#645 Packers Unscripted: Playoff preparation

It's a rematch of the twenty nineteen NFC Championship game, just a couple of seasons ago. Your thoughts on the fact that the forty Niners are the opponent we've been waiting for, Well, I give the forty Niners credit because they gave me the most watchable game over the weekend. Absolutely. Absolutely, Hey, it's great. I loved it. From the standpoint of this is you look for those type of you couldn't have

gone wrong. It would have been cool to see them get matched up with maybe some teams they haven't seen in the playoffs recently, but it's been the forty nine is a lot more often than not over the last ten years. So the fact that you get another one of these battles, obviously the little Floor Shanahan connection, the connections between these coaching staff, these players. It's gonna be

an exciting matchup on Saturday night at lambeau Field. I'll tell you the difficult thing of watching that game unfold though, is and this is just West Hotkowitz, this is West Hawkwits the human being. I'll be honestly, I felt for Mike McCarthy. I felt for the Cowboys. I felt I know a lot of people will be like crying for the Cowboys. That's that's an interesting concept, but I I just I really respected the team they put on the field this year. They have a lot of really young,

exciting talent. If they would have been able to get that match up with, you know, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I thought that that would have been an amazing rematch to get. But this is how the Chips fell. The greenmy Packers get to welcome the San Francisco forty Niners a lambau Field for a chance to go to the

NFC title Game. Well, that Niners Cowboys game on Sunday afternoon was just another example It was obviously the best game of the six wild card games on what was not such a super wild Card weekend as it turned out, but that being the best game, it was an example of you just you never know what might happen in these playoff contests, and you never know how much the

little details are going to matter. Right when it comes down to Dak Prescott and you know the official needs to spot the ball before you can do the spike and all that. The Cowboys thought they had enough time to put themselves in a position to take a shot at the end zone. It didn't work out. The clock ran out on him. I do think, I do think the officials did everything right really in that situation, given how frantic it was and that and that the Cowboys

really didn't execute it properly. That's the boy, That's the bottom line. I would feel me be a little a tinge more sympathy for the Cowboys, And I feel no sympathy at all for that organization in any way, shape

or form, no matter what. But if that had been a trying to get a field goal situation or you know, whereas they still we're going to have to throw a to thirty yard touchdown pass on on the final play the game not impossible, certainly greater odds than a hail Mary, which is why they ran the play that they did, why they decided to to take that chance running Prescott up the middle. But um, the details matter, is my point.

And whether you're talking about the Cowboys with all the penalties that they had in that game, which certainly benefit of the forty Niners, the forty Niners showing how much you can control a game in the postseason, and then suddenly one interception, a turnover, completely changes the momentum of the game and flips it and the Cowboys down to seven. The Niners have the ball, it's looking totally bleak for Dallas, and then suddenly they're rallying and they give themselves a

shot at the end of the ball game. You just never know how these games are gonna go. That game, more than anything, showed me how important it is to get off to a fast start. San Francisco did that. They got down the field, they scored points. Deebill Samuel is just uh a lightning bug. I mean, just what he can offer to an offense as a pass catcher in the backfield. It's like a super you know, like size version of like what Randall Cobb was doing in

two thousand eleven, two thousand twelve. I mean, just how he impacts that San Francisco offense. You saw how far he's come and exactly why he is an All Pro. But for San Francisco to get the points, get the stops early. When a game is as tight as that is, Mike, and it goes down to the wire, that's where penalties start to show themselves. That's where misfundamentals start to show themselves.

That's where you know Randy Gregory getting a holding penalty against the tackle for Dragon, an offensive lineman to the ground just out of nowhere comes into play, and a few plays before that, Neville Gallimore does the hands to the face on the center I believe it was Alex mac the center for the forty Niners. Gives the forty Niners an automatic first down when maybe they would have had to pump the ball with more time on the clock. All those things added up to the situation that Cowboys

were in in the final moment. In my takeaway from that game, once it was over, independent of just the fact that the San Francisco forty Niners prevailed was that this is one of the things that has made Matt Lafleur's team so successful in green Bay. Yes, he's a brilliant offensive mind. Yes you have a you know, three time potentially now four time m v P quarterback. You have playmakers on both sides of the ball. But green

