Yeah, Hi, everybody, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined alongside my trusted colleague West Hodkoits were coming to you here from our studios at lambeau Field and West Week two Packers Vikings noon Sunday kickoff at lambeau Field. It is almost here our final show of the week in which we focus on Keys to Victory for Green Bay. Where do you want to start with this one? Well, there's a quarterback that we
don't really have an update on right now. I mean, just to get out of the way, you know, Mike McCarthy mentioned Friday morning, did not have an update on him. As you wrote on Packers dot Com. Looks like he'll be taking this thing all the way up until game time on Sunday. He sounds like he continues to make progress us and trying to come back from that knee.
I actually thought the biggest thing that probably came out of that was McCarthy's believing that if there are no setbacks, this could be something that clears itself up that he wouldn't necessarily have to play through the rest of the season. Um be that as it may, everything's about Sunday right now. You and I talked about it so many times. Mike Packers Vikings, especially the recency between that rivalry with Mike Zimmer and that defense. Aaron Rodgers a big piece of
the puzzle. Depending on how it all shakes out. Yeah, I think it all starts, and I personally believe Rogers is going to play. But even if he doesn't, and if it is Deshaun Kaiser, I think it all starts with protecting the quarterback. But this this Minnesota Vikings defense, this defensive front, and I'm talking about not only the front four but also the linebackers, Bar and Kendricks and all of that. These guys can get after quarterbacks. They've
done it time and time again. Harrison Smith will come blitzing from the safety position and you know a lot of times finds his way to the quarterback a clear path as well. We saw what was happening last week when Khalil Mack was kind of a one man wrecking girl, though Achiem Hicks was also doing his share of wrecking
things in the first half for the Packers. But once the past protection settled down, Rogers lack of mobility or not when the past protection settled down, the Packers offense found its rhythm founded screw to score twenty four points in a second half in the NFL. That's a lot. That's that that's that's big time production. So the Packers know that whichever quarterback is back there, he needs to he needs to have room to operate. And I think
that's where the scheme starts. Yeah, and and you look historically, Vic Fangio's defense isn't one that gives up a lot of those opportunities, either whether he was in San Francisco or during his time in Chicago. For him to give up that much production, I think shows you just how in the zone Rogers was in that contest. And the other thing I'm gonna add to that again, depending on who the quarterback is and and how this all you Know lays out on Sunday. But I mentioned our final
thoughts video to this week, Mike. Really, if they can have that similar production, I'm not saying they need to have two and fifty two receiving yards out of Davante Adams, Randall Cobb and Geronimo Allison, but just being able to
spread out the passing game like that. It's the mismatch we talked about throughout the off season and being able to also have Jimmy Graham involved their Lance Kendricks as an h back type tight end and having a multitude of different ways that the quarterback can go with the football in addition to however you want to utilize time
Montgomery potentially splitting him out the second half. I thought the big key to what the Packers were able to do was the fact that one drive belonged to Gerontom Wills and one drive happened to belong to Davantae Addams, and then obviously Randall Cobb doing what Randall Cobb does in the final you know moments of that game to to pull out the victory. There's only so many guys you can cover, and if you decide to go to shell against it, well then that's going to leave you
some opportunities underneath with the run and and whatnot. So that chess match between what Mike Zimmer wants to do and how he believes he wants to dictate the game versus what the Packers are going to do to build off of how they finished last week, to me, is the biggest storyline in this game. Absent the quarterback. Yeah. And the other thing I'm going to keep an eye
on two is the penalties. And I want to mention a couple of things on both sides of the ball here, because in continuing with the theme of protecting the quarterback and establishing the pocket, there was an intentional grounding penalty against Rogers in the second half that could have been really really debilitating for that comeback. Packers were able to
overcome that penalty. But if he's not able to get completely outside of the pocket in order to throw the ball away, he needs to have enough time, you know, even if somebody's not open, to find a receiver to get rid of the ball to avoid the sack and avoid the intentional grounding. And then on the other side, the roughing the passer penalties, three of them against the Packers. I don't know. Usually a team that would have that many personal fouls in a game does not come out
on top. I mean, those those penalties are are really punitive. And two of them, as we talked about earlier in the week, I thought were really dubious calls. The one on Clay Matthews at the end of the game I thought was legitimate but the Packers can't. You can't continue that. You're the pass rushers have to be on notice here because you can't be giving free fifteen yards and free first downs, especially on third and fourth down plays as
what happened at the end of the ball game. Absolutely, And I think that's one thing too, is Clay Matthews has kind of gone on throughout the week, you know, and admitting and atoning for what he'd done and understanding that you in this day and age, you can't have those type of those type of hits with the quarterback. He steps in front of that. But I thought he made an important message and in talking about that to
