#556 Packers Unscripted: Back on their game

the season. Remember who you are. That's something I've been preaching all week long, and it goes off and sort of dovetails from what we've heard in the locker room this week with Aaron Rodgers, Mercedes Lewis, some of the people that have spoken to us at the time in which we're taping the show, knowing that, yeah, it was disappointing, but not that it even necessarily needs to be an anomaly. It's something you have to learn from. But this team won four games right off the bat for a reason.

They were They put up a hundred and fifty plus points in those first four games for a reason. And you can't get too high and too low with this. I mean, if you go back to those four victories, Mike, every time in those Wednesdays and Thursday's media availability that followed, they were very even keeled about this thing. You have to take that same approach now because they're going up

against the Houston Texas team. As you and I have said time and time again, maybe have the hardest strength of schedule through the first month and a half of the NFL season. I have playmakers on both sides of the ball that can change the momentum and turn a

game at any moment. The Green Bay Packers have those players too, and as difficult as it might be at time to think about, Okay, what do we have to do to win this game, they need to get back into their rhythm, whether it be the play calling, the game plan, the execution. Now it looks like Tyler Irvin still dealing with that wrist injury. If they want to revert to some of the motion stuff, that means Aaron Jones is going to have to adapt to some of that.

They're gonna have to get their receivers involved. This offense has been multiple invariant for so long, and they've been successful doing that. They need to get those wheels moving again here against the Texans. Yeah. I mean, we've certainly heard the right things from the Packers thus far this week, from the head coach and other players, as well as far as that even keel approach, like you said, it has worked here in Green Bay in the Matt Lafleur era.

There hasn't been a losing streak under Matt Lafleur. That's obviously a trend the Packers want to continue. He's, uh, you know, I'm working on doing some research on this. There hasn't been a Packers coach, probably since Curly Lambeau that has gone this long into his tenure as a head coach of the Packers without a losing streak. So there's something to be said for that in terms of what you do is working. And I think what you

said right off the bat, remember who you are. This offense is at its best when Aaron Jones is the focal point and it doesn't have it, whether it's running the ball, whether it's catching passes, maybe it's running the jet motion stuff to open up things for other guys, whatever the case might be. But when all the defensive attention is on Aaron Jones. That's when this offense seems to really flow and click and and and work. It's best magic, so to speak. And I think that's what

the Packers have to get back to. That's where the efficiency and the production is going to come from. Yeah, and if you go back and they aren't undefeated when Aaron Jones goes over a hundred total yards or a hundred rushing yards, but they're pretty darn close, going back all the way to his rookie season in two thousand seventeen. This is the type of guy and the type of playmaker that when he is right, everything else just seems

to go right with this offense. And you know last week with him only having ten carries for fifteen yards, and certainly he had the rushing touchdown and did some good things in the passing game, but the bread and butter of this offense is running the football and being able to establish him early. Now, a credit goes to Jamal Williams. He stepped up the last few weeks and he's been the leading rusher here last week and then

a week before that was their leading receiver. But getting Jones going and making defenses really think about what they're doing when he's in the backfield. That's where you really saw this offense get into its stride earlier this season. Davante Adams is back and he, hopefully here is going to be a week healthier. Appears like he had no subbax whatsoever with the hamstring. You don't know exactly what the situation is gonna be with Robert Tany, and he

missed practice on Wednesday with an ankle. But all that being said, the more weapons that you can get kind of working and getting that synergy back. I just think when you look at the way they were able to attack defenses that first month of the season, the blueprints still very much there for Green Bay to get back on track this Sunday. Yeah, I think the biggest question for the Packers offensively heading into this game is what

is the offensive line going to look like? Because at the time we're taping this, the Packers have only practiced once that was on Wednesday. David baktr was not on the practice field. We will see how things evolve as the week goes along. But we saw earlier in the season when there were injuries to the starters up front, it wasn't just Okay, we're gonna pull one guy off

the bench and plug him into that spot. Matt la Fleur not averse to moving guys around two different spots, So who knows who might play left tackle and then how what the trickle down effect of that could be if bok T isn't able to go. Now that being said, David Bactieri has missed only six games in his entire NFL career, four games one year, in two games another year. That's been it. You know, he is going to do

everything it takes to get out there. But we'll just have to see if he is healthy enough to go and if not, what the Packers response to that will

be with the lineup. Yeah, and you also have to remember, too, very quietly, out of this bye week, the Packers are entering their most daunting part of the schedule here where you go to Houston, you come back to face Minnesota, and then you're suddenly traveling again to San Francisco on three days, not a short week, on a short week, so there's a lot of football to be played here in the next one days or so. So you you need to see the forest through the trees a little

bit on what they need to do. Now what we'll see exactly what this game plan shuffles out to look like for box tr The one thing I find very interesting with Matt lafleur Um there's there's basically two different groups of psychology for how you handle offensive lines, and we saw both of them during the Mike McCarthy tenure. Early on, it was that you want to get your best five out There doesn't matter what position they're playing.

