#375 Packers Unscripted: Rivalry week

no bones about it. Here West with the Chicago Bears on the horizon Sunday noon kickoff at Soldier Field, the Packers are going to have to play their best game of the season, quite frankly, in order to win this game. Um, and now we're looking at a Bears team that is going to see it arch rival come into its stadium with a chance, Chicago speaking, that is, to clinch its first NFC North championships since two thousand and ten. You

know they want to do that against the Packers. The steaks do not get any higher for either of these teams. Because here's the other thing. From the Bears perspective, they actually have an outside chance still getting a bye here. So I mean, if if they can you know, if the same way the pack The Packers want to win out.

The Bears want to do the same thing and then see if maybe some luck would fall into their hands, now, you know, and on an outside chance, what a way, if I'm not mistaken, the way the Bears would get a bye would be to win out and the Rams would have to lose twice, right, because if they could tie the Rams, they have the tiebreaker on the head to head and then the Bears could get the two seats. Yeah,

so that that door is open for them now. So, and then from the Packers perspective, it's really funny, Mike. I was sitting down last night having a conversation with my father and I was saying, you know, it's interesting in that literally, these past two weeks could not have gone any better for the Packers other than losing that game to the Cardinal. Right, they got everything they needed to happen last week, and it basically happened again. Now it looks like Seattle is going to be running away

with one of those wild card spots. Yeah, the Seahawks are in perfect position now for one of those wild cards. You know, they'd have to lose out for the Packers to even be in a potential situation to to get it over them. But be that as it may. The Packers very suddenly have not a good probability, but a realistic probability. Here you have three teams that need to lose one, so you need the Vikings, who are reeling to lose twice in the last three weeks. Stranger things

have happened. I think the Packers biggest issue right now is the fact that they're staring at the Chicago Bears here on Sunday. Yeah, they're staring at a Bears team that quite frankly, is riding high. They just beat the team that was holding the number one seed in the NFC in the Rams, and they held that high flying offense to just six points intercepted. Jared Goffwell was at four times on Sunday Night Football. So this, uh, this

Bears team is riding a significant wave of momentum. And yeah, I mean you can talk all these other scenarios and who has to lose and this and that for the Packers, but it all starts now with knocking off the presumptive division champion in the Chicago Bears on Sunday in Chicago in December, in the cold, all of that, for everything that's gone on this season, it's just gonna be fun. I think to go to Chicago for a Packers Bears

game in December with quite a bit on the line. Yeah, I put it as our insider Inbox headline for Tuesday, and that it's all you can really ask for right now. I mean, the Packers have put themselves in this position. You are five, seven and one, you're on the outside looking in. But it's just strange to me how many second, third, now fourth chances they appear to have at trying to make a postseason run. Here's what stands out to me

the most, Mike, You're absolutely right. The Chicago Bears defense phenomenal. Getting a chance to watch some of those highlights of that game these past two days, incredible what they were able to do against Jared Goff and just the the mayhem and dysfunction that they caused for the Bears offense alright, for the excuse me, the Rams offense. Uh. But the thing that's funny about is on the other side of things. Mitchell Robinsky was the winning quarterback in that game with

a thirty three passer rating. Now they finally were able to get Jordan Howard going. He had a hundred yard game, but Mr Robinsky sixteen yards, one touchdown, three interceptions. This is not an impenetrable force either. Now we're gonna be taking some time these next couple of days to preview the Bears, and we'll get into all of that, but

it is it's this game to me. As we lead into these days, it's gonna be Joe Philbin and Aaron Rodgers and this Packers offense that is now coming off its highest scoring game of the season, thanks in part to bust, but thirty four points against the Bears defense that every single week just gets better. The storylines build themselves. Yeah. Well, and we didn't really get an update from Joe Philbin on where the Packers are health wise on their offensive line.

But really, when you look at this game, the fact that the Packers were missing three starters on their offensive line for the Falcons game and what this Bears defensive front is doing two people both against the run and the past. I watched the second half, pretty much the whole second half of that Rams Bears game, and it was amazing because the last night checked Todd Gurley's The Reigning NFC Offensive NFL Offensive Player of the Year. The Rams just didn't even want to give them the ball.

