#643 Packers Unscripted: Depth dynamics

Packers used a lot of reserves, including at quarterback, and all of that in the second half. The biggest news out of this game, when you look at it from the Packers perspective, is that left tackle David Baktieri and center Josh Meyer's, the rookie second round pick out of Ohio State, both returned to the lineup and returned to the starting lineup, playing the bulk of the first half.

And this is something now to keep an eye on. Obviously, with the Packers heading into the playoff bye week, getting ready for the divisional round game coming up here in you know, eleven or twelve days, whatever it is, Packers might be getting back to a lot closer to full strength on the offensive line than they've been in quite some time. It was a really interesting postgame zoom pressor because you were listening to David bat speaking at the

podium to the reporters in Detroit. I was over on the other the side of things listening to Aaron Rodgers and Rogers mentioning that he actually was sort of I don't want to say coaxing Box to play into this, but he kind of was. He said on Wednesday, he kind of put it more in his ear of, you know, maybe to get some reps in this game, because honestly, it kind of sounded like, you know, when they've they've

been through this process with him, you know. And Bok Terry said he he thought it was probably gonna a little bit earlier than he was gonna be coming back, wanting to make sure that he's ready for the playoffs. And it was Rogers point, and I thought it was

a really good one. Is that, you know, all the talk was all about momentum, and it's all about building out what they've done, and certainly there's there's truth to all of that, but his number one reason to play in that game was because he wanted to get snaps with Josh Meyers at center, and he wanted to get box Tr back out there. And I think if you check it and just look at it from that perspective,

Sunday was a success for David to play snaps. I think Josh Meyers ended up playing thirty two just a couple more, basically finished out that series for those guys missing as much time as they have. And it was important that Matt Lafleur pointed out to bak Tr has eight years of reps built up. Josh Meyers even though he actually has played this season, He's only played in

four or five NFL games at this point. For both of those guys to get out there and the Packers to start figuring out what their best five is for the playoffs, what a benefit, What an opportunity after so much time has been spent this season of them trying to figure out, Okay, who are guys, who's healthy, who's available? Well, now you can start to build your best five. Yeah, absolutely, and I think that's uh, that's what's worth watching here as um this next week and a half goes by.

The Packers did decide with bok Tr at left tackle, and Myers at center, that Lucas Patrick, who had been playing center, moved over to right guard. He started at right guard in place of Royce Newman, and Matt lafleur Um made a comment on Monday with regard to Lucas Patrick that he is definitely one of the packers best

five offensive linemen right now. So that tells you that if the coaches decide they feel comfortable and Josh Meyers is good to go for the playoffs, that Patrick's going to be starting at right guard, and then your next man up at this point on the interior, if anything were to happen at either of the guard spots, really then becomes the rookie Royce Newman, who obviously has a ton of games under his belt and everything at this point.

But if everybody feels good about box tr and Myers and and all of this going forward, it looks like the Packers are going to have really other than other than John Runyon, the Packers are going to have quite a bit a quite a bit of playoff experience um in their offensive line. And that's even whether it's Dennis Kelly or Billy Turner at right tackle, because Billy Turner potentially could return to practice at some point this week

or next heading into that playoff. Yeah, and and that's the important key I think for Green Bay here, and as Matt said, it isn't just gonna be the offensive line. They're gonna have to figure this out at a number of different positions at this point in the season. Was this thing moving on me or was it just me? I think it's it's a little loose. It's like a little loose. I have to do some next time that Marv's doing the shot strictly on you. I gotta do

some some work on this thing. So one man banned operation here. I thought the thing was following down. No, but they're gonna have figure this out at cornerback. They're gonna have to figure this out. If Sadarius Smith comes back an outside linebacker. They've certainly had to figure this out with their receiving corps guys have gotten back, figuring out where to incorporate guys to put the best eleven

on the field. An offensive line is one of the very interesting spots where there really isn't much changeover once you get your five out there, those are the five guys you're running with and I think with Patrick specifically, I think one thing a lot of people forget is this is the second longest tenured guy on this offensive line. He's also like the fifth longest tenure guy in the

