#463 Packers Unscripted: Meaningful mentality

He actually gave the players what's called a victory Monday, where they weren't totally totally off on Monday leading into their regular day off on Tuesday, but the responsibilities very minimal. A lot of meetings got pushed back to Wednesday morning, so the players getting a bit of a break. One of the topics at la Fleur's press conference was his mentality, his approach with the team, the whole going one to know every week, staying focused on you know that game

right in front of you. It's an it's an old adage, it's a it's a worn out cliche. But I wrote about this on our website and looking at this Packers team, the two thousand nineteen Green Bay Packers. It's this approach is working, and it's interesting to me that it's working, because this is not a team with a whole bunch of NFL veterans who have chalked up all kinds of

playoff victories and winning seasons. And it's not a roster of fifty three guys that necessarily knows what it takes to do that in the NFL, to to deal with the long haul and the grind and the week after week and staying focused on what's in front of you. Yet, Um, that's what these guys have done. And they're at the midway point and their seven and one and uh whatever. The message that Lafleur is delivering is definitely sinking in. Yeah.

I thought it was a really interesting thing that you brought up in your story today or last night on Packers dot com. You know, forty two of the fifty three guys on this roster right now weren't even on the two thousand and sixteen NFC Championship game team. Um that shows you, I mean that. You know, there's been nine draft classes since the Packers won the Super Bowl in two thousand ten. So, yeah, the mentality needs to shift. There needs to be sort of a rejuvenation of this roster.

And you know, I was thinking about this too, and it might even be something that leads to a story here in the next couple of days or weeks. Aaron Jones didn't win a lot in college and then he had, you know, to below five seasons to start his NFL career. Suddenly he's seven and one for what I imagine might be the first time since high school, even if they had that much success back then when him and Elvin Jr. Were playing for Burgess High School and El Paso Texas

al Paso. But you know, I think if you would have come out if Matt Lafour's message, not that he would have ever done this or any coach would really do this, but if his message going into the Chicago game to start the season hundred season of the NFL is I want to be seven and one at the midway point in the season, everybody would be kind of like, oh, shoot, man, that's a that's a big lofty goal. You could have a team coming off of a Super Bowl and not you know, be able to attain such a goal. But

when you look at it. You're taken in bits and pieces. There's an old phrase that a good friend of mine, Jody Van Landen as Schwabon wrestling coach, always used to use when I was covering preps. You know, basically seeing you know, you're you're you're eating the elephant, and you know it's one bite at a time. You can't take

the whole thing, and right at the beginning. And I look at that in this situation and that perspective and that vision is that you're seven and one and you've earned every single one of those victories, and you've done it in a week to week capacity, and when you have a roster of a lot of young guys that haven't been to this level before, haven't seen this amount of success in this league, you know, I think that's

the right approach. And it's for my money, one of the reasons why I think Matt la Floor, like I said at the end of yesterday's show, deserves to be in that conversation right now for NFL Coach of the Year. Yeah. I think I took a look at the roster construction and putting that story together because I thought it was really interesting. I mean, you and I have been here a long time. You get used to a lot of people around here got used to the Packers being in

the playoffs every year. It was a great run. Nine straight playoff appearances, nine or eight again eight sorry, eight straight playoff appearances. Yeah, well we'll see um. But then you know, you have two losing seasons back to back, and obviously a lot of different reasons, A lot went into that. But you look at the roster. Thirty one thirty one of the fifty three players were not even in the NFL when the Packers went to the NFC

championship game in two thousands sixteen. Then eleven additional players, veteran players who are here, we're not on that particular Packers two thousand sixteen team. And I think, I think the dynamic, and this is a little bit of assumption on my part, but I think part of the dynamic that's making this work is you have a first year coach whose message is sinking in, certainly sinking in to that bevy of young players on this roster, But you

also have the veterans. Yes, you have your Mason Crosby's and you'r Aaron Rodgers who have been a part of a lot of success in Green Bay. But you also those other veterans who are not here for the successful season that that ended in Atlanta. You have your Marcedes Lewis, you have your Za Darius Smith's, you have your Jimmy Graham's um even Tremont Williams who was in Green Bay and left and came back. Those are guys who have been a part of successful postseason runs either elsewhere earlier

in their careers, however you want to phrase it. And their message in the locker room is backing up what Matt what Matt Lafleur is preaching to his team about going want to know every week and staying focused on that game that's right in front of you and preparing every putting everything you have preparation wise into that one game.

