#320 Packers Unscripted: More of the aftermath

on Monday didn't have all the injury information. They're still trying to figure out exactly what the situation is with Rogers and that knee. So it's going to be a wait and see type of thing all week long the way it sounds, Yeah, and we'll we'll get a better feel for how Rogers is feeling. I'm guessing on Wednesday, that's typically been the data in the regular season, which he addresses the media. Uh, and we'll see what his

participation is going to be. Like Mike McCarthy mentioned, you know, Deshaun Kaiser, probably regardless of what however, Sunday and Folds will probably take a lot of work this week, take a lot of reps. Maybe some of that trickles down to Tim Boyle as well. We'll see. But that being said, it seems to me, Mike everybody obviously wants to rush to conclusions. They want to know everything now the minute

that they want to know it. The one thing I would caution people to do because I saw some people taking what McCarthy had said on Monday, and you know, saying this is a red flag. If you know anything about Mike McCarthy the way he handles this thing. He's not giving injury report on Monday. So regardless of how this week plays out or whether or not Rogers plays on Sunday, it's not going to be based upon the information that Mike McCarthy has on Monday, the day after

the game. It's gonna be after seeing where this whole week takes them. Certainly, Rodgers made his voice known after the game he fully intends to play against Minnesota, but there certainly is a bigger picture in play as well. I think the biggest positive you can draw from this is the fact that he did finish that game and he was able to run back out on the field. That at least I would hope you would think would

alleviate some of the long term concerns. But certainly it's about making sure that Aaron Rodgers is healthy for a full fifteen weeks the rest of the season. Yeah, and I don't want to put the card before the horse here, but this is kind of looking to me like one of those weeks where the quarterback may not practice at all, or if he practices, it could be very little, and then the Packers will just decide as things get close

to game time whether or not he goes. There was an incident, a similar incidence, I meant to say, back in two thousand and eight, his first year as a starter, he had a shoulder injury. Packers had the Atlanta Falcons coming here to lambeau Field. Rogers really didn't practice during the week, and they took him down to the Hudson Center on Sunday morning before they needed to make the final decision as to whether he would be active or inactive for the game. They had him throw some asses

and they're like, all right, you know, good to go. Now. The Packers ended up not winning that game. It was a close game. Whatever. It was ten years ago, but but even back then, Aaron Rodgers went out and gave his team a chance to win when he didn't even practice right, And if correct me, if I'm wrong, Mike, was he doubtful for that game? I'm trying to remember.

I feel like his designation might have even been doubtful because I think that's one of only like two instances over the last you know, ten twelve years where that's actually happened where he guys played after that designation. Be that as it may. Uh, Yeah, Rogers is gonna do whatever he can to be out there. Certainly, we know this. It's well documented. He's the most competitive player in that locker room, if not the planet. So he's gonna want to be there. He's gonna want to rally the troops

like he did in the second half. But again, there is a big, bigger picture in play, and when they go through Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and even into that final practice on Saturday, and the things the Packers do to get ready for game time, those are all factors are going to have to take an account before they get to you know, Sunday afternoon. Yeah, well, before we get to some other topics. I want to take care of a little sponsored business Here enter the Cousin Subs Best

Seats in the House promotion. You and a guest could win a chance to kick back on the fifty yard line in style. Two pairs of lucky Packers fans will be chosen prior to each home game for this v i P experience. Enter daily now through December sixteen by completing the entry form and submitting. For complete rules and eligibility, go to Packers dot com slash Best Seats Cousins Subs We Believe in Better? Okay. A couple of things left over somewhat from the discussion of Sunday Night's big victory

by the Packers. There's been a lot of talk, obviously of Clay Matthews roughing the passer call on the initial fourth down when the Bears were trailing there by a point late in the game. He's taken responsibility for it. He knows he shouldn't have done it. Um, Mike McCarthy said, hey, we have to be smarter there. Everybody knows it was it was a bad play. The larger concern from my standpoint, is that the Packers had three roughing the passer penalties

