#497 Packers Unscripted: Difficulties in Detroit

The best present I got for Christmas? I got a brand spanking new Milwaukee Brewers baseball cap with the new logo. Yeah. Yeah, it was very excited. So what is the color blue on that? Then? Is it like the darker blue? Like that's that navy? Sort of navy? Do you put together a wish list to that? Or is that just the kids and the white knowing exactly what to get you? Um, it was actually on the list, but they wouldn't have had to think too hard even if I hadn't written

it down. So you know what my best present was? In addition to being able to spend time with my wife and child and everything. Um, you know, I'm a big game of throwing sky, or at least I used to be. The relationship kind of got complicated, and I also became a very big tie clip guy in these last few seasons. So I've noticed that Caitlin got me a sword tie clip for Christmas that I'll be wearing at the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers game on Sunday.

There's your transition back to football. There we go, we and we will be at Ford Field on Sunday with a lot at stake for the Green Bay Packers. A win gets a first round by and would keep the Packers in the hunt for the number one overall seed. The Detroit Lions, their season has gone a completely different direction from where they were when we first discussed this team back in Week six, when the Lions were coming in to play the Packers on Monday Night Football at

lambeau Field Detroit. Now three eleven and one, they have lost eight straight and eleven of their last twelve. They were actually undefeated after three games this year at two oh and one, and with Matthew Stafford looking like quite frankly, they were going to contend for a playoff spot in the NFC. But once Stafford started having injury issues, Uh, their season went the wrong direct. Well, in Stafford's injury

issues were a microcosm of the entire team. Now, certainly he is their superstar, but you could build an eight man football team off of their injured reserve list right now. With everything they went through losing Marvin Jones, there was a lot of excitement about Mike Daniels. He was really never able to get going this year. T J. Hockenson their Frockie first round pick, big expectations for him. He battled injuries throughout the year before going on injury reserve.

Even Jeff Driscoll, their backup quarterback, ends up being placed on season ending I R. So you go into this game at Ford Field, where you're gonna have David Blow at quarterback, you have Kyle Sloter as a back up. Uh. It's just a very different situation than I think the Lions felt they were in when they played the Packers earlier this season in October and that really tightly contested game at lambeau Field. Yeah, it seemed that it seemed that Blow gave them a lift initially when he came in.

He took the Chicago Bears to the wire on Thanksgiving Day at Ford Field. It was his first start, undrafted rookie quarterback out of Purdue. Look like he was showing some promise, but then, you know, the shine war seemed to wear off quickly. Um, things have fizzled and and quite frankly, he's looked pretty much like an undrafted rookie

quarterback you'd expect with all those other injuries. Um, you know, he he's not exactly playing with a full deck in terms of in terms of the complimentary piece and the personnel that's around him, no doubt. I mean, Kenny Golladay has been exceptional this year. He's a superstar in this league. He's one of the top young receivers that the NFL has to offer right now, and he seems like a real gem for them and a piece to build upon

going forward here. But the problem is, especially for an undrafted rookie like blow and I think to some extent you even looked at what happened Garter Minshew in Jacksonville. It's really easy to catch teams by surprise. But once the film starts to get out there a little bit and you've got the brightest football minds and the country, you know, the world really really dissecting you and trying to figure out where they can exploit particular weaknesses or

those type of things. That's when the challenges really present themselves. And I think we've kind of seen that with Blow. Kudos to him, though, you tip your cap to him. And you know, there's a couple instances throughout the league this year where undrafted rookies have had to start games, and meaningful games in some cases for these teams, and and it's not an easy situation for any first year player to be thrown into, but especially when you've kind

of taken that back channel into the league. Yeah, and Blow had to do it on a short week there on Thanksgiving and and put up a heck of a fight against the Bears. In fact, you know, the Lions were awfully, awfully close to winning that game and held held the lead late and even had an opportunity after

they gave up the lead to win that. But I also it also felt like when the Lions didn't win that game that you know, some of the some of the spirit of the team was was sapped a little bit, because then then it was like, Wow, they weren't able to beat the Bears on thanksgiving me any chance of really staying in this thing or making any kind of a late season runs seemed to seem to go away when they couldn't pull that one out in front of

the national audience. And it is a tragedy for Detroit and its fan base because I mean, Matthew Stafford was having arguably his best season of his energy. Yeah, a legitimate m VP candidate at the time that this back injury whatever you know, whatever have you, kind of flared up for him because he'd been making the appropriate reads. It seemed like he'd really been able to find his momentum.

