Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined as always by my partner and crime Wes Hodkowitz. Were coming to you here from our shiny news studio at lambeau Field and West. The Packers momentum was slowed with the bye week. It was halted and stopped dead in its tracks on the trip to Tampa Bay a thirty eight to ten loss, and I'm gonna give you this analogy. This game felt like the days that you come into the office because
you're a coffee drinker. I'm not, and the only thing that went right for you was that your cup of coffee in the morning was pretty good. The rest of the day was completely forgettable. It was just it was one of those days for the Packers. The beginning of the game, everything looked just fine, and by the end of the game, it was like, what the heck happened? I made this comment an Insider Inbox this week, Mike, I was curious if you'd agree with me on this.
This was a weird type of blowout in that the Packers actually played really well in the first quarter on on both sides, of the balls. They got ten points right off the bat. They continued their streak, the only team in the NFL right now who has scored on their opening possession all five games to this point. They come back after that, they go down, they score the touchdown twice, and then you look on the other side
of the field. They got a three and out defensively, and Tampa Bay had what like nine total yards or something like that after the first quarter. They forced a punt to start the second, and then things unraveled from there. It's just it was odd to me that usually if if games, if you're disheveled, if you're not looking good, you sort of tend to not look good right from
the start. If you would have told me that that that first quarter would be tend to nothing, the Packers would have, you know, twelve minutes of time of possession and then the final score was what it was at the end, I would have asked you afterwards what happened? So it was it was an unfortunate outcome. But again, the one thing I'll always say in these instances is these things happen over the course of a long season.
You have to find a way to bounce back. From it. Yeah, so many things in this game just anomaly for the Packers, both within this season and in the larger context historically. Obviously, Aaron Rodgers throws a pick six. He's only done that now three times in his entire career, and weirdly enough, two of them have been at Raymond James Stadium, which that's something that's almost impossible to explain. But then also, the Packers had had zero turnovers through the first four
games of the season. They have two on back to back possessions. Aaron Rodgers almost never throws two interceptions in a game, let alone too on consecutive possessions, as happened there and gave the Buccaneers fourteen points that wiped out the early ten nothing lead. But then also the way
the rest of the game went offensively. The Packers had had only one three and out offensively all season long, and after the two interceptions, they had five three and ounce with j. K. Scott taking the field to punt the ball without gaining a first down. Nothing was going right Tampa Bay, led by those that inside linebacker tandem of Lavonte David And and Devin White, and we talked
about them last week and their speed. And I tell you, well, you hear about how fast these guys are, right, and but not having watched a game of Tampa Bay's as closely as obviously we did this one. Man, those guys are fast, they're they're in for my money. There is not an inside linebacker duo in the league that is better than those two. No, and the thing that you know, I agree with the assertion that Lavonte David is probably one of the most unheralded players in the National Football League.
Maybe there's a lot of folks out there that wouldn't be able to tell you that he was drafted in two thousand twelve. This is a guy that's been doing it for nine years now and still playing with the amount of speed and explosiveness he still plays with. The guy turns thirty one in January. He still looks like he's a twenty five year old guy running around out there. Absolutely, and certainly you know he has all the fundamentals and the technique to be able to take down ball carriers
um sideline to sideline. Devin White's gonna be a really special talent. Though. You can just see the way with the speed that he has, and that was he was touted for that. You and I remember that draft, and well, he was the top five pick for a reason, and there was and we were talking about him, Hey, could this be a guy that potentially would be there for the Packers or what they could they move up and
get him? And he falls into Tampa Bay's lap there at number five, and he is the transcendent talent that you're looking for in the top ten. Now, all these things, you give them all the credit in the world, you still have to find a way to beat them. And for Green Bay, they just weren't able to really penetrate
the second level. The outside zones really weren't working that well for them in the final three quarters, and the Buccaneers just started to go to work after they were able to kind of match that initial punch that the Buccaneers sort of rolled from there. Yeah, and on the defensive side of the ball for the Packers again, after what looked like a promising first quarter, things start to unravel. And really we've talked about it with this defense West,
it very much is predicated on the big play. And when you don't get any sacks and you don't get any turnovers and you're facing a Hall of Fame quarterback. Now, Tom Brady didn't do anything spectacular in this game. I thought a couple of his passes, particularly the touchdown to Rob Gronkowski and the other sideline pass to Gronkowski, those were picture perfect throws. But Tom Brady did not have this you know, oh my gosh, wow, tom Brady type
