#564 Packers Unscripted: Difficult defeat

to follow those protocols. We will see how this goes west and perhaps come up with a more workable solution as the stretch run continues here for the Packers. But that stretch run did not start off the way Green Bay wanted. A very difficult thirty to thirty one overtime loss in Indianapolis. So much went right in the first half, everything went wrong in the second half, and hill about the last eight five seconds or so, and uh, the Packers walked away from Lucas Oil Stadium with a with

a tough one to swallow. Yeah, it's funny too, because I remember two thousand twelve. I didn't cover that game. I was I covered he did. I covered it from the comfort of my my living room, and I saw that stat about I forget who it was. I wish I could give the proper attribution to the outlet that had it. But basically, Rogers when he's up by fourteen and a halftime, like it's some some ridiculous record he has.

It's like a hundred and twenty and four Packers are in those games, and two of those losses were at Lucas Oil Stadium, with this most recent one being on Sunday. I don't know what it is. It doesn't matter who the quarterback is. If it's Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck, Jacoby Brissett and now obviously Phillip Rivers, those games are always tough, and it was tough again. I thought Green Bay. It was funny. Someone mentioned an insider in box like, well,

they got to start faster. They started just fine that first half when according to a plan, they put up twenty eight points on the top ranked defense in the National Football League. And the problem was, though they have six offensive plays in the third quarter, they don't really get their wheels turning again until late in the fourth.

In when you go up against a team like you know the Colts and Frank Reich and what they can do offensively, and certainly they're so well familiar with Philip Rivers. If you give them that much leeway, they're going to claw their way back, and they were able to do that on Sunday. I think the biggest takeaway from this game when you try to just analyze NFL football in general, is when you hear coaches and players use the phrase

complementary football. This is the type of game they're talking about, because in the first half, complementary football was the Packers were capitalizing on indies turnovers and scoring touchdowns. The Packers defense was stopping the Colts after the Packers had turnovers.

That's what complementary football is. In the second half, when the defense gives up along to the offense, can't go three and out, um, when the opposing team has had a large comeback and gotten the score back to even you can't fumble a kickoff like That's where complementary football

goes around. You have to have the different phases of your team working and supporting each other when things go well when things go poorly, and the two halves, as Matt Lafleur said after the game, it was a tale of two halves and the really the definition of complementary football in the good way and in the bad way for the Packers on on this long afternoon. And it's funny too, because why did they succeed in the first half because of complementary football. You know, they got point

four teen points off a turnovers. The offense was really moving the ball well. I thought the game plan that Matt Laflour and the coaches came up with was exceptional. They opened the game and a five receiver set, an empty backfield set, and they get the ball downfield the Davante Adams. They tried to find ways to find one on one opportunities and it just seemed like even at the end of the first half, I mean, being able to get the ball back and then you know, put

some more points on the board. They made some big plays from a lot of guys across the board. But just at halftime even you know, they even did they stopped the Colts on that first possession, but then they go three and out and then Indianapolis just starts running the ball. They're having more success and third down situations they can't get off the field on fourth down. And

and obviously they work their way back into this. But the big thing and the message that Aaron Rodgers sent after the game and that he has he has a lot of confidence in this team. He feels like they have what they need to get where they want to go. And I think that that might sound like a quarterback trying to prop his team up, but it really was. I mean, the energy was where they wanted it to be. That was a much more energetic team than the one

that beat the Jacksonville Jaguars a week earlier. They had done a lot of the but the problem is now you're playing a six and three team. Now you're playing a team that really has some blood on its teeth here and wants to, you know, carve out a division championship in a competitive com prince. And you've got to be able to play four quarters and you can't turn

over the ball four times. Yeah. Absolutely, And and that's what Matt Lafleur emphasized on Monday was the Packers need to when you play these good teams, you have to be able to play a four quarter football game. They played a one quarter football game in Tampa Bay and kind of got smacked after that. They played a really, really good two quarters in Indianapolis, but that's not enough. And even with Aaron Rodgers almost pulling out, you know the miracle at the end, I'll be honest with you.