entire roster. Lucas Patrick has a lot of experience built up and served very amicably these last ten games to start at center to be able to stem this tide to get back to Myers. You tip your cap to him, and I think he's definitely played himself into that conversation. Royce Newman is the future, just like you know John Runyon was the future last year, but yet it was in more of a reserve capacity. The guys who have

had to step up have stepped up. The one I got to just give one bit of credit to though, before we move on as Dennis Kelly, because this is a guy Mike that didn't play a single offensive snap for like three and a half months since the regular or the pre season open against Houston, Because then you forget that he kind of had an injury at the end of camp too, when he finally had to go in for Billy Turner in mid December. The guy didn't play on offense. He missed a month with his own injury.

I think it was a hip or something like that. And he has not even I don't know if anybody's even talked about the left side defensive end the last couple of weeks. The guy has just been a stud. And again, it just makes all these questions here as Billy Turner comes back, as Box Try gets back comfortable, what is going to be your best five? A much different scenario than what Green Bay was faced with a year ago at this time. Yeah, absolutely, and I totally

agree with you with regard to Dennis Kelly. It's it's just it's interesting looking at looking at the film. You maybe I don't know if it's a noticeable on TV or not, but but Dennis Kelly is just such a big guy, like huge, and and now this last game when you had Dennis Kelly at right tackle and then you have Box Try back there at left tackle, with you know, with his wide stance and the big kickstep that he takes, you know, with regard to pass protection

and everything. You see those two guys on the edges and it's like, you know, holy cow, it that's taken nothing away from Billy Turner. If Turner steps back in there at at right tackle. He's got the you know, that wide kickstep to the other side. I mean, these guys are these guys are such are such big bodies. And the Packers, the Packers are fortunate to have this much experience that they can choose from here heading in, heading into the postseason. Yeah, Box tr and Myers. Obviously

they have to get their game conditioning back. They have to be ready to play fifty sixty you know, maybe even seventy snaps depending on how things go. And that's really the tricky part here, because whether you're talking about Randall Cobb coming back year, Alexander coming back, maybe za Darius Smith coming back, those guys can be worked in

um to you know, to certain packages. You can substitute them in, have a few plays here, and then you know they You don't necessarily have to ask those guys to go play sixty snaps right away on the offensive line. You don't necessarily want to be shuffling things around series to series, quarter to quarter or a half to half whatever.

It was fine to do that against the Detroit Lions when the Packers didn't need to win the game, but the conditioning of those guys will be will be the key as to whether they are ready to go for the playoffs. And could you tell just how much that game meant to David Baktr and and just the fact that he was able to get back out there. Evan Siegel had a great shot at him during the I think it was a national anthem or some point during warmups.

A very emotional, very reflective David baktr looking back on that. Our team at Packers dot com or video department and David put together a fantastic, kind of funny, humorous video of his big comeback that I know they've been working on was that was fantastic. But when it comes down to it, this is a guy that has put and dedicated so much time to his craft. Is as humorous

and as funny as he likes to be. It was a very serious moment for him to be back out there, and as Aaron Rodgers said, extremely proud of him that he was able to get those snaps under his belt. And you would hope whenever that divisional playoff game comes around here in a week and a half, that bacteria will be able to lean back on those experiences and feel confident again in that knee and where he's at

well on Sunday. The Troit Lions were a to win football team with nothing to lose, and as I said during the game, as I said an insider inbox, they absolutely played like it. They try to fake punt early in the game. Packers were able to defend that. They tried a couple of trick plays, both of which worked for long touchdowns. Packers had their ups and downs offensively. You would have liked to have seen when the first

unit was in there with Rogers. You'd like to see them capitalize off of the fake punt and get some points there. That didn't happen. Rogers still was able to throw two touchdown passes to Alan Lazard before halftime. UM second half, Jordan's Love up and down lead some lad some scoring drives, got the big screen pass four a touchdown. I believe the Packers scored seventeen points if I'm not mistaken with with Love at quarterback, two touchdowns in a

