#531 Packers Unscripted: Sizing up the schedule

I mentioned this during our three Things videos and I don't want to just keep, you know, parroting myself here, but that's the thing that always strikes me. You can do these things a hundred times, you can do all these different types of schedules, there always ends up being some kind of weird thing that happens that's never happened before that you didn't realize until you look at this schedule.

I think fact I think it was what Jacksonville in sixteen, that was the first time the Packers had like back to back road games to start a season in like nine seven years. Crazy this one. It's a very small little factoid in it. Obviously a lot of questions still out there about what's going to happen. But the creep Ba Packers have never opened the season at Minnesota before, lo and behold, here we are in two thousand twenty first time, and what for fifty nine years for the

Minnesota vikings openers. They're gonna host the Green Bay Packers and an opener at least scheduled too. So that's part of it. I love about the you know, you get you look at the schedule and you try to figure out different little things and factoids and weird stuff that happens. And there's your one, because I tell you right now, Mike, if you it all started when I was looking through it, like, okay, when was the last time the Packers started the season Minnesota. Oh,

it hasn't happened before. Well, and the Packers certainly this was to be expected. The Packers have the maximum five prime time games at least at this point in terms of how this schedule lays out, and you know, the flex scheduling late in the year, you know, things can change and all that. But a couple of things about

that that struck me. One is that, of course, the Packers trip to New Orleans is once again in prime time Aaron Rodgers has played against Drew Brees at the Superdome in New Orleans twice two thousand eight, two thousand and fourteen, both times in prime time, so of course this one's in prime time again. But the one that's not in prime time is Aaron Rodgers against Tom Brady

down in Tampa. I don't know what deal with the devil Fox Sports made here West, but I am telling you I was absolutely convinced that game would be in prime time Rodgers against Brady, but Fox somehow managed to prevent that game from going to either NBC or ESPN for a prime time slot. It's a late afternoon, it'll obviously be the National Sunday doubleheader down in Tampa. And hey, from a work stand point, I'm not complaining because road

games in prime time are the hardest for us. Flying back in the middle of the night, trying to write our stories and update the website on the plane at you know, to three in the morning. It's not fun, Okay, So I'm not complaining from a work standpoint that this game is not in prime time. I'm just stunned that it's not in prime time. Well, and like Mike, look at it. This way to right New Orleans in Green Bay, you expect that to be in prime time Atlanta and

Green Bay. Okay, the history there with Matt Ryan, potentially in prime time San Francisco, that's been a big rivalry here as of late Chicago Tennessee. If you would have laid out all five of those primetime games and then also through the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in there, I would have said, whatever combination that those five are gonna be, the Buccaneers are gonna be at one of those permutations. And they weren't to see a three Central start time for that matchup. It blew me away because in two

thousand and eighteen we were raw. You know, you don't get these opportunities to to see Rogers and in in Brady very often, and here's one that just falls into everybody's lap. And unfortunately for the Green Bay Packers and I think a lot of national people fans, they're not going to get that in primetime. My guests would be is you know, I'm the Fox would end up throwing that into a national spotlight. Yet even if it is at three, yeah, I think it absolutely will be there.

But the other the other thing that really struck me when I first saw the schedule. West the Packers by is scheduled for Week five, so sort of your first

quarter of the season weeks one through four. But then the game at Tampa Bay Rodgers versus Brady starts the post by stretch, and that actually becomes sort of a gauntlet here for the Packers through the middle portion of the schedule because after the game at Tampa Bay, the Packers are going to play three teams that were playoff teams in twenty nineteen consecutively in a span of just twelve days. You go on the road to he Houston,

you come home to play Minnesota. The second game with the Vikings is done by November one, which is another thing to me that's weird about the schedule that by the midway point, essentially the Packers and Vikings are done playing. So that's odd. But at Houston, then Minnesota, and then at San Francisco on a Thursday night, So in a span of twelve days, including a four hour West coast trip on a short week, you're playing three teams that

made the playoffs in nineteen. That's going to be I don't like to call things make or break because that early in the season. Nothing's necessarily make or break, but we're gonna find out a lot about the green Bay Packers as they navigate that portion of the schedule. In my opinion, Yeah, and it's very interesting and you laid it out there perfectly in terms of what the Packers

are potentially going to be up against. The other thing I keep going back to is, yeah, you have that Thursday night game against San Francisco, a lot of bad memories there for green Bay. You do come home and you get Gardner Minshew likely in the Jacksonville Jaguars, but then you're going to Indianapolis, and then who is waiting for you there. It's Philip Rivers, one of the big thorns in the Packers side here over the last ten years. So uh, there are It's gonna be a big challenge.

