#329 Packers Unscripted: Rainy days and Mondays

Just uh, not one that anybody's gonna remember for for a while. No, not for the right reasons. And uh, certainly, Uh it was weird, Mike. I woke up on Sunday morning and we actually stayed like directly downtown where like two blocks from the White House. Looked out my window the moment before, and I knew it was gonna rain, but just the amount of consistent rain throughout the day, it just it it's sort of underscored what this game was gonna be for the Packers and and and it's funny.

I You're always learning things, right, you know, in my thirty years I think of every year I've covered the NFL and I've had a thought or I've had a you know, kind of an analysis hypothesis for how things were gonna go, and everybody talked about, you know, while coming off of a tie road teams, teams that then go on the road, or like, oh, in thirteen or fourteen, I actually thought the Packers are gonna be the ons

a curb that uh. And certainly I'm not saying that that's the reason why they lost, but you could see what how difficult it is in those circumstances to go out there and play well, and in the Packers case, particularly in that first half, just not enough. Yeah, it was a rough start on both sides of the ball for the Packers. No mistake about a defense was not

playing well, offense was not playing well. You get down into a ten hole at time the and as the second half unfolded, you know, the defense boat up and got a series of stops, and the bottom line is the offense had its opportunities to get back in the game. You had the feeling if the Packers could just get it to a one score game, that was going to flip some of the pressure back to Washington's offense to have to try to seize the momentum back that that

that unit had clearly lost. But the Packers never got it to a one score game. They never, they never, you know, turned up the screws in that respect, so to speak. And you know, whether you want to talk about the penalties, the drop passes, all kinds of opportunities were there for Green Bay and the Packers just didn't cash in and and walked out of there with a with a really tough loss. Yeah, it's funny, you're the

big baseball guy. I don't know as much about anymore, but it did seem to seem to me like a game where there was a lot of runners left on base ye in that the Packers defense. I mean, that was about as bizarre of a game as I think I've seen in a long time in terms of the difference between the first and the second half. Total yards in the first half sixty three and the second. Now, mind you, Washington had a lead, they were protecting the lead, but just how they didn't really do much in the

second half. Alex Smith had six passing yards after halftime, four possessions. Four possessions. Washington had one first down and it was on the Clay Matthews roughing the passer penalty, which is a whole another discussion I'm sure we can touch on again. But um, but no, the Packers defense, for as much as the unit struggled in the first half, it gave the offense a chance in the second half

and and it just didn't come together. Yeah, And all five explosive plays the defense allowed were in the first two quarters. They settle in, but then offensively, every time it looked like the Packers were about to mount a rally, that Aaron Rodgers was going to lead the troops again, just something happened there. It was a drop pass, a fumble, um,

you know, just things didn't quite go their way. And in this in a road environment, playing a team that I think, as you've seen with Washington, is as game as they are, and their defense, which is pretty stingy that I mean, they're playing, they're playing good ball right now. When you get an opportunity to to seize momentum, to to seize an opportunity to to put some points on the board, you have to execute on it. And the

Packers just weren't able to do that. Yeah. Well, to give you another baseball analogy, I wrote flying back on the Plane. Last night, I was working on the Insider Inbox column for Monday morning, and I said, you know, in a baseball lineup, you have to string the hits together. It doesn't do any good to get a hit in the first inning, one hit in the second inning, one hit in the fourth inning. You have to string him together. And the way this game went, the Packers couldn't string

anything together. You get an interception from the defense, but then the offense has great field position and can't take advantage. The special teams pins Washington on the two yard line. Well, that's time for the defense to do it's part, but to plays seventy five yards and Washington's right in scoring range again. You know, the offense hits the sixty four yard touchdown, but then the defense allows another oring drive

right back the other way. Right after that. The Packers couldn't string anything together, and the result is then you're scrambling in the second half to try to get back in the game, and it just didn't happen. It's an eleven on eleven game. It's offense versus defense, and in too many phases, the Packers just got beat just enough that ultimately it would end up being the result that it was. The difficult thing is is there were positives

in this that that get lost. And I'm sure we'll talk about the Clay Matthews uh penalty here in a moment, but I mean the fact that Clay Matthews finally did get a sack or it looked like he was that that looked like vintage Clay Matthews on that play gets wiped out. Nimo Allison has a sixty four yard touchdown past Doronimo Allison is leading the Packers and receiving right now, and you know it's it's all for not Mark Quisvelde.

