#633 Packers Unscripted: Back from the bye

hope you enjoyed yours. Yeah, it was funny. I was talking about Ryan Hartwig are magnificent manager of social media, and I said to him, actually, Ryan was the one that brought this up. I hope he doesn't mind me saying it on Sunday. It's like, you know, we still had to work last week. I was still in the office four out of the five days. But it is interesting when you get through Sunday night, you're like, oh, oh,

so this is how the other half lives. Like they just they worked five days and then they're off Saturday Sunday. Not everybody, I know, there's a lot of people that work on the weekends, but it was it was really refreshing to be able to do that. Honestly, it was just kind of important, just to catch up on life a little bit, get some Christmas presents bought and purchased,

and projects taken care of. So it was fun. Yeah, I kind of enjoyed that those opportunities to sit out on Sunday and watch an NFL game and then when it's over, just turn the TV off and go do something else we're supposed to, like, oh, now I have like six hours worth of work to do because the game is over, right, So that's not that that was not just for the record on Sunday. We did the show five and a half years. That's the first time

I think I've ever sneed. I think it is if we're not stopping, we're not and we're not going to reshoot. We're not going to reshoot either. That's that has to get in. Matt Vin do some He's busy enough, but do some research. I don't ever remember sneezing factors on scripted, and I realized, I'm like, I can't contain this. This

is going to happen, So I apologize. We're off to a rip roar and starting here, well where I did want to start this show actually, with regard to watching football on Sunday, is to talk about two streaks that came to an end, one being the Detroit Lions winless streak. They had not won a game. I believe it was for three d and sixty four days dating back to and Uh. The Lions get a last second victory over the Minnesota Vikings, which has some implications for the Packers

that I'll get to in a minute. But the other streak that ended west Jamal Williams actually fumbled a football. I believe it's seven seven touches in the regular season and then you add some more in the postseason on top of that. Still doesn't have a lost recovered. The Lions recovered. But Jamal Williams, the former Packers running back now Lions running back, actually fumbled a football for the

first time in his career. Well, and it was funny because I think I realized this maybe midway through his third season in Green Bay, that he'd been on the streak. I think he'd reached like five touches. I remember the first time you brought it up on this show actually at one point and I wasn't aware of it. Yeah, and you you made me aware of it. So I've

always paid attention since then. And there was no benefit whatsoever to me writing anything about it or talking about it, because then you just get the people tweeting at you. We're to mess up the streak. So I never talked about it. But it was a remarkable four years streak for him in Green Bay and the fact that he had as many touches as he did in Detroit. The guy I said this number one thing about Jamal Williams,

the biggest compliment I can ever pay him. He is such a good fundamental football player and a good fundamental running back. So uh, fortunately for them, they didn't lose the ball, and unfortunately for the Detroit Lions they didn't lose that game. They found a way to win a game that you could tell meant a lot to Dan

Campbell and that football team. Yeah. Absolutely, a crazy sequence of events there at the end of the game with the fourth down decision and then the Vikings decided to get a touchdown instead of work the clock, and it leaves Jared Goff a whole bunch of time, all of that stuff. A last second, last play of the game, touchdown pass two. Equinimius st. Brown's brother Aman Raw, I'm

saying that correctly I'm on ra st Brown. The Lions get a win, and the big implications for the Packers there with the Vikings losing, the Packers now potentially could clinch the NFC North this week. And the way that that could happen is the Vikings playing now on a short week. They've got a Thursday night game against Pittsburgh, a suddenly rejuvenated Pittsburgh team after their last second victory over the Baltimore Ravens in a big division rivalry. The

Vikings play Pittsburgh on Thursday. If the Vikings lose that game, west, the Packers will take the field Sunday night at lambeau Field against the Chicago Bears with a chance to clinch a third straight NFC North title. So I will fully you know, we have to we have to call a spade a spade here because if you and I are going to talk about injuries on the Packers side, we have to talk about the fact that Daniel Hunter has gone down. They didn't have Delvin Cook in this game.

