Hi, everybody, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, sitting alongside my trusted colleague West Hodkowitz. Were coming to you here from our studios at lambeau Field, West. We are one day closer to Packers Seahawks Thursday Night football at Century Link Field, a four four in one Packers team, a four and five Seahawks team. Because of the short week, this is actually our final show of
the week, which means its keys to victory time. So with these two teams both fighting for victory number five in the season, what do you see as the biggest key to victory for the Packers in Seattle? Well, I think it starts with the elements in that stadium. I don't see it, as we talked about yesterday's show, Mike, I don't know if it's the impenetrable force that maybe
it was four or five years ago. But as a couple of guys in the locker rooms said on Tuesday, including Aaron Rodgers, there is something still to be said about being able to seize momentum there and being able to take the crowd out of it. Claim Matthews touched on this as well in that it gets loud. Uh. Mike McCarthy made the comment that they have the loudest speakers system in the NFL, and the crowd gets into it and everything sort of feeds off of each other.
What you need to be able to do if you're the Packers, if you're any road team, is go in there and put up points, really get some production going and not allowed that fan base to get the wind behind their sales. I just think whether it's the run, whether it's the past, whether it's a defensive stop to begin the game, whatever it takes being able to not allow Russell Wilson to get off to a fast start
and really get that crowd humming. Yeah. I really liked one comment that Aaron Rodgers had at his locker on Tuesday in which he talked about you have to be able to withstand the surd in that stadium, and I kind of build a whole story around that on Packers dot Com and that anytime you go into that place, there's always going to be a surge from Seattle at some point. You just look at the Packers history there. Two thousand and twelve, it was eight sacks of Aaron
Rodgers in the first half. Unfortunately, the Packers stayed in the game, only down seven nothing at halftime. After that horrible first half, they came back with a strong running game and they were in position should have won the game obviously, if not for the fail Mary. Then you look at the season opener. Packers were right in the game. I believe it was a seven point game at halftime, but there was an interception which set up points and
then a safety which was followed by a touchdown. It was like this third quarter surge that the Seahawks had and the Packers couldn't stop it. It was that snowball rolling downhill and then we all know what happened in the two thousand and fourteen NFC Championship game to end that year. So you've got to be able to withstand the surge and find a way to stop it. Now,
a turnover could stop it. A key third down conversion on offense when the crowd is, you know, at its peak volume wise, trying to mess up the offense and everything. You convert something there that can stem the tide, so to speak. The Packers are going to be in a couple of positions on Thursday night, where they have to do something like that and it's a matter of whether
or not they get it done. Yeah, And I think you bring up a good point, and certainly we do not need to go over the two thousand fourteen NFC title game. I know that was a question that some people try to bring up to veterans on this roster, but Clay Matthews being one of them, kind of shut
that down, saying this is a completely different team. I think it was even to the point that the Packers actually had guys or had players in the locker room raise their hands if they even played in century like before, and there weren't that many hands. But one thing that I that I do remember from that four teen game
was how quiet that stadium was at halftime. Packers obviously weren't able to finish what they wanted to, they weren't able to get the touchdowns they had to settle for field goals, but it still was sixteen to nothing, and that's as quiet now. Might have only been there three times, I think now, but that was as quiet as I can recall that atmosphere. The Packers need to make sure
that happens again. And and the one thing I like that Green Bay has going for it going into this game is one of the it's its strongest, most complete defensive performances. Very multiple wasn't relying on one player. Head guys step up in the face of injury and offensively seeing that juggernaut out of the backfield that is Aaron Jones and getting him going the way he's going on
a short week. There's a lot of things the Packers put on film that the Seattle Seahawks are going to have to take into account, and I think that's a good place to be in uh in terms of really making Pete Carroll his coaching staff think about what they're gonna see Thursday night. Yeah, Well, with this being the last show of the week, I've got a lot of sponsored business I need to get through to fulfill our
obligations for West. So bear with me, but quickly. The powerful noise canceling technology that helps NFL coaches block out eighty thou screaming fans can get you closer to the music you love. Learn more at www dot bos dot com. Slash Packers Bows the official headphones of the Green Bay Packers. Kay if we set aside the noise issue, now that I've taken care of the bows sponsor business. This kind of sets up, doesn't it west as a run the ball, stop the run, this classic type of game. I mean
Aaron Jones, he's coming off his career best game. The Packers actually number one in the league right now in yards per carry as far as running the ball five point to the Seattle Seahawks twenty nine in the league in yards allowed per rush at five point zero. Now, they haven't given up a ton of rushing yards overall because teams haven't necessarily run the ball that much. But those two statistics really sort of stand out. And then
