#470 Packers Unscripted: Areas of emphasis

What's it gonna take? Christian McCaffrey, You stopped him, That's all. That's all it takes, right there, right there. We'll see you next week, Packers on Scripted. No, I mean it is West wants to get to the bye everybody. No, I mean you're right, I mean Christian McCaffrey. It's funny because you and I could sit in here and we talked about Zeke Elliott. We've talked about a number of these running backs. Certainly Dalvin Cook is really climbing the

charts here at that position as well. In the Packers see him twice a year. Josh Jacobs, Josh Jacobs, But I don't know. I can't think of anyone that jumps off the top of my head. Maybe Lashawn McCoy is prime, but even then, he didn't run the ball the way Christian McCaffrey runs the ball. This guy is the biggest threat I think the league has seen from an all around component. I think you and I were discussing it.

I mean, in some ways, it sort of reminds you of a Marshall Folk type run that he's been on. And you know, I think he's a guy that when it's all said and done, he could very easily have a thousand yard rushing season, thousand yard receiving season. I mean, that's the type of talent he has, and that's where I think you see his game elevated towards. So for

the Green Bay Packers, what does this all mean? You know, Mike Petton I thought was really good when he was standing at the podium on Thursday evening discussing this, and he said, you know, you can't go with just a linebacker on him. If you do, you better have help. You can't necessarily just go with a defensive back on him. You need to have a plan, and you need to

stay true to that plan. There's a lot that that we have to figure out that we won't know until way after the show is posted to Packers dot com. What's the status of Adrian Amos? What is this defense configuration gonna look like? But no matter who it is, the eleven players who are on the field have to be accountable, gap sound fundamental. They need to tackle because if you don't and Christian McCaffrey gets two feet in front of him, he's going to be threatening your end zone. Yeah.

I mean, this is the guy that Carolina's season, for the most part, has revolved around this one player. And I'll stick with the running back theme in the sense we were We've been talking all week about the Packers getting back to generating their offense through Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams, and so when you look at the running backs involved here, the Packers with their duo, the Panthers with McCaffrey, it's funny. I looked at the stats. I didn't really less this till I actually looked at him.

McCaffrey has like a hundred and sixty five carries on the season, and the next most carries of anybody on that team is eleven. He he is the workhorse, and that hundred and sixty five carries doesn't even include his

touches when he's catching passes out of the backfield. But back to my point with regard to comparing the running backs here, I'll say this, it would be a tall order, I think, because Christian McCaffrey is going to get his as they say, it would be a tall order for Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams to surpass the production of what McCaffrey is going to do in this game. If the Packers duo can do that, I think the Packers

win this game hands down. But as long as the Jones and Williams production is somewhat comparable to Christian McCaffrey, I think the Packers can win this game because I like the Packers that the other skill positions, and with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback versus Kyle Allen, I think the

because I have a lot of advantages elsewhere. But if Christian McCaffrey has a hundred and sixty five total yards and a couple of touchdowns and Jones and Williams only combined for you know, say seventy five or eighty yards and there's this big disparity in the production of the running backs. I think the Packers will have a hard time winning this game. Yeah, and you're a big fantasy

football guy, No, Mike, multiple time champion. When you when you have your matchup in your single play league, um, you look at it. Okay, you might have Zeke Elliott, your your opponent might have Christian McCaffrey. If Zeke Elliott gets you twenty points, it can offset Christian McCaffrey having That's just the way that this thing works, and I think there are some parallels to how this NFL game has played. The thing I like about Aaron Jones though,

is he's been up for a challenge. You know, you go back to last month going into Dallas, the question all week long was can you match Zeke Elliott, you know, yard for yard, touchdown for touchdown. He had already done that the previous year. Everybody just seemed to forget about it. And then by the way, he did it again when he got to a T and T stage him. Now, I'm not saying that I'm guaranteeing that he's gonna outrush

