#506 Packers Unscripted: Young and hungry

media session in the locker room after Wednesday's practice. It was interesting because you and I sat here three years ago, same exact chairs, same exact chairs talk. As the Packers entered the playoffs after regular season. It was the eight straight playoff appearance for the Green Bay Packer Is at that time, and there wasn't really a whole lot of discussion because the Packers have been in the playoffs eight years in a row about you know, oh, well, these

guys don't have playoff experience. They're new to this whole thing. You go two years outside of the playoffs, the Packers don't get their roster turnover, is what it is. Packers obviously changed coaching staffs as well as changing a lot of players, and there's a significant portion of this roster. Now it's a little bit different narrative with this Packers

team headed into the postseason. There are more than half of the fifty three man roster has not experienced an NFL postseason game, and it's an interesting dynamic, a different one for Green Bay heading into this. I kind of like it too, to be honest with you, because it goes back to a conversation that we were having with Kevin King in the locker room on Thursday, and King is one of the more excuse me on when when one of the more introspective players you're going to find.

When he really thinks into a question, he comes up with some pretty tremendous stuff. And you know, he was asked, it was by Ryan What initially about his approach to this first time being in a game. Other reporters had asked him about, you know, what's the most biggest game you ever played in? And he didn't really have an answer at first, and then finally I think it was Bill Hubert that remind him. He's like, well, you played in a National semifinal game at Washington. He's like, yeah,

I guess I did. And going back to what he had told Ryan, and his answer was that it's all the same. He's like and he used this analogy that if I throw you a ball, catch it, Okay, thank you, you catch the ball, tell you to catch it. If I throw it to you again and tell you to catch it, and if you drop it, you only a thousand dollars, nothing changes. It's still me throwing you ball. I'm not throwing any harder, any faster. Go ah, okay, good ah. It's all mental. And that's the same approach

he takes to this game. Now it's the other side of this. The reason I say I really like it is you've got a guy like Aaron Jones, who played in one Bowl game at you Tap, had one winning season, has not made it to the playoffs in his first two NFL seasons. There's a guy champing at the bid here, yeah, to make a run. And I think you see this hunger Billy Turner. I wrote about him earlier this week. Billy Turner has never been to a playoff game either.

He got drafting the league in fourteen. I think everyone's appreciative, whether it's a veteran a young player, everyone's appreciative. This opportunity. But the young players, which make up over half this roster, now they're excited to get this first taste of postseason play. Yeah, and when we're talking about the young players on this roster, we're not just talking about you know, bit players or role players necessarily, as much as guys buying into roles

and all that has been a part of this. But you're talking about a duo like Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams, a duo like Kevin King and JayR Alexander. You're talking about some key lineman like and Elton Jenkins on one side of Tyler Lancaster on the other. You're talking about guys that do play significant roles on this team that

are entering the NFL playoffs for the first time. And it's interesting because in talking to some of the veteran guys are Rogers, Davante Adams, Brian Balagha, guys like that who have been through these playoff battles, it was interesting because yeah, they're like, yeah, there are messages to deliver, but at the same time they're trying to strike the right tone with these guys to basically say, yeah, you know,

the playoffs are different be ready for it. But yet you know, and this was the threat of my story that I wrote on Wednesday evening. The playoffs may be different, but don't play the game any differently. It's still the same game. It's it's not about going out to be the hero. It's not about heading out there too to

make all the headlines. And Rogers you know himself. He pointed out his very first snap in a playoff game as an NFL quarterback, he threw an interception in Arizona, and he admitted, like my mind was kind of in the wrong place. I'm thinking, I gotta make a big splash play early. You know, established this or that whatever,

that's not the right mentality to take. And by the same token, while Rodgers can deliver that message to those that at about it and to those that he talks to, he can also he also has the experience right from that same game of having learned that lesson that he bounced back from that early interception went on to throw

four hundred plus yards four touchdowns. Obviously, it was a heartbreaking overtime loss in Arizona a decade ago, but that was one of the greatest postseason individual performances in Packers history, and he did that starting the game with an interception. Or you think about Ryan Grant who started his first playoff game with two fumbles in the snow against Seattle and then rushed for two hundred yards and three touchdowns. So it's it's about having your emotions and your mentality

and everything in the right place at the start. But then if things don't go well, to just settle down and stay after it, because you still could be the hero even if you're not necessarily trying to. Yeah, and it's a great point. You're raised. I actually think it's so good we probably could just end the show right now. I'm not gonna be able to do much better than that.