And I think when you look at the true story of the schedule and the way it lays out, it goes back to what I was saying before. I mean, last year they kind of hit a gauntlet too there in the middle of the season. This is where you get challenged, this is where you're grit and determination really gets stressed. And it's going to be a make or break moment, I think for the Packers at times working

through that. The other thing that is interesting because I know there were some reports out there about Okay, they're gonna put all the division games and in the last month of the season, and they're gonna load things up

depending on all this. The fact that both of the Minnesota games ended up getting you know, put into the first eight weeks of the season, that's very interesting because the last few years, there's been a lot of mark key matchups between those two teams late in the year, and now here they are two teams that have been i would say the most consistent performers in the NFC North and really the conference in general over the last five ten years, and now you're gonna knock both of

these out in the first two months of the season. That's very interesting to seek that play out the way it fits. Yeah, and I don't want to sound like somebody who's complaining here, but the Packers, and the Packers are not the only team to have this happen to them. I think, you know, this Thursday night game at San Francisco, having teams having to travel across multiple time zones on a short week to play a Thursday night game. That to me, that is such a disadvantage for the road team.

You know, the Packers did it a couple of years ago, having to go to Seattle to play a Thursday night game, and the Packers were actually winning that game, if I'm not mistaken, at the end of the third quarter, and then in the fourth quarter, you know, Seattle took over and ended up pulling that out in front of their

home fans. I this travel, the travel type of thing on a short week, you would just think that more of those would be either a division game or something that's just you know, a sixty minute, ninety minute flights something like that, a four hour flight on a short week. The Packers are gonna come off that second game against Minnesota on November first, on a Sunday afternoon, and then on Wednesday afternoon they're taking a four hour flight to the West Coast to get ready to play the San

Francisco forty Niners in an NFC Championship rematch. From the logistical part of it all, to me, that that's the one thing that I look at is like, wow, that is going to be something incredibly difficult for the Packers to overcome. Outside of later season Thanksgiving games, Packers have played a lot of meaningful ones in my time on

the beat. But conversely, in my years of covering the NFL and covering the Green Bay Packers on a day to day basis, I don't think I've ever learned anything about them in a Thursday night game in this structure. And it's one of the reasons why I know you were a big pro wrestling fan when you were a kid, as was I. Uh here, here's the thing. You have your flagship shows, right if you're a pro wrestling company. Those are the ones that you get the ratings on.

Those are the ones that everybody's eyeballs are glued on. But then you also have the smaller shows where it's maybe an hour and it's a lot of the you know, the lower card wrestlers on there. For whatever reason, the NFL a few years ago decided, you know what, We're gonna not only start taking these Thursday night games the lower you know show, We're gonna start putting prime time

matchups in there. And I think that's robbing the league and it's robbing teams of seeing really good, high caliber football. I've taken issue with that, I go back to what you were saying. I think that these should be games where there isn't as much spotlight on the talent there there isn't you know, gonna be the Packers versus the forty nine Ers, a rematch of the NFC championship for the Packers versus Seattle, their biggest rival out of the

division over the last ten years. Let's get back to like getting you know, some matchups between the Packers and the Lions, or or you know some of these teams that Jacksonville j boars. I don't understand. It's Thursday night football. There's no other game in town other than trying to showcase superstars. I don't understand they need to have those teams always facing off against other. You have that on

Sunday night football, you have that Monday Night football. I get there television contracts going to that, but I also think that's a real shame because the Packers very easily could win that game. You don't know how these Thursday night games go. A lot of weird stuff can happen, but I never really felt like after one of those games, I've learned really that much about either team because of just how strange the circumstances are in which they have

to play that game. Yeah, and when you look at the way the schedule finishes up for the Packers, it's interesting, and of course you know who knows what's going to happen with the dates and how this actually falls. But if you look at Thanksgiving, once you get past Thanksgiving, the Packers are playing four of their last six games at home at lambeau Field, and then one of the

two road games is the finale at Chicago. So that sets up, if everything falls into place, that sets up as a lot of cold weather football for the Green Bay Packers, down the down the stretch and hey Wes, for the first time, and however many years, the Packers are not playing the Lions in Week seventeen, the NFC North finale is against somebody else, and it's going to be at Soldier Field this time. With all due respect to the Lions. And there's been some memorable games over

the last four years. I am so second tired of that regular season finale. We went for a while there, Mike, where it was like every year it was a different NFC North team that they were facing. Yeah, they were. They would rotate it and that they got into this stretch because not only, of course then has it been Packers Lions for you know, a handful of years in a row, but that means it's also been Vikings Bears for the last however many years in a row. So

there it. You know, it eliminates the variety, you know, not just for a couple of teams, but for a couple of others as well. So it's just been strange. But yes, the Packers Week seventeen will not be against Detroit. It will be at Chicago against the Bears. Yeah, and before they got into this run of facing the Lions every year. It also those were really meaningful games. How many of those games might reflects from the Packers versity

