#491 Packers Unscripted: Playoff bound

Packers are in the playoffs. They are green Bay gets the win over Chicago, the Los Angeles Rams lose at Dallas, and the Packers, regardless of what happened to the final two weeks, although there's more to play for, the Packers are in the postseason for the first time since Yeah. Well, first and foremost emphatically, the Rams were beaten by soundly. It's you know, I went off on a little bit of a tangent on Twitter on Sunday night. You may or may not have seen it. You don't live your

life on social media as much as I do. Yes, I do not. If there was ever a week in the NFL, and we'll get to this Packer game, we'll talk about all the ins and outs of it, and everybody will be happy and good and we'll move on with our week. But if there ever was a Sunday that illustrates how it's important just to win games and it doesn't really matter what's happened in the past, it was Week fifteen in the NFL, and I offer you a number of different things into evidence for this one.

The Rams appeared to finally be getting their footing right. They going to Dallas, who, for all intents and purposes, has really been struggling trying to hold onto the NFC, A scuffling, scuffling Dallas Cowboys team, and the Cowboys just do their things, dominate points on the board. Zeke Elliott can't be stopped, Dak Prescott looks great, and they win.

Game was never close. The Rams now are on the outskirts of the playoff hunt here as they try to keep things going, hoping for a Packers victory now on Sunday or on next Monday night against uh the fIF Minnesotakes. Then you get the San Francisco forty Niners, one of the best teams in the NFL. I think everybody can agree with that, and they take on the Atlanta Falcons at home at home. If there I put it on Twitter, I got nothing. I cannot try to explain the Atlanta

Falcons at all. I can't either, because if you took away all the records and it just I just dropped you on December two thousand nineteen, after teleporting you from September one, and said here's the Falcons and the forty, you would either think, A, maybe these were two bad teams or B this was a potential, you know, big ramification for the NFC. Yeah, and Atlanta just runs through, not runs through, but finds a way to win against

San Francisco, pulls it out down the stretch. They the Atlanta Falcons have five wins in and two of them are over the New Orleans Saints and the San Francisco forty Niners, both on the road. There is no explanation for that except for this. It's the NFL. It's the NFL, and let's bring us all back into lambeau Field. The meeting between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears historic and the way I put it as the game ended

on Twitter, I said, and the Packers win. It was a chaotic, strange fourth quarter after the Packers, who, by the way, going up against Chicago Bears team that had been phenomenal coming out of halftime, the Packers outscore and get two quick touchdowns that end up weighing heavily in the favor of this game, and then the Bears get going in the fourth quarter of the Packers hold them off.

Packers are eleven and three. They've clinched a playoff spot, and now this week they can beat the Minnesota Vikings when the NFC North. If they accomplish that, they can now beat the Detroit Lions and be the number two seed at worst. Right now, this is the NFL Mike. You have to win the games that are in front of you. Doesn't matter how they look, doesn't matter what

exactly happens. You have to win. In the Green Bay Packers by hooker, by crook, the last three weeks have been victorious, and they sit at eleven wins onto some eleven and three, and very quickly, I'll just lay out the scenarios as you just did as well, that there are one of two ways the Packers can win the NFC North in terms of controlling it themselves. They can either beat the Minnesota Vikings next week, or they can

beat the Detroit Lions in week seventeen. If the Packers win either of those games, they are the NFC North champs. But as you also just said, if the Packers can win both of those games, they will be no worse than the two seed in the NFC and they will get a first round by and then one seed is actually still in play, very much in play because of the forty Niners lost yesterday. But getting back to the game at hand, the Packers and the Bears, as you said it West, the Packers come out of the locker

room at halftime and they just came out swinging. I mean, the end the first half. That second quarter was frustrating. The Packers had three consecutive drives to end the second quarter that were in Chicago territory, and they came away with no point on any of the three drives. They go into the locker room only up seven to three, when they had a chance, multiple chances to stretch out

the lead, to really start to assert themselves. They come out of the locker room after halftime, bang five place seventy three yards, banging five place sixty six yards, two touchdowns, and it's twenty one to three, and it's like, all right, all those first half frustrations, you put them behind you. You got two touchdowns, You're up to three. And all the Packers really needed was one more score of any kind in the fourth quarter, and they take all the

drama out of this one. Well, they didn't get that one more score in the fourth quarter. The offense is struggling, the Bears defensive front started to assert itself in the fourth quarter, the Bears offensively doing some things. They get it to thirteen, and the game comes down to the whatever you want to call it, the multilateral, the fumble Rooski the the the last desperation played by the Bears.

