#580 Packers Unscripted: Taking another step

with this. We talked last week about the number one scoring offense against the number one scoring defense at lambeau Field on Saturday afternoon. The Packers scored points the first five times they touched the ball against that number one scoring defense. That absolutely set the table. Was was a tremendous formula for victory for Green Bay. You and I are in a street fight. Mike. You are a fantastic street fighter. You are very good at defense. I'm a

fantastic street fighter. I'm very good at offense. If if we're gonna meet in that dark alley, lights down low, how are you gonna win that fight? You're not gonna win it by being passive, aggressive, you gotta go for it. That's what I liked about this offensive game plan for green Bay. You knew what you were facing, you knew how good this Los Angeles Rams defense was. They had to just press forward, they had to go north and south, and they did that. To me, Mike, this game really

came down to two things. It came down to Matt la Floor looking at that backfield, understanding that you have Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams, and a J. Dillon, they're all healthy, they're all established, getting them involved early, and really punching

the Rams in the mouth. In the second thing, the Packers offensive line this season, all the adversity that they've faced, all the different versions that we've seen of this offensive line, they had to come out and set the tone early and they did that and everything else was built off of that. Devantie Adams had some big moments, Al Lazard had a huge catch, Aaron Rodgers played again like a

National Football League Most Valuable Player. But if Green Bay didn't come out and assert their dominance in that first quarter, we know the book on Sean mcveigh's team. If they're leading after halftime, undefeated underneath McVeigh. If they're up on time of possession, extremely difficult to beat. The Packers were not intimidated, and because of that reason, I felt like

they came out and set the tone on their own field. Yeah. Absolutely, The running game really set up everything else that the Packers wanted to do on on offense before the kneel downs. At the end of the game. The Packers had a hundred rushing yards in this game, which was about double what the Rams had averaged allowing coming into the game. And let's face it, the Rams didn't have their great disruptor, Aaron Donald. He was not at a percent, not even close.

Quite frankly, he only played about half the snaps when he was in there. Elton Jns handled him in the run game, and various double teams and whatnot took care of him in the passing game. The Packers rendered essentially combined with the injury, rendered the best defensive player in

the National Football League a complete non factor. And the Rams defense simply was not the same, and Green Bay took advantage of that even and and Aaron Rodgers didn't exactly shy away from throwing the ball at Jalen Ramsey here and there as well, whether it was Davantae Adams on a slant on the double motion for the touchdown. He even hit mvs and Lazard on different plays where they were lined up against Jalen Ramsey. So you said it. The the aggressiveness of this game plan really really set

the tone for Green Bay. And it all started. It's all started with the run game to set everything else up, leading to the play action touchdown past the backbreaker in the fourth quarter to Alan Lazard where he slips behind the defense on a on a hard cell of a play fake by Aaron Rodgers. The Packers go up to touchdown halfway through the fourth quarter. And that was all she wrote. One time, one time Aaron Rodgers was hit

in this game. That's it. You mentioned Aaron Donald. You gotta play with the game and the players that are out there. I'm sure Green Bay would have loved to have David Batr and Lane Taylor available as well, but that's not the world we're living in right now. You have to adjust, you have to adapt. They were able to do that. And the other thing is you look at Billy Turner neutralizing Leonard Floyd, a guy that had ten and a half sacks this season. That's where this

thing started. And as Rogers got comfortable, Mike, you make that big pass to Lazard. You think of that other one he had standing in his own end zone, inside the pocket, motion all around him. He steps up and makes a huge throw. Now it ended up being a series in which Green Bay had to punt, but being able to get out of that backed up position twenty one yards downfield to Lazard. Lazard ends up having the drop pass. After that, everybody kind of questioning, Okay, what's

gonna happen here? The Rams get within seven, you need a response. The defense provided it, and Aaron Rodgers in that play after building up that offensive look, being able to run the offense the way they did in the first half help kind of lead to that play to Lazard. I was trying to say proceed, but I didn't feel