Bay plays discipline. They don't make stupid mistakes. You're going to have penalties, and you're gonna have things you don't agree with, but are they going to be egregious type stuff that is just so visibly obvious to the officials they couldn't help but throw the play. That's where the Cowboys really got themselves into trouble in this game. And if you're winning by two touchdowns, doesn't matter if you're if you have a you know, you're commanding in your

offense is clicking, you can overcome it. They didn't do enough of the those things in this game, and Kyle Shanahan and the way they have those guys coached up in San Francisco were able to take advantage of it. Despite the fact, yeah Nick Bosa going out with the concussion, Fred Warner being banged up, they still made it work. And this is a team that is very accustomed to

having to overcome that type of adversity. Well, it's interesting because if there's one thing that the forty Niners have told me watching watching a good portion of of their games the last two weeks, is that the Packers have

to be ready for a full sixty minute battle. And I know that that's a cliche and whatnot for the playoffs, but my point is, two weeks ago against the Rams, the forty Niners were down seventeen to nothing with their playoff hopes, with their season on the line, and they rallied back from that and got that game to overtime and ended up pulling it out. Then in the wild card game, they start out like gangbusters and jump on

top of the Cowboys thirteen to nothing. Nothing's going right for Dallas, and yet the forty Niners still ended up having to you know, grind out some first downs and and nearly got the first down that they needed to not give Dallas the one, the one final chance. But this uh, this forty Niners team, nothing's gonna make them blink. And that's that's one of the things that that I think has been a trademark of of Matt Lafleur's teams in his three years here in Green Bay, They've had

a lot of down to the wire games. A lot of them have gone their way, some of them haven't. But these Packers have been and especially this year, have been tested late in ball games with down to the wire finishes. This forty Niners team is exactly the same way. These two teams are not going to flinch in the fourth quarter on Saturday Night. It's going to be a sixty minute, drag out battle all the way to the end.

There's a reason these two got to the final four here in the NFC, and and the forty Niners are like the light version of the Packers. The Packers got the number one seed in the by because since Week two include week one, but since Week two, they found a way to win close matchups and they did it all season long, with the exception of one game. San Francisco got off to a terrible start for what their expectations were for this season, not trending in the right way.

The questions about Garoppolo. They're losing three four straight games in a row. They never found a way to solve Seattle for some reason this season. It didn't work out for them, but down the stretch, look at what they've done, Mike. They beat Cincinnati, they beat the l A Rams, they lost a competitive game to the top seed in the a f C and tennesseeat and the other thing too that Green Bay has to keep an eye open this

never ending carousel running backs. What was the number one thing that the San Francisco forty niners were missing in Week three? They did they didn't have a back. You know, Trace Sermon was handling that role, but realistically they weren't able to run the ball. Garoppolo had to throw up more, they had more turnovers, They weren't able to be able to protect the football. The Packers won that game late being able to get Elijah Mitchell going here in the

second half of the season. The way he's played since mid November. It's a stark difference with how this team performs with Kyle Shanahan's offense. When they have a running back they can go to. Mitchell's been that guy. You look at that wild card matchup Dallas could not run the ball. San Francisco was really committed to it. With

throwing in the wrinkles with Samuel that was a difference. Yeah, it seems a difference from Week three as well as far as looking back at that first matchup between the Packers and forty Niners. This year, the forty Niners have gotten in my opinion, they've gotten more and more creative and versatile with the way that's that they use Deebo Samuel. The Deebo Samuel that the Packers are going to see at lambeau Field on Saturday night is a different type of weapon than the one that they saw back in

Week three. And you combine that with the emergence of the young running back in Elijah Mitchell. Where As you said the forty Niners did not have as reliable a ground game back in Week three, this is a this is a really different offense that the Packers are going to that the Packers are going to have to face and and uh, it may not be as easy to get the turnovers that that the Packers did back in Week three that put them in command in the early

stages of that game. Well, and the other thing that separated them from Week three is Brandon aiyuk Is is playing at a really high level. You got off to a really slow start this season, was starting to really look like okay was last year sort of a mirage there, like is this guy is still going to be able to perform at this level? And then he was able

to corral himself. And when you see what they can do down the field with him and George Kittle and then being able to have all these wrinkles with Samuel, it creates a lot of different looks. And if you ultimately look at it, what is the hallmark of this version of the West Coast offense that Kyle Shanahan runs. It's a lot of running, and it's a lot of deception, and it's a lot of play action build off of the run. They want to get the defense's eyes moving,

they want to get their feet and standing still. They want to be able to maximize those chances and be able to hurt you for big plays. That's where I think the biggest difference is. Now. That being said, well we'll talk about some of the defensive stuff and these other aspects of it, but a lot of Packer fans are working themselves into a tizzy over this, and the way that you and I are talking right now probably