obviously the flip side of it. The Seahawks, the number one rushing offense in the league, get a hundred and fifty two yards per game, and the Packers they always seem to have some lulls or some ruts in their run defense. Where I mean, we saw Adrian Peterson get going for Washington, we saw Frank Gore start out really hot for the Miami Dolphins. Things like that have happened. The Packers have had their ups and downs in that area. It just it feels like a run the ball, stop
to run game to me. Yeah, and it was interesting listen to Pete Carroll in his conference call with the Green Bay Media. Was basically asked something along those lines, because you look at it, Mike, this is the number one rushing offense in the NFL statistically hundred and fifty
two point two yards per game. And Carol said, one thing that this year's team has done, and they've had to do with a number of different running backs, as we outlined in some of our previous shows, but they're getting back to what they feel is their their true form, being able to establish the run, being a run team that that can move the football in that way, maybe lull you a little bit, and then make a big play happen off the pass from that, and they feel
like they're getting close in terms of being able to do that consistently. We saw we saw Rashad Penning step up the way that he did. Uh, you have Mike Davis involved in there. That could potentially be the one to punch if Chris Carson can't come back from the hip. At the time we're shooting this, all we know is that he was a limited participant in Monday's practice or
their walkthrough with the hip injuries. So you don't know exactly what what dimension or who's going to be in that backfield, but you do know that the Seahawks are feeling pretty good about whatever combination they're running with, that they can that they can move the ball and be able to set things up for Russell Wilson because going back to two thousand and ten when Pete Carroll came in as the head coach there, regardless of what the
defenses look like, regardless of whether or not Russell Wilson was on the field, the main m O of Pete Carroll's teams have been to establish the run. They struggled to do that for two years and the results in the in the record reflected that seems to me, and as Carroll agrees, they are back to being the team that they want to be in that regard. Still other places to clear up, but that they they feel like confident in their ability to move to football on the ground. Yeah,
and I heard Pete Carroll. I believe he made some comments to the Seattle media or maybe it was even to some national reporters earlier this week. Everybody's talking about the Seahaw being four and five coming off of they've lost twice to the Rams in their own division. But Pete Carroll points back to, just like Packers fans point back to in terms of trying to get going late,
the Seahawks one. I believe it was six of their last seven after a four and five start just a few years ago, and they got themselves in the playoffs and and we're right in the thick of it again. So um, in that respect, there's certainly no no sleeping
on this team. They will be just as fired up and and I don't like to say desperate necessarily right now, but in need of a victory just as much as the Packers with regards to that, uh, With regards to that Seahawks running game, Wes, We've seen them do it with a lot of different guys. I was actually surprised when I looked at the statistics that Russell Wilson, he only has about two hundred or so rushing yards on the season, and almost half of those came just in
in last week's game. I still think he can be very, very dangerous obviously in that respect. But you said it it's getting for it's getting the running game going and then running the play action off of it. Yeah. Absolutely, And and It goes back to something when you look at Carson earlier this season. I mean, Chris Carson had a game which he carried the ball thirty two times. Before he had the hip flare up, he carried it twenty five times. They felt pretty comfortable with him being
a bell call back for them. In sprinkling in Mike Davis, now you're starting to get Penny, their first round draft pick, more involved. They feel good about where he's at. They felt like he turned a corner in that game last weekend, so it gives them more multiple options going into the season. I think everybody, myself included I drafted him in fantasy football. We were kind of thinking that maybe Penny could be the guy there and just be, you know, the next
Marshawn Lynch. It hasn't really worked out that way at this point, but at the same token, whatever the combination has been, they've been able to move to football. Now, what I'm interested to see is after that game against the Rams where Russell Wilson did scramble nine times for ninety two yards, do you see him start to open up a little more. Does Brian Schottenheimer feel a little bit more comfortable? Uh In in, you know, exploring that avenue of his game. All things the Packers are gonna
have to answer. But the original point about the Packers defense twenty second right now, in the NFL, they've done a good job of not really giving up the big run, but it is been those intermediate kind of runs and second and third down leaking out for first downs that they have to be mindful of. And I'm very interested to see in this particular game. Do you see more of the combination of Blake Martinez Antonio Morrison. Do you see them maybe stack in the box a little bit
more in challenging Russell Wilson to go downfield. We'll have to see. Well that that's what I'm curious about. Schematically, because we've seen Mike Petton be so multiple with this defense. You're right, one potential option to stop the run is to put Morrison and Martinez both next to each other off the ball in the middle of the defense at linebacker.
