#488 Packers Unscripted: Familiar foe

and that's streaky. They they won three straight games after the Packers beat them in Week one, then they lost five in row, and then since the five game losing streak, they've now won four out of five, including three straight. As they come to lambeau Field in week fifteen for a noon Central Time kickoff on Sunday, and as we talked about yesterday, their seasons on the line. Yeah. So if you go by that streak, I mean they're ready for a supposed to back the other way. This roller

closter is supposed to go. Yeah, yeah, No, I mean the one thing I've said before, I said it earlier this week, Chicago is so much better than their record indicates. Uh, they have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball. They they are able to hurt you in different ways. They can beat you in a multiple of other ways, and they can win low scoring ball games to it the way that their defense plays. The key to all of this has been Mitchell Trubisky and when

he's healthy and when he's right, they play pretty good football. Um, when he's either not healthy or not right, more often than not, they've lost. They've built this thing around him. We knew that going into this season. The moves that they've made both on offense and defense have been centered around their young quarterback and feeling like this is the guy that's going to lead them back to the championship land.

So the tough part of it is when you're trying to assess them, is what you're going to get in any given week. They did what I think if they could make an actual claim down the stretch here of being a playoff team, they had to do what they did in Dallas. They needed to dictate that game. They need to pose their will upon the Cowboys, and they did all that. Dallas put up some points at the end, but for the most part. It was a pretty clean

game there for the Bears. Yeah, when you look at the fact that Dallas took the opening kickoff Mark Rush right down the field and scored and went up seven to nothing, and then I believe the score was thirty one to seventeen before Dallas scored again. So in through the center stretch of the game, the Bears outscored the Cowboys thirty one to ten. It was a pretty dominating performance, it really was. And now they put themselves in a

position much like the Packers. Packers talked about one and o each week, they talked about winning the game that's in front of them, green to be at this point at ten and three, they've put themselves in this position. And the Bears have made themselves alive again. And what would have appeared to be relatively obscure, you know, obscure chance of making a playoff run here at the beginning

of December. Yeah, I mean I actually made the comment an insider inbox that if anybody had anticipated this surge by the Bears, I don't think this game would have stayed at noon, as I think it would have been flexed into a different time slot. And interestingly, a reader had, Yeah, the last time the Packers and the Bears played a noon kickoff at lambeau Field was in two thousand eight, Aaron rodgers first season as the starting quarterback. I didn't

realize that. But you go back through every year and it's like the vast majority have been primetime games and then there have been there one, one or two others that were kickoffs. So just a strange scheduling anomaly when I think back to my youth that when the pack has played the Bears, it was always at noon. That's just that's just the way the way it was. Hear about this stuff. Yeah, Well, and the other thing I'll say too, And I think I mentioned this on the

show like a week or two ago. The margins, as we talk about, are so slim in the NFL, and you look at the fact that, you know, the one game that hangs out there for the Bears that could have potentially changed everything and changed the look of this game and their month of December was the Chargers game when Eddie Pinero missed the kick on the last play of the game that would have won the game. If the Bears are sitting here at eight and five instead of seven and six with three games to go, we're

having a completely different conversation about where they stand. I don't think motivationally things would be any different because because everything is is still on the line, but certainly their chances um would look a lot different. And I think the biggest reason their defense has been pretty solid all

year long. I think the biggest reason the Bears have gotten themselves in this position is because they've cut Mitz Trubisky loose a little bit with with his legs, with running his scrambling out of the pocket, running read option UM and UH and some designed runs in that sense for the quarterback. Now, he did play some games earlier in the season when he wasn't a percent healthy, and maybe the game plan, the play calling, all of that they had to protect him a little bit. I don't

know if I don't know if that's the case. But what I've seen the last few games as Chicago started to get on a roll, here is the Trubisky that was running a lot with the ball, both both read option and scrambling out of the pocket on pass plays. That really helped this Bears offense. When the NFC North last year. Yeah, I mean you go back and look at it last year like rushes for four and twenty one yards and three touchdowns this year in too fewer

games to this point, only thirty six for one. You gotta let your young quarterback be who he is and allow him to be the type of player that has made him as exciting is you know, filled him with as much potential as this fan base feels. He has. Well almost half of that one forty three that he has rushing yards this year was against the Cowboys last weekend. He had sixty some yards some yards to be able to get him out again. I just you look at him. You don't have to be a scout to understand that