isn't helping things. But the one thing I've been kind of trying to just bang into people's heads this week. Is there was a reason the Packers were the number one seed. A lot of the things San Francisco does well, the Packers do them well too. A lot of the things that they can do in terms of their offense when it's working well, Green Bay actually probably does better

in terms of the explosivity standpoint. This is going to be a good game, but there's a reason why the Packers are favorite in it so that they have to play to their capabilities. They have to play smart, they have to play discipline, they have to protect the football. But this is a winnable game if you meet the challenges that San Francisco is going to present, specifically on

the offensive side of the ball. Yeah, it's the nature of the beast when you get a first round by right and and this is what I talked about it, I think on the show last week, if not on the show, certainly an inbox that when you're the team, it used to be multiple teams getting the buy in the conference. Now it's just the one. When you're the team.

When you're the team that's getting the buy, you're going to be facing a team that is coming off of its biggest victory of the season, because there are no bigger victories out there than playoff victories. And in the forty Niners case, they happen to be coming off of back to back big victories because they had to win in their regular season finale just to get that wild card spot. Now they won their wild card game. But

it's the nature of the beast. You know, the Packers got the buy you're gonna be facing a team that that that got a big win or two to get to this point. But the forty Niners are coming to lambeau Field. It sounds like it's going to be cold. Not not super frigid, not you know, crazy cold, but

it sounds like it's going to be cold. I think that raises some I think that raises some interesting questions with regard to Jimmy Garoppolo's hand, with regard to Garoppolo's sprained shoulder, which now which now we found out about Kyle Shanahan saying that that Garoppolo is dealing with a little bit of a shoulder issue, his his throwing shoulder.

And then of course, the other the other news from their side is what will be the hell of Nick Bosa coming off of the concussion from the game against Alice and Fred Warner Um, the star inside linebacker who injured his ankle. I will say when when Warner went down on the field, that looked a lot worse than an ankle injury, So um, good for him that that that it wasn't a you know, one of these major,

major serious injuries. We'll see what the news is. Right now as we're taping this, the news is pretty positive for the forty niners with regard to those injuries. It sounds like they are expecting to have both Bosa and Warner available on Saturday night. But we'll just have to we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll have to see how close to the Bosa one.

Did make me kind of raise an eyebrow though, because it's like I thought this was like an independent neurologist, so I mean, maybe he's already been cleared, but otherwise I thought that was really interesting that they were already like kind of like, yeah, he should be should be okay. But be that as it may. Jordan Willis is still working through the high ankle sprain, so he could potentially be out. Um again, we'll get to that later. In

the week. But the thing I have my ons Garoppolo. Uh, he talked and was pretty honest in terms of the media and what he's dealing with and and how it's changing his mechanics and his throwing motion, and obviously the challenges that get presented in colder weather with that ligament issue. Uh,

that is going to there. There was several times Mike in that game against Dallas where you know, they could have put maybe the figurative dagger to steal a Wayne Larvy term into the Cowboys and he just wasn't able to make that throw, was it wasn't where it needed to be, or that one that ended up being overthrown over to Ayuk. I believe it was on the third down that was a third and long. He had opportunities

and they just couldn't be able to connect. Seeing what the limitations are with that are going to be really interesting to watch. But ultimately you and I both know this, Mike, They're gonna try to run the football. We saw it in the nineteen championship game. They've seen it every time the Packers have played Kyle Shanahan over the last five years. They are going to want to impose their will in the trenches, and that's where the Packers have to step

up to the challenge. Kenny Clark arrested, Dean Lawrie arrested. You hope that Devandra Campbell's doing okay with that elbow injury after getting a chance to rest a little bit. If they get moving fast sideline to sideline, it can be stout in their gaps. This is a totable, totally winnable game for green Bay to be able to control that. Yeah, I do think the forty Niners u UM are going to be absolutely committed to the running game for sixty minutes.

I mean, barring and I would say even even if the Packers get out to a start, say like the Rams did against the Niners a couple of weeks ago, and it's say it's seventeen to nothing in the second quarter or something like that, are not just going to trash their running game and turn the game over to Garoppolo and throw throw throw in the cold at lambeau Field. The Packers, regardless of how this game starts, good or bad, the Packers are going to have to be prepared to

defend the run. Mitchell and Samuel and whatever other tricks and play actions and motions and everything that that Kyle Shanahan's gonna draw up for this one. They're gonna have to be prepared to defend that for sixty minutes. And I think, going back to the other point about Garoppolo, hearing the news now about the sprain shoal or and and as you said, he wasn't really able to to put that dagger in the Cowboys there in the second half.

