#577 Packers Unscripted: Wild weekend

most certainly had a good time. But Mike kind of like if you look at Chris Barnes and Christian Kirksey when you lose that Mike linebacker no pun intended, and I have to move into that seat. It's a different world sitting in that seat. I gotta give you a lot of credit for how you're able to orchestrate the whole thing. We're trying to get through it the best we could. I feel like we put a good show together.

Larry obviously is a legend, was incredible to get some of his thoughts and but being after all these episodes that that incredible streak that you had of doing unscripted, it finally ended and I had to step into the driver's seat. I'm not saying the car didn't get a little dinged up, but it definitely got back to the house. Well, streaks are there to be broken, and uh, but I am back now and all is good. So so we

will move forward before I do forget though. Our show brought to you by Serious x M, NFL Radio Channel eight, the only radio outlet dedicated to the National Football League seven days a week, three days a year. Well, as I said, you and Larry certainly recapped the regular season finale against the Bears, which got the Packers the number

one seed. So I think we should just take this episode with the Packers on the playoff by and take a look at this wild card weekend that is coming up here in the NFL Super wild Card Weekend as the NFL is calling it now, because there are six games instead of just four. I'm not sure if the Super wild Card weekend carries over into future years when this is what it's going to be presumably all the time now, but that's a conversation for another day. The

Packers are awaiting their opponent in the divisional round. It will be one of four teams Washington, Tampa Bay, the Los Angeles Rams, or the Chicago Bears. And here's here's the thing, West, I'm not sure how you mentally process things. Okay, this is how I have mentally processed. This is how I have mentally processed in the simplest uh structural way possible. How this is going to or how to understand this

scenario for the Packers. The Packers will get the lowest remaining seed in the divisional round, so mentally I work from the bottom up. The lowest seed is the seven seeded Bears, so if they win, if they beat the Saints, that they come to lambeau Field. The six seeded team is the Los Angeles Rams, So if the Bears lose and the Rams win, the Rams come to lambeau Field.

If the seven and the six both lose, the Bears and the Rams both go down, then the Packers get the winner of the four or five game, which is Washington versus Tampa Bay. Does that make sense? You got all that? It makes perfect sense? And it was funny trying to diagnose this as much of a difficult time as I had during paths of the playoffs, trying to figure out all the different versions of how this week

could play out. It's been kind of interesting because what I've realized when you got past all the minutia is that really there could be four different, very cool matchups. I really don't think I wrote this an insider inbox. I don't think there's a bad game in the bunch from a pure football fandom perspective. They all have storylines, they all have history, and there's everything that makes it

uh to be a compelling sort of scenario. The one thing that gets me though, is the fact that this is the first time the Green Bay Packers have been in a position like this where not necessarily that that you're getting the bottom of the barrel. All these teams could win, There's no question about that, but it really is waiting for everything to come to Green Bay as opposed to kind of chasing a little bit heading into

the postseason. And that is the benefit of a thirteen and three season and obviously getting that number one seed in the NFC. Well, the tricky thing as far as figuring out whom the Packers will be facing. As I said, I start from the bottom up with the Bears being the seventh seed. But what gets tricky about it is that the Bears are playing last of the three NFC

games over the weekend. So regardless of what happens in those two games on Saturday, which is Rams and Seahawks and Washington versus Tampa Bay, the Packers still won't know their opponent until that Bears Saints game is finished, because if the Bears win, then that is the opponent. If the Bears lose, then it's whichever one of those possibilities has still survived from Saturday into Sunday. So it will be a long weekend in terms of actually knowing which

team the Packers will wind up playing. But looking at these three games in the NFC collectively, it feels like west that the Seattle Seahawks, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the New Orleans Saints are all considerable favorites in this game, in these games. But this is the NFL and this is the playoffs, and to think that all three of those games are just going to fall into place the way people expect, maybe it will happen that way, but you know what, there's a darn good chance that it won't.

There's always every year there's something that's going to surprise you. And in real. Like I mentioned just a second ago, all of these teams have a chance to win because they're all here for a specific reason. You can even hate on Washington if you want, but the reality is they've had one of the best most consistent defenses in the National Football League all season. For all of the various issues they've had on the offensive side of the ball. That's why they immerse arged out of the NFC East.

