#265 Packers Unscripted: Peak Performances, Games 9-12

can check out the articles, some video highlights. Vote for your favorite peak performance from this stretch of the season. I'll throw the first one at you right away, and it's Davante Adams at Chicago. UM. I know there are a lot of moments throughout the year where we realized Davante Adams was making those strides to become a Pro Bowl receiver, and and just this past weekend, obviously he

did participate in his first Pro Bowl. This was one of those games that definitely jumped out though it did, and the reason it jumped out to me, Mike, is because we saw him make phenomenal catches throughout this course of the season. We saw him step up when Aaron Rodgers was no longer available. But this game, in particular to me, really showed you who Davante Adams is as a football player, because, as you wrote in the Peak Performances, he wasn't having his best game it there were setbacks

and adversity early on. And since day one, we've always talked about how headstrong he is. I thought this is a perfect example of that to put that behind him and make the big plays when it mattered most. Yeah, he had a a disappointing drop on a short kind of slant pass crossing route over the middle of whatever you want to call it. Um. Packers ended up having to settle for a field goal on that drive rather than continue it with the first down and possibly get

a touchdown. But then green May's last two offensive possessions, his chemistry connection with Brett Hunley really started to shine. He started a touchdown drive with an eighteen yard catch, then finished that drive with a nineteen yard t d grab on a back shoulder. Just a really nice chemistry type of play between quarterback and receiver there, and then the Bears have gotten back within seven points. The Packers

needed one more drive to put the game away. Third and ten, just over two minutes left, Hunley decides to go deep down the right sideline to Adams. He brings it in for a forty two yard catch. Just a huge play, um, And I didn't even realize until I saw the replay that he caught the thing one handed. I mean it was it was a perfectly thrown pass, pretty decent coverage by the Chicago Bears. But again, there was just down the stretch in this game. There was

just no stopping atoms, you know. And it's really hard to be hyperbolic about this because there were so many big catches this season for him. I mean, one of our episodes earlier this this month, we even talked about how what was his favorite catch and I couldn't even come up with one because of the multitude of them.

But that forty two yard er I think is definitely in the conversation because the Packers needed it, they needed to ice that game and the fact that, I mean it is on third and ten, you need to make a play and Davonte Adams did just that. Yeah. The next peak performance on the list will get to here. Quarterback Brett Hunley at Pittsburgh, a primetime game at hines Field Packers on the road against one of the top teams in the a f C, one of the top defenses in the a f C, and frankly, nobody saw

this performance coming from Hunley. He was coming off of a shutout loss to Baltimore at home, really one of those low points for the Packers during the season. But he comes out in Pittsburgh one thirty four point three passer rating, three touchdown passes, all of them long, big play,

explosive play, UM type T d S and uh. And really, you know, for all of Brett Hunley's ups and downs throughout his nine starts, ten games essentially that he played in place of Aaron Rodgers, um, this in my mind, even though it was in a defeat, was his best best outing absolutely uh. And it's the one I think when you when you bring up the film from this season, you're going to be like, this is what Brett Hunley

can be as a quarterback. He was smart, he was accurate, and he made the big plays when they were available to him throughout that game. The thing is in you and I remember this going into Pittsburgh. Nobody was given the Packers a chance in that game. I forget what the line was, I know it was double digits, maybe four under something going in. UM, it was disheartening from the standpoint that the Packers weren't able to win this

one was falling late. But I thought Hunley had a perfect performance throughout and put the Packers in a position to win that game. Yeah, just to recap some of the big highlights there, a thirty nine yard touched on pastor Randall Cobb, a fifty four yard touchdown pass on a screen pastor running back Jamal Williams will talk a little bit more about that. UM with another peak performance.

But then in the secon and have a fifty five yard touched on pass to Davante Adams, and then really the moment that that defined it for Brett Hunley drives the Packers seventy seven yards and twelve plays late in the fourth quarter for a tying touchdown that ties the game at and that drive included a fourth and sixth completion to Adams in the red zone to keep the

drive alive one play before the Packers get the tying score. UM, I just I took my cap to Brett Hunley, and this when nobody was happy about the loss certainly, but um, but a solid performance at a time when when not a whole lot was expected of him. Yeah. And I think Pittsburgh was the fourth rank defense at the time too, So I mean it was no slout she was going up against either. Yeah. All right with that, We've got more peak performances to discuss after the breakback, with more