Eric Kendricks was out that game as well. From any so, Minnesota's banged up, but unfortunately for them, in different from just the pieces the puzzle has been very much the same. This year. They had a huge win of of much a well deserved victory in the last moments against the Packers, but back to back letdowns. And I said this earlier this season, Mike, they really feel like a team to me that's just kind of steamrolling towards another five hundred

type season. And when you fall to a team like Detroit that's had to work through its own issues, that probably is not the most talented team in the National Football League, in the bottom third in that regard in terms of what Dan Campbell has to work with. This is the ups and downs you go through. Uh. The question was asked an inside of inbox, and I still I hope you know, Rick Spielman, such a level headed guy,

you know everybody in that organization. I hope the Vikings do realize that this is going to be a disappointing year potentially for them. Again, I still don't feel even though the defense isn't great, I still don't feel like Mike Zimmer's the problem there. He's the best head coach that's come through this division that hasn't been collect thing a paycheck from the Packers in my estimation, in twenty years Yeah so, they probably probably since Lovey Smith was

in Chicago. Yeah so, and just just seeing how this all goes. But man, I'm telling you, if this thing doesn't go well for them on Thursday, it's gonna get ugly quick. Yeah. I mean the when I look at the Viking season, and we had talked earlier, you know, in getting ready for the Packers Vikings matchup, which ended up being a down to the wire last play thing. We talked about how the Vikings have been in all of these last second games. And yes, you're gonna win some,

you're gonna lose something. That's the way this league goes. But for me, from the Vikings perspective, they've lost two games this season that you absolutely cannot lose. You can't lose a primetime game at home against the Dallas Cowboys team that is starting a quarterback for the first time in his life in the NFL. You cannot lose that

football game at home at night. And you can't go to Detroit and play a division rival that is O ten and one when you have so much to play for and let that game get away in the final seconds. To me, I mean, yes, the as I said, the Vikings have had all of these last second losses, wins, back and forth, whatever, But those two games that you really cannot lose. That's the difference between the Vikings being seven and five and five and seven right now are

those two results. And there's been a lot of pooh, you know, swung at, slung at Jared Goff this year, But you gotta give golf credit. That looked like a guy that had been there and he'd seen a lot. He played in the Super Bowl and the winning time he came through for his football team. Uh, you know, to be able to pull that out, and you know, as aman Ross and Brown being the one to catch that pass in the end zone, all the chips are down.

You gotta get it. You talk about the games that the Vikings have lost close, Detroit's had a lot of those two and they finally gone a way to get that win. But if you would have told me that Kirk Cousins would have thrown for three and forty yards and a hundred seventeen passer rating justin Jefferson goes off for another hundred eighty yards and they still lose that game to Detroit, I think I would have probably thought that you're full of it. Yeah, well, the Vikings, because

the Vikings are five and seven. That is a big reason now that the Packers are on the verge of potentially clinching that NFC North title. Turning our attentions a little more directly to the Packers what we're waiting to see this week West Because I've used the word potentially on this show already, and Matt Lafleur used the word potentially in his meeting with the media on Monday. Maybe, just maybe David Baktiari and or j you'r Alexander and or za Darius Smith could be back on the practice

field for the Packers very soon. Now, again, we don't know, and Matt Lafleur, as he has said all season long, was making no guarantees, no promises whatsoever. But signs are pointing to whether it's this week, next week, maybe heading into Christmas, whatever the case might be, that these three All Pro players, a five time All Pro left tackle to second team All Pro defensive stars could be coming back for Green Bay here at some point during the

stretch run. It's at least good to hear the way in the inflection and Lafleur's voice when talking about those three guys, because to make note of that, when he was asked about Josh Myers, he was quick to say, now he's not going to practice yet. He's not that close. He could have easily just written off any of those other three. He didn't do that. Now again, there's a lot of excitement in the inbox, there's a lot of excitement on Twitter. Calm down just a little bit, you know, Jr.

Alexander hasn't practiced yet. SA Darius Smith hasn't practiced yet. David Bactier practice a little bit, didn't practice for the past few weeks, could potentially be back this week. It's still a process. But the Packers to be sitting at nine and three, one game out from the top of the division, as you said, how close they are to clinching a division title. To have those guys potentially available on the horizon for them here, be it on Christmas, be it, you know, against the Vikings, be it in

the finale, be it in the playoffs. That is going to be such a galvanizing moment for an offense that has had to whether not having box tr at the most important position on the offensive line for twelve games is season for an outside linebacker group that has just had to make it work. They've had to ask more from Shawn Gary in a quarterback contingent that has just been a bevy of different guys contributing in different you know,

utilization of person on a week to week basis. Any of those three guys come back, great, two of them come back fantastic. You get three of them back and you add them to the recipe that the Packers have already been building. That's that that's what can get you over the hump here in terms of being able to really start thinking we are not just the team wanting to compete for Super Bowl, we expect to be there. Yeah. Absolutely,

that's uh. That's that's the biggest wait and see thing here with with the Packers with regard to personnel down the stretch. Five games to go in the regular season. As you mentioned, the Packers right in the thick of things as far as the top playoff spot, that number one spot in the NFC will be the only one with the buy which the Packers got last year. You have Arizona at ten and two. The Cardinals knocked off

