#444 Packers Unscripted: Constant challenge

you have to turn the page. I believe the phrase he used was hit the reset button, because as frustrating as the loss was, you have chances by the goal line, and you lose the turnover battle and all of these other things that went into it. You have to hit that reset button and move on because there's a lot of football left to be played. Yeah, I thought, least you know, yesterday in particular showed you where the Packers sit right now, three and one going into the second

quarter of the season. That's a pretty good position to be in right now in the NFC. And it's tough because you know, and I know fans get like this to have already started to answer some Insider Inbox questions before we tape the show for what will be Tuesday's Insider Inbox, and everyone's so reactionary, you know, wins and losses.

It's the greatest thing ever's the worst thing ever. The thing that always surprises me is that, and I think media myself is included in this very It's all about consistency, right the entire season is you know, the best teams that make the playoffs are the most consistent ones. It's very difficult just to dominate every single week in this league. It's not n c A football where if you're top five team in the country, you're just expected to blow

everyone out. I mean, you had Baltimore looking like they're just going to be world beaters and destroying everybody, and then they go and have the performance that they did against Cleveland, and Cleveland was the worst team in the world, and now they're back at two and two. So from the Packers, you just have to look at everything at a high macro level. Right now you're three and one. You're gonna going into a tough environment in Dallas, no

question about that. But now the Cowboys are coming off of a really close loss. So all those things, paired together are what makes the league so great. And it's also about showing which teams can weekend and week out, you know, find the way to win, regardless of whether everything goes correctly or not. Yeah, and shortly after we get done taping this episode, the Packers will be hitting the practice field for an unusual Monday practice, obviously the

players coming back from the weekend. It'll be a short workout and getting ready for that Week five trip to Dallas. As the week goes along, we will see what the injury updates are with regards to Davante Adams and his toe, and Brian Blaga and his shoulder, and Kevin King and his growing Those are three prominent starters obviously in the Packers lineup that we will see how the week unfolds

with them. But you said it was as I packed up my things and went to bed last night after kind of absorbing a day of NFL football, I think what struck me because it applies to the Packers and what happened on Thursday night against the Eagles. It's just how hard it is to get to four and oh in this league. I mean, you look at what happened? The Los Angeles Rams give up fifty five points at home,

so they don't get to four. And oh, the New England Patriots got all they could handle from the Buffalo Bills and win by six, partly thanks to a blocked punt for a touchdown and knocking the starting quarterback for the Bills out of the game and the backup ends up throwing an interception in the end zone. So New England survives and gets to four. No, the Kansas City Chiefs get all they can handle from the Detroit Lions. They barely survive on a touchdown with twenty seconds left

to get to four. And oh, it's not an easy thing to do. And as you said at the outset three and one at the quarter pool, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. And right now in the NFC, nobody he has more than three victories. The only undefeated team is the San Francisco forty Niners at three and oh because they were on a bye week. Yeah, absolutely, and and and we're gonna talk about some of these Sunday

games here in a minute. But I thought the Kansas City game against Detroit showed you exactly where the bar is and It's weird because Kansas City, that is not going to be a performance at Andy Reid and those coaches are gonna put up as this is one of our best that we've ever had. But in an environment like Ford Field, you and I have been there how many times now, Mike, when you get that energy, they get that crowd excited. How difficult it is to pull

back in Patrick Mahomes. Despite the fact he didn't throw a touchdown pass in that game, only the fourth time in his career that that's happened, they still found a path to victory late. That's what it takes to be a four oh team. And it's also underrated because it's such a tough, bitter taste in your mode to end September. But the Packers did a lot of solid things to get to three and one at this point, defensively, offensively,

special teams. It's just it's trying to make sure that you shore up the leaks that showed in that game against Philadelphia get back on track now going into Dallas. Yeah, well, looking at the NFC North, the Lions certainly having just as many regrets about their home loss to Kansas City as the Packers are with their home loss to the Eagles, because the Lions had I mean, my goodness, they have a touchdown overturned by replay, and then on the next play it's a sack fumble and they lose the ball.

And then later on you have a running back who coughs it up at the goal line and the Kansas City Chiefs pick it up and run all the way down in the field for a defensive touchdown. And at the end of the day, the final score of that game is thirty four to thirty in in favor of Kansas City. And uh, the Lions are looking at this

same boy, they were. They were right there to get to three oh and one and actually be on top of the NFC North at the quarter pole with the Packers and the Bears at three and one, with Chicago knocking off Minnesota. Yeah, and and the Lions again shows you how you really can't or predict anything week to week in this league, not only from how tough they played Kansas City. You give credit to them for that

they were to to oh and one. I think you know, even if you didn't expect the Lions win the game, you expected them to have a really good performance. But they end up getting a rushing yards from Carrie on Johnson after they really haven't been able to establish the

