#474 Packers Unscripted: Bye-week boost

Francisco forty Niners and Matt Lafleur. Packers were back on the practice field for a brief workout on Monday, as everybody came back from the break over the bye. Matt Lafleur spoke to reporters, spoke to the media after practice, and he wasn't going to get into a lot of specifics as to what did the self scout reveal, Like, what did you guys find out? How are you going

to go about fixing things? Of course, he's not going to share all the nitty gritty details, but he did talk a little bit about each of the three phases of the game for the Packers. I don't think there's any major revelations here, but the Packers. The bottom line is the Packers know what they have to work on heading into this home stretch of the final six regular season games. They do, and I mean the nice thing for them is they finally have some time to sit

back and rest. A lot was made of the fact that they aren't that banged up going into the buy and that's true from a perspective of guys not actually you know, missing practice time, but they were still so to get some bodies a little bit healthier. Get that, you know, week week and a half of rest and recuperation going into San Francisco game. This is where I look for Green Bay to put their best foot forward

on Sunday. And you know, even more so, you know, talking to Kenny Clark and some of these guys in the locker room these last two weeks and when we've had availability, they understand where they fit in the grand scheme of things. The defense No's Trumon Williams talked about it again on money. They mean, they have work to do. They are by far, you know, not a finished product yet at this point in the season. They feel like

their best ball is still ahead of them. Offensively, you've seen intervals of dominance, and you've seen intervals of lulls. They're trying to smooth that out, and special teams certainly has made some changes even going into the by. But where I stand on this right now is that you know, all these years, Mike, you go back and these are

the prime years of Mike McCarthy's tenure too. The way the Packers have come out of the by and a lot of seasons has really been an indication of where this team is going to go in the long run. I think there's a stat somewhere around maybe seven and three over the last ten years coming out of the

bye week. They need to make those adjustments. There's gonna be some mounth scouted looks, I'm sure of it on Sunday against San Francisco, and they need to find, you know, some of those galvanizing moments that really make a good team championship caliber. Yeah. Well, when you look at things on the offensive side of the ball, I think the thing that that continues to stick in the craw of Matt la Fleur. I guess, if if I'm allowed to

use that phrase, is is the penalties. The I saw a stat this morning actually unfortunately didn't have it for the story that I posted on the website last night, But I believe the Packers have a total of twenty five either false start or delay of game penalties through the first ten games of the season two and and now those are only five yard penalties, but those five yard penalties that changes second and three to second and eight and and you know, and gets you in those

behind the chains types of situations. And to be averaging two and a half false start or delay of game penalties on offense through the first ten games of the season, you can see the the opportunity there to become much more efficient offensively, to put yourself in better third down situations if you can just you know, you're not going to eliminate them completely. They're part of the game, but if you can reduce those because two and a half

per game through ten weeks, that's a lot. Yeah, the in the delay games, that's always a little bit of an altered statute because there's two instances in the last couple of games when the Packers have actually taken them.

To give J K. Scott a little extra room, true enough, but that being said, you know the specific instances that Aaron Rodgers talks about that he needs to be better in in Matt Laflora is discussed and trying to get those calls, and they had some communication helmet, you know, issues, and that's been prevalent, I think throughout the league trying to deal with some of those things at times. But the one I go back to is the false starts, because that's the one I felt like going back to

lambeau Field, David smooth some of those things out. It's a tough environment to be in Los Angeles and I know it was a very pro heavy Packers crowd, but there were still a lot of Chargers fans to making their voice heard and that's difficult to work through those changes, but you've got to be able to shore that up

at home. It's unacceptable to have those at home. You need to be able to find answers there and that was a big point of emphasis, and I'm sure as they went through some of the self scouting and trying to find ways to you know, maximize their offensive opportunities,

that's something they go back to. There was a play against Carolina and I don't know exact measurables of it, but I believe it was something along the lines where they had, like I want to say, a nine yard run by Aaron Jones and there was a false start. That takes it from being second and one back to second and second and six, third and one back to third and six. The percentage change every yard you go back is is huge in this league. In credit to Green Bay, one of the reasons they are eight and

two is they've worked through some of those things. You had the Davante Adams thirty four yard catch on second and you know, twenty six or whatever it was. You know, you can find ways with your playmakers to do that, but you can't live that way and they need to find those answers. Yeah. I mean, right now, offensively, the Packers are converting. I believe they're at thirty seven point two on third down. It's in the bottom half of the league. It's it's below the midway point. That's not

a horrible number. Thirty is not horrible, but you'd like to be you know, once you're in the forties on your third down conversions, you're you're in a pretty good spot. I mean what Matt Lafleur found out as he looked at all the numbers, and this is sort of self fulfilling. I mean, it's it's kind of obvious that, you know, third down in seven or less versus third down and eight or more. But he found a really large discrepancy there.

