#553 Packers Unscripted: Back from the bye

my boss Barber's office. So I'm happy to join you. Finally. We are managing this the best that we can. But I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel to have just a small bit of normalcy seeing your beautiful face here on this wonderful Tuesday. Well, the feeling is mutual, my friend. So before we get going here, I do want to throw out a little bit of sponsor business

to our good friends at Sirius XM. NFL radio channel on Sirius XM is the only radio outlet dedicated to the National Football League seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year. All right West. The Packers bye week has concluded and they are getting ready for a trip to Tampa Bay to take on the Buccaneers. The Packers are four and oh. The offense is ranked among the best in the league. The defense is ranked middle of the pack in various important categories. I want

to just get your thoughts here. Offensively, this has been the story that's dominating the Green Bay Packers in how efficient, how productive the offense has been. But we always hear from Matt Lafleur. You look at the film, Yes, there are always ways to improve. So on the offensive side of the ball. As the Packers are coming out of the bye week here, what do you see as a potential area of improvement. Well, I think the one thing I would like to see, especially now, is you see

the offensive line. They finally have a set five. It appears to be with Lucas Patrick at right guard and Billy Turner right tackle. I think they have a good feeling for what they have in the backfield. I basically isolated in those red zone situations where I think they can take that next step. Now, it's interesting they've actually been pretty productive when they're kind of between that five and twenty yard line. I mean, you look at the passes to Robert Tanian against the Falcons, some of the

plays that they've generated there. But when you get more towards those golden goal situations, that's where it's been kind of hit or miss for them at this point. They've had some great triumphs there and they've gotten stopped twice in fourth and goal from the only one. Obviously Jay Alexander sort of bailed them out of that last one, and then certainly it happened again there against the Falcons.

But I think if they can find the right remedy there, and that was one thing that after that game, Matt la Flour kind of you know, lamented the call and in some of the things he wished he could have changed because I'll tell you what, Mike, in the eighty yards in the middle of that field, the Packers have been really difficult to stop. It's just a question of, okay, when the defense is then able to condense a little

bit more still winning those downs. I think if the Packers really you know, harness that area this game, uh, they're going to be really a force here in the second I guess technically second quarter of the season I almost had second half of the season. Sure, I'm with you there. I mean, this is definitely nitpicking with the way the offense is rolling and the points that it has been putting up. But if I were to point to one area, I would say short yardage. And it

goes along with what you said. You mentioned the two fourth and goals at the one against the Vikings and the Falcons where the Packers were stopped. They were also stopped on a key fourth and one at midfield in New Orleans. Now, as it turned out, none of those stops damaged the Packers as much as they potentially could have.

But when you look at the fact that if you take out the uh the kneel downs at the end of the half or the end of the game, you take those possessions out, the Packers have scored on twenty seven out of thirty five possessions so far in four games. And when you look at three of those stops we're due to the fourth and ones, the two at the goal line and the one at midfield. This offense is like super super close to almost literally being unstoppable. So

you know, the Packers have options in the backfield. Aaron Jones he obviously converted. I believe it was on a fourth and goal at the one. In one of the other games he did score at the goal line there. I think that was against New Orleans. You have Jamal Williams, you have a J. Dillon as another option as a power back. Obviously Aaron Rodgers has run plenty of play

action passes out of short yardage. But I think if if the Packers shore up that we heard from Matt Lafleur all last season about wanting to be in those manageable down and distances on third down, you get into third and short and fourth and short, the Packers, the Packers can convert those at a better rate, and if they do, they're going to be that much more dangerous. And one thing that you know, we talked about that, but I actually really do like the aggressiveness that Matt

Laflour has shown in those situations. That think absolutely I agree. If you go back about ten years, Mike, there was always like this pressure, Okay, this is where you maybe want to, you know, look to have a field goal or something like that. But as much as as great as it is to have three points on the board, there is something about that field position advantage that a team puts themselves in and being able to manage that

throughout the game. And I think that that's one of probably the hallmarks of this year's team time of possession

and field position. The opposition hasn't had a lot of great opportunities in terms of where they've started from, and even in those situations, whether it was the JayR Alexander sack or the Packers making the Falcons go the long way and then ultimately I believe getting stopped when they tried to move the ball down after the fourth and goal stop uh at lambeau Field last week, so that the defense, I thought they have really been put into

an advantageous situation in that regard. And you know, you want to be able to floor always says that you want to do, you know, all gas, no break, you want to keep your foot on the pedal, and they've definitely done that. Again, it's just about taking that next step up and really putting themselves in an area where I mean, you look offensively, whether it's total yards, points production, few in the league right now have done what Green

Bay has done. Yeah, absolutely well. On the defensive side of the ball, What would you pinpoint as the most important area of improvement for Mike Petton and his career. Well, we saw it in the Atlanta game. It's the run defense. And that's the one benefit that I think we've seen. As many injuries as the Packers have had to deal with here in the first half of the season, how guys have responded. They didn't have Kenny Clark for the last three and a half games, So what does that mean.

