#496 Packers Unscripted: Statement game

this out there. You know, you always put together the like the description and the captioning and all that for our episode the following day when you post the podcast on the website, I'm gonna give you right now your headline for that. You're ready. Statement game there. It was

a statement game. And last week I said this in Insider in backs, What a better way to make a statement and put yourself and solidify yourself in this NFC North race an NFC conference then being able to go out there and do exactly what they did to the

Minnesota Vikings. It did not come without adversity. Three first to turnovers is not the prototype blueprint for the success and it's Brian Balagas said afterwards to the fact that it was their three biggest ball players too, and that Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones and Davante Yeah, they were all. They were all guilty. They this It shows you, though, that guys need to raise their level of play and in sometimes things are gonna happen to you. It's how

you respond to them. The defense gives up a hundred and thirty nine total yards, five sacks, three and a half of those belonging to it Darius Smith. A career day for Smith, a career day for Aaron Jones, who bounced back from his own fumble to have a hundred and fifty four rushing yards. The Green Bay Packers went into that dome, that noise box in Minneapolis, and they put their foot in the ground and said, you know what.

You can bring up all your videos, you can have all your fireworks, you can do all your claps, but at the end of the day, it comes down to what happens between those hashes for sixty minutes, and for a good portion of that particularly in that second half, the Three Bay Packers were the better football team. Well, I tell you what you're you're allowed to call me a liar because I said the Packers would have to win the turnover battle to win this game. That didn't happen.

I said the Packers would have to play their best game of the season to win this game. That didn't happen. I get to call you a liar because you said Aaron Rodgers would have to play at another level. That didn't exactly happen. But none of that happened. Yet the Packers still won this game, and that's just a credit to the team that they have. Now. I will say one thing to try to give myself a little bit

of credit here. I did say after both of the losses to the Chargers in the forty nine I said, the Packers at some point this season, when they are on the road and they get off to a rough start, they're going to have to find a way to write the ship. They've done it at home games, they hadn't done it in a road game. They did it in

this game. With the three first half turnovers, some drop passes, some off target throws, blown scoring opportunities, you only get three field goals in the first half, they righted the ship and got things squared away. A lot of credit to the defense, obviously, but also just the leadership of the team. You're talking about guys like Rodgers and Zadarius Smith and Matt Lafleur and other veteran leaders on this team.

That in that environment with those kind of stakes, when you get off to quite frankly, a terrible start with a fumble on the opening possession and they take over on the ten yard line, the Packers got their act together and they did what they had to do to pull out to date, the biggest win of the season. Yeah, And it was that gut check that you wanted to see them make in US Bank Stadium because at some point the Greenman Packers were gonna need to win in that in that dome, and you and I are part

of it. It's an open air press box. You feel that energy. Yeah, first time, first time in four tries. Packers were owing three in that building. And it's not easy to to put yourselves in a situation and where you give them those turnovers because then that energizes a

fan base. But to see Vikings fans mass exiting in the last five minutes of that game after the Packers were able to shut the door on it, you know, with Aaron Jones fifty six yard run, the fact that the defense would not give up they would not give any ground. They gave up ten points in this game, and they all were after being put in adverse field position.

One of the things I put in my sidebar for the game is that they were if you look at just the plays where the Vikings had to stay in their own start, in their own territory, eight punts, two turnovers on downs, and the Kevin King interception, they gave up no ground whatsoever. And Kenny Clark talked about that afterwards.

They've played good quarters, they've played good halves. This particular performance, it was about as complete as you could ask for from the defense, and then, by the way, offensively able to rally themselves after halftime only down one point because of what the defense had done and Aaron Jones and the running game gets going, and the Minnesota Vikings had no answer for Art, especially with Eric Kendricks not being on the field. Yeah, that's what I was going to say.

I mean, the Vikings certainly missed Eric Kendricks on the field in the second half. Defensively, they certainly missed Dalvin Cook being on the field. Offensively, for the entire game, the Vikings could not get any running game going, which made the play action pretty much useless in terms of the missdirection and the deception part of it. And quite frankly, Wes, the Packers just won the line of scrimmage on both

sides of the ball. Here, the Packers defensive line and the Packers offensive line were the two best units on the field in this game. We saw Zadarius Smith. I don't know about you, may I think you commented last weekend Insider inbox, and I did it again this morning after that performance last night. You have a performance like Smith did, three and a half sacks, five tackles for loss.