They gave up trying to run the ball against that Bears front, and then the pass r us just made life miserable for Golf. Not that they sacked him a whole bunch of times, but the four interceptions were largely the result of all the pressure and him having to run around and and everything. I don't know where the Packers will be on the offensive line, if Brian Blaga, Byron Bell and or Lane Taylor will be able to

get back into the starting lineup. But this game for the Packers offense comes down to what they do up front against that Bears defensive front. Because the Bears have a whole bunch of interceptions, but it's that defensive front that sets the tone. Yeah, I mean, they definitely gonna have to protect the football. The Bears I think are already north of what thirty takeaways or something like this

on the season. I saw a stat that they have twenty five interceptions I believe on the season, and in the last three years combined, the Bears had twenty four interceptions. Kyle Fuller, I mean, people want to talk about the Packers in the off season. Everything Brian Goodkins trying to sign Kyle Fuller looks better and better every single day with him now up to seven interceptions on the season.

Eddie Jackson, the former safety out of Alabama who broke his leg, has now become a phenomenal player in their secondary. So yeah, you're right, there are a lot of guys that can take away the football. But much like Vic Fangio's defense in San Francisco years, this thing is being one for them right now in the trenches and it was you know, you could talk about Cleil mac in no question, Kleil Mack is a big piece of that, maybe even the one that put them over the top.

But I think you gotta give a lot of credit to Ryan Pace what they've brought in. You know, Danny Trevathan has now become a big part of that middle of that defen ends. But then you know ro Quan Smith comes in. There are just so many different guys at so many different levels that are stepping up for the Bears this season, and it's allowing them to to

put together performances like this. I have to throw out one more thing, Michael before I let you get to your advertisement too, thank you to the Bears defense, You're gonna be like, why are you saying thank you? Every single person that has asked over the last few weeks, why aren't the Packers running more jet sweeps? Why isn't there more misdirection? Watch what happened to the Rams in that game. Good defense and good discipline will always beat misdirection.

You know, it's it's it's the it's as long as the NFL has been around, that has been the case. If that wasn't the case, you'd run jet sweeps every single play. The Bears blew them up. There was nothing that the Rams are gonna be able to get away with, and it ended the way up with them having was a thirteen carries sixty two yards. They couldn't they couldn't run the ball. They couldn't run the football, and that that just completely set them up for for failure in

that game. You mentioned Mac, and I know we'll use tomorrow show to talk even more about the Bears, but I think and I take nothing away from Mac and what he did in Oakland, But I don't know in Oakland if he was ever on a defensive line that had a guy like a Keen Hicks, and I think those two, you can say what you want about Aaron Donald and Dominican Sue a great pair for the l

A Rams. I don't know if there is a more disruptive and dangerous pair of defensive linemen on the same team right now than Khalil Mack and a Keen Hicks. Those guys, those guys are just downright nasty, I guess, for lack of a better word. It's an excellent point you make, because when they drafted Mac, he was there, he was their playmaker, but he was young. In all of the veterans on that group, on that unit that

the Raiders had, they were all free agent signings. There were no hicks Is out there that were just like bona fide starters that were already causing disruption in their defense. They were trying to mix and match veterans with their young guys. Whereas you take Vic Fangio, what he's done. He's had playmakers in place, he's had a top ten defense before, and now you just added one of the

top young pass rushers into the league into that unit. Yeah, all right, Well, before it gets away from me, here, what's a little sponsored business. So Packers fans stop in at your local Quick Trip and pick up your Packers cup today. Get eighty nine cent refills on your Cafe Cruba coffee all season long. And the deadline here is coming up West. Only one home game left to enter the Cousins 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 Center 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 all right. Another thing I wanted to get to West because I had the pleasure on Monday of going through the Packers defensive film because I wanted to see just how this

whole matchup between Jaire Alexander and Julio Jones went. And I take nothing away from what alexand Or did against Jones when he was matched up with him one on one, but what I found, and this is why I ended up centering my entire What you might have missed weekly piece, which which will be up on the website Tuesday around this is it wasn't just what Alexander did against Jones.

