#357 Packers Unscripted: Cold weather coming

over margin. I know that comes up it seems like every week, and I know every week it seems like I say, well, this is the week it really matters. But I think if you look at the statistics and the statuets this week, it really shows how paramount it is the fact that the Dolphins biggest like victory this year for them has been their ability to take away the football. The fifteen interceptions. If you get beyond that,

it's been kind of tough for them. They've had a hard time moving the ball consistently, whether it has been Ryan Tannehill or Brock Oswiler quarterback. Defensively, as you pointed out on our Final Thoughts video, They've given up yards there too, specifically against the runs. So they're big play production. Their ability to be five and four at this point of the year has been able to being able to take away the football. Packers have to make sure that

doesn't happen. Yeah, they the statistic Dolphins have fifteen interceptions. Aaron Rodgers is only thrown one. We looked it up earlier today. It was against Buffalo, which was that Week four. Yeah, Buffalo against Week four was Rogers only interception this season. So yeah, I've kind of had the feeling all week that if Rogers continues to not throw the ball into Harm's way, which he's done a great job this year, and it's not as though teams have had a bunch

of opportunities to intercept the ball on Aaron Rodgers. I like the Packers chances here because the Dolphins defense, you know, they rank really in the you know, the bottom third of the league essentially and in yardage, and you know, they they've had they've had some ups and downs in terms of points allowed. But quite frankly, was you know they would have lost, they would have been hung with a really bad loss against the New York Jets last week if not for a pick six um from their

defense to pull out a thirteen to six victory. So I agree with you. It's not as though we're sitting here saying the Packers need to win the turnover battle three to nothing or something like that in order to win this game. But you can't let this Dolphins defense continue to feed on the turnover thing that has sort of been their spark to get to this point where they're five and four, even though they're playing with a

backup quarterback. Yeah, and and that's really I think one of the things that they've been able to use to to get through that time is that if brock Oswather has done anything really well and these whatever this has been now four or five starts he's made, yeah, it's the fact that he has part at the football relatively well compared to you know what happened in Houston where he ultimately lost his job for that reason, and then you know that these short intervals of time he had

with Cleveland and Denver. So I think this is gonna be really interesting also seen exactly what form, uh this secondary takes for the Dolphins. I mean, they said coming out of Miami this week Adam Gaze said, everything's resolve

with Rashad Jones. Where they're gonna go with that. Are they're still gonna be trying to rotate through with Minca Fitzpatrick or how they're gonna handle all those safeties, because it sounded like, and again as a non expert, I'm not a beat writer for them, it sounded like that was sort of the crux of this whole thing is they were trying to rotate guys and maybe Rashad Jones wasn't happy with that, whatever, But when he's on the field, he's a really dynamic football player, and I think he

has two or three of those picks on the season, and as I mentioned earlier this week, a guy like Kiko Alonso has three picks. I mean, they have a lot of guys and a lot of different body types that can make plays on the football and you have to be aware of that. Yeah, I think looking at this game from another perspective, I really think this game

could come down to the running backs. You have Frank Gore on the Dolphins side with a partner in Kenyan Drake, and then the Packers obviously have Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams and looking at what I would consider the number one guys for each team. Frank Gore, I think, has really been kind of the backbone of this Miami offense since brock Oswiler particularly had to take over as the starting quarterback. And you know, I wrote a piece on

it for our website this week. You know, Frank Gore's career, to me is is really really impressive and you can't have anything but the utmost respect for what he's done over fourteen years. He ranks fourth all time in the NFL in rushing yards. He's going to end up in the Hall of Fame someday. He's had seven career games against the Green Bay Packers West if you include regular season and postseason, most of them with the forty nine is the one game two years ago with the Indianapolis Colts.

Frank or has seven rushing touchdowns and three yard games. Again, it's the Green Bay Packers over the years. With what he means to this Dolphins offense. Right now, the Packers can't really let him get going and do his thing, so to speak. I think you have to you have to make brock Osweiler be the guy that beats you there. You can't let them run the football and keep Aaron Rodgers off the field. Yeah. And you know who's a really good advocate for that, the Chicago Bears giving up

a hundred yards. I mean, Frankore average six points, so he looked like he was twenty four year old franc Or in that football game. I mean, just and Drake had a pretty good game for for them against Chicago as well. He did. And then it was actually I think it was was a Gore that picked them up at the end there when Drake had the fumble, whatever the case may be. Here's the other side of this though, too. Frank Gore is thirty five. He has a fourteen year veteran.