So if an injury happened to Brian Bulaga, you saw t J laying bump out to right tackle a couple of times. They had Evan Smith go into guard. Then later on in McCarthy's tenure, they looked for more of the one for one replacement. You know, you had a guy go down, Well, there's Don Barclay is gonna play right tackle now, and that's just what you're gonna ride with.

The Floor seems to be a little bit more inclined to the former, where it's if you want to just find your starting five, it doesn't matter what position they're playing at. You just gotta go with it. And honestly, it worked great in that game against Minnesota with what Elton Jenkins was able to do when he bumped out not only the right tackle, but he was moving on

a different side of the line of scrimmage. Uh. This is an exceptional athlete, a really special talent, and that gives them a little bit more versatility with what they want to do. Rick Wagner, I take my cap off to him. I mean, the guy had basically had gotten no reps whatsoever in practice. I can't imagine he took a lot of left tackle when you have David Botr healthy, and he went in there and he held the fords. So a lot of decisions they're going to have to

make in which direction they want to go with this thing. Yeah, just to throw out some of the different options. If box tr is unable to play, you could plug in Rick Wagner, which would be sort of option too in those scenarios you're laying out other ways you could go. You could flip Billy Turner from right tackle over to left tackle and have Wagner takeover at right tackle. You could slide Elton Jenkins from left guard out to left tackle.

Then presumably that means John Runyon, the rookie comes off the bench to play at guard. A lot of different ways the Packers can go. What we do know is not going to tell him. He's not interested in revealing what the plans are if box tr is unable to play, and so again it's a wait and see until Sunday kind of. And Rogers mentioned to on his appearance with

the Pat McAfee show. I mean he recalled back and that was what now three or four years ago, the game in which they had to start five guards on the offensive line where Lane Taylor started at left tackle, and then I think you ended up having Justin mccraize starting at right time tack in the late season matchup.

So they've they've dealt with all of this before the big question that's gonna be And and just you know, when you have a guy like box tr Um, a lot of teams, I think people take it for granted a little bit. In Green Bay when you had a run, you know, we talked so much about the quarterbacks. Well, when you have a run with Chad Clifton for a decade and you've had this run now with box tr coming up on a decade, you sometimes forget about the

blind spot. You sometimes forget about that left tackle position. It's not supposed to be that easy in this league. But those two guys, credit to them, have have really made it look a lot easier than it is. Yeah, offensive coaches love to not have to worry about that left tackle spot when they go into game planning week after week for games. Quickly here West, before we shift

gears to the defensive side. Serious x m NFL Radio channel is the only radio outlet dedicated to the National Football League seven days a week, three d sixty five days a year. And Packers fans 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. All Right, defensive

side of the ball. There are three things here West that I think we're seeing a difference in this pers defense compared to twenty nineteen, and the Packers aren't going to be able to fix all three of these in one week. But when we you know, I remember, just to preface this a little bit, the years that Julius Peppers was here, he used to talk all the time when he would speak with the media, especially early in the season the first half of the season, that everything

about the defense was always a work in progress. It was it was working fixing this, adjusting that to get to where you needed to be at the end of the season. He always took the long view. So I say, with these three things, I'm going to point out that the Packers need to need to change as things go along. It's not all going to happen at once, but this is where they need to go. Obviously, the pass rush needs to improve. The statistics on the pressures, the sacks

all that. It's not their same thing with the turnovers. They need to turn the ball over where they've now gone two straight games without one. That is uh, that's not a sustainable formula for this defense. But the other one I think is the big one that we haven't really talked about yet is the defense in the red zone. Last year, the Packers were tied for sixth in the

league and red zone defense. They allowed touchdowns only fifty percent of the time when opponents got in the red zone twenty four out of tied for sixth in the league. It was one of the best red zone defenses around. This year, Packers are twenty eight the red zone d seventy six point five percent thirteen of seventeen times now. Granted one of those, just like there was one last year after turnover and the balls on the two yard line.