that's where that guy is at his most comfortable. Comfortable now, he's had some challenges. Losing Trey Burton was a big challenge. I mean, I think a lot of people going into the season they thought that was going to be again his number one target. He hasn't had that Allen Robinson took a step forward in this offense. Anthony Miller is a guy I loved going back to the draft. Uh slot receiver out of Memphis, very talented young man. Bears

did too, because they traded up to select him, didn't they? Yeah, And he's emerged more as a playmaker in this offense. The thing that I think has hurt them the most is they don't have Jordan Howard and Terek Cohen is more of a gadget type back, and David Montgomery I think has potential in this league. But the thing that works so well with the Jordan Howard thing with them, and it wasn't just with Rubisky, it goes before him. He just he was that north and South, put your

head down, just kind of a grindstone type player. They ended up signing Mike Davis. That didn't work out. They ended up cutting Mike Davis to enable themselves to get the cop pick back that would have cost him, I believe a fourth rounder if they would have held onto him. So trying to find a run game to complement Rubinsky has been it's been stress so far this season, and I think that's one of the things that has kind of factored into this and maybe gotten them out of

their offensive rhythm a little bit. But you're seeing it in the last few weeks where they could potentially be a threat and why they can, you know, go out there and dictate tempo in a T and T stadium against Dallas. It's because they found that was actually sorry, Yeah, why they were able to dictate tempo in a game like that, because you have those type of things working in your favor then and again, it's gonna be interesting to watch exactly which Rubisky we see. I think the

Packers have seen both of them. They've seen the guy that can throw and they've seen the guy that sometimes looks lost in the pockets. So being able to get precedent as a Darius going again like they did in Week one, when both those guys really emerged and said, Okay, these are playmakers, these are guys are gonna affect football games.

That's gonna be big. Along with Kenny Clark one and a half sacks last week, had a really big performance against Chicago and week one, they need that pressure again from the inside. Yeah, I think the Packers do need to get the pressure, but I think they have to be careful because of true Whisky's ability to scramble here and the Packers did rack up a bunch of sacks

back in Week one at Soldier Field. In this matchup, but I think you're gonna have to rush this quarterback in a little bit more discipline fashion maybe then the Packers did the first time, because if you know, on third and six or third and seven, if he just starts breaking the pocket, you know, if if the rush lanes break down and there's no integrity there to kind of hem him in, you know, he can get out and pick up those six seven yards and move the

chains pretty easily. And I just from from my perspective, I would much rather make Mitchell Trubisky beat me with his arm um when he is struggling to develop somewhere poor with tight ends. And yes, he's getting some things going with Allan Robinson, he's had him all year, Anthony Miller definitely coming on as of late. And uh, and we know the Packers have had some struggles against tight ends, but the you know, the Bears haven't had that key

guy all season long. But but you just you can't let this guy get out of the pocket play after play after play. You've got to keep him in there and make him beat you throwing the ball. Yeah, And that's why I really like Clark in week one, because when you get that pressure inside and you can collapse in the pocket that way, that's what allows your edge rushers to hold their integrity a little bit more on the ends, and yeah, you brought that up to I want to point that out. Tight end has been a

tough position for them. They found something with Trey Burton, but then he's out and on injured reserve. Adam Shaheen just really hasn't worked out for them at to this point. Now they spent his second round pick. Yeah, he was the big kid out of Ashland a couple of years ago. Um, and right now they have five tight ends on their roster, but nobody that has over sixty receiving ours. I think

to this point, maybe when when? But maybe is it whims as whims of it I'm trying to think, but be that as it may well whims as a receiver. So they're struggling he is, I mean, he's too twenty, but um, they haven't been able to find that guy. And in this absence of Burton, I mean, you saw what he brought last year and exactly, especially for a young quarterback, how important those kinds of players can be.

