#482 Packers Unscripted: Wider focus

there was a little bit more to the story. And what I'm talking about is that forty seven yard field goal in the snow on the slick field in the second quarter, which at the time extended the Packers lead over the Giants. It was actually outside the rain that had been communicated to the head coach for where the line was, the line of scrimmage the Packers needed to get to, and yet Mason Crosby gave the head coach the thumbs up. He's like, all right, I got this,

and he went out and nailed it. Yeah, it's incredible if you take away everything else we discussed and what he was dealing with off the field. Just in terms

of the actual mechanics of a field goal operation. It's challenge because the conditions that Crosby kicked in before the game had changed, and they when he came home up was completely different than what he was dealing Within the second they had rain and I think it one of the reporters tweeted out, I mean, he had made from fifty three, but it was raining then in the field, was you know clear well by the time he went out there in the second quarter for this actual forty

seven yard that that counts. Uh. Now, he was dealing with the snow on the field. It's a field, turf conditions and everything else that was happening at the time with the wind and whatnot, and Crosby nails it. It's one of those things that when you look at thirty one to thirteen, eighteen point difference and score, it doesn't seem like that big of a uh you know, a play,

so to speak. But again, as you kind of illustrated when you go back to that moment, it was a pretty critical time for the Packers to get three points on the board, to get some production there, and Crosby, as he always has done, came through. Well. Certainly when you look at the fact that in the third quarter of the game was seventeen to thirteen, those three points were crucial at that time. He had just to sort

of give everybody the details of it. What had been communicated to Matt Lafleur was that the target line going in that direction, with the conditions and everything, they had estimated, the Packers needed to get to the twenty seven yard line, which would be a forty five yard field goal. That was the range the Packers had fourth down. It was either fourth and eight or fourth and ten. I'm not sure exactly, but they're on the twenty nine yard line.

They were two yards two yards out, and Matt Lafleur said in his press conference on Monday, he said, well, I at least wanted to ask him, because if he didn't feel comfortable, he wasn't going to send him out there to try it. But he asked him, He said, hey, Mason, can you get it there? And Mason gave him, gave him the thumbs up, and went out there and made the kick. And obviously he made all four of his extra points from the thirty three yard distance. But here's

my question for US. I was trying to think about this. Crosby had those two fifty plus yard field goals in Dallas in the playoffs, right, he had an overtime winner against San Francisco. Last year, he had a chip shot, you know, last second win one against Detroit. This year, he had that big forty eight yard or in the NFC Championship in Seattle that got that game to overtime after the Packers had blown the lead. He kicked a walk off game winner in the first game of his

NFL career in two thousand seven. I'm trying to figure out, like, where where does this forty seven yard or in the snow? No it wasn't the fourth quarter. No it wasn't the game winner. But with all of the circumstances surrounding it, with his family and everything that has gone on over the last several months, I'm trying to, you know, figure out where where to rank this one. I think it goes somewhere in the top five or six of his

career um. And I don't even know if he would necessarily have an answer to that question, but it's an interesting one for a guy with a very decorated career. Yeah, I don't know if I'd put it on the Mount rushmore because you look at that NFC Divisional game in Dallas, those two those two kicks back to back, you know, late in the fourth quarter, those were three kicks as it turned out, because of the one that was the

time out was called. But yes, but you know, for him to make it, that had huge implications for the Packers to get to an NFC championship game. If Mason Crosby the Packers make the Super Bowl in two thousand, in the you know, in fifteen, whatever you wanna call it, that would have been a high notebook item. That would have been a sidebar. Oh my goodness, Crosby making that kick. No one ever talks about it in terms of difficult and he and he was five for five that day

as well. A couple of those were short ones, but he had a couple of long ones that day in Seattle, including the forty order right at the end to tie it and three in the first half right to get the sixteen and nothing. But yeah, Packers that you know, they need to rely on their kicker that day, and their kickers stepped up. Here's so many times you hear a team draft a left tackle, and they always use the phrase your this is a guy that can be a left tackle for a decade, twelve years. You know

this is gonna be your franchise. You can plug them in there. You're not gonna think him out again. You think about, you know, going back over the years with the Chad Clifton's although that was a second rounder, Brian Blaga, you're set. No one ever discusses a lot what it means to have a kicker who can just be put in there for ten fifteen years and you don't have to think about it. I think you saw this here with the New England Patriots, what they're dealing with right now.