on Packers Unscripted right after this. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford in this chair, West Hodkowits in that one in West. Continuing our discussion of the peak performances from the third quarter of the season, fans can go on Packers dot com and watch the highlights and vote for their favorite UM. Three left here and two of them by the same player, actually, Jamal Williams, both at Pittsburgh

and then at home against Tampa Bay. Two big outings here for the rookie running back out of b y U. At Pittsburgh, I mentioned the fifty four yards screen pass for a touchdown. He also had sixty six rushing yards on twenty one carries, ended up totaling a hundred and thirty five yards from scrimmage in all and then against excuse me, against Tampa Bay at lambeau Field his first career one hundred yard rushing game, a hundred thirteen yards

on twenty one carries with a touchdown. Included a powerful run at the goal line getting through a defender or two for the score. Two really nice outings here by Jamal Williams. I don't know if you have a favorite one or the other. But but again, as we talked about throughout the season, a rookie running back who was given the opportunity to be the bell cow, and he delivered.

In late October, Michael I was working on a story on Aaron Jones at the time when he sort of was breaking out, and during that same time, I talked to a couple of people that are very close to Jamal Williams, and you know, while Williams always kept the same headstrong approach while he was waiting in the wings, you know there were some people around him that were wondering if he was going to get a shot again, because you know, he was the backup to Time Montgomery.

The injury happened and he hurts his own knee. Aaron Jones comes out of nowhere. There was a question going into November of what Jamal Williams role was going to be with the way that Aaron Jones had run away with things. Jones suffers the injury. That game starting with Pittsburgh, I think is the one where we found out, you know what Packers running backs are gonna be okay, And if they don't have Aaron Jones, they have Jamal Williams and they do different things well, which I think compliments

one another. And then that Tampa Bay game, I just thought he showed what he is in terms of being an every down complete running back that can't have explosive plays. I think we learned a lot about Jamal Williams with the course this season, the way he handled adversity early on, and then the way he really broke out when he did get the chance to be the every down guy. Yeah,

you look at that Tampa Bay game. He had a twenty five yard run in the second quarter there, and that was actually one of seven carries on the day that went for eight plus yards. He was he was really chewing up the yardage in some significant chunks. Then you look at the game winning drive in overtime, got the the hero seat stolen by by Aaron Jones. With

that twenty yard run for a touchdown. But before that, he had a nine yard run and a twelve yard reception that helped get the Packers in position for Aaron Jones touched on drive if it hadn't been forgetting a little winded needing to come out for a play. Um, you know, that's when Jones stepped in and uh and took it to the took it to the house for the victory. But um, um, the other peak performance to talk about though, was also from that Tampa Bay game.

And you flip sides to the defensive side of the ball, and that's defensive end Dean Lowry, second year guy. Um, everybody's going to remember the sixty two yard rumbling, bumbling, stumbling, whatever you want to call it for a touchdown there. But but it wasn't just that he was an impact player up front on defense throughout this game. He got a sack of his own, a fourteen yard sack when there was a little bit of a stunt that that

left him free to get Jamis Winston. Um, this is the type of performance that that the Packers were hoping for out of Dean Lowry. They may be hope to see more of it. But again still a young, developing player that I think could be a big component of this, uh, this new Packers defense under Mike Pett. Yeah, Mike, And he was the defensive player of the Week for the entire the NFL for this performance. As you said, the sixty two yard touchdown is what everybody's gonna remember, his jump,

his lambeau leap, being completely gassed on an empty tank. Yeah, but the small things in this I thought that really mattered most, the combination of him and Kenny Clark contributing to that fumble that Jamis Winston had in him being able to run it back from the t D. Packers invested a lot of that defensive line when they drafted both Clark in the first round out of U C. L A. And they went back and took Lowry out

of Northwestern entirely different defensive lineman. But Lowry, I thought, more than anything else this season and in this game, proved he's more than a five tech based defensive end. He can play three tech, he can play inside when they need him to in the in the dime defense as well, just really made the impact plays that were there for him, and certainly I think is you know, on equivocally the best game of his career as a Packer. Yeah. Okay, so we've gone over all five of the peak performances

from the third quarter of the season. Davante Adams at Chicago, Brett Hunley at Pittsburgh, Jamal Williams at Pittsburgh, Williams also at home against Tampa Bay, and Dean Lowry against Tampa Bay. You have a favorite of those five, um, And the reason I say that is because this is the game where we found out, in my opinion, that this is a guy that can just take control of the game.