the Bears this past weekend. To maintain that one game lead Packers and the Buccaneers at nine and three, the Cowboys and the Rams both eight and four. So you're looking at five teams within all within two games of one another, with five games to play, with all of this potential jockeying for position and everything going on, It's gonna be really interesting to see how to see how this shakes out. It's gonna be incredible theater down the stretch. And I know Matt Lafloor, and you asked him the

question about that. He mentioned, it's like this every year. But to have, you know, one team that is in first place with two losses, but to have this many teams in the three and four loss range and really all on a given day looking like the best team in the NFC in the NFC um it adds a lot of you know, elements to this. And then when you look at the way that these seasons end for some of these teams, like Washington for example, it's someone

pointed out insider inbox. I never even realized it until then. Washington finishes the year with five straight division games. Yeah, you have these different mix and matches of of these schedules and seeing who prevails out of it, and if you're Green Bay, all you can do is focus on yourself.

And for them, they're coming out of a week third team by it was challenging to get to that checkpoint, but they reached it and now you're you're trying to build on that during this final stretch of the year, and in you know, three of the five at home, and certainly some win will matchups against the North. Well.

It's really interesting too. I know we don't talk much about the a f C on this show, but right now, the when you look at those playoff picture graphics, the seven teams in the a f C that are in those seven playoff spots, all of them have either four or five losses. All seven of those teams are within one game of the lost column, you know, uh, within each other. So there's gonna be a lot to get

to get sorted out in the other conference. Can ask you an impossible question, Are the Patriots the best team in the FC? I'm going to say no, It's fine, Yeah, I'm just here. I think I think right now they might be. I'm just not convinced that in January they will be. The PA the wins are strong enough, maybe they will be the the Patriots are. The Patriots are

playing some really really good football right now. And I think we've seen the Chiefs, the Bills, the Bengals, the Chargers, We've seen all these teams in the a f C go through these ups and downs. The Patriots are the team that that that is on the steadiest course right now. But again, it's still there are five games left and then you have the postseason with only one team getting good bye at everybody except that one seed would have to win three playoff games to get to the Super Bowl.

To me, there's still so much football left that I just don't know even though the Patriots are the best playing the best right now, that they'll be playing the best in January. What a brilliant game plan though, carries three passes and honestly putting your young quarterback in a position to win. Somebody asked that inbox to well, what is Mac Jones done to be the rook of the year. He's done every single thing that Bill Belichick has asked him to do, just like he did every single thing

that Nick Saban asked him to do. And this guy is making this thing work. And honestly, Mike, if you ever needed to understand how valuable coaching is at this level and to have good coaches if you don't just believe it. Looking at lambou Field and what Matt Laflour and his staff have done, what Bill Belichick has done, and that staff have done this year, Steve Belichick, all of them, that was. That was. I enjoyed watching that football game on Monday night. That was enjoyable to watch

for as bizarre as it was, Yeah, it was. It was a reminder that it's uh, it's fun to watch football games this timing year that are not played indoors and when field position matters. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Some shoutouts to our sponsors West Serious x M. NFL Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute NFL news

that true football fanatics need seven three sixty five. And at Cousin Subs, we have something for everyone like our Wisconsin cheese curds, mac and cheese, golden fries, and creamy shakes, all paired with your favorite sub or sub in a bowl. Cousin Subs we believe in better. All right, the opponent coming in to lambeau Field Sunday night football in primetime,

it will be the Chicago Bears. The biggest question that you know the Packers are going to again wait and see as far as the opponent goes, is will Justin Fields be back from the rib injury that has cost him a few games now or will Andy Dalton be still under center for Chicago. I guess in my mind,

I say, I don't know if it's necessarily something. The Packers are overly concerned about which quarterback the Bears play, but you sort of have to have a proper plan for each one, don't you, because because these two quarterbacks are very different players. I don't want to say I was disappointed to Andy Dalton, but man, if you would have taken away the uniform number, um, the shock of red hair, um, all of that, I wouldn't believe that that was an Andy Dalton quarterback in the Chicago Bears

on Sunday watch most that didn't look good. It didn't look good and he made mistakes that again, I get it. It's the NFL. It's a highly competitive league, and it was crappy conditions. Cardinals had to deal with it too, But it was it was. It was. It was rainy and not ideal in Chicago, and it was a difference between a team turning the ball over in a team

generating turnovers. That was the difference in the game. And if Andy Dalton's a quarterback, if I look at that film, I'm like, we gotta find ways to put pressure on them. We gotta find ways to get the ball back. And but if I'm Mett Maggie this week, as I've said probably for the last three years, when David Montgomery is right and they get the ball in his hands, that offense is different. It doesn't matter who the quarterback is. It doesn't matter what the offensive line looks like, it