He's established weapons now in that offense, and realistically, I mean, Matthew Staffords a top ten quarterback in this league, and when you give him a foundation to work with, history has shown he's going to be able to produce for you.

The Lions just haven't been able to cross that threshold winning a playoff game, winning a division title, and this year it looked like early on, especially again going back to that October game, it looked like they may have an offense that could do it, and unfortunate for them a couple of bolls balls did not bounce their way, and then these injury bugs crept up on him. And then you look at their backfield right now. I mean

they've gone through four or five different running backs. Trade Carson, who was on the Packers roster for a time this season. He went there, played, immediately got injured. He goes on. I r uh, they do get Carrie on Johnson back, you know both. Scarborough has been a real big plus for them, him coming over a nice little find, uh, you know, being able to get him off of the Jacksonville's practice squad, I believe. But just the consistency of it and other than Galada, you're week to week weapons

that just hasn't been there. Yeah. And I think the other thing, really injuries aside that hasn't come together for Matt Patricia in his two years as head coach there with the Lions is the defense they have. They have Darius Slay He's one of the best cornerbacks. Any team would love to have that guy out on the boundary defending wide receivers. He's one of the best out there.

But collectively, it hasn't come together for them as a group. Defensively. Obviously, I thought with Stafford he was going to give them a chance to stay in a lot of games this year. That didn't happen when Stafford went out, and this defense, frankly Wes has has really struggled well. So this is the thing that's tough for for Detroit. And there's a lot of guys in that Packers locker room, especially after the game against Minnesota, that were very complimentary of the

defense that Detroit still has. Those Statistically they would rank in the bottom third of the league right now in most categories. But the problem I think when you go back, is that they were so good there for a short time. You think around two thousand and fourteen, you know, when Nodamican Sue was kind of in his prime and in the weapons they had built around him, and then they just had this attrition with the roster, whether it be age or whether it be injury in some cases where

that depth, that strength sort of wore away. They thought like they maybe had it with zichy Anza, he ends up having his own share of injuries that he had to deal with. So then they go and get Trey Flowers. I mean, they made him the one of the top pass rushers taken off this market. And while he does have seven sacks on the year, I don't think has been the dominating force that everybody thought he was going to be after, you know, the career that he put

together in New England. So and there's been injuries, there's been issues of that case. I know, I think it's a Shawan Robinson. It's actually wasn't practicing or was estimated as not practicing on Christmas. So, uh, A lot of things have contributed to it. But as you originally said, I mean, the overall production has not been there and unfortunately for them, without Stafford, they don't have the firepower offensively, they haven't had it to be able to win some

of those you know, bigger high scoring games. Yeah. Well, I want to take care a little bit of sponsor business here and then ask you a question was 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, all right. So the Lions are downtrodden team eight consecutive losses playing out the string. Obviously,

the Packers have so much to play for. What do the Packers have to do to? And I hate using cliches, but to avoid that proverbial letdown because of not only the opponent you're playing, but the victory the Packers are coming off of. You are on a short week, the holiday has gotten mixed in here, so it's a lot of different circumstances here leading up to a week seventeen game. How do the Packers keep the focus where it needs to be with the caveat as you already said of

you cannot look past any opponent. There is no bye weeks, and Matt four has been very consistent in his messaging to his football team this year that every single week it's the same focus, it's the same objective in the same goal. All that being said, the Green Bay Packers pound for pound, are a significantly more talented team at

this point of the season than the Lions are. Offensively, I think there's always going to be a certain amount of randomness to it because it can be you know, Trey Flowers stepping up with a big game or Darius Slay. Those type of playmakers could potentially you know, weave the game in and out and make it closer than it probably should be in terms of the the odds going

into this. Where I think the Packers really have the strong left handed punch on this is that with blows the rookie quarterback with the failure to this point to establish a consistent running game. To me, on paper, the screams Smith's day. It screams Kenny Clark. It screams being able to pressure the quarterback, get some mistakes, get some takeaways, and and don't make this a real, you know, contested fight.

