#493 Packers Unscripted: Formidable foe

Packers playoffs scenarios are. When the NFC North with one more victory clinch of first round by with two more victories. The Vikings playoffs situation is this, they are in the playoffs with one more win or a loss by the Rams, and if they win their last two games and and the Packers would also lose to Detroit, then the Vikings would be the NFC North champs. So that's where it

stands for them. And really, the one thing when I my first glance at the Vikings statistical sheet before we sat down here, there's one thing that jumped out at me the most. It's that they are undefeated at home, they are five hundred on the road. That old adage of whin all your home games, split your road games will be twelve and four, that's exactly from their perspective

what they're on track to do. They have two home games to finish up there, six and oh at US Bank Stadium this year, including an awfully big comeback victory over the Broncos. And I don't know if it was Aaron Rodgers or Matt Lafleur who talked about it, but sometimes that strategy isn't even good enough now with the way that the NFL plays out that also certainly in the in the NFC this year, twelve and four does not get you what it has gotten you in a lot of other years. But be that as it made.

This has been a really difficult environment for the Packers to play in. You and I were in there in two thousand, was at sixteen, the year that they opened it up, and I also covered games in the Metrodome, and I can tell you for as much as the Metrodome was praised and lauded for its volume and boisterous atmosphere, the U. S Bank Stadium is its own different animal because yeah, you're still getting a relatively loud environment. You can debate how much of that is natural and how

much of that is synthesized. But they have you know, they did the whole skull thing, they brought in the mountain from Game of Thrones. You know, they've They've done a lot of different things to kind of ramp up their their action. But let's be honest, Mike, the biggest thing is the on field product has been pretty darn good here the last few seasons. They've had some ups, they've had some downs, but every time they've had a setback or a disappointment, I give Mike Zimmer a lot

of credit for rallying his team back. That's where they sit right now, trying to make a run at this thing in the postseason to come. Yeah, well, the Vikings are in the uh. Their season has gone pretty much to pattern. And what I mean by that is with Mike Zimmer, the Vikings have been on this alternating years of being a playoff contender. In the odd numbered years fifth, teen seventeen, and nineteen eighteen, they stumble a little bit

and they don't get back to the postseason. So they've been on this kind of one one year up, one year down. This is definitely an up year for them, I think for all of the talk about Dalvin Cook, and we'll certainly talk about him as the week goes along, because he left last week's game when they were playing the Chargers. He left with a shoulder injury. But the reports out of Minnesota are that it's going to be okay and they are expecting him to play on Monday night.

So we'll see what shakes out there. But I have to give a lot of credit to Kirk Cousins because you look at his numbers this year. He obviously signed that big contract with Minnesota. Last year came with all kinds of pressure, all kinds of expectations, didn't live up to them. The Vikings missed the playoffs one year after being in the NFC Championship Game. But then this year Kirk Cousins has come back and he without question is

having the best season of his career. Is passer rating is one hund eleven, which is ten points higher than any passer rating that he's ever had for a single season in his career to this point. And I think the most important thing that stands out about that is that he's only thrown five interceptions this season with two regular season games to go, and he has been in double digit interceptions the last four years running. So kirk Cousins has definitely taken his game to another level here.

And yes, he's got Stefon Diggs, he's got Adam Feeling, he's got Dalvin Cook, and he's got that defense. But they pretty much had all of that last year two and kirk Cousins wasn't quite getting the job done he is this year. So Marvin right now can put up the video of me talking about kirk Cousins early in the season when they had some of the issues they did, and in me mentioning that, you know, this guy still

a pretty good quarterback. Mark, we can go, Marvin, we can go to the tape right now if you want to bring that up. There were so many fans that wanted to throw him on the dosh. Yeah, they wanted to kick him to the curve. And I get it because you're a fan and you're super into it, but man, you just got to pull yourself back. Can look at this thing from like ten thousand feet up and there aren't a lot of quarterbacks like Kirk Cousins in this league.

And then, by the way, that giant contract that he had got a couple of years ago, that's set the tone for all the other contracts to come. It's not like you're just paying him tens of millions of dollars

more than what every other quarterbacks making. I mean, here he is in year two of that contract, and his salary does not look at that exhortable compared to what other you know, other top level, elite level quarterbacks are making in this Kirk Cousins is a dang fine quarterback and he's helped them have a lot of success in Minnesota.

