#616 Packers Unscripted: Commanding win

place in the NFC North. And with this win, if we want to start on the offensive side of the ball, I think it begins with talking about two guys on offense who were pretty darn quiet the first three weeks of the season, but they really showed up big against Pittsburgh. And I'm talking, of course, about Randall Cobb and A. J. Dillon. Yeah, and let's let's start with Randall cop because this is the story of the latter half of the off season

for the Green Bay Packers. The decision a week before started training camp They're gonna acquire Randall Cobb from the Houston Texans. Aaron Rodgers gets his old you know, his partner back, and you know, for the last two months we've basically been wondering, Okay, what is Cobb going to do in this offense? You see how he could fit and you understand where where he could potentially be maneuvered and can make an impact, but he only played forty

eight snaps in the first three games. Well, Mark Quisveldi Scantling goes down with the hamstring injury, ultimately gets placed on injured reserve, and it's the Randall Cobs show. And it was really apropos I felt like because the question one of the first questions Matt la Fleur was asked on on Monday after the game, was you know, was it a big point of emphasis to get Cobb involved? And he said, no, that's just kind of the way it happened, and just seeing what he does in the

middle of the field. Mike I made a comment during the game on Twitter, you know, the Packers like to be multiple, They like to have guys that can do everything, usually bigger body type guys, not typically the five ten variety. But Randall coub does fill a need for this offense.

Obviously on third downs, huge production there, but just the way, even at thirty one years old, he's able to knife through the middle of the field and find separation and he is freaking fearless when there's a safety bearing down on the guy catches everything. I was really impressed by Randald Cobbin for him to be able to catch the hundred of excuse before you know, touchdown in Aaron Rodgers career.

A really special night for a very special player. Yeah. Absolutely, He's targeted six times in the game, comes up with five catches. The other one was actually where he and DeVante Adams were both in the same area. Um an example of of how those both of those guys are kind of on the same page always with Rogers because they both saw the same thing on the field, went to the same place and Cobb didn't realize that Adams

was there to catch the pass. But that aside, five receptions on six targets for sixty plus yards, gets the two touchdowns, his first two touchdowns of the season, and uh, the production on third down. It was funny because I've uh, you know, doing the live blog during the game and chatting with the fans and whatnot. And after after those first two third down conversions which set up then Rogers scrambling for the touchdown, the Packers first touchdown of the game.

The fans who were sending in the comments every time it was third down, they would just say third and Cob, Cob, third and Cob like but that's what it felt like, right, I mean, Aaron Rodgers he knew, he knew where he could go with the ball if he saw Cobb getting that separation somewhere in the middle of the field, and the throws were right on target. The production was there. Now, we'll see what this means now for the Packers offense going forward with as you said, Valdes Scantling is on

injured reserve. He's out at least a couple more weeks. We'll see how long it is before he's back. But then the other element that developed a little bit with this offense on Sunday was the number two running back in Dylan because we've been talking about it, whether you want to call it, you know, the thunder and lightning, the one to the fastball and the changeup, whatever the

case might be. A j. Dillon is a different type of running back from Aaron Jones, but we saw how effective he can be against a you know, a straightforward, stout defensive front and a lot of times it was just you know it was line up with the three tight ends, pushed the pile for four or five yards. What the Packers were doing on the ground against a

pretty good run defense, I thought was impressing. Yeah, two weeks in a row mic where they really had to earn every single yard that they got, but in this game they actually ended up having some explosive place. Dylan has his longest carry the season twenty five yards right down to the one yard line at Pittsburgh, and Aaron Jones actually had his longest year carry the year as well at fifteen. Yeah, really having to work hard for

some of the yarders that he picked up. But what I loved about Dylan was the four minute aspect of him in the second half when the Packers need to eat some clock. Four straight carries he picks up twenty yards, none of them more than six yards, none of them fewer than than four just a you know, a chain mover. And Aaron Rodgers made the remark afterwards, you know the bowling ball that he kind of is on the field. But what is impressed Rogers is how now he's developed

as more of a three down type back. He's made the improvements you want to see as a pass protector, he made a heck of a catch and a play for sixteen yards out of the backfield as well. That was one area there were a lot of questions about him coming out of Boston College. What were his hands? Like, never really did that at Boston College? Could he do it?

