#469 Packers Unscripted: Moving forward

players in the locker room after practice. There's an overriding theme here, particularly on the offensive side of the ball, but really it applies to both sides of the ball that coming off of that game against the Chargers, the Packers just want to get back to who they are. And I think on offense, there's one thing that a lot of different people, head, coach, quarterback, everybody are pointing to to get their offensively and it has to do

with the running backs. It does, Mike, because at this point of the season, ten weeks into this thing already, I think you've seen that Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams in terms of difference makers and playmakers. This offense operates at a different level when those two guys are involved, and they just didn't get to that last week. You know, they opened the game. He actually was funny. I even

said this to you in the press box. It's almost like they took a little bit of a cue from what Kansas City did and motioning Aaron Jones out and it was kind of a moving rotation where he's just sort of hovering in space, almost like an arena Football League type play. They threw the ball to him, but the block wasn't there to end up being like a

one yard game and didn't really go anywhere. But you could see early on that what that was going to be the game plan, you know, incorporating them in the run, getting them involved in the past, and once they got in that two minute operation, you didn't really see it that much. They used Davante Adams once, I think in the backfield motioning out that was a concept I thought when we saw that, we'd see a lot more of

it during the game. And just blending your playmakers together, Davante Adams, Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams and being able to get contributions from multiple players. I think is just so essential. It's what made this offense as good as it was in October without Adams, and they have to get back to that now. Yeah. Well, I wrote a story last night on the website after those locker room interviews because

I thought Aaron Rodgers had some very pointed comments. He doesn't do this very often, but he's actually throwing out numbers saying, hey, Aaron Jones needs needs to touch the ball fifteen to twenty times, Jamal Williams need to touch it ten to fifteen times. That's when this offense is at its best. I went and took a look at some of the numbers west and they're in the story

for anybody who wants to check them out. But if you if you split the Packers season into what I would say, we're there there three worst games, the two losses, and then the offensive performance in Chicago in Week one

and then the other six. It's really pretty remarkable because if you take sixty yards of combined rushing and receiving from one individual, because we've seen Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams both have those kinds of performances, if you use sixty yards as the measuring stick, neither one of them had a combined sixty yards from scrimmage game in those first three games that I mentioned. The two of them collective collectively have had seven sixty plus yard yards from

scrimmage performances in the other games. And even more important, fifteen of their combined seventeen touchdowns have come in that block of six games when the Packers have been playing their best. So some will say, well, are they producing because the Packers are winning or the Packers winning because they're producing? I say it's the latter, because the numbers. The numbers just show when those guys, when those guys are moving the ball and getting it in the end zone,

that's when this Packers team is choking us win. Yeah. I mean, and and honestly, you throw that question out there, and I don't even know if it really matters. That's where you your your fastball is right now. You you dance with the one that brung you. I mean, this is one of these things that when you see those type of numbers and you see that type of production, you have to run with it. You have to be

able to get it incorporated into your offense. The big stat I threw out there a couple of weeks ago in the first four games and they had Davante Adams in September. I think it was somewhere around four hundred total yards, one touchdown, two touchdowns something like that between Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams. In the four games without him, I think it was something like seven hundred fifty yards

eleven touchdowns. Actually, I think it was like four touchdowns the first four or five touchdowns the first four games. Either way, it shows you the difference of when those guys are involved and when they're playing well. It doesn't have to be either or. I mean, I think you know Davante Adams is that's a mouth that you want to feed as well. You want to get him opportunities. He's one of your big play threats as a receiver.

It's understanding now, much like Aaron Rodgers head to do in two thousand fourteen, is the resources you have in the backfield now too, and being able to make sure that you get those guys the touches that they need to have the appropriate impact on this offense. And I just think you know, when you go back and you boil that game down, and I've said it to you

a couple of times. This week never really felt like they got off the plane, and it never really felt like offensively, you ever really saw a semblance of what made them successful in the four weeks prior to that. This game against Carolina, if you want to dial up the film and in te Hron Rivera's credit, you know, he said, stuff happens. They don't really took a lot. They didn't take a lot from that San Francisco game. They had turnovers, but San Francisco did run a lot

against them in that matchup. I want to say somewhere around over two yards they were able to produce on the ground. Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams. Honestly, I'll take them over what San Francisco has right now and there that backfield, those guys have to be a focal point going into this game against the Panthers, especially with how cold it's

going to be at potentially at home. Yeah, well, Carolina's run defense numbers certainly took a hit against San Francisco, But we are at the point in the season where you know, you don't just say, well, it was one game, because you look at the collective and the Panthers are in the bottom quarter, bottom third of the league in rushing yards allowed per game. They are I believe they're thirty first in the league in yards per carry. So