Stephen Giskowski gets hurt earlier in the season, and then you know they're in a position where they're recycling through all these different kickers because you know, they're just aren't that many guys, Mike, that can do it at that level, that have the leg talent ability and act or see and then on top of that, have this iron clad reserve to be able to just tone everything out and do to the job and execute it under just incredibly

pressure packed situations. And we're talking about guys here, Mike that play ten snaps a game, eight snaps a game. Most of their day is spent sitting on the sideline waiting for a chance to impact the football game, positively or negatively. You also, I go back to Adam Venytaria earlier this season when he was really struggling and we

sort of intimated that, okay, he might just retire. He's forty seven, whatever it is now this is maybe it colts winter and said, no, we need here even despite some of the things are struggling and we need you, and he's and he's still he's still struggling. He's still trying to battle, battle through some things and help out that team that's trying to make the playoffs. But someone mentioned an insider inbox lately like, hey, it does it? Is it just me? Or does it seem like there's

more miss kicks this here? There really are. I've not done the full research yet. I'm looking forward to the end of the season, once all the chips are down to really look at it compare. But at first glance, there is a huge disparity between how many kickers were over last year and how many are well doing underneath this year. Fortunately for Green Bay, despite everything that Mason has been going through this year, he's having a career

year right now. He hasn't had the most field goal attempts, but to make, he hasn't had as many as he's had in other years, but his percentage is certainly way up. To make fourteen and fifteen is really key. And I want to make this point too quickly. A lot of people and I'm not gonna name names here, and it's not just local media's nationally they're very quick to write, Hey, Crosby has bounced back after an inconsistent two thousand eighteen season.

I take a major objection to that. He had one god awful, terrible, got to forget about a game, and he had brutal game. It was one of four, one of five on field goals, and then he miss an extra points extra point as well. Yeah, if you take week six, and I tweeted this during the game, if you go back and you go from week six on, he's thirty three of thirty six and his last kicks he actually managed to get his field goal percentage up to when you missed that many kicks in a game. Yea,

that is not an easy thing to do. Crosby did it thirty five years young, and he's still going at it here for Greenbay. Yeah, And I tell you I've said it an insider inbox. A couple of times kickers you can rely on. And not every kicker is going to make all the kicks. You get that part of it. But a kicker you can rely on and have confidence in is worth his weight in gold in this league. Just just look at where the Carolina Panthers are right now.

Because Fry missed the twenty eight yard or in New Orleans, they end up losing on a last second field goal the other way, and then they blow a fourteen point lead to Washington at home last week, and the Panthers season is pretty much over there now. They're now five and seven, having lost to the Packers, the Saints, and the Redskins, all very very late in the game where for a lot of reasons they couldn't pull things out.

But I just I think that twenty yard missed kick by Fry at the super domin New Orleans just just took all the life out of Carolina. Was was that friar sly? Oh, I'm sorry, okay, I was sicking. Was there another kicker that they had too, and if they did, you're right in going into that game against Green Bay. That was one of the things that I had written in one of the preview copy and with some of the things we were discussing, he was working through some

things there. And here's the thing, Mike, that position it is. I don't want to like start throwing out like you know, golf cliches and tin cup and things like that, but that's okay. I like, yeah, But like the chili differ references in terms of you have that first one that goes wrong, you kind of laugh it off, and you get the second one that goes wrong and you start

to look in the mirror. The thing that I love about Mason Crosby and that's what it has allowed him to stick around this long and execute as well as he has because coming out of Colorado he had a massive leg right that's why he was a sixth round pick. But it's the mental fortitude, in disposition and mentality to go out day after day trust your process. And he talks about that a lot. It's not it's more than

a cliche. That's the truth. Trust your process. That's what allowed him to get through two thousand twelve, which is eons ago now and go on to have really successful and then be in a position. Now we'll see how this all shakes out. But I think you can make a really good case. You know, this could be his best case right now for a Pro Bowl type season. Yeah, I would. I think is having a great year in Arizona. But I mean I would, I would love. I would