Mike Zimmer the quote I always go back to, you know, in the last couple of weeks to keep bringing up over and over again about the two thousand and sixteen NFC Championship game and and Rogers and his comments about

when to play games at home. I thought the biggest comment that Mike Zimmers made during his entire time as a head coach right now with the Minnesota Vikings goes back two years ago when he said, going into the off season before they signed Kirk Cousins, they had all these other quarterbacks they had to make a decision on He said, we have to make the right choice because I probably won't be able to survive it. Like they have to get the right quarterback or the Mike Zimmer

era might have ended. They did that, Mike, and not only that, they went and found the best quarterback available and it happened to be a pretty darn good year to do it. There are so many quarterbacks in this league right now that have one good year, a couple of good games as a backup, and they get paid monstrous amount of money. Mike Glennon is the one that probably jumps up more than any in this point in time.

They paid Kirk Cousins, and Kirk Cousins has produced for them, and he has been the consistent presence that they have needed for years in Minnesota. And you're right, during the times where they haven't had Adam feeling, or they haven't had Dalvin Cook or guys have been banged up, he's been the galvanizing force that has pushed them forward and

allowed them to be here playing meaningful football into middle December. Yeah. Well, a couple of those offensive weapons for the Minnesota Vikings, Dalvin Cook and Stefon Diggs, having quite frankly monster seasons. Dalvin Cook over rushing yards, Stefon Diggs is over a thousand yards receiving, both of them with two regular season

games left to add to those totals. Adam Feeling not having as big year, been dealing with a bunch of injuries, but he actually still leads them in touchdown with six. He's only caught thirty passes all season long, but six for touchdowns, So one out of every five times Adam Theland catching the game, it's in the end zone. Yeah, he's missed a third of the season essentially, So um, he's got Cousins, has a lot around him to work with.

And uh and this Vikings offense has been uh boy, I mean they when when they get rolling, and especially when they've been playing at home, I think, but even we saw that Monday night game in Seattle when they got down and then they got kind of got things cranked up again. This is a this is a dangerous offense. And uh and playing at their place, you know, the fast track all of that kind of stuff. Packers are

gonna have their hands full here. Six and points right now, twenty seven points per game, tenth and total yards twelfth and passing fourth and rushing. Now, we do have to actually see how things shake out with Cook this week. Summer did express optimism, but I know there were some ESPN reports out there questioning whether not Cook would play. All this seems to be a thing where he keeps leaving games and not being able to finish the game. But then the next week he's back up again. And

so it's been happen with the ankle last week. It's it's it's been this in and out thing with with the injuries with him. So hard to say, but there is an extra day here in terms of recovery with the game being on a Monday night and all that. So well, we will see how it plays out over the weekend. And there's just no way to replace him. I mean, he is he is the guy in that offense, and you and I have had a chance to watch

him for a couple of seasons now when he's been healthy. Man, I mean, this is one of the top two or three running backs in the league at this point. And Stefon Diggs to mention him, you know, this could be a week we've seen Jaire Alexander really graduate. I think over this last month to being a shutdown corner. I mean, it seems like they're more comfortable putting them in that

role now having him travel with guys. Now Adam Feeling is a big task himself, but I'm this will be an interesting one for how they want to defend him because it's not just about the Vikings and Diggs. It's about Kenny Gallady the following week too. And although Matt Staff for now is on in reserve and his season is over, Galay is a guy that can still really

hurt you. So seeing exactly how they deploy Jr. Alexander and these games to come is gonna be really interesting because I think it's going to set the tone for how they use them in the playoffs. Yeah, I think so too. Here's an interesting thing West, As I said, I kind of glanced through the Minnesota Vikings stat sheet before we sat down here and turn the camera on. Dalvin Cook thirteen rushing touchdowns this year, Aaron Jones fourteen

rushing touchdowns this year. The Minnesota Vikings defensively have sixteen interceptions. The Packers have fifteen interceptions. Zadarius and Preston Smith have combined for twenty one and a half sacks. Daniel Hunter and Everson Griffin have combined for twenty one and a half sacks. There's just some statistics with these two teams that are really interesting and how they correspond and how

they match up in uh, some key areas here. And I for one, and we'll talk a little bit more about the Vikings defense in a minute, but I for one think that this game, if if there is, if there is a game that you're that you want to say, boy, would be great for the Packers to win the turnover battle.