But it goes back to something I mentioned I think last month, to where it isn't just about Aaron Rodgers having that mindset either, right he was a young guy then or an older gentleman now. It's about you know, you look at maybe in a Marquez Veldes scantling maybe uh,

you know, Robert Tonyan or Jay Sternberger. Jeff Janis didn't walk onto the field at University of Phoenix Stadium back in two thousand and fifteen and say today I'm gonna have a hundred and sixty receiving yards and catch a hail Mary right at the end of the fourth quarter. That's just the way the game played. No one could have anticipated Randall Cobb falling on his back on a deep grab and having the mic that he was miked up with, end up injuring yeah, end up bruising his

lung and sending him to the hospital. So everybody has to have that mentality. And when you have that approach from the top down, that's what tells the young guys on this roster, Okay, this is the way, because until you're in that environment, this is a pressure cooker. Mike, You've seen it. You've covered these teams over the past decade every single week. Should the Packers win on Sunday, there's going to be more pressure for an NFC title game.

Should they win that, they'll be more pressure for a Super Bowl. There's more eyes, there's more visibility. But at the same time, it's also the beauty of the game. There's eight teams left, there's twenty four that are sitting at home. You want to keep this run going in the best way to approach that is by keeping that same approach you've had walking in the building every single

day dating back to April. Yeah. I thought Davante Adams had an interesting message too, because I had asked him specifically about his playoff debuteen Divisional round against the Dallas Cowboys, and he went out there as a rookie, seven catches,

hundred seventeen yards a touchdown. He was one of the stars of the game as the Packers moved on and advanced, and even he said he doesn't really remember so much about the week leading up to the game, but he remembers taking the field and not really realizing how much the intensity level was going to ratchet up. Now, he still performed, had a tremendous game, but he admitted he

wasn't even necessarily quite ready for that intensity level. So what he's trying to pass along to these other receivers, because he's the only receiver who's playing regular for the package who's been in the postseason. He's talking to Vold this scantling and to Jake Kumero and to Alan Lazard about you've got to be ready for that intensity level to wratch it up. But if you've had his messages, if you've had that focus and attention to detail all

along through the regular season. That's just what you need to keep going. It's not about, as I said before, it's not about trying to be a hero. It's not about trying to do something spectacular other worldly. It's about doing what you're doing, but just being ready and have the knowledge of what it might feel like and obviously what's at stake. And the best part about this, we'll talk about this, I'm sure on tomorrow's show too. If you're following the forecast right now for this game, it's

going to be a quintessential lambeau Field January football game. Now, it looks like most of the snow and I've seen those numbers range anywhere from six to ten inches now at this point, most of that snow is gonna land beforehand, but it's gonna be chilly. I think the current forecast is under twenty degrees. These are all the things that when the Packers talked about having a home field advantage,

this is what they were talking about. They weren't talking about forty two degree day in lambeau Field on January twelve. They were talking about fifteen degrees, flurries, those type of conditions, And if you think about it, Mike, with them having the cold early in October, these guys are there. They're forged for that now. And I just that shifting mentality of how these guys approach it both in the locker

room on the field. I've said it all along. I just feel like this team has built itself up for this moment and here we are now days away from it, them trying to get their first playoff victory now in three years. Yeah, it is going to be interesting to see as the forecast the temperature has kind of dropped a little bit in terms of what they're projecting. You're talking about the snow that's going to be coming in at some point over the weekend. So we will see

how much the weather ultimately has an impact. And as we're sitting here on Thursday taping this, I mean by the time Saturday afternoon rules around, the whole forecast could be different too, So we'll we'll just have to see. In that respect, I want to get back to your conversation. Along with some other reporters. You were at Kevin King's locker for quite a while on Wednesday after practice. He

was he was holding court a bit. As you said, he can be very both entertaining and introspective, and his his thoughts not only on him entering up, you know, the playoffs for the first time and all that, but he had a he had a good perspective on kind of what has helped this Green Bay secondary, which, aside from Tremont Williams, is full of all kinds of young guys. Um, but this is uh, this is a group that has that has held itself together and is you know, quite frankly,

playing some pretty good football. And I sat down after I finished my night, I wrote in box and I'm working on this story about the defensive backs, and I'm reflecting on two thousand fourteen, and there's a lot of

negatives that people remember about four team. But I was looking at the roster construction and it's fascinating to me that the Packers in that year started the season with the same ten defensive backs that they finished the season with actually end up being eleven because then Chris Banjo was added to the roster as well after starting the year on the practice squad. All eleven of those same

guys played until the end of the year. Now, there were some injuries in between, but they finished the year with that unity. This year's team is a little bit tiny different because Tony Brown was released two weeks ago and Raven Green is on i R, although he has the potential to potentially be activated for this game on Sunday. But there are a lot of parallels when you look