That means that Tyler Lancaster has to step up at nose tackle. It means Kingsley Kiki has to become a force there in that dime defensive line role, and both of those guys did that. They lost Kamal Martin at the beginning of the season. So here's Chris Barnes out of nowhere. He has to be the rundown linebacker. Christian Kirksey goes down with an injury, then it's up to Barnes and Tye Summers to fill in. And I think

what ultimately happened. The Packers did take some bumps and bruises here early on, but that Atlanta game, to me showed that yet even if they don't have Clark out there, even if they don't have Kerksy out there, they can be a good run defense, and I thought the defensive

front put together their best performance. Now can they stack it against Ronald Jones in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this upcoming weekend, because they probably you know, we'll see what happens with practice, but it appears likely that they'll be getting Kenny Clark here back sooner than later. We'll have to see what happens with Kirksy. Kamal Martin returned to practice as well this week, so maybe he'll be in

the fold here soon. But the lessons that the Barnes, the key Keys, the Lancasters learned over these first four weeks, I think that's gonna pay dividends for the Packers in the long run. Yeah, I agree with you. I think the the way Mike Petton has been forced to UH to reach into his depth a little bit and getting some of these guys, especially a young guy like Barnes

and undrafted rookie UH certainly falls into that category. We'll see, as you mentioned Kamal Martin getting back to practice if within the next few weeks, maybe he's able to get on the field. Though, getting that experience early in a rookie season can can really pay off down the road. I agree with you there. If I were to point to two areas I wrote this in in inbox over the bye week, tackling and takeaways. I think those are the two areas that Mike Patton's defense can improve upon.

I thought the first two games of the season, the tackling was solid and we weren't talking about miss tackles. But the last two games the Saints and the Falcons, we all know what happened in New Orleans with the miss tackles on Alvin Kamara. Against the Falcons, there were several miss tackles again, but it was it was different in the sense that the the miss tackles actually prevented

the defense from putting themselves in really good situations. They were missing tackles for loss, where then the ball carrier was getting back to the line of scrimmage or getting a two or three yard gain. And I guess in some ways this goes hand in hand because if you get a get an offense in second and fourteen as opposed to second and nine, well that's when the takeaways

might start to happen. And the Packers, you know, they hurt themselves and didn't give themselves those opportunities against the Falcons because of the mistackles. Over All, the Packers are plus three in the turnover margin through four games. That's a good spot to be in because you're on pace to get into plus double digits by the end of the season, and that is where you want to be.

But they're plus three mostly because the offense has zero turnovers the defense only has three takeaways, and three takeaways through four games, there have been opportunities for more. I think if the Packers start to capitalize defensively on those opportunities, we will start to see a different look to this unit as the season goes along. Yeah, and and it's funny you bring that up, because this defense is different when they're in second and third and long just the

way they can use the Darius Smith changes. And as I mentioned with Kingsley Kiki, you know, with Kenny Clark coming back here, the number of ways that Mike Patton is going to be able to use him. This guy doesn't have to be in eighty five percent defensive, you know, snap player, you can be more strategic in terms of the dime defense or if you want to use them on rundowns given the situation. That's what they needed to

see from that defensive line group. And you know, a real big positive for green Bay was Rashawn Gary being back at practice two on Monday. If he's able to play, You've seen the way that they can move all those pieces around. There's just a swagger to that group. There's just a momentum shift that you feel in a lot of times that ends up leading to take aways. It leads to the force fumbles, which was a huge emphasis

going to this season. It leans, it leads into timely turnovers like the the interception that Chandon Sullivan had a couple of weeks ago for the pick six, and certainly Jaire Alexander that's just the one thing left for him, I think, to becoming an elite cornerback in this league. He talked about that interception he almost had two weeks ago. He's looking to the end zone. He needs to look that ball in. He does that, he becomes a five

interception player in this league per season. That's when you start to realize exactly what his upside is going to be. In addition to being a lockdown, shutdown cornerback, yeah, you look at the takeaway opportunities. The last couple of games. You mentioned Alexander with a possible pick six against New Orleans, but he wasn't quite able to bring the ball in.