in this game. Now, I thought the one on mat Views. Even though Clay said after the game he thought, well, maybe in past years that's a warning they're flagging it. This year, I thought his quite frankly, was pretty obvious. The ones that were called on Wilkerson and Perry earlier in the game, especially the one on Wilkerson, to me, I thought was really really questionable. I I I'm telling you Wes that, you know, we talked a lot about the helmet rule and all this other kind of stuff

and the flags that were flying in the preseason. If those types of plays like Wilkerson had, if those are going to be called roughing the passer all season long in the NFL, Boy, these pass rushers, they they better be on their toes. You really have to watch out

because those fifteen yard penalties are costly. They are, and it is it's it's a tough situation to be in because, as we've talked about, we even mentioned, you know, on yesterday's show, the percentages of you know how a drive and the likelihood of scoring increases exponentially if you end up having a giving up a personal foul on a play. It's like an expulsive play. It's it's fifteen yards, it's an ad matic first down. It's it's it's a big

time shift. So this is where I've obviously, you know, taken some caution going into the season because you just aren't quite sure exactly how sensitive we're going to get about quarterbacks and being able to protect them. Certainly, as I've talked about ad nauseum at the end of last season, you know, I always felt the Anthony Barr hit, those are things you want to take out just because there's no reason for a quarterback to get hit like that,

there's no reason to drive them to the turf. But unfortunately that as I've said from all along, it's either black or white. It seems like a lot with these these rules, there's never room for interpretation, there's never gray area. So I don't understand why it's so difficult trying to take something that's just as blatant as like the Davante Adams hit last year from Danny Trevathan and trying to

eliminate that without grouping a bunch of other penalties into that. Now, that's a really good point, that is, and I think, what's I think what's going on here, at least what what I what I think should be going on. But what seems to be going on in terms of carrying a little too far is I think the standard in some ways that the officials are using with all these calls is was the contact avoidable? Because yeah, could Mohammed Wilkerson have avoided hitting the quarterback there? Yeah he could

have been it hit it very hard, you know. And I thought same thing with Perry to a certain extent. But again, if that's if that's the standard standard you're using, you know a lot of people are asking, well, why wasn't the putting the body weight on the quarterback flag when Rogers got hurt? I think that. I think the collision, everything that happened on that play was was you know, so awkward to an extent that the officials didn't think

it was avoidable. So I can understand that being the standard, But I totally get what you're saying as well, that it's it's grouping in a lot of other calls that just because it was avoidable, Well, does it really need to be a fifteen yard penalty? Yeah? And here's here's the other issue I have with it. My can and and I understand what the leak's trying to do. You don't want anyone to get hurt in terms of quarterback

play if it's unnecessary. But my big is the reason I always bring up the bar thing, and it's certainly because I don't have as much examples to look at the entire NFL. There was some of them, I know, uh in these last week and across the NFL. Wasn't just in this Green Bay game. But I still think there's a difference between driving your body on a sack and doing it to a quarterback once the ball has

left his hand. And and I get that technically it's the quarterbacks in a precarious situation, but one seems over exaggerated to me than another one that could just be a football play and a guy playing to the whistle. Because as we know, Mike from you know right now the last ten years, the window for a defensive player to hit a quarterback it's getting smaller and smaller. You can't go too low, you can't go too high pad through it exactly. I mean, you basically just have the

abdomen area to go after. So you know just as well as I do, if you're going after the meat of a human being because of that being basically their core and their center of gravity. You're putting in a little more forced than you would if you're trying to get him at the legs or going higher on them. So it's a it's a really tough pickle. The lead's gonna be be in this year because it looks like

we're not going to get any answers until afterwards. I guess if you're Mike Petton, you know, Jerry Montgomery and these defensive coaches, you just got to teach the right technique and keep your fingers crossed the refs, you know,

don't throw the flag. I feel for defenders a little bit in these situations because how silly is a defender gonna look if he's bearing down on the quarterback and that quarterback pump fakes like Aaron Rodgers has done many times, like a lot of quarterbacks do that quarterback pump fakes, And so the guy pulls up thinking, well, if he's

getting rid of the ball, I'm gonna get flagged. But then it's a pump fake and he tucks the ball and runs and takes off and then you missed the second didn't even get any contact on him at all. That that's the position that defensive players are in because they don't know if the quarterback is going to throw the ball or not. And um when to me anyway, at least when contact after the throw, I thought the