also bring up how you know him personally. He didn't believe the unnecessary roughness penalties on Mohamed Wilkerson and Nick mcperry were maybe warranted. Um, I don't think they worried. It's really it's a tough problem. We talked about it
earlier this week. These guys having to try to understand how they're going to take their pass rushing skills, go after the quarterback and do what they're paying to do, but also not have a bad effect to it, because honestly, Mike, that might as well just be a fifteen yard completion. It might as well be just as much of a momentum change and kind of play. So that I agree with you, It's gonna be interesting to watch. And I'll be honest with you too, I'm gonna be following Anthony Barr. Still,
I don't want to just keep beating that horse. But seriously, that to me, that's one of the reasons why we have this role. So, I mean, it's seeing how those type of players react to it as well. It's it's gonna be Uh, it's gonna be a major storyline, not
only this week but this whole season. Yeah. The other thing I see from the defensive side, and I know this is something we could say every single week, but particularly in this game with the potential limitations of Rogers, with what's at stake here against the Minnesota Vikings and everything, and how last week's game unfolded, I think the Packers defense needs to get a turnover too for the Packers
to be able to win this game. And when the Packers were down twenty to nothing against the Bears, I kept every time the Bears got the ball, I would tweet, Okay, it's time for a turnover. I I just didn't think, honestly that the Packers could win that game, would complete that comeback without the defense make getting a turnover and making one of those game changing type of plays. Now, they ended up getting one on the final play on the fourth down, but they actually did complete the comeback.
We're ahead or twenty three without the defense getting the turnover. I'm not sure you're gonna be able to beat the Minnesota Vikings unless you unless you force a mistake from Kirk Cousins, or maybe you strip the ball from Dalvin Cook. He did cough one up last week against the San Francisco forty Niners. But um, this is uh, this is the type of This is the type of game where the defense needs to create a big momentum swing at
some point in the game. I think in order for the Packers to win and to get to two and oh and uh. And you know, I guess the timing of the turnover obviously could be crucial, but I think the Packers need one or two. I give you a hundred credit. I'm not saying you're wrong. I will say there is a great equalizer though that people don't often talk about. It's the reason why the Packers won that
game against the Bears. They got off the field, they got stops on third down, they got stops on fourth down. The Packers don't do that, they don't win because you're not getting the ball back here and Rodgers fast enough, you're gonna run out of time at some point. There were what was that I believe it was five possessions against the Bears where they did not have a first
doubt in the span of six possessions. And you if you're not gonna have turnovers, if you're gonna lose the turnover margin, and you're also gonna, you know, have some issues with some personal follows there, you have to do something. And Mike Patton's defense in those instances didn't give an inch. Long term, You're absolutely right, though, you have to be able to get turn over the football. You have to be able to get those type of plays. I'm really eager to see all of this start to play out
on a week to week basis. I don't think, and I've said this earlier this week, I don't think we're just going to see a carbon copy of the game plan that we saw against the Bears now be implemented against the Vikings. I think you're gonna shifting off of that. I think you're gonna see a lot of different things. But I thought the three main message as we got out of the first game, where one they have full
confidence in Blake Martinez to run the defense. And if they need to go soul inside linebacker for half the game, three courters the game, they're gonna do that. The defensive front, as we said all offseason, the defensive line is going to have a huge impact in this thing. They're gonna run three defensive linemen and sub packages. They're gonna run them in base packages. They're gonna have base packages where there's one defensive lineman. They're gonna have dime packages where
there's one defensive lineman. There's it's indiscriminate there. Mike Patton is gonna go with whatever he feels the flow of the game is like. And lastly, I wrote about it earlier week. We talked about it. Defensive back secondary is going to be a hallmark of this team. They will go as far as they take them this season. Josh Jackson Jr. Alexander Mike McCarthy said it. Both of those guys earned the reps there on the field. Kevin King
played every single snap last week. I don't think that's a big enough storyline, given the fact that he had missed the amount of time he did with the shoulder, given the fact that he had sat on the off season with the other shoulder surgery. The fact that he played all seventy defensive snaps and was a full participate in practice this week A very good thing for a guy that didn't actually play into preseason game until the finale, no question. And lastly, Trumont Williams, what else can you
say about him? Seventy defensive snaps. He's gonna be a pig part of this thing. He's another one of those orchestrators in the defense. The Packers secondary as a whole, Mike, and there's gonna be guys that get Nixon bruises over the course of this season. But that group right now appears to have the potential to be special this year. Yeah, you mentioned a different type of game plan here against the Vikings, and I agree with you because I was surprised.