NFC North into prime time. When you think of two thousand thirteen, the last time they played the Bears at Soldier Field, the pro is out the regular season, it's one of the most memorable games that I've ever covered, and how that one ended. Certainly the matchups that they had with my Minnesota Vikings as well, so at least to see some fresh blood thrown in there, a little bit different type of matchup, type of narrative. I'm all for it. It would be great to get some of

these at lambeau Field. It seems like they're traveling quite a bit here to close up the regular season. But be that as it may, it is it's an interesting

final stretch. A lot of cold weather games, a lot of you know, tough and dirty Black and Blue division type of matchups, so that that part of its Yeah, one other thing to throw at you, Just to backtrack a little bit, what do you think the player's opinion, Because they don't care about our opinion, but what do you think the player's opinion would be of the week five by It strikes me as the players would say, boy, that's early. We wish it were, you know, maybe about

a month later or so. Too early? Uh yeah, And in week four is the earliest I think that it can go right, And that's only three teams or four teams, So to have it a week five, Packers did get kind of lucky for a few years. It was in that middle. Last year was very late part of the season. That's typically more towards where you wanted to be at. But I remember talking to t J. Lang and some other guys about this past and you know how they had mentioned when the schedule release came out, the only

thing that they really cared about. The only thing they looked at was where that week, that bye week was for them and where they're beginning their rest. Um, you never know. I go back to two thousand thirteen, the Packers had a week four bye and they weren't beat up going into that that week four bye already. So you never can be too heure how this season is gonna lay out. But being in week five, that is

a little bit early. The closer it is to that September, first week of October, that's typically not the way they

want us to get line up. I'm sure one way the players will look at it is, you know, they play their first four games, you get a buy, then that second set of four ends on a Thursday night, so then you kind of get a weekend off, the little mini by like they like to talk about, and then you head into the back half the you know, games nine through sixteen without a break, and you know, heading through that stress through November and December, as we said, with a lot of cold weather on tap. You know,

it's a weird thing too. And I didn't put this in the story that we're running on our website, and I don't think you mentioned it in your column, but the Green Bay Packers, like the whole thing on Thanksgiving against the Lions. That's just gone by the wayside. It's delied. Yeah, that the Packers will play the Lions in week two at Lambeau and then they play in Detroit, uh in in December, December thirteenth. I believe it is. So there was a time there where every other year was Green

Bay Packers traveling to Detroit for those Thanksgiving matchups. Unfortunately, for me it being my favorite holiday, I've been able to keep my role at home here in the last five years. There you go, there, you go. Well, one other thing. Okay, So the Packers have the maximum as in the original schedule, the maximum five primetime games. How many primetime games do you think the Packers end up playing on this schedule? Do you think anything gets flexed

or change? You think it ends up being six? Like, what are your thoughts? It'll end up being six? It always does. I've covered this long enough. I think I'm the line and insider inbox at four and a half, and realistically it ended up being north of that. For how many would be on the schedule. You and I could penciled this in the Packers. They're one of the

most iconic franchises in the league. I know that people sometimes can think that's a cliche, but you can look at the ratings and Aaron Rodgers era, going back to the Brett Farve era, those two guys put butts and

couches to watch these matchups. So for that reason, I think they'll have five and I think somewhere along the line, wherever it might be, that they'll throw in that sixth one because the back to the matter is that maybe one of them as one of the season games and it's struggling, but there were so many other things happening at that time that you understood it. If Aaron Rodgers as healthy, if the Packers are in contention, they're going to have the bright lights shining. Yeah, I absolutely agree

with you. Well, with that, we will sign off on this edition of Packers Unscript and be sure to follow all of our coverage, all of the ins and outs of the schedule, videos, stories, everything is on the website Packers dot com. Have a good weekend everybody for West I am Mike. Take care. We will see you next time m HM.