#611 Packers Unscripted: Lowdown on Lions

we are very sorry about that technical issue. It's been resolved. Hopefully it will not come up again. So here we are on Thursday, West, and Thursday's episode will be posted on Thursday, just so you know. Sure, there's a lot of people out there that were just devastated that that unscripted was not available on Tuesday to recap everything that happened in that game on Sunday. But yeah, we hold ourselves accountable here. We do hold ourselves accountable. We've made

the necessary correct and we're pushing forward. Now we're flushing it and now we're pushing forward here to Detroit and we are pushing forward to a game on Monday Night Football in Week two against the Detroit Lions. Both teams, as all the teams are in the NFC North, both of these squads for Monday night are oh and one searching for their first victory of The Detroit Lions have

a new head coach, they have a new quarterback. What what's your initial I know we don't have a whole lot to go on here, but what's your initial impression of Detroit Lions. My initial impression is the Detroit Lions have begun to take on that mentality of their head coach. And I think when the chapter was closed on the mat Patricia Era, I believe that there are people within that building and understood where things went wrong the past few years and where they need to get corrected. I'm

not even talking about wins and losses. I'm talking about culture, talking about team building and what they showed me in that game against San Francisco, Mike, very much like the Packers against the Saints. They could not have really gotten off to a worst start, but they bounced back. And yes, there's a lot of people out there saying they got points in garbage time, in yards and garbage time, they got it back within one score, and I thought that showed a lot from Jared Goff to be able to

pick himself up. I thought that showed a lot on the Lions not quitting on themselves after giving up twenty four points in the in the second quarter. That was a team that played until the bitter end in it. For that reason, I think the Packers have to be ready that they're going to see a very hunger Detroit

Lions team on Monday Night. Yeah. Absolutely. The The The only caveat that I give with regard to the Lions come back and getting it within one score is that they did catch a huge break with getting an onside kick recovery in there, which is one of those less than ten percent propositions these days in the NFL. So that's not going to happen very often. And the final score that game is very different if they don't get

that one fortunate break. But they got it, and they did come within twenty five yards of a potential game tying touchdown in a game they were down by twenty four points with with less than six minutes to go. So, um, what are your thoughts on Jared Goff? This is a big change for the Detroit Lions because Matthew Stafford. Yes, he there were times he was injured here and there. I get it. But Matthew Stafford was the Detroit Lions quarterback for a long time. He was their franchise guy.

That has now changed. Jared Goff doesn't have I don't think he has all of the physical tools and the physical skills that Matthew Stafford has. But Jared Goff also has a little bit more of a winning pedigree in that he is a quarterback who has taken a team to a Super Bowl. This is a really interesting change in the NFC. North Well and he has a sharp guy that's called plays for him and Anthony Lynn and

in understanding what they want to accomplish offensively. The former Chargers head coach for Chargers head coach and Mike I'll be honest with you, the You're absolutely right. Golf has been there, he's done that, he's seen it. But when he's been successful, he's had a really capable run game along with him. And for the first time and my as my child, my son's childbook, Little Blue Truck Goes, I think it was or no, it was Gruff the

Grump the first time in a very long time. Uh, they actually have a running game here that I think they can actually hold, you know, hang their hat on uh DeAndre Swift and Jamal Williams. I said it going back to training camp. I said it going back to the offseason program. I felt like Jamal Williams is one of the best bargain buys in the national football Like

the Greenbay Packers were extremely tight against the cap. They couldn't bring them back, but the Detroit Lions to get them for what they got Jamal Williams for that game last week, you saw how valuable this guy could be. And he had over a hundred yards from scrimmage combining the rushing and receiving yards if I read the stats correct, and Swift wasn't as impressive on the ground but had

eight catches had touched on. They I think are going to be a really good battery together and I feel like Golf throughout the course of that game, you could see his comfort in his familiarity with those two guys flourished. They have weapons. Mike. I think t J. Hockenson in addition to being on my fantasy football team, I didn't draft him. It was an auto league. I don't even know. I was drafting, but he end up having a really

good week for me. These guys, there's talent there for him to work off of the question I'm going to have though, is what happens when adversity hits What happens when people start to hit the counters against the Lions? Jared Goff, I don't anticipate is gonna be a guy that's gonna be thrown the ball fifty plus times a game. Yeah, that's that's not going to be their formula for success

