might be twelve. You
can't worry about what's happened. Even last year. I thought,
(13:34):
I don't know if you caught this, but Alex Smith
had a tremendous analysis of Jordan Love in the lead
up to Sunday's game, where he was talking about Jordan's
numbers in the first half of last year are pretty
similar to what they are right now. But then he
got on that run. Nobody was talking about the eleven
interceptions the last season. They're talking about the four thousand
passing yards the thirty two touchdowns, and that's where they
(13:55):
need Jordan to get to now. So I thought that
was a major step in the right direction offensively.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, I mean, not to get hung up on the
interceptions for too long. But the reason that the bad
decision interceptions really hurt you is because you're going to
have interceptions where a throw just gets away from you,
where something happens or a guy drops go or ball
gets deflected or whatever, a guy doesn't catch it. So's
(14:21):
and that's where the bad decision ones hurt you. You
have to eliminate those. And if Jordan Love eliminates the
bad decision interceptions, yeah, once in a while a throw
is going to get away. It might get picked off.
You can live with that at the end of the day.
The frustrating thing not just the two drives that reach
the five yard line, but ultimately the Packers come away
with no points. But as well as the Packers were
(14:43):
moving the ball steadily consistently on offense, they only got
six possessions in this game, not including the one play
neel down at the end of the first half. Six
possessions in this game, and that's because the Packers defense
had a really really rough day. The defense could not
get off the field, could not get the ball back
to Jordan Love and the offense enough. The Bears end
(15:05):
up with thirty six and a half minutes of time
of possession. They end up with on their seven drives.
They didn't have a single drive with fewer than seven plays,
and five of their seven drives were double digit plays
ten or more. Combining third and fourth downs, the Bears
(15:25):
were twelve out of seventeen. Ye The Packers' defense just
they put themselves in enough situations to get off the field,
but then they couldn't do it. And the Bears had
switched offensive coordinators, like we talked about, I think the
new offensive coordinator whispered something in Caleb Williams's ear, so
(15:46):
to speak of like, hey, you can take off and run.
Your legs are a good weapon, go ahead and use them.
Don't forget about them kind of thing. And they mixed
in the zone read stuff where it was you know
where he gets the decision to hand off or keep,
and he hurt the pa between the scrambles and the
zone read seventy rushing yards from the quarterback. That was
a big game from Caleb Williams, and I thought the
(16:07):
way he used his legs built his confidence in the
passing game and the throws that he was able to make,
and it just felt like it felt to me like
the way the way Caleb Williams used his legs to
hurt the Packers, it just kept the Packers defense on
its heels. Yeah, a whole game. The Packers were not
in attack mode on defense because they got kind of
(16:30):
thrown off kilter by all the running around that Caleb
Williams was doing. And credit to the Bears it it
should have been enough for them to win the game,
and it almost was if they don't get the kick blocked.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
And kind of like Malik Willis when he was filling
in for Jordan Love with what he can do with
his legs, what Williams did is it helped set up
DeAndre Swift. Swift had a really hard time getting going.
Rashaan Johnson had a hard time getting going when he
started scrambling. Then they started working the read option. That's
then when he broke off the thirty nine yard touch Yeah.
Then he gets the touchdown on the top on the sweep. Yeah,
(17:03):
And that's where you're starting to see things happen. Now again,
I'll mention the positives here quickly. With the Packers defense,
they didn't rupture. That's the thing. Green Baby had thirty
fewer possessions or whatever it was, but they still had
more explosive plays than yea, the Bears did.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
And at the end of the day, there's only nineteen
points on the board. So you can't you know, you
can't be too overly critical. But it was the way
the game unfolded and the way the possessions were limited
that the Packers offense just didn't get the chances that
you would like it to get when they're moving the
ball so.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Well, and a lot of those explosive plays the Bears
got ended up being during the final stretch of that game. Yeah, now,
I'll bring it back around for a second. The Packers
end up turning over the ball and Bears get it
at the two yard line. This is where I sometimes
and Connor Lewis knows these statistics a lot better than
me the idea and Matt kind of touched on this
a little bit too. When a team is starting at
(17:55):
the minus two, if you don't rupture, even if you
give up a couple first downs and the Bears are
playing the way they have to play, they consistently have
to keep getting first downs. That helped green Bay get
through that situation to get the ball back to eventually
have the one where they finally did go ahead with
the scoring drive. They responded in that instance that the
(18:16):
tough thing for green Bay though, was, and I've gone
back and forth with fans about this, but you finally
get some pressure on the quarterback, you get the TJ.