That's why they still have a puncher's chance. I feel in this game against Tampa Bay. The Rams game is interesting to me because there are so many questions for l A on their offensive side of the ball, whether

it be injuries or the COVID nine team list. But defensively, you have Aaron Donald in Jalen Ramsey and that that unit going up against Russell Wilson, who, while it has been an effective, productive offense this season, has had some takeaways, has had some giveaways, and have found their way through some games after you know, kind of having some setbacks. So I think they're a you know, a live dog.

You could say in this matchup, the toughest road to travel for anybody is going to be Chicago, because you're taking on a New Orleans Saints team that while they have had some COVID issues now themselves the last week, defensively they're a powerhouse. They're playing on their own turf. And offensively, not only do you have Drew Brees back, but you're seeing how they use Taysom Hill his multiple role again. Now that raises back in the lineup, that is going to be a really difficult puzzle for the

Bears to solve in that two verse seven matchup. The first one, Yeah, I think, what when I look at it from the perspective of the favorites versus the underdogs, I am with you in the sense that I think we're on the same page here. What gives all of these underdogs a legitimate chance is not just because this is the NFL, but all three of these underdogs have

legitimately good defenses. You mentioned the Rams, that combination of Aaron Donald in the pass rush and Jalen Ramsey as the number one cover corner to potentially take away one of your top receivers. And now, obviously the Rams and the Seahawks have already played a couple of times. Jalen Ramsey has seen plenty of DK metcalf over the course of the year. But it's an it's another matchup. It's going to be a star studded one in that respect. Washington.

I mean, look at when does Tom Brady lose in the playoffs when the pass rush gets to him and Rex his offense right, Washington has a pass rush. Now. They have a lot of other limitations offensively that you know Alex Smith for the tremendous comeback season that he has had, Washington is somewhat limited an offense. They're not explosive, they aren't going to scare anybody, but that pass rush can keep any team, any Washington team in a game

um against against the potentially high powered offense. And then the Bears. We all know about the Bears defense now. They are banged up a little bit here going into this game with New Orleans. When they played the Packers last week, two of their top three cornerbacks were out and then they lost Roquan Smith, the star young inside linebacker, during the game. We don't know how healthy the Bears defense is going to be going down to New Orleans.

I think that's a big thing to watch because if I recall West, the Bears in the Saints played during the regular season and it was an overtime affair. Certainly New Orleans offense did not overwhelm Chicago's defense in any respect in that ballgame. No, they didn't. As you pointed out my defense. Yes, that is where the tone is going to be set. But realistically, and all three of those games, the other aspect I look at is can

you get your running game to help your quarterback? Can you have David Montgomery come out and be successful against one of the best defenses in the National Football League? Cam Akers is back. Can he get back into a groove and maybe take that those reins and be able to, you know, get the run game going again for the Rams with all the issues that they have at quarterback right now, with injuries and most importantly Mike, I don't

have specific statistics. I don't have anything I can cite for you, but this Washington team is different when Antonio Gibson is healthy and he's on the field. You saw what happened when he left. They still won some games, but it was a lot more difficult. That defense and that running game gives them a chance in this game

against Tampa. All that being said, I think if you're the head coach of any of these three teams that are favored this weekend, you tell your guys to do what you do, take care of what you take care of, and are gonna be able to come up victorious because pound for pound the teams again that our favorite in this even though Tampa obviously has the lower seed than Washington, they're there for a reason and they were able to do that for a reason. I think that's why these

games are all going to be somewhat close. But everything being equal, as you said, things can change, but you do see the path to victory there for these teams

that have the decided advantage. Yeah, well, it is the playoffs, and you just never know exactly how things are going to unfold, whether you're talking about ten years ago a six seeded Packers team that runs it all the way to the Super Bowl Championship, or last year a nine and seven Tennessee team that gets into the playoffs and suddenly makes a run knocks out the number one seed. Baltimore actually has a lead in the a f C Championship game over Kansas City before their hot streak kind

of ran out on them. So you just never know how these things are gonna go. The flip side of it is, sometimes things fall as a spected. Last year in the NFC, the one and the two seeds were San Francisco and Green Bay, and they ended up facing each other for the NFC title. So, uh, sometimes it falls the way you might think, and other times you just have no idea. The other storyline to watch two.

