#499 Packers Unscripted: Finding another way

week just drawn it up. This is exactly how we want this thing to play out. I'll tell you what this The story was made out of a lot of reporters afterwards, and the questions were asked in locker room. I'm sure it came up in the news conferences too. Packers beat the Detroit Lions twice this season without leading for a single second of either game up until the final score. I man, I'd be hard pressed to title

last time that that's happened in NFL history. Actually, it's according according to a Lie of Sports Bureau, it's only the second time in league history it's ever happened seven Saints over forty nine Ers twice. It's the only other time it's ever happened in league history. And this is another thing reader pointed out an inbox Laurie from Costa Rica.

You know. Yeah, She pointed out that if you go back to the Hail Mary game in Detroit, three of the packers last five victories now against Detroit have been games where the Packers did not lead at all until the final until the final play of the game. So something about the Packers and the Lions and the way this rivalry is going right now. But that being said, boy um, I don't I don't even know where to

start with this one. You can start with the garbage first half or the miraculous second half, I don't know. But the Packers, somehow, some way, as they've done thirteen times this year, they found a way to win a ballgame. And it was another one of those games that things did not look all that great at various stages, but

they got it done. And we could talk about that first half, we could talk about that second half, But where I actually want to start this with is Mason Crosby and not just the kick, the redemptive kick I wrote about it. I think you lad was a game notes within or the column with it. It was really interesting when he was in the locker room because so many people wanted to ask him about Detroit. Last year

was for missfield goals in the Misssextra point that nightmare. Yeah, he's back at the scene of the crime and you know, working through everything that he did this season. But it was something that he mentioned where he's like, I don't want to talk his first quote as he's talking to me and he's like, I don't want to you know, look at that that was so long ago. I want to talk about this team. I want to talk about this locker room. And he said, this is a special team.

And I think when you try to break it all down and you and you put a title description of this two thousand nineteen season, this is a special team. They found unorthodox ways to be thirteen and three. And if you can't appreciate that, there's really nothing I can do for you. Could it be prettier at times? Absolutely? Uh?

Not to start the Packers wanted whatsoever. But when the chips are down, as I keep saying over and over again, whether it's inbox or whether it's on the show, you have to beat the Green Bay Packers for sixty minutes. You can get off to a big lead on them. They're gonna claw their way back if you let them. You can get off to a slow start and you might find a way to get yourself back in the fourth quarter. But then they close out where they need to.

They always have that counter punch when they need it at exactly the right time, and in this particular case, it was that Blake Martinez interception is Zadarius Smith's pressures and a incredible final series by the Packers offense to put Mason Crosby in position to make the thirty three yard game winning field goal. Yeah. I mean, you look at the anatomy of the comeback. What gets lost in it a little bit, quite frankly, West, is that the score is seventeen to three in the middle of the

third quarter. The Packers have just come off a drive where Crosby has missed a long field goal by inches fifty one yard or that just goes outside the upbright So it's still seventeen to three. The Lions get the ball back, but they punt and they pinned the Packers on the five yard line. So you're nine minutes left in the third quarter, you're down by fourteen. You seemingly have nothing going for you. Aaron Rodgers statistics at this point in the game are ugly, and they put together

a ninety five yard touchdown drive seventeen to ten. You get back in it. The touchdown past to Davantae Adams comes on third and ten after the interception by Martinez. The touchdown passed by Alan Lazard that ties the game at twenty comes on third and ten um and that was after a fourth and one conversion to Davante Adams

that kept that drive live a few plays earlier. And then the defense after Martinez gets the intercept sin that sets up the tying drive, the defense gets two more stops in the final five minutes to give Rogers in the offense two cracks at the game winning drive. The first one doesn't work out. The second one hinges on a screen pass to Aaron Jones for thirty one yards that gets the Packers into Crosby's field goal range, and a screen pass which I wrote about in my postgame editorial.