Because Frankly, West, that's how you That's how you answer the bell when the Detroit Lions come into lambeau Field on a Monday night and jump on you tend to nothing. That's how you answer the bell when your fourteen nothing lead at Arrowhead Stadium is wiped out almost in a flash, and you're down fourteen to start the second half. This

team has shown an ability to respond. And I don't think a team can respond in those situations like that if it's worried about the big picture, if it's worried about anything other than that game that is right in front of it, either from a preparation standpoint or in the moment. And it's working for this group, it really is. And it's funny. If you ever want to have an interest in conversation is what I've had, I think once

or twice this year. It was with Tremont Williams. Truman Williams hasn't been to the playoffs since the NFC Championship game in two thousand fourteen, and I think there was a certain part of him that was wondering. You know, he obviously when he resigned with Green Bay, that was one of his motivating factors. You want to have one more chance to make a run into Super Bowl Ring.

But when the season goes like it did last year and then suddenly you're thirty six, I mean you're starting to see the horizon there a little bit, and then suddenly here we are at seven and one at this juncture of the season, and and you know, as much momentum and you know, feelings as the packers have right now what this potentially could become for this roster. But as you said, I mean, I think that's one thing

that really stands out to me the most. When you know, you look at this entire roster, piece by piece, brick by brick. You know, there's a lot of guys that are hungry, and they all have their different reasons. You think about Jimmy Graham and in his continued search for a you know, a Super Bowl ring. You think about, you know, the young guys in this roster like Jyry Alexander that you know, they want to play winning football.

They want to be a part of that. And you know, even you know, like at the receiver position, Davante Adams has seen this offense, has seen this roster at its best um two thousand, fourteen and sixteen. That's the stuff that I think when you look at the entire it's what makes football special. Because in the n b A certainly you can go and sign a guy and bring them in and you know, maybe it was Jason Terry with the Bucks a few years ago that you know, had some pelts on the wall and had a you know,

an NBA ring tattoo on his shoulder. But you know a lot of those guys, unless you experience it, you don't know what it's like. But with football, there's so many guys in those locker rooms that somebody has a story, you know, somebody you know has had their heart ripped out, some somebody has triumphed. And I think it was about two or three weeks ago Aaron Rodgers talked about it as locker I mean, there's probably on one hand right now guys that have a Super Bowl ring in that

locker room. And for Matt Lafleur, now he's also a guy that has been at the pinnacle of his coaching profession and seen, you know, what those big games are like as a coordinator and as a position coach. So yeah, he was. He was a coach who was in a Super Bowl and on the verge of winning a Super Bowl just three years ago with Atlanta in sen when obviously the last time the Packers also had a successful season.

So I think when you go into a year like this, when I think there's as many doubters as they had, whether it was Aaron Rodgers, whether it was the Fleur, whether it was just this entire makeup of this roster. If this was all gonna work, Um, you know, Kevin King, can he be a starting cornerback for this team. There's just so many different things that people wanted to throw

on this football team. And the reason why, I mean, at the end of the day, that they're sitting here at seven and one is because of their faith in that locker room. Now, certainly they've had it, you know, they haven't been challenged a lot with adversity. There's been a couple instances and the you know, those roadblocks will eventually come and you have to deal with them then. But it's a lot easier to deal with Mike when you're five six, seven games above five hundred, and that's

the position the Packers have put themselves in. At the mid quarter pole? Would you say that? Is that right? The mid quarter pole the season? The second quarter poll the season? No, I just called I just called the midway point. You always use that, you always, like, I know, I always I always would say quarter pole, But I'm trying to get it. Once you get past that, you can't use that anymore. Sorry, I should have warned I

liked my mid quarter pole phrase. I might work that one into inbox here you have the freedom to do that. But you're halfway through the regular season. Now it goes just like that, and you know, you look at Atlanta and some of these teams that are struggling. You have to be grateful for what you have today. Packers going to l A now with a chance to pick up their eighth win. YEA. One other point I want to make too, there's some interesting dynamics with the new players