The other way you can go about it is you can play a five man front three down linemen have your two outside linebackers, but you can then you have Martinez in the middle and you still have five defensive backs on the field. To guard against the playoffs, and you know, yeah, so there are some different options there, and you know the chess match part of this. You can't get too far into it on such a short week in terms of trying to figure it out, but
you have those options in your back pocket. The players rep them, you know, as much as you can on a short week, and uh, and have to execute it when it's called because this is the type of game where adjustments might have to be made right away when suddenly it's like, oh, we're trying something, it's not working and we haven't repped it. You know, we haven't repped these other things enough, but we've got to We've got to try it because we can't let the game get
out of hand. Yeah, definitely. And from the Packers perspective, you mentioned it with Aaron Jones, getting that side of things going. The Seattle run defense isn't as how would you say, restricting, isn't a lockdown, isn't as dominant as probably was for a number of years. Definitely definitely against the run. Right now, Mike, they're tied for twenty eight with five point zero yards allowed per care. So if the Packers, this seems like the type of game too.
As you mentioned, if you can get Aaron Jones going start getting that momentum built early on, it also can go a long wait and really opening things up. Yeah. All right, Well, a little more sponsored business here 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 of Campbell's Chunky Soup. It's meaty goodness fuels the greatness of Packers fans everywhere tried the delicious classic chicken noodle soup.
Just visit your local supermarket and asked for Campbell's Chunky Soup. Official sup partner of the Green Bay Packers. You mentioned it on our last show West, the success the Packers defense has had getting some interceptions off of Russell Wilson. Um, I believe you said the number was ten. Yeah, in five regular season games. I don't have it with the playoff game mixed in. Yeah, I mean you throw in the NFC champion were four. There were four more in
the NFC Championship game, so fourteen and six. Yeah, they and they had the five interception game here at Lambe Field in when the Packers were in there. They're late season run. So you know Wilson is certainly aware of that in terms of what in terms of what this defense has done to him. I guess my question to you, it's kind of an obvious one every week, but talking specifically this game, these two teams, how important do you think it is for the Packers defense to get I'll
pick or maybe two off of Wilson in order to win? Well, certainly, again, you and I seems to always talk about this every week. It is important to win the turnover margin. But for my money, this game is important because the Packers stacked some success with the takeaways last week, with the fumble
recovery in Bashad Brelan's interception. They've been looking for those type of place if you can get one or two more in this game, and also had the offense convert those into points like they did a week ago, three days ago with get caught myself there, but they turned him into fourteen points. They were able to take that ball and really build that momentum after such a momental, emotional, uh,
you know, game changing type play. So if you're able to do that again, well, one, there's nothing more demoralizing in the NFL than a takeaway at home. From the Seattle's perspective, that's what really can suck the air out of the building. So yeah, I think it's important. I think if you can get a strip, if you can get an interception, if you can do anything to steal a possession, especially against a team like that, it's gonna
go a long way. Because when this team, when the Seahawks are at their best, it's Russell Wilson throwing four or five interceptions a season. It's it's them having three or four fumbles a season. Uh, it's just it's they do a fairly good job at historically protecting the football, and then when they had the defense that they did, that's what is really uh you know, allowed them to get on the run that they were on. So yeah,
I think it's paramount if you can achieve that. And when you talk about the crowd noise, obviously you know Rogers said it certainly at his locker on Tuesday, Protecting the football, you know, a turnover is what can really get that crowd going and can be part of that
surge that ultimately you're going to have to withstand. So so limiting those can the silly penalties to like, there's gonna be some communications, here's no question about it, but avoiding the full starts, avoiding the encroachments at times defensively, just being able to make sure you don't give them any free artage because that's only gonna, you know, add a little bit more fuel to that fire for the Seattle fan base. And certainly the Packers need to play.