this this defense can be had with the run. And but that being said, I'm not necessarily advocating with regards to, you know, the touches for Jones and Williams that the Packers just trying to pound away with the run. I think it's still it's the Packers doing what they do best in getting the ball in their hands. However you want to get it to them and then see how

the Panthers defense reaction there. How does Luke Keickley react, What do they do with that defensive front, and how does that maybe affect their pass rush which is racked up the league leading thirty four sacks if they have to worry about the running back spreading them horizontally and whatnot throughout the game. So that's the uh, that's the game planning, the chess match, the x is and nose part of this that I think will be interesting to

see unfold on Sunday. The Panthers, maybe more than any other defense right now in the NFL, they take chances, and those chances occasionally have led to big breaks for the opposing run game. You know, when you catch them in a particular look, in a particular particular scheme and you get the numbers in your favor. That's where Caroline has been hurt to this point. So you're absolutely right. It's not gonna be a case of just pounded, you know,

carry after carry after carry. I just, you know, I think it really boils down to whether you're passing or whether you're running. Playing clean football right off the bat. The Packers didn't play clean enough football in that first quarter against the Chargers, and that's what led to them having to, you know, make some of the decisions that

they made with the offensive scheme. I want to say, Aaron Jones mentioned at his locker on Wednesday there might have been five offensive plays in the first half that were not flagged for Green Bay. I mean, it was low in terms of you know, issues where you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot a little bit and then you got to try to bounce back, and now you're in third and long, and now you're really you know, limiting your offensive playbook. So yeah, I just I think

that first quarter, that first that second quarter. I don't care if it's running between the tackles. I don't care if it's in space. I don't care what you have

to do. But get those running backs involved in this offense and let that start to work for you a little bit and get into that rhythm that Aaron Rodgers was talking about, because even now after losing to eleven at his locker on Wednesday, he's still kind of had that feeling in the back of his mind that, you know, if we just had one big play that could have

been the thing that broke the whole thing open. Yeah, when that game was nothing, twelve to nothing, And that's the thing, and that that's where Matt Lafleur has been critical of himself this week for not sticking to the game plan long enough in Los Angeles because at nine and nothing, at twelve to nothing, one score changes the game.

But the Packers were kind of chasing it in terms of trying to make a big play and get that spark offensively, which I don't necessarily fault the effort in doing that, because that's what one in the game in Chicago. Let's be honest, the offense was going nowhere, hit the big shot play down the field MVS and then suddenly you're on the move and you're in position to win the game. So I don't fault the effort there. But Lafleur has been critical of himself for not really just

taking a deep breath and looking at the scoreboard. As badly as everything had gone, it was a two score game for still a long stretch where you just needed one score to get back into it. And we'll see him definitely, uh stick to his game plan a little bit more because I Matt Lafleur believes in his game plans. There's no question about that. He's and he's proven in this half a season that he's been a head coach

for the first time in the NFL. He's proven as this offense has evolved and he's gotten to know his own players better, that he has put them in a lot of really good positions to have success. The two biggest things that he's brought to Green Bay so far, in addition to the motioning and bunch formations and some of the things that they're doing with the you know, the outside zone, is the belief first off, in the

running backs and introducing the two running back packages. I thought that was a really nice wrinkle that this offense had been because when you have those type of playmakers, you've got to get them on the field. I don't care what the packages are, and they've been very creative with how they've used both of those guys. But the other thing is these scripted plays early on. Packers have been snake bit in the last few years by being able to get off to a quick start offensively. They've

very much done that this year. I think one of the studies I'll probably do once is year ends is just looking at, Okay, how did these first you know drives compared to previous years, because honestly, this is about as seamless as it's been at least during my time on the beat, probably going back to two thousand twelve, in terms of how it feels with how they've been getting off to these starts. But the last thing that I've really liked about him is the accountability side of it.

Aaron Rodgers spoke on that at his locker two. The coaches can walk into that room and they can correct and critique every single thing that players do, and they're

probably directly in the right. You have to have players, you have to have scheme in order to be successful, but there is a finger that gets pointed at themselves as well and understanding that, yeah, I didn't do what I needed to do to put a particular play you're in the right look, or you know, give them the right opportunity, or being able to stay committed to the game plan and not jump to conclusions when you aren't

getting things going. That type of accountability goes along way, Mike, because I'll tell you right now, I've worked for both type of leaders during my short thirty one years of life and decade as a full time employee. The people that pointed themselves and say, you know what, what we did there, that's not right? Those are the people you ultimately have respect for. The people that just kind of shove off responsibility and say, yeah, that was mostly on you.

I knew what I was doing. Those are the people that you're not gonna want to work for, you're not gonna want to play for, You're not going to build a championship with. And I think that is the number one foundation When people ask us about Insider Inbox, one of the questions was today, well, you know, Matt Lafleur was was outcoached or he was over his head man.