that were brought in here. A couple of them that I didn't mention when you talk about their history in the NFL, their pedigree, whatever you want to call it. You know, Preston Smith, he makes the playoffs as a rookie. If I'm not mistaken in Washington, he hasn't been back. Got bounced by the Packers. Yeah, bounced by the Packers as a rookie, but didn't make it back to the playoffs. Now he's in year five trying to get that that

haste of the postseason and make a run. Adrian Amos finally makes it to the playoffs in his fourth year with the Chicago Bears. They win the NFC North, They get bounced right away in the first round. He decides to obviously go go another way with free agency. He comes to Green Bay, but he just got a taste

of it and wants to keep it going. To me, it's as you say, every guy has a story, and I think I think a lot of those stories in in the packers locker room are are adding up to just a really interesting mix as to what's going on. I smell an inbox headline too, by the way. Okay, I think either whether it's you or me, I mean, if you want to take that one, feel free. But I think that can definitely work for an inbox headline. No,

I mean, and it's absolutely true. And you know, one more thing I just want to touch on before we move on. It was another aspect of your story that I was reading that I think is really critical when you look at how this team is constructed, specifically on the offensive side the ball. Matt Lafleur was asked about, Okay, you had these emerging weapons. Now when you look at what Aaron Jones and went Jamal Williams have done, what are you gonna do with all these pieces? Once Stavante

Adams is back in the fold. He said, it's a good problem to have. It is a you know, it is an issue they're gonna have to figure out. But what I really like about the maturation process of both Jones and Williams they also know how to operate when they don't get the touches. I'm not saying they won't get touches, but it's not like, Okay, you're going to a game plan. You know, I gotta feed Aaron Jones. He has to touch the ball twenty times. Jamal has to get the ball fifteen times. It's just the way

it has to be. It's the only way we're gonna make this thing work. Those guys are just incredibly flexible with how they use them and they don't get pushy about it. That's I think, ultimately what can make this offense it's most dangerous. There's a lot of unselfish ball players, and it's led by that number seventeen in that room and the receivers, and I think at the same time,

the other the other perimeter weapons the Packers have. We'll see if Davante Adams is back this week or whenever he does come back, but I think part of the message at that point is going to be not for the rest of these guys to you know, take a deep breath and go, Okay, you know Davante's back. It's like, no, stay as hungry as you've been for getting the ball

and for the touches. Yes, you have to be you have to be a team player, but you have to maintain that hunger and that awareness and that alertness as to when your opportunity is going to come, because they're still going to be more opportunities down the road. And what has happened the last four weeks and getting all these other guys involved as we talked about the Packers want to make that payoff down the road when those

guys individually need to answer the bell in the future. Yeah, because I guarantee you right now, Mike, the Packers are not going to have an empty injury report in week sixteen or seventeen. Question, there's gonna be players you're gonna have to persevere on without. It's just the way that you know this game is played, the way the league

is constructed. But the nice thing for the Green Bay Packers is there now, two weeks away from their bye week, they're at seven and one and for the most part, despite a few nixs and bruises, have had most of their complementary pieces, and when you didn't have that big one in Davante Adams, they've still found a way to win. Yeh, keep keep on winning. Well, let's review a little bit of what happened in Week eight in the nf fell.

I think the place to start is the game I think that's most interesting to Packers fans because it involved the Chicago Bears and Green Bay's upcoming opponent to Los Angeles Chargers, seventeen to sixteen at Soldier Field. The Chargers squeak out of victory, the Bears dropped below five hundred at three and four. You want to know how quickly things can turn in the NFL, just look at the

Chicago Bears. They've gone in half a season. They've gone from the defending NFC North champions to last place in the division, just like that. I mean, and I'm not saying that the season is over for the Bears by any means. They're still They only have seven games and they've still got nine left to go. They have plenty of time to figure this out. But the Bears lose on a last second missed field goal by Eddie Pinero. Really strange games when you take a look at the

highlights of this one. Both these teams. The kickers were missing field goals. Both teams were getting the ball inside the ten, inside the five goal to go situations and nobody could punch it in. They kept having to settle for those chip shot field goals. That's why the score ended up seventeen to sixteen. Both of these teams were absolutely desperate for a victory in a lot of ways, and the Chargers for everything that's gone wrong late in

games for them multiple times this year. They finally caught a break and the missed field goal gives Los Angeles a three and five record now heading into the matchup with Green Bay. You know, the one thing, uh, you mentioned the fact that obviously they've had some issues with kickers in this game. You know, the Chargers, they've kind of been thrown in a bad spot because of Michael Bagley and his injury. I mean, he was one of the top kickers in the league last year. I did

talk to him at the combine two years ago. I just want to put that out there, um, and they've kind of had to throw their cards up in the air, and you know, makes sense of all this. The Chicago