when that happens. I don't think the win loss ratio is exceedingly high for golf over the years in those situations. But he is a legitimate NFL starting quarterback and there was a reason why the Lions felt like this was the best package that they could get in this trade for Matthew Stafford. It really is just going to come down to whether or not he could play disciplined and in those moments where he gets shut down, if he could find a way to get the offense rolling again. Yeah, well,

you mentioned the Lions running game. You mentioned t J. Hockenson, the tight end um young rising star I think in this league, uh, coming out of Iowa, very high draft pick that gets us, you know, right into some of our keys to victory here. I think when you look at the Packers defense, you look at what happened last week against the Saints, a lot of trouble stopping the run and giving up two touchdown passes to a tight end, not to mention also a crucial fourth down conversion on

a screen to a tight end. So looking at all this, how much do the how much do the Lions come in here on Monday night with DeAndre Swift, Jamal Williams and t J Hockenson and those guys being the focal point of their offense and how they attack the pack and and this guy is not on the same levels those other three. But even look at Quentin se Fist being able to get a touchdown in that game against former University of Wisconsin wide receiver and sort of a

hybrid across type player. Uh, those are the type of players that have given Green Bay issues the past few years, and it gives them a lot of different looks in this game against Detroit. I'm going back to what I said last week, Mike, nothing changes. Just because the Packers lost by thirty five points doesn't mean that the recipe for success to win that game is any different. You have to win up front, and you got to do

it on both sides of the ball. There was one statistic that I looked up when I was doing insider in Boxes past week. The Packers now are one in six all time, at least since two thousand eighteen when Aaron Jones was a starter, where they've actually in games in which Jones has not carried the ball more than ten times, they're one in six. They won one of those games, the game against in two thousand eighteen. I believe against San Francisco. They got to get the ball

in Aaron Jones's hands. They have to get the ball on a J. Dillon's hands. And on the opposite side of things, you can't let teams gash you for six seven eight yards of pop on the run game. That was my biggest concern in that game against the Saints. It wasn't that Kamara ended up hitting a sixty yard gainer down the field. It was the fact that their longest carry was fifteen yards and Green Bay still gave up as many yards on the ground as they did.

You have to control the tempo and when you're facing a team whose head coach is talking about biting off kneecaps and drinking as much coffee as is available within the Starbucks you know, entire industry. You have to be able to bring that energy and that is the biggest thing that I think has to change in this game. Everyone loves Jamal Williams's a fantastic dude, great personality. Packers got a find a way to stop him on Monday Night. Yeah,

I think. I think it definitely starts with with changing the narrative with the run defense right away for the Packers based on what happened last Sunday, before we switch to the offensive side. West a shout out to our sponsors.

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Monday Nights game is. I believe it's going to feel very differently in terms of how the Packers go about things offensively. Now, you obviously want the defense to not give up to fifteen play touchdown drives, which you know throws everything off in terms of possessions, everything becomes disjointed,

the clock all that. But I do think we're going to see the Packers very, very focused on running the football, establishing that run, the play action everything with with Matt Lafleur's passing game, there's so much of that effective stuff comes off of of play action. I really think Aaron Jones and a J. Dillon are going to have their

hands on the ball quite a bit Monday night. I agree, And I didn't mean to jump, you know in the last segment talking about this, but it goes on both sides of the ball, does absolutely and you have to stop the ball and Mike, you look historically the big conversation. I'm sure when we talk to Aaron Rodgers latter day, I'm sure it's gonna come up again as the two shell I've been hearing that, you know, since I was

three years old. And I mean the fact of the matter is, I mean, over the last ten eleven years, teams have settled that's the blueprint. That's the formula. It's not the blueprint in the formula. All it is is that if a team throws two safeties and its back end and there we go light in the box, You've got to be able to run the ball against that front. Doesn't matter if you're running back is Eddie Lacey, James Starks,

you know Tie Montgomery. Now with Aaron Jones, you have to be able to push the ball through those gaps and from there that's where the Packers offense starts to

look like itself again. Why was Matt Lafleur's scheme such a great fit for Green Bay because they had a lot of the tools that he needed to be successful here when you look at having Aaron Jones developing and Jamal Williams as just as steady as it goes back, I to be honest with you, Mike, for as little as we saw him in that game against the Saints, I was pretty darn and pressed with a J. Dillon. I actually thought he hit the whole pretty well, only

had four carries, but took it for nineteen yards. If they can get that one too, combination going get them twenty touches touch is together. That's where you can see the jet sweeps open up, the slant passes open up, the Robert Tonyan passes open up. I really you know, Aaron Rodgers hit it. I think he said it perfectly when when he talked about how you know things go in cycles. Right, there's going to be moments where you're

going to have adversity. You're not gonna look great, people are gonna start to question things, and it will come back again. I think that's the biggest key for Green Bay. You have to come up with more energy. You have to play better in the first quarter, but don't feel like you don't have a team that isn't meant to be there. They do. They just gotta get that swagger back.