like that was gonna be the right word. But be that as it may, Mike that we talk all the time, and fans probably have heard it, maybe even it's it's noise over their head, but marrying the run with the past, that play was the example of why the Packers want to have everything streamlined together. Because you had the safety's cheating up now because now they're thinking, Hey, are they gonna run it here? Are we gonna have another eight nine yard game here? You need to be able to

compensate for that. Rogers spots that, and it was funny. I didn't get a chance to watch the TV copy before I wrote Insider Inbox on Monday, and a fan mentioned that, did you hear Rogers shouting over to Alan Lazart. Hey, Alan kind of motioning to him, has a smirk on his face, and Lazard knew exactly what he wanted coming out of the slot, goes down the seam fifty eight yards and obviously the biggest play of the game to be for the Packers to be able to get the

response they needed and and hold onto that victory. Yeah. Absolutely. On on the defensive side of the ball too, It was interesting the way this game unfolded because if you look at the rams first six possessions on offense, it was sort of feast or famine, right. I mean, three of the six possessions the Packers defense got a three and out Rams did nothing. The other three the Rams got points, So it was it was an all or nothing scenario with what the Packers were doing on offense.

That was a trade that they were willing to make. Certainly, the three three and outs by the Packers defense really helped Green Bay get the lead, build the lead. And here's the two other things I really really liked about the Packers defensive performance in this game. One, the only time they gave up touchdowns West. They only gave up two touchdowns in this game, and when they did, the Packers were ahead by two touchdowns. When they gave up

a touchdown, that's a pretty good formula right there. And then the other thing in the fourth quarter, the Rams never threatened the goal line. The two big possession is one of them, with the Packers only leading by one score, and then again afterwards when after the Lizard touchdown, when the Packers were up by two scores, the Rams never

really threatened to score. The Packers defense stood tall. Fortunately, on one uh, the Rams had started on their own six yard line after a good punt, so even when they got a couple of first downs, they still weren't even really that close to midfield. Packers defense rises up and get the stop. The fourth quarter. The Packers really owned it in this game. All the back and forth through the first three quarters spelled out as a victory in the fourth quarter when when the Packers were able

to control that final stands up. Yeah, and to do my old Dom Capers impersonation. Impersonation, let's start with the positives here. I mean, the way that they finished this game is exactly the way they needed to. You saw Kenny Clark, I felt I I said it last week. Your guy for this game was Al Nazard. My guy was Kenny Clark. Now, I thought it was gonna be more based on trying to stop Acres. As it turned out, the Rams just said to heck with it, We're just

gonna pass. But it ended up being Kenny Clark in Rish John Gary, the second year linebacker, the twelfth overall pick in the two thousand nineteen NFL Draft, him being able to make the strides that we've seen all season and then have one of his best games, if not the best game, in the biggest moment so far for green Bay. I thought those two guys really contributed heavily to Green Bay being able to slam that door the

pass rush. And you've seen it time and time again, Mike, when the Packers can get teams into third and long third and plus six. They are a different unit. They just have that swagger, they have that confidence, and with them not allowing explosive plays from basically beginning to end of this season, it has allowed them to be in

a position of power in those moments. The one area I think Green Bay is probably gonna need to look at this week, and Kenny Clark mentioned it as soon as the game was over in his postgame news conference, you have to figure out this this quick curry up offense look that the Rams win too, because you're gonna

see stuff like that against the Buccaneers. The Rams they decided, you know, my whole thought process going in, Mike was they're gonna run to set up everything that they do with off at some point with getting as many base looks as they got, they said, you know what, We're just gonna go hurry up. We're gonna spread them out, and they had success with that in the first half. Green Bay ultimately was able to get some stops, was able to do some more stuff offensively that it took