I think, I think maybe a larger discrepancy than than you would normally find because when it's been when it's I believe the number is when it's been third and seven or less or third and six or less one or the other. The Packers are actually above fifty. That's

pretty darn good. But the problem and the reason they're at thirty seven percent overall in their third downs is because they've had way too many of the third and fifteens and the third and twelves, and the really really tough spots which have been a result of either those false start penalties or holding penalty or a sack on first or second down that that really puts you behind the chains. Those are the things that you know it. Matt Lafleur. Yes, there are going to be some unscouted looks.

They're gonna do some new things I think against San Francisco, and as we move forward here into December that maybe we haven't seen yet. But Matt Lafleur's goal offensively is just to improve the efficiency, and it's not about drawing up a whole bunch of new XS and O stuff. It's like, what do you do to sharpen things up and become more efficient down the stretch. And that's what

they're focused on. Yeah, and it's interesting too because when you go back into those third and eight pluses or third and twelves, that's where you're seeing the Packers having to empty it out a little bit more. In credit to Aaron Rodgers, they have found ways to be successful in those intervals, but there's so much more predictability to that. When you have those type of looks, you know more

what you're getting. When this offense is at its best, and we've seen it, especially on some of these first series of games this season, it's when they can be multiple, when they can go with bunch formations, when they're able to shift their personnel on any given play on any given you know possession, that's where they're going to make their money and that's where this offense is. Ultimately, if they get on a deep run here into the playoffs,

that's where they have to be successful. As as great as it is to put the ball in Aaron Rodgers hands, and he's one of the best in the league when it ms to being able to dictate those situations. You see the Aaron Jones is you have the Davonte Adams. You need to win those early down situations to make them their most dangerous, and that's when this offense is

at its peak. Yeah. Well, on the defensive side of the ball, We've been talking about it for several weeks so of the Packers, so as defensive coordinator Mike Petton, it really has been the explosive plays allowed that that that's really hurt this defense. I'm not an XS and OS expert. I don't know exactly how you go about

fixing this thing. Matt Lafleur has made comments about communication a little bit in terms of not only getting the right defensive personnel in the field, but then all the pre snap stuff, making sure everybody has the call, maybe not trying to change the call at the last minute quite so often, which is how certain guys can get

out of position. I also think there's maybe a little bit of a balance that Mike Petton is trying to find in terms of the the aggressiveness to go for the ball because the turnovers are such a big part of the game and have been such a big part of what this defense has done, but not at the expense of, you know, risking giving up those twenty and twenty five yard pass plays that have really hurt this defense.

So I'm just curious your thoughts on kind of where things stand with this defense now and and what needs to be done to to cut down on some of those explosive games. Yeah, it's it's something that I think is probably the biggest thing that had to be a point of emphasis in the scouts scout self scouting process.

Easy for me to say, yeah, that's the one to where there's so many different things that stitched together that not only can result in being able to play cohesive, you know, lockdown defense or having those breakdowns that it's always difficult to pinpoint one specific thing because I get it from Mike Patton's perspective. You've got a lot of ball hawking players in the secondary. They have a really productive pass rushing combo upfront in of the league's best

young nose tackles, and Kenny Clark in the middle. So all intensive purposes, this should be a dynamic, an impactful defensive unit, but there's been too many of those situations where guys come free for not even just the seventy five yard touchdown type of I'm talking about the thirty forty yard passes in the middle of the field, fifty yards here and there. That is the chunk plays that

it's difficult to come back from. Fortunately, Green Bay might have one of the top run you know, red zone defenses in the league right now that they've been able to survive that. But if offenses start to chip away at you there and you don't find answers, that's when you start to see the damn breaks to live. So that's where it's it's tough to put a finger on it. And this is the most unique thing I was. I was thinking about this last week and I looked it

up just now. Packers are right around that ranked uh spot right now for scoring defense you know, points point all, which at the end of the day, you can make an argument that's the most important one of all, but a lot of times it's not always the same, but it's sometimes equate storre you rank in total yards. In this case, it does it. The Packers are twenty eight right now in totally yards per game. The defenses above them in scoring points per game. New England at one,