And I think it starts with the run game. Yeah, it starts with the run game, and then it continues, you know, with doing what the Packers do best, or I should say what they did best last year, which was to be one of the best teams in the league on third down and in the red zone. We saw both of those go away from them in Week one against the Saints. And you know, when you look

at the third downs. Obviously, when you're in third and eight and third and twelve and third and thirteen, that's not where you want to be while you get in the better third downs suations by running the football. Everything everything goes hand in hand here. And why were the Packers so successful in the red zone last year? Well in part because they ran the heck out of the ball in the red zone and then that set up the play action for Davante Adams and Robert Tonyan to

both get double digit touchdowns. All that so it all, it all goes hand in hand. And I think with this Matt Lafleor offense, we've seen it enough now, you know, thirty plus games over the course of his two plus seasons here that that that you have to be able to run the football with some level of authority and some level of consistency, consistency for this offense to be to be in rhythm, to be flowing, and to be

at its best. And a lot of that too, Mike comes with multiplicity, It comes with different types of looks, and last week a lot of it, because of what the game dictated, we didn't see in the over abundance of those looks. As I was mentioning before, a lot of letting personnel, a lot of no huddle, and you saw Aaron Rodgers having to kind of extend plays. Again, it's just stuff that doesn't look like the offense looks

like when they're in a rhythm. Now, they took a one, you know, an unfortunate hit to their offensive, you know arsenal when Josiah Deguar goes down with the concussion. But there's a reason why Dominic Daphne was kept on this fifty three. I mean, that's kind of their backup at that h back type tight end role that they have this game in particular, Mike, I want to I keep saying the jet motions, but you know, I want to see more Randall cob I want to maybe see some

Amari Rodgers. I want to give the defense different looks so that you don't necessarily can just figure into Okay, well, you know MVS is in in this situation, you can tell, you know, they want to go and do this type of play. You know, there's so much versatility with this group that to my eye, as we get into this game on Monday night, that's the number one thing I'm gonna be looking for what kind of packages are they rolling with, what kind of scheme are they rolling with?

And can you get that offensive line comfortable with a running game so that those young guys can really feel and in where they need to be at. Yeah, and the bottom line with regard to all the us going hand in hand is when you talk about showing all those different looks and utilizing all that versatility and offense, you have to run more than twelve plays in the first half before you get into two minute mode at

the end of the half. And that goes for the offense executing, that goes for the defense getting off the field. All of that is tied together in order to maximize on that I started this last week. So I'll throw

it at you again. We've talked about a lot of different keys to victory here, but in terms of a statistic, a stat you're gonna look at other than the scoreboard that tells you the Packers will win this game on Monday night, it would be really easy for me to use your turnover stat again because I think, again, like I said from last week, with some of the un scouted a lot of those things are still gonna hold true in this game. The Packers got to win the

turnover margin. But for me, I actually think it goes back to the gold zone. I think it is when the Packers are in the twenty yard line being able to finish off drives. That was the opposite inverse of that against New Orleans. They were turning the ball over in that area. That's not like this offense. It's definitely not like Aaron Rodgers. So yeah, whether it is getting the run game going or some of the run action looks, or just being able to find receivers open down field.

The Packers get inside the red area, they have to be able to finish those drives. You can bring up a lot of different statistics, Mike, but the difference between what happened with Green Bay when they got into their gold zone in the four for four that the Saints went with in their area, that to me was the

biggest indicator of all. You can look at time of possession, you can look at third downs, you can look at turnovers, the inability to score when they had the opportunities, and then also the Saints being able to get go for a four for four, that was a huge difference in that ball game. Yeah, and if if I were to point to one stat I'm going I'll piggyback off of that, but I'll point to all point to the third downs. I'll say the Packer. The Packers need to get back

to being on third down. That's what they were last year. That was one of the top marks in the league. Packers did not convert a third down against the New Orleans Saints with Aaron Rodgers in the game. The only third down conversion was late in the fourth quarter when Jordan's Love was in the game. Obviously, that is not a recipe for success, and I think I think is a good benchmark, whether it's four out of eight or

six out of twelve, or however it shakes out. But I think if the Packers are converting their third downs, I think they're ultimately going to score enough points to beat the Detroit line. I agree with you wholeheartedly. And and to that point too. How soon we forget last year the run that they got in scoring on their opening possession. It's not really a statistic, but if they're able to put points up on the board, regardless of whether or not they differ or however, it works out.