Scantling looks like he can be the gunner that the Packers need to compliment J K. Scott, who had another strong game. Aaron Jones is back involved. But all those positives didn't ultimately help the Packers get to where they needed to be and what you need to do more than anything else, and you I talked about before it

came in here. As great as those those moments are, it comes down to fundamentals across the entire offense and defense, and we could talk about it to where the blue in the face and people get you know, tired of it. But it's true if you go back and look at some of the areas where the Packers came up short, it's fundamental mistakes and not being able to either protect the football, secure the football, or you know, just just losing their technique. Yeah, obviously and and technique that that

is a key thing. Mike McCarthy, you know, after the game, said hey, you know, we had too many penalties, and it does go back to the fundamentals because whether you're talking about the hand placement of offensive linemen when they're getting called for holding, or the techniques in the defensive backfield when you're getting multiple pass interference penalties on one drive, those kinds of things just they take the wind out

of the sales of of any team. There's only so there's only so many times you're gonna get that opportunity to seize the momentum and uh and when you let it slip away like that, and then on top of it, you have a couple of veteran players in Randall Cobb and Lance Kendricks, and I don't mean to single them out because other guys had penalties other guys had past interference calls and all that, but the drop passes when it's veteran, proven veteran players. These guys are gonna atone

for their mistakes. We know that. But that's tough because you know, the past narrative around here has been, well, it's young guys who make mistakes and you have to live with them. In this case, there was a lot of veteran players unfortunately that let the Packers down. And and you know their pros, they'll bounce back, they'll they'll get the job done. But it's it's it's a you know, a tally market in the al column because of because of a lot of guys that that you know, no,

they didn't play up to their own standard. Yeah, and Randall Cobb is about as even keel as they come, and was beating himself up about it afterwards, you know, having the fumble in that series, the really close forth and to play looked like he had the catch upon further review, ball did come out and to touch the ground. Those are plays that that Cobb prides himself on, and he knows the offense and needs those moments, and certainly Lance Kendricks that was a great opportunity for a big play,

and and he did a phenomenal job to it. It appeared like it was sort of an extended scrambled drow where he was out in the flat, that he turned it up field, almost turning it into a wheel route gets behind the linebacker coverage, And the most frustrating part of that, and I know he talked about it. It's all focused is that it wasn't even like it was broken up, like he actually had the separation. He pulled it down the linebacker fifty four. I think that was

faster Foster. He didn't actually touch him until really he's on the ground. It just wasn't able to secure it. Moments like that that I think Aaron Rodgers talked about it. The guys talked about the locker room afterwards, separates the winds and the losses, and unfortunately for the packers, this one goes down as an owl. Yeah, well, a little bit of sponsored business here quickly West at home or here in the stands. We all know that Green Bay fans give it their all and that takes a lot

of energy. So grab a warm bowl Campbell's Chunky soup. It's meaty goodness. Fuels the greatness of Packers fans everywhere. Try the delicious classic chicken noodle soup. Just visit your local supermarket and asked for Campbell's Chunky Soup, the official soup partner of the Green Bay Packers. Okay, to add injury to insults, so to speak, the Packers left Washington rather banged up. Here we saw Maha mid Wilkerson, veteran defensive lineman, get carted off the field, which with what

looked like a pretty nasty ankle injury. Brian Bulaga left the game with a back injury. Also on the right side of the offensive line, Justin McCrae left the game with a shoulder injury. Towards the end of the game, Nick Perry on the defensive side, was being evaluated for a concussion. We'll see as the week goes along what