run very well during their first three victories. Kenny Gallady, who was shut down completely a week before in a win, well then he comes back and has two touchdowns, but it's still, you know, again, it all boils back together where you have to have a consistent performance, even though they didn't have Darius Slay. The one thing that I found peculiar and I mentioned this on Twitter, and I don't know if Matt I didn't see if Mat Patricia

addressed it after the game. Detroit went with a lot of prevent defense on that final series where Kansas City ended up going down the field to not only you know, take the you know, to tie the ball game up, to take the lead at that point. Yeah, the fact that they only needed a field goal to tie and obviously a touchdown to win, it was it was an interesting defensive sequence and maybe the you know, the absence of Slay or whatever the case was, if that's if

that's what it was, I don't know. That was Wesson don Hodkuwitz football in the back yard, give him five seconds to make the throw and then you know eventually you can rush. I mean they're going with a lot of three man looks. There was one play I think where they had a two man rush with two spies, and you know, if you're playing to protect a seven point lead, I get that, you know, if the field goal doesn't matter. But I mean all Kansas City needed

was the field goal. And in credit to Patrick Mahomes too, when finally Detroit ended up going with an even man rush, they were able to collapse the pocket pocket pocket, and Mahome came out and just made a phenomenal pass. Uh, you know, against some pressure that he found the receivers he needs to. We founded Travis Kelsey and that one

and it was enough to find the victory. Yeah. Well, I think we're learning certainly through the first quarter of the nineteen season, and we've been talking about it all along. But I think yester Day in a lot of ways confirmed just how tough this NFC North is going to

be from start to finish this year. The Minnesota Vikings going to Soldier Field, the Chicago Bears lose Mitchell Drabinsky, they're starting quarterback on the opening drive of the game, and the Chicago Bears defense just completely throttles Minnesota a game that was sixteen to nothing until well into the fourth quarter before Minnesota got on the board, a sixteen to six final. An impressive victory. I don't care what

you want to say about how ugly it was. That was an impressive victory by the Chicago Bears at home against a division rival. And Minnesota now is trying to figure out, you know, can they take their show on the road, because they've been really impressive in two home victories and extremely underwhelming in two road losses, both to

division opponents. Yeah, Minnesota is definitely at a crossroads right now because their defense, while still you know, good, it's not to the level of where Chicago's at right now, not at all. I also thought that, you know, you look at the strip sack that Khalil mac had. The first thing that crossed my mind is it's like, that's why David bat makes the big bucks. That's why Brian Bulag I thought, as I've said numerous times now, is

incredibly underrated. Riley Reef is not a nobody in this league. I mean he's played for a long time, he's established left tackle. I mean, that's the commitment that the Vikings made to him when they signed him two years ago, and Mac just made him look silly on that sack of m Cousins. I thought that was interesting. I didn't realize all the fumbles loss that Kirk Cousins has through the course of his career. I saw something. It was like twenty seven or something like that. Goodness, some kind

of hit and turnovers there. And the reason I say Minnesota's at a crossroads because they gotta fair what kind of team they are. I mean, Adam Feeland after the game was talking about one in passing offense right now, just having a difficult time getting that going. Dalvin Cook has had some really good performances. He gets bottled up in this one and then also misses a crucial past protection late that you know resulted a negative yardage and

a negative play for the Vikings as well. So well and the and the Bears do this defensively without Rokuwan Smith. Nick Kwikowski steps in as a backup inside linebacker, and

you mentioned the past protection with Dalvin Cook. This is why, folks, this is why we talk about how difficult it is for running backs coming from the college game to learn how to pass protect and pick up blitzes in the NFL, because at the end of the day, a star running back in college, maybe once or twice in his entire college career, will he have to step up and block a blitzing linebacker who's the caliber of an NFL player. You get into the NFL, you have to do it

on a regular basis. And Dalvin Cook couldn't do it against a backup linebacker. And there's nothing against Quitkowski, who's played for the Bears for a number of years and filled in admirably every time he's been asked to, but he's not a starter. And the one time he completely whipped Dalvin Cook for a sack and the other going around him, I mean to say, and the other time he just bull rushed him right back into the quarterback because couldn't set his feet and and uh and bow

up and make the block. It's tough duty, and that's why we talk about it with young running backs coming to the NFL. Coaches need to be able to trust those guys to protect their quarterback against blitzing linebackers, and it's not an easy thing to do. I just this is the thing I always kind of love about fans too, and this isn't anything against Dexter Williams. Aaron Jones had

to answer the same questions back in two thousand seventeen. Absolutely, but fans are always like, why isn't Dexter Williams playing more? Why didn Aaron Jones play more in two thousand seventeen. There's more to the position than just running the ball. You have to be able to protect, pass protect, you have to be able to be accountable on third downs. You have to be able to go out and become

a pass catcher when you need to. And that's not to say that Williams couldn't or Jones couldn't, but there is equity built up in Jamal Williams and Aaron Jones in his third season, even you know Danny Vitally there in his fourth season to be in those roles, to be in those situations, because you just can't risk it in those moments. You need to have your most experience or most accountable play years, your veteran players on the field. Now.