You don't really fault the defense for that. But over the long haul, these are the numbers right to be tied for six in the league and to be twenty eight in the league in red zone defense, that's something that's got to change because red zone stops are worth four points, bottom line, and and the Packers defense is not getting those red zone stops right now. Well, let's be honest about something too. What was one of the reasons the Packers were able to really eat out some

close victories last year. It was the fact that they kept the opposing offense out of their end zone. So that that is something that you definitely want to see change. You Know, Pressures I've always kind of been a little bit lukewarm with because again I've seen it time and time again. Didn't matter if it was during the heyday with Dom Capers, in the middle of Caper's tenure, even

now with Petton. Is that, you know, numbers can look like one thing and then all it takes is a three sack performance from you know, Pressett Smith and then numbers start to get thrown on their head a little bit. But the big thing that gets to go back to the red zone is that's a more consistent stat over the course of a season. That really tells you the true story of a defense. And you know, there's so many things I think now, Mike, you got to take

with a grain of salt. Total defense isn't what it used to be. Um you know when you look at just yardage as a measurement, But you also can't look strictly at you know, points either, because a pick six that counts is against the defense as well. But red zone defense is one area where I think all your chips are down and you have you know, it's your guys versus their guys, and you have the advantage of

a shortened field. Green Bay was exceptional in that area last year, not only just from the standpoint that they held teams out of the end zone. They could pressure the quarterback from that part of the field, they could turn over the football from that part of the part of the field. So without knowing what the messages to Mike Petton that you you list out all the different options,

that's what looks like number one to me. That's primary option a is trying to find a way to shore that side of things up, because there is nothing more demoralizing you watch any NFL game on any given week. It was when an offense can go sixty or seventy yards and then they stall out at a fifteen yard line. That's a tough thing to bounce back from. Make you think a little bit about the points that you left on the board. Yeah, I mean you and I talked

about it all the time. West. The way this league is built. This league is built on offense. It's built on explosive plays. Defenses are gonna get gashed for twenty yard plays and twenty five yard place. It happens across the board to every team every week. The differences. Can you recover from that explosive play within that same possession to potentially hold a team to a field goal, or even after an explosive play early on, can you get

the stop at midfield? Yes, maybe they're gonna punt you back to the five yard line, but they're punting and they're not getting any points because you recovered from that explosive play. We saw the Packers defense last year recover very quickly from explosive plays and we're not seeing that this year, and that speaks a lot to the red

zone statistics that we're seeing. Yeah, the bizarre thing is, and again this is where I have to imagine that Petton, you know, kind of you know, scratching his head a little bit. Is they kind of have made offenses go the long way. Now you talk about explosives. That's anything

over yards, no doubt about it. But it's sort of been like death by a thousand cuts here where it hasn't necessarily just been like a sixty yard run that was allowed or a seventy five yard pass right off the first play, but they haven't been able to either a find the stop when they needed or that big takeaway when they needed. Three takeaways right now through these first five games, they come in bunches, is what they say.

And it's something that gets reiterated time and time again, and just when you're about to talk about how that's a cliche, it always seems to happen. So you wonder if it can be this week or the week after

against Minnesota, whatever that is. I think once you just kind of get some of those big turnover type plays again, just think about what the safety did for green Bay's defense in Minnesota, or the Shandon Sullivan pick six, those things really can get in your head a little bit and make you think, Okay, this is how we get back to dominating. Yeah. Absolutely, well, it's a it's a bounce back week on both sides. The ball in a lot of fashions for the Green Bay Packers and they

need to they need to get that done. Take care of business down in Houston on Sunday. There are a whole bunch of really really interesting games in Week seven here in the NFL West. I'm gonna rattle off a bunch of them to you and I'll let you start wherever you want to. But Pittsburgh at Tennessee, a battle of unbeatens in the a f C, Seattle at Arizona, big matchup in the a f C West, Chicago at the L A. Rams on Monday Night Football, a game that Packers fans certainly will have their eye on. And

then a couple of really intriguing cross conference games. San Francisco is at New England after San Francisco kind of seems to have righted the ship with the win over the Rams last week. That a game that not a lot of people expected them to win with the way their season was going. And then Tampa Bay, the team that just beat Green Bay and is flying high right now. At the Las Vegas Raiders, the team that not that long ago just handed the Kansas City Chiefs they're only

loss of the season. So I'll throw all that out there for you can start wherever you want to. Well, and just before I do, I mean, you can talk about matchups further down the charts too. I mean, you've got the NFC East teams playing each other this week, somebody trying to you know, gain some stability in that division. And then the Panthers are traveling to New Orleans. That's a marquee matchup right now, and in Teddy Bridgewater obviously going to face the team that kind of helped him,

you know, resuscitate his NFL career. But the game I have to go to just because as long as we're talking about one loss or no losses as Chicago, uh, they're taking on again back in the day when we did this five days a week, we'll be talking about this next Monday. But because of this is our our last show until then. This is the this is the real barometer here for the Bears. And I've said it time and time again I will keep saying it. A team wins five games in the National Football League and

its first six, that's a big deal. I don't want to hear about, oh, they're not legit, or they've done this or that or this. They won five games. When we get down to weeks event teen and we're talking about division titles, in playoff appearances and all that other stuff, we're not really talking about strength of schedule at all. Maybe it'll come into play with the seventh spot now with wins and losses and whatnot, but that's it's not a it's not a hey, how attractive were your wins