of game. But because the Packers defense didn't get any any of those sacks or turnovers, it just turned into a really long afternoon. Well, and it's the reason why they always talk about, you know, total yards, total defense, total passing. It's kind of a misleading stat because I'll tell you what, Mike, when I was going, we were getting ready for the zoom calls, and I brought up the post game you know sheet tom Brady had a
hundred and sixties six passing yards in that game. Now, mind you, that was kind of buoyed by the forty yard defensive pass interference penalty and sort of those hidden yards that were built into this thing. But it does really tell you that, you know, they needed to play a clean game that being in Bay, and they just didn't uh Tampa Bay for their To their credit, again, this is a team that had eleven penalties for a hundred and nine yards against Chicago. Those came back to
bite them. They weren't able to get their drives late to seal that victory and they ended up losing the game. Whether it was the extra week and a half rest or maybe they were on short rest the first time that affected of them. They're back at home. Who knows what the reasons were, but they cleaned it up. They had. They were charged with no penalties, only one offsetting penalty on that unnecessary roughness or on sportsmanlike conduct penalty on
the Dominican sue. Uh. They were able to you know, stay in favorable down in distance, they didn't turn over the football. Uh. But all that being said, green Bay still didn't have had opportunities. There was the past that went through Adrian Amos's hands. There was, you know, chances to find a big play and the Packers just weren't
able to do that. But at the end of the day, when you go back to what Green Bay did so well in two thousand nineteen and why they looked so promising on that side of the ball, it was the pressure and there just wasn't enough of it on Tom Brady. Yeah, there were missed opportunities in this game for the Packers. Don't get me wrong, I thought, you know, after the two interceptions by Aaron Rodgers, He's got Marcedes Lewis wide
open down the middle of the field, misses him. Rogers talked after the game about, you know, whether or not the win maybe played a factor on that throw because it was a breezy day, and Rogers said he felt good about the throw when he came out of his hand, but then just unable to connect with Lewis. The game's fourteen to ten at that point, you get a big play. I'm not sure if Lewis, because he's not the fastest
man in the world anymore. I'm not sure if he could take that one all the way to the house. But he's gonna put the Packers in position to get points and stem the tide a little bit. You look on the defensive side of the ball. You mentioned the pick that went through Amos his hands, a potential interception there. The two touchdown drives that Tom Brady and the Buccaneers offense put together the longer scoring drives in the second quarter.
The Packers defense got them in third down four times on those two drives to either force a punt or a field goal. Tampa Bago's four for four on those four third ounds ends up putting both of those drives in the end zone for touchdowns, and you're at eight to ten at halftime. Those missed opportunities, all of them after the two interceptions that set up the touchdowns, All those missed opportunities in the second quarter is really where this game got away from Green Bay. Yeah, and you
just weren't able to recapture that momentum. And and the fact that this is such a small thing, but Tampa Bay went in the coin toss, being able to get the ball back to start the second half, they were able to put points up. They put twenty eight points up in the second quarter, and then they got the ball back after halftime. That's just such a huge deficit to work back from from Green Bay. But you have
to find a way to do it. The major thing at the point I want to get across, and a lot of it came out of what Matt Lafleur was saying in his Monday conference press conference with the Green Bay Media Corps was that it went. It went poorly. The game plan wasn't good enough. The execution wasn't good enough, in the play calling wasn't good enough. He stepped right in front of it and he took ownership of it, as he has a lot of times after the five
losses he's had. But it comes down to that. Okay, you watch the film, you correct it, and you've got to turn your sights to this Houston Texans team at one in five. It's somewhat deceiving there when you look at Deshaun Watson and still the danger that they present. So you can't allow it to be two losses. You lost this one. You took it on the chin. You
got to find a way to come back from it. Yeah. Absolutely, I want to talk a little bit more about the Texans, that upcoming opponent here real quickly, some sponsored business serious x M NFL Radio Channel eighty eight is the only radio outlet dedicated to the National Football League seven days a week, three and sixty five days a year, and Packers fans be sure to gear up four 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 Okay as you said, the Packers have to turn the page quickly. You don't take the film of this Tampa Bay game and completely dismiss it, throw it in the garbage. You have to go over it. You have to really study and look at everything that went wrong. But then mentally, certainly starting Wednesday, when you hit the practice field, you have to turn