It makes me think that the sprain shoulder is almost more of an issue for him in the hand because two weeks ago against the Rams, that eighty eight yard drive that they needed to tie the game and get it to over time, he made three laser like throws where you wouldn't think anything was wrong with him at all,

that there was no issue with the hand whatsoever. Now we're hearing about this, this sprain shoulder thing coming out of the Dallas game, it sounds to me like that might be more of an issue than uum than the hand thing that's been talked about for the last several weeks. What did you think of what I wrote about them seeing amenros st Brown against Detroit and how that could be kind of maybe an entree here to seeing Samuel.

There are different types of players, but with you know, Samuel carry the ball boy was eleven twelve times last week. I mean he had the ball a lot in the backfield. It was. It was a tough outing there in that regard for what they did versus the trick plays whatever you wanna call him, that Detroit ram But I'll tell what, Mike, the Packers haven't seen a whole lot of that this

year other than really seeing Samuel in Week three. I felt personally like that actually was a pretty good tune up, at least getting them an idea of what the risks are there in terms of the steaks if you don't

properly defend against. I think I think it can I think it can be certainly from uh, I guess what I would say from the the eye discipline standpoint with the defense to not you can't get too distracted because for all of the motions and tricks that you know that that the Lions employed in that in that Week eight team game, the Niners, the Niners do the motions and and the fakes and all this to get you distracted.

They do it play after play after play, right, So from an eye discipline standpoint where I don't think a guy like aman Ross st Brown prepares you for someone like Samuel Is because Samuel is so hard to tackle. He he, I mean, his his yards after the catch was like first in the league, right in terms of

per per reception um in the NFL this year. And you you have you have to be sound with your tackling on him, because he will break tackles, he will slip away, he will get the extra yards to to move the chains and turn turn good plays into explosive plays. And and that's uh, that's something the Packers are are certainly going to have to deal with on Saturday night. Um,

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good teammate. Okay, I got this Packers Everywhere. I was gonna comment about the new sweatshirt. Then I was I wasn't sure if you wanted me to make a big deal of it. You can, you can if you want. Okay, all I'm saying is, have I have some great friends in our fan engagement department. They're actually giving these away. If you go on the Packers Everywhere, at Packers Everywhere, so show accounts on I believe Instagram and Twitter, you

like it, you're retweeted. I think you're entered to win these, and that goes through if you're watching this on Friday. I'm sorry you already lost, but I think it goes to like ten am Central Time on on Wednesday. Okay, if you want to look cool like me, hey, you might want to enter too. Maybe I should. Yeah. That

looks pretty that that looks pretty good. Very comfy right now? Yeah, all right, all right, Well, we have another show this week in which we can get a little dig a little bit more into the Keys to Victory and whatnot. We'll have a couple of days of media access, hearing from coaches and players and whatnot. Get a sense of of the landscape here in Green Bay heading into this game. I wanted to get your other thoughts before we go today about the rest of wild Card weekend, very little

of which was was dramatic at all. UH. Cincinnati Cincinnati in Las Vegas came down to a really good goal to go, a goal to gost situation there with with the Raiders in Cincinnati the Bengals. Hats off to the Bengals that franchise get its first postseason victory in thirty

one year. I think thirty one is that the number thirty one years UM and UH certainly sets up some interesting matchups in the a f C with with the Bengals traveling to the top seeded Titans, and then UH in the other divisional round you have a rematch of last year's a f C championship game with the Buffalo Bills going to Kansas City to take on the Chiefs

and and UH. As I mentioned in Inside or in Box earlier this week, Josh Allen has done some really cool things, some really great things in the playoffs and and you know, kind of resurrected a Buffalo franchise that was down in the dumps for a while the next step for Josh Allen is to win a postseason game on the road, and this is a this this is his next opportunity in Kansas City. Still isn't perfect. Like

that's the thing. Like, as as much as they dominated the Steelers, they still made quite a few mistakes in that game. Well, if they're playing i mean, quite frankly, if they're playing any offense except Pittsburgh's, the way that first quarter and a half went in Kansas City on Sunday night, the Chiefs are in trouble. You can't start a playoff game like that. I mean they were, you know, they got in gear and Pittsburgh's offense never really did

