#568 Packers Unscripted: Historic happenings

it didn't work out that way, did it. No. I think there's basically one game this year where I've been able to write, like start writing parts of my story. I think it was Week two against Detroit. Other than that, it seems like every single game there's always been something to it that makes you, you know, kind of have some pause. They're late. But the one thing that was positive though about this game for Green Bay is that they played pretty well for three and a half quarters.

It was just that little bit of a let up there at the beginning of the fourth, but when they needed a response, they got it. Uh. Aaron Jones the seventy seven yard touchdown run, his longest touchdown run as a professional football player, and it came at a time right after the defense got a big stop and after that, you know, the punt return for a touchdown. So you saw the three different phases picking each other up throughout the course of this game. And the I wrote about

it as our sidebar. I know you and I have had some discussions about it, but that run by Jones itself, I just feel like those are one of them. It was one of those plays that's that if this turns into a very special season for the Green Bay Packers, you're gonna you're gonna hearken back to that. You're gonna think back to that moment where it was all eleven guys, multiple position players blocking David baktr running stride for stride

with them down to the end zone. I just felt like it was one of those galvanizing moments that you look for in a season and it allowed the green Bay Packer US to get that ninth win, the sixteenth time Mike since the turn of the century, since y two k that the green Bay Packers have etched a winning season here in Green Bay. Yeah. Well, you talk about the importance of that long run. Not only was it obviously big for the end of the game to get the Packers back to a two score lead and

to put this one away against Philadelphia. But statistically West the Packers had not had a rushing play of longer than twenty yards since Week six, since back in in Tampa Bay, the first quarter in Tampa Bay at that.

So this uh, this run game. As much as we saw that it was coming against Chicago, you could see there were a handful of ten plus runs and it just felt like that that big one was eventually going to come, and it came late in the fourth quarter here, and as you said, it was it was frustrating, certainly to see the Packers up twenty three to three. You think they're going to cruise to a victory. Then the

game starts to go sideways. A fourth and eighteen touchdown path us by Jalen Hurts, the rookie quarterback who stepped in for Carson Wentz. Then the offense goes three and out, Then the punt coverage team allows a seventy three yard touched on return. Suddenly it's twenty three to sixteen. It's a seven point game. But unlike a couple of weeks prior in Indianapolis, where when the game started to go sideways, it got very, very difficult for the Packers to get

things back on the right track. The defense took the field at twenty three to sixteen, gotta stop. I believe recorded the seventh sack of of the night on that series, and then the offense responds with the seventy seven yard touchdown run, breaking the big ones. So you got the answer you needed in order to close this one out, and now the Packers are are right on the verge

of clinching a playoff spot and possibly the NFC North Championship. Yeah, and I'm glad you brought that up, Mike, because there's a couple different things that we're gonna be talking about later in this show when we recap the weekends, some very strange things that happened to the National Football League. The Seattle Seahawks, you know, kind of just you know, laying an egg again, the New York Giants, who now

suddenly have command of the NFC East. You saw the situation unfold with Washington being the team out of all the teams to knock off Pittsburgh. This is a strange season. And there was a remark made on I believe it was my story or your story. I saw on Twitter basically somebody saying that, well, it's great win, but can you just imagine if they would have if they would have found a way to beat Indianapolis and Minnesota games they should have won, they'd be eleven and one right now.

They could be, but they're nine and three, and there's a lot of teams in the National Football League that are having very similar type moments to that, where you might either lose late in a competitive football game or you might just not show up against a team that you should easily beat. Even the Minnesota Vikings having a

tough time with the Jacksonville Jaguar. So performances like this, I think go a long way, because these are the type of games that could get away from you special teams, Mike, you go back and you look over the history of the National Football League. When there's a special teams touchdown that you allow, or a pick six, those type of plays, it's sometimes difficult to win those matchups. The Green Bay

Packers did that. They shut the door in the biggest story of all the fact that they started the game that they the way that they did. They wanted energy on the first drive, they wanted to be able to take command of this game. They did it cerebral. Ye, it wasn't perfect, but the Philadelphia Eagles had a lot

of questions to answer in this game. A year ago, Miles when you look at Miles Sanders, when you look at um Jordan Howard, they ran for a what was it a hundred sixty yards against the Green Bay Packers. This game, they didn't get past fifty. Jalen Hurts comes into the game. He had some success, but the Packers were able to counter back. That was the tale of this The better team won in the Green Bay Packers when it came down a crunch time made sure that

