#459 Packers Unscripted: KC close-up

City Chiefs. The Packers will be traveling to Arrowhead Stadium, and as recently as a week ago, this look at the opponent seemingly would have been a lot of chatter about the reigning league m v P and Patrick Mahomes,

but that won't be the case here now. Nothing is official in terms of mahomes availability for Sunday Nights game, but all signs are pointing to the fact that he will not be able to play due to his knee injury from last Thursday night against the Broncos, and the Kansas City Chiefs are turning their offense over to the veteran backup Matt Moore. Yes, so, a couple of things that across my mind when I first saw this first and foremost to touch on what you were mentioning dislocated

kneecap for Patrick Mahomes. The reports coming out of there, and I think even their team doctor who addressed the media about this was saying, you know, no ligament damage, it's just that kneecap. They have to be smart about it. I think he's going to wear a sleep when he comes back. The optics of it, though, considering he's at this point, now what nine days out from the injury, you're guessing that you're probably not going to want to see him out there in potentially risk an aggravation of

some kind. I wouldn't think. So that's where this biggest conversation is coming from, especially considering, you know, the grand scheme of things here. They want to be able to win a Super Bowl. They want him to leave them into the playoffs. You've got to be smart. Now. Again, we'll see what the week takes as far as its course.

Matt More was a really interesting case study, though, because we've seen this a couple of times the last few years, Mike not very often though, where a guy who was completely out of the NFL for an entire season is then suddenly thrust into a starting situation. The Packers went through it with Seneca Wallace in two thousand thirteen. Josh McCown is a guy that was out of football, returned to the game and certainly is you know, made a nice career for himself that second sort of life to

his NFL career. Matt Moore is a guy personally I've always been very high on. I was I've always respected him as a backup quarterback. I think a lot of that came from watching Hard Knocks the year that Ryan Tannehill was drafted, and he was kind of the transitionary quarterback and played pretty well for Joe Philbin early on. And then you know, he was with the Carolina Panthers for a while and kind of ushered in the Cam

Newton era. But the fact of the matter is is he did not play in the NFL last year, and he's thirty five years old. He's a guy who knows how to win. He's played a lot of football at the very highest of levels. But it's gonna be natural question marks there, because when a guy steps away from the game and then comes back to it and then here we are a month and a half in of the season and now you're playing naturally, there's just gonna

be some wonder of, Okay, what does he still have left. Yeah, I think not to oversimplify things too much, but we saw last year with Patrick Mahomes winning the league m v P. There's so much offense that he can create on his own that you know, the play breaks down, whatever it takes. Patrick Mahomes would find a way to make a play. Now, Matt Moore is not going to

bring that element to the Kansas City Chiefs offense. But this Kansas City Chiefs offense does have playmakers, and this game for Kansas City will be about how does Matt Moore get the ball into the hands of these playmakers.

And the two of course that jump out to me that are at the top of my list are tight end Travis Kelsey, who is the leading receiver by quite a significant margin for this Chief's offense, and then Tyreek Hill, who is back from injury and is the is the speeds stir and the really dangerous explosive guy wants the balls in his hands. Yeah, and if you could look at last week's game, now, certainly a lot of it was garbage minutes, but Matt Moore did fine. I mean

ten of nineteen seventeen yards and a touchdown. He navigated the offense and there are a lot of weapons he's going to be able to work off of. To give people a little bit of a backstory here, the whole plan going into the season's chat Henny the former Michigan quarterback, now in his twelfth NFL season, was going to be the backup to Mahomes. He ends up suffering a season ending injury. So then here comes Matt More off the

street and suddenly he's thrown into this predicament. But what I like about his backstory and being able to have the playmaking and you know experience that he's had in the past is you know, you know what you have in Tyreek Hill. You know what you have in Shady McCoy, Travis Kelsey, one of the best, if not the best tight end in the NFL right now. That gives you outlets.