Slayton sack, which is then followed by the Rashan Gary sack.
And Rashan might have had his best game of the
season against Chicago with what he was able to do.
When you look at the pressure numbers, when you look
at the quarterback he had, some of the tackles he had,
Rashan was getting after it. He gets a sack from
(18:37):
minus eight or nine yards third and nineteen. You're sitting
in I know everybody wants the Packers to move up
and play pressman coverage and be physical and everything, and
you just cannot do that. But it's what that third
downplay was a good illustration of, is the extremely minute
narrow margin for error. Kings Lingbari leaves his feet on
(18:58):
the pass rush. He's trying to make a play yep.
But then Williams again with the feet, gets in the
open field, extends and then Romadunze makes two fantastic catches
back to back plays. To be able to move the
ball down field, you have to get off the field
on third downs eight conversions and beyond that three fourth
down conversions. On the five instances where they didn't convert
(19:18):
on third down, Chicago was just way too efficient. Green
Bay has to break that. That being said, they made
it right, and that's what complimentary football is. If you're
not getting everything from the defense, but they're still keeping
points off the board, there's still finding ways to keep
you in it. That's where the special teams has to
pick them up. And obviously that's where the explosive plays
came into a factor for Green Bay as well.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Yeah, I thought I thought the defense, the defense had,
the defense had a chance to sort of cure a
lot of ills on the day when you know the
game's on the line, final possession, the Packers have the
lead by one point, you get the back to back sacks,
you put them in third and nineteen. You and I
were talking because I think at that point it was
the two minute warnings. So there's a little bit of
(20:01):
a break up the clock. You and I were talking,
and I think you and I were in agreement where
it's like, Okay, you don't get too aggressive on third
and nineteen. You make them take the check down, you know,
you you sit back and cover, you make them take
the checkdown. You come up, get a tackle, maybe they
get seven or eight yards, and you've got them in
like fourth and twelve, and then the game's on the line.
(20:21):
On fourth and twelve. What happened. The play got extended,
and that's where that's where your plan defensively gets foiled,
because the play gets extended and it becomes a you know,
a quote unquote plaster situation because the quarterback avoids the sack,
gets out of the pocket, and then the receivers are
are further downfield and they're able to hit the sixteen
(20:44):
yard or so. Then instead of a instead of a
fourth and long or a fourth and medium, you're in
a much more fourth and manageable, you know, fourth and three.
And then and then on that play, the fourth down play,
I just I tipped my hat to Caleb Williams and
roma death. That was a that was a back shoulder
throwing catch down the sideline. I don't know what you
(21:05):
can really do to defend that, and it's and it's
such a quick, you know, three step drop and release.
There's nothing the pass rush can really do there. That's
just a great play by those guys. You would have
liked to have seen them, you know, seen it not
be fourth and three, because then the defense is in
a little bit different different situation.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
But the rush call changes completely.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Yeah, absolutely, every the way the way you play it,
the way you play it changes. So unfortunately, you know,
that opportunity for the defense to kind of cure the
ills and maybe get the the same type of stop
that the defense got to win the Rams game when
the Rams were kind of, you know, trying to rally
at the end. The defense had a chance to do
that and didn't do that. And so that's that's concerning
(21:47):
from that standpoint. Unfortunately, the Packers had lost jyr Alexander.