In this Matt the floor offense that likes to utilize the running backs on ninety six total yards of offense between Jones and Dylan and in this game where in the second half, you know, it's kind of weird game altogether in terms of the conditions, they just decided, Hey, let's give a j Dillon a shot here to to really you know, get some speed and momentum behind him. And I thought the young man really showed up. Yeah, definitely.

It's it's it's as we've talked about it so many times, it's so good to see the Packers be able to run the football. It's sets up so much else that goes on with this offense, and and really in this game, because the Packers had taken such command of this game in the second half to be able to run the ball and churn out the yards when the Steelers knew

you were going to run the ball. That's the kind of thing that bodes really well for the future down the road when you're when you're trying to protect leads, add too leads in the second half, grind the clock, all of those things you're trying to accomplish all those goals when you have a lead in the third fourth quarter of games. The Packers showed that they can do that against a pretty good defense, and I think that's

a really good sign for the future. You're absolutely right, And getting back to that yard carry, that was probably my favorite run of the season, not because of the yard is that picked up, but because that kind of looked like the offense from last year in terms of you had Marie Rogers coming on. The motion timed it perfectly. When the ball gets snapped at everything, no issues there whatsoever, and Dylan just gets north and south and he guys, he said he got skinny through the gap and there

was no but there at the second level bush. I believe that who is it that would end up in the back and that ended up pushing out, gave him the whole gap and basically was just in a foot race right to uh right to the end zone. So just to be able to get those type of options going. That's important film, Mike, because now next week, Okay, what can you build off of that? Look? Now, maybe that's where you see the push pass is going out to Marie Rogers. Maybe that's where you get some other swing

things going. It keeps defense is honest, and it gives defensive coordineers things to think about now as you go into a game this Sunday against Cincinnati. Yeah, we saw some of those plays to where both Jones and Dylan or in the backfield and Jones motions out and you're trying to get a read on the defense. You know, Aaron Jones, I mean Aaron Rodgers excuse me, has the option of throwing the swing past Aaron Jones as emotions out, or to hand it off to Dylan if the if

the defense is a little light in the box. Those are the kinds of things I think we're going to continue to see moving forward. Just to correct myself, Devin Bush Bushes the wonderful safety from the Chicago Bears that we've seen the past few years dead and Bush was he kind of got flushed out of his gap and that gave that gave the floodgates there for Yeah, no question about it. A little bit of sponsor business here.

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We believe in better all right. On the defensive side, and I know we have some injury issues to talk about and we'll get to those in a minute, But defensively, I want to start with this West, because the game did not start the way the Packers wanted it to. The Steelers took had the ball first, went down and scored a long touchdown pass to Deonte Johnson, but then Pittsburgh's next seven possessions three points. You talk about a

unit and no, not everything was perfect in there. And the Steelers, yes, they were able, they were able to move the ball, and there were some fourth downs that based on game situation, they decided to go for it instead of kick field goals. Possibly I get all that, but seven possessions three points after allowing an opening possession touchdown.

That's a that's a response from a defense. To me, that felt like, Okay, this defense not only is settling into where they are in the season with their new defensive coordinator, but it showed just how veteran and experienced overall this group is. Because because we've seen the snowball start to go the wrong way a couple of times early in the season, there was no snowball in this game. Based on that first touchdown, and again just another thing

I thought was a good sign for this Packers team. Yeah, and just the response to it, right because that that was a tough blow there, because it's a forty five year touchdown, it's against your best player with with yr Alexander out there in single coverage, Johnson had a heck of a game. I give that young man a lot of credit. Without you know what, shoes Smith Schuster struggling with the injuries that he's had. When they don't have Chase Claypool, they needed somebody step up, and it was