And I thought one thing you saw in early on here is that with Andy Reid in the way that this offense is structured, it's very quarterback friendly for a guy to potentially be thrown in this situation and get you a winner too until you can get Patrick Mahomes back. The only difference is exactly what you outlined. You look at what the Baltimore Ravens are doing right now. Lamar Jackson's their quarterback. R G three is their backup. They have a guy that plays a similar way to what

Lamar Jackson does. Yes, Kansas City is not like that. The offense is going to change when you don't have Patrick Mahomes and you're making a shift to an older, more pocket based quarterback, and that's gonna be one of the biggest hurdles I think that they're gonna have to overcome here. If Matt Moore is the guy on Sunday Night, well, Travis Kelsey, he's done a heck of a lot for

the for this Kansas City Chiefs offense. And my question do you here is exactly how do you envision or do you have any prediction here as to how the Packers are going to match up with him? Because we've seen the ups and downs with this Packers defense, specifically against tight ends against Philadelphia. Zach Ertz was a chain mover. He was really really key part of what Carson Wentz was doing in that Thursday night game at lambeau Field.

Jason Witten of the Cowboys, t J Hockenson and the Lions didn't do a whole lot against the Packers there there there wasn't a major impact from those guys. Then the tight ends led by Darren Waller of the Oakland Raiders, they were the big stars, along with obviously running back Josh Jacobs of the Oakland Raiders offense and having a big day at Lambeu Field. So how do you envision Mike Patton going about this matchup here with Travis Kelsey

get to Matt Moore as quickly as possible? May not, honestly, and that's not to be disrespectful the defensive backs. Certainly, the Packers have a lot of guys that they can match up there, but Travis Kelsey is a nightmare for any secondary in the NFL. His size, his speed, his athleticism, his catch radius. How the offense basically runs through him. Now, they definitely have big play weapons. You mentioned Hill. Sammy Watkins has found some new life in Kansas City. Yeah, Watkins.

Watkins is off to McCloy for how many years we've seen can catch the ball in the backfield. But let's be honest, Mike, where this all starts as Kelsey. So I think the quicker that you get on more, the faster that you speed up his internal clock, the more important it's going to be, because, yeah, you can do a lot of different things. It can be Orn Burkes, it can be Adrian Amos. Let's see what the week holds here for Darnell Savage through his ankle injury, if

he could be back in the cards. But you have to script your coverage in your plans. You have to tailor those two defending Travis Kelsey, so for Zadarius and Preston Smith the defensive front. The less time you give more to find those weapons, the better it's going to be for this defense. Yeah, and when I look at Tyreek Hill, and this is taking nothing away from what he might be able to do as far as running

the deep ball and getting over the top. But with Matt Moore as the quarterback and Andy Reid kind of designing drawing some things up, I just see Andy Reid trying to find a way, whether it's just quick throws to the sideline, short throws, just getting the ball into Tyree hills hands and letting him try to make something happen, which I think then just puts a huge premium on the tackling of the Packers defense because Tyree Hill, if

he makes big plays in this game. I think for the most part, it's going to be if he's breaking tackles and getting yards after the catch. If the Packers tackle solidly against a very slippery, fast guy and a very dangerous guy, I think they can. They can do what they need to against Tyreek Hill, but they have to tackle the players. You've seen players like Tyreek Hill

in this league before. It's not like he's just this new phenomenon, but what he does and with his skill set, his size, and his speed, I've always referred to them as just second level destroyers, they nests. Now he certainly has big play potential. We've seen it. I mean, I mean, he's I couldn't even tell you how many forty plus yard catches he has in this league. Put a lot of them are off of creating opportunities, making the first tackler miss and being able to really, you know, weave

his way down field. And that's why the second level he really challenges you there, because he challenges your mental mindset, your gap, integrity, and what you're looking forward to achieve. You know, inside those those sticks and he can break them, man, and they can use them in a lot of different ways. I agree with you when when I've always said this, You've heard me talk about this numerous times. When you have a backup quarterback, what do you need to do?

You need to introduce Chaos and Tyreek Hill and the way he plays that can be definitely a player who does that because he can go more off script and allow more to uh, you know, potentially work underneath and still have some explosive play possibilities. Yeah, alright, Well, before moving on to the defensive side of the ball for the Chiefs here West, some sponsor business 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 and we will get to the defense. And I'm excited to talk about the defense. But I also want to say, you're looking at the number one pass offense in the NFL. You're also looking at the

number twenty eight run offense in the NFL. You talk about Kelsey and all these outside weapons, this is going to start for the packers in the trenches and stopping McCoy because they've started to lean more towards him. The Damien Williams experiment hasn't really worked out the way it did late last season when they need to lean on him.

