#486 Packers Unscripted: Win No. 10

A lot of implications with this one. Green Bay gets to ten wins, ten and three, now remaining one game ahead of the Minnesota Vikings in the race for the NFC North, the Vikings knocking off the Detroit Lions to get to nine and four. The Packers also getting a little bit of help that they needed, primarily from the San Francisco forty nine ers, who win a shootout in

the super domin New Orleans forty six. The implications there being while San Francisco is now in the top spot in the NFC at eleven and two, New Orleans is ten and three, tied with the Packers, the Packers actually have one fewer conference loss than New Orleans, so if Green Bay can win its final three games, it will get a first round by regardless of what happens in

the NFC West. But here's the thing. There are a lot of questions right now because of how the Packers beat Washington, if they are really capable of running the table against the three NFC North opponents coming up, because there was a lot of dissatisfaction. I guess maybe is the word with the victory over Washington. How did you

see it? Okay? So, first and foremost, it was a difficult game to analyze because the Packers played that The first quarter was picture perfect, exactly what you wanted to see from them. Defensively, they forced three straight three and ounce to start the game, three and ounce one after another.

They didn't get a first down until they actually, I think it was a penalty that converted it for them in the second quarterback jumping off side, and then you know that would be until then they had just been you know, offensively, we're not able to accomplish anything offensively for Green Bay. They get good field position after Tyler Irvin's first punt return, defense keeping Washington back, and they

score points right away. They end up scoring two touchdowns the fifth time this season they've scored fourteen points in the opening quarter. Looks great, and then they just fall into this lull. The one phase that kind of stood up the entire time I thought was special teams. Yeah, it's one of the probably the better outing special teams has had. J K. Scott was not quite where he was at the week before, but Mason Crosby made two

important field goals. Tyler Irvin has four returns for fifty one yards and no penalties for Seawan Menega's unit a sterling job for sixty minutes offense and defensively, though there were lulls. Defensively, I thought for the most part they kept him off the board. They gave up some garbage points late, but Darius Guys started to get going. He had a big explosive play. They were able to dictate tempo a little bit more with the running game, which

we were anticipating Washington was going to religiously do. Yeah, we knew Washington even at fourteen to nothing, just like the previous week in Carolina, Washington was not going to abandon the run. They were going to continue to pound the run. Packers caught a little bit of a break with Darius Guys going out with an injury, so then it all fell really on Adrian Peterson. But but yes, Washington came into lambo to run the ball just as

we anticipated. So it's tough. The tough part of this for me to break down is the offensive performance because you know I said this going into this thing, Washington's defense is not an embarrassment by any means. They're a good defense. Those weren't just hollow words. They have playmakers there. Unfortunately for them, Ryan Krarigan gets injured again after he

comes back and he leaves with a calf injury. They their two cornerbacks were banged up, but they were able to get Green Bay out of its offensive rhythm and with the exception of Aaron Jones, who goes off for a d total yards, they really were unable to recapture that. So that's the question they're gonna face now all week long going against is Chicago Bears d fence that's always been good and is now going to look to be back at the peak of their powers in this matchup

on Sunday. But all those things aside, it was the tenth win of the season. The Packers did exactly what you and I said they need to do. They need to beat a statistically poor Giants team, and they need to beat a three and nine Washington team. They did that. You can't ask for much more. You could have beaten them forty nine to nothing, you only still get one victory.

So in a very tight and highly contest at NFC right now, with seven teams really duking it out, I mean, obviously somebody has to get in from the NFC East. This is this is a scenario that you're in. You need to win the ball games, and the Packers accomplished that goal on Sunday. Yeah. I think the frustrating thing on the offensive side of the ball for the Packers is the opportunities they had, the field position they had, There were so many chances to score more points and

to get yourself some separation here from Washington. I thought the key sequence, quite frankly west was at the end of the first half, because the Packers had they'd blown a couple of opportunities when they had crossed midfield but then stalled out weren't able to get into field goal range. Late in the first half, about a minute left and a half, the Packers are inside the thirty yard line, they have first down at the Washington twenty seven. You

