#513 Packers Unscripted: Abrupt ending

the San Francisco forty Niners. And there are a lot of different ways we can try to go about dissecting this, but for me, we all know the Packers needed to play better than they did in San Francisco in Week twelve in order to get a different result, and the bottom line is they didn't play better and because of that, the San Francisco forty Niners. Hats off to them. They are clearly the best team in the NFC and they

will represent the conference in Super Bowl. And from just perspective, you feel really good for Kyle Shanahan, Robert Sala, everybody over there on that side of things, because San Francisco, it's it's the very beginning is been a tremendous you know, uh, They've done a tremendous job all season long in terms of what they were able to do and how they were able to accomplish it. And you know, they came in and they did what they were supposed to do

in this game. And you know, it was an interesting game plan. If you would have told me going into this thing that Jimmy Garoppolo was only going to throw the ball eight times eight times, I don't think I would have believed you. But and then you know, certainly Tevin Coleman has kind of been their bell couse, sort

of the power back for them. Well, he gets injured with the shoulder injury, and where he mostart who was probably one of the better stories in the NFL this season when you consider where he came from, the amount of stops he had leading up to San Francisco, and even when he got to the forty niners he was mostly a special team's hand. And then here he is now six yards per carry for his career during the regular season and he busts out for two or twenty

yards in this game against Green Bay. The Packers did not have an answer for them. And you know, guys in the locker room, Blake Martinez among them, talked about it. I mean they just San Francisco was able to switch things up enough with their run concepts that the Packers were never able to get comfortable outside of really that opening drive where they went three and out. Beyond that, San Francisco was able to move the ball at will.

And when you give up that amount of rushing yards two five rushing yards, it's just it's it's that's a big uphill battle to climb. Yeah, it was a combination of two things in the first half in which the Packers fell behind twenty seven and nothing. It was the inability to stop the run with most Are doing the vast majority of that damage, and then the Packers making mistakes on offense. You look at most Are, I believe he's been released cut like a half dozen times in

his career. He ends up with the two and twenty yards and four touchdowns. He becomes the first player in NFL history with two d plus yards and four rushing touchdowns in a playoff game. The tuner and twenty yards is the second most rushing yards in a playoff game by an individual, behind only Eric Dickerson, who of course

is in the Hall of Fame. And on the Packers side of things, you know, whether you're talking about penalties or sacks or a fumbled snap when it's looking like you're going to get on the board at seventeen to nothing, now, I mean, you know, you can say, hey that, you know, if the Packers get it to seventeen seven there, maybe

it's a different game. Yet. Maybe it is, but maybe it isn't if you can't stop the run, because, um, what San Francisco was doing in this game on the ground, as you said, the Packers just didn't have an answer

for it. And when I sort of described it an inside or inbox as I was writing in the wee hours of the morning on the plane coming back, when it's third and eight and a simple handoff goes thirty six yards for a touchdown, you kind of go oh, because that's not that's not how that's supposed to happen. And it looked way too easy for the forty niners, and it just kind of stayed easy through the bulk of the ball well, and the Packers had shifted to their dime there and they had run mostly based up

to that point. And for the most part, the Packers, I actually think, have defended the run all right. On draw plays with their dimes scheme this year, that wasn't one of them, and most Are was able to get through. I wrote about it in our game notes. Six of their ten longest plays went through he Mostert and he you know, it was a thirty six yard carry. That was his big game, the touchdown. But other than that, it was just consistently being able to move the chains

and have explosive plays when they needed them. The thing that's tough for Green Bay in a game like this is that you pointed it out. I mean, offensively, they just shot themselves in the foot too much in the first half. Second half, they actually turned it up a little bit. You saw Davante Adams get going. I thought they were playing a little bit more free. Jimmy Graham had a big catch. Certainly Aaron Jones didn't have a bevy of opportunities, but I thought played pretty well with

the ones he did receive. But defensively, they could never get the stop or the takeaway that they needed. Believe it was five games this or where San Francisco and Jimmy Garoppolo did not have a turnover, and two of those were against Green Bay. So you can have some of those missed opportunities. You can miss some tackles, but if you give up the ball and you're not able to force it and get gash for those explosive plays, it's it's a very difficult battle to be able to