They thought they were going to get him back. He
only plays a handful of snaps in the first half.
The knee wasn't good enough. He ends up in street
close for the second half and wasn't able to continue.
You so that's an injury injury situation that we will
uh that we will continue to watch. But UH, but
you know, it felt like at the it's it's the
(22:10):
word I used at the beginning of the show. It
just felt like the Packers survived it. Yeah, and UH
and you know, and now they're they're seven and three
with UH with a lot to look forward to. As
you said, seven regular season games left to go. There
is a ton of football left in this season and
uh and the Packers are in position to make something
up and.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Quickly to end on this this note before we start
looking at the league. You know, you give I tipped
my hat to Rich Bisaccia, you know, Byron Storer, everybody
that's involved in that side of the face they did
their research going into this game. They saw a potential
opportunity there with the a gap and the field goal
protection unit. As Matt Lafleur and Josh Jacobs both said,
Bassachia brought it to the team and basically it brought
(22:49):
it to his his phase, his wifense and said, I'll
be highly disappointed if we don't come out with the
block in this game. And I was talking with Javon
Bullard afterwards and he's like, yeah, you know what we
thought we'd get. Well, it just so happened to be
the last one that they finally end up getting through on.
And Carl Bradford gets his second block of his career.
And I want to mention that books Carl Brooks, Carl Bradford,
(23:09):
I did it again.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah, that's the second time you does.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I hope Carl's doing well out there. He's getting a
lot of pub here on Packers Unscripted this season. Carl
Brooks gets the job done the second block of his career.
And I thought this was a tremendous statistic that Tom
Fanning from the Packers' communication staff figured out. I don't
know if it was in concert with Elias or not.
It was probably just his own studying. Since twenty twenty two,
when Rich Pasaci was hired, the Green Bay Packers now
(23:34):
have the second most blocked field goals in the National
Football League to Pittsburgh. And if anybody, if you know
anything about the Steelers special teams units, yeah, and just
what they've accomplished, they have ten in that stretch. The
Packers have six, two of those belonging to Brooks. Two
of them belonging to Kolbe Wooden, and I think Josh
Niman is in there as well. That the Packers have
found ways to be able to do that. It just
so happened in this case it ended up saving them
(23:55):
a football game. The Packers now sitting at seven to three.
Three of those games have come down to the and
that final play has been special teams.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
And I'll just say this before I get onto sponsor
business and we move on to other topics. There's a
lot of people talking out there about the Bears head
coach Matt Eberflu said he's sending the play into the
league because contact with the long snapper. I'm just going
to clarify this because I didn't actually clarify it very
well in Monday's Insider Inbox column. I'm going to do
so in Wednesday's column. Yes, the long snapper is protected
(24:25):
from contact, but the rule is he's only protected from
contact when his head is down down and he's not
allowed to just keep his head down the entire time
and prevent Basically, to prevent anybody from rushing the a gap,
he has to snap the ball, get his head up
in position, and when his head is up then he
(24:46):
can be contacted. So you can't just snap the ball
as a long snapper on a field goal and keep
your head down and not allow anybody to rush in
that spot. I mean, we know the Bears aren't going
to get anywhere with sending this into the league. I
guess I don't blame him in some respects for doing it.
If I'm mat Eberfluse, I don't know if I would
have made that public that I'm complaining about that.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
You know, Packerson stuff in the league every week.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
They don't announce it, and matt Lelafure never tells anybody,
you know, unless he's unless he's directly asked about it,
and he might say, yes, I'm sending into the league,
and then he's not even going to comment on it.
We've never heard anything of what the Packers get back
from the league in those situations. So I just wanted
to clarify what the rule actually is because a lot
(25:30):
of people think the rule is the long snapper can't
be touched.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
No.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I mean, yes, he can't be touched when his head
is down, but he also can't keep his head down
the entire time.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
So may I add one last thing? Sure, you know
how an insider in box. Occasionally we'll get the people
that write in there. It's like, Hey, I was a
high school football coach or I officiated you know my
middle school, you know basketball teams league. I have one
of those moments here. One thing happened in that game
against the Bears, because obviously there was that incident with
(26:00):
Xavier McKinney at the start of the game. I found
this funny Matt Aberflus pining for calls and everything like that.