at how the depth has worked out for them. They have a lot of depth to begin with, and then the fact that those guys have been able to stay on the field. If you look at the dime defense, four of the six starting defensive backs in that formation have played in all sixteen games. Darnell Savage missed two, Kevin King sat out against Washington and came back. And I think having King, you know, kind of be able to shake off these injuries, not just play through them,

but shake them off. He hasn't been on the injury report here the last few weeks. Has been so critical to his success because we've seen since a very beginning how talented he is. Packers didn't draft him for no reason at number thirty three almost three years ago. Now. They drafted him because they saw six ft three, you know, quarterback that can run a four four and when he's at the top of his game at this defense is

playing at an optimal level. And this game, if you look at it on paper, DK metcalf is standing out there at six ft four pounds or whatever he is,

Kevin King looks like a really good asset to defend that. Now, he wasn't getting into that conversation, but I think talking to King and where his mindset is at and how he's been able to kind of free himself of all the things that have happened in the past, I just think he is just the epitome of this entire secondary and how they've been able to really ramp this thing up during the second half of the season month of December sixty one nine passer rating for opponents, four touchdowns,

eight interceptions during that span, completion percentage and more than anything else, only two or eight yards per game allowed through the air. The Packers have cut down on those explore some plays and that's what has allowed this defense to really settle in. That's what I was going to say, is to me, and and yes, the interceptions certainly helped

turnovers our big plays. To me, the most impressive thing that this secondary has done over the course of the season as we've seen this defense go through some ups

and downs. Is the cutting down on the explosives. I think that's I think that's what's really changed the look of this Packers defense down the stretch through the month of December, and Mike Petton has mentioned it at the podium multiple times that really the whole key to that in cutting down on those big explosive place has been the communication that, you know, the Packers are becoming a

noisy defense. Pre snap, guys are yelling and barking back and forth at each other because guys guys who are assertive, guys who are noisy, they know what they're doing and they're confident in what the call is. They're confident in communicating that to their teammates. And that's what's getting everybody

on the same page. Because through the middle portion of the season, when the Packers were giving up a lot of those explosive plays, the coaching staff, the players, they went back and looked at it, and more often than not, it was some level of miscommunication where somebody's doing one thing when everybody else is doing something else. And that's the thing about defense, That's the thing about this game

of football. If ten guys are doing one thing, but one guy is doing something else, it can wreck the whole plan. And so getting that communication squared away. And as Patton said, a noisy defense is a confident defense, and noisy defense is a good defense. He likes hearing all the barking and the yelling and everything pre snap that goes on out there, and it's worked for this team. It's worked for this unit to turn things around from where they were in the middle portion of the season

when those big plays were happening all too often. Yeah, and Savage even said too, I believe it was Savage that you know, guys could be barking stuff around, you might even know what the call is, but there's still a benefit to being able to have that kind of communication. And Yeah, Petton has even said it's about over communicating. There's there's no there's no demerit points for over communicating.

It's it's hey, you know, even if everybody knows it's say it again anyway, you know that that's the approach that and this is an outspoken secondary too. If you go flashback to where in two thousand fifteen to where they are now, I mean, you have a lot of extroverted type of personalities. Now they're different types of extroverts.

I don't think Jay Alexander is the traditional extrovert, but within his within his group, and within his position, you can tell, you know the kind of the the court that he holds with that group, and it probably honestly starts a lot with Tremont Williams and in the kind of leadership that that he provides at that spot. But it's it's it's been very telling, I think when you've

watched this team mature throughout the course of the year. Yes, they lost Raven Green, but then they got Ibraheim Campbell back that allowed adrianame Is to play deep safety again or play more into that strong safety role. Darnell Savage has a full season under his belt now, J Alexander, only the more that that group plays together, the stronger it's going to become. And you know this is totally true for the offensive line probably more than any other position.

When that group plays together, there's a benefit to that. But I really think something that we don't really don't talk enough about is that when you can get us an entire secondary together playing as one, you talk about ten playing as a you know, one guy being off script, and what can happen when when you play that many snaps together, some of that stuff gets to be sort

of you know, you know, ironed out. So it's gonna be fascinating to watch because this is a game where you look at how it it's structured, and we'll see

exactly what this forecast ends up looking like Sunday. But the harder you make it for Russell Wilson to get the downfield passing game going, the more beneficial it's going to be to this entire defense and this team, because that's the one area right now I think with the Seahawks not having their traditional run game where they can really hurt you as if you allow them to get that going well, And this is the other thing I'll say too, as we wrap up this discussion about the secondary,

I think we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about one of the key things I think that has that has benefited this group as they've ironed some things out is Mike Petton. Certainly, over over the back half of the season particularly, he has not had to rely on blitzes and sending extra rushers to get pressure on the quarterback.