field goal. But then in the two minutes situations at the end of the game, UM, things didn't work out defensively. UM. Defensively again, a lot of a lot of ups and downs. The trick plays seemed to kind of put the Packers on their heels um defensively, and uh and and Matt Lafleur not happy with with the defensive performance. This is not what he wanted to see out of his defense heading into the playoffs. And yes, in the second half there were a lot of substitutions and a lot of

guys you know, running in and out. But there were some there were some moments there in the first half where Matt Lafleur wanted to see his defense really step up and that didn't and that didn't happen, and he wasn't he wasn't happy about that. Yeah, the most regrettable part of this thing, I think where the trick plays, because that's where a lot of the explosives kind of

came off of for Detroit. You can understand why Matt Lafleur be a little frustrated about that, because ultimately, whoever ends up being their divisional round opponent, they're gonna go back and look at that be like, Okay, is there something that we're gonna be able to take advantage of here on the guys now, I would offer into evidence and and as an insider inbox reader put this better than I ever could we talked the entire season about

what Devandre Campbell has meant to this defense, how whort and he has been as a quarterback, as a guy that has a hundred fifty tackles and fifteen games or whatever it ended up being. When you take him out of the equation, the defense changes. You'd be remiss not to admit that. That being said, in the adverse situations and the explosives and the adversity moments Green they didn't respond well enough to that. That's gonna be where they need to find, you know, a little bit more um consistency.

They came out a halftime, I actually thought they played pretty well. Got a couple you know, consecutive three and outs that they earned. Yeah, that was that was where it felt like the you know, the defense, the defense was stepping up and potentially changing things. But then after that, you know, the Packers kind of pulled out some of their pulled out some of their main guys and and

and went with went with the backups. And then and then in the fourth quarter of the Lions were able to put together that seventy five yard touchdown drive that that gave him the lead for good and This is where I agree with Aaron Rodgers, because you can create whatever narrative you want out of this going into the Divisional round game, and if they win a super Bowl, you can say, well, they took the right up approach. The way I look at it, though, I think this

game actually gave Green Bay everything that they needed. You know, you had a good start, you got the fast start offensively right thirteen place, seventy four yards. They've had a hard time on that first scoring drive. They got that taken care of. They had some drives there that were regrettable. Then the offense finishes on a high note with that scoring drive right before halftime. Defensively, they got kicked in

the teeth a little bit. I think that's something that can kind of be sort of a wake up call for them understanding what the standard is and understanding what they have to accomplish in this first playoff game. That being said, the only thing I will say about what Detroit did is to me, it seemed like you were kind of playing your little brother and Madden, and the little brother was just like, all right, I'm gonna pull out every trick in the book. I have nothing to lose.

There is no tomorrow, and you know you got you got hit on a couple of things. If the Detroit Lions were playing to get in the playoffs, I think you see a little bit different offensive game plan for what they tried to do. Now, I will admit and I will submit into evidence. The fake punts are nothing new for Dan camp. Well, this is the way he runs this thing. But you do kind of drive the car a little bit differently if you don't care about what the car is gonna look like at the end

of the season. So that's the only thing I would offer, not saying that teams in the playoffs here can't try some of that trickeration on Green Bay, but the stakes are much much higher than they were in week than what Detroit had in Week eighteen. Yeah, I I totally

agree with you. There. A little shout out 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 six 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. I'm gonna close on this because