I think there's a line there where you obviously are
working the officials. But it reminded me of my own
city league basketball career, where there were times where we
would play teams and we knew we were not as
good as them, and we knew we needed every single
(26:20):
thing to go right in order to even have a
remote chance of beating them, and we would be on
the officials of these making twenty five bucks or whatever
for the game. That's what it reminded me of. It
didn't remind me of a head coach working the referees.
It reminded me of a guy that's pretty desperate for
his team to win. And I mean before the McKinney flag,
(26:41):
there was another incident on the sideline where his hands
were up, his neck was back, and he's thrown himself
around like a beanie baby, trying to, you know, make
it known that he thinks there should be a penalty.
It is what it is. You move on. But I
love what Matt Lafleur said about this. You can't depend
on that stuff. He wasn't talking about Eberflus, but he
was just talking about it happens all the time. There
(27:01):
are always penalties that you are going to disagree with,
the things you didn't think got called. But your team
still needs to win the football game and play beyond that.
Yeah the Bears didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Yeah, you have to protect your field goal kicker, and
the Bears didn't do it. The Packers got the penetration
that helped them win the game. Sponsor business Here West
Sirius XMNFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to
the minute NFL news that true football fanatics need. Twenty
four to seven, three sixty five and ed cousin subs.
We have something for everyone. The Garlasconts and cheese Kurds,
(27:32):
mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes, all paired
with your favorite sub or sub in a bowl, Cousin
subs fifty plus years of better. All right, we're running
a little bit late, so we'll get through this quickly
and then sign off. The NFC North Detroit is nine
and one, Minnesota is eight and two, Green Bay is
seven and three. The weekend played out as we thought.
The NFC North completed a fourteen to two near sweep
(27:56):
of the AFC South, with the Jaguars losing to the
Lions and the Titans losing to the Viking.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
I didn't get to tell you this during your pre
production meeting. The Lions still have to play the Colts
this week. Really, yeah, they do, so we're close. It's
thirteen and two right now, thirteen and thirteen to two,
die bad. I was gonna mention that too beforehand when
I was looking at the schedule Lions Detroit.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
And missed THEUS oil. I missed that, then, I'm not
thought that.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I just want to make sure we got that right.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
So no, I appreciate that. I appreciate that I missed it.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
The Lion's going to be big underdogs, going in.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
By Lucas Oil occasionally is wrong, but that being said,
so it is thirteen and two.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
You look at how Jared Goff bounced back a five
interception game and he was perfect fifty eight point three.
The Jacksonville Jaguars barely even got off the bus. Yeah, wow,
fifty two to six. You do that to somebody in
the National FOOTBA League. There was a couple of those
games we covered in the McCarthy era. I think there
was one with even early on, I think he before
(28:54):
I started covering the team. There was a game against
the Saints where I think they won like fifty five
to three or something like that. But if you can
do that with thirty two teams the best players in
the world, you tip your cap to them. And then
certainly Tennessee made it a little bit interesting, but just
Minnesota too much. One, eight and two, seven and three.
What a division.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, I want to get your thoughts really quickly before
we go, because we talked about all these big games
featuring all these teams with seven plus wins going into
the weekend. So Philadelphia defeats Washington, Buffalo defeats Kansas City
and hands the Chiefs their first loss of the season,
and Pittsburgh kicks a whole bunch of field goals and
it's enough to beat the Baltimore Ravens. I can't say
(29:32):
I'm surprised or shocked necessarily by any of those results.
