#388 Packers Unscripted: Rough ending

finished the season six nine and one. It's one of these games that started poorly and just continue to get worse. Aaron Rodgers leaves with a concussion, backup quarterback to Shaun Kaiser already in a fourteen to nothing hole, isn't able to get anything going offensively, and the Lions just kind of kept tacking on some points here and there, and the result was actually the Lions first shutout of the Packers at lambeau Field since nineteen seventy if you can

believe that. Yeah, actually I looked that up after the game last night. So um, yeah, just a rough way to end what had been a rough season for Green Bay. Yeah, there's no if fans or butts about it, Mike, and not the performance the Packers were looking for, I said, and Saturday's inbox and I mentioned it on Friday. You wanted to finish strong. It was a pretty simple mindset. You built some momentum winning two of their last three. It was a small moral victory, but yet you got

the wins that you were looking to get. They just were not able to carry it over. And once Aaron Rodgers left the ball game. I'm not saying that that took anything out of the team or anything or it, but it did, you know, I mean, you could just see there was a deflating kind of aspect to it. To Rogers credit, and Corey Linsley spoke about this in

the locker room afterwards. Rogers was was very emotional when he got taken out of the game and had to go back to get the concussion protocol to start that process, and Lindsley said, I mean that really spoke volumes about him and in some extent this Packers season, and that the game was meaningless other than really draft position. That

was the one thing. You're trying to build some moral victories, You're trying to get some you know, give you something to feel good about going in the off season, but at the end of the day in the win lost column and had no bearing on what things are gonna look like today, whether or not the Packers wanted lost that game. Aaron Rodgers though, it was more than that to him. He wanted to finish this thing on a high note. It made David Bakti want to stay on

the field. Corey Lindsley played every offensive snap. Those guys were motivated to be out there. But at the end of the day, you have to be able to play well. You have to be able to win the game, and the Packers just not did not do that against the Lions. Yeah, there's just a lot of a lot of disappointment in terms of how this game went, and not not just

that Rogers left with a concussion. We haven't really been given any updates on on that um in the concussion protocol, Rogers doesn't speak to the media and and there haven't haven't been any discussions of of how he's doing. But when you look on the defensive side of the ball, you know, we've talked about it, Wes. It just it seemed like it seemed like this defense under Mike Petton was was showing a lot of strides on a lot

of progress. And granted, they're playing with a lot of young guys out there, a lot of backups, you know, reaching into the depth, but so were the Detroit Lions on on both sides of the ball, quite frankly, and it just it felt like even the defensive side, which I thought was was really the uptick for the Packers

this season in took a step backward as well. We were seeing miss tackles and and just you know runs by you know, let's face it, a number three running back in Zach Center that he's just kind of pushing the pile and the Packers can't get him on the ground. And Detroit was really just controlling the line of scrimmage. And it was the it was the kind of defensive effort that we really hadn't seen because of the progress that had been made, and and just everything kind of

took a step backward in this final game. I don't want to disrespect anybody, because these guys are going out there,

they're laying it on the line. There was a young, hungry players that were trying to prove themselves in this atmosphere, but realistically, Mike and really the last forty five minutes of regulation that ballgame, it almost seemed more like a preseason game to me, just with the you know, the guys that are being rotated in and you know, again, I give credit to Capri Bibbs, I give credit to a lot of these guys that have just been came in within the last couple of weeks and have been

you know, thrust on the field. But that isn't the way that this team was set up back in September, back in August, and unfortunately for them, just so many different dominoes happened. Now, No, don't get me wrong, Packers didn't play well. There's six nine and one. Because they didn't play well. I I'm not gonna you know, think that, oh just because you know, fifteen guys ended up on

I R and they went through all these things. This is why they were Yeah, does it affect you, absolutely, But it's a hundred percent injury rate, as everyone always likes to say, every team deals with. The Packers were not able to respond to it this season, but it is I mean I looked at that defensive front. You tip your cap to Tyler Lancaster, You tip your cap

to Dean Lowry. Those guys stepped their game up. Lowry had the best year of his career in my estimation, but they weren't the starting defensive alignment at the beginning of the year. Kyler Facral stepped up, but you didn't have Nick Perry. It's just it's one of those things where it was a trick. It was a war of an attrition for Packers this season, and in losing thirty one and nothing in the end result in what the product looked like in the players that were available in

that last one. Unfortunately for the Packers, it it was almost, i think, to some extent of self fulfilling prophecy. Yeah, and even from a statistical standpoint, a big letdown finding out ninety minutes before kickoff that Davante Adams would not be able to suit up for this week's seventeen game. We had talked about it for, you know, all week long, coming off the Jets game when he had eleven catches.

