#554 Packers Unscripted: Final rundown

wanted to look forward to. Not just because of Aaron Rodgers against Tom Brady, though that's certainly a big enough reason. About the Packers four and oh, the Buccaneers are three and two looking to avoid a two game losing streak. This is one I think, even though it's so early in the season, you just get the sense it could have some playoff implications down the road. Yeah, you really

do believe that. And when you look at the way that these teams match up, like I said you earlier this week, I think the one area where the Bucks really need to clean things up is the penalties, the discipline. But in terms of just you know, talent scheme defense, they're as good as anybody in the NFC right now, and and being able to obviously build this offense now around Tom Brady has been the big key for them, but they have a running back, they have playmakers at

tight end and receiver. Their defensive front is one of the best in the league right now. Not only can get pressure, can stop the run. And I think also we'll have to see, you know how this injury report shuffles out with Mike Evans and Leonard for NET. But overall, I mean you look at the way that they're able to win every single down. Uh, that presents a lot of challenges and that was one of the big topics that Matt Lafleur really discussed this week and his interactions

with the media. Yeah, well, before we get to our keys to victory on both sides of the ball, a little bit of sponsored business here. Serious x M NFL Radio channel is the only radio outlet dedicated to the National Football League seven days a week and fifty five Sorry about that or no, can't short change them on that one. Well you mentioned it West. The penalties From a statistical perspective, Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been flagged for forty two penalties in five games. That's an average about

eight per game. The Packers, on the other hand, only nineteen penalties in four games, only five per game. I think the discipline, you know, is going to be a big factor in this game. You don't if you're the Packers, you don't want to get into the kind of game that the Bears got into with the Buccaneers last Thursday, which is where the flags were kind of flying on both sides and uh and ultimately ended up hurting the Buccaneers more than Chicago. I don't think the Packers want

to get into that kind of game. If the Buccaneers are gonna put themselves in tough down and distance or whatever, don't help them out, don't do them any favors in any other direction. Yeah, and you know, it's one of those things too that you look at this mic and in the way Green Bay has won to this point of the season. Yeah, you've had amazing performances out of individual players. You've had big you know, stops defensively, big

plays defensively, and obviously Aaron Rodgers. But if you look at it from a bigger level, where the areas that they've kind of dominated their competition, time of possession with what they've accomplished in that area, protecting the football and being able to, you know, make sure that they're continuing their drives and not relinquishing field position. And the other thing is discipline. It's penalties. I mean that game against Detroit green Bay that was a pretty thoroughly one victory.

But where was the turning point in that game? It was some of the extracurricular stuff that the Lions started doing. That green Bay was able to keep their heads about themselves, and we'll be able to pull that out in the

second half. New Orleans. Now, there are a couple of penalties there that I think the Saints probably would object to, but they were flags nonetheless, and obviously going into the Atlantic game too, so I think again, my biggest key for this matchup is if the Packers play clean football, if they don't put the ball on the ground, if the defense isn't able to turn it over the Bucks defense, and you keep the time of possession to feel position,

and also keeping yourselves in managuble down in distance. It's a very not rudimentary way to win a football game, but it's very meat potatoes. I think there's a solid blueprint there for what green Bay needs to do well on the offensive side of the ball. The Packers are fifth in the NFL in rushing yards. The Tampa Bay

Buccaneers number one rush defense in the league. This is going to be interesting because the Packers are fifth in the NFL running the football, but the last two games New Orleans and Atlanta, the Packers have not cracked a hundred yards rushing in those games. That number five ranking built more off of the first two games of the season than the last two the Buccaneers. This was the number one rushing defense in the league in twenty nineteen.

If I'm not mistaken. They've simply carried that over that defensive front. Yes, missing Vita Vea now that he's out for the season with a broken leg, but that defensive

front is formidable. They've carried over what they've done from twenty nineteen here into and with as much as I think it could be a strugg for the Packers to run the ball as far as the key to victory, I kind of look at okay, if Davante Adams is coming back and all signs are pointing to Adams getting back on the field on Sunday, I think the Packers Aaron Rodgers and Matt Lafleur. They need to get Davante

