#639 Packers Unscripted: Historic greatness

it out. But we have to start with number four, forty three, Aaron Rodgers breaks Brett Farves franchise record four touchdown passes in the regular season, and it goes to number thirteen, Al Lazard. So we're all back on zoom. Now. You were over in the head coach Zoom. I was in the Aaron Rodgers Alan Lazard zoom post game. We're

talking post game. And the thing that hit me the most as I'm watching this and in thinking about it is Aaron Rodgers at thirty eight years old, in reflecting upon the first round pick from two thousand five when I was a senior in high school, and the as I think Rogers even said a couple of times, like his NFL career is almost an adult at this point. And you know, our video department did a fantastic job with the video montage of his touchdown passes out of

the message from Brett Farve. But I even wrote about his path to four or forty three, But it wasn't until it actually happened that it kind of hits you, like, man, like there's still some you know, Kobe Bryant had that great line and I think it was two thousand and ten about how you know we've won, we're gonna win some more, and let's play until We're gonna play until June.

Let's keep going. It's still like that with Rogers, but it starts to when you think of all the memories and all the accomplishments and in the things that he's done at just an incredible level for seventeen years. The hitting four forty three just hits different. And for al Lazar to to lay out the way he did, you can tell he wanted that one, man. I mean, he

said it wasn't a big deal. They weren't talking about it, but once that ball was in his hands, he had just a heat seeker for that pylon, and Rogers joked about how he had to wait a second because he wasn't sure if it was one of those things where they just rolled it a touchdown so they could review it and then and then make a decision for there. But you know, Lucas Patrick gives him this massive bear hug.

The offensive lineman just mal um in history has made so an incredible accomplishment and certainly one that has Rogers even said, kind of brought a few tears to his eyes. Yeah. Absolutely, And Rogers ends up finishing this game with four and forty five touchdown passes. He ends up throwing two more, both of those going to Davante Adams. And I have

to say this was there. There are some things in the statistical realm, both with Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams that start that start to blow your mind a little bit. And Rogers even used, I believe he used the phrase mind blowing when it comes to the stuff that Davantae Adams is good doing. He ends up with ten catches for a hundred and fourteen yards and two touchdowns for starters.

That is the eighth time in his career that Davante Adams has had double digit receptions, a hundred plus yards and multiple touchdowns in a game, and that is an NFL record. Nobody in the history of this great league has done that. But the other stuff that really starts to get interesting. Adams now has a hundred six catches d and sixty two yards and ten touchdowns on the season. It's the fifth time in his career he's he's had

double digit touchdowns on the year. But with the hundred and six catches and sixty two yards, he is really closing in on the franchise records for a single season. He had the hundred and fifteen receptions last year, which he did in fourteen games, of course, and then he's so he's only ten catches away from breaking his own mark there and then Jordy Nelson had one thousand, five

hundred nineteen receiving yard. Adams needs just a hundred and fifty eight over these last two games to break that mark, and he would actually break that in sixteen games, as Nelson said it, because um Adams did miss a game earlier this year. You you look, you look at these numbers, and what Davante Adams is doing prefacing this all is to preface of course, that Aaron Rodgers actually went on record and said Davante Adams is the best football player

he's ever played with. And that's saying something, saying a lot. You know, when you look at even he reflected on it, you know, Brett Farve, Charles Woodson, the guy that he credited a long time is being the best guy. Jordy Nelson. He doesn't say that lightly, and he it was one of those things. He wasn't just trying to say it to say it. He mentioned he already told Davante yes. And there's a part of it that's poetic. Rogers has been talking about it being a lot of romanticism about

football this year. All these incredible receivers that Rodgers has played with, starting his career with Don Driver, the franchise is all time leading receiver, Jordy Nelson, Greg Jennings, James Jones, Randall Cobb. And then here comes this kid from Fresno that had really prolific numbers in college, but yet was still a second round pick like a lot of his predecessors in Green Bay. And this might be the one

that ends up being the Hall of Famer. And this is where you start to think about these things because there's a long road to go here, and Davante I think understands he he knows what he has to accomplish here in the next three, four or five six seasons to be considered in that it's exclusive company. It's tough to get in the hall as a receiver, especially in