If they're able that first offensive possession seven points is great, three points is fine, but being able to actually get a mark up on the board. You look at it, Mike, It's a rhythm based offense. It always has been. I feel like if they can get that ball rolling in the right direction, the offense can take care of itself from there in the second quarter. All right. Looking elsewhere in Week two, as I mentioned at the top of the show, every and every as everybody knows, all four

teams in the NFC North are oh and one. So elsewhere in the NFC North, Cincinnati goes to Chicago, the Bengals coming off of that overtime victory over Minnesota, while former Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton will face Um, his his longtime club there at Soldier Field. And then in the late afternoon window, Minnesota is at Arizona. Arizona coming off of an impressive Week one victory over an a f C playoff team in the Tennessee Titans. They really handled them.

Minnesota frustrated with a with a road overtime defeat at Cincinnati in Week one. These other two NFC North games here West, what are your thoughts? Well, I would be remiss, Mike if I didn't also mention. If you're gonna talk about Andy Dalton facing the Bengals, Patrick Peterson, I'm going to be playing the Arizona Cardinals right forgot so some really good minor storylines for all the Beat writers in those two markets to cover this week. Uh, huge gut

check moment for the for the Bears. I mean, as as bad as it went for Green Bay against the Saints, I thought the way the game played out for the Bears against the Rams was probably even equally as demoralizing. And that's for a team that already might be having some quote unquote confidence issues going into the season. I think Cincinnati's gonna put up some points this year. The question is defensively, who you know? Are they gonna be able to stop a lot of teams? I think Zach Taylor.

I think what he has there that's a brilliant scheme. It's obviously an offshoot of the Sean McVeigh shanahan type style the floor that we've seen in the league. I thought they had some really smart concepts. I liked how Burrows looked in that game. Um So, I think this is a really good opportunity for Cincinnati to sort of for a team that's been losing here the last two or three years to kind of get the sales set

in the right direction against the Bears. The Minnesota Arizona game is fascinating because Arizona comes out of the gate rolling. I mean, Chandon Chandler Jones, dude, I mean, you want to talk about a guy that wants a contract in his playing like he wants a contract My goodness. I mean they might have to back up the Brinks truck if he keeps the start going that he had in Week one. And all it takes is one week and everybody's talking about what's wrong with Minnesota's offensive line again

and it comes mr five sacks in Week one. Chandler Jones to uh, to try to exploit that. Yeah, so seeing uh, you know Arizona, we know the game there. You know they're gonna put up points. I think Kyler Murray is a brilliant young quarterback. Uh. For the NFC North, those two games with Chicago Minnesota, there's a lot on the line there as far as a Week two game

is concerned. Yeah, I mean a lot on the line honestly for everybody in the NFC North because you don't want to be owing to nobody, nobody wants to be owing to There are a lot of statistics out there in terms of what that means with with regard to the percentage chances and whatnot, in what history shows in terms of making the playoffs. So either the Detroit Lions or the green Bay Packers will be one on one here, and the Packers obviously wanted to be them. And how

crazy is the schedule for green Bay? I mean you have your first ten games and you're playing the division twice. I think that's how that works out in terms of their schedule. I mean, I know the division, the Division games are backloaded. Yeah, they're getting a lot of you know, the Minnesota after November. Uh that whereas last year the first two games of the season where Minneso Ota in Detroit you had two year six Division games were you know, we're gone right off the bat. So to your point,

schedule this year very high stakes, very interesting schedule. I mean we don't need to talk about this, we already discussed it in the spring. But to see Detroit and then you have some a f C opponents coming up, um, yeah, it's gonna be an interesting one for green Bay for sure. Yeah, all right. Well, with that, we'll call it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of Monday night's game from lambeau Field against the Lions. We'll have it all for you

on packers dot com for West, I'm Mike. Thank you for tuning in, everybody. We will see you next time.