And don't get too carried away with the narrative that this was, you know, sixty snaps or sixty five snaps of Alexander just lined up across from Julio Jones every play, because that wasn't the case. There was some mixing and matching with some zone calls and other types of coverages. But man, when I was watching Alexander snap after snap on the All twenty two, his anticipation defensively really really

stands out. And I'm talking about plays where trying to you know, flare out passes to the running backs or even on design screens, whether it's a checkdown or or a screen a design pass to a running back, he is charging up from that cornerback position. He is right

in the thick of all those plays. And one of the things that really jumped out at me is you remember the play where I believe it was Atlanta's second possession, third down there nearing the red zone, and Matt Ryan kind of pump pump fakes or tries to stop throwing the ball and it comes out of his hand and and they lose. They lose a whole bunch of yards. When you look at that on film, he's trying, he's looking to swing it out to Tevin Coleman, leaking out

of the backfield. J You're Alexander was charging up. And I'm convinced from watching the film that when Matt Ryan saw Alexander's anticipation of that play is when he tried to stop the throw, and then that's why the ball comes out. So it looks like a terrible play on Matt Ryan's part, But give credit to Alexander. I think he's the one who forced the fumble. Yeah, yeah, it's

he's had a great year. I mean, you look at where he came from as a twenty one year old rookie, eighteenth overall pick, high expectations, and he's, you know, really risen to every challenge and he's been given this year. I mean, yeah, you know, whatever your definition of matching however want to look at it. The Packers have made it pretty clear, especially in the time in which Kevin King has been out with these lingering lower body issues.

Hamstring issues that JayR Alexander is their quote unquote number one cornerback. Uh. He can play the slot, he can play the boundary. He's versatile, he's quick, he's a ball hawk, and he has a short memory and his confidence never weighing.

So for him to be able to step up to that challenge but then also be accountable um to those other situational football type things, because in a situation like that where there is a dump off pass, I can't imagine there was any situation where that was quote unquote his guy. You know, that's just a guy trying to step up and make a play track in the eyes of quarterback and being aware of his surroundings. And then a byproduct of that is you end up causing what

it was at a sixteen yard loss. Sixteen yard loss, and then the Falcons missed the field goal has ended up being a fifty plus yard field goal that came up way short. The two biggest plays for the Packers defensive the day. We're both set up on you know, one two situations when it was that and then Bryant missing badly on the field goal, and then also the the kickoff return that was botched ends up being putting them at the eight yard line and then comes back

and gets the pick six. Those are the type of things you need, though, you need to have for the defensive perspective, positive momentum building plays because the other side of that is it's going to tilt this, you know, the momentum of a football game. Yeah, I tell you number twenty three. This rookie Alexander for the Packers. He is just fun to watch. And I know the fans watching at home on TV, you can't focus on a cornerback.

He's not in the screen. And that's why I took the time to sit down and watch an entire game simply focusing on him on the AL twenty two and and he he really, he really is a special player. And he doesn't look like a rookie. I guess that's maybe the biggest compliment I could I could give him, because yes, Julio Jones is going to make his plays. Julio Jones had one big play that was called back on an offensive holding penalty, another play where he beat

Alexander deep but the ball was overthrown. That kind of stuff happens as well. But man, you talk, you talk about a competitor, who is not going to back down to anybody, and who's who's energy and enthusiasm and everything fires up everybody around him. Yeah, and if you could, just if for the Packers sake, if you get three more weeks here the rest of this regular season where you can get keep Alexander and Brelan and Jack's and Tony Brown, you know, keep the rest of that secondary healthy.

They've had a weather a lot of injuries this year. But I think you even saw with Briland the dimension that he adds when he's sort of thrown in there as well, because he has inside outside versatility. He he said it after the game, he really stressed over the last few years, his playmaking ability, his ball hawking ability.

Truman Williams, Kentroll, Bryce was back in that game. I just think from Mike Petton's perspective, moving these chess pieces around, the more of them, the more guys that you give him, the better his defense can be, the more plays that they can make. The exciting thing about Alexander's getting back to him, though, is the fact that he is only

one years old. He has a long future, bright future ahead of him in this league, and every single repute takes against Julio Jones or Brandon Cooks or Larry Fitzgerald, all these guys he's seen over the last couple of months. I mean, the byproduct of that, that the benefit of that down the line is just going to be out

of this world. Yeah, I totally agree with you. Well, I promised at the end of yesterday's show that we would look back at the week that was in the NFL, and with that result on Monday Night Football, with the Seahawks beating the Vikings, that is what has set up now that the Bears are in position with one more victory. All Chicago needs is one more win to clinch it's first NFC North title since two thousand ten. But now the Vikings are sitting there at six six and one.

There are three other teams I believe that are six and seven, the Packers then behind that bunch at five seven and one, This whole cluster fighting for the what what right now would be the number six seed in the NFC, the wild card spot. You know, it's tough West. I mean, the Philadelphia Eagles look like, okay, are they going to make a run, but then they end up losing in overtime to the Cowboys. The Carolina Panthers were

six and two. They've lost five games in a row to drop to six and seven, and now they're hanging on for their playoff lives. Um. And obviously the Washington Redskins, with their quarterback situation and the injuries, they've gone from six and three I believe they were to now six and seven with four straight losses. Um, it's kind of got it's you know, quite frankly gotten crazy in the NFC.

