#547 Packers Unscripted: 2-for-2

us involved in this, including our producer Marvin Um. So anyway, we apologize for that. We are going to try to forge ahead and do two shows a week and we appreciate you sticking with us as we roll with the punches here in So with that, Wes, we have a second Packers victory to talk about. Forty two, twenty one

Sunday at lambeau Field. The Packers double up on the Detroit Lions, and fitting that the score was a double up because doubling up at the end of the first half beginning of the second half with those two touchdowns was really what swung this game in Green Bay's favor. So Here's what's funny. We did inside our inbox last week and somebody asked me, Hey, is there any chance that the Packers could repeat what they did against the Minnesota Vikings. I'm like, they had an all time like

incredible performance. There's no chance you're gonna have another five yards, forty plus points, thirty plus first downs and no turnovers. That was the first time it had happened in franchise history. A week ago against Minnesota in Lo and behold they come up twelve yards shy in like four first downs of like hitting those same marks again. I mean they

were off to just this trepid start right now. But you know, you talked an important thing there, Mike, and it's something that over the course of time here, especially over the last few years, it's become so important with the deferring the opening kickoff for teams trying to double up at the end of the half, and then going into the second half. Uh, this was as picture perfect as it gets in terms of how the Packers went

about it. And then that you know carry to start the second half, a seventy five yard touchdown that Aaron Jones started the third quarter with. You couldn't ask for a better swing for Green Bay, not only on the scoreboard, going from being down four what was it, fourteen to ten, two up twenty four to fourteen. Not only just that, but just the momentum swing, the way it changed the defense,

the way the offense started approaching the game differently. Uh, it was everything you could have wished it to be for the Packers and they come out on top and now two and oh in the NFC North. Yeah, well, I don't know if I've ever seen that double up on either ends of a halftime so close together. The Packers scored a touchdown fourteen seconds before intermission, and then Aaron Jones went of any five yards to the house

twelve seconds into the third quarters. So twenty six seconds on the clock is all that had lapsed essentially between those two touchdowns. And yeah, it it really in a sense, it capped the Packers come back from being down fourteen to three after one quarter. It was an accomplishment enough just to be able to grab the lead by a halftime, but then to suddenly be ahead ten points before the Lions even got the ball in the second half. Was

was really a big swing. And you look at you look at two sequences here west when the Packers are down fourteen to three, the touchdown that got them to fourteen to ten, Aaron Jones accounted for forty five of the seventy five yards on that drive. Then he bust the seventy five yard run to start the third quarter, and he was on his way to a career day two hundred and thirty six yards from scrimmage rushing and receiving combined, the third most in Packers history, a career

day for number thirty three. And I tell you what, I hate to say this because I don't want to you know, jinks him or anything, but this might not be the first time this year we're talking about a two hundred plus yards from scrimmage day for Aaron Jones. Well, and the reason you can say that, Mike, is because it happened last year against Kansas City, So over the span of what maybe ten games now, it's happened twice

for him. An incredible performance. The thing I love the most about it, too, is that Jamal Williams had eight carries for sixty three yards too in this contest. If he would have had the touches, he probably would have went off for a career Day two, everything was clicking in the right way. The Packers got banged up on the offensive line, but they were still able to adjust and be able to create those opportunities Matt Patricia. In this plan for Detroit, they wanted to take away Davante Adams.

That was apparent from the first kickoff of this game, and Adams, also dealing with the hamstring issue, only had three catches for thirty six yards, but they made them pay with the opportunities that they created with Aaron Jones. And I liked a line that Jones gave us in

the postgame zoom call. He mentioned, how you know, early on, you gotta remember his longest carry against Minnesota was only fifteen yards, so early on he's getting these three four or five yard carries, and you're kind of wanting to break one here. You're wanting to actually sort of, you know, make a statement and not just have all these you know, short things underneath. Yes, they help you move the chains, but they're not really those back baked, blake, back breaking

type plays and received exactly. Mercedes Lewis came came up to him on the sideline and he said, hey, listen, just stay at it, you're going to be able to

break the big one. They got the twenty two yard pick up off the pass underneath at the end of the first half that you were talking about with that drive, and then to come up with the seventy five yard or a hundred and sixty eight rushing yards a career high for him, two hund thirty six all purpose yards, the most buy a Packers running back in team history, the third most overall behind Billy Houghton, and then also, um,

you know Don Hudson. An incredible performance by Aaron Jones and being able to really make the Detroit Lions pay for picking their poison and wanted to take away Davante Adams of the passing game. Yeah, well, I want to talk a little bit more about some of those pieces the Packers have on offense, but I don't want to forget about our sponsor business here. So folks gear up for game day, open a Packers checking account from Associated Bank and score a fifty dollar Packers Pro Shop gift card.