until it was too late. But but boy, you play a quarter and a half like that, Um, you're asking to get knocked out of the post. Yeah, and in remarkable the way that that ended up playing out, and they got their stuff together. Certainly they're very explosive and and hey, Jeric McKinnon, man it almost he's not on the same level as a Garrison Hurst, But man, you

feel good for that kid. I mean two years he basically missed completely with injuries and he ends up kind of being this filling guy with Edwards Hilaire being hurt and just he looks explosive, he looks I mean I was I've always been a Jerrick McKinnon fan, even going back to his days with the with the Vikings, So I was happy to see that. But certainly, you know, you look at the way Kansas City plays and Mahomes is as talent as there are in the nf fell

right now, but he takes chances. Man a couple of times running thrown across his body, across the hashes downfield, he will take chances. I just I want to see what Micah hide and poor Yeaut, what what those guys

do against that that look. That being said, uh, I have to talk about the Cincinnati Bengals really fast, because I had visions of like the Vontes perfect issues at the end of that Pittsburgh game where they came so close to winning a game with with Marvin Lewis what was that like probably five or six years ago, and it was and I was like, man, is are the Raiders going to find a way to pull this thing away from them? And and just the excitement level to do it in that place and the fans you could

not help but feel great for them. And they're a real problem. I mean Joe Burrow and Joe Mixon running the ball the way he was and and certainly you look at jamaar Ches and just how talented he is. And I've always been big on Tee Higgins. They have a lot of ability, and I think they're gonna be a tough out for one of these teams. So that pass rush of Cincinnati's is no joke either. That that that front, that front four, it's not It's not a bunch of household names. And we talked about that when

the Packers went to Cincinnati. It's not a lot of big names, household name type of guys, but they get after the quarterback and and they make things difficult because that that front four doesn't have to ask people to blitz all the time. And Sam Hubbard like there were several times I'm like, oh, Trey Henderson is having a good game. I'm like, oh no, that's Sam Hubbard. I mean, like they played really good football the rest of the games, Mike there was I mean, Tampa Bay played out exactly

like I thought it would. I thought the end we knew, we knew the Eagles the Eagles got a really bad matchup going up against that Tampa Bay defense, and the game played out that way right from the start. I think with regard to the you know, the Cardinals and the Rams, we were all hoping for a better, more competitive game on Monday night. It just goes to show you.

I mean, this was a Cardinals team, as we all know, was seven and oh undefeated late October, facing the Packers on a on a Thursday night, and the Packers handed them their first loss of the season. It's i the way teams look in October is not how you end up looking in January. In this league, you're always changing. Teams are always changing, always evolving, and uh and the Cardinals this year just kind of evolved in in the wrong direction and they ended up being an easy out.

Quite frankly for the Los Angeles Rams. Hats off to Matthew Stafford. He gets his first playoff victory after after a trio of disappointments in Detroit. But quite frankly, Stafford didn't have to do a whole lot to win this game because Kyler Murray just didn't challenge Los Angeles defense. And here's the thing, Like when the night ended, and and certainly the Rams game was over at halftime, it

seemed like I actually would look back the schedule. I was talking to our producer Matt Iveran about this morning. I said, you know what, the eight teams that are left before and each this is the way it should

have worked out. I don't feel like anybody got eliminated where it was like, oh, that's the Super Bowl favorite, right, And maybe that has something to do with the parody this year, but overall, in a year in which there has been so many teams that have been ebbing and flowing, it really does look to me, at least in the second half of the season, and we got the most consistent teams down the stretch to this divisional round of the playoffs. So I'm fascinated to watch how it plays out.

The Rams I think are the best matchup. I don't know not to say that Arizona couldn't have had success against Tom Brady and Bruce Arians, and certainly there would have been that storyline with that connection, but I feel like the Rams in the Bucks, that's a game that should happen, and one of those teams there observingly, So we'll go on to the NFC title game. We're eight games away. I mean, there's eight teams left, you know, and there's there's three games away from the biggest prize.

So it's gonna be fascinating to see how these games play out. Rams Rams and Buccaneers met earlier in the season, Packers and forty Niners met earlier in the season. Doesn't matter now because the season is on the line this weekend. For everyone involved with that, we'll call it a rap on this edition of Packers un Scripted. Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the team here Divisional playoff week, we'll have it all for you on Packers

dot com for West, I'm Mike. Thanks for tuning in everybody, and we'll see you next time.