kind of updates we get on those injuries. But but boy, those are those are some some key veteran players that you know, you hope, you know, things obviously don't look good with Wilkerson when the cart comes out like that, but with some of the other guys, you hope maybe none of these are long term deals. Yeah, and and blag is certainly the way he was able to come back from the knee injury and and be a starter for this offense and be accountable at that position, and

in moving back in at right tackle. It's it's tough to see, you know him have to go out, Certainly Jason Spriggs, who actually thought looked pretty good at the end of training camp working mostly on the left side, well, now he has to go back to the right side, uh, and gets worked there. Justin mccrawe actually said afterwards, this is the shoulder injury. He's kind of been dealing with the going back to training camp, and he sort of

tried to muscle through it. There was a point in time in that game, though, where he started to realize subconsciously he wasn't really getting his hands behind his blocks anymore. He was doing things that compensate for that. And because he wasn't in his you know mind, you know, being able to help the offense at his full full pressure, full you know, full accord, he pulls himself out by Ron Bell ends up being the guy that finishes the

game there. It's tough because the Packers offensive line, I thought one of the big positives these first two weeks they had all five guys, they were able to start working together, building that rapport, and then you lose some of that. As far as Wilkerson, that one's really tough because we've seen Mike in these first three games were probably more specifically the Vikings game, how big the Packers plans are for him with this defense and the ways

that they can use him. And and he actually had a pretty good pressure earlier in that game that I thought kind of helped contribute to the Clinton Dick's interception

being able to get in Alex Smith's face. Yeah, he was lined up as a five tech on that play and he was he was coming around the edge and Kenny Clark had some pressure up the middle, and then Smith gets rid of that ball, the tight end doesn't break off his route, and you know, the pressure through the timing of the playoff ends up being a pick for the Packers, and Smith is standing in the heart of the pocket at that time. He can't throw it away. So it's things like that, man, where it's just the

Packers defensive line. We talked about it all summer long. It was going to be a strength for them. I think they've had their moments. But we'll have to see what happens with Wilkerson. That's a big chunk of it though. If if he's not able to go, Yeah, well we'd be remiss if we didn't at least discussed to some extent the Clay Matthews ready passer third straight week. Now, Clay Matthews first nine years of his career, he has four roughing the passer penalties. The last three weeks he's

had three. Now we all know, as we've said, the one against Chicago, and Matthews has admitted it multiple times that was on him. He knows he shouldn't have done it, perfectly legitimate roughing the passer call. But these last two weeks and you can you can just see the frustration right there on the field. He's sacks Smith. He looks at the referee right away, you know, because he's actually worried that maybe a flag is going to come out,

and then sure enough the flag does come out. I Joe, I was, you know, I say, maybe half joking in my chat or an inbox wherever I wrote it last week that you know it's time to just bear hug the quarterback and hold on like I I don't. I don't know what else Clay Matthews is supposed to do. Not that being said, you have to try to do something different because you can't keep getting flags. So you can't just keep doing the same thing because the flags are gonna keep coming out. But I'm not sure what

the answer is West. I'm really not get the flags out, the flag, the red flags, throw them on the quarterback. I'll tell you what, Mike, Um, here's what's funny about this. Here's the feeder of it. Week one egregious. You know everyone understands that just because I mean, even if he wasn't trying to be malicious in it, you go up near the quarterback's head and the balls out, they're gonna throw the flag. Matthews got that last last week is

last week wasn't a penalty. This might have been the first week that the referees got the call right in terms of the letter of the law. But that doesn't change the fact it's a terrible foul. It's a terrible call. But it is funny in that claim Matthews. After three straight weeks, the referees actually got the call probably right, and it doesn't change the fact that it's terrible and uh, I don't know, man, But here's here, here's the things.