That's gonna be something to watch. In addition to the fact that they've had to do some moving around with their offensive line too. I mean, Charles Leno is a pro bowler now, but they lost Kyle Long early in the season. It's it's it's been a grind and trying to see exactly which offense we're going to see what the Bears because if you go statistically right now, Michael, I think they're what passing and passing twenty nine and toty yards twenty nine and running points. It has been

a you know, not the cleanest year for Mattnegie's offense. Yeah, well, we will switch gears to the defensive side of the ball after this. Sponsor business select Cousin Subs location are now offering delivery whether you're ordering online, I'm sorry, whether you're ordering catering or your favorite sub, They're delivering right to you when you order online at Cousin Subs dot

com Cousins Subs. We believe in better. Okay. So for all the changes that the Bears have made on offense, with what they're doing with Rubisky, with Montgomery being the lead back now as opposed to Mike Davis. In week one when the Packers met them the first time, defensively, a lot of things look the same. They didn't. They got a new coordinator, this year in Chuck Bagana, but they didn't exactly reinvent the wheel. UM. They're playing Chicago

Bears defense. We're waiting to see if potentially they activate a Keem Hicks off of injured reserve. He's UM. He has sat out the requisite eight weeks of games that are required UM for a player who goes on i R. So that could be a big change in terms of how they look up front. But ro Kuwan Smith is out for the rest of the season. There young prized inside linebacker. He's being replaced by he believes a fourth or a fifth year veteran. UM. Well, they've got Kevin

Pierre Lewis, that's the one I'm thinking. You know, Nick Kwaikowski is also a guy that they have there behind Danny Trevathan. So they are pretty deep actually an inside linebacker. But as you just said, Mike, you can't replace that guy. He's just so fast, he's so quick. He's great for that position. Yeah, top ten pick in the draft a couple of years ago. So losing him, that's a big that that really hurts. Now he was already injured. I think it was mostly just trying to figure out Okay

is it like the Or and Burkes thing. Is he gonna need surgery, can you play through the torn pectoral or where is this going to put him? He does need the surgery, so he'll put his best foot forward now for next season. But again, had another hundred tackle season. Looks like he's gonna be a real nightmare a Kiem Hicks is the real interesting one in this equation because we don't know exactly where he's at or what the

timeline was for that injury. But we said this going back to in the day that he was placed an injured reserve. I think you and I were already counting up the weeks. Yeah, I looked. I looked at it right away and I was like, oh, well, he if if he's healthy enough, he'll be eligible to come back to play Green Bay and uh and sure enough, here we are. Yeah, and and this is how it works out. So we'll have to see where the week goes with that. But dude, Mike, you look at it. There are so

many talented guys on this team, you know. And Eddie Goldman has been a nose tackle I've been high on for years. Nick Williams is backup at that position, has six sacks is here. Khalil Mack only has seven and a half sacks, but he has five force fumbles. I mean, I think ha Ha Clinton Dix has been a really nice addition for them, And I know so many times people want to make it about Ha Ha versus Adrian Amos. I actually think it's kind of funny when you shuffle

the deck up. I think both of those safeties ended up probably in a defense that fits them better. I agree what their role and what they're being asked to do. I agree completely. Clinton Dix already had that rapport with with Eddie Jackson. We talked about that at the beginning of the season. Those guys go back to Bama together, and and then certainly Kyle Fuller is one of my favorite cornerbacks in this so there are a ton of

guys that can hurt you. Thirty sacks on the year for that defense, I think they're right around the top ten still again this year. There maybe not as dominant as they were last year the Vic Fangio, but they're still very good with what Chuck Pagano has them doing. Yeah, I mean, you know you're gonna have to deal with Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd coming off the edges um cornerback wise, though, have you heard anything? Are they getting

Prince of Mukamara back because he's been injured, hasn't he? Yeah? I don't know where that's been. See, this is the tough thing when we do the show this time the week because nobody actually wants what they're doing. Yeah, we're not. We're not up to speed on where things are injury wise. But I had heard some rumors that it was it was possible that he could be back this week to play against the Packers, but nobody was saying anything for sure.