After that second pass to Davante Adams got the Packers into the red zone to the fifteen yard line with about forty seconds on the clock. I thought Rodgers was gonna pull the thing out. I thought he was gonna get the ball in the end zone with maybe ten or fifteen seconds left, and and the Packers were going to walk out with a victory. No, no overtime necessary. Unfortunately, um, they did have to settle for the field goal. The

game went to overtime. As everybody knows, Marquis Valdes Scantling fumbled the ball on the second playoff overtime, erasing what was a tremendous play from with Aaron Rodgers launching the pass out of his end zone on third and ten and Valdes Scantling coming down with it at midfield amidst three defenders, gave the Packers the chance to get the game to overtime. Um, just uh, you know, it's one of those things you you walk away, you walk away

just just scratching your head. And as I think you've pointed out in our Insider Inbox column, the human element of this game you can't get away from. Great things can happen and crappy things can happen. And that's just the way this game goes. Some Yeah, and it does, and it it's it's Corey Lindsley and Aaron Rodgers who have been together for seven years having a bumbled, you know, fumbled exchange. H Lindsley then leaves with a back injury. You don't know how much that was affecting him early

on in that game. Darius Shepard, who's in for Tyler Irvine who had the rib injury against the Jaguars, he has a fumble on a kickoff return, and certainly Marquez Valdes scantling, which has been a big topic of conversation this week. He had so many plays in that game, Mike, that is the reason why the Packers were able to get into over time, whether it was blocking, whether it

was drawn. The d p I for fifty one yards against Rocky Scene and then you know the forty seven yard catchy just touched on, and then there's the fumble. It's the miss blocking you know there with you know, Robert Tonyan and Alan Lazard in front of them. They've been so good all year long on those screens, being able to give the receiver an opportunity to get up field. This is one play where black Man makes a really solid kind of knife through and puts the pressure on

Valde scantling there and the ball comes out. It's just those type of moments that when you're in a close game ultimately decided, but it isn't one specific player. That's the one message that Matt Lafleur sent and it's the one message, frankly I've been sending with some of our content, is that, you know, we always look at how things end, but if you flip things, if the fumbled exchanges at the end, the narrative changes. If the kickoff return is

at the end, the narrative changes. If the forty seven yard pass on third and one that ultimately forces over time is at the end of the game and you win it, it changes the narrative. But it's just the drama. It's what makes this game so great. It's why you know, people tune in because that game Mike on Sunday is a game you and I have never seen before in everything that's ever been played, the amount of games that we've covered, I've never covered a game like that before

against the Colts. And unfortunately there's a winner and a loser, and there's heroes and their scapegoats, and it's just the way people process things. It's the way they compartmentalize it, and it's the reason in ultimately the way that stories and what not has written up for the following week. Yeah, we'll quickly hear West before I forget serious. X M NFL Radio Channel 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 for game day. Open a Packers checking account from Associated Bank and score a fifty dollar Packer Pro Shop gift card. Learn more Associated bank dot com backslash Packers all right from the postgame comments, West, I and I wrote my my postgame editorial about this hearing from Aaron Rodgers and Matt Lafleur. Now, as you said, they weren't just trying to to pump their team up.

I really believe that Aaron Rodgers and Matt Lafleur were being honest when they said how much better they felt about the team. Everything through the week, the preparation, the energy and practice, it carries over to the game, and certainly the way the first half went. Now things went sideways.

There's no two ways about that. And the Packers have to figure out a way in these big games against good teams, whether it's the forty and twenty nineteen, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Indianapolis Colts in when things start to go sideways, you've got to figure out how to how to get things back on track a little more quickly than they have. They never did against Tampa Bay. They obviously got something right at the end of the fourth quarter in India, but you have to be you

have to be able to turn it sooner. But in the bigger picture, they feel better about this team then they did a week ago coming off of the Jacksonville victory. And we know winning is the bottom line. What you are, what your record says you are, that's what it is. But the Packers have six more games here in the regular season. They're obviously fighting for an NFC North title, fighting for the best playoff spot they can get in the NFC, and the outcome was not what they wanted.

But I firmly believe, and I wrote about this, the Packers are were a better team coming out of Lucas Oil Stadium than they were when they went home from lambeau Field after the victory over the Jaguars. They're a better team a week later. I really believe that, because here's the thing about wins and losses. Right, if you win, everybody talks about how great things went, even if some things go wrong. Ultimately, the biggest story is where they succeeded.

Marcus Valdis Scantling having a career high hundred forty nine yards in that game, the first receiver in Packers history since I think it was was a boy Carol Dale, to have over a hundred and thirty yards or whatever it was on less than for for or less fewer catches.