Christian McCaffrey out. You know, yardage Christian McCaffrey. But if you're within that realm, if you're within that that atmosphere of of what he's doing, that's gonna mean good things for the Packers offense. And I go back to last week and you and I were shooting final thoughts a

few moments moments ago, and we were discussing this. I didn't even realize that besides that first catch that Aaron Jones had against the Charges, he didn't get another one in that game, that one that end up going for negative one yards off of the motion. You need to find ways to get on the ball mat. The floor has talked about it, Aaron Rodgers has talked about it. If you go into a game and Aaron Jones only has nine touches, it's not going to turn out very

well for your offense. It's not going to mean very good balance, especially when you don't have Jamal Williams going in that you know equation either. So both of those running backs, I mean, yeah, Christian McCaffrey's the bell cow, he's the workhorse. He does everything to make that offense move for Carolina. Packers have two running backs though, and then you factor in Davante Adams. All the same discussion you and I had last week going into the Charges games,

it's still pertinent today. You need to get those weapons going well. When you look at the statistics. A week ago, Aaron Jones was leading the NFL and touchdowns with eleven. The Packers go to Los Angeles, Aaron Jones does not get a touchdown. Christian McCaffrey scores three touchdowns against the Tennessee Titans. Now he leads the NFL and touchdowns with thirteen. So there's been a little bit of a back and forth going on here. So that's another thing to keep

an eye on. But I think if we were to point to one other thing aside from the running backs, that maybe the key to this game, At least in my mind, it's the past protection for both teams, because we've seen with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. There was the stretch there of six games from Week two to Week seven. Aaron Rodgers was sacked only seven times over the course of six games, and he was throwing the

ball plenty. But there have been some leaks now the last couple of weeks, and the protection hasn't quite been there. Some of the sacks. I believe Rogers has been sacked eight times in the last two games, and he's the first to admit some of those are on him. He held the ball too long a couple of those. He was frustrated that he couldn't get away from the pressure. But he's been feeling more pressure the last couple of weeks, and the Packers need to get back to where they

were a few weeks ago in that realm. And as you've talked about with Kyle Allen, this is a young, twenty three year old quarterback. He went his first four starts this season without throwing an interception. Now he's thrown four interceptions in his last two games. Some of that is due to pressure, you know, getting to enforcing a young quarterback to make mistakes. And that's what Mike Petton

and this Packers defense needs to do. Provided there at least containing McCaffrey and not letting him completely control the ball game. Yeah, because if you do, that's where I think Kyle Allen can get into a rhythm. That's where this passing game gets going, because then suddenly you're selling

out to stop Christian McCaffrey. And as I'm mentioned earlier, when we were previewing the Panthers, they still have weapons who can hurt you, and guys you know when you look at Greg Olsen that can move the chains on you. So that's why it has to be such a huge

emphasis for green Bay going into this one. But at the same time, I mean, I look at this matchup as Kyle Allen has done some great things this year, especially early on, look phenomenal considering what I think a lot of people's expectations were after Cam Newton went down, and they're sitting at Owen too, and you wonder if this season is just gonna spiral. Last year didn't go according to plan, what's going to happen this year? Well, what happened was Kyle Allen realized the resource he had

in McCaffrey and they built the offense around that. The one team that's been you know, exceedingly successful in being able to throw him off his game West San Francisco, and they turned the ball over, they pressured him, and I just feel like for green Bay last week it did not go according to plan against Philip Rivers. And the thing about Philip Rivers and the thing about Drew Brees is those guys are gonna hurt you regardless if you get pressure because of just how quickly they get

the ball out. You can't allow a guy like Alan to get into that kind of rhythm in this game. That's why someone asked us an insider inbox this week, the Packers win the coin toss, what do you do? I defer. I want my defense on the field. I want them to get that first crack and Allen, I want them to get some energy if they can get an early stop, you know, maybe not allow McCaffrey to get that first first down. You do that, you start