And I'll be honest with us, we saw it on the press box as it was unfolding, which is a little bit wider view than maybe what you see on television. Saw it as it was unfolding. I wrote about it

in my postgame editorial. That was really really close, because if Allen Robinson gets the lateral at the ten yard line, if Horstead, the rookie tight end from Princeton, if he laterals it to Robinson at the ten yard line instead of taking a couple more steps, the Bears are in the end zone and the game's coming down to a two point conversion. But Channon Sullivan. Just as Horseted crosses the ten yard line, Channon Sullivan and grabs and starts

to drag him down. His then attempted ladderal, which is too late, ends up being forward. It's a forward fumble at that point. Only he can recover it for the Bears to to be able to benefit from the play. Truman Williams recovers inside the five yard line for the Packers, and the gun mercifully sounds to end to end a victory for the package. So a couple of things of this one. If you're going to have a ladderal play, there are two things you need to do in order

to be successful on it. You need numbers, is the first thing. The Bears ended up getting numbers on that. They had numbers where they needed them. Yeah, when they got the ball to the middle of the field and started moving to the right, they they had the numbers. As you say, the personnel was there to be able to get that ball into the end zone. The second thing, though, is you need to have perfect execution, and the Bears

were not perfect. Uh, everything lined up and Tremon Williams the first question he was asked, I think maybe even the first interview of the post game locker room was with Tremon and he said, yeah, we saw it. It was close. That's just the reality of it. So but the Packers did survive. They got through a Tremon was the one to actually jump on that football at the end.

The thing that I take out of this game, though, Mike h in addition to certainly they want to be able to close teams out, you have to be able to do that to make a deep, lengthy playoff run. The thing about this team though, and I said this to our boss, my boss, Duke Bober after the game, the Packers are eleven and three, and everybody wants to figure out how they've done that, and it's really not that complicated. You can look at total defense, total offense.

You can look at those measurables, those archaic measurables, and they're not really going to tell you the whole story. You can look at passer ratings, you can look at offensive efficiency, all those things. The one thing that stands out to me, though, is not something you can measure, and that's that in all three phases, at different intervals of the season and occasionally in the same game, the

Packers have been exceptional. They've had moments where they've been exceptional on defense, they've been exceptional on special teams, and they have been exceptional on offense. Teams that aren't good in this league never really achieved that at all, at least without any type of normal consistency. The Packers have that. It's just been a matter of tying it all together at the same time. In this game, I thought they got off to a great start offensively. I thought defensively

they held them on three straight drives. They really were making life difficult on Mitchell Trubisky, and they were not allowing the Bears to get the running game going. The second half, the Bears mounted a rally, but it was only after the Packers were up by eighteen points. For glamour points in terms of like beauty of a performance, Yeah, they're not going to score very high in that one. Yeah, But at the end of the day, it doesn't change the outcome, and the outcome is the Packers are eleven

and three. Yeah. This is this is the way I look at it West, because there's there are a lot of different narratives out there right now with regards to this Packers team being eleven and three and where they are and fighting for a division title in a first round by there are There are a few different ways you can look at this. You can say, Okay, the Packers are the Packers are finding different ways to win. They're scratching and claw and they're pulling out these close games.