they put an exclamation point on that. Yeah, when you talk about the special teams, it's it's kind of a double edged sword in a way, because we've seen the Packers. They've been able to overcome allowing two punt returns for touchdowns in two separate games and still get victories. As you said, that's pretty rare. Just as we've seen the last couple of weeks with the Minnesota Vikings. They've allowed their opponents to score are three defensive touchdowns in the

last two weeks. But yet the Vikings have managed to prevail in both of those games. That's rare. You don't see that. Obviously. The flip side of it for the Packers is that if you don't get this short up, if you don't get this fixed, a special team's breakdown is potentially going to cost you big time, whether it's say against Tennessee in Week sixteen when you have that big matchup at lambeau Field, or obviously in the playoffs where a play like that on special teams could really

swing things. So the Packers are overcoming their mistakes. But as Matt Lafleur said on Monday, there's plenty to clean up here. There's still plenty of things for us to coach and for the players to work on. There's no shortage of things for this Packers coaching staff to keep the players attention here as the as the fourth quarter of the season starts, to uh to roll on here these last four regular season games. Yeah, in that moment, Mike is only as good as the Packers make out

of it. I mean, and this can be a real teaching moment. It probably should have been the first time. At Secondly, this is something that they're gonna have to go back and look at Jalen Reagor is one of the top returners, one of the top young talents in this league. There was a reason why the Eagles drafted him where they did. They feel like he can be a guy that can help them in two different phases. So if you punt the ball to him in the middle of the field, that's a danger to begin with.

But then, as Matt Lafleur pointed out, the gunner then gets washed inside, opening up the sideline for Reagor, and from there the coverage team is not able to to do anything with it seventy three yards to the house. So these are moments that I'm sure with Shawn Meneinge when he sits down with his special teams units this week, they got to clean these things up. They have to

find a way to do it. Now. They've had injuries, they've had some turnover there, but you still need to be able to hold down the fort because, as we were just saying, special teams can really open things up. Now, all that being said, the Packers are sitting at nine

and three. It's a lot easier to learn from these things when you're looking at winning game film in the Packers because the defense got a late stop and because obviously the success of Aaron Jones on that last run, they were able to pick each other up and get that win. Yeah. Well, there were a lot of milestones.

There's a lot of history being made here by by some spectacular Green Bay Packers players here in I'm gonna give a rundown on the milestones from this last game, and then I'll let you talk about the ones that you want to First and foremost, Aaron Rodgers gets his four dred career touchdown pass and he becomes the fastest player in NFL history to do that one regular season games to get to four hundred, and he's also the first one to get to four hundred with less than

a hundred interceptions in his career. He only has eight thus far. He also became the first quarterback in league history to to have thirty five or more touchdown passes in five different seasons. He even he admitted that one probably won't last long because there are some other guys coming along who are who are going to uh going to surpass that sooner than later. But he's the first guy to do it and currently the only one in

league history and then Davante Adams. He catches the four hundred touchdown pass for Aaron Rodgers and presents him the football in the end zone. But Adams gets over a thousand yards for the season for the second time in his career, and more importantly, from a historical perspective, a touchdown reception in seven straight games, which nobody in Packer's history has done since Don Hudson back in the ninetties.

So there are some special moments going on here in this crazy different and odd season, and every once in a while you just have to sit back and win or lose or however this ends up in January for the Packers, you have to kind of sit back and relish it at least a little. Well, you definitely do, because these type of moments don't happen. I mean you you know, after every game we get the stat print out, the notes print out that are terrific public relations staff

puts together. And just how expansive that's been this season, Mike. There's times in the past that there might be one or two notes of of something. Hey, you know, Richard Rodgers became the first tight end to have eight touchdowns since Bubba Franks. You know few years ago those type of things work their way in there. This past week looked like a dope sheet. By the time that they got done, it looked like the weekly game notes in

terms of how many different things had happened. Even Robert Tony and I think became the first tight end in team history to have a touchdown catch of more than twenty five yards UH in three straight games at first, to do that in the NFL since seven, I mean, it's just ridiculous, um, the amount of things that this offense is accomplishing specifically, And we're not even talking about what they've done defensively with Zadarius Smith back to back

ten secs seasons, first time that's been done in a decade. But the stat obviously that you have to talk about is Aaron Rodgers four hundred touchdown past is Mike four hundred, and he has yet to throw a hundred interceptions. I joked during the game after a second one that he

would have to throw twelve consecutive interceptions before his next touchdown. Mike, I think you're gonna have to go back to maybe two thousand eight for the last time that he threw more than twelve in an entire season for him not to be able to be the first quarterback to do that. And he made a remark that I know you ran with with your editorial as well, that you know his goals now to get to five hundred without getting to a hundred. I mean, that's the level he's playing at.

