Hi, everybody, Welcome to Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my trusted colleague West Hodkowitz. Were coming to you here from our studios at lambeau Field and West. Week two is upon us here Packers Vikings coming up on Sunday, the home opener for the Green Bay Packers Sunday at lambeau Field. But we can look back for a few minutes, first at the Packers Week one victory last Thursday night in
Chicago over the Bears. In one aspect that we didn't really touch on on our Friday show before we broke for the weekend was the involvement of the tight ends right away game one week one in this Green Bay offense. Because you look at how this game unfolded. Jimmy Graham had a touchdown catch, already half of his total of touchdown catches from a year ago. Marcedes Lewis had two receptions when he had three receptions all of last year
his first year in Green Bay. And Robert Tonyan had a big catch on a scoring drive in the fourth quarter when he didn't catch a pass last year until Seattle in November. Whatever week of the season. That was, so Matt Lafleur is getting his tight ends. He's only got three healthy ones right now, but he's getting his tight ends involved early and often here in Yeah, and it's funny listening to Marcedes Lewis talk in the locker
room on Friday a little bit about this. I mean, when he got brought in, I think Brian Goodacoons and the Packers wanted him, but they really weren't sure how they were going to go about using him. So in some ways he became almost a glorified sixth offensive linemen as al most the way it worked out, he only played a hundred seventy snaps. As you mentioned, he only had three catches. He did talk about when he came back this year, he had a conversation with Brian Goodacons
about what the direction was going to be. This was right after, you know, they had hired Matt Lafleoor, what this whole thing is gonna look like. And what it came down to is that things are going to be different. And I thought this game in particular, really showed what the Packers envisioned for this tight end position. In this game. Now, it's not like anybody had a hundred yard game or
anything like that. But when you put together Jimmy Graham's thirty catches for thirty yards and a touchdown, tanyans twenty eight yard catch, Marcedes Lewis being involved more in the passing game all told, six catches for seventy two yards and a touchdown in a game in which the Packers didn't throw for four inner yards. I mean that was almost half of their entire production, a little less than
in terms of the passing yardage. So this, I thought it was a really good indicator of where this offense wants to go. Thirty five snaps, thirty four snaps and twenty snaps for Graham, Lewis and Tanying respectively. Again, it's Week one, what a lot, you know, a lot of football would be played out. But from Marsdies Lewis perspective, the Packers living up to their end of the bargain
with the way that they're moving these pieces around. Yeah, and Marcedes Lewis almost getting a third reception in that game, that back shoulder throw along the sideline from Rogers, really, I mean tough catch. Close one almost had it, but you almost You get the feeling that if Aaron Rodgers is throwing a back shoulder throw in week one to Marcedes Lewis, that he's not going to miss it again. You know, they didn't quite connect on that one, but
that might be something we see down the road. Well, and Rogers has been really effusive in his praise of both Graham and Lewis through the highs and the lows of this offense. And he even said, I mean, yes, he did have his comment last month during training camp about how Lewis came back in phenomenal shape. He end up losing about ten pounds. Uh. You know, he's a huge leader in this locker room. That was important for
the Packers and getting back. But even if you go back to the end of last season, he was saying the exact same thing about Graham and Lewis and his belief of what those two guys could do if they could get the offense sort of reconfigured and trying to determine the best roles for all of these guys. The thing that Lewis really likes about the way this is working out is you don't necessarily have to run one tight end into the round. You don't have to play
him sixty snaps a game. You can be balanced. There can be times where you know, Jimmy Graham's the solo guy. There can be times when Louis and Tanian are in a two tight end package. So, in from Matt Lafleur's perspective when he went to the podium at the end of last week, the whole idea of this has been what they've talked about all along, is that the more packages that you can throw at defenses, the more you
give them to prepare for. You could very easily come out on one series with a two tight end look with Louis Antanian, maybe even have Italian the background as a fullback and really bring things in. Or you could come back all the next series and have Robert I should say, Trevor Davis and you know Mark quisveld Is scantling out there and really threatened the second level of the defense and third level the defense. So that's where
the Packers want to get this offense. It is a work in progress, but I think when you listen to Aaron Rodgers words, Matt Lafleur's words, and certainly these tight ends, there's optimism about what this thing is going to look like when the Packers get it, you know, the way they wanted to. Yeah, we certainly saw Jimmy Graham rowing caution to the wind, you might say, with that hurdle play on on the one reception and he's out there battling with the finger injury, but made a couple of catches,
had the nice touchdown catch. Um to uh to get the Packers on the board there in the first half in Chicago. Another part of this offensive effort though, that we need to talk about because obviously, at this time last year when we were talking about the Bears, we were talking about Khalil Mack and how he just completely wrecked the entire first half of Week one at lambeau Field.