San Francisco had two, Buffalo is three. They're leading both categories. Then it's eight fifteen, fourteen, eighteen, four, seven, five, ten, six, twelve. That's where teams rank in total yards, and then you have Green Bay with twenty eight. It's such a strange anomaly, and that's why I brought it up on the show before. I get kind of punchy when people talk about this

being like the twelve or you know, eleven defense. I still don't see it like that, because while there were breakdowns, teams were also scoring quite a bit too, a lot of shootouts the Packers had to win that season. This hasn't been that case. So it's it's in this in between. But unless you get it corrected the last six weeks of the season, your record, your stats are what you say you are in some regarden. That's why the Packers

have to get it cleaned up. Yeah, I mean there have been certainly been offenses that have put up the four US yards. You know, the defense that we saw from the Packers in September, Now, granted that was a Bears offense that's been struggling all year, a Broncos offense

that's been struggling all year. So some of that was was the result of the opponents, but you can also just you know, you go by the eye test, the defense doesn't look the same as it did earlier, and uh, um, you know, those big plays they kind of started in Week two against Minnesota. Then they came back in Week five against Dallas when Dallas was way behind, and you know, they started taking these big chunks of the field, and then it's kind of been a problem since then. It's it's, uh,

it's not something that they've been able to curb. Now, looking at the stats against Carolina, they only allowed I believe it was only three plays in that game of twenty plus yards, but there were a whole bunch of past completions that were in that fifteen to nineteen yard range that Carolina still racked up four hundred yards by the end of the game. Yes, the defense obviously made the big stand at the end, and at the end of the day, Carolina only had what sixteen points on

the board, So you take that anytime you can. But the Packers know they're they're in this they're in this uh you call it kind of you know, kind of the middle ground. It's kind of a precarious place to be because of because of the yards that you've surrendered, because you know, you get up against teams that are more efficient in the red zone and uh and are going to punch things in more often for touchdowns, and

then suddenly that points allowed number starts to climb. This is where we're gonna learn about a lot about this defense here in the last couple of weeks. Because yeah, you mentioned Dallas. Dallas is leading the league right now in total yards of offense. Kansas City is three. I don't want to hear about Matt Moore. They still have explosive playmakers there that can make life difficult. You know.

Detroit is eight, Minnesota's nine. Oakland, for as much has been made about their situation, their eleventh right now un totial offense. So they've played good offenses, productive offenses. This week is going to be a huge test. San Francisco is a dynamic and as versatile and multiple as teams get. But after that, you got the New York Giants, you have Washington, you have Chicago. You need to lock down

in those games. The thing I liked about that Carolina game was that, Okay, Carolina puts up four inner total yards of offense. The Packers won that game, though, because of their defense. Sometimes the yards aren't what matter most, and it sometimes comes down to the points. But when you look at those games beyond this week, I don't care what the total yards are. I don't care what the points are. If the Packers win the game, they

accomplished the goal. But going up against New York in Washington Chicago, you expect them to be able to get on a run there in December because of where those offenses have ranked this season and some of the issues that they've worked through. Yeah, all right, Well, before I forget here west because I forgot yesterday after the long break my brain. But 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. All right. Well, you mentioned one of the Packers on the defensive side of the ball that I'd like to talk about a little bit here and that's defensive tackle

Kenny Lark. He's in his fourth season. The statistics so far through ten games don't really match up as far as the tackles, the sacks, that kind of thing, don't really match up to where he was last year. But we started to see in that Carolina game before the bye, it almost felt like the you know, I hate to say old because Kenny Clark is not that old, but but yeah, but it's sort of like the old Kenny

Clark started to start to come back. And I've been wondering, I'll be honest with you, West, I've been wondering much of the season. Kenny Clark is not a guy who's going to talk about it. But he was on the injury report earlier this year with a calf injury. We saw in the one game he got kicked in the

shin um. That can't feel too good. I think he's been playing through some things and at the same time having to deal with how offenses are paying a lot more attention to him in terms of in terms of their scheme and how they want to handle him in the middle of the defensive line. But his play really stood out against Carolina, and I'm wondering, Okay, maybe is is Kenny Clark season about to take off here? Yeah?