And if you can rush for the vast majority of the time, sometimes it's three and even dropping an eighth guy into coverage if you're covering with seven guys most of the time, and then that communication is on point. That makes things really difficult for quarterbacks, especially on third and eight and third and ten and stuff like that. And you just look at you look at the numbers West and obviously the Packers this year, they didn't actually rack up a big, huge sack number compared to last year.

The sack numbers are somewhat similar in terms of the total team number at the end of the regular season. But we all know from the eye test and when you look at other stats from Pro Football Focus about pressures and things like that, it that this defense is different. And I think one of the biggest differences is the ability to get sacks and then or I should say, to get pressures and then sometimes sacks without having to blitz and without having to put that secondary in a

compromising position. Where Mike Pettness saying, we've got to speed up the quarterback. But if you don't, if you don't have to, uh, if you don't have to compromise the coverage in order to do that that makes your defense look a heck of a lot different whether you're sacking the quarterback or not. I guess is my point in the statistic I keep going back to because you're absolutely right about the sacks. The sacks are basically on par

with what they were last year. But if you look a little bit deeper into that quarterback hits this year for the Packers defense, they had seventy four last year, and Kyler Faccrol for having ten and a half sacks, only had twelve quarterback hits in the quarterback. It's been a constant barrage of pressure that they've been able to

throw against these things. And I know Aaron Nagler, friend of the show, you know, he always talks about the kind of the three man rush by in the bane of his egg existence, and in most cases he's right. I always felt like the most the only time you really could really count on it consistently is when you're in the red zone. You have more guys that defend

less area of the field. But I'll say this about this year's defense, they've gotten as much pressure with a three man front is I can ever recall, at least during my time on the beat and that's a credit is that area Smith and and Kenny Clark standing at the front of that. And you're absolutely right because when you can get pressure with for not only are you right, does that give you more options in your secondary? I actually think it also is what makes the blitz is

more effective. You've seen then, Okay, now when you said Adrian Amos or when you send a slot cornerback at the quarterback, now you're getting a little bit more exotic rather than all right, we gotta go five on five here, it's our only way to get home. That's been a big difference for this defense. Yeah, I think so too.

I think I think that when you look at the bigger picture, everything in totality not you know, taking nothing away from you know, the twenty five plus sacks that the Smiths have combined for and everything, but there's there are so many goods things going on with this defense on the plays that sacks don't happen, and yeah, quarterbacks

are gonna make plays. And Russell Wilson is by far, as we talk about how much this defense has really come on strong here the last month of the season, Russell Wilson is by far the best quarterback here that the Packers will have faced in a long time. So this is a whole new challenge here in the playoff game for this defense. But the momentum they've generated, the confidence they've generated, the communication things that they've ironed out, I think the unit is is ready for the challenge

of Russell Wilson here in January. I think, yeah, that's a great point. That's basically the underlying assumption. I kind of tried to lay out my stories this they're going to be able to give them their best shot. And there's been so many years, Mike where it was by Galli. I mean, it was great to run the table in sixteen, but here you are in the NFC Championship and you have God bless him, Ladarius Gunter going up against Julio Jones.

It's not the way you script it going into a season and the quarterback is the m v P of that season in Matt Ryan, and I just I think that it's good when you can actually not only make a run, but actually be in position at that point to be like, all right, we're going to prove that we are the best team in football. We're gonna prove we can win this game and you have all those

horses to mount that that rally with. And to be honest with you, Mike, just to close on this, the the fervor and excitement in Green Bay right now, whether I'm just watching television or just walking around, it hits a different level when there's a playoff game at home coming up. I think everybody was excited about Atlanta, in Dallas and in Washington and all these other places they've

gone in recent years. But when there's a game at lambeau Field, it's it's a celebration, it's a holiday, it's it's it's something that I think everybody kind of just sets their sights to and and you know, kind of bookmarks that. And that's special because again, this is as Dean Lawry was the first one to kind of open

my eyes to it. This is the first time in three years the Packers have hosted a home playoff game, I should say, yeah, and the first time in five years that this round, the divisional round, has been at lamb It's incredible. Yeah, it's incredible how that works out. Well, we've got one more show to go this week. We will get two keys to victory and all that kind of stuff on our Friday show, but for now we're going to call it a wrap on this edition of

Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team during this playoff week on Packers dot com. You can subscribe to us, like us on iTunes and other podcast services, and check out all the great video content on the Packers YouTube channel. For Wess, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in. Everybody. We'll see you next time.