Look around the NFL for two seconds, I was gonna take a look at all the new head coaches in the NFL this year and look at their records, and look at the Packers record. I mean, there's there's something pretty good going on here. And yes, the Packers had a dud, a stinker, a clunker of a game, but it does not define who the two thousand nineteen Green Bay Packers are. Now it's on them to make that sentiment, make that mentality hold up here as the second half

of the season continues. But um, but yeah, let's uh. You know, as you said earlier this week, you don't let one bad day at the office ruin what you've been working on for months. Absolutely, And I mean and now just going into this game against Carolina, you hit it right on the head. You have to win this game against the Panthers. That's the focus. Now to Ron Rivera's original point, it's the reason why the Panthers were able to come back and beat the Titans the way

they did. You had a bad day. You need to flush it, not allowed affect this Sunday, because if you let it affect this Sunday, then you're staring into the bye week on a two game skid. Yeah, well, there's certainly been no lack of accountability on the defensive side of the ball for the Packers as well some some rough film sessions this week and going over what happened against the Chargers the defense, there are a lot of metrics showing the defense has been ending a bit in

the wrong direction. I know some people wondering, Okay, when you get Darnell Savage back, is that going to change things? And I was cautioning, then, hey, it's not. It's not just one person. And I say that as a preference preface to what we're going to talk about now, because we could be seeing a change in a pretty frequently used package by Mike Petton with regards to Ibraheim Campbell

now coming off of the pu P list. And I know earlier in the week you and I were a little bit skeptical just how quickly Campbell might be reintegrated into the defense. But what we heard yesterday from Matt Lafleur and from Campbell himself in the locker room and some of his teammates, it sounds like he's good to go. That that he could be out there in a fairly

significant role right away on Sunday. Tell us your impressions because you were part of the conversation with Campbell and maybe what you see happening on Sunday, well, Campbell was that was fascinating what happened last year. And I know he had the one year with Mike Petton, but that was his rookie season and he suddenly gets claimed off waivers right after the Packers made decision to trade Haha Clinton Dick's for a fourth round pick and incomes Ibrahim

Campbell and he wasn't asked to play safety. They put him in the box and they put him in there with Blake Martinez, and he played really well. Eighteen tackles, five stops according to Pro Football Focus, no miss tackles during that time, and Hey was also pretty good in coverage. He was a revelation for that defense in the month of November. Unfortunately, he ends up tearing his a c L in that game against Arizona, the first game he was actually starting in this defense, and he ends up

missing the last ten eleven months here rehabbing. Campbell is a fascinating player because he was I think he was a former fourth or fifth round pick with Cleveland, showed a lot of promise early on, but never became an

entrenched starter in those defenses. Then he bopped around. He was in New York, he was in Houston, I think in Dallas first spell, and he ends up in Green Bay and for him to be able to pick up the playbook being claimed on November five of last year, and he was playing in Seattle two weeks later and playing a lot of snaps on defense, not special teams defense.

He mentioned it, and I thought this was a really interesting point he made in that, you know, he kind of knew the game a little bit when he came back. Packers had Raven Green and that hybrid safety role Josh Jones eventually would end up being let go. He knew that he was sort of the insurance policy. I don't think hit Neither he nor the Packers thought they were gonna have to cash in on that policy as early

as they did. Raven Green gets end up, you know, having that ankle injury, played really well against Chicago and then here they are having to rotate a lot of people. In matt With Flora said it himself a revolving door of sorts next to Blake Martinez, and I honestly think, and I don't want to overstate the importance of one particular player, but that void has kind of been something that's just kind of crept up on the Packers defense and they haven't been able to fill it. Um Amos

played that spot, Will Redman has played that spot. I thought maybe or and Burke's coming back would help them there, but they still want to keep a safety there. So Abraham Campbellman, they're gonna look to him now. It appears to bring a similar impact that he brought last November with this defense because he's a smart player, heavy player, and he's a downhill run defender, which is a very

rare trait when you're looking at a five pound safety. Yeah, I think this is going to be interesting how this plays out on Sunday, because with Campbell coming back, what I see in terms of who's going to be lined up next to Blake Martinez, I think when Mike Petton is bound and determined to stop the run, it's gonna be b J. Goodson. When he wants to get a

little bit more creative, it's going to be Campbell. But if the Packers just get back to maybe it being those two guys instead of that revolving door that Matt Lafleur talked about. I think, you know la Fleur's point was that that might allow all the other guys, not only in the front seven but also in the back end,

to just settle into their roles in their positions. Amos being one of those things I think who you know, he's a he's a key communicator, he's he's sort of one of those calming presence type of guys in the back end. So we'll see. Like I say, I never say it's always just in person or one change that's going to you know, suddenly fix everything, because the Packers have to get off blocks better and they have to tackle better on defense. There there's no two ways about that.