He dominated at one point or another. He whipped every single guy on the Vikings offensive line because he was lining up everywhere and he could win anywhere he lined up. I think the guy needs to be in the conversation for defensive player of the year. He's to thirteen and a half sacks right now. He's on a team. He's on a defense that that has certainly shown a lot of improvement here down the stretch late in the season, kind of rediscovering where they were in September, after you know,

some lulls there in the mid season. He's got thirteen and a half sacks right now. I mean, I know there, you know, you can talk about Chandler Jones and t J. Watton, Nick Bosa and these other guys who are going to be in there, and I'm and I'm not saying, I'm not saying that anybody should just hand the trophy does a Darius Smith. But if he's not at least being talked about for this, for this award this year, I think there's something wrong because I think he's just had

a phenomenal season. The Defensive Player of the Year award needs to be the best defensive player. Chandler Jones is an amazing pass rusher, Nick and t J. Watt has had a good season, and certainly Joey Bosa, what can you say about him? But Bosa? Actually, I said Nick from say their cousins at Jake Coumarro fair enough. No, Zadarius Smith to me is the best defensive player in

the NFL right now. I'm going to actually say that because if you look at the way that these dominoes play out, with the variations and ways that Mike Petton uses him, there's no one doing what he's doing right now. And I always sense that, right but it was that Bill Callahan quote earlier this month and Bill Kalan sixty three, sixty four years old, however long he's been coaching football, saying that he had never really seen a guy like him before in terms of he can play rover. I

wrote about this on on Saturday morning. Our schedules got kind of mixed up, so we weren't able to discuss this that much. But he plays rover like Clay Matthews did. He plays three tech nose tackle like Julius Peppers did. He is a Swiss Army knife of pass rushing. And then by the way you line him up against the guard, you line him up against the center, line him against the tackle. You can even put some help out there for him. It doesn't matter. He still wins one on once.

You need two people to block him at all times, and sometimes that's not enough. And the guy can stop the too. He's not just a pass rusher, he's he's a complete defensive player. This But but to the original point, this is no longer about the Pro Bowl. Who cares

about the Pro Bowl? I think if the AP voters, which I know they do their dull diligence on this, I can see him being an actual first or second team All Pro agree, And to your original point, he absolutely deserves to be in that conversation for Defensive Player of the Year because people are having no count form and he's making the entire defense better. Now Mike Kenny Clark has another sack here in the month of December,

Preston Smith was getting in on it the secondary. You saw this defense come together and really, Gell and one of the things I asked a lot of guys in the locker room boat was did you feel this kind of coming on like this, this performance being there? And to the man, they basically said yes, it was just a matter of doing it for an entire game and in the most hostile environment possible. It was quite quite the game. Yeah, seven first downs, a hundred and thirty

nine total yards for the Vikings. As you said, pretty much defensive dominance by the Packers. He catch a couple of aches in that the Vikings tried the trick play, they didn't execute it, just Fon Diggs misses on the throw down the sideline to Kirk cousins Um and I know the Viking fans were all upset in the fourth quarter on the holding penalty that wiped out the touchdown. But take a look at that one, folks, that was

a legitimate holding penalty. Kyler Facral is going to get to Kirk Cousins there if he doesn't get held so for for as few flags as Bill Vinovitch's crew through in that game. But yeah, and and his and his crew, the stats bear it out his crew, I believe for the second year in a row now they are the uh the crew with the least number of flags UM at least for sure for this year. And I know they were close to being UM the crew with the fewest amount of flags last year. But that one, that

one did did have to be thrown. As I said, it really was about the line of scrimmage here, because the Packers defensive front whipped the Vikings offensive line, and as the game wore on in the second half, the Packers offensive line was clear winning the day for green Bay.

A couple of things when you look at what green Bay's defense was doing in the first half with limiting those opportunities for Minnesota after the turnovers, and then the Packers offense, even though the unit wasn't scoring touchdowns in the first half and they were only kicking field goals, the ball control, the time of possession, all that all that added up to a second half where the Packers

offensive line took over. Aaron Jones ends up with two rushing touchdowns in the second half, the twelve yard or to put the Packers in the lead, the fifty six yard or that's the backbreaker. He had a hundred and nine yards in the second half on the ground, right, I mean he went over a hundred yards just in the last two quarters to finish with a hundred and fifty four Aaron Jones uh and taking over the true bell cow roll with Jamal Williams leaving the game in

the second half with a shoulder injury. Um, this uh what the Packers did on the ground. I mean, as I said, you look at the turn over differentially, look at Aaron Rodgers only having a sixty eight something passerrating. You wouldn't think that's a formula for the Green Bay Packers to win, certainly not win on the road and win a big game on the road. But they did,