Last week went Form for the better part of sixty minutes, went about his picture perfect as you could hope for it. For the defense, it's not easy to just consistently dominate at this level. But I think the Packers need to pull with specifically on the defensive side, need to step up, press that gas pedal again and finish this thing strong, because,

as the T shirt said, North is not enough. They know what's on the line here, and you put away Alliance team that has three wins at this point, you have a first round by and depending on what else happens with some of these scenarios could be as high the number one seed. To me, it's the defense that has to set the tone. Yeah, I would agree with you.

The Packers, as I had mentioned, I think on our last show on Christmas Eve, the Packers control the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball against the Minnesota Vikings, the two best position groups on the field on Monday Night Football, where the Packers defensive line and the Packers offensive line. And I think if the Packers should be able to continue that in my opinion against Detroit on Sunday, and if they do, they should be in great shape as long as as long as you're

not turning the ball over. I mean, you don't want to go into Ford Field and turn it over three times in the first half again, because then you just

never know. Of course, but that being said, the Packers looking to take care of business here, you hop on the flight back home after the early game, and then you settle in and watch the Seattle San Francisco battle on Sunday Night Football for the NFC West Championship, where if if the Packers do get their victory, then if Seattle beat San Francisco, the Packers are elevated all the way to the number one seed in the NFC, and uh, that's certainly a position they would like to be in

a lot of interesting, a lot of interesting scenarios here because the because the New Orleans Saints still in the running for a first round by the Seattle San Francisco game as well as the Packers game, will impact where the Saints end up in the seating and as we know with with regard to that NFC West, the loser of that is dropping all the way to the five seed, whereas the winner could be well, if the forty Niners win it, they are the one, so for them, it's

the difference between the one and the five. For the Seahawks, they'll know obviously exactly what the stakes are by the time it kicks off in the evening, but the Seahawks could end up with The Seahawks could end up with the two, or the three or the five if they

were to lose. So there's still a lot to be sorted out here in the NFC with exactly where everyone's gonna and the stakes are incredibly high for that San Francisco Seattle game because much like the Packers experience going back to two thousand twelve, whoever loses that there's a chance that they can be playing on Saturday night with with the quick turnaround that is asked of of teams at this league. So that's something else you have to

keep an eye on. I would I would think this is just this is just me, but I would think, knowing that the loser of Seattle San Francisco is going to be the five seed, and that that team will be playing at the winner of the NFC East, which would be their Dallas or Philly. If Philly wins it's game, the Eagles are the NFC East champs, that the Philly or Dallas home game in the playoffs would be the last one on Sunday afternoon because the loser of Seattle

San Francisco is going to be is going there. If the league makes that losing team play on Saturday on the road on wild card weekend, I think that would I just think that would be patently unfair. Yeah, that's true. The one thing about that Packer game is they were able to host on that Saturday. But that was a tight turnaround, Yeah, it was. It was the Packers were

at home. They were at home and also end up being a big thing for Christian Ponder because then he wasn't able to play in that game into your web had to make the start. All those scenarios, though, are things the Packers don't have to worry about right now. What the Packers have to worry about is what's in front of them with the Lions and the other thing

I want to point out to. I mean, I've been seeing all these these articles so far and you can only need to look at certain you know, ticket broker websites to see this. I mean, there's not a high demand for these tickets right now with with the Lions

kind of being in the predicament that they're in. Yeah, whatever gases left in the tank with that fan base, I mean, if you go and you can take them out of that in the first quarter, because we've seen week seventeen games in Detroit, it can be as loud as any you know, stadium in the league. When they're energizing, there's a reason to really, you know, back their team.

But at three eleven and one, if you go out there with a big defensive stand or a successful first drive offensively, that could be all you need to make it a lambeau Field East kind of matchup. How many how many Packer fans you think will show up. And as you said, the ticket, the ticket price, they're not expensive. It's a it's a Midwestern city. I'm sure there are a lot of Packer fans within driving distance to Detroit

who could get there. I'm I'm curious to see how much Green and Gold will be in the stands on Sunday. With so much at stake for Green and you did the insider inbox on Christmas for the for today, I mean, there's already a lot of people saying, you know, we're planning to go out there. I've I've seen I've seen a lot of people asking if we're gonna be doing pep rallies or things like that. Yeah, and we'll be