to get into the playoffs? No, it was did you win the games or did you not? And for the Bears, I mean Nick Foles settling in here, seems to have a good grasp of what Matt Nagy wants to do offensively. It's a big test for them now going on the road scene. If they can knock off the Rams. Yea. And for those who are thinking, okay, this is where the Bears are going to get there, come up and so to speak, and you know the Rams are gonna expose the Bears for who they are. It's exactly what

a lot of people thought two years ago. Remember that primetime game the Rams went in to Soldier Field and that Chicago Bears defense completely stifled them, and then the Bears were on their way to a division championship in in the NFC North. So UM certainly, uh certainly wanted to watch their see battle at Arizona. Seahawks undefeated in the NFC West and Arizona coming off of the big Monday night victory down in Dallas. It's a short week for Arizona, so that makes it tough to be preparing

for a team like the Seahawks. I gotta get your thoughts though on the unbeaten in the a f C Pittsburgh at Tennessee. Guy, you got anybody you like in this one? It's the It's gonna sound weird because Pittsburgh's probably been one of the most consistently performing teams in the NFL the last two decades. But this to me kind of represents the New Guard a little bit. You know, you had Kansas City, you have Baltimore. Certainly those teams are still up there. New England has always been up

in this thing. But Pittsburgh and Tennessee are the two teams that have kind of been wait in the wings a little bit. Now. The Titans got some publicity last season with with the run that they got on and seeing what Derrick Henry can do against that defense is going to be just a huge test, and I think it's going to tell you a lot about both teams. Pittsburgh kind of has this Steve Kurt and kind of feel to it right now that that's they have Ben Roethlisberger.

You know the recipe for success offensively, but how far can this defense take them? Could this be the team that finally gets Mike Tomlin back to a Super Bowl? But then you got Mike Rabel, who I think very quickly is showing that he is probably one of the more underrated coaches in the National Football League, not only just because of the the penalty tricks and all that, but legitimately the what he has gotten out of this Tennessee team when he got it out of them, no question,

now they're a serious contender. Well, look you look at what's going on with Tennessee. I can't remember exactly how the regular season for them ended last season, but I believe they won in Week seventeen to get into the playoffs, then they won two road games in the playoffs before

losing in the a f C Championship. And now they're five and oh well, you know what, They've won eight of their last nine games to go eight and one in any stretch of NFL football, especially with some of the stakes that they were playing for last year in January. That's impressive. That's really really good work this ten Ce team.

I know I had mentioned it. I think in our one of our preview shows we did with Larry during training camp, we were talking about, okay, aside from the obvious, like what's the game you're looking forward to on the Packers schedule? I said, the Tennessee Titans, you know, coming to lambeau Field around Christmas time in weeks seventeen. And I know that's a long way off, but I have a feeling we're gonna we're gonna be talking about that, and then nationally that is going to be talked about.

Is potentially a really really big game in the NFL late in the season, and you could be end up talking about the hardest of pall and Green Bay is gonna face all season potential time depending on where their season goes. The thing I love about Tennessee, though, is that they've done it slowly. It's been gradual. It hasn't been one player here, one player there. It's been drafting smart and finding good pieces in free agency. Certainly don't look like a flash in the pan. Thin is what

you're saying. And the thing is is that when you do it that way, the Ted Thompson type model, that's what ensures that you're not going to be a flash of the pan. You're gonna stay in this thing. And let's give credit where credit is do. It is very rare that you can see a quarterback sort of just rise again after not necessarily floundering, but you know, it

really not working out in Miami. And here is Ryan Tannehill with a stable, consistent running game, in a vision, in a scheme, with that offense that you can tell when you watch him how comfortable he is navigating this thing. That Tennessee team, man, they're they're they're gonna be there

for a while. The one big question I will throw out there that I think it will be important for Tennessee because we were just talking about whether the Packers have to deal with David bak Try and potentially missing a game. The Titans have lost their left tackle Taylor Lewin for the season, and that's going to be a big adjustment they have to make, particularly in the running game with what with what Derrick Henry does on that offense. But a big test for Mike Vrabel, both in terms

of his own team and the opponent. He's got this. Yeah, and you're right, I mean a guy like Lewin and the way he came on over the last year and really solidified himself as one of the top young tackles in this league, that that one won't be easily replaced. But again, it goes back to what you originally said, I mean week seven. There's weeks where you and I will sit here and we'll be like, yeah, there's really not that much on the schedule. It's to take your

pick this week. I think, no matter where you are in the country, whatever games show up on Fox or CBS, you're gonna be pleased. Yeah, no question about it. All Right with that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscript and be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team, including everything going on in Sunday's game down in Houston on Packers dot com for West I Am Mike, Thank you for tuning everybody, See you next time.