And I think all of those teams still have a
lot in front of them, and some of those some
of those games might quite frankly be playoff previews.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Mike tom Litt'll be a Hall of Fame coach, He'll
be in Canton someday. But my goodness, there's so many
times I watch his team's play. I'm like, this guy
would have been perfect in the sixties. He could have
been a Lombardi, you know, just they just find ways
to win. Who beats the Baltimore Ravens eighteen to sixteen
with field goal? Nobody but Mike tob Tke tob a
little fight the way Chris Boswell and in that in
(30:06):
that team, uh.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Well and and Justin Tucker missed some kicks there. Chris Boswell,
h Boswell was the was the kicking star of the game,
and uh and Justin Tucker's uh had had a bad
game in what's a Hall of Fame career?
Speaker 2 (30:21):
What's for that guy? Been a bad season for him unfortunately. Yeah. Uh,
Kansas City and Buffalo I just want to say this quickly.
This was the outcome both of these teams needed. I
didn't think there was any reason this chief should be undefeated.
And I'm not saying like, oh, they don't deserve it.
I'm saying they're a team that I think needed to
eventually lose one. Buffalo desperately needed to beat Kansas City. Now, ultimately,
(30:41):
I think that game will once again be decided at
some point in the postseason. Just seemed like it's the
way it's been working out. But I think there's a
lot more to be gained from that for for the Chiefs,
even though you want to win that game from a
potential loss. I thought Patrick mahomes post game speech was terrific.
Is his address of the media was. I loved.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
I absolutely loved, because I and I saw it on
the plane live because we have our little TV screens
there as we're doing our work and I'm keeping kind
of a little bit of an eye in the game.
Buffalo is up by two. They've got a fourth and
two inside the thirty yard line, and Sean McDermott said, well,
I could kick the field goal and go up five
(31:17):
and watch Patrick Mahomes go down and score a touchdown
and beat me, or I can put the ball in
my quarterback's hands on fourth and two and we're going
to try to go get a touchdown. And not only
do they convert the fourth and two, but Josh Allen
takes it all the way into the end zone, so
they get the two score lead that Sean McDermott wanted.
And the two score lead is what finally put Patrick
(31:38):
Mahomes away.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
And you know what the real dirty secret is of
this game. You obviously want to get the first round
by but this doesn't matter. What they needed is they
needed to beat Kansas City and they need to be
aggressive because it's that type of mindset that's finally going
to get you past them in the playoffs, and that's
ultimately what the Bills are trying to do. I loved it.
It was It was tremendous call. It was tremendous gutsiness.
And it also when you have an established football team
(32:02):
with an established coach and in a staff, in a
franchise quarterback that people tried to, you know, kind of
throw some shade at earlier this year, but I mean,
Josh Allen is obviously one of the top three quarterbacks
in the league, potentially the MVP this season. That's the
type of stuff that you do. And obviously it worked
out well for Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
And I'll say real quickly before we go team to
watch in the NFC right now, obviously the Packers, everything
going on in the NFC North is worth watching. But
the team to watch in the NFC right now is
Washington because they had a big game on a Thursday night.
They were right there against the Eagles, and they completely
collapsed in the fourth quarter, just got railroaded in the
(32:40):
fourth quarter by a division rival. Now they get a
little extra time because it was a Thursday night game.
But how Washington now responds to that moving forward is
going to be a big factor in the NFC playoff
picture of the rest.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
When you talk about slumpbusters, when you're hosting the Dallas Cowboys,
in this version of the Dallas Cowboys, you will have
an up ertilly to bounce back.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah, they will. They will, But I'm talking more long
well for sure.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
Yeah, but I mean, like, talk about a gift from
above after that loss, after this little streak.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
They right, they're not, They're not. They're not getting sent
to Detroit. Yeah, play play their next game, right So
all right, Well, with that, we got to talk about
the draft because you should be among the thousands of
football fans cheering on their team's NFL picks by joining
us April twenty four through April twenty six of twenty
twenty five for the NFL Draft. Visit green Bay dot
(33:30):
com slash Draft twenty five for more information, and with
that we'll call it a wrap 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, 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.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
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.