Mac had a couple of plays in this game. He's gonna make his plays here and there, but we didn't come out of Soldier Field on Thursday night and get on that plane to come home. Um. Talking about this great, huge impact that Khalil Mac had in this game, and and hats off really to the Packers offensive tackles. Brian Bulaga and David baktr Mac lined up, you know, across almost anywhere throughout the game, but the Packers held the big star in check and that was a big factor
in Uh. I know it wasn't a great night on offense, but as we talked about, Packers didn't turn it over. Aaron Rodgers did get sacked a few times, but he held onto the ball all that. Khalil Mack was not a big factor in this game, and that was a big factor in the Packers winning. Yeah, absolutely, Mike, And and the thing with Mac is that, I mean you see it, five tackles, one tackle for a loss, no
quarterback hits, no sacks. That's the way you wanted to look because if you go back and look at last season, it didn't so much happen against the Packers, but there were games where Mac completely flipped it on its head based on his play by himself. So to keep him under control, I think is a big feather in the cap of the tackles. And I want to talk about quickly just a Brian bolog in particular, because when we finally got through everything this weekend, got a chance to
go back and look at some of those plays. The Bolaga is so consistent with how he approaches the game. And you know, even keeled, he's been around this game for a long time, the way he prepares himself, the way he prepares his body, the plan that the Packers had for him to get to Week one as healthy as possible all the way through the spring and the summer,
the O T A S and in training camp. Everything was planned out in terms of his his snaps, his workload, his reps to get ready and stay healthy for week off. And I really like that approach because last year, as you and I have talked about, it was sort of like, Okay, you're trying to get him healthy coming back from the A c L, trying to get him some work at
the end of camp. This year a lot more balanced, a lot more pace, And I just felt like that performance against Mac and the fact that the Packers were able to kind of keep him out of it for the most part. It's a volatile defense. There's gonna be other areas that are going to stress you, but Mac can be the one that really tips everything in the Bear's favor, and they didn't allow him to do that.
From the lagas perspective with where he's at his point of his career, taking that approach his health everything to have that kind of performance against Mac, right out of the gate. I think really is going to be something that can be a galvanizing moment for him as he looks to now get back in his comfort zone after
really having to play catch up last season throughout September. Yeah, I mean you just you turn on a few snaps of the game film from Thursday night watching blog against Mac and you can just see the difference in where bolog is in Week one this year compared to last year, when I mean he made quite frankly, a miraculous recovery in terms of the timeline from the a c L injury. We had talked about that that he was actually ready to play week one, and to his credit, he did that.