Adams into the flow of the game quickly. He's been out for you know, two and a half games, plus the bye week. It's been it's been a bit of a break and you don't you don't want him to to not feel comfortable out there as the game goes along. You want him to get into it right away. Yeah, and he's proven in the past two that he can hit the ground running after missing some time and play really well right off the bat. Full participant in practice on Wednesday. All signs pointing up right now for him

coming back from that hamstring injury. But this does really scream to me a Davante Adams type game because the last two games, and really the last two and a half, if you call out the second half against you know, the Lions, it came down to defenses wanting to take away Aaron Jones. So what were the counters to that. It was Alan Lazard stepping up, It was Robert Tony and getting open. It was Jamal Williams coming a really valuable threat as a receiver. Well, eventually you've got to

get back to your three time Pro Bowl receiver. He seems like this is a tailor made matchup if the Buccaneers really are trying to stop the run to win Adams with winning his one on ones to get open downfield. I'll also mention this too, though all credit in the world the Tampa Bay very stout run defense, I don't know if they've really seen a threat like what Green Bay presents though in this matchup as well. I would

agree with that. Certainly. A week ago Thursday night against Chicago, the Bears have almost no running game to speak O. Yeah, and Austin Eichler the two weeks before that, I believe gets injured. The matchup only has two carries and the charges completely abort the run and you can go a

different direction. So, uh, the first quarter of this game is just going to be thrilling to watch, just to see what exactly the initial game plan is going to be a Green Bay and how on the other side of the field, Todd Bowls and the Buccaneers are gonna

try to attack it. Yeah. Well, and certainly when you're facing a defense as formidable as this one with Tampa Bay, I don't know if you can count on, you know, having five or six cracks in the red zone like the Packers have have had regularly here throughout the year. So I think there's a premium on finishing drives too. You're only gonna get so many shots against this defense in the red zone to try to to try to punch the ball in the end zone, and the Packers

have to finish those drives. We talked about the short yardage situations and whatnot the other day. Whatever it takes, you can't be settling for field goals, especially when Tom Brady's the quarterback on the other side. Yeah, and I agree with that wholeheartedly. In the other aspect of it too, There's gonna be six thousand, maybe more people there, and there's probably a lot of rowdy Buccaneers fans that are gonna be really excited for this matchup, So I think

there could be some Packer fans in there. We've heard from a few and inside inbox who have tickets for Sunday's games, so I think they are going to be maybe some some Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones, Za, Darius Smith, Jersey sprinkled throughout to Raymond James Stadium, and I'm sure that welcome that too. But like Davante Adams, said, it really doesn't even matter, just he is excited to potentially have some people to play in front of again, and and just seeing the way that they manage that game,

the momentum of it. I've only covered one game at Raymond James Stadium. It was that game in two thousand and fourteen where for a minute there it looked like Josh McCown wasn't going to be able to like really complete a forward pass and the Packers one handedly. The only downside of that is that's when the dreaded calf injury flared up for Rogers. So you know, it is a winnable game. It's a winnable matchup, but the Packers have to stay on top of themselves. It was my

big thing I wrote an insider inbox this week. You know, you got to four and oh, that's a great start to the season. That puts you in pole position here right now with Seattle in this NFC race for the number one seed. But you have to continue that train. You have to be able to push that momentum forward because as we've seen too and if you let a good start go to waste, then you let the rest of the group kind of catch up to you again. Yeah, well, we'll shift gears to the defensive side of the ball

in a moment. But gear up for game day, folks. Open up 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, when I look at this game on the defensive side of the ball for the Packers, the first thing that jumps out to me as a key to victory is to

tackle Ronald Jones. Because if you're Ronald Jones and you're looking at the film of the Packers against the New Orleans Saints and what Alvin Kamara was able to do with breaking tackles, turning short gains into big ones, etcetera, etcetera, Ronald Jones is like, all right, get me the ball. Here we go, right. I mean that that's what he's thinking. So the Packers have got to have have got to turn that on its head and say, Okay, this is a guy. I mean, we've we've seen Ronald Jones likes

to do spin moves. He's he's quick, he's tough to bring down. The Packers have to be sound in there tackling and not let this guy turn two and three

yard carries into first down carries that move the change. Yeah, this is the one thing where it's like, if Green Bay could have just played right away the next week we talked about is a bye wee can effect momentum A run defense is probably the one area that I think really could have probably benefited from just keep going because they were coming off their best performance of the season against Atlanta and just a reminder the next week, Todd Gurley then went off for whatever it was, a

twenty rushing yards in the Falcons next game. I mean, that was a good, solid performance. Tyler Lancaster played up played exceptional. You had Kingsley. Keiki has been able to to shed blockers and regardless of whether he's pass rushing or defending the run, has made some strides like you've even seen montrevious Adams get more comfortable here as he started to play a little bit more consistently. Oh and by the way, now you potentially get Kenny Clark back

in the fold. So for with the exception of what fourteen fifteen plays, this defense has had to go without their Pro Bowl nose tackle through the first you know, month of the season. So if you're able to get him back on the field, and as I've been saying all along, if Mike Petton can be a little bit more uh not creative, but just unpredictable with how they're exactly they want to use him and what scenarios he