Johnson on both sides of the field. So they come out of the game and they get the touchdown. That's a momentum changer. I know, I saw all the questions, all the comments on Twitter about all this is why you don't defer was you saw what ended up happening. Is green Bay really settles in after that first and foremost they've been able to stop the run. Naja Harris wasn't able to get going. Now he had sixteen carries sixty two yards uh in economical effort, but it wasn't

something that really, you know, hurt them. With that in mind, much like the San Francisco game, they were able to get after Ben Roethlisberger a little bit more, only two sacks, only five quarterback hits, but to be able to to kind of keep him off balance. Certainly the strip sack

was a huge play on the third series. Um, you know, there were so many little things that worked against the Steelers in this whether it was Kingsley, Kiki getting home, Kenny Clark being able to pick that up, the points off of that Randall Cobb, the twenty yard punch in the second half by Harvin, there are little things that you look at the way this game flowed. Green Bay just out they all battled them in all three phases, and I thought a lot of that had to do

with how the defense responded early on. You know, I thought this was a great game for Kingsley Kiki. I really thought him and Kenny Clark, those guys pushed the front, and as Kiki said after the game, that's what they felt like they needed to do in this thing, because you can't let Broughtlisberger step up into his throws. They took that avenue away and they came up with a rather dominant performance. Yeah, I thought what the Packers were able to do up front is more often than not

with a standard foreman rush. The bulk of the time, we saw the pocket closing in around Ben Roethlisberger. And no, the Packers didn't rack up a whole bunch of secks. Roethlisberger was not on the ground a whole bunch. But you also didn't see Roethlisberger getting all that comfortable in the pocket because it just seemed like it was closing

in around him quite a bit. And and Roethlisberger did miss a couple of throws that that the future Hall of Famer we're used to, We're used to seeing him make those throws, and you wonder, okay, so was that little bit of lack of comfort in the pocket doesn't make that throw just a little bit up. I mean it all, it all plays, it all plays into it, and was part of this defensive effort. The bad news, of course, is that Jayra Alexander went down in this

game with a shoulder injury. Made a terrific play on a for a fourth down stop. For the last three years, Yeah, made a terrific play on a fourth down stop. Late in the third quarter, the Steelers were throwing short of the sticks, trying to get a little catch and run from their rookie running back Naja Harris and uh and Alexander's right there goes low upends and but he injures his shoulder, leaves the game, is taken to the locker

room on a cart. And the latest we heard from Matt Lafleur on Monday in his UH day after game news conferences that they're still gathering a bunch of information on this injury, looking at different scenarios, different opinion in terms of how to proceed with regard to this injury. So we don't really know anything at this point other than Alexander is probably going to be out for a while.

We just don't know exactly how long at this point, um, this is this is potentially am you know, a game changer in a sense for the Packers defense because you're already without your other second team All Pro from the Union, Zadarius Smith with the back injury, and now Alexander the

second team All Pro at corner is down with an injury. Well, and the fact that he played as well as he did in this game, and I saw the one stat that, yeah, there was a forty five yard catch rely on, but after that he got it, he got a little hand in the back on that, just a little bit. I give I give Johnson credit though, because because when I saw it live, I was like, oh, that's a push off.

But then when I saw the replay, what Johnson actually did is he put his hand in Alexander's back essentially to stop his momentum. But he didn't shove him to where you see the extended arm, which is how you get the flag for O p I. He put his arm there and kind of blocked him, but because he didn't shove and get the separation, they didn't throw the flag. They didn't they didn't see that movement of the arm.