And more importantly, because I know in the past everything was about well he protects the ball, he holds onto it too long, he doesn't want to make a mistake. He's playing in rhythm with this offense, and I that that's the story here. It's the story for two thousand twenty, and it's the story for beyond. You have seen a synergy this year. Uh you know, two sides of an offensive theory meeting an m v P quarterback, and it's

kind of fit in parallel this season. And I feel like as the Packers get down this stretch here, yes we're gonna be talking about Aaron Rodgers in the m v P conversation. Arguably should be in that already in terms of you know, I know what Patrick Mahomes has done. But as I wrote an insider inbox on Tuesday, if you believe everything everybody said at the begining of the AAR Aaron Rodgers has no weapons. So it's incredible what

he's been able to accomplish without any weapons. Uh, this season he should be an m v P. But all that being said, this stretch that he's been on, you have to step back. You have to appreciate it because the game is not that easy and he's making it look that way. Yeah, that that's the thing West. I mean you you you look at you look at what he's done. And even if I'm not mistaken, you know, his four interceptions this season, I want to say two of the four have been deflected, you know, or two

or tipped passes in some regards. So I really enjoyed the fact that that he had the guts to to tell the media like, yeah, I'm gonna go for five hundred touchdowns before I get to a hundred. So of course, when I sat down after the game to write that editorial, I wanted to go back and do the math and just see, Okay, how real? I like, is is this a pipe dream or is this actually realistic? Well? I counted it up between touchdown past number three hundred and

four hundred. Over his last hundred touchdowns he threw fourteen interceptions. So the fact that he is twelve interceptions away from a hundred uh, and he's talking about getting another hundred touchdown passes before those twelve interceptions. It's not like out of the realm of possibility by any stretch. I mean, this is this is right in his wheelhouse. This, this is now. It would be a tremendous accomplishment. But it's it's not something that's uh, it's not something that's that's

an absolute pipe dream by any stretch. He could actually pull this off. No, And some of it is is you just said it is sometimes dumb luck. I mean you mentioned that the deflected passes and those type of things this year that happened in the past two, last two or three seasons where it's been a deflected pass here there that has turned in to an interception that has led to that. So here, this is the way

I look at it. Aaron Rodgers, the way he's performed this season, he's reminding the National Football League that you guys can come up with every single type of narrative that you want. He's been the same player, he continues to be the same player, and he's having a heck of a lot of fun right now. Matt Lafleur's offense. La Fleur is not going to give himself any credit. He always deflects it, and sometimes I think that actually works against him when you get these Coach of the

Year conversations and things of that nature. He's not a big personality, right But Matt Lafleur the job he's done, not only implementing his system. Because they caught a lot of people off guard last year by winning thirteen games and making an NFC Championship game, there were a lot of questions about the legitimate, city of legitimacy of that going into this season. From the outside, that's all been

put to rest. The guy has, you know, already won more games than any other head coach and team history through the amount of time he's been here, and for him and Rodgers to kind of find themselves, get that get on the same page. This season, You've seen the offense explode, You've seen Davante Adams become an All Pro receiver, You've seen the emergence of Robert Toanian, even the offensive line Mike They've played out of their mind this season.

And because they're blocking for a guy like Aaron Rodgers. They're starting to get more notoriety because you and I have seen Corey Linsley at this level. We saw last year Elton Jenkins as I. As I mentioned in one of my right ups last week too, this team has more than one Pro bowler on that offensive line, whether or not outsiders want to acknowledge that, So finally seeing the fruits of that labor be found. Obviously, the super Bowl is the goal. They want to win a division title.

They want to get that by in the first round of the playoffs. But taking a step back every once in a while is okay to sort of appreciate what this team has done through the first twelve games of this season. Yeah. Absolutely, And I wanted to get back to one other point too. You mentioned the m v P discussion. I think the m v P in the NFL and is between Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes. I don't see anybody else really, and it's the conversation at

this point. But there are four regular season games left. We're only three quarters of the way through the regular season, so with of the regular season to go, I don't think it's I don't think it's worth arguing right now who it should be quite frankly, there's there's a lot of football left to be played here. Let's see how this plays out, and and we'll see. But I do

think it's basically down to two guys already. One other thing that that I want to get to before we move on to some of that that recap of of last weekend's games. What we're seeing here that I think is potentially a really good sign for the Packers going forward.