Matthews one should have been flagged. But if the contact after the throw is not egregious, I think you just I think you just have to say, Okay, he wasn't trying to hurt him. He wasn't trying to do anything. Yeah, there was some contact, but let's just play out. Yeah, that's tough because it is it's it's sort of that where you draw the line there, and certainly he didn't drive through his back or anything when he saw the ball go out. But at the same time, if you're

in that position, the ball is gone. You just got to try to let up. The analogy I keep using when I talk to some of my friends and also some other reporters about this is not necessarily the Matthews one, but some of these other, you know, issues that guys are running into. To me, it's almost like you're driving on the highway and you don't know where the stop sign is gonna get put up, and trying to get that automobile to stop because dude, this game is played

at a thousand miles per hour. These guys, some guys on a given week, they're playing for their jobs, they're playing for their careers, they're playing for a role in the defense. They're gonna play hard. So it's just trying to fix as equal dollars in those contracts. That the bottom line. So, I mean that's the challenge. And you know, the NFL is gonna have a huge sample size after this year to go off of and we'll see what

they determine. Yeah, well, anytime you have a big comeback victory like the Packers had, there are unsung heroes along the way. And we got a little bit of a hint at who one of those unsung heroes might have been for the Packers on Sunday Night, especially on the defensive side of the ball, and that's the young safety Kentroll Bryce Mike McCarthy. Without necessarily being prompted, per Se said that Bryce was one of the defensive players who

graded out the highest when the coaches graded the film. Uh, you know they they they basically score every play on different things technique, assignment, you know, execution, result, all those kinds of things and Kentroll Bryce graded out awfully high.

A very good sign for the Packers here because you didn't really know necessarily going into the season, him coming off of the injury from the year before, Josh Jones, being a young guy, still trying to find his way, what the Packers were going to do at that's lot um. Bryce turned in a pretty good ball game. Here's what

I love about Kentroll Brice too. He has if if he ever had a chance to deal with him or talk with him, he has a really cool personality in terms of like you can tell why he probably fit in it like Louisiana Tech or somebody schools that aren't like big FPS schools, because he just is sort of this I'd like to do my job and then I'd like to leave. And it's not that he doesn't want

to do interviews. But what was interesting is he was aware of what McCarthy said at the podium and saying he was a top graded defensive player, and there was this horde of media that we're talking to two Sean Kaiser in the locker room and Bryce goes to his locker changes and tries to sneak through the back door and myself and Jason will the end up stopping him.

As much as he appreciated the praise, the way that he's wired, he would have been just fine going about his day and I'll see on Wednesday and we'll start for week two. But that's not the world we live in,

and he understands that. And I think, you know, there is a lot of emotion evolved in this though for him, he did injure his ankle last year, he did see his season end, and then he suffered another injury in training camp that he got carted off for and luckily for him, was able to avoid a significant um you know, kind of a you know, I don't want to call it a relapse or an aggravation, but whatever the case,

may be a scare. And not only was he able to go out there and start play every single defensive snap, all seventy of them. If you watch the game, kentroll, Bryce played pretty well. I mentioned that an unscripted on Monday, even before McCarthy talked about this. He just was really consistent, Mike, and he's such a big hitter, and that's the reason why I think a lot of people he's gotten on

their radars. But Kentroll Bryce knows, as we just talked about in this last segment, that can't be your game anymore. You have to evolve. You can be aggressive, you can be assertive, but you have to play within your discipline and your technique. I thought he did a terrific job of that in this game. And if he keeps putting performances together like that where he's in that center field position,

allowing Clinton Dicks to roam a little more. Clinton Dick said it, this group could be special and Kentroll Bryce is a big part of that. Yeah. Well, the thing that stood out to me when he came on the scene as an undrafted rookie, aside from obviously the big hits when he was getting in the games, but his