I don't know if we're gonna transition away from the game. Uh. I would be also remiss if I didn't talk about aman Ross st. Brown really quick. The Packers just don't you know, There's been some a lot of upheavil with the head coaching positions, certainly different quarterbacks that have gone through, and they never seems to catch a break in terms

of the receiver position in this division. I mean you look at all the guys that you know, whether it was Kenny Galladay for years, Megatron was a constant problem, and then he got aman Ross and Brown coming through town. I mean, that guy, he's gonna be somebody to keep an eye on here in these years to come. I just want to I wanted to make sure I mentioned that before we got out of that game. Yeah, he sure looks like he's the next go to receiver for

for the Detroit. It's gonna catch a hundred passes a year once he figures everything. Holy cow. Yeah, that he's um um. He is a he is a young he's a young talent to watch while the Detroit Lions are looking to build something here with with Dan Campbell. They certainly they certainly have the have the fire in the attitude. We talked about it all season long, how the Lions played hard, and yeah they lost a lot of close games,

and yeah they lost a couple of blowouts too. They weren't necessarily in every game, but Dan Campbell had those guys playing really hard. The Lions are looking to build something well. The Bears and the Vikings, both in the NFC North, looking to completely start over and only moving on from their head coaches, but they're their gms as well. Matt Lafleur is suddenly the longest tenured head coach in UH in the NFC North, just as he finishes his

h his third season here. I want to take a look at the playoff picture, and we'll get into more specifics about some of these matchups, especially in the NFC,

on our next show later this week. But I have to get your thoughts even before I go to the NFC about that Raiders Chargers game on Sunday night, which, as I'm sure y'all know, this setup was that the winner was going to go to the playoffs, the loser was going to be out, but because the Colts had lost to the two win coming in Jaguars and essentially blew their playoff spot with what should have been a as easy a win to get in game as you

could ask for in a league like the NFL. The scenario is available in which if the Raiders and Chargers tied played to an overtime tie, they would both get in and that would keep the Pittsburgh Steelers out. The Steelers looking to steal the last spot that the that the Colts had let get away and lo and behold. It almost did play to an overtime tie. What what were you thinking watching that? You know? It wasn't even so much what I was thinking when I was watching it.

It was everything that happened afterwards. Like I don't know if you've seen that clip, but that clip of Austin Ekeler talking to I don't even know which member that was of the last in Las Vegas Raiders where you can kind of, you know, do some lip reading there and then literally like the guy tells me, we were, you know, basically gonna kneel, and then l A calls the time out. You've said it a number of different times and we even you know, looked at the NFL

and analyze things. These are all decisions that have to get made in the split second, in an instant, but sometimes coaches overthink these things. And for Brandon Staley, who by the way, is one of the brightest defensive minds in the game today, has an incredible history probably in terms of you looking like an indoctoration into defense, has gotten the best education of maybe anyone in NFL recent

NFL history. And he called time out there when it looks like Raiders are just going to be content to run this thing, because I think no one I don't think really has been talking about is the Raiders had a lot to lose there too. If you make a mistake, if there's an interception, if there's if there's a fumble return, even lining up for a field goal, I mean there was a blocked field goal that gets taken the other way.

You know there there's there's risk there. There there was way more risk to the Raiders lining up for that field goal than there was to just to just take a knee, And I think there was I think there was a sense. I think there was a sense. Now the Raiders still just handed the ball off on third and four. They didn't necessarily change exactly what they were going to do. I'm still not sure if they would have necessarily taken a knee before the time out was called.

Maybe they would have. But there was a sense that because the time out was called with thirty eight seconds left, that the Raiders had to be like, all right, we we can't we can't just kneel on it because maybe they want the ball back, and then they're gonna try to throw pass and kick a field goal, so they're gonna make us punt. Yeah, so yeah, so so it's like, have you have to you have to still try to

play to win and uh. And then the Chargers Brandon Staley says after the game, he calls the time out because he wants to get his best run defense on the field, knowing that the Raiders were going to run the ball. Well, your best run defense gave up a ten yard run that turned a fifty seven yard field goal into a forty seven yard one and uh and now you're going home in your season. It was an absolutely unprecedented situation, never seen anything like it before. An

unbelievable comeback by Justin Herbert. The Chargers quarterback. They survived six fourth downs, two us in the span of multiple possessions to keep that game alive, five of them with past completions, one with the defensive penalty. Surviving six fourth downs, any one of those would have essentially ended the game and ended their season, and they stayed alive all the way until the final snap when that kick went through the uprights. It was it was. It was absolutely incredible.

