#447 Packers Unscripted: Answering the call

that as well. I was confirming this with our boss, Duke Bober. It actually will be. You can be streamed live online as well, because it's open to the entire national viewing public as well. A lot of eyeballs on this game, Yes, they're will be a lot of eyeballs on this game, and for good reason. Not just because of the Packers and the Cowboys and their fan bases. But it's two teams that are three and one and one of these teams, both of these teams fighting to

get to four and one. One of them will get there. And with regards to the Packers, as Green Baby began its practice week on Wednesday, to prepare for this game. Some good news on the injury front in that right tackle Brian Blaga was back on the practice field limited capacity due to the shoulder injury, but having him back at practice with a lot of uncertainty elsewhere. And we'll get into some of the ramifications here as well, but

Jamal Williams didn't practice. He's in the concussion protocol. Davante Adams did not practice, still dealing with the toe injury. The fact that the fact that Blaga was back out there and you can go into a really really tough road environment with those two book ends potentially in box tr and Bolaga to handle those edge rushers Robert Quinn and to Marcus Lawrence, that could be a really really big factor in this game for Green Bay. On equivocally, I mean it's going to be critical, I think for

the Packers to have Bulaga available. Now we're shooting this before Thursday's padded practice. We see exactly what he's able to do if he's able to go for that. But the fact when you're coming off an injury that sidelines you for the rest of the ballgame. You and I have been doing this long enough, you don't always anticipate seeing those guys at Wednesday's practice and Bilaga was out there.

And you know, I was talking a couple of weeks ago when I wrote the story about him, and we were discussing some of the history of him in Green Bay. I mean, I really think his toughness gets overlooked by a lot of people and what he's played through. There have been some injuries, but he's also played at a pretty high level through uh, you know, a course of different setbacks. So right now, I tip my cap to

Alex lde. I thought he did a really nice job trying to come in there allowing the packers other for offensive linemen to stay in their best spot. But everybody knows, I mean, this line is at its best when Brian blog is available, and in that environment, with the communication issues that could be in play with how allowed it gets within in a T and T stadium, I think could be really important for them to have Blogger for

this one. Yeah, and you said that his toughness can get overlooked at times, because he is a guy who in the course of his career has missed some time with significant injuries. But what's gotten overlooked are the times that he has played through a lot of things that would sideline other players, and Aaron Rodgers commented on this Wednesday after practice that he gives Brian Bulaga a lot of credit for the things that he has fought through over the years to be out there to help the team.

It's it's certainly a pride thing with him. It's a pride thing for a lot of players in the locker room to do whatever it takes to get ready to go. But Rogers specifically pointed out Bolaga and Davante Adams in this respect, because even as Adams has not yet returned to the practice field, nobody is necessarily ruling him out quite yet for Sunday. It's still a wait and see

thing there. And Rogers said, they're just some guys who are who are born with the type of toughness, the type of dedication and the personal drive that they will do whatever it takes to get out there. And uh, and he certainly complimented both Bolaga and Adams on that aspect of what they bring to the locker room. Yeah, so two different things here. If blog is able to go on, Sundy will actually his hundred career start already.

Regular season started, so a nice little feather in his cap being able to accomplish that from Davante Adams, It's very interesting when you look at his story what has become his story over the last five years. You it is impossible to beat the horse anymore dead than it already is about what happened in two thousand. There is no moisture left in that thing. I mean, it is done. But the one thing that very few people talk about

is what he battled through that year. Then. First I believe it was the ankle, then it was the knee injury, and I think it was Rogers even comments and he basically was playing on one leg for most of that season. But yet he went out there and not once a of than what the injury report said. Not once did he ever go to his locker and make excuses about it, never said it was an issue until the following year. So yeah, I mean, would it surprise me if you played.

Absolutely not. I mean, because I think he's put that out there that, you know what, he'll lay it on the line for the team. What the Packers have to balance here is trying to get him healthy as possible as soon as possible, because we're still another month away, actually about five weeks away, I think from the byeway from the bye weekend, So there is a lot of ground to cover here. There are some road trips coming in, you get the extra day coming after this, you know,

going into the Troy game. But you know you've got to be smart with Davante Adams too, So seeing exactly what that plan is going to be. I know a lot of the young guys in the locker room at that position talking about if we need to step up, we're ready to do it because you know, you want to have Davonte Ams for this game, but you also want to have him for the whole season. That's the

question the Packers will have to answer going into Sunday. Yeah, well that will be the interesting thing as this game unfolds on Sunday with regards to you set some of these younger skill position players who don't have a lot of experience, but potentially we'll be called upon at the