The last three games, he's not had a catch over nine yards or excuse me to carry over nine yards, averaging right in that three mid three range, little lower threes. The Packers need to make sure that that trend continues. I think we saw in that game two years ago against Indianapolis Colts, and I know the Packers were obviously ready for him, They've seen him number of times, but I'll be honest with you, I kind of counted Frank

Gore out a little bit going into that matchup. I just wasn't sure a guy that thirty five years old, thirty three years old at that time, how effective he can be. And Frank Gore still showed in those first five yards how difficult he is to take down. When he gets a lane, he gets a block, how he executes on it. Now he doesn't have the game changing power anymore. If he gets to the second level, chances

are he's not getting the third. But the fact of the matter is when you get back to this offense without Ryan Tannehill, it's been predicated on moving the ball consistently and then also having a potential home run threat there with Drake. This type of game, if it ends up being in the mid thirties, could be the kind

of game that they want to get franc Or out there. Yeah, And with regard to the flip side with the Packers and Aaron Jones, this Miami defense, as we said, kind of predicated on the interceptions there twenty eight in the league against the run West. I mean this game and we're talking about potentially cold weather, mid thirties temperatures. It's snowing outside right now is we're taping this episode. I'm not sure if there will be snow on the ground

comes Sunday afternoon. But Packers really need to be able to run the football in this game. I think they should be able to run the football against this Miami Dolphins defense. And and let's face it, Aaron Jones, he had the first fumble of his career, his brief NFL career last week. It came at a critical time unfortunately, really was the turning point in the loss at New England.

I know he's put it in the right perspective. But if there's anybody on this Packers offense who's coming into Sunday's game with maybe a little bit of a little bit of anger, a little bit of edge to his game, you know, it's Aaron Jones. You know he wants a little bit of redemption for what happened on that first play of the fourth quarter last week. Yeah, Mike, and last week you asked me kind of put me on the spot a little bit. It came up an inbox as well. Could that be the week where Aaron Jones

has a hundred yards? I said I didn't think so, but I also said I thought he'd be really important to that game. I think that he was. He absolutely was This is the kind of game though, where I think and if he doesn't have a hundred yards, I could still see him in Jamal Williams having a lot of production. I just think that that threat is there, and it's very real when you look at how they match up with the Dolphins and potentially as well Mike.

You know, you go back to some of the more difficult stretches the Packers have gone through with their offense and trying to find efficiency. Home base a lot of times, while this is a structured pass offense, you know, on West Coast principles, home base a lot of times has been the run game. It's been the reset button. I think it could be like that in this game. I

you know, we talked about the fumble last week. Aaron Jones said the same exact thing in his locker that he tweeted that he said to his coaches, he was accountable for it, he stepped up to it, he wants to be better from it. And I think one of the bigger positives was actually Ben Sermons saying it wasn't like it was a careless error that he made, or it wasn't some huge fundamental breakdown or something where he just he just exposed the football. It was it was

it was a football play. The ball came out and he's, to Sherman's credit, he wasn't being on the complete So there's things you still and do with that juncture. But it almost takes the perfect punch out that Lawrence Guy delivered to be able to turn over the football there. Aaron Jones is gonna learn from that. He's going to get correct and I think he can still be a really important player for them down the stretch. I said it on inbox what Tuesday, microor Wednesday, The Packers are

going to need him. He has to move forward. Yeah, he They are going to need him, and I think he could be very big in this ball game. Weather conditions here, wes what you know if it's mid thirties, a little chili. I don't know if there's going to be snow or not. But what do you how do you think that plays into this game? Really the first Chili game, although last Sunday night in New England wasn't exactly warm. I mean that was that was kind of

chili as well. But um, but you are talking about a team from South Florida coming up to lambeau Field here in November for a game that frankly is going to be a little bit colder than you would expect for Week ten in the NFL. I actually be honest with you, Mike, this might be a controversial answer. I don't think it's gonna be that big of a deal, Okay in the re and I say that it actually goes off of something that Clay Matthews said in the

locker room. Brock Osweiler played in even worse conditions in this in Green Bay two years ago when he was a starting quarterback for the Houston Texans. Texans lost that game, but Osweiler actually played relatively well thirty five for two and two and a touchdown. Uh. They just they just had some fundamental things that fell through and the Packers were able to execute when they needed to. That being said Frank Gore. While also a you know, a Dome West Coast type back, he's shown he can be in

