#503 Packers Unscripted: Wild weekend

of games. The up shot for the Packers, of course, is that with the Vikings knocking off the Saints and then the Seahawks beating the Eagles, that sets up Seattle coming to lambeau Field next Sunday for the divisional round five pm Central Time. But as far as these four wild card games go, where do you want to start? Well, first off, I want to start with up shot. I gotta find a way to work that into my writing. I like that up shot. I'm gonna find a way

to get one of my stories this week. So I basically watched every single one of these games, uh for you know, basically beginning to end the entire way. My number one takeaway was that crowd out there that's like, hey, you, if you play in the wild card round, you can build momentum for the playoffs. Those were four ten twelve round slug fests in all of those games. If one of these teams, whether it be the Texans, Titans, Vikings, or Seahawks, end up going on a Super Bowl run,

my hat goes off to them. But they all I thought left a piece of themselves on those fields because of how tightly contested, especially the first three were um and then certainly the Eagles always being within scoring range of the Seattle Seahawks. I did say, I just want to put this out there. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. What happened in the Titans game

is what played out. If you would have told me over under on thirty carries for Derrick Henry in that game, I would have said over if the Titans were gonna have a chance to win this game, they played did their strengths, the New England defense that have been so stout all year long, they just did not have an answer for trying to get down within three yards of the line of scrimmage, and you know the Patriots, you know,

get get bounced from the playoffs. I thought the Texans showed a lot of adversity and grit to be able to push through that game against the Bills, especially coming on in the second half the way they came on in the Minnesota Vikings. Folks, I know there's a lot of Packer fans that you know, some might have been cheering for him because they wanted the Saints out of the playoffs. The other half might have been cheering against him because their Minnesota Vikings. But that team, when Dalvin

Cook is playing, is a different football team. And he was healthy, he was arrested, and he made his presence felt against the seat or against the New Orleans Saints team that just couldn't get its run game going. Well. I think that's the game that obviously interest Packers fans the most, is the Vikings going into the super Dome in New Orleans. And I said last week, the Vikings gave themselves a week off. They gave they took Week seventeen when they had nothing to play for. They gave

themselves a chance to regroup and to reset. You said it, Dalvin Cook is back. The other game is back is Adam Thealen Because we saw even though he played in Week sixteen, the Monday night game against the Packers, Adam Theland still wasn't really back to his old self. You could tell by the way he was running routes and whatnot, and that wide receiver he comes back from the fumble

on the game's opening possession. Yeah. Absolutely, and then he got called for like a very questionable I thought holding call that wiped out a nice run for the Vikings. Things were not looking good for Adam Theland early in the game, and then he just made clutch play after clutch play as this game evolved, and then he's the guy who makes the big catch deep down the field in overtime. I thought, what the Vikings showed. I agree

with you. I think all these teams that won these twelve round bouts they had left something of themselves on those fields. But I gotta tip my hat to the Vikings because Mike Zimmer even said last week, Hey, nobody gives us a chance to win this game. And the one thing that I thought over anything else that gave the Vikings a chance answers that they essentially were taking

a bye week into the playoffs. They got a chance to rest and reset their guys, and I think that made a huge difference because they had to withstand a big Saints charge in the fourth quarter. They did. The game goes to overtime, and then on the opening possession of overtime, they didn't let Drew Brees get the ball back.

So a couple of things here. The first thing, if I'm gonna point out that the Titans end up doing what I thought they were going to do against the Patriots, I have to point out that I was wrong about the vikings, and that is that I thought Kirk Cousins, coming off of that performance that he had against Green Bay, he would need to play. He needed to be able to get that that tune up fight to be able

to feel good about himself again. And let's be honest, Mike, even if he would have played against the Bears, and even if you have played well again, as I said in my preamble here, the team is just different when Delvin Cook's playing, when Madison is playing in that backfield is moving the ball the way they are. And that's not to say that Kirk Cousins doesn't matter. There were certain parts of that game him where he made some pretty clutch throws that that helped them get that win.

But Delvin Cook is the steam engine that drives this team and drives this offense, and I thought that was arguably the best performance I've seen from the Vikings defense this entire season with how they were able to You know, there was some trickeration there that they had to weather with Taysom Hill, but you know, as much emphasis and I know Taysom Hill is really fun to talk about. The New Orleans Saints aren't thirteen and three because of here's all the cool stuff that Taysom Hill can do.

