#566 Packers Unscripted: Valuable victory

how are you doing? The Packers five over the Chicago Bears. Green Bay now eight and three with five regular season games to go. Well, I resent that, Mike, because I was hoping you would say that this was my office. Then all the years out there thinks, so I'm some kind of big shot here that I can just, you know, slink into my office and do my thing. Uh No, you're you're right, though, I mean, this is the type of performance I think Green Bay needed on so many levels.

Now was it perfect? No, But offensively they imposed their will on Chicago. Now you can't tell that story without mentioning a Keem Hicks was not involved in this game. But he goes back to something Mike Patton said last week, I mean nobody was sending any sympathy cards, and Green Bays was dealing with some of their injuries earlier this season either, So for Green Bay to come out and play the way they did, get off to the start they did, and then carry that into the second half

a big victory. I think when you look at all three phases of this game, a better performance and the type of response they needed after a tough loss there in Indianapolis. Yeah. Absolutely. You could see right from the get go that this Bears defensive front was missing a Chem Hicks, big number ninety six there in the middle, and with the way the Packers were running the ball on the opening series of the game, you just could see the confidence in the running game growing the commitment

to it from Matt Lafleur. The Packers had a run pass balance throughout this game, and not just from a play calling perspective, but from a production perspective, because Aaron Jones and Jamal Williams combined for a hundred and sixty three rushing yards. Jones had ninety, Williams had seventy three. Aaron Rodgers through for just two eleven, but through for four touchdowns, had a passer rating north of a hundred

and thirty. Talk of him obviously being right in the thick of the m v P race here as December rolls around. So this Packers offense did everything it needed to and uh, and you know, really kept the Chicago Bears. Really. The Bears are now on a five game losing streak, tied for second place with the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC North at five and six, and the Packers have a three game lead in the division with five to play, which is about as big as stranglehold as you could

have with December arriving. Yeah, no, you're right. And there was a phrase that David Botr used in his post game made the availability on Sunday. He called it attitude football. That's what this game was going to be about. Uh, in Green Bay did it. It was a balanced, complimentary approach. They found some early adversity again. Corey Linsley has to exit with the knee injury. That sounds like it's going

to keep him out for a little while here. And Elton Jenkins, much like against the Colts, he has to slide in that center in the train doesn't stop Lucas Patrick battling through a toe injury. The Packers end up sounding like they rested him at the end of that game, But he just keeps his nose to the grindstone. Uh. In the have a guy like John Runyon, a mystery liable, as Aaron Rodgers called him, stepping up again at left guard.

So on the offensive front, they did what they needed to do in this game to be able to push the ball in the middle of the field. The Packers did a little bit more of their inside zone concepts. I think that was the right adjustment. As the game wore on, the stretch plays and the pitches started to work a little bit better with the outside stuff. But overall, Um, when you look at that first series, I just thought, with having Alan Lazard back as a blocker and you're

seeing Econemius a Brown step up. Now, Um, Marcedes Lewis gets career catch. So many different little factors played into this. Uh. But at the end of the day, I think a lot of it started with what they were able to

do in the trenches. Yeah. Absolutely, I was surprised. I mean, with with what Chicago's defense normally does and the way that unit normally plays, what the Packers were able to do between the tackles, as you said, with the inside zone, running up the middle, moving the line of scrimmage, and

again chem Hicks was out. And as I mentioned in Insider Inbox, when you're missing a big time performer, whether it's on offense or defense, usually the first game that that player is out is the toughest one to make the adjustments. And and the Bears really just didn't look ready for number ninety six not to be there for their defense, and and the defense was on its heels

pretty much the whole game. On the defensive side of things for the Packers, the biggest development was getting three turnovers three takeaways from quarterback Mr Rubinsky, two interceptions by second year safety Darnell Savage, a sack strip fumble caused by Zadarius Smith which was scooped up by Preston Smith and taken in for a touchdown. Those three takeaways. Packers are starting to get that cranked up a little bit in the takeaway category. They now have twelve on the season.