wage against a team like San Francisco. You and I discussed this about you go back to that Lions game at Ford Field. Like you, it was an up and down game for Green Bay. They rallied late. When you get to the postseason and you're against a team like the forty Niners who are as good and as disciplined and so many different aspects of the game, they're just not going to afford you those opportunities to call yourself

back into it. And the result was what it was. Well, you knew when the Packers were down to nothing in the turnover category at halftime and facing such a big deficit it was going to take a turnover to to really turn the tide in this game. But you know, turnovers come by either most of the time, sack fumbles on the quarterback or interceptions. And if you're not making the quarterback throw the ball, you're not gonna be able to get those turnovers. And the forty Owners just controlled

things at the line of scrimmage. They um, they just they look dominant. And I'll say this too. It as I was kind of pondering all this flying back on the on the plane late last night, you looked at the NFC and how much of a meat grinder the NFC was this year. The Vikings were a good team, The Saints were a good team, Seahawks were pretty good. Packers obviously were good, but all the rest of those teams were still kind of just grinding along. In the playoffs,

the forty Niners found another level. They dominated Minnesota, they dominated the Green Bay Packers. And as good as the NFC was, the forty Niners were the one team in that group of good teams in the NFC that rose to another place in January. And that's why they're going to the Super Well And and this is the part I wanted to get into later in the show, but heck, why not just get into it now? Uh, San Francisco, Like they're the standard right now. They're the standard bearer

for the NFC. And we'll find out here in two weeks maybe for the NFL in terms of how they play in where they can win football games. For Green Bay, they are ahead of schedule, and that's one of the things I'm sure you and I'll be discussing a lot this week. Nobody anticipated the thirteen win season, being back, to get in the playoffs and also get a first round by to win a game, to get back to your third NFC championship game in six years. All those

things were phenomenal and terrific. But San Francisco, once Jimmy Garoppolo got back, and once they got through that early gamut in that first month of the season, people really start to think, Okay, this guy, this team was sort of a quarterback away, a pass rusher away, and you could kind of see I mean I was saying it. I remember the conversation we had with Wayne Larvy during one of our pepperis I set it back in September

and early October. I mean, San Francisco to me was one of the best teams, if not the best team in the NFL at that point, because they did all the little things right, and they're incredibly fast, incredibly discipline and in between the hashes, really tough on both sides of the ball. For Green Bay, where they need to look at now going in this offseason is that you are ahead of schedule. And I'm writing this an Insider inbox for Tuesday. This is a tremendous opportunity ahead of

them right now. But they have to be pragmatic. They have to be disciplined in what they do and how they approached this offseason to reach that next level. Last year, John Lynch felt like, you need to go add d Ford. Look at what de Ford added to this to this defense. You've seen Joe, you know, Nick Bosa come in, have what he's done, the speed of their linebackers, having a veteran like Richard Sherman. I don't, as Aaron Rodgers said, I don't see the Packers as being that far away

from where the forty niners are. But they need a smart, savvy offseason to make that next step. Yeah, and I want to get into a little bit more of Aaron Rodgers comments here in a minute. West 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 in subs dot Com. Cousin Subs.

We believe in better, all right, well, Aaron Rodgers. Obviously he's gone to the podium three times now in January after an NFC championship loss on the road, and this one, this was a different press conference. You know, obviously we don't need to revisit Seattle and the heartbreak of all of that. But three years ago against the Atlanta Falcons, the Packers were dominated, um on the scoreboard and all

of that UM and Rogers. Rogers message, other than saying, hey, we need to get a championship game at home, which is something he still hasn't had yet in his career, but as much as then was you know, hey we gotta go all in. It's it's about it's about having that that franchise changing off season. Well, it took a

couple of years. That franchise changing off season was this past and so Roger's message after the game last night against San Francisco was he he really feels the window is open for this team, that there's there's a core here now that Matt Lafleur as a Now we'll be heading into his second year as a head coach, the staff that he's put together, Brian Goudacunstall being his third year as the general manager in charge of the roster.