and they distill did it convincing? Yeah? And you go back to what Rogers said after the opener against Chicago, saying that we got a defense if West Howitz was walking out the field and there was any cameras on me, I'd be saying, we got a football team. I mean, it's just the number of ways. And this was probably the last check they had to kind of check off on the box with being able to actually get down early on the road in a hostile environment, finding a

way to win and not and win handily. Ultimately, this offensively, I thought was a really telling performance because, yeah, it didn't all go right. There were a lot of things working against them early on. Aaron Jones had a phenomenal game, and he fumbled the ball on the third play and he fought through it. You look at dropped the pass on third down. That wasn't the greatest throw, but a pass he could have caught and still moved the chains,

and that didn't go right ear as well. But the hallmarks of this offense that have been there all year were again in play here. The receivers blocked their butts off down field. That's what it has allowed them to spring some of those big gains. This offensive line with Elton Jenkins in there, what the what they're able to do between the tackles and opening up holes. It was there when they needed to do the stretch play. Mark uisveld Is Scantling is the one sealing off the edge there,

allowing Aaron Jones to get up the sideline. Alan Lazard has three catches on third down. Davante Adams fights through his own MISQ but ends up having thirteen catches, the second Packer all time to have at least thirteen catches in a game, tying Don Hudson. It's not just Aaron Rodgers anymore. And that is what has allowed the Packers to be in a position that they're in right now at twelve and three, to have a thirty chance of going into Detroit and being the number one seed when

they leave because of these type of things. And I just got to give a shout out to to for Aaron Jones to be able to find that second gear late in that game twenty three carries that tied the season high. I mean, there was no Jamal Williams to work off of it. It It had to be Aaron Jones, and he stepped up to that opportunity. And I want to get back to UH to where things sit right now with the playoff scenarios, but I do need to take care of some sponsor business. 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. So the Packers are twelve and three. They have clinched the NFC North Championship first division title since two thousand and sixteen. The Packers still in control to get a first round by. If they beat the Detroit Lions, the Packers will have a first round by

in the playoffs. They are also still in play for the number one overall seed because of the results that happened over the weekend, namely Seattle getting beat by at home by the Arizona Cardinals. The Packers can get the number one overall seed in the NFC with a win, and if San Francisco loses to Seattle, which then would give the NFC West title to Seattle, San Francisco would drop to the five seed as a wild card, and

the Packers would have the number one seed. For those wondering, can the Packers still get a first dround by if they lose to the Detroit Lions. The answer is yes, but the Packers would also need the New Orleans Saints to lose to the Carolina Panthers in order to still get a buy with a loss. The most important thing is the Packers are gonna control of getting that by the Minnesota Vikings now are locked into the sixth seed in the NFC. They will be going on the road.

They are a wild card team and they are the six even with this upcoming game against the Bears. They cannot help themselves. So it would be an interesting decision with by Mike Zimmer how how much he really plays his guys when they could in effect give themselves a little bit of a bye week and rest up in the playoffs. But that's a tough deci in coming off of the game they just played where they did not

play well on either side of the ball. Frankly, they do have some guys banged up that they definitely want to get healthy for the playoffs. But I'll be curious to see here exactly what the Vikings decide um because they cannot improve their playoff position with one game to go. Yeah, I mean, they're Kirk Cousin is gonna need a tune up fight here. I mean, if they're really wanting to do anything in the post season, they're gonna need to

be able to get some mouthwatch for that performance. So I would be very interested to see exactly how they go with it. I wouldn't anticipate, you know, if you want to keep cooked down or even Madison, I get that. Yeah, I mean, and depending on Kendricks and you know, guys like that that they they need to heal up and

get healthy for the playoffs. I wouldn't expect those guys to play, but how he plays it with the rest of the guys, when you know you're you're not in a you're not in a position to to help yourself in any way as far as the playoff positioning goes, it will be an interesting decision. Yeah, And for green bas perspective, this goes back to something I've been saying for the last month. Mike, it's just win the game. He needed to win against New York while Washington in

Chicago to make this a very relevant game. And they did that. Yeah, and we Yeah, I was gonna say, we've seen from the moment, and I remember sitting in the media auditorium after after one of the Packers victories, waiting for Matt la Floor to come in for his postgame press conference, and we watched the San Francisco forty Niners on the television kick the last second field goal to beat the New Orleans Saints. From that, at that moment, the Packers were in control of getting a first round

by if they could win out. And that's what they've done. As you say, they've kept winning and now they're down to one more game, or if they get that win, they have a first round by. The Packers would be at home in the divisional round for the first time since And uh, that's uh that, that's what's on the table here on a short week with the holiday mixed in and everything like that, the Packers still have some preparation to do, but they're going to go to Detroit

with plenty to play for. And that's what's kind of cool about this year's team two thousand nineteen. How wherever this season takes Green Bay. I mean, that's what I'm gonna remember this unit four. Is that getting back to my point about it's not just Aaron Rodgers, they just they play well situationally. Mason Crosby makes a pretty darn good kick for forty two yards to get them on the board early on in this one. You need that. Tyler Irvin has been a really good upgrade for them

on punt returns. He ate muffed that one, but otherwise he's been exceptional. And by the way, when he did, he jumped right back on and he didn't let it get away from him. You look at Kyler Fackral. I thought had a sneaky good game. I tweeted this. I mean the pressures he was able to generate, even if it doesn't translate into the stack column or into the sacks. He was a big part of this performance. Yeah, Dean