Eight of those twelve have come in the last four games. Now, there's still a long way from their total of twenty five from last year's regular season, but eight in the last four games. The Packers will take that and hope that that continues here through the final month of the regular season. Well, and that was the funny thing in this right in terms of you know, three weeks ago, we were talking over and over again about, hey, kN Green they start to get some of those takeaways that

were so prevalent last year. UH, and can they find a way to be able to create and generate big place Mitchell Trubisky his first game back after some time missed with the shoulder injury. Before that even benched UH in favor of Nick Foles. You wanted to be able to create some opportunities in this game, and I thought they did that. I thought Darnell Savage, before suffering that back injury on his second pick, put together one of his better performances of his Packer's career. UM and it

was funny. I asked him about that first interception that he made in the end zone, which was an ill advised throw from Trubisky. There's no question about that. A first intent throughout their own at the Green Bay thirty eight, I believe at that point thirty six, and he airs one out and it's funny Savage mentioned if you go back and watch, there was a play much like that against Minnesota where the Vikings on the opposite side of the field ran a similar concept from the slot with

Adam Feeling. Feeling shakes him with an inside move and goes back out to kind of complete sort of a skinny kind of corner route and Savage loses him and he catches the touchdown pass. That was late in that game, the Bears tried to run the same concept to the right side of the field. This time you saw Savage flip his hips appropriately, was able to track the ball, showed some really good center field skills there and pull

it down. And then he made another fantastic catch later on and again a sort of an ill advised throw from Trubisky into triple coverage. But really the biggest story to me in this game was the defensive front. Now, they gave up the fifty seven yard run to David Montgomery right off the bat. That's not what you're looking for, but they didn't quit there. They forced that to a field goal. And then in the second quarter, Preston and Zadarius Smith combining on a strip sack and a fumble

recovery for a touchdown. These are the type of plays that when the Packers were really humming last season, uh, their momentum driving plays and and those are the type of things that I think has been missing this season. They have actually done a fantastic job of avoiding explosive plays.

Near the end of Don Caper's tenure. That was something that was really haunting them a little bit, was that they just they couldn't stop the sixty and seventy yard or They've done that, and they made teams go the full length of the field. But in order to really capitalize on that, you need to be able to take the football away. They did that and as you mentioned,

now eight takeaways in the last month. Well, I think I think the biggest thing for the for the Packers defense other than the turnovers, when you look at this game. You mentioned the fifty seven yard run early by David Montgomery.

I'm no XS and OS expert. It looked to me like the Packers were just completely misaligned like that, whether it was the first level, the second level, the the the the alignment in terms of the gaps and everything was just wrong, and the seas parted in the middle and Montgomery was off to the races, but the Packers defense rose up and stopped that drive and held the Bears to a field goal, so the Packers still had

the lead after one possession. There After that, I thought Green Bay's defense clamped down on the run fairly decently. And the other the other good sign that Matt Lafleur talked about Monday in his zoom, which he actually did from his house because the team facilities closed Monday and Tuesday by NFL mandate. But um he he talked about the defense in the third quarter because the Packers had

the lead at halftime. The Bears had scored right before the end of the first half to get it to seven to ten, and then the Bears were getting the all coming out to start the third quarter, and that's where the Indianapolis game got away from the Packers. The defense started to give up the drives, you know, then the offense couldn't really answer, and the whole the whole game started to go south. Packers defense in the third quarter, they give up one first down right off the bat,

but then force a punt. Then the next possession Savage gets his second interception. Then the possession after that is another three and out for the Bears and then this game was over. Um. The Packers defense did what it had to do coming out a halftime, and that was a good sign considering what had happened the previous week in Indie. Well, what's the best way to kind of waste a really good first half. It's allowing the opponent to double up. And unfortunately for the Green Bay Packers,

they haven't. Luck hasn't been on their side. And relates to the coin toss this season, I think m Olivia Rehiner from the Press Becazette Journal Sentinel she had that stat. I think they're three three and eight this year. I think on the opening coin toss. They lost again on Monday. Now Tim Boyle had nothing to do with that. It was not his call. It was the Bears that did that. But by the deferral process, I mean in the Bears receiving it in the second half, they went down and

they put up some points. The game kind of changes on its axis if if you allow them to score again. But in this particular case, they came out, they got the back to back sacks. They were able to really kind of stying me them as long as they needed to. Now I know you and I going through Insider Inbox, there were some fans that were displeased about the fourth quarter.