There's a core here now to work with to figure out, then what are the extra pieces that are needed to move forward. It's not it's not about it's not about needing some kind of an overhaul anymore, because that overhaul happened. And Aaron Rodgers is he's he's very he's very optimistic. He says he has a lot of trust in the leadership, both personnel department, coaching staff. He has a lot of trust in the leadership of the team, the locker room

as well himself included. As to where this team is headed. In as much as a loss in the conference championship when you're sixty minutes away from Super Bowl, as much as it stings, and it's still going to sting for a while, I just get the sense that the Packers are going to be heading into an off season with a really different feel this time than even three years ago when they got to the same point in the postseason. Yeah, it's it's a much different scenario this year and this

this time around. You know a couple of things that the first thing I thought Aaron Rodgers that the line he had about how you know this was fun again, you know, and and him enjoying this season. Now, I obviously I mentioned this a number of times on this show over the last episodes. I didn't cover the Packers daily like you did in two thousand ten and two thousand eleven. But this was my eighth full time season on this beat, and Mike, this was the tightest locker

room by far. It wasn't close. Two thousand and fourteen was a great team. They were a phenomenally talented team that was a super Bowl caliber squad. No doubt, that team wasn't as tight knit as what this team was in terms of the that X factor that she always

talked about. And I think that's one of the reasons why is I walked in that locker room on Sunday night, that that locker room was, you know, as emotional as anyone I've ever been, and even more so in some regards than two thousand fourteen, because guys understood what they had accomplished and what it meant that that the health of the team, the way that they came together. Um, you know, they didn't lose back to back games all season.

That's not easy to do when you're looking at you know, guys coming in in April installing and I had a conversation with Mason Crosby as he was leaving locker room, and he mentioned, it's just it's tough. It is tough when you make it this far and you're that close to your goals, and he's like, you know, it's you're tired. You know it's been a long run and you just

want to make it that one extra step. But the nice thing for this team, I think, even more so than two thousand fourteen, and definitely more so than two thousand sixteen, is they feel like, one, they're credibly young in their talented but they also this roster that didn't have playoff experience in a lot of ways, and now they've got two great examples of it that they can build off of. But it needs a productive, healthy offseason.

They need to take the principles that they've instilled this past year under Matt la Fleur, and they need to be able to find that path offensively to finding the efficiency they look like defensively, finding more consistency and special teams, finding the playmakers that they need to make a difference there because in so many ways they were exceptional, but in so many ways. You also saw what it's going to take to be that San Francisco forty Niners type

Super Bowl contender. Yeah, and I like what you said about the locker room in terms of the closeness and the tight knit feeling of it, because I would agree it's been a long time since I've been in a Packers locker room that felt this tight. And I will say two thousand ten the Super Bowl Championship here, obviously that was a very tight locker room, but it was different because it was a closeness that was fostered by circumstance and adversity because you know, Nick Barnett goes down,

Jare Michael Finley goes down, Mark Tauscher goes down. All these starters were getting injured and these other guys have to step in, and it was like the team just kept getting growing closer and closer because of those circumstances and what it had to deal with this team. I think you would agree with me. This team felt like it was pretty close before it even stepped on the field in Chicago on that Thursday night in Week one.

There was something about the vibe in the locker room and you know, everything with the coaching change, and knew a lot of new faces in the locker room and all of that, all all of the that change can bring that about. But I think what was special about this group was that that closeness happened so quickly, as I say, before they even took the field in a regular season game. They seemed to have it. And yeah, it's disappointing that it ends here because you had a

lot of things that went your way. You were a really healthy team for the most part. You caught some opponents with some injuries that were in your favor because they were missing some key players. You came out on the on the right end of a lot of really close games in one season, which doesn't always happen. A lot of times those close games in the fourth quarter

end up you end up splitting them fifty fifty. The Packers didn't split them fifty fifty, and that's why they ended up thirteen and three and in the position that they were. So there were a lot of things, and Rogers even said at the podium after the game, there were times where it just felt like maybe this was meant to be just the way the way everything was going.

But quite frankly West, they ran into a juggernaut in the San Francisco forty Niners, and that what the forty Niners have done the last two weeks is maybe one of the most impressive UH playoff runs, if you want to call it that, even though it was only two games with them being the top seed, but it's one of the most impressive playoff runs I've seen in the

NFL in quite a while. And it is that way, Mike, because it looked like they were losing the grasp on it in December with five games that all came down to the final play. They lose to Atlanta. You know, they have the setbacks everything that they barely hang on to beat the Seahawks. They barely hung on, you know, needed a last second field goal to beat the Rams, as you say, every way we talked about that last week. Every game for them was coming down to the last minute.