this day and age. But I think it would be apropos for Rogers in what will be an undisputed unanimous first ballots selection into Canton someday to actually have a receiver that goes on that journey with him as good as Jordy, as good as Jennings, as good as all these guys were. This is the guy that was the one that was a cut above. And what I love about it the most is Davante is basically a sum

of all the parts. He can make the circus catches like Jordi does he he you know, his roads are precise. You know you see some of the stop route concepts. You see shades of James Jones and that being able to work across the middle like Greg Jennings and Randall Cobb did. And I feel like the more you watch him play, the more you gain an appreciation for what makes him great, the fact that he had another ten catch game. Mike, remember the one of the first times

he did it. You and I kind of were like, oh, wow, he has ten catches. Twelve catches, that's interesting. Now the guy just does it like its old hat. Yeah. I mean, he's a special special and he does it without having twenty passes thrown his way. Now, not every cent to Davante Adams is completed, but when you look at the ratio of the targets to the receptions, it's it's pretty

darn impressive. Getting back to this game, in particular to twenty two over the Browns, I don't know how you can describe this game any other way than to say, both on the offensive and dfensive side of the ball for the Packers, it was. It was a jekylin Hide type of performance. You look at the offense, there's a stretch there where the Packers capitalizing on the turnovers the defense was getting. The Packers scored three touchdowns and a field goal in a span of five possessions. Points in

a span of five possessions. That's pretty good. You're at twenty four points midway through the third quarter, you're right where you want to be. Then suddenly the offense goes three possessions and gets one total first down, going three and out twice and then getting one first down before having to give the ball up. Similarly, on the defensive side, you have a defense that gets four interceptions in five sacks, all kinds of big plays, the types of things that

you're looking for. But at the same time, two eighteen rushing yards allowed over four hundred total yards allowed. The Browns were seven out of twelve on third down, and four of those seven conversions were when they needed six plus yards in order to conver, which is where the defense should have the advantage. There there was there was this Jekyll and Hide component to both sides of the ball for the Packers in this game. The bottom line is they came out with the win Versul Douglas with

the big interception. Obviously with forty three seconds left in regulation, when the Browns were whatever, they were fifteen or twenty yards from a realistic field goal for a possible steal it at Lambeau Um type of scenario. The Packers won the game. But there's there's just a lot of uneven unevenness in the team's play right now before we go into the unevenness, because there's some unevenness to sort out.

Is there ever a game that epitomizes the importance of protecting the football that this, Oh my goodness, Baker Mayfield throws four interceptions for the first time in his career. First time Packers have four interceptions, I believe, since two thousands sixteen against Russell Wilson. It was a fun game. Yeah, the five the five interceptions against Wilson at lambeau Field. First time three inners options in the first half since two thousand eleven against Oakland slash Vegas then Oakland. Yea.

The Packers generates off those turnovers. They only score twenty four points in the game. It is such a great reminder of at the end of the day, you can pass, you can run, you can do all these things. Great, if you turn over the football, it's gonna come back

to haunt you. Yeah. I don't know what I was gonna say is because you know, we we we get fed, and Packer Nation as a whole, if you follow things on Packers dot com, the Dope She and all that kind of stuff, we get fed a lot of really interesting statistics from Tom Fanning, natela Cassio, and the communications department they have they have like a hotline to the Allia Sports Bureau. I'd like to say we don't have that necessarily, but when they want to check on something,

figure out where it fits historically. Right, here's the question. I want to know, how often? How often is the team's turnover margin in the game larger in the margin of victor four oh in turnovers, but you win the game by two points. As I wrote about on Saturday night after the game in my postgame editorial, that's not how this is supposed to work. You go four oh in turnovers, you're supposed to be in much greater command of the football game. But this one almost got away

from Yeah. Unfortunately for green Bay, they didn't give the ball up at any in opportune times. Nick Chubb, Miike, you can, Marv can play back all of our clips from last week. We talked about how dangerous this guy is. Yeah, how many times did we say the key to the game was to was to contain Nick Chubb? And and

uh yeah he was. He was a monster. And you want to talk about, you know, the four oh I would love to see the splits with what Cleveland did inside their own fifty as opposed to what it looked like once they got into Packers territory, because for whatever reason, the closer they got to the end zone, the more they got away from Chubb. Chubb was really got them going on a lot of series, still only carried the

ball what five time in the first half. It was almost like Cleveland was operating the entire game like it was in a two minute offense situation and didn't want to commit to Chubb. The second half was really interesting because the Packers started shifting more to their dime package. They started going to more of their sub personnel. Cleveland had a really good, you know, opportunity to run against it.