That that just becomes a narrative. A game like this, where it's a highly competitive affair against a team that is very well going to end up finding itself in the playoffs and maybe even entitled contention that but you lost, So there's a negativity that's involved with that too, and that's fine, that's football. But where Matt Lafleur, if you listen to what he says and what Aaron Rodgers says.

There's another game seven days from now against the Chicago Bears team that has lost four of its last five. Following that, you're also at home against a Philadelphia Eagles team that, while leading the NFC East right now, has three wins on the season. There's the Detroit Lions coming down the line. They're having their struggles. You know, Carolina Panthers just shut out the Lions, but they've been in a bad spot for a lot of this season without

Christian McCaffrey. I think you to look at Tennessee. That's gonna be a dog fight you close the season against the Bears. This thing still lines up well for Green Bay. And the reason I wrote an Insider Inbox this week that Matt Lafleur stays even keeled. The reason why Aaron Rodgers stays even killed. The reason why they point to the locker room is because that's how you avoid losing back to back games. That's how you avoid being able to let that negativity sort of permeate through your mindset

and end up affecting you in the next game. The Packers have to play well for the same reason why they were able to play well against the San Francisco forty Nights. They have to be able to find that response and this is going to be a big week

for that. Yeah. And and that's the thing. As much as this is a bottom line business, when you're the head coach, when you're the quarterback the leadership on this team, as you move forward with so many games left to go and so much left to be decided, you can't get hung up on letting a game get away. And yes, the Packers let a game get away that they should have had. They should have been leaving Indianapolis with a big win and something to really hang their hat on.

It didn't happen. But if you get hung up on the final result, you lose sight of the fact that the Packers were taking it to the number one defense in the NFL and and having their way with them throughout the first half. Now, at the end of the day, the complimentary football did not work out in the second half in order to close out the victory, but there were a lot of things the Packers did well in this game. The defense getting two turnovers in the first half.

We haven't seen that in a while. The offense capitalizing on those we're seeing now. Granted, Corey Lindsley is now out with an injury. We will see what happens there. But Alan Lazard got back into the mix. So the Packers are hoping here for the stretch run, you're going to have Davante Adams, Alan Lazard, Marquis Valda Scanling as your top three wide receivers moving forward. You want to see obviously Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams, maybe get Tyler Irvin

back here hopefully at some point down the stretch. There's a long there's a long way left to go here. And the bottom line is this game coming up on Sunday, Sunday Night Football at lambeau Field Packers against the Bears, and we'll talk about this in our next show later

this week as well. The swing here in this game is monumental because the Packers will either beat the Bears and go up by three gays in the NFC North with five to play, which puts you in the catbird seat, no question about it, or the Bears will win and cut the deficit to one game. With five games to play, and the Bears knowing that they get the Packers at

Soldier Field in week seventeen. You have to move on from this Indianapolis Colts game because this game against the Chicago Bears on Sunday night, and I would argue it would still be almost just as big even if the Packers had eaten Indianapolis because of the division opponent. It's

the one you are fighting fighting with. And the Bears for all of their struggles going from five and one to now five and five with a four game losing streak, they're coming off there by this is their chance to reset and come out rested and ready to go against the team that they're chasing. And do you know what the percentage chances are the Packers will even see the Colts again this season, that both of these teams would find themselves both in the Super Bowl, it's pretty minute.

You can't worry about what went wrong against the Colts. Now you have to learn about a run defense second half? What was the issue there? Why were they able to move the ball the way they did? Why defensively were we not able to get home? Why offensively did we

end up going three and out. You have to do all that kind of self figure out the issues on special teams too, because especial Packers are losing the field position battle even without the turnover, Packers are losing the field position battle these last couple of weeks and they've got to get that straightened out. And that's something that during the first month of the season they were doing really well. Exactly. You have to get back to that.

But the reality is is that the teams that they're facing here are the ones that ultimately impact how far they're going to be able to go, how this this whole format is going to play out with the postseason. And the thing for Green Bay is that if you beat thanks to Mike McCarthy and in the you know, the Dallas Cowboys against Minnesota, if you take care of business now against Chicago, hand them their fifth loss in six games, you are suddenly in a commanding lead at

eight wins heading into the month of December. In this division, you get to ten wins, then you start looking at the seating. That's the only thing you can do right now and for you know, for everything else that's gone wrong, for as crazy as this season has been and and everybody in the NFC, and we're gonna talk about it here in a minute, but all these different scenarios that have played out in teams that has been like, Okay,

they're grabbing the reins on this thing. The Green Bay Packers have a tough opponent coming up at the end of the season against Tennessee and they get them at home after a game at home against Carolina. So like in terms of the second half of the season, it's lined up really well for them. We talked about this in May when or June when the schedule came out.