He needed two catches in a hundred and thirty four yards to set a couple of single season franchise records. Certainly the opportunity would have been there, but the knee injury from the Jets game just never, I don't know what you want to call it. Never loosened up ever.

You know, the sore net didn't go away. Obviously, the medical staff decided it was just, uh, there was too much risk to put Davantae Adams out there in this final game, as much as I'm sure he would have wanted to play and finish this thing out and try to get those records and uh. And that was just another certainly disappointing footnote that that Davante Adams wasn't able to finish a remarkable season for him in the way

that he would have wanted. Yeah, it was unfortunate because actually, you know, Adams when he was talking to his locker on Wednesday, I mean, everybody's gonna say they're gonna try to play and they're optimistic, but Adams legitimately seemed like he thought he was gonna be able to get through this and be out there. Ye I, you gotta give a lot of credit to Pat mackenzie and you know, uh, Brian Angle, everybody on the training staff side of things.

They're doing the right thing for the player. You want to protect him. There's a bigger picture and play here, it's it's not you know, as far as win loss, there's no implications there, I'll be honest, though, I still wanted to see a quick wide receiver screen on the first play and get him out of there if he didn't have to catch the ball, and now he could just whip it out of bounce right away after he caught it and pull himself out for a hundred and twelve.

But um, now, I mean, they're they're not going to cheat the system. If he's good to play, he's gonna play. If he's not, he's not. What a heck of a season though for him a hundred eleven catches, six yards, thirteen touchdowns. Um, I think if you asked Davante Adams and he wasn't in the final locker room session that

you and I were just a part of. But I think if you ask him, I'm guessing he's not sweating this because I think in his heart of hearts, he thinks next year he's gonna come back and actually top that record, maybe all three of them. Yeah, I mean, who knows that the sky's the limit for this guy

in his career. Certainly another statistical note definitely worth pointing out Kyler Factral gets the sack that puts him in the double digit category, and we finished the season with ten and a half sacks, and um, you know, again, as we've talked about throughout the year, a tip of your cap to this guy. Because the fan base was down on him, a lot of people outside the building were down on him. He showed up in his third season. A couple of three sack games certainly contributes a lot

towards a double digit sack season. But hey, anybody who finishes with ten and a half, that's uh, that's something to be proud of. And and hopefully it's just the start, just the tip of the iceberg, as they say, maybe for Kyler Facula. Yeah, he said we were. I was talking with him in the locker room the final locker room session. Uh. Yeah, he wants to do it again next season. That's already his goal. He wants to sustain that success. He wants to get better against the run.

Those are the challenges for him. There's a standard as far as the pass rush he has to set, and he knows that that getting better against the run is is one of those things. On the gold I do think he actually improved fastly in that capacity. This year. You can tell he was stronger. He held the edge. I mean, there's only you know Nick Perry. To me, I think it is still the gold standard when he comes to holding the edge when he's healthy in that capacity.

Because he's just such a big, powerful guy, it's hard to move him off the spot. But I think Facral at his size with what he brings also as a zone dropper, he talked about that. I mean, one of the things that I think rarely gets talked about with Kyler Facral's game is he might be the most natural zone zone dropping outside linebacker they've had. I mean, he's in the same breath I think with Clay Matthews in that capacity when that's required of him to fulfill that assignment.