I think it's this one. I mean, in that environment with what the Packers offensively are going to be dealing with, with Minnesota's pass Russian, all of the noise and all of the challenges that come with protecting the football in that environment, if the Packers can successfully do that and they might be able to get a takeaway or two from Minnesota's offense, I just I just think any turnovers

in this game are going to potentially be huge, huge momentums. Yeah, and there's only a handful of teams that rank in the top ten in the league right now, and both giveaways and takeaways in terms of limiting the number of giveaways and the Packers and Vikings are in that category too. So when you're playing Kirk Cousins and he plays as high percentage of football as he does, which again I understand for some Bikings fans that can be maddening at times,

but he plays really high percentage. You don't get a seventy percent completion percentage just by winging it. He's very methodical about how he approaches things. Yeah, that path, I mean. I bet I bet Kirk Cousins if he's asked this week leading up to this game about his season and about the first game against Green Bay back in Week two, I bet he would rank that interception he threw to Kevin King in the end zone in the fourth quarter at lambeau Field might be he might call that his

worst pass of the season. And I think he knows he knows that, and to his credit, you know, I it's not like he's gone on some interception binge as I said. He's only had five interceptions all season long, when he's been in double digits for the last four years in a row. So, um, he he learned a lesson a little bit from that first game here at lambeau Field, and uh, the Packers are going to have

to force him into that kind of a mistake. I think on Monday Night, he's not just going to make it on his own as he did in that instance when it was a basically a first and goal play with the game on the line. Well, something else to keep in mind too, there's a lot of times you'll see quarterbacks in this league. I think Daniel Jones is a good example of this, where Daniel Jones hasn't thrown an exorbitant amount of interceptions this year, but he hadn't

exorbitant amount of fumbles that he lost. Kirk Cousins doesn't hurt you either way. It's not his fumbles. He only has three loss on the season, and it's not his interceptions. But if you go back and roll back the film, in their four losses, three of them he has turned over the football. I mean, it's just it's been that kind of slight margin for Era that has been really the difference between between victory and defeat for them this season.

And when Kirk Cousins is playing consistently, can work the ball down field. Everybody always talks about that with him, right, It's about developing a rhythm early and as the game wears on, that's when the explosive play start to show themselves a little bit more. That's gonna be the big key for him, especially if Delvin Cook ends up being limited or depending on what happens there with the shoulder injury and it lies more on his hands. They're gonna

have to be something to watch. But I think if nothing else has proven this season is that for the first time you could make an argument that they now have an offense that is right up there with their defense when everything is firing the way it's supposed to be, that they aren't playing catch up there in that stratusy, Yeah, I would agree. I want to ask you one thing about their defense, and there's certainly a lot of things that jump out. As I said, they have sixteen interceptions

as a team. I believe it's Anthony Harris as safety leads them with five. But Daniel Hunter thirteen and a half sacks this year, I forget now if he I think he's on a run of double digit sacks seasons. I'm not exactly sure how many he's at now. But where did this guy come from? West? Because because when he first came into the league, nobody was talking about this guy, and he's He's now one of the premier pass rushing defensive ends, not just in the NFC North,

not just in the NFC, the entire league. This guy, this guy is is one who really really recks offensive game plans. So Packers get a lot of flak for their two thousand fifteen NFL draft. Uh And And the thing that I think people don't really realize when you go back and look at it, the fifteen draft wasn't an overly fruitful draft for really the entire league. It

was a down year for the most part. The Minnesota Vikings, much like I always paired like the two thousand eleven draft wasn't a great year for teams in general, but Seattle ended up building a Super Bowl contender out of that draft. I look at the two thousand fifteen group much similar for the Vikings. That was a transformative UH year for them coming off a fourteen and getting bar And you look at their fifteen draft. Here you've got Daniel Hunter. Daniel Hunter in the third round of that draft.