So the Chicago Tribune is reporting that Mukamara and Kiem Hicks both hope to return for the Bears. But the problem is with Themar's injury though, is it's a hamstring, and I think there were some questions about how much time he's going to need it. We've talked about it over the years, those soft tissue injuries. It's just not a three to six week window. It's it's a hey,

is this guy gonna be able to go? Yeah, and cold weather doesn't exactly help with those types of He's been a revelation for this defense over the last three four years. I actually thought when he first got to Chicago, I really had some questions about if his better days were behind him. Oh. Absolutely, he already bounced around. Felt I felt the same way. I think he'd already been in Jacksonville right since he'd been in with the Giants

with the Giants for a long time. And for him to go in there and hold that spot down and be able to do what he's done, I think he's been the perfect compliment to Fuller. On the other side, they've had those two guys that's been there one too now for three or four years and it works for them. And have Eddie Jackson then over the top of it, one of the young emerging safeties in this league. It's a good, formidable group and it's one of the reasons why the Bears are seven and six at this point

of the season. Yeah. Well, certainly in the secondary they look a lot different if they have that pair as in Kyle Fuller and a Mukamara as the top two cornerbacks and then the rest of the depth fills in behind them. We all know how it goes with any team when you lose one of your top two cornerbacks and then you know, there's that domino effect where everybody has to shuffle around and and take on new roles. So well, we talked about the Bears on both sides

of the ball. Um compared to Week one against the Packers, the offense looks very, very different. The defense is still as Chicago Bears defense are giving up. I believe it's only about seventeen points per game, which which ranks I believe in the top five in the NFL. Right now, quickly, what do you what do you think is the biggest difference in the Green Bay Packers on either side of the ball compared to Week one when these teams met the first time. What sticks out to you? I will

answer that question because I have many thoughts. The Bears you were saying with was it points per game? I believe it's seventeen seventeen point eight. They are sevent four right now. That's behind New England Buffalo in San Francisco. Packers are much different than a number of ways. I think. One, for all the ups and downs they've had offensively, I think you've seen more of a blend towards what this offense is going to be. It's one thing to have

a blueprint and a vision. But Mike, you know this, with anything that you do in life, you can't just walk into something and be like, Okay, this is how it's going to be done. When you have eleven offensive players on the field at the same time, when you're dealing with guys on a fifty three man roster with an entire coaching staff and injuries that can change things

in a weekly basis. And I think Matt Lafleur has done a really nice job of rolling with the punches and for as much as the outside narrative to this point has been about identities and you know, are they doing the way they running the offense the way they want to run the offense under it's you also got to find things that you're good at, right And you and I were discussing at the end of yesterday's show, whether it's some of the passing schemes that they put

together with the running backs, uh, some of the games that you know, you look at Davante Adams and Alan Lazar that they've had in overall, just the general principles that the Packers have installed, this offense still has a

lot of potential. Now this is a big test They're gonna probably need to put up more than ten points like they did that Soldier field, And yeah, I think it's going to take more than that because I think Matt Nage, with you know how influential he is and with this offense and in his ability to evolve and adapt, They're not gonna let that happen again. They're gonna challenge Mike Patton's group in ways they probably weren't challenged in

Week one. So that's what always makes these matchups really intriguing. This is the first time Matt Lafleur will see an opponent for a second time in his time as the head coach, not counting preseason of course, So all all these things on the table, I just think where the Packers stand right now. What we know that we didn't know in Week one is that Aaron Jones can be a viable number one option for an entire offense, not just a backfield. You can run an offense through him.

He has that capability. Jamal Williams can turn it up at any time you need him to. In the Packers, for all that's been made and maybe not having that number two receiver Davante Adams, they've had so many different guys step up at clutch moments of this season. It hasn't been that they've been just trying to throw guys in there to find somebody. They've rotated guys through and they found guys and put them in positions that make

them success based on their skill set. Yeah, I mean, we certainly saw in week one, you know, the debut in the regular season of Matt Lafleur's offense with Aaron Rodgers. We saw the Packers trying to establish that outside zone running game. It wasn't really working against the Bears at all.

About a month into the season, really the Dallas game, the switch was kind of flipped to where the Packers went to more of the inside zone running game, and uh, those runs up the middle, and that's really become the staple of the running game. And the runs that go outside, more often than not, are ones that bounce outside. They're not necessarily designed to go that way. But that's where you take, right, Yeah, you just take you take advantage

of that, that vision of a player like Jones. But even the forty two yard run that he broke off um last week against Washington, that was an inside run and you know it it hit inside and then when he got to the second level, you know, Jones took it from there. So I think that's one significant difference

that we that that we see here. And also the Packers are going to go into this game presumably barring you know, any setbacks, but with four active tight ends on the forty six man roster, which we saw last week, led to a lot of three tight end packages which the Packers both ran the ball and threw the ball out of. And that's something I don't I don't think the Packers lined up with three tight ends against the Bears in Week one very much, if at all, um