And this is interesting because after after we got back last night, after the plane landed, got home, I'm looking through some different things on the internet. I got my

eye on Sunday Night Football. I saw I saw a discussion that happened on the Sunday Night Football pregame show and apparently they had Terry McAuley, the former official who's now kind of one of these rules analysts for the networks, and he pointed out something very interesting that there is language in the rule as far as this whole body weight thing on the quarterback. There's language and the rule about it being unnecessary, you know. And that's the part

I think that's getting lost here. Is that. Okay, so yes, by the letter of the law, Clay Matthews landed with all of his body weight on the quarterback. But it was necessary for him to make the play. It wasn't some unnecessary act that was outside of the play that he was trying to make. And I think that's what's getting lost here. And as as we've talked about all of this focus on the rules and the changes in

the rules and all this kind of stuff. It has the the officials hyper focused on finding reasons to throw flags instead of stopping to think about the reasons not to. That's what's going on here, and unfortunately the Packers seem to be the team that's right in the middle of it. Now, not long before the Clay Matthews sack, Aaron Rodgers gets basically tossed like a rag doll on a sack, actually really lands on his head, his helmet goes right into

the turf. And then we in the press box were treated to a little conversation between Rogers and referee Craig Rolstad where he had left his microphone on during the TV time out, and we heard Rogers asking the referee about hey, like, did you know do you see me get thrown down on my head there? And the referee said, well, I couldn't see it through all the pile of bodies and whatever based on his angle, so he couldn't, so

he couldn't throw the flag. So that again brings me back to the point I've been making all along, which is if you want to protect these players, then you have to have replay to look at this, because if one guy is in charge of throwing that flag and he can't see what happened, then how are we How is anybody's supposed to get anything right and trust that the calls are all going to be legitimate and fair. It's it's it's not happening correctly, and the league needs

to do something about it. Ding ding Ding. Yeah. I can't add much more to that. You're right. Here's here's the one thing I will say though. Uh, this is the one thing I really appreciated about Clay Matthews. Afterwards he said he did not he did not agree with it obviously. Uh. And he handled it all, in my opinion, handled it very professionally. You could tell his frustration, considering he comes from a third generation football family, has an uncle that played in the league for twenty years, a

father that played in the league for nineteen years. He's been playing this game for twenty years. He said, this is the way I play it. I almost wish, though, he would have did one thing differently, And and I understand that the games played at a million miles prower

there's nothing to do. I think it would have made a great statement to the league if he would have bear hugged him and stopped and then to getting back to the original thing, because one they would have had to he had his arms covered, so there's nothing Alex Smith. If you if you can get the quarterback in a

bear hug, he's not He's not going. And I think that would have been a great statement in terms of the I'm not saying this is how you should do it, but I'm saying I think that would have been a great moment for people to really look at be like, is this the league you want? Is this the play you want? Do you want your your your faces, your celebrity pass rushers that the guys that Sunday Night Football

is gonna put their promotions. Do you want him going up to Alex Smith and bear hugging him until the ref calls end of forward progress, until they blow the whistle. Yeah, And I think that might be what's gonna happen because getting back to you original thing about unnecessary, you know, penalty, Clay Matthew said he could have made it unrest unnecessary. There's things he could have done that would have been absolutely specific plays. But he got inside leverage on the tackle,

He had a straight line to the quarterback. You're telling me, Clay Matthews is going to be able to get his hips around on that play. And by the way, you get your hips around too much, you know what you're doing. You're soup plexing them. You're gonna do the same thing that happened to Rogers, but now you don't have the clutter and you're getting the play. Yeah yeah, yeah, what what what Doron Payne did? If Rollsdad can see it, he's throwing the flag and and that potentially changes up

changes a possession of possible scoring opportunity. So here's Packers, here's the here's the lesson. Here kids, make sure there's a scrum around the quarterback. They take your what you will? Yeah, yeah, yes, well, I tell you what was We spent more time on that than I thought we were going to. And there was a lot that happened elsewhere in the NFL, And let's save a lot of that discussion and where things

are in the NFC North for tomorrow's show. And there's some other things obviously to follow up on this game. But you know what, we're just gonna what. I'm gonna interrupt you one more time, you know, the ultimate travesty with this Matthews played two pretty good games. He played well against Minnesota, got wiped out. He got a sack in this game and got wiped out. Okay, all right, but we do have to call it a wrap on

this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on the website packers dot com. On Twitter, you can follow him at west Hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.