As much as people always like to get on these teams that have losing records entering the postseason, they actually have a pretty good return on investment here the last few seasons, whether it was Carolina winning a playoff game at seven eight and one six years ago, where you go back to John Schnyder and Pete Carroll right at the beginning of this thing being I think sex six and nine are seven and nine in winning a playoff game back and I want to say, was that two

thousand nine or two thousand and ten. It has happened before, and they can you know that that if you don't take those teams seriously when they're playing on their home turf, uh, that that that can come up not looking so well for you. Yeah, well, we will see how things unfold and exactly which opponent will be coming to lambeau Field next week, and we also don't know yet the official day and time of that divisional round game. It will

be either Saturday or Sunday. I'm guessing just based on the whole TV thing and all that, that the Packers will either get the Saturday night prime time slot or the late Sunday afternoon one on divisional weekend. But again we will have to see. That has not been announced yet. I do want enough Saturday night games, by the way, we can put that thing on Sunday. I'll be just we've had We've had enough night games this year. I think it's been six primetime games out of sixteen for

the Packers. So yeah, those are certainly more challenging for us from a work perspective, but we will roll with whatever punches are thrown at us. Yeah, I do want to get your thoughts on the the a f C games, because while I started talking about the NFC matchups looking at three teams that look like rather significant favorites or clear favorites that you would think would win those games.

When I look at Indie against Buffalo, Baltimore against Tennessee, and Cleveland against Pittsburgh, it feels like all three of those games are absolute tossups, coin flips. They could you know, like there there. It doesn't feel like anyone in the a f C other than Kansas City, which has the buy in the number one. Other than it feels like no one in the a f C is really a favorite. And even though Kansas City is favored and rightfully so, a dominant season that they had really on both sides

of the ball. All four you know, these four teams that you mentioned right off the bat, Buffalo, Indianapolis, Tennessee and Baltimore. If you flash forward to a month from now and you just put me in a box and pull me back out and say one of those teams is in the Super Bowl, I believe you they both. They all four of those teams have stood up at times and have really looked good. And I think you're seeing Baltimore start to a little look a little bit

more like itself. Obviously a two thousand yard rusher Derrick Henry in the month of January. You cannot count out the Titans, just asked last season, But the one I have my eye on the most is Josh Allen and Buffalo. And I made this point in Insider inbox too. They've arrived now they don't have to talk about that lengthy playoff drought that they they're back and they've been back. Now, can you actually start to win? Can you start to

make an imprint? Because the moves they made last offseason, Mike Stefon Diggs and some of these transactions that came along, they didn't make them because oh yeah, we want to be able to just get back to the playoffs. They wanted to win, they wanted to win a super Bowl.

They feel like they got the best quarterback of that draft class, and they have been able to come out and I think really show that the way that Josh Allen plays that position, it enhances things and it really does complement the weapons that they have on the offensive side the ball. Somebody had asked me this an inbox too. Who's under more pressure this week? Is it Lamar Jackson showing that he's still the m v P quarterback, that he's still the guy everybody thinks he is in Baltimore?

Can he win a playoff game? Or is it Alan? And I still feel like it's Alan because the Buffalo is trying to make a run after years of not being relevant Baltimore when they're playing and they're playing well, they can make this thing. They can get back to the Promised Land. But it's that question if Baltimore can Buffalo excuse me, can finally regain itself and they have a tough team to do it against in the Colts

in the first round. And then quickly, just to touch on Pittsburgh and Cleveland kind of a mismatch matchup right now, you don't really know what you're gonna see on Sunday with the COVID issues that Cleveland has, the reports. I think Alex Van Pelt is gonna be calling plays for them on Sunday. And then you have Pittsburgh, who really tripped and fell and is trying to get up after making what appeared to be a run at an undefeated season.