As we've talked about over the last several weeks, the Packers need to play a clean game on special teams at some point. I mean the mistakes that happened in the Miami game with the block punt, the fumble on the punt return, those kinds of things, especially on the road,
can be really tough to come back from. We saw how hard it was for the Packers just to bounce back from the little punt snaffoo with Kevin King in Detroit that gives Detroit a seven nothing lead right off the bat, and it felt like it was until the almost the third quarter before the Packers really recovered and
and uh and started to get something going. And it all started with a big miskey on special team Packers roster at this time, what time we're tape in this still at fifty two, they have a guy that's eligible to return in this game. Trevor Davis was the third ranked second ranked pount returner in the in the league last season. I thought he did an exemplary job after taking over for Jeff Jennis on kickoff returns. Trevor Davis could be a really important piece for the Packers in
the second half of the season. We'll see whether or not this is the week, but from all indications what he said after the game on Sunday, he feels good, he feels healthy from that and recovered from that hamstring. Could go a long way and really settling things down on those special teams, those return units. If he can play, yeah, maybe the maybe the spark that the special teams need.
One other thing. I want to get to West before we go, because I'm getting this question a lot in Insider Inbox this week, the fans are looking at what else is going on around the league. Sunday night, the Packers are off on the weekend after playing on Thursday. Sunday Night as the Bears against the Vikings. Packers fans are wondering, okay, Bears are six and three Vikings or five three and one. Who are you supposed to cheer for? You know, I don't know. Do you do you have
do you have a gut feeling? Do you have an answer on who which team Packers fans should root for in this NFC North matchup? I'm gonna go with oh Man, if you just go by based alone on quote unquote power rankings, it would probably be Chicago because you just feel like Chicago might be more susceptible to falling into a lull. Minnesota is a pretty veteran team at this point.
They have a veteran quarterback, and it seems like any win for them is only going to help kind of, you know, move the ball a little bit for them. But there is a part of me too that wonders if the Vikings could win this game. Go to six three and one, the Bears go to six and four, the Packers win, well, then suddenly you know they're at five four and one, You're only one game out, and you get a chance to go into Minnesota very next week and US Bank Stadium the very next week in
prime time. So, um, I don't think there's a really true winner or a loser, but maybe you just wait and see who wins this one, and you cheer for the other team when they meet a second time, and just hope the Bears and the Vikings split their two games. That might be the best case scenario for the Packers as we're looking at it right, because I mean, if the Bears pick up these two, man that there they
have eight wins going into December. So yeah, it's it's and from a schedule standpoint to obviously anything can happen any week. But I know the Vikings still have to go to New England, but the Bears also still have to play the Rams, you know, so we both both teams have something. I think the Bears schedule might be a little bit more favorable than the Vikings, but again this is this is the NFL to say schedules are favorable,
you know that can that can change in seven days. Yeah, a good week though for you and I to not have to work the weekend when you look at that the Bears Vikings game, the Saints and the Eagles, that's gonna be a good one. Another tough matchup for Philling. Super Bowl champs are four and five and now they have to go to New Orleans to try to avoid a sixth loss, that's another tough one. And then just looking also at the Cowboys and the Falcons, Uh, two
teams that had big hopes going in this year. One of those teams likely will be four and six. And then you always throw in the caveat and just since I did that, ever since I did that back in the early party. And then next Monday night Kansas City in l A. You know, it's uh, it's gonna be a good weekend of football. But the Packers get to kick it off, and I'm sure there's a lot of fans out there hoping they pick up that big first road win in a very noisy, at least at the
beginning environment. Yeah, we will see how it shakes out, but for now we have to sign off on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and all of the coverage of Thursday night's game from Century Link Field on 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, We'll see you next time.