have a fourteen to six lead. At that point, you're looking at and the Packers are getting the ball coming out of halftime, so you're looking at your feeling like, at a minimum, the Packers are going to double up here and get either a field goal in a field goal or a touchdown on a field goal, or maybe two touchdowns. You're looking at anywhere from six to ten to fourteen points potentially before Washington gets the ball back

in the third quarter. But Aaron Rodgers gets hit with a strip sack loses the ball, Washington recovers, and then coming out of halftime, the Packers do put a drive together, but they stall out and kick a field goal, so instead of getting six or ten or fourteen, you get three out of those two possessions. Washington gets the ball back only down seventeen to six. When they respond in the third quarter at one point with a field goal, it's seventeen to nine, and you're still in a one

score game going into the fourth quarter. When you had these opportunities to to stretch things out, it was it was a maddening frustrating game to watch offensively because of the position the Packers were in and the opportunities they were presented with. Personally, I guess it's one of those things. I just look at it as you know, the NFL, this is a week to week thing. If the Packers would run up forty five points on Washington, yeah everybody

would be feeling better about themselves. But if they do that against Washington, that still doesn't that doesn't say anything about what you're going to do in January. I just don't believe that. I just believe every game in the

NFL is its own single entity. And yes, the Packers didn't do everything they should have offensively to win this game against Washington, but they did enough because then they were able to put together a long seven and a half minute, fourteen play drive in the fourth quarter that finally tacked on some some more points and got that two score lead restored. Yeah. I mean, well, first and

foremost this, there's thirty two teams in the league. There's sixteen games right now a week, and very few times are you're just going to have the team that's supposed to win just completely dominate. You look at New England right now, they have a lot of questions after losing to Kansas City. Seattle lays an absolute egg in l A and you know New Orleans ends up being outstruck

out shot by San Francisco. So that's why the Packers are the number two seed right now if the playoffs started today, and it's because they won their game and those other teams didn't. And and and that's kind of an easy answer to that, but it's the truth. I mean, you have to win what's in front of you. That's why the green Bery Packers are in an interesting spot here with three games to go all against the division.

Now that being said, the one thing that I did take away from this game was something that you and I have been talking about for weeks now, and that's that it isn't always just one particular player in this game, the Packers after the first quarter had a difficult time getting its pass game going. So then Aaron Jones re emerges. Aaron Jones re emerges as a pass catcher. His five yard catch down the sideline ended up keying that four team play drive. That was the play of the game.

I thought, you're you're you're facing third and fourteen from your own seven yard line with about eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. It's a one score game and the uh seventeen to nine at that point. If you don't convert. There you're looking at J K. Scott punning the ball off the goal line and Washington being down just eight points getting the ball back with plenty of time. Yeah. And in this maturation of Aaron Jones is a pass catcher.

You've seen it throughout the season. And even though he hadn't been a firm part of that game plan for a month now, or at least hadn't been able to get the ball in that capacity in a month, Aaron Rodgers had the confidence to go to him in a critical situation and even rewarded him for it. It It was a picture perfect pass. But he needs to catch it, he needs to fall backwards, he needs to not drop it him, he needs to make sure he doesn't double clutch it. And he did that. And the one thing,

and I tweeted this during the game. There's been highs and there have been lows this year for the Green Bay Packers offense. The one thing that has been con instant and has been a constant since the beginning, and they are doing as well as I've ever seen during my eight years covering this thing. Their foreman an offense is really effective when they know when defense is no Okay, they're gonna need to run the ball here. The Packers

can do it. They weren't even always able to do that with Eddie Lacey when he was there running back, but they can accomplish it, and they can do it with both Aaron Jones and Jemal Williams. In this particular game, it was Aaron Jones time and he he came through in spades. I mean, this is a guy now that has reset every major statistical single season record in his career and there's still three games to go. Yeah, um, well quickly here Wes select Cousin Subs locations are now

offering delivery. Whether you're ordering catering or your favorite sub, They're delivering right to you when your order online at Cousin Subs dot com. Cousin Subs. We believe in better. Yes, as you mentioned, Aaron Jones ended up with a hundred nine yards from scrimmage, a hundred and thirty four on