doesn't matter if Allen Robinson is playing. David Montgomery is the catalyst to all this. And I thought Montgomery played exceptionally well in that matchup with the opportunities that he was given. But they made way too many mistakes. To me, I don't think the Chicago Bears are a bad football team, but they made some pretty bad mistakes to be able to put themselves in a position to win that game

against the top team of the NFC. Right now, yeah, absolutely, they simply they simply turn the ball over too much, and you can't do that. I agree with you whole hardly on Montgomery that the Bears. The Bears offense looks efficient when the offense runs through David Montgomery. Now that being said, I also think from a passing perspective, they've

missed Alan Robinson totally sorely. Um when with with and I'm not sure how many games exactly he's missed now, but um, but he's a big time target and no matter who the quarterback has been for the Bears, and I think offensively they've missed him. And on the defensive side, it's it's not the same without Khalil matt coming off one of those edges. This this Chicago Bears, you know, to say they've lost their edge, I mean, yeah, pun intended and on all that, but without Khalil Mack that

this group just isn't the same. They had one team set back and no quarterback hits of Kyler Murray in that game. Um, it's just the pressure just wasn't It wasn't the same. Now now, certainly you know Hicks has gone through his stuff this year. Um, you know, I still think Roquan Smith, I still think incredibly highly of him. I still feel like they have pieces. I feel like this is going to be a more competitive game than I think Packer fans are really thinking it's going to be.

It's Sunday Night football, It's Packers Bears. They're gonna bring it. But the attrition that has sort of taken its pound of flesh here of the Bears, I think you're starting to feel it a little bit more because I think in some ways now they weren't putting great positions to begin with, defensively with some of those turnovers, but they're they're just there. Just wasn't a sense of urgency. I

didn't feel that game. I just didn't feel like the Bears thought they could win it, outside of maybe when when Montgomery got that rushing touchdown, Arizona comes right back and gets down the field quickly, James Conner gets that pass, and it kind of felt like that was all she wrote. It's gonna be interesting to watch. It's it's a fascinating to follow how these things go. Because he had all this this outside hubbub about you know, Matt Nage and

his future. There's been a lot of distractions for the Bears, and the injuries haven't really helped matters. Yeah, they certainly haven't um quickly here West before we go. Um, a little bit of a plug Packers fans. If you're looking for holiday gift ideas, Team historian Cliff Crystals book The Greatest Story in Sports is now available at the Packers Pro Shop. The four volume hardcover books set tells the true complete story of the Packers first century, from humble

beginnings to heartbreaks and triumphs. Buy your copy online or in store today. A tremendous holiday gift idea. And to tell you what kind of a man Cliff Crystal is. I put this on my Instagram, but I only have like eight hundred followers on there. This is a little bit bigger platform, so I'll use this. Cliff worked on this book well, if you count his entire life that

has basically been dedicated to Packers. I was going to say his his career starting in the in the mid early to mid seventies, being a Packers beat reporter, had some great hair back then. Looked like that. He's on the beat, Cliff. But the thing I love about Cliff, so it's been over four years, I think he's actually been efforting with this particular book, and all the hours and the sacrifices he's made I'll tell you right now. When I'm cliffs Age, I'm gonna be on a beach somewhere.

I'm not gonna be writing about Packers books. But the fact that we were asked to edit like a couple of chapters, UM took me a weekend. I don't know how you got a couple more than I did. I think maybe it took you some time. And we still got mentioned in the table of contents page the bibliography, if you will. Uh. And Cliff still threw us in there. He did all this work and you and I just read some words and edit some stuff, and he felt compelled to do that. Amazing human being, an amazing book.

I can't wait to read all the chapters. I got to read a couple of them. Um. Just an incredible testament to journalism, to to writing, and uh, dedication to a craft that I think sometimes can get lost. Yeah. Absolutely.

And I've talked to Cliff about it and he's He's said so on our website when he's answered fan questions and whatnot to that that when this book project came up, Mark Murphy told him get the Packers history right like this is you know there, And Cliff has talked about all the books out there that have the myths and the things that haven't been really vetted and explored, and

romantis and stuff is true. Cliff went through all of it, folks, and uh um, and this this truly is the definitive history of the first hundred years of Green Bay Packers football. So it's it's worth your time and your money. I believe it's. It's a beautiful I was down the pro shop maybe picked one up already. Uh an incredible presentation. I love the way they did the binding, and it's it's great. It's it's gonna be a lot of fun.

I'm looking forward to reading it this offseason. All right, 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.