doing it in the concourse over at the airport. Now I'm just kidding, but uh no, I mean like there is a big opportunity there too. I mean, dude, Mike, you even look at that game in Minnesota. I was really surprised by the amount of Packer fans that packed in there. And then in the second half when things weren't really going so well for the skull crew, I mean it was there was a lot of fervor, a lot of Go Pack, Go Chance. Yeah there was a

lot of excitement. Yeah there was a lot and and it actually was an attendance record for US Bank Stadium, which I think is saying something when the Vikings have hosted a playoff game there, which they did against New Orleans, and that stadium has hosted a Super Bowl, and yet the largest attendance in that stadium to date was the Monday night. Would you surprise at all it was only sixty seven thousand, Like if you, if you I just walk into the stadium, I would think that was at

least north of seventy thousand seats. And oh, I guess I just remember from the first time we were there in I knew I didn't know the exact number, but I knew that the capacity was somewhere in the high I'm not saying it's like Dallas with a hundred thousand, I mean it is pretty like it. The sixty seven it feels a lot more than that. Maybe that's just a credit to their fans. But in terms of Green Day with this game, I look at it and look at this matchup, and it's also an opportunity to kind

of exercise some demons. The last two years against Detroit have not ended so hot. Yeah, those, Yeah, these these last couple of weeks seventeens against the Lions, it's been an ugly finish for green two thousand seventeen, they had to take it on the chin. Last year, it was obviously the shut out at lambeau Field, and that was sort of the beginning of this whole renovation, you could say,

over the last eleven ten, you know, twelve months. I just I think there's so many things for Green Bay to really propel itself now into the postseason with a strong performance against Alliance team that by most people's estimations, they should beat. Yeah. Well, as we go through the tail end of the week here, we will be keeping

an eye on the Packers injury report. Um the latest update. Now, the Packers did not practice on Christmas Day, so the injury report has estimations as to who would have practiced or not. There are a few guys on there who would have been given the veteran rest. That's sort of been an ongoing pattern with some of the veteran players like Jimmy Graham and Tremont Williams and and some of those guys. But the injury report did estimate that Jamal

Williams with his shoulder injury would not have practiced. We will see with regards to Thursday and Friday as as the week goes along. I think that's maybe the most important injury. Brian Balagas on the injury report too, he had a groin injury was estimated as a d NP. Now, if a guy's dealing with something, you have to say it, it it could very well been a veteran rest day too.

It's only speculation at this point. ESPNS robbed Demowsky did talk to Jamal Williams in the locker room on Christmas Eve, though Jamal seemed to express that, you know, he feels confident he'll play in this game. We'll see, I mean, you'll have to see. The packers also have to weigh out too that if you know there's a you know, potential that they want to keep him healthy or let them, you know, have that extra rest, you can go that

direction as well. Things we'll all have to figure out as the Packers go back, and what I would imagine would be pads on Thursday, right, I'm trying to think of how they this week. Yeah, no, I'm guessing I'm guessing that coming off of the Monday night, which of them already they might be out of him. I don't think the Uh yeah, the Packers will have be able to have one padded practice per week in the postseason, but I don't think they're putting on the pads next year.

This is what we're gonna do. I'm actually gonna have a little checklist at my desk to keep tracking, yeah, because I always lose track lists December comes in. But all these things being said, we'll learn a lot more with their walkthroughs and their practices here these next couple

of days. The Packer, you know, no matter what the scenarios look like, no matter what you know, how healthy they've been, you can still not discount the overall benefits of having that first round by I was talking with Lexie Kinner, one of our digital assistants today, and I was,

you know, mentioning. It kind of hit me at that point that it's been five years since the Packers have had a buy you know, in that first round, going back to the two thousand, Packers have not played the Divisional round playoff game at lambeau Field since the Cowboys does Bryant Game five years ago. So I mean you have the you know, the run the tables and all those tremendous dramatic runs. The Packers have got it now

before this little bit of a playoff lull. It's still there's nothing better though than being able to sit back, watch all all the chips fall and then you know, do your best in the divisional round to press on your own. Basically, the Packers can win their first playoff game by winning on Sunday because you don't have to play it. Um, that's another way to look at it. With that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers un Scripted. 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 all sorts of great video content out there. For Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you next time. M