speed was very, very impressive. Now, it's only been one game, it's only been one game so far this season, but if that ankle injury and the subsequent surgery and everything he had to go through last year to get back this year, if that hasn't compromised his speed at all, We'll see, because he's going to be tested by some other guys in this league aside from just the Bears. But if that speed of his hasn't been compromised at

all because of what he went through injury wise. That's a heck of a good sign for him and and

this Packers defense. I remember talking to Xavier Woods, who was his basically his running mate at Louisiana Tech, at the NFL Combine in two thousand seventeen, and I had him by myself and we were and I was taught, asking him about Bryce, and you know, he almost talked with this sort of the smile the entire time, because you know, Bryce really he'd been sort of a situational guy, played on special teams, one of five guys to make the rosters, an undrafted rookie, but people really didn't know

much about him in Woods sort of had this mentality. And I don't remember all the quotes he gave me on the top, but he just said, you know, they don't people really don't understand how good this guy can be in terms of just you know, he's more than just a hitter. There's more to his game. And it was one of the reasons why those two were so successful together. And now Woods is having success. I believe in Dallas in the NFL, Bryce has all the intangibles

you look. For sure, he wasn't a top of the radar prospect, but he was right from the get go pretty much seen as one of the gems of that undrafted free agent class. And and certainly him being able to step into those huge shoes of Morgan Burnett at safety next to ha Clinton Dicks, and the fact that kind of like Geronimo Allison a little bit going into Jordan Alison's number three spot there. He didn't really leave

much doubt throughout the offseason program. He showed that he's a guy that he's not just a dime coverage, you know, safety like he was last year. He's a guy that

could play all three downs. Yeah, and it was great to see him come back so quickly from that training camp injury, which at the time you're looking at it going, oh boy, it's gonna be another injury, you know, significant injury for kentro Bryce turned out not to be honest with you, Mike, I obviously, David tr you got carted off too during family Night, turned out to be fine

with the ankle. In my seven years, I don't remember too many instances where player has been carted off the field and he ends up being able to come back in about a week. Sometimes it isn't surgical, sometimes it isn't season ending. But very rarely is it something where it's like, Okay, he's back out at the practice field. Kenny Clark last year. Maybe it was one example, the hily miss. Yeah, that might have been the all timer.

Does that look like that? Looked? Josh Boyd bad like significant injury end of the year into the off season, and Clark ended up being fine. Fortunately, Packers keep counting their lucky stars there. All right, let's hope um quickly before we go, um, just an update on worth things stand. In the NFC North Monday Night football, the Detroit Lions take one on the Chin and Matt Patricia's head coaching debut. They start the game with a pick six. Sam Donald's

first NFL path goes the wrong direction. But after that, the young rookie from the New York Jets dominated that football game in a lot of ways, and the Jets in big so. The Lions and Bears both oh and one, the Packers and Vikings both one and oh and Week two Packers Vikings at lambeau Field. It's the the early shot at the driver's seat. I guess you say it was, I mean, and that was really something to see Stafford

struggle the way he did against the Jets defense. It was four interceptions, forty seven point nine passer rating in that contest. But this, let's be honest, Mike, regardless of Khalil Mack, I think everybody is sort of you know, earmarked, the Packers and Vikings as far as the krumdalea creme in this division at least going into the season. And and again I said an inbox last week, I never view any Week one game is like a season defining game. I still don't because so much can happen. But the

Packers do have a lot of momentum going into this. Again, we have to see how Aaron Rodgers does, but how he is with his prognosis. But that's a huge leap being able to come back. Emotionally, we know it's a game of swings. Things can turn at any single moment. That that is going to be a huge contest at

lambeau Field. Even though the Airs Sunday Night Football a hundred season was a big game, this is one that does have implications down the line because it's very rare that you get to division games at home to start the season. I'm sure the Packers will be ready for it. It's only gonna be one team in the NFC North too. And oh after two weeks and it's the winner at Lambeufield on Sunday afternoon. So 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 all week long on Packers dot com on Twitter, He's at west hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.