the page to the Houston Texans. And it's an interesting thing here West because the Texans are The Texans are one in five and while they are the victim of the only Minnesota Vikings win so far this year, Houston's other four losses are too If I get it right, Kansas City, Houston, I mean sorry, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Tennessee. Those four teams in the a f C right now, hey have a combined twenty and two record. Two of them are undefeated, the other two only have
one loss. Those are the teams that the Houston Texans have lost to, aside from the Minnesota Vikings. So and obviously they the loss to Pittsburgh was by one touchdown,
I believe, only seven points. And then this most recent loss to Tennessee, the Texans are down to seven in the second quarter, they come back from that fourteen point deficit, they get the lead a couple of times in the fourth quarter, end up giving up the tying touchdown in the final seconds of the fourth quarter and losing overtime
to an unbeaten Titans team. So this one in five record for the Houston Texans in my mind, in Matt Lafleur's mind, I think in the Packers mind in general, it means absolutely nothing going into this game on Sunday. It really does. And I mean the other common denominator in all this is, I mean, you look at the way in which Deshaun Watson has performed to this point of the season. I mean, this is one of the
elite quarterbacks in this league. And one thing when you look at the early slate here for Green Bay is it's been difficult for them trying to stop those elite quarterbacks. So that's why you can't really take any of this for granted. You can't look at one in five and say, Okay, well they're just a throwaway team. They've been through the gauntlet. Now.
They did lose to Minnesota. That was sort of the backbreaker, considering that was the game where okay, somebody has to prevail here, somebody has to get into the wind column. But be then as it may. They came back the next week and they got a two touchdown win over
the Jacksonville Jaguars. So there's so many different things that play into this, and I'm just very curious right now, Mike, to see exactly what the Packers do coming off of a road loss and then having to travel to another somewhat uncommon Well, this definitely is an uncommon opponent in the Houston Texans. If you look at Matt Lafleur's resume, he has been exceptional. The Packers have been exceptional at bouncing back from a loss and not allowing it to snowball.
I wrote last week, coming off the by you have to be able to keep the train moving. They didn't in Tampa Bay. Well, you have to find a way to get it back on the tracks this week against the Texans. Yeah. Absolutely. And Matt Lafleur's track record here in nearly a season and a half at the helm of the Packers, probably the most impressive thing, quite frankly, that he's done is that he is more than twenty games into his NFL coaching NFL head coaching career, and
he has yet to lose back to back games. And that is the trend that the Packers are going to hang their hat on. That Matt Lafleur will hang his hat on and uh and get this team back going in the right direction offensively. I really look for the Packers to bounce back big time in this game. Houston's defense has struggled. They've They've have given up a lot
of points. Yes, they've got some playmakers on that side of the ball, don't get me wrong, But this is a defense that I think the Packers can get the offense back to a to both the the efficiency and the explosiveness that we've seen that we saw through the first month of the season. The defensive side of the ball is where I'm a little bit more concerned because the Packers are gonna hear all week from you know, the pundits, the writers, everything about how they're not getting
any pressure on the quarterback. The sack numbers are down from you know, the Smiths and others. The pressure numbers are down. You know, all the metrics are showing that. But you mentioned the guy's name, Deshaun Watson. You have to be careful with how you pressure this guy. The Packers can't go into the game thinking, oh, this is all about getting pressure on the quarterback because we haven't
done that. Because Deshaun Watson will kill you with his legs if you don't rush the quarterback in the proper fashion. So this is not going to be a game about statistics for the pass rush to the sacks or whatever. This is going to be about in in the bigger picture, how you go about defending Deshaun Watson. And you have to defend him differently than you defend a lot of
other quarterbacks. You really do, and Watson is such an interesting case study, especially this year, because if you break down his stats against basically no pressure, the guy is just eating people alive right now against four man rushes. I think he has like an like an hundred and eighteen passer rating. Teams have blitzed him more this year, and that's where I think is passer rating. I don't quote me on this for sure, I want to say
it's in the seventies when they've successfully blitzed him. But the catch twenty two two, that's the tradeoff is what happens if you don't get home and how does he hurt you if you don't have a spy on him, if he's able to escape the pocket. There's a lot of those extended, off schedule type plays that he can create, not only with his feet but also with his arm. Oh and then, by the way, he has one of
the most explosive targets in the National Football League. And Will Fuller that can really hurt you if you let him get deep on you on a go ball. So you know they they've added some tools. I know a lot was made out of the DeAndre Hopkins trade and and you know you can it's kind of water under the bridge at this point with Bill O'Brien no longer as the head coach and GM, but you have to look at the roster that sits in front of you, Will Fuller, Brandon Cooks, and obviously Randall Cobbs, a guy