But this is one of those things that it's not sustainable into January. It's going to catch up with them at some point that when you start playing the best teams, the other playoff teams, that it's uh, that's not a way to make a living in the playoffs. Okay, fine,

that's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is to say, okay, the Packers whatever it is, that they have the chemistry, the belief, everything they've got going on this way to to scratch and claw and find a different way and have a different hero every week. And and yeah, there are fits and starts and things don't always look that great. But if you keep finding ways to win it it builds on itself. It's contagious and and it is something that can continue

and you write it as long as you can. Okay, that's another way to look at it. This is the way I prefer to look at things. I don't really look at it in either one of those ways. My thing, and as you know, my mantra all season has been optimism without expectations. With this first with the first year head coach, and it says optimism without expectations, I'm gonna look forward to that. I appreciate. But the way the way I look at I've said it on this show,

I've said it an insider inbox. This Packers team is capable of playing at another level. They just haven't gotten there. They've shown it in spurts, but they haven't put it together for an entire game. They haven't put it together for a stretch of of a few games. It's still out there for them, and if they can find it, neither of the first two options, the first two narratives are going to matter because because it's going to put them somewhere else. Now, those who would say, well, how

how can you believe that they can do that? Because they've had so many chances and they haven't gotten there. You want to be skeptical. Five, You have every right to be skeptical that they're not going to get there. I get that they're they're fourteen games in here, and there hasn't been the evidence to convince anyone that they can find it because they've had so many opportunities. So the skeptics, I understand that. But I look at yesterday's

game West the Packers had. The Packers were playing a pretty decent football team that had won three in a row and four their last five, and the Bears were playing for their season, and the Packers had raortunities in the first half to dominate that game, and they had opportunities in the second half to close it out and put it away. Now, they didn't do either one of those things, but they were in position to do both

of those, and it's just it's one more step. And it sounds silly, and I get, like I say, I get the skeptics, but they're not that far away. They too, in my mind, they really are. Now are they going to get there? I don't know however far. If they can get there, that's going to determine what January is going to mean here with whatever playoff run has made. But that's the way, that's the way I see it, is that it's still out there for them. Their best

football is still out there. If they can find it. The narrative about this team, the way people are looking at this team is going to change, because I think one thing that people don't recognize is, Okay, if you do get finally one of those really attractive wins, one of those dominating performances, that's really the only thing left

out there right now. For Green Bay, They've won every other way imaginable, exactly exactly they have they have found they have found so many ways to win yesterday being and as I've said a lot of times, they've won a lot of games this year by being the better team in the fourth quarter. They were not the better team in the fourth quarter. Yesterday, they were the better team by a long shot in the third quarter against a team that had dominated third quarters all season long.

All you have to do is look at the statistics to see what the Bears have done. The Packers were the team that came out swinging in the third quarter and gaining control. Fortunately then was enough. So again it was just another way to win a game. So I want to highlight a couple of performances on both sides of all but before I do this for anybody out there, and I'll look into both of the cameras because I'm

not sure which one Marvin is on right now. For anybody that's like beating this drum about the identity, I'm gonna give you an identity thing right here, and you can you can put your own hat on the identity. This is what it is. Look at turnover differential right now in the NFL, not just Green Bay because they're number two in the league right now against New England.

I'm gonna read you off, Mike, the top ten teams and turnover differential, and I want you to tell me what is the I'm in thread between all these teams. You're ready, okay, buckled down? New England, Green Bay, Seattle, New Orleans, Minnesota, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Tennessee, and Buffalo. Pittsburgh and Tennessee are kind of outliers right now. Everybody else is either already clinched a playoff spot or on the precipice of getting a playoff spot. You want to

talk identity. The identity of this year's team. The first thing, I literally think it was the first thing that Mike Petton said this season was they wanted to take the ball away more this year. They have fifteen interceptions they had seven last year. They've turned the ball, They've been able to turn over the football more, whether it was forced, almost anything like that. Their takeaway numbers are up. In their giveaways our second fewest in the league right now

to New Orleans eight to nine. That's the identity. That's the reason why the Packs have been able to win these games. And they wont turnover differential three to zero again yesterday. If you don't give away the football and you take it away and now you've got a punt returner that can help you with field position, you're going to start winning some ballgames. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's it's like I say, there's there are The Packers have been in position to play that next level, to take