needs to be on the field for that. This really does boil down to me like a game where as good as Ronald Jones is and he's great, and if love Leonard fer Nette is out there, we'll have to see. But the Packers coming off of that performance against Atlanta and getting back Kenny Clark, it's all set up for them to really, you know, kind of change the narrative with that group here after having kind of a slow

start to the season. Yeah. And the other thing I look at on the defensive side of the ball, and I talked about it in our previous show, is that in this one, I think you got to get a takeaway from Tom Brady in some way, shape or form. The Packers defense only three takeaways in four games. We talked about the Packers offense, no turnovers. You're taking care of the taking care of the ball. On the offensive side, you can get an interception or a strip sack type

of play on Tom Brady. I think that's the that's the one type of play that could that could really either set the tone if you do it early in the game, or shift the momentum if it happens later in the game like this the Zarius Smith forced forced fumble on Taysom Hill in New Orleans. I think one takeaway here from the Packers defense could go a really long way on Sunday in this matchup. Yeah, and tracking

the rest of the week. I mean, as we show as we talk right now, neither team has had their padded practice, so we'll see exactly what this the forecast is here for Mike Evans and what his availability is going to be. Certainly it's a different game if he's not on the field. O. J. Howard has had these issues now too. But then you've got Rob Gronkowski who's been off to kind of a slow start getting back into his NFL career. You don't want to make this

the week that Gronk goes off against you. So there's so many different reasons and things that I think factorated this, But for me, it's just comes down to what that quarterback is doing in the pocket. And if the Packers are able to pressure Tom Brady a little bit, are you able to not allow him to to see the

entire field? Is Darius Smith up in his business? That's going to be a big, important, critical role to this because at some point in the game is good and as solid as Ronald Jones is and that running game is the game is going to be in you know, tom Brady's hand. Where do the Packers how do they respond to that? Where are they in that play that?

That's gonna be a big thing to why. Yeah. On the Packers hoping to get healthy On the defensive side of the ball, Kevin King did not practice on Wednesday. We'll see if there's any potential for him to return, But Rashawn Gary back at practice for Green Bay. As far as the pass rush goes on the offensive side of the ball, Tyler Irvin as of this taping hasn't practiced yet for Green Bay. So that's the injury situation for the Packers, King and Irvin. Otherwise, everybody else so

far looks like they could be good to go on Sunday. Yeah, and then you know, depending on what happens with Kevin, that's where it might be Kadar Holman, could be Josh Jackson. Somebody's gonna have to step up into that role in that boundary corner spot because you just get the feeling that they like Shannon Sullivan in that you know Nickel, you know role. He can play perimeters, so he's not

out of that card either. But the way that Mike Pettan has played this defense, he likes being able to keep guys in certain spots, so that that would be a big loss. And then also Tyler Irvin on returns is the other thing to consider too. You have Sullivan is the backup on kickoffs, Jackson is the backup on punts. But then you know Areas Shepherd is obviously on the fifty three man roster. Again, he handled those duties during the early part of last season. There's always gonna be questions.

They're seventeen weeks and you know it's a it's a injury rate league. Um, so we'll have to see exactly how that shuffles out. Yeah, well, before we go west, Um, we'll take a quick look at some other games around the NFC in Week six, and the first one that jumps out to me is Chicago at Carolina the Bears are four and one, They'll be coming off of you know, the mini by after the Thursday night game, just like

the Buccaneers, so they'll be a little bit rested. A lot of people wondering just where the Bears really are at four and one, and with Folds at quarterback, and where this is headed. Carolina a very quiet three and two, tied for first place in the NFC South with the Saints and the Buccaneers, who are also both three and two.

This is a really interesting one. I mean, hey, you know, if you're talking about it under the radar team Teddy Bridgewater and the Panthers Christian McCaffrey, these guys, that's a tough division there. I know Atlanta is struggling, but the Saints and the Bucks are are not to be trifled with. And and Carolina can say, hey, if they knock off the Bears, Carolina gets to four and two, sends a whole sort of sets up a whole new picture for

the NFC South. Yeah yeah, and as Matt Rule kind of tries to put his stamp on that team, it's quite the way to start things out. Here's what I love the most though. Okay, so lady on Bell is a free agent now. And the big big scuttle buttons who which which futured you know, Jets opponent? Is he gonna end up signing with here or whatever. The thing that has completely flown absolutely under the radar this week