those elements and get production. I think the bigger thing in this is gonna be not necessarily how the Dolphins react to the elements. It's gonna be more who's protecting the football and are you exposing it? Due to the elements. Uh, you know, your hands start getting a little colder, the ball starts getting a little harder. You know, your fundamentals are challenged a little bit in that just from the

the air temperature alone. So I think it's gonna be really important for the Packers specific fickally to be able to what if there is an advantage there to be gained, whether it's practicing outdoors, whatever it is, to make sure you take advantage of that. Because the Packers are three oh and one right now at home, this is an opportunity to be able to get some momentum back against

a team that doesn't normally play in these conditions. I just don't know if it's ultimately gonna be something that turns the tie to the game. Yeah. I think another thing we need to certainly touch on before the end of the week here is special teams for this matchup with the Dolphins. I I know I harped on at last week heading into the game against the Patriots, and

we saw it. The game started with Cordorrell Patterson running a kickoff back to the thirty six yard line, A five yard offside penalty on the Packers tacked on and Tom Brady gets to start the game from the forty one yard line, you might as well kick the ball out of bounds, right, I mean, if you're gonna give it to him there, he only has to go fifty nine yards for the opening touchdown and the Patriots are

up seven nothing. Then we see later in the game the roughing the kicker are roughing, the punter call fifteen yards automatic first down. At the end of the day, that cost the pack There's twenty four yards of field position because they would have had the ball in the thirty one Instead, when the defense got another stop, they ended up with the ball in the seven yard line. Um. So those those types of things continue to to hurt the Packers on special teams, and they are facing a

guy in this game. West Jachim By saying that right Grant, he has a return for a touchdown both off a punt and a kickoff this season. This is a guy who can impact the game and the Packers have to make sure he doesn't. Yeah, and here's the two other notes about that. The kickoff return out of his own end zone for a hundred and two yards. The punt return wasn't like this was some kind of thing where the guy was going out of his own end z on a punt seventy one yards back to the house.

So ron Zook said it when he was meeting with the media on Thursday. Uh, this is a guy that you have to stay on the entire game because he has game breaking qualities in a time in which there aren't a lot of guys in those capacities with game

breaking qualities. We know how kickoff returns to some extent have been neutralized, so to have a guy that can turn the tide, I think again, getting back to the original reason why the Dolphins are five and four going into this game, They've done really well in situational football, whether it is the takeaways or whether it is the returns or being able just to move the chains. There isn't an aspect of their team where you go, man, this is this is we gotta shut this down and

we're gonna be fine. No, there's a lot of things that you have to stay up on tune about. Grant had a tremendous career. I believe it was Texas Tech. Yeah, six round pick two years ago. A diminutive type receiver five ft seven that's basically a big guy but boy,

he can run. It's basically was Hod quiz but uh no, but I mean he just he has a lot of physical gifts and and it's worked out here the last couple of seasons for the Dolphins and maybe this is the area west as we've been trying to decide, you know, is the weather going to have an impact on this?

Definitely the kickoffs, it could be harder to get touchbacks, and the temperatures in the mid thirties, you don't know how it's going to affect the punting game and a return a return man like this going against you, as as Tremont Williams likes to say, you gotta be on your peas and huge. Yeah, maybe they should have kept around Drew Kayser this week, right, that was the whole thing last week, And well maybe he's in there for

kickoffs to avoid patters. There were so many strange story There were a lot of There are a lot of theories as to as to what was going on there with actual that ended quickly, but to original point, Yeah, I mean, this is I think a big game for Mason Crosby. Uh and and then runs book and deciding Okay, you know, Crosby has kicked in these conditions. He knows what he needs to do. But I think it's probably

gonna be more about the strategy that goes behind. You know, where you're trying to place the ball, what you're trying to do with it, Because I don't know, Mike, at thirty four thirty five degree weather, how much you can just count on being able to kick it out of the back of the end zone every time. And even if you do, this is the kind of guy like Patterson who might still test you. Well. You'd like to see at some point here the Packers really start to

give their offense some better field position. You look at these last two games West, not including the possession the Packers started at the one yard line after the goal line stand, not including that one. The last two weeks, the Packers have had four pos sessions starting inside their own ten yard line. One of those was the drive that ended with the Aaron Jones fumble. That drive was

actually about sixty yards that they drove. But when you're starting on your own seven, yeah, the fumble happens at the yard line and uh, and you don't get any points out. I'm glad you brought that up, because that's

the old Dom Caper's theory. They're about, you know, if you don't give up the big plays and you don't have big penalties against you, when you force an offense to go the full length of the field, there's going to be more opportunities there to be able to get that takeaway in the Patriots case turned out to be a very critical one in that game. Yeah, all right, well before we go here, West, let's take a quick look at what's going on around the NFL this week.