receiver position if Adams can't play. You're looking at guys like Jake Kumero, who obviously played last year, but he's missed the last two games now, he hasn't really gotten a whole lot of snaps so far in twenty nineteen, and then the guys like Alan Lazard and Darius Shepard at wide receiver who are on the field down the stretch against the Philadelphia Eagles when Adams had exited with that toe injury, and then you look at the running

back position. If Jamal Williams does not get cleared through the concussion protocol to be active for Sunday, Dexter Williams the rookie sixth round draft pick out of Notre Dame. He's been a healthy scratch the first four weeks. He's been one of the seven game day inactives when you pair the roster down from fifty three to forty six

for game day. He has not been on a game day forty six yet, but signs certainly pointing to that very stink possibility, and he could get thrown under the fire right away, yeah, because you know, with with Williams, you're gonna want to be careful with that. Packers have not made any comment yet on what his forecast is.

It's just nice to see him around the building. But concussion protocol is a concussion protocol, and he was a non participant on Wednesday, So that being said, it opened up a lot of opportunities for Dexter Williams to be that number two back right now to Aaron Jones. And you know, Williams is a very modest guy. I mean, he's not clamoring for snaps. He's saying he's staying ready

if he needs to be ready. But the most poignant comments I felt were actually when we were chatting with Ben Sermons last week, the Packers running backs coach, on Friday, and he said, you know, you don't know until you know. You need to get him out in a game to actually see, okay, has he fully ingested everything, but from his bandage point in the classroom, seeing him in practice, he feels like he's seen a guy in the tour with his football i Q and what's being asked of

him and his assignments. He says he doesn't have a concern with him right now with his pass protection. Certainly there are elements of his game. He's not a finished, polished product, but in terms of where he's come in the last four or five months, Sermons feels like it's significant. Make no mistakes, This is still the Aaron Jones Show, and it will be the Aaron Jones show on Sunday, but Jones played sixty six of seventy nine snaps last week.

Danny vitally spelled him a little bit in a couple of third down situations, but for the most part, it was all Aaron Jones. You're gonna want to be smart with that. So if Dexter Williams needs to get called upon for a handful of snaps here, and they're even a designed run or two, that's gonna be something they're

gonna need him to do. Because, to be perfectly honest with you, if you take away the past protection and some of the issues with his drops, I was really impressed with him as a runner, as a natural runner during the training camp. You could see the explosiveness as a really quick first step when he's running between the tackles. It's just finding the elements, the other elements of the game and rounding those out. Yeah, exactly, That's what I

was going to say. It's about it's about rounding out those other facets for him to become a complete player, because when he's playing running back and taking and offs, he looks like he belongs. He's looked like he has belonged in the NFL from day one in that regard. But we saw through training camp in the preseason some issues with trying to catch passes out of the backfield,

some issues with past protection. Those are the things that he needs to work on to get his game to the level where he has the complete trust of the offensive coaches. Of quarterback Aaron Rodgers. This is one of those things that to me is interesting, especially when you're talking about two defensive coaches for the Dallas Cowboys. I almost said the wrong team name there for the Dallas Cowboys who have been around a long time, been doing this a long time, and I'm talking about Rod Marinelli

and Chris Richard, who are the coordinator play caller. However, you want to divide those duties between those two guys. But you just wonder, Okay, if they see Dexter Williams come into the huddle as the lone running back, they know this guy's a rookie, they know he hasn't been on a game day forty six. Does that prompt a blitz caller? What what are they going to do to test him? Because this game is all about matchups and the coordinators, the coaches who are calling plays and stuff.

It's always about personnel. It's about who's in, who's in witch huddle and one are the matchups we can take advantage of. So you have to know that Dexter Williams is going to be honest, P's and Ques with blitz pick up. You can't just hope that you can put them in there and then they're not going to blitz,

because there's a good chance they will. So this is what I like about Matt Lafleur's system, though Mike McCarthy at the end of it, a lot of times you needed those guys to be three down running backs because they wanted to stay with the no huddle. They wanted to be able to just stick with eleven personnel a lot of times, and okay, that's what you're running. With Matt Lafleur. It's a lot more inviting I think for a young running back. That's no disrespect of McCarthy system.