the Rams out of that. But that's gonna be one look that green Bay is gonna have to compensate for because this week, and we'll talk about the matchup with the Bucks later. But the way that Bruce arians and in Byron left which draw up this offense. They will throw to get going with the run. And when you put the ball in Tom Brady's hands in those circumstances,

that that's gonna be a difficult formula to solve. As it related to this game, though, defense hit all the notes you wanted them to hit down the stretch for the Packers to win this game. Yeah, defensively, the Packers allowed ninety rushing yards from acres, but nothing that was that was a backing or a tone setting type of run. You got four sacks on Jared Goff, Preston Smith, batted down a couple of passes that the line of scrim is just a lot of plays that that the Green

Bay defense made in this game. And certainly, as as we mentioned, down down the stretch, the Packers defense did not let the Ramps threaten to uh, you know, to score there before I forget West Sirius x M NFL radio Channel eight is the only radio outlet dedicated to the National Football League seven days a week, three d

sixty five days a year. All Right, Well, this victory by the Packers, combined with Tampa Bay's victory at New Orleans on Sunday, sets up an NFC Championship showdown Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Packers, Buccaneers. It will be Sunday two oh five Central time, kick off at lambeau Field. And you know we're gonna be talking about this all week West. But you look at you look at what happened in week sixty eight to ten Tampa Bay victory over Green Bay,

uh down in Florida. You look at how the Buccaneers were able to beat the Saints after losing to them twice in the regular season, that the most recent of those being a thirty eight to three shellacking on National Tell Vision. It comes down to turnovers. The New Orleans. The New Orleans Saints were I thought they were in They were really in control of that game against the Buccaneers. It looked like they were headed for a two score

lead in the second half. Jared Cook catches the slant pass for a first down to convert a third down, and then boom, the ball gets punched out and instead of the Rams possibly are the Saints, excuse me, possibly going up two scores, the Buccaneers from that moment on outscored the Saints seven team to zero the rest of the game, getting a couple of more turnovers along the way. Packers were the best team in the NFL at protecting the football, and that is absolutely positively job number one.

Priority number one comes Sunday afternoon, and honestly, Mike if I was standing in front of the room in Matt with floor even had to address this because it came up several times during his Monday news conference. My whole thought would be the one takeaway, the one thing I want you to remember about Week six is protect the football and take the football away. That was the difference in the game. Green Bay came out and posed their will.

That first quarter picture perfect, exactly what Green Bay was looking for. Get up by two scores, you're off and rolling. But it was what happened after that's that sort of turned the tide of where things went for Green Bay. So now you look at this matchup, you go and look at what Tampa Bay did, As Matt Lafleur said, watching the game with his wife at home, sitting back just seeing the lay of the land, of the way things are going to shape out. I have a lot

of respect for Mickey Loomis. I love the way that the Saints were built this season. They understood, they made a transition about five years ago that you have an aging quarterback, one of the very best, a future Hall of Famer, but you need to be able to develop your defense and you need to be able to find ways to help him offensively. So it's just not big air raid, downfield passing game. And they've done that, Elvin Kamara,

all the different weapons that you just talked about. But what happened here and it's the lesson that Green Bay needs to learn going into this matchup now against the Bucks is the Saints came out fast and furious offensively.

Buccaneers weren't able to do much the first quarter for most of the first quarter, but there was something about that Tom Brady sneak and he's done it so many times over the last twenty one years that when Bruce arians shows the confidence, we're backed up, we're inside our own thirty five six, we're gonna sneak it because Tom Brady is arguably the best in NFL history at it. And after that moment, man, they just got rolling in.

The Saints couldn't stop them. Conversely, when you don't have the big arm, you know, and you don't have the explosiveness that the Saints have had in the past, you have to take more chances underneath. And I thought that's what happened with Breese. They just after as you mentioned, with that that Cook turnover, they just weren't able to play catch up after that. So now here you are. This is what the National Football League is all about.