the ground, fifty eight through the air. Defensively, though, I wanted to revisit one thing also with regards to this game for the Packers, it was it was interesting because because there were a couple of moments when the defense got some key stops right around midfield when it looked like Washington was potentially pushing into scoring range. They got Adrian Amos gets an interception right at the end of

the first half. There's an early fourth quarter drive or Washington's right at midfield and the defense rises up and gets the stop. The funny thing is until the final drive of the game, Um that made this went the score. Sorry, the score went from twenty to fifteen. Prior to that, The only touchdown drive the Packers gave up was when they were put in the best possible field position. They

had them backed up on the five yard line. The Washington comes running out with with Peterson and Guice pounding away. They hit one big pass down the field once they got across midfield. They end up scoring that but scoring on that one. But defensive the Packers gave up one drive of significance, that being that yard touched on drive. One drive of significance in the first seven possessions for Washington.

Considering everything we've been talking about what the Packers defense and the explosive plays it's given up and and all of that, this was this. This was a pretty solid defensive effort. I thought Um and yes, at the end of the game. You don't like giving up a touchdown there, but you know, the Packers were in sort of that keep everything in front of you, tackle them, make the

clock run, all that kind of stuff. I thought the Packers defensively played a really, really solid game, and frankly, if the offense had taken advantage of more of the situations, we would have been talking about this being a very complete victory from Packers. Yeah, they largely did what they

were supposed to do in Tremont Williams. Some of the guys lamented afterwards the fact that Washington was able to march down they add some more points, actually add some more you know, they did add more points, but they added some more yards to otherwise would have looked like a very dominant defensive day. Yeah, and certainly that past that Dwayne Askins made to Terry mclauren, I mean, that is a picture perfect there's no way better in terms of a throw and a catch. Tremendous catch, going to

make a lot of highlight reels. Tremendous catch by mclauren there at the end of the game. The thing that that stinks from a football purist perspective, it would have been nice if Darius Guys is still out there, because I just he's such an exciting young player, and I thought you started to see what he brings in this offense because one of the reasons why as good as Adrian Peterson still is at thirty four, you know what

you're getting when he's in there. I mean, it's just going to be north and south running, just smashing the mouth, and they're hoping to get enough yards on first and second down to create third and manageables and to be able to keep the ball moving. When Geiss was out there, though, there just wasn't that home run threat. And for the Packers, to their credit, I thought there was some really good alterations and adjustments that Mike Petton made going into this game.

One of them was the big base package where they brought in Rashaan Gary. He was actually a third outside linebacker along with the three defensive linemen. They played with only one true cornerback. That was to match their six offensive line personnel from Washington and guys tackle. The guys stayed in the trenches. Kenny Clark had his best game, uh statistically speaking, since Week two with the one and

a half sacks. Adrian Amos I thought played a whale of a ball game in interception a sack, Blake Martinez was a few penalties and a few reverses away from having like two sacks and a forced fumble, but it didn't quite go his way. I thought, Yeah, overall, defensively, it was a solid performance. It just from that first quarter. I mean, it looked like this could have been a historic performance. They just you know, Washington eventually did start

to move the ball a little bit. Yeah, and uh, it felt like for the most part, the Packers stayed in control of this game. As I said, the offense not taking advantage of the opportunities that would have given the Packers more breathing room. But getting back to what you had said off the top, the special teams finding a punt return game, I tell you what I know. There was all this stuff, you know, minus eight punt return yards for the season through the first twelve games

and all that. It was an ugly season statistic for the Packers, and Tyler Irvin wiped it out in one game four returns fifty one yards. He was a big reason that the Packers were starting a lot of drives at midfield. Um. You know, even if they're in between say the thirty five and forty, that's still pretty good field position. But at midfield you get a ten twelve

yard return um that's even better. And what I thought, we talked about how the blocking needed to improve, and it definitely did improve, because I know on at least one, if not two of those returns, the Packers were just single blocking the gunners on the outside for Washington, and we've seen in the past where even double teaming the gunners, the Packers weren't able to get the job done, and every punt was being fair caught. Even with the single blocking.