I was asking him though about this because he mentioned I've kind of sort of become the beat writer for these Mike Petton writing down your goal things at the beginning of the season, and it came up again. Facral actually did have on his goal sheet for this year what he talked about with Petton for double digit sacks, and Bill Huber and I from Packer Report, we asked him, like,

you really thought that was an attainable goal. Uh, you know you only had three and a half the year before you had to I think the year before that you thought that that was He's like absolutely, He's like, that's why their goals. You want to set something up for yourself that you want to strive for, regardless you know of whether or not it's realistic, that's what you're

looking to achieve. So, while it was a very difficult game on Sunday and very disappointing and disheartening to end it on that note, Fatral said that that sack, when he got it there, that held a lot of meaning for him because it meant that he achieved that one individual goal that he had for the season, and whether or not he wants to admit it, he did silence a lot of doubters and critics and skeptics who some were clamoring trying to say he shouldn't even be on

the fifty three this year. Imagine what happens if Brian Gooda Kunston that coaching staff doesn't have the faith that they did in Facral to be there. He ended up being their leading soccer in two thousand and eighteen and one of only four guys Mike, I thought this was a crazy stat. Only one of the four individuals over the last decade that's had double digit sacks for this defense. Yeah, yeah, the list, the list isn't that long. I mean some of those guys with the double digit sacks, like Clay

Matthews and others have done it multiple times. And that's the new challenge now for Kyler Facral to add himself to that list of guys who not just do it once, but but potentially do it again. Um quickly, here West before I forget, the Green Bay Packers get ready for game day with the powerful noise canceling technology of Bo's Quiet Comfort thirty five headphones. To learn more at www dot bows dot com, Slash Packers, Bows the off shell

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it's still there. I received it for my birthday, but I'm willing to, you know, regift it if if it's something that you want to have. Now you've got me excited for lunch, so it's waiting for you, all right. Well. As the Packers head into the offseason West, the big story over the next several weeks will be the new head coach and and the coaching search. We are going to essentially table that discussion until a head coach is hired, because we aren't going to hear from Mark Murphy and

or Brian Goudakun until that happens. It's a lot of news reports out there about quest for interviews and guys that the Packers want to talk to. I think you and I have talked before. They might interview twelve fourteen, fifteen guys here throughout this process before it's all said and done. So um, those will be discussions for another day. But I do want to get your thoughts on just exactly what went down in Week seventeen in the NFL with these last couple of playoff spots we saw in

the NFC, Um, my prediction was wrong. I thought the Minnesota Vikings, We're gonna find a way to steal that number six seed. But boy, that that Chicago Bears defense went into US Bank Stadium completely throttled that Vikings offen. I mean, I'll say this, the Packers offense playing on the road at Soldier Field looked like it had a much better shot to beat the Bears than that Vikings

offense that was in Minneapolis yesterday. Yeah. Absolutely, I do want to point out I think I actually was right on my prediction the Philadelphia Eagles squeaking into the playoffs. You did, you called it? The Eagles get in, they take care of business against Washington, shut them out to be for nothing or whatever it was. And uh, the Eagles and Nick Foles, they are the six seed in

Minnesota's on the outside looking at. So obviously these are professional football players, and I want to talk about the Bears here in for a second. We'll get back to that. Um, I'm kind of taking this thing off the rails a little bit, but it's the end of the season. That fun. Did you see the thing about so Nick Foles ended up getting kind of banged up. He had to with like a rib injury or something. Right, it sounds like he's gonna be okay, but he had to come out

for a little bit. He had a clause in his contract, again citing reports here, if he played thirty three of the offensive snaps for the season, he got like a one million dollar bonus. Now, hey, nick Foles is being paid. Well, I'm not trying to you know, no tears here or anything. He was he had to go out of the game. He was four snaps away, four kneel downs away from being able to to get that to get that to trigger that clause, and it is unfortunate, but hey, kudos

to him. He gets a playoff bonus. Now anyway, yeah, you know, here's an extra grant to enjoy yourself, go create. But yeah, I mean, Foles did what he does and he's by far going to be the most intriguing free agent this officer because there were some questions you know, the season and go quite how they wanted to out of the gate. It made it pretty clear that when Carson Wentz was back, he was going to be the guy again. But Nick Foles is reminding everybody that there's

still some magic left in those beans. So I mean, I'm I'm excited to see what can happen for him, especially in what is going to be a quarterback star of market. There's gonna be a lot of teams that are looking for guys um, so that'll be fun to watch to see where he can take this team in the offseason. Going back to the Bears, hey man, I'll tell you what. They remind me a lot of the