If you stop McCoy and you can stop that running game, that's what starts you get allowing you to be you can make them more one dimensional and allow you to kind of defend the rest of the field from there. That's going to be the primary objective I feel in

this game. Yeah, And certainly with the Chiefs looking at the film of what the Oakland Raiders did with Josh Jacobs and with Matt Moore being the backup quarterback, they're going to try to pound the ball in the ground, excuse me, and get something generated, get something started there. The ground game is going to be a really good best friend of Matt Moore here if the Chiefs can get it going, and that's why the Packers have to

stop it. Yeah. On the defensive side of the ball, now, this is a team that reached the a f C Championship Game a year ago, lost in overtime. If I recall to the New England Patriots in that a f C title game, but they overhauled their defense. They got rid of pretty much the entire defensive coaching staff. They changed some of the key guys, especially the pass rushers

um on that side of the ball. Justin Houston d Ford where their bookend pass rushers coach by Mike Smith who is now the outside linebackers coach of the Smith Brothers and others here in Green Bay, Houston and Ford. They racked up a lot of sacks, takeaways, turnover opportunities for the Kansas City Chiefs. But they decided to move on. They've rebuilt this defense and quite frankly, they haven't gotten

the results that they were looking for. Um, what what's your sense right now of where this Kansas City Chiefs defense is? Well, it's got check time because I'll tell you what, D four. It's quickly becoming one of the biggest playmakers in that defense for the San Francisco forty Niners. Really good defense out there in Frisco. Yeah, they're gonna be a problem here for the rest of the NFC.

They made the trade to get Frank Clark, and I couldn't tell you, honestly, I haven't watched Clark enough, but I've read all these things about you know, a lot of questions there about if he's been the player that you know they need him to be. They have twenty sacks this year, but it's pretty spread across. I think they have three or four guys that each have three sacks. Uh. Their secondary is pretty stout. I mean, they're top ten as far as past defense is concerned. But Shad Brylan

was one of the big signings this offseason. He works as one of their starters, and then certainly the Honey Badger going over there as well. They still are uptable. It seems to be like, you know, to have the ball moved against them, but maybe not the total sieve that they were at times last season when Patrick Mahomes was kind of just asked to win shootout after shootout. But I think the big opportunity for Green Bay in this game is going to be against running against that

front for Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams. I want to say I don't have in front of me. I want to say they're twenty five against the run this season. Yeah, they're in there in the bottom quarter of the league in run defense. I believe the ranking is even lower when you look at just the yards per rush. I believe it's actually five point oh that they're allowing on

the ground, which which is a problem. And certainly for whatever injuries the Packers are dealing with offensively, and we don't know what the status will be for Davante Adams and whatnot this week, But for the Packers, if you go into this game with Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams both healthy and ready to go, and facing a defense is giving up five yards per carry on the ground for the season, you really want to get these running backs rolling. Yeah, the Kansas City Chiefs at this point

played seven games. In five of them they've been out rushed. That was including the yard game that carry On Johnson had that you and I were talking about a couple of weeks ago. Marlon Mack and Hunter thirty two yards three weeks ago, and then Carlos Hyde the the early season addition to Houston Hunter sixteen yards. So yeah, I think this is gonna be the biggest key for them. As much as you know Aaron Rodgers is still gonna be important, You're you're gonna need to be able to

move the ball downfield and have that threat. This definitely looks to me like a game that's tailored for Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams, Danny Vitalley to go to work up front. Yeah, and when you're talking about going on the road here, the Packers are two and oh on the road. But this starts a stretch of four out of five games on the road here for Green Bay. With the bye week mixed in, it's gonna be a pretty charged atmosphere. Patrick Mahomes or no Patrick Mahomes, this is gonna be

Sunday night, prime time under the lights at Arrowhead. This is a Chiefs team that was on the verge of the Super Bowl last year. They're five and two this year. They still have a lot of high hopes. They feel like they can still be a challenger when it's all said and done for the New England Patriots to try to get back to the Super Bowl. I think it's going to be quite the atmosphere even if Mahomes isn't on the field on Sunday. Yeah, Brian Balaga was saying

on Monday. I mean they're fully prepared already for a silent count in to deal with a lot of noise pollution. It's funny because we've covered so many preseason games there, At least from my perspective, I kind of forget that I've never covered a regular season game there before. I've covered I've covered two there, one in two thousand, two thousand seven and then uh um and then again in