But to go against Khalil Mack in Week one against the Bears, he wasn't necessarily fully ready for that, and he was absolutely ready for everything that Week one brought this time and uh and Brian Bulaga, quite frankly is is in a different place healthwise right now September twenty nineteen than he was in September. And I think two, when the years go on in time passes, people are going to appreciate Brian blag a lot more than maybe even they do today just for that reason. I mean,
I agree with you blink your eye like that. And he's a ten year vet. He's a guy that's held down, that is. And when you use a first round pick on a tackle, what do you want to get out of it? You want to be able to have a guy that you can plug there for ten years and not worry about it. He's worked through some injuries, He's
fought through a lot. But I think you know, ultimately, when this thing is all said and done and you look at how many games he actually played in for the Packers and what he played through, I just I think his career is gonna hold up really well. And the nice thing for the Packers perspective right now, this is a guy who entered the league when he was
years old. You know, I think there's a lot of faith that there's still a lot of tread on the tire and this is a guy that could still be, uh, you know, a big presence for them at that right tackle spot. Well, it's interesting when you look at his career because you talk about he has fought through some injuries. Long time offensive tackles here like Mark Tauscher and Chad Clifton they fought through their share of injuries as well.
You know, when you look at it in the big picture of the grand scheme of things, a lot of those guys have had similar careers in that what they've had to fight through, but yet gotten themselves to steadily play at a really, really high level to to help this team. And when an offensive coordinator can trust his offensive tackles, that's a that's just a big boost every week going into that game planning meeting when he feels comfortable with his guys on the end. Yeah, and it's
a dent injury rate at that position too. I know, looking at the game, I was. I watched a lot of games on sent on Sunday with us having that opportunity to to kind of sit back and obviously not work that day, and the one that stood out to me was it was the Cleveland game. After it was what Greg Robinson got ejected the left tackle for the Browns. Uh, they had to move in their their backup tackle. I
forget his name, Lamb. The third or fourth play that he's in the game, they end up getting giving up a sack in the end zone. It's a safety against Baker Mayfield. The play ends with the the edge rusher and Mayfield like collapsing on I believe his name was
lamb his ankle. And it's just funny to me that that position, like sometimes guys get injury labels every single it's almost like every single position, every single injury that happens at that spot on the offensive line, it's almost all always a freak kind of thing just because of the randomness of it. So uh to be able to have Bolaga there, and certainly with David Baxtr has done now in the last six seasons, there's that's a difficult thing to be able to accomplish. To have two pillars
like that in the teams that you see that. Do you look at Dallas what they're doing right now, they're they're the ones that usually are the ones playing meaningful football in December and January. Yeah, well, you started talking about week one, and I want to get to some more reflections on the opening weekend of NFL football. But first,
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Cousin subs we believe in better. All right, Well, we will spend a good portion of the coming week talking about the Minnesota Vikings West, but we certainly have to mention here what they did in Week one at home against the Atlanta Falcons and absolutely dominating performance against an opponent many fields, a playoff contender in the NFC and obviously a former m v P quarterback in Matt Ryan.
Minnesota looked darn good. It was funny. Uh. I didn't even realize until the end of the game that Kirk Cousins had thrown tent pass. Okay, there's two different storylines to this game. One, Minnesota still Minnesota, and it's a team that they felt like the underachieved last year. But they still have a lot of talent. Dalvin Cook like he looks like he's going to be a problem for the NFL for years to come, so long as he
stays healthy. The other thing, though, that I do have to at least make mention of, there was a lot of hope and optimism that things are going to be different for Atlanta's defense this year. I don't know if that's necessarily going to be the case, because this was as rudimentary of a game is I think that you could ask for In two thousand nineteen. You didn't have to worry about the downfield pass from Kirk Cousins. They made it abundantly clear, We're going to run it down
your throat. And it's not even like Delvin Cook had one kerry for sixty yards. His longest was twenty two and he had a five point three yards per carry clip. They just could not stop him. And you know, Matt Ryan had the two picks, the takeaways and things like that. You know, when Minnesota and that Zimmer defense is clicking the way it can look. I I think if you asked me on Saturday night who I thought would win
this game, I thought it would be Minnesota. I did not expect them to punch the Falcons in the mouth the way they did. Yeah, I mean that it was. It was a dominating performance by Minnesota and all three phases their defense. As you said, they got the sacks and the takeaways. I do think a couple of opportunities where the Falcons had a chance to get back in there.