to feel good about yourselves. Then it starts to go back down to the reality of the situation in that Kyle Allen, you know, kind of came in through humble beginnings here in the NFL. He's still only twenty three. You need him to play like a twenty three year old quarterback. And the best way to do that is Zadarius Smith, Preston Smith, those type of guys with the back of their minds constantly thinking about Christian McCaffrey, but also making sure that they can't hurt you with that

pass game either. Well, what are your thoughts here, Wes with regard to the weather for this game on Sunday, because the forecast at this point is high on Sunday is load a mid thirties. The low on Sunday night will be twenty degrees. And with a three kickoff, and with the clocks changing a week ago, we're looking at you get towards the end of the second quarter, it's

dark outside. This will be this will essentially be a night game for the last two and a half quarters of the game, so the temperature is going to be in the twenties. I haven't looked through all of Kyle Allen's background, but I would imagine he hasn't played I mean, having played in college at Houston and now in Carolina as a as a rookie. He's from Scottsdale, Arizona. That was the part I didn't know is exactly where he's from. I don't think cold weather football is something that he

has played before. And I'm really interested to see how this plays out with him. Obviously they are going to run their offense through McCaffrey here, but you know how it is west when when it gets cold, that ball is harder for quarterbacks to hang onto. It's more difficult to to be completely pinpoint accurate on your passes. If this truly is Kyle Allen's first cold other game, it's

something the Packers need to take advantage of. Absolutely. I mean the way I look at this is, I mean, Kyle Allen's played well enough that I expect him to be mature enough to be able to handle that. But I think I always think of it this way, like you're you're you've been writing stories now for what twenty years? Twenty five years a professional career. Now that's a little

bit longer than Kyle Allen has been playing quarterback. But you know, if if I throw a wind tunnel in front of you, it's not gonna be fun, but you should still be able to write a story. If I put a giant bass next to you, it's going to be annoying, but you should still be able to write your story. That's what this is like a lot the way I look at it for quarterbacks. Yeah, it's cold that you've been playing football your entire life. Deal with

it now. The one area where I think the Packers have a decided advantage there is what Aaron Jones was talking about this week, the fact that they have been out on the practice field at Nichki Field, you know, doing their team periods in the cold, getting used to that again. Traymont Smith catching kickoffs and punts out in the cold. Aaron Jones, who's from El Paso, who when I was talking to him this week, he said, I mean until he basically got to NFL, he never played

any cold weather games. He said. You never get used to it, but you learn how to adapt to it, you learn how to play in it. And for that reason, that's why this is so beneficial for Green Bay this week, this time of the year, everybody in December expects, Okay, you're gonna play cold weather football, is just the way it is. There's enough teams in the North and the East said it's something you're gonna have to deal with.

But to have a game like this in November, Mike, I remember a few years ago against Indianapolis Colts, it's like seventy degrees at Lambeau. Basically this week of the season are roughly right around, so nobody's anticipating, much like Maha, nobody's anticipating that this is gonna be a game that's gonna be seven degrees. But when they did flex it back a little bit, and it does get dark out

this close to the daylight savings time. These are all the factors that come into play, and I, for one, am I going to be very interested to see how Kyle Allen adapts is Did you hear the quotes if I heard them correctly? There were some comments from Ron Rivera coming out of Carolina that he didn't actually believe the Packers were practicing outside. He told Yea, he told the media down there, let's let's be clear, they're practicing indoors.