A lot of times what happens is injuries will occur, and then that's when a player gets thrown in the spotlight and you really find out what they can do. But until that moment arrives, it's very difficult to throw someone out there that isn't ready for that moment, isn't proven in that moment if you have the other options available.

I think that's one of the things that to be honest with you, I think that the Vikings are kind of learning this year where they don't have that Latavious Murray, that that number two guy here in that spot where okay, that's that's you know, a veteran that can step up in that situation. Because their number two guy, Madison is younger than than Dalvin Cooks. So yeah, they're you're you're right there in a there in an interesting spot there.

And as as Theland said, I mean Adam Theland had what one catch for six yards or two catches for six two catches for six yards? Which one zero? He had a catch for zero yards? Yeah, I mean, um, the Vikings we talked about it. Mike Zimmer wants to be able to run the football. He wants to be a run oriented offense. But a game like yesterday just shows you if you if you cannot protect the quarterback and you cannot establish any kind of a passing game

in the NFL, it's very difficult to win. And also, I gotta be remis if I didn't say this, Chase Daniel really stepped up in that game. A terrible injury early on from Mitchell true Bisky did not look good. We'll see what exactly the m R S or whatnot show with that. But the way that his uh, his shoulder kind of you know, move there, Yeah, it wasn't It was an awkward deal for sure. So but Chase Daniel has been playing in this league for a long time. I've always felt like he's sort of one of those

underrated kind of backup quarterbacks. He's kind of had chances to be a starter, but not really right. I mean, he went to Philadelphia, they paid him a lot of money, but then they end up drafting Carson Wentz. They make the moves that they did, and he ends up kind of falling out their Kansas City Chiefs for a while. But I'll tell you what, if you're in that position and you feel like you're just the quarterback, a consistent quarterback away from being a contender, you can do a

lot worse than Chase Daniel. I thought he really showed a lot in that game, especially considering Chicago still hasn't been able to really get the running game going here, even though they've been featuring David Montgomery the last few weeks. Yeah, definitely a real quickly here. West Select Cousin Subs locations are now offering delivery. Whether you're ordering catering or your favorite sub, they're delivering right to you when you order online at Cousin Subs dot com. Cousin Subs we believe

in better. Okay, as the week goes on, we'll obviously talk a lot more about the Dallas Cowboys, but I do think we need to address what happened in the Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday Night football. The Cowboys trying to get to four and oh and Ezekiel Elliott is shut down. The Dallas Cowboys offense really has one drive opening the third quarter where they go down and get a touchdown. But the New Orleans Saints with Teddy Bridgewater, uh,

they post the victory without even scoring a touchdown. They get four field goals and win the game twelve to ten. This is one of those results West that obviously the Saints are going to be waiting another four or five games whatever it is to get Drew Brees back. But this is one of those results the Saints beating the Cowboys at home with Bridgewater at quarterback, that we might be looking back on in December when we're looking at

playoff positioning and everything else. This could be a really, really keyball game in the whole mix well, and it shows one thing we talked so often about quarterback play and without a shadow of a doubt, the New Orleans Saints are at their best when Drew Brees their quarterback. But getting back to that, Mike Spofford, let's be a real moment of the week. This game is completely different if that's the two thousand fifteen two thousand fourteen New

Orleans Saints defense. Absolutely the job that they did against Zeke Elliott. I mean, eighteen carries for thirty five yards along of six and also a force fumble that was incredible. Jason Witten had a fumble in that game that was lost. Jason Witten has like eight career fumbles in twenty years. Got the ball punched out from behind just the way that they had tacked the ball. I'm just so impressed. I know mars Shawn Lattimore has been kind of hit or miss at points this year. But I thought he

played a pretty solid game. They just made it really difficult on the Cowboys. And the one thing I learned from that performances and again this is going to be super Oh tell me something I don't already know. If you are able to contain Ezekiel Elliott, that is the domino that sets off everything for the Cowboys. It sets off Prescott's play action, it sets off the downfield passing game.

The more people that you have to get committing to the run, the better chances that the Cowboys offense is really going to expand they had a very difficult time doing that because they just were unable to get Elliott going. Prescott didn't really have any big plays and you know,

there was a dearth of touchdowns in this game. New Orleans Saints credited him the first time the Sean Payton era win a football game without its scoring without scoring a touchdown, and Teddy Bridgewater did exactly what he needed to do with the weapons that he had to get a victory. Yeah, this Saints team, to me is so impressive what they're doing defensively and really their their history. I'm telling you, you go into that New Orleans Superdome

in a primetime game. I don't know what their winning streak is or what their record is over the last you know, even when they were a seven and nine team for those couple of years there. If you have to play in the Superdome in prime time, that might be the toughest road assignment in the NFL. They're they're winning percentage in home night games is u is astounding.