Bears is nothing new. This has been a storyline that has followed them for a better part of you know what, two years now, two and a half years at this juncture of it, and whenever they decided to move on from Robbie Gold, which obviously looks like an extremely poor decision on their part because they haven't they haven't been

able to make it work. Yeah, and I've said since the beginning, especially when there was this kicking competition, I wish Sham ficking well in the Jets, But once you know what you have, you don't want to start making questions at that position. And credit to both Ted Thompson with Mason Crosby in two thousand twelve, in thirteen and now Brian Gudun said they've stayed true to their kicker.

Stand by your kicker. But here's the other thing. As far as the Chicago Bears are concerned, a lot was made out of the decision at the end of that game. I understand why Matt Negie did what he did. Would I have run the ball? I think I would have. Um. Now, if you have Adam Venytari in his prime, you know, and it's just like get him the ball at the right hash mark from forty one yards out. You have the confidence absolutely that's not the deck they're playing with

though right now. And I think even if it was an extra yard or two, as it showed with with Pinero doinking it off, was it the right, upright, left, up right? Yeah, his his first field goal attempt the day early in the game, he clanked it off the upright from basically extra point distance. Now you're another eight yards back from that. You're relying on him to make a forty one yard or I think the question to

to take a knee there was. It was a highly questionable decision because again, let's be real here, this has Soldier Field there there, you're right on the lake, there's

there are winds. This is not an easy place to kick if any time you are outside of extra point distance in a stadium like that and you're not smacked out, even if you are in the middle of the field from forty yards anything anything thirty five plus that Soldier field can be an adventure at any given moment, And certainly with the position the Bears are in and the fact that Pinero had already missed one earlier in the game, I just think you have to you have to try

to get as close as possible and not just concede that you're going to kick a forty plus yard or there. And and uh Naggie obviously has has gone on the defensive with it. Certainly his his prerogative, He's going to defend his decision, but I think perfectly within anyone's rights to question it. Well. And the way this is gonna play out now for the Bears is they have one of the hardest schedules in the second half of the

season really of any team in the NFL. They get that divisional uh you know, reward or whatever you wanna call it, where you gotta take on the top those those first place teams, first place teams from a year ago. So they're gonna have the Philadelphia Eagles here coming up. There's there's a lot of questions there the Bears are gonna have to answer, and it doesn't get any easier, especially with the Eagles coming off of a pretty big

win against the Buffalo Bills. Um, I'll look at this whole thing, Mike, and it's just interesting to me and that the way this season is playing out, you have undefeated teams, you have winless teams, we could very well have the first season, you know, since maybe ever that you're gonna end up having two winless teams. That's potential the way that this plan out with Cincinnati right now,

and then obviously the issue that Miami's working through. But the I mean, you look at this Cincinnati in Miami play each they let me look. But as I'm looking at that, the fact of the matter is this NFC race is just incredible to watch. I mean San Francisco, uh, just walloping Carolina and then you look at you know, the way that New Orleans was able to stem the tide to get back to Drew Brees, and Drew Brees looks like he never left in that game. I mean,

that's that's incredible how that works out. They do play each other in Week sixteen. There you go. I got ahead of myself there. Sorry, but the NFC race is compelling, and I think a couple of guys talked about in

the locker room after the game. I mean, with Minnesota winning again, the Packers have to keep winning, and you know, the more wins you stack up, obviously you're trying to win your division, but that's also going to keep you at the head of that wild card race and trying to keep you within arms reach out the first round by So a lot on line for for all these teams, but certainly a lot of very talented teams in the