The space was there for Irvin to get up field right away, then try to make the first guy miss after the first few yards, and for him to put up fifty one punt return yards in four attempts a huge change in how the Packers return game looks here

now heading heading through December. I mean, if the Packers actually can get their punt return game on a little bit of a you know streak here and get some momentum built up, they're gonna need to send a nice, you know, fruit broquet to trust Way for being willing to punt him in the middle of the field, because I thought that was critical to ye. Bill Hubert from s I may even brought up a great point all week and I didn't realize. I mean, this really goes

to his scouting at this game. I mean, trust Way punts to the middle of the field. He doesn't do any directional punting, and I think he s he swings away. He leads the league in gross punting average. It's all it's all about booming him and kicking him as far as you can. And Irvin was able to get some returns off. Yeah, and it's funny too because he's still up there in net yards too. It's just that if he gives up eight or nine yards, it's punted so

far that it doesn't really throw that off. So that being said, this was a game where I thought a couple of times Way out punted his coverage, and especially when they had only the single blockers, and you look at it, Irvin was able to make plays. I mean the other thing that just stands out to me, and it's no one's really going to talk about it because they don't need to, but punt return is a really difficult job and it's not glamorous. I mean, there's a

reason why. You see the fact that the guys that are really good at this league get rewarded financially with accolades all that stuff, because it's just it's not an easy gig. The thing I like the most from Irvin it didn't have anything to do with the fifty one yards. It's just that he catches the ball really clean. He said he could still do it better, but I mean, it's just catching a ball cleanly on a punt return is so critical because you have to be able to

hit that first step right away. And you see that with Irvin. So you understand why the Packers took a liking to this guy. Now he needs to keep it going.

It was just one game, but the fact that both of the Packers touchdowns came off of returns from Irvin afterwards or beforehand, that they went and scored, uh, that's that's a real testament to him, and he shows you, Michael, why it's so important to manage the field position in these games, especially late in these seasons, when a lot of it as much as made of points and yardage and production and takeaways, it's those hidden yards on the actual field position that sometimes can turn a game one

way or another, especially when it gets close in the postseason. Well, I think what I like the most about Irvin is that his first step every time he caught the punt was forward. So he was he was just he was he was taking what was there immediately, and you could see as he caught the ball there was all he had, all the confidence in the world and how he was catching and securing the ball. He's just getting up field

immediately and getting what is there. And yeah, a ten yard punt return, and you know, and we're you know, we're obviously talking it up because the Packers just hadn't done anything like that all season long. But when you do it three or four times in a game, yeah, that adds up to some of those hidden yards. And just the fact that he's taking what was there, not trying to, you know, dodge three or four guys at the spot of the punt and then try to make

something happen. Well, by then everybody else is down there and you're pretty much a dead duck. So um, I just like the way he approached it. He got the yards that was there. He helped out the Packers field position game, and and I think this is going to be an important player here for the Packers down and the Packers blocked to clean too. There were no there were no blocks in the back, there was no holding off the line of scrimmage. They just I think they

haven't been rewarded with the big returns yet. But I thought over the last month, you've seen them cut down on the mistakes and the mental errors and the things that really hurt you because you saw it happen to Washington in this game. The Washington had some kickoff returns brought back some yards because they just you know, they had those penalties that just kind of really, you know,

shoot you in the foot. So if they can get Irvan going here, and we didn't get to see him on kickoff returns because they all got they all were touchbacks well into the end zone. But Mason Crosby and J. K. Scott have had their moments this here at Crosby has been playing at a Pro Bowl level, but it's just the return unit has been the one that has just

been lacking. If you can bring that up here down the stretch that is, I think that's really something that can give you some energy and something boost you know, on some of these offensive possessions. Yeah. Well, we will continue to review this game on tomorrow's show, but for now we do have to go. That's a wrap on

this edition of Packers Unscript. Would be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com, subscribed to us, like us on iTunes and other podcast services, and be sure to check out the Packers YouTube channel for Wes I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next time.