Learn more at Associated bank dot com. Backslash Packers. Well, through two games here West, the Packers have one thousand and ten yards of total offense, which is like mind boggling. But here's the thing we saw. Davante Adams have the monster game against the Minnesota Vikings. Aaron Jones is the one with the monster game against the Detroit Lions. But you don't have a thousand yards of offense through two games if the complementary pieces are not doing their part.

And you look at what's going on here. Mark Quisvelde Scantling has over a hundred and fifty receiving yards and a touchdown. Um Alan Lazard has over a hundred yards receiving and a touchdown through two games. Jamal Williams has over a hundred yards from scrimmage in two games. Robert Tanyan has a touchdown pass that the eight ends chiming in on on Sunday with a score. So, yes, they've had these big games from the big stars, and that's what you need to that that's what you need to win.

But to establish any level of consistency with the offense, you've got to have these other guys chipping in. And yes, there have been some drop passes. Tanyan dropped one, MVS dropped a couple in Minnesota. All that the Packers know, there are things that they can smooth out, but they are getting the contributions, the complementary contributions to their star

players that has really taken this offense to another level. Yeah, it really has, Mike, And you know, we talked about Joside Deguire last week and the contribution that he made and certainly end up having the shin an ankle injury, so he was out of this game against the Lions. But it's those type of players that maybe aren't necessarily a top ten round drafted player in a fantasy football league, but the type of guys that make your football team

better and make your offense more efficient. I think Robert Tanian fits perfectly. It's it's incredible the journey he's been on and how being a practice squad player making a transition from receiver back in two thousand eighteen to now being in fitting into a system of offense. He wasn't even that wasn't even here when he started in Green Bay. Uh. Those are just how the domino is kind of aligned sometimes and how the chips fall and it works out

really well. He fits the scheme well. He he's improved as a blocker, he's made plays underneath, and then certainly when the time came for him to get that pass in the end zone, a rocket that Aaron Rodgers just shot at him. He was able to bring that in in a big momentum, really ceiling type play for this offense. But he goes beyond that. It goes back to Jamal Williams as a complimentary piece. It goes back to a guy like MVS, who I think was written off by

a lot of people last year. MBS is averaging twenty two yards of catch right now. I mean there is a home run power with him that you just can't find. And as I wrote in in inbox this week, I mean, could the Packers have benefited from drafting receiver Absolutely, with that of receivers still had an uphill climb to beat out these top three guys on the step chart. Absolutely, that would have been an investment in the future. That wouldn't have been an answer for two thousand twenty. Brian

Goodkin's know what he was doing. He did go and get Devin Funch just to help out, to to be able to round that room out, give them some depth. When that didn't work out, though, he didn't panic. He stuck with what they already had and they've built the offense around it. Now, you hope for the Packer's sake that Davante Adams the hamstring injury isn't a big thing

going forward. Matt Laflour kind of played it off on Monday that it was something a decision that was made because of the way the offense was producing and the fact the Packers were in the driver's seat. Maybe things would have been a little bit differently if that was a tightly contested game. But if Adams is fine and you have Aaron Jones going off the way he's going off right now, this offense has plenty of playmakers, there's

not an issue with there with that. Well, on the defensive side of the ball, it was a very interesting game because the Packers defense got off to about as slow a start as you could. The Lions took the ball down the field on their first two possessions seemingly with ease, scored two touchdowns. As we said before, they were up fourteen to three at to one quarter, But then the Packers defense clamped down a bit. The Lions only scored seven more points over the final three quarters

of the game. They had you know, probably you know around thirty five of their offensive yards just in the first quarter, so things really changed. And as we saw in Minnesota, this defense also made one of those game changing type of plays, and this time it was with the Lions backed up near their goal line. Very first play of the possession, Channon Sullivan jumps a quick out route to Danny Amendola, intercepts the pass and sort of slides or dives across the goal line. It goes as