And if one other thing happened as a result of the Bears beating the Rams on Sunday night, the Bears might have just sent the NFC road to the Super Bowl through the Super Dome in New Orleans. Because now the the Saints, who have the tiebreaker on the Rams, are back in the number one spot. And I know the Saints have had their ups and downs here over the last couple of weeks, but boy, come g Nanuary. Having to go into the Super Doom in New Orleans, I'm not sure if anybody's going to be able to

go in there and beat that team. Yeah, if they can just stay at a T n T stadium now from the here until the Super Bowl, they might be all right. The very interesting thing about them though, I was thinking about this before and I was just looking at the schedule now. They do have that that quirky part of the schedule where they get Carolina twice in three weeks. Caroline is having a boatload of issues right now, trying to figure out what's going on there in Pittsburgh's

coming off a really demoralizing loss as well. So yeah, things are setting up pretty well for Sean Payton's team. Uh as far as that game though, with the Minnesota and Seattle, the game right there basically to be had for the Vikings and offensively just can't get it done. I I know, the main storyline this year has been with Kirk Cousins and the fact that the Vikings have

had the issues they've had. Totally get that they dished out a ton of money to them that creates expectations, but their inability to get the running game going this season has really just caught me by some rise. I thought, you know, I know, Delvin Kick was coming off of an injury, but I thought getting him back this year and pairing him with with Cousins and what they did without him, I thought, I thought I thought so too, West. I really I really thought Dalvin Cook was going to

be the answer for them in the running game. And I'm not sure why that is. But uh, and I again, I don't want to go into a whole referendum on the officiating in the NFL, but I don't understand how you pick up the flag on Bobby Wagner on the blocked field goal. It's the it's the letter of the law.

You threw the flag. Then suddenly you think you didn't see what you thought you saw, when actually the video shows that it was a penalty, and that was the difference between a fifteen yard penalty that gives the Vikings a first down in the red zone down six to nothing in the fourth quarter. Yes, they had just gotten to the two yard line and went forward and didn't score,

but still the game is only six to nothing. They have a first down in the red zone if they get that personal file on Wagner instead, the blocked field goal stands. The Seahawks drive the other way and get a touched on and go up to scores and put

the game away. These games are hinging on officiating, West, and I'm not sure what the league is going to do about it, if anything, But it just seems like you can't go a week, and now that we're late in the season and these games mean that much more, you can't go a week in this league without high profile officiating discussions deciding some big things happening in the NFL. Here's the problem that the NFL is going to have. It's one thing to get Clay Matthews calling him for

wait on the defensive player, defensive player or whatever. It's one thing to to mention this Bobby Wagner play with the with the field goal. It's another thing, you know, when you look at how these things have gone against Aaron Rodgers and over the past couple of years. But when a pattern develops, what does that tell you? Tells you it's not going away. I'm not even looking at these next three weeks, Mike. In four weeks, in five weeks,

in six weeks, championships are going to be decided. Teams are going to be in a winner go home type phase. You have twelve teams making the playoffs. So how many games has that end up leading to? You're telling me you're gonna play all those games, dozen, sixteen, whatever comes out to and you're not going to have any officiating issues. I think you're right. We're not gonna put this on the league and the referendum at this point in time.

But if you think it's interesting now folks stay tuned because the playoffs are on the horizon, then you're really going to have an issue. Well, I think, I think,

And I'll just end the show by saying this. As much as the NFL has resisted in a lot of different facets of the game over the years, adopting things that are in college football, look how long it took the NFL to actually put the two point conversion into the league the college system of essentially anything being subject to review by somebody buzzing from upstairs to stop the game and say, hey, we gotta take a look at

that play. I just wonder if, if sooner than later, if the NFL is going to have to is gonna have to go that route altely? But who's reviewing it now too? You know, I agree with the other thing. I I agree. I agree with you there, but one step at a time. You know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying, press the buzzer. Well in New York, I hear, I hear you. We are getting to that point that I think you're really gonna have to take a look at all these things, because it's it's piling up, Mike,

and that is getting pretty big. It is it is. With that we gotta go. We'll sign off on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com on Twitter. He's still at West Hot, I'm still at Mike Spofford at Packers is still the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.