It worked great. But with the floor I think you can bring in Dexter Williams. You can have Danny Vitally in the backfield. You can run play action off of that. You can get the wheel route going again with Vitality, you can get the tight ends incorporated you can bring it in a little bit more than when it was really spread out pass pass protection at a premium shotgun pistol type formations. That's where I think you could get

Williams going. And then the other aspect of it, too, is that Matt Lafleur is not He has no reservations whatsoever. If you followed the offense the last three weeks. He's willing to change personnel after first down, second down. He can mix and match there, whereas with McCarthy was a lot of times sitting in those same packages. And Okay, if you're the first down running back, you've got to be ready to be past protecting on third and three

as well. So that is the one area that I think could allow dexter Williams to come in and maybe have a specific game plan role if he's if that's

what they feel they want to do. The one aspect of it, though, as you point out, is you want to make sure there aren't those tells there when you do introduce a new player that Okay, this is what they're running and this is how they're going to try to do it right and and and then the other side is saying, okay, we know what they're gonna run if if there's a tendency involved there, so what's our best way to attack that and to get them out of that plan. So that's the kind of chess match

that goes on throughout four quarters of NFL game. And just to touch quickly on the receiver situation, Let's say for whatever reason, Davante Adams doesn't go if I'm going to be Chris Richard or if I'm gonna be you know, Rod Marinell, you're looking at the scheme, I think the natural thing would be keeping more safety attention over to

Marcus Veldees Scantling. Let's say they do that, because I think when you get Davante and MVS going at the same time, that's the danger, right because Davante can draw the extra tension and MVS can beat people one on one down the field. If that is the direction they go, And this is the scenario that plays out a lot of hypotheticals here. That's when it comes down to guys winning their one on ones. I don't care if you're a tight end. I don't care if you're a receiver.

I don't care if you're Dexter Williams or Aaron Jones, Danny Vitally, you have to win your one on one matchups in the run game, in the past game, and you have to be able to have multiple players step up. If they're gonna draw attention to one guy, that's gonna be the biggest key here, depending on exactly how this situation unfolds with Adams this week. Yeah, and another thing I want to mention too, with regards to the receivers.

Darius Shephard, the undrafted rookie from North Dakota State. We all know the last what turned out to be the last play of the game against the Philadelphia Eagles, they were running a two man route with MVS and Shepherd and Rogers decided to go quick with the slant to MVS. The ball gets deflected up in the air, intercepted past

interference probably, but it's water under the bridge. But Rogers said immediately after the game, Hey, if I hold the ball a tick longer, Darius Shepherd's wide open in the corner, we get that game tied up. You know we're going overtime.

Larry McCarron pointed out something in our Three Things video that we did after practice yesterday where he was looking at the film and saw a play late in the game where Shepherd was at receiver after Adams had exited the game, and it was a play that was an incomplete pass to Geronimo Whiles, and he was the primary read. Rogers went there right away and it was incomplete, but Darius Shepherd had completely beaten his man and was opened

down the seam. Now, the reason I point that out is because when it comes to the film room, Aaron Rodgers doesn't miss a thing he knows on that play now heading into Dallas, on that play, that formation that Darius Shepherd beat his man and was open and so and then obviously, as I mentioned before, the last play of the game, he was open for the touchdown as well. Those are the kinds of things that Aaron Rodgers files

away in the back of his mind. And if Darius Shepherd is thrown into a significant role in the game on Sunday, those are the types of plays that Aaron Rodgers will be thinking about. It's a great point, obviously, a wonderful observation from Larry as well, bringing being able to you know, kind of pinpoint that this is also what makes I think Geroni Way Allison so valuable to

this offense and what they want to do. We talked all offseason about him being in the slot, but he can play boundary, you know, perimeter as well, So that allows you to potentially mix and match their go with Shepherd more in the slot, because I think you we'd all agree that that's where he's probably gonna make his money in this league, is operating, and that that proxy those close proximity, close quarters. And I dude, we saw

it all summer long. I mean, yes, you have to keep into account in these preseason games the type of competition he was facing. But Darius Shepard was with the one offense, you know, basically from O. T. A. S on. He was getting rotated in there. He did it throughout training camp. He knows what it's like to be in there against the likes of Tremont Williams and Jr. Alexander and the upper echelon of that position in this league.

I'm gonna say this right now, if he ends up being called upon against Dallas or in these weeks to come, regardless of what the situation is with Adams, that situation is not gonna be too big for that young man. Yeah, here's another thing I want to get your opinion on quickly before we go today because I'm gonna potentially write

about this a little bit later in the week. And what I'm talking about is the Packers run of success in that building, a T and T Stadium, whether you're talking about Super Bowl forty five, the Matt Flynn come back in thirteen, the playoff game at the in the sixteen postseason January of seen, and then the seventeen regular season game Packers have won four straight there. Now, the games in sixteen and seven ten are obviously the most

recent ones. So when you're talking about guys like veteran guys like Corey Linsley, David Box, tr Brian Bulaga, Blake Martinez, Kenny Clark, guys like that who were part of those games and part of those big victories, I'm just curious what you're feeling is on how much confidence do guys like that walk into a building with when they're in a venue where they've experienced not just success, but significant,