There were two other times the Saints put the ball on the ground, once on a kickoff return, once on a sack by Kiki of Drew Brees, but the Packers weren't able to come up with those fumbles. Matt Ryan threw a terrible pass quite frankly on a on a slant and the Packers had two defenders. I believe it was Barnes and Savage, both essentially taking the ball away from each other in a sense, because they each had a chance to to get that one, and unfortunately the

Packers didn't come up with it. But those are the opportunities that you have to you have two seize on it because Drew Brees is only gonna fumble on a sack maybe once a game, right, Matt Ryan is only going to throw that bad pass into traffic once a game. The Packers didn't capitalize on those opportunities. You start capitalizing on those down the road. I think the picture changes for the defense um quickly. Here was a little more

sponsored business. Gear up for game day, folks, 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. All right, well, give me your thumbnail sketch here of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Packers opponent for this Sunday. They lost Week one on the road NFC South rival in New Orleans there oh

and one to start the Tom Brady Era. Then they win three straight and they've got a thirteen nothing lead last Thursday night in Chicago, looking like they were going to make it a four game winning streak. Suddenly everything turns. The offense can't get anything going. They only kicked two more field goals at Soldier Field the rest of that ballgame.

The Buccaneers come out on the short end, and suddenly they're sitting at three and two and looking to avoid three and three after six games with an undefeated Packers team coming to Tampa. Yeah, it's funny too, Mike, because Tampa Bay I think is gonna be a headache for everyone this year that you're never gonna be able to sleep on them. But you're also not sure what you're gonna get in the Buccaneers, and that game was a

perfect example of that. You know, for them to get a hundred yard game out of Ronald Jones, who looks like he's going to be an exceptional running back in this league. You know Tom Brady, we know what he's kind of become at age forty three. I mean, he can still win you a ballgame, but it's very high percentage. It's allowing guys to create plays. Mike Evans leading the

league in touchdowns right now. That defense, for as up and down as they were last year, if you didn't pay enough attention to the Buccaneers, their defense was terrific last season, and a lot of those same playmakers are back, though now they've lost Vita Villa, So from that regard, you can't sleep on them. But at the same time, way too many penalties against the Bears came back to

haunt them. An inability to finish drives in the second half, an inability to establish a four minute offense at the end of that Bears game that could have shut the door on it, and overall just not enough execution. And I think in some regards that's probably a product of a team that has just had to come together this season. New quarterback, new coach, new philosophies. There's been a lot

of upheaval in Tampa Bay with their personnel. Not to mention, you know, you have Gronk there now is their tight end. So in that regard, it doesn't necessarily surprise me. There's been some up and down roller coaster ebb and flow here in the early part of the season. But at the same time, you can't look at that and be like, well,

you know, the Packers, this is an automatic win. They need to play more disciplined, They need to be efficient, especially early on, to set the tone in that game, and they need to be able to close it out because if you look at the winds and losses for the Buccaneers so far this season, when they've closed things out, they've won. When they have been able to get a

result like they did against Chicago. Yeah, Tom Brady, it looked like he had things going there for a while, but you look at his overall season so far, and as you mentioned, new head coach, he's coming into a whole new offense, he's learning a whole bunch of stuff. But Tom Brede, he's made his share of mistakes. So far, He's thrown two pick six is this year, if I'm not mistaken, one against New Orleans, one against the Chargers.

He was able to come back from a seven teen point deficit against the Chargers and and pull out that victory a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure Thursday night it can't be fun for a quarterback in his early forties to have to play a game on a short week. With the travel up from Tampa to Chicago. That was you know, the circumstances were not in the Buccaneers favor there. But again, they started out the game with a thirteen nothing lead. It looked like they were going to cruise

to another victory, and then everything turned for them. This this is a this is an interesting one West because with the way things are in the NFC right now, Seattle is five and oh, the Packers are four and oh, the Rams are four and one, the Bears are four and one. I mentioned Tampa Bay here. They they're trying

to avoid a three and three start. They really after that loss last week on Thursday Night, they really want to get to four and two and keep themselves in that conversation amongst the content or is at the top of the NFC, especially with this year, there's only one first round by in the playoffs, you get the number two seed, you're still playing in a wild card game. So the fight for the top of the conference and to try to get that first round by it's going

to be pretty heated all the way along. And Tampa Bay wants wants to keep themselves in that mix. Yeah, and you and I could have a two hour roundscripted where I continue to just be beside myself about these seven teams making it at each conference, but we won't go there. We'll save that discussion for January. Perhaps I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. What I do think though, is the one whether you're viewed as a benefit or

a detractor. The one thing that this change has made is it's given a kind of more of a college football field now where it's like, Okay, you gotta play well from week one if you want to be the number one seed in your conference, you have to be able to keep that going to play for the national championship, so to speak. So that that's what's at stake here.