In that circumstance, you still want to be able to defend against the run when you have six dvs on the field. But the Packers are having trouble with it. But every single time it seemed like when Baker Mayfield dropped back to pass in the middle of the field, bad things were happening. So I'm sure Stefanski and and Alex van Pelt are going to go back and look at that film and be really disappointed in how this game played out retrospective to what the Ernest Johnson and also,

as we talked about Chubb, we're producing. But that that's for Green Bay. I think this is probably has to just be a massive wake up call for them because it's a reminder of what can happen when you face an elite running back, and it could happen this Sunday with with Minnesota if Dalvin Cook is back, because teams are gonna look at this now and be like, Okay, well, if we protect the football and can run the way

that Cleveland ran, we can give this team some problems. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean that that's that's what That's what teams are going to if if you have the type of running tech that you can rely on. That's uh, that's how teams are gonna digest this game. When they're looking at the film of the Browns playing at thirty six passes for Baker Mayfield, one runs for Chubb and Johnson in that game. That's hard. That's hard to do. That's how

you explain. Yeah, that's hard to explain the thing. The way this game unfolded, though, it was interesting because because there were there were so many little moments, maybe they didn't seem like they were huge at the time per se. But right off the bat the Browns miss an extra point right so then on their second touchdown they go for two trying to chase that point, and they don't get it. So that's two p e t s that were blown, and of course then the final margin of

the game is two points. The drive um early, I believe it was early in the fourth quarter at least to carry it over into the fourth quarter. The Browns are down by nine. They are in Green Bay territory, closing in on scoring territory. But then all of a sudden, a false start puts them in a tough down and distant situation. And then bang bang, back to back sacks

Preston Smith Dean Lowry. They get back to back sacks, and the Browns go from your looking at at least trying a field goal to make it a one score game with plenty of fourth quarter time still on the clock. Too, then they're out of field goal range and they end up they end up punting the football. They get nothing out of that possession, and it remains at nine points.

It remains a two score game until well into uh into the fourth quarter before the Browns then do make it a one score game with a with a touchdown later out in the fourth. So there were some there were some moments that don't necessarily make the make the final highlight reel a play like Rusul Douglas forty three seconds left, But there were there were moments where there were moments where this game really kind of turned. And there there were some some key happenings that that played

into the Packers hands well. And then the other aspect of it too that I look at is Preston Smith. There's so many times in NAH Football League Mike Smith you want to get him go and talk about sacks right in the factors outside linebackers coach doesn't want to talk about sacks. What I love about what Preston Smith has done this year, though, is he has eight sacks on the season. I would argue all eight of them

are well earned and came at critical points. I understand there was one that could be labeled as garbage time I think against Chicago, but the guy played exceptional for the first three and a half quarters that ended up leading to a fourth quarter sack. But the guy, every single time he makes a play and gets to the quarterback. It seems to affect the game. And it happened again here because yes, you get the false start, but as we saw early on in the game, Cleveland was able

to convert the third and fifteen. I believe it was they were able to find their way back from it. He gets that sack, they're thinking, okay, well maybe we can potentially make a run at this thing again. Here comes Dean Lowery in their face. Now it's fourth and twenty two. They're thinking, hey, maybe we'll still go for it. And then they get yet another penalty and they're like, you know, well, we'll go with the punt four and we'll punt it. We don't have the fourth and twenty seven.