As I had mentioned earlier in the week, I was surprised at how the Packers really, in essence, they dared the Bears to run the ball with Howard and Cohen, they did not really counter the Bears run personnel on offense with run personnel on defense. Now, at the end of the day, Cohen and Howard collectively they averaged better than five yards per carry, but yet the Bears running game did not control the football game. Now, Dalvin Cook,
that could that could change. I think. I think this guy is a really potentially a really really special player, both in how he runs the ball and and how they use him as a receiver out of the backfield.
He's a guy that could change how Petton, you know, puts the defensive fronts out there, because you can't let the Vikings, especially with as as accomplished a quarterback as Kirk Cousins is, with all the four thousand yards seasons and all that kind of stuff, you can't let the Vikings control the game on the ground because then that just changes all those matchups in the secondary that Kirk Cousins has the experience then to take advantage of that.
Perhaps Mitch Robinsky not quite there yet. Yeah, you're you're right. There's a reason why the Packers traded for Antonio Morrison. They wanted to have that Jake Ryan type run stuff for next to Blake Martinez. They wanted to have him
in the pipeline. I think the big thing for this game too, and at the time in which we're taping, as we haven't had the injury report yet, but seeing where n Burke's is at the fact that he was actually able to appear to He's still limited, but appeared to be able to do more in practice this week.
Looks like he's putting that shoulder injury behind him. Burke's is an important piece to this equation because he seems to be the merger there between going lighter in the secondary but still having a guy that can stand up in the run. Uh. And you saw what he did
during preseason throughout training camp. He's a young guy, but he's a bright guy, and I think with him and Blake Martinez working against each other, that's a really good battery there for the Packers and in that in that part of the fame, that that facet of the defense um and the sooner they get him on the field, obviously, the better it's going to be for that group in the long run. Yeah. Well, just to touch on special teams briefly, we know we've been told Randall Cobb will
remain the punt returner for the Packers. How long before you think he breaks one? I think it might not take too long. I thought he was gonna do it last week, to be honest with you, on that seventeen yard And this is a guy that did not return a punt in the two thousand seventeen seasoned wasn't asked to do that at all. I I wrote about this for the website on Friday, Mike, I just he's missed or consistency. He's always been that way. He doesn't get too high or too low in the locker room and
on the field very quietly. I mean, you look at his sixty yard seasons and how he's kind of put these together and what he's fought through to do that. Yeah, I thought that was a very fitting way for the Packers to open the season a hundred forty two yards from Randall Cobb when we've all we've talked about is Jimmy Graham and rookie receivers and new offenses for him to play the way he did offensively. And then, oh, by the way, Trevor Davis's hamstring flares up. We need
you on special teams as well, he said it. I'm sure you remember these these interviews Mike, going back to two thousand, twelve and thirt team when he was starting to break out, looked like he was just gonna need to be an offensive only player. He said, He's always open to doing special teams if he needs that. He he embraces that role. Yeah, He's never batted an eyelash at getting extra duty thrown at him. Yeah, and the
Packers want to get the ball in his hands. It's one more way to do that, especially if they're going to be without Davis for half for you know, the whole season. We'll see how that works out. Yeah, all right. Well, one other thing we always like to do on our final show that week, take a look at some other games going on around the league that have some significant implications. Obviously, in the NFC North, this Packers Vikings game is where
it's at. One team is going to be too and oh and will be on top of the division all by its lonesome after two weeks. So there are a couple other games in the NFC that I think are really interesting. One is Carolina at Atlanta the first of
two NFC South showdowns between those two teams. The other one that I don't think before Week one we would have thought would be an intriguing game, but it is now, and that's Philadelphia, the defending Super Bowl champions going to Tampa Bay with Ryan Fitzpatrick coming off of the four hundred and seventeen yards and four touchdowns against the New Orleans Saints in the Buccaneers upset in their opening NFC South matchup. This one cross divisions the South versus the East.
Which one of these do you think is more intriguing? The Carolina Atlanta or Philly Tampa. I love Philly Tampa because you know, we see the NFC South against each other and that there's so much parody in that division. It always seems like they're they're going to be important games down the stretch. But I mean, you want to talk about the Buccaneers, I mean Dirk Cutters, I mean, this is where they got to make hay this season.