a seven yard interception return for a touchdown. But this defense west The Packers have eighty five points through two games. The defense has accounted for nine of them. There's something to be said for that. There definitely is Mike and one thing, you know, as many yards as the Packers ended up giving up in the second half against Minnesota and also the first two drives against the Lions, but the one thing they've done really well as they played

disciplined football for the most part. You saw how you know, really penalties did the Detroit Lions in in this game. It's one of the things that backed him up. Also with a couple coffin corner punts there from j K. Scott being able to really win the field position battle in the second half, But once they were in those predicaments,

the Packers defense took advantage of it. I thought Rashawn Gary being able to avoid the cut block on Adrian Peterson and still put pressure on Matthew Stafford that play might be differently, might have played out differently if he had an opportunity to pull that ball down and Gary went to the ground instead, it gets forced out. Sullivan makes a great play on the ball, game changing moment

there down the stretch. After being having a really difficult time closing out the Vikings, the Packers defense did just that in this game. And they did it with their their starting defense, in their backup defense. I mean, it was incredible the way that that fourth quarter played out. Rashawn Gary getting a sack right and backs them up forces of three and out. Next possession, they get a sack from Vernon Scott and I think might have been

his first defensive snap in the NFL. You have you have Garry also contribute there with Preston Smith, and then let's be honest, mean, Josh Jackson made a nice play down the sideline too, in single coverage in what could have potentially been a home run type ball. They closed this thing out the way you want to see them close it out. The big issue here is going to be the running defense here. If you don't have Kenny Clark. Right now, the Packers are thirtieth in the league when

it comes to opposing rushing yards. You've got to get that down. You can't allow teams to start fast on the first and second down because that's when you're getting in your behind the eight ball on third down. You want to get those third and seven plus situations. That's when Mike Petton's defense is at its best. And when that happens, good things happened for this defense. Yeah, and you've mentioned his name a couple of times already. Rare Shawn Gary. He was a force on Sunday against the

Detroit Lions. And there it wasn't some big, huge statistical thing like you know what what Aaron Jones did on the offensive side of the ball. Gary did have one and a half sex but as you mentioned the pressure that he got on the pick six played by Sullivan. You look at the defensive film and Gary is just

a disruptor. He's he bothers the other team on almost every single play with with his effort, with his hustle, and quite frankly, with just the strength and power that he has against offensive tackles, he's showing that he's going to be a problem for opposing def for opposing offenses,

excuse me. And that's good news for the Packers. When you have guys like the Smiths and like Jayar Alexander and Kevin King and Darnell Savage, Adrian NamUs, those other guys that that were a big part of this defense last year. They're all back and now they've got another piece in Rashaan Gary. They really do and sixty defensive snaps so far, Mike, he has six tackles, one and a half sacks, four quarterback hits. So let's look back to last season play twoto defensive snaps had three quarterback

hits during those games. He's already surpassed it and basically a fourth of the amount of snaps that he received last season. He took his offseason seriously. And the other thing I really like is, okay, so you don't have Kenny Clark right now. That hurts the defense that that isn't good to not have your Pro Bowl defensive tackle

out there. But they created that Bronco base package where they have two defensive tackles lining up as three texts, and you have Preston Smith and also Rashan Gary lining up on the edges, both solid stout run defenders. That allows Zadarius Smith to sort of be that roving fifth guy on the front. They were successful out of that package. Now they've gotten beat on it a couple of times too. But if you're not gonna have Kenny Clark, you're not going to be able to replace him in conventional ways.

You have to do things differently. I like what I saw from that package, and I think as much as we talk about the dime defense, and that's when these you know, pass rushers really make their paycheck, but it's those early downs that I think the Packers have a strength there with these outside linebackers. They can take advantage

of that. And for as long as they're gonna be missing Kenny Clark, if you have another option that you can lean on as far as defending the run, that's gonna go a long way and being able to sustain this defense for the long run and not just show that you're just a base nickel dime defense that you

can do different variations to really take advantage of potential mismatches. Yeah, well, certainly through two games, defensive coordinator Mike Petton has filmed the show of his guys of Hey, this is where we're in command, where we're dictating to the offense, and then hey, this is where we're kind of getting it handed to us a little bit, and these are the things we've got to shore up. So the Packers defense, yeah, it's it's been up and down. I think it can

be a little bit unsettling to see that. But at the same time, you know, with the way this Packers offense is going, the Packers defense is going to have some time to to work out their issues here. Well, Green Bay is two and oh after two games. One of five teams in the NFC actually West that are

two and oh. Chicago Bears are tied with the Packers atop the NFC North at two and oh, and then three teams in the NFC West, the Cardinals, the Seahawks, and the Rams, not the defending NFC champion San Francisco forty Niners, but those other three teams in the NFC West are all too and oh. Just your thoughts that where things stand right now through two weeks. Well, one thing is I'm if I'm an NFL team, I'm glad