in that game. So those are the kinds of things that you know, the coaches see those on film, and those get worked into into practice to preparing for, you know, an opponent that you know. But then the coaches are in the meeting room pointing things out, saying, Okay, these are the things that we didn't see before. This is what we have to be ready for. Yeah, there was a time in the month of September. I don't even know if Jimmy Graham and Mercedes Lewis were on the

field together at the same time. It was either that they would run Graham and eleven person Noel, or they would go at Lewis and Tani and in there, you know there are other packages. I really liked what you saw. It's unfortunate the Packers weren't able to sustain that for four quarters, but that first quarter was There's a lot of potential there because you know, Jimmy Graham had a nice catch, but Ja Sternberger was opened on that play too.

On the backside, you've seen Robert Tonyan what he can contribute now that he's put that hip injury behind him. In Mercedes Lewis, we talked so much about Jake Cumro made a phenomenal block on that play that sprung Aaron Jones after Jones took it to the outside hip of Elton Jenkins. So did Mercedes Lewis to wedge that off and to give him just enough space to get up field and be able to stretch that thing for forty two.

I really hope people don't get too fixated on the inside versus outside zone stuff because I feel like Matt Lafleur did what was best for the offense in general, and yeah, absolutely, no, no question. I just think it's I think the Packers have presented since the Dallas game. They presented a very different look with their running games

and what they were trying to do in September. Yeah, and what I like is that it's just understanding, Okay, what what did Jamal Williams and Aaron Jones both too well? For whatever reason, because they have different skill sets, they both fit the inside zone a lot better. And maybe it's just because of Elton Jenkins jumping in there making some nice blocks. Maybe it's just because that athleticism that they that's probably the most athletic they've been at that interior,

uh offensive line position in years. So there's so many different things that go off of it. And I'm sure it'll be a conversation again this offseason which direction the Packers want to be their foundation moving forward. But as it relates to this year, if Aaron Jones is your top playmaker, you feed that guy. You play to his strengths in the Packers have allowed him to do that

to this point. Yeah, one last thing I want to ask you about the Bears before we go, because I made this comment in the Insider in No, it's not about Eddie Panniero it's about Matt Nagy. And what I want to ask you is that, okay, where the Bears are there seven and six, they're looking at you know, trying to keep this rolling to get themselves into the playoffs.

We saw Matt Naggi be extremely creative offensively last season in his first year as the head coach, and I'm wondering with what the stakes are going up against a familiar opponent's second matchup with the Packers this year and everything. It's Matt Nagy inn be digging into his bag of

tricks at Lambau Field. Potentially if we were going if this was at Soldier Field, I would say, yes, I'm glad you corrected me earlier because one of the things that the Bears have been able to do on this run is they've been back to back with these home games. I believe I remember correctly, So, I mean they've been able to kind of rEFInd themselves at home, similar to what the Packers have. Yeah, they did they beat They

beat the Lions well. In this stretch of winning four out of five, they beatn the Lions twice, once in each stadium. And then they also have the home win over Dallas on Thursday night, now coming into Lambeau with a little extra did they did they beat the Giants in New York then too? I'm trying to remember, No, that was in Chicago. That was in Chicago as well, So I mean they've been able to kind of find themselves back at home. So I'm curious, and there's probably

one of those get loud Lambau kind of days. But this is the line, right, because you have Trubisky in a good spot, how creative do you want to be and potentially forcing him out of his comfort zone as opposed to doing maybe some of the stuff that you put on film the last couple of weeks but have obviously worked for him. That's mattnegg question this week. It would not surprise me, though, to see some of that creativity.

Certainly the motion stuff is very popular with him. I would imagine we're going to see some downfield shots because that's the best way to take a road crowd out of it. Um. So I think that I'm just I'm gonna say, I think the Packers have to be have to be ready for some tricks because if Mike Patton's defense at all starts, the game does what it was doing against the Bears back in Week one, and with where the Bears are in their season right now, I think it becomes pull out all the stops and and

Matt Naggi had. Matt Naggie's got a whole list on that on that call sheet of stuff that he can go to. I just I think the Packers have to be prepared for anything. Yeah, absolutely, all right, Well 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, and check out the Packers YouTube channel for all kinds of great

video content for West I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next time. Hmm.