their game to the next level. They haven't gotten there yet, and they have to find it somehow. It's on Matt Lafleur, it's on the coaches, it's on Aaron Rodgers to find that somehow, and that is what is going to determine whether in January, when they are playing against other playoff teams, whether they're going to be able to advance in In my opinion, that's what it comes down to. U some sponsor business here. West 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. Okay. Some stars of the game to point out here from Sunday's victory over the Bears. Offensively, Aaron Jones two rushing touchdowns. He now had fourteen rushing touchdowns on the year and seventeen total touchdowns. He's closing in two regular season games

to go. He's closing in on a mon Greens single season touchdown record for the Green Bay Packers, which is twenty. And then you have Davante Adams, who put up a yard performance including a twenty nine yard touchdown catch on a fourth down. It's actually a fourth down audible. Aaron Rodgers checked um, saw that Adams was one on one in the slot against buster scrind screen scrind screw um. The announcer said screen yesterday, I've I've heard it both ways.

I've yeah, absolutely, um, but a check and rather than just throw the pass for the first down on fourth down, Rogers goes for the home run. One on one, Adams wins his route, makes the catch touchdown, so he gets a hundred yard game and gets in the end zone. And uh, the Packers two most dynamic offensive perimeter are players were the guys who got the job done. Yeah,

and those first two drives you're talking about. After the second in the start of the second half, eight of the ten targets were in their direction, whether it be through the run or the past. But between them and I wrote about this for our game notes was Jake Kumro with the forty nine yard catch, which coincidentally enough that tied his career high. He also had the forty nine yard or last year against the Jet a touchdown

something about forty nine yards. That just agree with him and Jake, But you know, one of those main things again, they've just had a lot of different guys stepping up throughout the course of the year. It happened to be Kumro's moment there. But when you look at Davante Adams,

I thought he was exceptional in this game. He did have I know one or two passes he wishes he could have back, but for him to get him going the thirty four yard or early on and then the twenty nine yard touchdown was a big boost for this offense. And then Aaron Jones, man, for a guy that was kind of labeled as a scap back, what he can do in the red area now and in terms of I called him a bull in a China shop on Twitter.

I mean it's just he is not easy to take down for a guy that is only five nine, just a hair over two pounds, I mean, he can make that work for him. I mean, how many times this year when the Packers have been I think yesterday it was a twenty one yard touched on on, so they

were technically just outside the red zone. But how many times this year when the Packers have been, say, in between the ten and the twenty yard line in the red zone, have they handed it off to Jones and and he makes he makes somebody miss and then boom,

he's in the ends. I mean, the number of I'd have to look it up, but the number of say, touchdown runs of his that are like, you know, nine yards plus where he's he's not just plowing in from the one or two yard line every time he's He's had a bunch of those this year, and he just looks really impressive doing it. Yeah, and I'd be remiss if I didn't also do a shot off for the offensive line. I didn't get a chance to put this in the game notes. It kind of bothers me a

little bit. I mean, Brian Blaga again doing a salad job against Khalil Mack. Yeah, outstanding. I mean Elton Jenkins. I know there's some film nuts that are already putting out some stuff on him and how he was able to move the line of scrimmage, especially in some of those red zone scenarios. Overall, I thought they did a really nice job to give Rogers a play a pocket. Uh,

certainly there was yards. Matt Lafleur said it again, there's things that were still left out there, but I think you're seeing the offensive line really peak at the right time. I have to talk, though, Mike about Kenny Clark, and I'm used him as my locker room report. Kenny Clark another two sacks, tying his career single game career high. This is a guy that you want to talk about trusting the process here. I mean, it was a rough ten week stretch there. He was playing good football, but

he just didn't. He wasn't getting home. The Smiths were really you know, knocking down that time clock to get after the quarterback. Yeah, the personal stats weren't there for Clark, and now we're starting to see those personal stats start to pile. And in a blink of the eye, he has five sacks on the season, eight of his fifteen and a half career sacks coming in the month of December.