Um Matt Lafleur said, it's definitely a balance between wanting to make sure that you are somewhat aggressive yet and still you know, dialing up some of your blitz packages and making life difficult on the quarterback, but at the same time not wanting to give up those explosive plays. My only challenge to people, and I wrote about this on Tuesdays, that if you want to take issue with what happened on that that run by Montgomery, or maybe some of the yards per play that the Bears had

in the first three quarters, that's perfectly fine. We can have that conversation. There's a lot of people sort of losing themselves here about that fourth quarter. It's not prevent defense because you're trying to stop them from scoring. Certainly that is ultimately the goal, but it's prevent because you're

trying to stop the explosive plays Green Bay. Although you want to be able to either get the fourth and eleven stop or get the Kevin King interception in the end zone, the big game there is making sure that you force the Bears to use their time outs, you're forcing them to eat the clock. Chicago had to do both of those things, and it's one of the reasons why Green Bay was able to come out with a victory. Maybe not as dominating in terms of what it looked

like on the scoreboard, but certainly a victory nonetheless. Yeah, and Matt Lafleur looked at really two plays on Chicago's last two touchdown drives there in the fourth quarter that that he really lamented, one being the fourth and eleven on the Bears first touched on drive. If the Packers get the stop there on fourth and eleven, uh, you know, you're talking about massive substitutions. You can get everybody out of the game and all that, and the game is

definitely over. So he really regretted that one. And then at the end of the second Bears touched under if Kevin King had an interception in his hands were in the end zone, and you know this game, this game ends up for seventeen, not fort if King just catches the ball, and now that's you know, la Fleur talked about that it was a three takeaway game for the defense. They definitely had opportunities for more. So that's hopefully a

good sign moving forward. But you set it west. The Packers didn't give up any big plays the Bears took. I believe it was somewhere around nine and a half to ten minutes on the clock in scoring those two touched on drives. Well, if you're down forty one to ten late in the third quarter and you're gonna burn nine and a half to ten minutes of what's remaining in the game to get two touchdowns when you're down by thirty one points, you know, as the team that's

in the lead, you'll take that. You're not gonna sweat that too much. And and yes, the Packers wish they had gotten the stop on fourth and eleven or gotten the turnover where that was in their hands. It didn't happen, So it ends up forty one five. But okay, forget about it. You move on now to the Philadelphia Eagles.

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Backslash Packers All right, West. As I mentioned before, the Packers have a three game lead in the NFC North with five games to go. You can't ask to be in a better position than that. Looking at the larger picture in the NFC, there are three teams right now in the NFC with eight or more wins. The New

Orleans Saints are nine and two. The Packers and the Seattle Seahawks are both eight and three in the race for that number one overall seed, which is going to be the only one that gets a first round by in the playoffs. Here's the interesting thing, West, I took a look at all of the remaining schedules for these three teams at the top of the NFC. Each team, as of right now has only one game left on its schedule against a team that is above five hundred.

None of these teams has a loaded schedule down the stretch as far as those above five hundred teams. The Saints have to play the Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers, as everyone knows, they're playing the Tennessee Titans right after Christmas. The Seattle Seahawks have a game left against the Rams. But that being said, we all know you take nothing for granted in this league, and there are some games

that that you know could certainly cause problems. And and the Packers are gonna face the Philadelphia Eagles this week. They'll be coming off a short week, but the Eagles are basically going to be playing for their season now. They just dropped out of first place in the NFC East, that where all those teams are below five hundred. They dropped out of first and they they're not gonna be able to afford to to fall back any farther. So, uh so, this Eagles game coming up for the Packers,

you look at that obviously. You also look at Carolina down the road. If the Panthers get Christian McCaffrey back, that Carolina game looks quite different and along the same lines for those other clubs. The Saints have to play the Falcons, who are playing some pretty darn good football right now, even though they're below five hundred Minnesota Vikings

are on New Orleans schedule as well. The Vikings are playing some pretty good ball and the Seattle Seahawks also have a game left against the forty Niners who just beat the Rams, and they're dealing with, you know, having to play in a new location and practice who knows where. So that's a whole crazy situation for San Francisco. But the bottom line is these uh, these schedules are not loaded for these for these teams, but yet there are

some games that could definitely sneak up on them. Yeah, definitely. And don't tell the San Francisco forty Niners that they're out of this thing yet. I mean, they still feel like they can still find a way, maybe get healthy and get on a run here late. Um. To your point, it is interesting for Green Bay because certainly Christian McCaffrey now dealing with the knee injury, Uh if he would be back, you're looking at Christian McCaffrey and then Derrick

Henry the following week. That that's something no NFL run defense wants to have to deal with, and also coverage linebackers having to deal with it. From the standpoint of of Christian McCaffrey. But the biggest lesson I think that has been the takeaway this year. And you remember me saying this a month or two ago. I felt since the beginning that it's gonna be which team gets on the biggest run here down the stretch, Which team gets into the playoffs with three out of four wins or

three or four victories in a row. Uh, that's gonna not only get you that number one seed, but I just feel like, in a year in which parody has been so prevalent in the NFC, especially at the top of the conference, that it's really going to be not necessarily the most complete team, but the teams that get the hottest down the stretch that are gonna be the ones going far. For Green Bays standpoint, we will talk about this very shortly um later this week. About the