For the first two season of his career, he was the compliment to Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb, and even into the third season, Jordy Nelson was the NFL Comeback Player of the Year yards receiving, He had a nice season, but he was still the compliment. That was the game I thought that was showing him that he can take this thing over and become the top perimeter weapon and can be counted on when the game's on the line. Yeah,

and my vote, I like your your choice there. Davante Adams certainly, but my vote goes to the Dean Lowry performance against Tampa Bay. And I say that because the Packers have Mike Daniels, he's now a pro bowler on the defensive line. We talked a lot about Kenny Clark, the first round pick, and and he continues, I think he's going to be a rising star in this league. Dean Lowry is not a guy who's going to do what he did against Tampa Bay when defensive player of

the week. You know, he's not going to do that five or six or eight times in a year. He's not necessarily that type of player. But it's performances like this one that complement the stars up front that helped the Packers win games. And I think Dean Lowry can have more performances like this and can help the Packers win. Yeah, and they're young, man. I mean, the Packers have a lot of young studs on that defense, and Lowry is

another one that fits into that equation. Yeah. Alright, with that, we'll toss to a break back with more on Packers Unscripted right after this. Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford here, Wes Hodkuh it's over there, and West shifting gears from the peak performances now back to our discussion from last show about the changes on the coaching staff and as this, as this Green Bay Packers staff takes shape,

one bit of news to pass the law. Darren Perry, longtime Safety's coach since two thousand nine, when Dom Capers came in as defensive coordinator, his future was a little bit up in the air. The Packers have now announced that he's moving on and pursuing other opportunities, so Darren

Perry will not be back. But when I look at how this staff is coming together here from Mike McCarthy, one thing that stands out that you really can't ignore is all of the different connections between a lot of these coaches throughout their careers where they've worked with one another in some different places but never necessarily altogether where they are right now. And I won't be able to hit on all of them, but for example, excuse me.

Jim Hostler, the new pass game coordinator on offense. He worked with Joe Philbin for a couple of years in Indianapolis over the seventeen seasons, but he also worked with Mike McCarthy with the New Orleans Saints previously in UH in his career, then you have Frank Signetti, the new quarterbacks coach. He and Jim Hostler worked together at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for several years in the nineteen nineties.

Signetti also worked in a couple of at least with New Orleans I know for sure with Mike McCarthy when he was offensive coordinator there. Again, it's like it almost becomes this tangled web of how all these all these guys are connected in their past. But it's really interesting now when you look at that, you look at that timeline, and then now you see that they're all together coaching together on the Packers offense. Yeah, it's like that old

you know, six degrees of Kevin Bacon. It's like six degrees of Mike McCarthy exactly the way that all this comes together. And I actually asked Hustler that, obviously you wrote a nice story on him on Packers dot Com, but afterwards and sort of the group had died down and you had left. I went back because I want to ask him about In two thousand and eight, he worked with Mike Patton in Baltimore. Now, mind you, he was a receiver's coach. Patton was an outside linebackers coach.

But it just shows you the ties together and the fact that you know Hustler and Signetti and McCarthy, they all had these ties to San Francisco, but then weren't all at the same time, you know, New Orleans. But it does go back to kind of those Pittsburgh roots at the end of the day. And in the point I guess I'm trying to make here is that this is a new coaching staff in a lot of ways, especially actually on the offensive side of the ball, even

though they have a new defensive coordinator. But I think the ties that buying everyone ultimately are going to be what helps really cultivate that rapport relationship comfort level between those coaches, because even if you don't have everybody that worked together in the same place at the same time, they all know what it's like to work with one another and kind of have that rapport, which I think is going to go a long way and helping this

coaching staff come together before the players come back in April. Yeah, I had an interesting conversation with Hostler the day that the day that he met the media. When you look at you look at his coaching history, and I asked him a little bit about you know, his previous time with McCarthy, he was a position coach for the New Orleans Saints on offense, I believe it was receivers coach

when Carthy was offensive coordinator there. And then the year that McCarthy was offensive coordinator in San Francisco in two thousand five, Jim Hostler was his quarterbacks coach. So when McCarthy left, he went to offensive coordinator right, and then he and then he took McCarthy's job as as offensive coordinator. And then as I mentioned, you have Hustler having worked the last two years with the Indianapolis Colts on the

offensive staff, um with Joe Philbin. Now all of those guys are together along with James Campon if you look at it from the from sort of the hierarchy of Mike McCarthy, Joe Philbin offensive coordinator, Jim Hostler passing game coordinator, and James camp And run game coordinator as well as offensive line coach. So now all these guys and obviously Philbin and Camping and McCarthy you know, worked together for a number of years here in Green Bay and UH

and Camping and Philbin worked together. If I'm not mistaken. In Green Bay before McCarthy, Camping was right, he was, he was assistant on the offensive line. So there's a lot of connections here. And now all of these guys are the four guys at the top of the food chain, so to speak, in terms of in terms of running

this Packers offense. And Hustler made an interesting point to me because I asked him about that past with McCarthy and he said, when he coached for Mike McCarthy in the past, he was just learning how to be a coach, learning how to coach a position. You know, now you know you you all of a sudden, all these years later, you get reunited and all these coaches are in different places in their career. Now. It's about the big picture.