And yes, all of the photos from the media and everything are indoors because the packers did have done their initial the initial parts of the workouts have been in the Hudson Center, but then for all of the eleven on eleven on Wednesday and Thursday, they go outside onto the the heated portion of the field where the snow is gone and it's cleared off and and they're dealing with the elements in the actual scrimmage eleven on eleven

portions of practice. It didn't sound like Rivera even believed that the packers were actually doing it, weren't stretching outside or anything like that. But I don't Yeah. I mean, well, it's just it's just interesting to me when I heard when I heard those comments. If I heard them correctly, I will I will qualify. Yeah, and I haven't seen them, but let's say that is true. Because you're an upstanding citizen,

I assume that they are. Uh one. If you saw him Matt Lafleur and he went to the podium after practice on Thursday, they weren't practicing outside. He was just sitting in a freezer for two hours into Evan Siegel are very trusted colleague and photographer. He has foe those of them outside at practice. So be that as it may. I just think when you look at there's a lot of first year players are getting used to this, but there's a lot of veteran players too on this team

that have dealt with this. Sadarius Smith dealt with it in summer gard in Baltimore. You have a guy like Adrian Amos, despite the hamstring injury right now, he played in it for four years at at Chicago. He dealt with it at Penn State. So like, there are guys that I think are ready for this and understand what this is gonna be. I'm mostly curious to see all the side stuff. You know, how you know in the special teams, how does that affect things? You know, if

Mason Crosby, does that give him an advantage? And seeing how these teams react to this once you get into that second half and it really starts to get cold. I never tried to make too much out of weather storylines, but just given the unique timing of this matchup, it

is very interesting. Now you know, this is something that's coming into play this early well, and neither one of these teams has done much in the return game kickoff returns or pump returns, really and you wonder, especially on kickoffs, it's gonna be a lot harder to sail that ball all the way through the end zone. I think there will be opportunities for both teams to try to get

something done in the kickoff return games. So you wonder if one of these special teams units provides a spark in that way, because neither one of these return games for the Panthers or the Packers have been very impactful this year at all. No, they haven't been. And I think you obviously Caroline has done the right thing over the course of years. You don't want to be using Christian McCaffrey in that way, but they've been trying to

find someone there. I think d J. Moore has been handling it at times this season, but he's also kind of done a breakthrough player for them on offense. So those things are really going to be interesting to watch, you know. I brought up the Crosby example because you know, Joey Slide really hasn't been late in the world on fire right now for the Panthers had another miskick last week fifteen and twenty one on the season, twenty twenty

two on extra points. So he's from Virginia. I I don't know what his experience isn't play in the cold, but like, those are the things that are interesting to me because while they're very small, how many times mike over the course of years and it's affected the Packers in a negative way too. Have you seen a game in no Member in December be decided by a miss you know, extra point, a missle, you know, punt, a return that ends up being you know, uh, either muffed

or whatnot. So those are the areas in Sean Menega talked a lot about this week and some of the emphasis that they're putting on it, trying to get more production, whether it is the return game, whether it's their blockers, whether it is punts. I mean, Packers special teams want to play better and this is one area with this type of work that they got this week that they could potentially do that. Yeah. Well, let's take a quick look around before we go at what else is going

on in Week ten in the NFL. In the NFC North, some significant matchups here. The Lions and the Bears are facing each other for the first time. This one is in Chicago before they have the rematch later this month on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit, and this is really the right now for Lions and Bears. It's the battle to avoid the seller. One of these teams looking for their fourth victory to stay in third place, the loser will be in last place after ten weeks of the season.

And then the other one that I'm sure all Packers fans will be watching once Green Bay and Carolina wrap up. Sunday Night Football Minnesota down in Dallas. Vikings at Cowboys are really interesting one, not only for the NFC North, but also with what's going on in the NFC East and the NFC playoff picture as a whole. Yeah, it's a fascinating week just starting off with the Bears and lines really quickly. Really, no outcome is negative for Green Bay.