Lowry had a sneaky good game to Dean Lowry. Kenny Clark coming on again another four and a half sack month in December, just like he did in two thousand seven. Clark with another December sack. He just keeps, just keeps

making those tally marks in the snow, right. Yeah. And the question I when I was doing the Packers pregame radio show beforehand, you know, I was asked by Dennis Crouzy, do you feel like the way the defense is playing this can this is a team that can win a Super Bowl in the answer is absolutely because as Ryan Hartwig and Duke Bob and everybody put up our graphics afterwards, you look at the stars now on that that those faces that they have on these defenses and on offense,

and you compare that to where they were at three and sixty five days ago. Yeah, there's there, there's some holes, there's areas that packers need to improve. They're by no means a complete product yet, but just the talent difference. And I gotta be honest with you, Mike, I don't want to take this down the road that I'm sure you weren't expecting this to go too, But we want to talk about za Darius Smith for Defensive Player of

the Year. I know there was a fun thing about Aaron Jones as the m v P or Matt laflour is. The coach Brian Goodkins has to be a serious contender for Executive the Year for them to be able to have this overhaul of talent, you know, and then he hires Milt Hendrickson from Baltimore, and then they go and get sa Darius Smith. They go and get Preston Smith. That was a busy forty eight hours for them, Adrian

Amos holding things down in the secondary. Billy Turner has brought a lot to that right guard position, settled down a spot that had really been an upheal for the better part of two years since t. J. Lang left. And there are just so many different things about this team that it's very special for them to be in a position now to get a first round by compared to where they were at last year at this time.

Man Brian Good, it comes to be the last guy that wants to take a bow, but it's pretty incredible with him in his front office what they achieved these last you know, six seven, eight months now, Yeah, the personnel overhaul in one off season for this team was significant, and they all right, that's what I was going to say.

The fact that it paid such huge dividends right away says something about about the guys that they targeted, the courage of their convictions to say, yes, it was a lot of money, but this team needs it and these guys are worth it, and you can't argue with I mean, to sign for free agents, you know, when the opening bell of free agency goes off, I mean who does that?

I mean, who who has the cap space to do it first of all, which the Packers did have the cap space to do that, but it's it's a gutsy play because you are you are overhauling a significant amount of starting personnel in one off season, and you cannot argue at all with any one of those signings right now. Well, this is the beautiful thing about it, too, Mike, is that the Packers two thousand fourteen class, two thousand thirteen draft class. I thought those were exceptional years for them.

You're not gonna hit on everybody, but they found superstars in both of those draftlas found major major players. Two thousand sixteen is turning out to be a great year for them as well, with Kenny Clark, Blake Martinez is being a stalwart at middle linebacker, Dean Lowry, Kyler Facral. That two thousand fifteen was the year where they just didn't get enough from it. It was just the to The two thousand fifteen draft is the free agency class.

Because all the Adrian Amos, Preston Smith's, that Arius Smith, they were all drafted in now they're Packers, they just weren't drafted by Green Bay. So if you tie that together and you look at fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and the talent that came out of those draft classes in the NFL and what they were acquire onto this roster. That's a big reason why they are where they are today and and for them to now go into this game

against Detroit. I know there are a lot of guys that are excited because they're getting Christmas off now, but they'll get back on Thursday. They'll reset after they leave the building on Tuesday. And now you cannot look past it. Adrian Amus was the first one to point this out in the locker room. You've got to keep ascending. You have to use this as a springboard in the playoffs,

not as a letdown. It's not a break, but this is we're back to winnable games here for the Green Bay Packers to get themselves set up and potentially getting that by on a team that's already remarkably healthy. Yeah. Well, Packers at twelve and three, one more to go with with a lot in their sights here. Moving forward 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. Will still have lots of content even during the holidays

on packers dot com. You can subscribe to us, like us on iTunes and other podcast services, and check out the Packers YouTube channel. Do have a very merry Christmas everyone. Thank you for tuning in. We will see you next time. H m hm