It was a sneaky play. By Johnson. I give him a lot of credit because he got away with it and got a forty five yard touchdown against one of the best corners in the league, west Hodqoitt sixth grade baby in middle school. I think I'm gonna probably flop there. I think if I'm Alexander, I'd probably go down. But but Jah is a better competitor than I am. But what I loved about that though, after that four targets, I think there was one completion for a yard or

something like that. I mean, the guy shut it down and as I was, I kind of interrupted you, but I wanted to make that point. He has made that place so many times, Mike, how many times? Remember last year in Minnesota. Crash is so hard and as we saw in his interception the week before, the guy has such explosiveness. He can cover so much ground in such

a short period of time. Unfortunately, there's a six ft two three, two hundred thirty pound rock in Naja Harris that you know he made the hit it it was able to get him to have enough. It stopped him enough for the rest of the guys that come gang tackle. But unfortunately for Job comes up with the shoulder injury. I know he was cheering on fans as he was leaving. We don't know the update. Matt Lafleur said on Wednesday he hopes to have one for the media. This is

the guy, though, Mike. I mean, we talked so many years about the Packers investing first round picks and the defensive backs and all this. Jayre is the one and too for him to do what he's done at twenty four years old, to have the composure and the mindset and the maturity to to really dominate and excel every single year he's played in this league. Was off to an exceptional start to this year. So you hate to see it for him. You hope it, you know, you

hope for the best. But the Green Bay Packers, this is where Eric Stokes has to step up. Has his first interception in the fourth quarter of that one responds the way you want him to. I thought Darnielle Savage has been playing like a madman on the back end. I mean you just the speed, explosiveness and the intelligence. You're seeing it with him, you know, Adrian Amos mr consistency and hopefully the Packers can get Kevin King here back soon as well. Because they're gonna need these guys.

You need five six defensive backs to be able to navigate a season, and Jr. Alexander for the better part of three years has been something the Packers have just not had to worry about. Yeah, much like what they did with Sadarius Smith with losing him. If you're gonna lose job for a little bit, you have to have

guys step up in his place. Yeah. Absolutely, this is going to be an interesting period here for the Packers to navigate injury wise, because because really you're talking about the two biggest playmakers on the defensive side of the ball over the last couple of years um are now on the sidelines. And and we'll see what that update is on Alexander on Wednesday. I did want to get to a couple of things with regard to special teams. One, bo Joe as he's becoming known Corey Bojorkez, Holy cow

West is this guy? I mean, how how does how? I mean? I understand he went to l A to compete with a four time alto and Johnny Hecker and everything, but how was how did nobody else bring him in?

You know, it's it's amazing It's absolutely amazing to me that this guy with with this much, with with the track record he has and the talent that would obviously be on display at any moment that you bring a guy like this in for a workout, that um that here the Packers have him, and it's a it's a big bonus because uh I mean, he pins the Steelers on the four yard line with the uh I forget what it's called, but it's basically where he drops the

ball side with banana punt, that's what it is. Yeah, But he drops the ball sideways and kicks it, so it's spinning, you know, it's the it's a kickoff spin, but in the in the sideways way, if that makes any sense of habscribe. Yeah, but he pins the Steelers on the four yard line there early in the game, which um, which then the defense does get the stop

and the ball back. And then when the Packers are backed up and he's punting out of the back of the end zone, he blasts a fifty seven yard or Malik Taylor beats as the gunner beats his guy on the outside, and you get a fair catch off of a fifty seven yard punt out of the back of your end zone. You can't ask for a better impact on field position from a punter than what Bojo has given the Packers here. Yeah, I'm starting to call him the scientist because just the way he looks at punting

is just it is incredible. The you know, the physicist is probably what I should call him. I mean, he talked about it was such an interesting interview. You were a part of it in the media auditorium. But just the way he looks at it, because you know, when you when you're playing in the park with your friends back in the day, if somebody's gonna punt the ball or maybe you do that for your kickoff, they're just

looking to hammer it, right. Yeah. Yeah, But Horc has said it's like, no, you don't want to outpunt your coverage, but in that particular case, you're backed up in your own end zone. You're having to do the short punt, you know where it's you're not gonna have as much time. And if you looked at what Pittsburgh was sending, they had one guy on each side as far as jammers.