So what I said to you a couple of weeks ago, Mike, you got to get Justin Herbert now, because in five ten years, this kid is going to be something else. I said it like I said it last week the Raiders.

As it turned out, the Raiders did the rest of the a f C playoff field a favor in my opinion, by getting Justin Herbert out of the because because he's a quarterback who could who could get hot and go on to run wherever you asked the Chargers to play, and without being disrespectful to the Raiders, I think it says a lot about the job that you know that that coaching staff that's been left over there is done.

You know, certainly Edgar Bennett, who has been there now for a number of years, But I don't know if anyone's fearing facing Vegas with Austin Ike. They're back from the COVID list. With Justin Herbert playing the way that he's playing right now. Man, that is a dangerous football team. And because of how everything shuffled out, they are not going to be in the party this year. So I think there's probably a lot of teams in the FC

that are happy about that. Yeah. Well, on the NFC side, the way things shook down, the San Francisco forty Niners did beat in another very dramatic game. They beat the Los Angeles Rams, coming back from seventeen nothing down, then having to come back from seven points down in the final two minutes to get the game to overtime. The Niners win in overtime to get into the playoffs as a wild card. So here it is. The seventh seeded Philadelphia Eagles will be at the two seeded Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

San Francisco is the six. They will play at the three seed Dallas and then Arizona and the Rams, meeting number three of the NFC West rivals will be the five versus the four. As far as the as far as the NFC wild Card game, And from the Packers perspective, it's really kind of simple from a from a timeline perspective, the way the way the game's lined up in the schedule, because the Eagles and Buccaneers are first. If the Eagles win, they're coming to lambeau Field. If the Buccaneers win, then

you turn your attention to San Francisco and Dallas. If San Francisco wins, the Niners are coming to lambeau Field. If they don't, and if Dallas wins, then it all comes down to that Monday Night the Cardinals and Rams, and the winner of that Monday night wild card game between Arizona and l A would be the team coming to lambeau Field. So there's sort of a sequence to it if you're if you're a Packer fan in terms of how you follow this very different from last year.

If you remember when when when the the Rams as a as a road wild card had beaten Seattle. But then from the Packers perspective, we had to wait until the Bears, who were the seventh seed, and we're playing the next day. The Bears had to lose in order for the Rams to come to lambeau Field. If the Bears had won, it would have been the Bears coming to LAMBA. So there was there was the sequence was different. It was there, there was more uncertainty to it. This

one's just gonna be one game at a time. Maybe you're gonna find out right here, maybe not, and then you go to the next game. And so the Packers might know their opponent um at some point on late Sunday afternoon or early Sunday evening, or they might not know their opponent until very late in the evening on Monday night. If it takes that long to to decide this,

it's it's an interesting situation. And obviously with a Monday night wild Card game for the first time ever, it's a it's a situation that hasn't really presented itself before. Just before I get into that, has a team that went to the playoffs a year ago ever seemed so far away removed from that playoff run than the Chicago

Bears this year. I mean, I understand some things had to fall their way to get into the Yeah, that was that was an eight and eight Bears team that got the newly created seventh you know, to get in and then they weren't even they weren't even competitive in in their playoff game as the as then with a new quarterback and everything new quarterbacks, I guess I should say it still didn't work out in Chicago. Okay, let's talk about this thing. I'll be honest with you, Mike.

We have a bye this week. We're still working quite a bit. We'll love some access this week, but the weekend is going to be kind of open to us. The weekend is our oyster in terms of how we want to do this right. You're you're the guru with the playoff stuff and all that. I'm telling you right now, I'm not watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Eagles game. I just won't be. There's a four year old running around that needs some attention. I'm gonna probably run some errands.