I think that's just that's just amazing to me. He's now and now it's more than half of his career sacks are in one month or in the month, and you don't think of December as a big month for sacks. I mean, you know, the conditions get tough, you know, you're running the football more. And there's Kenny Clark making an impact. Dean Lawry gets an interception. Packers weren't able to do anything with it offensively, but that was a

critical play at a critical moment at the time. Ate at least a little bit of clock and stop some of the momentum for Chicago and Mike. It's going to turn into a weekly segment on these Monday shows. But Tyler Irvin again forty five yard kickoff return, the Packers longest in four calendar years. Uh, this young man just comes in as a waiver claim. And after all the issues and all the narrative and question marks about the Packers return units, this guy comes in and he's been

a stud. And I actually asked Aaron Jones about this because Jones is very effusive about his praise of of Irvin the week before, and I kind of asked him. I mean, obviously he shares a position room with him, but I was like, how do you know him? Like? What? What? Why did you feel that he's been following him going back to San Jose State because when he was at UTEP, those two are not youtup. I'm sorry, Uh Texas he yeah, Texas hel Passo. I should just said Texas Western. I

mean that's just whatever. No, But when he was he was in college, both of those guys were among the league leaders in rushing one year and he was kind of like comparing himself to this Tyler Irvin guy that he had no idea who he was. And then ever since then, he's kind of tracked his career. He comes in now and has been making a big impact here on these returning and it's the past two weeks. Yeah,

well I want to I I do. We do need to say certainly defensively, because the Packers offense started to struggle in the fourth quarter after a very dominant third quarter. They couldn't get that extra score like I was talking about, to give them that little bit of distance they needed.

The Packers defense had to stop the Chicago Bears three times in the fourth quarter with the one score lead, with the eight point lead, you had Dean Lowry make the incredible interception kind of off of a like a zone drop, the type of thing almost and then not. I mean, it would have been a heck of a play just if he had batted the past down. But he gets the gets the myths up there and then is able to to make the catch off the deflection and juggling it on the way down, and he gets

the interception. The Packers unfortunately don't get a score out of that. They punt the Bears back to the five yard line. The Bears drive out to midfeet yield, but then the Packers get the stop there. A turnover on downs ends up in a fourth and ten. They get the stop, so they stop him there and then they end up getting the third stop of the late fourth quarter with the um the multilateral play there at the

very end. So Packers defense did give up ten points in the fourth quarter, but because the offense wasn't able to wasn't able to finish this one off the defense needed to get three stops there down the stretch and uh, and the unit was able to come through and if nothing else, Uh, certainly I know there's yardage there that the defense would love to add back. Mitchell Robinski was able to get into a rhythm Alan Robinson and also

um Anthony Miller both over hundred yards receiving. But the biggest thing, Mike, that was the key I thought to that is they didn't break for an explosive sixty seventy yard touchdown. They have at least made the Bears milk the clock out to be able to put themselves in a position to ice that game. Yeah, and I think it's worth saying too quickly before we go eight quarters

against the Chicago Bears. Packers defense allowed touchdown Chicago and it was in the eighth quarter of those eight quarters. So it's really good defensive effort that uh, that has set up the Packers nicely to have a shot to win the division here because they beat the defending division champs twice with some really good defense. Absolutely, yeah, they're they're gonna be in for a stiff test this week. We'll see what happens with Delvin Cook he left with

the shoulder injury. But certainly Kirk Cousins as of late has been playing better weapons there that they're gonna have to account for. But defensively, if they were looking to get a little bit of swagger back, the last three games have not allowed more than fifteen points in any

of those contests. We can talk about yards, you can talk about all these different scenarios, but it ultimately comes down to the points on the scoreboard, and the last three games the Packers have their defense has given them a chance to win these games. Yeah. Well, we'll be talking about this upcoming matchup with the Vikings as the

week goes along. We'll also take a little bit bigger look at the NFC playoff picture after the Saints play on Monday Night Football, so we'll get to that on tomorrow show as well, but for now we will call it a wrap up this edition of Packers on Script and 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 all sorts of great video

content for WES, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next time. H