big victories. I'm just wondering, from a psyche standpoint, what does that do Because they're not going to stand there in the locker room and say, you know, to put something on the bulletin board for the Cowboys, like, yeah, we we definitely believe we walk in the building, we're gonna win the game. But I think there's something to it. I don't know, maybe there isn't. I'm gonna be careful with this analogy. Okay, I'm about to use, but I do want to make a point off it. I'm not

trying to illustrate anything and taking out of context. But we like to walk our dog, Kevin. He's a wonderful little pup. We go over to Voyager Park. Okay, Kevin has certain areas of that park that he has been to before and he has maybe marked and he always darts for those same trees. I'm not trying to say that that's what the green Bay Packers have done, but there is a familiarity quite any here. There is a familiarity for a lot of those veterans with a T

and T stadium and you cannot tell me. And this goes both ways. There's been places too. I mean, we talked about US Bank and how different Ford Field recently has been difficult, but there's a lot of positive memories right now for the Green Bay Packers and a T and T stadium, that venue. For those veteran players, it's not just victories, it's comebacks, it's emotional wins, it's playoff victories. They are as big and as important as they get in this league. And the number one player that's that

stems from all that is Aaron Rodgers. He has seen it all, He's done it all in that stadium. And again, when you have that type of you know, recall experience. I'm not saying it's going to be decided the outcome

in this game. We know that these things can shift on a dime, But in terms of confidence going in there and understanding the venue and knowing what you're looking for, there's a number of players in this team from different generations and versions of the Packers that have experienced that success in there and they want to taste it again on Sunday. Yeah. And the other thing Rogers pointed out to that I thought was interesting is in all of

the Packers trips into that stadium. Obviously, the Super Bowl was a whole different uh can of worms, so to speak, because it wasn't against the Dallas Cowboys. It's the it's the crowd you know at a Super Bowl, but in the other the other games, one where Rodgers is on the sideline because Matt Flynn is playing, and then the other two. In recent years, there's been a pretty decent Packers following that that has you know, gotten its hands

on tickets and and shown up. And the Packers have heard those fans at at a T and T stadium, Now that's a it's a huge stadium, massive crowd, and yes it gets loud in there, it doesn't get as loud as some of the more compact indoor stadiums. I think that we've that we've seen in the league just

because the places is so massive. But those Packers fans have made themselves heard, and I think with the start the Packers have gotten off to this year, I would expect there will be a similar you know, Packer contingent in the stands on something. I think so, And especially since we have our Pepper Rally on Saturday night and everybody's gonna be revved up from getting their Mike Spofford autographs, so they're gonna want to go and here on the

football team after that. Sure, No, But here's the other thing too, Mike. I mean, you've got snowbirds that that you know, lived down in the you know, South Arizona and those type of things, so it's a really easy, easy trip. There's people from Green Bay that enjoy making that little, that little jaunt uh south, especially as the temperatures start to cool off here. And then the other thing is to Dallas is a great area, Dallas, Arlington,

all that that surrounding spot. I've always loved being down there. I've been to say, you know, San Antonio a couple of times. I mean, it's just neat experience, and especially with how much they appreciate football down there, and you are talking about all one of a kind stadium with the big fifty yard jumbo fifty yard wide jumbo tron in the middle of the field and the whole deal.

It really is. It's an interesting place. What makes it so awesome, though, Mike, it's almost like a city unto itself when you get over by a T and T. This isn't There's so many places We go to Pittsburgh and they're wonderful stadiums, Hines Field and they are just they are smack dab downtown. I think Baltimore is like that.

There's a lot of areas where it's just it's the stadium in the city, the way that they built a T and T. It's sort of just out by itself and next to the baseball Stags where but you're not in like downtown down for that reason. It's just it's it's like its own community. And the times I've been to the Press Gazette when I used to work there, we go out and we do periscopes and Facebook lives out in the crowd, you know, out in the parking lot,

and it never was very contentious. It's always really inviting as bitter as that rival was back in the nineties, and I'm not saying it's still not heated now. It's just it's a really cool atmosphere be a part of. So if I'm a Packers fan, long answer to a short question, that's why I'd be interested in going that, just because it is such a cool experience. I think anyone should everyone should, you know, check out at least once. Well, I think for a week five early October NFL game.

I think it's going to have quite the atmosphere. And as we started off talking about on the show, the whole country is going to get to see it, whether you're in the stadium, or whether you're at home, or whether you're riding a bus with your phone in your hand, you can catch this game, right, So there's gonna be a lot of a lot of fans watching this one for Hackers dot com, so you can check that one out. So what an era, Mike? Here we go all right? Well with that, we'll call it a wrap on this

edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com. You can subscribe to us like us on iTunes and other podcast services if you please. 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.