The Packers hadn't called a screen pass all day battle Fleur said He's never gone into a game with fewer screens in the game plan because all the film study on Detroit showed that screens didn't work against those guys. But with the game on the line, Aaron Rodgers is calling the plays in the two minute drill as as he always does, he decides, after fifty nine minutes of not running a screen, decides to call one. It didn't look the prettiest as the entire you know, the entire

game did. But Rogers got the ball to Jones, got a couple of blocks, made a couple of guys miss, He gets thirty one yards. And this was the theme of my postgame editorial, this Packers team, and it just it piggybacks off of what you just said they have. The story of this season is that this Packers team makes the right play at the right time to win

a game. And I don't care if you're talking about interceptions in the end zone late in the fourth quarter that won some games early in the year, goal line stop to beat Carolina, clutch first downs in the four minute offense to just close out a game without giving the ball back to the other team. This team has a way to just make the right play at the right time, no matter what has happened in the rest

of the game. And that's that's how they've won. And to me, and I take nothing away from Blake Martinez is interception, but to me it was it was the screen pass, just because of the circumstances of the fact that it wasn't really in the game plan. They hadn't tried one, they'd had one practice essentially full speed practice all week long on a short week with the holiday, and yet with a minute left in the game, they

called to play, they executed, and it wins the game. Well, And this is the reason to start with the Martinez play that it stands out to me is the defense other than a couple explosive plays early on him. You gotta remember the Packers gave up fifty four yards of total yards in the second half. There was the big thirty yard defensive pass interference. There were four first downs, four first downs and three points, the three points being a monstrous field goal by Matt Prator that a lot

of teams wouldn't even have tried. But Prators got the leg to make that indoors any drill. Yeah, and if not for that net, it would have landed in Lake Michigan. So I mean, just an incredible kick by him, but the defense that was all they gave up in the buckled down. But what was missing at that time they

needed to take away. They need to turn the momentum, and is this is right after the Packers get the ball back and they go three and out offensively, they can't connect on any of those deep shots, so they give them the chance. They give them an opportunity. So Martinez gets the pick, Zadarius Smith gets the pressure. They get down the field and are high points the ball perfectly.

And then credit to Matt Lafleur coaching staff, they had the perfect plan, perfect place set up for that quarters beater that basically Lazard knew once they shifted the coverage a certain way that the ball was going to go to him. Rogers throws it where only he can catch it, and they on former undrafted rookie steps up get the

game tied. But all that's well and good, but the defense gets another stop and as you point out, you get the opportunity then to go for a game winning drive, to go try to get this thing down the field. A big mistake with the the hitting Rogers on the slide.

Just a not good technique at all. I think that was Wilson who had that right, Yeah, Tavon will Tavon Wilson drilled Rogers on the slide and got flagged and it was like a two yard scramble that ended up being a seventeen yard play with the fifteen yard penalty. Tavon Wilson, Actually, I thought it had a pretty good game. He had that breakup on Aaron Jones earlier. When the quarterback sliding like that, you can't be diving in with

the shoulder. They're just going to call it every single time, even though I know some of the fans for the lines didn't like it. They have the opportunity. They dropped that play and it was into this thing. Listening to the offensive lineman and also Aaron Jones talk about how that came together sort of the muddied uh screen pass, I mean just being able to shift through that dice through it and Jones gets to pick up those yards.

You know. I made the argument in our game notes section that he did get his thousand yards season, which is incredibly meaningful. He had a hundred yard day on the ground, but that screen pass, that set the tone for the Packers being able to win that ballgame. It gets the ball down to the twenty yard line at the time of the Lions and really makes the Packers sort of feel comfortable with where they're gonna be at.