Not just that you know, Aaron Rodgers doing what he's doing, and Davante Adams and Aaron Jones finally busted a big run and you know everything you're saying about the offensive line, but we're seeing on the defensive side of the ball west some young players for the Packers who are starting to come into their own a little bit. We've talked about Rashan Gary and what he's done. He had I believe, one and a half sacks out of those UH seven

against the Eagles. Kingsley Kiki, a second year defensive lineman. He has his second two sack game of the season. Darnell Savage, the second year safety, a first round pick just like Rashan Gary, he gets an interception laid in the game when the defense rose up. He now has three interceptions in the last two games. A young player maybe starting to hit his stride here down the stretch.

The young players here that the Packers, as we've talked about and as a lot of people know, the Packers have invested a lot of resources in the draft, in the defense, and some of these guys they might just be hitting their stride at the right time here. Yeah,

it was funny. I was doing the Packers pregame radio show at James Jones, you know, Packers longtime receiver now works for NFL Network, one of my all time favorites, j J. Just for a lot of folks, right, very professional guy handled himself the right way throughout his two stints in Green Bay, and he actually drew the parallels. It's funny because some of us have done this over the here and I'm guilty of it too, for comparing every every core, every safety that shows a glimpse of promise,

comparing them to Nick Collins. But he really made a strong comparison to not necessarily just totally as a player, but the development of a Nick Collins in putting that in line with what Darnell Savage has done over the last two seasons. A lot of raw ability, a lot of speed, and just really the understanding of the defense when that comes to him and he can play more

off his instincts and his football. I Q that's when you see a real playmaker, a Pro Bowl type safety emerge and he feels like that's kind of what you've seen with Darnell Savage. Into James's credit, this was before he had the interception on Sunday. I mean, this is something that he had been kind of making note of throughout the course of the year, and now you're starting to see it. It kind of happened more and more

last week. I asked Adrian Amos about that during his Zoom call and the fact that when a young guy gets gets picks like that, when he makes plays, it isn't that necessarily you want to be chasing them, because that isn't the be all end all, but it does sort of remind a safety of what they're capable of, gives them that confidence that, you know what, I got those. There shouldn't be any pressure on interceptions. I got some,

let's get some more. So from that regard, I think you're seeing a real step that that Savage has taken here in the last couple of weeks. I'd be remiss, though, Mike, if I didn't talk about the fact that Kingsley Kiki

has come on four sacks now on the season. This is a guy that I know some people have drawn some comparisons with, you know, Mike Daniels and being able to maybe get that guy that isn't the typical six foot three, six ft four three and fifteen pound defensive tackle, a guy that's more around that to ninety range, that can win with leverage, win with getting underneath the shoulder pads of guards. Kiki has done that. And you have

to talk about Rashaan Garrett. Four sacks now on the season, and if you look at the way they've used his snaps, this is a guy that has been allowed to develop at a more comfortable pace. They didn't ask him to walk in the door and beat Clay Matthews. They asked him to come in the door and learn from Zadarius Smith and Preston Smith. And now you're seeing him rise up to this two thousand nineteen draft class. There's still

a long way to go. There's still a lot of production that needs to be proven, but from where they were a year ago at this time to what you're seeing down this final stretch, this is what's propelling Green Bay into this final quarter of the regular season. Yeah,

no question about it. Well, as the fourth quarter of the regular season is upon us, the Packers are nine and three and heading into Week fourteen here, there are a couple of clinch scenarios for the Packers that all through out here for you, Wes, the Packers can possibly clinch the NFC nor this week, and what that would take is a victory over the Detroit Lions coupled with

a loss by the Minnesota Vikings. Now, the other clinch scenario for the Packers involves clinching just a playoff spot even if say the Vikings were to win, So the NFC North is still in play. But the Packers can clinch a playoff spot if they win against Detroit and if the Arizona Cardinals take one more loss. So we're getting into that that time of the season where you know, you you look at the different scenarios and see where

you are in the bigger picture. As we know, the Packers are in the number two spot in the NFC right now at nine and three, one game behind the New Orleans Saints, who are ten and two, one game ahead of the Seattle Seahawks, who are eight and four after that surprising loss to the New York Giants. So um a lot to play for here over these last four regular season games, and particularly with the number one seed, as we've talked about, the only one now that gets

a first run by. So the chase for that top spot in the NFC is going to be watched very very close. Yeah, and knock on wood, that's the way it stays. I keep saying that every time someone says something about the first round by, I'm like, you know, all with hope that that's how it works out. I don't want to see a sixteen team playoff. But you're you're everybody, Mike, when you lay out a season, when you lay out a schedule, and fans are still doing