They were sending the house to try to block this punt. Yeah, so Horc has just let it fly and you give credit to Malik Taylor going down and had a really nice run off the side, the left side for the as a gunner. The kids really talented. Mike, and with all due respect to j K. Scott. J K Scott, as I've said before numerous times, has all the ability in the world. Directionally, he struggled and that was where the kind of the disconnect was. He couldn't place it

where he needed to place it along the sidelines. For as talented as b Hoorkes is with that left leg, he also has shown remarkable accuracy with it. So I will keep saying this, I will keep writing it. I don't cover the Buffalo bills. I have some buddies of mine who do. Maybe I'll ask. I still cannot figure out not only how this guy went two months without

being signed, but how he didn't get tendered. I mean he he is a really talented young man and he was a great fine for Buffalo coming out in New England. So we'll see where things had. Obviously, four games does not make a career, but they wanted to get hang time, they wanted to get improvements. They felt like they could get better with their punt coverage. And horc has has

done a big, big job in that well. The the salary cap crunch obviously leads to certain things happening, like Corey Lindsley has to walk in free agency right well, the Packers in the salary cap crunch situation have taken advantage of two things and bringing in Corey Bojorkez and DeAndre Campbell, two guys who are playing major roles on this team for contracts that were much less than what they were hoping for what they were expecting as free agents on the market. The Packers jump in and take

advantage there and it's paying dividends. One other thing on the special teams, though, Packers have some things to look at with regard to the field goal and the field goal protection, because Matt Lafleur mentioned it on Monday when I asked him the follow up on it, and I give credit to an insider inbox reader, and I apologize for not remembering the individual's name at the moment, but I answered the question late Sunday night after the game

that this reader had noticed that when the Steelers were called for offside but blocked the field goal at the end of the first half, the guys on on the edge there I believe it was Joe Hayden and make a Fitzpatrick where the two on the edge, they essentially went off of Bohorkes with his top hand, flashing the hand, which is the signal for the snap. And apparently the Packers have been doing that but not you know, flash the hand and count thousand one thousand two or something

like that. It's been flashed the hand and snap the ball, right, so that's what the Steelers were going. Those guys on the edge were not watching the ball, they were watching Bhorqus his hand and that's how they got to jump. So it's an easy fix for the Packers, right, I mean, all you have to do is say, you know, you go, okay, we're going on to flash the hand thousand one thousand two. It's it's still a silent count. It's a snap, but you make those guys watch the ball, so the Packers

will Packers will get that short up. But this whole question of whether or not those guys were off side very very interesting because it certainly was close. It looks like they're offside in live action, but then when you slow it down, I'm not so sure as it turns out the Packers get the second try at the field goal. They get it at the end of the half instead

of having the seven points the other way. But um, but an interesting turn of events there at the end of the first It is funny because basically the off side space it kind of comes down to how quickly Hunter Bradley snaps the ball then, I mean if he just waits that I'm talking mellic Yeah, absolute terms of it actually coming out to me personally. Now, we don't we do not have a good vantage point press box at lambel Field's fantastic is one of the best in

the league. But from when we're sitting and where that ball was coming, all we could see is the guys coming off the edge. I didn't have a good look at all of what was happening, but it happened so fast. Yeah, that there was this part of me is just like, well, of course they were offside. How could they How could they have been that close to where Horke has was

putting down the ball without them being off side? Because because that that was just an absolute smothering of the of the I mean Fitzpatrick was packed practically on his feet still in blocking that and then scooping and going the other way. One thing I'm trying to teach myself though. Mike and Mark Murphy Packers Presidency, wrote about this in in Empty five. I am an eye for an eye guy. That's why it's such an issue with the officiating in

the NFC Championship game. Is why I was so upset about the fishing at the end of San Francisco game. But Mark laid it out on Saturday and said, listen, on a long enough timeline, the calls worked themselves out. So while that didn't work for Pittsburgh and worked in Green Bay's advantage, you have you know, j J. T J. Watt tripping, you know Rogers later in the game. Absolutely flag gets thrown, they pick it up for some reason.

It is what it is. And at the end of the day, seventeen the Green Bay Packers, I think everyone would agree the better team one three and one now going into Cincinnati this upcoming weekend. Yeah. Absolutely, And 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 on Packers dot Com. For West, I'm Mike, Thank you for tuning in everybody. We'll see you next time.