Play draw fourth and twenty two. It only gets us three. We gotta punt in this situation. But lightheartedness aside. Fourth quarter, every single second counted there as it played out. Yes, the Packers got the ball back and went three and out. There were some injuries there with yosh Niman, but those are the type of drive eating, time eating plays that I think ultimately ended up kind of swinging this thing in Green Bay's favor. Yeah, On on the offensive side

of the ball. Obviously, it was frustrating. You know, Aaron Rodgers clearly set it after the game. Matta floor too. They've got to figure out a way to close out, to close out games offensively, because there was the costly three and out in Baltimore the previous week when when the Packers had, you know, the drive that was between Baltimore's two touchdowns there late in the game. This time

it was it was back to back three and ounce. Now, Okay, the first one you try and end around, it doesn't work. You lose a bunch of yards. You're getting bad down and distance. Okay, the second one was the second one was unsettling in a sense. Now this is where Ben Braden had stepped in at left tackle. Yosh Niman was getting looked at temporarily briefly there in the medical tent. But you got seven yards on first down on a first down run by Aaron Jones. You're in second and three.

Now that's not to say that this drive was was going to you know, go all the way down the field and the Packers were gonna you know, score the clinching points. But to end up going three and out there when you were in second and three third and two. Um, they ran the ball again twice with Jones on second

and three and weren't able to get it. And then on the following possession, after they did get one first down, then Davante Adams is wide open on third and six down the Packers sideline, but he loses the ball in the lights. Um. I mean we'm dropped that. You and I are looking at each other in the press box going, we haven't seen a drop like that since what six

years ago? You know? And then he he said after the almost reluctantly, he almost reluctantly admitted that he lost the ball in the lights because he didn't want it to come off like an excuse. But he's just being honest. And Davante DeVante is as honest as there is um with the media, and he's and and he says, I still gotta make that play. I make that play ten times out of nine. I loved that line. Um, But

he lost the ball in the lights. And so for my my point here is that for all of the for all of the angst and everything about how the offense wasn't able to close this thing out, they weren't really that far away from being able to do it,

is what I'm saying. You had a second and three, you were right there in position to get a first down there and to move the chains, and you had Davante Adams wide open on a third down, and just luck of the draw the ball got you know, the ball went into the line of the lights and he couldn't quite haul it in. This offense is not that far away from being able to do what it needs to do down the stretching game. And it wasn't just that they went second and through that Aaron Jones carry.

They did it the next series with a j Dillon to Dylan gets seven yards on his first carry, gets six after that. That's what ended up leading into the play that that ended up being the third down missed to Davante. Here's the thing, and I made this point on a local radio show I did with a renowned personality,

Mark Daniels on Monday. What I love about this incarnation of the Packers, the two thousand eleven pack the two thousand one Packers, two thousand eleven, My goodness, I'm back in ridiculous, uh, is the fact that this team, Mike knows how to win in the fourth quarter as a team. It hasn't always been that way. It's not always easy

to do that. So as disappointing as it was for them to not get that past the DeVante DeVante to get lost in lights and drop that ball, here comes the defense, a defense that had been going through a lot of issues there in the second half, had been giving up a lot of yards, and Russell Douglas is the one to step up. I loved what Douglas said after the game because he was basically asked, Hey, you guys, are you're reeling a little bit? Davante drops that, what's

your mindset is? You're going back on the field with Now Cleveland has a chance to read to take this lead. They have a chance for a two minute drive to to pull ahead because as you mentioned, they're only down too in Russell Douglas like, this is what we're here for. This is our moment, and he comes up with his second pick of the game. Sometimes it's going to be Davante Adams making that catch and A. J. Dillon running it out with a four minute offense. Sometimes it's gonna

be the defense stepping up this team, Mike. In a season where there has been so many close games, down the stretch. The Packers, with the exception of one game in Minneapolis, know how to win those games. I think that's gonna be pivotal going into the playoffs. Yeah. Absolutely, this this team, both both from a scheduled perspective the teams that they have played, and from the way these games have unfolded. This team is going to be as battle tested as you could ask for come playoff time.

I totally agree with that. I need to take care of some sponsor business. 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 Kurds, 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 alright. Big picture here, the Packers are twelve and three with

two games to go. They have a one game lead on the Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Ramps, who are all eleven and four. The one everyone's watching the closest, of course, is the Dallas Cowboys because they would have the tiebreaker on the Packers because of their NFC record. The Cowboys have only lost one game to an NFC opponent all season, and that was way back in Week one to the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay.