I don't play in the West right now. That is that is a powerhouse division, and I think the the Arizona Cardinals are really going to surprise some people. I was talking about that last week as we were going into the beginning slate of games here. But the one thing I like about Green Bay is that for the second straight year, you start off two and o in your division, and it also coincides up being too and no overall. That went a long way last year under

the thirteen and three regular season. If you pick up these wins early in the division, good things are gonna happen by the end of the season. It's going to keep you not only in the hunt for your division title, but it's ultimately what's going to keep you up there with the only one uh first round by into the playoffs that that competition has just gotten incredibly heightened now with the number two seed now having to play a

wild card game against the number seven seeds. So you have to be able to stay out in front of this race. It is a marathon, it's not a sprint. But we also know if you don't start fast enough, it's tough to make up that ground over twenty point two miles. I know you're a big runner, Mic, so obviously you understand that reference. But no, I mean, this is the way it's gonna go. There's going to be tough matchups. As we talked about last week. There are going to be a tough slate of games here, some

really good quarterbacks coming up on the Packers schedule. But the more wins that you pick up here in September, the easier your job gets throughout the course of the long season. Well, interestingly, one of the teams in the NFC that is not to and Oh is the New Orleans Saints, the Packers opponent here at the end of

this week, coming up on Sunday Night Football. And I was I was astonished west when I heard during the Monday night football broadcast when the Saints lost to the Raiders to to drop to one and one, that the New Orleans Saints have not been to and Oh to start a season since. That kind of blew me away in a sense, because I'll be honest, nineteen, I think the New Orleans Saints have been one of the best teams in football and probably the best team over that

three year stretch in the NFC. Yet they don't have an appearance in the Super Bowl to show for it. They don't have an NFC titled to show for it. And the Saints are sort of right where they always are. I guess they're one on one. They're figuring things out early in the season. I still think this is going to be an incredibly dangerous, dangerous team in the NFC. It should be a whale of a game Sunday night

down in New Orleans. Yeah, I mean, they're gonna it hurts them that they're not able to have the fans there, that that is such a huge advantage for them. I think Aaron Rodgers is going to be able to take advantage of that, you know, potentially with the snap counts and and whatnot. But I'll say this, I mean, certainly they were playing on the road. But one thing that was kind of struck me about that game against Vegas

is that so we'd even saying that Vegas. Uh. What struck me about that game is that Drew Brees wasn't going off with that quick one to second clock that he typically goes with. He was holding out of the ball a little bit longer, and that there was some issues downfield. Now, when you don't have Michael Thomas, certainly that's changes the structure of your offense, but he was having to really rely heavily on Elvin Kamara. Now we

got to see what happens with Thomas this week. There's a long stretch to go from when we're taping this on Tuesday to when they play on Sunday night. But it's just he's such a game changer that I think it really structurally just changes their offense when he's not out there. So for Drew Brees seeing a game like that, a performance like that, up and down throughout, and then certainly the Raiders being able to close it out in

the end, it does raise some questions. But the Packers have seen him so often and the way he plays quarterback, the way Philip Rivers plays quarterback. It's given this defense even before Mike Petton a lot of fits in the past. So it's gonna be a huge challenge and I'm sure they're gonna be hungry getting back on their home turf,

trying to bounce back from that loss. Well, I think the injury news, everybody is going to be paying attention to this week the number one receivers for both teams, Davante Adams with the hamstring, Michael Thomas from the Saints with the ankle injury. It is an ankle, right, correct, Okay, so um yeah, that's what we're gonna be paying attention to between now and kick off on Sunday night, and we will see if these two high powered offenses are

at full strength. But with that, we will call it a wrap on this edition of Packer's Own Script and be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on packers dot com. For Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next time.