It's about the concepts. It's about how all the thoughts and ideas come together in a game plan to try to go win football games. And you have the level of experience when you look at these four coaches that are that are going to be essentially the brain trust, so to speak, of the Packers offense, the amount of experience is astounding. Yeah, And I think that's when the Packers were rewriting this playbook as Mike McCarthy said they

were doing this offseason. I think that's one of the things that's gonna be really beneficial because you're gonna have McCarthy's thoughts, you're gonna have their turning coaches thoughts, but now actually you're gonna get Joe Philbints take on it with him being reimmersed in this offfense. These new coaches coming in in their perspective. And keep in mind too, you have David Rye, the new receiver's coach, who was a quarterback at Iowa when Joe Philbin was their offensive

line coach. Patrick Graham the new inside linebackers coach and run game coordinator on defense, well, he worked with Frank Signeti in New York. So there's just all this crossover that I think ultimately, as as I said earlier, I think it's going to go a long way in how the Packers create that vision for two thousand eighteen and

how quickly they're going to be able to do that. Yeah, when you look at guys like Philbin and Hustler, they've coached multiple positions throughout their careers on offense, they have a wealth of experience that at you know, all the different you know, types of components that come together on an offense. But with that, we've got to go to a break back with more on Packers Unscripted. Right after this, Welcome back to Packers Unscripted. Mike Spofford next to Wes

Hodkowitz and West. Quickly before we go, I wanted to touch on another aspect on the defensive side of the ball. We talked last week about the influence and importance of Joe Philbin and his family and his decision making process as he decided to come back to Green Bay. Jerry Montgomery is the Packers new defensive line coach, moving up

from defensive front assistant to take over Mike Turgeva's job. Um, he had sort of an interesting family dynamic that he was dealing with as well in his decision making process, and you talk to him a little bit about it, So tell us what what he said. Yeah, What's interesting about this, Mike, is that no matter what walk of life you're in, you've been in this position. I've been in this position, doesn't matter if you're a defensive line

coach or a sports writer. Um, you come to those crossroads at times where there's a great opportunity and you have to make a decision at what's best for your family from a financial standpoint, everything jumped off the charts with this opportunity with the Texas A and m Aggies. For Jerry Montgomery. Talking to a couple of people after that had been announced, they didn't blame him at all for for going down there and knowing his roots in

college football. But ultimately, as he said, he took a plane ride back to Green Bay, had checked back in with Mike McCarthy and after thinking about it long and hard, made the decision that Green Bay is where he and his family needed to be. I know, they've developed really strong ties of their community. Uh, in terms of you know, he's a father I believe of four um all athletic kids that were really wanted to be in Green Bay. UM. So for him to make that decision, I know, it's

it can be turbulent, he said. It was a hectic month, but when you go to the thing I always say is when you lay down at night, when you go to bed, you have to be confident with the decisions you made that day, and you have to be excited about what you're seeing tomorrow. And I think this with the development the bond that he had already made in that defensive line room over the last three seasons, I think this was a no brainer for him once you

put all those chips on the table. Yeah, And that's what I was going to say, is by all accounts, you know, he's really connected with those defensive linemen that

he's worked with for the last few years. Now. We talked about Mike Daniels and Kenny Clark and Dean Lowry and guys like that, and I think he senses, you know, not only not only was it his family that drew him back to Green Bay, but as you say, when you kind of put it all together and then and then he looks at the relationship that he has with those players that he's been coaching, and now you know, he gets a bit of a promotion out of it,

going from front assistant to actual defensive line coach. A lot of things, a lot of things made sense and made it very attractive, even if it was a difficult decision. It was almost one of those maybe where he felt like he couldn't go wrong. Yeah, and think about that Mike and these young guys. That's the only coach they've

known other than Mike Turkovacs, So I think it makes sense. Yeah, for sure, But we've got to call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted, so be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com on Twitter, He's at West Had, I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time. H M.