You got Eric Kendricks in the second, you got Trey Wayne's in the first. Oh and then by the way, Anthony Harris was a college free agent that year. You mentioned him with the five picks this year. The thing that strikes me the most about Hunter is so often with defensive ends or outside linebackers, it takes time for them to really find their footing. His weakest year, his least you know, statistically, you know, best year with six sacks his rookie season. He went to twelve year after

that and it was seven and a half. And now he's been going up and up and up. He's a problem. He's a problem for defensive lines. And the reason why Minnesota has been able to sustain their success with their defense is because it's had other players emerged. It was Everson Griffin for a while and he's still very formidable with eight sacks this season. But Hunter has kind of grabbed that role now and he's become one of the

faces of this defense. And seeing his maturation over the last four years and how he's turned himself into a complete player and not just a pass rusher, it's been one of the most impressive things about Mike Zimmers unit. Yeah, I think I think that's what we've seen with this with this Zimmer defense over the years. I mean, a couple of years ago, I remember feeling like in the

teen game at US Bank Stadium. I know that was the game Aaron Rodgers got hurt, but I felt like walking out of the building that day, it was like, boy, Harrison Smith was the best player on the field today. You know. Then there are times I've watched Packers Vikings games and got boy Xavier Rhodes looked like the best player on the field today. Now it's it's as though, as you say, the guy who has who has grabbed onto that is Daniel Hunter, and he's the guy who

really makes this defense go. Not to not to take anything away from those other guys who are still very solid professional football players who really know what they're doing, and these guys have played together for a long time, but it seems the Vikings continue to have these guys that rise up to that level as uh as just the guys in the spotlight, and uh they take advantage of it, and everybody kind of gravitates towards that and and and that's where they go. It seems like Hunter

is that guy this year. Yeah, he definitely is. And it's interesting too because you and I will go here will preview these teams every single week. These defenses every single week on the show, and everybody else does it too, right, and every once in a while it's like, Okay, you know who the big hitters are. Those are the guys you hit on. When you talk about Minnesota, you can go nine ten deep talking about their stars. They just have so many different guys and actually, I think they

have some really good reserves too. They brought back Andrews in Dajo, he's been the primary backup now as safety. He already has two picks and he's got a couple of picks right after he came back. So I mean, they're just so diverse with their talent and where it comes from, and when they have a spot open up,

they have guys who fill it. And it's allowed them to be able to sustain this because for so often, Mike, when a def it's reaches its pinnacle, when it's one that considered one of the top defense is the league, it's so hard to hold onto that because a lot of times you have a lot of veteran players who sometimes start to be on the downside of their career. Minnesota has bucked that trend and they continue to be one of the league's best. Now, are they as dominant

statistically as they've been in previous years. Probably not, But with the way that the offense is playing, in the fact that special teams is kind of picking them up too at points this season, they haven't really needed to be. Yeah. Well, before we go on today's show, we do want to talk about the Pro Bowl announcement which was made on Tuesday night. The Packers with two Pro Bowl selections, quarterback

Aaron Rodgers left tackle David Baktiari. For Rogers, it's his eighth Pro Bowl selection, so he is now only one behind Brett Farvan Forced Greg for the most in by a single player in Packers history. Far and Greg both were chosen nine times. Bok TR congratulations to David an

overdue honor. I think he would even admit, while this has been a very very solid season for him, and I think box Tr has played better in the second half of the season this year than he did in the first half, he would not say this is his best season, but this is the year that he gets the Pro Bowl recognition after three straight years of getting

either second or first team All Pro. Yeah, yeah, exactly, And for that very reason, I want to just go out there right now and congratulates to Darius and Preston Smith on their Pro Bowls in two thousand twenty, because that's typically how this process ends up working, right. I mean, I don't even want don't get me started on one of the Smiths. Okay, both of the Smith's not making it. Come on, bro, come on, um, but Box tr this

it's funny. I mean, he was a three time All Pro, a first team All Pro last year, and he couldn't get he couldn't get the Pro Bowl nod. Um, So it's it's it's good for him. He finally did it. Obviously, Aaron Rodgers, the litany of times that he's been named to that team, give a quick shout out to Mason Crosby. That's a difficult thing to be a first alternate a kicker. They only pick one, uh, and you know Mason is

is right there now. The Packers hope that he won't be able to do it and he won't be able to fill in, but you know, obviously that's something too that for him at this juncture's career, everything he went through this year, that's really special for him to get that acknowledgment. Yeah, and I know a lot of fans, a lot of fans are up in arms about the Smiths and about Aaron Jones with the you know, being second to the league. I get because I do. I do to what I was going to show what I