That was right down to the wire. That was it was That was a that was a down to the final possession game as well. So the scenario is this the Packers obviously, as we've been saying for a couple of weeks, now, if the Packers win out, they get the number one seed. If the Packers get to fourteen wins, nobody else in the NFC can get to fourteen wins. If the Packers can do that, they will have the number one seed the first drawn by in the home

field advantage. The other thing that will be interesting to watch though here is this week with the Packers playing on Sunday night against the Minnesota Vikings. Three Sunday afternoon is the Dallas Cowboys against the Arizona Cardinals. Now, the Cardinals are reeling a little bit. Three weeks ago they were the number one they were in the number one spot in the NFC, but they have now lost three games in a row. To fall to ten and five,

but they will be taking on the Cowboys. If the Cardinals can snap their losing streak and hand the Cowboys a fifth loss, the Packers would then take the field Sunday night at Lambeau knowing that a win locks up the number one seed with with a week left to go. So those are the that's this scenario where things stand right now, Professor Spofford. Professor Spofford, because here's where I've struggled with this, and I want you to to help me with this. I know I'm putting you on the spot.

I hope you're smart enough. I know you are to be able to I've heard this a lot though, of why Green Bay is able to close it up. Why would that be that they could actually close it against Minnesota. Why would that last game against Detroit then become quote unquote irrelevant in terms of the playoff picture? Because because the Because the Cowboys would have five losses if they

were to lose. If they were to lose, and if the Packers were to win, the worst the Packers would have would be four lossless, and the Buccaneers and Rams already have four losses. The best they can do is thirteen and four, and if they finished tied with Green Bay, the Packers have the tie breaker on both of those teams based on a better NFC conference record, and if it ends up a one to one tie with the Rams, the Packers would have the head to head the Rams.

So that's why, because the Bucks four losses were against the NFC. Correct, that's why you're Mike Spofford, and I am very much not thank you very much for that, but yeah, but the bottom line, the bottom line is everybody in Packer Nation will be watching that Cowboys Cardinals game leading up to the primetime game against the Vikings because because if if the Cowboys lose, the Packers can clinch the number one seed with the victory over the Vikings.

But if the Cowboys win, the shoe is on the other foot in a sense, because then Cowboy Nation is watching Packers Vikings, pulling for the Vikings because if the Packers were to lose, then the Cowboys jump into the catbird seat because of that conference record tiebreaker heading into Week eighteen. So if the Cowboys don't lose, the Packers need to win to maintain their position and to go into Detroit in Week eighteen still with the opportunity to

lock it down themselves. We probably should review these games, and I don't want to get too ahead of ourselves, because you know thursdays for previewing the upcomponent. Have you ever thought of a scenario where there are such high stakes going into a weekend. What I mean by that isn't just Green Bay in Dallas, Arizona needs to pick itself up off the mat. I mean a team that was at one point seven and o now is at

risk of falling to ten and six. I mean that is that's a tough way for that season to go for the cards, especially with the expectations levied upon them earlier this season. From from Green Bay's perspective, though, the way I look at this, Mike is to win. It was an old Mike McCarthy theory. If you're gonna win, if you're gonna get a buy in a different time, you have to win and you have to take care

of business in your division. The green Bay Packers have two NFC North matchups against opponents that on paper, you should be I already know. I think the Packers are significant favorites over the Vikings in this matchup. Whatever those different scenarios are. It really does come down to you taking business and you're taking care of business within your division,

and then you the conferences ultimate prize. Yeah absolutely, I mean, um, it's all out there for Green Bay and we'll talk more about about all the games the rest of the games on the slate in Week seventeen in the NFL. I'm still gonna have a hard time saying Week seventeen but not thinking it's the last I mean, yeah, and I'm gonna have a hard time. I'm struggling. I'm struggling with That's why I always have to think about what is the week number? Because now Week eighteen is the

last one. But anyway, it's like I said, it's time to go. I joke with you before. Just be happy. You probably will be retired by the time week nineteen gets here, all right, I won't be with that. We're calling it a wrap on this edition of Packers Unscripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team. We've got it all for you on Packers dot com. For West, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time.