This is what the NFC is all about. These are the two best teams and they're gonna see each other at lambeau Field on Sunday afternoon, and I am really interested to see the chess match that happens now that this game is here as opposed to down in South Florida and now being able to see exactly what the adjustments are going to be made that Matt Laflour and

Aaron Rodgers are going to do. Matt Lafloor, he still hasn't lost back to back games as the head coach, but now he has the rematch here right against Tampa Bay in the same season. That's going to be tremendous theater. Yeah, absolutely, I mean, it's it's what everybody is going to be fired up to watch one last thought on the Saints before we move on. If indeed we did see Drew brees last football game in the NFL, hats off to

an absolutely tremendous career. And if you want to have any understanding of just how difficult it can be to get to a super Bowl, the last four years, the New Orleans Saints won forty nine football games in four years, and they did not get to the Super Bowl any one of those times, and in fact, only made it to the Conference championship once in those four years. And they should have gone to the super Bowl last year. They certainly were robbed in my opinion. But anyway, hats

off to Drew Brees. And if he is going to retire, um, I hope he sticks around the game in some fashion. It sounds like that is potentially in the works. But Tom Brady against Aaron Rodgers, it's a it's a matchup for the ages. That will be Aaron Rodgers fifth conference championship game, but first at lambeau Field. As we have talked about, he won his first one obviously against the Bears on the road. Three straight losses on the road at this stage. But now Rogers gets a conference championship

at home. For Tom Brady, it will be the fourteen conference championship game of his career, the first thirteen obviously as the quarterback of the New England Patriots. Brady nine and four in UM nine and four in conference championship games in his career, but three of those four losses on the road. He's been a five quarterback in road games in those a f C title games with the Patriots.

So you just you, you, you can't ask for anything better here, These these two quarterbacks going to head to head with so much on the line, two guys who are going to be in the Hall of Fame one day, and a matchup frankly that you know, until the last couple of years, well yeah, prior to two thousand and eighteen, Rogers and Brady had gone head to head exactly once as starting quarterbacks. Now and then a second time here in the postseason. So, uh, Rogers and Brady, it's a

musty TV. A few lessons to be learned here, Mike, before we signed off for the day. The first thing, there's gonna be a segment of the fans that are gonna be nervous about that first matchup, and they're gonna talk about it all this week. You and I are going to see it an inbox. As I keep saying over and over again, whether I've tweeted it or whether

I wrote it. Tampa Bay Buccaneers did not care about the regular season when they went into the Super Dome last weekend and um pasted the Saints after the Saints beat them twice in the last of which was a

thirty eight to three victory. Not concerned at all. Second thing, this is the great moment, right because when Tom Brady signed with Tampa Bay, there were some executives at Fox or somewhere around the country where they started salivating at the thought of Brady and Breeze, Brady and Rogers, and they're getting it all in the same postseason run. Uh. For Brady and Rodgers. This wasn't the way I wanted it to go down. I I really wanted to see how I thought we were getting in fourteen. I wanted

to see a Brady Rogers Super Bowl. This is the next best thing, though, to see these two warriors, as you said, future Hall of Famers, first ballot gold jackets facing off Mano a Mano is going to be a fantastic,

fantastic game. And also we have to say it, Mike because honestly, as many headlines as Brady versus Breeze is gonna draw, my Brady versus Rogers excuse me, Nadam, the can sue in this long storied history against the Green Bay Packers, that again gets brought to the forefront, that rivalry that you know, the the history with Aaron Rodgers.

There's so many things about this that you love. And then, honestly, the final thing I want to make either Aaron Rodgers going back to the Super Bowl for the first time in ten years, or Tom Brady in his first season with a new team making the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the first team to play a Super Bowl on their home field. One of the two things is going to happen, assuming that they just don't play forever to avoid a time, those two are the scenarios, and it's just it is fantastic.