Matt Ryan made some horrendous decisions from um from just a for a veteran quarterback and accomplished quarterback to make a couple of decisions he made there that that really took his team out of the game. But the Vikings also had a block punt on special teams. Obviously you mentioned the running game with Dalvin Cook and Kirk uSens. You know, barely broke a sweat with uh with only having to throw ten passes. So three passes in the second half. Yeah, well, I mean they were up twenty
or whatever. Was why would you why would you bother throwing the ball and your running backs getting five yards to carry? So um but um. But also if we look at Week one in the NFC North, a really interesting game out in Arizona with the Detroit Lions, it was um, t J. Hockenson came on the scene. I believe he set an NFL rookie record for a tight end debut with a hundred and thirty some receiving yards
or whatever. So t J. Hockenson, you know, top ten draft pick, he will definitely be a guy to watch build like that's an NFL tight ends. Yeah, there's there. You can see why he was drafted as high as he was. But the Detroit Lions four to six lead in the fourth quarter, they let it get away and they end up in an overtime tie at twenty seven, with Kyler Murray, the rookie quarterback for the Cardinals, bringing his club all the way back. Um. You know, if there is such a thing as a gut punch when
you tie a game, this is it. Because the Detroit Lions had this game. I don't know. I I still don't know how you really let it get away. You want to know why? It's a big gut punch. Cliff Kingsbury was walking to the post game like handshake with Matt Patricia with a smile on his face after a tie. The sense of relief and the fact that Arizona even had a chance to win that game. They had the ball, they were driving, they were able to get two first downs and it stopped. They end up punting it with
a with a minute left and overtime. You know, and did you see the last play and again they almost got I mean Stafford almost thrills the pick on the sideline. If I think it was Brock, maybe it was the defensive back. If he hangs onto that and steps out of bounds with four or five seconds left, they can send out the kicker one play and win the game
in Detroit would have lost. I mean, it's just everything that happened from really the beginning of the fourth quarter to the end of that game was just was just bizarre in a lot of ways. Other you know, but it's it's funny, man. The years change, the offenses change, things get different. But at the end of the day, I mean, Detroit struggled to run the ball again, and Matthew Stafford, for his money, for the most part, other than that throw late, made some nice throws throughout the game,
had a solid performance. But I can't think of too many instances where one quarterback, oh, beats the other quarterback by a thirty five passer rating and yet the other quarterback was the one that had a chance to win the game at the end. And it's just there was just a little bit of a comedy of errors, not being able to finish, not getting the drives when you
needed them. Well, I think this is this is an absolute reflection of what the Detroit Lions have been looking for for years, which is to find a running game. Because if you have a twenty four to sixth lead in the fourth quarter on the road, if you can run the football with any effectiveness at all, you're gonna close out that game. They haven't had a running game. They still can't seem to find it. Carry on. Johnson was looking like he would be the guy last year.
He really didn't do much for them yesterday when they needed to be able to run the football. Stafford ended up with nice numbers, good stats and everything. And as you said, if you have a thirty point thirty five point differential in the passer rating, that's a game you're supposed to win. Absolutely and and to you know, a credit, he got to give credit or credits due. Uh. Kyler Murray had about as terrible disastrous of a first place as you could for a rookie quarterback with those kind
of expectations. Shook it off. What did he do? He found his two biggest weapons, David Johnson and Larry fitz Old. Reliable in Johnson just when he's right, how dynamic he can be with mixing in what he does as a pass catcher. The I'm not you know, I'm not saying these are two playoff teams or anything like that. But if I'm Kyler Murray, certainly you wanted to finish that last drive. You wanted to win that game for the Cardinals.