love to see that happen for Crosby. And it cracks me up when people always continue to mention two thousand and twelve with him, because he's now actually kicked more seasons since then than he did leading up to that, that off year in two thousand twelve. But I totally agree with you about last year as well, that people point that as an off year. No, it was. It was a bad game. And yeah, since then, the guy

has been rocks On. Yeah, I mean, if you throw, I mean Brett for one of his luckiest things ever when he threw in a set than interceptions against the Ram, the Rams all those years ago in the playoffs. That was six of them. Actually, yeah there, that wasn't during the regular season. It didn't count, right, it doesn't. It doesn't count towards the record that he holds anyway, but could continue. But in terms of what his season would

have looked, right, Yeah, that's unfortunate thing for Mason. Doesn't happened when it did. But if you look at it, Mike, up until two thousand and twelve, he was escalating every year improvement, improvement, improvement, had his best season in two thousand eleven statistically struggles and twelve, and then refound found himself came out better for it. On the other side. Yeah,

absolutely well. I mentioned Carolina losing to Washington this past week, and we will talk a lot more about Washington on tomorrow show as we start to preview Sunday's game at lambeau Field. But we do need to, as I promised on yesterday show, we would get to where things sit in the NFC as far as the whole playoff picture. Coming off of Monday Night football, the Seattle Seahawks beat the Minnesota Vikings whale of a football game, um May

in game really very entertaining. Seattle gets the win. Seattle improves to ten into the Vikings fall to eight and four, so the Packers are back to their one game lead over Minnesota in the NFC North. A few consequences to this as far as um the Packers and and the picture are concerned. As far as the big picture goes,

Seattle now technically is leading the NFC West. They're tied with San Francisco at ten and two, but they beat them in the one head to head game to this point, which actually, if you do that whole if the season ended today, which I always think it's kind of silly because it doesn't. But for the purposes of discussion, the ten and two forty Niners are actually the five seed because they would be a wild card at this stage

of things. And the other thing that this result does for the Packers, not that you want to think of it in this terms, because you're shooting for the moon. You're going you're trying to get get into the playoffs, get the best seed you can. But the Packers can actually win the NFC North without having to beat Minnesota again. If the Packers beat Washington, Chicago and Detroit, they will

be NFC North champs. The Packers are at the stage now where if they get to twelve wins, whether it's by winning the other three or whether it's by beating Minnesota along the way. However, the Packers get to twelve wins. Twelve wins wins the NFC North for green Bay right now because of the tiebreakers. Yeah, and here's I'm not trying to actually just regurgitate the win, you know, want

to know, let's focus on this week mentality. But the reason I say that is because the Packers did what they were supposed to do against the Giants, they need to replicate that again now against Washington. Absolutely that has to happen. But that Bears game is looking a lot different now with the way that they're starting to pull themselves together. If you get a Keen Hicks back for that game, that is a big, big boost for their defense, and then you're gonna have a test are going into Minnesota.

But the reason I want to bring that up is I like the way this aligns for green Bay. You get a chance here against the Giants, and if you take care of business against Washington to get yourselves on a winning streak to start feeling good about yourself, then you're gonna have a step up in competition, as it looks like on paper right now with Chicago, and then

you're gonna go another step versus Minnesota. And then you see where the chips are and then go into Detroit, hopefully in a situation where you can either tie some things up or if everything else works out, okay, maybe you're looking to kind of do a mini run the table here going into the playoffs. Whatever the case may be, Minnesota still is incredibly dangerous. Now. The thing that stood out to me in this game, other than just a

jackal and hide first half and second half performance. For whatever reason, and I don't know if it's the offensive line, I don't know exactly what the construct is. They are having a difficult time getting the run game going in these last three two or three games. So much attention is put on Kirk Cousins and they are going to beat that storyline to deaths Monday night thing. We're gonna be hearing about that all the way leading up to

that December twenty three game at US Bank Stadium. And yeah, I mean, Kirk Cousins got to get tired of that. And here's the thing. He needs to play better. No question, there were mistakes made down the stretch, but if Minnesota can't get Dalvin Cook going here and we got to see what the status is with his injury and this clavical and everything that's going on. You can only put

so much of this on cousin shoulders. I've been trying to say all year long, and I know there's a lot of Vikings fans that watch the show, but I've been trying to say all year long, Kirk Cousins is a good, great quarterback in this league. Much like the kicker conversation. There aren't a whole lot of guys on

the level of Kirk Cousins, but he has flaws. N nine per of the quarterbacks in this league at any given time have flaws, and the problem for Minnesota is when they lose when he struggles, they just don't have the people picking them up. I thought in the first half, you saw that. I thought when they got the forced fumble and returned for a touchdown, I think it was a fumble, right, would you call that it was an interception?