If you're getting blocked and if you're missing tackles, there's nothing Mike Petton is going to be able to do from a scheme standpoint to help you. So that's where it starts. But having guys mentally settling into specific roles and knowing exactly what that role is every snap that they're out there, and then being able to get those reps play after play after play after play, I think hopefully for the Packers, we're going to start to see this defense put the last few weeks behind them and

start to trend in the other direction. Yeah, and we're gonna have to see what this week holds. Because Adrian Nimis ends up missing practice on Wednesday. We're shooting this before Thursday's practice. He has a hamstring. There's really no injury history at all with Amos, so, I mean, he basically played all four years in Chicago without missing a game or maybe a one or two. So I don't know what to read into that or what is availability

is going to look like. But to get Campbell back at this time just very critical for the defense because, as you said, Mike and I wrote about an inbox day, it takes all eleven. It's not just one guy at one position. It can turn the tide in a game or a moment, but you need everybody playing together to consistently series after series stop people. But you know, Mike, you think back to you know, maybe two thousand and fourteen, I think it was when Sam Barrington ends up being

an inside linebacker for this defense alongside Clay Matthews. That makes a difference in some of the packages. You think about Howard Green coming in in two thousand and ten. There have been these moments where a late season edition ends up contributing a big way. The Packers didn't win a lot of games last year, but I thought Bashad Brelan brought that last season. So yeah, for Campbell's perspective,

it is just one player. But sometimes if you get a guy in there and the defense starts to play a little better, you start to get some of that swagger back, you start to feel good about where you're sitting.

So that's what I'm looking for from Campbell. I'm not asking him to be the same player he was last year, because that's a big ask for how well he played, but I think he definitely set a standard that this is a guy that doesn't necessarily need a full training camp or you know, multiple weeks to be ready for a mo role. That he could move in there and contribute right away, which is really valuable in this league

this time of the year. Yeah. Well, Ibraheen Campbell is from Northwestern, so you know I have an affinity for those players. And we'll close the show today by talking about another Northwestern alum, and that's Danny Vitally. This game, the Packers only home game in the month of November, is the NFL Salute to Service Game at lambeau Field for this year. You had a conversation earlier this week

with Danny Vitally. He is the Packers I guess you call it the nominee the representative for the Salute to Service initiative in the NFL this year. And uh, you know, a lot of a lot of interesting things that Vitally talked about. Give us the summary. Yeah, So we'll have a story on Packers dot com on Friday about this and talking about some of his history with it and

in the different causes that he's been involved in. You know, Danny got here a little over a year ago on the practice squad, but in that entire time, whether he was playing or not, basically went right up to Tony Fisher from our community Outreach department and said, you know, any kind of things I can do, but specifically with the military, I want to be involved with. So, I

mean he's visited different places. I know he was just down at ash Gosh Defense a couple of weeks ago, did a thing over here at the turn with Aaron Rodgers and some players with you know, honoring vets. Uh So, that's near and dear d in his heart. And it's because it's kind of been ingrained in his family. Both of his grandfather's served in the military. His brother, his younger brother, Tommy, who actually played for a short time

at Northwestern as a linebacker. He's now enlisting in the Navy and will be going out here in a little less than a month now. Um So his cousin was involved in the military. Uh in is Danny kind of mentioned too. If he wasn't playing football, and if he had n't met his wife at the right time, he may too have gone that route as well. It's just

something that he has a huge dedication for. Uh It's been ingrained in his family and ultimately he respects just what that stands for in the sacrifices that people make. He was blown away by getting the Packers nomination for this, and and you know, it's something that he wasn't looking for any type of gratification or appreciation for what he's doing.

It's just something that he does. But now that he is that nominee for the Packers this season, it's something that means a lot to him because of what he hopes that that message could send, and not only this locker room, this area, but the NFL as a whole in in showing that appreciation to members of the military and you know, soon to be his brother among them. Yeah, well, it's always an interesting neat atmosphere, certainly in the pregame with the with the Salute to Service game, with the

anthem and the flyover, all that kind of stuff. I know that happens that you know, the flyovers happened at other games as well, but usually it's, uh, it's it's kind of one of those that makes you jump out of your seat a little bit when it's the salute disservice game. So we'll have that look forward to on Sunday, and a lot of great people in this organization that have involved with this in the past. With Tom Bachen t Bone from our equipment staff has been a multiple

time nominee. He also typically has a and and some of those flyovers and you know, kind of welcoming those you know members and you know servicemen and service women from the military, you know, Air Force and those things, you know, bringing them around Green Bay and Aaron Jones as well with his parents who had a combined i think fifty six years of military service as well. Um, it's incredible, it's awesome, and it's neat for Danny. Congratulations

to him being the nominee this year. Yeah. Absolutely, with that, we will 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. Find him on Twitter at west hot I'm at Mike Spofford at Packers for the team account. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.