It's what the National Football League is all about. Yeah. Absolutely, I want to get your thoughts on one other thing because we may not have enough time in Thursday show to get to it, because a lot of fans are asking about this and the Packers just faced as we talked about, the number one defense in the league in the Los Angeles Rams, and had their way with them.

For the most part. This Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense is no slouch, obviously, But I think the other thing too, is this Tampa Bay defense is built very differently because the stars of the defense, yes they have they have tremendous pass rushers up front, just like the Rams had, But the stars of the defense are the inside linebackers,

Lavonte David and particularly Devin White. Packers had a hard time with those guys back in Week six, and though that type of caliber linebacker in the middle of field is not what the Rams had, the Rams defense was was built differently. So just what your thoughts initially here early in the week and how the Packers go about trying to do what they need to do against a defense that is extremely talented but very different from the one that they just faced. Devin White was going to

be a star. You and I didn't have to be in the package scouting department to understand that. I remember you and I salivating over what the type of player this guy is gonna be going at the combine and through all that process that's not a surprise. Um, although the way that they're using them is really innovative. I think that's very exciting. The thing I actually like as a football fan is that Lavonte David's finally starting to get his his his do I mean, you you talk

here all the time about people wasting primes. We missed Lavante David's. I mean, he's still in his prime. Is thirty two years old, thirty one years old. But people are finally catching up to the fact that this guy has been a pretty darn good linebacker for eight years. And it's just that the Buccaneers had a lot of bad seasons. They had a lot of years where their offense didn't do a lot in their defense was disjointedt

Lavonte David isn't just that he's some late bloomer. He was this guy all along and now people realize it and being able to pair those two guys together. The reason you mentioned that it's different than the Rams, it's different than a lot of teams. A lot of teams now it's become about one linebacker and then you find a compliment to them, and then you run your sub packages.

That's not the way that Tampa Bay does things. So the key for Green Bay is coming out running the football and protecting the football and getting those linebackers moving, being able to wear them down over the course of four quarters in this environment, thirty degree weather. That's going to be the key because lambeau Field, this is going to take away some of the speed, right, This is going to even the playing field somewhat. Sorry, Kurt Warner,

it's a reality. The game gets played outdoors sometimes. But the fact of the matter is that if you don't do that early on, and you allow them to start pinning their ears back because you can't run the ball against that front, that's when that defense is at its best. And the very last thing Todd Bowls needs another opportunity to be a head coach in this league. The guy is fantastic. His scheme is fantastic and when he has the right players, Man, Packers have seen it before they

saw it in Arizona. I mean, this guy knows how to coach. Yeah, well, Matt la Fleur said, and I wrote about it on our website Monday night. The Packers are not going to dwell on anything that happened from Week six, but they are gonna learn some things from and Matt Lafleur admitted he didn't feel like he really had his team prepared for that game as well as the Buccaneers were prepared, and he felt like he got away from the running game when the game was still

within reach before things really got out of hand. The Packers did bust a couple of runs in that game, and I'm sure Matt Lafleur, Nathaniel Hackett, the rest of those offensive coaches are going to try to figure out how to get back to that and then stick with the run, as you said, because the way to attack this the way to attack this defense is to try to wear out those those linebackers because they control so

much in the middle of the field. If they're getting three notes and getting off the field and being able to get their breath, that's not that's not the right recipe. And then secondly, just to give him quick kudos, I mean you look at their secondary. They're a ball hawking secondary. I think Antoine Winfield Jr. Is going to be a fantastic Pro Bowl player for years to come. They have

a lot of weapons. Might you can't deny it. They're in the NFC's igl game for a reason, but Green Bay top scoring defense, top scoring offense in the league, just doing what they did against the top scoring defense. They gotta be who they are and they gotta protect the football. Yeah. Absolutely Well. We will talk a lot more about this matchup on our next episode, but for now, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers on Script and be sure to follow all of our

preview coverage during NFC Championship Week. It's all for you on Packers dot com for West, I am Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody. See you next time.