And it was interesting, you know, hearing some of the comments from Jerry Montgomery last week because in some ways I think there's talking to Tyler Lancaster about this Monday, I think there's there's narrative that that Kenny Clark in some ways has dropped off. I don't see that. I think one. As Montgomery pointed out, he wouldn't go into the exact specifics, but he said, I mean he's getting double teamed a lot more in the running game, which

is what you expect. He's the premier nose tackle. That's what's going to happen. So there hasn't been as many of those one on one situations. The Packers again are playing him a lot of the defensive snaps at this point in the season. But that game against Carolina, Carolina tried to block him one on one a lot more

than a lot of other teams did. And I would imagine going to this game against San Francisco, you're going to see that second guy having more attention on it because whether it was you know, their center or trade Turner, they just weren't able to match up with him, and

he was able to be disruptive. He came a little bit short of being able to get an actual sack on the statue sheet, but Pro Football Focus had him down for ten pressures, which under their metric and their measurements, that's the most he's ever had in his career to this point. And that's a lot for an interior past a guy who never who really never lines up on

the edge at all. He's always inside. And I made this argument at my story to the other thing you gotta understand in terms of just the pass rush, he has two outside linebackers now that are really shifting the hourglass from last season. There are not as many opportunities for a three fifteen pound defensive tackle to be the first guy to the quarterback. Those guys are in that

O zone. They are making things difficult and it's getting the ball all quick with my with the big thing I think for for Clark here down the stretch is going to be if they can one find ways to give him some breathers here and there, because that's going to be important if they want to play an eighteen or nineteen games season. And also, you know, figuring out a good balance for when you want to have him out there early on downs or when you want to

have him on third downs. I think the last few games you started to see them find a little bit more of, you know, a balance with all that. Maybe that's because Montrevious Adams is back and he seems to have put the shoulder behind him. Kingsley Kickley is pay playing more the more Kenny Clark is twenty four years old. You want to be able to get him out there

as much as possible. But I think there is sometimes that you know, you want to strike something there where you're getting the maximum out of that player every single down. And I think that's one area that maybe at this point in the season, as you get into the month of November and December late in the year, where you're starting to maybe figure out what that that right number

is going to be. Yeah, and we'll see as we go into this San Francisco game here if they do resume the double teaming in the middle on Clark, especially with how they're going to want to run the ball.

The bottom line is whether it's Montrevious Adams, Kingsley, Kiki, Dean Lowry, Tyler Lancaster, those guys are one on one against the run, they've got to be able to They've got to be able to get off the block and stay in their gap, or you know, keep Blake Martinez and b J Goodson or in Burke's who verse at the second level, keep those guys clean to be able

to make the play. Because yeah, if I mean, if you're getting double teamed, then you're helping out a teammate and then that teammate has to take advantage of that situation. And to his credit, to Clark's credit, at this point in the year, now ten pressures are gonna up his total pressures for the season, so he's at forty one. I mean that puts him in the same conversation with Aaron Donald, Fletcher Cox. I mean, those are the high end,

elite defensive tackles in this league. And you know, there's been kind of this narrative that maybe he's had something to do with the run defense and the issues you've had there. But man, I mean, one that's an entire unit, that's not just one specific player. But to look at what he did when Christian McCaffrey was running in his area and his gaps in that game against Carolina. It's tough to point out stats other than the screenplay that he broke up when he came off his block and

ended up chasing him down. It was difficult. It's been tough sledding still for them to get through that area, and a lot of times when it has been it's been the double team. So it's gonna be really intriguing to watch and see where the rest of his season goes. But at twenty four years old and the snaps that he's had, the way he's played, I just think there's a certain amount of respect you gotta put on Kenny Clark's name right now despite some of the issues that

defense has had. Yeah, I would, I would certainly agree with you. One other item to clean up, I guess we could say from or a leftover item from the

bye week, and that is that the nominees. League wide, every team in the league nominates a player for the annual Sportsmanship Award, and for the second year in a row, here in green Bay, that nomination has gone to Tremont Williams um interesting in a lot of ways that he takes a three year, three year break from playing in Green Bay and then comes back and now these last two years he's been the Sportsmanship Award nominee, something that

that he certainly appreciates. I know, he's one of your favorite players to talk to me certainly one of my favorite players over the years to talk to. And he can't say enough about just how well he represents himself and his team and his defense and his teammates anytime that he is on the field. And that's what this award is all about. Yeah, it's the media award will come later in the season, and certainly he's always in

the running for that as well. But I mean, in my time on the beat, he's one of the guys that I think I've learned the most about the game of football. Listen to him talk and when you know, he's as thoughtful as they get in terms of hearing a question and giving appropriate response and not just trying to find some quick SoundBite to just move on with

his day. He takes the time and it's also important that that's something that has been reflected in the locker room with his players, you know, the guys around him. He even mentioned this was unrelated to the Sportsmanship nominee, but he was asked from ESPNS robbed Amovski about Marquis Velda Scantling. You know, if you can help him out, give him some encouragement. A Svelda Scantlings kind of working through some stuff right now, Uh, injuries wise and production wise.