two thousand eleven. There was a switch up in the scheduling formula, so the Packers actually went to Kansas City

twice um in a span of five years there. And yeah, I mean, now both of those were just your garden variety afternoon games, So I have I haven't covered a regular season game in prime time there, but certainly it's it's a stadium that's that's known for its noise, known for its atmosphere, and I think, you know, quite frankly, this is a this is a fan base that's going to come out with uh all the support that they can muster for their backup quarterback to say, Okay, here

come the Packers and Aaron Rodgers, let's show them what we got. Well, and you know, I said what I said about the defense and the fact it's been more balanced everything, but then you look at last week. I mean, they did have nine sacks last week, so a lot of their sacks. A lot of their pressures came in that game against Denver. Now that was on the road. If they if you go out and you allow them to have that kind of momentum there early, the defense can dictate this game, and that can get a crowd

charged up. I just think that those first five six minutes of this thing are going to be so crucial to you know, not only setting a tempo, setting a tone, potentially taking the crowd out of it a little bit, but also just being able to to get your momentum here on the road. The Packers kind of in a way, he sort of have to learn how to play on the road here. Um, Dallas was a lot of fun. They played well, They had a lot of Packer fans there.

There was some pretty good go Pack go chance, I want to say, in both of these games so far, Mike, including Chicago, there was a go Pack go chant that broke out its soldier field to I think this is

gonna be a very Kansas City pro crowd. So um, but it's a good But you need these type of matchups because a week from now they're gonna have a pseudo home game in l A. They just want one out in l A. Is going to be a whole different type of game, And to be honest with you, that's kind of on the Chargers because of the way the ticket pricing goes that they don't have a lot of fans to drop from in that market. So who

are you gonna be getting. You're gonna be getting a lot of Packer fans, and then you're back home against Carolina and then you're into the bye week. So Patrick Mahomes, No, Patrick Mahomes, I feel like there's a lot that they can learn from in this matchup and just being able to dictate tempo early on and understanding, okay, we get into our silent count, you hit it. You know, they've been so good at scripting those first fifteen you know

whatever you want to call them. Now that the first series that I think that's gonna be put to the test in this matchup. And making sure you can get these guys playing as one. Yeah, well, as with most road games, but I think particularly in a stadium like Arrowhead, you're gonna have to deal with surges from the home team. They're gonna have their times where they generate momentum where they get things going, and you know, how this is Wes.

You have to find a way you don't. You need to weather those storms when you're on the road, and you need to try to limit the damage as much as possible. If they have some big, huge surge, but if that surge is ten points as opposed to fourteen or seventeen points or something like that, that can be the difference in the game. It's about weathering that storm, limiting the damage. And mahomes or no mahomes, the Chiefs

are gonna have. They're going to have their moments in this game where the crowd is really going to get into it. They're going to generate the momentum and the and the Packers are going to have to respond. And that's something Packers certainly did it well both at Chicago and at Dallas. But for this to only be your third road game this far into the season, I think

that's an interesting dynamic. Yeah, it's tough to say because you know, the day in which we're taping this on Wednesday, we first have afternoon practice, so we don't know exactly how this is going to shuffle out with Davante Adams. Yeah, we're wanting to see what's going on with some of

these guys for the Packers who are injured. And the other thing that makes a little bit more confusing is you and I sit in these seats as you look at the offense that Kansas City has their top ten and basically every category there third in the least amount of sacks allout. I mean, they are so they play so well around Mahomes that when you add a new dynamic to that, it kind of raises some questions there. So what of the point I'm trying to make, What

does that lead you to believe? It leads you to believe in protecting the football and field position. It just so happens. You look at the special teams of Kansas City, Dustin Cole clip back there. This is gonna be a really good battle for J. K. Scott too, and being able to maintain that and keep it going in your direction because Kansas City, we've known this. I mean, you see the way that they play special teams. That's one of the prototypes for how special teams are played in

this league. So as much as you want to talk, we can talk about more. You can talk about their defense and that I just think, again, this is gonna be one of those matchups. That comes back to takeaways, and it comes back to Okay, who's winning time of possession and where are these guys starting from on each play.

Packers need a really strong performance other special teams I think to prevail on Sunday, and I think we'll We'll get into a little bit more of that discussion on our shows as the week continues, but 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 on Packers dot com, subscribe to us, like us on iTunes and other podcast services. 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.