Their thirteen and three because of Michael Thomas, because of Drew Brees and Teddy Bridgewater, Uh, you know, and then obviously the biggest one being Alvin Kamara. None of that was going for them in this game. Thomas had seven catches for seventy yards, but wasn't the impact player you've really grown accustom to him being. And Alvin Kamara, I actually thought that was kind of a disservice that they did him by not getting him the ball. More. It's

fun to get Taysom Hill out there. He made some cool plays, but I think it's some part of that game they sort of lost what their identity was and despite being at them, they couldn't find it. Yeah, that I thought Minnesota's defense really was impressive, especially when you

look at the first half. The Saints go into halftime with ten points, but the only significant play they made on offense was Taysom Hill throwing the deep pass down the field to to set up the one touchdown him the field goal right and the fumble gave the field goal early on where the Vikings defense rose up in the red zone to get that to get that stop.

Drew Brees definitely was was finding some things and finding a rhythm in the fourth quarter, but then obviously the Vikings made the big play to disrupt that rhythm with the sack fumble when the Saints had just gotten to the twenty yard line. They were down three at that point, but there was the amount of time on the clock. You're thinking, boy, they go in and get a touchdown here they go up four, and then they really kind of turned the screws on Cousin to say you have

to respond. The Vikings get the turn over there, and then when the Saints got their last chance, they really only had time to get into position to kick the field goal and get get it to overtime. So that turnover, that red zone turnover by by Breeze, I thought was huge, But I have to ask you because it's what everybody's

talking about. Of course, in the overtime the touchdown passed to Kyle Rudolph, it was reviewed very quickly for potential offensive past interference on Rudolph pushing off on the defender. Would you think I thought he pushed off obviously, and he's a bigger say, I mean, you're six ft six, six ft five tight end going up against the defensive back. You're going to have that advantage. Was it egregious? No?

But I thought it was a push off. Now that all that being said, this everybody holding their breath afterwards to see if New York was going to review this. We've watched this movie several times now, and I get the Superdome was incredulous and they were upset, and they've had a lot, They've had three straight years of losing on the final play of the game. So to throw the garbage, I can't. I can't excuse that. But to to be surprised it wasn't called and then it wasn't reviewed,

I mean, come on, we know this by now. One thing I'm gonna disagree with. I was watching one of the pregame shows, or when it was the postgame show. I think it was on Fox, and I think it was Jimmy Johnson. If I'm wrong on this, excuse me, But Jimmy Johnson or somebody had said, you know, be better that the officiating doesn't matter. I actually don't agree with that. This game. That's that that that's a tough take to swallow. There's a Division One football subdivision teams.

This isn't Alabama laying a stinker against you know, Louisiana Monroe or something like that. All these teams there's You're gonna get tightly contested games. There's just not going to be blowouts. It's just not the way when you get to the very cream of the crop, it's not gonna work out that way. The officiating needs to be on par with that, and it needs to be officiated the way the rules are intended for them to be officiated,

whether or not they like it or not. That is the rules this season, Mike and I have I can't tell you any other time in NFL history where I can remember an amendment being made to the rule book and then in that first season just a total, like since the very beginning, just a total ignoring, ignoring of that. Yeah, this is what I'll tell you, I don't know if you've read my inside or Inbox column from this morning yet. If you haven't, that's okay. We just got we just

got to work. Um. But I'm going to reiterate what I said there because to me, to me, what defined the decision is what nobody's really talking about, or at least it wasn't part of the explanation from the league. And what I mean by that is the Saints defender never turned around, never turned his head, was not playing

the ball, was only playing the man. And if you extrapolate, you know, look at this from the bigger picture, sinse a defender who never turns his head and makes contact with the offensive guy some sort of restrictive contact, he's going to get the dp I flag every time. Right. So I think there's a I think there's a there's a natural transition here to say, well, we're not going to bail out a defensive player who doesn't turn his head just because the offensive guy made some contact, right.

I think if the Saints defender, and I apologize for forgetting exactly who it was, but if he turns his head in any way and Rudolph shove is into his say his shoulder or into his back. Then I think there's a there's a decent chance maybe that that offensive past interference flag falls. But because he had his back to the play the whole time, he never knew where the ball was. I think I think New York just said we're not going to bail that guy out. That's

just that's that's my opinion. Do you think that was actually their justification for it? I wonder that. I think you make a really good point, and I think it's very astute. I think curious that they actually thought that within the thirty five seconds wherever that they made that decision what I I don't I don't know that, and

I don't know if I would necessarily speculate that. But but I think my overall point is that I think obliminally, subconsciously, just looking at how the defender was defending the play, they're not interested, you know, They're they're they're like, well, you know, he he wasn't making the play on the ball, you know, So that to me, to me, I think that played into the decision, whether whether it was verbalized, whether it was actually processed mentally that way in the

thirty five seconds, as you said, I don't really know, but but just based on the way these calls are made, I think that was part of I think that's a heck of an answer. I think that's a really good theory that you have. I really wish somebody would have told the New York Office, hey, let's go with that, because there's a real part of it. There's a big part of me that still doesn't even believe they thought on that level. But no, and and and you and you.