This final stretch is going to be important. And if you're able to execute, if you win at home, if you take care of what you need to take care of, you're not really too concerned about the intraconference games against you know, the Colts and in even Houston to some extent, that are played on the road. No, it's about the NFC matchups, about winning at home, and if you do that, you're still in the thick of this thing in this race. Yeah, absolutely,

Well elsewhere around the NFC. We'll touch on a few games briefly here before we sign off. The New Orleans Saints. They kept their winning streak alive despite the absence of Drew Brees. Taste Hill steps in as the starting quarterback. He holds down the fort and that New Orleans Saints defense west is playing as well as any defense in all of football right now. Quite frankly, um, the Saints have put themselves in position now at eight and two.

They know they know they've got a backup quarterback that can that can win football games, and they will wait to see when they can get Drew Brees back and keep that defense playing at a high level. I wanted to tweet this, I never did because it just in sites rage from Packers fans, But because you have to take the motion out of it. You also have to understand that if Taysom Hill was still under control of

the Packers, he wouldn't even be a Packer anymore. He would have been traded by now if you look at the number, the camp number he's pulling these days. But there's no better story in football than Taysom Hill. Everybody has made this about, oh, is he going to be a great quarterback or is he just going to be a bust? Is is Sean Payton a genius or Is he just a maniacal you know, the guy that just wants to just you know, throw chaos into the system

with Hill. But he's really not that good a player. No. Taysom Hill finished every season at b y U injured every year from beginning to end. His career was marred by injuries. And it also so happened that he went on a mission. He ends up going into the NFL at twenty seven years old. But the the health issues is why the guy wasn't drafted. Everybody knew the talent was there, nobody wanted to make the investment in him because of his health and running quarterback, can he actually throw? No,

none of that. This guy has resurrected his career and he's managed to stay healthy in the NFL. Taysom Hill when he came into Green Bay. If he ends up being in a Hall of Fame player, I will end up telling the story. I was the first person to interview him. We always do those undrafted stories. I sat down with him in the Packers cafeteria. Man, does that

seem like fifty years ago right now? But I sat down with him and I talked about his story and and just how chaotic it had been and basically him and his wife and the faith that they had that eventually things would just go the right way for him. People want to make this out to be a bigger thing because it makes for a really good conversation on

you know, after and talk show. But the reality is this is just a really good story and he proved against the Atlanta Falcons, who are struggling this season, that he can be a guy that can lead an NFL football team. Me personally, if you can take the emotion out of it, I just think it's a fantastic tale. Yeah.

A couple other things I want to touch on. An interesting Monday Night result with the Los Angeles Rams flying cross country to play at Tampa Bay on Monday Night football and they knock off Tom Brady and the Buccaneers. So the Rams trying to keep pace now in the NFC West. There at seven and three, the Buccaneers fall the seven and four. They're now two games back in the lost column to the Saints as far as that

NFC South goes. And I do want to mention also what you brought up that the Dallas Cowboys went into US Bank Stadium. How ironic is it that Mike McCarthy gets his first win at US Bank Stadium as the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys after losing three times two thousands, sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen as as the head coach of the Packers when when Green Bay could not get a win in that new building for those first

few years. And I don't know if Mike had a guy that was running sledgehammers for him or if they just worked it with the equipment guys to stash that in some stuff. This they had this this sledgehammer Gallagher, uh you know, watermelon smashing thing at the team meeting at the hotel, and say he even he even commented that the hotel was concerned about getting everything cleaned up afterwards. And and apparently that went okay. So hilarious is that though. Isn't like he had to go to Fleet Farm to

go grab this thing. He had to bring it all the way to Minnesota and he still did it, hey, and it worked out for the Packers all right. Well. With that, the Vikings and the Lions both lose their both four and six, and as we said, the Bears are five and five coming to lambeau Field on Sunday night. With that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on packers dot com for West,

I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.