I will be glued to the television for that three thirty matchup between San Francisco and Dallas, even if, even if Philly pulls the upset. I want to see that San Francisco team against a Dallas team that has looked like a world beater at parts of this season but also look fallible at other times. Where you get San Francisco was I've said over and over again because the most dangerous team in this entire field in terms of

where they are relative to that. That's how I've felt the second half of the season, and and things are so tenuous because of this injury that Jimmy Garoppolo is dealing with. That that two minute drive with three absolutely incredible throws that Garoppolo made on that game tying drive against the Rams to get that game to overtime, that was phenomenal. You would not know for a second that Garoppolo is dealing with any kind of an injury when

when you look at those throws. But again, this is football. If his hand hits somebody's helmet or you know, a pass rusher tries to reach out and knock the ball and his hand gets in an awkward position, this could all you know, it could all completely change in an instant for the forty nineers if any sort of aggravation

to that injury with Garoppolo. That being said, this is a roster in San Francisco that is playoff experience, that is playoff tested, and coming back from seventeen down on the row against the division rival when your season is on the line. This is now a San Francisco team that that believes it can do anything. That that if if i'm if I'm Kyle Shanahan, I bel I'm believing my team is capable of anything. And this is a

team that has a chip on its shoulder. Man. They made that Super Bowl run and then everybody they just had all these injuries, just injury after injury after injury, and and they've had to deal with that. I think that, hey, we're finally back to where we need to go. We need to be able to make a run here in order to do it. But I think that's a very dangerous team. And then also, I mean certainly you have the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills facing off for

the fourteenth time this year. I think that's gonna be a really intriguing game to watch. And then it all comes down to Monday night. If if San Francisco doesn't pull the upset, if Philly doesn't pull the upset, then the Green Bay Packers will be sitting there for the first ever Monday night football playoff game, waiting to see

who their opponent is going to be. Yeah, well, unlike you, I will be watching the Eagles and the Buccaneers because your kids are graduated well, partly, yes, but if the if the Eagles do pull off the upset, I have to be ready to write something very quickly to put on Packers doctor that the hells are coming to lambeau Field. So I gotta be watching. I gotta be ready. That's okay. I offered to help you need offer you did. I'm

just I'm giving you a hard time. Spend spend Sunday with your with your four year old for as long as you can. Um, But I I it's it's an interesting it's an interesting slate of wild card games. I'll be honest with you. Um I, I really liked it. As much as I wasn't crazy about the seventh team being added to the playoffs. I really liked it last year when it was three games on Saturday and three on Sunday. There was there was a there was a

rhythm and a symmetry to that. The fact that and especially because it could impact, you know, the Packers knowing their situation. The fact that there's now a wild Card game on Monday night just it just doesn't it just doesn't feel right to me. Um It's not really how this is there. There there's a reason. Uh, there's a reason playoff games in the NFL have always been played on Saturdays and Sundays. So, um, I'm not sure. I'm not sure if I'm going to be too keen on

Monday Night football in the postseason. But but it's here, and I guess we have to deal with it. The biggest thing is I'm just holding out judgment on this, and and unfortunately only we only have purchased about another five minutes of time here in the studio before we have to get out. But uh, the reason I'm holding out judgment is I just want to see how they

lay out the divisional round games. If it ends up being that the team's playing on Sunday are then playing on Saturday, and then the Monday night game is playing on Sunday, I'm I think I'll be okay with it, just from the standpoint of somebody's gonna end up getting the short end of the stick there. That being said, it just seems again I've warmed up. I even wrote

this an inbox. I've warmed up to the fourteen team playoff field because I think it really does give a real advantage Now to the conference champion of the regular season. That makes sense to me. I actually am with that. But we just one thing is never good enough. We always got a kind of buds with it a little bit, and I feel like that Sunday night, if you could play the Monday game at noon on Monday, I think, okay,

maybe it makes a little sense. But you play one team's playing at what freaking noon on Saturday and another's playing on Sunday. Well, the first game on Saturday is not till three thirty. But yeah, that's that's the one. That's the basically the noon Saturday wild Card game from last year has been shifted to Monday night, with with the other five windows time windows on Saturday and Sunday the same as they were a year ago. But but yeah,

we're out, We're out of time. We got to get out of the studio because there's people waiting for us to leave. So we're going to call 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 Westim Mike. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. We'll see you next time.