NFC that are contending for spots right now. Yeah. Well, and we and we saw the Detroit Lions get back on track in the NFC North Matthew Stafford with another big game. I mean, there's some things out there you look at you look at what Stafford is doing at quarterback. The Lions are right in this thing at three three and one. They've already had their by but they have nine games left and they're going to have opportunities to uh to state their case and uh and to be

talked about amongst the the NFC playoff contenders. They're they're, you know, as as a five hundred team right now. They're they're on the fringe. But you look at what Stafford is doing on a weekly basis, west and and you know, we all know what a hot quarterback can do for any team. And yes, they still they can't find a running game and their best running back is now injured. Carry On Johnson is is on the injured list. But um, the Detroit Lions that it's a team to

keep an eye on. Yeah, and I really I think you got to tip your cab to Matthew Stafford too, because if you don't have a running game, all eyes are on you. And he's dealt with it a lot over the years, over the last decade and trait Carson started this game for Detroit and he was on the Packers practice squad two weeks ago, So I mean, there are a lot of pressures on him, but he's finding a way to make it work. I've talked about a numerous times, Kenny Golladay looks like a really talented player.

At the time we're taping this, there's still a lot to happen with the NFL trade deadline. Yes, there's some overtures out there, some rumors in induendo that you know, maybe they had potentially be willing to move Darius Slay.

I think that would be a mistake. That would be I mean, I mean that's one of your biggest pieces, uh, in terms of they make a big enough mistake last year when they moved on from Golden Tate, I mean they took Matthew Matthew Stafford's most comfortable target based on the eighteen season, and they just moved on from him and and then their season went nowhere. So if they're if maybe they're just looking for the King's ransom or whatever. But even you're you're still in this thing and you've

got a quarterback in his prime. I'm just I'm just not understanding the idea of moving on from quality pieces. So do I have a do you have a minute to ask you a question here? What do you think of the fact that two of the best teams in the league right now, San Francisco and Baltimore have basically turned the clock all the way back to nineteen sixty with these rushing, heavy offenses. I think, what do you make of it? I think it's great. I think it's

I think it's forcing. I think it's forcing teams in a one week preparation scenario. And the Packers are going to be dealing with this. The Packers will have their bye week before the San Francisco game, but in a one week preparation scenario to get ready for something that you don't see on a regular basis. It's like what goes on in college football when you have that one game where you have to face like the triple option offense and you you're not going to see that at

any other time. I mean, that's a little bit of an extreme example. But what these teams, what these teams are doing, the way they're the way they're pounding the football, using quarterbacks in different ways, um obviously playing playing stout defense. The it's a preparation challenge and uh and those teams are taking advantage of the fact that they are they are making themselves difficult to prepare for. Can you win

a Super Bowl that way? I don't know, I don't know, it is It is a big It is a big question because because in January, and you know, in the playoffs it comes down to making big plays and making a lot of big plays at crunch time in the

fourth quarter of making things happen. You can't. It's really difficult in this league when you're facing the elite teams, with the elite quarterbacks and with where you know offenses have been heading for the last ten to fifteen years, it's very difficult to sort of just grind a team to dust, so to speak. When it comes to January. You can win a lot of games in the regular season, as I say, being a preparation challenge, but then how that carries over to the postseason is sort of the

let's wait and see mode, at least for me. Yeah, and I've seen more of San Francisco than Baltimore this year, but San Francisco has been incredibly disciplined and that helps them and how they're able to succeed. The reason why I think it's a fascinating way to play football though, because if you look at this past week, I mean they think they had three different guys that had ten carries or something like that. It's great when you're ahead.

If you fall behind, that's a challenging way to play the game, and then when you get to the end of the season, you're playing the best teams. I'm fascinated by San Francisco. I love what Kyle Shanahan's doing. Really curious and we're gonna be able to see it up close and personally here in a month. But very curious to see where that train takes them, because it's an intriguing different look at this league that we haven't seen in a number of years. Yeah, well, we'll have an

interesting discussion on tomorrow's show. Looking a little bit more closely at the Chargers because they've decided to move on from their offensive coordinator, Ken wizzen Hunt has been fired, so some changes in the coaching structure there, but we will get to that on tomorrow's show. For now, it's a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. You should have 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. On Twitter, He's at west Hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time. H