Maybe you may be absolutely right and I'm not right, and I'm not going to I'm not going to disagree with that. The other thing I will say because another one of my initial thoughts right when had happened. Kevin Seaffert, who we know from SPN dot com and he was a Vikings beat reporter for a long time. He's now a national writer and he's he's covered these officiating issues over the years for ESPN. He's done an outstanding job.

And I was following his Twitter account yesterday during you know, throughout really throughout the weekend with the playoffs, and he brought up right after basically as that was going to review that in the first two weeks of the season, an offensive past interference flag was dropped from New York off of a review three times. One of those was

at Lambeufield Packers against the Vikings. We all know that took a touched on away from Minnesota after week two, which is when we know everything changed and how they were looking at this stuff. An offensive past interference flag was dropped from New York once the rest of the season. So what do you think. I mean, the odds just weren't that good to begin with, that they were gonna that they were going to overturn that touchdown with offensive

past interference. And then my additional point is the fact that the defender was playing the play the way he was did not certainly did not increase New Orleans odds at all of getting that call. That's that's kind of where I stand. We'll move because I want to talk about Seattle here, but I want to ask you this question. Have you ever driven an old car before? I'm an old car driver. I've never actually bought a new car.

I don't know if you've ever been through this. Sometimes when the check engine light goes on, you bring it into the shop. Sometimes you just admit defeat and you're like, I'm just gonna ride this thing out until it doesn't. I really believe that's where it got to this season. Just let it stay on, get through the year. We'll bring it to the shop and try to figure it

out in March. But maybe at this point it's an incredible thing that Kevin points out that there would be that many because that flag against green Bay or for green Bay, that would never right. Exactly, that's the thing. It happened three times in the first two weeks of the season, and starting Week three through the end of the regular season, only once did they throw on offensive passe in reference flag from New York. So I think that's important to keep in mind as far as the

context of how all this evolved. But the Seattle Seahawks West are coming to lambeau Field. It will be the fourth postseason meeting between the two teams. The Packers won the two thousand and three NFC Wild Card Game on

the Al Harris pick six in overtime. The Packers won the two thousand seven NFC Divisional Game, the Snow Globe Game with Ryan Grant and the two hundred plus rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns, and then of course the Seahawks won the two thousand fourteen NFC title game and

overtime with the big fourth quarter comeback. So there's a lot of playoff history here between these two teams and a lot of drama, a lot of bad feelings of course, certainly with what happened five years ago, and then you throw in the failed Mary from seven years ago and everything else that goes along with it. But um, but boy, this is uh. It's gonna be one heck of a matchup. It's gonna be great, it's gonna be a lot of fun.

I think there's enough storylines going into this that ultimately it's it's gonna really propel this to be in the marquee matchup the divisional round of the playoffs, and I'm excited for it. Kind Of like I said last week, with New Orleans and Minnesota, where they sort of became honorary division rivals, that's kind of basically where Seattle and Green Bay is, uh, in terms of just they've seen each other so often over the years, regular season, postseason,

what what have you? And for I have so much respect for John Snyder, Pete Carroll, what they've built in Seattle and how they've been able to sustain it. So much of it reminds me of the Ted Thompson approach. I know the front office structure is a little bit different than what Green Bays was, but you know, draft and develop and when there's holes, fill it in. And they did that this year with Jadeveon Clowney coming in and you saw the impact he had on that game.

And you know, I think there's a lot of parallels you can draw between the way he plays and how he's utilizing what the Packers are doing with sa Darius Smith right now. But like the very beginning, how it always has come down to when the chips are down and your top three running backs are injured. They lost their tight end that was pretty good early in the season.

It needs to be back on Russell Wilson, and in a game in which both teams were incredibly banged up, uh Philadelphia almost historically so goodness, Russell Wilson put the game in his hands and they won the game because of Russell Wilson. Now the last few weeks, so I think that's a big supreme challenge for them. But you look at it, it's a really interesting dichotomy. They're right where Seattle was down all of its running backs. Philadelphia

was down all of its receivers. You put those two teams together, you might have a pretty good skill position. But they leaned on DK Metcalf, they leaned on Tyler Lockett. It's gonna be a fantastic matchup here at Lambolefield on Sunday. Yeah. I want to ask you a couple of other questions with regards to that Eagles Seahawks game in just a minute.

But 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, the clowney hit, Yeah, what do you think? I didn't like it? I see

why it wasn't hauled. Um. The reason I didn't like it is I think there's a I understood the poor report in that Wins didn't give himself up, but there's still certain protections that you are allowed as a runner, regardless of what your position is, and I don't feel like he properly received those on that play. I can't get into jadeveon Clowney's head. I don't know why he

really high to the body. I get the idea that he had to make sure that that guy was down, but Carson Wentz was fairly defenseless at that point in time. It sounds like it was a concussion. It could have been much worse with where his face mask hit. You think about the cervical issues that players have had in this league. I did not like it. Um I thought it was it's a bang bang play. Yeah it is.