So they're still in this too. But those first four teams that I mentioned, those are the ones I have my eye on because I think any of them could very easily get on a run. Yeah, I think so. To the the the Indie Buffalo matchup right off the bat really intrigues me because you have sort of, you know, the old guy at quarterback in Philip Rivers. This might be his last legitimate shot to get to a super

Bowl in his career. And then on the other side, you mentioned Josh Allen for Buffalo, and the word that I continue to use with regard to Josh Allen when I do get a chance to watch the Buffalo Bills play is fearless. This kid just looks like he plays the game with no fear at all, and he's fun to watch in that respect. And the Buffalo Bills have put together an offense to pair with what has been and what had been developing prior to Allen's arrival, as

as a pretty solid defense. So I personally think if I were to pick one team that has the best chance of knocking off the Chiefs as the defending Super Bowl champs and and the and the number one seed and the favorite right now in the a f C, I think Buffalo maybe has the best shot at that.

But at the same time, I say that I don't count the Colts out at all this weekend in in that opening playoff game, the other next one Baltimore Tennessee, a rematch of last year's Division A Round game where Baltimore was the one seed, had the by was fourteen and two and Tennessee came in and punched him in the mouth, so to speak with Derrick Henry and surprised him.

Baltimore just never got on track in that game, and suddenly their fourteen in two season went up and smoked on I believe it was a Saturday night and suddenly they were they were out um and as you mentioned, Derrick Henry a two thousand yard season this time he's the back to back NFL Russian King two years in a row, UM and is coming off of a monster game to help Tennessee win that that a f C South last weekend. And then Cleveland at Pittsburgh the COVID issues,

I mean, everything going on with with Cleveland. Their head coach won't be on the sideline, won't be able to communicate with his team at all, as well as a few other coaches as they go through that. And Pittsburgh is really interesting to me because, as you mentioned, they were eleven and oh, people were wondering, okay, are they going to run the table, go sixteen and O and head into the postseason. Well, then they lost three games in a row. They're trailing by seventeen points in the

second half to the Indianapolis Colts at home. They have a huge second half rally to pull out that game win the a f C North Division championship. And then even though in weeks seventeen they had an opportunity to possibly get the two seed as opposed to the three, Mike Tomlin said, this is what I think. He said, Hey, our guys are tired. This has been a rough last month, month and a half. They sort of lost their bye week even earlier in the season because of scheduling getting

shifted around. They Pittsburgh Steelers dealt with a lot of things that were out of their control in terms of how their season unfolded, and Mike Tomlin said, you know what, We're gonna rest some of our key guys in week seventeen because the rest and recovery is going to be more important to making potentially making a playoff run than whether they're the three seeds or the two seeds. So they made that sacrifice. The Steelers are the three seed, but now they get a division rival, a team they've

already played twice this year. That third matchup in the n f C North between the Browns and the Steelers will be the I believe that's the final game of the weekend on Sunday Night football, so it should be it should be one heck of a weekend. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, Town then one of the best in the business, and obviously felt like this was the right time to almost kind of simulated by a little bit for his guys, for Roethlisberger. For what what, I'm

really intrigued about that matchup. There was a couple of things. One, it seems to me that Pittsburgh, you know, James Conner had dealt with injuries throughout the year, but it seems like during the end of the season when he kind of slowed down a little bit, that's when the offense sort of slowed down. I don't watch them weekend and week out, so I can't give you a blow by blow, but that that did seem to be a parallel to me. So can they refine themselves? Can the defense get its

swagger back? And on the other side of the field man for the first time in eighteen years? Coincidentally, the team that they lost to Pittsburgh back in two thousand two, they get a rematch with them now eighteen years later, back in the postseason, and really again had kind of a crossroads earlier this year and seemed to really have found themselves. I think Baker Mayfield got his swagger back to keep throwing that word out there. I like what

they've done with their backfield combinations. Obviously we know you know J. C. Treader well, and how they've built up that offensive line. So I think it's gonna be a really competitive matchup. And again for Cleveland, this has been the statement year you got back. That's awesome. Now, can you win some football games and and show that you know what this is a team that can be not only just a playoff contender, but can actually contend to

be in a Super Bowl. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, as I said, it should be a fun weekend to watch some football. I'm glad we get to kind of sit and relax for a couple of days and just take it all in. We will have updates on Packers dot Com. As soon as the Packers date and time and opponent and all of that is known, that will be available on our website. So 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 through the playoffs on packers dot com for West, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.