And he goes on to mention one, yes he can too. He happens to be Velda Scantling's neighbor. In three, he mentioned how the reason he thinks guys like that will succeed is the same reason why Gi Alexander has succeed in this league, because when there is an issue, when something does happen, those guys go out of their way to ask tremon questions how he worked through certain things in his career, What did he do when he felt

this way? Because everybody in some regard, even though the positions are different, go through a lot of the same emotions throughout the course of a long career in tremon is a guy that has been a resource for players along the way. He joked that, I mean this must mean I'm just a nice guy. But he also mentioned last year when he went and looked at the nominees for all the teams, the class and character that he

was put up with. Uh, that meant a great deal to him and being able to have his peers feel that he's on that level. He did joke that when he saw that Drew Brees, one of the other guys who were finalists, He's like, yeah, I don't know how I could compare to them, but it is something that I think you saw Julius Peppers when he was here

to receive it. That nomination. It goes a long way, and I think it just speaks to the type of player that trumm has been in this place for over ten years now, um in the kind of teammate that he's always been. Yeah. Ultimately, with this Sportsmanship Award, there are thirty two nominees, one from every NFL team. Eventually that gets whittled down to eight finalists, four from the

a f C and four from the NFC. And then is it in that like the Super Bowl show that the whole NFL honors the night before the Super Bowl is when when the league wide winners announced. I think it's pretty cool, though, I will say this, and this has nothing to do with sportsmanship per se, but the fact that Truman Williams got his first interception of the season against Caroline and it's his first interception since he

came back to the Packers. Last year was the Now it remains the only season in his fourteen year career that he does not have at least one interception. So he got one in twenty nineteen. I know he's looking for more. But when you look at you look at the year by year stats, you know, when you call it up on a computer screen and you look at the interception column and you go down and there's a number in every single column for every single year except

for last year. That kind of that kind of impact, that kind of longevity, that's that's really impressive in this league.

And it speaks volumes about Tremont too. That the reason, I mean, he played half the season at cornerback, so I can't, you know, just say he didn't have his opportunities, but he ended up shifting to safety, a position that he hadn't really played down after down ever in his NFL career, because that's where the defense was and that's the role they needed him to fill, and he did it.

So Tremon Williams is a great one. And when this thing is all said and done, and I know he probably wants to play at least fifty, but you know, he's going to be a guy that I think in terms of media types and I'm sure the players that are on this roster now that have been affected by him. He's an all timer. I mean, he's one of a kind, and he's a guy that he came in as an undrafted free agent, and every time you talk with him,

it's still like you're talking to an undrafted rookie. That's just not I don't want to say happy to be there, but definitely a down to earth perspective that you don't always get with a guy that's been around the league this long. Yeah, he's appreciated every opportunity that he's gotten in this league, both in Green Baith and when he went to Cleveland and Arizona. Now that he's back in Green Bay, there's there's an appreciation level that you hear in his voice almost any time you talked to him.

In a fun story, I'll close on this. Rob Demovski again from ESPN dot com, my former colleague. He even was asking him a separate question about, you know, Kyle Shanahan's coming in. Kyle Shanahan was the offensive coordinator for a time one season with the Cleveland Browns. He asked, Tremont, hey, have you ever you know, did you work with him at all? Was he still there when you signed with Cleveland after becoming a free agent a number of years ago?

He said, no, But I'm an old guy, right. Kyle Shanahan was the receiver's coach in Houston when Tremon signed as an undrafted free agent back in two thousand six. I mean, just the longevity you talk about from him. I I joked about on Twitter, the six degrees of Tremont Williams. It's like every coach and player has some you know, some type of Termon Williams connected to him

somewhere along the line. Yeah. He started as an undrafted as an undrafted rookie with Houston, and then in the middle of his rookie season, I believe it was November of two thousand six, the Packers Ted Thompson signed him to the practice squad in Green Bay and other than and then for um basically getting into the lineup in two thousand seven through two thousand fourteen, he was a fixture here with the Packers and now he's back in a career that someday I'll have him in the Packers

Hall of Fame, and about it to have another Super Bowl, right all right? With that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com. You can subscribe to us, like us on iTunes and other podcast services. 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.