Philadelphia Eagles and the challenges that they present. I know some people want to take them for granted, and certainly the performance against Seattle was not onspiring, but they still have weapons there that could hurt this team. When you look at Miles Sanders, the fact that he's back now, Um, the guy is still even though it was a quiet performance against Seattle, Uh, the guy still is. You got to be careful with what you know. These running backs

have been able to do. Just look at what Montgomery did on ten carries or whatever it was last week. Um, Travis Fulham is gonna be a guy that we're gonna be talking about this week. Richard Rogers got another Hail Mary catch that you don't want to take anybody for granted. That's why you hear over and over and over again. I'm sure fans get sick of hearing it. I'm sure

to some extent media gets sick of hearing it. When Matt la Fleur talks about worrying about this week, he said after the game, I don't I couldn't even tell you right away who we were playing the following week because everything was so focused on needing this NFC North wind over, a Bears team at that point was their closest contender in that division. So I've I've always liked the mantra, and you're certainly gonna start a path to

the playoffs here shortly. Mike McCarthy, as long as I cover this team, as long as I cover the NFL, I'm always going to go back to that that sort of edict that he had of you win your division, you win ten game games, that's when you can start talking about what the outlook looks like for the playoffs. Screen Bays at eight and three. They're sitting at a good spot right now, and they've set it a good spot for most of this season. Now, can you get hot?

Can the defense show itself out? Special teams? We didn't talk about it much, Mike, but special teams took a big step forward in this game. I thought it was the cleanest performance from Hunter Bradley and j. K. Scott. And uh, soon enough, we'll be probably talking about some other acquisitions Green Bay is gonna be making. But this has been a season of attrition and from the very beginning, green Bay, to my eye at least, has been one

step ahead of that. Yeah, well, as we as the Packers get ready for the Eagles here, you mentioned some of the skill players that Eagles have on offense, and certainly Carson Wentz. You know, the statistics aren't there for him. And this is a guy that I thought before he blew out his knee in two seen, I thought he was headed possibly for League m v P honors. He

was having a tremendous year. The issue with the Philadelphia Eagles offensively is the offensive line, and heading into their Monday night game against the Seattle Seahawks, I believe the statistic that ESPN had is the Eagles have used ten different offensive line combinations now in their eleven games this season. Now the Packers, they've weathered a lot of injuries on the offensive line. We talked about how the shuffling around

the train keeps moving. The Eagles have not handled them been able to handle those injuries as well, and and it shows up with with just a lot of inconsistency in the offense and with Carson Wentz leading the league in sacks. Defensively, this Eagles team has a lot of big name players on defense. When you're talking Darius Slay at corner, he had a rough night against DK Metcalf, but who hasn't had a rough night this year against DK Metcalf. But you're looking at Fletcher Cox in the

middle of that defensive line. Jalen Mills, the cornerback on the other side for the Eagles is a pretty good player. I think this Eagles defense is going to present some challenges to the Packers now. They need to they need to rebound there on a short week, and as I said, they've they had a chance to stay in first place in their division that has slipped away. Now they have

to bounce back quickly. I think this Eagles defense is really going to be an interesting story this week because because the Packers are going to face some challenges from a team that is sub five. Yeah, and when you look at the games this season in which the Eagles have been able to, you know, kind of have success and prevail it, a lot of it has been based on their defense and being able to pick up its offense.

That's sometimes the Eagles are such an interesting case study, Mike, because you know, the running game really has not been consistent for him. It's just been kind of a question over and over again of why we are where we are right now, and how do we how do we

find a way over that hill? Because the NFC East is right there for the taking, and even now it's still there for the taking for the Eagles, what one game out right now of that lead so or a half game, whatever it works out to be with the tie, A lot a lot on the line this week, Mike, for both teams, it's gonna be interesting to see exactly how green they respond specifically to seeing if they can consider they can continue that efficiency that they show an

offense sable against the Chicago Bears team that was pretty darn good going in. Yeah, no question about it. All right, With that, we will sign off on this edition of of I was about to say final thoughts were not It sounded like final thoughts there for a second, but yeah, alright, we're back to Packers Unscripted and we are calling it a wrap on this edition. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team on Packers dot com for WES, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in everybody.

We'll see you next time.