They forced Detroit to burn their last two time outs and Mason Crosby goes in there and does what he does. Aaron Jones the one thing we have learned this year, this guy is a legitimate superstar in this league. He is a guy that you can carry. You can put the weight of your team on him, and he might be five nine and two night pounds, but he's gonna be able to carry that load. Pound engine of a playoff offenses is really what it is. He's he's the guy who's making this work. And for only the second

time in his career, there really wasn't a plan. B. Jamal Williams was inactive with the shoulder injury. It had to be Aaron Jones, and he stepped up in rows to the occasion. Yeah, well, you look at you look at the way this game unfolded West and you know, it was one of those things that if it could go wrong in the first half, it did. Whether you want to talk about drop passes, passes that were off target, penalties on both sides, miss tackles. The Lions were running

the ball really, really well. The Lions even get points at the end of the first half when they've essentially given up. They're just handing off with twenty seconds left to see if maybe they can break a run low and behold. They do a forty yard run and then it wasn't even carry on or both. So they so they end up getting in field goal range when they weren't even necessarily trying to and it just happened. So they get three more points at the end of the

first half, then in then in the second half. Admittedly, you don't pull off a comeback like this without some luck, without some good fortune, without some breaks, and the Packers got some. When you look at the act that Martinez got an extra fifteen yards on his interception return because of a stupid personal file on Danny amndola Um. You

already mentioned the fifteen yards on Tavon Wilson. Those are thirty yards that led to ten points in this In this comeback for the Packers, I I personally thought I didn't understand the way the Lions were running the ball. They had a three headed monster in the backfield that had piled up a hundred and sixty rushing yards in the game. More that had like a hundred and twelve in the first half, and they only handed the ball off eight times in the second half when you had

the lead the whole time. I didn't understand that the Lions put the game in the hands of their undrafted rookie quarterback, and ultimately he made the critical mistake, which was trying to throw a deep ball under pressure from Smith. He badly under throws it and Martinez gets the pick. So that was, yes, it was a good play by

the defense, but also again a fortunate break. It was just one of these games that that that goes back and forth and then you all of a sudden, you're fifty five minutes and you've got five minutes left on the clock and everything's a wash because the score is tied. So then it's like, okay, who's going to make a

play to win the game? And even when Aaron Rodgers throws an interception late in the game, it was on third and twenty, it essentially functioned as about a fifty four yard punt which was better than you would normally even hope for off of a regular punt. So yeah, with Kumaro making making the tackle right away, So that ended up working out in in the Packers favor as well. But at the end of the day, again there you know, Matt,

it's interesting Matt Lafleur's postgame press conferences. He continues to just say a lot of the same things. And I'm not saying that as a criticism, but it's because it's because it's just about this team. It's you know, he continues to talk about the resilience, the belief in each other,

the the just the character of the team. That these guys are going to give everything they have for four quarters, no matter what the heck has happened, no matter what has gone right, no matter what has gone wrong, They're just gonna battle their way to the end. And this is the Packers team that's going into the playoffs. I mean, this is this is who they are. We'll see where

it goes from here. Yeah, And I mean, just to touch quickly on that first half, as you mentioned, offensively not to start, they're looking for trying to find some rhythm early and they're just not able to do it. They do finally get that field goal at the end of the half, and then they gave it right back. They gave it right back in twenty second to fall behind seventeen three. But what impressed me the most about

that performances They lose Corey Linsley to the back injury. Yes, that means it becomes Lucas Patrick, who signed a contract extension on Saturday Saturday. Well, now he's in there for the sign it right before he got on the plane at right. He's in there now for the first time

since Dallas. Then you lose. You you have Alan Lazard step up make a critical catch, you know, one of the big go to options with as much attention as the Lions were giving Davante Adams, and then he gets a third down conversion on a aunt injurs the ankle has to leave the game, come out. Brian Bulaga gets evaluated for a concussion, leaves the game in the second half.

Jared Valdier, for the first time in three or in sixty five days, has to come in and play in an NFL regular season game, and he steps up at right tackle. So regardless of what the odds are, what the score is or how poorly they might have played in the first half. Here you are with different guys in different positions, stepping up and making themselves, making their

presence felt. That I think is ultimately wherever this this ride ends for the Packers, that is going to be what I remember this team for the most is that no matter who they're playing or what the circumstances are, they have guys one through forty six on the game day roster that are going to be ready to step in there and contribute. All right, well, we need to get to the rundown on where the Packers stand in this playoff picture. But I will take care of some

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They then became very interested spectators in the Sunday night football game between San Francisco and Seattle, and the Packers come literally west one inch away from, maybe two from the number one overall seed. As Seattle's come back at Century Link ends up just a couple inches shy of the goal line. San Francisco wins by five. San Francisco is the number one seed, the Packers are the number two.