Regardless of where Jamis Winston is at and Ryan Fitzpatrick, they've expressed a lot of confidence in him going back to last year. If you watched Hard Knocks at all, and you know everyone talks so much about Aaron Rodgers and him falling to the two thousand five draft. What about Ryan Fitzpatrick falling to the seventh round in that same draft. In the career that he's made for himself, it just seems like every time this league wants to kind of, you know, spit him out and move on,
he finds another way to hang on. And this is gonna be a supreme challenge for him though against the Eagles. To me, that that's a matchup I'm looking forward to. And then yeah, every time Atlanta and Carolina play, it's always gonna fireworks. Yeah. Well, it's interesting because I was really high on Dirt Cutter's Buccaneers team last year. I thought they were a team on the rise in the NFC, and then things didn't work out, they didn't come together.
And now this year you're dealing with Jamis Winston being suspended at the beginning of the year, and all of a sudden, they go out there with Ryan Fitzpatrick and light up New Orleans the way they did, get a big win. Now they're hosting the defending Super Bowl champs. Maybe, just maybe I was a year too early on Cutter and his Buccaneers, But and we don't talk often a lot about a f C games because we're always looking at the NFC North and the NFC and how that
shakes out. But you do have the rematch of the a f C Championship this week with New England, this one being at Jacksonville, believe correct. So what do you what do you think of this matchup? Obviously a lot of people are pointing to Jacksonville, this is their opportunity to beat the Patriots. They get him at home, they're getting him early in the season, all that kind of stuff.
How do you see this one playing out? I my every time I watched the Patriots now is my eyes are always glued on Tom Brady because he's forty one years old now, uh, and you're always kind of looking to see win. Not necessarily you're going to see the athletic dip because it's not like he's ever been like this huge, scrambling quarterback, but the arm strength and by
all accounts, I mean, he's still Tom Brady. But you know, when you look on the other side of it, can Jacksonville, after appearing like they were trying and clawing and getting closer to closing that gap, can they finally do it this year. So many resources have gone into that side of the ball. I think these are probably what the I would say is the highest expectations they've probably had for one of their teams since what maybe the Mark
Brunel era. Yeah, I mean, I'm talking about, like, you know, more than just division titles, more than playoffs, and this is a team that wants to contend for a Super Bowl. They they felt they should have beaten the Patriots in New England for that a f C title last year.
They had the lead, they were they were in, but they were in control of the game for a large portion of it, and they let it get away at the end, and they got it Round two here for them, And you can pick up a win here against New England that propels you to the season that changes the narrative. You lose that again, and you're gonna be answering that question for another month or so. Yeah. Another interesting game I think in the a f C, Kansas City is
at Pittsburgh. Are we potentially I know pitt Sburg is always really tough at home, but could Pittsburgh actually start the season Oh one and one, they could start the season oh and two that's possible if they want to go running the table another way, another another overtime tie Patrick Mahomes. People, we gotta get whatever credit is given to Andy Reid and that coaching staff for whatever happens
with him. I'm always going to have the John Dorsey Astrix next to that because Dorsey made such a gutsy move going up and getting this guy when I don't think many people had him at ten. Now people were scratching their heads at that move, like like, wait a minute, the Chiefs are trading up, like who do they want?
And then it's like they traded up for Patrick Mahomes and then, yeah, you're right that that was That was a very bold move by John Dorsey, and he may have set up the Kansas City Chiefs for a lot of sixty. It's one game. You never know what can happen. Everybody can look like an m v P in one game, but the kid looks like he belongs. And in addition to that, the fact that they had Alex Smith because of John Dorsey and then he goes to Wash I mean, it's just he set that franch up up really well.
I know there was some things that happened there at the end of it, but they're in a good place. Can I throw one more out at you? Yeah, I actually think the biggest game of the week. You don't even touch on it. Okay, okay, sorry, No, it's all right. Seattle Chicago not necessarily from like implications, but Seattle had a lot of stuff happened this offseason. They start the season oh and two, where does your season go from there? In Chicago just traded for Khalil Mack. Now you're getting
the Seahawks at home on Monday Night football. You kind of need to show up. Whatever team ends up being oh and two out of that one, I think that's gonna not necessarily be an insurmountable hole to get out of, but not the start you're looking for. So that's Monday nights. It's Monday Night football. Okay, well yeah, I mean weeks we'll talk about that then. But I'm really no. No.
I hear you though, because because you we're going to hear the stats with regards to that game about the percentage of teams that make the playoffs when they start oh and two and one of those two teams that they both have some high hopes. One of the two teams is going to be and too. There's a bunch of stat people out there, probably some in Bristol, Connecticut and Los Angeles just waiting to unveil all those wint We're going to see those on the TV screen Monday night.
But that's that's a that's a big game. No, you're right. That depends on who's going to really be in contention in those divisions. Yeah, you're right, that is a significant one. With that, we will call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and of Sunday's big game against the Vikings 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.