But the way he battled back I think speaks volumes about a young quarterback and and what he needs to do because it wasn't that he just was plays weren't going as where he was playing poor. I mean, he's getting balls deflected, the line of scrimmages, everything that you think of, like as far as what you fear with a shorter quarterback. And later on he just started to find a way, he got comfortable, he made plays with his feet and they were able to uh edge out
a tie. Yeah. Well, also in Week one you would mentioned it briefly earlier the Cleveland Browns. I think if there was one result in Week one that kind of floored me, it was seeing that the Cleveland Browns at
home against the Tennessee Titans lost by thirty points. I didn't see the game, but I went back and I watched the highlights and you mentioned the safety that was early on this g This is a fifteen to thirteen game, like late third quarter, and then suddenly Tennessee hits a screen pass that goes the distance seventy five yards for a touchdown, and then Baker Mayfield gets intercepted on three
consecutive possessions in the fourth quarter. I mean, you talk, you talk about a snowball going downhill that just wasn't gonna stop. I mean this was this just turned ugly for Cleveland. So I actually did I watched this entire game um sick because I just was really curious to see how the Browns are gonna look. Tony Romo kind of pulled the Spofford in it where remember where you
were like, oh you had Jake Crumero. He hasn't dropped anything, and then he like dropped something the very next like practice, Romo was like crediting Mayfield, like, hey, you're behind right now. But he's doing a great job of managing this game. He's not making you know, he's being with the football. And then I swear the words were barely even out of his mouth. And it was the first pick, the second pick, and the third pick. I will say this, and and you know we have to see again where
all these chips fault. It's just weekly, it's week one. It's it's one game for everybody, one loss, one win, no matter how you slice it. Doug Rabel has the Tennessee Titans looking good. That defense is legit uh and offensively, Marcus Mariota still has his weak spots, but I don't even know who the offensive coordinator is this year, but they do such a good job of playing to his strength. With that offense and having Delaney Walker back, you can
see what kind of difference that makes. I think Derrick Henry looked really solid. That screenplay, the blocking they had downfield to spring him on that long connection, those are the kind of things you need to do to win games like this. They went into Cleveland, a lot of buzz there and they brought him back down to Earth.
I think you got to tip your cap to the Titans. Yeah, it's kind of a the slogan I think now in Cleveland has hold the hype because this was this was a hype team, and I admit i I I still think Cleveland could be a playoff contender because it doesn't you know, regardless of what the Ravens did against the Miami Dolphins that a f C North is completely up for grabs. I mean, any anybody could anybody could take
that one. But any other impressions from Week one, Obviously, the New England Patriots defended their Super Bowl started, started the defense of their Super Bowl title with an absolutely dominating victory in primetime over the Pittsburgh Steel Yeah, it's a big wake up call there in terms of the Patriots are just gonna keep doing what the Patriots do.
Tom Brady is so effective at running that offense, even depending on what happens with Antonio Brown here, I think that looks like a pretty complete offense to begin with. You without having Robbed Runkowski, pitts Burg has some questions to answer there. I think, you know, Juju Smith Schuster, without having Antonio Brown there, it's going to be a different game for him and he's gonna have to adapt to that. Stefan Gilmour did a good job against him.
And also, just to throw this out there, it is the Miami Dolphins that house is burning down right now. But the Baltimore Ravens, Mike, you and I saw a little bit of that starting offense. Lamar Jackson is not just st He's not standing there to run and hand off the football. He will throw and he has a phenomenal target, Hollywood Brown. Right now, the Ravens are going to be fun to watch this season. Yeah, that's that's a that's a dynamic quarterback that I'm not even sure
that we've seen. We really even started to scratch the surface. So maybe what that offense is going to look like as this season evolved, because Lamar Jackson is not a rookie anymore, and he doesn't look like a rookie. And what do you do, Mike, You go back to nineteen thirty or nineteen forty two when cecil Isabelle was thrown to Don Hudson. You run, you run, you run, You keep getting that ground production and then you hit him with a big play down field. The Ravens are doing
it as good as anyone right now. Well, with the cecil isabel Don Hudson reference, we will call it there on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com. Subscribe to us, like us on iTunes and other podcast services if you please. On Twitter, he's at West Hot. I met Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, We'll see you next time.