the Packers are incredibly, incredibly knowledgeable about. And then David Johnson's a guy too that can hurt you with his hands. There are weapons there and it's an opponent you can't take lightly. Yeah, and here's the thing was when you look at we talked about it last week with Atlanta, right they change head coaches. It relieves some of that pressure. The players aren't under this big cloud as to what's gonna happen. And the Falcons go into Minneapolis and get
their first victory of the season. The Texans did that a cup of weeks ago. They move on from Bill O'Brien, They get a win over the Jaguars. They take an undefeated Tennessee team down to the wire. This talented roster, they're playing a little more loose. They don't have the tension that was surrounding everything with the future of the head coach. And this is a team that's going to be ready to play on Sunday. And Matt Lafleur has been delivering that message to his team and to the
Packers fans well. And you saw it. Even not to use the analogy again of the two thousand eighteen season with the Packers, but I thought you were going to go back to the cup of coffee. I can definitely do that if you want. Okay, did you have your coffee this morning? No? But you go back to that eighteen season with the Packers, And as difficult as that week was when the Packers made the decision to move
on from Mike McCarthy. They went into that Falcons game with Joe Philbin and you really could tell there was this we have nothing to lose type mindset. There's something about when you make a coaching change that it just seems to as you said, it gives you this sort of freedom that it's just like, let's just go play.
Let's not overthink this, because this wasn't The Texans made these moves they made in the offseason, the extension, the trade, all that stuff, because they expected to compete this year. They were coming off a playoff appearance, several of them under Bill O'Brien. So now they have a team that's still really talented, and now they have more of a
freer mindset, and I think that's the danger. That's the thing you have to shield against now going up into this matchup, which again nrg Field, no one else wants to hear this, but I'm gonna say it anyway. Still the only NFL stadium other than the ones that were just built, that I haven't been to yet. So when you and it only happens once every eight years unless they play a preseason game there, But you and I, when COVID's done and where everything's fine again, whatever year
that is. You and I are road tripping down to Houston so I can actually go to the stadium. Thank you very much. I was there. I've been there once. Two thousand twelve. I was rubbing in. I was there for Aaron Rodgers throwing the six touchdown passes on Sunday Night football to beat the Texans. You know. I so I have been to the stadium no where. It was in watching that you were watching that, you were watching
it on television. Okay, Well, the here's the other thing, not that the Packers need anything else to get their attention after the way they performed and you're in that bounce back mode. It's it's that whole reset, refocus and everything like that. But the other element to this west is however they look it up these days on the phone on the computer, the NFC North, the Packers are looking up at somebody. The Chicago Bears are five and one.
The Packers are four and one. For everything that was going so swimming, lee and so smoothly through the first four games, and the Packers were four and oh and and uh, you know, you're on top of the world there. You're one of only two undefeated teams in the NFC along with Seattle. Now suddenly you're not even in first place in your own division. And the Bears this coming week,
I believe they play on Monday Night Football. So the Packers won, So the Packers won't even know what's going on with the Bears or anything when they take the field on on Sunday in Houston, because the best the Packers are going to be able to do is tie them for first place at five and one. So it's just another thing to to lock in mentally because this this is going to be a dog fight in the division from here on out. The Bears are gonna be taking on the NFC East leading Los Angeles Rams in
that matchup. So, uh no, you're right though. This is what I love. And so many people are quick to dog on the Bears for the start. Don't dog on them there. It's a good football team. Have they had issues, Yeah, a lot of teams have had issues to this point of the season, but they're the Bears are winning, and I don't want to draw these comparisons of the Packers
last year. I will continue until the day that I am no longer even on this earth, going to tell you, the two thousand nineteen Packers were a dang good football team. They were a thirteen and three football team. No matter what you know. The saber metrics people want to say, it's difficult to win in this league, and the Bears aren't doing it the same way the Packers. They're doing it their own way. But how what is the one
parallel winning close games, finding ways to victory. The Bears have done it and they deserve to be five and one. Green Bay needs to keep pace now, Yeah, absolutely well. We will talk a little bit more about this Packers Texans matchup on our other episode later this week, but for now, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on Script, and be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team all week long on
Packers dot com for Wes, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.