So it was looking like there were some vulnerabilities there from the team that had gone nine and one and then got to ten and one by you know, blowing out the Packers in Week twelve. But then they found they found it again. As I said, they went to another level in January when all the rest of these very good, very competitive teams in the NFC, we're still

kind of just grinding away. And I think a lot of credit goes to Robert Sala specifically, and I'm sure Kyle Shanahan had a role in this too, But they made some tough decisions going into the playoffs. They decided to go with Mosley as their outside corner opposite of Sherman. Yeah, I mean, they made some decisions that were how they started this season, but they felt like this is going to give us the best chance to win. And defensively,

I felt like they found a lot of answers. You know, this this team and seeing how they match up with the with Kansas City, it's going to be very interesting because Kansas City in many ways has won the same way, but without the run game, in a more dynamic passing game. Now, their defense wasn't nearly as suffocating as San Francisco was this year, but they can be opportunistic and they can

make you pay. So it's going to be a very captivating Super Bowl fifty four and for Green Bay, and I'll even extend this out to Tennessee to two teams that that really caught fire at the end of the season. Uh, this is this is a big moment for them because unlike college football, where you're gonna graduate junior classes and senior classes and if you have a lot of talent, you have a good feeling that you're gonna compete for the national title the next year if you have enough guys,

returning doesn't always work like that in the NFL. And that's why the off scenes is important. That's why making sure that the young Ross or that Brian Goodkin is built dating back to March and April, not thinking about Okay two thousand nineteen or bust, thinking about playing the long game. Here. You want to see those strides and I feel like, specifically looking at Matt Lafleur's offense, you can see how this can be a real juggernaut in its own right when Aaron Jones becomes a real solid

playmaker that you feel like if he stays healthy. Here this is this is the type of dynamic, multifaceted playmaker that the Packers have been looking for for years. It isn't just a running back, it's not just a scat back. He's a full fledged can give you everything he's got for sixty minutes and do whatever's asked of him and accomplish that well. Uh Davantae Adams is at the peak of his powers. You saw a guy like Alan Lazard

step in. Elton Jenkins looks like the type of left guard that you could stick in there for the next ten years if you need to do it. And defensively, the pieces that were added Sa Darius and Preston Smith both seven years old at this point, Adrian Amos, there's a lot of things to be excited about right now for Green Bay with what they did find. Can you go back You're not gonna be able to make four

high profile signings again, Yeah you can't. Yeah, you're not gonna be able to go out and spend a second year in a row in from the agency like the like the Packers did this past year. It doesn't work that way. But you still we know Brian Goodakut is going to be active. He's proven he's shown in his time as GM when he said when he took over, we're going to be involved in every conversation. We're going

to explore every avenue to improve the team. He has stood by his word, and not just in the off season, but during the season as well. And those are the things Rogers talked about. When you're picking up guys like Tyler Irvin, Jared Veldeer, b J Goodson, these other role player type of guys that have experience in the NFL that can step in and help you out. They're not it's not just some undrafted rookie off the bench who's

got to step in in a big moment. Those are the kinds of things where this Packers roster has has taken a step forward, and now it's a matter of continuing that and sticking to that approach in the in the process as you move forward. And this is where I go back to the pregnatic. You know, kind of aspect of this is Brian Goodkins has to be really diligent there. His front office has to be really diligent. Who do you resign? Who do you look to add?

Is there a DeFord type player out there? That's a pretty extreme example, considering he was on a franchise tag last year, but you know, one big playmaker that you feel can be a missing piece. All those things factor into this, and it's the reason why I think there's a lot of optimism right now. If you talk to that locker room because they feel like they aren't that far away. But you have to make a count, no

question about it. Yeah, all right, Well, we will talk about some of those offseason issues and players whose contracts are up and all that as the week goes along here with the two thousand nineteen season in the books, But for now, we're going to call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on 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 there's all kinds of great video content out there on the Packers YouTube channel for Wes. I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We will see you next time. M H.