And they did it again. And the Cowboys, who everybody was questioning them because of their first three games, the sch the schedule that they had beating the Giants before the Giants turned it over to Daniel Jones at quarterback. They beat the Redskins, who don't have any wins this year. They beat the Dolphins, who don't have any wins yet this year, so that everybody was criticizing the Cowboys, and the Cowboys are saying, Okay, we're gonna come out and

prove you know who we are. And then they go into New Orleans and score only ten points and uh and they're sitting at three and one just like the Packers, which really sets up an intriguing matchup um at a T and T Stadium on Sunday, a pair of three and one teams that both feel like they should have could have gotten to four and oh, but they didn't

do it. And now you're looking at the difference between four and one or three and two for these two ball clubs, and there's a massive hole potentially there for Dallas, depending on what happens with Tyron Smith. Right at the end of the game the game, Jerry Jones telling the reporters and afterwards it's a high ankle spring. So we have to see exactly how the week plays out with Smith. But Fleming was the one I think that stepped in

there at the end. That's the thing. I mean. Tyron Smith is still at twenty years old, is still one of the pre eminent left tackles in this game, and for whatever reason he's unable to go or is severely limited by that. That is going to be a big question mark for Dallas going into this game. I know Zadarius Smith and Preston Smith last week, they're disappointed they didn't get to the house. But if Smith is, if that's Smith isn't there for that, we had to deal

a lot of Smith's here this this week. That's going to be problematic. Yeah, I mean, and uh, this is one of those. And I know we'll talk about this later in the week, but the type of game that Elliott is coming off of, you have to believe that the emphasis and practice for the Cowboys is gonna be

everything it takes to get Elliott going against the Packers. Certainly, the Packers have shown their leaks in run defense, and you said it earlier that Elliott and what he does on the ground is, uh, you know, is the key to open the door to everything else in this offense. The passes to Cooper, the passes to Wit, and the passes over the middle to Randall Cobb coming out of the slot. All of that is predicated on on Elliott getting defenses to pay so much attention to him in

order to prevent him from controlling things. And that's the type of game that the Cowboys are going to be focused on getting back to with a Packers defense that struggled to stop the run coming into Dallas. Yeah, definitely. And Elliott, I mean you have to imagine he's going to just be champing at the bit trying to come back and have a solid performance after that. Um, the other thing I want to mention too, and again we're gonna get a chance to talk about the actual preview

later this week. But Elvin Kamara didn't have the type of game that it's like, Okay, it's gonna jump off the page. That was a quintessential Elvin Kamara game, but he was effective enough where they needed him to be effective. We'll have to see how this week shuffles out for

the Packers. Certainly, Jamal Williams ended up going to the hospital was you know, scene overnight for observation, but had a pretty funny little moment with the nurse saying that, you know, she wanted to listen to his stomach, and Aaron Jones recounted this where he's like, you just want to see you know, I don't even hungry I am right now. However it was he said it in his Jamal Williams voice. Um, you know, we're gonna have to

see what Jamal Williams availability is. But what God, regardless of what his outlook is, I think Aaron Jones, potentially Danny Vitally, those guys are going to be critical in this matchup because Dallas's defense is pretty darn good to Jay and Smith is an incredible inside linebacker in this league. It's it's funny to me, Mike that we are now at a point in time where Sean Lee is a

rotational player. I remember a time where Shaun Lee was their only defensive player that like, if you brought him up on a depth chart, that was the only guy you looked at when Yeah, he scares me. Yeah, and if he was injured and out of the game, you felt like you could score thirty five points against the Dallas Cowboy And that that is no longer the case. And they have vander esh I mean, they have so many talented linebackers there regardless. Will see exactly what happens

with Jamal Williams. You hope for the best for him. But whatever combination of running backs it is, it is going to be critical for the Packers to be getting those guys going against that defensive front. Yeah. And I tell you just one quick thought that Alvin Kamara. That guy is so slippery it's incredible. He is so he is so tough to tackle. He's he's whether Drew Brees quarterback in the Saints or not, Like, it is fun to watch the Saints just for when that guy gets

the ball in his hands because he's something else. And someday, if we're talking, you know, you and I are doing this in twenty years or whatever, and he's going into Canton. I'm gonna be like Mike Spofford was the first one to say, Alvin Kamara is going to be a player in this league, man, and he has held something else. Yeah, definitely underdrafted for what he has produced thus far in his NFL career, but we gotta go, so with that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers

on Script. Would 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're not interested in looking at our faces 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.