It's it's it's a bang bang play. What I didn't like about it at all was that when you look at it, and I realized when you see it in slow motion, you know, everything is magnified. But it just it looked like Clowney was com leading with the helmet. There was There was nothing as far as reaching out with the arms to try to make a grab or lowering the shoulder to make a hit. It was nothing like that. It was all. It was all about the helmet, and that's exactly the type of hit that they're supposed

to be legislating out of out of the game. And unfortunately, UM I hope, certainly hope Carson Wentz is going to be okay, But unfortunately that hit had a major impact on a playoff game. Yeah, in a court of law, I think you can make the argument that Clowney was trying to get a shoulder in there. But even let's say that that is the best case scenario and all this, I still don't like hitting a player that high on

his body when he's compromised in that position. I just think there's so many other ways that you could approach that you could have tried with the angle that he took on him. You could have went over his body. You could have just tried to lead with the hands. But the facts as they are, it did not look good. It looked like a helmet leading another guy's helmet directly into the turf. In two thousand nineteen, that's just not going to play again. You know, I'll sit here and

I'll criticize officiating and that one. You gotta see it because it's there and then it's over and there's no replay of it. So obviously they felt like it was just a a you know, a normal play. Wentz gets back up, if he stays down, maybe things get affected a little bit, but yeah, not not a good look. And um, yeah, it was, in my opinion, a regrettable

moment of that football. Otherwise really good football game. Yeah. Well, I'll reiterate what I've been saying for years that if the league had just decided to make all these safety rules reviewable by replay, we could have a little bit more I think, just decisions that are made on on these type because you, like you just said, they have to call it, they have to call it in real time. It's a bang bang play. I get it. It's not easy to do. I'm not saying that it's an easy

call to make on replay. I think you get a little bit better look at exactly what happened. But the league has never shown any interest in in actually reviewing any of the safety Yeah, and I mean that's one of the things I think the NFL and a lot of professional leagues are struggling with its entertainment. Yeah, well, with with you obviously with Clowney. As we've been discussing

here the hit aside. And this is taking nothing away from Bobby Wagner and kJ Wright and whatever, but if you're going to put a bull's eye on somebody from the Packers offensive perspective, that you gotta get blocked. I mean, comes Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening at lambeau Field. Jadeveon Clowney

is the guy who can just wreck your game. I mean the Seahawks, in my opinion, they are They are in this position primarily because of what Jadeveon Clowney did in San Francisco and that Monday night game that was such a huge win for Seattle that set them up to be in this position in the first place. And uh, Clowney is going to be a big topic of conversation throughout this week. I can't really figure out with Seattle why they've never really been able to like quote unquote

draft pass rushers like edge rushers. Yeah, they always get them from they always get them from other places. John Snyder has probably done as well of a job as anyone over the last decade of finding edge rushers, often at a modest price, that they bring in and make an impact in this defense. And Clowney is the most recent one of that and certainly I think earning himself

a lot of money this offseason. Uh. The other thing too, I just want to put this out there because I don't know if you saw the postgame comments, but man, Josh McCown. I mean, if you ever Josh McCown's career here and the next whenever it ends, maybe it's this offseason, Josh McCown will not go down as the most talented

quarterback in NFL history. But man, oh man, if that guy hasn't one gotten every single ounce of ability out of him his body in terms of what he's accomplished and too, I don't know, it gets thrown around so much, and it's such a big cliche of oh, they wanted more and how much do you? I don't know if I've ever seen anyone who wants it more than Josh McCown.

His mentality, his approach, um, I mean, he's out there just completely spent after that game, in a game in which he started on the sidelines, and as they mentioned, even during the and he was limping around on one

leg there in the fourth quarter too. I'm not sure exactly what he was dealing with, and they did clearly trying He's trying to scramble and get away from pass rushers and he wasn't even and he's forty years old on top of all that, and it's Sudfield was inactive, so I mean he was the quarterback from that point on. It was tough watching him scramble out there of just a lot of fun to watch. He tried to make

that thing happen. Unfortunately for the Eagles, much like the first batch, they just couldn't get in the end zone. And that's gonna be the challenge for Green Bay next week is You're probably gonna be able of intervals where you get yards on Seattle, but can you finish it? Can you be that top ranked red zone offense that

they've been all season? Yeah? Well, we'll be talking about a lot of these matchups, a lot of these statistics and everything that will play into this game as the week goes along, because we got a lot of shows to do and uh a lot of talking to do. But for now, we will call it a wrap on

this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team here on Divisional Playoff week on Packers dot com, Subscribed to us like us on iTunes and other podcast services, and there's all kinds of great video content on the Packers YouTube channel for Wes. I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in everybody see you next time. Don't