They also find out as soon as that game is over that the Packers time slot for the divisional round. The Packers will play the final game of the four divisional games in two weeks. It will be Sunday, January twelfth, lambeau Field five forty pm Central time, so an early evening kickoff there, and the Packers will face one of

three opponents. They will face either the New Orleans Saints, who are the three seed, the Philadelphia Eagles, who are the four seed, or the Seattle Seahawks, who dropped to the five seed with the loss to San Francisco on Sunday night. So the scenario is this, and it's really pretty simple. The Minnesota Vikings are playing at New Orleans

this coming Sunday in the wild Card round. If Minnesota wins that game, if Minnesota pulls the upset, so to speak, Minnesota will go to San Francisco and the Packers will get the winner of the Philadelphia Seattle game if New Orleans, if the Seeds hold in New Orleans wins at home as the three seed. New Orleans is coming to lambeau Field on January twelve, So that is where things stand.

Really interesting the way this shook out obviously at the top of the NFC because you end up with three teams that are thirteen and three and I can't remember the last time I would have to look it up, maybe I looked it up earlier, but that a thirteen and three team did not get a first round by the Saints at thirteen and three are the three seed

and they do have to play in the wild card round. Yeah, And to be honest with you, I think that actually probably tells the story of the NFC in two thousand nineteen. They're just it was very top heavy. I mean, I think there are four teams that kind of solidified themselves as the cream of the crop. San Francisco, Green Bay, Seattle in New Orleans, Minnesota was always on the cusp of that, but they never really got a key victory

throughout the course of the year. And the NFC East is just the NFC East, So it actually does, I think, speak to the parody of this, not really the parody, but on top the parody of those three teams and where they stand going into this thing. For the Packers, it's the first time in five years that they get to buy. It was interesting talking to a few guys in the locker room that I've been around for a pretty good amount of time, and they've never experienced that.

All they've known since really entering the league is sort of playing from behind, trying to get a playoff berth and then missing the playoffs the past two years. This is different. So you look at it with Lazard, with the coal injury obviously the injuries to bolog In Lindsley. This gives you a week now to be able to sit back recover from that. We don't know at this point in time when we're shooting the show, how Matt Lafleur is actually gonna approach this week and what is

what his mentality will be. I know for a fact, going back to fourteen when Mike McCarthy last got the buy, they gave off the players the beginning half of the week and then they returned at the end of it to do some practices and a little bit of work on Friday and Saturday. So a lot of different things

that they're gonna have to sort out. But as I was saying to you know, some of the members of the executive committee as we were walking out of the building, I mean, it's a good problem to have to finally be in a position where you don't have to run the table, you don't have to catch up, you can kind of breathe a little bit. Don't take that too you know, seriously, but I mean being able to just kind of decompress and reset exactly. It's it's a it's a reset. It's a reset, it's a recharge week. You

mentioned the injuries. The Packers obviously will try to we'll try to get those guys healthy. Usually in these situations that the coaches will start preparing sort of preliminary game plans for all three opponents, not taking every game plan to the finish line necessarily, but you'd start doing that scouting work on all three of those opponents. You're also doing a lot of scouting on yourselves in terms of where you are and UH and what you need to or want to take into the playoffs and or what

adjustments you need to make. So that's what this week will be about. As you said, we'll wait and see exactly what the player's schedule is. When Matt Lafleur announces that two things, I want to close the show on here. I know our rental time for the hour is almost up, but I need to ask you this first thing. You watch the San Francisco Seattle game. Yes, the play with was it Hollister that ended up being It looked like

he possibly was interfered with in the end zone. I can't remember who the receiver was, but yeah, so what do you stand on that? L Riveron says they had enough time to look at it and said it didn't there wasn't enough there. I this is what I said. This is what I said an insider inbox. If you're not, if you're not going to stop the game and take the time to actually look at that play, then the