And the Minnesota Vikings are on there by, so they will sit uh where they are, which is five three and one if I have that correct. Um. The other game in the NFC North the Bears against the Lions. It is in Chicago. Here's an interesting thing, West, Sun is November eleven, correct, correct. Thanksgiving is November twenty two,

So that's a total of twelve days. The Lions and the Bears are playing each other twice in a span of twelve days because they're playing this Sunday in Chicago and then on Thanksgiving in Detroit, and the Bears have a Sunday night football game against the Minnesota Vikings in between. You talk about the you know, a key stretch of your season for Chicago. They're five and three, They're right there.

They've got three consecutive division games here in a span of twelve days, two of them against the same team. This is this is going to be big for Chicago to announce whether they're really in this thing or whether they're still kind of on the fringes. Yeah, and if I know Adam Gaze, the whole theory down there. At least what they've been saying is that they won't say the P word right there. They're not talking about playoffs. But you get two wins over Detroit, now you're starting

to put yourself in the conversation. You get a win over Minnesota add into that, well, then you've announced yourself to the party. So uh, this is a critical stretch for them, a critical stretch for the entire NFC North, just seeing how this is all going to shuffle out. The Packers having to go down to US Bank Stadium, uh in preparation, but then for that matchup at Soldier Field next month. So uh, it is a little bit different schedule in terms of how the division has worked

out this year, but certainly from the Bears perspective. You've got to get this one. And if you're Manatrician the Lions, you're trying to keep yourselves in and there will be no better way to do it than to knock off, you know, the Bears right from the top. Yeah, an

interesting cross conference game. There have been a lot of them this year, and we saw actually one of them on Thursday night with Carolina against Pittsburgh, which started out with a flurry of touchdowns and Pittsburgh kind of never

stopped scoring. They're rolling up fifty two. I believe I heard that was the most points they've ever scored at hines Field since they opened, since they opened, that's correct, which also would probably make the most points that they've scored at Hinesfield, like through three and a half quarters. My god, I mean I watched basically that entire game and it was incredible to see if hey, by the way, just to go on a sidetrack, Greg Van Roten is

a starting guard for the Panthers. Did you know that Greg Van Roten, the undrafted for the former Packer two thousand twelve is a starting guard for the Panthers. That was news to me. Wow, I didn't you can appreciate that. I don't know if anyone else I did not know that. But the game I wanted to get to though, across conference is the Saints coming off of that big win last week in New Orleans against the Los Angeles Rams,

the first team to beat the Rams. The Saints on a seven game winning streak now since losing in Week one to the Buccaneers. They're looking they're the team that has the spotlight on them now with their winning streak, with their record, the fact that they beat the Rams. They go on the road to play a Cincinnati Bengals team that has been a little bit up and down, but a Bengals team that fancies itself in the mix.

Here West at five and the five and three um a big opportunity for the Bengals and one of these games that you know, can be tricky for the Saints when you're coming off of a really, really big home win and then you have to go on the road to play a team that's not too shabby. You missed the biggest storyline in this matchup, Mike. It's Drew Brees in that offense against one of the worst defenses we've

seen in the modern era. Statistically right now, the Cincinnati Bengals are giving up yards, so this is gonna be really big. You know, the Bengals. One thing that they get they are able to play them on their own turf here, but they're gonna have to get some big stops or at least some takeaways. I mean, I was reading one of the things out of Cincinnati believe last week. I mean, they are on pace for a record amount of yards allowed, which has just never been the way

of a Marvin Lewis team. So it's gonna be interesting to see how they match up now with the Saints team that has added Dez Bryant, has both of their running backs healthy, and you you know, obviously you look at what their receivers are already doing at this point. So I'm very interested to pay attention to it. We obviously won't be able to watch it, but I just think this game, unless they can figure out something in Cincinnati, this is a game that has shootout written all over it.

It could be could be a fun one, and we'll see what the web there is like in Ohio with what's moving through the Midwest this weekend. Absolutely, this won't be in the Dome, so I mean, that definitely adds into it. It's just that it's incredible this year. I mean, the Bengals are five and three, but they've had to get yards and points to be able to stay there. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, Well, we gotta call it a wrap on this edition of

Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and of Sunday's game from lambeau Field 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. We'll see you next time.