That's why it actually really did matter that the Vikings weren't able to pull off that win over Seattle because now Seattle's five and oh and the Packers are trying to get to catch up and stay stay at that pace, especially in an NFC that appears to have just incredible parody this year when you look at the issues that San Francisco has had and some of these other teams already taking two losses to begin the season. So yeah,

that's why this game is pivotal. And it's pivotal from the Tampa based perspective too, because here they are in a position where they can try to get some distance in the South if they get this win. So I think it's gonna be a great matchup. Seeing the chess match between Mike Petton and Tom Brady and then obviously Aaron Rodgers going against the pressure packages in the front that the Buccaneers have. It's gonna be great theater. The only question I have is you're going down to Tampa.

It's gonna be eighty five degrees or whatever it's going to be. Uh, we haven't seen those type of conditions in a while. Um, you know, I go back to I think it was when they played Tampa and fourteen. It was a pretty toasty day in December, if I remember right. But the guy's gotta get acclimated to that, and they've got to be able to a rise of the occasion they did in New Orleans, they did in Minnesota, they have to do it again. Well, you mentioned the

Packers trying to keep pace with the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle is five and oh, the Packers are going to try to get to five and oh you've also got the Chicago Bears at four and one is if the Packers were to stumble, suddenly there's a tie a top the NFC North. So Green Bay trying to trying to keep

themselves there. Really interesting though. Before we go here, I just have to get your opinion on what's going on in Seattle, because Cam Newton for the Patriots is one yard away on the goal line from beating the Seahawks on the last play of the game. Can't do it. The Minnesota Vikings have multiple fourth downs, both on offense and on defense to try to put the Seahawks away,

and they can't do it. And the Seattle Seahawks. The Seattle Seahawks have the worst defense in the league statistically in terms of yards allowed, which which when you think about it, is is a mind boggling. They have the last ranked defense in the league in terms of yards allowed, yet they're five and oh and uh, this this race in the NFC for playoff spots, playoff positioning, everything else, It's going to really really be entertaining here as we

go along. You had to edit my insider inbox for Tuesday. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this too, because I know a lot of people always asking. It came up a lot last season about green Bay and in thirteen and three, what does that mean? What does it mean when you're five and oh? But you know right now they've they've kind of struggled to win with

style points this Seattle Seahawks have. And my contention is it doesn't matter now in a sixteen game season, that separates the cream from the rest of the crop here and it is going to ultimately be ken Seattle continue to do this and be a fourteen and twelve, thirteen and three, twelve and four type ball club. Can they actually accomplish that or are you going to see them come back a little bit sort of like how green Bay sort of came back down to earth and fifteen

before run the table. So that's where I'm kind of stuck in terms of exactly where this all goes. Sixteen, by the way, from the table, that's right, make sure I correct my off. That's what it all comes down to, because right now, you can't dog them for being five and oh. They found a way, regardless of how they did it, to win five games. It is way too difficult to do that in the National Football League. This

is not college football. You're not playing you know, these these FBS lows, you know, mid major schools to get to five and oh to start a conference season. No, this is the NFL. And they've had to play real competition week in a week out, and they got the Minnesota Vikings best game and they still found a way to win it. I think you have to tip your cap to them for that. Yeah, absolutely, I mean we

talked about it last year with the Packers. Yes, they were winning close games, pulling games out in the fourth quarter. You always deserve credit for that. You look at it as hey, they probably haven't played their best game yet. I don't know if we actually saw the Packers best game in twenty nineteen, even in going thirteen and three, winning a playoff game, making it to the NFC Championship.

We're starting to see maybe the Packer, the Packers best game that we thought we might see last year, We're starting to see that here at the beginning of With regard to the Seahawks, that is a team that has played really, really good defense for a long time. With where their defense is ranked right now, I will just say the Seattle Seahawks aren't playing their best football, but they're winning. They still they have things that they can

improve on and get better. So to me, it's like some people look at it as well, they're right on the edge and they're gonna fall off the cliff. I look at it as watch out because this team has areas where it can play better, and I think and I think it will. And Seattle right now is is obviously in the catbird seed at five, and oh they're fortunate to be there, but I think it's a position they're going to take advantage well. And the reality is

too they have a future Hall of Fame quarterback. I I don't think there's any you know, wrong reason to say that that that's where the trajectory is pointing for Russell Wilson, and now he has a weapon in DK Metcalf that has averaging two yards per catch. Right now, when you have that type of explosivity to your offense, it doesn't matter what your defense does. Ask the two thousand eleven Packers. I mean, that's just the way it goes. So you have to score the opposition in Through the

first five games this season, Seattle has done just that. Yeah, all right, Well with that, we will call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team, all the preview coverage leading up to Packers Buccaneers on Sunday on Packers dot com for Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next time.