rule is useless. It's only a regular season finale. I mean for for Vision Championship and the difference between a one seed and a five seed for the San Francisco

forty niners. I mean, I'm sorry, I don't believe that they had enough time to look at it and make a decision quite frankly, and if and if they made the decision, if they made the decision that quickly, that means they were just they they've as they've been the vast majority of the season, they've been completely predisposed to not throw a flag, which again I just say, makes the rule useless. The rule is there. If the past interference is on the film, then you have to throw

the flag from New York. That's why they put the rule in and uh, I I just say, I just what I said an inboxes. Either get rid of the rule or get rid of the people who are not applying it properly. The league has to do one of two things. In my opinion, they're going to get rid of the rule. If anything, that's what I think is going to happen to just the postseason. But they're going to get rid of it. I mean, that's we can

just say that definitively at this point. The thing I love about it as I'm watching the game with my father, uh in my parents living room as we after we got home. Yeah, I've lost probably about between ten and fifteen minutes in my life this year, including on Sunday night, watching Uh, al lazard play in which the ball didn't even touch the ground get reviewed. Uh. There's been incidences like this throughout the course of the year where things

have been reviewed or called upon. I think it happened a couple of weeks ago too, where they took a look at a possible passenger. Well there was, yeah, there was, yeah, it was. It was on a fourth it was on a fourth downplay, and they and they stopped to get they stopped the game to look at it. And that's that's my whole thing, is like, Okay, you actually you actually think you had enough time to look at that play, I mean, down to the wire division championship on the

line and everything like that. You're saying you had enough time to look at that play when we've seen things that have been stopped and looked at more closely just to be sure, and they didn't take the time to make sure on a very very crucial play, which to me means the rule is useless. It is, there's no point. But it was just funny again, NFL officiated just kind

of tripping towards the goal line. At the end of the season, I want to mention this because we didn't get a chance to talk about all the other games that happened. But I made a little tweet on the Twitter machine last night. Okay, I've seen it. Probably not, you don't really check Twitter that I was. I was a little busy because because I had to, I actually kind of had to have two stories ready, like San Francisco wins, Seattle wins, and what the Packers seed was

and all that. So I was communicating with with our boss because we were trying to get something up as soon as the game was over. But of course we literally we had to wait until the very last second because we didn't know who was going to win that that game in Seattle. Well, I was sitting there with a hot dog in my hand watching this game. Okay, And I just want to mention this because I tweeted this to my plea. Maybe I'll go on the ISO camera, Marvin,

if can get me, I'll centered up here. Hello, how are you? My plea to Packer fans right now, enjoy this, Enjoy this ride. It doesn't matter what's happened, it doesn't matter how ugly it's been at times. Enjoy this because two things happened Sunday that really hit home with me one. The New England Patriots in the same exact situation the Green Bay Packers were in regards to their own division.

Lost a game to the Miami Dolphins and it costs them a first round by They will now play I think on Saturday, right, Yeah, they're playing Saturday night in Foxboro. First time the Patriots have not had to buy in ten years. That happened the second thing, if you get a chance, I think the Los Angeles Charges tweeted this out.

Philip Rivers had one of the most powerful emotional snippets in a very it was very emotional comment about his approach to the game and what this game means to him and when you fall short of your goals, how that affects you. Take a look at that video, and look at the box score of the New England Patriots game, and step back for a second and appreciate where the Green Bay Packers stand. The first half not what you wanted. Packers are gonna need to play better than that to

make a deep playoff run. There's not gonna be a lot of these teams left that are gonna allow you to stay in those games. If you aren't able to really effectively move the ball in that first half, no question about it. But the Green Bay Packers won that game, and their thirteen victories on this season gave them a number two seed in the playoffs. Enjoy this because these runs are special and you don't get them all the time. Yeah. With that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition

of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com. You can subscribe to us like us on iTunes and other podcast services, and there's all kinds of great video content on the Packers YouTube channel, so check that out. For Wes, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in, See you next time.