was going to say. Though as much as I would I would like to have seen Crosby make it. I'm glad he got first alternate, so if if the Packers aren't in the super Bowl, he does have a chance maybe to get that call and and to have that honor. To me, the biggest snub, if you're looking for the snub storyline for the Packers, the biggest snub of the whole thing to me is that Brian Bulaga did not even make an alternate list out of this thing. With

the season that he's having, Are you kidding me? Look at the rushers, look at the edge rushers that he's gone up against, especially in the first half of the season, And I know there's a recency thing to all this. The the opponents the Packers have played later in the season are not some of the ones that they had

earlier in the year. He was going up against a murderers row of edge rushers throughout the first half of the season, he was putting together a tremendous year, and for him just not even to be on an alternate list anywhere, I think is I think it's it says all you need to know about the process, which is

why I try not to get too worked up. Well, the tough thing is is I have so much respect for the AP because they made a modification a few years ago that finally allowed right tackles to get their due, yes, instead of just picking two tackles, and we're usually both blindside you know, left tack because here's a spoiler alert, there are two different positions. Cancers do the same thing at either one of them. And Brian Blaga, I think, and hopefully here we'll we'll figure out all pros here

in a couple of weeks. I'm hoping he gets that acknowledgement because his career definitely deserves it. Basically, if you're not Lane Johnson, it's gonna be tough to be a right tackle that makes an a Pro Bowl and unfortunate for Brian Blagg I think he is the best performing right tackle in the game right now. For the reasons that you mention and the answers to the test are there. You've seen his work this whole season, what he's played through, that,

what he's put himself into. And I really I realized there can be all kinds of nuances between who gets it and who gets alternates and stuff. Right, the Smiths are dealing with that. Crosby to a certain extent dealing

with that. But when I saw the full list last night and I was working, you know, and posting a story on our website, that the fact that I listed all of these guys for the Packers who are alternates, um, and that I did not type Brian Bulaga's name into that story, I was just I was just in disbelief that he didn't at least get on some kind of an alternate list. I didn't get it. We were at a point where the I was thinking about this last night, Um,

should the Pro Bowl teams be expanded? And the reason I mentioned that is, Okay, so they pick three quarterbacks, right, they pick three offensive tackles. Uh. The the outside linebackers and edge rushes are basically the same position. If you're a four or three outside linebacker, good luck making a

Pro Bowl team. It's just it's very interesting with the with the way it's it's it's it's a it's an imperfect science with the variance that there's been now with that um that that one confuses me because it's just it's one of these things where, hey, the running backs, I get it man Delvin Cook, McCaffrey and Zeke Elliott. They don't get much better than that in the entire football league. But some of these positions, it's like, really, that's the best way to we're gonna do this, That's

how we're gonna pick it. I don't know, that's something I think we should be looking for. By the way, I just want to do a quick shout out for Rick Lovado making the Pro Bowl team of Philadelphia. A gentleman and a scholar, a total professional during his time in Green Bay. Glad to see him being able to get that acknowledgement. Yeah, it's always that's always cool, I think for the specialist. And I think that's why I, you know, you and I had talked about it throughout

the year. We're kind of holding out hope for Crosby a little bit. And I know it's not a career achievement award, but for a guy who's played as long as he have, and he as long as he has, and he really is on the top of his game right now with with what he's doing. Um, I was, I was sad to see the he didn't get it. I'm glad that he got first alternate because we'll see what happens from there. But but it's for those specialist guys.

I always think it's kind of a cool deal. This is a tough one because, you know, pulling myself back a little, Will Lutz has had a phenomenal season and if you go, if you know anything about the same storylines that kicks that that guy's had to make this year to win them ballgames, he's definitely a pro bowler. But well, we'll see all the rest of the shakes out. Hopefully for the Packer's sake. They're in the Pro they're

in the super Bowl. It's like a Jordy Nelson type thing where he had yard season but didn't make the you know, because there's other things going on. Hopefully it works out, you know that in that regard. Yeah, alright, Well, with that, we will sign off 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 be sure to check out the Packers YouTube channel for all kinds of great video content For Wes, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in everybody, We'll see you next time.