is Mike Davis facing the Chicago Bears. I mean, Mike Davis has been terrific having to supplant and injured Christian McCaffrey. You're absolutely right on Bridgewater. I've been the biggest Teddy Bridgewater fan forever. I love the way he plays a position. He looks confident again, he's standing tall in the pocket, he's making plays. But here's Mike Davis who kind of was left for dead last year. He's never really gotten a full opportunity, and now he's making some place for

the Carolina Panthers. You want to talk about a guy that probably has some fire in his belly going into this game. I look at at Davis is a guy that that could potentially be looking to break out. And it's a credit to him and also some of those skill positions on the on the Panthers that they've been able to wade through not having McCaffrey on the field. Yeah,

well another one here is well Atlanta is that Minnesota. Obviously, the Falcons in the circle the Wagons mode with Raheem Morris taking over as interim coach, will see, you know, we'll see just what that does for the Falcons. The Vikings, on the other hand, how do they bounce back from that gut punch of a loss in Seattle, And not just that one loss, but the Vikings here are looking

at their trying to avoid one in five. You know, they need they absolutely have to win this game to get to two and four or everybody's gonna absolutely right Minnesota off if they get their fifth loss here by mid October. Well, first and foremost, knock on wood that this game gets played and everything turns out okay in Atlanta, true enough, so sending positive vibes their way. Obviously they're taking care of their business right now based off all

the reports. But this is an interesting game from Minnesota because you just played your best effort, your best almost four quarter game against Seattle and unfortunately you come up short. How does that team respond Because as you and I know, there aren't any glamour points in this league. You don't get a nice little Asterix next to you for you know, a job well done. You gotta win the game or you don't. And unfortunately for the Vikings in that particular case,

they didn't do it. So now you're taking on an Atlanta team that is really reeling, that is at the bottom of the league. They made a coaching change, their defenses and shambles. Right now, can you rise to the occasion and do what you're supposed to do? I have faith in Minnesota. I think they probably will if this

game gets you know, goes off without a hitch. But it's a gut check because it's not always easy to pull yourself back up by the bootstraps after you have a you know, a really demoralizing loss like that that goes right down to the wire. Yeah, And sometimes teams that lose their head coach, like the Falcon said that first game, you know, there's there's there's a there's just

a different energy, there's a different attitude to everything. All of the speculation over the head coaches future, that's all taking care of the team is moving on, and it's you know, sometimes those guys in the locker room and go, okay, all right, you know what, what do we have to lose.

I mean absolutely the other one I want to talk about quickly, um before we wrap this up here, though, The Rams at San Francisco a very important game in the NFC West because the Rams looking to get to five and one, keep pace with the Seattle Seahawks in their division and obviously with the Packers and Bears and these other teams that have the top records in the

NFC right now. San Francisco forty Niners trying to avoid getting their fourth loss this early in the season, and they've had injury problems obviously Nick Bosa, Jimmy Garoppolo, and the list is certainly longer than that. Eric Armstead as well. This is a really really big game for San Francisco to avoid loss number four, and it's a big game for the Rams to, you know, kind of put your foot on the throat of a team, a division rival

that's down a little bit here. Yeah. The great thing is for the Packers is that you always six times a year you get to watch the NFC West kind of beat up on himself. Uh. I mean, that is a champions division right now, with you know, Seattle getting off to the start that they have. I don't think anybody thought the Rams would be down for long. You know that last year was a little bit of a setback, but they're still pretty strong in what they believe the defense.

I mean, they have the best defensive player in the league, um and certainly you know, I seemed to have found their cornerback here for the foreseeable future. And just San Francisco is the one we're all trying to figure out right now. Can they rally here? Because as we were just talking about with the Vikings, I mean, when you make it to the promised Land of that's Super Bowl, you come back the next year and you start to find some adversity, how do you respond to it? I

think Kyle Shanahan is a brilliant coach. Obviously, we've talked so much about what that entire team has done and how they've gone about their business. John Lench, you tip their cap to them. But facts are what the facts are. And you're two and three and you're taking on a team in this case that is four and one has been one of the front runners in the NFL for the last three seasons. It's a tough matchup and they've got to find a way to respond. Super Bowl hangovers

can be real, man. You get to that, you get to that game and you lose it, especially losing it in close, in close, devastating fashion. I mean, just ask the Falcons. Obviously, the forty nine is going through that now. There's a lot of a lot of history of teams struggling that year after losing a Super Bowl. It's it's a very real thing in this league. Yeah, it is.

And in San Francisco is trying to pull themselves out of it right now because there's still a lot of talent there on both sides of the question about it. But the problem is is that when you're already sit at three losses and you have another eleven games ahead of you, and yeah, it's tough. Yeah, definitely. 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 and all of the action from Sundays big game down at Tampa on Packers dot com for Wes I Am Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody, See you next time. M