it now, and it's okay. It's the excitement factor of it. They go, okay, well that the Packers will win all their other games and then they just got the Titans. They just gotta beat the Titans. It's not that simple. Asked the Seattle Seahawks about that. I mean, you can't look past any of these opponents, because that's ultimately where teams are getting tripped up, especially in the NFC this year. It's why the NFC races as wide open as it has been. The New Orleans Saints have been to fend

off a challenge last week. That's where the scenarios get really interesting, and you do a fantastic job of laying that all out in path to the playoffs. Be sure to check that out on Packers dot com every weekend now. But it really is knowing that eight the Detroit Lions, and we're gonna look at more of them throughout the course of this week. This is a team now that showed a lot more life under Daryl Bevel than they

did the last couple of weeks. And sometimes, as we've seen time and time again, we talked about it with Raheem Morris taken over the Atlanta Falcons, it's sometimes that jolt that a team needs. Are they gonna instantly become playoff teams now? Are they gonna become contenders? No? But they get a lot more live in terms of their dog status. And that's why you can't take these matchups for granted. The Green Bay Packers, they need one more

win to get to ten. After that, then they look at eleven and if that all lines up and those stars are there for them to be a playoff team and a bye and have a bye through the first round, you take it as it comes, but you can't look past any of these teams. Thinking about the Titans. Yeah, absolutely, well, a couple of more points before we go. A lot of people have been laughing at the NFC East this year. We've even done a little bit of chuckling at the

NFC East. But okay, hold on a second, because the New York Giants just beat the Seattle Seahawks and Washington just beat the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers. So that just goes to your point. You cannot sleep on anybody right now. And yes, the winner of the NFC East is probably going to be like eight and eight at best, and maybe even seven and nine or six and ten will

still win that division. But the team's the team that does emerge to win that division is still going to be a threat in the playoffs regardless of of what its record is. And the other thing too, with regard to the Packers facing the Detroit Lions, Daryl Bevil has taken over as the interim coach. Bevil is now the third interim coach in to win his first game taking over the team, because the Falcons did it with Raheem Morris, the Texans did it with Romeo Cornell, and now this

Lions team West. They were down by ten points with four minutes to go and they had the ball in their own four yard line at Soldier Field against the Chicago Bear. Their win probability for the statistical geeks out there was like almost off the chart the wrong way. They went ninety six yards and got a touchdown, got to turn over on defense, punched in another touchdown, then held off the Bears in the red zone on the final possession. And Daryl Bevel gets his first win. And

guess what the Detroit Lions are going. We're five and seven. If we can run the table and get to nine and seven with all this craziness in the NFC and the extra playoffs spot, that's said, that's seven seed. The Detroit Lions are gonna be welcoming the Green Bay Packers into Ford Fields saying we're still a contender like they you know, everything has been revived now because of that come back in Chicago. So the Packers are gonna have

their hands full, there's no question about it. And the other thing too, with Matthew Stafford for in passing yards last week, Mike, that's the way that this thing can go for Detroit. They're only one solid Matthew Stafford game

away from playing with anybody in the NFL. And I think, you know, as much as we've made out of the Barry Sanders era and some of these other times in which they've had missed opportunities, the fact that they've had a franchise quarterback for ten years and they've struggled to win consistently, uh that that's been a huge thing for

the Green Bay Packers to be able to survive. Because Matthew Stafford on a lot of teams with the right defenses would be a perennial contender with the way he plays the game and if you can get him a running attack. So that type of matchup is gonna be interesting to watch. And as far as the NFC East, there's a bunch of scrappers in that division right now. The Giants won that game in a very unconventional way.

UM Washington won their game over Pittsburgh in an extremely unconventional way, although I think they have a defense that can keep them in a lot of matchups and now more of a game managing mentality with Alex Smith at quarterbacks. So yeah, again, this matchup on Sunday for Green Bay. We're gonna look more into it throughout the course of the week, but uh, this is definitely an opponent that Green Bay can't look past as they try to get

down this final stretch of the season. Yeah, it'll be an interesting NFC North battle for sure, but with that we will call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on Script. Would be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team all week long on Packers dot com. Oh you know what, before we go, West, I need to take care of our sponsors here, so

let's do it 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, you can score up to five dollars for your devotion to the pack when you open a Packers checking account from Associated Bank. Learn more at Associated bank dot com. Backslash Packers with that for West, I'm Mike thank you for tuning in. Everybody, We'll see you next time.