They could one team could win, they could tie. Everything

is you know, kind of beneficial in that regard. The Cowboys matchups fascinating from the standpoint of you know, Dallas looked good early on, fell into a lull, and then here they are right back in the thick of things again in Minnesota in some ways probably a little bit more on the positive end of the spectrum, but has sort of mirrord mirrored what Dallas has done, so seeing you know, what they could potentially do in that environment and if they can pick themselves up after the Kansas

City lost the game. That I'm probably more than any though, just from a standpoint of, uh, you know, intrigue for me is l a going to Pittsburgh because for a couple different standpoints here. One, the Rams are in a division right now where they have to keep up in that wild card race. With the way that San Francisco is just running away with the West right now in outpacing Seattle for the front of that division right now, they need to get this win the Rams do against

the Steelers. But the thing that's interesting about the Steelers, Mike, I don't even know if you realize this, for as much as we made out of you know, the issues with while you start off going back to Antonio Brown and then they lose Ben Roethlisberger, Mason Rudolph has a terrible you know, you know, hit their second in the league right now and turnover margin only to New England. And that's the reason they're four and four right now. So you gotta give Mike Tomlin a lot of credit.

And if you're the Green Bay Packers, you are cheering all the way for the Steelers in this matchup because for the Rams to be potentially sitting at five and four after the year that they had, uh we talked all the time about being seven and two and or one, and these type of records, what they do for you over the course of the season, how that separates you

in the second half of the year. That's why, because there's gonna be teams like this that are much like the Packers have been in this position the last few years, where they are scratching and clawing and trying to get their way back into the wild card race and if you can just stay, you know, maintain that distance, that goes a long way. So yes, certainly the Steelers, if they could potentially hold serve against the Rams, that is

huge implications for the NFC. Yeah. Well, the timing of things with regards to the NFC North teams has flipped around a little bit compared the last week because last week, by the time the Packers kicked off in Los Angeles, they knew that the Bears had lost and the Vikings had lost, and there was this big opportunity on the table. Well, now it's the Vikings that have the final game, and they will know the outcome of the Bears Lions game.

They will know whether the Packers won or lost. The Vikings will know whether they are playing to potentially tie the Packers for first place or if they will need to win just in order to stay one game behind and not potentially fall two games behind if the Packers come out victorious. So and with the Packers heading into their bye week, obviously, as as we've been talking about, boy, the last thing you want to do with after a seven and one start to be seven and one at

the midway point. The last thing you want to do is go into the bye week on a two game losing streak. You want to get the good vibes, the good feeling back. You want to be able to enjoy the bye weekend, you rest up, and then you get ready for a stretcher on. Yeah, you want to be able to have those positive thoughts in the back of

your head. That was one thing you know, over the years, ups and downs side, for the most part, the Packers always were able to make those right adjustments, and sometimes it came off a win, sometimes it came off of a loss. But the years in which they won, I just remember the feeling of that locker room and sort of the joy of of where they potentially are and where they could potentially be. And that's why this game has so much importance. I just look at it in

terms of the Panthers are for real. I mean, they've gone through some you know, real adversity here earlier in the season. But Mike, you look at how this NFC is shaping up. At five and three, they are still right in this hunt, absolutely and honestly not that far off of the Saints still at seven and one, and you know, certainly they have an easier opponent this week against Atlanta. But yeah, strangling Falcons, all these things you factor them together. I mean, I you know, you want

to talk quickly about the Raiders and Chargers game. I mean, the Raiders came right back Chargers after looking so good against Green Band Sunday. They didn't look like they knew what they were doing offensively in that first half. That's just the way this game is played. That's how things go. Packers need to have short memories. They need to win this game against the Panthers and sit eight and two

into the bye week see in San Francisco. Yeah, and the big one coming up on Monday night, which we'll talk about on our Monday show after as we also recap Packers Panthers, But that Seahawks forty Niners game on Monday night, that's a that's a big one in the in the picture here and and we'll see what the landscape looks like after all the results on for all the popcorn man, I mean, it's uh that as I said before, I mean, that might be the best Monday

night football game that we've seen in ten fift here. So that's it's huge, huge football game. Heck of a matchup for sure. With that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of pack Kers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team and with everything going on Sunday afternoon's game from lambeau Field. It'll all be 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.