The ball was deflected a couple It was deflected a couple of times, but then it was picked off before it hit the ground. Yeah, that's where the turning point was for me in that game. I thought, Okay, Minnesota, this is what they need, and then they come out flat in the second half. Seattle is dangerous, and they challenged Russell Wilson to throw from the pocket. He accepted that challenge and did a lot of damage during those last thirty minutes. Yeah, I took two things out of

that Minnesota Seattle game. One is that I think both of those teams who will be playing in January, and both of them will be very tough outs in January, no question about it. The other thing is that I don't, yes, it has it has major impact in the standings, the seatings, the records and all that kind of stuff. The fact that Seattle won the game, I don't put a whole lot into Okay, Seattle one and they're just better than

Minnesota because for a couple of reasons. One, it was a primetime game on the road for the Vikings, which just asked the New England Patriots going down to Houston, primetime games on the road, asked the Packers going to San Francisco. Those are the toughest games in this league to win when you have to be on the road at night. But the other thing I'll say is just look at the way that game went west. That game was completely dictated by the turnovers. Minnesota gets the pick six,

They're in control of the game. The second half, Dalvin Cook fumbles, Cousins throws a pick, Seattle gets all the momentum and starts going the other way, and Seattle's on the verge of putting that game away, and DK Metcalf fumbles and all of a sudden, Minnesota then starts to rally and ends up with a shot at the bit at the comeback at the end that that game was. That game just screamed how huge turnovers are in the NFL and how they affect games, because it was just

going back and forth that way. And that's the one thing I will say about the Packers. And you talk about flaws, I know the Packers have their flaws. They have their flaws on both sides of the ball. But the thing that they have done so well this year is offensively they have they have protected the football and defensively they have taken it away. And that is a way that you can win any game you have to

play in this league. And that's what the Packers are going to take with them into the stretch run and hopefully into January into the postseason, is that they are a team that way more often than not, wins the turnover battle, and uh and you know that's that, that's why this is that this is the greatest anything can happen league. Yeah, it is, Mike. And the thing that I think sometimes fans get blindsided by. And I don't understand why, because it's been two years since the Packers

have really played winning football. You are nine and three right now. You are a good team with flaws. There's a huge difference right now and this thing being a great team with some flaws as opposed to being a bad football team. There are bad football teams on every channel every Sunday. You have to be thankful for where you're at in the way this is Mike. If you line up, if you take away all the team names, Okay,

I'm gonna put them all up on your whiteboard. You take away all the team names, you put down the last five four or five games here on the schedule for all those teams which schedule are you taking In

a lot of cases, you're taking Green Bays. When you look at what New Orleans is dealing with, when you look at what Seattle has coming up, and when you look at San Francisco, and then by the way, you got the Rams trying to factor into all this as well, and they can, and they kept themselves very much in the thick of things with a win over Arizona and the fact that Minnesota lost. The Rams are not only one game behind the Vikings and and two games behind

the Packers at seven and five. They're lingering. They have they have a tough schedule, but they are the defending conference champson if they get go and look out. Yeah, And this is where I think, for Green Bay's sake again, I don't want to just preach this one and no thing. I don't want to know. Fans sometimes get tired of that. But if you just control what you can control in front of you, if you can get to twelve and four, thirteen and three. I wrote this an inbox this morning,

good things are going to happen for you. It's just all gonna line up. I mean, those seas are going to part. Now. You need a little bit of help to get in the buy conversation. But Wins has you in that orbit. And it starts and continues on Sunday against Washington, Sunday against Washington, And as you say, it will be one at a time and we will get to our discussion in Washington on tomorrow show, and a little more detail. For now, 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, subscribe to us, like us on iTunes and other podcast services, and check out the Packers YouTube channel for West. I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.