Raiders from two years ago. I know the parallels there with Kalio Mack, it makes sense, but when the Raiders went twelve and four, this Bears team reminds me a lot of that. Now. Mitchell Trobinsky still has some room to grow. He still has to protect the football, but they're getting the running game going now. They are getting their pass rush going now. And to go in there, you and I have been in that environment. To go in there and just extract all the energy out of

that building and dominate the way they did. I know there's a lot of angry Packer fans out there rightfully, so I get it their division rival, but the Bears are playing some really entertaining football right now. Yeah, the Bears are playing some good football and that's gonna be a really good wild card matchup at Soldier Field against

the Philadelphia Eagles. Quickly on the a f C side of things, really entertaining the way this thing wrapped up in the a f C North, because as I was sitting at my desk working on our coverage on the website post game after the loss to Detroit, I've got my phone set up next to my computers, you know,

so I'm watching UM. I was watching Bears and Vikings for a while, and then I flipped it to watch the end of the Ravens Browns game and the Steelers who need to win, and they need the Browns to beat the Ravens in order to win the a f C North to get in. The Steelers win on a walk off field goal, and then they're showing these clips of the Steelers players at Hines Field. They don't leave

the field, they don't go to the locker room. They're out there standing on the sideline anywhere on the field with the fans why ching on the JumboTron as the as the Browns and Ravens game comes to a close, the Browns are down by two. They have the ball, they get across midfield, a couple of replay reviews on receptions catch no catch kind of stuff go, both of them go Cleveland's way, and they're about five to six yards away from a legitimate long field goal shot to

win the game by one point. And it comes down to a fourth and ten. There's just a little too far for the field goal. They had to go for it. The Ravens end up getting the stop, so Baltimore wins. The a f C North Pittsburgh is is out of the playoffs. The drama there to me, you know, and people talk about wanting to expand the playoffs and let more teams in or whatever. The way that finished for the a f C. Other than having the Ravens and Steelers go head to head for the division title, it

doesn't get any better than that. I thought it was a fantastic I thought it was a fantastic finish to uh two week seventeen in the a f C. Well, and the thing I love about it too is so many fans we dealt with this a lot in in bout We're talking about what's the point of trying to win out this stretch? Look at what the Browns did the last month of the season. They're going to get

a new head coach, it appears. I mean, I guess Greig Williams is still in that conversation, but that franchise right now, Man, they are not going in next year with winning aspirations they have are going in with playoff you know, run aspirations, no estructure. They're gonna be fired up. The question I guess I have for you the watching this game is what Lamar Jackson doing? Is that tenable?

Do you think? Because I mean he's carrying the ball twenty times a week right now, He's getting more carries than the average NFL running back that's starting in the NFL right now. Yeah, I mean that's the thing. If you want, if you want Lamar Jackson to have a quote unquote long career in the NFL, I just don't see how you can continue to play. Maybe it works right now when he's a rookie and he's young, but by the same token West, we all saw what happened

with r G three. He was playing the same way he's on the rest and yeah, but suffered, you know, in new horble injuries after getting the Redskins to the playoffs his rookie year, and he was the talk of the town in d C. And Washington was back and all this kind of stuff, but then health wise it didn't work out. I mean, there's a there's a huge

risk to playing this way. Right now, Baltimore is playing this way and they're gonna take their best shot because they have a running quarterback, they have a defense that's as good as any in the league, if not the best in the league, and they're gonna take their chances and see what happened. And I'll tell you what, man, there is no better mid major college offense right now than what the Ravens are doing. I mean, it is forty seven carries yesterday for Twitter at ninety six yards.

You had Gus Edwards and Kenneth Dixon both had twelve carries in that game. I mean, I'm excited to watch him in the playoffs. Hey, I talked on Friday right about, Hey, I want some entertaining football games to watch. You got Indianapolis squeaking with Andrew Luck. You got Baltimore playing the way that they're playing in Philadelphia looking to keep that magic going against Chicago. This this false first slate of

wild card matchups is gonna be to watch. Yeah, well, right after the new year, you and I are going to do another show here on probably on Wednesday, and we're gonna take a look at the whole playoff picture, lay it all out, maybe see what other terrible predictions I can make and and good ones that you can make here about that the month of January. But uh, we will get to that in a couple of days, and for now, we're going to call it a wrap

on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team all week long, all month long, all the way up to the coaching decision 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.